We are firm believers in sun protection. Once upon a time, we sat outside dipped in baby oil and tried to use tinfoil to get a tan. We were, we believe, ten years old. We also thought that using Sun In on our very, very brown hair (with red undertones) was a good idea. We loved New Kids on the Block. We did not have the best judgment in really, any regard.
Since then, we've gotten a bit wiser about our sun exposure. We've been to the beach more times than we can even try to count, and we always start the day off with a good dose of sunscreen. Follow up throughout the day? Risk a breakout because of our face hating sunscreen? Eh, we're not so good at that.
We've decided this year, we're taking care of our skin better than ever before. We've vowed to put proper sunscreen on whenever we go outside for more than the walk from our car to our house/office/mall/etc. We're putting proper face sunscreen on, too – we're not relying on the piddly SPF in our moisturizer. Sure, being a bit slimy takes some getting used to, and there's no doubt that sunscreen is expensive, smells kind of gross and feels awful – but all of those are better than skin cancer.
It should go without saying that we don't understand/support tanning salons involving UV beds (spray tans, go for it). We have one Work Friend, and she tells us every other day about tanning the night before. We've mentioned the risks involved, and her response is that since her hair is bleached so light, she needs to have a dark tan to balance it out. We've tried to get the point across that she's going to have skin like a handbag before she hits 30, but she doesn't get it.
So, consider this your yearly sun PSA from BS HQ. We at BS wholly subscribe to taking care of your skin as best you can, as it's the only one you've got. We'll deal with the breakouts and the stickiness, and the pale white legs. We've even got a nice, big, floppy hat to rock this summer to help keep sun off our face, and we're wearing huge sunglasses every second to help fight wrinkles from squinting. We don't have a favorite sunscreen – we like Coppertone and Neutrogena and Aveeno. We are partial to the Age Shield faceblock from Neutrogena for above the neck – we wore it all day today, and it didn't run, turn us zinc-y white, or break us out.
We know we talk about red lipstick a LOT. Like to the point where we imagine eyes glazing over, and people start to whisper, she's at it again. But here's the thing – as we've mentioned more than once, we're low maintenance. We like to put on mascara and lipstick and call it a night. We've also mentioned multiple times that we're clumsy and a bit, well, unmotivated. We have other lipsticks that we love that just can't hang with that. We need lipstick that can survive a bottle of Diet Coke every hour or so, loads of smiling, laughing and talking without constant touch ups required.
We went shopping last weekend and found ourselves trying to find another nude lipstick in Sephora. We finally realized – really, it was like being beaned on the head with a pan – that nude lipstick just. Does. Not. Look. Good. Red is what we look best in, and if we're going to wear lipstick at all, we need it to be red. We already have a few reds – Sephora brand (super slick but nice enough, and reasonably inexpensive), and two from MAC (MAC Red and Red something or other – basically the cream and matte version of the same color. It's great, but a bit on the pink side – so it's pretty shockingly bright. The matte is awesome but super drying, and the cream is pretty but slippery). We wandered by NARS and saw this color that we thought we should try. And, holy moly, we have found our red lipstick that we will wear until we can no longer wear it anymore. We hate the name of the color – Red Lizard (can someone tell us what a red lizard is? Or how that could possibly be enticing or desireable). But we think this color would look good on everyone (for real)! It's the perfect formula, too – Sephora calls it semi-matte full powered red. We think it's matte enough to look awesome and have long lasting power, but it's not super drying.
The road test involved a very quickly applied coat, a cup of coffee, a Diet Coke, a high school musical, some peanuts, some bubble gum, and a very quickly eaten fast-food sandwich, and french fries, at the end of the night.
The result? Surprising. The mistakes we made applying were easy to clean up – no pink lines left over shouting WE PUT ON MAKEUP LIKE WE ARE A TODDLER. The snacks in between/during said high school musical (we were attending, obviously, and not performing) didn't bother it at all. We ate dinner, in the car, and very quickly (hence the fast food bit). When we got home, we checked our lips. Only the center had faded a bit, and it wasn't a bad thing. We were really, really surprised at the staying power of this.
We would recommend this lipstick to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
And hey, this is probably the last time we'll ever post about red lipstick!
So we've been working like small chipmunks (which is to say, ineffectively and repetitively) around the clock on the new Bunnyshop, which may or may not even be called Bunnyshop (like we said, ineffectively). But part of it—perhaps the most exciting part!—is the first of the Bunnyshop e-books, which will be dedicated to 101 awesome places to shop, eat, and visit in Brooklyn. We are open to suggestions!
- We'd love to know if there are any recurring features ('features') here that anyone would like to see in the revamped BS. If one exists (and maybe it does, maybe it doesn't), please email us.
- We're sorry, and we're rooting for Bravo, but Kelly Rowland and Isaac Mizrahi < Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum.
- We're also looking for a room for the summer in London. If anyone has a suggestion \ spare room \ room in their basement, let us know.
- And we're going to get into our favorite purchases from our three weeks in New Zealand, but, briefly: Zekiah Heath (available on etsy!)
Tell us what bag to buy, and we'll buy it. The catch? We need to know before 10am, EST.
Here are the potentials:
If it matters:
#1/a is the cheapest.
#s 2/3 are $30 more
#4 is $50 more
We love brown the most, but we fear ruining it with dark jeans (as we've done with a Foley + Corinna bag, and a Jocasi bag). We have slightly less use for black, but we don't hate it. #s 2 and 3 got semi-poor reviews because of the strap quality.
We're not joking on this – if we can get a handful of votes in the next 40 minutes, we'll buy whatever you tell us to!
We get it. April showers, May flowers. We see the connection. We do not understand why it needs to be in the 30-40s and RAINING every damn day of April. Is there some kind of rhyme, some kind of adage about that? Because if so, we'd really like to hear it before we lose our minds. You see, our brains think it's spring. Our wardrobe wants it to be spring. Our boring, solid color v-neck sweaters that we wear all winter are BEGGING to be retired. Our dresses and skirts? DYING to come out. Unfortunately, the weather does not want to cooperate, leaving us in a sweater, scarf, jeans, and flats until, at the earliest, Saturday.
That being said, we know/hope spring will come at some point, and as is typical for our part of the country, summer will be hot on its heels (er, if a season could have heels). This means it's time to start our warm weather shoe shopping. We generally wear flip flops (Havianas or Gap Outlet brand being our absolute favorites – and we're serious on the Gap Outlet ones. They're perfect!), but we can't wear them to work. We generally hate having our feet covered (we literally own 2 pairs of socks), so in the warm weather, we prefer to have our feet as naked as possible, while still being semi-work appropriate and city walking-worthy. We've worn beat up Havianas in the city before, and we cannot even speak of the dirt that we accumulated.
The sandals above are probably the absolute worst choice for a lasting pair of shoes, but that wouldn't stop us from wearing them to their (presumably short) death. We absolutely love Dolce Vita shoes – they fit our slightly wide foot with no trouble, they're comfortable out of the box, and they're super cute. We love these pewter sandals so much – we love the color, the ankle strap (we always feel slightly less likely to fall out of our shoes when we're strapped in like a kid on a roller coaster), the toe strap. And, even better, they're on sale. We really don't think you can go wrong in any way.
We are in love with most things Swedish. Maybe it's because it's in our heritage, maybe it's just our love from Ikea that developed at an early age, but these shoes are no exception. These sandals are adorable, and we would wear them with everything from jeans to pants to skirts and dresses (we don't wear shorts, not unless they're of the running variety). We love the heel, we love the color, we love everything about them. It appears as though they're much, much cheaper if you shop through the brand's website compared to a few US retailers we checked out – but we can't promise on the conversion rate.
We mentioned these last year, but they really became our default sandal for the entire summer. These puppies are cheap, fun, comfortable – everything a sandal should be – but they also constitute as a proper 'shoe' for when necessary. We're probably picking them up in yellow for this season, maybe navy if the Swedes above don't cooperate. They're only available in youth sizes, but they run big – so if you're a size 9 or under, you should be good to go. Just read the sizing bits of the reviews to make sure.
