Red to Brighten a Gloomy Day

A quick shot before work! I'm interning over the summer, but I think my general style borders on the "older" side of fashion. I love how "young" outfits turn out on other people, but somehow, they always look older on me. Oh well? To each her own! I'm also starting to feel the need to find another location for photos. Somehow, photos taken here always turn out so dark and doesn't allow the "pop."

top: New York & Company skirt: from Hong Kong heels: Dollhouse belt: New York & Company clutch: Sarne

Review: Not Your Mother's Dry Shampoo

I've been hearing of this phenomenon, if you can even call it that, called "dry shampoo" for a long time now. It's recently started to catch fire, so I thought I'd give it a try since a camping trip is coming up this weekend, and , if it's only one night, that shower and shampooing in the camp site showers is absolutely not worth it. The bottle is around $5, give or take a $1 depending on where you buy it, called "Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo." The bottle is a white aluminum bottle with green accents and this green algae hair coming down from the nozzle. The bottle itself is self-explanatory. If you've ever sprayed hair spray, paint spray, anything spray really, this will be a piece of cake. Knowing that I would need to test the item out before camping, I didn't wash my hair last night. To give you a better idea, I'm currently doing a shampoo every other day and a conditioner in between to avoid shampooing too much. This means that my hair is considerably "icky" if I don't dose with water plus something that vaguely removes a little oil. Oh, and my hair gets oily kind of easily. I woke up this morning with slightly greasy hair (oh, it hurts a little to type that) and after my morning routine, sat down with a mirror, hairbrush, and the dry shampoo. I felt that the shampoo worked great in the morning, but now that the day has been passing by, my hair is starting to hang again. It's definitely not as gross-looking as it would have appeared had I not used the shampoo, but the weight of my hair is definitely there now, compared to when your hair first dries after being washed.  The dry shampoo doesn't give a huge amount of volume, but it doesn't flatten; by the end of the day, your hair will look really plain,  if that makes any sense. There just won't be anything special about your hair; it won't flow in the wind, but it won't bleed oil either. Take your pick. If you wan't something that will last all day and make your hair look like it would had you showered, go for something more pricey. I can't guarantee that doing that will produce better results, but to each her own. One of the other factors people consider is the smell and the "whiteness" of your hair after spraying the powder (that's basically what dry shampoo is, a more complex combination of baby powder that soaks up oil from your hair). I felt that after brushing out the powder, my hair didn't experience any white flakes of any sort. I'm assuming that it'd be obvious since my hair is pretty dark. Smell...well, it smelled weird when I first sprayed the product, but now, it's pretty scentless. Overall, I would rate this shampoo highly. It's great for college budget, and for my hair, it works for what I need it to do. It's my emergency shampoo more than a daily necessity so for the price, it's absolutely worth it and a good buy. If you want to use it more often and incorporate it into your normal routine, then you would definitely need to experiment more to find the best product. Maybe this is it, maybe it's not. See the Ulta Reviews See the MakeupAlley Reviews *I purchased Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo out of my own need for a dry shampoo. No one paid me, sadly, to review it and all opinions are my own in regards to my own hair. This is merely to provide a guide for others who are considering a similar purchase.

How to be Awkward

When I took these outfit shots, I was cringing. I'm pretty sure my friend was too when she was helping me. Like I said before, I've never taken photos purely for the sake of taking an outfit shot. Trying to pose with a non-photography-obsessed friend feels awkward because they don't tell you what to do! You have to figure out the poses and find the right feel yourself, and if you feel like they're totally going to judge, you can't let go either. Since most people seem to believe that practice makes perfect, I guess I'll definitely have to keep working on these poses! Stay with me until then!

leather bag: from China chiffon top: a.n.a skirt: Target shoes: CG Shoes necklace: Forever 21 sunglasses: DG

Weekend Trips: Reusing What You Already Have

I've always been the over-packer, the girl who needs a full carry-on-sized suitcase of things for a weekend trip that really should only take only a hobo purse. Realizing that I overpack, however, has not ever actually affected my packing decisions, so, for years on end, I continued to overpack like it was a competition. In recent months, I have finally managed to calm it down, but less by choice and more out of monetary/physical concerns. After all, when you're traveling by yourself, is it really worth it to carry that much stuff if you have to pay extra just to lug it around (airline restrictions, taxi fares since you can't take the metro)?

