How to: Gel Nails

Many of you have probably heard of gel nails. Essentially you are able to paint your nails with a stronger nail polish that won't chip as easily. If you are someone who always has to have their nails done, but who doesn't want to spend a lot of money going to a nail salon, investing in a gel nails at home kit would be something to look at.

I currently use the gelish brand UV light (shown above) and it works perfectly! I know many UV lights can be pretty pricey, but look at some local nail shops/beauty shops and you might find some really good deals!

 Make sure to get a base coat and a top coat for your nails as it helps strengthen your nail polish and helps it last longer. However if you decide to get the Gelaze brand, the color nail polish doubles as a base coat so you'd only need the top coat! :)

 So basically its incredibly simple. Just apply the base coat/foundation coat and put your nails under the UV light and press the button until the light turns off. And repeat those steps with the color  polish and the top coat and voila, you're finished!

So what do you think about gel nails? I absolutely love them :) They should last about 3 or more weeks, however you need to get them wet as little as possible to help them last longer. Wear gloves while washing the dishes and don't go swimming everyday and they should last you a long time! Tell me what your experiences are with gel nails, and what else you would like seeing on my blog!

Vacation: Bear Lake

This weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to stay in a summer lake house with my family at Bear Lake. For those of you who have never been there/ never heard of it, let me just tell you, it is GORGEOUS! I have never seen a lake so blue and have never been able to have such a great view of one.

And yes, the lake really is that blue! I was absolutely blown away by the view. And not only was the water beautiful, but the neighboring cabins were just adorable! My Dad and I went for a long walk enjoying the view. 

The next day we spent hours swimming at the lake, and I was surprised at how clear the water was! I could go as far out as I could and I was always able to see the bottom clearly. 

I wish I would've taken a better picture of how clear the water is, but I hope you can kind of tell from the picture above.

I am super happy I was able to enjoy a weekend at this beautiful place! Whatever your summer is like, I suggest you take loads of pictures because half the fun of amazing summer adventures is reminiscing with friends and family as you flip through photos in the future!

Peace out my lovelies!

*side note* I just saw a beautiful rainbow after it just sprinkled for a bit so I had to put this in here! Please view the full image to see it better cause Im too lazy to resize it now sorry, haha

July Favorites

So it's about the end of July and I've gotta say I've had an amazing month! I'm kind of dreading the start of school in August, but I will probably be doing some back to school posts, so look forward to those! Here are just the top 5 things I've been enjoying this month that I've decided to share with you. :) So lets get started.

#5 Not Your Mother's Sea Salt Spray

Since I've cut my hair, I've been using this spray a lot! I know beach spray on some people actually makes their hair slightly wavy, but not on my hair at all... However I use this spray as it adds a lot of texture and volume to my normally flat hair. So if you have very fine hair like I do, sea salt spray may add some volume you need! (As an added plus, the smell is absolutely amazing, like a coconut paradise)

 #4 Physicians Formula Blush - Rose

So this isn't the best blush in the world, however for the price it is quite good! I find that it has been the perfect color on my skin. I normally blend the darker sections (right half) rather than the lighter side. I've been using this for a while now and it's been staple in my makeup routine for this month! 

#3 Buxom Darkest Black Mascara 

Ok I can not get over how much I absolutely love Buxom mascara. It lengthens and seperates my lashes to perfection! I'm a fan of the fanned out seperated lashes more than the clunky kind, so this mascara was and is perfect for my everyday routine! And as a bonus it is only $19.00 vs the other competing brands that are like $25 or more! I highly recommend this brand. (Also the lip glosses are TO DIE FOR. I'll have to have a whole different post about those because they are just, amazing)

#2 Jamba Juice

Ok Jamba Juice has seriously become my best friend this month. It's healthy and delicious, what more can a girl ask for? I know there are a lot of us who don't like spending a lot of money (*cough* like me *cough) so I've also been just making my own smoothies and shakes, but really Jamba Juice has me beat and I still go there for an extra healthy treat sometimes! 

