November – Page 3 – L'ensemble du jour

November 15, 2018 – Neckwear (OOTD #409)

Published on December 5, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Hey look. I have a scarf on. Am I French yet?

My first exposure to the world of scarves for fashion and not just warmth was Hannah Montana. I remember she used to wear these sequin-covered, long, skinny scarves that she’d wrap around her neck or tie like a necktie. Honestly, they looked more like long stingy pieces of yarn tied around her neck than an actual scarf.

But I thought they were the coolest things ever — I even bought a green sequin-covered one to match the one she wore on the cover of her debut album.

Hannah Montana was quite possibly my first fashion icon, not including my mother, whose taste I’ve always admired. My mother, however, never dressed quite as sparkly as Hannah Montana did — and I wound up being quite a fan of sparkles, though not quite so much now as I was when I was in third grade.

(Actually, as I write this, I am wearing a Christmas sweater with rhinestones on it, so clearly, the sparkles interest has not died down.)

My usernames for a lot of accounts when I was younger actually used to be sparkles-related: for example, pinkglitter or crystalchic. Who knows, maybe you happened upon me in a Webkinz or Howrse chatroom back in 2008. I was there quite a lot.

But for real, I’d be open to an early-2000s fashion resurgence. I always liked the flared jeans and Abercrombie cardigans. I probably even still have some of the ones I had in middle school, and they probably still fit. They’re authentic vintage at this point.

I think I may even still have my old sparkly green Hannah Montana scarf somewhere. Maybe I’ll put together a Hannah Montana-inspired outfit one day for this blog — everything comes back in style eventually. Maybe it’s 2006’s time.

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

Sweater: Forever21

Pants: Thrifted (Salvation Army)

Scarf: My Uncle Tim, who gave it to my grandmother for Christmas, who then gave it to me

November 14, 2018 – Darker Days (OOTD #408)

Published on December 4, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Really not a fan of this whole time change thing.

I know I’m not the only one to say this, but really — what’s the point of daylight savings anymore? Contrary to Thomas Jefferson’s vision, we are not a nation of independent farmers, and we haven’t been for well over a hundred years. I’m open to the idea that there are many professions out there still that rely upon the sun to determine their hours, but their numbers are comparatively few to what they used to be. I feel like we could scrap daylight savings and still function pretty well as a society.

I like the extra hour of sleep that I get in November, but I don’t like how dark it gets and so early. I took a nap today at 5pm, and when I woke up at 7:30pm, it was pitch black. It made me wonder if I’d accidentally slept for too long and it was now like, midnight.

Additionally, I volunteer at the homeless shelter in the evenings, and I take the bus to get there. Before the time change, I had no problem walking to the stop after my shift ended at 6pm, but now that it’s dark so early, I feel a little less safe walking through that part of town at night.

Perhaps the worst offense to me, though, is how the time difference affects my ability to get OOTD pics in the evening. I used to rely upon getting dinner with friends at 6pm on Mondays and Wednesdays as my opportunity to ask someone to get pictures for me. Up until daylight savings, this worked perfectly for me. Now though, I wind up with dark pics like this — not bad, per se, especially with editing, but not really what I’m going for either. I’m a fashion blog, I want people to see my clothes. It’s difficult to do that when the only light in a photo is a street lamp and my iPhone flash.

Is #firstworldproblems still a thing? If it’s not, it should be. It’s consistently relevant to my life.

Top: Forever21

Skirt: The LOFT

Hat: Target

November 13, 2018 – Christmasy (OOTD #407)

Published on December 3, 2018August 14, 2019 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

You can tell it’s nearly Christmas because the bookstore has been decorated.

It’s admittedly kind of hard to get into any sort of Christmas spirit while school and finals are going on. I don’t know if that ever changes, or, if like Halloween, Christmas is never as exciting as an adult as it was as a kid. I hope it gets to be exciting again eventually.

In truth, it is exciting for me still — the excitement has to wait until after finals are over now, though. For me, that day will be December 14, 2018 — 11 days from the time of writing this blog and a month from the time these photos were taken.

I’m actually not going to be home for Christmas this year, and while I’m very grateful to be going on the trips I’m going on to Qatar and to France, I’m sad I won’t be around to be with my family during the holidays. When Notre Dame offers me funding, though to travel, I can’t turn it down. Travel is expensive — there’s now way I could do it on my own so when I have the opportunity to go on my school’s money….

