fictional fashion icons: buffy summers

I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's easily one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and I have a deep fondness for every single character that hasn't faded, no matter how long it's been since I watched the show (well, maybe not Warren). I recently started rewatching the whole series with my roommates, who had never seen it, and it was like hanging out with old friends again. I missed Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Anya...what I did not miss was the alternately hilarious and hilariously terrible 90s fashion that permeates the first few seasons. Minidresses ahoy! I wanted to draw inspiration from Buffy Summers and her killer fashion sense without reanimating a few ghouls of the 90s that I'd need a slayer to get rid of again. (Yeah, I know, I'm a huge nerd.)

Buffy knew how to rock a tank top. I picked tanks with some simple girly detailing to get you into that ex-cheerleader/fashionista/monster killer frame of mind. Add a cute pair of jeans that only a slayer could actually kick some butt in. A cross is, of course, the go-to accessory for a vampire slayer--if you don't wear crosses, you can always go in for the claddagh ring (do I hear Buffy and Angel's love theme?) or any delicate silver jewelry. Buffy would never, of course, be left without a pair of "stylish yet affordable boots," and a slayer's purse needs to be cute, but big enough to hold some serious weaponry. Buffy was never one for the super made-up look (not a lot of time for that when there's an apocalypse to stop), so stay fresh and neutral with a clear or pink-tinted gloss.

Put all the pieces together, and you've got some sweet slayer style without feeling like you've fallen into a 90s flashback!

Do you emulate a fictional character's style? I love distilling a piece of media into fashion form, so if there's someone/some show/book/movie you'd like to see, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do!

don't give me any lip

I have two new lip products in my life, one of which is already a passionate companion, the other, like that friend-of-a-friend that you feel compelled to be nice to but are already deeply bored by.

The Contenders
vs.
Dior Creme de Gloss "741" vs. Covergirl Outlast Lip Stain in "Flirty Nude"

There are four major things that I look for in a lip product: color, texture, lasting power, and for a bonus factor--something that makes it different from any other product I might buy. So, let's measure them up.

(ETA: I have no idea why this big ol' blank space showed up and it's not letting me get rid of it. Just keep scrolling!)

	Dior	Cover Girl
Color	Bright, very nice rosy color	Nice neutral on first application, paled considerably after
Texture	Glossy, a bit sticky	Smooth, no texture, a bit drying
Lasting Power	Longer than straight gloss, shine fades but pigment stays	Disappointing, fades to nothing
Bonus	Lip health My lips have felt considerably smoother/less chapped/healthier since wearing	Smell/Taste Pleasant, candy-like smell and faint taste

There are two things we can take from this. One: I just learned how to code tables in HTML! Two: Dior is by far the winner. I was actually very disappointed in the Outlast Lip Stain; I'd been recommended it as a good drugstore buy by many sources, but it just didn't measure up. The color faded quickly (for a product that primarily claims to last a long time) and after the first application, the product was considerably more difficult to apply. I ended up shaking it a lot and am now storing it upside down to hopefully draw color back into the tip.

On the other hand, the Dior is now something of an obsession, I won't lie. It applies like a gloss, but has the creamy color of lipstick! It feels marvelous on my lips, and has actually done a great job of treating my admittedly very poorly cared for lips (whereas the lip stain decided it wanted to sink into all the cracks/ripped up portions to emphasize them. Thanks, Cover Girl!) To be fair, I also received the Dior for free, and at $27 per pop, it's definitely a special treat. But it's also Dior. The formulation of this "creme de gloss" is excellent, but the fact that I can put it on and say "Oh, that? It's Dior~" definitely ups the style factor. Curse you, name brands!

versatile blogger award

Angela over at Lariats and Lavender gave me my very first blogging award! It was very exciting. I've always wanted to win an award in something--I tend to be very unlucky, so it was really nice to be thought of!



Rules

* Thank & Link back to the person who gave you the award
* Answer 10 questions
* Pass it along to 7 blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy
* Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award.

Questions

1. Why did you create this blog?

I've always really loved writing and blogging, but I had a hard time figuring out what niche I could fit into. I was looking for fun fashion blogs, and while I found several I love, I found a lot more than just seemed to be fashion show after fashion show. So I thought I'd start a blog to talk more about my kind of fashion.

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?

A lot of interior design/lifestyle blogs, book blogs, other fashion blogs. Anything that catches my interest, really! Pretty pictures or DIY projects help!

