Social Media Cleanse: Day 2-3

DAY 2

Allow me to tell you about how my second day is going so far...

Let's begin with how I slept last night, I didn't. Due to the fact that I have erased all of my social media apps from my phone, I would've expected to get more sleep, right? Wrong. I rolled around in my bed for nearly three hours before I was able to get any rest.

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe someone was trying to contact me and thought I was simply ignoring their message or if they'd notice I've gone missing. I was wondering about what I would miss this week; I usually get all my news from Twitter. What if I get an interesting follower? It's really not that serious, but for some reason it kept me up.

I think I'm mostly concerned about the fact that I have gained a few followers from school and with the weekend coming up, what if they reach out and invite me somewhere? Will I be missing out on an opportunity to make friends? Again, making it a bigger deal than it needs to be.

Any who, due to my lack of sleep last night, I slept through my alarm and arrived to my first class a few minutes late. Luckily for me, so did my professor. I got there just as she was pulling out her attendance sheet.

Maybe today will be easier than yesterday, I have classes from early morning until later this evening. I saw a poster of an open mic performance occurring tonight, I probably would have missed it had I been buried inside my phone. So here is how I plan on my day going: Eat. Go to class. Eat, again. Binge-watch Younger. Go to the open mic. Sleep.

It's 12:41PM. Time to go eat.

6 hours later...
Due to my lack of sleep, I found myself struggling to get through my three-hour class. I mean normally that would be difficult for anyone because who has an attention span that lasts that long really? Though, I have quite the eccentric professor so it's difficult to find yourself bored in that class. I just couldn't wait for it to be over tonight. Any who, I just had my dinner and I finally got started on that pile of laundry I'd been putting off for about two weeks now. Let's see if I actually finish it.

9:39PM...
Ok, so I didn't wind up going to the open mic but I'm not upset about it. I was able to get two weeks worth of laundry done. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get to it, I mean it had been hiding under my bed for quite some time. It was quite a productive  night, I feel. I completely forgot that after the clothes is done washing, you actually have to fold it. Fun.

Day 3

I would like to think that last night was a pretty productive night. I didn't even get the chance to upload my post last night which is why I chose to combine both yesterday and today's posts together. This was morning I had a similar struggle waking up as I had yesterday morning. I thought it might be a great idea to put my phone on the opposite end of the room so when my alarm went off I'd actually have to physically climb in and out of bed. Literally, I have to climb in and out of bed because it is that high. Did I outsmart myself this morning? Absolutely not. I got in and out of bed three times to turn off my alarm, still managed to oversleep. I truly am amazing.

9:30AM...

This has been quite an interesting morning already. The barista, the poor barista, let a huge blob of spit slip out from his mouth while he was speaking to me. He was so embarrassed, but quite honestly, it happens. Just as long as he didn't spit inside my hot cocoa, I'll survive.

11:45AM...

It's lunch time, for me, and I'm quite surprised. I have not found my thumb luring over to where my social media  apps were previously located. I woke up and started reading some sports news and watching some basketball highlights from last nights game. I'm quite proud of myself. Since I wasn't nose deep into my phone I actually had a conversation with one of the school chef's as she prepped my meal. Let me tell you, I saw the portions she had given everyone else, but she definitely packed my plate. This phone cleanse might just be the best idea I've had in a while.

8:36PM...

Ok. Tomorrow I have a day off and I finished all four seasons of Younger, what am I supposed to do now? This could be a good thing, maybe I'll actually go to the gym tomorrow. I mean, I did just get done doing some at-home workouts with a good mixture of what I would call yoga.

11:23PM...

I won't lie, I nearly relapsed. This has never happened before but I actually might be addicted... Or it could have to do with a certain someone. Point is, I caught myself nearly downloading Snapchat. I was getting some slight anxiety, but I said I would last a week so I will go an entire week without my social media. Not to get ahead of myself or anything but I thought maybe I could try this again in the future, but this time keep my social media apps on my phone and test my ability to restrain from actually checking them. We're talking a whole different ball game, but let's first see if I actually make it to Tuesday, shall we?

This is getting quite interesting, I'm actually experiencing withdrawals. I need to go to bed, this is too much.

Social Media Cleanse

DAY 1

After however many months, I am back...

Here's what's knew since I last posted. I got accepted into a University where I can now begin studying fashion. I'm on my own, living on-campus now. I'll give more detail on that in another post.

As you already know from reading the title of this post, I decided to go on a social media cleanse. I've done this twice before, and it is absolutely liberating... for the two days I'm actually gone.

