DIY: Cheap & Easy Spring Trend Jewelry

Hey, everyone!
Emilyann here, and I'm very excited about the post I have for you all today.  I'm not usually one to follow trends religiously, but there is one trend that caught my eye this season, and that is the neon trend.  Literally everything on the store shelves is neon, and I couldn't be more happy!  One of my favorite fashion eras is the late eighties.  While the nineties influence my style much more, the eighties has that creative pop of color and texture that adds something to any girly outfit.  Neon is a product of the eighties, and I'm happy it's coming back.

Good jewelry can be pretty expensive, and it goes in and out of style faster than you can say Tiffany's.  While most of us succumb to the settlement of Forever21 jewelry and Claire's, I would argue there is a better alternative.  If you've read my posts before, you know I am a huge fan of thrift stores.  I buy in bulk.  It's inexpensive and often extremely rewarding.  I plan on doing a post with some of my best thrifting finds.  Let me know if you're interested in that post.

A lot of the time, the jewelry at thrift stores can be old lady-ish and boring.  But my number one tip for thrifting is to keep an open mind.  Everything has potential.  Including the old lady jewelry at Goodwill.  I went to my favorite thrift store in the town I'm in and got a couple pairs of really big, obnoxious earrings.  Most people would think I was totally crazy.  But my mom gave me a great idea.  In the eighties, she used to buy the one "in" pair of earrings, in white, and then paint them with nail polish to incorporate them into any outfit.  My immediate thought was "neon".

All you'll need for this DIY is:

• Plastic or similarly textured jewelry
• Neon or brightly colored nailpolish
• A paper towel
• Ear piercing cleaner or rubbing alcohol

Firstly, if you bought the earrings from a thriftstore, you need to soak the earrings in some kind of cleaner.  I use the ear cleaner that I got from Claire's when I got my cartilage pierced.  You can also use rubbing alcohol. Once you've thoroughly cleaned the earrings, and the other jewelry, take part of the earring that goes through your ear and hold it up, now you have a good hold for painting it.  Take a neon colored nailpolish, I chose 24/7 by Sinful Colors.  This color is both neon and dries matte.  Make sure to paint in one direction. If it's zigzagged it will look messy. Don't forget to cover the sides.  Once you've painted in one direction, let it dry.  Then paint against the grain. If you painted across, now paint up & down. This will give full coverage and color to the earring.  Let them dry.

If you are using an earring that has a previous color, never fear.  I took this pair of yellow triangle earrings and painted on a base of a light, cool green color by Forever 21.  It's nearly white, so it cancels out the yellow and provides a clean base for the green. If you don't have a color like this, white should work fine.  After letting it dry, go ahead and apply an actual green.  I chose Sally Hansen's Green With Envy.  With this pair of earrings, I decided to use another spring trend- animal print.  I took a paper towel and rolled the earring, still wet, across the towel.  This gave it a snake skin like texture.  You can see the light green and even a bit of the yellow peeking through. I love it.

Do this to any jewelry you want neon and hop on into spring!  This DIY is great because it's incredibly simple, and it's nailpolish, so it comes off!  Just use a cotton ball and nail polish remover and you have your normal jewelry back.  Have a great spring, everyone!

xx,
Emilyann

DIY ~ Salt

Hey!  It's Caroline.

I love creating homemade beauty products.  Anything that prevents me from spending more money is certainly a good thing!  So imagine how excited I was when I realized that I could do three things with a very small amount of products that I already had in my pantry.

Here's what you'll need:

• Salt
• Water
• Olive Oil

That's it!  I've got three "recipes for you guys, and I hope you enjoy them.

Salt Water Facial

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Mix one part course salt with two parts filtered water.  I used Sea salt.  I keep my mixture in an old makeup remover bottle (which I cleaned out thoroughly), and this mix actually gets better with time.

All I do is shake up this mixture and pour a bit into the palm of your hand.  Rub it around, all over your face.  You don't need a lot, so a small bottle of salt water goes a long way.  Now, go about your other business while you let this dry.  After about 5-8 minutes, if you look closely at your face, you'll see little white grains all over, and you'll feel a noticeable tightness in your skin.

Gently use your hands and warm water to rinse this off.  You'll be left with smoother skin!  Salt also helps combat acne.  Do this no more than two or three times a week, as it can be a little harsh.

Salt Lip Scrub

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Simply mix a coarsely ground salt with a little bit of olive oil, until it's reached a pasty consistency.  Gently rub it onto your lips, and rinse off with warm water.  Voila!  You now have soft lips.

Salt Water Hair?

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This one isn't for everyone, but I love doing this to my hair.  I've noticed that whenever I go swimming at the beach, I get the prettiest messy waves in my hair.  So while my hair is wet, I put a bit of the salt water mixture from the first recipe into my hair and scrunch my fingers in it.  I simply blow dry with my head turned over while continuing to scrunch and to wrap pieces around my finger under the heat, and I'm left with messy waves, which I love.  This works especially well if you use a strong-hold or curl-boosting mousse before you add the salt water.

I hope you enjoyed this quick DIY!  Have a great day.

~Caroline