A Dream in Paris

                           

 

Call me stupid, silly, underachieving, flunky and unapologetic but all I really wanna do is drop out of college and start leading an exciting life.

 

                                

As I've said before, I was suppose to go to Japan. I was supposed to be smacked dabbed for Tokyo Fashion Week, #100Tokyo, #CoolJapan and be on a week long crazy adventure. 12 hours away, working through my entire spring break, only to take a few hours away to enjoy the pre-bloom of Japanese Cherry Blossoms.

 

                          

 

Welp, if you follow me on Instagram, you obviously know that didn't happen. 4 days before take off, my plans got canceled and hastily re-arranged. I got 2 working efforts that paid off somehow someway. I may not be a famous blogger but hell I know how to get places.

 

                       

One of the locations I went to was Paris, France. I went with lexss than a hundred bucks in pocket, a carry-on full of clothes, a hotel reservation, and a bit of crappy French and Creole.

 

 

                        

 

I can read French fluently but I can't really speak it. I kinda assumed that there would be a big Haitian population concentrated in one area. I found out from a random Haitian-French man on the train that no such things exist and unlike in New York, the Haitian population is spread out and their customs are often churned out. Luckily my creole is somewhat similar to the French of Cote-de-Ivory so I managed to get around only speaking Creole.

 

My mission was to attend a few shows, style-spot what Parisians wear, and overall get inspired by Parisans as a whole. I had only 3 days to make this opportunity into a grand scheme. I took a lot of inspiration from my favorite bloggers who had also made the trip. Primarily Yutaki and Michelle Phan.

                            

 

I had to make the best of what little money I had. No food could cost more than 3 euros and I avoided buying drinks in excess. Most meals costed around 10 euros. I tried to refrain from spending more than 4. Subways, Mcdonalds, and Crepe stands were the wave. Who cares if I missed out on authentic French cuisine, I wasn't on a pleasure trip  anyway.

 

I often had to think twice about eating.

Just note that their porta-potties are way better than ours.

                         

 

I honestly don't know why but I have a tendency to stick out everywhere I go. I got stopped everywhere I went. 

 

                                            

I got photographed several times.



People automatically assumed I was French too, in highly populated tourist areas. I don't know if that was common or not but I could sense a bit of annoyance accompanied by my broken French.

 

 

But one things was for certain, things did change after this trip. For one I can't stand people strolling in the city. Unlike in Manhattan, where people do take their time walking, Parisians walk extremely fast and their bags will hit you if you are in their way. A brief "pardon" and the zoom off. 

 

But more importantly, inspiration was drawn upon. For some reason I didn't find France very romantic like I did for Washington, DC. I found it ambitious and aesthetic. Fashion is different from the states and I was lucky to pack clothes that stood in a bit more. The French are proud in their oxfords, bright scarfs and simple silhouettes. Their silhouettes are flowy and portray a bit of fleeting freedom and yet personify their emotions. I was expecting them to wear a lot more black but instead they wore rustic colors and pastels.

 

And love was a matter of identity. Love was unspoken but can be seen. I saw a lot of different couples. I was in awe at the amount of bi-racial couple I saw and the amount of nannys stringing along a fleet of children. Love was personified in their art. Romance was found in their food. Everything showed the romance of the creation and their creator. 

                           

Still, Paris was not a romantic place  per say. Maybe if I was on a pleasure trip I would be saying something different but I didn't feel it. I felt more artistically inspired.

                   

 

What inspired me the most was the Jardin du Luxemburg. We skipped out on Versailles and took on this free alternative. 

                        

 

In France, spring had only just entered with some temps in the low 60s but Jardin du Luxemburg would make you think we were well into April. Flowers in full bloom everywhere, Kids running and playing meanwhile adults enjoyed their jog or conversation and a picnic. 

      

 

 This was the most romantic place I visited in all honestly. It was pure in unusual ways. It was obviously well taken care of.

                    

Now you must be asking. What will I do with this unkept creativity and what was the final product of my trip to France? Welp, you'll find out soon and I can basically totes that you will love it.

Adieu mes amis. S'il vous plaît aller me suivre sur  instagram, twitter, et tumblr pour mises à jour quotidiennes <3

Geo Nudy Blue Review

For some girls, falsies are the must wear thing. For others it might just be a bold eyeliner. For me, bright contact lenses are the must do of my look. 

Call it unhealthy, but I dont think I look good if I'm not wearing color contacts and tout them with pride almost all the time. 

As you know, I purchased a pair from Lensvillage last month and got a pair of lenses for free with my order. Its almost obligatory that I give you insights of my newest lenses in my collection. 

