(Catch up on Day 1 here.)

Because I’d gone to bed so early the previous night, I was up and at ‘em at the crack of dawn on Friday. It was our first full day in Vegas, and I couldn’t wait to begin it.

Unfortunately, it was only 5 am, and my friends were still fast asleep, so I had to wait. I decided to take advantage of that time and have a luxuriously long bath.

It was marvellous. 

Afterwards, I read a bit, journaled a bit, and mucked around on the internet while I waited for Monica and Katya to wake up. When they did, we all got ready and headed to our first breakfast in Vegas: Denny’s!

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Tonight I went to see The Great Gatsby - my most anticipated film of the year. Baz Luhrmann is one of my all-time favorite directors, and Carey Mulligan one of my favorite actresses; so when I heard the two were coming together on this project, I was thrilled. If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, it’s a film adaptation of a classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Watch the trailer here)

I decided to dress up for the event à la Gatsby - 1920’s flapper girl chic. I’d been searching for a roaring twenties-style dress for over a month, to no avail (save for one that I fell head-over-heels for, but devastatingly was waaaaay out of my price range). Instead, I got a bit creative and put together a costume from things I already had. It wasn’t perfect, but I was happy with the end result.

I dug out this Victoria’s Secret dress from the back of my closet – a black and silver sequin mini that I’ve had for a few years now. It may not be totally historically accurate, but the loose silhouette and glitzy fabric served my purposes well enough.

To this I added a black faux leather clutch (Aldo), cream Mary Jane heels (Amazon), a long pearl necklace (mum’s), and a pearl and rhinestone headband (Forever 21).

Here’s a close up of my accessories - the pearl necklace was one of my mum’s, but and the pearl & rhinestone elastic headband I got recently from Forever 21. 

“Gatsby? What Gatsby?”

I tried to do my hair and makeup as authentically as possible. I created a faux bob hairstyle by rolling and tucking the ends of my hair underneath with hair clips, leaving my short front layers to frame my face and give the illusion of shorter hair.

For makeup, I did a matte brown smokey eye, going heavy on the mascara, as per the time period. My cheeks were a flushed powder pink, and my lips a vampy deep burgundy. The 20’s favoured very pointy small lips, so that’s the shape I created with lipstick. (MAC’s “Rebel”)

The film was good, though not quite what I expected. There were elements I enjoyed, and elements I thought were pushed too far to the extreme. But I’ll let you watch it yourself and come to your own conclusions. 

After the movie, we all went out for dinner and drinks, and I took my hair out of its bob, though I kept the headband in. I wanted to look slightly less costume-y, since we were no longer at the theatre. I also normalized my lip shape with the lipstick. The rest of the makeup converted quite easily into regular evening makeup, which worked out nicely.

Have you seen The Great Gatsby, or are you planning to? Leave a comment & let me know! xx

Late last night I returned home from what was possibly the greatest week of my life. I was in Las Vegas for six days with two of my closest girlfriends. It was a non-typical Vegas trip, but it was absolutely perfect, from start to finish.

As promised, I took a ton of photos, as a way of taking you all with me. Since there’s too much stuff for one post, I’m writing one for each of the six days. This is day one – so here we go!

The three of us met at the airport before dawn, at 5:30 am. I was running off zero sleep, and my friends not much more. But the excitement was enough to keep us going!

Here’s Katya (left) and I. This is the first of MANY selfies. You’ll see.

At check-in we were told that our flight was delayed, and that we’d miss our connecting flight in Houston. Not the most promising start to the trip, but luckily we were able to switch to another flight entirely, which would mean we’d actually arrive in Vegas two hours earlier than planned! So that worked out quite nicely.

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I love MAC lipsticks. They’re good quality, long lasting, come in a range of colours and textures, and make up the majority of my lipstick collection. I do use (and love) a variety of other brands, from drugstore to high end, but I thought I’d share my top 10 best MAC lipsticks.

