5 Tips for Better Skin

I used to be of the ranks of those who only wash their faces in the shower with bar soap. The horror. I never had terrible skin, so I really didn't give it much thought. But as I slide through my twenties, I've picked up a few habits that really made my skin go from "fine, I guess" to "awesome, I don't even need any concealer today."

Always Wash Your Face
I know we all fail at this, myself included. But the improvement I see in my skin when I wash my face morning and night every day is undeniable. Even if you haven't worn any makeup during the day, just walking through the world will get some grime on your beautiful mug, so why not take five minutes at the end of the day and refresh yourself? I'm an advocate of the double cleanse for days on which I do wear makeup, using a cleansing oil first, followed by a balm cleanser of some kind. My favorite oil is Julep's Bare Face Cleansing Oil, although I know a lot of people like The Body Shop's Chamomile Cleansing Oil, which is much less expensive. (Unfortunately, I am not a fan of the scent, so I don't use the TBS one.)

Avoid That Squeaky Clean Feeling
I feel like a lot of people, particularly those with oily skin, like to wash their face until it has that tight feeling when it dries. But that's actually not so good for you. Stripping the skin of all it's natural oils can dry it out unnecessarily and cause a rebound in oil production to make up for it. As far as I'm concerned, the gentler the cleanser, the better.

Exfoliate
One of the most important steps I added to my routine was some gentle exfoliation. In addition to using a warm washcloth to remove my cleanser, which adds a bit of manual exfoliation, I am absolutely devoted to chemical exfoliants, glycolic acid in particular. Any number of products are available that feature different concentrations of this star ingredient, which helps remove dead cells from the surface of your skin. I happen to love both Pixi's Glow Tonic and the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads. They're on the gentler side, and I find that with regular use my skin looks much brighter and evenly textured.

Moisture, Moisture, Moisture
In my personal experience, there are quite a few skin problems I've been able to solve simply by amping up the hydration steps in my routine. First and foremost, drink water. No kidding, you gotta be hydrated inside as well as outside. Then, I try to put as many moisturizing steps into my routine as possible. My most loved products are Trilogy Rosehip Oil and Bobbi Brown Hydrating Face Tonic. I don't hear what the haters say about expensive water, that tonic makes my face look better, end of discussion.

Sleep
No doubt about it, when you're tired, your skin looks tired, too. Getting enough sleep every night will go a long way towards improving your overworked face. As an added benefit, your mind will feel better, and when you feel good, you look good, right? Right.

Julep Does Purple

I've been a Julep Maven for a while now, and while I've been choosing their beauty/skincare over their nail polish pretty frequently of late, I have to admit that their selection of purples is really unique.

From top to bottom, I'm wearing Katie (Classic with a Twist), Ming (It Girl), Avni (Classic with a Twist), and Danica (Boho Glam). I don't go for purple polish most of the time, but college football season is starting to whisper in my ear, and I love to support my Northwestern Wildcats with a manicure. Katie and Avni are both shimmery creams that go opaque in two coats. Danica, my most recent edition is a pretty cool blue-purple duochrome, I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would. Ming stands alone as the only jelly, but it's a good one that makes a great jelly sandwich, or just a soft spring mani on its own.

If you feel like becoming a Maven, you can use this link to sign up. While the polish formula can be hit or miss, the color selection is great, and I love many of their cleansing products.

Mani Monday: Put Your (Top)Coat On

Part of being a noob at doing your nails is thinking you don't really need topcoat. I myself used to think just that way. And you know what? My nail polish didn't last for shit. If you want your manicure to stand even a snowball's chance in hell of lasting a week, ya gotta add some protection over that pretty color.

I've used a number of different topcoats in the past six years, and I'm here to give you my thoughts on them so you don't have to waste your hard-earned dough, yo.

Seche Vite
Have you heard of this one? Of course you have. This is the be-all, end-all of quick drying top coats. Super shiny, crystal clear, dries in mere minutes. No matter how many different formulas I try in search of the perfect at-home manicure, this is the one I always come back to for its incomparable ability to hit all my musts. Careful, though, this sucker tends to get super thick in the bottle once you're about halfway through, and if you apply it before you've let your color dry enough, you will get craaaaaaazy bubbling. There, I just saved you the learning curve.

Orly In a Snap
Personally, I don't think Orly gets quite enough love as a brand, especially considering how wide the range of products is. That being said, this is not my favorite topper. Yes, it does dry quickly, but that's where the buck stops. The finish tends to dull pretty quickly, and I don't notice any advantages in its ability to prevent chipping over a few days. It's good in a pinch, but instead, I think you should go for...

