If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that my style is pretty much basic. It’s all based on my school uniforms from many years ago andon the way my mother dressed me as a young girl.
Ozone Park, Queens, NYC. Easter Sunday. 1959. The checked coat–perhaps this is where my love of classic clothing started. My mother was pregnant. Again. There were four more pregnancies to come.
Plaid. Blazers. Nothing fussy. Timeless. Classic. And fitted.
Plaid. And more plaid!
I prefer a uniform and understated look in my clothing.
blazer, white shirt, jeans = my usual weekend uniform
Flamboyance is not my thing. I’m not a dramatic dresser. Some women of my age group may think I’m boring in my choice of attire—and that’s fine because I don’t venture out of my comfort zone.
That goes for my choices in cosmetics too. Red lips? They were fine when I was younger, but as I’ve aged, my lips are not the one feature that has aged to perfection. Cheek color? I love a nice pink but very lightly. And although I love a dark eye, I stick to neutrals.
Contrary to popular belief, red lips do NOT look fabulous on all women. I prefer a more subdued look. I’ll keep the red for my nails!
Yeah. I’m a creature of habit.
But something happened recently that made me go out of my comfort zone.
I follow a young woman on Instagram. We started following each other after we were both featured in the Buzzfeed article about Fenty Cosmetics. (Click that link–she’s Number 4 and I’m Number 8) Her feed @kate_zilla is great! She’s so talented with makeup and her eye looks are absolutely gorgeous.
@kate_zilla you HAVE to check out her eye looks!
Anyway, she offered a collaboration of other Instagrammers to come up with glittery eye looks—glitter shadows had to be used. How could I not pass this up? For me it was a challenge to go out of my comfort zone with makeup. And I did.
However, I did it my way and kept it somewhat neutral. I used shadows that I had on hand that were never used. Here’s the look!
On my lids I have a mix of Wet’nWild gold glitter and Too Faced Tigers Eye. I also used Fenty Trophy Wife highlighter and two bareMinerals powder shadows…
The Wet’nWild glitter shadow is so old that I don’t even know if it is still in production. It’s coloricon C352B, Brass. The photo on the right are the two bareMinerals shadows I used. The top is cultured pearl–a very light pearlized pink. The bottom is True Gold. I used the cultured pearl under my brow bone.
I used Tiger’s eye on the corner of my eyes and to line the bottom of my eyes..
I finished off the look with a touch of Trophy Wife on my lids as well!
Some glitter and glitz for the day!
This is a look that’ll be used the next time Bonaparte and I go out to dinner!! I’ll light up the restaurant!
Honestly, I have to thank Katy for pushing me to out of my comfort zone with this. Earlier this morning I went to the nail salon and everyone said that my face looked very pretty. I’m sure it was because I had a different eye look that just popped out!
My face got a lot of compliments at the nail salon today. And this was taken after I had my lip and chin waxed so the face makeup is a bit wonky!
But that isn’t the only way I took a step out of my comfort zone. I purchased an item of clothing that I swore I would never purchase.
It happened when I was perusing the Shein website earlier in the week. In my viewing, I noticed a couple of kimonos. They looked really interesting. Now—I’m not going to say beautiful, because, to me, they truly were items that piqued my interest. Bonaparte’s aunt, Danièle wore kimonos and hers were very elegant and she looked chic. The strange thing about this particular article of clothing is that it can look a bit costume-ish if not worn the right way. And I abhor the look of a woman in costume when it isn’t either Halloween or a theme party!
This was the first one that caught my eye! And the price of $15 made it more interesting
But I kept going back to this one kimono that was gray (neutral) with designs that were more muted.
I couldn’t help myself. I was drawn to this kimono too!
Well, I ended up ordering both–for a grand total (shipping included) of $31.
The gray one was delivered the other day–I’m still waiting for the white printed one.
Worn with a fitted ballet neck tee, this really is a nice look…
This polyester kimono is made in the USA..and although can be machine-washed, I would air dry it!
The one I received– I “modeled” for Bonaparte today. When I explained that I went completely out of my comfort zone with this but liked it, he had nothing but high praise for it.
Actually, I HAD to model it for my husband because my damned selfie-stick broke and he had to snap the pics! I’m loving the way this looks with jeans and metallic heels!
It’s out of my comfort zone, but I don’t think it is over the top or flamboyant!
What I absolutely love about this kimono is that it’ll be perfect during those summer days at the office when the air conditioning is up a bit high, but I won’t need a sweater. This is also going to be great for air travel.
I also like the gray color because it’ll lend itself so well to wear with black leggings. I think this was a great choice.
What do you think?
Sometimes it’s fun to go out of your comfort zone. I’m still a blazer girl but every now and then changing it up can be a good thing!
Today is National Stripes Day! Always a celebration! I’m wearing stripes in a French mode and thinking of my Father-In-Law Dany and Bonaparte’s Stepfather Jean. Both loved those striped shirts!
Always inspired by menswear, I’m in my comfort zone in stripes!!
And in keeping with the spirit of classical music, I was listening to Liszt earlier in my car. I’m a sucker for those Hungarian Rhapsodies! Number 6
