Braided Crowns and Bath & Body Works

Hey, what's up, hello...

Hi, everyone! Welcome to XOGraceElle!

So, I've been toying with the idea of starting up a blog for quite a while now. There were so many days when I was actually going to follow through with it but then chickened out at the last possible minute.  Why? Well, sometimes putting yourself and your thoughts out there online for the whole world to see can be scary. However, sharing my outfits, beauty tricks, and daily happenings through a blog seemed like a fun and wonderful thing to do. I believe it will help to not only expand my writing, but also help connect with other people out there who love this stuff as much as I do. My main goals for this blog are to review makeup and beauty products, share some #OOTDs with you all as well as daily happenings in my sorority and maybe even have some guest writers come on the blog and share their fashion ideas! I am so pumped to start this fun journey with you all and feel like right now is the perfect time.  So welcome again, and enjoy! (Oh, and brace yourselves, because this first post is going to be a littleee long.) <3

About Me

My name is Grace O'Brien, and I am a twenty-one year old Public Relations major with a minor in Writing from Illinois State University.  What I plan do to with my major and minor? Honestly, I am not too sure yet.  I would love to maybe work for a few PR agencies or even a social media marketing agency and see how it goes! Writing for a fashion magazine like Cosmopolitan or Seventeen has always been a dream of mine as well.

 At school, I am a contributing writer for HerCampus Illinois State, which is an online women's magazine featuring fashion, beauty, and lifestyle articles as well as tips for college aged women!(http://www.hercampus.com/author/grace-obrien) I am also a writer for CollegeFashionista, which spotlights campus style and outfits worn by college students. (http://www.collegefashionista.com/author/grace_obrien/) I'd have to say that writing for CollegeFashionista as a Style Guru Intern has opened up my eyes even more to fashion and has made me super inspired to dress up every day and change my looks around more. I've always been a fan of dressing up. Whether you are in class or at the gym, putting a little bit more effort into your outfit always has a huge pay off. You feel more confident about yourself and are able to perform better!
Along with the writing, I am a brand representative for Pink Slip Boutique and Krass and Co. Both have amazing clothes and I will definitely be highlighting different pieces from each place in this blog.

I am also a member of the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority at Illinois State and serve as the Public Relations Chair.  My job is to manage all social media for my sorority as well as spread the word on campus! I am in love with social media and love finding new ways to promote the things I care about! I will be living in our chapter house this fall and I am super excited to start that amazing journey (more on that later!).  As well as being involved in my sorority, I have finished two Chicago Marathons in 2013 and 2014. I am currently taking a little break with the long miles for now, but I can't wait to see what the future holds in terms of running! So definitely be prepared to see some fun fitness and yoga posts on here.

Alright, alright.  I know what you all are thinking. Enough about me, let's move on to what I got during my shopping trip today!

Braided Crowns and Bath & Body Works

So, today I had the day off from work and my mom and I took a trip to the outdoor mall in my hometown! Deer Park Mall used to be the hangout place when I was in middle school, and looking back it makes me laugh because we all thought we were so cool going there. Oops, I'm getting off topic. Anyway, Deer Park has a lot of great stores, and we went to quite a few.

(I was obviously very excited after taking a trip into DSW. Gosh, I'm lame.)

I always like dressing up a little nice to go shopping, because I feel more confident walking into stores and plus, you never know who you might run into, especially in your hometown. *Cue nervous looking emoji* So I put on a nice summery outfit (it was 90 degrees today!) and then needed to figure out something to do with my hair.  It's super long and because of that, I wear it up a lot.  I wanted to create a syle that made it so my hair was off of my face and also looked cute. Here is the finished result, ta-da!

 (This braid is brought to you by millions of Bobby Pins!)

(OOTD + hair)

(Shameless *maybe?* car selfie)

Top: Charming Charlie http://www.charmingcharlie.com/

Shorts: Roxy http://www.pacsun.com/

Lips: Maybelline Baby Lips Dr. Rescue balm in "Just Peachy"
Maybelline Baby Lips Gloss in "Taupe With Me"

Braided style:
1. Brush hair to remove all tangles
2. Flip hair or part it onto whatever side it normally falls
3. Brush hair until it lies flat
4. Grab a small section of hair and divide it into three equal sections. Instead of a french braid where you take a different section of hair and alternate adding it to each of the three sections, this time you are just going to take one new section of hair and add it to just ONE of the three sections.

5. Keep braiding until you run out of hair. (Because just one small section of hair was used, you should have one little part of your hair that is braided and the rest is normal.)

6. Now, take the braid and wrap it around the side of your head. When you reach the back, tuck the braid UNDER the rest of your hair and then wrap it around the other side, where it should still be hidden.

7. Complete the braid by taking what is left and pinning it at the hairline (if you have to use a lot of bobby pins, you can make a cute pattern!)

8. Complete the look with LOTS of hairspray. Remember, messy is good!

I got a nice little compliment from a sales girl in Bath & Body Works on this :) I felt great with this cute style and it is really something that anyone can do to get the hair out of your face!

Now, onto my shopping haul...

I needed to get two pairs of heels for recruitment, a black pair and a nude pair. Sadly, they didn't have a lot of shoes in my size. Shoe shopping can be a little tough for me at times with size 5 & 1/2 feet! But luckily, the sales girl had been in a sorority as well and new the struggles of finding the right shoes. She ordered the two shoes in my size and they should be at my house soon! Yay! Besides that, I got a pair of cute light brown flats, a pair of Converse, and cute brown booties and a pair of black wedges for going out. I am a total shoe girl, and am so excited to start the year off feeling my best (and hopefully not falling!) because of them. I am going to feature the shoes in future posts, so no photos for now. 

Next, we went into Charming Charlie to get some statement necklaces and pearls for recruitment. I also found an adorable phone case and a cute watch! I've never been much of a watch person before, but this one looked so cute and I'm also trying to broaden my fashion horizons a little more and wear things I normally wouldn't! We also stepped into Francesca's, which is one of my favorite boutiques. I got some pretty cute stuff from there that I can't wait to show you all in the future ;) 

Finally, I stopped at Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works to get some of my favorites: lotions, sprays and other fun stuff! As you will learn to know, I am a huge lover of different shower gels, lotions, and basically anything having to do with bath and body. I love wearing scents that match the seasons and getting fun new products always makes me feel happy! Here is some of the stuff that I got :)

 Victoria's Secret hydrating body lotion in "Dare" which will be my new lotion for back-to-school and is part of the VS Fantasies collection!

 This looked cool so I had to grab it! B&BW cooling gel lotion in "Pink Lemonade Fizz" with a new Cucumber Mint PocketBac that is perfect to use at work!

 This lotion smells sooo good and I can't wait to keep it in my backpack at school! 

 B&BW PocketBac in "Emergency Stache" I mean it has a mustache on it, come on! Had to get it.

PocketBac in "Need A Hand?" Love the little octopus! What do you all think of the redesigned PocketBac, by the way?

Alright everyone, that is all for now! I am exhausted from my shopping trip! Thanks to each and every one of you for sticking through this extra long post and starting this journey with me. I can't wait for what the future holds! <3 

                                XO,

                                     Grace Elle