series of experiments

In honor of it being 90210 day and all that I thought I would blog about something that seemed to be quite a theme of the television show… drag relationships.

1) If they can’t be bothered with you…
They don’t like hearing about your day—in fact they rarely ever ask about it. They’ll interrupt you until your ears bleed or ignore you in favor of television. They never follow up with you about your serious concerns or complain that they have enough of their own problems to sink both your ships so you ought not to labor them with yours.

2) If they don’t want to see you unless you are doing them a favor….
They have no interest in being around you unless you are helping them with their homework, giving them a back massage or a ride, lending them your iPod or your body.

3) If they can’t choose between you and someone else…
They tell you they’re torn—you both are so great. They just aren’t sure they want to commit to you just yet. They’re confused. But they’re sorry about it.

4) If they can’t congratulate you on your accomplishments…
You’re sure they must have meant to but they must have just been distracted by… their failures? They tell you they’re just really competitive. They appreciate that you do well, but only when it bolsters their reputation. They like you to look good just as long as they look better.

5) If they make you feel like everything is your fault…
During an argument, you go from being mad and offended to quickly feeling guilty and unworthy of forgiveness. You feel like if you don’t apologize for being unhappy you will never hear from them again. You constantly feel frustrated, belittled and yet overwhelmingly guilty and needy.

                                                          …then you are in a drag relationship.

If these sentences describe your current relationship (romantic or platonic) then chances are that your relationship probably drags you down. I’m not saying there’s no hope, I’m not saying that you are in an abusive or unhealthy relationship—or even that the person you are with is a bad person, all I am saying is that your relationship sounds unnecessarily draining…

And you deserve better than that. Everyone does.

So whether you choose to stay and fix things or get out and find something better, here’s to you and your something better! Cheers!

xo

em

Hello again lovelies—so today I was planning on posting another video about my hair routine—complete with clip in extensions but due to a horrific two day long headache I wasn’t able to get to editing it last night. I will try again for next week—maybe I’ll try to stick to just one video a week, maybe it won’t be such a daunting task if I know I only have to produce one per week.

Anyhow, it’s Wednesday, aka hair care day. I have a laundry list of hair topics I want to talk about but I think I will devote today to the item which has made the most noticeable difference in my hair to date: water.

Like I mentioned briefly yesterday, while I was on the cruise we were lucky enough to have barely filtered salt water to wash our hair with. I know it sounds strange and unconventional—but apparently there are people who are allergic to chlorine so the water in our showers was as gentle and chlorine free as can be. Even one of the pools on the pool deck was full of sea water as opposed to chlorine, no kiddos were allowed in there so hopefully it was sanitary but it made a miraculous difference in the quality and texture of my hair.

I could blow dry my hair straight with little to no product and end up with glossy, frizz-free hair, which is kind of a miracle when you are literally surrounded by ocean.

My mom had a similar experience. She (I kid you not) spends between 45 minutes and an hour doing her maybe 2 inches of hair every morning—why? Because her hair which is naturally very curly has adopted a brillo like consistency over the years—very rough and wirey which is nearly impossible to manage and keep looking healthy. But over the course of the week her hair became so soft and manageable that it would take her 10 minutes to do it and it genuinely looked 10X’s better than it ever does here.

Of course the moment we got home and washed out hair with our chlorine saturated water out hair shriveled back to the straw like texture it always was. Damn.

Refusing to believe that her good hair days were behind her my mom did a little research and found that there are shower heads that have filters built in which makes the water softer by removing chlorine and dirt. SOLD.

I went to Lowes maybe two days after we got back and picked up this puppy:

It’s the Sprite Royale Hand-Held & it’s brilliant.

Now it hasn’t quite returned my hair to its cruise-like state, but it has definitely helped.

My hair is much more manageable and about as soft as it’s ever been (even pre-hair dye days).

I’ve found that the trick is that you need to run the water super hot and then turn it down once you are ready to jump in, this seems to activate the filter or something special.

These pictures are from today—I washed my hair last night, used one light cream product by Pantene, let my hair air dry for 30 minutes and then blow dried it while it was still damp. I used to never be able to leave my hair the way it was once I blow dried it, but, it’s soft enough to let it be and skip the straightener. I didn’t brush it this morning either, just ran my fingers through it and parted it roughly… not too shabby for so little fuss.

                                  roots look healthy minus the beigey roots that make me look bald.

If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time you know the hell I’ve put my hair through, so to see it in this state is quite remarkable!  Especially with so little product!  I don’t know if you can tell since it’s blow dried straight, but it’s actually starting to curl again—my hair is naturally quite curly but I’ve done so much damage to it over the last year or so that it began to lose its natural curl, which is convenient but scary. Anyway, I am quite glad to see it returning to its natural state.

You all may already have soft water but if you often wonder why your hair is so much nicer when you visit other places I’d tell you to consider purchasing a shower head filter—it doesn’t solve every problem, but it’s definitely helped me.

xo

em

Oh Tuesdays.

I always wake up on Tuesdays thinking “it must at least be Wednesday” but of course it’s not. Oh well. In the spirit of Tuesday—here’s another makeup post.

So last night after choking down a lot of caffeine I decided to make an august/summer favorites video instead of just writing a blog post about it. After I filmed it I wasn’t sure. Ha.

Anyway, my summer fave things include: John Freida Luxurious Volume spray, Revlon Ionic Round Dryer Brush, a conical iron, Maybelline Lash Stiletto, Penultimate Eye Liner, Orgasm & Laguna Blush/Bronzer, MAC 109, 224, & 182 Brushes, Revlon ColorStay Liquid Lipstick in #1 Nude.

