Flower Power and Big Lashes - With Love, Kristina

Stop and Crop the Daisies

Happy Wednesday! First off, thank you to everyone who encouraged me through yesterday’s post to just do what I want to do. It’s funny to realize how I’ve told so many new bloggers who cam asking that they should stay true to themselves… and yet I was feeling at a loss myself. When you blog for a long time and see your blog improve in the traditional ways (photography, writing, style improving, etc) it feels like there’s a standard you have to stick with, and I had almost forgotten that it’s my blog and I can do whatever I want to do. I’m so thankful to have people around me and online reminding me to stay true to myself.

And I’m extra thankful that you all enjoy me at every stage.

I’m breaking back into daily style with this cute cropped daisy top I thrifted yesterday, which still had the tags on it. I’ve been thinking I would like to add more cropped shirts to my wardrobe, because when you are a gal with a mom belly, shirts like to roll or ride up, and crops take all the annoying adjustments out of daily wear. I don’t have to pull it down, it sits right at the smallest part of my waist, and I don’t have to worry about the hem rolling.

I love the way it looks with this Modcloth skirt; I’ve had a harder time styling this skirt, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I don’t wear white often (hello, mom of two and prone to spilling coffee), or because I don’t have a lot of solid tops, but mostly I think it’s because I had pushed so far to the “true vintage” side of things and this skirt doesn’t pass for vintage. Retro, yes. But styling a true vintage look with this one is nearly impossible.

So, relaxing in my posting style means you also get to see the days when I’m not full on vintage, and I’m excited for that. As much as I would love to be able to dress 100% fifties daily, it’s just not practical for how messy I am and how little my kids are. I’m not sure how those housewives did it, but I feel much safer wearing modern, stretchy, and, I suppose, more disposable clothing. My 50’s dresses are much less replaceable than my modern garments.

Today I am also finally reviewing the Lancome Monsieur Big mascara, which came with a lash booster and eye makeup remover also from Lancome in my Influenster Vox Box. I don’t do Vox boxes very often, because I’m not huge on being required to review and share items I don’t get to choose, but I thought this would be fun. Other than samples from Sephora, I have never used or tried high-end makeup, so I was excited to put this mascara to the test against my tried-and-true L’Oreal Original Volume mascara.

And, sadly, I’m a little disappointed. I don’t know if it’s the lash booster or the mascara itself, but something about them makes my lashes string together AND clump up. I tried three separate days to improve the application of the lash booster and mascara, but all three times I ended up needing to brush through my lashes several times to get something semi-decent after a bare two coats of mascara. I suspect the biggest problem with this mascara, which is a problem with MOST mascaras I try, is that the brush is not dense enough and does not separate my lashes like it should.

So for now, I’ll be sticking with L’Oreal.

Sadly, the makeup remover and lash booster that also came in my VoxBox were not impressive either. I’m not sure if I’ve just found the ideal way to do my own makeup and removal, or if all of the Lancome products I was sent just aren’t up to snuff, but I was very disappointed. I usually remove all of my makeup, eyes included, with coconut oil and a warm soft cloth. It takes 30 seconds of massaging my whole face, and 30 seconds of wiping it down (or less). But the eye makeup remover I got took 3-4 soaked cotton pads and still didn’t remove everything, plus left a weird film on my skin that I then had to wash off.

Since I have very dry skin, having to use a cleansing wash is something I avoid; anything that foams up, soaps up, whatever… I hate using. But I had to with this.

I do want to branch out and try other Lancome products, because I’m sure they’re not all bad, but everything in my box was a miss this time.