My Jewelry Habits Have Changed

As you some of you may already know, I have started selling Chloe and Isabel jewelry. But maybe not for why you would think...

Until recently, a large portion of my jewelry collection was from J.Crew and the J.Crew Factory store. I like jewelry that stands out and for the past 3+ years, they've been able to deliver that. In fact, I loved their jewelry so much that I frequently gifted it to my friends. Like this year, when I bought my best friend a J.Crew Factory necklace for Christmas. Originally like $60, I think I got it on sale for somewhere in the $35 range. Not a bad price, and I knew how badly she wanted that particular piece (which had previously been sold out), so I felt good about my purchase. Well I got it in, wrapped it up, and gave it to her. My friend is like me and has a million and a half different necklaces, so she put it into her closet for a few months until she had the perfect outfit for it. When she pulled it out, one of the stones has fallen out of it. No big deal. We'll just take it back to the store when we are in Dallas for work in a few weeks. So we do, only they wouldn't exchange the necklace because they didn't have another one like it in the store, and instead of letting us pick out another piece to replace it, they told us that we could return it for credit. The credit on that necklace without a receipt was whatever it rang up at, then 50% of that because of the discount they were running that day. So the $60 necklace that I had purchased for $35 was now worth a whopping $15 of store credit. I was infuriated. I explained the situation and yet, we still only got $15 in credit. I suppose my friend could've kept it, but a stone was gone and I knew she would never wear it. I told her to get the credit, but in my head, I was screaming angrily about the money I had just flushed down the commode.

This is when it all changed for me. I guess because of this one bad experience I started thinking back to all of the times that I'd bought jewelry that didn't last. And then, I started thinking about how long my other pieces of jewelry would last before looking tarnished or getting that weird old metal smell to them. At some point during my reflection, I started talking to my friend about how fed up I was with companies charging me $30-60 for something that barely lasts the season, and it's not like I'm buying 1 piece for the season. I was buying 5-6 pieces every season. So then my friend said something to me that made me stop dead in my tracks - "we spend a lot of money on cheap a** jewelry". As a matter of fact, I spend a CRAP TON of money on cheap a** jewelry, and for what?! When it gets broken, they give me $15 for it even though the tags are still on and it's never hardly even been touched. NO, thanks.

NOTE: I would like to state for the record that this is an issue with lots of companies that sell fashion jewelry. This particular experience just happened to have been with J.Crew.

So here's what I decided…
From now on, I am only buying direct sales jewelry (Chloe and Isabel, Premier, Stella and Dot, Origami Owl, etc.). In fact, I signed up to be a Chloe and Isabel merchandiser for just this reason. I'm sure you are wondering why the heck I'd ever do that, but here's why…

Even though the jewelry from direct sales companies can sometimes cost a little bit more, the benefits of FAR outweigh the little bit extra on the pricetag.

1. The quality of the jewelry is a ZILLION times better than the stuff you find in most clothing stores. Most fashion jewelry is plastic or a generic plated metal. It is only made to last a season, so it can break and tarnishes quickly. Chloe and Isabel's pieces are usually gold or rhodium plated. It makes for a better looking and longer lasting piece of jewelry. Also, they use semi-precious stones, the crystals are pave, and they have a line of really adorable sterling silver jewelry.

2. So let's say something happens to your jewelry in 3 months, most direct sales companies have a lifetime guarantee on their jewelry. If my Chloe and Isabel jewelry ever breaks or is damaged, I can return it to the company and get a new one. All I have to do is pay a shipping and handling charge of $5. So even though I may pay more for a necklace, at least I know that I'll literally have it for the rest of my life if I want to.

3. Buying the jewelry from a merchandiser is helping that person make a little extra money. I always like knowing that my purchases will go to benefit someone I know. If I can buy a pretty piece of jewelry and it helps my friend make some money so she can take a vacation or stay home with her kids, then by gosh, I'm gonna do it.

4. At least with Chloe and Isabel, they literally have a line for every style type and every budget. I sent an email to my friends and family asking if they would choose 3 pieces they liked the best, so that I could figure out what pieces to add to my collection (I literally couldn't choose for myself), and they all came back with something completely different.

Classic and Refined: Retro Glam Square Cut 3 Layer Necklace

Trendsetting: Jardin Majorelle Statement Necklace

Minimalist: Three Row Paillette Graduated Pendant

These companies are built on empowering women to become entrepreneurs while selling great products. I honestly can't tell you why I haven't been buying my jewelry from them all along.

So if you're following me on Twitter or Instagram, be prepared to see a lot more posts about Chloe and Isabel's jewelry. I am super passionate about this company and their products. Hopefully you'll find a few pieces you LOVE, or at least you can enter some of the drawings I'll be doing!

