Beauty: Lush Haul

I have to make a confession. Even though I have gone into the store plenty of times, this is the first time I have ever actually bought anything from Lush. I have heard so many great things about their products, but whenever I walk into one of the stores I get overwhelmed and I can never decide what to get. I also have never been a bath person till recently, so I am not very experienced in the bath-products departments. But a few months ago my mom gave me a gift card to Lush that she wasn't going to use and told me to spend it on my own. After doing a bunch of browsing online I ordered a bunch of products, and I am so so so excited to try them all out. Here are some of the products I got.


Blackberry Bath Bomb

Twilight Bath Bomb

Sakura Bath Bomb

Bubblegrub Bubble Bar

A French Kiss Bubble Bar

Dreamtime Bath Melt

MMM Melting Marshmallow Moment Bath Melt

Stepping Stone Foot Scrub

Bonus: Trichomania Shampoo

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: Budapest - George Ezra

A-Z Photography

Something that is important to me is my photography. I discovered my love of photography through my freshman elective 'intro to black and white photography' where I made a strong connection to my teacher, and began to develop my own personal style. Every year since then, I have taken a different photo class and I continue to develop my skills.

I was having a hard time figuring out how to display some of my work on this website. I thought about posting some pictures without any explanation, but that would be too random. So, I came up with a new blog segment that I will do every once in a while...

A-Z Photography

A - anti-portrait

B - bath

C - cappuccino

D - door

E - edison bulb

F - fountain

G - garden

H - hotel

I - icicle

J - jack

K - knife

L - lips

M - muffins

N - NYC

O - open

P - portrait

Q - quack

R - rain drops

S - sunrise

T - "time for another"

U - up close

V - very cute

W - water

X - x-ray(ish)

Y - yum

Z - zee end

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: I Believe - Book of Mormon

DIY: Nail Art (attempt)

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way, and I mean in NO WAY, a nail artist. And If I am being completely honest with you, I am actually really terrible at doing my nails. I tend to get the polish everywhere but the part of the nail that is supposed to be covered. Ok, maybe that is a bit of an over-exaggeration. The point is, I have always wanted to be good at doing my own nails. I really admire my friends who just show up to school with new, colorful, professional-looking nails everyday. So, I have challenged myself to paint my nails more often in order to get better at it (and it keeps me from biting my nails). I also only ever paint my nails one color...black. So I added to the challenge by creating this post to force me to be more creative with my nails and clean up my act.

I hope that this post inspires you to be more creative and maybe even start doing your nails if you hadn't done so before because, like me, you also thought you were terrible at it. But practice makes perfect...or close to perfect.

Enjoy

Tools

- At least 2 nail polish colors of your choosing

- Tape (I used painters tape, but if you can get your hands on nail polish decorating tape than use that)

My Colors
I used three different colors. The first two were base colors and the other was for decorating. 
Base Colors - 147 Lexington Lilac from NYC Long Wearing, No Place Like Chrome from Essie
Decorating Colors - 56 Licorice from Essie

First Step

I pre-painted my nails a couple hours before, so that I was sure they were dry. I painted 4 fingers with the same lilac color and my ring finger with silver polish, but that is just how I chose to do it. Feel free to paint your nails any way you want. 

Second Step

Rip off a piece of tape no shorter than the width of your nail. Place it on the nail wherever you want to create a separation of colors.

Third Step
Paint over the part of the nail that is not covered with tape.

Fourth Step
Wait a couple seconds and then peel the tape, revealing the beautiful crisp line of the design.

Fifth Step

Repeat one each nail doing any technique you want with the tape in order to create interesting patterns on each nail.

Ta Da!

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: Everyone is Gonna Love Me Now - Ingrid Michaelson

Trends: The Lob

Trends are everything. Each era is defined by its trends. The '20s had flapper dresses, the '50s had poodle skirts, the '80s was all huge curly hair ...but what about the 21st century? 

When we look back in 30 years, what will we remember as the main trend? 

Trends can also be looked at from a closer perspective. In school, every season has its trends and every girl can start one. If you wear a shirt tied around your waist, and then everything spirals and everyone is wearing shirts around their waists, you have started a trend.

Trends like these change constantly, and I have decided to document just a few of the trends passing through the halls at my school. This weeks trend is...

THE LOB

...for a while now,  we were all trying to grow our hair as long as humanly possible (for me, that's not very long), but we have finally gotten tired of all the hour long showers and frizzy hair days. Not only is short hair more convenient, but I think it looks more mature. The short angles frame your face perfectly and just give off a cleaner more put-together look. 

I watched this trend spread very attentively. I first noticed it on YouTube. A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon a new YouTuber who, like many others I follow, was a lifestyle Vlogger. But, what I found interesting about her was how different she looked and dressed after she cut her hair. In her earlier videos she had long brown hair and dressed very bohemian, but once she lobbed off her hair she began to wear more put-together minimalist outfits (which were just so much cuter!). I began to see more and more YouTubers doing the same (like my all time favorite, Zoella) Suddenly, even people I knew were doing it. Everyone I saw who had cut their hair looked so amazing with their new-do, that even I was convinced to try it myself.

This trend is a perfect example of the large effect that social media has on society today. Sure it's mainly an example of what it does in the fashion world, but it can be taken so much farther. 

Ok, I know that was a lot of information, but I just love thinking about this kind of stuff and decided I would share my thoughts with the internet world :)

(Zoella)

(My Friends)

(Me)

xoxoxo

Nina

Song stuck in my head right now: Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon