For fans of Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games and hairstyles

   Hello everyone! College's been keeping me busy but I didn't forget you.

   You know, I just love getting beauty inspiration from the movies and series I like. They usually have such charming and peculiar styles that I wish I had time to do them every day!

    So I usually look for tutorials of nice up-do's that I've seen on them so I can try to copy at home. I finally stopped being lazy and started learning how to do french, dutch, fishtail and rope braids on myself; and that's good because lately that's what's been showing on my favorite characters.

    And here are some awesome tutorials I've found for the Hunger Games braided styles and the Game of Thrones styles:

   These girls have lots of incredible tutorials that I just loved! They explain it very well and the styles are so flattering! All of them, they have all kinds of hairstyles in their channels.

   So, next time you don't know what to do to your hair to go out, check their videos. There are tons of great and quite simple ideas. I'm addicted to them, really.

   Hope you enjoy!

Vintage Hairstyles: Retro Styles with Step-by-step Techniques review

   What an amazing book! I could not imagine anything clearer and simpler than that.

    Lauren Rennells, the author, covers from the most basic points (such as which products are used) to finishing touches such as hair acessories, basic instructions on applying red lipstick and defining eyebrows and even the style of nail painting in each era. Simply brilliant!

    The beginning of the book explains the products used, the effects produced by different methods of curling hair and some bases such as the victory roll and the fingerwaves. The section on curling clarifies many doubts I had when curling my hair for a vintage look (for my hair is naturally curly, but kind of in a renaissance way), because the way you set the curls in the hair, de direction and angle you pull them and even the way you expand it make difference in the result.

   After that comes a section in which she teaches to do full updos, step-by-step, all with careful instructions and pictures to leave no doubt about its ways. The styles portrayed are deadly gorgeous (from more than 30 I didn't like much only two) and the haisrtyles evolve so you can try the first ones to get practice to do the last ones.

   In the end there's nice explanation of which accessories match each kind of hairstyle, an easy way to do you own hairflower and some tips on makeup and nails. It's just perfect. When I finished reading I went through all the styles putting little post-it notes with which accessory would look good and which variations I could see for the updos, for quick ideas. Now I just have to purchase some products and start working!

   I've already tried a simple set of curls in the bang. I have a not very long bang that I like to wear curly. My hair does curl naturally, but not always the way I wanted at the bangs. So I did this set she teaches at the beginning and the effect is so flattering! Kind of like this:

   And who doesn't want to look a tiny bit like fabulous Rita Hayworth?

Anxious to start vintage beauty experience... and maybe college too

   I'm done with my exams! No more! And hopefully, never again! Results for the college I want come out next friday, and I'm really looking forward to it. In the meantime I've been looking for places to live if I get accepted and waiting for my fabulous vintage beauty books to arrive from the US.


   It was really REALLY expensive because the dollar has been going up lately and the shipping was US$50. But I longly reflected on it and got to the conclusion it's worth my money. I'm sure I will use these bokks all the time and if I were to buy something like those here it would be even more expensive.

   I ordered Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-step Techniques by Lauren Rennells which has amazing reviews everywhere and seems to be very simple and instructive. People say the chapter on curling techniques is awesome and I really do need some help with my pincurling (it always gets kind of irregular). They also say it is very complete on the haisrtyles and little details like hair acessories and even nail beauty (even though I don't like painting my nails, I can see how this information is very useful for most women).

The author has also a vintage make-up guide which I will totally buy if the hairstyling one is good. She writes the lovelly Bobby Pin Blog that has more tips on hair and other stuff too. She looks like a very nice person.

   I also ordered two truly vintage books: Beauty, Glamour & Personality - A Complete 1940s Guide to Vintage Makeup, Hairstyling and Elegance; and Westmore Beauty Book - A Complete 1950s Guide to Vintage Makeup, Hairstyling and Beauty Techniques, both by the Westmore brothers (they did the makeup in many movies of the time and were very innovative). It's going to take so much time for them to arrive! At least February 15. The books are very complete and include even lifestyle and etiquette instructions, everything widely illustrated. They look like treasures to me.

   I'm really looking forward to their arrival. Can't wait to try all the beautiful styles!

Easy DIY Hairstyles

   I love these pictures that show step-by-step how to do some hairstyles, so through time I've collected a few of them and I want to share with you. I don't think they are the most flattering hairstyles around (vintage looks are prettier), but they are more to add a nice touch in you common everyday look.

 

   Hope it's useful to everyone! I still have to try most of it... But I'm pretty sure it'll work. Have fun!

Freedom at last! And Prom.

  Hey! High School is totally over for me! I'm happy beyond description, really. I was so tired of my classes! I felt like sleeping made no difference this last month, so tired I was.

   Well, it is over for life! I will never have to wear an uniform again!

   The big question is: will I pass my exams to college? I'm optimistic. Here in Brazil, we have a peculiar way of selection. For most of colleges, there is a new form, which is a national test. For some, usually the best colleges, there is a two-step selection: a test of multiple choice, and a dissertative test. Candidates come and do the first test, and await results. They select the best of those to do the second test, which definitively selects the ones that can go to college.

