All posts by AsianCajuns

My Make Up Forever Makeover

My daily makeup routine is incredibly boring. It takes me less than 10 minutes to do my makeup every morning because I’ve done the same thing for the past 3 years.

All of my makeup techniques and products have come from Lar. She has a lot more patience for finding out what colors look best on us. Just one of the many benefits to being a twin! Although, come to think of it, she might be significantly more pale than me since she hasn’t seen the sun in over three months.

Anywhoodle, to shake things up a bit, I stopped by the traveling Make Up Forever truck at Atlantic Station when it came to Atlanta a few weekends ago and got some great makeup tips and a full makeover. Look at the transformation!

Syretta, my Make Up Forever makeup pro, was great at showing me how to keep things simple. I had made it pretty clear to her from the beginning that I was incredibly lazy with makeup and only bought colors that I had read about “looking good on every skin tone” in magazines.

I only use tinted moisturizer as a base, so I freaked out a little when I saw all of the layers of primer, concealer and foundation. Who needs all that stuff?! I do! At least that’s how I felt after the makeover. None of the stuff made my face feel cake-y or like my skin couldn’t breathe and it looked like I had a perfect complexion (something I haven’t had since my pre-puberty years).

Syretta wrote down all of the products that she used on my face so I could hop on over to Sephora and buy brand new makeup. Since I still have yet to win the lottery, I only purchased a few items: the HD finishing powder (it’s magical!), the Aqua lip liner in 14C and Aqua Rouge in 15.

The lip color is so much pinker than I would have ever thought to use. When I showed Syretta the lip color that I use everyday she said, “Yeah, that’s, uh, very safe.” What do you mean? It matches perfectly with my lip color?!! You can’t even tell I’m wearing it!!

See how much I needed a makeover? Now I embrace the pink lippies and gray eyeliner (I’ve been using black to rim my eyes for a decade). Makeup break-through! Sort of. I still just use tinted moisturizer 🙂

Believe it or not, this is not a sponsored post. I just realized how many times I’ve written “Make Up Forever” in the past 20 sentences. What can I say? It’s a good makeup brand and the products made me look pulled together and glowing in a sheep-printed sweater. Now if that’s not a measure of a successful makeover, I don’t know what is!

__________

Dearest Lar,

I’m so glad you encouraged me to sign up for the makeover. Do they have Make Up Forever in the UK? They must if they have Sephoras. Apart from the HD powder (which I learned about through JennySue Makeup), I had never really heard of the brand before.

Are you having fun in the manor house in west Scotland? Please keep texting me pics! I’m equal parts jealous and excited for you. And I would really hate the fact that you’re not going to be home for Thanksgiving this year, but I know you’ll be here in less than a month!!!!

Do you know how excited I am about that?! I tell complete strangers that you’re coming home. The dialogue goes something like this:

Stranger: Hi. How are you?

Me: My twin is coming home in December for two weeks!!!!!

Stranger walks away.

Skype me as soon as you get some place with the wifis.

xoxo, Cath

Friday Link Love

Sorry for the slow posting, dear readers! That’ll change next week now that I’m done with the summer semester – woohoo! And in little more than a week Lar and I will be reunited and blogging together – double woohoo! Until then, here’s some fun links for your Friday:

• Even Karl (above) loves the Olympics – here’s proof.

• Love Scoutmob’s new Shoppe program – it’s like hyper local Etsy. Only eight left of these gorgeous gold double bib necklaces.

• Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary, actress Michelle Dockery, looks stunning on the cover of Love.

• The perfect black pump for fall.

• Finally got around to watching this documentary. It’s incredibly inspiring to see someone so passionate about what they do.

• I’m actually kind of looking forward to my long flight to Scotland because I’ll finally get to catch up on some reading, and the reader in me loves this.

• Lar and I love this movie – it’s one of our guilty pleasures. I pretty much know every line word for word and even after more than a decade, I still lust after Meg Ryan’s apartment. It’s okay, you can judge us 😉

• Can’t wait to see a live dance performance next month in a life-sized two-story cardboard house!

• For you locals, come to one of the Poverty Is Real concerts at Eddie’s Attic this weekend – I’ll be there!

Beer and Chocolate – Yum!

Some of you might remember this post from June where we talked about being in a pilot for TBS. We even dressed alike-ish:

In June we couldn’t tell you much about it, but now that it’s aired we can spill the beans! The filming was for a new TBS show called Trends With Benefits and we were extras in a beer and chocolate segment at Sugar Coated Radical:

A big thanks to Jonathan for including us in this amazing project and to Ale, Liza, Daniel and Chris for making such a fun afternoon of it!

 

 

Lar Moves to Scotland and I Get a(nother) Pup!

