Ok I've been kind of torn about whether or not to post this one, but what the heh - it's always a learning experience, right? I do like the dress so why not show it?

I picked it up a few weeks ago at I think a TJ Maxx, and even though it's technically a junior's dress I think it works on my *very not* junior's frame. The first thing that caught my eye was the neckline - this dress has a beautiful scooped front with sleeves that go up and around the neck in what's almost a halter.

The other details that made this fit so well are the empire neckline and the slight pleats under the bust. It helps the dress flow over my stomach and rest along my hips.

Know what else I noticed about this dress? It is very very short. I just threw on some gray tights here, but looking at the pictures I think I wanna try it with black lace tights and black high heels. I don't mind the boots but the whole look isn't quite working for me.

But don't think that means I don't love the boots! I talked about them in a previous post, but these platform stiletto OTK boots are one of my favorites - they just don't lend themselves to everyday wear. I've only worn them out once so far, for my birthday last November, but I'm definitely going to have to bring them back out for another event soon!

I always love an excuse to dress up! Then when you add in using a new eyeshadow it's even better. I purchased Oomph (Mickey Contractor) from the MAC in Times Square over MLK Weekend. That collection was a little harder for me to get my hands on because it was only being sold in store at MAC's top 20 (I think?) stores in the United States....and apparently the Georgetown Location is not one of them. Luckily NY is and I was able to swatch things for myself and assuage my deep need for a green to compliment my eyes and skintone. Oomph is a blackened green that can be built up for true intensity, though here I packed it on top of one of MAC's Greasepaint sticks. 

I picked this look after seeing MissChievous's latest video on YouTube, where she took inspiration from London to create this beautiful, smokey, modern eye. Hope you like the way it looks here!

Products Used:

~~MAC Greasepaint Stick in Slick Black

~~ Stila eyeshadow in sajama

~~MAC eyeshadow in Oomph

~~Stila eyeshadow in makalu 

~~MAC eyeshadow in Humid

~~Sephora kohl liner in 01 keep black

~~Clinique High Impact Macara

~~Ardell Wispies Lashes

P.S. - I'm unfortunately still taking photos with my broken camera so if the colors don't look quite right I apologize now! At least you get the general idea :)

Ahh the joy of taking home something you love. I have to admit to loving the shopping experience. While it's hard to try things on and end up disappointed, finding that one great piece - for me - makes it all worthwhile.

I have to admit though that Re/Dress might ultimately not be the perfect store me. They had a lot of great vintage pieces but I'm just not enough of a vintage girl. And then there's a few sizing concerns; I often fall just on that line between 'normal' and 'plus' size clothes and Re/Dress has significantly more options for women larger than me. I think just like anywhere else I shop it's going to be a lot of trial and error to find pieces that I want to keep. 

My motto is that if I don't love something, really really love it, then I don't need to be buying it. I'll take tailoring into consideration, but whatever clothing I'm considering has to speak to me on some level. Which sounds a lot harder than it actually is, because I'm such a weird mix of level headed but impulse shopper. Sometimes I will see something and even if I can't explain it I know I have to have it. I will think about it, consider it, rationalize it's place in my life, but usually if it hits me like that there's very little going back (this is pretty much exactly what happens when I get a new purse).

So I hope you understand the things I did decide to get at Re/Dress, even if you don't love them like I do ;)

Verdict: Keeper! For some reason the idea of a leopard print skirt has been an obsession of mine for months. When I do my ASOS Curve review you'll see one I rejected, but I can't even tell you why I wanted one. I don't where I saw the inspiration but I think this skirt will do for me very nicely. It' not a pencil skirt but I think in hindsight that's probably a better idea as it makes it more wearable in work and life and less a 'hot to trot' piece of clothing. It's a Jones New York skirt and while you can't probably can't tell from my shoeless state in this pic but I think the right above the knee placement is really flattering and it fits well on the waistline for when I want to tuck things in.

Verdict: Mine! Excuse the bra and the slightly from below angle - I don't think they really do the dress justice. It's actually very cute and I can't wait to wear it out this Spring/Summer! The first thing that grabbed me about this dress, once you move past the print, is the fit of the dress. The empire waist seam hits exactly under my bust, right where it should, and then rest of the dress just flows along the length of my body. It's the perfect combo to compliment my hour-glass figure and helps make a dress that will be wonderful dressed up with wedges or dressed down in flats. Also the way the halter is fitted on this dress makes it very appropriate for day; it comes up on the bust high enough that it's not scandalous and for my office, if I add a little cardigan over it, could even be work appropriate.