We love Topshop so much that it has a spot in the BS HQ, in our category list, and we saved our receipts from our first trip there . When we first set foot in one, maybe 5 years ago, our jaw actually dropped. We flew to London (not only was it our first flight alone, it was also our first flight across an ocean!); we stayed up for approximately 40 hours. We arrive in London, and the first thing we do once we're off the tube is call our older sister, who tells us to meet her in Starbucks. We cross the street, we get coffee, and we sit. And wait. And wait.
When she arrives, she semi-apologizes and swears she'll make it up to us – and her treat? She took us to Topshop for the first time. We were agog. Our jaw fell open and we actually almost fell over on the escalator down. We were, we're sure, whoppingly embarrassing.
It was like heaven. It was the best collection of the trends we could see in London, great independent/starting out designers, and a ridiculously awesome accessories and shoes collection. The entire time we were in London revolved around being asked, 'So where do you want to go? Paris? Brussels?' And our response, every time save for one: TOPSHOP (the save for one was Carnaby street). We did see some other sights, but Topshop stuck in our brains and we've never gotten over it. Forever 21 was just a cheap impostor, and H+M is like the slightly less desirable sibling. Almost but. Not quite.
And so, Topshop opened in NYC very recently. We haven't actually gone yet – we may make it this weekend. We're a bit apprehensive. Will it be as awesome as we remember? Will prices in dollars make us turn our nose up? Will the shoes be as cute? Will they carry Jocasi?
We'd love to hear from anyone who's been, but right now, it's on our agenda and we'll post a full report next week.
We know they're everywhere, but we think they did an awesome job with the plaid shirt. It's spring in a shirt, and right now, it's below freezing where we live. We need all the spring we can get.
We've posted more than once about how much we love Sephora's return policy. One of us at BS HQ may have even admitted to returning things from her cabinet without knowing their origin, and exchanging at her local Sephora. We have always had excellent experiences in the store – we've never been hassled, harassed, hard sold or otherwise harangued. We've definitely had days where we've walked in, dirty faced, and walked out, cleansed (or toned), moisturized, and with a bit of makeup. We realize how shady that sounds, but we justify it by thinking about how much money we've spent there over the years. All in all, we think it evens out.
We went wandering on Saturday – it was too nice to stay inside, but it was too windy to stay outside. We ended up at our local mall, and we went on a quest for another nude lipstick. We wandered around Sephora when we came across a lip pencil that caught our eye; it was in the nude lipstick section (seriously). It was branded Kevyn Aucoin, and it was exactly the same color as Wet & Wild #666, but it didn't feel quite so stabby going on. We looked for the line all over the store - couldn't find it. We thought maybe it was a one off, but we were feeling chatty so we asked one of the salespeople.
Rather than just show us where to find the entire line, the saleswoman basically forced us to get a makeover. We asked for the Kevyn Aucoin line, and she was so enthusiastic with her 'Oh! Well! Let me tell you! We have the, the, the BEST makeup artist for his line here – she does everyone and she's like, the biggest makeup artist ever!' that we literally took a step back.
We tried to assert ourselves nicely, and told the woman we weren't interested in a makeover, we were just really big fans of Kevyn Aucoin, loved his books, his mad skills, and really, we'd just like to see the line.
That fell on very, very deaf ears. We were shuttled over to a woman who had pink lips lined in blue. We told HER, really, we were just looking for the lip pencil? Didn't matter. We were in the chair. We sat. And.
We got our first Sephora makeover. The woman who applied our makeup was extremely kind – she asked lots of questions about our normal regimen. She seemed perplexed when we were like, 'Oh we love makeup, we don't wear it though. Unless we're going out. Then we wear lipstick!'
She walked us through the entire line, from foundation (we are color #7), to concealer (during which she said, 'You don't have much to conceal, actually, but we'll see how it looks anyway'). From eyeshadow upon eyeshadow (honestly, at least 3 shades PLUS base PLUS two different layers of eyeliner PLUS several coats of mascara) to 'contouring' (sorry, unless you're in a high fashion photo shoot, contouring makes you look like you're Kelly LeBroc in 1986), from cheeks (to us, natural flush does not look bright pink all the time) to lips (first, the impostor Wet + Wild #666 pencil – something Mr Aucoin used to always rave about, then red lipstick, then blot 3 times, then taupey-pink, then bubblegum pink gloss). We were there for maybe 20 minutes, and we walked out looking 15 years older and, to quote your regularly scheduled writer, like we belonged on Dynasty.
