spring – Page 8 – L'ensemble du jour

March 21, 2018 – Insert Joke About Being Hot Here (OOTD #251)

Published on April 3, 2018April 4, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Meilin’s adventures in exploring the art building at night continue!

At this point, I’m just heading out to Riley every night that I don’t get my pictures done earlier in the day — in fact, I’ll probably do the same today, as I didn’t get my pictures done at lunch like usual on Tuesday. It’s basically my second home.

The longer I spend in Riley, the more I come across unusual settings that make for interesting backgrounds, like this yellow paint cabinet. I loved both the bright color, and the “Flammable” text printed on it — figured it would make for some funny Instagram captions.

The summer job/internship search is in full swing, just as it was in April of last year. If you look back far enough in the archives of this blog, you’ll see my discussions of interviewing and trying to get hired last summer. You’ll also see that the job I ended up working last summer was really not any fun and a terrible fit for me, so I’m trying to avoid that by getting on the whole application thing earlier.

Honestly though, I’m realizing I probably could have been even earlier. Getting a job is hard, especially when you’re just an unexperienced college kid like me who can only work for a few months.

Worst case scenario, I’m sure I can get a part time job maybe at a local restaurant. It’s not really what I want to do, and it doesn’t really contribute at all to my resume, but it makes money, and that’s what’s important. I’m jealous though of my friends who are able to study abroad or work academically or professionally-relevant unpaid internships over the summer.

Anyway, pray for me, wish me luck, whatever you want to do to send me some good will as I try to procure some summer employment.

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, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: Vintage (thrifted)

Shirt: Thrifted

Jeans: Abercrombie

Boots: Ralph Lauren

REVIEW: BareMinerals Bare Pro Concealer

Published on April 2, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

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

Look at me! Doing more beauty posts and using my blog as a platform for testing and reviews products!

The thing I love best about doing Influenster reviews is that I feel no pressure to have an opinion, one way or the other, about the products I receive. While I do try to always provide my own opinions and thoughts for the other complimentary products I’ve received for promotional purposes on this blog, it would be a lie to say I don’t still feel some pressure to emphasize the positives over the negatives. With Influenster, since the products are being sent to me via a third party rather than from the brand itself with the stipulation that my only role is to review the product, that pressure is gone.

This is my second Influenster VoxBox (the first one being the L’Oreal Color Crave Hair Makeup and Semi-Permanent Hair Color), and with my experience so far, I’d definitely be happy to get more of these in the mail. They come packaged so cutely in these colorful boxes, and they always provide helpful instructions for what to do once you’ve received the box. If you’d ever like for me to review Influenster as a service for bloggers on LEDJ, leave me a comment below and let me know!

Anyway, the product I got from Influenster this time around was a little stick concealer from BareMinerals from their Bare Pro line, which claims to have 16 hour coverage. I received color 05, which seemed like a pretty good fit for my light-medium skin with neutral undertones.

Now to be honest with you, I don’t typically wear concealer. I much prefer to simply use a BB cream all over my skin, and then dab it on in a little more concentration on problem areas. If I do wear concealer, it’s probably because I’m running late to class and I don’t have time to do a full face of makeup, and I just want to cover up some pimples. Very rarely do I ever do concealer and BB cream/foundation — only special occasions.

So the look I’m sporting here is, in truth, more makeup than I typically wear. I have on both a very light coverage BB cream and the concealer over top of a couple of pimples and scars scars I have on my temples and cheeks, as well as a little discoloration beside my nose. Otherwise, I don’t really have any huge problem areas right now (bless), so I didn’t need to wear it anywhere else.

I was pleasantly surprised with the blendability of the concealer, as its texture is harder and more chalky than some of the other stick concealers I’ve used, like the Revlon Photoready concealer. A few dabs with my ring finger, and it smoothed right in.

I think a large part of the easy blending is just how well this product matched my skin — I don’t typically find products that match me perfectly, as things tend to either look too pink or too yellow, but this concealer really fit my neutral undertones. Especially since I didn’t get to test this product in the store and selected it based off of some sample images I saw on the Internet, I got pretty lucky.

As for its claims of 16 hour wear, I did not get to test this, and I honestly don’t really care to. Who wears makeup for 16 hours straight? It’s not something that’s currently a part of my lifestyle, so whether it wears for 16 hours or not is truthfully not important to me as a consumer. Its staying power did seem pretty solid though for the full 12ish hours that I wore it — nothing spectacular or life-changing, but still serviceable.

