Don’t You Dare!

Yikes—two Don’t You Dare posts in one day within hours of each other! We have to realign the universe or throw salt over our shoulders or SOMETHING to bring back the fashionably sane.

While I’ll admit the individual components are cute in this picture, they just don’t ALL go together. When you go overboard with accessories, you tend to look more like you’re wearing a costume (and it ain’t Halloween, honey). So how do you know when to stop?

Coco Chanel said something along the lines of taking one piece off after getting dressed, but I’m afraid one piece isn’t enough for dear Melody’s outfit. So here’s some tips on how to do it right:

* Take note of any exaggeration in an outfit. Take the fringe on Melody’s bag for instance. Anything that decorative needs something more basic to counter it. You can also take the grommets on her shoes as another example. It’s competing with the bag and the chains and the makeup and the ponytail for attention. Which brings us to…

* Choose a focal point in your outfit. It can be a funky hairdo or a piece of statement jewelry or a hot bag. Just make sure that the eye can safely balance on one thing and not have to quickly run from one item to another.

I would have loved to have seen this outfit minus the ponytail, shoes, bag, and dookie chain, but there are so many other options to make this outfit right. And that’s where this post gets interactive! Play stylist for a minute–leave a comment sharing what you’d do to make Melody’s outfit right.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in the LAST Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! One lucky reader will win Smashbox’s Try Me Kit! Entries must be in by Friday, August 29th at 11:59 P.M. EST. If you haven’t won yet, now is definitely your time to get your entries in for your last chance to win. The winner will be announced on Saturday right here on myurbanglamour.blogspot.com! Stay tuned!

Don’t You Dare!

I’ve been gone for a minute, but I’m back! Anyone miss me?

*crickets*

Anyway, I’ve been super busy. I turned 27 on Tuesday (yay!) and I’ve just been swamped with the day job and socializing. Now back to the posting 🙂

*SIGH*

You know all these recent posts I’ve been putting up trying to convince women to wear blush more often? I’m afraid these pics of Lil’ Kim (shown above) have single-handedly sent millions of women back into their fear of wearing blush! If you were one of them, please come back! It’s okay 🙂

There are many things wrong with this look (the ‘Bert and Ernie’ eyebrows, the ‘ode to Rick James’ hair, the cheekbones that oddly look like butt cheeks, etc. ) but what you need to keep in mind for doing blush is that even if you’re heavy-handed and OD on the blush, you can still come back by dusting loose powder over the crime scene and then spritz with MAC Fix+ Spray. You’ll get more of a “glowing from within” look (and people will suddenly start taking off their sunglasses to look at you).

For the record, I really don’t like to come down so hard on another woman’s style, but I feel the tough-love routine is the only one for Lil’ Kim. She used to be SUCH a cute girl. *weeps for Lil’ Kim’s old face*

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in the LAST Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! One lucky reader will win Smashbox’s Try Me Kit! Entries must be in by Friday, August 29th at 11:59 P.M. EST. If you haven’t won yet, now is definitely your time to get your entries in for your last chance to win. The winner will be announced on Saturday right here on myurbanglamour.blogspot.com! Stay tuned!

Sephoragate Continues…

I was reading one of my friend’s blogs today (she also had emailed a complaint to Sephora) and she mentioned she finally got a response from them. So I decided to check my spam folder and lo and behold, there sat my apology email from them (along with a slew of spam telling me how for a low price of $39.99 I can increase the size of my penis…lol). I actually got it 5 days ago (note: always check your spam for apology emails from Sephora). Here’s what they said:

“Dear Ms. Gray,

I wanted to personally email you to apologize for the service that you received in our store. I would also like to share that conversations have been had with my staff to ensure that this unfortunate event never happens again. I hope that you will visit us in the near future. Please feel free to contact me to speak about the matter. I would also love to speak to you in person so that I can truly share how sorry we are in ways that I am unable to express through email.

I look forward to speaking with you soon.“

So I responded with my telephone number so the Sephora person who sent me this email could call me to speak about it (she didn’t leave any contact info in the email). I’ll keep you all posted.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in this week’s Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! One lucky reader will win Stila Smudge Pot in Cobalt! Entries must be in by TONIGHT at 11:59 P.M. EST. The winner will be announced on Saturday right here on myurbanglamour.blogspot.com! Stay tuned!

How to Rock a Trend

Lil Mama at MTV’s TRL, a clear example of how NOT to rock a trend

Today while running some errands, I spotted an otherwise cute girl of about 18 or 19 years old who had on a Rihanna-style wig (the bob with the straight across bangs), very colorful Nike Dunks, a long pearl necklace, and a sleeveless ballerina dress that was a size too big as she had it pinned to her bra. While I have to at least give her 2 1.5 points for attempting innovation (seeing as how in my Queens neighborhood, the closest thing to fashion I see are teen girls matching their jewelry to their outfits *sigh*), her ensemble was all wrong. I could see where she was going, but she overdid it and her outfit wound up looking like a costume.

So how do you wear a trend without looking like a fashion victim? It’s easy if you follow these steps:

1. Take a good assessment of your flaws and your flaunt-worthy areas. You can also enlist a very honest friend to help you out. Any trends that bring more attention to your flaws should be avoided like the plague (i.e. If you have DD boobies, a blouse with tons of ruffles on the neckline is not your best friend)

2. If the trend you’re taking on is from decades past, consider this: take an element from the decade–I repeat–an element, not the entire ensemble–and you’ll be rocking a modern update on the trend. Check out how Kerry Washington (a woman who in my eyes can never do wrong…lol) is rocking this 80s style strapless dress. Now, she could have gone dreadfully wrong and paired the dress with sneakers and crimped hair, but she made the look modern with her bouncy curls and simple pumps.

3. If the trend is really tricky to pull off (like a color that no matter you slice it is not YOUR color) then consider taking on the trend small scale in tiny purse form. I keep seeing ladies walking the streets of Manhattan wearing shirts embellished with sequins. Now unless you are someone along the lines of Beyonce or Diana Ross, please 86 the sequins. If you must have your Dreamgirls moment, go with something like this (be sure to keep the rest of your outfit simple):

Large Harlequin Sequin Clutch at topshop.com

If you have a personal fashion or beauty question you’d like to have answered, email me at danielle@myurbanglamour.com. I’ll personally answer it for you and you can even be featured here on the blog!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in this week’s Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! One lucky reader will win Stila Smudge Pot in Cobalt! Entries must be in Friday, August 1st at 11:59 P.M. EST. The winner will be announced on Saturday, August 2nd right here on myurbanglamour.blogspot.com! Stay tuned!

Sephoragate Continues…

Remember my incident with Sephora? If not, click here. So I got a general response from Sephora’s customer service the next day saying they apologize for the experience and would be forwarding my email to the person in charge of Sephora stores in the district where the store I had my experience is in, and that they would get back to me in 3-5 business days. That was on July 8th.

What’s today’s date? Right. The 23rd. And not a single whisper, message in a bottle, note tied to a bird’s leg…nothing, not a peep from the Sephora store where the incident happened. So I emailed them to alert them to the fact that the store never contacted me. They again apologized and said they’d resend the message to the store.

Ugh. I don’t know. Sephora and I have been like this >< for so many years–it’s like, should I be mad at that particular store; should I hold it against all of Sephora; if I boycott them—where else would I go to find a wide selection of beauty products in one place; could I even really boycott them–I mean c’mon now. I love beauty products like a fat kid loves cake.

To be continued…

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in this week’s double Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! Two lucky readers will win either NARS Blush in Orgasm or Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion! Entries must be in by Friday, July 25th at 11:59 P.M. EST.

Don’t You Dare…

This should really go without saying. I mean, I’m all about being happy and comfortable with your body flaws and all, but this is just wrong! She actually does have a cute body despite the stretch marks–and I wouldn’t mind this as much if she were at the actual beach—but this pic was taken at a private bowling party!

Don’t let this happen to you!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter in this week’s double Urban Glamour Summer Beauty SUPER Giveaway! Two lucky readers will win either NARS Blush in Orgasm or Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion! Entries must be in by Friday, July 25th at 11:59 P.M. EST.

Oh No They Didn’t!

Being slighted at your favorite store is like finding out your crush for forever is just not that into you.

