Author: Iskra Banović

Last week, I spent an afternoon at the beach with some friends. At the end of the day, a woman approached me in the parking lot to tell me she liked my dress. “Where did you get it?” she asked. I thanked her and said that it was from Old Navy. Her eyes widened. “Oh, really?” she said. “Which one did you go to? I can never find plus sizes in Old Navy stores.” I resisted the urge to put my arm around her like a father would when explaining the facts of life to his son. “Yeah, they don’t carry…

There’s nothing I don’t love about fall. I love it when the leaves start to change, I love it when it becomes more socially acceptable to wear as much dark lipstick and nail polish as I do all year round, I love when my birthday rolls around (it’s in November if anyone wants to start preparing the gifts I know you’re all planning to send my way), and most of all, I love fall coats. Perhaps the only thing I prefer to fall sweaters; fall coats can completely transform an outfit—some of them are even outfits in and of themselves. Sure, I might be…

Fall is a great time for skin because it is pumpkin season. Those festive orange gourds are everywhere, and they’re really good for your complexion. Not only are they tasty, but they are also full of skin-beautifying antioxidants and vitamins that can help boost collagen production and repair skin damage. Even better, those benefits work whether you consume it or apply it topically. Here are five ways pumpkin can save your skin this fall. 1. As food Actually, eating pumpkins is a great thing you can do for your skin. Like many brightly colored foods, pumpkin has a lot of…

The days of going out are back, and we are finally ready to reunite with our night-time wardrobes and social lives! But after months spent hibernating at home in drab pajamas and comfy sweatpants, who remembers what to wear when they actually decide to go out? Don’t worry, though! whether you are attending a fancy evening fête or hitting the bars, we have got you covered on all the latest trends! Catsuits A great catsuit invoke feminine, powerful allure without feeling overly revealing. The good news is that they are finally returning to the spotlight with a contemporary twist. This…

Foilyage is a new hair color technique created by Hitomi Ikeda that will give you natural, sun-kissed ombre hair. There are lots of different hair color techniques. By now, we should all be very familiar with dip dyes and ombre finishes. However, there are so many more ways to color your hair that you may or may not know about. Balayage is a technique that has been around for a long time, even if people don’t know exactly what it is. There is sombre hair, aka soft ombre, hair contouring, and then is even a funky pixelated hair color effect. The latest technique you need to know…

Have you ever come across a beauty, fashion, or hair trend that makes you think, “That looks cool today, but if you ask me again tomorrow, I’ll be over it”? Well, allow me to introduce you to one of those trends. Meet the “xpresionpixel” look, created by Spanish hair colorists Jose Luis Almendral, Marco Antonio Restrepo, and Jorge Cancer of Madrid’s X-presion Creativos salon. The goal is to make the hair appear as though it’s been pixelated. Here’s the look in bright green: Thoughts? I think it would be cool to see on the runway, but I’m not so sure the trend has staying power or any place on…

Attention rainbow hair color lovers: Smokestack is the latest hair dye technique that you are going to be obsessed with. We have never had so many different hair color options than we do now. You would have to be going to the salon every single week to keep up with the new trends. Just when you think that we have discovered every rainbow hair color technique and look, another one comes out. We’ve recently been introduced to hand-pressed hair, which uses plexiglass instead of foil; opal hair, the color that is as pretty as the stone; and oil slick hair, the multicolored look that is…

The creative ways we use to dye our hair are at an all-time high. Almost every week, there is some new technique or effect that makes us want to book another hair salon appointment ASAP. Recent favorites include oil slick hair, a multidimensional effect that makes dark hair look like spilled oil mixed with water and opal hair color, oil slick’s lighter cousin, which leaves your hair with as many tones as the actual stone. The hair dye trend of the week is hand-pressed hair color, and it isn’t like anything we’ve seen because it uses an interesting tool–plexiglass. (Related: 14 Fresh Hair Color Ideas That…

Gone are the days when the art of contouring was a professional makeup artist’s best-kept secret. Now, thanks to an innovative new batch of products, achieving a natural, sculpted and highlighted look at home has never been easier. Maybe it was silly of me to think that we’d stop all this nonsense at clown contouring, but I really thought that, once we were drawing poop emojis on our foreheads for the sake of beauty, we’d reached the finish line. But, alas, the world of beauty loves to show just how wrong I am about trend forecasts and life in general, and…

Before you reach for the self-tanner, there are a lot of important things you need to know first. As a very pale lady, I am familiar with self-tanner. While I haven’t braved it in a while (but will in the near future, just you wait!), I have tried it in the past and learned many lessons due to a bold and naive lack of preparedness. Considering it is summer now, and I am quite certain we will all begin spotting tons of awkward Oompa Loompa-like mishaps, I think it is time to go over the basic dos and don’ts of applying…

I’m naturally dark-haired, so I am either rocking jet black or dark brown hair. Suffice to say, when I was a brat child, I forced my mother to buy me all the brunette barbies. Red-heads were acceptable, black hair was preferable (but rare), but the blonde was a no-go. I felt, as one of the only dark-haired children in my friend group, I needed toys or characters that represented me. At one point in my very angst-y, gothic teen years, I swore off blonde because I thought dark hair magically conflated to brain size or an innate capacity for deep thinking. I…

Bad hair days happen to everyone. Sometimes you wake up in the morning, and it seems like your hair has taken on a mind of its own, and other times you thought you were trying out something really cool, and it turned out terribly. (You still have no idea what exactly happened to your bangs that one time you tried to curl them.) That is why you have a special oversized hat for such occasions. The majority of the time, hair makeovers come out looking amazing, but there are those few times you’ve really messed up your hair. (Related: 13 Makeup Mistakes Everyone Makes…