Hair/Makeup Challenge: Day Two

Today I woke up to snow coming down hard and it being really windy. Well, I didn't let it stop me from doing what I had planned last night. So here is the first of a few Angelina Jolie inspired looks I'll do.

Here is the makeup inspiration from the movie Wanted:


Here is the hair inspiration, also from Wanted:


Here's is my interpretation:


Okay, so I actually had a little trouble with the makeup. This could've been due to the fact that I slept in so I didn't have all that long to mess with figuring it out. I don't have many browns, so I didn't feel I could get the right colors working. So this is what I ended up with, a brown/grey smokey eye:


Okay, I really don't know how to describe what I did. This what a lot of trial and error. I started with a base of white that was a really old eyeshadow. I then covered the lid with a lighter brown that was rather old, don't even know the brand. Then I tried to make the outer corner and crease darker with MAC Brown Down, it wasn't working well. So then I find this other really old shadow... like the oldest one I own, and I used a dark glittery grey. Then I used the Sephora Liquid Eyeliner in Noir which I then smudged out with the dark glittery grey. I lined the bottom with the NARS Eyeliner pencil in Black Moon and again smudged it out with the dark glittery grey. Ha, from the description you can tell I was messing around with it a lot. I was happy with the look though when I finished. I felt it was a subtler smokey eye. Then I just did slight bronzer on the cheeks and a pink lip gloss and that was it for makeup.


Here was my interpretation of the hair:


I just curled the ends with a 1 and a half inch curling iron. Straightened the top, then clipped the top part back. Really easy and rather quick if your hair is already slightly curled. I wish my hair was actually as long as Angelina's in the movie though!

I meant to put up more pictures but you can kind of tell my eye has a weird bump on it that I'm hoping goes away soon. It was messing up the look, so I didn't feel like putting up a bunch of pictures with it.


So far, I'm really liking this challenge. I'm finding out how easy it is to do something different. I had 40 minutes to pull off this whole look this morning and I did it just fine. Proves I can do more than the usual on any day.

Hair/Makeup Challenge: Day One

Ok, so Irene and I decided to do a hair and makeup challenge for one week. The challenge? Do different hair and makeup each day of the week, no repeats. I've got to say, I'm in a hair and makeup rut. Give me black eyeliner, mascara and some bronzer and I'm happy. Also straightened hair is my go to. So this is really pushing me to get out of my comfort zone.

Here was my makeup inspiration for today, Natalie Portman with purple eyeshadow, pink cheeks and glossy light purple lips.

Hair inspiration, Blair from Gossip Girl.

My interpretation:


Purple eyes...
The eye was really rather simple. I put Stila Kitten all over the eye. MAC Beautiful Iris all over the lid. Nars Ondine in the crease and corner of the eye. Then I just lined the eye with Sephora liquid eyeliner in Noir. And of course, Great Lash mascara. Pretty easy.

I didn't like the side profile so you get the smiley face. That was how I did my hair on each side. I had trouble getting a good picture of it. Just straightened my hair and pinned the front back with bobby pins and tried to cover them with my hair. It was pretty easy.

Overall, I liked this look, I thought it was good for spring, bright and cheery.

Just dance...

Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like everyone likes to dance... I think that's not all true. I literally dance everyday. Whether it's getting ready in the morning, just turn on music to dance to, or dancing around before bed... everyday I dance at least once. I don't think it's that weird, I just hear music and want to dance. So obviously, I'm always looking for new songs to dance around to. I literally can dance around to anything though, I must be weird.

Anyway, here are two songs that I found recently that I absolutely love for dancing!



"Jai Ho! (Your My Destiny)" by the Pussycat Dolls. Seriously, such a good song to dance around to. I've had it on repeat for the last hour.



"Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas. It was hard to find this song on youtube, a lot of them sped it up to not get copyright infringement, so this video may not work for awhile. Search for the song though, so good to dance to!

Re-motivated...

You know when you have those moments where something happens that instantly flips a switch and you decide to change? I had that moment today. I shouldn't of been too shocked but it hit me rather hard. Then I decided, you know what, I'm the only person to change this so I will right now. Start by working out regularly and eating healthy.

I'm going to use this to keep me honest. I won't put my measurements or weight, but I'll put how many inches or pounds I've lost each week. I've heard so many things about "throw your scale out" or "don't measure success by numbers." But you know what? When I don't weigh myself, I can easily lie to myself. It keeps me in check. But that's also why I'm doing measurements. While you might not lose weight, you can lose inches from toning up. So I'll be able to see both.