I was on Snapchat when an ex of mine posted a really funny comparison of his professor to the iconic Edna from The Incredibles. I asked him to please post it to Twitter so I could retweet it (in hopes it would go viral). See, I have this strange obsession with Twitter. I could do without Instagram and Snapchat, I'm not really interested in seeing every aspect of someone's life, nor do I care enough to share every aspect of my own. Twitter though, I most definitely have a weird obsession with trying to make people laugh at my bold and quirky tweets. My Twitter although has become more of a fake persona, like Joanne the Scammer. Most of the stuff I put out there are meant as jokes, although at times I would say, my alter ego does show out.

Now, when I asked my ex to upload this video he shared with me that he had deleted Twitter from his phone. For some reason, in that moment it felt inspiring. Ever since I got to college I have made no friends. Given, it's only been two weeks and I arrived during the Spring when most people have already made their friends since Fall. I was beginning to find comfort in just hiding in my room after classes and only leaving unless I had a class. So I told him, "I'm going to delete mine now," and I did just that. Of course he didn't believe I could do it, and me being the way I am, accepted that challenge.

Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter... Goodbye, for now.

Now, I say for now because although I could delete the apps from my phone, I don't think I could delete my profile altogether. I feel ashamed saying this, but I've spent years building my social media and it shouldn't matter but I don't have that much strength right now. Maybe one day.

The first two minutes...

I have already unlocked my phone to check Twitter.

1 hour later...

I keep finding myself going to the location where my Twitter app used to be and wanting to tweet about my social media cleanse. Seriously, what is wrong with me? On top of that, I was sitting on my toilet watching Younger from my laptop, wanting to Snapchat it. Then I started thinking about what the FBI agent watching me through my webcam thinks of me. Is he or she proud of me or disgusted that I'm watching TV from my toilet?

5 hours later...

Well, I have made it to the end of the night. I binge watched Younger for the last five hours, in order to distract myself, which I'm not quite sure is healthy either. I decided to call it a night after seeing this message appear and disrupt my show for the hundredth time.

Seriously, college wifi sucks.

OOTD + Style For Less

Denim Wrap Dress

Hey there beauties, this is another post on an OOTD + how to get styled for less!

In the above image I have on a wrap dress made of denim. For those who don't know or aren't sure, a wrap dress is actually exactly what it sounds like. The dress consists of wrapping one side over the other, creating a front closure and taking the attached ties and wrapping them around the waist to create a knot. The attached ties then hug the waist of the wearer and forms a V-shaped neckline.

Diane Von Furstenberg, 1974

Katie Miranda, 2017

Although the wrap dress may seem as though it has only just begun to make its way into the fashion world in recent years, the iconic dress actually made its first debut about 40 years ago. In 1974, 26 year-old Diane Von Furstenberg created the wrap dress which can be made from jersey fabric many variations of patterns. Of course because the fashion industry is constantly evolving, often times designers draw inspiration from history or other designers; really inspiration can come from anywhere. It is said that the wrap dress can be dated back as early as the 1930's, so it may be so that Furstenberg's illustrious wrap dress was simply a recreation of earlier works in history. Though Furstenberg's choice of synthetic fabrics did distinguish her work from earlier wrap dress designs.

• Jersey Fabric (Knit fabric) - Originally made of wool, now made from wool, cotton and synthetic fabrics; predominantly used for clothing manufacturing

On this particular day I decided to wear it down in a very simple way, being careful not to do too much. I styled my dress with black platform sandals (such as the ones in the image above), and my hair down. You could also pair this with a cute necklace, I would have chose a rose-gold colored necklace, personally. I was going for a casual spring morning look. I usually like to add a standout piece to my outfit, but lately I have used my pink hair to that effect.

Now, I chose a simple look on this day but if I were to dress it up, I would style my denim wrap dress with wedges. Dressing up an outfit isn't so difficult, it's all about the shoes and accessories you choose to pair your outfit with. I would style my denim dress with a nice floral cardigan, preferably with Carmine-colored rose details and ultimately a neutral colored handbag to complete the look.

I have seen the dress range from $25 (Forever21) to $100+ (Calvin Klein), I bought mine for $20 on Amazon. I have become a huge fan of buying cheap clothes off Amazon, lucky for my wallet and I, I have yet to be disappointed. You could probably find the dress on websites like Romwe or Zaful but I can't vouch for them on this particular dress.