    The colleges I'm trying follow the second model and I already have the results of the first test of the one I want the most. And I passed! In 15th place! I am soooo happy about it!

   So, I'm feeling that next year I probably am going to college, yes.

   There is one last thing related to school I must attend: my prom.

   Pretty excited about it. I love getting all dressed up. I bought the dress months ago, when I traveled to Orlando in the U.S. with my family. Dresses in Brazil are not much more expensive than dresses in the U.S., but they are much uglier. Too open and modern to me.  My dress is a nice tone of blue-green, in a shiny fabric, kind of a mermaid model, with little silver stones in the heart-shaped bust, with lacing (like a corset) on the back. I wanted something to match silver because I want to wear the Evenstar my boyfriend gave me last Christmas.

   

   This is the Evenstar, the necklace Arwen gives Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. Isn't it just perfect?

   Well, as I love vintage, and my dress and even the necklace don't conflict with something 40-ish, I'm planning to do something vintage to my hair and makeup. My ideal was to wear gloves, but I seriously doubt my mother would let me. Let's see. I already have my brand new pair of shoes, which has kind of a retro feeling to it.

   About the hair, there's a youtube channel of a girl that teaches all kinds of vintage hairdos, she's really great. If you like to do all those vintage hairstyles, like me, but doesn't have much of an idea how, she is perfect for you. I've learned a lot from her videos. She can be found here.

   It's going to be a busy week, I have tons of things to study (and I'm quite slow and lazy at that), but I will survive and who knows maybe I show up again here before next week.

   Wish me luck.

    

Feeling like things are going too fast

I just feel so young - I'm only 15 - but in a year and a half I'll be going to college (I hope)! These thoughts always make me kind of scared.But I'm trying to take it easy and be happy that I found sometime to post here at least, so let's talk about more fun and immediate stuff.

First - historical fact! - I'm going to cut my hair! It is long, dark and curly, and it has been so since I was four. Never did anything much different on it when it comes to haircuts. But these past weeks, I realized I got tired of looking at my face always the same. So I was watching The Mummy, and I love Rachel Weisz's look in it, and I though: Well, she's got curly hair in it, this might work!
I know this is kind of unusual, but The Mummy is one of my very favorite movies ever! Everyone thinks is just not a big deal of a movie. After all, it'snot complex, reflexive, or epic. It is just a nice fun movie. But that's why I think I like it so much - it is not pretentious. The characters are charming, spontaneous, funny and quite believable in the context. The story is well done, very well explained, intriguing and imaginative. It hasn't got marvelous effects nor wants to be Indiana Jones. They just want you to enjoy yourself while watching.
I'm quite a silly for movies - I can watch and enjoy those deep cult classics, but the ones that touch my heart are those which the end is happy and the characters are so nice you wish they were your friends. I can't help myself laughing at the jokes everytime I watch them or sighing at the beutiful love stories. Yes, I confess.
For those who don't know the movie (which is quite rare), here's a summary:
At first we are introduced to the forbidden romance between priest Imhotep and pharao's favorite Anck'sunamun, in Ancient Egypt. When they are discovered, Anck'sunamun sacrifices herself so Imhotep could escape, because she knew he could resurrect her. He does not go far, though, as the guards manage to find him. As punishment, he must suffer the hom-dai, that is, be mumified alive with flesh-eater scarabs as company. He is buried in Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, and is guarded for millennia by the Magi.
In 1923, Rick O'Connell is an american serving the French Legion fighting the arabs in (guess where!) Hamunaptra. While trying to live, he is trapped at the feet of the statue of Anubis. The arab horses seem frightened for no reason and run away. Strange wind, sinister song in the background, and the face of Imhotep appears on the sand. Rick runs away.
1926. Evelyn Carnahan it's a clumsy librarian who dreams to be an egyptologist. After putting down the library of the Cairo Museum, she finds her brother, Jonathan, who gives her a box hoping it's a real artifact.
Inside ther's a map to Hamunaptra. They present it to the curator, but he "accidentaly" sets fire to the city part. Jonathan confesses he stole the box from a drunk man in the local bar.
The man is (guess who!) Rick, and Evey manages to take him out of prison and take him as a guide.
There are more people heading to Hamunaptra and soon the city is filled with people digging it's treasures. Soon Evey discovers the mummy of Imhotep and, reading from the book of the dead, awakes him. And he decides she makes a fine body for the soul of Anck'sunamun. Yes, he still plans to resurrect her.
You can imagine what happens later. Some people die, they try to send Imhotep back to his grave, there's romance, there's adventure, there's punishment for those that deserve... there's everything I like in a movie!

So, watching it I thought since I have curly hair, that might work. Might. Might. Oh gods, I'm quite scared. Really really hope that, if it doesn't work perfectly, at least it turns allright and not awful. But well, hair grows, I need a change, better fix it than not know, so... let's do it!

By the way, it does break my heart to remind myself I do not look like Rachel Weisz. But then again, who does? I'm a mere mortal after all.

So, another thing, I finished Persuasion! I adored it. The protagonist, Jane Elliot, is more reserved than Elizabeth Bennet, but as sensible as she. The story is very delicate, very true on the nature of true love, on patience, on trusting yourself. It feels more mature on the writing too. I really loved it.

More later,