new years eve dresses xx

NEW YEARS!

woo! who is as excited to get the hell away from 2013 as i am ?? i was recently invited to this huge N.Y.E party at the Hilton downtown, and after going through my wardrobe, i just said "forget it-- great glam it is"

www.GreatGlam.com is a website with the most gorgeous dresses, shoes, any thing glam for the very cheap! i have known about it for quite a while. all the dresses i am listing below were between $25-30 each. now remember i was opting for a more calm, but sexy look. I didn't want extreme patterns, or bright bright colors because it is a New Years eve party. 

This is an all black jumpsuit that i know is kind of 'out there' if you knew any thing about my style. lol i am considering it for its warmth, as well as to play it up with accessories. red close toed pumps and a red lipstick <3

I see this type of style on Kim Kardashion a lot. She does the whole waist accentuated bit. i want it because i have a very round bottom half, and think this dress would make that look a bit more ... tight?

Unlike the model, I was thinking a tight pony tail with a bump-it oomph, long dangling sparkly earrings with black pumps.

Unlike the model, my chest is very far from bulging out. i think because of that fact this dress would look sooo much more fabulous on me. I have black pumps with leopard print on the bottom sole that would go perfectly with this. Black dangling earrings and bangles, no necklace.

Again, minimal chest thing works to my advantage with these types of dresses. i really like being able to breath but yet keeping my curves in check lol This isn't one of my favorites, but definitely a consideration because i have metallic bangles that would match nicely with the metallic stripes on the top.

This is one of my favorites. I just love the sleeves. Hair straight down, a minimal necklace and my sparkly pumps. they kind of have a gold tint to them though so i may just decide to do the black pumps.













Okay I think I narrowed it down enough. Can my beautiful followers help me out by picking your favorite one ??

Help me out mamasitas!!

xox rica

trust -- learned or innate behavior?

One of the main topics I write about is trust. i am not sure why, but it is as if i can write and write and write nonstop about it.  trust is a really hard thing. it's hard to win but super easy to lose. you can spend years building it up, and it's amazing how it can shatter in seconds.. when you put your trust in someone it means that you will expect them to do what they say they will do, which is usually something that you should be doing for yourself but rely on them enough to do for you.. Trusting in someone usually means that there is something they have that you believe you need, or something you have that you believe they can take away to cause you harm. You may not agree, but i have thought long and hard about this & this is def the conclusion i have come to and won't budge onto any other..

Truth is much trickier than we think it is, isn't it?

My freshmen year I already learned what two-faced and back stabbing meant. you couldn't find a person you could trust in sight. If you had a real friend that you could trust, it didn't last long, or at least the trust didn't. It was either some one said something, or boyfriends/girlfriends got in the way. it  could be that you were completely innocent but it wouldn't matter as long as the drama was made. a year long relationship could be ruined by someone you didn't even know as long as they swore to it. every time, its your fault. don't get me wrong sometimes your not innocent but I'm hoping you will have the nerve to admit when your wrong, i know i do... but your words well be scrabbled and screwed then they make a scene and when you don't stir back your "scared."

honesty is the backbone of healthy relationships. i know sometimes its hard to be honest, but when you are, people know that they can trust you and when people trust you... you will be able to go far.  emotions are powerful.  we usually don’t realize how much they affect our lives and the lives of those around us, but they lie behind every thing we say or do even though most of the time we are not aware of them.

remember the first time you fell in love? What were your emotions doing? Did you let things bother you or did you let thing slide? now think of your most heart wrenching break up. What were your emotions doing? Did you let things bother you or did you let things slide? our emotions affect how we see, hear or even do things, most of the time it’s immediately, however sometimes it affects how we see things the next day or a week from the event. usually we don’t even realize the power they have had on us.

this is why i put a lot of effort into controlling my anger the most. i sometimes say a lot of things i don't mean to and this makes me feel soo horrible at the end of the day. my boyfriend and i used to have some pretty bad fights, and we would say hurtful things quite often. we have since worked on that path of communication and he hasn't said something to hurt me in months, and we are still going strong. no matter how hard the situation or fight, it can alwaysss be worked out-- communication is key and it is very essential in making a path of understanding and a clearer future.

that's all i am going to right on that tonight. i lost a friend tonight over pathetic bullshit -- happened before but as you can see we didn't use our communication skills to the best of our ability and now we are in the exact same boat -- but you live and learn, right?

out with the old in with the new.

I'm Not Really A Waitress #NOTD xx

I had a good night last night. Not only was there finally a shitload of snow, blah but pretty :) but i woke up this morning with $100 extra in my pocket. I have no idea how either. Must've been the alcohol. yep, i shall blame it on that. Yeeesh. 

Due to the state of exhaustion that my entire body is in, I am going to keep it light today. Maybe watch a movie or run some errands. Pet my cat. Oh, and possibly give myself a pedicure with this fabulous nail polish color I found.

O.P.I. Nail Lacquer in "I'm Not Really A Waitress"



www.labellavitax0x.blogspot.com

Isn't that the greatest name? :)

Happy Hump Day.

the shark week craze

in some ways, the Shark Week obsession makes sense. it's almost like a sadistic fascination with horror stories of surfer boys, children, marine biologists, or fishermen turning into chopped liver. it's one of those so disgusting but can't stop looking type gigs.

...&& i cannot get enough.

Shark week is not only about the gory stories. it also is very very informative. i see shark week as a chance to shed light on the difficulties faced by sharks in the wild. for instance, did you know that more than 100 million sharks are killed around the world each year by commercial fishing. also that sharks alongside crocodiles are the world's oldest living animals believed to be older than dinosaurs? they've been on this planet for billions of years.



Not only that but let's face it.. sharks are awesome. I mean, how many other people know that sharks have five 15 rows of teeth in each jaw? Or that a lot of weird things have been found inside sharks, such as a nail, a bottle of wine, a treasure chest, coats, a suit of armor, a drum and a torpedo. Oh and a question: What is more dangerous to people - a shark or a wasp/bee? Answer: wasp/bee!! Every year, 100 people die from wasp or bee stings, yet hundreds of millions of people go swimming, and sharks kill only about six people worldwide. Only about 25 sharks have been known to actually attack people. Every year, people kill thousands of sharks. They are killed for food, oil, skins and sport.

Here are some other things i learned from shark week 2013...

• Sharks do not have bones.
• it's a shark-eat-shark world ...parents sometimes eat their embroyos and even the babies, once they develop teeth they eat their brothers and sisters who are not yet developed. . yuck!! it's called intrauterine cannibalism. i'll never forget. haha 
• Most sharks have good eyesight.
• Sharks have special electroreceptor organs.
• the way sharks breathe is by ram ventilation, a process that forces water into their mouths and then processes it as they swim forward.
• Shark skin feels similar to sandpaper.
• Sharks can go into a trance
• Sharks have been around a very long time.
• Scientists age sharks by counting the rings on their vertebrae.
• Blue sharks are really blue.
• Every once in a while, a female shark can reproduce without any contact from a male, an act known as parthenogenesis. Scientists have only documented a couple of cases of parthenogenesis, but some suspect that just about any female shark can get pregnant on her own in the right circumstances.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/sharkweek
About Shark Week: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Week

mid-year reflection

I often take a few minutes out of my hectic days every several months throughout the year to reflect on my progress at completing my new years resolutions, and life goals in general. i think this helps me keep my mind on track on what it should be on track of, and not let myself stray too far away on life's distractions.

The last year has been so full of ups and downs, hills and valleys. Some of the happiest moments of my life, and the very worst. Oprah Winfrey made a good point today, when someone asked her how she was, she talked about how all we know and can cling to is faith. faith.. now that is a word that feels good to say :)

this new year, a few of my main goals were to get into a more stable job, work on maintaining an excellent relationship with my loved ones, expand my modeling portfolio, and let my creativity run wild.