Verdict: I'm just waiting for an event to wear this to! Again excuse the peaks of bra here and there, but I love this Calvin Klein dress. The tank top sleeves make it perfect to wear a bra underneath, the empire waist and ruched top half make it flattering to the bust, and the slimming silhouette from there downward make it perfect for almost any evening event. If the sorority party tomorrow didn't have an all black dress code you know I'd be sporting this one!

Well I hate to say it but that's it folks. I only ended up buying 3 things at Re/Dress but as they're things I really like I'm not sad. Quality over quantity I always say.

Hope you enjoyed the post though, and I can't wait to show you how some of these up end in my outfit rotation later on!

Yay for the long weekend! While work was closed due to a particularly important US holiday, I was using the time off to rest and relax with my former roommate in NY. It's one of the great pleasures of living in DC (I think) that we can hop on a bus at a moments notice, for relatively little money, and be in the big city in under 5hrs. You'd think I'd take advantage of this more often, no? No. 

Big surprise I know, but I'm a lazy bum who prefers to do nothing with a book on her couch. STILL this time I stepped outside my little box and decided that 'eat, sleep, and shop' was going to be my vision for the weekend's debauchery. 

One of the places that I just had to see was Re/Dress NYC. I've been reading about it on numerous plus size blogs for awhile as THE place to go for vintage and resale items. For me vintage stores have been more for shoes or jewelry because 90% of the time nothing fit - or if it did 'fit' it looked very very strange. Re/Dress though is something different. That store is made for my size or bigger and while it turns out I just don't have the vintage mentality, I did get a tremendous kick out of having so much stuff to look through.

I didn't end up buying a ton, I'm trying to be pickier and only get things I really love, but I still wanted to talk about what I tried on and why it didn't work for me. It's the only way any of us learn, right? Luckily my friend Makiko was willing to not only travel to Brooklyn to visit a store she could fit nothing in, but also be in the dressing room with my suddenly, just-at-the-worst-possible-moment, broken camera. Thus all the vertical/horizontal lines and the sometimes wonky colors can be attributed to my stupid Powershot and not to Makiko's camera skills. (I had a weird, funny only to me, slightly racist joke here but I think we're just going to use the delete button and keep it moving. I'm not Ricky Gervais.)

1. Random silver tank top dress (or shirt)

Verdict: While I like the idea of the sequin-esque front and black back, it not only accentuated my hips in a bad way the arm holes didn't fit. I'm using orange arrows to point it out there, but there's some bagging right about the bust where it didn't fit. And now matter how cheap, that's just not going to work for me. 

Verdict: WHOA is that flash doing nothing to help me or my stomach in that first picture. Sigh. Oh well the point I was TRYING to make here was that this jacket was just too big. While it was cut well (ish) it didn't hug my curves enough to really be flattering and since it had no way to close, there weren't any buttons, you couldn't really make the jacket mimic it either. The second photo is more to point out the ruffle - you can't tell here but this ruffle is detachable and the jacket also comes with one in gray so you can switch it out! I really like the idea, if not the fit, so I highly recommend you try it on if you're in the area.

Verdict: Yeah I think this is just a fail all around. While the neckline's not too bad the dress is just shapeless everywhere else which if you're like me and have a larger bust is a big no-no. It makes everything big run together into a large shapeless blob and makes you look waay heavier than you are. I even tried this with a belt, though I admit I had limited options, and wasn't impressed. 

Verdict: Shapeless, crazy pattern, and one shoulder. That's a lot of unflattering stuff for one dress. Still I could almost see how someone who was not me might make this work, but I wasn't even gong to bother on a dress I didn't love that had a $70 price tag. 