From left to right: CREME CUP, CROSSWIRES, LADY DANGER, MORANGE, GIRL ABOUT TOWN, RUSSIAN RED, RUBY WOO, VEGAS VOLT, IMPASSIONED, REBEL.

1. Creme Cup. One of my favorite nude lipsticks. It has just enough pink in it so I don’t look undead when I wear it! Flattering on a wide variety of skin tones, too.

2. Crosswires. This is the lovechild of a bright and neutral lipstick. A slight pop of color somewhere between rose and coral.

3. Lady Danger. The newest addition to my MAC lipstick family, and possibly my favorite. A vibrant orange-red.

4. Morange. A true, bright orange. I find it a bit much worn on its own, but paired with a red gloss, it’s glorious.

5. Girl About Town. My go-to lipstick when I want a bright pink lip. A blue-toned pink, which makes teeth look super white. Bonus! Another lipstick that’s flattering on practically everyone.

6. Russian Red. This was the first MAC lipstick I ever bought! It is much raved about, and for good reason. It’s the classic, pin-up red.

7. Ruby Woo. Very, very similar to Russian Red, but more matte and dry in texture. A bit brighter than its ‘comrade’, and looks fantastic on fair complexions.

8. Vegas Volt. A bright, creamy coral. A perfect summer shade!

9. Impassioned. A nearly neon, red-toned pink. Looks nice worn alone, or mixed with a bit of Girl About Town to cool it down a bit.

10. Rebel. My favorite fall/winter shade. A black cherry lipstick that’s bright in one swipe and gets darker and more vampy the more layers you apply. Looks especially nice paired with an understated neutral eye.

All of these are lipsticks in MAC’s permanent line, and are available in store or online here. 

And here are swatches of each of them, in the same order. As you can see, they’re all richly pigmented and very creamy (with the exception of Ruby Woo, which is quite dry).

L to R: Creme Cup, Crosswires, Lady Danger, Morange, Girl About Town, Russian Red, Ruby Woo, Vegas Volt, Impassioned, and Rebel.

Do you have a favorite MAC lipstick? Let me know in the comments! x

Last night I went to see Iron Man 3 with a few friends (which was amazing!) and then for dinner and drinks afterwards.

I wore my new watercolor dress from NastyGal (great store, awful name) which arrived in the mail the day before. I didn’t manage to get a snap of this, but the dress has a very low back. The material is weighty and the dress feels amazing and very comfortable on. I was worried about the sizing because it was my first purchase from them, but it fit like a glove! At the restaurant, a nice lady came by our table just to tell me she loved my dress. Isn’t that sweet?

I accessorized the dress with nude almond-toe heels from Aldo, my peach retro sunnies from Forever 21, a simple gold engraved locket (gifted), and a statement gold and pale lavender bracelet which came in a set from Aldo (similar here).

To go with the dress, I did a violet smokey eye (which I forgot to take a photo of! *facepalm*) and bright fuchsia lips (MAC’s “Girl About Town”). 

Before I met up with my friends for the movie, I went to the salon to get my nails done. As you know, I normally paint my own nails, but since I’m leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning, I wanted to get a shellac manicure so I don’t have to worry about my nails chipping while I’m away.

For those who don’t know, shellac is a special type of manicure that lasts for 10 days to 2 weeks without chipping. How awesome is that?

It was my first time getting shellac done, and it was a pretty fascinating process - there were a lot of layers involved! Two of those layers were nail polish, the rest, magic potions, I assume. In between, I stuck my hands into a little machine with a special light which dried and hardened each layer.

The color I chose was OPI’s “Bastille My Heart”, half for the color, half for the fun name. I’d love to be the person who comes up with punny names for nail polishes. Total dream job!

Anyway, the movie was a smashing good time from start to finish. Great story, fun plot twists, cool action sequences, and a very witty script. I highly recommend it if you like Marvel movies, action movies, or Robert Downey Jr.’s sassy self! x