Category: beauty

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white on white on white

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So…I got more than one wig. I knew I wanted an asymmetrical bob like this, and, though it looks dyed (that is, the color doesn’t look natural), it is actually not far off my hair color and is as such not too bizarre looking on me. At least, not if you don’t already know what I’m meant to look like. This was my second attempt at finding an asymmetrical bob style, the first being much darker and simply awful. [Not easy trying to select the style or the color of a wig online, and I can’t recommend it. The return policies are as unforgiving as you would imagine.]

What do you think? I really like it.

The difference is so transforming. I doubt I would even be recognized, or not right away. I love this about fashion and makeup and all the subcategories of style. You can achieve a look that nature wouldn’t allow, liberating you from yourself while (potentially) at once expanding your idea of self, multiplying the variations of self.

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White, white, white. I can’t have too much white. And yes, we know how I like bikini tops (you’ll recognize this one from this bikini of the day), and white buttoned shirts.

This is my idea (rather, one of my ideas) of a great summer uniform. I have this theory that as long as my navel is obscured, it isn’t able to create that unforgiving halo around my stomach that it really does seem to.

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Victoria’s Secret triangle top, Banana Republic button-up, Ray-Ban aviators, Paris Blues shorts, HairDo Angled Cut wig, vintage Timex watch.

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x

 

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smell this: Manly Indulgence humidor candle

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I thought I would just mention this candle, as I think it smells fantastic, but it turns out to be really difficult to find, some rare collaboration between Nieman Marcus and Ambercrombie & Fitch. TJ Maxx yields mysterious gems, now and then. I only picked it up to investigate because I thought the packaging was cute/ridiculous.

I’m going to mention it anyway.

Usually I don’t buy scented candles. I think this is one of just two that I have, and the first one I was given. It now inhabits that category of not-very-desirable objects I haven’t quite thrown away yet. I have one of those little tea candle diffusers that I sometimes put essential oils in or, more likely, just drops of perfume. With candles the scent is often too cloying, even if it is abstractly nice, or too cheap/synthetic. This one, though, just smells so good. I bought it impulsively and stuck it in my closet. The official notes are teakwood, mahogany, cherry bark, sweet tobacco, amber, and plum. I pick out amber, cedarwood, and sweet tobacco, with the amber rather dark (which I could see as plum-influenced) and dominant but I would say balanced with the wood.

I suspect this is a testament to the virtues of paying up. That is, expensive candles, not unlike expensive fragrances, where the expense is reflected in the ingredients, really do smell better than their cheap cousins. This is particularly evident when I note how pungent the candle is just sitting around, unlit.

So I guess I like expensive candles now.

UPDATE July 2013: This candle, while high quality enough to smell very good, is not high quality enough to burn well (evenly, completely). Lesson learned. It turns out there is (as with so many things. As, really, with everything) a whole world of candle knowledge.