Verdict: Oh did I want this to work. Even at $63 I wanted this to work. I loved the stretch Pinupgirlclothing.com like fabric, the 50's inspired silhouette, LOVED the white accents - really just loved the whole thing, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. The most obvious problem you're able to see in the second picture; the dress didn't fit exactly in the torso (I think) and me being shorter there and the dress being longer cause some back fabric ripples. Very not cute and no matter how much frantic tugging I did at the waist corrected the problem. Second? You can't tell in the first picture but with the belt closed I really couldn't breathe. Like I would have ended up as one of those corseted English and fainted if I wore it too long, couldn't breathe. The dress itself had plenty of stretch and zipped up fine, it's the reason why it can hug my curves to closely, but the cute belt that came with the dress was determined to chop off a lung. I had to let it go. It hurt me, but I had to let it go.

Sad to see all that huh? I completely agree. Luckily the next post will be much more light hearted as we focus on the stuff I loved and was able to buy! Yay!

I actually saw this first talked about on a petite blog, but I wanted to at least bring attention to the Huffington Post article: WTForever 21: Plus-Problems.

I can't disagree so much with the core this article is coming from, that some things are just hideous for anyone (though there is an implied 'especially plus sized women), but I do want to bring up the fact that sometimes it can really depend on the person. Over the past few months as I've delved deeper into the fat blogosphere, I've seen some incredible examples of how you just can never know. Peg leg pants, jeggings, flowered bloomers, cage dresses. sequins - the list could go on forever! Jay from Fatshionable and Gabi from  Young, Fat, and Fabulous - to name just two! - wear and rock things I could never even comprehend on my own body.

So yes, Forever 21 can go wrong with their fashion. Waaay wrong sometimes. But I'd say before denouncing clothing as just not doable on a plus size frame, see what's out there. Try it on, add a belt - chop some of it off! 

Fashion is a very personal thing and when people keep their proportions in mind so much is possible. I might just be inching my toes in the waters of new or 'fashion forward' but I applaud the men and women who rock what they have using pieces that others might see as garbage.

Now e.l.f. does this pretty often - the 50% off sale thing - but I wanted to point it out again in the face of a big makeup truth: a lot of the time the makeup you do is only as good as the brushes you use.

I don't say this to mean you have to buy expensive brushes. What I recommend is that you pick some up that work for you. That allow you to do the blending, patting, and swirling that most people need to create that perfect look. e.l.f. is one of my favorites because their brushes can be cheap as hell but work really really well. 

I bought backups of a lot of my favorites during the 55% off everything Christmas sale, but if you're in the market here are my picks:

I actually like this cheaper version better than the Studio offering. It's compact enough to pick up a lot of color but also has enough give that blending is a breeze.

Perfect for combing out my sometimes unruly brows - and it's a $1!

I love this brush. I've bought back ups upon backups and recommended it to everyone. It's perfect anything but I love using it to apply liquid foundation. Hands down this swirls and buffs everything into my skin the best.

This is another of my absolute favorites and I use it for everything powder - setting, bronzer, and brush. It does it all.

This is great for applying cream eyeshadow, either just themselves or as bases to powder shadow. 

It's a little thick for all my liner purposes, but it's a great multitasker to switch between liner and brows. 

For patting on dry eyeshadow I still prefer the Loew Cornel 3/4 of an inch. I bought mine at AC Moore, I think, for $3 and some change. 

Ok time to get to the up close and personal for my look! As usual for me it was all about the eyes and as soon as I saw Pixiwoo do these smokey eyes I was hooked. It was in their tutorial on Pam Anderson's look (you can find it here) and what I loved most about it is how simplistic it is when you really think about it. Except for the color on the lid and a little bit of brow highlight, this is all done with one matte black color. Just taking it over and over again along the crease, shading as you go - all to ensure a sharp but blended final product.

I do have to admit that I think this looks somewhat better on a woman with less lid space because it comes across as even smokier than it is. Still for the second time of having done it on myself I do think it does something for the shape of my eyes that I really like. Probably more than almost any other smokey eye that I've done I think this really elongates my eye shape.

Products Used:

~~MAC shimmery beige eyeshadow(name unknown)

~~Stila eyeshadow in makalu

~~Sephora kohl pencil in 01 keep black

~~MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

~~Nars highlight in Albatross 

~~Clinique High Impact Mascara (the one in the forest green tube)

I just wasn't in the mood for falsies on NYE, but I think that's another addition that ups the drama factor. I finished off the look with a bit of blush (I've forgotten which one - sorry!) and Wet n' Wild lipstick. I didn't want to top it with gloss because I felt the more satin finish worked better with the vintage-y feel of the evening.