You see I'm no stranger to Geo nor am I a stranger to the Nudy Series. This is the 3rd lense I bought from Geo Medical and the second from their Nudy series. 

These lenses have a diameter of 14mm, 8.6 base curve, and a water content of 38%.

Here's my thing with these lenses. Ever since I got hooked to the Dueba Puffy 3-tones, I can't come to love these lenses but I can't hate em either. I hated Eos Natural 3-tones and the Geo Nudy Grays used to be my favorites. Its a complicated relationship.1

For starters, it gives very little enlargement. Which is good for girls with big eyes but not so good for girls like me who don't. 

Versuses---> 

Shes wearing Geo Nudy Browns but you get the gist of the argument. They are perfect on her. 

So in all fairness Enlargement gets a 3.5/5 

However in terms of color. Its really nice in natural way. Would I like it to be a tid more vibrant? Hell yes! But it works very well with what it does. 

However it only fairs so well in different light situations. This score is going to be a bit bias lol.

4/5 for Color 

As far as comfort go, I do believe that Geo Medical as a whole, their contacts are less comfortable than most major circle lenses company. However comfort is the most bias scoring because everyone is different.  My eyes don't get dried out easily  but as far these contacts go 6-7 hours at most without feeling them irritatingly drying out versus 8+ hours for most contacts. Way better than the Geo Angel Blue which could only fare for about 4 hours. Still dryness is always disappointing.

So 3.5/5 for comfort.
  

Overall, these lenses are a good staple lenses for everyday look. Its not as gorgeous as my Puffy 3-tones but it does the job. 

Travellog: Bahamas

So I've been neglecting this blog long enough and for good reason. I've been getting a surplus of event invites and I've been traveling.

Its been quite a while since I traveled anywhere by plane (around 10 years). I was quite anxious since the world has became such a different place since I traveled in the past. Its gotten to the point I gotta murmur a prayer every time I get on a bus or train during my daily commute. 

In the wake of Flight 370, it took all that was in me to get on the plane and not spaz out every five minute. Instead I spazzed out every time i felt turbulance and you feel all the turbulance possible when sitting on a Airbus. 

But we landed safely in Nassau, Bahamas with a lot of drunk Spring Breakers. 

And unlucky me, I had lost my ipod chord so no pictures our entire first day. 

Because of the last minute of our trip. (We were originally suppose to go to Tokyo for Tokyo Fashion Week), we had a hard time booking a place to stay. So we rented a house  through Airbnb. Our accomadation was cheaper than staying in a hotel and was conviently very spacious. 

I appologize that pictures dont truly capture how spacious it was nor how pretty cuz we kinda trashed it. It had 2 bedrooms one with a queen size bed and the other with a king size bed so the house easily accomodates 4 people. My only peeve was only the king size bedroom had a vanity mirror (and i obviously didnt get that room).

We were a bit far from the downtown area so we had to travel by jitney. Instead of huge commercial bussing like there is in most cities, Nassau only uses van sizes bussing. We were served by the 14s which never took the same exact route twice but it got us to and from downtown. The only downside was that bussing ended as soon as sundown. Taxis are fairly expensive even the shortest distance will cost you $20

Also another good thing was USD was used on the island and didnt have to be converted as well as have the same worth as Bahamian Dollar.

We didn't get to do much because the trip was actually a working-vacation. So the most we really did was go to the beach. 

On our last day, I was co-hosting beach party so I only have pictures from chilling on the beach during preparations.

In all honestly it was a very relaxing break from New York cold. However there isn't much you can do unless you are on a cruise or at Spring Break event. I also felt a little alienated by locals who were constantly staring at me and I couldn't find out for what the reason. No matter, I really do want to go again. It was a surprisingly safe place to be. 

Well to next time cheries, I have plenty of adventures to share.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter for Daily Updates.

LensVillage Review

Now that the craziness of Fashion Week has finally died down and things are settling back into place, I finally got the time to blog. I also updated my layout, so it's now a very professional, minimalist look which I already hate. My youtube channel is also updated for the first time in a year! It has a hair review up, go watch asap after reading this! 

As of late, I purchased two beautiful lenses from lensvillage.com. This is the first time I ever purchased from them and I feel that lenses and the companies you purchase from should be reviewed separately. The quality of the lenses don't usually reflect on the quality of the company. 