I found this video below on self.com and will be doing these exercises every other day. I also happened to buy the magazine with the pictures for the exercises in the video. Kate Beckinsale was on the cover, ha, so that's why I bought it. The video is moves from Jillian Michaels of the Biggest Loser. When she was 13 she weighed 175 pounds, I think that gives her more credibility.



I did try all the moves in the video... man, do they work you hard. Her whole technique in all the moves is to be using more than one body area to maximize the calories burned. I won't lie, it kicked my ass. I did it after I did the nordictrak for 30 minutes. I even tried the power pike on the exercise ball.... oh man. Did not achieve that one, so I just did push ups on the ball instead. But all the other moves I was able to do, not many repetitions but it made me want to keep at it so I can do more reps. I like that you can feel it all over your body, not just one area.

So my plan is to keep with it for the next month. I'm not setting huge goals. But I'm guessing after I keep with it for one month, I'll like the results and then keep with it.

In the magazine article Jillian gives 10 tips, here are some of the ones I liked:

- Ink your goals. Do you want to look good in a bikini? Excellent! Put it all on paper. When your motivation flags, just read your list.

- Visualize results. As you exercise, think about what you're trying to achieve. Having intention behind your actions is extremely powerful.

- Ease up. You don't have to kill yourself to get a workout. Running is one of the best ways to get smaller, but I hate it, so I do only one 10-minute mile.

- Chill out. There will be times when your couch is calling you. If you need a couple of days off, take them. You don't want to get bitter!

- Find your happy weight. The minute the Biggest Loser wraps, I put on 10 pounds. I look best on TV at 115, but I feel best at 125.



Yeah, so I guess this will have more of an emphasis on work out stuff and eating healthy. I'll be posting more videos or articles I find.

I haven't had this sort of motivation/determination in awhile, it's a good feeling. =)

Happy Early Birthday...

to me!!

Over the break my mom took me shopping and bought me my birthday presents. I like Irene's idea of taking pictures of what I got instead of just saying it. However, I'm pretty tired from the drive back and didn't try that hard to get really good pictures. Oh well! Ok, so here is what I got...

LAMB by Gwen Stefani. My favorite perfume at the moment. Great smell for spring, very light. You get lots of compliments wearing this perfume too. A random boy at the checkout line in the store commented on it once.

MAC Ruby Woo matte lipstick. I got my red lipstick!! I absolutely adore it. Too bad I can't wear it everyday or I'll look like an idiot on campus. I will be finding a lot of reasons to be wearing this though! I also got the red lipliner pencil in Cherry.

BCBGirls Six Sandal aka The new love of my life!! I was first drawn toward these heels in Nordstrom because they reminded me of the heel Kate Beckinsale is wearing in that perfect outfit picture I posted awhile back. I saw the price tag and basically just admired how pretty they were but realized I'd never own them. Then, I showed my mom and said "You can get those as part of your birthday present if you want." Yes please!! So now they are mine.

They have a 5 inch heel. I'm rather tall in them. My foot has never been at that angle in a shoe. My way to describe it is I feel like Barbie wearing them. You know how Barbie's foot was always at that weird angle? Then you'd put the high heels on her and be like "No one could ever walk with feet like that." Well, I feel my foot is at the angle that Barbies is. It's different but I'm getting used to it. I'm definitely going to need to wear these around a bit before I bring them out for my 21st birthday dinner.

Break is officially over in less than 3 hours. Rather sad. I had to clean out my closet at home. Found a lot of old things... old notes (from people like "Irene the HOTTEST Romanian EVER!!" You really did write that haha), old journals, old pictures. Lots of memories. Then I felt like it was Christmas. I found a box that I didn't think had my stuff in it. Yet, when I opened it, I was greeted by my lovely silver Steve Madden heels that I'd been looking for for over a year! It also had my MAC false eye lashes, definitely going to bust those out on the weekends! There was also a pair of barely worn black high top Chuck Taylors. My green Etnies shoes. Plus two purses. And my copy of the Sex and the City novel! The novel that started it all... that is by far my favorite show, always will be I bet. Anyway, I was so excited by everything I found in that box. Made cleaning my closet out all worth it.

Anyway... I need to finish one of those four goals and get that darn beat sheet done.

Movies...

