Author: Iskra Banović

I absolutely love road trips. I went to college in upstate New York, about a four-hour drive from where I grew up (three-and-a-half if I was feeling particularly feisty), and when sophomore year arrived, and I was allowed to have a car on campus, one of my favorite things to do take the drive to school with friends and music, and then explore the very scenic countryside in which my school was nestled. When we had our senior week down in Myrtle Beach, I drove for fourteen hours down the country with a friend of mine, and it was the best, even…

Anxiety about failing in a test situation can lead to anxiety. Anyone can feel anxious before a test. Test anxiety can cause severe symptoms like nausea, vomiting, lightheadedness, shortness or difficulty breathing, headaches, dizziness, and even panic attacks. Test anxiety can also manifest as anger, fear, helplessness, and negative thinking. You can always turn to professional paper writers to dedicate most of your time to exam preparation. There are many coping strategies you can use if you have test anxiety. Here are 10 ways to cope. Make sure to prepare You can relax and reduce anxiety by being prepared for…

We’ve all been there before. It’s a hectic morning and you’re just trying to leave on time, so you throw on an athleisure set and call it a day. While athleisure is perfect for a relaxed day at home, it’s important to have outfits that make you feel confident and fashionable. Because when you’re feeling great, you’re more likely to have a great day! But is it even possible to pick out a stylish outfit every day and not spend hours staring at your closet? Yes – and we’re here to help! By using these style tips for women, you’ll…

Valentine’s Day is less than two weeks away, which means we are in prime lingerie-gifting season. I am a sucker for things that are pretty, luxurious, dramatic, and feature tiny finicky details of fanciness, so lingerie should theoretically be right up my alley. I do love the idea of lingerie, and often I buy the stuff when I am feeling particularly flush and having fantasies about being a fancy lady whose bra and underwear match. Just a day ago, I found a great sale online and started tossing beautiful lacy push-up bras into my shopping cart with wild abandon, but before I…

Blufashion readers tend to be a pretty well-read group, so what do you think is the best way to organize a bookshelf? Since the invention of Pinterest, I have spent an inordinate amount of time eyeballing beautiful bookshelves. There’s nothing more appealing in a home than walls of beautiful, well-stocked, well-organized bookshelves. Unfortunately, that “organized” part is really key. My apartment is full of bookshelves, but everything is stuffed on them willy-nilly, with no system of organization at all besides my having a generally good memory to be able to remember where I left something. If someone else needed to find something, though,…

If the movie Bridesmaids taught us anything, it’s that weddings can be extremely stressful. There’s so much that goes into planning the perfect wedding, and often so many people work around that. More often than not, it’s common to expect a small handful of nervous breakdowns during the planning process. It only gets worse when a bad bridesmaid bursts in and makes things all about her or, worse yet, simply makes it impossible for the bride to focus on her own special day. Enter self-described Professional Bridesmaid, Jen Glantz who founded her service, Bridesmaid For Hire, a few years back after initially offering her services on…

It’s a day ending in -Y smack dab in the middle of National Wedding Month, so naturally, there’s a new bridal collection to talk about. It’s been mere weeks since we were blessed with not one but two affordable bridal lines from Needle & Thread and Self-Portrait, respectively, and now, Reformation is rolling out its new collection. It should come as a shock to no one that it’s beautiful, romantic perfection. (Related: These Wedding Makeup Tutorials Prove That Not Every Bride Needs a Professional Makeup Artist) The line, which will launch in stores and online on February 22, sets itself apart, though, mostly because it appears that…

Okay, so first things first, let me just say this: I’m a huge advocate of doing your own makeup, but if you want to splurge and pay for a professional to come in and do it for you, that’s totally fine. I’m sure they know how to apply it so that you don’t immediately sweat through it way better than I do. However, if you want to do your own makeup, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the number of options you have. Seriously, if you search the term “wedding makeup tutorial” on YouTube, you’re given so many videos that all look…

Just about drugstore and department store beauty brand has, at one point or another, advertised that their products (foundations, concealers, powders, etc.) will give you “airbrushed-looking” skin. The idea behind it is pretty simple: They’re using “airbrush” in lieu of “flawless,” and, if I’m being honest, that alone convinced me to buy far too many drugstore foundations in my time. I’ve since moved on from wearing foundation every day, simply because I’m not patient enough to apply it evenly every morning, but I’m always hoping for that just-airbrushed look when I apply my daily concealer and powder. So, I thought,…

It’s no secret that makeup artists and beauty enthusiasts who surround themselves with beauty products are constantly looking for loopholes to make their life easier. Whether they’re professional makeup artists who need to get the job done quicker and more efficiently, or they’re just beauty-obsessed gals who had a bright idea, there are some seriously sneaky little tricks out there in the makeup world. One trend that we’ve seen seriously making its mark on the realm of beauty is contouring, of course. While we thank Kim Kardashian for bringing the trend to the forefront for us peasant beauty enthusiasts, we’re still perfecting the technique months later. While…

If you’re going to splurge on something, it should be makeup brushes. Here’s why. Over the years, I’ve heard plenty of makeup artists extol the virtues of professional brushes. And while I have heeded their advice, for the most part, spending a wee bit extra on my main brushes (one foundation, one blush, one eyeshadow), I’ve never really gotten serious about pro-grade makeup brushes. Until now. If I had one wish in the world right now…okay, it would be Jake Gyllenhaal in my bed. But if I had two wishes, the next one would be that I could push these brushes through…

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to finally figure out contouring, you need a few products to perfect the look, as well as some helpful hacks and tutorials. Whether you are a newbie or you have long ago mastered Kim Kardashian’s contoured look, you need to have a few basics in your makeup bag, including a natural-looking darker bronzer shade, a good highlighter, and you can’t forget about the brushes. Whether you prefer powder, sticks, or creams, these contouring products will all help you fake sculpted supermodel cheekbones. (Related: 13 Amazing Contouring Tutorials From Pinterest That Will Demystify Defining Your Face) 1. The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer…