Birds of a Feather...

Another bird-printed dress, you say? It really should come at no surprise by now that I love birds and other animal prints on my dresses :). I saw this dress on ModCloth last year but missed it in my size. I was so excited when I found out that my local Unique Vintage store had it! I was able to buy it at a Black Friday discount a few weeks ago. In these pictures taken last weekend, I am wearing the dress with red Ruby Shoo shoes.

I've been meaning to do this post for a few days now, but I got really sick on Wednesday and didn't feel like doing much aside from sleeping and watching Netflix. Thankfully I feel a lot better now; lemon tea and DayQuil can do wonders! Last Thursday, I took my anatomy final and a few days afterwards I found out that I got an A in the class (yay!). I'm off from school until spring semester starts in mid-February which is when I'll be taking physiology and possibly a second class. Until then, I'll be working and enjoying the holiday season, meaning soon I'll be posting more winter/Christmas-y outfits :). And, Edwin is in LA until January 5th so I'll get to see more of him too! Because he lives in San Diego, we only see each other on the weekends so it's nice to have him back for some time during the holidays.  Speaking of which, about two weeks ago he surprised me with my (early) Christmas gift-- he got me my absolutely most-coveted wishlist item, this beautiful Bernie Dexter Winter Wonderland dress. I was so excited and I cannot wait to do an outfit post with it!

Some more good news: the physical therapy clinic where I've been volunteering once a week has offered to hire me part-time starting January as a therapist aide! I'll primarily be responsible for leading patients through their exercises, helping with charts/administrative things, setting up rooms for evals, and essentially assisting the therapists as needed. I'll still be working at the research lab part-time, but between the two jobs I'm excited to be transitioning over from a research setting to a more clinical, patient-interactive setting and getting the necessary experience to apply to grad school later this year.

Outfit Details:

Dress: Unique Vintage

Shoes: Ruby Shoo Loretta

Necklace: Sidecca

I need your advice! You may have noticed that I've added a copyright text to all of my photos. The reason is because a few days ago, I found out that a user on the website Deviant Art had used one of my outfit photos on her page, claiming it as her own photography. Of course I reported it and it was taken down, but I promptly went back through all my photos and added the copyright to each one. Has anyone been in a situation like this before? How have you handled it? I don't necessarily like putting text on my photos and was wondering what alternatives there are or what suggestions you may have!

I hope everyone has a lovely upcoming holiday season!

A man’s heart plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

eShakti Dress Review!

Over the past year I’ve become fairly familiar with a number of vintage and retro-inspired brands. Through blogging and just generally shopping online, the brand eShakti has popped up a few times. I’ve occasionally seen bloggers wearing their clothing but I'd never purchased anything from them myself. So you can imagine how excited I was when a rep from eShakti contacted me asking if I’d like to review one of their products on my blog! There were so many pretty dresses to choose from and it took me forever and a day to decide on one. I finally went with the Bird’s Eye View Poplin Dress (in white). I just loved its full skirt and beautiful neckline. Not to mention the embroideries of the birds totally sold me on it! I love clothing with prints and if you know me, you know I how much I love birds (especially painting them!).

The really cool thing about eShakti is that for an additional $7.50 you can get the dress custom-made to your exact measurements. This is perfect for people who struggle with being in between sizes. Of course you can always just go with a standard size too. Another cool feature is having the option to choose the length, sleeve type, and neckline of a dress. There is also an option to remove the pockets or embroideries – though I don't see why I would ever want to remove the cute birdies on this dress but that's just me :).

With the chance to have a dress sized exactly to my proportions, I decided on custom sizing. I also changed the length of my dress to above-knee-length (it was below-knee by default) and kept the neckline, pockets, and embroidery the same.

When I finally received the dress and tried it on, it fit perfectly! The zipper closure on the side was a bit tough to zip up at first, but once I had it closed the dress fit like a glove. Being made of a cotton and poplin blend, it’s sturdy yet light and breezy, which is a good thing when you live in Southern California. I was a bit worried about the white fabric of this dress being see-through but it wasn’t a problem. It’s very comfortable to wear and especially fun to twirl in! I styled the dress with sheer black tights, black-and-white heels, my Sourpuss Floozy purse, and a white flower :).

I’m pretty happy with this dress and it’s likely that I will order from eShakti again. I love that their dresses fit a wide range of women. They offer sizes from 0-36W! In their mission statement, they say: “at eShakti, we never want to tell a woman her size is not available. We believe that all women have the right to wear affordable fashion that is made for them and makes them look their absolute best.” I wholeheartedly agree that all women should feel beautiful in their clothing!

Outfit Details:

Dress: c/o eShakti

Cardi: Pin Up Girl Clothing

Tights: ModCloth

Purse: Floozy Purse by Sourpuss

Heels: Modcloth (on sale!)

Loving the full skirt!

You can find eShakti on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. If you would like to make a purchase from eShakti, they are currently offering a $30 gift coupon for new customers. Additionally, they were kind enough to provide me with a 10% off coupon code to share with my readers, just enter "lesoleilchic" to get the discount – valid through December 25, 2014 :).

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Note: This dress was provided courtesy of eShakti, however all opinions are strictly my own and I was in no way offered monetary compensation for this review. Pictures taken by Edwin V., edited by me.

Blogger Interview On The Soubrette Brunette!

Happy December 1st! I hope everyone had a lovely extended Thanksgiving weekend! We spent Thanksgiving at a family friend's home and had a great time, not to mention all the great food. I wore my new eShakti dress which I'll be reviewing in an upcoming post, so keep an eye out for that :). As for Black Friday, I got sucked in to one too many deals but I did get some good stuff at a bargain (mostly on clothing and cosmetics) so no complaints there :). Were you able to score any good deals? I'd love to know!

I'm so excited to share that Sammi of The Soubrette Brunette chose to interview me for her monthly blogger interview series! I'm featured for the month of December and if you're interested in learning a bit more about me, such as what my dream job is or my favorite guilty pleasure, you can read the interview here. As you all know I haven't been blogging for too long and I'm so honored and grateful to be picked by Sammi to participate in her series! I absolutely adore her style and she has the best novelty handbags! Be sure to check out the rest of her blog as well :).

Have a lovely week everyone!

Liebster Award Nomination

Happy Friday! I'm so excited to have been nominated by the lovely Amanda of Sans Scrubs to participate in the Leibster Awards! A Leibster Award is a fun way to learn more about other bloggers by asking them a whole bunch of "facts-about-you" type questions. Amanda is one of the sweetest bloggers I've met, not to mention her style is totally adorable, and I'm so honored to have been nominated by her :).

 

The Rules:

1) Acknowledge the blog who nominated you

2) Answer the 11 questions given to you from the blogger

3) Give 11 random facts about yourself

4) Nominate 11 blogs you think are deserving of the award (less than 200 followers)

5) Let the bloggers know that you have nominated them

6) Give 11 questions for them to answer

7) Display the award photo in your post 

Amanda's Questions:

1. What inspired you to start writing/blogging? 

I am a fairly new blogger actually :), I decided to start blogging a few months ago when I realized I wanted to share my outfits with more than the people I saw in person every day. By blogging, I can connect with a whole community of fashion bloggers from all corners of the world who have my similar tastes in fashion. Needless to say I'm lucky to have "met" so many lovely ladies (like Amanda!) who inspire and influence my own style!

Stripes & Flowers for Fall

Oh man! It's been over a month since I last posted. Things have been super busy lately! I have a test every two weeks for my anatomy class and it seems like as soon as one thing is over, something else comes up. Good news is that I'm doing well so far and after my final on December 4, I'm done with school until February which is when spring semester starts :). I have a few updates to share! I transitioned to part-time at my research job because it was getting really difficult having a full-time job while also taking classes and volunteering at a clinic. Going part-time wasn't an easy decision but I like to think of it as an investment for the future since I need to take a few more classes for grad school. With my pay now cut in half, I'll have to start being more careful with my spending habits. I'm not too sure how that will go because there is always something new popping up on my wish-list! 

Edwin has been coming back to LA on more weekends than usual lately which has been nice. For us, weekends are super busy since we plan for every activity to make the most of our time together. Over the past few weekends we have gone shopping a few times, went on a couple double dates, spent time with family, oh and we saw Interstellar the other night! It was an amazing movie and I definitely recommend you see it, especially if you love sci-fi and story lines that spark lots of thought and discussion. At 3 hours it's a little long but you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time :). This past Saturday was also our church youth group's annual Thanksgiving dinner night. It was a potluck-type event and we had a lot of good food. We had a guest speaker talk about the importance of serving each other the way Jesus served us. We also played some games and had the most delicious (early) Thanksgiving dinner.

Now for the fun part, outfit photos! I'm sharing a few photos from one of the weekends that I spent with Edwin. I think the beige and burgundy colors of this dress are perfect for fall. I wore it with matching burgundy tights and tan heels. My favorite part is the flower applique at the waistline! This is also the same outfit I wore at our youth group's Thanksgiving event. I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week!

P.S. I also got new eyeglasses from Tiffany & Co! I was looking for eyeglasses with a subtle cat-eye frame and cute details, and these were perfect. You can see me wearing them in a few of the pictures!

Outfit Details

Dress: Ryu via ModCloth

Tights: ModCloth

Heels: ModCloth

Bonus Picture: With the photographer himself (aka the love of my life)

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:34

Oh, Deer!

Yay for cooler weather! This past weekend the temps dropped lower than usual and the first thing I did was plan an outfit with tights and booties. Last winter I got these super cute sheer black tights lined with hearts along the back seam and I hadn't had a chance to wear them until now. Unfortunately they are so delicate that they already tore at first use but thankfully the tear is at the bottom of my foot so as long as I keep my shoes on I should be able to get some more wear out of them :).

On Friday, I went to a family friend's house for dinner with my mom and sister. During the week we are all so busy with our own schedules that it's nice when we can get together and go somewhere. I also spent some time with Edwin's family. He was back from San Diego since his aunt and uncle are visiting from out of town and staying with his parents. Here are a few pictures that were taken at his house on Saturday. I'm wearing this adorable deer-printed dress from ModCloth's in-house brand "Bea & Dot" with sheer black tights and burgundy booties. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

I have an anatomy exam a week from today so I have to start studying like now so I don't fall behind. This class is very fast-paced and material-heavy and I cannot afford to procrastinate! Aside from work and class, I am hoping a good chunk of my week will be spent studying. I hope everyone has a good rest of the week!

 

Outfit Details:

Dress: Bea & Dot by ModCloth

Tights: ModCloth

Booties: Forever 21

Coat: ModCloth (similar here)

Bag: Michael Kors

Casual Friday

T-G-I-F! I don't know about everyone else but after a busy week of work and school, I'm super ready for the weekend. My boyfriend (Edwin) has family visiting from out of town so he'll be back in LA this weekend (yay!) which means I'll get to see him and also spend time with his visiting family. The weather here is still pretty warm despite it being mid October. I love warm weather but it feels like it's been summer forever and I'm so anxious to pull out my tights and boots to put cute fall outfits together. Until it cools down enough to wear layers, I decided darker or muted colors are a perfect transition into the fall season. For example, last weekend I wore this outfit: 

Outfit Details:

Top: ModCloth (similar here)

Cardi: Forever 21 (similar here)

Skirt: H&M

Oxfords: ModCloth (similar here)

I think the maroon and navy are ideal colors for the fall season, compared to the bright reds and blues more appropriate for summertime. I wore a pale yellow skirt which helped give the whole outfit some contrast, and I wore a brown belt and Oxfords to complete the look (I also had a brown MK bag not pictured).

Cardigans are a huge part of my wardrobe for all seasons, but especially around this time of year when the extra layer of warmth comes in handy. What are your fall wardrobe staples? Let me know in the comments below :). I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Poppies at the Getty

It's been a while since I last posted; things have been so crazy lately with school, work, and errands that never seem to end! This past weekend however was really nice because I got to spend some time with my boyfriend, Edwin. He lives and works in San Diego so I don't see him during the week, but he usually drives up to Los Angeles every other weekend (or he tries to) and those are always my favorite weekends. Sometimes I'll drive down there myself for the weekend. And so with all these backs and forths in the past year, we have managed to avoid missing each other too terribly :).

On Saturday we visited the Getty Center which is a museum in west LA that showcases art, architecture, and a beautiful outdoors area/garden. And the best part is that it's free (with the exception of parking). We spent most of our time outdoors relaxing in the grass with some snacks and champagne. It was perfect weather and we really enjoyed our time there! I wore a beautiful poppy print dress from Bernie Dexter, a dress I'd been looking ages for until I finally found one in my size from a Swap & Trade group on Pin Up Girl's website called Pin Up Girl Style. I was planning on wearing gold glitter pumps to match my gold belt but it wasn't practical since we were going to be walking around a lot. So I wore my green BAIT Ida's instead :). I hope you enjoy the photos!

Outfit Details:

Dress: Bernie Dexter (same print, different cut)

Belt & Headband: Sidecca

Petticoat: Knee Length, Leg Avenue

Shoes: BAIT Footwear (similar here)