SIX SHOTS: JUNE 2015

Gucci glasses, animal print dress, Forever 21, Arthur lip color, Chanel, gold, Stephanie Sjoberg, Houston style blog, Top Houston blogs, Luxor Living and Style, Tiffany & Co

1. REBEL

I absolutely loved finding a dress for $9 from Forever 21.  I feel like…well I am a rebel. This shot is from a quick post called REBEL that I did to style my new $9.00 dress from Forever 21.  I like to wear what I want, do what I want and not be told what to do.  I think it’s cool to save a lot of money on a dress to compensate for the occasional nice shoe or handbag, or vacation.   And then of course, there is the four tiered pony tail combo that my friends all laugh about. I do me.

 

11417769_10153571736304050_1411324180310860099_o

2.  FATHER’S DAY TEXT

I worked on Father’s Day so I didn’t have time to go to Dallas to visit my Dad that weekend.  I did, however, send him a quick text. I am impressed that my dad knows how to choose and use emoticons, and yes, he will kill me if he sees this post.  I actually shared a screenshot of this on my Instagram account, but of course my family doesn’t read my blog or look at my Instagram and do not even understand that I rep products and companies, I’m sure they assume I am just a narcissist.  I would like to add, that no…none of us believe in abortion, especially my dad.  My mom and dad got pregnant with my brother before getting married, and then about 5 weeks after he was born, they got pregnant with me. I guess it took a while to figure out where babies come from. Either way, that was the pretext for the funny text I sent about not aborting me!

 

Hughes Landing, The Woodlands, Del Frisco's Grille, Luxor,

3.  HUGH’S LANDING, THE WOODLANDS

There is a fabulous new area of The Woodland’s called Hughes Landing.  I’ve been hanging out there a lot lately because they have fabulous new apartments, and I’ve had some clients interested in renting. There have also been a few great restaurants opening up there, and the blog post for Hugh’s Landing is coming up!  I took this shot on a Monday night before a huge storm came through.  My friends love to go to Del Frisco’s Grille and if you were in the market for romance, the views are conducive to such matters. Actually, if I wanted another husband, I might be able to pluck one from there, Just sayin. The food isn’t bad either! There’s also other great places, which will all be listed on the next post!

Stephanie Sjoberg, Luxor Living, Gucci Glasses,  Golden Nugget Casino, Lake Charles, bikini, over 40

4.  BIKINI POLITICS

The quickie post we decided to do from The Golden Nugget Hotel in Lake Charles, was derived from the realization that some people just love to strip down and get naked at pool time in front of strangers.  I…do…not.  I sort of feel that you need to know me, love me and pay my bills to earn the right to judge my nakedness.  So I survived pool day, and you can check the Bikini Politics blog here.

broken tooth

5.  IT’S EXPENSIVE TO BE ME

“It’s expensive to be me,” was a reply by Anna Nicole Smith in court trying to fight for her money from her dead “husband” and justify her expensive costs of living.  I laughed and it stuck with me.  Being a rebel, when we were told at work to do whatever you want, but please do not chew gum…it made me want to chew gum daily.  I developed a fetish for those little hard Mexican gum bits.  As I was driving down the road, close to 4pm, I bit down the wrong way, and cracked a crown…which took the tooth with it.  Ugh.  My bad.  I had taken this picture to send to friends because we had plans to go out that night and I was not going!  I could not get to the dentist that night, glued the crown/tooth back in until the next day…but could not eat dinner with them, but of course, I had drinks.  I literally remember nothing from that night. Chewing hard little banana flavored gum like a crack addict ended up costing me a lot of money.  I have been to the dentist about 5 times this past month and I wanted to keep it real, and show that everything is not perfect in my world.  I’ve got problems and challenges here and there, I just don’t blast them across the internet. This really sucked.

David Yurman, Couture Collection, ring, lavender amethyst, lashes, anastasia Beverly Hills, brows, dip brow, Luxor Living and Style, Housdton Top blog, PR blog, social media Houston, David Yurman Houston Galleria, Stephanie Dawn Sjoberg, Luxor Living and Style, The Woodlands, fashion and beauty, photography in The Woodlands

6.  DAVID YURMAN COUTURE

I’ve had this lavender amethyst David Yurman Couture Collection ring for about 6 years.  I saw it in the window at their Houston Galleria location, and fell in love.  The past few years, I didn’t wear it much because I was scared of shattering the edge of the stone, because it is a delicate design.  I kept meeting ladies with beautiful Yurman pieces on, and was constantly told about the quality assurance policy from the Yurman company, so I took it out of my safety deposit box, wore it for a week….and of course, looked down, and realized the stone was chipped.  I took it to the Yurman Galleria store it was purchased from…not really knowing what they would or could do.  In my particular case, they replaced the stone. I was so excited to get this ring back after being gone for 4 months, but 4 months was nothing to wait for a complete repair.  I am emotionally attached to this bauble (which is so wrong, yes…I know) and I have new respect for the David Yurman company.

-SDS

youmayhavemissed

 animal16 fancy10date7 GLASSES1

 

Share this post!

AMERICAN SUPERMODEL: MAKEUP TIPS AND TRICKS

Luxor Living nd Style, Houston Photography, Texas model, Jennifer Gunderson, Stephanie Dawn Sjoberg, Photography by Luxor, Top Houston bloggers

     This is the part where I am going to show you some of the makeup and cosmetics tips I used on Jennifer for her Next American Supermodel photo shoot!(You can also see more pictures from the shoot there.)


 

   The eyes are the window to the soul so with that in mind, I decided to play up her eyes and strong brow area. We actually laughed so hard during our conversation about eyebrows, because a lot of salons want to end up giving everyone that walks into there doors…a cookie cutter, skinny half moon brow and she’s been smart enough to stay away from that practice. Eyebrows are so important!  They can give your face the appearance of symmetry and a good brow is a rich feature. 

FUNNY SIDEBAR:  I went into my bank about a year ago, and the girl at the counter started talking to me about my hair or lip color…but the conversation turned into an eyebrow conversation, against my will.  Hers were shaved off and then a thin line was tattooed on in place of them.  She adamantly searched for the number to give me to the place that did it for her. EECK!  I was polite, but I would never do that unless my eyebrows suddenly fell out into the street and I had no choice.

  As for Jennifer’s lips did not need any help looking full, so we went with a barely there color and liner, to keep the main area of focus on the eyes.

 

I knew that I would be doing some black and white pictures, which can tend to make you look washed out if you do not enhance the architecture and bone structure of the face and define certain places well enough.

  So lining the lips well, defining the brow and the hollow of the cheek, is important.

 

We also wanted some fun, real person shots that were full body shots therefore the makeup that may appear heavier close up, only looks more simple from further away.

 

My original plan was to use an old school, super glam red for the lip color, however, her eyes turned out so fabulous, and her lips are already perfectly photogenic, so we decided for a more reserved, pale and natural color.

Everyone’s face is different.  People expect to walk up to a cosmetic artist, and ask for a Kardashian look, for example…when there’s absolutely nothing to work with in that direction. In makeup, you have to step back, assess the situation, and work with what you’ve got!

  Here’s the listing of make up I used for Jennifer:


  

   Additionally, a cosmetic look for photos will look different from cosmetics for say…a date. Have you ever noticed that when you look at a picture that was taken on a day that you thought you looked great…the picture was awful? Basically, the same highlighting techniques, just on a lesser scale.

 

-December 27, 2014

-SDS

Share this post!