Since I had some time to relax this spring break, I decided to catch up on watching movies. I'm actually horrible at seeing movies. Even with the three movies I rented this week, I had to force myself to watch them.
I recommend everyone watch Milk. This movie was amazing in all aspects - the acting, the cinematography, the story itself, all very moving. It's really inspiring and sad at the same time.

Then I'd also recommend Changeling. Yes, I did rent it because Angelina was in it, but I was actually curious about the movie itself. It was also a great movie. Incredibly sad though. I really think she should've won the Oscar, her performance was amazing. The movie really opened my eyes to something I had no idea about. Really good, but like I said, sad throughout most of it.


I did say I rented three movies.. the third I wasn't quite crazy about. It was Role Models with Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott. It wasn't horrible and had funny moments, but I found myself really bored with it.


So, tomorrow is the last day of spring break. Looking back on the goals I had set... I didn't accomplish any. Ha, oh well. I made way on the guitar hero one, but I stopped playing it the last few days. I attempted to read the book, but it's a rather difficult subject to understand and I didn't want to think that hard over spring break. I'll continue reading it as night reading back at school, that stuff can definitely put you to sleep. Ok, the beat sheet will be done tomorrow. I've been thinking about it a lot and have the entire episode in my head so that is practically half done. Just have to get it on paper. I guess I did relax a bit more as the week went on. I still need to work on entirely relaxing and throwing my worries out the door.


After tomorrow, there's a month and one week until my birthday. That countdown is also to the end of the semester. The amount of stuff that must get done before then is kind of crazy. It'll be a busy month.

I Do...

not understand why so many people my age are either getting married or are engaged. I know three people who have recently gotten married (all 20 or younger) and three who are currently engaged. I find it crazy that people are making a lifelong commitment so young. This could be part of the reason why divorce rates are so high. People are getting married too young to fully understand what it entails. Maybe I'm just a person who over thinks situations and am wrong and their marriages will all last. But I'm doubtful. Maybe it's coming from a divorced family so I automatically am skeptical of marriage.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't thought about marriage. I'll be lying if I say I haven't spent hours on theknot.com (where I signed up saying my fiance was Jake Gyllenhaal) planning out my dream wedding. What girl hasn't? We're raised believing in this fairytale romance where we meet the man of our dreams and live happily ever after.

Yet, I don't think that starts at 20 years old. We're too young to know what we want out of life. We haven't yet experienced all that life has to offer. I think this is a big age for people to find themselves, what they really love and want out of life. Not settle down.

Maybe I'm all wrong. Maybe waiting until my late twenties to get married is just as stupid as getting married at 20. I guess I should do an update to this in 5 years and see how many people are still married or happy with their lives. But I just felt the need to say this. After seeing my friend's status update on facebook "is getting married in 4 days!" it made me do a big wtf.

Spring break...

I guess you could say it's officially day one of spring break, well day one is basically over. I was excited to be home and do absolutely nothing. Have no worries about assignments due or tests to study for. Yet, I've got to say, this first day has been so incredibly boring. My mind is going through so many things I could be/should be doing. Things I should be doing are assignments that will be due in the weeks after break is over. It's like this semester has programmed me to be go go go. I feel weird doing nothing. Like I'm wasting time. It kind of sucks. I'm hoping this feeling will go away for a few days so I can actually relax.

I'm not a person who can relax easily. Anytime I get a massage people always comment on how tense I am and repeatedly tell me to relax. It just doesn't work. Maybe I should work on being more relaxed this break... ha.

My goals for the break are:
1) Finish a book.
2) Write my beat sheet for my pilot TV show (that's an actual assignment due Monday after break).
3) Beat Guitar Hero on hard -- okay, that was an initial goal. I might be giving up on it already, I cannot beat one song that I need to to move on and it's driving me nuts.
And I guess I'll add this one...
4) Relax!!

Here's to start that relaxing mindset:

Kate Beckinsale, can I have your style??

So along with Angelina Jolie, Kate Beckinsale is my other favorite actress/person I look to for style/hair/makeup inspiration.

Yesterday, I found a picture of Kate wearing an outfit that I would love to wear for my 21st birthday. That's a major birthday, need to look good!

The color of the dress, the belt and those shoes! Ah perfect outfit! Unfortunately, I haven't even been able to find any dresses in that color in my price range. Which is rather small since I'm a poor college student.

Anyway, here are some other of my favorite looks of Kate's.

While it is a fairly plain white dress, I think it's a good example of how her hair and accesories really make outfits. I need to perfect that ponytail.

I flat out just love this dress.

This is one that I would love to copy!

