Style Me! Formal Wear

I got a request from my sister's friend, Val to help style her dress for Navy ball, and my sister thought it was a great opportunity to add a new segment to the blog. I thought that was a brilliant idea! So, I bring you the first installment of Style Me!

She bought this dress in burgundy:



By the way, this dress is absolutely GORGEOUS!

Val said she was looking for suggestions on handbags and shoes to match. The biggest stipulation was that the shoes couldn't be too tall. I'm not super familiar with shorter heels so it definitely took some digging. In my opinion, for a formal dress, standard pumps aren't exciting enough. I think a good peep toe or open toe is great, and anything with some added detailing like bows or glitter is even better.  *Disclaimer: all prices are based on what is on the linked site presently. Prices may change*

My first find I absolutely fell in love with and thought they were perfect!



This is Unlisted Bliss List. They are gorgeous and perfect for a formal event (and only $44). Unfortunately, at 3 1/2 inches they were still too high.

Here's the rest of the options that I came up with. I was surprised that I could find so many cute heels in a shorter height. All are 2 1/2 inches.

We'll start with the most expensive and work down.



This is Luichiny's Best One Yet. They retail for $71. They are cheaper elsewhere but not in the right size. I love the bow and the peep toe. I also think it's a very classy looking heel, and the satin gives it a more formal feel.



This is Circa Joan & David's Zorita. Same concept, bow and peep toe but with leather instead of satin. These retail for $59.99.



Lastly, this is Vaneli's Maela. They are currently selling for $30. I actually love the sling back on this and I definitely love the price. This is definitely my #1 suggestion. The MSRP on these is $100 so these are an absolute steal.

Now onto bags. For a formal like this, I definitely recommend a clutch with either a satin or lace finish. I've picked out a few below.



This is Nina's Laramie and it costs $31.99. It has a nice satin finish and a classy jeweled buckle detailing.



Here's Jessica McClintock's Soft Floral Frame Snap Closure. It currently costs $27.99. I absolutely love the lace detailing and think it would go well with the floral sleeves of the dress.



Lastly is Jessica McClintock's Flap with Stone (clearly the company goes with more descriptive names than cutesy ones). Again satin finish with jeweled detailing. The best part about this on is the price at $17.99.

These are all my suggestions. Hopefully there's something in here that Val likes or at least gives her a better idea of what to look for. I can't wait to see pictures of the final product!

If anyone needs help with styling suggestions, I'd be happy to help! Just let me know. You can contact me on Twitter, Tumblr, or through email at shopwithbethblog@gmail.com.

Labor Day Sale Round Up

Happy Labor Day weekend! You know what holidays mean (other than the meaning of the holiday itself, of course)? They mean sales!

We'll start off with my favorite! eShakti is giving 35% off site wide. Stipulations state that the order value must be at least $40 before discount.  I don't think it works on overstock items, but 35% is pretty good.

For those that don't know, I was one of the winners of the my Summer Moment contest so I get to pick a fully customized dress of my choice as my prize. It has been super difficult. I'm leaning towards this one:



The Chambray Sash Waist Dress (Now on sale for $45.95). I absolutely love the button detailing on the back, and as I've mentioned before in this post, chambray is such a great neutral. I could wear this dress over and over and make completely different looks.

This is the other dress in the running:



The Graphic Embroidery Retro Dress (also on sale for $45.95). It's such a classy, gorgeous dress, but I already have SO much black.

I'll let you know which one I pick. Either way, you should check out the sale.

LOFT is having a pretty big sale. Tees starting at $12, sweaters at $25, jeans at $35, 50% off select items, and 50% off all sale items. I LOVE their basics. Especially those with cute detailing. This for example:



Skinny Stripe Ballerina Button Shoulder Tee on sale for $15. I again love the button detailing and I seriously will buy almost anything with stripes. They are so in right now which is good because I love them whether they are in or out. And no, you don't have to be a skinny mini to pull off stripes if you make sure the shirt fits properly.

