Dare to Bare

Can I just confess something here?

I love - LOVE - looking at photos of "celebrities without makeup." 

No, I'm not proud. I judge. I totally do. 

But I'm going to stop that - stop judging the celebrities and my fellow "real girls" who don't have an army of makeup artists or photoshop experts to take us from "ordinary" to "Ooh-la-la!" In this photograph, I haven't even brushed my teeth or ran a comb through my tangled, bedhead locks. My friends, here I am:  acne scars, under-eye circles, moles and all. Au naturale, as those chic French people say. 

Honestly, this picture was scary to take. We all want bigger eyes, higher cheekbones and glossier lips. But at some point, we have to look at ourselves and accept ourselves as is. I have never seen a makeup free picture of myself that I actually liked. 

But this is me. Almond-eyed, short lashed, tangled hair and pale. The way God made me. 

So today, I dare to bare.

'do the wave

Dear Readers, I've been absent from my blog, but I've been busy, you see. But I'm back, in significantly-less-than-full force. But here I am. Here I go.

When I was 6 years old, I was in the car with my aunt, who has beautiful, curly blonde hair. I asked her, "Do you like your hair?" She told me it was okay, she learned to like it. I then asked her, "Do you ever wish you had hair like mine? It's so straight and shiny!" She sighed, laughed, and explained, "Yes, Rachal. All the time." As solemnly and seriously as my smug confident self could, I explained to her that both my mom and I had really beautiful hair, and I could see why she would want hair like mine.

Ah, to be 6 years old and completely self-assured in my natural beauty. But alas! I now suffer from serious curl envy. (Sorry, Aunt Heidi!)

But, ladies, listen to me! I have found the secret of beautiful wavy hair, and it was so simple - a diffuser! Yes, even on straight hair like mine, it gave me the big, sexy hair I'd been lusting after. Check it out!

After drying my hair with a diffuser, I went back and scrunched my hair with Garnier Fructis Surf Paste and Aussie "Sprunch!" Voila! No further tools needed. 

So ladies, what do you think?

The Chapstick/Lipstick/Lipgloss That I Am Now Obsessed With

Confession: I am a hoarder.

Not the kind of hoarder that needs to go on TLC and be watched by crazy people like my little mama (hi, Mom!). I don't think.

No, I have a very specific hoarding problem: the makeup kind.

Fortunately for me, there are a whole slew of terms that may be substituted for the dreaded label of "makeup hoarder": "beauty junkie," "girly girl," and, (for us cheapie makeup hoarders), "drugstore diva." Just to name a few. I generally get my fix at Rite Aid because (1) they always have sales and (2) they have a no questions asked return policy on makeup!!

And this, my dear ladies, is my newest obsession.

Neutrogena Revitalizing Lip Balm

It's a nifty little beautifying product by Neutrogena. I am a long time Neutrogena fan. I use their Healthy Makeup foundation (and I think I even made a convert out of my big sis - getting her to switch from Laura Mercier to this drugstore favorite was quite an accomplishment), the Healthy Skin Brightening Eye Perfector, Healthy Volume mascara (sometimes, when it makes it back into rotation) and now, this lovely product in Sunny Berry.

Why I love it: it's soooooo moisturizing, it gives enough color that you can wear it alone with a bit of mascara, but subtle enough that it won't compete with a daytime smoky eye. Tell me what you think!

Warning: You'll have to excuse my duck face. And the fact that it's taken in the car. And that I'm wearing shades. It's 8 in the morning, it's finals week, and I'm currently sitting in Starbucks working on my take home exam. Obviously. But this little tube of awesomeness makes it all just a little bit better.

It's-a Pizza Time-a, Si?

Pizza is not my food weakness.

My weaknesses include (but are not limited to): egg rolls, French fries, Dove bars, gummy snacks, Gushers, anything from Haagen-Dazs, beer, Starburst jelly beans, cheddar & sour cream chips, strawberries, macaroni & cheese, hamburgers, steak, calamari, pretty much anything on any happy hour menu anywhere, chewy ginger molasses cookies, mangoes, mussels, any pasta with some version of tomato cream sauce, bacon, creamy garlic mashed potatoes and breadsticks.

But not pizza.

Until last night.

When I made this:

You know when you're trying really hard to eat healthy and then you eat something really bad for you and you think to yourself, "Man, I should NOT have eaten that!" This was not one of those times. This was more like, "I don't know and I don't care how many calories were in there. It was completely and totally worth it." 

This is not diet food. I repeat. This is not diet food. But, one oh-it's-so-bad-it's-good meal every once in a while will not destroy you. In fact, I am completely and utterly convinced that indulgence is an absolute necessity in life. As is this pizza. Your life is incomplete until you've made and eaten a large amount of this pizza. And the good news is, it's easy!!

Here are the ingredients: 

The Players:

6 oz. Prosciutto

Arugula

Fresh Mozzarella

Blue Cheese Crumbles

Pizza Dough

Fig Jam

(this is enough for two, very thin crust pizzas)

Roll 1/2 the pizza dough as thinly as possible. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top of the dough. Put a big blob of fig jam on top. If you don't think it's enough, add a little more!! Slice the mozzarella thin and lay on the crust. Don't put too much of it on!! Sprinkle with a little bit of blue cheese. Bake in the oven at 450 for 10 minutes. 

Immediately after removing the pizza from the oven, lay the prosciutto on top of the pizza so it sinks into the cheese. Put a good handful of the arugula on top of the pizza. Wait for a few minutes.

Slice and eat!! Feel yourself melt into the deliciousness that is this pizza. 

Possible vegetarian variation: instead of prosciutto, immediately add sliced pears and candied walnuts. Then top with fresh arugula! 

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Often Ends at Mile Marker 2

"Nothing worth doing is easy." "If it wasn't hard, everybody would do it." "Hard work will pay off in the end." "Some people dream of success... others work for it."

Any of those sound familiar? Yeah, I thought as much. And at the beginning of every project, we feel inspired. Motivated. We believe that, "Hey, yeah! I can do this! Heck, they'll probably write a movie about this. I'll at least get an invitation on Oprah!" 

If only that good feeling would last! If only, everyday, we woke up feeling good and excited about the prospect of positive change. That we really will finally learn why the Great Gatsby is so great; we will learn how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the black keys and the white keys on the piano; we will go from couch potato to a 5k runner; that we will stop smoking/drinking/eatinganythingeveragainwithfat. And we make it through the first day, thinking about how it actually feels pretty darn good! Sure I have shin splints/am literally shaking from giving up nicotine/realize that I could just watch the movie and learn why Mr. Gatsby is so awesome - but, damnit, we made it! Through the first day.

And the truth is, you will likely last one day. Heck, maybe a whole week! But regardless of how long you actually make it, let me tell you something: you will hit a wall, and you will want to stop. My New Year's Resolution for 2011 was to get fit and lose weight. I've been open about that, and it's now April and I am still sticking to it. But let me tell you, I saw that wall. And it was huge. Monstrous. It made the Great Wall of China look tiny. I was praying that Ronald Reagan would miraculously appear and say, "Ms. Jenson! Tear down this wall!" 

But he didn't. There was no hunky construction worker around to operate a crane with one of those big cement ball thingies and at least put a tiny hole in that wall so I could see through the other side. I wanted to build a ladder out of Dove bars and peanut butter pretzels to help me get over it. No such luck. 

I was discouraged and tired. I knew I had been doing an awesome job, but I was sick of counting calories and foregoing evening TV for pushups and jumping jacks. Change just wasn't happening fast enough, and I was sick of being the health conscious, vitamin popping, "Oh-my-gosh-I-don't-eat-that-kind-of-food" person. It's just not me, I tried to convince myself. Finally, after gaining 2 pounds in a matter of 5 days, I realized I couldn't quit. I absolutely couldn't. I had come this far, and to turn back now would be to admit defeat.

Finally, I used every ounce of strength in my boot camp toned legs and kicked a big giant hole in that overwhelming brick and cement wall.  I climbed through it, breathed a sigh of relief, and I kept moving forward. 

I have lost 30 - okay, 28 (I rounded up, so sue me!) - pounds. I can do 25 boy pushups. I am stronger and fitter and downright hotter.