Now if you know me, Sephora is like my playground. I love to see what new colors and textures are out in makeup so I can pass it onto you lovelies and my clients. So today I hightailed it over to the Sephora store in the Roosevelt Field Mall because I needed to get some skincare stuff and also to check out what’s new. Please tell me why the second I go from the first makeup stand to the next do I FEEL eyes on me? So I turn around and basically right up on my back is some Sephora dude. I give him the “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?” look and proceed with my shopping. Only he’s still on my trail. What the hell? Then a few other Sephora reps come up to me to ask if I need help (which I’m used to because most other times the reps there are so friendly and helpful but today they seem to only want me to be aware that they’re aware of my presence). One of them watched me for almost a minute before she asked me if I needed help. So I proceeded over to the skincare area and Sephora dude is still watching me! Ugh.

So I decide if these people want to follow me around the store, they may as well get some exercise. So I walked over to the skincare area and picked up several packages of stuff and read the contents area of the package very s l o w l y of each individual package. Then I moved from skincare back to makeup and even had one of the reps help me decide between a Dr. Brandt or Murad pore extracting mask. Then I remembered it was someone from work’s birthday so I got another rep to help me pick out a gift. Then when I got to the register, I had them wrap it. The guy who kept following me was at the register and I was wishing I’d get him so I could ask him why he was following me, but he stepped away to help someone else. Plus, I didn’t really want to cause a scene (because we all know he would have denied he was following me *eyeroll*).

I emailed their corporate offices about the incident, so let’s see how they handle this. I feel so betrayed! I walk into my bathroom (which could very well moonlight as a small Sephora store with all the beauty products I have in there) and I just feel like UGH. It’s so funny how one bad incident can make you forget all the other good ones…lol.

Don’t You Dare…

Sure, I know it’s hot during the summer. I often have to hightail around the city in a business suit even in the most humid of days. But under no circumstances should I see your bare backside in a skirt (or dress) that’s way too short for you. And that’s EXACTLY what I saw today while at a red light–a woman in a way too short frilly dress with no undies on underneath and every time she took a step, EVERYBODY could see what lied beneath 😡

Don’t let this happen to you!

Don’t You Dare…

Don’t You Dare wear a too-tight top causing the folds of your mid-back to squeeze together in the atrocity known as “back fat”. I see this offense mostly being committed by women under 30 (ever notice that women over the age of 35 have it going on more body-wise than those under 30?) and sadly it’s often accompanied with muffin top. *sigh*

Don’t let this happen to you! Get a proper fitting bra that is long enough to smooth over the back fat and don’t be ashamed to buy a bigger shirt–cut the size tag out if it bothers you that much!

Image courtesy of Glamour

Don’t You Dare

The beauty of makeup in the present day is that whether you’re Nicole Kidman or Alek Wek, you can find your shade of foundation. No need to go with something that’s too-light or the wrong undertone. That said, Don’t You Dare wear the wrong foundation shade! Sure, Lil Kim’s look below is more than likely the result of bad plastic surgery, but wearing the wrong foundation color (or texture) gives a similar effect.

Don’t You Dare

Today’s Don’t You Dare requires little commentary from me since the pictures say more than enough on their own:

Don’t You Dare–even if you’re a multi-platinum selling international music sensation.

Mariah, girl…call me. PLEASE.

Don’t You Dare

Don’t you dare wear leggings/stretch pants as if they were a pair of actual pants—-especially not with a shirt that doesn’t cover your booty (and I’m very much not a fan of pairing leggings with a mini skirt either—sorry, Young Hollywood…lol). No matter what size you are, you run the risk of exposing camel toe, saggy bottom, cottage cheese, and knock knees. And think about your poor nether regions—much like Jordan Sparks and Chris Brown–how can it breathe with no air?

Exhibit A: When bad leggings happen to normally fab people:

Don’t You Dare!

Ever randomly run into an ex-boyfriend or an old rival and you look like absolute crap? You curse and you swear you’ll never ever get caught out there like that again—but who has the time to look like they spent hours in hair, makeup, and wardrobe? Or who really wants to be ‘that chick’ who has on 5 inch stilettos just to get milks and eggs? Fear not, there is an absolutely reasonable way to look cute even when you’re just running errands.

Quick Tip #1: Keep your eyebrows groomed at all times. Even when you’re not wearing any makeup, perfectly groomed eyebrows mean the difference between looking glam and looking hurt.

Quick Tip #2: Jazz up your basics by choosing pops of color instead of basic black or white.

