the floral print

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This look has a polished up top/party downstairs contrast that I like. The multiple anchors of solid white bring it all together for me.

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These shoes are quite fake. Les knockoffs.* I wanted to try out the studded look and find that I like it, but it’s not love. They are uncomfortable, too. I have too many other shoes I prefer to keep them but they have convinced me that I want to find a pair of white pumps. I’m totally on board with the trend of white pumps.

*I don’t generally have much interest in knockoffs—I don’t generally have much interest in their originals—but once in a while they are convenient for playing. I don’t feel a moral quandary about it when the original is something I would never consider purchasing anyway. Louboutin is not losing a potential sale here. Still, they are unsatisfying unless made well in their own right, and desired in their own right (there is a bag I want, of which I’m considering getting a (still pretty expensive, but comparably cheap) replica, because I find the silhouette so appealing and can find no wantable substitute) which they usually are not. I often later think my money could have been better spent…this is undeniably the case. It always serves as a lesson, however, and from such lessons one emerges an increasingly superior shopper.**

**Interesting thoughts on this in Garance Dore’s recent post about style bloggers being, in a way, people who are just really good at shopping for themselves. There is a lot of truth to this, I’d say.

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This is the Givenchy Fushcia Irresistable lipstick, the Japonesque blush, and a bit of playing around with the Kat Von D Monarch palette.

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Floral leggings (thrifted), Banana Republic trench (thrifted), Loslandifen pumps (eBay), Lands End turtleneck (thrifted), Mulberry Roxanne bag (thrifted), Pearls of Joy 10mm studs. On the nails: Essie polish in Naughty Nautical.

x

 

on the lips: this badass Givenchy lipstick

Allow me to introduce you to some of the most badass lipstick packaging around (yet still sleek, not studded within an inch of its structural integrity). Givenchy’s Le Rouge line has a gorgeous formula and this packaging, while not gold, is perhaps the next best thing: leather.

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Well, faux leather. Look at it! Extremely satisfying to interact with this packaging.

Sam from Pixiwoo was wearing and recommended this shade, Fuschia Irrésistable, in a video about favorite products and it went straight to the wishlist. It’s similar in color to NARS Funny Face (a semi-matte) but brighter and with a relatively glossy finish.

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Mmmhmm. Yes. We need that.

It’s light, pigmented, intensely creamy, packed with skincare benefits; it has all the strengths of the latest generation of lipsticks. This kind of creamy-yet-weightless formula is easier and easier to come by these days. Estee Lauder’s new Pure Color Envy line is incredibly creamy, too, and Urban Decay’s Revolution line. Japonesque, YSL, Tom Ford… I don’t care that it is Givenchy—in fact I don’t know a lot about Givenchy—but that many of the designer brands are coming through with stellar formulas cannot be denied.

Finally (over a year later!) picked it up in a recent Sephora promo. You know, becauseIt is beautiful. If you are wondering how I could possibly need any more lipstick, I am sorry to be the one to tell you: you may be in danger of missing the point entirely.