beauty – Page 3 – L'ensemble du jour

November 3, 2017 – In Which Dental Hygiene Is My Aesthetic: Bianco Smile Whitening Powder Review (and OOTD #151)

Published on November 9, 2017November 9, 2017 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Today’s post will be a little different than usual – in addition to my typical OOTD discussion and sarcastic humor, I’ve got a review for you too!

The lovely folks at Bianco Smile were kind enough to send me a package with their Activated Charcoal Whitening Powder to try and review, and I was just so excited about the fact that someone on the Internet noticed me, that I couldn’t say no. Admittedly, I’m no teeth expert – in fact, the last time I went to the dentist, I got rather passionately criticized for not flossing. But I suppose that’s why there’s a several billion dollar dental hygiene industry out there – because idiots like me don’t care for their teeth like they ought to, and then need to buy things to try to fix them.

The product came packaged in a cute little black box with the instructions labeled on all four sides – 1)Dip ya brush, 2) Scrub ’em, 3) (Smile). I rather a fan of the simple, all-black look; it was very fashionable, like something I wouldn’t mind having sat out on my bathroom counter.

As the instructions suggest, powder itself is actually rather simple to use – simply dip your wet brush into the powder, and then scrub your teeth just as you would with toothpaste. And indeed, the experience was rather like just brushing my teeth as I would any regular day, the primary difference being the texture of the powder (for lack of a better word – powdery), and how I looked when using the product.

To be honest, you’re probably not going to look pretty while brushing your teeth – in fact, you’ll probably look like you’ve just eaten a bunch of blueberries and now their guts have coated your teeth – but that’s alright, because you’ll look pretty afterwards.

I’ve compiled here some photos of my teeth over the last few days using the product:

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

The verdict: I rather liked this product! I really don’t know anything about charcoal whitening powders, so I can’t compare it to any other similar products, but for my first experience using a whitening charcoal powder, it was overall quite positive.

Perhaps I’m just seeing things, and perhaps it’s simply the result of wearing red lipstick in the final photo (which does tend to make your teeth look whiter), but I do believe my teeth looked a touch whiter after a few days of using the product. I definitely think I will continue to use it – maybe not every day, but perhaps in rotation with my regular toothpaste.

My only complaint is that it’s not exactly the cleanest product ever – there was definitely some black powder left over on the sink after I was done brushing, but it was super easy to wipe up and left no stain.

You can check out the product over on Bianco Smile’s website here, if it looks like something you might be interested in purchasing. Use code MEILIN20 for 20% off at checkout!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here at Notre Dame. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: Vintage (thrifted)

Dress: Pitaya

October 19, 2017 – My Inner Emo Kid (OOTD #139)

Published on October 24, 2017 by lensembledujour9 Comments

How many times have I described myself as something of an emo kid, here on this blog?

Plenty, it seems. And the thing is, I’m not even a proper emo kid – not at least, in the sense that emo kids existed in the early 2000s. I don’t even know if the “emo” subculture exists anymore; I’m pretty sure they were replaced by hipsters as the predominant “alternative” crowd sometime around 2012-2013.

When emo kids were a thing – say, back in 2006 – I was just eight years old, and Hot Topic was the scariest store in the mall to me. It played loud music, had scary masks in the window at Halloween, and had dim lighting that made the entrance look more like the entrance to a dungeon than a clothing store.

It wasn’t until I was about 14 that I actually started listening to some of the music that they played in Hot Topic and experimenting with an “edgier” dark style. It started with Fall Out Boy and some black sweaters, eventually evolving into My Chemical Romance and leather jackets, and finally, Bring Me the Horizon and Doc Martens. I never had a full-on emo phase – no fringe haircuts, studded belts, or rawr XD text messages (at least, when I was 14…I probably experimented with a “rawr XD” or an “lol so randomz” message when I was 11) – but I did like to dress in all-black every once in a while.

The decision to dye my hair blonde when I was 17 actually came, in some part, from my love of My Chemical Romance music. I wanted to look like Gerard Way circa the Black Parade era (and also Elsa). I instead wound up with an orangey honey color – I didn’t wind up with truly white hair until about a year later, and even then, it was impossible to maintain, haha.

So impossible, that I decided the other day to chop it off. The ends were just looking too scraggly and awful – just have a look at my last blog with blonde hair if you don’t believe me. And since I was chopping it off, I figured I would go for another change while I was at it – dying it grey.

The dye I used, if you’re curious, is the Ion Semi-Permanent color in Titanium. It was quite easy, actually: all I did was whip up a 1:1 mixture of conditioner and dye and then paint it on my already bleached hair. I didn’t add any more bleach to my hair than what was already there, since I didn’t want to damage it further, so I’ve still got my black roots.

So, with my newly grey hair and my outfit that made me look like a Hot Topic model (well, a short Hot Topic model), I went out to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant with my family to celebrate my birthday. In actuality, my birthday’s not until November 1, but since I’m going to be back at school by then, my family wanted to celebrate it early.

I’m not sure exactly what my grandmother thought about going to lunch with her grey-haired, Doc Martens-wearing teenage granddaughter, but I don’t think she minded too much. And if she did, well it’s because *whiny voice* she just doesn’t understand, right?

Dress: Forever21

Jacket: Forever21

Boots: Doc Marten

Also, if you’re curious about how my father’s and my pumpkin display from this year turned out, here it is!

August 8, 2017 – How To Be a Blonde Asian (OOTD #83)

Published on August 14, 2017August 14, 2017 by lensembledujour16 Comments

Fun fact: I actually wrote my college admissions essay on being a blonde Asian.

Well, actually, it was more like I wrote about my experience being Asian while growing up in an almost all-white town and in an all-white family, and how that dysphoria manifested itself in wanting to change my appearance…but blonde Asian is a more succinct summary.

Anyway, if you couldn’t tell by my photos already, I recently bleached my roots! And if you couldn’t tell by the bright white of the top of my head, maybe you can tell by my broken, frazzled ends that I’m trying desperately to hide behind my back?

For real, I’ve been blonde(ish…it actually started out as more of an orange that I rocked for a month or two) for over a year now, and my hair’s definitely beginning to show it. Once upon a time, I had long, strong, healthy, and stereotypically black Asian hair, that practically needed to be washed twice a day to keep it from getting overly greasy.

Now, I have to be careful not to wash it much more than twice a week to keep it from getting overly dry.

Still, I don’t know if I’d trade my blonde hairs for the healthy brunette hairs of yesteryear. I rather like being blonde – I get a lot of attention for it, I’m sure largely in part to the whole “blonde” and “Asian” bit not typically going together.

One day I will have to dye my hair back to a normal color, chop off the broken ends, and return to life as a brunette, but as Aragorn from Return of the King said at the Black Gate, “it is not that day!”

I’ll see you in the next one! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Top and skirt: Hollister

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June 26, 2017 – A Blog Is Never Late, Nor Is It Early (OOTD #52)

Published on June 27, 2017 by lensembledujour16 Comments

…it arrives precisely when it means to.

Welp, I suck, and I missed out on posting yesterday. I did still get the photos – don’t you worry – but I didn’t get a chance to sit down and actually type out the corresponding blog post.

Ah well, it happens.

In my defense, my reasoning for not getting around to posting a blog is fairly solid. I worked 2-6, and after I got off, I went out immediately to meet with a friend who was visiting from South Carolina. She was probably one of the first friends that I made when I first moved here in seventh grade – in fact, she was probably the first person to invite me, the “new kid,” to do anything with her. I still have the old diary entry where I wrote about how excited I was that someone from my new school had finally invited me to hang out – lol!

Anyway, Kirstie moved our sophomore year, but she still comes to Kentucky to visit us sometimes. So after work, I met up with her and two of her other old friends – Zach and Adrian – for pizza, and we chatted and did some catching up. It’s funny – the three of us who still live in Kentucky don’t necessarily belong to the same crowd while in school, but we always manage to get along really well when Kirstie invites us all to hang out.

Over pizza, Kirstie was discussing my hair (I dyed it blonde about a year after she moved, so she hadn’t seen it in person before!), and Adrian, who had been relatively quiet otherwise, suddenly interjected “So do you think I could go blonde?”

At first, we all think he’s joking – Adrian, this big mixed-race football player dude, wants to go blonde? But he’s serious. And he wants me to do it.

So, flashfoward two hours, and I’m standing in Adrian’s bathroom, rubber gloves on, mixing up a batch of L’Oreal Quick Blue bleach that we got from Sally Beauty Supply about 15 minutes before they closed while Kirstie and Zach cheer me on. It’s hot, the chemicals are burning my eyeballs, and I’m terrified I’ll mess up and ruin his beautiful caramel curls, but there’s no backing out now.

And you know what? It turned out okay. Not perfect, mind you – I started running out of bleach towards the back of his head, so it’s definitely lighter in the front than in the back (call it ombré, maybe?), but I think I did okay for a person who has only ever bleached her own hair before. Plus, Adrian liked it (or at least he acted like he did!), so that’s all that really matters.

Summer 2017 has been an adventure to say the least.