Links:Dress - Amazon Denim Wrap Dress
Shoes - Platform Sandals (No longer available in Black)

Overall, I am a huge fan of this dress. It fits comfortably, arrived fast and in good condition. It can easily be styled in many different ways since denim goes with anything. This is a good quality dress and extremely versatile as it isn't restricted to being dressed up or down. Anywho...

I do hope you guys enjoyed this post and learned something new along the way!

Thank youuu,
K. Mauve♥

Rhinestone Choker Review

Chokers By Sophab Review

"Princess" ($50.00)

In the most recent years a ton of things have made a comeback from mom jeans to overalls similar to the ones you wore as a child. This summer brought back chokers, something we all thought was left behind in the 90's. People have got pretty creative when it comes to chokers, anything from velvet to satin chokers and more.

Recently, I bought a couple of rhinestone chokers that I have made the signature piece to all of my outfits. I really never leave my house without one. It's just become my favorite accessory and I was never really much of a jewelry person, until now.

First lets start off with where I got my beautiful handmade chokers. The beautiful @Sophab_ on Instagram has been selling them on her website http://www.chokersbysophab.com/.

Price:
Her chokers are a bit pricey, going up to $50 but I can see why when they're handmade. It takes a ton of time and effort to make them all on her own. On the bright side you don't pay for taxes or shipping. So basically you're not only paying for the choker but for the labor as well.

Quality:
The chokers are all so beautiful. The only downside is that 2 out of the 3 chokers I ordered did break when I first tried them on. When you're paying $50 for something the last thing you want to see is it break. Though in the end, I did find a way to fix them.

My Experience:
In total, I ordered three chokers spending somewhere around $146. Now I did have a couple questions about my order so I did contact the seller and much to my surprise she responded pretty fast, even when I emailed her later on about my chokers breaking. She was kind enough to offer to send the materials I would need to fix the chokers so I thought that was extremely considerate of her.
Now when I first got my chokers I was excited. They were just so beautiful I couldn't wait to try them on. The chokers I bought were the "Sirius", "Atlantis", and "Arctic" chokers. Surprisingly, I even got a little gift, a free choker worth $38.
I had absolutely no issue trying on the Atlantis choker at first but as the week went by the choker started falling apart just slightly. It didn't break off completely as the necklace was still intact but I felt concerned it may fall apart as time went by. In the end I fixed it with a little glue and all was good. When it came to my Sirius choker, there weren't enough jump rings to comfortably put on the choker. The clamp broke off but all in all, none of the chokers were completely destroyed. The choker I usually wore everyday was the Arctic choker. It's so beautiful, luckily this one was extremely sturdy, the only issue being that because It was made from a different material it turned my neck a slight greenish color. This could easily be avoided by applying a light coat of clear nail polish before trying it on.
Obviously as I mentioned earlier, when you're spending a great deal on something you want it to stay intact but they were all easy fixes and in the end I was still happy with my purchases. I will still be purchasing off the website again because she is extremely talented and her chokers are all so unique so I definitely would recommend to a friend in the end.

"Sirius" ($46.00)

"Atlantis" ($50.00)

"Arctic" ($48.00)

Thank you as always,

K. Mauve♥

OOTD: Casual Summer Breeze

OOTD: Somewhere Between Summer & Autumn

Hi there my loves, I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

On this day I had taken a trip down to Philly to visit The Magic Gardens and it was a pretty windy day but the sun was out and shining bright as ever. At this point it was still summer but it was the perfect weather to wear my mauve bomber jacket from Forever21. I decided to sport a cute black halter top with a pair of light wash jeans and my Thea Nike Air Max in white.

My blog is all about finding beauty for less, so no need to worry because I've got your back!
This is how you could recreate this look easy and simple without spending so much:

Halter top:

ANY old black halter top (even one made from old leggings) will do! If you don't have one, no worries, you can find them easily anywhere for as little as $3.

Link to halter below-
>https://www.amazon.com/Black-Woman-String-Neck-Halter/dp/B00TAEDT5A

Jeans:

In reality any solid colored jeans would work but I prefer the lightwash look because it just compliments the shoes nicely. I like to wear mine with the bottoms folded up but that part is completely optional and is all about preference. Jeans nowadays are expensive but luckily F21 doesn't overcharge for no reason which is why I enjoy shopping there myself.

