current obsession; latest beauty buys

song of the day: love songs, anjulie

how are you doing? how's your week going so far? hope your tuesday is treating you well. don't have much time again today, just sharing my beauty obsessions as of late.

bright eyes
lately i've been skipping eyeliner altogether, instead i've been dabbing a light eyeshadow in the corners of my eyes for a look that widens them and make them look instantly awake. i just dab it along the natural v, but definitely trace farther along the top lid. and since i've started i've noticed blake lively does it all the time, on and off the show. she often uses white shadow in her corners, but that's a little too stark for me. tan or pale gold just right for darker skin tones. silver's also really cool for a night look. add a swipe of mascara, and i'm good to go!

madison mauve
at first, i wasn't so ecstatic that maybelline revamped their entire lipstick line earlier this year. the first two i tried were flops. but i finally found a plum that works for me. it's good to wear or stain. i don't care too much for the smell, but i love that it lasts forever. (pardon my bizarre expression in the photo, what's important here is the lipstick, not how deliriously happy i was at my birthday party.)


essie
remember way back when i was talking about matte nails? i'm officially a believer. i bought the matte about you top coat and i haven't stopped using it since. although, i think half the fun might be watching it change. i also got mint green candy apple and it's one of my favourite colours of the season. my tips? apply a good basecoat, because you can't put top coat on a matte nail. also, make sure the nail is completely dry before applying the matte topcoat.

that's all for now. but i'd love to know, what's on your nails right now?

xoxo
-B.

love your life;

song of the day: waking up in vegas, katy perry

some days i'm just so happy i don't even know what to do with myself. today is one such day! heyhey! so i apologize profusely for the lack of regular posting. my life has been RIDICULOUSLY busy, but i am truly loving every minute of it. i managed to cram a whole lot of awesome into what should have been just an average weekend. a lot of singing, but also seeing a play, and catching up my cousin, and surprise-seeing an old friend, some bittersweet goodbyes, but then a lot of awesome times with youth group. unfortunately though, the weekend has left me with a pile of backlogged homework and a bit of a cold.

it's okay though, i am STILL riding high on my french themed birthday party last weekend. it was such a stellar night! that right there, is the cake my best friend L made for me. isn't it gorge?

in a way though, i've been scaring myself. i'm a passionate person, so whenever i like something, i like it A LOT and there is that fear that it could all just blow up in your face. (and i'm not just talking boys here, though i should add:) there is such a calm i guess, in stepping out from under a boy's spell and realizing how awesome you are all on your own. or how great your friends are! or in rhyming off the ten things you love terribly about your life!

1) my mom testing out holiday recipes and playing christmas music.
2) me and my sister having the car, and house to ourselves for the day
3) when, just as you're thinking of someone, they show up!
4) that smile you get when you watch someone else doing something they love
5) my first trip to coldstone creamery! (there aren't that many here in canada, but i wish there were. it was probably the best icecream i've ever had)
6) when TV makes you cry, or feel anything really.
7) playing piano or ressurecting any lost love
8) i might like pretending, as i'm speeding through the dark, singing with the girls at the TOP of our lungs, and thrashing our hair around, that we are in some insanely cool music video.
9) 50% off sales! there were some INSANELY good deals at the mall all week long, which was nice? but unfortunately means i'm WAY over my budget for the month. >.<
10) new friends. some i am getting to know and some i wish i'd known all along

i should also add: eiffel-tower shaped cakes! so? what's been awesome in your life as of late?

xoxo
-B.

je t'aime;

"wear what makes you feel like the person you've always imagined you could be."
max azria.

loving that quotation, and that look! i'm totally craving something with sequins, but i can never quite commit to buying anything. perhaps something from the new forever21 twist collection can convince me otherwise! sorry for the lack of post-age! hopefully a more normal schedule will resume next week! enjoy the rest of the weekend!

xoxo.
-B!

romantic misadventures; julian

song of the day: let's fall in love, ella fitzgerald

happy tuesday to you! i hope all is well. can i have one moment of childish excitement? it's my birthday tomorrow, and i'm so giddy i can barely contain myself. just heading in now? be sure to catch up on bryce. and the others.