The woman who made us up was incredibly nice, and we're sure there are loads of people who want to wear that much makeup. We're just not that person. We sort of skulked around the store for a few minutes so as not to appear ungrateful, and then we asked another saleswoman for a sample of the DDF Brightening Cleanser we wrote about. We could feel our skin screaming from under the 9 layers. We took our sample, and walked as quickly as we could without being alarming to the nearest private restroom. We scrubbed our face, got our 15 years back, and went on with our day.
We'll definitely protest a makeover more adamantly next time, but we're contemplating that lip pencil. It's a bit more expensive than we're used to, but we really were massive fans of Kevyn Aucoin. And, well, we'd like to keep our tab with Sephora even.
Mmm, we’re not sure we totally love the end result here, but we love the concept—DIY designer projects. This week’s is a Celia Birtwell handbag that just sort of provides a primer for making your own print bag—easy enough, we guess, but it’s always nice to have a bit of help. Even better: make your own Giles Deacon ruff. We interviewed him once, and he was literally the nicest fashion designer we’ve ever spoken to, and our questions were complete shit, so he had every right to be a dick. Which he wasn’t. He was awesome. Anyway: find the whole series here. We love it.
Over the past few months, we've made our quest for a moisturizer with an SPF public. We've solicited tips, read messageboards, and tried everything we could get our hands on. We had to actually pack up everything in our bathroom due to some repainting and minor renovations, and we filled a rather large plastic container with skincare products that we used a handful of times and quit. They made us break out, they made us slimy, they just didn't work. It's actually alarming how much product we have, just hanging around.
We finally got the gumption up to return some to Sephora (without a receipt, no problems [and yes, the stuff we returned had originally come from Sephora]). We did a fair bit of research about different products, and we decided to give a new-to-us brand a shot. We walked out of Sephora with an eyelash curler in rose gold, a lip balm, and two products that we will now never go without. What are they? DDF's Brightening Cleanser, and more excitingly, DDF's Ulta Lite Oil Free Moisturizing Dew SPF 15.
We. Love. These. Things.
The cleanser has quickly become a favorite. It's in between a gel and a wash, it smells faintly of anise (which, hey, we like). At first, we were really concerned/weirded out by the fact that it's pegged as a skin lightener. We do not see any reason to make our skintone any lighter, thank you very much. It's a blend of salicylic and glycolic acids, and it has AHAs (is that redundant? We don't know, actually). It's a bit on the drying side – but we only use it once a day and we've had no problems. We've been using it for maybe 2 months now, and we are smitten. Our skin has never been super problematic, but we're definitely doing better than we were. Our skintone is way more even than it used to be (perhaps this is the lightening they speak of?), and we've gotten compliments on how great we look. Our mom even asked us if we were doing something different because we looked so good – and that kind of rules.
It's not cheap, but we've been using it just about every day for 2 months and we've barely made a dent in the bottle. We would recommend it beyond words to anyone with slightly fussy skin, but if you've got sensitivity issues, this probably isn't for you.
Once we'd decided on a cleanser, we still were milling around Sephora trying to find a moisturizer we liked. We even broke our normal shy and silent shopping type to ask for help. We explained that every moisturizer with an SPF that we'd ever tried makes us break out, almost immediately. We needed something light but we desperately wanted some kind of sun protection. The woman we spoke to quickly recommended something else, but turns out, it was like a standard sunscreen for the rest of your body. Clearly, we were on our own. We asked about the DDF Dew, and she was like, oh that's definitely our best selling one – and if you don't like it, you can always bring it back!
So we tried it. We literally have no complaints about this. It has not made us break out, it doesn't smell funny, it's absorbed fairly quickly. It doesn't leave white streaks, it doesn't make us look slimy, and we don't feel like an oil slick by the end of the day. We wash our face, brush our teeth, put this on, and we're done. We're converts. We will never, ever use something else for day to day sun protection. Ever.
Again, it's not cheap, especially when you buy both products. We feel like you get a pretty good amount for your buck, and you only get one face. May as well take care of it as best we can!