Hope you are all having a lovely Southern Saturday! XoXo

Let's Talk Tanning

I am a former tanaholic. Okay, I probably shouldn't say "former", because I still totally love to be tan. If there were a surgery to make you permanently tan, I'd be all OVER it. However, my tanaholic ways got me into a bit of a pickle, so I am no longer allowed to tan via sun or tanning bed. Long story short, I have early signs of melanoma caused by years of tanning bed use. I had a couple of moles biopsied some years ago and they came back with cell changes. Not enough to be full blown chemo-needing melanoma, but enough to need surgery to make sure that the biopsy had removed all of the bad (potentially cancerous if left alone) cells. Well as it turns out, damage to your skin just gets worse over time, so at 27, I've now had 4 surgeries to remove dysplastic cells. This ultimately translates to my complete aversion to the sun, and thus translucent colored skin. Wait, is translucent even a color? Anyway… moving on… 

Being unable to tan has created its on new challenges, like finding a makeup that matches freakishly pale skin and not looking like a ghost during the summer months when everyone else has such a lovely sun tanned glow. So a few weeks ago, I went on a fact finding mission to find out if self tanner actually works. I've done the whole spray tan thing a few times at my tanning salon, and it just wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't like that I couldn't control the places it covered - HELLO, weirdly orange feet and hands. I also really despised the smell of it (I have a sensitive sniffer). So after seeing Jessica James Decker talk about how she stays so perfectly sun kissed in her hair tutorial video, I decided to give it a shot. If you've ever watched Eric and Jessie, you know how fantastically tan that girl is, so I decided to hit my local Sephora up to see about some St. Tropez self tanner. 

Enter awesome makeup lady at Sephora. I talked to her for a while about St. Tropez, application, smell, sensitivity, etc. and eventually after my interrogation, she suggested this Vita Liberata stuff. I told the Sephora lady that I hated the smell of self tanners, that I wanted something not orange, and something that wouldn't irritate my skin (I'm also cursed with ridiculously sensitive skin). Vita Liberata is organic and adjusts to the pH of your skin so you don't get orangey. The chick who created it is Irish, so it's made by pale people for pale people. 

It was a little more expensive than the St. Tropez, but being that it was organic and odorless, I felt okay paying a little bit extra. She also suggested I purchase a mitt to go with it. The Vita Liberata and St. Tropez are designed to set on your skin so quickly that using your hand to apply causes freaky dark palms. Of the two, she suggested the St. Tropez mitt instead of the Vita one for application. She said it was personal preference, but I figured she knew what she was doing and chose the St. Tropez mitt. 

Here's what I found out about Vita Liberata and Self Tanning In General:

1. Exfoliate like a maniac, but do it the day before. I exfoliated with a Burt's Bees sugar scrub right before tanning and my tan came off ridiculously fast (within a week and a half), which was odd because it was supposed to last 3-4 weeks. I realized a few days later that my sugar scrub was leaving a light film on my skin so my tan wasn't fully absorbing. 

2. READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS - They actually are very helpful. 

3. The first day you want to tan, do it at night. Take a shower, wash your hair, get nice and clean, then get ready to tan. You aren't supposed to wash with soap until you've completed 3 applications (you're creating the base tan), which is basically a day and a half if you do it my way (see #4). If you're obsessively hygienic like me, it will be torture, but getting a good clean in before tanning will help.

4. Tan at night the first time, sleep, wake up, rinse the excess tan off (NO SOAP), tan again that morning. Sit in your filthy self tanningness for the day, rinse before bed and tan again. That's 3 applications with about 12 hours in between each application (they say 3-8 hrs, but I wanted to be thorough…and tan). My Sephora lady suggested applying at night every night for 3 nights. Rinsing each morning before work. But yeah, I can't go that long without soap. 

5. Make sure you don't rinse out your mitt until you are positive you've covered your whole body. Yes, I forgot an arm once. No judgments, please.

6. Use a damp washrag to smooth out the tanner on your elbows, around your wrists and around your armpits. I didn't have any issues with my knees being nasty, so I didn't bother with them much. My wrists were the only place I noticed anything uneven and only the first time I did it.

7. Don't freak out when you wake up and you have an uneven looking tan. The excess tan that your skin didn't absorb tends to make things look really scary until you rinse it off. 

8. To keep your tan looking good, I suggest doing an application a week after the initial 3 application base to keep it fresh. I've done the base tan plus 2 applications, and I think I'm barely halfway through my bottle. It definitely lasts a while.

9. I almost forgot this one - don't buy that face tan stuff to go with it. I just used the excess on my mitt to tan my face and it worked perfect. No breakouts, no sensitivity, nothing. Just make sure you use the damp rag to wipe a little bit around your eyebrows and upper lip. 

Here's my after picture….

Successful Self Tan

I have to say that this stuff is really forgiving. I'm a complete mess about everything in life and yet somehow this stuff came out looking really nice and professional. I was like 99% sure I was going to look like a streaky idiot, and I didn't! Just make sure you have someone to help you with your back - I had a giant white spot in the middle of mine, because I refused to wait for my husband to come help me. Patience is not one of my virtues.

As far as sensitivity goes, I have't had any. And yes, there is a very slight sunless tanner smell to it, but nothing that I found offensive or overwhelming. Also, I got the medium color tan, but I feel like I could've gotten the dark and been fine with it. It just depends on how risky you want to get with it. I like my tans DARK, so next time I'll probably try the darker color. However, I do have the complexion to carry tans well. If you aren't able to naturally tan very easily, I would still suggest the medium or maybe light. 

I sincerely hope this helps you all in your tanning endeavors, if you have any questions, leave me a comment!