Call Me Maybe

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This week has been wonderful! Lauren flew in from Arizona on Wednesday evening and we has such a good time eating, shopping, and hanging out.


The first night she was here, we hit up The Rocking Horse for tater tots and Cole's for open mic night. Last time she was in town we didn't get the opportunity to go out and experience the night life, so I made sure we hit up my favorite places this time around.



After I was off work on Thursday, we hit up our favorite neighborhood burrito joint for way more food than we could eat. I swear that the ladies over at Dos Amigos must assume that vegetarian burritos and horchata are the only things in my diet.


I will say that one of the more exciting meals had to be at Kuma's Corner. I've been wanting to go here for ages but everyone kept telling me that they had no vegetarian options. Wrong. Turns out they can substitute veggie burgers for anything on the menu (and their veggie burgers are excellent). I ended up with the Iron Maiden — avocado, cherry peppers, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle mayo. It was to die for. I can't wait to go back!



Saturday was our big going-out night, so we got fancy, I curled Lauren's hair (ugh I can't wait until my hair is longer!) and wha-la! Babes!


Friends gathered at my apartment before heading out for the evening...


...and somehow Lauren and Nate ended up dancing in the street to "Call My Maybe" before we even got to our destination.




On her last full day in the city, we got burritos for lunch (naturally) and went to see Titanic in 3D. Speaking of which, I hadn't seen the movie in years and we both were joking about how we kept switching between laughing and crying. At one point I had tears streaming down my face, looked over at her sniffling, and we both just started cracking up. We couldn't believe we were having such an emotional roller coaster over a movie we had each seen multiple times.


Lauren might be heading back in a couple of months — lets keep our fingers crossed!


And through all of this, I managed to pull off some black lipstick.

Reformed blouse, UO Surplus
Supra trousers, Whyred
Studded skinny belt, UO Surplus
Night Walks, Jeffrey Campbell
Triangle necklace, c/o ringsandtings.com

Friday 13th Sale

Happy Friday 13th! Break out your black cats and cheesy movies and head over to the Mini Penny Shop where you can get free shipping all day on US orders. Just enter the code FRIDAY13TH at checkout!

Careful out there!

Twin Tipped

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Well, it looks like by the time I am writing this, it's actually Friday the 13th. So, superstitions aside and I hope all of you have a great weekend planned!

This outfit is actually from a couple of days ago. In between my job and trying to catch up on sleep (and a very handsome personal development in my life), I've been having a good couple of weeks. Spring is flirting with Chicago — even though the past few days have been cold — and I have motivation to get lots of things accomplished.

Now, this Fred Perry polo. It's no secret that I have a borderline love affair with FP. I've been eyeballing the Amy Winehouse collection for ages but never could afford to drop the cash on it. And like I said before, since I moved to Chicago, my finances haven't been as nice as they were when I was living cheaply in Columbus. I'm alone in a one bedroom apartment (which is quite frankly far too big for me) and my rent is more than I should be paying. Alas, the clouds parted and I found a men's Fred Perry slim fit twin tipped polo for $6. Six. Dollars.


So naturally, I couldn't say no. I picked one up for myself and one as a gift for a pal in DC. I shipped his away and immediately went to work on mine. In about fifteen minutes, I had a custom tailored FP polo. I opted to go sleeveless with it, too, because of it being a men's cut and the shoulder break being too broad for my little lady body.

For those of you curious, my tailoring went a bit like this: I turned the shirt inside out, put it on, pinned it at the smallest point of my waist and where it hit in the armpits, took it off and fired up the sewing machine. Super simple and quick and now it fits me like a glove. I'm pretty sure I got more compliments from total strangers on this day than most. It just worked.

But now my desire for Fred Perry has only gotten stronger. Oh dear.


And then then Night Walks came. These are my fifth pair of Jeffrey Campbells and are, I'm assuming, going to be the ones I wear the most. I bought these to replace my Kimchi Blue mary jane platforms. While I love the KBs, I wear them all the time and they're starting to show it. I was able to get these Jeffrey Campbells for about forty dollars and figured I've give them a try. They're surprisingly really easy to walk in!

So, like I said. The past two weeks have been good to me. This weekend in Chicago is going to be great (Um, hello! Soul Night, yes please!) but I think it's supposed to be rather rainy. I get to meet a couple of little wiener dogs on Saturday and I couldn't be more excited! I'm sure that their cute mugs will end up on Instagram, so stay tuned.

And speaking of Instagram — if you're on Android and (yay!) finally get to join our party, feel free to follow me at @chaplinnn and say hello!



Fred Perry Twin Tipped Polo, custom tailored
Lucca faux leather shorts, UO Surplus
Black tights, H&M
Black suede Night Walks, Jeffrey Campbell

Dark Heart Designs Vegan Cosmetics Review

Recently the lovely Tina Z over at Dark Heart Designs sent me an array of samples from her handmade cosmetics line. Most of the line is vegan and I'm pretty excited to share these fun colors with my Minis!

I've said it lots of times before, but I rarely wear eyeshadow. This was a fun little branch out for me, but I kept it simple and didn't do anything too crazy for these swatch photos. All images were taken in natural sunlight with no flash.


Dirty Diana Shadow (Vegan) "A burgundy wine color shadow with multicolored sparkle inspired by Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana." With this being my favorite Michael Jackson song, I can't help but love this deep pink-red tone. It is shimmery but not glittery. Love!


