No Shade in that Beauty

Lupita Nyong'o is an actress on everyone's sights. She stars in '12 Years A Slave', winner of the best picture in the Oscars. I personally haven't seen it myself, but I have added it to my long list of 'must-see movies'.

In the video below, she speaks of beauty. She speaks of her personal struggles and thoughts from her adolescent years. She speaks of how beauty is not based on the colour of one's skin, as the media suggests.

Struggling with the colour of your skin is what I identify with, and I truly find her speech to be inspiring. And very relatable. I hope that everyone, not only girls struggling with their race or 'colour', listens to Lupita's speech.

And as Lupita says, "I hope that you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside, and that there is no shade in that beauty" 

Ways to wear blood red

Personally, deep dark blood red is always in. It is one of the classiest colours behind ivory black. I always associate ivory black with Chanel (queen of makeup and all things fashion) and of course, Audrey Hepburn. To me donning a plain little black dress, a pair of heels with hardly anything else, very minimalistic, is perfect. Especially now in 2014 where fashion is taken overboard and has so many things happening at once, I think minimalism is key to a flawless appearance.

Blood red has always been prominent in fashion and beauty. It has been the colour of our painted lips for centuries. But there are other ways to incorporate it into our wardrobe.

1. Sandal Box-Heels
I recently purchased this gorgeous pair of heels (ugh I just want to kiss them!!) from Zara on sale for €14.99 !! Great deal! This year I've all been about very "old style looking" shoes (much to my mum's horror) and of course heeled sandals are gorgeous. These heels are my definition of 'drop dead' gorgeous. They are blood red and wearing them will give you the confidence to 'kill'. Below are the pictures I took in basically every angle. I took the images in both flash and non flash to show the colour and patent leather shiny-ish texture.

                 

2. Sleek Handbag

This bag was a gift from my dearest mom and I am in love with it. As much as I love it, I am having difficulty thinking of places to wear it to. It is Kate Spade and is definitely a going out bag and little ole me do not go out to swanky galas, party's and wherever else often. The colour of the bag is still blood red however, a little on the bright 'fire engine' side.

3. Gem Acessories

I have a beautiful necklace given to me as a gift from my aunt which I have been wearing a lot lately. The chain is gold and a medium length and there is a dark ruby gem with white crystals surrounding it. The images of it are pretty crap, which I do apologise for. I tried taking images of the gem with and without flash but neither were capturing the colour perfectly. Granted it was an iphone camera, which aren't the best...

4. Nails

The fourth very subtle and very glamorous way to wear blood red is on your nails. I recently bought the most beautiful nail polish colour from Kiko (Make Up by Milano). The shade is 226 - Rouge noir (which means red black). Yes it is on the dark side of red but I still consider it as a blood red. To me looking at it (it is on my nails right now), it looks so very chic. It just reminds me of Chanel. It is quite dark, almost a black as the name suggests, but there is still a hint of red. Again the images (and lightly) are poor quality so I have attached a screenshot of the colour from Kiko's website below.

I will always consider blood red to be the sexiest and most glamorous colour and girl (or woman) can wear. The colour is to die for and makes everything look so much posh-er and chic. To me this colour just screams confidence and can really empower someone. I love this colour and as I have shown, there are quite a few ways to incorporate it in your wardrobe to make a statement-- bold or subtle.