Wednesday, August 31, 2016

National Thrift Shop Day with Value Village


Ah, a thrifters favourite day of the year! Last week, on August 17th, was National Thrift Shop Day. Value Village was up in Vancouver celebrating at our local Vancouver Aquarium, with a special art installation. The installation is made up of old disposed of clothing, in an effort to show people just how much waste we create when we constantly buy new clothes. In fact, Value Village is asking people to give a sh!rt about their fashion footprint by making smarter shopping decisions and reusing clothes that have already been produced.

It takes over 700 gallons of water to produce one cotton t-shirt, so making the choice to thrift your next t-shirt rather than buying it new, can make a bit difference to the environment! Now no one is perfect, and I still buy new clothes as well, but I make a concerted effort to focus on supplementing most of my clothing shopping by going to thrift stores like Value Village. And when I do go to the thrift store, I always make sure to donate more than I bring home!

So the next time you're looking for a new shirt, maybe stop by your local thrift shop first - you might be surprise by what you find!









Skirt - (thrifted via Value Village) | Shirt - (thrifted via Value Village) | Sunglasses - Oscar by Oscar de la Renta (via Winners) | Bag - c/o Value Village | Shoes - (via Richmond Night Market) | Purse - Kate Spade






Happy Styling (and Thrifting!) xo

~ Britta

Monday, August 29, 2016

Last Weeks of Summer: Seersucker Dress


Summer ain't over yet! I'm making the most of my summer wardrobe right now, while we still have a few weeks of summer left. One of the popular prints in my wardrobe is the seersucker print, which you saw earlier this summer in this post. I love the retro look of the seersucker print, and this particular dress has a super cute cut out and detailed sweetheart neckline. Seersucker always looks great with tan and beige colours like my hat and heels. A little tan belt would look cute with 

I might miss wearing some of these dresses once the weather starts to cool off here, but to be honest, I'm pretty excited for fall fashion! I actually don't usually feel the need to shop much for the first bit of fall, because I'm just so excited to pull out my old clothes from last fall: it feels like their brand new all over again! But until the weather changes to fall-like conditions, I'm happy to get as much wear out of my summer dresses as possible.

What about you? Are you fearing the end of summer, or too excited about fall to care?








Dress - American Eagle (thrifted via Salvation Army) | Hat - Mad Hatter | Purse - Just Fab | Heels - Just Fab (similar)



Happy Styling! xo

~ Britta

Friday, August 26, 2016

Budget Beauty Favourites: Makeup Revolution Palettes


Brace yourselves palette lovers! I have been head over heels for Makeup Revolution, ever since London Drugs introduced me to this makeup brand at their annual #LDBeauty event in Vancouver, earlier this year. I love London Drugs' budget beauty brands NYX Cosmetics and e.l.f. Cosmetics, and now I'm adding Makeup Revolution to my list of favourites now that they've officially launched in stores!

Let's take a peek at some of my favourite palettes from Makeup Revolution so far:





Makeup Revolution Blush Palette in Blush Queen (available at London Drugs):

I almost didn't want to dip into this palette, it's so gorgeous! Each of the blushes is shimmery and beautifully marbled. I'm a little unsure of how I'm going to use some of the deeper shades yet, but the softer pinks and purples are perfect, and I have been using the top right as a shimmery highlighter along the tops of my cheekbones.




Makeup Revolution Salvation Palette Unicorns Unite (available at London Drugs):

I love makeup, but I've never been super creative with my eye looks. I do love my neutrals. But this palette is perfect! They've already paired the shades together, and I really like that they've included matte shadows in the palette as well. A good assortment for a compact little palette! The colours aren't super pigmented, but I'm okay with that, since I don't like to go too bright and bold with my eye looks. This is an especially great palette if you're just getting into makeup. PS. The palette is called 'Unicorns Unite'...how can you not want a palette called that??




Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Powder Palette (available at London Drugs):

This is a great budget contour palette! I find that a lot of contour palettes don't have good shimmery white highlights. Usually it's pretty yellowy and only has a hint of shimmer. Unlike those palettes, this Makeup Revolution Contour Palette has 2 beautiful baked highlighters, one of which is a nice bright white. I've been using this one non-stop as my highlight along my cheekbones lately, and I'm finding the second shade from the left on the bottom row is perfect for my contour.




Makeup Revolution Flawless 2 Palette (available at London Drugs):

Phew, this is a lot of eye shadows in one palette! And it's super compact! It's got a fabulous range of neutral and smokey shades for everyday eye looks that you can amp up for an evening out. Plus there's a good mix of shimmery and matte shades, which is a must-have for me.






Makeup Revolution Redemption Palette in Iconic 3 (available at London Drugs):

So I may have saved the best palette for last here. Love rose gold? Then this is your palette. It's actually a great dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, with it's range of neutral, rosy and dark hues. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to go for more natural eye looks, so I was pretty excited to give this palette a try, as it's just a big fancier than my average neutrals palette. I am head over heels for the first 3 shades on the left especially!





Which Makeup Revolution palette are you most excited to try?


Happy Styling! xo

~ Britta

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Diner en Blanc 2016


Another Diner en Blanc has come and gone in Vancouver, and it was a magical evening! If you aren't sure what this whole Diner en Blanc thing is all about, you can check out my earlier post here, or my post from last year's event, which was my first time attending. But to give you a very quick rundown, it's a giant al fresco picnic where you dine with thousands of other locals, who bring their entire dining set-up and meal with them, all dressed in white. The venue remains a secret until the very last moment, when your assigned group makes their way to the special spot!

The secret venue ended up being a plot of land near Telus World of Science, in the heart of downtown Vancouver. It would have been ideal if we'd been on a piece of land that wasn't basically a parking lot, but to be fair, it's pretty hard to find an open space in Vancouver to seat 6,000 people. Yep you read that right: 6,000 people! The organizers did a fantastic job of making the most of the space they had, and had stages for music and performers, a lounge area with a view of Science World, a faux-grass area for croquet, and lots more.

For my own Diner en Blanc outfit, I ended up making a few adjustments since I posted my 'what to wear' blog post here. To add a bit of colour and fun to the outfit, I added a ethereal floral headband as an accessory. As I said I would, I brought a pair of white heels along to change into once we arrived, but with all the craziness of setting up our tables, and wandering around people watching, I actually ended up wearing my white flats the whole night. Seeing as how I was sitting half the night, and it was dark for the rest, it didn't matter much at all, not wearing my heels!

Leeanne of Legallee Blonde joined me as my date, and together we prepared a lovely dinner of watermelon salad, quinoa salad, pesto asparagus pasta, and chocolate mousse for dessert. The bottle of wine didn't hurt, either. It's a good thing every table received a bottle of water too, because we were having a bit of a heat wave in Vancouver last week! We had a wonderful time, eating, drinking and making friends with our tablemates beside us. Then of course, there was a chunk of time after dinner to meander around the venue and do some people watching. Between the beautiful and creative table displays (which people brought and set-up themselves), to the stylish and outlandish outfits (er, costumes), it's quite a sight to be seen! One of my favourite parts of the whole evening though, is when all 6,000 guests light a sparkler - it really is so magical to see them all lit up at once, and makes such a lovely send-off.

Have you attended a Diner en Blanc event in your city? What was your experience like?










Dress - via Ross Dress for Less | Headband - Forever 21 (similar) | Earrings - Nobis & Grey | Shoes - Aldo














Happy Styling! xo

~ Britta

Friday, August 19, 2016

Beauty Tips: 6 Ways To Look More Awake


Let me preface this by saying that I am not a morning person. If I need to be up in the morning, I will sleep in as much as possible before whipping myself together and running out the door. So over the years, I've curated a collection of my favourite products for making me look wide-eyed and awake in the nick of time!



Here are my 6 tips to look more awake:

1. Reduce dark spots around the eyes
Part of my evening skincare routine includes applying Racinne's Youth Power Serum around the eye area to help combat the signs of aging, and reduce puffiness and dark spots. The serum is packed with highly concentrated anti-aging peptides and antioxidants from fruit and plant extracts. I use the smooth applicator to apply a small amount around the eye socket, and then use my ring finger to dab the serum along the eye socket and upwards towards my brow line. It feels so luxurious! I love that it helps to reduce the dark spots, especially since I have quite a few dark freckles on top of the bags under my eyes that I want to keep at bay. Good skincare is a great start!




2. Conceal
My favourite concealer is Emani's HD Corrective Concealer (available at London Drugs). All it takes is a little under each eye in a triangle shape to help cover up the bags that are inevitably under my tired eyes. The fair shade is perfect for my skintone, and I've never had any issues with creasing. I finish up by applying my Missha BB Cream over top.



3. Give Your Skin a Glow
I find that a nice glow on the skin makes your skin look perkier! I like to apply the Revlon Photoready Insta-Fix Highlighting Stick (available at London Drugs) right along the top of my cheekbones. Then I'll use my fingers to dab it in. It gives a gorgeous sheen that looks natural!



4. Highlight Your Brows
My tried and true way to look more awake has always been to apply NYX's Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk (available at London Drugs) just below my brows. A lot of people just use a highlighter, but I find the bright white highlights the brow much better, and seems to make my eyes pop better. I draw a line along the brow line underneath the brow, and then use my finger to blend it in.



5. Brighten the Corners of the Eyes
Everyone knows that adding some highlighter to the inner corner of your eyes helps to brighten up the eye area and make you look more awake. The question is: which highlighter do you use? I love Youngblood's Eye-Illuminating Duo Pencil (available at London Drugs). It has a matte pencil on one end, and a shimmer pencil on the other. The shimmer pencil is super pretty and is easy to apply to the inner corner of the eyes. The nude pink shimmer shade is gorgeous!



6. Lengthen & Tint Lashes
To make your eyes as open and bright as possible, long lashes are a must! The thing is, I'm blonde, which means the tips of my lashes are blonde too. Mascara obviously solves that problem, but I'd prefer if they actually looked longer even when I wasn't wearing mascara. That way, I'd look more awake even when I roll out of bed! I've been wearing Rimmel's new Volume Colourist Mascara (available at London Drugs) for the last couple weeks, and I love how the tips of my lashes have now been tinted black! I still rock the full mascara look to look the most awake, but it's great that even when I remove my mascara, I still look bright-eyed!




Now you can hit the snooze button, whip together this wide-eyed look and race out the door!


Happy Styling! xo

~ Britta
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