Jadis Duochrome Shadow (Vegan) "A silvery white shadow with blue and aqua sparkle." I'd say that this is probably my favorite. I'm a big fan of neutrals and this has just enough iridescent sparkle to make it stand out from my other white shadows. I'm a big fan (and it kind of makes me think of unicorns...)!


Elphaba Duochrome Shadow (Vegan) "A sea green shadow with a pink champagne sheen and pink sparkle." Another shadow with iridescent sparkle! It's not as intense as the jadis, but lovely and subtle nonetheless.


Limelight Shadow (Vegan) "A bright lime green shadow with a gold sheen and silver sparkle. Inspired by an early type of stage light in which lime was heated to incandescence producing brilliant illumination." Another fun color. This one is much brighter than the Elphaba. I love the boldness but probably won't wear it as often because of its contrast with my eye color. Either way, I love the subtle shimmer!


Moshi Moshi Shadow (Vegan) "A light, dreamsicle orange. Inspired by Brand New's Moshi Moshi." This shadow came in as a close second favorite. I wore it to work yesterday and got a lot of compliments. It's a nice, retro peach/orange tone and makes my eyes pop. I'll be sporting this color this summer for sure!


Glinda Duochrome Shadow (Vegan) "A creamy, silver pink shadow with silver sparkle." This subtle pink sparkle is great. I'm looking forward to pairing this with one of my bubblegum pink lip colors for a super-girly look. It's lovely and, heck, named after the Good Witch of the North! What's not to love?


Mad Scientist Gel EyeLight Liner (Vegan) "A pale gray green gel eye liner with a slight blue undertone. Inspired by Dr. Finkelstein's skin tone." While I really love this color, I don't see the gray/green — what I received is definitely closer to a baby blue tone and doesn't look much like the photo online. Regardless, it's lovely. The texture is a bit heavy and takes a little work to get it right. I used a flat liner brush to apply it. The Vanity EyeLight looks like a fun color, too!


Shock Lip Slick (Vegan) "Shock Lip Slicks Gloss is a slightly sticky, semi-sheer, mauve moisturizing gloss with subtle green undertones." I love this color for spring. It's similar to a glossy, sparkly gloss version of Lime Crime's D'Lilac. The green sparkle undertone is a nice touch. The description is correct that the texture is sticky, so if that's not your thing, keep it in mind when buying! I personally don't care for sticky glosses — I'm more of a lipstick kind of girl.


In all of the images above I used eyelid primer (ELF Cosmetics!) before applying — aside from the lip slick, of course. Here is a swatch of what the colors look like on bare skin with no primer.

Overall, I'm impressed by Tina Z's handmade cosmetics! There are some other colors that I think look really interesting and they're all vegan with the exception of the bright red eyeshadow (a color which I find very intriguing...). I suggest checking out here shop here and taking a look at her line.

Thanks Tina and keep up the great work!

Boots No. 7 Review

I had been hearing about Boots No. 7 for years and eventually became familiar with it through Target. I can't help but be drawn to their sleek package design and lovely colors. The price is right and they have an exciting line of cosmetics and skin care products, making Boots all the more desirable.

I first purchased Boots a few months ago — a nice bright red lipstick. It has certainly become a favorite of mine, so much so that I decided to pick up a couple of other products and do a short review.

First up is the Colour Calming Primer. I've mentioned time and time again that I have very pink skin. I grew up with really horrible acne and just have a tendency to get random red blotchiness or even an all-over flushed look. I really dislike it. For years I've turned to mineral correcting powders. While they're great, I saw this (while trying to locate my correcting-powder go to nonetheless) and figured I'd give it a shot. It's the same price as the powder I normally buy (just over ten dollars) and kills two birds: primer and corrector.



The top photo is me with no makeup, no extensions, no false lashes. You got it. My face is always significantly a few shades warmer than my neck, hence the desire to neutralize it with a green shade. The bottom photo is my face after applying the Colour Calming primer. There is a significant difference between my face's redness (along with the few spots I dabbed on my neck and chest). Verdict? This product is great. It's texture makes it very easy to apply foundation/concealed over and doesn't make my skin feel oily like some primers.


Next up, this is the product that I purchased a few months ago. This is the Moisture Drench Lipstick in Dare Devil. The website says this is an online item only, but I also bought this in a Target store for ten dollars. I have a tendency to switch between which red lipstick is my favorite, but this has been steadily my standard since it was purchased. It's creamy and soft, goes on very smoothly, and it low maintenance. The color is bright (sometimes too bright for me and I wish it were a tad bit deeper), and lasts me a long while when layered over my ELF primer. My only complaint is that if I don't use primer, it bleeds at the edges. Another recommended lipstick — I would love to give Suger Plum and Bare a try!


And lastly, the eyeliner. My favorite has always been Maybelline Lash Stilleto, but Target was sold out. I came across the Boots Liquid Eye Liner and figured that since it was only two dollars more than my usual, I would give it a whirl. While it works well and doesn't smudge, it has a major downside. I have to do two coats to avoid streakiness. With Maybelline I only needed one swipe and I was out the door. With the Boots liner, I have to wait for the first to dry and then do it again. It's more work than I'd like to do, but the results do end up looking great and lasting pretty well. This is something that I will probably use until I'm out and then go back to my usual liner.


So overall, I dig the Boots No. 7 products. I would really like to try out their concealers and skin care products. Do you have any experience with this brand? Which is your favorite?