Hey everyone!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
Today I want to share how you can change your look and find your style.
I do believe that changing your look can change your life.
You change how you feel about yourself,
so you're more confident, you're more happy about yourself.
And as we grow, we tend to want to express this growth
through changing up our style, changing up our look.
So it's a way to get to know who you are at this present moment.
It's about self-discovery and all of that.
Don't forget that taking care of how you look is also considered self care.
Some people call it vain, but I really do believe that
you can grow confidence from the inside-out or the outside-in.
You can fake it til you make it.
So if you dress confident in something that you feel beautiful in,
you will feel more beautiful and confident.
You're not dressing up for other people, you're dressing up for yourself.
You're showing up to be your best self, and that includes looking good and feeling good.
Before we begin, here are some prerequisites
before you start changing up your look and finding your style.
Number 1 is: You have to stop caring about what other people think about you.
You gotta just learn to block that out, avoid it, and don't focus your energy on that,
because in order to find your true self and the style that makes you feel great,
you can't worry about being judged and you can't worry about what other people think.
I know it's not easy, but it's important.
Number 2 is: You have to be willing to take risks and get out of your comfort zone,
make some fashion mistakes, in order to find out what works and what doesn't work for you.
It really is a trial and error journey where, if you don't push those boundaries and try new things,
then you're just gonna stay in a safe zone where it's kind of blah.
You're not really getting to know yourself.
You're not learning to express your true style.
And lastly: Just have fun with it.
Have fun experimenting.
There's no right or wrong way.
This is your journey and your journey only.
First things first: Let's start with the basics.
You want to prime your canvas, and your canvas is yourself.
So simple things like taking a shower, washing your hair, blow-drying your hair,
putting on light makeup, whatever makes you feel best, that's gonna get you from this to this.
Even just doing the basics will make you look more put-together.
You'll feel more confident.
I know I always feel my best and look my best after I wash my hair and I feel so fresh.
Number 2: Try a new haircut or hair color.
I obviously love expressing myself through my hair.
For the past four years, I've dyed my hair all the different colors of the rainbow.
And during that time that I was going from color to color was the time that I was really finding myself,
trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, so it showed in my hair as well.
And now I like to keep my hair more of a neutral light color:
light, because I love the light color palette.
And also, I guess last year was when I cut my bangs and had this style for the first time.
Recently I also cut my hair too.
It's less of a dramatic change, but I feel like every 5 or 6 months or so,
I feel like I need to change up my hair, just because I'm in a different stage in my life now, you know?
I don't know if you've noticed, but it's actually really refreshing to chop off all of your hair.
When you chop off your hair, you're signifying a new start, a new beginning.
The Japanese believe that your hair holds feelings.
So when you have long hair and maybe you're going through a breakup or some difficult time in your life,
chopping off your hair is like cutting away those old feelings and discarding them.
I know it sounds silly, but it's a fun way to use your hair as a symbol if you want a fresh start in your life.
I know that when I graduated college – I used to have long hair.
I cut it to a bob because I wanted a fresh start, a new me,
and yeah, my life was completely different during that stage.
Number 3: Go through your closet and discard all of the items that don't make you happy anymore.
Discard any items that are torn, old clothes that are too old, things that have stains on them.
If you have the time, I would recommend going through the KonMari method
of dumping everything from the hangers onto the floor or your bed,
going one-by-one with each piece, asking yourself:
"Does this spark joy?
Does this make me happy?
Do I love this piece of clothing?"
If you're kind of like "Meh…" if you don't really love it, then discard that.
Feel free to say "Thank you for serving me, but you're not right for me anymore.
I'd rather donate this piece of clothing to someone else who will love it better."
I do find that I need to declutter my closet at least once every 5 or 6 months.
If you read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo,
she actually says that once you declutter your stuff, you don't have to declutter anymore.
And for me – this is my personal experience –
I find that's not true because I love fashion and because I'm constantly changing,
I get tired of the clothes in my closet really often.
I feel like I'll get excited about a piece of clothing
and then after wearing it for like 3 or 4 months, I'm kind of sick of it.
Or it's kind of boring, and in that case I want to donate it.
And that's just because I like fashion and my taste changes really fast.
That's just how I feel personally.
Let me know what you guys think.
If you've gone through the KonMari journey, how are you dealing with your closet?
Are you constantly decluttering?
Let me know down below.
Anyway, after you've decluttered the pieces that don't serve you anymore,
that don't represent your current style,
now you have space to bring in new items that are representative of who you are,
that help you express yourself.
The next step is to find your style inspiration.
Find the people you look up to, fashion-wise.
Find the people whose closets you'd like to steal.
I follow a lot of fashion bloggers on Instagram.
You could use Pinterest or Tumblr as well.
You can also have style muses that are fictional characters in books or in movies.
I know a lot of people have been inspired by Lara Jean Covey in To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
That movie was so great.
I've seen a lot of fashion inspo from that character in the movie.
One thing that I also do is: On Instagram, I have saved looks of my favorite outfits that I see other people wear.
So I have a specific "fashion" tab that I've saved.
And so, as I was redoing my style and looking to shop for new items,
I looked through my Instagram fashion tab
and then I'll have that tab open for referencing when I'm shopping.
Or I will actually go into each picture, see if they tagged where they got those items
and see if I could shop through those stores as well.
Which brings me to my next point, which is: Shop through your style muses.
There are a ton of fashionable people online, and most of the time,
they do share where they got their items from, so that's where I've lately started to shop from.
That's honestly the way that I've been finding new stores.
There's a lot of mom-and-pop, small online shops,
boutiques that I would not have any idea about if it weren't for the people that I follow.
So I really do use Instagram to find new stores to shop from.
When you're shopping through your style muses,
sometimes you'll come across items that you love but you can't afford.
I know for me, I love following Aimee Song, @songofstyle.
I just love her shoes.
She's so playful with her fashion.
She wears colorful stuff, which I love.
And most of the time, her items are really high-end, and they're just not in my budget.
So in that case, for example, if I find a shoe that I really like, I'll try to find an affordable dupe.
Maybe I'm not an expert at finding this because usually the dupes are not by the same name.
They just have a new name but it looks really similar.
You just have to do a little digging.
Hopefully you'll be able to find it.
I know that there are also a lot of blog posts and YouTube videos
that bring together "this high-end version" and "here's the affordable version",
so if you find those, that will help too.
Lastly, you can try something new in beauty to change up your look or switch up your beauty routine.
For example, I love getting my nails done.
I get gel nails, and I like to switch up the colors each time.
But I just like to keep getting them done
because gel nails makes my nails feel stronger so they can be longer.
And they just look better.
I feel prettier.
I feel more confident as a result.
Another thing that I've done: Two year ago, I got my eyebrows microbladed.
They're actually blurred out now, but they're still good.
Basically, I can wake up with eyebrows on already.
I don't have to take the extra 15 minutes to do that part of my makeup.
In the past I've also tried eyelash extensions, which I liked for a while,
but I didn't like the upkeep and the maintenance.
And I also like to oil-cleanse, which doesn't go well with having lash extensions,
so that's why that didn't work for me and I've stopped doing that.
That's just an example of my trial and error journey.
Some other things I want to try, coming up, is:
I want to try something called a lash lift,
which is like a perm for your lashes, to permanently curl them a bit.
I also want to get my ears re-pierced.
I pierced them in college.
And I used to have three piercings, actually.
I had one on my cartilage as well.
But since I stopped wearing earrings for a while, they closed up.
And lately I'm feeling like I want to get them re-pierced again because I have earrings and,
I don’t know, it's just an extra little bit of style that you can add to your look.
On an even simpler note, if you're not looking to get anything done specifically,
a way to try something new in your beauty routine is just to try new eyeshadow colors, new lipstick colors.
Changing up your look with a new color that you've never worn can really freshen up how you feel.
It's a way to experience and play with your style.
Alright, I hope you liked this video!
I hope it inspired you to experience more, play with your style, and just have fun with it.
If you do decide to change up your look, I'd love to see the new you.
Feel free to hashtag #lavendaire, so I can see it on Instagram or Twitter.
Love you guys so much, and I will see you in the next one.
Bye!