Sunday, August 27, 2017

Back to School Week: Beauty and Fashion


Hi and welcome to my first post in this year's Back to School series! I know it's not really a big deal to you because firstly, I know many of you aren't that excited to go back to school so maybe my excitement is rubbing salt in the wound. lol I's sorry. I also know the gurus over on YouTube do this much better than me (which is why I've enlisted YouTube in today's post lol) but I still like the end result. I am excited though because I've never done anything like this before, so I hope you're able to find something helpful within these posts. Now this is going to be a long post, so grab a snack and a seat, and let's get started.  




If I had to describe my fashion sense in one phrase, I'd call it 'slouch chic.' Comfort is everything to me, but I don't want to look like a bum. Not all the time, anyway. I like clothing that combines style and comfort for everyday wear and I don't see the point in being uncomfortable (anymore), which is a lesson I really wish I had understood at 16. I dressed comfy most of the time back then as well, and by 'comfy' I mean my pajamas or sweats, but more than a few times I sacrificed my comfort because I wanted to look 'cute' for school. I computed 'cute' with 'uncomfortable' and as a result, put myself through 8+ hours of sitting and standing in jeans that were too tight or shoes that were a bit impractical for running across campus in the 5 minutes between classes.

As an older, much lazier version of myself, however, I'm just not about that life. I like looking put together but not at the expense of my general comfort level. Here I thought I'd include a few essentials for school and a little inspiration for school looks. It might err the side of boring, but 1-I'm a boring gal, and 2-I know dress codes vary from school to school, so I tried to include things that fit within general dress code parameters. Here are some of my personal essentials to creating a ton of simply styled outfit combinations for school.


Here is a playlist of girls with better style (and more money to create looks lol) than I. There's a combination of both regular and plus-sized fashion that I think would be easy to replicate for different sizes.






For school makeup, I need everything I wear to be three things: affordable, portable and sturdy. I'm a groupie for large eyeshadow palettes now, but back in the day I was all about whatever I could fit in a purse that was, at the time, the size of a Tic-Tac. I really didn't care for carrying purses back in school and wasn't a touch-up girl (I'm still not, if we're keepin' it real here) so I didn't like bringing anything, save for lip gloss, with me. But makeup is also notoriously easy to break or spill, so there was that. I'm all about drugstore makeup, but I need it to last the day in a bag without spilling everywhere. I'm hip (the usage of this word should be an obvious indication that I'm not) to IG and indie makeup brands, but I think for school I'd prefer something I can buy or replace in person. So here's a little collection of affordable drugstore makeup that you can pick up at your local Target, Ulta, Walmart or Walgreens. Everything (except one) is under $10 and easy to find or buy in-store. The prices I included may vary according to your location but I tried to list the cheapest price I could find between the four stores. 

Those collage skills though, right? 





5. Lips
 Wet 'n Wild Megalast Lipstick, $2 (I get a lot of mine from Dollar General or Walgreens)
 LA Girl Glazed Lip Paints, $3 (I buy all of my LA Girl products from a couple of local Korean beauty stores bc Walgreens here doesn't even carry LA Girl)
 Wet 'n Wild Color Icon Lipliner, $1
 Wet 'n Wild Silk Finish Lipstick, 3/$2.00


7. Prime and Set
8. Eyeliner
 LA Colors Grafix Liquid Eyeliner, $5.11 (I only paid $2.50 for mine at my local DG but the prices vary)
 LA Girl Endless Semi-Permanent Auto Eyeliner, $5.36 (another one I bought at a local Korean beauty supply store)
 CoverGirl Intensify Me! Liquid Eyeliner, $6.25
 Black Radiance Fine Line Liquid Eyeliner Pen, $3.42




My policy about comfort, ease and time-saving carries over to hair. My sister is a very large advocate for the top knot and large bun for school because both are easy to do, don't take too much time, and don't require her to brush all of her hair before slapping it in a ponytail. lol Touche, dear sis. The playlist I included here has a few tutorials for different hair types so that there's a bit of variety. 



As for makeup, simplicity is also key. Who the hell has time for Instagram eyebrows, contoured cheekbones and false lashes every day? For Spirit Fridays, parties and special occasions, sure. But for a regular ass Tuesday morning class? FOH with that. Here's another playlist of fast, easy and affordable makeup looks you can wear to school. The good thing about the simplicity of many of these looks is that if you want more drama, it wouldn't be hard to add it in at all. 






If you've never done this before, you may be wondering what the hell an 'emergency kit' is. I didn't know what one was in high school, either. Mine started out as just making sure to carry a pad or tampon with me all the time to prevent any lady embarrassments. As I got older and started carrying larger purses, though, there were certain things I had to make sure to bring along with me, and thus the 'emergency kit' was born. It's basically the school equivalent of the 'mom kit' that parents have. In high school though, I just kept everything I needed in the smallest pocket of my purse or backpack, which subjected me to more than a couple of embarrassing moments when someone asked me to borrow a pencil in class. Maybe you're smarter than me and you already have one, but I'm going off the impression that you're as forgetful as I was. lol I'll show you a condensed version of my bag. 

Pardon the hair I still have tangled up in that brush. LOL



In addition to being a germaphobe, a raging hypochondriac and a geek with allergy and breathing issues, I just like to be prepared. The point of this bag is to be able to fit your essentials into whichever purse you're using that day. I switch between a purse and a backpack, both of which are quite large nowadays, and this little bag ensures I don't forget things when switching bags. The lower left side of this photo (items 9-12) is what I have nicknamed 'the sick wheezing geek corner,' because everything there is related to my health, so you can switch these out as you see fit.

A couple of tips if you're putting your first kit together:

--Don't include extra shit you don't see yourself using. That's for my low-key hoarders and 'what if' friends. My initial draft of this bag included bandaids. This is an emergency bag, not a mom bag. Have some seats, Mandy. (Although TBH, I'm probably going to put a bandaid in mine anyway. LOL)

--The travel section at Walmart is your best friend. If you don't find smaller, travel-size versions of some of the products on the list, you can buy the travel containers from that section and just pour some of what you do have in there. You can buy a pack of labels from the school section and use those for each container.

--Don't forget Kleenex. I'm out of travel Kleenex right now but I always make sure to have some with me. There have been times though when I've taken a whole roll of toilet paper with me. LOL Don't judge me.

--For the smaller items, like the bobby pins, hairties and cough drops (or gum), use a small Ziploc so they're not rolling around the bottom of your bag. Compartmentalize as much as possible. This will make it easier on you to replace things when necessary and keep your bag organized. 



So that's it for today. I know this was a pretty long post but I wanted to be as thorough as I could. Of course, it's highly likely that some of these choices aren't up your alley and that's fine, I was thinking more along the lines of someone with simple, basic style like myself. So if you have a different style, it's safe to reason that today's post may not have shown you anything new. In that case, I'm sorry. Regardless though, I thank you--mainly, for sticking around to read the entire post lol--and I hope you enjoyed. On Wednesday we'll be talking about different apps, websites and web extensions you can use to stay on track for school. See you there!

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