photo credit: malla_mi

Sorry sorry, I’ve been so busy in the real world: socializing, shopping, reviewing, etc. But the awesome news is I’ve got some great fashion goodness for you coming up very soon! Including:

An encore of the awesome t-shirt company Lady Umbrella.

Guidelines (Rules) for making the best online purchases for your style.

My hot new purchase from The Full Spectrum.

And creating your best & easiest outfits in 1…2…3!

so stay tuned!

Fashion blogger gives her website a truly stylish makeover

I look at a lot of websites – many of them from fashion and beauty bloggers. I’ve seen a variety of website design from the clean minimalism of The Sartorialist to ijustine’s punchy and dynamic blog formerly known as “Tasty Blog Snack”. I’ve also seen a lot of bad design from enthusiastic fashionistas and style mavens. *And when I say bad I don’t necessarily mean ugly…just “unfortunate” because too often the layout just doesn’t do a good job of representing the real life eye for design these folks genuinely have. This was the case the first time I visited the blog of one of my favorite fashion tweeters @LadyMpresents. Great content…rather unfortunate looking blog.

I felt bad. Here was a stylish jet-setting gal who out of the blue sent me such charming and supportive tweets about my own blogging endeavors & I was having a hard time just reading hers. You’ve been there before haven’t you? Like you’ve got this wonderful friend and family member that wears a color that doesn’t suite them but you don’t know how to tell them. Happens all the time in real life AND the web I’ve noticed.

So, how to tell someone with great style that their website just…doesn’t? I’m no snarky Perez Hilton in virtual or real life so I have a hard time being blunt. Thankfully I didn’t get a chance to dole out a harsh critique cause M was totally on the ball. Exhibit A:

Now I would have loved to show you, dear fashionable readers, the transformation in all it’s amazing drama with a “before” pic – alas I wasn’t on the ball enough to get a screen capture. At any rate I am floored with the look of her new site and happy to spotlight it on my own blog! It does her and her brand gorgeous justice. It also really allows her writing to shine (she SHOULD be a fashion reporter!) I love a good makeover – don’t you?

This amazing website was created with the help of uk design company Torpedo Juice Ltd.. And they did just a bang up job of it didn’t they? So much so that Lady M thanks just had to give them props on her “About” page.

So for my clothing, accessory and shoe obsessed bloggers out there here’s a question for ya:

How much “style” does your blog have?

How well does it represent your own signature style? If it don’t…get that makeover and your own readers will come in droves :)

Let me take a moment to get a little personal…

I used to be pathetic at doing my makeup.

Absolutely.

Totally,

And stupidly inept at applying cosmetics to my face in a beautiful and pleasing way. (*Here’s an interesting fact: the word “cosmetics” comes from the Greek word for “order”. Which was totally antithetical to my first newbie designs of course :P)

But I still loved playing with it and would do so every chance I got. I blame this fascination with the magic of makeup on my dad. Yes, my dad. No, he didn’t dress in drag nor was he a circus freak. He just loved Halloween…and theatre :) And I loved watching him transform.

Meanwhile my mother just used the standard neutral toned, basic cover up and color of a busy working woman. Concealer, brown brow pencil, that sort of thing. Not particularly imaginative but functional and easy to put on everyday.

My dad’s makeup was “special” so he would put it high up on a shelf in my parents bedroom closet. Meanwhile my mother’s daily beauty products were easily pilfered just by going into the bathroom and rummaging through cupboards. So being the enterprising pre-glamorgoddess girl I was I snatched up her lipstick and pencils and commenced to make a very bad attempt at “drawing” beauty on myself before the living room mirror.

A minute later my dad spotted this cosmetic horror and yelled at me, saying “Little girls aren’t supposed to wear makeup!”

He was right…mostly cause I made a huge mess of my face.

I kept at it though – and even contemplated a career of makeup artistry. Would that I wasn’t also simultaneously obsessed with other things (travel, socializing, fashion, writing, spazzing out) I just might have made that a reality. As it is I’ve made a nice pastime out of fantasy makeup and even made a few lovely tweaks to my daily makeup routine.

What’s my point here? Have fun with your designs – explore color, shapes, lines, etc. Make it a fun ritual for expressing your personality while also enhancing your natural features. With that sense of play and experimentation you will enhance your learning and even get to know your own unique beauty quickly and easily :)

So, what’s your makeup story? Let me know – I’d love to hear it ;)

Please vote! Your results will be part of future fashion Friday blog :)

Also, please leave a comment about what you’ve purchased online before or your thoughts on letting the web influence your fashion sense!

photo credit: Brandon Christopher Warren

“It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.” -Coco Chanel

So I’m late today with my #fashionfriday post – “fashionably late” I could say since my social and business activities have led me all over the place both on the web and in the “really real” world. Apparently a mark of genuine “coolness” is having a full schedule with a string of engagements that take you from one gathering to the next. If you are prompt at a party well you just don’t have enough going on! Showing up 10 to 45min after the fact well that’s damn fine socializing!

Trying to “look” cool of course is an ever present challenge which I’m sure also influences the “lateness” of some stylish folk. It sure does for me. These style challenges have me making dresses out of skirts so that I can go from lunch to cocktails and then dancing without having to haul around a briefcase full of extra clothes.

This busy schedule is also why my purse bulges with dozens of random accessories that wrestle with my keys and laptop cord. It’s a jungle in there! But if I give myself a moment to detangle and can produce something cute while I’m dashing too and fro well that gives me a bit more of a memorable edge.

This gets me curious – what random fashion items do YOU have on hand during your daily adventures? Do you have a bag full of the week’s bracelets and earrings that pop out with your change? Or do you have an emergency kit of safety pins, mini lint roller, & stain pen to combat any pesky wardrobe malfunctions?

Tell me about it by leaving a comment :)

Okay, gotta run!

This week I want to give some props & web lovin to one of my favorite local companies: POPS Cosmetics.

POPS is a really fun and flirty makeup line that’s very similar to big brand cosmetic companies. Their shadows and liners come in a SUPER rainbow of colors that make a girl quite giddy. In fact the variety and formulations remind me a lot of MAC, with a few distinct extras! One of these is the price. Each regular sized POPS compact costs less than a MAC eyeshadow of the same size. Another awesome extra is the large sizes of basic colors like matte black. This makes it easy to stock up your beauty kit. And of course there’s the fact that purchasing POPS means you are supporting a small but awesome business.

Using these makeup line has been a joy of mine for a number of years now. I especially love using their shadows & eyeliners for fantasy inspired designs such as the “Ravergirl” look above. I used a POPS eyeliner in white (inner corner & at the outer edge of eyebrow), as well as their Ultra Pearl eyeshadow in “Mermaid” (the pretty green in the center of my eyelid). The result was fabulous!

I’m also a huge fan of their lip pencils which also come in a dizzying assortment of shades. If you check out my review on Thisnext.com you’ll understand the depths of my devotion to a particular shade of pink. Just click the photo below for the full review. And lucky for you web savvy glamazons you can easily order this makeup line for yourself via theGot Beauty website! So get on it girls ;)

The Full Spectrum is a gorgeous clothing design I found a couple days ago while searching the web for this week’s fashion Friday awesomeness. Created right here in my own hometown by Sonya Evan’s it features a lovely collection of intriguing screen print designs that are truly unique and I must snatch some items up from her Etsy store ASAP.

Anyway I was so excited about her clothes I wrote about her for Examiner.com so check out my Salt Lake Budget Fashion article on her for the full story on The Full Spectrum!