Reviews – Page 9 – A Sprinkle of Life

Stitch Fix Review – June 2016

June 18, 2016 No Comments

It’s time for another Stitch Fix Review! For my 6th Fix I requested my stylist Kim provide me with flowly tops and dresses since it’s been pretty hot here in NYC and there’s nothing worse than wearing overly warm clothing when commuting on the train and subway!

This Fix contained four tops and one dress. As I opened the box, I was pleasantly surprised with the color selection, everything was bright and cheery. So, let’s get down to business and check out the fashion!

#1 – Lore Pleat Detail Blouse by 41Hawthorn
This top is bright, flowy, and really comfy. Right down the center is a full length pleat, which is flattering for the top part at least, but I felt that the bottom of the pleat looked a little awkward. I think once I steam the top (there were a few wrinkles) that might make the top look more flattering overall.

41Hawthorn Lore Pleat Detail Blouse and Ankle Pants by Ann Taylor

#2 – Doutzen Crochet Detail Top by Daniel Rainn
Another pinned top has come my way! My stylist has been checking out my Pinterest Board again, and spotted I had pinned this top. Daniel Rainn must really be into crochet this season because this is the second top, two Fixes in a row, where I’ve received a crochet top from the designer. I can’t say I’m a big crochet person myself, but this top wasn’t too overdone and the detail was done in a charming way. I did find that the crochet landed on an awkward part of my chest, so sometimes when I went to lift my arms up the chest piece of crochet made things a bit stiff. I’m thinking with use and washing things will relax a bit. Overall, a comfy option that looks cute with jeans or white pants.

Daniel Rainn Doutzen Crochet Detail Top with Ann Talyor Ankle Pants

#3 – Senza Embroidery Detail Top by Skies are Blue
This top is just too cute and so much fun! It really brightens my mood and if my red hair didn’t say “look at me” enough, this top will certainly get someone’s attention. I recieved a size small in this top, and it’s still got tons of room to move around and breathe in, and it’s absolutely comfortable! I think this could be a Fourth of July contender.

Senza Embroidery Detail Top with white jeans from Delia’s

#4 – Rolfe Knit Back Top by Brixon Ivy
Talk about a cute casual tank! I absolutely love this top. The back is solid navy, no print, while the front is a bright floral design, perfect for shorts or jeans. I have a feeling I’m going to get a lot of use out of this top this summer. Oh, and the top is so soft! It’s a must have tank ladies!

Brixon Ivy Rolfe Knit Back Top with shorts from Target

#5 – Evelyne Jersey V-neck Maxi Dress by Le Lis
When I read my stylist’s note saying she included a maxi dress I have to admit I wasn’t excited. I’m not a maxi dress kind of girl. I’ve owned one other in my life and it’s sitting in the back of my closet. For me, when I hear the words maxi dress, I feel I have to be some super tall modelesque type, who’s at least five foot eight, which I’m not. But, I said what the heck let’s give this a try and see if my stylist is onto something. Let me tell you, I had the hardest time getting this dress on. First it was hard to figure out where the front was vs the back, and then the elastic bodice wasn’t so elastic so as I was pulling the dress over my chest it definitely stretched out some of the sewing holding in the elastic, but I eventually got myself situated. Once in the dress, I felt it was pretty flattering and I liked that it had thick enough straps to conceal bra straps. I’m going to keep an open mind and hope the dress grows on me. One neat tidbit is the dress was made in the USA, not something you see a lot!

Some final thoughts: This fix was great! As I tried on each item I kept saying to myself “is this going to be a 5 out of 5, I think it just might be.” Ultimately, it was and I decided to keep all 5. I didn’t have any issues with any of the items, and I really felt like my stylist is starting to get better in tune with my likes and style.

Suggestions for a better fix:

Be very specific. If there are certain pieces or types of clothing you really want, provide that in your styling note to your stylist.
Create a Pinterest Board. Stylists will check them out if you keep mentioning them in your style notes.
Call out designers or names of actual articles of clothing . Your stylist may not provide those exact items but they’ll start to get a better sense of what style you’re into.

Don’t forget to follow my Pinterest Boards for more Stitch Fix fun!

What are you waiting for? Give Stitch Fix a try!

Reviews, Style

Can you really go sock-free with Foot Petals?

June 11, 2016 4 Comments

If you’ve read my Tieks post, you know that I’m a fan of the flats but find that they tend to carry an odor after a period of time. In the post I mentioned finding a new product called Foot Petals: Sock-Free Saviors and that I was going to put them to the test, which is exactly what I’ve been doing.

Foot Petals: Sock-Free Saviors are shoe inserts that are removable and machine washable. You can’t go wrong with something that you can easily remove and wash!

When you get the pack (2 insoles) you’ll see there are different cut lines on the insoles so you can trim them to fit appropriately. I went with the small cut line and found that was still a teeny tiny bit too large still, so I trimmed just a little bit more off. From there, insert them into your shoes!

My journey began with using the inserts with my Keds. I’ve previously been wearing my Keds with what I call micro socks, and while those worked out ok, sometimes you would see the black fabric poke up above the shoe – not a great look. I figured I would give these insoles a try in my Keds because then I would get the comfort of something like a sock, but without needing to wear them or worry about them showing awkwardly. With my Keds, I have no complaints. The sock-free saviors did their job, and my feet felt fresh and were odor free 🙂

Since my first experiment went so well I figured it was time to try the inserts with shoes that really needed them – my Tieks.

Odor: My feet didn’t carry a bad odor! Previously, when I wore my Tieks, my feet would end up getting all hot and sweaty, leading to some unpleasant smells. Due to this, I would have to immediately dunk my feet into the tub after taking the flats off every evening. However, this time around, my feet only really smelled like the insoles themselves (which just smells like plastic). No need to wash my feet – phew!

Comfort: In my Keds, the Foot Petals work great. However, with slimmer shoes like my Tieks, I found there was too much bulk/cushion which caused my feet to feel very squished and a bit uncomfortable. When I removed my Tieks, my feet had deep indents in them for quite a while due to losing some of the roominess in the shoe. I might try to stretch my Tieks out some more with heavy socks to see if that will help loosen things a bit and let me continue to use the insoles. If that doesn’t work, I may try to see if I can cut down the “bulk” a little but I’m not if that’ll be doable.

In the end, I feel Foot Petals: Sock-Free Saviors are a great and affordable investment, especially for sneakers that are cut low on the foot/ankle. I’m not sure they are a great fit for traditional flats, but I’m not going to give up quite yet!

Reviews

Why I decided to cancel my H2BAR subscription

June 3, 2016 No Comments

Why did I give up on the “How to be a Redhead” subscription box?

As a redhead, it can be frustrating to find yourself in the beauty aisles and see products only designed for blondes and brunettes. When I heard that the How to be a Redhead girls were going to be launching a subscription box, I had to be apart of that and signed up immediately.

I’ve been with H2Bar since the beginning of their subscription service. The first few boxes were really neat, and I loved getting full sized products in most of the boxes. None of the products were things I had tried before, so it was exciting to receive my brightly colored box at the start of every month.

Variety quickly seemed to come to an end. There’s only so many color depositing conditioners a girl can use or want. To be honest, I tossed anything that was color depositing because I have a fear something will happen to my hair and it won’t look as nice and natural as it does now. This month for example, I received samples for a hand cream that I received many months ago. Sure, for someone who hasn’t been subscribing since the first box this wouldn’t be noticed, but I took it as a sign that the company is running out of ideas. There’s only so many “redhead” friendly products or items designed for just us.

Minor complaints:

One of my boxes came 1-2 weeks late
Once or twice one of the items listed on the item sheet wasn’t included in my box. I didn’t feel like going through the hassle of contacting the company and complaining. On Instagram I saw a couple people in past mention an item was missing, but the company didn’t have any spares to give out.
Some of the products were really a stretch. Hand cream doesn’t really = redhead.
I can only use so many facial creams. You probably should try these out one at a time, and I just don’t have time to go through 5 different facial creams effectively to see what works best.

Ultimately, I think the idea of H2Bar is great, and I support anything that’s trying to make a spot in the world for redheads, but I just felt like my excitement for new boxes was waning. The products were starting to get boring, and honestly, my bathroom cabinets are stuffed full of H2Bar goods that I haven’t even had time to try 1/3 of them out.

One thing I am excited about from the girls at How to be a Redhead is their new book. My boyfriend surprised me with it, knowing I was dying to check it out. I’ll make sure to share my thoughts after reading it.

Perhaps one day I’ll be back to subscribing to H2Bar, but for now, I’m going to take a break and find some time to try out everything that’s piled up in my cabinet.

In place of my H2Bar subscription, I’ve decided to try out FabFitFun, a seasonal subscription box. I’ve just signed up for my first box today so I can’t say how the service is, but I will certainly report back soon! Want $10 off your first subscription? Check out this fabulous lady’s post.

Reviews, Style

Stitch Fix Review – May 2016

May 30, 2016 2 Comments

This month I ordered my 5th fix from Stitch Fix, a service where a personal stylist collects tidbits from you via a style profile (and optional Pinterest boards) and ships out a package of 5 goodies (clothes, accessories, shoes) for you. Learn more details about Stitch Fix in my previous post.

This month I asked for 3-4 sleeveless or short sleeve tops and told my stylist to pick something fun for the rest of the items. I also shared a link to my Pinterest board and called out two tops I really liked the style of. My past fixes haven’t been super successful, but for this fix, my stylist Kim really listened.

My fix consisted of 4 tops and one dress. I was secretly hoping for a burgundy satchel bag, which I told Kim I would love to have if they had one on hand, but I was pleased to get a box full of clothes that fit my personality. Now onto the fashion!

#1 – Ardenas Split Neck Blouse by Collective Concepts
This Collective Concepts top is lightweight, colorful, and as my stylist suggested, looks great with white cropped pants. I’ve seen this top a ton on Pinterest, and even pinned it myself. See, Pinterest can pay off when it comes to working with your Stitch Fix Stylist!

Ardenas Split Neck Blouse by Collective Concepts | Cropped Pants from Delias

#2 – Florizel Henley Blouse by 41Hawthorne
I wasn’t expecting to get a top like this in my fix, and while it’s “short” sleeved looking in the picture, it can actually unroll into a long sleeved top. I love the color and fabric on this blouse. Definitely something I’ll be wearing once it’s no longer in the 90s here in New York/New Jersey.

Florizel Henley Blouse by 41Hawthorne

#3 – Aerin Dress by Market and Spruce
I’m in love with everything about this dress. Another Pinterest favorite amongst a lot of you ladies. The dress comes with a light lining built in, and overall is light and flowy – perfect for Spring and Summer. You also can’t go wrong with a wrap tie dress, which flatters just about every body type, easily giving everyone a great little waist.

Aerin Dress by Market and Spruce

#4 – Ronan Crochet Detail Blouse by Daniel Rainn
I was really hesitant about this blouse. I received a size Medium and think that I probably could have gotten away with a Small. What you can’t tell from the image is that this top is a hi-low style, where the back is significantly longer than the front. Additionally, the blouse has a drop waist, which would be a lot more flattering if it was tighter, but the pattern and colors are too cute to pass up. I tried pairing the top with a belt to see if that would help with waist definition (see below). I think I’ll have to keep playing around with the look to make it work best for my body.

Ronan Crochet Detail Blouse by Daniel Rainn

#5 – Hollace Button Front Blouse by Aratta
This floral blouse just screams Spring. I was hesitant about the fit with this top too, thinking I could probably fit into a Small rather than the Medium I received. The arm holes are a bit large, so your bra may show. The back has a funky cut to it (see my pic below), making it really airy and aesthetically unique. The back is also a lot longer than the front, another hi-low style which would look perfect with leggings. While we’re on the topic of leggings, I’m not a leggings as pants kinda girl, but this top is long in the front and back, making it a great fit for leggings without showing off anything you don’t want to show.

Hollace Button Front Blouse by Aratta

Some final thoughts: The 25% discount dilemma is real. If you end up keeping everything in your fix you get a nice 25% discount off the total cost. I wasn’t a super huge fan of the cut of the Daniel Rainn Ronan Crochet Detail Blouse, probably due to sizing, but really liking everything else in my fix made me decide to keep everything so I could get the 25% discount off my order. Ultimately, I’m super happy with this fix and feel like my boxes are improving again. I look forward to ordering another box and seeing what Kim has in store for me 🙂

Suggestions for a better fix:

Be very specific – if there are certain pieces or types of clothing you really want, provide that in your styling note to your stylist.
Create a Pinterest Board. We know last time that didn’t work out so great for me, but this time my stylist checked out my board and really tried to capture my style from the examples I pinned.
Call out designers or names of actual articles of clothing – your stylist may not provide those exact items but they’ll start to get a better sense of what style you’re into

Don’t forget to follow my Pinterest Boards for more Stitch Fix fun!

What are you waiting for? Give Stitch Fix a try!

Reviews, Style, Weddings

Rent the Runway Review: Wedding attire

May 23, 2016 No Comments

What’s Rent the Runway?
A rental service for dresses, accessories, and outfits. They carry a ton of different designers from Kate Spade, Badgley Mischka, and everyone in between. When you rent a dress, you’re allowed to choose two sizes, at no extra cost, so you can try the dresses on at home and make sure you get the right fit for you.

I had been meaning to try them out for a couple of years, but after college I didn’t have many events that called for a fancy dress. This past year however, the wedding invitations poured in and my boyfriend suggested I finally give it a try. We had a mutual high school friend’s wedding this past fall so I decided to go for it. I found a great dress and was super pumped to see how it would look, but that’s where the excitement ended.

My dress was scheduled to arrive two days before we left, I had a UPS tracking number and it showed everything was looking good. I should note, I live in the same town as the Rent the Runway factory where they ship all the dresses out. I assumed the whole rental was going to be easy peasy and everything would go smoothly, but boy was I wrong. UPS showed my dress was out for delivery by 8pm (our complex is the last stop for UPS as we’re also in the same town as the UPS shipping center). 8pm came and went, as did 9pm. I started to freak out.

My boyfriend called UPS and said we would pick up the dress in person the following morning when they opened up.The next day we went to UPS and the man at the front desk said they didn’t have the package. Apparently Rent the Runway was (or maybe still is) known for not placing labels on packages securely. They mentioned that this was a frequent occurrence where the labels would fall off and the delivery person wouldn’t know which package was which so they would just bring the clothes back to Rent the Runway. We then spent the next day calling Rent the Runway, emailing, and tweeting them. No one answered. Twitter showed a lot of people were also missing their dresses. We even offered to go to the warehouse to pick up the dress in person (they have a store where you can buy the worn dresses from them as well – I’ll do a review one of these days) but they said that they wouldn’t be able to give us my rental dress. I was crushed, and luckily had a backup option. Rent the Runway gave me a coupon code for my next rental and refunded my purchase after a few days of harassing them.

Flash forward a few months and I decided I would put that coupon code to use and try once more to see if Rent the Runway could come through for a wedding. Everything started to play out just like last time. The dress was “out for delivery” for hours and it was starting to look like another failure. Eventually, I got an email from the front desk that I had a delivery. I was expecting to get my hopes up again, fearing I couldn’t trust RtR, but success, my dresses arrived! Now onto what I ordered:

Screen Shot 2016-05-10 at 1.21.57 PM

The wedding was in April so I figured a cute brightly colored dress would be perfect, and lo and behold I found this Kate Spade Mint Bow Back Dress. I chose the 4 day rental, crossed my fingers that the dress would fit and look appropriate. Shortly after placing my rental order I realized the back, which appeared fairly low in pictures, along with the inward facing straps might call for a strapless bra. I didn’t have anything great on hand, except a neon pink one, so I zapped my way over to Zappos and ordered a nude strapless bra, which came before the dress 🙂

As I opened the garment bag I started to get really nervous. Is the dress going to fit me? I chose to order a second size (for free) just to be safe, and I also found the dress being sold at a department store online and checked out the size guide there so I felt I had a fairly decent idea of what size would work best. Thankfully, both dresses fit (the bigger size was a little too roomy so I opted for the smaller size).

That weekend, I got nothing but complements on the dress. Everyone loved the color and thought the cut and fit was absolutely perfect. No one could believe I rented it! With my coupon code for RtR’s previous blunder, and the Pro account I bought (covers insurance and shipping) I got the dress for $35! That’s a steal when the dress itself costs $348 at retail.

Screen Shot 2016-05-10 at 1.24.20 PM

Would I use Rent the Runway again?
Yes, but always with apprehension. I suggest that you always have a backup on hand because you never know what might happen. The dresses I received were in perfect condition, so I definitely trust the quality. If you can get away with it, try the 8 day rental option for your first order so that if something does go wrong, you might be able to get through to customer service in time for a new dress.

Have you rented from Rent the Runway?

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