Stable Job: I moved to the west coast & found an amazing job as an Administrative Assistant. I loved it in Arizona. Beautiful views, weather, people, etc. However it was very slow-paced. I am from Chicago, so I need that fast paced atmosphere. I love music, and need to feel it in my soul at least once a week! I moved back home because I was missing my family terribly. I am now living in the house my fiance's grandma left him when she passed away last year, and trying to take it day by day. Thankfully, I was able to get my old job back as the Sales Assistant!

Relationships: anyone who knows my ex and i know we argue quite a bit. it's almost as if we must do in order to have a normal day. no one else in this world can bring out the absolute worse in me but the very next minute he brings out the best as well. i am still trying to figure us out, but so far this road has been intense but every bit exhilarating. 

As far as expanding my creativity, I wanted to branch off of things my mother in law was doing. Her and I have endless supplies to pretty much do anything I want. I started a few scrapbooks. I am making one just of my life, which kind of turned into mine and my fiance's life LOL and another one of the people in my life, my homes, views, states ive lived in, friends, family, etc etc. Not only that but I also am making holiday cards, which are pretty detailed. i'll upload some pics soon to show you guys a peek. I got the idea from my mommy in law who does such an incredible job on them... and she does it for fun! She eventually began to make lots and sell them, but it started off just for her own fun. Isn't that ironic how the greatest ideas start off not as something serious in the first place? haha

Enough of that, now onto a bit more serious note mentally.. onto something else that has been weighing on my mind..

So there have been a few times that i have started to write, but realized that some of my thoughts were too raw, and didn't want to be too mysterious, making people wonder if it's them i'm talking about, etc. so i did some processing myself .. && i've realized a few things.

1:: i'm in the process of mourning a friendship that will never be the same again. it's hard knowing that you have reached the point where you were the closest, and that that will probably never happen again. it's hard to just fall off each others radars and not feel like a big chunk of you is missing. i don't know how to explain it, but it's been weighing on my heart the last few weeks. it's not like it was an argument that could have been prevented either... i always knew this particular thing about her would have came between us, i just always tried to ignore it but there just comes a time in life where you have to not associate yourself with things of that nature, and i came to it.

2:: i've also realized is that i desperately want to really talk to people I haven't in a while. I want to ask them how they are. I want this in return. I think that if you don't have people asking about you and the state of your heart then it is easy to let that get pushed to the back burner and allows you to not take care of your heart or address it in the state that it is in.

3:: i've realized (i mean, i always knew this but..) i am an excessive talker, it doesn't take a lot of questions to get me rolling, which i guess ties into the previous point. i always find myself, especially on facebook, writing things so vividly and in graphic detail so the other person can visualize what it is i am trying to say. not only that, but i also like to express all of my emotions in my writing, so i always include smiley emoticons, etc and i use repetition of letters to express an emphasis like haaaaaaaaaappy birthday! haha sometimes i walk away from conversations being like "wow, i just dumped that on that person, and they don't even want to know about it", but if they had asked it would've felt like more of a conversation... lol Make sense?

4: lastly, there are only a handful people in my life now that i would consider my close friends that i genuinely care for about enjoy being around. I love this. It would be very easy to dwell on the fact that that number used to be bigger, but that i want to CHOOSE to dwell on how fortunate i am to have even the people that i do have with me to this day. i need to choose to be thankful for those that are there, because dwelling on anything else doesn't help at all.

so dear friends, know that i am thankful for you, probably more than you know.

So as you can see my mid-year reflections are quite excessive, and I tend to blabber on and on and on. So if you're still reading, high five to you girlfren!!! (yes, i am assuming that not a single male read this, i know i am right lol.)

tanning 101 xx

disclaimer: this is going to be a very thorough post-- very long and picture heavy. i was not paid by any company, these are all items I purchased on my own based on my results. this post is for informational purposes only. please refrain from posting negative comments. thank you :)

We all want our natural Summer tan to last all throughout the cold harsh Winter, so in order to do that we can maintain it with indoor tanning. I want to share what I know about tanning!

tanning background xx
ok, here is the boring but very necessary knowledge you should know prior to indoor tanning. first let us begin with how the beds work.