In other news, one week, and I’ll be on the plane to London! I’m so excited to be going – and I’m positive at least half of my excitement can be attributed to not having to work for basically two weeks. The other half is probably because there are so many wonderful Instagram opportunities and beautiful backgrounds for my OOTD posts!

That’s it for today! I’ll see you in the next one. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com

Shirt: Forever21

Sweater: Altar’d State

Top 5 Pinterest Picks for the Week 6-11-17

Published on June 11, 2017June 11, 2017 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

For those of you who know me well, you probably know that Pinterest has been a huge obsession of mine for years. Huge obsession as in before I was even using Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat regularly, I was pinning away on Pinterest.

Before I got interested in blogging, before I even knew what “aesthetic” meant,” Pinterest was there. Like, I remember being a member of Pinterest’s beta phase, where I had to have a friend who already had an account send me an invite to even join!

Anyway, I figured this blog was a great excuse to share with you guys some of my favorite Pinterest finds for the week! Plus, I know all about having a small blog and trying to get some exposure, so anything I can do to help some other bloggers out, I’ll do. If you have a blog with original Pinterest content and you want to be featured on this series, hit me up with a comment below with a link to one of your pins and I’d be happy to give you a shoutout!

Oh, and if you’d like to check me out on Pinterest, please do! I’m constantly pinning – it’s like an addiction. I have boards on fashion, beauty, lifestyle, travel food – you name it! Also, it would mean a lot to me if you’d go repin some of my fashion content from this blog – you can find it all on this board – to help me get some more exposure.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my top 5 Pinterest picks for the week!

1. Elie Saab – Spring 2017 Couture

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I’ve been a huge fan of Elie Saab since forever. If I had $100,000 to go out spending willy-nilly on evening gowns, you can bet I would own at least 10 of his spectacular evening gowns. His designs always manage to be so alluring without being to showy, and I think that subtlety is what makes him a great designer. Other designers, like Alexander McQueen or Marchesa, like to make their haute couture stand out by having outlandish silhouettes or embellishments (and trust me, I have absolutely no problem with that!), but Elie Saab takes a more understated route. These are the kind of dresses you could wear to a red carpet event or wedding and get comments like “how elegant” rather than “how unusual.” Again, nothing wrong with unusual, but sometimes, it’s better to go for the crowd-pleaser.

2. Srevolrof – Messy Braids

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By the looks of it, this girl has an absolutely fabulous blog; the only downside is – for me, at least – it’s all in German! Regardless, blogging is a rather visual medium, so language doesn’t also act as such a barrier as it does in other endeavors. Thankfully, there’s this little thing called the Internet, so, after hours of pouring over German dictionaries (or about 3 seconds on Google Translate), I found out that this blog post not only showed off a fabulous messy hairstyle, but it was also in support of a charity for Nepal! I do love a girl with good hair and a good heart ❤️ Definitely go check her out!

3. Gal Meets Glam – Charleston in January

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It was actually rather difficult trying to find a fashion pin that actually linked back to its original source. The Internet is a wonderful place that allows us content creators to share and promote ourselves to a wide variety of audiences, but it also means it’s very easy for others to steal content and repost it without crediting its owner. I’m not saying everything on Pinterest has been stolen, of course, but it’s definitely worth being aware of, and I’m usually more likely to pin something if I see it comes from its original owner’s website, rather than another source, like Tumblr or Instagram. Anyway, I thought this girl’s style was really cute – effortlessly chic and feminine – and something I might try to recreate here on L’ensemble du jour. A lot of my outfits are inspired by what I see on Pinterest, actually, and that’s part of why I love the website so much,

4. Sunrise on Kilimanjaro – Hudson Henry

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Doesn’t this photo just speak for itself? I follow a lot of travel bloggers and photographers, but this guy’s work really stands out above the rest. In addition to just being a really beautiful location, it’s also a really intelligently staged shot, with the tiny silhouettes of the adventurers peeking out from the bottom corner. It allows the beautiful scenery to shine, while also making commentary on how small we humans are in the grand scheme of things. I’m not trying to wax poetic here – it’s just a really pretty photo in the end, regardless of interpretations you can take from it.

5. Noel Badges Pugh Art

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Those of you who’ve seen some of my OOTD posts from art galleries know, I’m kinda into art. I mostly consider it a hobby because I know I’m not really talented enough to make a true career out of it, but that’s part of why I love seeing artists who have been able to make it their profession online. This guy does some really detailed and colorful ink work that mixes the human body and nature, creating a really interesting, psychedelic look. Have a look at his Tumblr and go show him some love!

And that’s all for today! I hope you liked the first in this Pinterest Picks series. If you do, there will be more to come! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com.