What's French Girl's Vanity

I don't know about y'all, but I am fascinated (and jealous) of the French's girls ability to always look so naturally put together. It is effortless chic, no?

I am constantly picking up and reading books on French life and culture. I recently read Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl by Debra Olliver and I LOVED IT! Inside there was an entire section on French aesthetics, including what an average French girl keeps on her vanity.

The list is very limited, but remember, the French are for QUALITY over quantity, and have learned that less really IS more. So what's her vanity?

1-2 High quality lipsticks (Peachy/Pink and fire engine red)
Light Powder
Powder Blush
Mascara
Eyeliner
Lightest Pink/Beige nail polish and maybe a real red for special occasions.
2 signature scents for Summer/Winter

If I were to really dig in and find my inner French girl, this would be the only products from my collection I would have on my vanity:


MAC’s Cremesheen Crème Cup

This color is just a divine every day color. It's creamy and moisturizing. I LOVE it.

Revlon's Colorburst lipstick in Soft Nude

I do love this too, not at much as Creme Cup, but it is a great color.

I don't use powder, instead I use a light shade matte bronzer and lightly dust it all over my face. NYC's matte bronzer in Sunny This is a great cheap gem! So many 'high end' make-up girls choose this over the pricey bronzers.

Revlon's Matte blush in Perfectly Peach Such a sweet color. A light sweep on your cheeks is all you need.

Maybelline's Collosal Mascara

I hate experimenting with mascara. All you need is to have some one important see you when you have black raccoon eyes from that 'one' bad mascara day where you decided to experiment. No thanks.

MAC's fluidline eyeliner in Blacktrack

Eyeliner is so versatile. It is the only thing you need to take your look from day to night

Milani’s Crème Brulee and China Glaze Something Sweet

Both very sweet colors that I love. On a daily basis I am an opaque milky beige/pink kinda girl anyway.


Elizabeth Arden Pretty perfume for spring/summer and Burberry Brit for fall winter

These are both my all time favorite scents. I dabbled in a few others for a while, but I always come back to these.

Now being a true make-up girl myself, I know I would have to add a few products to the mix:

Revlon’s Eyeshadow in Vintage Lace, and MAC’s wedge
An all over lid color and a nice color to define the crease and give the eye some depth.

'trendy' nail polish color such as OPI's Metro Chic Of course, another favorite for those 'wild' nights out. Okay, I NEVER get wild, but I'd like to think I can loosen up a bit sometimes.

I think the French have it right. They do have that certain je ne sais quoi one is always trying to achieve. Maybe tonight I'll do some purging of my make-up draw. Yes, maybe I shall.

Also, in the book it made such a valid point that American girls are constantly changing our looks. Bold hair cuts, bright eye shadow colors, highlight/lowlights, etc... According to Olliver, French woman are more inclined to find a look that works for them and stick with it for years. I personally, have been a person with a certain 'look' that I have stuck with for years- Nude/Pink lips, light blush, and MASCARA and so on. I would never venture into the realm of bright eye shadows or red lips, or even red nails. With the exception of chopping off my hair into a bob, and now I wish I had stuck with my long locks.

The point is, French woman KNOW who they are and every decision they make, down to their lipstick shade is a conscious decision, "Is this ME?" Every item they bring into their life is not to change who they are, but to make them fundamentally MORE who they are. Some may call it predictable I guess, but others call it being ENTIRELY self contained.

The next time I am contemplating buying a new shade of lipstick, I will stop myself. Why? Because I have the confidence of knowing that every time I walk out of my house I KNOW I look good in my current shade. Amen to that!

Tweet Tweet... Twitter!

For those of you who may have noticed I dissappeared from Twitter the past couple weeks. With the move to NY and other personal things going on my husband and I thought best to step away, well I DELETED it. Stupid me, right? Well lovies I am back and going to tweet more then ever! Want to hear about every day life here in the city? Follow me on Twitter here.

Thanks y'all!

P.S. tomorrow in the big wedding, I will be sure to be back with photos!

Wedding Attire... take two?

My last post about my wedding ensemble for M's cousin's nuptials has been tweaked, and by that I bought a whole other dress. I ALWAYS do this, even for my wedding I bought a second dress and ending up just wearing the first anyway! But this time, I think the second dress is a much better choice. After looking up the weather, I realized it's going to be hot, rainy, and humid the day of the wedding, and although the other dress had short sleeves there were a lot of layers which made the dress slightly heavy (for summer anyway).

So, while we were shopping for a peach tie for M (yes, we must match) I came across this GORGEOUS dress. The versatility of this dress is amazing. Formal, semi formal, casual, any day, all day, this dress is so lovely. One problem, it is a PALE peach, and by pale I mean, one shade away from an off-white. Too inappropriate for a wedding? Pish Posh, this isn't the 50's and "the only people in white should be virgins" none sense went right out the window when they started having ed in MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Viola! The dress. It is in desperate need of a good steaming, but other then that it is divine.

Now, I could wear it with the same peach accessories as the other dress. This would make the outfit really feminine, light, and classy. If you have forgotten what they are, well, here they are:

Pearl headband (possibility), peach flower (comes off headband, possibility), vintage beaded clutch, light peach drop earrings, 2 gold bangles and a peachy rose floral bangle, Revlon's Peach Petal nail polish.. And my make-up would be fresh, light, with nude lips (ala Revlon's Soft Nude) with maybe a thin cat eye... think Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Oh, and my fragrance would be light and girly, just like the outfit- Elizabeth Arden's Pretty.

Close up of the earrings and bangles

Paired with my go-to beige pump, of course.

OR, I can play the dress up to be a little more trendy with BLACK accessories. Black you ask? But, Le'Anna, you don't do black!? Why no, I don't, but the dress came with a thin black belt and the contrast was nice looking.

I would still lean more towards girly and classy rather then REALLY trendy pairing the dress with these accessories:

"Sexy" perfume- Victoria Secrets Sexy Little Things Noir, A deep rose colored nail polish- Maybelline's Tender Rose, I'd go with darker lips- Rimmel's Airy Fairy (A mauvey-rose color.. DIVINE for fall), black headband with pearl/rhinestone embellishments, 2 thin silver bangles, and faux diamond drop earrings. Oh! And of course my small bow necklace.

Close up of the earrings... Look at that lipstick, I am IN LOVE with this color. Can't wait for fall!

These are the only black pumps I have, but I would probably invest in a more current style. And don't forget the thin black belt at the waist of the dress.

So you see, One great dress and two very different ways to wear it. What normally happens when I find myself in a situation like this is that I take ALL the options with me, and the morning of I decide what to wear dependent on how I am FEELING. If I am feeling trendy, black it is, if I am feeling my normal feminine self then peach it will be. We shall see.

What are y'all opinions?

Wedding Attire

I will indeed blog about life in NY when I myself start to figure it all out. For now, here is a fashion post.

In less then 2 weeks, M and I are attending a wedding in southern New Jersey. Here is what I am wearing:

Please ignore the blue towel in the background.. limited space in these NY apartments.

Vintage inspired beige pumps, 50's beaded clutch, gold embelleshed bangles, light peach faux diamond earrings, peach flower for hair (possibly)

As for my hair, Although I have the flower that matched PERFECTLY, I am thinking of curling my hair and pinning up with a few loose tendrels falling out and taking a few clip in extentions to create a braid headband. Somewhat like this:

My nails are probably going to be classic milky beige ala Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy:

Or, if I am feeling a little trendy that day I think a nice balance with the soft shade dress would be a medium heather gray nail polish or a taupe color such as OPI's Metro Chic

And the make-up with be kept neutral, with maybe a shimmery brown smokey eye. Nothing extreme, as we all know I don't do extreme.

I'll make sure to take photos the day of with the entire look altogether.

Hello NY

M and I have safely arrived in NY and have begun to settle in to our new home. Unfortunately, my immune system is that of a fly and only a day before moving I was plagued with a 103.6 degree fever, stomach virus, and severe dehydration. Needless to say I have been feeling VERY under the weather. My blog posts will continue to be sparce until i am feeling better and THEN have to unpack. Just wanted to do a little update.

p.s. The puppygirls are LOVING the city... HATING the smaller apartment.