Fear the Sponge

"I could announce one morning that the world was going to blow up in three hours and people would be calling in about my hair! "
~Katie Couric

My hair naturally has a lot of wave to and some serious ringlets in the front. It looks crazy unless I blow dry and style it. However all that hear styling is bad for my hair and it takes up a lot of time. So recently I have been branching out trying to find news ways to style my hair without heat and without a lot of time.

The first thing I tried was Velcro rollers first. This was a compromise because I did still have to blow dry my hair, I could cut out all the heat styling though. I bought these really big pink ones, thinking I would set my hair with bobby pins and then sleep on them. Wow yea baaaaad idea. The curlers were way to big and my head hurt all night long. I woke up and took out the curlers and my hair was this limp kinked up mess. Now I used these same curlers since them to put body on my crown when I am blow drying my hair and that works fabulously... sleeping on them and then expecting curls does not.

Next I tried a throw back to my childhood. When I was little my mother loved to put my hair in sponge rollers and sleep on them and it would make cute ringlets. SO I went out and tried to find some. I was very excited to find them in a wide variety of sizes. The ones I used to wear were small about half and inch but the ones I ended up purchasing were bigger about an inch. The also sell them in a bigger size, about one and half to two inches and I might try these next. The first time I attempted my sponge rollers was a DISASTER. I put them in wet hair just like I used to when I was little... well apparently I have much more hair now. The rollers in the back didnt try so the hair was the horrible damp limp stands and then the ones on top I apparently rolled to tight so the ends were a;; crazy and kinked and basically it looked a hot mess.

Stubborn as I am I tried this business again to much better results.  I blow dryed my hair first and then rolled bigger sections in the rollers, about an inch to two inch sections. I slept on them and when I woke up I did have pretty good uniform curls. However I did make an error. Really I should know better. When I put the rollers in I put them in horizontally so when he curls came down instead of pretty cascading curls that went away from my face I got these weird shaped corkscrew shaped curls that were just not cute. However the volume way amazing and the style stayed all day long without much hairspray.

Try, try, try again. I have every intention of mastering the sponge curlers and when I do I will post pictures and a tutorial. Lets all keep out fingers crossed that practice makes perfect!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings
Lauren

Perfume Collection

"I judge people on how they smell, not how they look. "
~Jennifer Lopez

I am always fascinated by the different perfumes people have! I think it is so much fun to look at the pretty bottles and smell all the different ones. I know there are some people who wear one perfume all the time. I personally change my perfume everyday depending on my mood and what I am wearing and so on. SO I just thought I would give a quick rundown of my perfume collection!!!!!

 Paris Amour is from bath and body works. My sister actually gave me this one for Christmas and I like it a lot! This description for this one is white tulips and champagne. That is a weird description because I smell the floral but the champagne. It is a sweet smell but not overpowering and I really like it.

 Burberry Britt is my winter smell. Something about this just makes me feel the need to cuddle and wear mittens. This is the description from the Burberry Site:

• A delicate, fresh scent with sharp top notes of crisp green almond, icy pear and Italian lime
• Heart notes of sugared almonds and lush white peony add a soft sweetness
• The scent intensifies with the warmth of amber and mahogany

Uh so that's what it smells like...

 This is the smell I wore all the way through high school. I thought I was so sophisticated. I still really love this scent but I find myself reaching for things that are a little less floral than this. The description is A hint of citrus. A wealth of flowers. A mix of emotions. Our best-selling women's fragrance interplays fresh, vibrant notes—ruby red grapefruit, bergamot—with soft, sensual ones—Hawaiian wedding flower, spring mimosa. That is actually a pretty good description of how it actually smells It is very floral with a good bit of citrus. Very clean smelling.

 I wear Happy Heart way more that Happy these days. They smell very similar like maybe the same base notes or something but Happy Heart is mellowed out a little more with a sweet smell. It's Description is: With a heart of water hyacinth, brightened with Mandarin and blond woods. I don't really know what those things smell like but they make a good perfume.

