stereotypical female things

Playing: Tonight You're Perfect-New Politics
Reading: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

To celebrate my semester break (and finally being a semester two senior), I went shopping with my friends, Tina and Taylor. I got this red skater dress from Topshop and the grey sweatshirt from H&M with them. I wanted a tighter fitting grey sweatshirt to wear with skirts and I figured the dress would be easy to wear. The sweater in the middle is a T by Alexander Wang, which I got for a complete steal. I've been wanting a sweater from Alexander Wang for awhile, but they're always super expensive, so I snatched up this sweater pretty quickly.

I've also been obsessing over lip colors lately. I liked the texture of the Revlon Balm Stain because it is so moisturizing, but I found this particular shade, Romantique, to be too orange for my skin tone. I'm still on the hunt for a bright red, so recommendations would be much appreciated. My dad also got me the Burberry Soft Satin Lipstick Set, which comes with three shades. All three of them have a nice, buttery texture to them and I really liked how wearable the three of them are.

While my brother was home for the holidays, we took a trip to Georgetown Cupcake and got a plethora of amazing flavors. Pictured above are Snowball, Salted Caramel, White Chocolate Peppermint, Lemon Blossom, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Holiday Lava Fudge. I thought all of the flavors were very good, especially the White Chocolate Peppermint. In terms of looks and taste, Georgetown Cupcake makes some of the best cupcakes out there.

I'm also super excited to let you guys know that I will be spending a month exploring Japan with my friend, Tina. We will be visiting loads of friends throughout the country and it's going to be so much fun. We are stopping by Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Okinawa, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and Kobe, so if you have any recommendations for places to go in those cities, please let me know! (Tokyo photo courtesy of FashionToast)

into the flow

Playing: Winter Passing-The Academy Is...
Reading: The Look by Harry Brant (Actually pretty interesting...)

Over fall break, I took a trip over to Zara to get a few more flimsy pieces of clothing that flow nicely. I got a cream version of my favorite black tank top along with another slip dress. Slip dresses are super easy to style and are very comfortable, so I've taken to wearing them around quite a bit. I bought the red skirt because it's very simple and I've been wanting to add skirts into my closet. I like skirts and dresses, but it's not as if I'm excessively girly and want floral prints/bows/lace on all my clothes, so it's difficult to find things that I like. However, Zara can always be relied on to supply great basics.

I recently also bought some beauty products, which I've been meaning to show you. When it comes to makeup, I try not to wear too much. I usually just do some foundation for my skin and some sort of lip product. I really like this lip crayon from Korean brand, IASO, in Sweet Liar. Even though it's a mint color, it goes onto your lips a nice, muted raspberry color. It looks natural enough and is super moisturizing. Lately, it's become my go to lip color and I don't even need to carry around chap stick if I'm wearing it. I also like this berry shade from Chanel, Envoutante. It goes on sheer with a slight shimmer to it and is easy to put on.

My dad retired last week and a lot of patients brought in goodbye gifts for him. One of them brought in a box of macarons from Lette and included one of every flavor. I've always wanted to get one of each flavor from any macaron store, but they're so expensive that I could never justify doing so. Therefore, these obviously made me very excited. Sorry about not blogging much lately. With school going on, I find it difficult to do anything vaguely blog worthy such as go on adventures and such. However, I did go to two concerts with the past two days, so I'll get a post together of that. Hope you're all doing well!

What's in My Purse

Playing: This is Gospel-Panic! at the Disco
Reading: Vogue September 2013

A lot of people have been doing posts about what is in their purses lately and I've been meaning to do so too. Even though everything I carry is pretty standard, I thought some of you may be interested. Here's what's in my purse at the moment:

1. iPhone-I almost always have my cellular phone with me, so that I can keep in touch with friends and stay connected through Instagram with all my favorite people in fashion. (Follow me @this_is_audrey for food pictures, outfit updates, and pictures of pretty things!)
2. Tums-This just started as a bad habit during elementary school, so I always carry it now. My friends and I use it, so it's just useful to carry around.
3. ChapStick/Lip Stick-I have a tough time paying attention to anything if my lips are dry, so ChapStick keeps me focused during class. Lip stick just became an essential this year to give my lips some color, since I'm pretty white.
4. Car Keys-I drive a white Gucci Fiat 500, so obviously whenever I drive it, I carry around my keys. My car keys are both kawaii with the Sentimental Circus key cap and badass with my Swiss army pocket knife. As for the whistle, I'm not sure why I have it. My parents just stuck it on there one day and it's stayed there.
5. Wallet-My Burberry wallet has been with me for around five years now and it just carries the normal everyday things like gift cards, some money, and my driver's license. 

"You Are What You Love, Not Who Loves You"

Playing: Take You With Me-French Films
 Reading: AP U.S. History Crash Course by Larry Krieger (Less than a month left to study for the AP test!)

Between meeting Andrew McMahon and Mary Katrantzou, I've been meeting a lot of people that I never thought I would even have the chance of getting within 10 feet of. Almost two weeks ago, I went to Nordstrom to meet Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren of Viktor&Rolf. Originally, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get myself into the Flowerbomb signing event, but luckily a salesperson I knew let me in and pushed me to the front of the line. This wasn't half as intimate as the Mary Katrantzou meet and greet, since they were pushing people through the line as quickly as possible, but I still got a chance to briefly talk to them. Rolf told me I smelled good, which was ironic, since the party was for Flowerbomb and I was wearing Acqua di Gio.

Talking about compliments, I stopped by Milk and Honey to grab a Lychee Shaken Iced Tea and the guy working there let me cut in line. Not only did I get to the front of the line, but he also upgraded the drink to a size large for free and got my drink finished before serving the other people. He told me cute girls get served first, so I thanked him and awkwardly walked away. Since Milk and Honey is one of the best places for drinks, I hope he's there again. The line is always so long and I hate waiting.

Milk and Honey is located at the Camp just like Blackmarket Bakery, which serves exceptional pastries. Their Largo Citrus Tart is so wonderfully sour and I like how buttery the pastry cup is. Plus, they also sell interesting pastries from other distributors like this Cabernet Brownie made from wine flower. They basically made flower out of left over seeds and skins from wine factories, so the flower is rich with antioxidants and high in iron. Maybe it was just me, but I definitely sensed a fruity flavor to it that I think is from the wine flower.

Just to tie everything in this post back to the title, I love designers, tea, citrus flavored foods, and making my skin look flawless. Overall, my skin is pretty smooth, but I have some freckles and my coloring makes me look like I'm blushing all the time, so I like to use some foundation, BB cream, and other concealers to make my skin look more even. The Chanel foundation and cover up make my skin look the best, but when I'm feeling lazy, I'll use the Maybelline BB cream and Lancome concealer instead. I use the Lancome moisturizer everyday under my makeup and the Chanel lipstick only when I'm not feeling lazy. My makeup routine is super basic, but I just thought I'd share the products that I like using. Have a nice day! I need to get back to reading my English novel and studying for the APUSH exam.

Title from Fall Out Boy's "Save Rock and Roll"

"What Do You Say We Leave For California?"

Playing: This Is the Life-Two Door Cinema Club
Reading: Stay Cool. Call North Korea's Bluff. by Andrei Lankov

Left to Right: Me, Christine, Viola, and Tina

For the last weekend of Easter holiday, I had another sleepover at my other home as sort of an initiation kind of thing for my new friend from New Jersey, Viola. Plus, we live in California, so it only makes sense for us to enjoy the beach as much as possible. We danced around the beach, reenacted several scenes from famous films, and in my case, ruined my jeans. (Not ruined technically, I just had to wash them more than once to get them completely clean.)

Not to forget the typical beach type of activities, we also enjoyed writing in the sand. No pretty love messages for boys today, rather a shout out to one of my all time favorite brands in the world, Burberry. Burberry and I go way back to when I was only two. I blame it on my mum. Saw that Burberry plaid and immediately became fascinated with all that Burberry clothing of hers. I told my parents that since I own a lot of Burberry, I need a Burberry husband. They're not liking the idea so far though.