1. Rebel Judy Jacket $68 at Urban Outfitters 2. Canvas Kyle Jacket $58 at Urban Outfitters 3. Nike Gingham Blazer Mid $80 at Urban Outfitters 4. Asics Mexico 66 $78 at Urban Outfitters 5. Petal Pointelle Beanie $20 at Urban Outfitters (good for covering up a bad hair day) 6. Jordache High Waist Trouser $19.99 at Urban Outfitters 7. Birdseye Pleated Scarf $9.99 at Urban Outfitters 8. Scoop Back Tee $12.50 at Old Navy 9. Victoria’s Secret Pink Boyfriend Sweats $34.50 at Victoria’s Secret (just because you’re wearing sweats, it doesn’t mean they can’t be neat and somewhat form-fitting) 10. YSL Luxurious Mascara $27.50 at Bergdorf Goodman (just a bit of mascara can help to make eyes look brighter) 11. Guerlain Kiss Kiss Gloss in Beige Caprice $27 at Bergdorf Goodman (a pretty nude that will add a hint of color to the face—and Oprah wears it, too!)

Don’t You Dare!

There’s an epidemic going on and far too many pretty ladies are succumbing to it. Browse through any party-promoting site and you, too will see what I’m talking about. I want to blame Hollywood—weaves are getting longer, outfits are getting more and more embellished, and impressionable women everywhere are playing copycat to their fav actress or singer or coughvideochicksneeze.

Cardinal Rules:

1. Understand that some of the more avant-garde and decorative looks on the runway are done for press coverage (and to sell items like perfume and accessories for the designer’s brand) and aren’t necessarily to be copied from head-to-toe for a night on the town. You can get inspiration, but don’t get carried away. (the pic at the left is from an Alexander McQueen runway show, but I’m deathly afraid that I have seen chicks seriously wearing similar outfits to the club)

2. While Beyonce and Rihanna look fierce on stage in patent leather corsets and sequined mini-dresses, please understand your non-international popstar status and lay off the stage or video looks. (please leave looks like the one to the left to the pros–thanks.)

3. Yes, I understand you got your Kanye Workout plan on and your body is tighter than a Mariah Carey outfit, but please, PLEASE pick one body part—yes, just ONE—to accent and keep everything else under wraps. So if your twins are coming out to play in a low-cut blouse, please keep your gams covered or if you’re rocking a micro-mini, cover up the girls! More [clothing] is more.

4. Invest in a small-scale ‘going-out’ bag. Please do not risk knocking over drinks with an oversized duffle. A bag small enough to hold your keys, some cash, a credit card, one tube of lipgloss, and some mints is good enough.

5. And I believe this should really be number one, but please, before you pick out an outfit, take a full and thorough–oh, and HONEST evaluation of your body and its flaws. Yes, confidence is very important, but let’s be realistic.

Don’t You Dare!

Don’t You Dare is a new segment on this blog that features some of the biggest donts I’ve ever seen. While out and about, I see plenty of fashion and beauty crimes being committed on unsuspecting ladies but I obviously cannot make suggestions to women I don’t know for fear of my own safety. I really hope the offenses have only been committed in my hometown of Queens and have not infiltrated the entire nation. But just in case, I’d like to present them anyway so that an epidemic doesn’t start.

Anyway, here’s the first 2 of many Don’t You Dares to come.

1. Don’t you dare get those super-sized fake eyelashes that seem to have become (for whatever reason) a popular service done in beauty shops. First of all, they make you look like Janice the Muppet (shown at left). Second, the offending lashes seem to almost always be worn without a stitch of makeup. Every time I see a girl wearing these, they look so obvious and wrong that I often find myself slowly raising two fingers within their shot of vision and slowly mouthing “How many fingers am I holding up?” to test their eye sight.

Fake lashes are not an everyday beauty item—but if you do find your lashes needing a pretty perk for everyday wear, these heavy lashes are not a go-to. Instead, opt for much lighter and natural looking bands or individual lashes. And yes, you must wear some sort of makeup when wearing fake lashes so that everything blends in together.

2. Don’t you dare wear a pair of too-low and too-tight jeans exposing the squeezed-up flesh of your tummy and love handles in a term called “muffin top”. It’s okay to buy jeans in your size–don’t worry. I myself wear a 32 and despite it being humanly impossible to try and squeeze my lovely lady lumps into anything smaller than that, I’d rather look good in a bigger size than to be uncomfortable and visually hideous wearing something that’s way too small. This offense is also committed by size 2 wearers–so the moral of this story? Get your proper size!