so this picks up right where the last story left off. (catch up on the rest here)

i can't tell you how many times i've wished life WAS just like the movies. (or tv. i've always had this dream where me and my friends move into adjacent apartments, just like in friends.) even knowing what i do now, i still expect the movie ending because that's what always happens. especially when i was on a cruise a couple years ago.

i don't quite know what happened to me that trip, but something got to me. maybe it's the air out there on the caribbean sea. on the 2^nd day of the trip i realized that nothing i did had any weight. there were no consequences that could follow me home and i went crazy. that cruise still marks the most outgoing i've ever been. i talked to a slew of people, grinded up against guys i barely knew. which, believe me, never happens. (and has never happened since!)

my friend josie, her family and mine all went on that caribbean cruise. josie and my sister could hardly believe me. and i suppose they should have been the reminder of who i really was, but for some reason their disbelief only pushed me farther. i made friends in hot tubs, i flirted shamelessly, i sung karaoke and then i met julian.*

it was on the second of two formal nights. i'm a firm believer that there are no better confidence boosters than red bras, black underwear and a little black dress. that night was a triple threat.

these days i try to convince myself that someone dared me to sing karaoke that night, but i know i did it of my own volition. (i did wouldn't it be nice, by the beach boys, it was cute.) josie, my sister and i had been following a lot of boys around that week and two of them –brothers – were hanging out at the promenade after the show. josie and kendra were ogling, but i was past that. my legs were moving before i was.

i think i heard josie and kendra trying to call me back, but it was too late. i swear to you it was like tunnel vision. i didn't know what i was going to say or do, but i was heading for them. i'm incredibly lucky they were sitting by the (non-alcoholic) bar at the time, and that there weren't many people in the promenade. i slid up in the stool beside the tallest one and ordered a sprite. he looked over and smiled. i smiled back. i sipped my Sprite. a little further down the boat, a folksy guitarist was strumming away at van morrison's "brown-eyed girl." when it came time for the "sha-la-las" he and i came in in perfect harmony. he laughed, deep and husky, and i still remember that laugh today.

he had short brown hair, sun kissed olive skin, a wide bright smile and deep brown eyes more gorgeous i'm sure than the chick in the song. i forget who spoke first, but i bet it was me. either way, his name was julian. his brother's name was john. i'm not sure how we got around to it, but we talked about how there were no consequences here really understood. for some reason, talking to julian was just easy compared to the way my tongue ties itself in knots whenever i'm at home. i told him about karaoke. and about kendra and josie. he told me jamaica was the best island because the drinking age was lower (he was 19 to my 17, a lofty and mysterious age). when my sprite was done, i said goodbye and walked away without looking back. at the time, it felt like the cool thing to do, but i wish now i had stayed.

we tried for the rest of the trip to bump into them again. we made a lot of visits to the promenade. one time we were on a balcony and we spotted them three floors below and i literally shouted "thar she blows!" (i think i just got caught up in the moment, something about being on a boat) we scrambled down the stairs but had already lost them in the crowd.

i don't know if you've ever been on one, but the last day of the cruise feels like the saddest day of your life. no one gets to sleep in because they have to feed you breakfast before shoving you off the boat. everyone was shuffling through this tired enormous breakfast line, like shackled inmates. i had just settled on a box of cheerios when i heard it.

"do you remember when she used to say sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-lala-di-dah."

now if this was the movies, this would be the moment when the love interest appears, and they share a warm embrace or a heartfelt kiss or at the very least they exchange phone numbers. and i wanted my moment, i remember i ran from the line and stood in the middle of the room, waiting, but he never came. when the song was over, i went back to where my family was sitting and finished my soggy cheerios in silence.

and that's when it became inescapably apparent my life would never be like a movie.

authors note:

*julian's name has NOT been changed. in the futile attempts that someone who knows him will somehow pass it on and he'll come find me and all will be fabulous. think i was a little bitter when i was writing this. but these days, as you can see, i do believe movie moments happen. i just have to wait for mine.

so question, what are your confidence boosters? what makes you feels your fiercest? and if you've ever had a movie moment, i would lovelovelove to hear it!

xoxo

-B.

legit picture from my cruise.