What were your summer favorites?

xo,

em

In’s and Out’s

What’s in & out in my life these days…

In’s

1) Awesome boyfriend.
Very supportive and wonderful—not sure what I would have done this past month without him, very tough month. He has also kept up very nicely with/was excited about all of my adventures which included: weddings, water parks, York, Delaware & about 2,500 miles of travel.

2) Twitter. Obvious choice over facebook *wish* everyone would get one so I could chuck my facebook.

3) Garlic and Herb Laughing Cow Cheese. I look for things to eat that I can slather in garlic and herb laughing cow cheese. Most delicious buttery cheese spread ever & it’s only like 35 calories or something for a wedge. To die for.

4) Root Touch Ups. All I’ve been using for my hair/eyebrows. Makes me look very polished even when I am frazzled about everything else in life.

5) Mixing Mascaras. I’ve always been a fan of mixing mascaras—one or two coats of two different types of mascaras really does miracles—looks like I have false lashes on. My favorite combo as of late has been anything with cone bristles (Neutrogena healthy length, Maybelline pulse perfection—or probably some lash blast product by CoverGirl if I wasn’t horribly allergic) and Maybelline Lash Stiletto. Have tried the Voluptuous and the regular and haven’t noticed any difference between the two, both are fabulous.

6) Round Brush Hair Dryer. Holy Moses, must devote entire blog post to this, but in the mean time this has been my go-to tool that I use probably much too frequently.

7) Moroccan Oil. This product ended up buried in my hair supply basket long ago and I only rediscovered it in the past month—still brilliant, still makes my hair soft, pliable, and shiny.

8) Cloudy Rainy Days. Really into breaks from the heat however I can get them—so ready for fall! Cannot stand this blazing heat—constantly switching outfits and sweating all over my clothes—no thanks! Love cozying up in my bed with Harry Potter, a cup of hot chocolate and some cookies while watching the rain come down outside. Excited for more days like that and less days of 95+ weather.

9) Blogging. So I love this again. I am not sure when exactly I got the sudden urge to start this thing up again but I am glad I did… I need some sort of creative outlet, especially when life seems to be coming undone.

Out’s

1) Summer.

2) Negativity. My gosh. I have to say that although there are a plethora of reasons as to why I spent so much time not blogging/not on youtube this summer but one of the biggest reasons was because there seemed to be an overwhelming flood of negativity in the beauty community. I know there is negativity splattered all over the internet so obviously none of us are immune—but the way people in the beauty realm tear each other up is astounding to me. If you wouldn’t want it said about you, then don’t say it to anyone else #bringbacksundayschool. And as a rule of thumb if I ever get/see a comment that I wouldn’t dare to write to anyone else I delete it—will not be bothered dreadful people.

3) Hard Water. I had no idea of how terrible my water quality in my house is until I went on vacation to Bermuda and used the softest water ever to wash my hair. My hair could have starred in its own commercial by the end of the week—but of course almost immediately after I got home my hair returned to its original lack-luster state. I felt super discouraged knowing that a great deal of the reason my hair feels so damaged was because of the water I use to wash it—can’t do much about that, can you? Although I haven’t resolved the problem fully I have improved my hair slightly by purchasing a shower head with a water filter—it’s supposed to take out most of the chlorine and other chemicals. It’s definitely helped, my ends are much less frail, but alas, my hair is still not nearly as wonderful as it was that week of vacation.

4) Facebook. Ick.

5) Work & Living At Home. Been really dragged down by both living at home and working for the family business. Talk about taking work home with you—work is everywhere, home is everywhere, I feel completely consumed by it & I know it’s not healthy for me. However, I am kind of stuck, I have a bunch of monthly bills now that need to get paid and I am afraid that taking another job/moving out would make it nearly impossible to pay for everything.

xo

em

1) No makeup. I don’t know if it’s possible to count this as one of my summer beauty staples, but it’s my list and I am going to go with it. I rarely wear makeup in the summer—in fact I think I’ve spent 85% of my summer with a bare face.

2) Cheapo mascara. Like I’ve said before I’m kind of poor at the moment so even though I would love nothing more than to drag myself down to Sephora and pick up a Makeup Forever Smoky Lash mascara I know that I don’t have the $, so I’ve been slowly picking through my mascara collection and have fallen in love with it once again. I switch the kinds of mascara I use every couple of weeks just to see what I like the best.

3) Braids. Nothing is easier or cuter in the summer than hiding your mid-length bangs in a nice beachy braid.

4) Lipgloss. When I am in the sun or tanning my lips get naturally tanner or a little browner so I’ve stuck to nude color glosses with SPF in them—my lips burn way to easily to skip the SPF.

5) No nail polish. I don’t like bright colored nail polish so all the summer “hot” colors really turned me off this year. I like the light pinks, corals and cream colors but I feel like summer is the one time of year that natural nails feel appropriate.

6) Smoking it out. If I know I’ll be going out at night/taking pictures I will make sure to always have a darker color on the outside corners and lower lash line—I’ve found that if I forget this shadow placement I look sleepy or faded in photos.

7) Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Puff Eye Roller. I swear by this stuff, if you are planning on going makeupless please do not neglect this product. It took my face from looking walk-of-shame-y to I’m-pretty-&-don’t-need-makeup.

8) Sunlight. Be it natural or otherwise, it seemed that the only thing capable of saving my skin from the humidity this summer was the sun—a few days without it and little bumps would start showing up all over the place.

9) Ponytails. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

10) Smiles. Obviously been all smiles this summer thanks to brother, boyfriend, vaca & the ladies in my life!