Monday Mentionable: Fashionably Broke

[photo's are taken from their blog and all credit goes to them]

I recently discovered fashionably broke through facebook I believe. I went to high school with erika, i believe she was a junior or senior when i was a freshman... we didn't know each other but somehow are friends on facebook. I think she was friends with my best friends brother but either way if i ever saw her in school she always had an amazing sense of fashion, i always thought she could pull off anything. (wow this totally sounds creepy and is not meant to be creepy in any way!) So when i saw that her and her sister were starting a fashion blog i thought it was an amazing idea for them because if her sister was anywhere as stylish as erika they would be a big hit and let me ensure you she is. Over the past few months i have been following their blog post by post, they have the most amazing sense of style that i admire! they have definitely become a "daily read" for me. i wish i could pull of half of the things they do! They just finished a giveaway on their blog but also recently announced another giveaway which you can find here. They occasionally have guest bloggers from other blogs that post on their blog! if you love all things fashion i suggest you check out their blog they have great style and give out some amazing tips! 

follow them:

blog: fashionably broke

twitter: @NatalieandErika (if you follow me on twitter i have tweeted natalie before and she seems so sweet!)

facebook: /FashionablyBrokeGirls

Trying Not to Outshine the Bride

yesterday was my uncles beach wedding and it was absolutely beautiful. if you saw my outfit post about the rehearsal dinner you would remember that i said i wish i wore this dress to the rehearsal dinner... well i lied. i was so happy i wore this dress because i forgot how much i loved it! i hadn't tried it on since i bought it which was a few months ago. seeing that i hadn't tried it on a drew months ago i totally forgot that it needed to be hemmed shorter! i'm pretty short so i like to get most dressed hemmed so they don't looks so long on me, especially this one it made me look like an "oompa loompa" as my sister told me. So about 15 minutes before i had to leave for the wedding i was pinning this dress up so i didn't look like an oompa loompa and it ended up looking great! The fact that it was a beach wedding i didn't wear those wedges on the beach... right before you walked onto the beach they had multiple baskets of flip flops you got to choose from. I didn't choose any because my mom made me a pair of sole-less sandals, which i find to be incredibly pointless but whatever i was on the beach and i didn't want to wear actual flip flops so these would do! 

they matched my dress perfectly so for the 15-30 minutes on the beach these things were cute. once we got off the beach it was time for the reception! it was absolutely beautiful, the venue looked over the water and we could watch the sun set. the night was filled with food, friends, and great family and i know everyone had a great time! i'm super happy i wore this dress because it was easy to move in and it had pockets! how great is that? i didn't straighten my bangs because they are getting so long that i need to get them cut so they are just in my way and since i knew we were going to be outside i didn't know how well it was going to hold up if it was windy or just the humidity was going to make them curly anyways, thank god they are at a point where they are long enough not to look super weird if i don't straighten them.

Target Xhiliration dress, Love Culture Wedges, Urban Outfitters Peace Sign Necklace, Target Chevron Rings

Perfect Summertime Clutches

I recently discovered gigee marie clutches through natalie & erika over at fashionably broke (a post about them coming tomorrow!) I decided to check out her website since she was a part of her giveaway and I fell in love! I have been looking for the perfect summer clutch for months now and haven't been able to find on I love. I always saw pictures of girls with cute envelope purses and clutches and I wanted one so bad! well I finally found my perfect clutch! Since I was so madly in love with these clutches I did the only thing I knew how to do... stalk every social media website she was on! For natalie & erika's giveaway we had to like her on facebook and follow her on twitter! So I went over to facebook and looked at her page (can be found here) and saw that she was coming out with new clutches... I fell in love with the sunstone clutch and the mint clutch! each clutch retails for about $36-$38 and each mini retails for about $18-$20, which I don't think is that bad! Especially since all the clutches are handmade! The hard part is deciding which clutch to buy! I'm trying to decide between the sunstone clutch and the mint clutch, both perfect for summer but as a college student on a budget I can only buy one... but I will most likely talk myself into buying the other one in a month, its how i justify my spendings... buy one one week buy the other another week. still buying them both but just not at the same time! I have tweeted a few time about/to gigee marie (her twitter here) and even though i haven't had a full on conversation with her she seems like a very nice woman, with a great since of style. Everyone should check out her clutches they are perfect for a pop of color in any outfit! She even has metal/leather looking clutches that would be awesome for fall so you could have a clutch for each season! you can find the clutches on her website here.

eat, drink, and be married!