So quick story was my Dueba Puffy 3-Tones Gray lifespan had officically completely worn out and I needed a pair of lenses for Uptown Fashion Week (which I attended and will blog about) as well my Birthday.  I only had 10 days to get these lenses and nowhere I typically purchased from, had a low prices on express shipping. As of late I've been only ordering from thedollyeye.com. I used to order from geoeyecandy.blogspot.com, which is a San Francisco based store but they had closed for sometime in 2010 as well as some sketchy blog store that used to sell Geo lenses for $10.

So I'm not used to paying over $15 for circle lenses nor have I ever had to pay shipping before. But I needed these in a rush and out of the popular and trustworthy stores, LensVillage was the only one to have a flat rate shipping policy and had the lowest international express shipping price(sue me if I'm wrong). Their international shipping was only $12, so I asked a friend to order with me which made the shipping price lower.

Shipping:

The packaging was pretty standard. It was wrapped up and the packaging had no dents. It came with two animal contact cases. Everything look like it was nicely and carefully put together. Shipping was really fast too. Despite a huge snow storm, it took 4 days to reach my door after it was shipped. My only peeve is that it takes 3-4 days for them to actually process my order out for shipping. I think that the longest I ever heard for any company.  So with that in regard, they receive 3.5/5 stars for shipping.

Price:
The prices on the website are standard  for most of the major retailers of circle lenses (i,e loveshoppingholic, pinky paradise, honey color etc) Most contacts are around $20 which isn't an abnormal price. Honestly its a sigh of relief for some of us New Yorkers, because the only place to physically buy circle lenses is a store in Flushing, Queens and they up the price all the way to $40 for non-name brand circle lenses. Man, ya should of seen my face with that lady when she told me that price. I didn't even haggle, I stormed my ass out. But I do recall once a time a go when I used to sell circle lenses, the bulk order of Geo Lenses straight from the manufacturer was about $8-$12 a pair, however Geo mandates all retailers to sell at a certain price.  Dueba and other big manufacturers however (at the time) did not mandate this. So are you really telling me the price shouldn't be even a tad lower? You know beat out the competition with prices...

But it is a comfortable price so 4/5 stars for that.

If you can see (I'm sorry my camera didn't focus), the website on the container is thedollyeye.com which explains pricing aspect a bit but also makes you question, if you are only going to buy per say one pair from the Puffy 3 tone series, skip the middleman and you get a lower price and free shipping.

Promotions:

This made the store really attractive. I didn't originally look for the sales because I was in a rush but they were holding some excellent sales. I had purchased the Puffy 3 tones Violet and the Geo Nudy Browns for my friend, so we qualified for the buy 2 get one free deal. So I received the Geo Nudy Blues for free. Following that, they had an instagram promotion where if you posted a picture of your new lenses, you get a rebate. I was lucky enough to be one of the first 50 so I did get that rebate. On top of that I already had 5% off the order to begin with thanks to Carisse Iris (mydarlingrainbow)'s reference code.
So they recieve 5/5 because that was the best sales I ever stumbled upon accidentally.

Customer Service:

I was actually expecting terrible CS but they were really on point. Despite me not having a real issue. I did FB message their PR on how I really needed those lenses on time and 4 days had passed without my items being shipped yet. Within a few hours my order status had changed. I also got an email when I got the rebate. It was personalized and very professional which honestly had impressed me. \

So 5/5

Will I ever buy from them again?

On overall service they deserve a 4.3 so yes whenever I have a big order or need fast shipping I will order again. I didn't have any ordeals whatsoever.

I hope this helps you guys when searching for a circle lenses retailer. This review was not sponsored in any way or form.

I will be posting the actual review on the Geo Nudy Blue and an updated review on the Dueba Puffy 3-tone Violet soon.

In the meantime keep up with my social media.
 Instagram
Youtube
Tumblr
Twitter

The Reprisal

New York winters are terrible.

I'm literally snowed into my house with 12+ inches waiting outside for me. There is more snow to come too.

I know the people in the city are like this snow is nothing. Please drive 10 miles north so I can throw 20,000 snowballs at you.

People down south, 2 inches of snow and the whole state gets shutdown.

I hate winter.

Thanks to winter, my package from lensvillage.com got delayed. So when I do get it, I'll  go ahead and review it. But in the meantime here are more sneakpeaks from secret project.

 These were rushed and edited because I needed pictures for a casting call prompto.

I passed the casting call by chance. But the fitting and dress rehearsal is during my trip to Japan so -___- thats a negative. For some reason, my hair looks like an ombre blue when the photo was printed so I love it to the max but now my agency has it (I wanted to keep it and hang it on my wall lol)

If you like this look be sure to hype it up on lookbook

Ciao Lovlies