After out little beach venture, we went back to my house to do typical teenage girl things like paint our nails, try out face masks, watch Mean Girls (I heard Regina George does car commercials in Japan or is that just a rumor?), and eat a lot. No, seriously, our eating frenzy was nonstop.

See? I wasn't joking. I ended up cooking ramen for all of them at around 3 a.m. and we agreed that 3 a.m. ramen is the best kind of ramen. Tina brought the ramen for us and it came in these itsy bitsy packages with the soup base powdered on the noodles, so you could literally add boiling water and be done. No sauces to be poured or powders to be mixed. So quick, so easy, so perfect for lazy teenagers.

The next morning, we made it out to the dock to watch sea life go by. It took us awhile to get ourselves out of bed admittedly and we were all really tired from staying up late, but that's nothing the thrill of adventure can't fix. (Just kidding, kind of.) Luckily, for me, I could go back to my other house and take a shower and then be off to Hollywood within an hour or two after they all went home, but Viola had to go to SAT prep class. I shouldn't tease her about that, since I took the ACT for the first time today and I'm pretty sure my parents are going to slaughter my summer with ACT or SAT prep. Any tips for the SAT Subject II test in French? The prep questions from College Board are too easy and I'm starting to feel like College Board is just putting up those sample questions as a form of mental harassment. You go in to take the actual SAT test thinking you're ready and leave feeling horrid about yourself.

First and last photo are courtesy of Tina. In the first photo I'm wearing: Central Park-Pullover/Urban Outfitters-Necklace/H&M-Jeans/Some Random Japanese Brand-Beanie

Redhead

Playing: Daylight-Matt and Kim
Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

Photo Creds: Jane Aldridge, Girl on the Beach, Patrick Wolf, Nicole Kidman as Satine, Rita Hayworth, Gerard Way, Karen Elson

One of my dreams or goals is to dye my hair every single one of the major hair colors before I enter corporate America or whatever industry I go into. (If I work in the fashion industry like I'm hoping, they won't mind all my different hair colors hopefully.) I've done brown and I was born with black, so red was the obvious next choice. Redheads have been getting a lot of crap over being soulless day walkers lately thanks to South Park, which I admittedly find very funny even if it is crude. Everyone from models to bloggers to singers and actresses have been dying their hair red or reddish orange, so I compiled a collage of some of my favorites...

...and then I went for it right before the new school year started. I was originally aiming for a Patrick Wolf/Jane Aldridge red because they just have the most perfect auburn color, but I left with more of a Rita Hayworth/Satine reddish, orange tinted brown. So far, I'm not really liking it that much and I find the work that goes into it isn't worth it. It took my hair stylist three and a half hours to get my hair to this color and three rounds of dye, which all felt like they were burning my scalp. I'm really not liking how whenever I wash my hair, the water comes out orange, even though I'm using cold water like a good kid. I think it makes my skin color look too pink, but I've been getting a lot more compliments from guys that I don't even know ever since I dyed my hair, so maybe it's not that bad. What do you think? So far brown is my favorite.

PS I'm going back to school tomorrow and I'm horrified by the prospect of it all. At least Fashion's Night Out is only two days away, but why did it have to be on the same day as the VMAs? I really want to watch One Direction and Green Day perform, but there's no way I'm going to miss FNO!

★All American★

Playing: I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor-The Arctic Monkeys
Reading:Vogue September 2012

It was one of those weekends, where I had no idea what to do and decided to just head down to the beach area. Recently, the USS Iowa moved to San Pedro, so I decided to go check it out. (Smooth transition!) Down in San Pedro is Gaffey Street Diner, which is one of those all-American restaurants that looks like a complete dive, but actually sells really amazing food. I originally saw it on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, but I've gone back to it many times. The breakfast food tends to be better than the lunch courses, but my Country Fried Steak With Biscuit and Home Fries was pretty good although it was a tad burnt. The gravy is definitely one of the best things at the diner, so I highly suggest the Biscuit With Gravy there.