last night was my uncles rehearsal dinner for his wedding, which obviously gave me a reason to dress up so i was totally okay with it! bad news was... it started to down pour about 2 hours before the dinner! i was so annoyed because i was totally expecting to take the most adorable pictures of my outfit but luckily it stopped raining and was just a small drizzle so i was able to quickly take some pictures of my outfit! this is my first outfit post so excuse the horrible quality i had my unexperienced sister take my picture on my DSLR camera so she had no idea what she was doing!

the dress is from forever 21. its somewhat like a maxi dress but with a flair! it had a short mini under the long see-through black chiffon which ended up being perfect for the weather. With my big cluncker heels the dress didn't drag on the floor.

for jewelry i paired it with a turquoise ombre styled necklace also from forever 21. the chevron rings are from target, they come in all different colors! i also know they have chevron styled rings at asos but i definitely thing target is the cheaper alternative.  Also i wore a silver chain bracelet with flower charms from american eagle i believe, i got it as a present in high school so not quite sure where its from. 

my shoes i purchased from DSW. They are by Fergie and they are called Women Indie. I just checked on her site and they are now on sale for $63.99. They come in all different colors, black, red, pink, tan and turquoise! 

excuse the horrible mani pedi i have, i went to go get them done before the wedding and the place i went to was absolutely horrible! from a distance and in the pictures they don't look bad but they didn't listen to what we wanted and were rushing so none of the white tips have a solid edge its all messy and jagged if that makes any sense. Besides the horrible mani pedi and the rain the rest of the day was nice seeing all the family and being able to eat some delicious food! Hopefully i will have another outfit post of tonight actual wedding outfit! i wish i wore this outfit to the wedding instead of the one i'm actually wearing tonight but oh well! 

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand....

It has finally been nice at the beach right in time for me to have my days off! I spent all day thursday on the beach just laying out and tanning! I'm trying to get bronzed because my uncle is getting married on saturday so I want to actually look like I live at the beach. Since I have a ton of family coming into town I was able to take off work on friday so I had thursday, friday and saturday off! Its nice to be able to sleep in and go to the beach without worrying about going to work. The past couple of days the weather has changed dramatically! it went from being in the low 70s to being in the high 90s! We would bitch one day about how cold it was and how over cast it is, now we bitch about how to it is! where is our happy medium?! I haven't gone in the water at all yet this summer until yesterday because it was so hot I felt like I was sizzling. When I go to the beach I don't bring much just a towel, my sunglasses, iphone, a magazine, and sunscreen. I recently got the most adorable beach blanket from the surf shop in town, our friends own it so I always get a discount so it was like fate when I saw it! 

Its a stripped billabong blanket thats huge! I hate only bringing a towel to the beach because after I get out of the water my towel will be wet but then I have to put it in the sand to lay on it. Now I have this blanket I lay on when I want to lay out, best purchase ever!  I totally forgot to bring water to the beach so I was almost dying because I started to feel dehydrated. My sister and I road our beach cruisers to a little deli buy the beach and bought lunch and huge water bottles!

This was the biggest water bottle that was there and I went through 2 of them within 4 hours! I was literally dying of thirst! The cold water felt so great but since my sister and I didn't bring a cooler it eventually got warm and didn't taste that great. After a few more hours on the beach we decided to call it a day. I definitely got a tan, my face burnt a little bit but when does it not? I reapply sunscreen to my face every hour but my cheeks still burn... might as well give up! Looking at the weather report it doesn't look good, it looks like its going to start to rain in a couple of hours and a bit tomorrow, of course just as the weather was starting to get nice. 

Fashion Trend: Bralets

Blonde & Blonde Button Front Bird Bralet Top, Miss Selfridge Aqua Side Bra Top, Topshop Denim Zip Bralet, River Island Black Aztec Print Bralet

A trend I have been seeing a lot over this spring/summer on celebrities and runway is the bralet. I completely love the new fashion trend! First you might be wondering "What is a bralet?" Well I have your answer, its an underwear-like garment  that is actually socially acceptable to wear in public. Its like a combination of a bra and a corset hence bralet, catchy right! I think they are super cute for summer! I of course cant pull them off, my bubbies are a little to big. If I could wear these I would. Recently all types of celebrities have been wearing them and all different ways.

Out of these 4 celebrities I think Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus are my favorite looks using the bralet.  

When wearing a bralet I feel like the less tummy you see is the more "classy", if you will, you will look. I think wearing high waisted shorts, skirts, or pants is the best way to wear a bralet. I feel like if you wear it like a bra it could look a little bit trashy. Unless you pair it with maybe a sheer top! Here are a couple of ways to wear a bralet, if I could wear one... this is pretty much what I would wear! 