There is the vertical or 'stand up' beds. These are my favorite as I am a germaphobe and do not like to lay down on a bed millions of others were on unless I know the tanning girl who cleans the beds, and trust her cleaning. Stand Up beds also provide a 100% even tan, as opposed to the horizontal beds which cannot get your pressure points (parts of body you're putting most pressure on when laying down) such as your lower back, and under your butt cheeks ;] Also under your arms, and your feet! The horizontal beds are ideal for relaxing though.

Then there are low pressured beds with UVB rays and high pressured beds with UVA rays.
Okay, so there are level 1-6 tanning beds. Every salon has different beds, but usually the levels 1, 2 and 3 are UVB bulbs. Beds 4, 5, and 6 are UVA bulbs. The difference between the two is UVB bulbs penetrate the skin plateau way deeper giving you a base tan that lasts longer because it goes deeper. This is why it is pertinent you start with a level one bed if you are new to tanning, or if you are fair skinned. The UVA Bulbs only penetrate the top two layers of the skin which is beneficial for maintaining a tan. The higher the level, the more high pressured the bulbs are. So in short, UVB starts the tanning process by stimulating the tanning cells to produce pigment, and UVA rays darken the melanin that has been produced maintaining an overall tan.


tanning necessities & wants xx
okay, so now that we got the boring technical stuff out of the way -- onto the goodies! this involves shopping-- woo hoo ;) what do you need when you are going to tan? personally, I have my own purse for tanning LOL what that bag includes are: 

[-] hair tie to tie your hair up
[-] lip balm because your lips are very likely to burn or dry out quickly
[-] my jewelry holder case to store my jewelry in when I am in the tanning bed
[-] change of clothes-- usually sweats/gym clothes I don't care if they get stained, etc.
[-] my tanning lotions-- my body lotion, face lotion, accelerator,& post-tan extender. 
[-] my stickers, eye protectors, hair net protector. 
[-] mini towel to wipe myself off after tanning
[-] hair heat protectant spray-- yes I am a freak about it! my hair is past my butt, so I am very anal on keeping it healthy, and tanning beds are extreme damage.

well, by law, you absolutely need eye protection. Sunglasses do not cut it. These are eye protectors that all tanning salons sell, but they are universally the same thing. Little half egg couplets that rest on your eyes. I have a picture of mine, plus the convenient case they come in. I have two, one I keep in my car and the other in my tanning purse.

In addition to the tanning stickers to place any where on your skin to judge the depth of your tan after every session, there are many other cosmetics you can use while tanning. Check out the picture to the side, you can really see the difference in shading huh?? I just love this idea of tanning stickers! :)

Tanning salons have many different kinds of stickers including peace signs, thunder bolts, hearts, play boy bunnies, stars, palm trees, little guns, hello kitty, and many many more. the main three are hearts, thunder bolts, playboy bunnies, and palm trees. i love the hearts and stars, but switch it up in the summer time. it usually takes 2-4 sessions to notice a different in shade. the stomach is the best spot as our stomachs seem to tan the hardest.

 
 Another product I absolutely love are the sprays my tanning salon carries. 

One is GLO Naked which is a body shimmering spray. It makes you skin silky smooth, and shimmers the right amount without overdoing it. I use it on my legs only unless I am going somewhere where I will be in water-- then I will do my entire body. 

The other product is Bare Shine Hair Spray. This spray is ideal for protecting it from heat, especially tanning bed heat which is why it is recommended to apply to hair prior to tanning.
I love the smell of both the sprays, and they were about $16 each.

Tan Extenders
 Below are three different lotions I love to use. White bottle is the HEMP NATION tan extender, middle blue bottle is Kardashian Glow Tan Extender, and far right is Aloe There tan Extender. 
I have used HEMP NATION and Kardashian Glow, not the Aloe There yet. 

My favorite is the Kardashian Glow Tan Extender. There was a time I was on vacation and did not tan for over three weeks, and still maintained my sun kissed bronze and I believe it was due to this lotion.