 Fancy is the scent I wear the most. I couldn't find a very good description for it. It is floral but with more musk to it. It is still a very sweet smell but it is mellowed out by the musk. This is my all time favorite scent.

 Fancy Love is my summer smell. It is waaaaay sweeter than Fancy and they do not smell the same the way that Happy and Happy Heart do. This is very floral as well but the floral is bumped up by a sweet smell. It does not have the musk the way that Fancy does.

 The notes in Fantasy are: Red Lychee, Golden Quince, Kiwi, Cupcakes, White Chocolate, Orchid, Jasmine Petals, Must, Orris, and Sensual Woods.Apparently it is also in the oriental category. Basically this is a sweet spicy smell without the floral smell it. I like it a lot. I think it would a really great date smell.

The notes is this scent are: bergamot, Sicilian orange, raspberry, fig leaf, lily blossom, liquorice, strawberry, red fruits, Barbe-à-papa cotton candy, vanilla, candy and musk. Basically it smells exactly like cotton candy.... like exactly like cotton candy You will walk around all day smelling like a big pink edible treat. This appeals to me. The only down side is that this scent is relatively short lived so you have to apply multiple times. I would say this is a day scent but you could wear on a date... make sure your date never had some sort of trauma at the state fair first.

Ok those are all the perfumes in my collection! Hope you all enjoyed the tour!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings,
Lauren

Love is in the air

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
~Charles M. Schulz

I wear so much pink everyday that on Valentine's Day I like I like to mix it up and wear red. However I look in a little crazy in all red so usually I just choose to wear red accents, which happens to be what I did today. Here are the little touches I added to my outfit today to help celebrate Valentine's Day!



On my fingers I did a special Valentine's mani! I am wearing Essie's Long Stem Roses, which is a pretty red color with a little bit of a sparkle. I then used my konad to stamp little silver kiss marks on them... pretty darn cute. 

I also decided to do a red lip today. For this I used Wet m Wild Diamond Brilliance in the color Tamara's Tiara. It is a really pretty dark red with a lot of sparkle to it. I like this product a lot. It goes on nicely and stays put for a long time. Plus it is gloss so you don't get the caking of the bleeding of a lipstick. Plus it was super affordable.

I also set everything off with some red earrings.

Another thing I wore today that wasnt exactly red was my perfume. In honor of Valentines I spritzed on some Pink Sugar. This perfume smells exactly like cotton candy, which for some people would be bad but I LOVE IT!! I thought the sweet sugary smell was perfect for Valentine's!

I hope everyone has a great day!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings,
Lauren

Girl look at that body!!!

"wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle... YEA!"

~LMFAO

Without blowing my own horn, I get a lot of comments on my hair. In my honest opinion this is because every morning I closely follow that old southern proverb "The higher the hair the closer to heaven". Laugh if you must but I think that nothing is prettier than big hair. Now does this mean I have a ratted up beehive... no. Does this mean I use a lot of products and techniques to get a ton of body into my hair... YES!

Here are some of the top ways I pull of some killer body!

-Blow dry, blow dry, blow dry. If I want to have good hair the next day I absolutely know that I am going to have to blow dry my hair. I use several different products when I blow dry. To start off I use a detangler. The one I have been using lately works as a detangler leave-in condition duo. It is by FX and it is called  Tangle Out. I go through my hair with a large tooth comb after I spray my hair liberally.
The next product I use is Herbal Essences Body Envy Volumizing Mousse. I put about a ping pong ball amount of this at the roots of my crown and comb it through. This is going to really cement the volume my blow dryer will put there. Then I add another product by FX, Blowout. This is a type of blow dry lotion that will cut down on frizz and also acts as a heat protectant. Heat protectants are so important and most people forget to use them when they are blow drying.
Then I finally turn on the blow dryer and use a wide tooth comb to help dry. I know that many people use a round brush to blow dry but I have trouble with because my hair is soo long and I feel like I don't have enough hands... It is just not a skill I possess. For the first few minutes that I blow dry my hair I use a special technique. I will brush a section up and the opposite way I want it to fall and dry it that way. This really puts in some volume because it gives the undersides of the sections some stability. After I feel like my top layers are dry I turn my head upside down and finish drying my hair in this position. I cant do this the whole time because I get really light-headed!

After my hair is completely dry I fire up the straightening iron. Of coarse I have to put a few more products on first. I use two different heat protectant sprays because I feel like the combo of two works best for my hair in terms of sealing out moisture fighting frizz, and making my hair really smooth. Plus you can never have too much protection from heat. The two products I use are FX Flat iron and Got 2b Guardian Angel. When I actually straighten my hair I use the same technique as when I am blowing drying and straighten my hair in the opposite direction I want it tell fall. This is very effective in really setting the volume in your hair.

To top it all off after I am done straightening I have a couple more products to put on my hair. I use Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum on the ends of my hair. This product is super hydrating and really gives my ends, that are usually dry, a more polished healthy look. And the very last product I use is the Not Your Mother's Rise and Shine Shine Spray. This product is a finishing spray that gives your hair a really nice shine. Use it sparingly though because in excess it can make your hair greasy.

Well that is what I do to my hair to give it volume. I hope I can bring volume to other needy girls.

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings,
Lauren

Fabulous Fingers

"I pointed out to you the stars and all you saw was the tip of my finger”
~ Tanzania Proverb

Valentines day is coming up and we all know what that means. Valentine's is one of the only times you can wear a ridiculous amount of pink and no one judges you! One way that I like to incorporate some pink is through nail polish. I am pretty much a nail polish junkie so I thought I would share my  favorite pink colors out of my collection!

 China Glaze in Exceptionally Gifted. I am actually wearing this color today. This is actually a little pinker than in the picture. The cool thing about this color is the weird shine it gets. When it dries it is almost like a metallic except without any silver tones like you would expect, it's just very very shiny. One tip with this color is that you must buff your nails before using it. Because it is sooo shiny it is going to highlight any type of rough places on your nails. You must have a smooth canvas to pull this color off.

 Essie in Fiji. I like this color a lot. It is super pigmented so you don't need more than two coats, and honestly you could get the job done with one coat. One thing that I don't like as much about this color is that it has a lot of purple tones to it and my skin tone really pulls them out. 

Essie in Funny Face. This is the ultimate barbie pink. It looks exactly like the picture. It is also very pigmented and one coat is more than enough. Also this is a flat color. As much as I love pink and sparkles, I sometimes feel that for fingers this vibrant of a color along with sparkle is just a little much. Since this is flat it vibrant but not overpowering.

 OPI in Divine Swine. First of all, I am freaking in love with that name. This is from the Muppet's collection and it is Miss Piggys color... get it, Divine Swine!?! Anywho, this is a very chunk glitter polish with a clear base color. So it goes really well on top of a magenta or purple color. However because they paired big glitter with little glitter you can do about three coats and it looks like a solid glitter nail with no base needed. Versatile and beautiful! 

 OPI in Princesses Rule. This color is has way more sparkle to it than what is picking up in the photo. This is really more of a glitter polish with a light base color. It is not very pigmented and it will take several coats to completely cover your nail. Besides that it is an amazing color and the light pink color is so pretty.

 OPI in Blushingham Palace. Another name that I am in love with. This is a really really pretty demure color. It has a brown tint to it but it doesn't muddy up the pink color at all. This is a more grown up shade. Definitely something you could wear to an interview or meeting.

 ORLY in Oh Cabana Boy! The color on this is alittle more vibrant and neon than what is picking up. It has a purplish blue tint to it that is really really pretty. I struggle over whether I think that this color is appropriate for fingernails or not. I have worn on my fingernails but I think it really only works in the summer when I am pretty tan and you can get away with really really bright colors.