American Eagle is doing 40% off site wide (including jeans) as well as free shipping. I'm almost getting too old for American Eagle, but I still love their jeans and their basics. Occasionally they have their more trendy items in a cut or pattern that appeals to me. I've also been looking for a good chambray shirt. They've got a couple in their sale section. I like this one because of the print.



It's $14.99 with the sale. I think this may definitely be coming home to me.

Vannic Boutique is also having a sale: 20% OFF any purchase with code SHOP20, 30% OFF any purchase over $60 with code SHOP30, and 40% OFF any purchase over $100 with code SHOP40.

May I suggest this maxi:



I'm wearing the grey right now and it's like wearing pajamas. SO comfy! Perfect for weekend wear. When I got it in the mail, I put it on and refused to take it off. I wore it for the rest of the day. With the 20% off code it's $35.96, but the more you buy, the more you save.

Here's a couple more sales going on that may be worth checking out:

Tilly's is having 30%-70% off of their red lines. They've got lots of cute accessories for CHEAP. I may be picking up some sale belts.

ShoeDazzle is doing 40% off of their sale section but to be honest, I didn't find anything I had to have. There were a couple of cute pairs of flats for $19.99 like these and these, but the reviews said they weren't super comfortable, and that's 90% of what I look for in a flat. If it's not comfortable, what's the point? If you’re interested in ShoeDazzle, use this link.

Let me know what you bought this weekend! I always get excited when people tell me that bought something based on my recommendation.

Floral Printed Denim

I've been wanting to do a post about JF denim for awhile, but I've been putting it off. Instead of doing one showcasing all my denim (that I would probably continue to put off), I'll do a quick one showing off the floral printed denim I got from JustFab recently for $10 during their summer sale, since I happen to be wearing it today. I'd been super hesitant to buy it because a) I knew the husband would hate it, b) I was unsure how to style it, and c) I figured it was too late in the season for florals (Thinking I was too old for printed denim may have had something to do with it as well). Thanks to some convincing (and sample styling) from my friend Crystal, I finally gave in. I'm SO glad I did. These jeans are SO cute.


Shirt: American Eagle
Jeans: JustFab Signature Skinny Printed
Shoes: ShoeDazzle Danelle (no longer available)

The simplest way to style printed denim is to pair with solids and neutrals to tone it down. Especially if you're curvy because you don't want to draw too much attention to the behind. More experienced fashionistas (me not included) can get crazy with the patterns, but I haven't quite mastered that yet. Pairing it with the hunter green helps with transitioning it to fall. Not surprisingly, military styling and olive/hunter green are going to be big this coming season. No complaints here! What red head doesn't love hunter green?

And suprise! Kyle liked these more than I thought he would. He seemed confused by them at first. He thought they were form fitting pajama pants. Then he was skeptical that I could pull them off, but once I styled them, he liked the final product.

Now let me tell you about JustFab denim. This stuff is great. I've seen them on girls of all sizes, and with few exceptions, they've looked incredible. They carry a wide range of sizes. They have a couple different styles (bootcut, crops, etc.), but most of the fun stuff falls within the "signature skinny" category.  It's good quality denim and so soft and comfortable with some stretch to it. The rise isn't too low, and the size chart is pretty accurate.

If you’d like to join JustFab, use this link. Happy shopping!

Bondi Fall Preview

I'm so incredibly excited. Bondi released their fall preview for the subscribers to pick their three colors for the September box.
Before I give you the preview, I'll give you the deets again for Bondi.
Company: Bondi New York
Price: $19.99 per month
Description: Bondi New York is a nail polish subscription service that delivers 3 full size polishes and a deluxe beauty product once a month. The option to skip is available. You will just need to go on their website and live chat to skip before your card is charged on the last day of the month.  The first box was a mystery box from their current collection. The September box will be a preview of their fall collection, and from then on out you will get to preview your colors before they charge you so you can skip if you'd like. Their products are five free (formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, toluene and DBP), and they donate 100% of the net profit on these boxes to charity.
Now on to the colors.

