On Beauty Standards & Hamlet Inspired Self Portraits...

To sleep,
perchance to dream --

Sometimes, I have a hard time feeling like I need to be all these things - youthful, pretty, soft, small. While taking photos the other day, I was trying to project all of that: but after looking at the photos I wanted to cry. I began hyper focusing on the lines under my eyes, how tired I looked, how my body looked.

So I decided to hell with it - I put my hair up, smoked out my cried off eye makeup, and started taking portraits - only this time, instead of worrying about looking pretty, I decided to try to look annoyed, confident, bored, smug… Slowly, I realized I was trying to emulate a bit of a Shakespearean hero - think Romeo’s bravado or Hamlet’s weariness.

Beauty Trends: Testing Mermaid Makeup

Being somebody heavily associated with mermaids, I thought it would be fun if we tested out mermaid themed beauty products together! Are you sick of the mermaid trend yet? I'm still fond of it because I love a good kitschy theme, but can definitely understand the fatigue! Also, please let me know if you'd like me to do more posts like this ♡

Favorite Trends for Spring

NECKLACE: Forever 21 (sold out, similar) DRESS: Evewear *
PURSE: Amazon SUNGLASSES: Amazon

Spring has almost sprung! Flowers are blooming, and I feel like everybody is shaking off the cold winter and blooming again with them. Spring speaks deeply to my personal style - seeing my feed coming back to life with pastels, florals, fruit print, gingham (oh my!) - makes my heart so full! Here is a catalog of some of my favorite spring trends to get you ready for the new season!

The Mermaidens Thrifting Guide

There is nothing quite as satisfying as emerging from your local thrift store after digging for hours, clutching your hidden gems closely! Since I've been thrifting for as long as I can remember, I wanted to share an updated guide on how to thrift like a pro! Huge thank you to Courtney for these pictures ♡

Voilé

Happy New Year's Eve! Thank you so much for being on this journey with me. I hope your 2019 is filled with love, light, and happiness ♡ I wanted to say goodbye to 2018 with a conceptual shoot I'm actually really proud of! Sometimes I feel like there is a thin veil between myself and others — ever present and isolating. Having a hard time expressing myself, occasionally I'll feel like a ghost: always watching, never participating. I wanted to explore these emotions in a shoot, and immediately thought of using veils to literally and figuratively show feeling obscured. I also took inspiration from Victorian era† ghosts — think spirits shrouded by lace and dust — one of my favorite motifs to explore in media.

I shot these on a cold September evening with the very last rays of golden light to spotlight how the veils cast shadows on the face. Shooting these photos felt like a beautiful marriage of many of my favorite concepts and designers which that have been swirling around in my head for months: Meadham Kirchhoff, old favorite Victorian era ghost stories, and past shoots I've done with Hana Haley all served as inspiration.

This dreamy vintage Gunne Sax dress I found at House of Vintage was a perfect match for this shoot. The brand’s use of high necks, puff sleeves, and delicate frills were all borrowed motifs from Victorian fashion trends! The makeup was directly inspired by Rodarte's stunning Spring/Summer 2019 Ready-To-Wear Collection that featured Robin's Egg blue eyes, matte skin, and a deep true red matte lip *.

Here's to 2019!

Golden Light

I'm Wearing... Miss Patina blouse *, ModCloth pinafore *

I have spent the majority of my life feeling inarticulate and not particularly good enough at anything. It was only through blogging that I finally started to feel like maybe I was *good* at something. But if I am, it has only been through making a conscious, dedicated effort to get “good” at things every single day - like taking photos, conceptualizing shoots, writing, editing, etc. And it didn’t just fall into my lap. It has been a culmination of everything I had loved, felt, and was touched by for years. These feelings were always teeming in me - I had to release them. To do these things justice I had to get better at whatever medium I could express them in.

This October, I find myself sitting on a chair and looking into a small crowd of college students. My voice is shaky and cracking a lot, but I’m addressing their questions and making eye contact. I’ve been asked to speak on my experience with fashion marketing for Lena Cavusoglu’s Marketing Management class at Portland State University.

I was scared to death, I made many mistakes. But I knew I had to do this. And afterward, even though I replayed my mistakes in my mind and cringed, students still shook my hand and thanked me for my time, and Lena said she’d love to have me back. With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I smiled back at her and said I would love to. After all, I know how to do better next time. Don’t give up on yourself or your dreams ♡

Photos taken at Burgerville after the talk - I needed french fries after that haha!