Tips for Better Looking Skin

Hello friends! Like many other teenagers, I suffer from an embarrassing skin condition called acne. For a long time, I didn't do anything about it, but it got so bad that I refused to leave the house without makeup on. Eventually I decided it was time for a change,  so I did some research on how to clear up your skin, and these are the tips that worked for me. 

1. Stick to a regular skin care routine. I'm not a dermatologist, so I can't tell you why this works, only that it does. I used to only wash my face when I broke out,  but now I wash it every morning and night, and that has made a world of difference. 

2. If you use a powerful cleanser like Proactiv (which has done wonders for me), make sure you only use it once a day.  Your skin tends to build up immunity quickly to powerful cleansers, which is why they can stop working after only a few months. Using these just once a day can prevent this immunity. For your second wash,  use a milder cleanser. I use the Neutrogena oil free acne wash in the mornings,  and I love it! 

3. Change your pillowcase once a week. This may add up to some extra laundry,  but your face will thank you! Tons of bacteria and oils build up and rub of on your pillowcase when you sleep, and frequently changing it will help keep these harmful substances out of your pores.

4. After you shower, never dry your hair before you dry your face. Residue from your conditioner will rub off on your towel and, eventually, your face. The best thing to do would be to use a different towel to dry your hair and the rest of your body, but that will add tons to your laundry load.

5. Always always ALWAYS take off your makeup before you go to bed. This should be a given, but I thought I should reiterate it. 

As always, I hope this was helpful, and stay classy, America!

How To Make Friends

Hello friends!  So if you read my first post (or if you know me in real life) you'd know that I'm going off to college next year. I will most likely be going out of state for this, which means I will know very few people (if any at all) going in. Consequently,  I'm going to have to make all new friends.  Luckily,  I have a little experience with this; over the summer,  I had the opportunity to go on a trip to France and Spain. I didn't know anyone else on the trip at first,  but I ended up becoming good friends with all of them. Here are a few easy steps to follow when you're trying to make friends:

1. In order to make friends,  you have to talk to people.  I'm a really shy person by nature,  so I have a hard time approaching people and starting conversations, but if you want to make friends,  you're most likely going to have to do this. It's not as difficult as you might think,  especially if the other person is as lonely as you. The first thing I did on the trip was befriend the other girl who didn't know anyone,  and she ended up being my most frequent roommate and a good friend. Confidence is key. 

2.  It's much easier to approach groups of people with someone else at your side. That way,  if the group is unwilling to accept you (which, at least in my experience, is a pretty rare outcome), you still have a friend to whom you can talk.  It's also much easier to be yourself when you're around someone who is already your friend and who is confident.  On the trip,  my friend Desi was my friend-making partner in crime.  We approached another group from a different state and ended up spending tons of time with them. I talk to all of them to this day. 

3. Once you've started a conversation with a potential friend,  find a common interest and make sure you like their personality. Don't settle; that friend will make you miserable if you do. If you decide mid-conversation that you cannot be friends with that person, politely extract yourself from the conversation and move on. If they ask you if you want to buy some drugs,  they're probably not the friend for you. 

4. When trying to make new friends,  don't bring along more than your one confident current friend. The more friends you bring,  the less likely you will be to talk to new people. If you bring a friend who's not open to meeting new people,  you'll feel inclined to do the same. For example, on the France/Spain trip, I was alone and made tons of friends. On my vacation in Mexico with my best friend,  I didn't make any because we're both shy. 

5. If you don't feel confident enough to approach other people,  make sure you look approachable. Body language is key here; crossed arms and a scowl don't make you look like friend material.  Instead,  try smiling and making eye contact with people. They'll much more likely to come start a conversation with you. 

6. This is probably the most important step: if you want to make new friends,  you're going to have to put yourself in situations in which you will meet new people. You can't sit at home and watch Netflix all day and then complain about not having any friends. Even going on the Internet can help you meet new people these days (though I would advise you to be extremely careful in those situations). Making friends is easy; you just have to put forth the effort. Trust me; friendship is worth it. 

I hope you found this post helpful, and if you didn't, well,  go ride a elephant or something. Oh, and stay classy, America!

