Missed the #ClosetRaidSwap? Shop the Racks at Goodwill!

Great quote from the founder of Goodwill

Did you miss the ClosetRaid Swap party I hosted earlier this month? No worries! Goodwill has graciously set up a special section in their Village Boutique store of the items that went unswapped. There are some really great items so get them while they're still available. Limited time only!

3 Cute Summer Shorts Under $45

The heat is on! Time to get your legs ready for shorts season. Here are three pairs that I'm loving:

1. I can't find the exact print of the LOFT shorts I purchased but these are similar for $44.50. They are white and blue as well. Very comfortable and flattering!

Something About Red Makes A Woman So Sexy

                                                                                                   Source: tumblr.com via Kasama on Pinterest

Bill Blass was on to something... I definitely think all women look great in red. Something about the color makes a woman look so sexy in it. Whether it's a pair of heels, lipstick or a gorgeous dress. Here are some Pinterest photos to make my point:

Downton Abbey is Having a Major Impact on Fashion

                                                                                                 Source: google.com via Laura on Pinterest

Fashion is influenced by many things: culture, socio-economics, politics, music, art. Now add television to the list. TV is a major part of our culture. TV usually represented the style of the times: 90210 and Saved by the Bell in the '90s or Gossip Girl today. However, with the growing trend of period piece television, shows like Mad Men and Downton Abbey are influencing fashion like no show ever have in the past.

Your Chance to Win Marilyn Monroe's Beauty Secret - Erno Laszlo!

Erno Laszlo is famous for giving celebs like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn flawless skin. In honor of Marilyn's 86th birthday and Erno Laszlo's 85th, they are releasing The Hollywood Collection which includes products inspired by their famous fans.

FBFF: Summer Trends I'm Loving

5 Summer Trends I Want to Wear by kimberleevdw

This week's FBFF theme is summer trends. Here are 5 summer trends I'm loving:

1. Tangerine. “Tangerine Tango” is the official color of 2012 and there’s no better time to wear this bright color than the summer. The good news is that it’s available in all shades so you can find the best one for you. Add small pops of color with your accessories or go bold in some orange jeans.

Nautical Stripe Nails For Memorial Day Weekend

Source: thebeautydepartment.com via Tracy on Pinterest

I like to get festive with my nails! In honor of Memorial Day weekend, I thought I'd do some navy and white stripes (with a touch of red!). I used:

IFB WEEKLY ROUND UP: LINKS À LA MODE: MAY 24TH

So honored to be featured in IFB's Links À La Mode this week! Be sure to stop by and comment on the other great posts listed.

DIY Days of Summer

Review: Anastasia's Lash Genius Waterproof Topcoat Mascara

I recently won Anastasia's Lash Genius Clear Waterproof Topcoat mascara thanks to Style Me BAD's giveaway! Anastasia Beverly Hills has built a great reputation for their brow products and tools. I was excited to try this product. My eyes are very sensitive to non-waterproof mascara but non-waterproof mascaras don't dry up as quickly.

New OkCupid Trend: Men Sipping Straws

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Online dating is pretty comical sometimes. You really see what kind of weirdos are out there. You definitely need a sense of humor if you're going to do it. I definitely don't expect to find the man of my dreams but someone to have fun with. When it comes to creating your online profile, I feel like women put a lot more thought and effort into them than heterosexual men (can only speak from my experience). Browsing profiles today on OkCupid I came across a trend: men sipping on straws. I'm always intrigued why people select the profile pictures they do. Yes, these are all their main profile pics that people see while browsing (otherwise I wouldn't have clicked on them). What are they trying to tell us with these? That they're fun, have a sense of humor, like to drink coffee? You be the judge...

MakeUp: New Beauty Adviser App

I was invited to try a new app called MakeUp which was recently featured in WWD. “The ultimate vision is that a customer walks into a store like Duane Reade, approaches a beauty counter looking for a foundation and uses ModiFace for product recommendations and to see how shades look on her,” says Parham Aarabi, CEO of ModiFace.

Why You Should Take My Fashion Degree Seriously

"Did you study Polka Dots 101?" That was one of the not so clever jokes I would get when people would find out I studied fashion in college. That's one of the many reasons I started this blog. I'm not sure when studying fashion became such a joke, it's a billion dollar industry. Most of my career has stayed within fashion but that's not my only interest so I have tried to branch out in my career.

How to: Ombre Nails

For the ClosetRaid swap party this weekend, I decided to do ombre nails in the ClosetRaid logo colors: white, blue and black. I've done ombre nails where each finger was a slightly different shade of one color but never on one nails. After doing a little research on YouTube, I never realized how easy it was!

#ClosetRaidSwap Party Event Recap!

Calm before the storm

On Saturday I had the pleasure of co-hosting ClosetRaid's launch party at Projective Space. ClosetRaid is the new social way to sell, swap or donate your items to your online community. Swap parties are the best way to clean out your closets and give unwanted items new loving homes. If your items weren't swapped, then our wonderful donation partners Goodwill, Room to Grow and WGirls are going to take great care of them - nothing went unloved!

Bar III Fall 2012 Preview Event

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending Bar III's preview of their Fall 2012 collection. They had displays of their home decor, menswear and womenswear. There were great uses of print, mixing patterns and laser cut details. Let's take a look:

FBFF: My Daily Beauty Routine

                                                                                          Source: womenshealthmag.com via Kimberlee on Pinterest

This week's FBFF theme is daily beauty products. I wrote about what's in my beauty cabinet before and not much has changed. I would add:

Don't Judge A Bottle By It's Cover

Looks red right?

While I was looking for some fun neon colors to try this summer, I came across a swatch of China Glaze's "Rose Among Thorns." I quickly ordered it and when the bottle came I was a little surprised. It looked red. I held off on wearing it because I honestly was disappointed. Then this week, I thought to myself "why not just give it a try?" and man did I love it! It's a super neon pink color that has hints of red but definitely not as dark as the bottle (pictures don't do it justice unfortunately). I love how shocking it is!

RIP Donna Summer

Say what you will about disco, but there's no denying Donna Summer's voice! She was a great talent and beauty. Today she lost her battle with cancer at the age of 63. Another great voice gone too soon. She had 5 Grammy awards, 3 multi-platinum albums, first female African-American to receive a MTV VMA nomination for "She Works Hard for the Money," had a top 40 hit every year between 1976 and 1984 (damn!) and countless others. Her songs spoke to what women were feeling and wanted to dance to. How can we forget "Bad Girls"?

Escape Hectic New York City at Spa Merge

Gorgeous lobby

I've been a little stressed planning the swap party as well as others (announcements coming soon!). I decided to treat myself to a massage yesterday at Spa Merge. One of the perks when I worked at Spa Week was that we received vouchers for a free one hour treatment at Spa Merge when we hosted the Hot Spa Mom Night last year. It was a great chance to finally use it! Spa Merge is located in Midtown West right next to the Hilton Club and is gorgeous!

Get Permanent Hair Removal With Silk'n Flash & Go At Home!

Fun fact about Kim: I am a bit OCD about hair. I really hate body hair. If I see dark body hair on someone else, I immediately shave that body part even though I don't have thick, dark hair there. TMI, I know. But now I don't need to obsess because there's an at-home permanent hair removal system! I was excited to try Silk'n Flash and Go! It should really be called "Simple" Flash and Go because the treatments are so easy to do. The device does all the work for you. All you need to do is clean, shave and dry the area you wish to treat.

Review: Elizabeth Grant's Collagen Face Pad

Now we can't all go to the spa every week, we're not the Real Housewives. But there are some great beauty products that bring the spa experience to you. Elizabeth Grant's Collage Face Pads are one of those items. They come in a 4 pack for $40. Celebrities of all ages are fans like Jennifer Aniston, Hillary Duff and the whole Gossip Girl crew.

Why Women Make Better Community Managers

The role of a Community Manager has been loosely defined. The responsibilities vary company to company and especially depend on how large the company is.  The smaller the company, the more responsibility. A general definition of a Community Manager is someone who uses online networks to be the voice of the company to the community and the voice of the community to the company (Social Media Today). Most CMs interact with the community which typically involve crisis management, customer service, dealing with complaints, etc. 

My Spring Beauty Influenster VoxBox

This month I qualified for Influenster's VoxBox which featured Spring Beauty products. Like most boxes, there were was an interesting assortment of products but overall I really liked the box. Some great products I already love and some new ones to try! Here's what I received:

Q&A With PRINCE Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Matthew Grimsley

There's a new online magazine for stylish men, PRINCE Magazine. It is geared towards stylish, young, professional metropolitan men. The magazine just launched in April and features diversity, styling advice and tips, editorials, trends, lifestyle photo shoots, and more. The concept was developed and brought to life by Matthew Grimsley (Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, and Creative Director), Tyler Hill (Co-Founder and Managing Editor), and Bryant Littrean (Co-Founder and Publishing Director). The recent issue has articles like "In a sea of neutrals, how does a Prince add that extra edge to his wardrobe without being overtly bold?" and "Patterns are cool, but prints are hot!"

Come Swap With Me And ClosetRaid May 19th!

I'm so pleased to announce that I'll be playing host for a fabulous swap event with ClosetRaid! ClosetRaid is a fun and social way to showcase, sell, swap or give away your items with your networks! The event will be held Saturday, May 19th at the Projective Space in Lower East Side which is a fabulous open loft space above Zarin Fabrics. The swap is not just limited to clothes, feel free to bring baby clothes, house ware items, books, electronics, etc. Goodwill, Room To Grow and WGirls will be on site to collect donations.

Birchbox's Exclusive Zoya Nail Polish Collection Swatches

When I found out about Birchbox and Zoya's Exclusive Blogger Collection, I immediately had to buy them! They were very on trend with a mix of corals and tangerine colors. You get all three in the set (couldn't find them separately).

Fitness Magazine's Meet 'n Tweet Event in New York City

Yesterday I attended Fitness Magazine's first ever Meet 'n Tweet event for bloggers at the Metropolitan Pavilion. It was a day full of activities centered around fitness. There were panels with experts giving their best diet tips. Work out sessions thanks to KiwiSweat and lots of great vendors to shop.

5 Mother's Day Gift Ideas Under $50

This Sunday is Mother's Day. A time to celebrate mom and give her a gift that lets her know you care. Or is practical since her life is so chaotic! Here are some gift ideas I've given to my mom in the past (since I'll never be able to top that poem I wrote for her in middle school!) and perhaps will give you some ideas for what to get your mom:

What's Your Worst Fashion (Or Beauty) Disaster?

Today I'm featured along with 6 other bloggers on Betty Confidential where we shared our fashion or beauty disasters in partnership with Dove. I'm pretty glad I didn't have any photographic evidence of mine!

My Gossip Girl Birchbox Arrived!

I was so excited when I found out that this month's Birchbox was going to be Gossip Girl inspired! Gossip Girl quickly became one of my favorite shows thanks to the Twitter chats and the good looks of Chuck Bass (a.k.a. Ed Westwick). The products selected are to help give you the chicest brunch look as a Manhattan socialite (or pretend to be). Overall, the box was an improvement. There were definitely bigger samples this time.

Stop Clogging My Twitter Feed!

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I am on Twitter almost all day. It's part of my job. This means that I see A LOT of tweets and I've grown exhausted of my feed from time to time. Then I remember "Oh yeah, I can curate my feed!" so I'll do an occasional cleaning out. Some may say you have Lists to organize tweets so it's not so crowded. However, I feel if you can't hold value in my main Twitter stream then why am I going to follow you? There are two major reasons I unfollow: you tweet too much or not at all.

My May Sample Society Box

I have to say, I was disappointed by this month's Sample Society box. I was pretty impressed from the get-go with them. They promise 5 deluxe size samples which is why you pay $15 versus the typical $10. As you can see, there are 5 items but they are not "deluxe" size. The box looks pretty empty. I received:

FBFF: Are You Going to Instagram That?

Image via

This week's FBFF topic is talking about Instagram and any other photo sharing apps we bloggers use. I am DROID user so I wasn't able to enjoy Instagram until a few weeks ago. I know some of my iPhone friends claim that now that DROID users are on it, that it's gotten spammy. iPhone users were very pretentious that Instagram was such an exclusive thing to them. I don't get why we can't all enjoy it?! And now with Instagram being purchased by Facebook for a whopping 1 billion dollars... the photo community is going to expand. Some tech sites have tried to predict what new features will be added to the service, perhaps being able to "tag" your friends. Now there's Pinstagram where you can "pin" your Instagram photos to your Pinterest boards. It seems the possibilities are endless for this only 2 years old service...

My May Julep Maven Box

Always enjoy getting my monthly goodies in the mail. For those who don't know, Julep Maven is a monthly subscription where you get first dibs on new Julep Nail Vernis colors. They're now available in Sephora as well. This month's box was all about fun in the sun which means it's time to get your feet ready for sandals!

There's No Room For Your Lack of Ego Here

                                                                                     Source: beauty-in-life.tumblr.com via Hannah on Pinterest

I used to think being humble was one of the greatest qualities my parent's instilled in me, my sister and my brother. We were raised never to brag about what we had and always know that we could improve next time. Success was never defined by material things. We each had our own definition of success. Mine is living in New York City and working at a job that I love. People spend a majority of their lifetime at work, so I could not understand why someone would want to be miserable at a job (yes I understand it's a luxury). I pursued fashion because everyone I met in the industry loved their job. I wanted to love my job.

My Free Target Goodie Bag Arrived!

Every so often Target gives away a free bag of beauty samples. I immediately sign up! The Limerick Lane is my go-to lady to finding out when they are available. It usually takes a few weeks to arrive (but it's free so don't complain!) This month's goodies came in a cute color blocking bag from London SoHo. My old bag is getting pretty dirty so definitely excited for a new one!

Review: TRESemme Split Remedy Split End Sealing Serum

Say that 5 times real fast? I have been trying to find Dove's Nourishing Ends after a fellow blog recommended it. However, I have been unsuccessful. After searching several Duane Reade stores, Target and Walgreens. I decided to try TRESemme's Spit Remedy Split End Sealing Serum. It "seals in shine for a polished finish." TRESemme has created an entire Split Remedy line that includes shampoo, conditioner and spray which is supposed to help in caring for split ends. For about $5, you get 3.3 fl oz of product. As compared to Dove's product which is about a dollar cheaper but you only get 1.7 fl oz.