It's seriously so hard to choose. I'm already in love with "Meadow Moss". I'm also super excited about "In the Buff" since I've been looking for a good brown polish after I saw one on my friend Sarah. The third one is the tough one. I'm torn between "On the Rocks", "Park Aven-hue", and "Twerk-uoise" (Did I mention how much I love the names?). I'll probably go with Park Aven-hue since I can wear it to work.  What do you think?
The beauty gift for the month will be a surprise and everyone will be getting the same gift.
If you'd like to sign up for a subscription of your own click here. They don't have a referral program set up just yet, but they said they are working on it. You can sign up for the month to month option for $19.99, the 3 month option for $49.97 (saving $10), the 6 month option for $99.95 (you get the 6th box free) or the year option costing $199.90 (you get the 11th and 12th month free). If you sign up for any of the subscriptions, you also get 25% off of all their products (excluding subscription boxes).
They also have a facebook page you can check out here.

What I Wore To Church - Colorblock Stripe Dress

I bring you another edition of "What I Wore To Church". We'll get right to it.


Dress: eShakti (did you expect anything different) Colorblock Stripe Poplin Dress (sleeves added)
Shoes: JustFab Laurence
Necklace: Monica's Fantabulous Fashions

I got this dress practically free. I used credit from a previous return, plus $20 off for filling out a survey, and then $6 from my ebates payment, meaning I paid nothing other than what I originally paid before the return. And I absolutely love it. It's nice and poofy at that bottom which is fun to twirl in, and because it's neutral, I got to pick a pop of color for the shoes (which you know I love).

That was a really tough choice. I have a ton of color pop shoes and just had to pick which one was right. In all reality, I could've picked about four of them, but I was feeling pink today. I just got these recently from JustFab as you may have noticed in my last JustFab related post, and they worked out well. Not the most comfortable shoes, but I can handle almost anything for three hours of church.

Now I bring you a special guest to my What I Wore to Church segment. My sister Crystal (yes, the same sister who drove 3 hours for me yesterday).


Dress: Maurice's
Shoes: JustFab JacquiBelt: American Eagle

Clearly fashion sense runs in the family (as does the love of mint). While she was here for my party she looked through my belts to find her something to accessorize the dress.  I thought this one worked well. Then she saw Jacqui in my JustFab display, and we both realized they were perfect for the outfit. What do you think? I think it worked out perfectly. She looks fabulous!

I'll wrap this up with a final note. I entered a contest recently on the eShakti facebook page. I hate entering these things because I hate begging for votes, but as much as I love eShakti (and as much as I sell their clothes for them), I figured a free dress would be a nice reward. I only have to be in the top 5 to win. I'm currently number 4, but 5 and 6 are very close behind. If you've got a second, I would really appreciate if you could give me some love and help keep me in the top 5. You can vote here. Thanks for reading!

Beauty Swap Party!

My friend Sarah and I hosted a beauty swap/JustFab party today! It was so much fun.

For those that don't know what a beauty swap party is (I didn't know until I read about it), it's just like a clothes swap party except you swap beauty products (hair care, body care, make up, skin care, perfume, etc.). Every girl has a medicine cabinet or vanity full of beauty products that they either never used or used once and decided they didn't like. This is an opportunity for all your friends to come together and give away those products and hopefully pick up some new ones. Either ones that you already know and love that someone else is giving away, or ones that you wouldn't have bought for yourself, but want to try. Everyone walks away with free stuff and gets rid of stuff they don't use! It's a win/win.

(This was just the product between my sister and me. There was plenty more when everyone showed up.)

JustFab encouraged their Brand Ambassadors to have a style swap party, but since most of my friends are different sizes, I decided to go with this instead. JustFab sponsored and provided goody bags filled with lip balm, nail polish, nail files, hand sanitizer, and a $20 voucher for JustFab, as well as super cute water bottles for everyone.  They also provided a purse (Novel) and a bracelet (Minx in Linx) to raffle off.



I set up a little display to showcase some of my JustFab collection and added one of my own purses (Dominate) to the raffle.



Once everyone arrived and all the product got on the table, we went at it.