3. Favorite Make-Up Brand?

Urban Decay. I'm hard pressed to stop myself from buying everything from there...love the eye shadows and liners, all the colors offered and the packaging, be still my beating heart!

4. Favorite Clothing Brand?

Apt. 9? Haha, I really love a lot of rockabilly brands like Heartbreaker and Bettie Page, but for the most part, I'm not very brand loyal. I guess I'll also say Miss Sixty since my fab new coat is from there!

5. Indispensable Make-Up Product?

Lipstick. Nothing makes a look come together~ like lipstick does. My sister (who does not suck) gave me a tube of Dior Creme de Gloss, and it is amazing. There's surprisingly good color stay for something that applies like a gloss, and it has pretty much healed my chapped lips. I guess sometimes going high end really does make a difference!

6. Favorite Color?

I don't have one, but I guess I'll say purple, since I've been buying a lot of purple lately.

7. Favorite Perfume?

La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente by BPAL (well, that sounds pretentious!) I also like Shattered and Drink Me (both BPAL), but I usually wear Bath & Bodyworks White Cherry Blossom mist for everyday.

8. Favorite Film?

Man, if I have to pick just one, I'll go with Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I never get tired of that. Other faves: The Princess Bride, The Fall, Moulin Rouge, Hot Fuzz

9. What country would you like to visit and why?

Germany. I'd love to see Europe in general, but I think Germany is particularly gorgeous. Plus, my family immigrated from Germany in the old days, so it would be sort of a return to roots. And I love German food, of course!

10. Would you rather forget to put on mascara on one eye or forget blush on one side of your face?

Blush, because I never wear much blush anyway. And I could always just blend it out if anyone noticed.

And, okay, I actually don't follow that many individual-run blogs? Many of them are done by teams and are a bit more "professional" than I think this is intended for, so I don't have seven bloggers. Sorry! I'm passing the award on to:

Claire from Attic Artist

Okay, so maybe she's my roommate (shh), but I love seeing her art up on my reader. She creates such neat, weird things in her little head.

Gillie from Portrait of the Would-Be Artist as a Young Woman

In my sea of pretty rooms and clothes, I can always count on Gillie to have a new post that really makes me think.

Jessica from Lovely Undergrad

She always has lovely outfits and ideas, and inspired me to check out Polyvore (and the rest is history...)

Thanks again to Andrea, and thanks to the lovely ladies I named above--you make blogging so much fun!

PS: I'm now "on the fence" -- please click to vote Fickle Kitsch up as a lifestyle blog, and go add yours! I love new resources to find nifty blogs through.

ootd: grandpa's birthday

It's my very first outfit post! (woo wooo!)

This weekend we celebrated my grandfather's 81st birthday. We went out to dinner so, of course, I took the opportunity to try out some new pieces and make an outfit worth sharing. Unlike many fashionistas and like most people (I hope!), I don't wear things worth posting every day of my life. But I'd like the percentages to shift a bit more in the favor of postable. And outfit posts are likely to remain few and far between, especially since I have no one to take my pictures in the mornings. Still, no use talking the talk if you can't walk the walk, as it were, and I thought my hair looked pretty good!



And a detail shot to show off some of my accessories. I really do love a good cocktail ring, and I can (obviously) never have enough pearls. I also really enjoy shoulder details; I don't have particularly narrow shoulders, but I don't have especially broad ones either, so I find that a bit of volume at the shoulders help balance out my hips and my preference for skirts with a bit of poof.

You can't see it here, but I also wore earrings with pearls. It was a bit matchy, but since they were behind my hair post of the time, I thought it was okay. I like to think of it as using echoes; I also used purple eyeshadow for my primary color (UD's "Ecstasy") despite wearing a purple shirt. I usually wouldn't let things match so well, but the purples weren't quite the same color, and my eye makeup ends up a lot more subtle than it otherwise would through my glasses. (And purple brings out my eyes, so!) And I had pops of color in the red of the shoes and the tiny flash of yellow from the ring, pulling it all in and giving it a little extra oomph.

Everything in this outfit was either on sale, second hand, or gifted--I'm a pretty thrifty shopper, as most students are by necessity, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun and develop a style!

Top: Kohl's
Skirt: thrifted
Tights: Post from Etsy (they're the peacock tights!)
Shoes: Kohl's
Ring: Francesca's Closet
Necklace JC Penney

fickle tips: glam your orthodontia

This question doesn't really apply to me anymore/I don't know if it applies to a lot of people in general, but how would you go about making trad. braces seem ~fashionable~ or at least easier to ignore/not notice? Makeup techniques? IDK!

Well, I would say the very first thing is to accept that unless you never open your mouth or speak behind a fan (which I would totally support), there's no way to keep people from noticing you have braces. Some things just have to be accepted! That said, you can definitely minimize the impact of your braces if that's the goal. First, if it's possible, go with clear bands next time you get them tightened. The colorful ones are a ton of fun, but if you want people to ignore your braces, you don't want to be drawing extra attention to your mouth. For that purpose, stick with nude/neutral lip colors.

Play up your eyes! The easiest way to minimize the impact of your mouth is to draw the eye upwards instead. Do something fun with your eye make-up, find fun glasses you like (if you, like many of us nerdy teens, have both glasses and braces), play with hair accessories!


1 & 2 via Forever21, 3 & 4 via JanineBasil, 5 & 6 via LovMely

There's no way to hide your braces, but you can definitely direct attention elsewhere. That said, more and more people have braces these days, from elementary school on up through adulthood. Odds are you won't be the only person around who has/had braces, so don't feel weird about them. In fact, I've found that people have a lot of (possibly morbid) fun in one-upping contests about the horrors of orthodontia. Own it. You can look cute with braces!

If you've got a fashion conundrum, a style question, or just want outfit ideas, drop it in my askbox and I'll do my best to help out!

---

Wow, it's been a while. I've been sick (and also lazy) so I need to get back into the groove. I do have some fun stuff in the works, some more homewares, some of that ever beloved kitsch, and probably some more advice/tips (as long as you keep asking me questions, that is!) Hello to some new followers! Don't forget that you can find all sorts of ways to follow me and Fickle Kitsch in the sidebar to make sure you always hear about updates and other cool stuff that just might be on the horizon!

why i am a glasses girl

I got my first pair of glasses in fourth grade. It wasn't really a surprise--my dad wore glasses then, and my mom wore contacts (and glasses at night). In a few years, my sister would get glasses as well, and plenty of my classmates wore them. But things changed. As I got into high school, and even middle school, my peers started abandoning their glasses for contact lenses (especially the other girls.) I've always had really sensitive eyes (they've been known to tear up when other people are talking about eye stuff), so contacts never seemed like an option for me. By now, at this point in my life, I feel like I could probably learn to use contacts.

But guess what? I don't want them.

I love my glasses. I've had pairs I didn't love (the oversized brown ones that made me look like the world's tiniest dweeby professor come to mind), but I've always liked slipping them on in the mornings to start the day and setting them on the dresser at night when I'm ready to sleep. I love that I always have at least one accessory, no matter what. I love how they frame my face. I like that they cover up minor flaws in eyeshadow application! And yes, I think they make me look...not smarter, really, but bookish. I like looking bookish.

I'm a huge fan of chunky black frames (obviously), but I also adore crazy vintage styles. Give me all the cat's eye, rhinestones, and horn-rims you've got! My goal is to go to the optometrist and get all my eye info so I can buy glasses online. There are places like Zenni Optical who offer frames starting at $6.95! (I have never purchased from Zenni, but it's been recommended to me by people in various communities.) For that price, I could have a different pair of glasses for every day of the week! And, of course, for the non-prescription glasses fan, there are plenty of vintage frames available on Etsy. I got the frames I have now my freshman year of college, and I still feel they're very me, but I'd love to inject some variety.

All too often on makeover shows, the makeover includes straightening lovely curly hair (hey!) and a pair of contact lenses (double hey!). Everyone's entitled to their own decisions, of course, and plenty of people far prefer contact lenses. I'm just sayin' -- give glasses a chance! It is totally possible to be glamorous with glasses. You can also do awesome eye makeup with glasses! To be honest, wearing my glasses when I'm all glammed up sort of makes me feel like I'm still keeping my sassy side alive. It's a little bit funky, and a lot of fun.

My sister and I think so, at least!



Also: I now have the Disqus comment system! It hid some of the old comment counts (they're still there if you click on the post), and I hope that it'll be helpful since I can actually reply directly to you! Hopefully an A+ improvement