Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Working on the Spring Capsule Wardrobe

I've been on Pinterest putting together my Spring Capsule Wardrobe. Given that I am only supposed to wear things I love, my first instinct was to go shopping. I stopped myself and went to the clothing I put away three months ago to see what I could pull out and I noticed a few trends about my Spring wardbrobe.

1. A lot of it doesn't flatter me. 
I immediately put most of it into a to a donate pile. I hate walking around tugging at my clothes. I hate feeling fat. So all of the stuff that that doesn't work for me I just got rid of. Some the stuff is the right size but it's not the right cut so I could never wear it comfortably. I rather walk out the door feeling fab instead of feeling like I need to fix something.

2. Old Navy Tanks Need to Go

I have a lot of Old Navy tank tops from when I was in grad school. I love color so I went through a phase of double layering their ribbed tank tops for my weekend outfits. Not that my boobs were any smaller then, but I probablly need tanks with more structure.

3. I Love Anthropologie

I have lots of girly-girly items from Anthropologie. The store's style fits with my need for bold colors, prints,  and interesting details. Many of these items are keepers.

4. I Love Bright Shoes

Espardilles in orange, wedges in chartuese, mary janes in red. I have no neutral colored shoes for spring and summer. I will need to wear some kind of to shoe work so the search starts for neutral flats.
 
5. I Need Neutrals

I seem to overdose on neutrals in the fall/winter and brights/colors in the spring. So I need a bit of balance. I'm in search of a faltering all season pant, a capri,  neutral flats, and neutral cardigan. I also against my better judgement I  want a white blazer

Friday, March 16, 2012

Manicures: From Salon to DIY

About two years ago I started getting manicures every two weeks. I spend a lot of time meeting clients so manicures seemed like a necessity for the business I am in. On several occasions I have tried to paint my own nails. It seemed like what I should do to cut down on expenses. It never seemed to work. I always got paint everywhere and my cuticles just look so tired. I have a full set of supplies for a manicure but I haven't attempted one in about two years.

I realized that part of the problem was that I was always doing a manicure in a hurry. I would only realize my nails looked horrid 20 minuties before I needed to be at an event. Yeah that's not going to work if you are trying to file, clean up cuticles, paint and then dry. Last week I set out to try to get this right (meaning not doing it while I was rushed). Using my CVS Extracare  Bucks I bought the following items:

Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover.

I have cuticle nippers but I know I should only use them for hang nails. But my cuticles are so messed up I needed to find another way to deal with them. According to the internet, gel cuticle removers help to dissolve over grown cuticles. This product was on sale so I decided to try it. I spread it on my cuticle, let it  sit for two minutes and used an orange stick to push my cuticles back. I did have to clip some cuticle with my nipper but it did a great job. 

Revlon File and Smooth

I need to watch a couple of videos about how to file. I found this file to be very ineffective. It takes off too much nail at one time and when filing the side of my nail it takes your skin off. I think I will go back to my regular files. 

Burts Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

The easiest way to deal with nasty cuticles is to prevent them. So I tried this special cuticle butter. Now I am sure I could have used my coconut oil for this but I am in love with citrus products. I have been oiling them twice a day for a week and my fingers look much better. 

So I am on a manicure vacation for a while and hopefully I can keep this up. If I give up at least one of the manicures per month I will save $204 a year. Now if I could only figure out how to thread.