 #1 My New Pet Budgie

This is Piko, we got him about two weeks ago! Let me tell you, he is absolutely adorable! I am in love with him already... Who am I kidding I was in love with him from the moment I first laid eyes on him. I've made sure to play with him for over an hour a day to make our bond strong and keep him from getting too bored as we don't have a second budgie and these birds love company! Perhaps someday we will find him a partner, but for now I am focusing on getting his love and trust as I am learning more about him and budgies in general! 

So what has been your favorite thing(s) this month? And have you tried any of the products I use? Let me know in the comments below. :)

How to: Perfect Eyebrows

We've all seen them: The perfect eyebrows. I've met many people who feel that perfect eyebrows are so out of reach, they resort to plucking most of theirs off just to fill them back in again like coloring books. Now I'll let you in on a little secret (that isn't so secretive at all) most of those cutie boys out there that you're trying to impress don't give a darn tootin' what your eyebrows look like, as long as they look natural. However, most of us girls do care (I know I do.) So in order to get a win-win out of the situation, I'm gonna tell you everything I know about getting perfect, natural looking eyebrows!

First: Determine your eyebrow's shape.

Finding the shape of the eyebrows that match perfectly to your own face is actually incredibly simple and easy! Before starting get something to outline the shape of your brows, white liner tends to work the best for this as it contrasts with dark brows. Next, just find a thin straight edged tool (I use a thin comb) and line up (while looking straight) your nostril to your eyebrow. That is where your eyebrow should start.

After marking the start of your eyebrows, next line up the straight edge with your nostril to the outer side of your iris. That is the highest part of your eyebrow's arch.

For the ends, match up your nostril with the outer corners of your eye.

Next determine how thick you want your eyebrows to be. I don't have a specific trick for this, but you should kind go along with the natural shape of your brow. Outline the shape you want in the white liner like so (I'm using photoshop to show you cause I couldn't find a white liner and I was too lazy to buy a new one haha)

Second: Pluck away

Now that you've determined how you want your brows to look, pluck all hair that lives outside of the boundary that you just drew :) If your eyebrow hairs are really long, you may want to trim them (like I do) but don't cut off too much as the longer the hairs, the more naturally filling your eyebrows will be! I normally brush the hair upwards with a brow brush and trim any irregularly long hairs, but again don't trim too much.

Third: Fill in empty spots

Now if you have any patches of emptier looking areas, that is where you want to fill in with a brow pencil, or eye shadow. Most people find a brow pencil that is the same color as their eyebrows, however they come off way too strong. Go with a few shades lighter than your actual hair color and your eyebrows will look full while still maintaining a natural look.

***HELPFUL HINT***

Ok so chances are your eyebrows sometimes get a little unruly at times and go all over the place. A simple and very inexpensive way to fix this, is to get an old mascara brush, spray it with hairspray, and brush your brows in place. And voila- your brows will stay in place all day! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial, and hopefully you like these tips! Let me know what works for you when you try to manage your brows :) 

The Lob

This year there seems to be a split between two major hairstyles. The super long hair, and the lob/long bob. I tried growing out my hair, but it wasn't sitting well with me, it was starting to thin out a little on the ends and it didn't frame my face the way I wanted it to. When summer started, I started to notice the growing number of lobs among celebrities and in pictures on Pinterest. I absolutely fell in love with the style. It is chic, fashionable, and works with literally every face shape! So yesterday I decided to get my hair cut. 

*Sorry about the photo quality! I've misplaced my camera, so I've been using my phone*

I personally love the style and am super glad I decided to try it out! I was particularly enjoying myself today when I took my dog out for a walk since I didn't have to worry about my hair warming up my neck too much. I was strutting in my new shoes feeling comfortable yet somewhat cutesy/dressy. 

Ok even though this post is about my hair, I have to write about these shoes just a little bit... They are absolutely the most comfortable shoes ever. And I got them for such a cheap price ($17.00) Honestly it feels like I'm walking on clouds when I wear them lol. And they are super casual and I just love them haha.

So what do you think, lob or long hair? And what are the best shoe deals you've come upon?? Comment down below! 

Summer Adventures

Summer so far has been an absolute blast! I just returned from a full week of technology free camp, which was amazing, and am currently in Las Vegas visiting family. A few friends and I have created a summer bucket list that I am just dying to finish (though we planned so many things it's impossible.) From ideas such as cooking Pinterest recipes to diy craft days to starting up a book club, our summer bucket list has it all.

Just the other day we already started our summer adventures by going to the lake for a picnic. These girls are some of the greatest friends anyone could ever ask for and I'm so glad I get to spend my summer days with them!

From left to right is Kayla, McKenna and Nadia (then me) and each of them are amazing!

(For the fashion side of my blog I just wanna add that I am also obsessed with one piece swimsuits with a skirt attached. It frames my body super well and is really cute! )

Our picnic was just as delicious as it was random. We had fried chicken, sushi and a veggie platter that just hit the spot! After eating we played around taking lots of cute pics.

And to finish it off, we got to watch fireworks and have the perfect end to a perfect day! 

So my summer adventures have just begun and I promise to upload much more, from fashion posts to some planned DIY posts, I hope you guys stay tuned! 

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American Prom

So I haven't posted anything for the past two months and I feel really bad about it haha. I've been focusing on school work and my AP exams (American college level exams for high school students) so I kind of neglected my blog. As you can see however I am posting again! And I have one more week of school and then a long summer full of blogging opportunities ;)

Anyways, as you can see in the title I'm going to talk about Prom! I was actually lucky enough to go to two different proms this year, one thrown by my church and one by my high school. Both proms were both amazing and fun in totally different ways.

For my church prom I was asked by a guy I barely knew, I think I've spoken to him once... I hadn't seen him in about a year when he randomly asked me out of the blue. Needless to say I was worried prom was going to be awkward and terrible, but it turned out to be a lot of fun! I was able to go with a group of really good friends who made the whole night great!

We also had AMAZING food prepared for us that just made the whole night even better!

For my school prom I decided to wear the same dress because I didn't want to spend more money haha (btw I got my dress for $25.00 at Burlington Coat Factory and the shoes for $12.00, so cheap and so cute just how I like it ;) 

I went alone for school prom with a big group of friends and I really liked it! I didn't feel obligated to make sure my date was having fun and I didn't feel stuck with them all day (plus they only played 2 slow songs) so all in all going single was not bad at all! 

My prom group rented a party bus and we danced and sang along to all of the songs all night long, from the party bus on the way and in the party bus on the way home! 

My hair was once again done by my talented mother, I am amazed at how skilled she is without having had any training!

Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I promise I will start blogging more regularly! 

Finally Spring?

It is finally warming up where I live, and I am super excited! Lately we have been having freezing rain and temperatures and I am getting so tired of it... My favorite seasons are spring and fall because, to me, the weather is just perfect! I'm excited to finally show off some spring time fashion ;)

Here is an outfit I put together to celebrate the coming of spring for a party I went to the other night (although it was still kind of chilly when I wore it, hence the cardigan)

Dress: forever 21

shoes: Clark's Indigo

I can't tell you how much I love this dress! It gives off a very classy-cute vibe that I just adore. You'll probably see me post a lot of outfits with clothing from forever 21. It has to be my all time favorite store to shop from and I cannot recommend it enough! 

I also love the shoes I was wearing that night. The design of the shoes somehow made wearing high heels super comfortable and not painful to stand in all night at all! Unfortunately I can't remember which store I bought the shoes from (because I know I got them cheaper than the price online), however I know that the brand name is Indigo by Clark. 

That night my hair was being incredibly difficult and I couldn't figure out what to do with it! I spent more time than I want to admit in the bathroom testing out different hair-dos then taking it down and starting over... Finally, I surrendered and asked my mother for some help and I was extremely pleased with the outcome! 

This was exactly the kind of hair I was looking for. Not too fancy and extravagant, but more simple while still looking like I cared enough to put something together, haha. Sometimes I forget that my mom is always here to help out with things (even small things like doing my hair.) 

So what to you all think? What was the best part of the outfit, or what would you change?

Braids and Flats

So I've always wanted to try one of those gorgeous french braid/messy bun up-dos, and today I finally did! It was actually a lot easier to do than I thought it would be. For some reason, just seeing other girls pull it off so beautifully intimidated me, so I was scared to try it out on my own. But I couldn't be happier with the results!