Summary:

Pros:

Perfect color match (for me, an Asian with light-medium, neutral undertone skin wearing 05)
Blends easily
Paraben, sulfate and phthalate-free
Wears well (for an average 12-ish hour day)

Cons:

Costly at $25
Still not completely “all-natural” — though what really is?
Average to above-average quality

In the end, I liked the product. It’s no Holy Grail for me, but I found it delightfully average, and even a little above average in terms of color matching. Is it worth it for the $25 price tag, when you could get another perfectly serviceable drugstore concealer (Revlon Photoready and the Sonia Kashuk quads are two of my favorites) for half the price? That I guess depends on your views of BareMinerals’ ingredients — they do claim that this concealer is paraben, sulfate, and phthalate-free, and that its natural ingredients (though not all natural — there are definitely some chemical-y ingredients that I have never heard of on the label) “nourish” the skin, so if that’s something you care about, maybe it’s worth it for you.

Have you tried the BareMinerals Bare Pro Concealer? Or do you have any suggestions for your favorite concealers? Let me know your thoughts below!

Thanks for reading, and 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!

March 20, 2018 – Happy Easter (OOTD #250)

Published on April 1, 2018 by lensembledujour5 Comments

What? You mean to tell me that Easter didn’t fall on March 20 this year?

Yeah — so I’ve discussed this before, but I have my daily blogs on a bit of a delay, so as to never wind up having nothing to post just in case I decide not to take OOTD photos one day or in case I don’t get to take photos until late in the day. The issue with that, of course, is that when holidays roll around, I’m never able to post the blog from that particular holiday on the actual day of the holiday.

I guess I could plan my outfits in a way that it looks like I’m celebrating the holiday earlier in the week, and then posting that blog on the actual holiday, but to be honest, that’s too much work for something I don’t really think is worth it.

Anyway, so today (the day I’m posting this blog) is Easter, but the outfit I’m posting is from March. Luckily, this outfit looks pretty festive and spring-like, so I guess it works for an Easter outfit.

The building I’m standing next to is the law school building, which I have interestingly never been into, even though I’m thinking of maybe one day trying to go into law (though I’m not really sure why — talking in front of people is scary). It’s just one of those places where I don’t really feel like I belong in, since I have no classes or anything there, y’know?

It’s my goal to make it into all of Notre Dame’s buildings at some point by the time I’m done here, including the dorms. I’m not really sure how I’m going to manage that, considering I never go to parties and have few friends outside of my dorm. I’m going to figure it out somehow…probably. Maybe.

Anyway, happy Easter! I hope you get to spend the day celebrating somehow with friends and family, and if you’re at The Most Catholic School On Earth ™ like me, I hope you enjoy eating meat and breaking the Lenten fasting thing, even if, like me, you haven’t really kept it anyway. I did swear off dining hall french fries, though, which has done well for my weight. Good for me, I guess?

Sweater: Altar’d State

Shirt: Forever21

Skirt: Rue21

Tights: The LOFT

March 19, 2018 – It’s Still Not Spring (OOTD #249)

Published on March 31, 2018 by lensembledujour7 Comments

I’m still operating here until the assumption that if I dress like it’s spring, eventually it’ll come.

You can’t even tell me my logic is wrong, here. Eventually, spring will come. Will my fashion cause it to arrive any sooner? Maybe not, but it’ll come all the same, and it’ll be exciting.

I’m particularly interested to see what campus will be like with all of the flowers in bloom. I haven’t been on Notre Dame’s campus in the springtime since I first visited way back in my junior year of high school, and from what I remember, it’s very pretty. I think that’s part of the reason why I came here.

Another reason why I came was because I thought the Catholic identity was really cool — even though I’m not Catholic myself. As an outsider, I always thought the various prayers and chants were cool in a mystical, kind of creepy way, but now that I’m used to them, the appeal is wearing off.

I’m particularly tired of these meatless Fridays and the fasting leading up to Easter. While I appreciate the meaning behind it and the dedication involved, I like meat (and just like, food in general) too much to really care to participate in it myself. That’s made particularly difficult when the dining halls are barely open and when they are, they serve bread and soup.

Basically, I’m just really excited for Easter and the end of Lenten season. Catch me stuffing myself with food and chocolate eggs.

Blouse: Francesca’s

Pants: thrifted (they’re actually old riding pants! Fun fact)

March 17, 2018 – Living On The Edge (OOTD #248)

Published on March 29, 2018 by lensembledujour6 Comments

Never thought “living on the edge” would take me to the edge of a building, but here we are.

#yolo, am I right?

I’m just kidding. Don’t put yourself in danger just for good pictures, kiddos. Safety first — don’t do it for the Gram.

On Saturday, the last day of my spring break, my friend Amanda and I went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant as our last hurrah before we both went back to school for another month.

Before we ate, though, we decided to hunt down a particular parking garage downtown that offers some really beautiful views of the city. We thought we’d just drive up, snap some photos, and be off to dinner within 20 minutes.

Not so much. Part of the issue was that it was St. Patrick’s Day (I know, I’m not wearing green — pinch me), and a lot of the streets were blocked off for the parade. Neither of us having any sense of direction, we ended up driving around in circles for quite some time just trying to orient ourselves.

And you know what? We never find the parking garage.

We glimpsed it from a distance a few times, but we never managed to actually figure out where in the city it was. I think the street it was on was closed, and we couldn’t figure out how to make it there there via other roads.

After driving to the top of several other parking garages and not finding the view we were looking for, we decided to stop by an opening “window” in one of them near an upper floor and take some photos anyway. It wasn’t quite the big, open view of the city we were hoping for, but it sufficed.

Sweater: Hollister (thrifted)

Top: Zara

Jeans: Hollister

March 16, 2018 – Plant of the Day (OOTD #247)

Published on March 28, 2018 by lensembledujour8 Comments

Guys, look at that! It’s a flower!

I’ve been on a gardening kick recently, perhaps started off by the start of spring and the vegetation that it brings. Or rather, the vegetation it’s supposed to bring — I haven’t really seen any plant growth yet, especially back in South Bend where there’s still snow on the ground.

There’s been a little bit of plant growth going on in Lexington though, owing to the fact it’s significantly warmer here usually. Look at these yellow daffodils that were growing in a little bed by the mall! I was so excited to see them.

One of these days, I need to show you all the plants I’m keeping in my dorm. I have a cactus, some succulents, and some little sprouts that I’ve been trying to grow from seeds. I’m becoming a plant lady.

I was never really into plants as a kid, admittedly. I grew bean sprouts from seeds with my preschool class like every other kid did, but they couldn’t talk to me and they didn’t move, so I had no interest.

I’m glad I’m finally getting into house plants, though — there’s a lot to learn and appreciate about them. I’m admittedly not an expert, and I will grant that my African violet is looking quite sad (I think it’s got some mold, but I don’t know how to get rid of it), but I’m trying to learn. It’s a nice little hobby.

On a side note, still looking for suggestions for what color to dye my hair next! Leave me a comment if you have an idea.

Jacket: H&M

Shirt: Forever21

Shoes: Target

March 15, 2018 – Springtime Cerulean (OOTD #246)

Published on March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 by lensembledujour1 Comment

Guys look! I found some wall art in Lexington!

I’ve mentioned this many, many times but I find wall art to make for some for the best backgrounds for fashion photography. Shots like these here just support that thinking for me — all of the pretty archways at Notre Dame can’t compete with some colorful walls.

On a side note, these are some of the tightest, most uncomfortable jeans I own — though thankfully, you can’t tell that here. Seriously, I could barely bend my knees. Granted, I’ve had these jeans since like, middle school, so it’s honestly a miracle that I could even get them over my hips still. Think it’s time to give them to Goodwill.

I’m beginning to break out some of my spring clothes now, even though it still doesn’t really look or feel like spring in Kentucky or Indiana yet. Maybe my white jeans, bright colors, and polka dots can convince the sun to come out a little more?

Pretty please?

I’m also considering dyeing my hair a different color for the new season. The purple’s fading at this point and I’m presently with a kind of strange, lavender-tan mixture, so now’s as good a time as ever to do another semi-permanent color.

Leave me a comment below if you’ve got any suggestions for new hair colors! I’m not looking to use any more bleach, so I can’t do blonde (at least for now) but I’m open to other ideas for color to go on top of the bleached ends I presently have.