That whole "boyfriend" jean look is really in and I think this is a great example of a 'do' for that style.

And finally, having a husband like hers as an accessory would be nice!

Science of Sex Appeal

This is fascinating!! This show was on the Discovery Channel tonight. Okay, some key points of the show...

- The more feminine you look, the prettier you are to males. Vice-versa for guys.

- The more symmetrical your face, the more attractive you appear.

- When a woman is ovulating, she is prettier because she has a 'glow'.

- Waist should be 7/10 wide as hips - consider the perfect ratio.

- Brain judges how a body looks by how it moves.

- Haha this is sad. We gravitate toward a 10 but once we realize we can't get them, we keep lowering the number of attractiveness until we can get someone.

- A lot of people match up with their equal in attractiveness but it's not everything to sex appeal.

- On first dates with a person, people aren't focused on what the other says say but how people say it and their voice.

- Guys like woman with higher voices, women like men with deeper voices. (WAY TRUE!)

- The higher voice/deeper voice means more estrogen/more testosterone which ultimately means more sex appeal.

- When women are on their menstrual cycles/most fertile, the voice is higher. Guys in a study chose the same girls voice's when they were more fertile not knowing it was the same girl.

- Woman are choosier when they choose who they mate with because they have to live with the decision for possibly 9 months, hahaha. Women search for clues of a man's status/health to see how they would be able to support them.

- Women prioritize status.

- Women won't marry a guy that's as good looking as them, but they do it in exchange for other resources that will help the marriage like money.

- When a guy makes more money, we find the sex appeal higher even if they're below average.

- The way a guy smells has a huge effect on how women are attracted to guys. When a woman is menstruating, she finds a man's smell to be better.

- All of your senses are engaged when you kiss someone and your first kiss can be the beginning or end of a relationship based on how a person perceives it.

- There's a dramatic spike in breakups around 4 years of being together.

- Men and women are biologically made to stray.


This show was so interesting. I love when you can actually learn something from TV.

Don't worry, be happy...

So, this year, a big goal for myself has been to be way more positive and try to keep my head up when things look bad. I don't think I've been 100% on it but I've tried. I'm a huge fan of the Secret. People can say what they want about it, how it's just some pop culture gimmick that's making money off of desperate people. However, when I look at my life before and after I read that book, the differences in things that have happened and opportunities that arose, it's pretty amazing.

The weirdest part I think is just telling yourself you already have these things, but I had yet another thing happen to make me really believe thinking positive works. I filled out about fifteen applications for various communication and broadcast scholarships last winter. The whole time I was doing it I told myself I was going to get a few of them and get a good chunk of money. I have no clue how many kids applied for these scholarships but they were open to the whole college of communication. Last week I was told what my scholarship application results were and I got three scholarships totaling $5000. I honestly sat there for a minute just staring at the screen and the amounts after each scholarship. I had to go in to fill some paperwork out and the lady said "Oh you got the big one!!" I'm so happy I got these scholarships. It's going to help me out a lot for my final year. Plus one of the scholarships I got was to help out getting an internship in one of the top 5 markets! So hopefully I can use that one this summer to go to LA. I'm such a big believer in the Secret and things happening like this just further prove it. I told myself I'd get this and then I got it.

A big part of the Secret is to follow your instincts. So now I'm following my instinct to pitch a show idea to the student-run communication channel. It'd be based on my college town, kind of a show like The OC. I'm really excited about it. I'm hoping it all goes through so then I can say I created/wrote/directed a show in college and look how awesome it was! Hahaha. I don't know, I know you can dream really big, but tiny steps can lead you up to big things. So I'm seeing this as a tiny step to a big dream, of getting my own show on a major network.

Man, this semester has opened my eyes to all these new opportunities I never even considered. But I really like where my life could be going. It's way more less certain and up in the air, but I like that. I'd rather go this way then down a road of hating my career with a passion. People always say "You won't make it, it's such a hard industry to break into." But people do make it, people do break in. I think it's the ones who really believe in themselves and know they can do it. Otherwise, there would be no entertainment industry. So regardless of how many times I hear "This will be nearly impossible" I'm still going to go after it. It may be nearly impossible but a lot better than sitting behind a news desk everyday pretending to like reading stories about a robbery/murder/financial crisis.

Anyway, I know if I stay positive, what I want to happen will happen. It's worked so well in my student life/work life. I just need to really work on moving this positive thinking into other areas of my life that I'm incredibly negative about.

I'll be there soon. =)