Orly Sec'n Dry
I greatly prefer this to any of Orly's other offerings in this category. It claims to add shine and resist chipping, all while reaching down through your layers of polish and drying them all. By and large, it makes good, although I can't speak as well to the last one because I really like to give my polish time to dry a bit between layers. It's not as shiny as the Seche Vite, but it wins the not getting weird-in-the-bottle contest.

Julep Freedom Polymer Top Coat
(Not Pictured) If you wanted to spend a stupid amount of money on a topcoat, you could give this one a try. As a long time Maven, I've gotten this a couple of times in my box, and I don't hate it. Its one big drawback is that you have to cure it under either natural light or a light bulb to get it to dry. What I actually tend to do is use a quick dry top coat underneath this to make sure nothing moves while I'm trying to cure it. All told, this gives a fantastic shine and a nice hard sheet of armor to protect your precious nailsies, but the steep price keeps it at more "fun toy" than "absolute necessity."

Honorable Mention
Essie Gel Effect Top Coat
I can't offer a full recommendation of this yet, as I'm just now trying Essie's new release for the first time, but thus far, the shininess factor is undeniable. I'll keep you updated when I've made a full assessment of its pros and cons, but it looks like it might be a real winner.

Welcome to the 90s

As someone who grew up in the 90s, I occasionally get super nostalgic for the terrible unisex fashion of my early childhood. Loosely inspired by all those insane tracksuits that populated our lives at that time, for this I used a base of Revlon Colorstay 025 Seashell with random brushstrokes of Orly Neon Heat and Julep Linden. I'm really quite pleased with it, though the Orly is showing up way more magenta and less neon in this picture than it looks in real life.

I've been finding that I like to use Julep polishes as accent colors more often than a full nail color, which is somewhat puzzling. I'm considering canceling my Maven subscription just because I haven't been particularly inspired by the color choices the past few months. Are any of you Mavens? What do you think? If you're not and you'd like to become one, feel free to use my referral link.

Just Another Mani Monday #4

Hey, hey, hey, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty medium myself. Been having some mighty awful migraines lately, which sure doesn't make me feel like staring at a computer screen to write posts. You know, though, that I've always got my nails all lacquered up. Look good, feel good, right?

I'm trying, anyway.

Julep Winnie came in the Fa La La Trio from Julep for Holiday 2015. Since I love the shit out of Christmas and shiny things, this set begged me to get it. Seriously, it would have been wrong to leave it. So I got it. Winnie is described on the site as a "rose gold metallic" and I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head. Application was totally cool, good opacity in two coats. The only reason my pointer finger looks janky is because It's gonna be great as an accessory for the holiday season, and even better than a piece of jewelry since it's much harder to lose your nails than you bling when you've had a bit too much champagne (not impossible, though, I would say). On that note, enjoy your Monday.

Totally Missed Mani Monday

Frankly, this will probably have to be it's own series, I can never seem to get my shit together over the weekend. Honestly, though, I was in New Jersey all last week working, so I had to focus on things like commuting and helping my mom pick Christmas decorations. 

Sorry I'm not sorry that I'm not sorry.

Julep Fazia is the only color I was excited about for the Novemver Maven box, so I went ahead and got a core collection box and just added this sucker on. I'm glad I did, although I expected it too be more red and less brown than it turned out. Still, I think it's a really lovely fall color, just a hint of shimmer, and it generally agrees with my color palette for the season. It actually reminds me of one of my favorite fall/winter colors from a few years ago, Essie Sassy Satchel, but with more red and a significantly better formula.

So that's that. Here's a picture of a puppy I saw yesterday.

Just Another Mani Monday

Hey hey hey everyone.  I have had a really crazy few months, if I'm being perfectly honest. But I'm starting to pull myself back together, and I have a lot of little bits and bobs I've collected over the past few months to share with you! To start off, I'm going to be featuring a recent manicure every Monday. If I don't do a regular post, I'll never get through my whole collection, and if I can't do that, I probably shouldn't be adding to it :/ Here we go!

Top: Julep Avni, Sinful Colors Cauldron Couture Cauldron strikes me as an odd word. Yeah. But I'm digging this green and black irregular glitter topper over Julep's Northwestern purple with a slight pink duochrome. Go 'Cats. No, I do not want to talk about this weekend's game.

