Style

Makeup & Beauty

Just Some Earth-Friendly Products I Love

May 9, 2018

"All-natural" isn't something I typically look for in my beauty products. Perhaps not the loveliest admission, but I tend to be about results more than about the absence of parabens (yes, I know, parabens = bad; it's just an example). As I'm getting older, though, I'm discovering that my skin is getting increasingly sensitive, to the point where some products make my skin react immediately and visibly - and extremely unattractively. When I was in LA with Francesca, for example, I decided to try a different K-beauty mask every night, and...let's just say that this is not something that the sensitive-skinned among us should do. (Oh my god.)

So while I'm not tossing all my chemical-containing serums anytime soon - because excuse me, those things were expensive and many of them are indeed quite wonderful - I am trying to pay a bit more attention to what's in the stuff I put on my face. Mostly what I'm looking for are products with fewer ingredients and fewer artificial scents, but I'm not especially well-versed with regards to what's out there in this category, so back in April (a.k.a. "Earth Month") I decided to test-run a whole bunch of eco-friendly, all-natural products. I spotlighted a few of my favorites on my IG stories, but now it's mid-May and I've had more time to play around with them...and there are a few that ended up being so great that I needed to write about them here.

For posterity, you know.

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DIY Projects

Five Super-Easy Denim DIYs Literally Anyone Can Do

May 7, 2018

Omg, this photo. MEMORIES. I no longer have that pair of sandals, that hair, or that zip code (just re-watched our moving day video and sobbed through the whole thing)...but the shorts? Those are still hanging on. (I wore them today, in fact, which may have been a not-so-hot idea considering the fact that they're in the process of disintegrating, but whatever: I love them, and they fit me perfectly, and they are not going anywhere until the wearing of them results in the exposure of actual NC-17-rated body parts.)

If you've been reading here for awhile, you know that denim is sort of my thing. It's just what I feel best in - and what that means is that I've amassed a truly enormous collection of jeans over the years, approximately three of which I actually wear (so sue me: I'm fickle). And so every spring, I dig out a couple of old pairs that I can hack up with a pair of scissors and transform into new items of clothing that I'll actually wear. (As an aside, I know that jean cutoffs sound like the kind of thing you don't need a tutorial for - "...So you, like...cut them?" - but trust me: there are myriad ways in which to go wrong when doing something as permanent as slicing up your clothing. Let me help you.)

But DIY cutoffs aren't the only denim trick I have up my sleeve - and I am not a person who owns a sewing machine or enjoys do-it-yourself projects that take more than five minutes. Which is to say: The below projects require no experience, knowledge, or talent whatsoever, making them - to my mind - just about perfect.

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My Looks

Mommy and Me (And a Fun Little Friendship Origin Story)

April 27, 2018

Dresses from the Stripes Boutique Mommy and Me Shop

I'm not ordinarily a "mommy-and-me" outfit-type person. I mean OK, my daughter and I have matching pom-pom shoes...but come on: when matching pom-pom shoes exist, buying and then wearing them (at the same time) is clearly non-optional.

So when my friend Elise told me she wanted us to model some of the mommy-and-me dresses she'd designed for her label, Stripes, my answer was "...Eh, I don't know."

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Decor

Why You Should Give Fake Plants Another Chance

April 26, 2018

Every single plant you see in this photograph is fake. (Sorry, faux.)

Bonus: Spot the blogger in the mirror! 

I've been singing the praises of fake plants practically since I started this site. There's a good reason for this: While I've gotten better at plant-parenting over time, I still kill about 30% of the greenery that enters my house. Sometimes it's nice to have a plant and not worry about killing it. But the past few months have seen my thing for artificial plants reach a whole new level, because apparently some focus group somewhere determined that there was a gap in the market for affordable plants that actually look real and are actually in cute pots that you'd actually buy yourself...and then Target went ahead and filled it.

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My Looks

Pure Grace and Elegance

April 24, 2018

Hatch Dress (yes, it's maternity; no, I'm not pregnant) | Sunglasses | Sandals | J. Crew Purse

See how this dress is pretty demure? Yeah, yeah, it's short, I know, but it has that high neck and that loose fit and those mid-length sleeves, so it's always made me feel genteel and graceful, like someone who'd carry a structured handbag and who probably stores her hats in actual hatboxes as opposed to where I store mine, which is in a stack on the floor of my closet, underneath my cat.

It turns out that even a dress this pretty and demure stops being pretty and demure in certain situations. Like, say, when you are spread-eagled on top of a pile of rocks and wet sand (mud), having just been dropped from really quite a significant height by your husband, and especially when the rocks and wet sand (mud) that you have found yourself laying on top of happen to be located directly in front of a restaurant where all the patrons are seated facing towards the beach, making the precise spot where your husband deposited you effectively a stage upon which you now find yourself performing the grand old tragicomic classic, "Hey Everyone, Check Out My Underpants!"

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