Most of you know that Lar and Matt adopted a dog, Toby, about a year ago. Well, it was more like he adopted them by coming to their back door everyday until they let him in. Of course Lar and Matt looked into taking Toby with them to Scotland but 1.) it’s crazy expensive to ship a doggie and 2.) dogs shipped to the U.K. are quarantined for six months. SIX MONTHS! So without hesitating (or checking with Troy – sorry Troy!) I offered to take Toby – a super hyper active, untrained, scared-of-everything dog. I’m crazy, but I have three things going for me:

1.) Troy is a huge dog lover and has an immense amount of patience for training Toby.
2.) Toby is the sweetest dog ever. He was clearly abused as a pup, but he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.
3.) Look at his cute face!

Welcome to the family, Toby!

The family includes me, Troy, Wheatie and Toby in a 900 square foot house. It’s pretty tight quarters, but we have a large backyard by Decatur standards and live within walking distance of a dog park.

I spent most of the weekend doing school work. I’m finding it a little difficult getting back into school. It’s been six years since I finished undergrad and I’m a little rusty. Juggling work, school, blogging and an extra dog is not turning out to be so easy. I’m trying to enjoy the few moments when I’m not working – like taking the dogs to the dog park.


Outfit details: Head scarf is a piece a fabric that Lauren gave to me, Target shirt, Blank pants and Jeffrey Campbell boots.

I love that the weather in Atlanta is finally getting cool enough to wear a sweater. There was one person at the dog park today bundled up with a coat and knitted hat in 55 degree weather – I love Southerners!

Back to the dog situation. If Troy and I weren’t already crazy enough to have two big dogs in our little house, this weekend we’re dog sitting for some friends. That’s Kubrick below. He’s pretty darn big.  Needless to say, my clothes are completely covered in dog fur and my house needs some major Fabreezing.

I just talked to Lar – she found a great Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh tonight. I think before the year is up we’ll be posting some Atlanta and Edinburgh AsianCajun city guides.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Missoni Madness

The Missoni for Target line came out when Lar and I were flying back to ATL from our cousin’s wedding. Not thinking that most of the items would sell out by morning, we had plans to meet up with our talented jewelry friend, June Shin, to go check out the line later that week. Naïve? Definitely! We returned home cursing our inability to judge the popularity of such a great collaboration. And we call ourselves fashion bloggers. Sheesh.

But all hope is not lost! We’re super lucky to be friends with one of Atlanta’s best, most seasoned shoppers. I’m going to keep her/his identity under-wraps so let’s call just call him/her Bubba. Bubba brilliantly hit up all the Atlanta Targets last Wednesday and filled up Bubba’s trunk with Missoni clothing, home goods and luggage.

We met up with Bubba the other night to take a look at the loot in a parking garage in Buckhead. It felt like the type of clandestine meetings you see in movies. Actually, it wasn’t that sketchy. We were meeting up with Bubba to get some burgers at Holeman and Finch, and he wanted us to preview his “trunk show” before we got our grub.

Look at all the Missoni goodies:

Bubba had everything from travel pillows to kids flats. I was tempted to get these pumps and still might. I love them. They’d look amazing with black tights and this lust-worthy sweater dress (that I don’t own). Lar wanted this knited skirt:

But then she realized it wouldn’t fit in her luggage for her move to Scotland *sigh*. Nevertheless, we can’t thank Bubba enough for this Missonity Missopportunity opportunity (sorry, trying to figure out how to cleverly combine Missoni and opportunity. Fail).

What do you guys think? Should I get the pumps?!

Mozart Yumminess

Gah! The countdown is on. Lar is officially leaving in less than a week – make that in 3 days. Here are the questions I’ve been getting: “How are you doing?” “What are you going to do when your twin leaves you?!” “Have you and your sister ever lived apart?” “When are you going to visit her?” My answers: I’m hanging in there-ish and super excited for Lar. Going to stay super busy with work, school and blogging. We’ve only lived in separate states for 4 months (that was the longest time apart ever). Already planning my trip for December – hopefully we’ll be together by Christmas – woohoo!

Lar and I have been trying to make the most of our remaining sister time by eating and shopping our way around Atlanta. For example, Mozart Bakery on BuHi. It’s a great Korean Bakery with a couple of locations in Atlanta. This particular one (above) is where they do all the baking. I personally feel that Asians don’t use nearly enough butter and fat in their pastries, but that must just be my Cajun side coming out!


Look at Lar in her element! She has a big sweet tooth. I expect her to find the best bakeries in Edinburgh by the time I come to visit.

Lar’s outfit: top from Rockit Boutique, Squash Blossom Boutique necklace, Ashley Watson bag from Evolve Boutique, Zara skirt, Mango booties.

There’s me munching on some type of biscuit bread – it was delicious. Lar and I have been trying to eat less gluten lately. . . we clearly haven’t been very discipline about it.

