2014: A Year In Review

Phew! It's almost 2015 already! This year has been crazy and busy and crazy busy. It's already time for a year end review. So what have I been up to this year?

I attended a charity gala. Yay for fancy fancy!

I hosted a vintage playsuit sew along and made an awesome playsuit!

I chopped my hair off into a pixie.

Took a trip to Florida.

We did vow renewals on the beach and I made my own 1940s wedding dress.

And stopped by Epcot for my 25th Birthday!

I finally got a fruit hat! Yay pears!

I splurged on myself and purchased several pieces from Pin Up Girl Clothing including this lovely dress!

I explored a lighter hair color but eventually went back to my natural color.

I made a ton of Renaissance costumes including this fitted English gown from the Tudor Tailor. It's one of my two favorite Historical makes this year.

My other favorite Historical make is this Italian dress. I got to use stash materials, remake a dress from a portrait and do a new period! Plus this dress is just too fun to wear.

I got a fabulous new vintage dress that fit me perfectly! I don't wear a lot of actual vintage but this dress just had to come home with me.

 I participated in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress and got a chance to wear this darling vintage dress.

My latest fashion obsession has turned out to be the 1930s! And I'm sure you'll see more 1930s in 2015.

And, most exciting, we moved to Florida!

A Rose by Any Other Name

Today's outfit post is featuring my new Pin Up Girl Clothing dress! You guys have already seen a sneak peak of it on my vacation haul video. I've actually worn it several times but only just gotten pictures of it!

Tada! It's the Evelyn dress! They don't currently have this print on the website but there are several other color/print options.

I really love the fact that it comes with a reversible bolero. 

The print is a fabulous barkcloth-esque rose print that I just fell in love with.

I chose to wear this dress with a crinoline for extra poof factor!

And it matched my new 50s hat just perfectly! :D

One thing I love about this dress (aside from the fact that it fits me off the rack) is that it is quite long! I'm 5'4" and it hits below the knee. I can even wear it with my super long crinoline!

One of my big hang ups about Bernie Dexter dresses is that they are so short!

Overall, I'm very happy with the quality of this dress and I'll probably be shopping from Pin Up Girl Clothing again!

Youtube: Spring Beauty Hits and Misses

I've been trying some new beauty products over the past few months, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on them. Enjoy!


I'm also on the hunt for a new foundation, so please leave me your recommendations!

There's nothing quite as thrilling as a new frock

If you follow me along on facebook, you'll already know that I wore out a new dress on Saturday!

Tada! Rebecca correctly identified it as a Bernie Dexter dress.

As a seamstress, I don't usually buy dresses so this was quite an indulgence for me!

I wore it out to a bar to hear a great band play. It's called Sibling Rivalry and the girls asked for a shot with me!

It was a great night out! It was a bit chilly so I wore the dress with a newly shortened cardigan. Once the band got rocking, the bar warmed up enough for me to take it off!

As a rule I don't wear green on St. Patrick's day, but on St. Patty's day eve, I let a bit slide in with the cherry leaves. I so popped in the sea of green!

And I think I need more yellow in my wardrobe. I had no idea it would look so good on me!

Love these shoes!

Now for the dress review part. This dress did not fit me all that well when it arrived, but I really expected that. If this had been a backless/halter/strappy type dress, I probably could have gone down a side, but I went with a large because a too big dress is better than a too small dress.

I too some out of the center back at the zip. I also took a bit out right under the arm. Lastly, I made the princess seam curve more at the top so the neckline wouldn't gape. It's kind of a reverse FBA. It fits pretty well right now except that the back of the armhole does something a bit funky when I slouch. Just have to remember to have good posture!

 Since I did do a bit of remodeling, I got a chance to see the inner workings of the dress. It's really nice. Everything was clean and of good quality. I love that there were pockets! And there was a bit of boning in the bodice inset which gives a nice shape. The belt also seems pretty good quality. The only thing I didn't like was that it had a tiny hem and I would have loved if I could have let it out a bit since it's a bit shorter than I prefer. (And I'm not that tall either....)

One bummer with this dress is that they only ship one day a week and I happened to buy it the day after the weekly shipment went out so it was almost a week before it shipped.  (I bought it directly form Bernie Dexter's website as opposed to a retail place that carries the line like Mod Cloth.) So keep that in mind if you have a specific event you'd like to wear it too. It's 100% cotton but is labeled dry clean only, which really annoys me. They are probably worried about shrinkage but for cotton, the most delicate I'll do is hand washing.

Bernie Dexter Clothing is a small business and they do produce the dresses and run things here in the US which I love! These dresses are great but being a seamstress, I know I could easily make a similar dress for much cheaper if I could find a similar fabric (because then there'd be no labor costs/shipping/etc). Bernie tends to use a lot of Micheal Miller fabrics so I'll probably keep an eye out for these fabrics rather than buy another dress even if I have to get a different color way. For no sewers, the price is pretty reasonable since it's comparable to what I'd charge to make a dress like this with this fabric especially when you take into consideration the overhead for making this dress. (Being married to a small business owner has been quite an eye opening experience especially with pricing!)

With all of that said, I adore this dress and I'm going to wear it till it falls apart! Going into this purchase, I wanted a quality repro piece even if it meant paying a bit more. Grad school has kicked into high gear and sewing time is quite rare right now. I'd definitely recommend this brand to anyone. I'm sure you guys will see this dress loads this summer!

Youtube: Buxom Lip and Lash Duo Review

Today's youtube is a review of the last of my Black Friday Sephora haul products. Enjoy!

Makeup Reviews

I finally feel like I've used the new products I got on Black Friday enough to give them a proper review. This bunch if from the Kat von D line.




Enjoy!

Baking in Style

I adore baking! And I've been wanting to make a larger apron to really protect me while baking. I'd been eying Wearing History's 1940s Apron pattern for a while and I finally got around to sewing it this month.

I used a green quilting cotton with red flowers and lavender bias binding. This pattern uses a lot of bias binding and it has every shape imaginable that you have to bind-inside corners, outside corners, shallow curves, sharp curves, sweetheart shapes...... But Lauren has a slew of amazing bias binding tutorials on her blog that makes life a whole lot easier!

The heart shaped pockets where the most difficult part but once you get past them it was quick and easy.

I suppose you could swap them out for patch pockets of a different shape but really the hearts are just too cute! :D

Adventures in Black Hair Dye

Here's a review of the drugstore box black hair dyes that I tried to get black hair.

It's not easy being green (especially when you have purple hair)

When I dyed my hair Thursday, it was a lovely color which lasted through Sunday morning. Now admittedly I was a bit rushed getting ready this (errr, every) Sunday morning and wasn't really paying attention to my hair. So when we left church after the service and my husband goes "Uh, your hair is purple..." it was quite a shock. And of course, I was wearing the color that most brings out purple chartreuse.

And this is the dress that I was going to wear to Wicked but didn't finish. Here are the details:

Fabric: some chartreuse linen or linen look fabric I got from my friend's destash (free)
Pattern: Butterick 5281
Year: 1946 reprint
Notions: Vintage snaps (free), zipper (stash), vintage buttons (came with this fabric)
Time to complete: three days
First worn: to church and my niece's graduation party
Wear again? Yes, but after my hair is no longer purple! I really like the color a lot more now that it's in dress form than I did when it was just a roll of fabric in my stash.
Total cost: free! Yay!

I paired it with brown wedges and my new tan 50s style purse. I've found some lovely vintage inspired pieces in the stores lately (some didn't come home with me though!) and I'm planning on a post on where to find them later this week.

Of course, today had to be the day of my niece's graduation party so gobs of people saw my purple hair. (My husband is older than me and he's the youngest in his family by a lot so I do have a niece who's graduated high school and another who's actually a few months older than me!) I only got a few shots since the camera battery decided to die. This camera didn't capture the color very well but it looked more like this:

Plum-y purple with red "shine"! Mine's not quite so dark but it's what I imagine this looks like after it's faded a bit. Lots of people told me they loved it and didn't really think it looked purple but I'm so not into it. I should have known that this was coming since I did notice some hairs in the shower while I was rinsing out the color that were definitely purple. But since my hair looked fine when I blow dried it, I didn't think anything of it.

**The rest of this post is a review of the color.**

The color I used was Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color BL 26 Reflective Auburn Black. It's a special line designed for people with naturally dark hair so I thought it'd be a good fit for me. I thought this shade would be a good option to go dark since a bit of red would help keep the black from looking too flat and unnatural. There are 3 red shades, 3 brown shades and 3 black shades in this line and my hair looks much more like the picture on the box of R1 Dark Intense Auburn. I did read some reviews that said that there were some plumy results but the Garnier website just lumps all of the reviews for the entire line together rather than separating them out by shade so I assumed it went with the R1 because it did look a bit plumy on the box. The other bad thing about this color is that it still runs in the shower! Since I love doing pin curls, this is a big no no for me. There were also reviews that mentioned this but again, I assumed they went with the actually red shades!

Now I will say some good things about this product. It did actually dye some red over my dark hair which is really hard for me to do. If it had stayed the original color, I'd be all over this dye. It smelled really good for a hair dye and came with an extra add in with some oils and such that smelled lovely. The gloves that came with it are much nicer than the gloves that usually come with hair dye. Normally I have to use my own gloves because I hate the super cheap ones that are usually included. My hair feels pretty good too and the conditioner that was included is really good.

In general, I do like Garnier products and I'll probably even use a different hair dye color from them in the future but I do have one more major beef with their colored hair products. I use their shampoo and conditioner when I don't color treat my hair but their color treated line contains citric acid. I'm sure many of you have heard that you can use lemon juice to lighten your hair. Well, citric acid is the stuff in lemon juice that lightens your hair! I'm sure they use citric acid and lemon extract to get the signature Garnier fruity scent, but there are some other great naturally occurring chemicals in lemons and other fruits that smell yummy besides citric acid! (Yay chemistry!)

I'm not sure how much citric acid they do put in their shampoos and conditioners but I don't want to wash anymore hair dye down the drain than I have to. So, I opt to purchase other brands of shampoo and conditioner when my hair is color treated.

I'm going to try and get some video of my hair before I dye it again and do a video review.

Make up Review and Blogger Award

This make up review is for an eyebrow powder to help you get those lovely vintage brows!

I've also been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Tina of Down the Retro Rabbit Hole! Thanks!

I'm supposed to list 7 things about myself.

1. I'm an avid scrapbooker. I posted some of my work back in January but it's my other expensive hobby.

2. I like science and math and all of those other school subjects people love to hate. (Except gym. Everyone hates gym.) I also hate history. Go figure I'd fall in love with vintage and historical costuming.

3. I love to read. My favorite kinds of books are science fiction and fantasy (especially the kind that use both.). I read voraciously in middle and high school and have only recently had enough time to read again. My favorite authors are Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings and Sara Douglass.

4. I'm the oldest of four with two sisters and a brother. I also have an older half-brother but his mom and my dad didn't get married till I was in high school so I've definitely got the oldest kid personality.

5. I'm a crazy picky eater. It drives my husband nuts as he loves all kinds of foods. My philosophy is that I'm an adult and no longer have to eat yucky foods I don't like.

6. I didn't see Titanic till I was 18 despite the fact that it came out when I was in fourth grade. For whatever reason, my mom thought it was "bad" for me despite the fact that I watched movies with much worse. I also didn't see Gone with the Wind or anything Audrey Hepburn till after I was an adult.

7. I generally hate anything that requires me to be outside, get exercise or sweat but I adore bike riding. I found out about a great bike path near my house last summer and I've been biking there ever since.

Kat Von D Makeup Review

My review of some Kat Von D makeup! And Lisa Freemont Street posted a review of this line today too!

Review of Lauren Rennells' "Retro Makeup"

Check out my review of Lauren Rennells' "Retro Makeup"! The Reader's Digest version is BUY THIS BOOK NOW!

Manic Panic Product Review

As many of you know, I went red head last month and have been using Manic Panic semi-permanent hair color cream in Flaming between colors (every 2.5 weeks or so) to bump up my color. My base color was dyed by a professional over my natural hair color.

My virgin hair.

Color and ease of application:

I applied the color on my own head with a paint brush. Considering that I'd never done my own hair color before, it wasn't that hard. I dipped right out of the jar, which worked pretty well. The product wasn't runny, and didn't spray every where. I did drip on the counter once and it did stain, so be sure to cover your work area well.

I kept the product in for 2-2.5 hours, as I was dying over dark hair and Ashley of Lisa Freemont Street had left hers in for longer and not fried her hair. I rinsed my hair in my kitchen sink the first time and in the tub the second time I dyed it. Neither one was stained. The jar says not to get on your scalp, and while it didn't irritate my scalp, where I slopped on my scalp, it was stained (but went away after a few washes) and was a bit difficult to get the product off my scalp. I didn't do a good enough job getting the product out the first time and accidentally got some dye on one of my husband's favorite shirt. So, if you do get some on your scalp, be sure to work it off during the rinse!

