Princess Diaries

Hi everybody!

There's this dress. It's not an ordinary dress. It's bright pink and covered in beautiful embroidery all along the neck and hemline. It's the kind of dress that demands to be seen, and it makes me feel so fancy. It's such a bold piece that the accessories have to be minimal. Instead, I amped up the hair and makeup. I applied complementary gold shadow and made sure my skin looked flawless. As for the hair, I wore hair extensions for the first time and styled it in a half-up do. I really like these extensions, because they're soft and a bit lighter than my own hair, so it provides the subtle ombré I've always wanted. It also reminded me of how low-maintenance my current hair is. Overall, I just felt so glam taking these pictures, and I wish everyday could feel this amazing!

I hope you enjoyed!
<3 Lucero

pink embroidered floor-length dress - Anthropologie || black wedges - Ralph Lauren || hair extensions - Luxy Hair || gold bangles - Dubai

Song of the Day: Cool Kids by Echosmith

Dubai Christmas 2013

Hi everybody!

Long time, no see! My uncle was in for a week over Christmas break, and my family took this opportunity to do all sorts of touristy things.

One of our first stops was the Burj Khalifa. In my three and a half years here in Dubai, I had yet to visit its greatest attraction. The tour only goes to the 124th floor out of 160. The first photo here is not from the bottom, but from the observation deck on the 124th floor. The view was phenomenal, the skies weren't too cloudy, and not a single sandstorm threatened to ruin the sights.

From here, you can see the shadow the Burj Khalifa casts on the rest of the puny buildings.

Our next adventure was dune bashing. As always, it was a really good time and I had a lot of fun. The desert got much colder than I expected, and by the end of the night I was chilled to the bone (I'm actually just a wimp - the temperature couldn't have dipped below 60F). A flat tire also set us back a good half hour, but luckily we didn't miss the evening feast!

Christmas Eve rolled around much faster than I anticipated. We spent the evening with good friends and good food. I loved our tree this year, it was our first one here in Dubai! Unfortunately I don't have photos of the gift unwrapping. Our tradition is to open them on Christmas morning in our pajamas, and nobody needs to see me like that!

One of the perks to living in a Muslim country is that stores don't close for Christmas. We were able to score awesome barbecue, and catch the amazing fountain show at the Dubai Mall.

We also ate at Samad Al Iraqi, this amazing Iraqi restaurant, the day after Christmas. You know a restaurant here is good when it's filled with locals! This photo is of the traditional end of meal Moroccan tea. It comes in very small glasses, and is usually pretty sweet. I'm not great at capturing food photos - we always seem to inhale the food as soon as it arrives! 

After eating some great food, we all stopped by the Souk Madinat Jumeirah. They had the cutest little Christmas market going on! It's amazing to see Christmas being celebrated here when as recently as 1995, Christmas decorations were supposedly illegal here. It's crazy how the times change.

I hope you enjoyed! Happy holidays!
<3 Lucero

Halloween 2013

Hi everybody!

This year for Halloween, my brother and I went trick-or-treating. It's been our tradition to go out solo while our parents hand out candy, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't look forward to the occasion. My brother went as the grim reaper, and even let me do his eye makeup for an extra frightening effect. I've been indecisive about my costume the entire month, but yesterday I finally decided to go as Minnie Mouse. I had the ears, and the signature red skirt, so I was good to go! We had a really good time, and it's been awesome seeing more and more kids in our neighborhood participate every year.

Also, this is the last day of Blogtober! It's been a great time, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the month. It went by so fast! I'm definitely looking forward to this next year.

I hope you enjoyed!
<3 Lucero

Song of the Day: This is Halloween from the Nightmare Before Christmas

All Dolled Up With Nowhere To Go

Hi everybody!

Today I pulled out a lovely old dress I haven't worn in ages. I think it's only been worn to one or two events, such a shame it hasn't seen more action! It has a distorted paisley print that uses lots of autumnesque colors. I really like the cut, because it hits right at the floor and makes me look much taller than I am. Any added height I can get, I will take! I added dark accessories, but nothing too bold. The dress is stunning in and of itself. Also, this is my 100th post on this blog! Here's to 100 more!

I hope you enjoyed!
<3 Lucero

floorlength dress - Kohls for Girls | bag - Louis Vuitton | beaded necklace worn as bracelet - Target | black sandals - Target

Song of the Day: Sleepyhead by Passion Pit 

DIY SpiderWeb Nails

Hi everybody!

I'm back with another easy and fun Halloween themed nail tutorial. Today we're doing spiderweb nails, with an accent spider on the ring finger. You'll need about three or four colors, depending on the color scheme you want. I chose opaque black and gray for the spiderweb nails, and green and sparkly black for the spider nail.

Begin by applying one to two coats of your base colors. I chose green for the accent nail, but purple or blue would also look really nice.

Using a bobby pin as a striping tool, I've dipped it into the gray and begun making the stripes needed for the spiderweb. Then, it was just a matter of connecting them with perpendicular lines.

With the spiderweb nails finished, I moved on to the spider nail. I dropped a dot of nail polish onto the very center of the nail, and drew 8 little sticks pointing outward. You can create bends in the legs, I simply don't have enough room on my nail bed.

Ta-da! You're done!

I hope you enjoyed!
<3 Lucero

Song of the Day: Re - Stacks by Bon Iver