Baby's First Tattoo

First noteworthy thing I did in 2016 was something I've been wanting to do for a long time: I got a tattoo! Read more after the photo if you're interested in my thoughts about it or maybe check out my post on getting my nose pierced if that's more your style.

CHOOSING A TATTOO - The first thing you're going to want to do is figure out what kind of tattoo you want. Do you want something big? Something small? Something black or something colorful? Do you want something delicate or something tribal? One of the best things you can do for your tattoo artist is have a pretty good idea of what you want going in, especially if you're trying to get a walk-in tattoo. Otherwise, schedule a consult so that you can sit down and have a solid discussion with the artist about what you want your tattoo to look like. Bring reference photos but consider allowing the artist to create their own version of your tattoo if they want. They are an artist after all!

FINDING A TATTOO ARTIST/SHOP - I got my tattoo at Man O War Tattoo in Fairhope, Alabama by a super rad dude named Frank. Most tattoo parlors have a website that you can look at that lists all their basic info. Estimated pricing (you won't know the actual cost of your tattoo unless you speak to the artist and have a consult), whether or not they prefer appointments, if they require deposits and how much they will cost, etc. Tattoo shops with websites will typically list the artists they have employed and usually have photos of each artist's previous work, sort of like a portfolio, available to view as well. I also looked up reviews online of each shop I was interested in and I asked people I know who already have tattoos what shops they preferred (that's how I found Man O War, thanks Zachy Poo).

PAIN - A lot of people want to know if getting a tattoo hurt. The answer is yes. Tattoo ink is inserted into your skin via a tattoo machine which typically has a cluster of needles attached to the end of it. That said, I found that for most of my tattoo it was more just discomfort than actual pain. However, there is a section of my tattoo that sits right above my elbow, close to the bone, and that hurt. A lot. Typically, tattoos above bone are more painful than other places. The rest of the tattoo sort of felt like someone scratching your skin for a long period of time and certainly wasn't unbearable.

AFTERCARE - Always, always, always follow the aftercare instructions provided to you by the tattoo shop. It is so important to take care of your tattoo. It's essentially an open wound and takes time to heal. The aftercare is no harder than applying ointment (and then after a certain amount of time, lotion) to your tattoo every 4 to 6 hours and not picking at it. If you ignore these instructions you are risking damage to your new, expensive, painful tattoo and you are also opening yourself up to infection. Just follow the instructions. Please.

FINAL THOUGHTS - I love my tattoo. I don't regret it now and I don't see myself regretting it in the future. If you want a tattoo and you're committed to having a tattoo, the pain and the cash are worth it. I'm happy with how it turned out and I'm happy with the service I received from Frank and Man O War.

xx Anna

Bling Bling Nose Ring

Some of you may have noticed that earlier this year in September I got my nose pierced. I had been considering the piercing for quite some time, going back and forth between whether or not it would look good on me (and whether or not it would get me kicked out of my parents' house). Ultimately I decided that I didn't care and that since I wanted it, I was going to get it. It was spur of the moment decision to finally get it done so I hopped in my car 30 minutes before I was set to leave for North Carolina for the 5 Seconds of Summer concert and got it pierced all by myself.



PICKING A PIERCER - The first thing you're going to want to do when you decide you want any kind of piercing is find a place to get it pierced. Most tattoo parlors employ piercers so that's where I started looking. You will want to do plenty of research on the parlors in your area and find one that has good health ratings, keeps things sanitary, etc. I found that reading reviews was the number one easiest way to decide whether the parlor was the one for me. I decided to go to The Bellrose Tattoo in Daphne, AL. I was not necessarily anxious about getting my nose pierced but I will say that if I had been, the staff and the piercer himself would have put me at ease immediately. They were all very chill, friendly, and the prices were fair.

JEWELRY - I decided to get a mid size stud with a white crystal in it. Pretty basic but that's what I thought would be the easiest to deal with as a first piercing. I believe I was pierced with an 18g needle but I wear mostly 20g now which is smaller. I just prefer it that way. I read online that it is easier to get pierced with a stud at first and then transition to a hoop later on if that's what you want. A hoop will move more and therefore irritate the piercing, putting you at higher risk to develop infections and keloids.

PAIN - Now I had watched tons of videos on piercings and tattoos before firmly deciding that I would be ok with the pain. It was like a hard pinch, definitely unpleasant, and it hurt. But it only hurt for about half of a second before it felt like nothing. It was sore the next day but only when it was being cleaned and messed with.