When I blow dried my hair, the color was great! It certainly didn't match the colors on the website of people who had prebleached their hair, but it did come out noticeably stronger than the professional color. The color did not come out completely even, but I did apply it myself and I noticed that the lighting greatly affected how the color looked, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

The second dye turned out great too, but it did not take on my roots at all. I was hoping that it would make my roots a bit less noticeable, but not luck. So, I'd definitely suggest a base red or bleach for people with hair as dark as mine using this product. It also wasn't as strong of a color, but I think that's probably due to the base color fading significantly between Manic Panic applications.

It didn't photograph very well, but I don't have great lighting in my house, so that may have had something to do with it. I also think that not photographing well is just the nature of red dye over dark hair.

4.5/5 great product!

My Manic Panic-ed hair, dyed two days ago. Has not been washed since I dyed it.

Longevity and Maintenance:

I washed my hair every other day under cold water with shampoo for color treated hair and used dry shampoo on the off days. I also used a color sealing serum on days I washed. The color lasted about 2 weeks, although it did fade a bit during that period. I definitely don't recommend washing your hair everyday if you use this product. It took a bit of getting used to, but my hair doesn't get oily so fast anymore.

My biggest problem with this product is that it ran. Water didn't really affect it much, but as soon as I put the shampoo in, my water turned all rust colored from the dye. This lasted as long as the color was good (about 2 weeks). I had to blow dry my hair every night to keep from getting color all over my towels/pillowcases/bed. At home, I used dark towels, so it wasn't noticeable after the first couple washes, but while on vacation, I had to use the stereotypical white hotel towels to dry off with. I felt pretty bad not knowing if the color would come out. :/ I dreaded going in the pool. While it was a bit chilly in FL for the pool, I did visit the hot tub and had to put my hair up so it wouldn't get wet.

I love my showers and hate blow drying, so this was quite a bit of a bummer for me.

3.5/5 It took a lot of maintenance and bled. I know it's a semi-permanent color, but I really did expect it to stop changing the color of my shower water much sooner. Be prepared to change up your shower routine and add some mileage to your blow dryer.

Post Manic Panic Hair towards the end of two weeks.

Effects on my hair:

In her hair dye video, Ashley of Lisa Freemont Street claimed that using Manic Panic improved the condition of her hair. I was a bit skeptical. Could a hair dye improve the condition of my hair?

The professional coloring did damage my hair quite a bit. Now, I have naturally really fine, soft hair, so while there was a noticeable coarsening, it was by no means fried. I did used a professional leave in conditioner treatment twice between the professional color and Manic Panic. It helped a bit. The Manic Panic, however, helped out a lot! My hair is not back to 100% but my hair was much nicer and the product definitely helped more than the professional leave in conditioner.

5/5 I'm not sure how much it helps bleach damaged hair, but I was very impressed with what it did to my hair.

Post professional dye hair. (not this orange in real life)

My impressions of the company:

I didn't need to call customer service, but I was pretty impressed with the packaging. Inside the box was a catalog complete with coupons. There was also a slip where two separate people had checked off that the correct color had been shipped. That impressed me. The best customer service is the one that isn't needed.

The website was also pretty easy to use. There were a lot of pictures and testimonials, which was great for the Manic Panic virgin. I ordered online

5/5 Seems like people there care.

Manic Panic-ed hair dyed two days ago. You can see my roots and where I got dye on my scalp. I've not washed it yet so the scalp should be clear after I shower today. The splotches where I dripped on my face went away after washing my face.

Price and Value:

The Manic Panic "Classic" Cream Formula Hair Color was $12, which I think is a great value. I did thing the shipping was a little steep ($6.95), but that's a flat rate and probably covers shipping from NYC to LA and I'm only in little old Ohio. I was able to get two dyes out of one jar, which was great and made it a much better deal for me. Longer hair probably will only be able to get one dye per jar. If you can get Manic Panic in a store near you and avoid shipping, go you.

4.5/5 Avoid shipping costs and get 5/5!

Overall:

A great product. It's a commitment, especially if you have dark hair or want to go for a more outlandish color, but if you're ready for the commitment, Manic Panic is the dye for you.

4.5/5

This is an unsolicited review. I was not paid nor did I receive free or discounted merchandise in return for this review. It's just my honest opinion.