Hello, My Pretties

So … I’ve been on a bit of a jewelry spree lately. Allow me to introduce you to my new babies:

Let’s start with these two beautiful little ballerina rings. The one on the left has a baby pink pearl in the middle of her white sapphire skirt, and she’s gorgeous – I happened across her at the International Gem and Jewelry Show and she just had to come home with me.

The blue sapphire ring on the right has a more personal story, as the ring mounting is actually one of my mother’s sapphire and diamond earrings that she gave me when I was little because she lost the mate. I was absolutely enchanted at such a young age to own such a beautiful, fancy little gem. I’ve kept it all these years, and I recently took it to Shane Co. and asked them to mount it in an east-west setting on a simple gold band. I simply love the results. #TeamShaneCo!

A close runner up for my favorite pieces are my new Stella and Dot Somervell necklace and matching Nancy stud earrings. They’re a gorgeous shade of peach that complements my skin and hair perfectly:

Next up? Lucky Brand! I really love their jewelry and I frequently find it on sale at HauteLook or Macy’s, which means I can justify buying a lot of it – wheeeee! Both of these pieces were $10 each – BARGAIN. I just love this cross bracelet and matching teardrop earrings:

I’ve been starting to collect a lot more bracelets recently as well. I think this means I’ve finally been brainwashed by the stacking trend. This champagne baguette bracelet is from Baublebar, and the other three came from a random brand I can’t remember on Hautelook, but they look fantastic together and with a few of my other older Lucky Brand bracelets thrown in as well.

These pretty little earrings came from Hautelook too. I’m not quite as impressed with them, as I rather suspect they’ll fall apart soon from the appearance of the in person construction, but they were cheap and will be cute while they last:

And last but not least, you can see in the middle my new rose gold heart beat necklace from the Etsy shop Great Lakes. I love layering this little beauty with other necklaces or alone for a dainty little touch. It’s so. damn. cute:

Clearly I don’t have enough jewelry, amiright? I’m right. Let’s get more.

Empty of the Week: My Favorite Makeup Removers

Let’s go through my trash … er, talk about products I’ve used up! 

Meet my two favorite makeup removers: the Simple Cleansing Micellar Water and the Sonia Kashuk makeup remover.

The Simple cleansing water has taken over the place of my long-beloved, but hard to find and much more expensive Bioderma. (You should’ve seen me walking into a pharmacy during our trip to France – the fact that Bioderma was in front of my face on an actual shelf was mind-boggling). It’s super gentle and natural, and I put it on a cotton pad every night to remove all my face makeup easily.

Sonia Kashuk is reserved for taking off my mascara – bareMinerals Lash Domination and Benefit’s They’re Real do not mess around, and they need something with a little more elbow grease to remove them completely. I struggled for years to find a remover that was strong enough, but did not burn my sensitive eyes. Finally, I found this stuff – unfortunately you can only find it at Target, but a trip to the mecca is a small price to pay for the perfect remover.

Empty of the week conclusion? Definite repurchase. And not just repurchase, more like “I have this shit back stocked until infinity because heaven forbid I run out” kind of repurchase.

Jewels Du Jour

I’ve mentioned I work for a jewelry company, yes? So basically part of my job is scoping out a lot of competitor jewelry. It’s a beautiful thing to be paid for, and also a horrible thing because I see so much pretty stuff that I want. Anyway, I stumbled across these little vintage-inspired gems in my internet job travels the other day, and I had to have them. Boss walking by be damned, I got on my phone and ordered them right then and there.

Cue the choir of angels singing for my new BaubleBar Juniper Ear Jackets: 

They don’t look nearly so ethereal in the merch shot online (see left), but I’m sooooo very pleased with how they look in person – they’re even better than I imagined. I think we’ve found my new staple piece!

P.S. – google some online codes before you go buy, I almost always find useable BaubleBar coupons! I got $10 off these babies with a RetailMeNot code, bringing them down to an extremely reasonable $22.