 Revlon Scented Parfume in Cotton Candy. OK if you have never tried the Revlon scented polishes get out there and buy some. These things are amazing. They are really strongly scented and they smell GOOD!  This one smells exactly like cotton candy, like its almost weird how much. That alone would make me love this polish. However the color is also really good. It dries a really really pale pink with slight gold iridescence. It can be tricky to get this one to dry correctly. For some reason the polish is really thick and if you aren't careful this will get clumpy and thick on your nails. I still love this polish and I haven't had this problem with the other scented polishes that I have.

 Revlon Top Speed in Cupid. This is a really really great color and it does dry really fast. This is not some sort of miracle drying polish though, so do not buy it just for the drying. This color is amazing. It is a very pretty medium pink that has some hints of lavender in it. While it has some purple undertones it is a very true pink. Very very pretty. 

 Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Tickled Pink. I bought this polish on a whim just because it was so cheap and the color looked good. I was amazed at the quality of this polish. I would put it up against any of my OPI and Essie colors. I wear this color as a pink neutral. This color is only slightly pinker than my natural nail color and it looks great as an everyday. It is super pigmented and I really only need one coat. This is a must have.

Pure Ice First Love. I could not really find a good picture of this polish. In reality it is a super super super light pink to the point where it is almost white. It has the prettiest pink pearl iridescence to it that has some pink and gold and a little bit of teal in it. This is a hard polish to wear because it takes a lot of coats. But it is worth it because the color is so pretty.

Ok now I gotta go because I feel the need to redo my nails!!!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings,

Lauren

Style Profile: Anne Hathaway

"Can I tell you how grateful I am to Kate Middleton? Because she is such an advocate for dressing like a lady... I think for a few years that kind of slightly dirty look was adopted by Hollywood - you know, the stringy hair, homeless thing. And I really tried. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to give that a go.’ it doesn’t suit me, I don’t suit it. I always looked kind of chubby."
~ Anne Hathaway

I had so much fun doing the style profile of Natalie Portman that I could not wait to another one. Here is another person whose fashion sense I really admire. It was really really easy to find several good looks. Enjoy.

 

 OK lets just jump right in with my very very FAVORITE. This is from the Met Ball in 2010 and the dress is Valentino. This is the most amazing princess fairy dress ever yet it is still appropriate for the occasion. Some other celebs have tried to do the big ball gown.. *cough Olivia Wilde cough* and just looked a little crazy. This looks beautiful.

 This is my very favorite designer Marchesa at the 2008 Oscars. As we look at this now it is easy to say "yea yea rosettes blah blah" but don't forget that this was 2008 before that trend even came in. In fact I bet this dress had a lot to do with rosettes being every where, especially in bridal fashion.

Anne is at the 2009 Golden Globes in Armani Prive in this picture. I don't want to like this dress. I generally don't like this silhouette on people and I don't generally like all the structure on top. But for some reason I do really like this dress. The color is amazing with her skin tone and her hair is perfect. She just carries it really well.

 I adore this dress. It is Armani Prive which is one of her go tos and she is wearing it at the 2009 Oscars. The detail on this dread is stupid good. All those sequins could look really gaudy or she could also look like a fish. But somehow she looks like some sort of Venus goddess. That is THE perfect color for her porcelain skin. Divine.

 This is Valentino at the 2011 Oscars. Homegirl really knows how to rock the fairytale inspired gowns. Cant yall just see like Belle wearing this? Somehow though she comes off not looking like she is playing dress and instead looking crazy sophisticated. How does she do that!?! Also a hidden detail can be seen if you look really closely. the inside lining under the pickups is a really cool floral pattern. Love is in the details!

Another Valentine also at the 2011 Oscars. This year she wore several looks. I really really like this dress as well. Probably not as much as the one above but this look is also incredible. The girl can seriously do not wrong. The thing I seriously love about this look is the way her hair is styled. I love the slightly beachy waves versus some elaborate up-do or some sort of messy knot. 

This is probably Anne Hathaway;s most famous look of all time. This looks like something Angeline Jolie would wear, and we all know what a fashion icon she is. This is such a starlet look. The average person could not carry this off. This picture doesn't show it, but this dress also has the most amazing back. This is Armani Prive at the 2011 Golden Globes. A perfect way to end the profile because no way can she top this... but I hope she does!

Hope yall enjoyed this as much as I did!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings

Lauren

How did you get your hair like that?

I'm undaunted in my quest to amuse myself by constantly changing my hair.
~Hillary Clinton

A lot of people asked my yesterday how I did my hair so I thought I would write this post to show that it was really really easy and I'm not crazy hair magician.... I'm only in college people.

 

 

 

OK The first step of the hair do is to have day old hair. I'm sure you have all heard how bad it is for your hair to wash it everyday and it strips your hair of it's natural oils blah blah blah. That's not what this post is about so I wont go into all of that. However this style does work better with slightly dirty and textured hair. In other words if you curl hair one day and wake up the next and your hair is lookin rough... try this out.

The first thing to do is separate the first two inches of your hair all around hair line around your face. All of the rest of your hair should be put in a pony tail at the nape of your next so it is out of the way. Brush out the front section of your hair so you can easily braid it. A little tip I use when ever I will be braiding is to put either moose or a oil treatment I have on the hair to prevent flyaways from coming out of your braid. Starting on one side you are going to do an inverted french braid from one side of your head to the other. If you have never done an inverted french braid before it can be a little tricky. The only difference is that instead of taking outside sections over top the middle one you take it underneath the middle each time you pick up more hair. This will create a braid that is more pronounces, with definite edges. You could do a regular french braid but I like the inverted because I think the illusion of an actual headband is better.

 After you braid all the way across your head continue braiding about three more inches or even to the end if you want, that way the braid can be secured in the elastic when you put the rest of your hair in a bun. I use a thin clear plastic band so it wont be seen. The next step is to tease the crap out of your crown and on the sides so that when you gather your hair in a bun you have some volume. For this style you really need some volume on the crown because the inverted braid does stick up from your head a little and if it is taller than the rest of your hair it look a little crazy. After you tease gather all your hair in a bun on the side of your head. You need to put the bun on the same side that your braid ended to cover up the elastic. The bun can be really free form because you are going to pin it how you like. The way I shape my buns (hehe) is to loosen loops from the elastic, twist them, and then pin them where I want them. this creates a really messy look, which I like, but also allows you to have a lot of control about where the bun is on your head, how far it sticks out, and the circumference of the bun.

When you I have my bun looking like I want it, I always add a little glam to it by pinning in a flower. The one I am wearing is from Forever 21 and is featured in one of my old blog posts. You could also pin in antique brooches, that is another on of my favorite ways to add a little more to this style.

OK I hope everyone enjoyed this tutorial! Happy weekend yall!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings

Lauren

Rub A Dub Dub

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”
~ Coco Chanel

For those of you who are seriously missing out and don't know, Lush is a handmade cosmetics store. Everything is natural and wonderful and I'm a bit obsessed. They stores all over, including internationally, and they also have a website so even if you live somewhere without a store you can still get the products. Lush sells like a billion different things... literally. However for this post I just wanted to focus on the products I have actually tried. I am embarrassed to admit that I have only ever tried bath products from Lush, more specifically bath bombs, bath melts, and bubble bars. This isn't because I don't think the other products are worthy, it is just because I am infatuated with their bath products. I thought I would review a few of my favorites for you!

 Here they are in order of my least favorite to my most favorite. However I do really like all of these!

