Wedding Trailer

I am SO excited to share our wedding trailer! I have to say, I was more excited to receive our wedding DVD than our photos. Rain Studios went above and beyond my expectations, and they were so much fun to work with. I highly recommend them to California brides!
Hope you enjoy!

YSL Touche Eclat: Review

As a beauty junkie, I am always looking to try out new products, and this iconic gold tube had been on my mind as I ran out of Benefit's Erase Paste. Despite some pretty bad reviews, I purchased it anyway. What I love about YSL's Touche Eclat is that it is so smooth. Unlike Erase Paste, it doesn't settle in any lines and it stays put.

Many of the bad reviews I read stated that Touche Eclat does a poor job as a concealer.  It is not a concealer. According to Sephora, "Touche Eclat banishes shadows and tired-looking eyes by adding light and creating an instant lift to the eye area. Touche Eclat widens eyes when used between the eyebrows and along the sides of the nose and created fuller looking lips when used in the hollow of the chin and around the contour of the lips. It's formulated for all skin" 

I use it in number 1, the lightest shade after I've used concealer, foundation, and powder underneath my eyes, in the inner corners, and above my lip because I like to have a light, luminescent look especially  under my eye area and feel as though applying it first, second or third diminishes the effect. 

The bottom line: I absolutely love this product and I would buy it again, however, I've seen lots of rave reviews on the significantly less expensive Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Concealer. I would love to know if any of you have compared the two.

P.S. I don't know how you beauty gurus take such flattering, flawless photos! I struggled like a fool for about 20 minutes to get a decent "up close" shot! I guess practice makes perfect. 

Missoni for Target purchases

I was one of the many who went over to Target bright and early this morning after 5 months of the much anticipated Missoni for Target launch. I planned to go to a Target that I didn't think anyone would be lining up at, as I saw on twitter that other stores in California had lines winding around the parking lot. Luckily I was able to wait in my car and only saw about 5 people line up a few minutes before the store opened.

Within seconds of the store opening, people came flooding in, dashing for carts and swiping items right off the racks. I saw one woman take an entire rack of sweaters, then made a mad dash to the home goods items and took everything there. Never have I seen women act so batshit crazy! In my experience, people went way more overboard than black Friday craziness.

After 20 minutes or so, all of the accessories were wiped out. 

Here are my purchases:

The quality of all the items was great in my opinion, including the housewares and cosmetic bags. 

I would love to see what all of you think of the collection, so I'm adding a link up to this post.  Please link your Missoni blog post below!

Wedding: The Dress

Here I am, a little more than three months after my wedding, finally getting around to doing a series of wedding posts. I'm going to be very honest by sharing my ups and downs with all of you. I do not want to sugar coat the wedding planning process, because I would be lying to say that it was easy and perfect. I hope that I can inspire and help other brides by telling my stories and sharing tips and suggestions that I learned, many times the hard way!

I'll start by saying that I planned my own wedding; I did have a venue wedding coordinator to guide me and help with logistics but in all other respects I was on my own. I absolutely loved planning my wedding, even though sometimes I wanted to rip my hair out it was stressful at times. Google docs, Inside Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, Bride and Bloom magazines were my best friends during the planning process. My wonderful, talented, and beautiful bridesmaids were also always there for me and I really couldn't have done it without them!

I fell in love with the Maggie Sottero Sabelle wedding gown right after I got engaged. It sounds cliche, but as a little girl (and into adulthood) I wanted to look like a princess on my wedding day, and the Sabelle dress is exactly that, a princess dress. 

I went to try it on, and absolutely loved it. I decided not to buy it that first time because I had 20 months until my big day and wanted to browse and try on others before making my decision. I cannot even tell you how many wedding dresses I tried on in the span of 16 months. Among my top picks was the Kenneth Pool Degas gown, a very different dress than the Sabelle. After trying on the Degas gown, I flirted with the idea of a more modern, clean, mermaid or drop waist gown which is a stark contrast to the Sabelle- a dress complete with every imaginable detail: crystals, lace, silk, rosettes, asymmetrical shape, a cathedral length train, and some pickups (which I usually abhor). 

I purchased a Barbra Allin gown that was majorly discounted at a sample sale, with the hopes of altering it to fit the princessy style I'd always envisioned. I liked the dress, but I had hopes of reincarnating the blank canvas of a dress into something completely different. MAJOR mistake, ladies! 

DO NOT buy a wedding dress under these circumstances, no matter how much the price is reduced. 

In the end, to "fix" this dress would have cost me more than the dress itself. 

12 weeks before my wedding, I bought the Maggie Sottero gown I had fallen in love with first. 

{wiping my lipstick off my husband's face after our first kiss}

After my dress saga, the most important things I learned were:

-Buy the dress that you can't say no to and can't keep your mind off of.

-Only take one or two people dress shopping, those who know and understand your style.

-For women of all shapes and sizes: make sure there is support BUILT IN to your gown! As you can probably see, I am big busted. I did not wear a bra on my wedding day because 1. When the bra is not attached to the dress, you'll naturally have the urge to pull up one or the other. 2. I had lots of support built in to my dress, and did not need to wear a bra. 

Fall Purchases and Wants

Being that it is September first, I thought it would be appropriate to do a Fall post-despite the fact that it has been 90+ degrees here in California. I'm ready for fall already!

Fall Buys
People's Liberation for Charlotte Russe Tanya Red Skinny Jeans

Colored Jeans have been a hit this summer, and are huge for fall as well.

These were marked down to $29.99 from $94.99 which I thought was quite a steal. When the tag was scanned, the price came up as $0.99!!! With tax, I payed $1.08. major SCORE! Never in my life have I payed so little for clothes, not even for socks. Unfortunately these are sold out on Charlotte Russe's website.

Heart print blouse from H&M

Bath and Body Works Salty Caramel Wallflower

This is a new fall scent of Bath and Body Works'. I love it, however Creamy Nutmeg is my favorite but it won't be available until later in the fall.

Fall Wants

ASOS ACT Suede and Snake Effect Platform Boots

Snakeskin is all over the place for fall-check out Kim and Kourtney Kardashian both wearing Christian Louboutin snakeskin shoes.

Missoni for Target Scarves

I will be ordering these online as soon as the Missoni merchandise goes live on Target.com.

ASOS Leather Portfolio Clutch

What's on your wish list for fall?

Group Encounter

One of my biggest beauty pet peeves is nail polish bubbling, as the only places I like bubbles are in champagne and the bathtub. Nail bubbles are not cute, and after dealing with them recently no matter what techniques I tried (not allowing a lot of air in the nail polish bottles, using a base and top coat, using a thin layer of each application, and the list goes on...) I decided to try a new base and top coat because I suspected that my old base and top coats were the culprits. Sure enough, I was right.

Behold my new favorite base and top coats:

Orly Bonder-$9

The best base coat ever, I love the "rubberized" texture that allows nail polish to grip onto your nails sans bubbles.

Out the Door Top Coat

I had heard great things about this top coat, as well as Seche Vite, but Seche Vite's reproductive harm warning was alarming and turned me off. I am very happy with my Out the Door purchase, this top coat is very fast drying and super shiny.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Season 2

My favorite housewives are coming back for round 2 of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on September 5th at 9 PM on Bravo and I couldn't be more excited! It seems as though we can expect quite a few changes (and no shortage of drama!) from season 1:

-2 new cast members will be joining: Dana Wilkey, who is apparently a good friend of Taylor's and Brandi Glanville, who is Eddie Cibrian's ex wife.

{Glanville &Wilke) photo c/o Access Hollywood

-Taylor opens up about her divorce

-Lisa deals with the harsh fallout with her "permanent houseguest", Cedric

Check out the season 2 trailer below:

Will you be watching?