I look forward to seeing mile marker 1000. And then I'm going to eat a whole pint of full fat Haagen Dazs. With whipped cream. And hot fudge. Maybe some French fries, too. Oh, and buy a slinky bikini. But probably not in that order. 

Forgive me as I leave you with this cliche

Nail Art! And they both involve glitter!

I am just all too excited about all the fun nail art that's been happening these days. I've always been a nail devotee - when I was young, adorable and Tommy Hilfiger obsessed clad, I would paint tiny TH flags on my nails. Or, back when I was a bull pup at North Bend Junior High, I painted my nails gold with blue paws on them! Sounds cute, right?

Sigh. No amount of conservative legal education and surroundings could beat that obsession out of me. As you likely know from my last post, I'm always looking for new ways to infuse a little fun, color, and general girliness into my life. The two-tone trend was easy to do and copy (I hope!). These are just *slightly* more difficult, but the effect is awesome! 

Look 1: Sparkly Ombre Nails 

I love my ombre hair. I can scarcely imagine having hair that is the same color from roots to tip! With that in mind, I created these ombre nails.

It's fun without being too crazy (the nails, not me)

You like? If so, here's how! (sorry I didn't take a picture of what I used, but the colors are very basic). I covered the whole nail in a super pale, glossy pink. Then, I painted a darker pink stripe horizontally in the middle of the nail, like so.

It's very easy to do

After both layers are mostly dry, I painted the top half of the stripe and the uncovered top of my nail (sort of like a French manicure, but with a lot less precision) with pink glitter, like so:

See how it seems to fade from pale pink to darker sparkly pink?

Pretty cute, huh? 

Look 2: The Blackberry Manicure

Have you guys heard of this? It's where you paint your thumbs a different color or give them a little extra pizzazz. It's called "The Blackberry Manicure" because people who have blackberries are constantly using their thumbs to text! And if you're going to spend all that time staring down at the shortest, fattest finger, doesn't common sense just demand that they deserve a little extra special attention and bling? Of course! So, check it out!

Sparkles Galore! Please don't examine my cuticles!!

What I used, from left to right:
OPI Austin-Tatious Turquoise
OPI Shimmer & Simmer
LA Colors Art Deco Black
LA Colors Art Deco Silver Glitter
Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat

Apparently these nails make me feel fierce and dorkylicious.

The How-To: Obviously fingers 2-5 are quite easy. I painted them with one thin coat of Austin-Tatious Turquoise and then two layers (for extra sparkles!) of Shimmer & Simmer. For the thumb, I painted two layers of Austin-Tatious. After it dries, I used the LA Colors (with the super skinny brush - makes it much, much easier) and painted two diagonal black lines. I carefully filled in the space with the LA Colors Glitter. Bam! If you don't like the blue/stripes/glitter combo, you can easily have a "Blackberry Manicure" by (1) painting your thumbs a different color (2) painting your thumbs with glitter and leaving the rest "normal" (3) drawing a design (4) putting a little jewel on your thumb nail. 

Readers: What do you think? Do you like either of these looks? Too silly/juvenile for you? Or just really fun?!

The How To: Two-Tone Nail Trend Alert

I love nail polish. It makes me feel pretty and cool and it lets me wear colors I never would be able to otherwise. Neon yellow? Bring it on!

Lately the two-tone nails are all the rage. There is a crescent moon shape at the bottom of the nail in one color, and then another color on top. Check it out! 

Of course, being a total trendoid, I had no choice but to try it out for myself. This is what I came up with: 

What do you think? Cute, no? I think it's perfect for an evening look - law prom, here I come! It's actually really, really easy to create yourself. Here are my tools: 

The bottom color: "Gold Mine" by Revlon

The top color: "The One that Got Away" by Katy Perry for OPI 

And, of course, my trusty top coat!

I used the gold first and let it dry completely. Then I used these little dot sticker label things and put them on the bottom of my nail to serve as a stencil. Topped it off with just one coat of "The One that Got Away." Can't forget the top coat and then - voila!! - you're done. 

Readers: Do you like it? Do you think it's weird? What do you think about the whole nail art trend?