I’ll still have fun, but my winter break won’t be as relaxing as normal. That’s okay, though. Last winter break ended up getting boring, so hopefully, this time I’ll have a good balance.

I’ll actually end up spending Christmas Eve in an airport, and my Christmas Day in a classroom in Qatar. It’s far from traditional, and it’ll be my first time away from my family for the holidays, but it should still be a fun experience.

Will I be able to keep up with blogging? I sure hope so. I don’t consider myself a travel blogger because of how infrequently I travel, but when I do get to go somewhere exotic like London or Kathmandu, I like to get as much content as possible for LEDJ. Consider it my Christmas gift to you guys.

Pants: The LOFT

Top: Amazon (of all places!)

November 9, 2018 – Swan Song of Autumn (OOTD #405)

Published on November 30, 2018November 30, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Looks like fall’s just about over now.

The day I wore this outfit, we got our first snowfall of the season. You can actually sort of see the flurries in the photo here.

It wasn’t enough snow to accumulate, but it was there and it was exciting. I love the snow; winter is my favorite season because of it. Even Notre Dame and the horrible amount of snow that we can get in January/February/March haven’t managed to make me dislike snow yet.

Not yet, at least. This is only my second winter here. I suppose there’s still a chance for me to become weary of the winter weather.

I love the transition from fall to winter, when you get beautiful leaves like this mixed with light snowfall. We never really got that in Kentucky — first off, we didn’t get nearly as much color in the autumn, and secondly, we also never got snow so early in the season. It’s exciting for me to see the combination here. Fall and winter are my two favorite seasons. Put them together, and I’m a happy person.

Happy finter, everybody.

Jacket: Chaps (thrifted)

Sweater: thrifted

Pants: unknown

November 8, 2019 – Très Petite (OOTD #404)

Published on November 29, 2018November 29, 2018 by lensembledujour4 Comments

Someone remind me to stop posing by touching my hair.

Seriously, four of my last nine Instagram posts include me posing by playing with my hair. It’s a little excessive, like, don’t I know anything else to do with my body?

I don’t even that much hair! Or that much body!

Fun fact: I always used to imagine I would grow up to be my parents’ heights. My mother’s like 5’9″ and my father’s nearly 6’0″ yet I stand at barely above 5 feet. What could possibly be the explanation?

Welp, I’m adopted. And I knew that as a kid, and I knew I looked different from my parents, but I didn’t know that that meant I wouldn’t still grow to be their heights. All the other kids used their parents’ heights as an indication of how tall they would grow, why couldn’t I do the same? I don’t think I ever imagined myself to be a tall adult but like…definitely a more average-sized one.

I stopped growing around fourth grade. I like to think I look a little older than a fourth grader now, but sometimes I’m not sure. Sometimes I don’t even feel mentally much older than a fourth grader either.

With finals coming around the corner, that might not be such a good thing.

Sweater: Ralph Lauren (thrifted)

Top: Some boutique in Nepal

Skirt: Abercrombie

November 6, 2018 – Pumpkin Spice (OOTD #403)

Published on November 28, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

When did pumpkin spice become a phenomena? When did it enter the public consciousness?

I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize pumpkin spice was a thing until freshman year of high school. That was the first time I remember seeing white girls on Twitter raving about being excited for fall things — watching Hocus Pocus, wearing cozy sweaters, and drinking PSLs.

Did pumpkin spice as a favor exist before Starbucks popularized it in 2014? Since then, I feel like it’s almost become a meme — if you drink a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, you are irredeemably basic. Any street cred you had immediately disappears into the cinnamon whipped cream. You could be a 6’5″ football player in a motorcycle gang and a pumpkin spice latte renders you a 14 year old girl — not that there’s anything wrong with 14 year old girls. It’s like kryptonite.

Anyway, I have no real reason for talking about pumpkin spice lattes. I was just trying to think of a blog title and a way I could tie it into this outfit. I just thought the color scheme was vaguely spicy. I haven’t even had a PSL yet this year.

I don’t even really like Starbucks’s sweet holiday drinks that much. I like coffee a lot, but I want my coffee to taste like coffee. The holiday drinks are too much like a dessert.

Here’s a question if anyone out there feels like doing some research? Have there been other flavor trends in history, like the pumpkin spice trend? I feel like you can’t go anywhere in the post-2014 world without finding pumpkin spice flavored treats — pumpkin spice ice cream, pumpkin spice candies, pumpkin spice cake. Has that ever happened before to the same degree with another flavor?

Personally, I’d be here for a cream flavor trend. Not vanilla, not sweet cream — just plain cream. It sounds lame, but it’s my favorite flavor for sweets, especially ice cream treats. I don’t like how sugary vanilla can be, so just a plain, smooth cream can actually be very refreshing, in my opinion.

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

Sweater: Thrifted (Goodwill)

Skirt: J. Crew (thrifted — Goodwill)

November 2, 2018 – Leaf Me Alone (OOTD #402)

Published on November 27, 2018November 28, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Look at those golden trees! Look at them doing that!

But uh…don’t look at me standing outside in the middle of campus by myself taking pictures of my outfit with my phone.

I actually had several people walk past me as I took those photos. I never know what to do when that happens. Do I make eye contact? Do I just keep gong as if nothing happened?

The answer, or at least the one I’ve come to in my experience, is simply to stop what I’m doing and look at my phone. If it looks like I’m too distracted to realize that someone’s judging me, they’re clearly not judging me, right? Then I glance around to see if anyone else is coming through, and if not, I go back to taking pictures.

Inevitably, someone else comes around again, and I have to put my photography on pause again.

That’s why I liked taking pictures in the art studios of Riley so much. Almost no one came around to bother me, and I never had to risk the awkward moment of a stranger coming by and wondering why I was taking pictures of myself at 1AM. But since I don’t have an art class this semester, my 24 hour card access was revoked, and I can’t just hang out at Riley late at night anymore.

Instead, I had to learn how to take pictures of myself outside, where there are many more strangers to happen upon me and judge me. Whenever I think I’ve gotten over myself, I remember how weird having a daily fashion blog can appear to people who don’t know me, and I feel awkward again.

Somehow, I’m still here though. I guess slight social anxiety hasn’t gotten the best of me yet.

Jacket: Thrifted

Dress: Vintage (thrifted)

REVIEW: Influenster Showstopper Voxbox (Clarins, Lime Crime, VDL, and Copper + Crane)

Published on November 17, 2018November 26, 2018 by lensembledujour4 Comments

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions are my own.

Influenster sent me a box full of assorted skincare goods, and I’m not really sure what to make of them.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m always super appreciative when Influenster sends me things for review. It’s just a little weird this time, because the products seem to be mostly unrelated. I got an eyebrow pen, eyebrow gel, soap, serum, and two primers. I suppose they’re all beauty products, but they’re all different brands and don’t really seem to have a common theme. They’re just supposed to make me into a “showstopper,” whatever that means.

Welp, I don’t really know if I’m a showstopper now, but I do know know that I’m a reviewer, so that’s what I’ll do.

First up, I’ve got the Copper + Crane spa bar. For context, I’m usually more of a body wash and loofa kind of a person. I’ll use bar soap for my hands, but it’s rare that I”ll ever use a bar soap for my body.

This soap has me considering changing my mind, though. It smells heavenly — like sweet roses — and feels luxurious and creamy to the touch. It doesn’t lather quite like a good body wash, but the scent is so beautiful that I can look past that. I’m a fan. You can bet that I’ll be looking into more bar soaps.

Up next, I’ve got the Lime Crime Bushy Brown pen and gel. I’ve never used a brow pen either, though I think I’ve used just about every other brow product out there. Pencils, creams, powders, stencils — I own them all.

I am a huge fan of this brow pen. I’ve admittedly never tried another, so I can’t compare, but for a first try, I love it. My problem with filling in my brows is always that the hairs are dark but sparse. I need to fill them in, but I always run the risk of making them look too heavy and too dark. This pen avoids that problem. Because the strokes are thin, I can make them look like tiny hairs, making my brows look fuller without looking drawn-on. I’ll definitely be looking into more products from this brand.

For two small tubes of the VDL Lumilayer primers, I was a little less impressed. I received both the “fresh” and “original” versions. To be honest, I’m not really a primer person, so maybe I’m not one to write a review on this. For me, a primer should make my makeup apply more easily and maybe last a little longer. I don’t really know if I got that effect from these products — there’s just better out there. I’ve had good luck with the Revlon Photoready primer. Again, though, I’m just not normally one who wears primer — it deserves a mention because it came in my Voxbox along with the other products, but I can’t honestly say that I recommend it.

The last product I got — a sample of the Clarins Doble Serum and — is a the most difficult to judge. I don’t struggle with aging yet, and that’s what this serum is meant to combat. Anti-aging products usually work slowly, and I only had a month and a few small sample foil packets to test this product out with. I don’t really feel comfortable giving you guys a review on this one. I appreciate the sample from Influenster, but I’m just not able to offer an honest opinion here, as I’m not the kind of person the product was made for and I haven’t had enough time to test its effects. Also, full price, this 1.6 oz product will set you back $122. I don’t know, that seems rather overpriced to me.

Have you tried the any of these products? Or do you have any suggestions for your favorite soaps, brow products, primers, or serums? Let me know your thoughts below!

November 30, 2017 – On the First Day of Christmas (OOTD #172)

Published on December 7, 2017April 30, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

The Christmas season is finally here!

Well, according to me, anyway. I suppose the Catholic church may have a different definition of the advent season, and the big box stores seem to think Christmas begins as early as mid-October (seriously, I swear, while I was looking for Halloween decorations this year at Target, I was already coming across Christmas lights), but for me, Christmas begins on the last day of November.

I’m not really sure how I came up with the last day of November as the first day I start dressing for Christmas – it’d make more sense that it be the first day of December, right? It also doesn’t make sense because I’ve designated the day after Thanksgiving as when I first begin to listen to Christmas music, so the last of November isn’t even necessarily the day I first fully begin celebrating Christmas…

I wish I had some kooky story to tell you about some imaginary fantasy I had as a kid about why I had to wait until November 30 to break out my Christmas sweaters and the red and green color combinations, but I have nothing. This arbitrary, self-imposed rule has been like this for years now, though – on November 30, I start dressing for Christmas.

And it’s my goal, from now until December 25, to continue dressing in Christmas outfits. Call it an outfit challenge. How many ways can I wear the red and green pieces in my closet? How many hours can I go in my wool Abercrombie Christmas sweater before I’m trying to itch off my pores? Looks like now’s the time to find out.

If you’re still looking for a kooky Christmas story though, I do have one about how, in first grade, I went on a loud tirade in the middle of our Christmas party about how Santa wasn’t real, and that my classmates were stupid to believe in him. I was obnoxious enough that my teacher had to pull me aside to tell me to shut up. Interestingly, though the Santa illusion didn’t last long for me, the concept of flying reindeer was significantly less unbelievable to my childhood self. I’m pretty sure wasn’t until years after my Santa realization that I realized that flying reindeer were fake too.

To be fair, I’ve never seen a reindeer before in my life. How can I be sure they don’t really fly?

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: Forever21

Sweater: H&M

Pants: Banana Republic

November 29, 2017 – Have A Look At This (OOTD #171)

Published on December 5, 2017February 12, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I adore glasses.

I think it has something to do with how, when I was a kid, I didn’t need them – and of course, since I didn’t need them, I wanted them. There was just something so cool and stately about how my parents and other adults looked when they had their glasses on – even the most basic pair could make a person look intelligent and cultured.

Sadly (or perhaps gladly…) I had perfect vision up until a few years ago, when I started having issues reading for long periods of time and seeing street signs at a distance. A trip to the optometrist, and I got my very first pair of glasses at age 16 – a feat that I was fairly proud of. I don’t need to wear them all the time, and occasionally, I do wear contacts, but I’ll often wear my glasses even when I don’t ned them just for the sake of fashion. So, given my love of eyewear, I was more than happy to to help Warby Parker announce their new Resort ‘17 collection of frames. I was drawn to the rich acetates paired with hints of glimmering metal, supported by temples so lean they practically float. A glinting and elegant metal inlay is visible to onlookers only from certain angles— like a coat with a luxurious for-your-eyes-only lining.

I was so inspired, I came up with an outfit to go along with it – something I thought would complement the vintage but luxurious feel of the new Warby Parker collection. I did my best to replicate the aesthetic and tone of the glasses with this skirt and top set I got over Thanksgiving Break in a local vintage shop. It’s admittedly not the comfiest outfit I’ve ever worn – the scratchy 70s polyester wasn’t exactly breathable – but I loved the look of it so much I couldn’t help it. It was one of those things where I saw it in the store and I just had to have it – you know? I’m a pretty picky person. That doesn’t often happen.

If you’re interested in giving the new Warby Parker collection a look, you can try it out for free with their free Home Try-On program! Select any five frames that you like, and they’ll ship them to you for free to test for five days. If you find one you like, you can purchase it when you’re ready, but if not, you can ship them back for free after you trial is up. No commitments, and no trips to the eyeglasses store necessary.