Parked in the lot right next to the USS Iowa was this wonderfully retro car. I feel like the cars from the fifties and sixties had more personality than cars do now, but I suppose that's because car manufacturers are aiming for more aerodynamic cars to increase fuel efficiency nowadays. You can actually see a lot of these vintage cars around the beach areas here.

As for the actual ship, it was incredible how large it was, but you didn't get to see a lot on the ship. They roped a lot of it off, so it felt like a tour, but the traffic was awful. You'd be standing at one spot for ten minutes to get into a room and then you'd be rushed through the rooms. In a few years, I think they'll improve it to a near perfect tour. However, this launched my dad into one of his Proud to be an American speeches that he gives me whenever we visit anything semi-patriotic. Like baseball games...

The whole area of San Pedro and Long Beach is filled with areas for commercial shipping. The boat pictured here carries around crates that are later attached to eighteen wheelers and ships them from country to country. Also, the red nub, for lack of a better word, protruding from the ship's front is used to break waves for a smoother ride and the people who operate the machines used to load and unload the crates make around $400,000 a year. Sounds like a good job to me and sorry for the random facts. My friend, Chelcee, always complains that I share useless facts with her. It's a trait I picked up from my dad.

Overall, the area around the USS Iowa is very lovely and if you're into military stuff and the USA's defense systems, I suggest visiting it. I actually saw quite a few foreigners there from Germany, France, and I believe, Belgium. At least, that's what I picked up from listening to them speak. If you'd like to, San Pedro and Long Beach also offer deep sea fishing trips, helicopter tours, seafood dining, and lots of Mexican culture, especially at this one port that is filled with Mexican seafood places. It's actually one of my favorite places to get seafood now.

 Also, I recently bought some Alexander McQueen sunglasses for myself, so that I can go out in the sun without my eyes watering, plus a Vince Camuto blazer. If you would like to see more photos of them, you can see them on The Suburban Urbanites. I did a perfume trade for the first time, where I got Dolce and Gabbana's Light Blue in exchange for my L'eau D'Issey. Super excited to wear it! At Target, I bought 10 Things I Hate About You, which is one of my favorite movies ever, and some notebooks for me to jot down ideas in. I like how each one is focused on some of my favorite cities: New York, Paris, and London.
Ooh, and then I purchased some more Sentimental Circus stationary to use for writing to my friends. It's so cute in a creepy, Tim Burton-esque way. Anyways, I hope you're enjoying your summer, while I sit at home doing my summer assignments and moan about how school needs to leave me alone.

Whatever, Whatever, I Do As I Please

Playing: 1901-Phoneix
Reading: Antigone by Sophocles

Disclaimer everyone, I am not a title making genius. Let's just get on with the show about what I did over the weekend.  As you probably know, I love Tim Burton a lot. I love his movies, poems, and art, so I was dying to go see Dark Shadows. While it did leave me feeling disappointed, I have to disagree with the critics that said it wasn't funny at all. There were tons of awkward moments, where the main character Barnabas (Johnny Depp) from the 1760's had to adapt to the 1970's and all the modern appliances, that were chuckle worthy. Although this movie was dry from time to time, the beautiful set and well thought out costumes totally made up for it. The main complaint I have with this movie is that too many story lines were going on. If they cut out Bella Heathcote's unimportant story of how her parents left her in a mental house and Chloe Grace Moretz'z random transformation into a werewolf, the movie would've been a lot better.

I also tried the Turkey Melt at Berkeley Dog, which was unlike any other Turkey Melt I've had. It had slices of turkey covered in grilled onions, cheese, and bacon. I'm used to the typical turkey melt with American cheese, so this was definitely a step up and it was a decent price.

 My friend, Sophie, let me use her Chanel nail polish from Spring/Summer 2008 called Antelope. This has to be one of the prettiest nail polishes I have ever used. It's tan with a metallic shine and when you go out into the sun, it looks like the prettiest blush ever. My camera did not pick up how pretty this color is and frankly, it looks kind of bland in this photo, but trust me, this is such a gorgeous color. It almost looked like I had pearls on my nails and what made it so pretty is how close it is to my skin color, so it was also subtle. In class, I could not stop staring at my nails. Considering Chanel nail polish is like $30, I was not impressed by its staying power. By the fourth day, it started to chip really badly on all of my nails except my thumbs. By the end of the week, I had to take it off because it was almost all gone.