Link to Light wash jeans:
$15 (F21)

>http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?br=F21&category=bottom_jeans&productid=2000154077

$24.90 (F21)

>http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?br=F21&category=bottom_jeans&productid=2000220435

$24.90 (F21)

>http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?br=F21&category=bottom&productid=2000118475

$15 (F21)

>http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?br=F21&category=bottom&productid=2000154091

Sneakers/Shoes:

Honestly any old white shoes are fine, they don't have to be $90 and they can even be an off color white. Whatever sneakers you have lying around in your closet you can wear with this outfit. If you have white vans, white tennis shoes, keds or just off brand white sneakers go ahead and pair them along with this outfit and you'll be absolutely fine!

Bomber Jacket:

Now this last piece is the most important, it's what brings the entire outfit together. I love my bomber jacket and look forward to fall just so I can wear it all over again. I got mine from F21 for $30 which at the time I thought was a bit pricey because I didn't have a job, though now it doesn't seem all that pricey. Everyone has a different situation though or maybe you're just frugal like myself so if that's the case there is a similar one from Missguided going for $16 RIGHT NOW. The link to the bomber jacket in my picture will be down below along with the link to the less expensive version.

$29.90 (F21):
>http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?br=F21&category=outerwear_bomber-jackets&productid=2000236027

$16 (Missguided):
>https://www.missguidedus.com/silky-bomber-jacket-mauve-mauve

Now in this picture I'm wearing my signature handmade rhinestone choker. This part isn't mandatory but a nice piece of jewelry always adds a little something to any look. I decided not to wear any other pieces of jewelry because I feel as though the combination of the bomber jacket and the choker both speak for themselves. I also didn't want to flush out the attention the choker drew to my collarbone by wearing an excessive amount of jewelry (which is never a good idea).

**If you'd like to know more about where I got my choker I'll be going more into detail about that in my next blog post.

Once again, thank you so much for visiting my blog!

Until next time,
K. Mauve♥

Style For Less:

♦•Crisscross Crop Top•♦

Hey beauties, I'm back with another Style For Less!

So this summer I saw a lot of these tops becoming very popular and they're so cute but I've seen them go up to $24+ on websites like Missguided, Tobi, etc. Now as you may already know my blog is all about beauty for less. I really don't believe in spending more than $13 on a shirt, it'd have to be a really nice top for me to spend so much (and even $13 is pushing it).

One day while I was browsing around online I came across this website called Zaful.com and I'm so glad I stumbled across this little website. Now don't get me wrong, it looked kinda sketchy because none of the pictures were originals. They were all Tumblr-esque images, stuff I see on other fashion pages. I decided to take the risk and I ordered this top along with a cute little swimsuit.

After making my first purchase I started feeling slightly nervous because the last time I bought something from a weird website like this they sent me the ugliest dress made of dollar store material. It was truly traumatizing.

Let me tell you, I was not at all disappointed with my purchase from Zaful. For one, the top was only $11.49! The material definitely  didn't look like dollar store material and I swear it's just as good as anything you'd get off these other expensive-for-no-reason stores.

Me Styling My Top From Zaful

I don't know much about their other stuff but I can vouch for this top. I will definitely be purchasing from them again and I will most definitely keep you all posted! Hope you all enjoyed this new Style For Less

Link to the top:

http://www.zaful.com/lace-up-pure-color-cami-crop-top-p_183248.html

Thank youuu,
K. Mauve♥

Beauty Tips/Advice: Dark Underarms

Secret to Brighter Underarms

Hey there Loves!

For the longest time ever I was extremely insecure about my underarms, as I know a lot of people are, because of my dark armpits. It didn't feel like it should be a big deal but it was to me. It prevented me from wearing halter tops out in public or anything that showed off my underarms. I just wasn't having it. It really sucked because I would see other girls wearing what I wanted to but they didn't have to worry about what people might think of their underarms.

So after extensive research on how to brighten my underarms I came across bleaching (Which I don't believe in using on my skin but ended up using anyway and it didn't end up helping at all); I tried natural remedies as well such as rubbing potato or lemon juice under my arms (also a bust); and baking soda... Nothing really helped.

I began to lose hope until one day I made a miraculous discovery... Baby powder.

It's crazy, I would've never thought! Literally all you need is a razor, baby powder and your underarms..

What you do:

1. Take the baby powder and rub it under your arms
2. Take the razor and shave as you normally would.

(DO NOT wet your underarms or the razor)
**Also, you don't need shaving cream.**

After I first tried this I noticed a huge difference. But side note, everyone is different.

Remember, there is nothing wrong with your body and there is absolutely nothing wrong with having dark underarms. I just personally didn't like it on myself. But remember you're all beautiful, dark underarms or not.

I hope this beauty tip works for you the way it worked for me. Now you all have a wonderful day loves🌸

Thank youuuu,

K. Mauve♥