braided

I've told you that I am obsessed with The Beauty Department blog.

Well, I had to share this freakin fantastic braid that Lauren wore on her Chelsea Lately appearance. 

via

The secret:

In a regular braid there are 3 strands. 

For this look, all you do is braid one of those strands beforehand and loosen it up with your fingers, then braid as usual. This creates extra texture + breaks up the mundane pattern of a regular braid.

Brilliant!

my wand

When I saw this tutorial at The Beauty Department I wondered why the hell I didn't think of it! I never use the clamp on my curling iron and I am not impressed with the non-clamp curling irons sold in stores. So I took my favorite 1" curling iron and fixed it!

Voilà! The perfect curling iron!

blog love

I recently discovered the beauty department blog and I love it! The blog boasts an assortment of amazing reviews, tutorials, and guest posts (plus it's a very aesthetically pleasing site...who doesn't love that). 

It's definitely been added to my list of daily reads!

 Here's one of their latest tutorials- metallics and sparkles, yes please!

photo cred: the beauty department