It's been a short while since I last posted on my blog, but sometimes school and life gets in the way. Hopefully, this post will serve as a small appetizer at least until I have time to write a full update on my life. An update that should be ready to be published on this blog within the next few weeks.

As you can tell from the title, this post will be about my prom experience. I decided that I wanted to start with how I got asked just to give you some background on the entire arrangement.

I decided that I wanted to try and make this post as neat and coherent as possible mainly because the thought of prom gives me a bout of butterflies. Anywho I decided to separate each specific point on the "timeline" with a header so you can skip to

...flashback...

Ever since starting high school last year and playing on the soccer team at this said school, I've been best friends with Julia. That year she was a junior and we made plans towards the end of the season to try and make sure I got to go to her senior prom since it would be her last prom. She wanted to try and get this guy who was

...the proposal...

I was at soccer practice and his sister actually played a hand in it working out so smoothly. She asked me to help her take some things to her car, an event that honestly was not out of the ordinary since we were such great friends. Instead of taking things to the trunk though I was met by her brother who slid a soccer ball in my direction that said: "Do you want to roll with me to prom?" I would insert a picture, but I'm not sure he would approve so I'll hold off on that for the time being and just cut him out.

...the prep game...

Now, normally girls plan months in advance for prom and dances in general. Mostly because it takes a lot of time and effort to get everything together from the dress to the flowers, to dinner, to pictures. Everything has to be planned out so that the night can go smoothly. Well unlike all of the juniors and seniors who had all of this time to plan, me being the unassuming sophomore was given a grand total of 3 weeks to get ready.

Now you may think that this sounds like a good amount of time, but try finding a prom dress in your size that will need minimal altering when nearly every school in your town is having prom on or near the day of your own prom. As you can probably imagine it was chaotic. I had to go to no less than a dozen stores. It took me an hour just to find out my size mainly because a certain sales-rep was not truthful about how a dress fit me. Any who I ended up finding the dress at Saks and got it altered with no problem since a family friend was willing to do it on short notice. And by short notice, I mean in 3 days.

My date was also nice enough to buy both of our flowers since his sister convinced him that they had to match in color and detail. (This was something I was happy not to argue with.) He also took care of food and photography after my prodding.

...the night before...

Since this wasn't "my prom" I didn't really have anyone to get ready with. A detail that made me sort of sad, but things started to look up around this time because my team had won their soccer game that week and some of my friends were going to get ready at my house for prom because they had to take pictures for yearbook. I ended up only doing my nails and getting a facial done the night before prom a detail you will see on my youtube video.

...PROM?!...

My friend, Shannon came over and blessed me by bringing over her large makeup stash so that I could "play" with it. We ended up coming up with a sparkly pink smokey eye to match my dress and honestly, I don't know how it could have come out any better than it did. I'll go ahead and link my YouTube video below and also leave some pictures just so you can get a full picture of my prom.

One of the hardest things to do each year is preparing for exams and with Spring Break out of the way they are just around the corner. I personally believe that studying wasn't meant to be hard. For with work & preparation you too can not only be ready for an exam, but ace it too! If you're interested in my tips to acing your midterms or final exams check out my latest video on YouTube. :)

First Row of shadows (left to right)

 This first row of shadows really did not look great when swatched, but when I tried them out on my actual eyelids, they looked better. (Especially the cranberry shade.) All of the shadows felt nice and had a dry creamy feel (if that makes sense), they did all have a little fall out which I expected since this wasn't from the "best of the best" brand wise.

Second row of shadows (left to right)

 The second row of shadows on the other hand really impressed me, especially the gorgeous golden bronze shade. I truly did not expect the pigmentation that came from this shadow. I only have a few cons when it comes to the shadows overall.

1. There was a good bit of fall out when I put my brush in the pan to get out some product. My best solution is to spray your brush with either Mac Fix+ or some water just to get the shadow to stick.
2. Some of the pigment fell beneath my eyelid and onto my face even with a primer. Really the only way you can avoid this problem is by doing your eye makeup before your actual face makeup so that you can wipe off any excess without problem. 
3. It creases after a few hours of wear*. I have tried different primers, but nothing seems to change the fact that some of these shadows (mostly the shimmers) seem to crease after 3ish hours. If you have any suggestions please leave them below. (*this may be because I have oily lids)

Third row of highlighters (left to right)

Now for what some of you have been waiting for. These highlighters are beyond gorgeous. I will not shy away from the fact that I bought this palette for the sole purpose of trying out Carli Bybel's highlighters. Not only did these blend nicely into the skin, for the most part they lasted throughout the day. Now do keep in mind that if you are interested in having these highlighters and shadows to last for a day that goes beyond 8ish hours, I recommend using a primer and a makeup spray just to add on to the product's longevity.

Overall this product works very well, especially for the price which in my opinion is very cheap. Even with the small creasing problem, I'd totally say that you should check this palette out. The pigmentation is pretty great and the highlighters stand out, plus everything blends well.

If you are interested in real time swatches check out my YouTube video which is linked here and at the top of this post.

As we close in on the last month of school specifically my sophomore year I find it increasingly hard to keep myself from getting nostalgic. This past week my soccer team had its senior night, it was at this moment that everything hit. All of my friends I had made last year who were juniors were about to graduate, the bonds I had made with most of the players on my soccer team would be dissolved since many of them were either graduating or moving to a different school in our city. Basically, I was facing something that many Americans and fellow human beings feel at least once in their lives -- the fear of change.

You see this feeling isn't new to me, in fact, I felt something similar when I first moved to high school in the first place. The fear of moving to someplace new and not fitting in. The fear of not seeing friends I had seen nearly daily for the majority of my elementary and middle school years. The fear that I would now be a loner.

But this time my fear has morphed and taken on a new shape. Looking back it's funny really for I'm constantly planning for my future. Planning out where I would like to go to college, where I'd like to settle down, who I'd like to marry etc. Now I'm just "rushing" to stop the time so that I can enjoy and cherish the relationships I've made today.

I always looked to the future asking God to speed up the time so that I can go ahead and get my driver's license or so that I can see whether I make it into Yale or not. Now though I see that time isn't something I want to speed up, because once these moments are gone, they are gone forever.

Looking at my fashion slide I realized that it's been a moment since I've posted some outfit ideas. Which is why I decided to go ahead and post a video blog post on some of my favorite outfits to wear in the winter. This was such a fun video to film and edit! Hope you enjoy watching it!