 Vanilla Fountain Bath Bomb $6. 25. I thought this one smelled really really good. However it did turn my bath water a really off putting green color.... so not what I was expecting. The website says that it is supposed to be really moisturizing but I didn't really notice that. But again it did smell amazing. If you want a bath bomb you can use in the dark, this is it!

 

 Creamy Candy Bubble Bar $7.25. This one smells amazing as well. This was my first bubble bar to try ever and I was pretty skeptical about whether or not it would make good bubbles. I was shocked! The bubbles were amazing and they hung around for ever. I literally had to work hard to get them out of my bathtub. This smells just like the name says like sugary candy. I really really liked this one.

Honey Bee $6.40. This is one of my ultimate favorites. You all need to just go out and find a Lush so you can smell this thing. Seriously it is ridiculous how good this thing smells. Like honey and vanilla and millions of other good things all wrapped up in one. This bomb contains something called Rhassoul which according to the Lush website is some sort of mud that softens and moisturizes skin. I will say that I feel like my skin was softer after I used this. However if you are really looking for something only for the purpose of skin softening, this is probably not it. But I will most def be buying this again. It smells soo goooooood!!!!!

 

Pink Bath Bomb $4.75.  I think this one was the most fun to use. First of all let me preface this by saying I used this product before they revamped it and made it smaller, however I do not think it will really affect the experience. Back to the fun stuff. You put this baby in your bath and it turn your bath the prettiest pink color ever! It has a sugary vanillay candy smell that is delicious. Then all the sudden this puppy starts shooting out little pieces of confetti. Yea that's right this baby shoots confetti into your bath!!!! Also the best part is that it doesn't leave a mess. Somehow the pink doesn't stain your tub and the confetti like melts or something. This is one the coolest bath products I have ever used. GO BUY THIS!

 Amandopondo $7.95. This was absolute favorite! I have never felt more pampered than when I used this in my bath. The smell is ridiculous. Its like roses and everything girls and sophisticated. This is a bubble bar which is just icing on this rose scented cake. You get this amazing smell, rich bubbles that stay a really long time, and rose freakin petals floating around. The little rose bud sitting on top opens up in the bath and releases so there are literally rose petals floating around in the bathtub with you. It does not get better than this. I will say that if you don't like the smell of roses you should not buy this. I however LOVE the smell of roses. I mean obviously I love this, I picked it as my number one favorite. This is one I would recommend most!

Hurry yall, find a Lush and get your bath on!!!!!!

Love, Laughter, and God's Blessings

Lauren 

Style Profile: Natalie Portman

Cute is when your personality shines through your looks. Like, when you see someone's personality in the way they walk and you just feel like hugging them every time you see them.
~Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman is one of my all time favorite actresses and also one of my style icons. I have decided to start doing style style profiles for some of my favorite fashionistas and I knew I wanted to start with Natalie Portman.

 This dress is a Rodarte that she wore to the 2009 Oscars. I love this dress because it is simple yet the beading in the weaving pattern on the bodice makes the dress stand out. Plus this color is ah maz ing. It was a risky pick to wear the color but I think it goes perfectly with her coloring.

This is the dress she more to the Black Swan Premiere in 2010. This dress is also by Rodarte. I adore this dress. It has very intricate beading and structure and she pulls it off with simple hair and jewelry. On some people I think dress could be too much but on her it is divine.

 THIS IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE DRESS! There is something about this dress that is so ethereal and feminine and yet the color is so earthy. It is so organic yet so elegant. I cant get over this dress. She wore this dress to the 2005 Academy Awards and the dress is by Lanvin. Also there could not be better hair with this dress. And notice that yet again she does very simple jewelry with a bare throat.

 Oh look another Rodarte dress. This dress is from the 2011 Oscars. This is how maternity wear should be done. She is absolutely glowing and this dress compliments her shape with out screaming "LOOK AT MY STOMACH!". So tasteful and so sophisticated. 

Natalie Portman has amazing style and star power and I cannot wait to see what she wears next!

Love, Laughter and God's Blessings

Lauren