A Traveler's Guide to Languages

Hello,  bonjour,  hola, salam, olà, and ciao friends!  So if you,  like me,  have a bit of a obsession with traveling, then you're going to need to know simple phrases for whatever country to which you're traveling.  Even if you don't travel, it's always a good idea to have a basic idea of multiple languages.  Today,  I'm going to be teaching you some simple phrases in French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Italian. Let's get started! 

Each English word will be white,  French will be blue,  Spanish will be red,  Arabic will be orange,  Portuguese will be green,  and Italian will be purple. 

Goodbye:  Au revoir. Adiòs. Ma'a salama. Adeus. Arrivederci. 

I am lost:  Je suis perdu(e).  Estoy perdido. Ada'tu tareeqi. Estou perdido. Mi sono perso. 

Please:  S'il vous plaît. Por favor. Por favor. Per favore. 

Thank you:  Merci. Gracias. Shokran. Obrigado/Obrigada. Grazie. 

Do you speak English?:  Parlez-vous l'anglais? Hablas inglès?  Hal tatakalluma allogha alenjleziah? Fala inglês? Parli inglese?

Yes/no:  Oui/non. Sí/No. Na'am/laa. Sim/não. Sì/no. 

I realize that there is supposed to be an upside down question mark before Spanish questions,  but I couldn't figure out how to type it. Sorry! I also couldn't find the Arabic way to say please that used the English alphabet, so I also apologize for that. Now a fun one (sans Arabic):

Unicorn:  Licorne. Unicornio. Unicornio. Unicorno. 

Hope you had a little fun learning this,  and stay classy,  America! 

Things To Do When You're Snowed In

Hello friends! So as a lot of you probably know, the Midwest is experiencing some crazy weather today! Where I live,  it is currently -6 degrees and there is about 8 inches of snow on the ground (at least it's sunny?). Since it is so cold that I, like many others,  refuse to leave my house,  I thought I would share with you lovely people some fun things to do when you're stuck indoors.
1. Mess around with your hair.  I recently cut about 6 inches off of my hair,  so I'm still experimenting with styles that make it look good.  I also received a TopStyler for Christmas last year,  and I haven't done much experimenting with it because it is much less user friendly than a curling iron.  For the TopStyler experiment,  I wrapped 1 in sections of hair around 2 fingers and clipped them into place with the shells. I waited for them to completely cool before letting them down,  and the result was less than ideal.  Then I decided to make myself look like a poodle,  so I curled my hair with a 3/4 in curling iron and them flipped my head upside down and shook it. The poodle hair was a success.

2. Bake something. My best friend's mom got me this mustache silicon mold for Christmas,  and I've been dying to try it out!  Here is the finished product (I made brownies):

3. Make snow ice cream.  I got my recipe from www.theperksoftaylor.blogspot.com , and it is delicious!

4. Have a movie marathon. You can never watch the Harry Potter series (or, in my case, Disney movies) too many times!

5. Do blindfolded makeovers. I had to bribe my sister with brownies to get her to agree to this, but we ended up having tons of fun!

6 . Check out showmestyleslv.blogspot.com for some fun DIY projects that you can do with items you have around the house.

7. Get inspired to paint something over at PeytonsPlacepp.blogspot.com . She makes some really cool Disney fan art that I would totally try if I was talented...

8. Paint your nails.  Here are some of my favorites that I've done:

(The promise ring is not mine;  is my friend Victoria's)

If you want a tutorial for any of these looks,  let me know in the comments! I hope this post gave you some ideas to lessen your boredom when you're snowed in,  and stay classy,  America!

The Dos and Don'ts of Selfies

Hello friends! So if you haven't heard of selfies, you must be living under a rock. The trend of taking pictures of oneself exploded with the introduction of the front facing camera, and ever since there has been some bad selfie-taking etiquette. Without further ado, here are the dos and don'ts of taking a selfie:

DO find your most flattering angle.

Obviously this is not her most flattering angle, so this is more of an example of what NOT to do,  but hopefully the concept is clear. Play around with different angles until you find one you like.  A few examples are:

From the above left

From the left only

From straight above

Straight on

DON'T take them from below. This tends to make your face look fatter and is usually more unflattering. It can also create a double chin effect, which is usually not a look you want.

Don't be a Dylan.