The Orange County Great Park has been in development for years and part of my summer plan is to check out all the farmers markets within driving distance that I can, so I just had to check out the one at the Great Park. They had tons of cute stalls with specialty items like the local raw honey shown above and organic, gluten-free baked items. They also had fresh vegetables and fruits plus gourmet food trucks, vintage records, dog clothing, and organic pet food. I did buy some amazing nectarines and sweet cherries, while I was there too.

Before going to Daniela's party, I made Chef Michael Symon's 3 Minute Chocolate "Cup" Cakes with my brother. It was such an easy recipe and took next to no time at all. However, I did find I had to microwave everything for twice as long as he suggested. I used one and a half bars of Lindt's 85% cocoa dark chocolate and one bar of Lindt's 70% cocoa dark chocolate. I found that our's came out way too rich, so I think next time I'll use two and a half bars of Lindt's 65% cocoa dark chocolate plus some vanilla extract. I topped mine with whipped cream and the left over chocolate bar crumbled into sprinkles. Eat it while it's hot! It always amazes me how much I can squish into one weekend...Until next time, hope you have a most fabulous day!

Up to Nothing Much

Playing: Everybody Talks-Neon Trees
Reading: The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

It's summer, which means I'm slowly rotting my brain away until my mum sends me to SAT prep classes or until I start panicking from all the various summer assignments I have from school. Either way, it's a lose/lose situation for me. Until then, I shall be busy eating delicious meals such as the Penne alla Amatriciana at Renata's Caffe Italiano, which is penne with fresh tomatoes, smoked pancetta, green onions, roasted garlic, onions, and fresh basil. On Chopped, judges criticize contestants for "over saucing" a dish, but I personally like having extra sauce for the bread, so I liked how there was leftover sauce once I was done with the penne.

While walking around in the parking lot by Renata's, I saw on the car next to us that they had a Hello Kitty exhaust pipe! How adorable, right? I've seen photos of this online, but I've never seen it in person, so I just had to grab a photo for all of you to see.

I also saw this at a store awhile back and I wanted to share this with you. I looked at the sign and of course, I read it, so when I left, the girl yelled at me, "You're a unicorn murderer." So there you go, I am an alleged unicorn killer.

I also painted my nails a blush borderline cotton candy pink color from Essie called Flawless. Although I like how this pink is toned down, I was disappointed to see that it chipped really badly within the one week that I wore it. I find most Essie polishes to be highly pigmented and a tad runnier than what I normally like. I'm still shocked by myself that I would wear pink nail polish. Pink is NOT my thing.

What color are your nails right now?

Spontaneous Me

Playing: THE ARCHETYPES-MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS
Reading: Orange Coast June 2012

Hello everyone! It's so boring doing the same thing everyday and going through the same routine too, so I decided it's time for me to come up with different things to do everyday.  Yesterday, I just sat outside, photographing the bunnies in my yard that I've named Peter and Benjamin. I've been trying to get a photo of them for quite a bit of time now because it's hard to see both of them in my yard at once. I tried leaving out a carrot for the two of them and came back two days later only to find it covered in slugs. I had my brother deal with it then...The bunnies are so adorable and I like how they just sit on my lawn, munching my grass, all the time.

Over the weekend, I skipped reading in the morning to cut up travel brochures and magazines. I thought I was going to make a scrapbook of all the places I want to visit, but lately I've been thinking I should make a collage for my bedroom wall. But then I would have to take down my band posters and I'm not sure I'm willing to take those down for photos of the world. My binders are already stuffed with travel photos and different fashion campaigns plus musicians, so I'm not sure what I should do with my extra clippings.