My outfit: Target sunnies, Forever 21 top, Norma Kamali for Walmart sweatpants, shoes from Eviva Boutique (closed), and purse from a boutique in New Orleans given to me by Lar.

A couple of things you should take note about my outfit: I’m wearing sweatpants. I love getting away with wearing elastic waistbands in public. Also, my awesome purse? It’s just one of the hundreds of items Lar is leaving me – she’s only taking two large suitcases to Scotland, what?! My closet has pretty much doubled since Lar starting packing. Expect a post on my closet soon.

 

 

For A Little Happy: AsianCajuns Attempt Lanvin Dance

For the next few days, we’ll be at the Decatur Book Festival (see our post below), but we wanted to leave you with a little somethin somethin in case you have a spare minute this long weekend (happy Labor Day!).

Now even if you aren’t a fashion fan, I think you will still love this video that Lanvin shot for their Fall 2011 campaign (that’s the delightful and talented designer Mr. Alber Elbas making an appearance at the end):

Pretty awesome, non? Cath and I are in love with Mr. Elbas (“he” makes an appearance in our video too!), so we had to do a tribute no matter how embarrassing.

Disclaimer: we might have taken a few liberties with the choreography; that might or might not be the real Alber; we in no way think we look anything like the tall and willowy Karen Elson and Rachel Zimmerman or those lovely boys in hats; music is I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull).

Hope you guys have a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

xoxo,

Cath and Lar

Sun in Our Bellies

One of my favorite places to go to Sunday brunch in Atlanta is Sun in My Belly. Just look at that delicious fruit and granola, and lox and bagel!

It was doubly delicious this past weekend because we met up with the genius sister duo behind the blog Whisk Away (hi, Nicole and Katie!). I hope you guys enjoyed the Boursin eggs and honey glazed bacon.

Ah ha! Tricked you guys! Here’s some “fashion” too (sorry, foodie purists)! In order to get to delicious food, we sometimes have to walk by toothy, hairy monsters. They are pretty nice once you explain to them that they will be on a “world famous” blog (sometimes you have to stretch the truth a bit when convincing monsters, especially those that carry big sticks).


On Lar/moi: Ella Moss dress • June Shin and Snoozer Loser necklaces • necklace worn as bracelet c/o Novica • thrifted leather woven purse • (old) Jeffrey Campbell shoes


On Cath: Athropologie tee • F21 pants • Madewell shoes • bag from a small boutique in New Orleans • Target sunnies

Hope you guys are having a great start to the week!

 

Cath Gets a Rain Barrel (and goes Westward)

After a long, rough week at work I spent most of my weekend recovering, cleaning the house, hanging out with friends, and relaxing. The only obligation I had was an one-hour rain barrel workshop. It was at 10 a.m., which is early for me on a Saturday. I rolled out of bed and was about to put on shorts and a t-shirt, but reached for this sundress instead. Dresses are a little more forgiving on the ol’ waist (no muffin top, woot, woot!). The dress is a little low cut for Saturday morning, so I added the shirt at the last minute.

Turns out getting up for a rain barrel class early on a Saturday is completely worth it. I’ve been wanting a rain barrel for some time, but didn’t really realize how great they are until I attended the workshop. Did you know that rain barrels help catch the initial, most polluted inch of rain from your roof? Instead of running off into the stream, the water collects in the barrel and can be used to water plants and then filter through the soil. Plus, the barrels are originally used to transport olives. Drill a few holes in the sides and you’ve got yourself a recycled rain barrel. Mother nature FTW!

Outfit details: Sunglasses and shirt from U.O., dress from a local boutique, AsianCajuns name necklace, and my Birkinstocks.

My shirt kept stretching out throughout the day, so I had to re-knot it twice. Nevertheless, I’m still a fan of summer layering and will probably wear this outfit again before the summer is over.

It took forever to get Wheatie to look at the camera. Dogs aren’t great models – not enough focus. Wheatie is sporting his summer shave, which isn’t as cute as his full fur coat, but at least he’s cool in the never ending Atlanta heat.

I start my first graduate class a week from today. According to my calculations, if I take one class a semester, I’ll get my masters in public administration in about 10 years – ha! I might up it to two classes a semester if I can afford it in the spring.

Hope you all had a great start to the week! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this week will be better than last week. I know for a fact that next week will be great. How can I be so sure? Because next Thursday, Lar and I are attending this:

That’s right, the talented Current Elliott designers and the creative director of Kate Spade will be at the Lenox Bloomies Thursday, Aug. 25 from 5 to 8 p.m. Current Elliott and Kate Spade have joined forces to create Westward. I hope some of you locals can make it and hang out with us. Don’t forget to RSVP. Westward ho!