DO make sure you have good lighting. The point of a selfie is so the world can see your beautiful face, so make sure it's visible!

You can't even tell if I'm a boy or a girl in this pic! Obviously questionable gender is not the look I'm going for.

DON'T go for the overexposed look. Again, you want to show off your gorgeous face,  and overexposure can make you look like you have no nose. 

See what I mean?  It looks like I have floating nostrils in the middle of my face!

DO choose a good location for your selfie. FYI the bathroom is NOT a good location!

Now I realize not everyone can go to Paris or Barcelona to take a selfie, but you get my point. No more bathroom selfies!!!

DON'T over edit your pictures

It's obnoxious.

DO accessorize (in moderation).

This is good!

Three pairs of sunglasses is a bit much...

And, most importantly,  DO have a little fun and show your personality. Selfies should be a representation of whom you are!

Desi is stunning, but this picture shows nothing of her personality. 

The scary thing is that this one describes Eddie and Jesse pretty well...

Have fun with your selfies like Jesse! 

Finger 'staches are always a good way to go. 

Just a reminder: DO NOT BE A DYLAN!!!

The best selfies are the ones that YOU like the best and feel comfortable showing the world, and taking good ones can take some practice. Have fun with it,  and stay classy,  America!

How To Have A Blog Party

Hello friends!  So I have 3 other friends with blogs, and I decided we should have a blog party.  I googled what to do at a blog party, but I couldn't find anything (granted I did not look very hard), so I decided to wing it.  So here are the steps to throwing the best blog party ever (not a supremely difficult task considering blog parties are not actually a thing): 

Step 1: Provide food. We ordered 2 pizzas from Domino's. If you order the pizza online, there is an option to add delivery instructions for the driver. We asked for the driver to draw a dinosaur befriending a narwhal on the box, and this was the result:

Shout out to Michael, the world's best pizza delivery guy, for that masterpiece!  Alright, step 2: Make things for everyone's blogs. For Savannah's blog (showmestyleslv.blogspot.com), we made a DIY vanilla sugar scrub, which looks like this:

 Then we decorated cupcakes for Taylors blog (www.theperksoftaylor.blogspot.com):

Finally, we watched Peyton paint this poster for her blog (PeytonsPlacepp.blogspot.com):

Step 3: Blog about it! Blog parties really aren't that difficult to throw,  and as long as you're with good friends you are guaranteed a good time.  Hope you found this helpful and are inspired to throw your own blog party.  That's all for me; stay classy,  America!

Playing With Layouts and My OOTD

Hello again! So I'm kind of a dunce when it comes to technology, and I'm also a 5 year old at heart, so if I figure out some new way to do things (such as changing the type and color of the font) I am probably going to get really excited and do it. That being said,  I shall do my best to control myself and keep things as consistent as possible. 

Let's move along to my outfit of the day. Normally I would not dress up so much at school,  but today was our first day back from winter break (yeah, we went back on a Friday;  how stupid is that?), and I got a ton of new clothes,  so I had to show them off. Here's my outfit: 

 My shirt is just a long, plain black t-shirt from Charlotte Russe, my leggings are blue tie-dye with a black hieroglyphic pattern (I think) also from Charlotte Russe, and my boots are just standard black ankle boots with a bit of a thick heel, which is perfect for me because I'm short (5' 2") and clumsy, and I believe they are from Payless.

 For hair, I curled my hair with a 1 in iron last night, then I pinned it up and slept on it. In the morning, I sprayed it with hairspray before taking out the pins (I just use standard Bobby pins) then let it down and pulled it back into a ponytail, leaving a few face-framing pieces out. I really like curling my hair this way because I have fine, stick straight hair that holds curl really poorly, but I've found that this method creates a really strong curl that lasts throughout the day (with the help of a lot of hairspray).

 I am by no means good with makeup, so this is about as advanced as I ever get. I applied a slightly shimmery eye shadow with some winged navy blue eyeliner and one coat of black mascara. On my lips, I only ever wear Baby Lips or Chapstick, but I am currently wearing nothing. My only piece of jewelry is my infinity sign necklace from Claire's.

There's my puppy in the background!  Hope you enjoyed this post,  and if you want more specifics on my hair or makeup, let me know!  Oh, and stay classy,  America!