The Munchkin

Last week we decided to add to our little family. Meet Winnie, the cutest little Shorkie nugget you ever did lay eyes on:

She’s not even two pounds yet. It gives me anxiety – I have an oh God where’s the baby is she under my foot? moment every other second. But she is adorable and feisty and gives tons of kisses and most importantly, my first baby, Charles, loves her.

This is no mean feat, you guys. Charlie is a rescue with some major trust issues who loves precious few people, and even fewer dogs. I even had my sister on stand by just in case they didn’t get along and it turned out that Winnie needed a different home, which would have broken my heart. But they kiss and snuggle and play and I can’t even handle how cute they are together. Every time I see a photo op like the one above my heart just wants to explode.

In case you need a little cuteness in your Friday too, here:

You’re welcome.

June 2015 Julep Maven Unboxing

Woohoo! The June Julep Maven box is here! Here’s what we got this month:

It’s a Lilly Pulitzer box! Which should be super cute, right? Except for I think I kinda got three of the most underwhelming colors ever: a puke green called Sam, a very light pink (almost beige) called Lillian, and a metallic neon pink dubbed Sally.

Not really digging it this month unfortunately. Not even the candy was a saving grace – I have no idea what those lollipop things were but they were decidedly NOT delicious. Oh well – there’s always next month to look forward to!

Products I Hate: bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Hypnotist

YOU GUYS. See this? This is the Marvelous Moxie lipgloss in Hypnotist from bareMinerals. I love the Marvelous Moxie line – HOWEVER. This shade did not make the cut.

Looks gorgeous and iridescent and incredible, right? I’ve been eyeing it forever, because it’s clearly a tube of pure unicorn magic. And it totally swatches that way too:

But when you put it on your lips?

OMGWTFBBQBACON. I may as well have bought some $2 clear Bonnie Bell lipgloss from the kiddie section of Target’s makeup aisle. It totally loses all of its beautiful unicorn magic and just becomes … normal. Blah. I’m so sad about it, but this one is going back!

A Mini Ulta Haul: Three Basics and a Splurge

I went to Ulta! And just FYI, this may be the smallest amount of things I have ever walked out with. Check it:

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation in 101: my one, my only. I have tried more foundations than you can shake a stick at, ranging from Marc Jacobs and Chanel to Covergirl and Loreal, and this little $5 bottle of heaven beats them all. I wore it on my wedding day, ya’ll.

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Wild: I usually go for Suave or Dove just ’cause they’re cheaper and do the job just as well, but I felt a little splurgy. Plus, OH LORD THE SMELL. This is my favorite Batiste smell. Go huff it someday, you won’t regret it.

Ulta Cotton Pads: because how else will you take off your makeup?

bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Hypnotist: I love the Marvelous Moxie line. However, I was not impressed with this particular color. It looks all reflect-y, iridescent and amazing, right? Wrong. See why here.

Minty Fresh NOTD

Doesn’t this combo just make you feel spring-y inside? Taken over my mother’s patch of strawberry babies for extra spring-y emphasis, obvi.

Mint nail polish: Julep’s Kam

Gray Polish: Barry M’s Gelly Hi Shine in Chai

Gold glitter top coat: OPI for Sephora’s Only Gold for Me (discontinued)

Base Coat: Julep’s Oxygen Bonding Base Coat (incredible)

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti Chip Top Coat

Inside My Jewelry Box: My Favorite Pieces of the Moment

Welcome to another episode of Hoarders!

White over the door jewelry armoire from Amazon. In case you were wondering, the Pat the Bunny book is an old childhood Christmas ornament I want to keep safe, so it keeps my jewelry company.

J/K, welcome to my jewelry box. And by jewelry box I mean human-sized over the door jewelry armoire.