Middle: Kiss Nail Dress 62179/HKDS14 Great name, right? Seriously, though, I could never do this to my own nails and for $2, I don't feel bad only wearing these for two days crap out on me. Perfect for this month! Snagged mine at Walgreens about a week ago, but I haven't seen them in any other Walgreens, so if you see 'em, get 'em. They're real fun.

Bottom: OPI WHO ARE YOU CALLING BOSSY?!?, random glitter from Michael's So that's  name I can totally get behind. The black is from the OPIxPeanuts collection for Halloween, and it's a good solid black. I was having a hard time finding the exact right Halloween colored glitter, so obviously I just went and bought a bunch of glitter. Obviously.

It's Been A While! and July 2014 Julep Maven Box

I'm sure you know that I've been absent since 'round about the time of my little sister's graduation.  It's been absolute madness for me in the last six weeks as I've been rehearsing a show! We just opened on July 6th, it's an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland during which we travel throughout Lincoln Park here in Chicago. For more information on the show (which is free, btdubs!), visit Nothing Without a Company. </end plug>

On to the beauty bits!

I haven't taken a Julep Maven Box in aaaaaaaaages. Probably not since December or January. I just hadn't been too intrigued by the offerings, and the formulas can be so hit or miss, and I figured that I could use the $20 on something more useful, like food. #realtalk But I had enough Maven Jules (their fancy term for points), so I figured I'd check out July's offerings. I selected the It Girl Box from July's The Poolside Collection, and added on a glittery America-tastic topcoat. 'Tis the season, ya feel?

The box included the colors Dawn, a "citron creme," Linden, a "pool blue creme," and Braiden, described as "graphite stardust," which is Julep's textured glittery finish a lá OPI's Liquid Sand and Zoya's PixieDust.  It also had some Tootsie Rolls in American flag wrappers, but I ate them before I took pictures. Duh. So far I've only had the chance to give Dawn and Linden a try, here are some of my thoughts.

Dawn is as true a yellow as I've seen yet among polish offerings. This leaves me a little disappointed, as I was kind of hoping it would lean a bit to the green side of the spectrum, but I don't mean it as an actual criticism. Application was a bit annoying, streaky and a little gloopy on the first coat, but things leveled out with the second coat into a wholly opaque finish. Above is two coats with a topcoat. Wear was good, but not exceptional, lasting two days on me without chipping (that's normal for me though, I'm doing a very physical show and my hands get banged around quite a bit).

Linden is a dusty true blue that's fully opaque in one coat.  I did two for good measure, and there was no staining with a base coat, so that was nice. I don't know what kind of cracked out pools Julep checked out when it decided to name this, but "pool blue" it is not.  Wear was good, not great, again two days without chipping. Liked it, didn't love it, but the good opacity will make it a nice addition for nail art, I think.

Overall, a good batch, I think. I'll report back on the other two, when I get around to it, but with the 4th having already come and gone, not sure when I'll get around to that glitter topper (thanks UPS, for pretending my house doesn't exist). If you feel moved to become a Julep Maven, you can use my referral link HERE.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Inevitably Falling

I'm a little disappointed that, the moment I embrace the inevitability of fall, the forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-nineties, but hopefully an embrace of more autumnal colors will bring on the milder weather in which I prefer to enjoy football games.

Meet Julep's Josephine. This dark teal is great for fall. It provides an excellent contrast to some of them warmer fall colors, and should make any outfit pop. I'm definitely feeling it, even if it can't ward off today's 90+ high.

Pink Lemonade

I would say "morose" is not too strong a word to describe myself between the ages of 12 and 21, which is why I find it a little bit surprising that I love bright colors. But it's true. I EFFING LOVE BRIGHT COLORS.

I used Essie Watermelon, my current favorite pink, and Julep Bea for this look. I really want to like Bea, it's a great yellow, and it's opaque in a couple of coats, but it did that bubbling thing under the top coat. I'll have to be a little gentler with the bottle next time.

This look is brightening my day! I've got a bad case of can't-look-away-from-my-nails. Makes walking even more dangerous than usual for me. Eeeek!

Does Anyone Know Someone Named Cassie?

I feel like that name has fallen a bit by the wayside in the past 10-15 years. Anyway, that's what this polish is, Julep's Cassie, a light orange-peach creme.

This came in my July box, along with a color that was far more gray than I expected, the name of which currently escapes me.  I feel pretty meh about this. Takes three coats for opacity, doesn't really stand out on my nails. I think I have more interesting pale peach shades than this.  Maybe it would be more interesting on darker skin?

What do you think?

Jonesing for Summer

That season is almost upon us!  With the heat this past week, it could be argued that it already is, but I like to count a few consecutive days without the threat of thunderstorms before I commit wholly to the summer.  But, in preparation, I've assembled some goodies that will totally make for a great summer look.

Perfect Summer Prep and Wear by strandedinchi

You've got to keep your hair out of your face if you want to rock a summer glow!  I love this simple headband from BCBG, adds a little glam without being too dressed up for casual beach time.  Of course, you've gotta protect your skin, so lay on the sunscreen and go for an ultimate self-tanner.  I've had my eye on the No Sun Tanner by Perricone MD for quite some time, and I'm hoping it will join my summer kit soon.  Keep those lips moisturized with a fruity lip balm, and don't forget to exfoliate your legs to keep 'em looking nice and healthy!  My favorite scrub is Soap & Glory Flake Away Sugar Scrub.  Tough enough to do the job, but soft enough not to irritate, plus it smells exceptional.

To jazz things up, I've been eyeing the Hourglass Opaque Rouge Liquid Lipstick.  Long-lasting and hydrating, with a big punch of color, I think it would look stunning with a tan.  Swipe on some black mascara, accent those nails with a summer orange like Nina by Julep, and you're good to go!

What look are you going for this summer?

Take Alternate Route

Observe: Julep Nail Varnish in Nina (which is my twin's name!). This color is some kind of mix between creamsicle and traffic signal, with a little tangerine thrown in for good measure. It applied really well, a nice opaque cream, but something quite strange happened while I was wearing it. I was just going about business as usual when each nail started to peel off wholesale. It seems the polish did not adhere to my nail at all. Which means no staining, but also no lasting power. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough for my basecoat to dry. I really love the color, it's perfect for early summer, so I'll definitely be giving it another try, but if the same thing happens again, I'll have to relegate it to accent color.

Le sigh

I Have an Addiction

Y'all. I just took stock of my nail polish collection and, well, here it is.

How can I still feel like I need new colors!?!? But I do. So, help me friends! What are your favorite spring/summer colors? I wanna add a couple really spectacular bits to my repertoire before the season gets itself raring to go!

Julep Maven April 2013: Avery Review

Oh my God, oh my God, you guys.

I'm in love. Head over heels, can't get it out of mind, about to lose my head in love. With this nail polish, duh. I got it in my April Julep Maven box and it is deeeeee-vine. Solid one coat potential for anyone better at this than me, and almost a dupe for Essie Punchy Pink, but less neon, making it the perfect hot pink.  I defy you to present me with a hot pink that I will like better.  And lemme tell you, as hot pink as it look in that picture, it is even hotter.

I may have to wear it Avery day.


Haha, I'm so punny.

Essie Resort Collection 2013: In the Cab-ana

Next up in the Essie Resort Collection 2013:

In the Cab-ana is what I selected for my second go. I am in love with this blue. It's a tropical sky blue that applies opaque easily. Another potential one-coater for sure. I think this is going to be making the rounds quite a bit, and I can't wait to try some nail art with it, maybe rocking an 80s vibe as we head into summer. If you hadn't noticed, 80s redux is still in this year (I'm looking at you, Prabal Gurung for Target), and I seriously dig it.

With two more colors to go in this collection, not to mention my April Julep Maven colors, I don't think I can call it on the manicure front. Have any of you hit on your ultimate spring/summer mani yet?

A Springboard

Or rather, a spring nail, catapulting me toward the impending season.  I recently signed up for a Julep Maven subscription and, although I am not yet ready to give a full assessment of it, I must admit I like this color very much.  Named Debra and described as a smoky taupe, it's much closer to the beige end of the spectrum than some other greys (although it's hardly reading grey at all in this picture, it is in fact, and our walls are not -- they're blue).  It's got a nice cream finish that you could totally pull off in one coat, but let's just say that I wasn't feeling practically perfect in any way while doing my nails.  (Do I ever?) What do you all think of it?  Yea, or nay?  I think it's the perfect transition color between the sunless days of winter and the promised cheery days of spring.  Hey, there have been two consecutive days of sunshine.  If that doesn't cheer you up, what will, my friends?

Thank you all for joining me on my first full week here at Stranded in Chicago.  I look forward to whatever comes next, and I hope you'll stick with me!