Jacket: Banana Republic

Top: PacSun

Jeans: Abercrombie

March 14, 2018 – Sunlit Suburban Stroll (OOTD #245)

Published on March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

You’d think that with a name like “spring break” I could actually get some spring weather at home.

Instead, the literal day after I arrived back in Kentucky, we got about eight inches of snow. I don’t even think there was that much snow at Notre Dame when I departed Chicago.

I guess I can’t really complain too much – winter is still my favorite season, and snow is still my favorite weather condition. The winter is getting a little old for me at this point in the year, and I’m fairly read for spring to come, but that doesn’t change the fact that I still get excited whenever it snows.

As I mentioned, we had about eight inches of snow on Monday — so why are the roads totally clear in these shots from Wednesday?

One of the craziest things to me when I moved north for school was just how long the snow hangs around. You can get snow that falls one day and stays for two more weeks afterwards.In Kentucky, the snow, when it actually sticks (which only happens a few times a year) usually only stays around for a day or two.

So here, on Wednesday, all that snow had pretty much already melted, owing to some sunshine and temperatures during the daytime hanging around 40 degrees (not warm, but warm enough to melt the snow).

I wouldn’t be sad if this were the last snow I got until late November, though. As evidenced by my bare legs and skirt here, I’m in the mood for warmer temperatures.

Jacket: Adidas (thrifted)

Shirt: Altar’d State

Skirt: H&M

March 13, 2018 — #Skooled (OOTD #244)

Published on March 25, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

As much as I resent losing sleep during spring daylight savings, I am a fan of having more hours of daylight in the evenings.

It’s particularly useful for doing photos after dinnertime. It used be, especially in January/February, that I would have to get my OOTD shots done before about 6:00pm or else it was too dark to get natural light at all. Now, I’m good until at least 7:30, which takes a lot of pressure off of me.

When I’m home, like I was in these photos, I like to make my outfits out of articles of clothing that I know I will not have with me while at school, like this coat, sweater, boots, and scarf. I feel badly when my clothes aren’t worn, and I miss the pieces I can’t bring with me to my little wardrobe in my dorm at Notre Dame.

Breaks are a time for me to capitalize on my sleep and free time so I am very appreciative of them.

Though, to be honest, I might actually prefer going to school year-round if it meant my workload was significantly lightened. I’d sacrifice a few weekends and breaks to get rid of homework. It’s been a nuisance since literally kindergarten, and it’s only gotten worse as I’ve gotten older.

I heard one of my friends talking the other day about how she enjoyed exams, how they were like puzzles for her to figure out — and I couldn’t agree less. What kind of person likes exams? Even if you know every answer, and make 100% — which probably hasn’t happened to me since middle school — what’s there to like about the actual process of sitting down and writing out answers so someone else can offer you validation?

As much as I appreciate the education I’ve received so far in my life, I still don’t think I’m really the type of person who likes school. I do alright grades-wise, but I can’t imagine becoming a teacher or a professor and remaining in this system for the rest of my life. I mean, I can’t necessarily say there’s anything better out there in the workforce, since I haven’t gotten there yet, but looking back, I think the most enjoyable moments of my life have happened separate from my education experience.

You never stop learning, of course, but I hope I do get to stop schooling at some point, haha.

Sweater: American Eagle

Boots: Target

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Art Rat

Published on March 24, 2018March 24, 2018 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Fun fact: I’ve been in Subway since noon today. It is now 6PM.

Honestly, I don’t even mind. It smells like bread, it doesn’t feel isolating like the library does, and I’ve gotten some good work done. I mean, I haven’t made nearly the dent in my work I probably should have, but I also didn’t totally waste my existence, so I call it a win.

I’m on my second iced coffee now, and I can feel it. I’ve gone to the bathroom way too many times in the last six hours, and my fingers are a little jittery even as I’m typing here. It’s probably time to lay off.

I’ve spend a lot of my afternoon working on my sketches for my next art project in my Drawing class. This is so far my favorite one. The project calls us to draw inspiration from another artist, so I chose James Jean, the guy who designed the cover art for my favorite album, My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade. That’s probably the most emo reason I’ve ever decided to do an art project, which is saying something because a lot of my high school art looked pretty emo.

In the meantime, some of my other homework has kind of fallen by the wayside, as I accidentally ended up paying way more attention to my art than the other things I should have been doing. Oh well. That’s what Sundays are for.