I can feel you judging. I’d just like to preface this by saying that when not writing here, I work for a jewelry company and I get a discount. “But Savannah,” you say, “What about all the jewelry that didn’t come from there?” and I’d say “Hush it, remember the talk about judging?”

You’ll notice a couple of large themes in this armoire:

Theme 1: Pearls. Because, hello, pearls. They are my love, my life, my jewelry staple and whatever other earrings I show you here, just know that my classic white pearl buttons are what I wear probably 70% of the time.

Theme 2: Druzy. I’ve gotten majorly into the druzy. I feel like it’s totally at odds with the preppy pearls, but if not wearing pearls, I’m probably wearing druzy.

Theme 3: I have more earrings and rings than any person could ever wear. I know this. I choose not to act upon it, because I luff them.

Now, because it would take years to write a blog about every single piece in here, I’m just going to show you my favorites.

Let’s start with the earrings, because earrings and rings are my top two priorities when it comes to jewels.

Grey glass stone and gold earrings from The Dotted Poppy on Etsy.

Pink and gray bow earrings from Vertigre on Etsy.

Gray druzy in gold from Hautelook.

Next up, of course, the rings:

From left to ring: black and gold bow ring from Kate Spade, gold marquise cut ring (vintage shop), gray druzy ring (vintage shop), marquise and baguette cut silver ring (vintage shop), sapphire ring from Helzberg Diamonds, aquamarine ring (vintage shop).

And now for bracelets, which I have been getting into a lot more lately:

Gold and smokey quartz bracelet from Lucky Brand.

Cuff bracelets with quotes. “We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one.” – Dr. Who from My Sunny Shop on Etsy. “I am no bird; and no net ensares me.” – Jane Eyre from Berkey Designs on Etsy.

And finally, necklaces. Despite the amount of them in my jewelry box, I really don’t wear them that often, but I have been absolutely loving these two I just got from ElisabethAshlie on Etsy – especially layered together:

The Amy necklace and the Michal necklace from ElisabethAshlie on Etsy.

You may have noticed that I get a fair bit of my jewelry from Etsy and various vintage shops or estate sales. I love going that route, because my pieces are often quite different from anyone else. I must also say, if you like what you see you’ve got to visit the aforementioned Dotted Poppy and ElisabethAshlie. ElisabethAshlie is actually run by Lauren from The Lauren Elisabeth Blog. Her and her sister Kate from The Small Things Blog are my favorites when it comes to fashion, so duh I will buy whatever she makes – there’s a lot more of her creations in my armoire. The Dotted Poppy is actually Lauren and Kate’s mom, and the stuff is equally as cute.

So what do you think? Anything else you like to see up close?

#ThrowbackThursday: The Queen’s Hamlet

My whole life I’ve been obsessed with English history – compared to us Americans, their stories are so fascinating. So when my new husband and I got the chance to jet off to London, Scotland and Paris for our honeymoon, I had no doubt that London would capture my heart, and Scotland would be a close second, while Paris was sort of an “eh, we’re there already, why not?” tacked on to the end of the trip.

So imagine my surprise when this wee corner of Versailles ended up being my favorite part of our whole trip. If you’ve never been there, imagine vast, sprawling grounds (which are, in fact, open as a public park), and tucked away at the very back, far from the grand palaces, was the Hameau de la Reine – The Queen’s Hamlet. The queen, of course, being Marie Antoinette.

She so craved a spot away from the limelight of the court that she devoted a whole section of the Versailles grounds to building her own little farm village (replete with vineyards, a water wheel and sheep, which we unsuccessfully tried to pet). Many would point to this little hamlet as a sign of her signature disregard for finances, but look at this. LOOK at it. I spent a whole hour wandering around the little pebbled streets, then another simply sitting on a mossy, derelict bench and gazing at her accomplishment, laying around me in such a delicately beautiful state of disrepair. Perhaps the best part was that we were alone – no one else had ventured this far back to see this. Or maybe that’s the worst part.

I can’t fault her for building this. I love it too: