Dressing For Occasions

In exactly one week, I will be having my high school graduation night! :) It's quite exciting because it'll be like dressing up for the school formal aka prom all over again.

I had my school formal early this year in March (back then I didn't have a blog) which for some may seem so early to have one but I believe that the earlier, the better. March wasn't a stressful time in school for me so the only 'stress' on our minds at that time was getting a dress, contemplating on what shoes and accessories to go with it, the make-up, the transport etc. Mind you, I wasn't stressed about it at all. These are my reasons:

1. I already had a dress that I was planning to wear.

Last year I bought a dress for my cousin's wedding so I decided to wear it again at my formal. For sure, it is a little weird wearing the same thing to a different occasion, and many would say that wearing the same outfit twice is a big no-no, but honestly, it wasn't that bad. I knew that it would be rare for me to wear that dress again so I thought, why not. I saved money and time looking for a new one, and I worried less about whether someone would wear the same. Thankfully no one did :) If I did buy a dress this year, the chance of someone having the same would have increased so much *phew*. It was a combined year level formal (year 11 and 12) so you can do the math on the probability of someone having the same x] One last thing... I haven't had the chance to wear that formal dress again since! See see, I didn't have to buy a new one after all :P

This also applies for my shoes, my accessories and bag/clutch

2. I did my own hair, nails and make-up

I didn't need someone to do my make-up for me, I had all the tools already at home. I'd watch YouTube beauty gurus and I learnt a lot from them through their tutorials! I'd also read a lot of magazines that had beauty tips for night outs like formals so I knew the basics. I really recommend D.I.Y make-up, because you save money, you can try to develop some skills and techniques and experiment with colours =]

So as you can tell, I was so organised for formal! I could say the same for my graduation too, because I've got my dress. I'm not going to show it until the night is over :P

Evening look - Formal (March 2010):

So here's my take on an evening look suitable for a formal event... such as a school formal/prom:

Gold and bronze eyeshadow

I didn't line my top lash line, apply any lipstick or use any blush. I wasn't into those products back then. Things have changed :P

With my hair, I used a curling iron but now I can do these waves with a flat iron :) They're just very loose waves.

Bf took this photo and made me pose x)

Foundation colour matches the rest of my body :D

Even though I have a little bit of a shirt tan :S

You can check out my other evening looks here and here

Going from day to night (December 2009)

I had to attend my cousin's 'tea ceremony' as well as her actual wedding, so I dressed up for both the day and the night. This is my 'transformation':

Day

I got my hair curled at the hair dressers =]

On my face is just eyeliner, curled lashes, mascara, lipgloss and foundation!

Wore a floral summer dress

Night

Same dress and necklace as my formal, but different dress from the day

Changed my hair, wore a different necklace, purple eyeshadow, more eyeliner and mascara

Day time - Brother's university graduation (July 2010):

I didn't have a lot of time to get ready...

Purple and pink look. Very simple day make-up

Curled lashes, no mascara

I had to wake up early that morning so I didn't get the chance style my hair. I don't think I need to anyway, it's fine being straight like that

Semi-formal dress and necklace

Make-up lasted until the afternoon thanks to the Urban Decay Primer Potion :)

Can you tell that I'm wearing foundation? It looks very natural.

My Revlon ColorStay Velvet Creme foundation review will be after this post, I promise :D

All I'm going to say is that my graduation dress is cream/beige coloured and is quite simple. Not too long and not too short, just on and below the knees - meaning that it is layered. My formal dress was silvery beige, so I don't know whether I should go with the same make-up colours again on my eyes.

I'm thinking of doing smokey eyes, but not too smokey. A bit like how I did my eyes in this blog post. I want my eyes to stand out more because there's going to be 'bright lights' at the graduation ceremony.

And this time for graduation, I'll be wearing higher heels this time, like 10cm heels! My heels were the shortest on formal night so I looked heaps short compared to all of my friends T_T And I'm not even the shortest lol! I'll be wearing gel heel cushions just in case my feet get sore.

I think I'll wave my hair again because my hair is longer than it used to be so waving my hair will look fine :)

As for nails, I might be using water decals or nail stickers... I'm not that creative with nail art ^^" For previous formal events I used false nails or just plain nail polish over my long, grown nails. My nails are currently long, so I won't be needing artificial nails. I actually find artificial nails a little annoying at times.

That's it for this post, I don't want it to get any longer =] The day after my graduation (next Tuesday), I'll have a post up and show pictures of everything ^_^

I'll leave you with a question:

What sort of dress did you wear or would you wear to your graduation?

Most people are going to be wearing long dresses for grad :/ Mine's not long at all!

I'd also really appreciate it if you have any suggestions/advice for my graduation :)