Two weeks ago, I was reading about how Sally Hanson did some collaborations with different designers to create new nail colors, so I ran off to multiple drug stores to hunt them down late at night after less than a minute of thought. I copied down the names for Alexander Wang's collaboration from a year ago, so I had the wrong names and panicked, thinking I would never find them. Then I realized I had the wrong names, so I had to look up the new ones. I ended up buying Prabal Gurung's Loves Me Not and Barely Bluebell plus Alexander Wang's Parchment and Petrol.

Part of my plan to be more spontaneous is to not worry about consequences too much. I decided to run off to see the dolphin that got lost in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve a week or so back instead of worrying about when I would have time to do my homework.  They think the dolphins got bullied into the wetlands, so I feel bad for the dolphin, but what could've it have done to piss off so many other dolphins?

Also, a part of my spontaneity plan is just going wherever, whenever I feel like it. I was in the mood for cupcakes, so I drove down to Sprinkles to get some and that was that. After taking a bite from them, I kind of wished I went to Casey's instead, since I really prefer their cupcakes over Sprinkles, but Sprinkles seemed like what I wanted at the moment. Maybe I shouldn't be too spontaneous and rash. I should at least give myself time to think through my decisions. If I did that, I would've been very content with my Casey's Cupcakes instead of slightly upset with my Sprinkles cupcakes...Hmm, I obviously need to work on my balance between spontaneity and thoughtfulness. Anyways, before I make this post too random and weird, thank you for reading!

Daiso!

Playing: What We Had-The Drums
Reading: Artemis Wikipedia Page

Over the weekend, I visited a Daiso with Sophie for some quick, inexpensive shopping and as a getaway from studying. I'm really glad that Daiso is expanding across the USA because it's like a 99¢ Store, only with goods that I'll actually use and it's always clean, even if it gets messy. I also like how all of the employees are friendly, super helpful, and can speak English.

I've been so tempted to buy a new pencil pouch for myself because mine is so dirty right now and covered with ink stains, but I restrained myself. With only one more month of school, I can definitely wait for summertime to come, when I can wash my pencil case and wait for it to dry. However, Daiso has some really cute options! They have cute, strawberry shaped bento boxes and ice packs shaped like baby ducks too.

They also sell cheap, gyaru style makeup there, which doesn't really excite me. I don't wear makeup at the moment, so this photo is pretty much just meant to show you a tiny bit of what they offer. Sophie bought a pair of eyelashes there and she seemed pretty satisfied with them. Ask her for opinions on the overall quality?

Daiso also sells candies, snacks, and various ingredients for Asian cuisines. I really like their candy selection and so does my chemistry teacher. In fact, I bought a bag of blueberry candy for myself and for him. We like to exchange different candies with each other, so it's a pretty interesting teacher-student friendship right now. It's great to see that Daiso covers both of our sweet tooths though!

My parents like the wall with all the mugs and plates because they really want to get rid of our dishes, bowls, and cups that we've had since the 1970's, but they don't feel like spending a lot. I'm hoping they'll go for something really modern or all white, but they'll probably go for something traditional. As you can probably tell, Daiso just sells a tiny bit of everything, even inflatable boobs, which my friend, Erika, bought for her boyfriend.

No shopping post would be complete without a photo of what I bought, right? I bought one notebook to use for my journal and one as my travel notebook along with some fluffy yarn, pretty lace, tasty candy, cheap sticky notes, and some lotion. The leopard print pouch I got to use as wrapping for my friend, Parmida's, animal print themed birthday party. Also, I bought something crazy like 16 cans of pineapple-coconut water, which I like to drink after school. Sophie told me she thinks, "I buy all my food in bulk." That's not true, only the stuff I like. I've already made some super adorable pop-kei/fairy-kei looking bows using the yarn and some buttons I bought at Joanne's Fabrics plus I've started to fill out one of the notebooks.

Have you ever been to a Daiso before?

Perfume Samples

Playing: Tranquilize-The Killers Ft. Lou Reed
Reading: April Harper's Bazaar
Over the weekend, I went to Nordstrom to look at perfumes and purses and such, so I grabbed some perfume samples just to test things out. I personally like these samples because perfume isn't something you can buy at random. You have to wear it for a day or two before you can decide whether or not you like it.