This particular weekend was spent with some friends in Shaoxing and Hangzhou. I put everything into a small duffle and called it quits. Fashion-wise, this does mean some sacrifices: you have to repeat some items, but the same pair of jeans for a few days definitely beats repeating the same print-on-print every one of those days, so just pick wisely which items to re-wear and which ones to bring replacements for.

printed cardigan: from Mom
handbag: leather bag purchased in Kunming
chiffon top: a.n.a
jeans: Old Navy
wedge sneakers: Target

gray chiffon top: H&M

b&w top: mossimo

The Good Thing About Photography-Loving Friends

These are fairly old photos (6 months) because, if you know me, you can see that I still had my old long hair. I'm still debating whether or not I want to grow it back out; any ideas? These were taken last November during the Thanksgiving break. My friend and I happened to be on campus while the rest of campus went home for the holiday, so we thought we'd take advantage of the period where no one would be around to gawk at us being silly and taking outfit shots. We dressed up and hit the more photogenic locations on campus (including a trek in the woods, in heels), and these were some of the shots we ended up with. Take a look!

studded red jacket: Forever 21 white chiffon blouse: Worthington's (Available at JCP) peacock chiffon skirt: Worthington's

Hiking

When I was abroad, one of the locations we went to was Guangzhou. Our resident director was a quirky, sometimes fussy, middle-aged man who tried so desperately to please our group of complain-y teenagers. He had heard of this magical waterfall location near Guangzhou called Bai Shui Zai and thus decided that this would be a lovely detour from the business-oriented company visits and bustling cities that we'd be visiting for the rest of the trip. He was right; except for the fact that to make it up to the top of this quaint location, there are technically 9999 steps. I think the highest our group went was to 3000 something steps. Considering the climb and how it took for us to get that high, I'm amazed we only went a third of the way, but I guess the optimistic part is that if you dedicate a full day, it's definitely do-able.

It would be beyond crazy to wear anything less comfortable, and since I wasn't sure whether or not it'd get cold on the climb up, I chose an oversized sweater with a tank top underneath to give myself the most options for hot and cold. The sneakers could have been more interesting, but I got these as a temporary replacement for Nikes that I had left at school by accident, and they just seemed like a smart choice to bring on this trip. If I could do this outfit again, I would definitely pick more colorful footwear, but, you know, you make use of what you have.

oversized sweater: Taobao blank tank top: Charlotte Russe leggings: Forever 21 sneakers: Payless

The location itself though is quite beautiful. If it had been sunnier (our entire trip was doomed with clouds, which really ruined the atmosphere for photos), this place really would have been magically. Even without it though, it was still nice, and you just immerse yourself in the nature and the sound of water falling. If you ever happen to be in the area, I would honestly suggest you visit. The hike sounds intimidating, but it's actually not too bad because it's not all stairs. There's a route that takes you pretty far up the mountain without having to climb too many stairs.

The Big Buddha

I know what you're thinking: you're in Hong Kong and you're at the Big Buddha instead of the city?! Or maybe I'm being presumptuous and you're actually not thinking that at all. Either way, let me clarify: I spent my last semester abroad in Shanghai, China (also the reason you can expect more posts on China soon!) and one of our field study trips was to Hong Kong. This means that instead of the 3-day eating/shopping trip most girls would have loved to have in this exotic city, we got the one day raining leisure day plus the gloomy, foggy other days for tourist activities. I would not have minded had I been more prepared for the weather. It was an odd combination of freezing cold and humid warmth, which means that jackets are your frenemies. I'm so glad the inside of this Mango tweed is a polyester/nylon lining of some sort because it kept me warm, but didn't get too gross when I started to get sweaty from the climb to the giant sitting Buddha. If I recall my history lesson correctly, this is the largest sitting Buddha in the world; the largest standing one is somewhere else...

tweed jacket: Mango shirt: French Connection skirt: Charlotte Russe wedge sneakers: Target

The backpack that you can't see me carrying is a Tod's leather backpack that I got in Shanghai. I love my side purses, but when I'm traveling, nothing beats the backpack. It leaves my hands free to carry my camera.

As you can see from the photos, the day that we went to Lantau Island to see the Buddha, it was extremely foggy and gloomy. It actually started to mist rain near the end of our trip here, so none of my photos are particularly vibrant or sharp, but this is technically what the Buddha should look like on a nice day.