Hope this was helpful! Would you wear this trend? Have you worn this trend? 

Packing List: Beach Vacation

1. WEDGES // GoJane Patent Cross Strap Wedge $27.30
2. SUNGLASSES // Oakley Frogskin Sunglasses $100
3. COMFORTABLE DRESS // Roxy Moon Dance Dress $26.46 on sale!
4. CUTE BIKINI // Melissa Odabash Trinidad Bikini $126 on sale!
5. COVER UP // Topshop Coral Fringe Burnout Cover Up $48
6. SANDALS // Steve Madden Flat Saahara Sandals $140
7. CLUTCH // Gigee Marie "Ms. Bright" Sorbet Clutch $36 NEW FAVORITE!!
8. FLOPPY HAT // Forever 21 Patterned Brim Floppy Hat $12.80

Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Review

in my last post I talked about how I ombred my hair and how it completely fried my ends. after the first bleaching of my hair is when I noticed how completely fried my ends were, I thought a deep conditioner would be perfect! I searched for a good deep conditioner for dry and damaged hair. I came across a website that talked about "11 best deep conditioners" that had products with a wide price range. Everything I was reading seemed like everything was getting a good review so whatever product I picked I couldn't go wrong. I came upon number 4 and it was this bad boy, aussie 3 minute miracle deep conditioner for dry damaged hair. I was reading the review and it got a rating of 9.2 out of 10 which isn't bad especially for a product that costed about $4. The name says it all its a miracle! once i finished bleaching my hair the second time i took a shower and used the shampoo and conditioner that came with the bleach kit and then used this product. I came out of the shower and my hair felt brand new! You would expect it to feel even dryer and more damaged than yesterday, but it wasn't! I am seriously amazed with this product and I have only used it once! you arent supposed to deep condition your hair more than once a week. But even after one use I can only image what its going to do with my hair in the future!

product: 9/10 longevity: 9/10 application: 10/10 packaging: 10/10

grade: A

Ombré Ombré Ombré

for all of you who don't follow me on instagram (bhouhoulis) or twitter i'll let you in on what I did recently on my hair, it's finally ombred! it took a lot longer than I thought and it didn't even come out the way i wanted it. so this morning I went back to the drugstore and bought the beach again to touch up some pieces and fix some things so its the way I wanted it. It ended up looking really good and I'm really pleased with it! It doesn't look as ombre as it does in the picture than it does in real life. I have to give the warning thought that it did fry the ends of my hair, but don't fret i do have a solution which will lead into the next post! but I would suggest ombreing your hair! its a simple and easy thing to do on your own and looks amazing for summer!

June Birchbox - Jet Set

this months birchbox theme was jet set. at first i was like oh great just a reason for them to give us a ton of useless sample sizes! man was i wrong. this is only my second box but let me say… i like this one a bunch more than my gossip girl box, which was the whole reason i signed up! i got box 2 which my tracking said weighted 0.5410. these boxes are “devoted to products that will indulge your inner jetsetter, from hardy formulas that can last throughout a long-haul flight to imported finds that we’ve picked up on our global adventures.” i like that the products are from other places other than the US its gives a total “jet set” vibe

in this box was:

• 2 comodynes self-tanning intensive whips
• stila one step bronze
• thebalm cosmetics stainiac in beauty queen
• wonderstruck perfume sample by taylor swift
• luna bar as my lifestyle extra

i was super excited to see that i had this box! i wish i got the modcloth headband as well but over all i really like the box! i’m really excited to have gotten thebalm stainiac because emilynoel83 just did a review on thebalm the company and said she really liked this product! i think everyone got this product. i’m also excited about stila one step bronzer because i think its full size and thats usually $36 right there! so already your box is worth more than the $10 you paid! i’m nervous about the self-tanning whips because i don’t want to look orange or anything! the taylor swift perfume smells really good, i hate perfume samples that don’t have a pump or spray thing i always feel like i’m about to pour it all out. 

over all i really liked this theme this month and all the products i got! i can actually see myself using these products! another cute thing is the box that my birchbox was sent in even have a jet set theme! it has monuments from all over the world and i thought that was a super cute idea! i’m going to continue using birchbox, i told myself i will try out 3 months and then decide if i’m going to proceed using the service of cancel it. if you want any follow up on how i like any of the products or review on the products let me know! what did you get in your birchbox?