And for those of you worried about the ick factor of picking up used products, we even had a sanitation station.



I think everyone left happy! Especially after partaking of Sarah's snacks!



At the end, I gave everyone a tour of my shoe closets (yes, there are more than one), and then everyone went on their way. I had a great time and I got away with some good stuff. Some humidity fighting leave in conditioner, some cute colors of nail polish, and face sunscreen were my favorite finds.

And just for funsies, here's what I wore to the party.

Yes, that's my new skirt from Vannic Boutique and I LOVE it. It's so comfy!

If you've never done a beauty swap party before, I highly recommend it! I'm planning on taking the leftovers down to Florida in November so my sister can host one for her friends!

Final note: THANK YOU to Sarah for the food, Catherine for the drinks, and a special thanks to my sister Crystal who drove 3 hours both ways just to help me with my party!

Big News In The Shoe World

So the announcement came out today that JustFab bought out ShoeDazzle. We can all hope this is a good thing because ShoeDazzle really has been on the decline for the past year or so. I realize I haven't ever talked about ShoeDazzle on this blog, and it's because I haven't had reason to. It's been so hard for me to find anything I like anymore. The shoes have progressively gotten higher and higher, and the designs are way out there with spikes, studs, glitter, and metallics. For example:



Queenie is an extreme example, but you get my point.

I used to LOVE ShoeDazzle. They had a trendy (without being obnoxious) exclusive selection, as well as a great customer service team and a fiercely loyal fanbase.  There were very few months I'd go without buying a pair. My closet is still filled with ShoeDazzle shoes. Then the growing pains started, and I slowly drifted away. JustFab filled that gap and ended up surpassing ShoeDazzle with their loyalty programs and featured collections (Jessica Simpson, Iron Fist, Guess).

Back to the original announcement. The way I see it, there are a couple of ways this can go. Either JustFab brings ShoeDazzle back to it's former glory, or they spend too much time trying to fix it and their own brand suffers. I hope for the sake of both companies they make it work. As of now, the company line is that they will stay two separate companies and keep their same business models. We'll see how long that lasts.

Now, since we're talking about JustFab and ShoeDazzle, I'll share the shoes I've received from both recently. We'll start with JustFab.

I took part in the JustFab Summer clearance probably more than I should've but I couldn't resist. First up, we have Laurence:



Love these pumps! I went up half a size and they fit great. What woman doesn't need pink pumps? I love the covered platform and the classic shape.

Next we have Skyla:



Same basic shape as Laurence but with a sexy snake texture. Also half size up. The taupe color should be pretty versatile.

Last from JustFab we have Lausanne.



I've been in need of a navy pump for awhile and these fit the bill. Again half size up. Classic shape with a cute split detailing on the front. Can't wait to wear them. (Did you know navy goes really well with mint?)

I also purchased two pairs of their denim which I'll review later.

Now onto my one ShoeDazzle purchase. I've been purchasing and returning things on the same credit for quite some time. It was super frustrating that I couldn't find something that I really liked. Each time there was one little detail that made me return them. For example, they'd be great IF there wasn't so much toe cleavage. Or these would be perfect IF they were an inch shorter. It's to the point that the girls in one of my shoe groups started calling them #ifdazzle. So finally I decided I would use my credit (plus a bonus $10 promo they gave us) and buy one of the designer shoes they feature on the site for higher prices. I bought Jessica Simpson's Eclair.



They are $80 on the site but with all the credit, I paid about $30. I can't tell you how COMFORTABLE these shoes are. They are like walking on clouds. The moment I slipped them on, I didn't want to take them off. I know I've mentioned it before, but Jessica Simpson really knows her shoes. I definitely think it was worth the extra money, but I don't think I would've done it if I didn't have the credit. I'll keep an eye on the usual shoe sites, and I'll post if they ever go on sale, because I think everyone needs a pair of these.

So to wrap up, I'll give you my links again in case you want to join either of these shoe clubs.

If you'd like to join JustFab, use this link.

If you're interested in ShoeDazzle, use this one.

If you'd like to read more into the merger, there's an article about it here.