 

Chanel N°19 Poudre Eau de Parfum is a nice, floral version of N°5. It's a pleasant scent, but there's one problem that keeps me from wanting to use this often. After I took a shower, you could still smell the perfume on me and it didn't go away until after two washes. It's nice to have a perfume that lasts, but I don't want to be tied down to one for multiple days.

Tom Ford's Violet Blonde is an amazing scent perfect for a night out and about. Lasts for a long time, highly concentrated so one spritz is enough, and smells luxurious. I really liked the smoothness of this scent and how warm it was, but not warm as in spicy like the next perfume sample.

Thierry Mugler's Angel smells like something made for someone elderly and it was too strong for me. After about five minutes of wearing it, I had a terrible head ache and had to wash it off. I can't say much for longevity other than it lasted more than one shampooing. It reminded me of a much stronger, spicier version of Yves Saint Laurent Opium. For some reason, I thought this was going to be a fresh, soothing smell because of the light blue coloring, but trust me, it wasn't calming for me. I do encourage you to smell this for yourself because it might be just me, who dislikes it.

For something fairly inexpensive and in general, something everyone likes, head over to Bath and Body Works for their body sprays. These are almost always on sale with a buy two, get one free kind of deal. My favorites are Sea Island Cotton, Rainkissed Leaves, and Sweet Pea. I bought these about four years ago, hence the old packaging, so I don't think Rainkissed Leaves is sold anymore. The only issue I have with these is that they do change over time. My Sea Island Cotton and Rainkissed Leaves have become muskier within the last year or so. The Sweet Pea has stayed the same, but if you wear it, everyone knows what you're wearing, which isn't that fun...They do last the whole day though and are easy to wash out, so it's a great deal actually. I also like how I used these almost every day for two years and there's still a lot left. Hope my review of these perfumes and body sprays helped or interested you in checking out something!

I Just Smell So Good

Playing: What Makes You Beautiful-One Direction
Reading: The Turk Wikipedia Page

I naturally smell pretty good, not going to lie about that. Strangers have complimented me on the way I smell even when I'm not wearing any perfume, so who knows. Usually, if a stranger talks to me, it's to ask for directions or to ask what perfume I'm wearing. I've been wearing perfumes for three years now and this year, I took to trying to wear perfume everyday. I usually spritz some in my hair in the morning because I like how the scent envelops you throughout the day.

The Hello Kitty Rollergirl Rollerball perfume smells so amazing with its mix of fruity and floral notes. For me, it lasts the whole day, but being a rollerball perfume, it can't be applied over a large surface area, so not as many people smell it. In order to smell it on me, you have to have your nose right by my neck. It's pretty much something only I can smell during the day, so if I were you, I'd get the spray on version of it.

Burberry Brit Sheer is a nice, light, floral perfume that lasts me the whole day. It's not as concentrated as other perfumes of mine, so I usually need two to three spritzes for it to really stand out. In general, everyone that I know of has liked this one. It's just a really easy, light perfume to wear everyday. Even if I do wear a lot of this, I don't find it overwhelming at all.

I actually got L'eau D'Issey by mistake. I wanted the L'eau D'Issey Florale version, but I didn't know there were multiple versions until I opened it up and then it was too late to return it. In general, one spritz does the job for me and anymore can make me feel a bit dizzy. It's ok for me in small doses and my mum seems to like it a lot, but I don't find it to be a very youthful perfume. It's just that I like the florale version so much, I would expect more from this perfume.

Acqua di Gioia is by far my favorite perfume to wear. It's really fresh and bright, not to mention, I get tons of compliments when I wear this one. I usually wear one to two spritzes depending on my mood and this lasts the whole day for me. If I could only choose one perfume to wear for the rest of forever, this definitely is my choice. I forgot how wonderful it smelled until I was in New York and had to go a week without it. One day I walked into Saks to get a spritz for myself just because and it really did make me remember how amazing this perfume is.

What's your favorite perfume to wear?

PS The title of this is just a joke, a jab at narcissism if you will.