Some of you may have seen me post this bad boy on Insta yesterday, but I have to share it with you here too! We recently added Beautycounter to our mix over at Paintbar, and one of the products I was most excited to get ahold of was the Charcoal Cleansing Bar. I was intrigued by (A) the color and (B) it's touted deep cleaning abilities. You start throwing out things like "activated" Japanese Ubame Oak charcoal and I'm all like, "tell me everything". The first time I used it I had that squeaky clean feeling when I got out of the shower. Like when your skin almost feels tighter? Since then, I've been using it with either the Beautycounter Glow Sugar Scrub or our POLISH Coconut Sugar Scrub (Paintbar's own brand available at PB!!) every day in the shower, and I have actually, truly noticed an improvement in my skin. I have had a blemish that I've had since NOVEMBER, that nothing has helped, and has finally started to look like it's clearing up this week. My skin also looks BRIGHTER. I typically don't have problematic skin, but I can tell that it looks and feels healthier. I've been following it up with Chanel's Hydra Beauty Crème Riche on my face and the Beautycounter Citrus Rosemary Body Oil everywhere else. It's like I'm a walking day spa!!! Or like. A greased seal.
Hey friends! How is everybody? So we finally took a honeymoon! I suppose plenty of people wait longer than 6 months, but I was so grateful to get the chance to get out of town for a few days! Now here's the punchline: I went to Coachella on my honeymoon. *Jazz hands emoji* I've been wanting to go to the Parker hotel in Palm Springs for a few years now; we had talked about heading to Coachella when my lifelong obsession -Guns 'N' Roses- was announced as one of the headliners but it sort of fizzled out. Then LCD Soundsystem was added at about the same moment we were looking into tropical island trips and it all just came together. It was most likely the most fun honeymoon ever. I'll break it up into a few posts, but I wanted to give you guys a smattering of pics from the Parker. The Parker is basically a Slim Aarons photo come to life (again). It was originally Gene Autry's residence and it's down the hill from Bob Hope ('s crazy spaceship house), Steve McQueen AND Tom Selleck's homes (or former homes). You would probably recognize it's insane orange lacquer doors and gorgeous concrete entry breezeway from many an Instagram--see: MINE. It was redesigned by none other than Jonathan Adler and is home to it's own Trina Turk boutique. There is a spa, PSYC (Palm Springs Yacht Club), that is so dedicated to making you relax that they serve you cucumber infused vodka shots when you check in. I may or may not have been found curled up in a ball in my robe by my hubs on the spa patio after my treatment. The pool scene is marvelous: umbrellas, rosé, cabana boys, people watching! It is all very California. Anyhoo, I'll be posting more in the next few days, but I can't say enough about how wonderful it was; Palm Springs is magical and the Parker should definitely be on your places to go list and if you love music, Coachella is soooo much fun! Oh! And big shout out to my Paintbar ladies for making this trip possible! Go get your Beyoncé nails done tomorrow! We're also adding Beautycounter to our retail lineup, check it out here if you aren't familiar with the line; we love their mission and products and we're excited to be able to offer them to our customers soon.
Rebecca Taylor's Spring collection is everything. Off the shoulder everything, floral everything, boho everything. She's consistently one of my favorites, especially in the Spring and Summer. I wore the white, gauze off-the-shoulder dress to a cocktail party recently; I plan to wear it more casually with some sandals like these or these. Scroll through (above) for some of my favorites!
I posted about my beloved new silver shoes yesterday (which, did not turn out to be Super Bowl good luck charms--but are still fabulous) over on Insta, but I wanted to share some of my other favorites from Madewell here. My birthday was essentially sponsored by Madewell. I picked up two of the wafflestitch turtleneck sweaters, I sized up because I like my sweaters swingy and snuggly. I absolutely can't rave enough about their HIGH RISER skinny jeans. They are perfection. They come in a standard 9" rise, but there's a 10" option for ultra high-rise.
I worked with Alys Beach's coordinator, Meghan, to find my vendors using a list that the community has curated; I was immediately drawn to the work of Fisher's Flowers. Minimalist and chic but with high-impact. They worked with me, going through my Pinterest board and using feedback throughout the whole process, to put together the floral and space plan for our wedding. I highly recommend using Pinterest heavily if you are planning a destination wedding; it's just a great way to be able to have an image to help you articulate a vision. We opted for a tent just in case the weather took a cooler turn, and it ended up being a magical addition. They strung Edison bulb lights across the entire space and created a glow. Seriously it glowed. We did three long family-style tables with greenery runners and dainty florals and hurricane glass votives scattered down the length of the table. They draped Brad and my chairs in flowers and peachy ribbons in this perfectly boho-chic manner; it was a special detail that was just for us. In lieu of an altar, Fisher's created a flower-draped trellis and hung it with a chandelier that became the home of our cake post-ceremony. I had tiny gold jungle animal place card holders that I got from a wonderful Etsy vendor at each seat that people were hoarding by the end of the night! (She also makes a version that comes with a tiny party hat WHAT.) Our gorgeous place cards were hand-lettered by our calligrapher Caitlin. They made me smile so hard. It was great because we were able to ship items like these ahead of time so we didn't have to worry about transporting them (and likely forgetting something); I highly recommend shipping as much ahead if you can for a destination wedding, it saved us many headaches. The entire team was flawless. I didn't have to think about a single thing the entire day besides "who has my cell phone".
Last week was a rough one; there was a lot of loss to go around. We spent a big part of our car ride to the beach this weekend blasting Bowie songs, and the more I listened the more I realized how much the songs have played a part in my life. Knowing that he basically planned his exit with a gift to his fans is in perfect Bowie fashion, but it also helped me remember to focus on the good memories and what you loved about whoever it is that has left. I'll avoid getting to emo here, but if you're feeling down go blast Young Americans or Golden Years at full volume and don't tell me you don't feel better. I found this Bowie tee at JC Penney of all places, but surprisingly they've got a pretty good "vintage" tee shirt game. Also go here to get Blackstar and listen to Lazarus.
One thing that was important to me in planning our wedding was the paper; I had a specific look I wanted in my head pretty much from the beginning that I wanted to be cohesive throughout all of the invitations and other related items. I worked with Shannon of Charlotte's here in Raleigh, who realized that none of the samples were fitting my vision, and promptly set out to find the right calligrapher for me. Not only did she find the original calligrapher from the uncredited inspiration pic (which is essentially wizardry), but ultimately she found our amazing calligrapher Caitlin of Charlie Whiskey. Caitlin took my inspiration picture and created what I think is a gorgeous balance of modern and classic for our invitations. It was important to me to follow some elements of tradition and formality, but I wanted a unique, almost handwritten effect.
Shannon helped me navigate the formalities and making sure everything looked good together, and I think what Caitlin did is amazing. It's exactly what I wanted. I love her work so much that we also had her do the menu and place cards for the seated dinner after the ceremony at Alys Beach. The menu is everything. I loved it so much I practically want to frame it; we had those done through Paperbuzz and they had them printed in a gorgeous light, raised gold. I could eat them. She also did a very special custom song quote that was my gift to my hubs, and it means the world to us. I can't thank Charlotte's + Charlie Whiskey + Paperbuzz for all of their hard work and the beautiful results!