AFTER CARE - I was instructed to use Dial soap on the end of q-tip to clean the piercing twice a day. However, after watching many different videos online and looking at some forums I decided that I'd rather use sterile saline solution. I had no problems doing this. Be careful not to over clean the area because that can cause keloids! Once in the morning and once in the evening should be enough. Around 2 months after my appointment, I developed a slight infection. Nothing too scary, just some tenderness around the piercing area and a little bit of discharge. I used Tea Tree oil once a day to fix this and it worked really well. The infection went away after a couple of days.

FINAL THOUGHTS - All in all, I'm so glad I got my piercing. I think it's fun and it's what I wanted and that's all that matters. Sure, you will find plenty of people who disapprove of body jewelry (but are totally ok with earrings?) and will have plenty of negative things to say about it. The pain is very little and the after care is simple. If you hate the way it looks on you, you can always take the piercing out!

EVERYONE IS A WINNER.

xx Anna

Happy Halloween

A casual Harley Quinn, the perfect costume if you're looking for something simple and comfortable to wear in place of a full red+black body suit. I didn't actually have to buy any clothes for this look, just the wig for about $20 from Party City, which made me one happy Harley fan. You can do this yourself by mixing and matching any red and black clothes you own. You can also find a blog post on how to create this Harley Quinn inspired makeup right here. (please ignore the terrible state of my mirror)

My personal favorite of the three costumes I came up with, a femme Kaneki Ken a la Tokyo Ghoul. But you could probably get away with just doing the face paint and calling yourself a skeleton if your friends and fam get confused when you say that you're "Kaneki". I used super basic, super cheap cream face paints from Party City that cost about $3 which were convenient but did require some finagling to get right. I also used eyeshadows to set the paint and a liquid lipstick for red bits since the red cream paint ended up looking awful. The wig was also about $20 from Party City. I used reference pictures of Kaneki to paint the mask onto my face. Just be patient and take your time. :)

Lastly is the typical, last minute go to for ladies and lads everywhere... a black cat. This is the world's easiest "costume" to put together in all of history. You wear black clothes, any black clothes you feel like, and slap on a cat ear headband (mine cost about $4). I initially went for a black cat princess type thing in the first picture but ended up more comfortable in shorts and a sweater. Makeup-wise, I opted for an exaggerated cat eyeliner and a dusty rose lipstick. Easy peasy. (My brother's friendly viking costume is also available at Party City, if you're interested in that)


I hope you enjoyed these three fairly simple costumes. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a comment. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

xx Anna

H&M Fall Fashion Wishlist

Ahhhh yesssss. It's mid-August and already I can sense the impending autumn season taking it's sweet time to arrive in lower Alabama. That doesn't mean I can't dream about all the things I want to wear when the weather finally turns cool and the leaves start to fall.

Fall fashion to me is deep tonal patterns, muted color, and an abundance of accessories. Below you'll find a small sampling of some items on my wish list for Fall 2015, courtesy of H&M.

xx Anna

Whatevah you say, Mistah J!

Every now and then I get a little bored and since I've been on a major Harley Quinn kick lately (as made clear by even my last blog post) I figured what better way to cure that boredom then to use whatever makeup I have rolling around my old makeup drawer and make myself look like the newest imagining of Harley Quinn?

I didn't buy any new makeup to create this look so I used a lot of really old, really cheap makeup that I've had for years. I mixed white cream face paint with a drop or two of my regular foundation and applied it as usual. I then used a roller ball blue eyeshadow and red pigment eyeshadow to use on my eyes. I created more definition by using a matte cool brown in the crease and outer corner areas. Then I used a black eyeliner pencil to line my eyes all the way around making sure to be messier than usual. After that you just use your fingers and a brush to smear it down your cheeks. I used NARS Dragon Girl on my lips which is really a little too bright for this Harley Quinn look but since this was just for funsies I let it be.

Harley Quinn is probably my favorite comic book character of all time. I find her creation story fascinating and the current storyline in her stand-alone comic has proven Harley to be quite a fighter despite her silly, sing-song henchwoman origins. Her flaws make her relatable and her ability to make wrong decisions makes her, in my mind, an even stronger female character than the typical do-good heroine.

xx Anna

I am so excited for the new Suicide Squad movie. If you haven't seen the trailer you can check it out below:

Too Faced: Return of Sexy

Two eyeshadow looks featuring the Return of Sexy palette
featuring Stila long wear lipstick in 'Patina' and NARS velvet matte pencil in 'Dragon Girl'.

