Quick FAQ Post

So here I am, snuggled up in bed with a green monster face mask on and watching Twilight. I have some time on my hands so I'm gonna do another "diary" type post. First of all, I completely adore this movie. The acting is kind of terrible, and the makeup even more so, but I still love the storyline. Vampire haters - to each their own! EEEP! Bella almost just became a pancake.

I am so close to 125,000 subs on YouTube, which was my next big number... it's growing so quickly. I adore you guys... so thank you! I figured I would answer so FAQ's while I'm thinking about them.

Q: Where did you get your two paintings in your background?

A: The Paris one is from Ballard Designs but I bought it about a year ago so I'm not sure they would be available anymore. The pink one was hand painted by my neighbor.. so again, not really available. Sorry guys! I really adore paintings, I wish I could paint actually. I fell in love with the Paris one the moment I saw it... and I knew I had to have it. It's a happy looking painting.

Q: What is that bright silver thing above your lamp?

A: A nail stuck in the wall, I had a picture there before I moved my furniture around this year.

Q: Are you a natural blonde?

A: Yes. I add both lowlights and highlights to my hair to give it dimension, right now its a bit darker than my natural color.

Q: Do you wear colored contacts?

A: No. I wear clear ones just to see.

Q: Who are your favorite youtubers to watch?

A: My sister, Juicystar07, thebubblegumprincess, lollipop26, xsparkage, michellephan, fafinettex3, EGheartsssc and like a ton more than I can't think of off the top of my head. I've met them all in person except for elise and erin.

Q: What are your favorite places to shop?

A: Guess, Express, Bebe, Forever21, Abercrombie, and department stores.

Okay that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Let me know if you have more FAQs and I'll do a part 2.

In's and Out's 5

Hi everyone! Its been 3.5 months since my last real post, which is quite sad. I need to pay more attention to this blog! I will start with an In's and Out's, to fill you guys in on what's new.

In:

Vampire Diaries - Oh Stephan, how I love thee. I am almost ashamed to admit how much I love the vampire culture going on right now... I am not normally one to like that kind of stuff. I am completely hooked on this series and it's superficial "Dear Diary" style storyline. The cast is absolutely stunning, and it's making me crave a leather jacket like crazy! I can't tell if I love or hate Damon, but either way his cockiness is fun to watch.

Leather - Okay, so I will admit.. I don't really wear leather, except in shoes and bags. I do, however, like the idea of wearing leather. Leather seems to be very in right now, and I think the Vampire Diaries has gone to my head a bit (Elena and her cute leather-in-every-scene fashion).

Long Hair - I have been forever growing out my hair, and its finally starting to get long. I cut 4 inches off about a month ago so get it healthy and it felt so short. I really love the feel and look of long hair - so feminine!

Hot Chocolate and Banana Bread - Weird combo maybe? Blame it on the cold fall weather, but this has been my "cheat" snack pick. My roommate found a "healthy" banana bread recipe (which actually is a bit bland) but at least we can justify eating it lol!

My elliptical machine - I bought a cheap ($250) elliptical machine on a whim at my local Walmart and its become my new baby. It's kinda squeaky and weird but its little and cute and get's the job done!

Farmville!! - no description needed

Beauty favs of the moment:

FX Flat Iron Spray

Mac's Coppering Eyeshadow

My coastal scents 88 matte palette

Mac's 242 brush

Out:

Uggs - guys.. this is a big one. I think they are really going out of style (or have been and I have been fighting it). I finally ordered a pair or non ugg slouchy suede black boots for class because I came to the realization today that uggs were cool 5 years ago. Yeah.

Midterms - I'm finally done with them for this semester.

Sleeping - not that I don't love sleeping, I just never seem to do it anymore.

What are your Ins and Outs?

Armani Exchange Contest Winner!

Hi everyone! Thanks for entering this contest - it was a ton of fun! We have a winner :) Please note that I did NOT pick the winner, it was selected by the representatives of Armani Exchange. Here is the way the winner was picked, in case you were curious. 

"Each winner is selected randomly.  How we do that is we print out ALL comments and knock off all the duplicates, those that didn't meet the requirements (didn't list what Armani products/clothes they wanted), etc.  We also print out all the RT (tweet) messages and then we number each entry (comments + tweets).  After we have a total number, we visit Random.org and enter the range of entries (1-#) and click generate!  It provides a number and we look up who was given that number and bam, that's the winner!"

So the winner is ElizabethYtorres, who posted on 7/22 at 1:04 pm. Congrats girl! Since I do not have your information, please email me your name and address to glitzyglamour21@yahoo.com and I will mail you your gift card! 

For my other contest, the 60,000 subs one, I will be selecting winners when I get a chance to sit down and enjoy the videos. Hopefully I will have time later on in the week. Be looking for those winners! 

Outfit of the Day

Hey Everyone! So this is going to be a super quick blog post, but I just filmed a "Outfit of the Day" video, and this is how it came out. I am going to put all the links in here - do you guys think I should put the video up? Do you like outfit of the day videos? 

I got the dress from Forever 21, the necklace is also from Forever 21, shoes are Tory Burch and Bag is Coach. 

Insomnia, Bear, and my first birthday

Today is my one year birthday of videos on youtube, as you all probably know from twitter. I had planned on doing a little video about it, but honestly I am a bit tired today. I was sick earlier this week with a bit of a stomach bug and I am getting over that, so my body just feels tired and sore. I will eventually go and buy myself a cupcake though :) 

So basically - and HUGE thanks to everyone who has stuck with me throughout this last year. I would not still be doing videos if you guys weren't watching them and leaving such nice feedback. We all complain about haters and stuff like that but the fact of the matter is that 99% of comments I get are extremely positive. I encourage everyone to make videos if they want to - don't be scared.. my first video was horrible! Want to see a screenshot of it? It is not even public anymore on youtube.. but here is a nice picture.. 

Basically I am not angled towards the camera at all, I don't even look at it, and the worst part is.. I don't even talk! I turn the camera on and then sit there putting on my makeup. My point is, anyone can make videos.. even if you are a bit shy at first. If you want to see how it will turn out, do what I did! Make a video (you don't even have to speak if you don't want people to hear you) and then put it up to see what it looks like! I did that a miraculously got about 7 subscribers - and I was like YES!!! HAPPY DANCE!! Hopefully that will encourage some of you to go out and try it :) 

On a different note, Bear is doing a bit better. That is him over there <----- with his head in my lampshade. He is eating a little bit of ham every day, which is progress because he used to not eat anything at all. Mom encouraged him to eat by telling him for every bite he eats he can have 3 minutes in the guinea pig cage, which he loves. They get along quite nicely (no, he would never hurt guinea.. guinea is more likely to hurt Bear). 

Have any of you guys read the book "Agnes, thongs, and full frontal snogging"? If you have, then you will know what I am talking about. I kind of want to write a book like that, only about my life. I think that would be funny. I might do that when I have time on my hands, which is never, unfortunately. It would be diary style, and very silly. 

I have decided to classify myself as a full-fledged insomniac. I have always thought that I am one but I never really would have said, "Hi, I am Elle, and I have a problem. I have insomnia." Now I will say that when I meet people. My life consists of waking up insanely early for my liking (I can't help if my body "naturally" wants to wake up at 1pm), walking about sleepy all day, feeling ready to pass out by 7, and then as soon as the sun sets it is like BAM! And then I am wide awake and super productive. I can study for exams, clean my room, make videos, work out.. anything! So then I stay up late because I am doing things that need to get done and then I have to wake up early again. It is a vicious cycle. Maybe I should move to a place like Alaska where it is light out less time than normal places. But that opens an ENTIRELY new problem - I am afraid of the dark! I wouldn't want it to be night all the time because then I would never leave my house! 

Oh dear... I have exhausted myself. I must wait until sundown to contemplate all this new information. 

What would you guys like to see more videos of in this coming year? More tutorials, reviews, fashion videos, drugstore videos, vlogs? Let me know in a comment :) Love you!! MWAH! 

Weekend with Lollipop26

Hey everyone! So I just had the most amazing weekend with lollipop26 - my youtube "big sister". She was the person whose videos I stumbled across last July, and if you had told me then that in a years time we were going to be gallivanting around New York I would not have believed you at all. As I write this I feel like I am thinking in a British accent :)
Here were the highlights of our weekend:

• Me teaching her cursive at dinner while our waiter tells me my cursive looks like a grade schooler.
• Buying everything named "Twilight".
• Laura teaching me that it is only classy to buy makeup with cute names, so "Bright Plum" was out and "Underwater Fantasy" was in.
• Deciding it would be a fantastic idea to sew our own hair extensions - so we go buy some hair and some clips and then spend all friday night complaining that it is too hard.
  
• Which reminds me of this - going into a hair store to buy hair and coming out each with nail polish, NYX jumbo eye pencils, needles from the 1950s (so we can sew our hair), earrings, and really trashy dangling belly button rings, just because we are terrible enablers.
  
• Laura thinking that our green salsa at dinner was actually our guacamole, and that it was "very odd, because guacamole is actually normally a bit thicker".
  
• Seeing Bruno - haha
• Buying exactly the same things at forever 21 (which means our hauls might be a bit redundant).
  

Basically it was the most fun weekend ever. We are already planning a trip in October to visit again. I bought a ton of stuff so I will make sure to do a haul. I think I will break it into two parts - makeup and then clothing/jewelry just because there is a lot. We didn't take any pictures because we kept forgetting our cameras, and no video because we just didn't have time. We tried to cram everything in a 3 day period, which is hard since we both wanted to sleep until noon every morning.

I will get a haul video up as soon as I can, I would love to do it tomorrow after work if I am not exhausted. I also bought makeup for a "summer drugstore" look so I need to get that up SOON because summer is almost over! School is going to start for those of you still in grade school soon! Those are next priority to film, so those will go up this week.

BTW - Laura and I had a long heart to heart about when you know you have too much makeup and it is time for an intervention. She said she knew when she went to buy makeup one day and the bag sat in her room for 2 days untouched. So we went into my room and lo and behold - a mac bag, with 2 MSF's - untouched. She embarked on Project 10 pan as her mission - I am going to do a massive blog sale. I will sell makeup of course, but I think I will sell so other things too - like my unworn coach shoes (Size 8 :) ), and my dooney and bourke bags. I could sell them on ebay but I feel like it would be easier to do it on a blog sale, and if they don't sell then I will do ebay. When I go home in a few weeks I will do it, but it will probably be US only to make shipping simple, so I can get the packages out the next day (Sorry!)

Okay I work in the morning and it has been an amazing, but exhausting, weekend so I should probably go to bed now. Love you guys tons - can't wait to be back in my bedroom at my own house at school - I feel like it has been AGES! xoxo :)

What would you do with a $500 gift card to Armani Exchange?

So Ladies, tell me. What would you do if you were given a $500 gift card to a store and told to go have fun? That is exactly what is going to happen to one of you :)

I was approached by Armani Exchange to shop at their store and blog about my experience, the clothing, the customer service, and my all around opinion of the store. I am not hiding this from you - this shopping spree was sponsored. I am completely allowed to share the good, bad, and ugly about my experience. The best part is though - they gave me a second $500 gift card to give away to one of you! I am going to tell you EVERYTHING about my experience. I had never shopped at Armani Exchange before, even though the style fits me. I'm not even sure why, it was just never a store that I stumbled into. 

My mom was in town this weekend to I went shopping with her. We went to several areas of New York, but ended up selecting the Columbus Circle Armani Exchange to do our damage. First of all (I must address this), we had the BEST customer service I have experienced in a retail store in a long time. We had a sales rep, George Quinonez, who was completely attentive to us, and all the other sales reps were responsive as well. Note to AX - this guy needs a promotion - he was fabulous! We stayed with George the whole time, and he must have gone to the back 20 times for different sizes, fits, colors, products, etc. We were in the store for over 2 hours, being helped the entire time. And let me tell you - we were NOT the only ones in the store, it was pretty crowded. 

So onto the purchases!! There is a denim sale going on right now that has new premium denim for $98 each, so that is what I headed to first. There was also a deal where you got a $20 gift card towards your next purchase with any full priced jeans purchase, so I thought that was a pretty good deal. I ended up with 3 pairs (you can never have too many jeans!) - I will tell you what I think of each. 

The first pair I spotted was the J57 "Grey Straight Leg", which I mainly liked because I do not own any grey jeans. I figured I might as well try a pair, and these had really pretty pockets. Here is the stock photo of the jeans, so you get the idea: 

I picked this mainly for the pocket detail - it has a slight glitter to it

which I love. This makes this great "going out" jeans. As I said before, I also liked the color, which was unique. The best part about these jeans is that they came in a "long" size, which I need because I have super long legs. Not all brands make long sizes, so when I find ones that do I am extra thankful. I need to iron the pocket on mine - I think it got crunched with all the shopping I did today! 

The next pair of jeans I got were the J11 "Indigo Rinse Skinny Fit". I was the MOST excited for this pair because I am a sucker for skinny jeans. I think that they are super slimming and very sexy paired with heels. The only issue with these is that they do NOT come in "long" sizes, so I was stuck buying the regular, which was not a perfect fit. I bought them anyways because they fit well everywhere else, but they could use a couple more inches on them. Note to AX - us long-legged girls need long sizes! 

The 3rd and last pair of jeans I picked out were the J57 "Potassium Straight Leg". I liked these because they were slightly distressed, but not ripped open. These came in the "long" version like the first pair, so I was very happy about that. These jeans fall into the category I call my "class" jeans - those jeans you have that are not skin tight, that are comfortable for going to class or lounging around the house. The other two pairs are for sure "going out" jeans. 

Next I got my favorite purchase of the day: the black studded sheath dress. I am IN LOVE with this dress!! It was on one of the mannequins in the front window, and it was the very first thing that caught my eye. I knew I needed it. 

I have it paired with a black belt and black Gladiator Pumps which I also got from there. This dress is smoking in person - and those shoes are my new favorite shoes. I will probably wear them EVERYWHERE. Going to the grocery store in sweats? Don't worry - I have the perfect shoes to match.. haha j/k (maybe..).

I also got a clutch, top, and scarf that all match, as summed up in this picture: 

How cute are those??? BTW, I am wearing the J57 potassium jeans in that picture as well. I thought the clutch was perfect for summer, since bright patent leather is very in right now. The top has orange and pink sequins and the scarf is pink, orange, and glittery. I thought this outfit was very "me". The scarf could also double as a hair wrap if you wanted - but I go to school where it is super cold in the winters, so a nice, bright, scarf is very necessary. 

So now it is your turn to do the shopping. We are going to have a little mini contest. Winner will be randomly selected and sent a gift card for $500 - courtesy of Armani Exchange. All you have to do is go to Armani Exchange and tell me which denim pieces you would buy with your gift card and why. Make sure to include the name of the jean(s) you like. You have 3 weeks - contest ends on 7/31, and the winner will be randomly selected. Unfortunately, this is a US contest only - AX rules! Make sure you follow me on this blog also! You can also tweet to enter. Just tweet this message: "RT @allthatglitrs21 is giving away a $500 @armaniexchange gift card! Comment or tweet to enter: http://allthatglitters21.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-would-you-do-with-500-gift-card-to.html"

Also, Armani Exchange is doing a Text AX contest where you can win a pair of jeans every day of July. Text the keyword "DENIM2" to 276264 (Armani) to be eligible. 

Hahaha okay, now that we got the business part out of the way... comment away! I can't wait for one of you to have fun like I did :) 

Overall experience - would I shop there again? YES! And no, I am not just saying that because I got to go for free. If I was, I probably wouldn't have told you that this shopping was sponsored, right? I had an amazing sales rep that I will request again when I go back. I like the clothing, the service, and the style.