 Next we have two products most tanning bed users do not know about. They are 'Nail Savers."
As you tan more and more, if you have acrylic nails on all the time like I do, you will notice your nails start turning green or yellow. it is disgusting, and I do not ever want to see it happen to my nails so I use prevention and use these babies on my nails! I do not have any thing but polish on my toes, so I do not use the toe savers, but some girls do! to each their own, right? =]

tanning basics  xx

Many people wonder what they should wear to the tanning salon. This is very much based on your own preference. I know many women who come right from work in their dressy work clothes and do not mind. I personally carry a change of clothes in my tanning tote bag for when i get out of the tanning bed, so what i wear TO the salon is irrelevant.

Now, when it comes to what you should wear IN the bed -- this is also personal preference. Some people are absolutely appalled at the mere thought of laying in a tanning bed naked, especially knowing that someone else laid in that tanning bed naked. Others could care less, and trust their tanning salon to properly sanitize the bed before they get into it. Their are a lot of different views on this particular question, and it all comes down to one very simply answer: wear whatever you are comfortable in, and remember that you will get tan lines. if you wear your bathing suit every time, you will have tan lines that reflect that. This is why I go 100% naked!!! ;]

tanning lotions xx
I will add a few basics here but I have a separate blog post on lotions which answers which lotions are my favorite and least favorite; why do we need lotions; what is inside the lotions; why are they so expensive; and what the different types of lotions are and which are beneficial to your skin type. Very informative post!! The link will be provided when i am finished with it. For now here are some of the basic lotions i use. Face lotion and a body lotion. Designer Skin is my favorite brand.

sunless tanning xx
Most salons do have a market for sunless tanning, as with the very well known tanning horror stories-- many people turn to sunless tanning to as a means to an end. lol Below are products that L.A. Tan has which is my go to tanning salon. VersaSpa Pro is the newest machine they have which provides an amazingly even sunless glow with four different levels to choose from. Below are pre tan exfoliants, moisturizers, and after tan extenders all used with sunless tanning for a better, richer, longer lasting glow.

I sunless tan when i want a dark bronze color in the shortest amount of time -- for instance a couple days before a wedding, etc. always sunless tan 48-72 hours prior to an event! You may have streaking, but more importantly the sunless tan takes that long for its truest color to develop!

very frequently asked questions xx
I hear these questions asked in the salon I go to the most. if you have any other questions, chances are I will more than likely know the answer. Please just leave it in the comment section below and depending on the question, I might even add it to my post, of course with your name and blog next to it for the great recommendation, and my best and most honest answer! thanks babes! xx

[x] why doesn't the entire body tan at the same rate? there are lotions specifically made for the face, for the legs, etc as those tend to not tan as fast/dark as the mid section of the body. my abs tan the hardest-- my stomach is SUPER dark. The fact, however, is an exposed area. With a mix of  the day's lotions, make-up, sweat, bacteria and other substances-- they all act as a barrier to a portion of the UV light.  Also, we all wash our face which  tends to rub off skin cells more so than on other parts of the body.

[x] why doesn't the tan last? well some of you may not know this but, the skin's repair mechanism consists of the top skin layer (epidermis) replacing all it's skin cells every 28 to 30 days. A tan can only be maintained by repeated exposure to the UV light in the beds.

[x] should I shower before or after tanning?
It would be better if you showered first, exfoliate and MOISTURIZE ---then used the bronzer. The easiest way to make a distinction is to think of bronzers as a form of make-up. Self-tanners can last up to a few days, even with showering, because they produce a chemical reaction in the skin. If you’re after a longer lasting effect, exfoliate your skin prior to using a self-tanner. If you don’t exfoliate first, it’s like using car polish on a paint job that is oxidized. For a longer lasting effect you would first use a compound to get rid of the oxidized paint, and then use a polish! get it!? also, you do not want to be streaky because you showered prior to the recommended 4-6 hours. However, there are now types of tanning lotions such as natural bronzers which allow you to shower immediately after you tan for situations such as you going out that night, etc.

Last but not least -- stay hydrated!!! your skin needs to regenerate, and stay moisturized!! keeping hydrated it very important in developing a great, but safe tan!! 

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Always do your research!!!

thank you my lovelies <3