Gonna be real honest and let you know that I'm not a huge fan of this shadow palette. It originally caught my eye because of the seemingly super sparkly shadows and the inclusion of a purple hued section which I'm super in to, but the pigmentation is non-existent and the sparkle is rather dull, even with an eyeshadow primer. Don't get me wrong, it's an ok palette. It's just not as fun or flirty as I wanted it to be and at gut-wrenching, very unsexy $49 there are a lot of better options out there. A Too Faced alternative would be their Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette, a much better investment than this chalky brick of a palette, but it has no purple/pink shades.

Also pictured above is Too Faced's Melted Liquified Long Wear Lipstick in the shade 'Chihuahua' (that's a mouthful). This shade on the website looks like a dusty mauve color and the packaging is even more pink, but applied to the lips this lipstick is more of a muddy, brown color which is really unfortunate. The formula is also pretty weird as it's very sticky and also separates in the container. It's possible that maybe I just got a faulty product but I probably won't be purchasing this lipstick again.

I'd like to point out that Too Faced is an awesome company and have a lot of products that I really like but I'd probably avoid these if at all possible.

xx Anna

Call Me a Narsissist

Now I don't consider myself a beauty guru by any means but I do enjoy playing around a bit with makeup. I own entirely too much of the stuff, some of which I don't even use (here's looking at you, $42 'Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat'; I hate you), which means I've been able to narrow down my favorite beauty brands over the years and the only brand I've been able to trust and rely on wholeheartedly is NARS cosmetics.

I have struggled with finding a solid foundation routine for years but was finally able to find solace in NARS All Day Luminous foundation in the shade 'Mont Blanc' because I'm a vampire and I hate the sun, paired with their blusher in the shade 'Super Orgasm' which I love to say in a ridiculously enthusiastic voice. The good people at NARS also recently sent me one of their Illuminating Multiple's in the shade 'St. Lucia' which I wasn't sure what to do with at first but I've discovered its good for light contouring, blushing, etc. You can do just about anything you want with that magical multiple.

Not to mention the wonderful majesty that is their lip pencils. Hands down my favorite thing to slap on my mouth for any occasion. Between the three different consistencies they have to offer in a pencil (satin, velvet matte, and velvet gloss), there are literally dozens of colors to choose from and IT. IS. GLORIOUS. I find that lip pencils are a lot easier to use than a typical lipstick and they seem to last a little bit longer and they're all so damn pretty.

Basically I feel like NARS has been consistent and concise with the quality of their products, something I feel is sometimes difficult to find in the makeup world. This makes their higher prices absolutely worth it. You deserve the splurge; trust me. Plus, the customer service end of this company goes above and beyond to make you feel special and important. 

Purchasing their products have left me so satisfied that I felt like they deserved a quick little shout out from me, the ever pleased #narsissist, to them, the ever impressive NARS cosmetics company; I <3 you.

Check out their site right HERE.

My Top 3: Shops

Time for another Top 3. This time we're taking a look at some of my favorite places to shop for clothes.

Now, I live in the middle of nowhere so most of the time I do my shopping online. The stores I'm about to mention have always had excellent online outlets and have always shipped everything carefully (so far anyway which means that I've probably just jinxed myself).

1. Urban Outfitters

So Urban Outfitters has some of my favorite stuff in the whole world. Despite some controversy surrounding some of their items, they manage to put out a wide range and variety of awesome clothes and, more importantly, apartment decor that makes me feel all warm inside. While not being high end by any means, Urban Outfitters is a little pricey in my opinion (I'm a broke university student). I'd say that 9 times out of 10 that the purchase is worth the price. The sizing has always been accurate too which is always nice when buying online.



2. H&M

Probably the best place to get contemporary pieces for cheap. Some of my favorite purchases have come from H&M including my favorite pair of overalls. The sizing here is spot on every single time and while there are no special shipping deals the cost of shipping is stable, meaning it doesn't go up even if your cart is super full. H&M probably have the quickest delivery time as well which is amazing and always important when you're doing online shopping. H&M also covers most of the cost of returns.

3. Forever 21

By far the cheapest store on the list, Forever 21 is a great place to find fun, trendy items for almost nothing. It's the cheapest of the cheap and while sometimes this is reflected in the quality of the clothes, I find that even buying a replacement top or dress after a couple of months is cheaper than buying something that looks similar for twice the price and quality. However, the sizes in Forever 21 typically run pretty small especially in the bottoms so you really need to keep that in mind. Forever 21 ships from California so it does have the longest shipping time for me out of all the aforementioned stores. I will always buy online from Forever 21 because the experience of shopping in-store is often chaotic.


Alright! So there are my Top 3 for shops. I hope that I explained everything in a way that made sense. One day I'll get a full length mirror or someone to take photos of me and I'll post some outfit inspirations using pieces from these stores. That sound fun? Yeah!