On the 11th day of Christmas...

11. My true love gave to me.... a beauty tip that made life so much easier. And that tip is a fast and easy way to clean makeup brushes. What you do is take a container and fill it up with two parts dish soap to one part olive oil, put your makeup brushes in, swirl them around letting them absorb this miracle concoction, after take them out, rinse with warm water, and let them dry. And voilà ! Clean and like-new makeup brushes.

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Remember how back in January I said was introducing some new type of posts? Well better late than never I always say, here is my 12 days of Christmas Beauty and Things countdown:

12.  One of my absolute fave palettes at the moment is the Balm Jovi: Rockstar Face Palette by the Balm Cosmetics. Not only is it very rock and roll, but it comes with 12 highly pigmented shimmery/matte eyeshadows that can be used wet or dry, highlighter, blush, and  2 lip/cheek creams. Compared to the Urban Decay palettes, it's a lot cheaper at only around $40 and you get high quality make-up for your whole face. Here's an extra tip: if you order it through Hautelook whenever they have this particular brand event planned, you can get the palette for half the price!

This is not the end...

Today's an emotional day if you're a One Direction fan. It was the boys' final performance on The X-Factor UK before they take their much needed "hiatus" and I am feeling all sorts of things.  Bittersweet is the word I'm looking for I think. I'm sad because it's the end of an era and who knows when we'll see all 4 (or 5, a girl can wish) boys together again. But I'm also happy and excited to see what the future has in store for my favorite boys. I hope they're happy and stay friends and keep their promise to come back. They've brought so much happiness to me when I needed it the most and I feel like I've learned so much and grown up along with them and I just feel like I need to thank them for all that and for just being themselves and I just love them so much. To be a bit dramatic (as if I wasn't already): Harry, Liam, Louis, and Niall, thank you for EVERYTHING, see you soon my loves!!

Honestly Harry in that red floral Gucci suit deserves his own post. Can you say style icon?!


Anyroad, here's the video of their final performance taking place on the same stage where their journey began:





In the meantime lets all look at "one direction funny moments" "A Year in the Making" and "This Is Us" on a loop and have Up All Night, Take Me Home, Midnight Memories, Four, and Made in the A.M on repeat.


(sidenote: I can't help but compare 1D to the Beatles ok, alright, and I'm just so scared they'll go down that same road, hence why I'm feeling so dramatic, but hopefully they'll follow in the steps of the Rolling Stones and keep on touring when they're  60+ years old.)

Photoshoot: Zayn Malik for Fader Magazine

Back in March I had a sappy post lined up about Zayn leaving One Direction and now that I had months to think things through, let things sink in, and see all the stuff that has happened, I'm glad I didn't let impulse win this time. Now I'm all for doing you're own thing and being #real and #happy, which is what Zayn is saying in the article that officially comes out on December. But I can't help still feel disappointed at some of the things Zayn said and did. Whether he was fired or left the band because he wanted to, its bad either way you look at it. Maybe I'm not as understandable as Zayn claims Liam to be, but I do not understand why he left 1D the way that he did if they were planning on working on music and things aside from being in the band anyway. Maybe I'm slightly bitter cos I went through a similar situation where 2 people in my life just got up and left with no real warning. You can't do that, not when there are people counting on you and you've got all these obligations. The fair and real grown up thing to do would have been to just be honest and say that you're not happy anymore and that you're going to leave. And while it is totally understandable that he was not happy with the music 1D were making and did not allow his creative input, I cannot stand when people are pretentious and ungrateful. The only reason he even has the freedom and can afford to do whatever he wants now is because he was in 1D. And just cos 1D is not the style of music you're into does not mean it's fake, and this is coming from a former pretentious music elitist.  I guess to me it's just sad that I'm getting some "George Harrison bitter after the Beatles" vibe from Zayn. That being said, I am looking forward to seeing what this "normal 22 year old" has in store music-wise.

photos by: Francesco Nazardo

Rock 'N' Roll Princess

On the continued quest of pursing my dreams and goals, I decided to get a fashion merchandising degree, which means I'm currently taking a whole bunch of fashion classes. A project I'm working on for my merchandising class is a profile on the current designer for Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane. The reason I picked him was not only is he a photographer, but his design inspiration comes from music; he designs clothes for musicians, for people who hang out with musicians, and for the people who wish they were part of that magical, rock and roll world. Now, I've always liked fashion but I never really paid much attention to collections and runway shows, but now I kind of have to. That being said, I have to say I quite like this latest ready-to-wear collection for women by Slimane for Saint Laurent. The looks are very Glastonbury and reminiscent of Courtney Love; slinky dresses and oversized sweaters, boots and tiaras. Think punk rock royalty meets thrift store. There are 67 looks which you can find here, but these are some of my favorites:

Photoshoot: Little Mix in Teen Vogue 2015

So here we have a spread with the lovely ladies of Little Mix. The styling here has a 70's vibe to it with all that suede that is so on trend right now.  Be sure to check out their latest single, Love Me Like You, which sounds like something by a 60s girl group.