I feel like my bun could have been a bit messier, but I think you get the picture ;) I love this look and how it accentuates my subtle ombre. I've been debating about whether to go full ombre with blond tips or just stick with my dark to light brown, what do you all think? Oh and in case you don't already know how to do this braided bun, I used this tutorial and just worked from there. 

Today I also wanted to show off one of my favorite pairs of shoes that I constantly get complements on. 

I absolutely ADORE these shoes! They are simple black flats but have a gold band that wraps around your ankles that are simply gorgeous ;) Not only are they cute, but I got them extremely cheap as well. I got these shoes from Ross, which for those of you not in the U.S. is a store similar to TJ/TK Maxx with a lot of discount clothing. I find that if you look in the right spots you can find those diamonds in the rough. I got these for about $10.00, which was totally worth it. Heres a picture of them up close:

The brand name of these shoes is Steve Madden, you can find more of their shoes here. They aren't as cheap as I found this specific pair for, but a lot of their shoes are to die for! 

Denim Shirts

So I'm totally in love with denim shirts right now. Especially the super baggy ones. I just find that you can do loads of different styles with them that are super stylin' <3 So I decided to take a few pictures of a couple ways I wear them :)

First off the photographer-

Completed with my very own camera case and cannon camera (actually it is my mothers, but we don't need to get into that...). I just love this look with the baggy shirt, black leggings and some sort of black bag you have to strap over. Cute. Simple. Gotta love it.

Next is the nerdy flirt-

Which I might add is not nerdy, or very flirty, at all. I feel like anytime you tuck in a shirt and add glasses to something everyone slaps the name "nerdy" on it without a second thought, but oh well who really cares -I don't- Haha, anyways, this look is a super cute buttoned to the top, tucked in, messy pony-tailed master piece. And I thought I'd throw in the glasses just for fun. 

Third is for a lazy day-

Yeah, so this picture is incredibly ugly, but when I actually noticed how gross I looked, I was too lazy to take another -oh the irony- But the look itself isn't half bad. There isn't much to it, just slap on an undershirt (mine is black) and put the denim shirt on top of that and voila- you got the lazy look. I should have put my hair into a messy bun, cause I think that completes the look better than a pony tail, but you get the idea.

And lastly is the half tuck-

I personally like this look, and the nerdy flirty look the best. Most of the time I like finishing off this look with a fishtail or french braid but letting it down is just as good. :) This picture doesn't exactly do it justice, but I promise its a super cute look with a "I don't really care" type feel along with a sort of artsy vibe. Well I guess you could say they all have artsy vibes, but oh well, whatevs. 

So obviously these aren't all of the styles you can wear a denim shirt in, in fact there are sooo many more I couldn't possibly blog about them all. However, these are the styles that I like best, and even though you probably don't need me to show you how to wear a shirt, -at least I would hope not...-  maybe I gave you some ideas for future outfits? Or not, it doesn't really matter to me. Either way, I hope you stick around for more blogs and I hope this wasn't at all a waste of time for you ;)

Chel Here

Hello to all of you out there in the blogging universe. I recently decided to start a new blog (obviously) to share some of my random thoughts and feelings with all of you. Because this is my first post, I know not a lot of people (if any) will see this but oh well, I might as well give it a shot.

So I guess I should start off by introducing myself. My name's Chelsea, but just Chel is fine with me ;) I'm planning on having this blog for a load of different topics. I do really like hair and makeup tutorials, so you might see a few of those kind of posts popping up here and there, but I would also like to share about a bunch of other random things too. I love all things psychology, including dreams and personality assessments, and I'm pretty nerdy too with lots of video game obsessions. Oh, and if you're lucky you might even get a few dating tips and relationship advice too. *wink wink, nod nod* Uh huh, I think you get me... Yeah, I take that back, I don't think you want my advice. However, I do think that eventually, if you follow my blog, you will in no doubt find something that relates to you.

Thanks for stopping by to those of you reading this, and I hope you will bear with me as I try to figure this whole blogging thing out!