Pretty Pretty Pretty

Jungle party August 10, 2008

This weekend, me and my friend Kel went along to a ‘Jungle’ themed party. It’s pretty hard coming up with costume ideas, especially when nowhere in Wellington seems to sell pith helmets. But Kel saved the day by finding these great jungle costumes from Fin on Cuba St, Welly. Fin have fairly recently gotten into costumes, and hire them out at reasonable prices. They even tailor made some of our costume for no extra charge.

I’m not sure why I have such a sleazy look on my face!

Short bits and wordy considerations July 8, 2008

1. Zebrano, home to designer clothes for the curvy lady is having a sale. Pretty much every garment in-store (well, at least in their Johnson Street branch anyway) is reduced, often up to 50%, and arranged in size order for easy shopping. While I’m at it, how do you feel about the term “curvy lady”? I personally don’t like the word ‘lady’ very much so I’m not entirely sure why I’m using it. I ask partially because when Martha wrote about us, she said she doesn’t like the word ‘girly’. How about ‘girlie’ with an ie? But yes, I favour ‘curvy’ over ‘plus-size’, because it celebrates my lovely lovely breasts while we’re at it.

2. If you’re still not reading Jezebel yet, maybe you could start with this post on Badvertising, which demonstrates all the reasons that I pretty much hate magazine advertising (and most magazine copy, for that reason). As a sample, in response to a
Dove campaign for “It’s time we girls cooled off more and freaked out less”, Jezebel writes:

“You know what else makes me freak out? When someone suggests that “we girls” should freak out less. We make less money than men, are expected to be thin and hairless and we have the crampy bleeds every 26 days. A body wash solves nothing. Fuck off.”

And to continue my wordy-thoughts, I pretty much HATE advertising that pretends that the product is “one of us”. I don’t think that the Dove ad was written by someone who has anything in common with me, so they can take their over-familiarisation and shove it.

3. I know we’ve mentioned it before, but Amy and I worked on the giftboxes for our party (which starts at 4pm this Saturday in Newtown, tell your friends!) last night, and man, they are pretty damn awesome if I do say so myself. We’ve also got some foot spas for soaking your tootsies in, the signature cocktail has been designed, and there are piles and piles of clothes for the swap, and all kinds of tasty goodness and decorations have been purchased. We think that you will enjoy yourselves. For those of you who can’t make it because you’re not in Wellington, there will be some giftboxes to be won at a later date. We have many many cunning plans taking shape.

Pretty Pretty Pretty Three Month Party June 24, 2008

Amy and Jo are stoked to announce that in July, our beloved PrettyPrettyPretty.com will be three months old, and to celebrate, we’re throwing the most girlie of all parties to celebrate. Ladies, book in 4pm on Saturday July 12 to come to Newtown and participate in all the funness.

There’ll be signature cocktails, cupcakes and giveaways, new products to try, a great clothes and accessories swap, eating and drinking, makeovers, home spas, good times and maybe even a little Singstar to get the night going.

Want to come along? You should! So sign up to attend to stay up to date with the plans, clean out your wardrobe and cabinets so you can bring along any unwanted clothes, accessories and beauty products to trade. Please feel free to bring along any other lady friends you might have, and be aware that the menfolk are planning a Chap’s Night Out you can ship yours off to if he’s the type to get lonely.

On the day, we recommend you come in your PJs or similar comfortable attire, and bring along some products and makeup to share, a towel in case you need one, some extra booze, and a change of clothes in case you feel like heading in to town afterwards.

We are so looking forward to this!

Email amy(at)prettyprettypretty(dot)com for address or other details, and add yourself to the event on Facebook here.

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Pretty Pretty Pretty Prettifying Party Part I. April 28, 2008

Amy and I really like the idea of getting a bunch of girls together to do all kinds of girlifying things, and so we put our idea into action this past Saturday. Our lovely friend Shirley played host to us and four other girls, so we could drink bubbly mixed with ginger wine, watch Breakfast at Tiffany’sMolly Ringwald movies and partial episodes of Pride and Prejudice, and most importantly, try out some products and techniques on each other.

Kirsten and I self-identified as having problems with blackheads, so we started out our facial routine with a good steam. This is super easy to do - simply fill a bowl with boiling water and hold your head above it for five minutes or more, covered up with a towel. This is where we recommend investing in some straws for your champagne glasses so that you can stay hydrated while you steam. If you happen to have a blocked nose while you do this, feel free to add a little peppermint oil or vicks vapour rub to the water to clear out your sinuses while you’re at it. After five or ten minutes or however long you can stand the steam, you should come out dripping, but feeling slightly detoxified. In sort-of scientific terms, your pores are now open and ready to receive some product-loving.

We instructed all the attendees to bring along some girlie products to share, so we had a wide range of options when it came to putting on face masques, including the masques from our earlier trial. As well as providing us with a venue and stunning pizzas, Shirley offered us a choice of mud from both Egypt and Rotovegas. Brave Kowhai went with the former, but after laughing at how hard she had to wash to get it off, I stayed national. The Rotorua mud came in a hugeass tub and was only $23.50. The Egyptian mud would be in the thousands of dollars price range, cos you’d need to buy a ticket over there to get it.

 

We both enjoyed the tightening sensation as the mud dried, and mine came off pretty easily with some warm water, although I did have to clean up Shirley’s sink afterwards. My skin felt super soft and smooth, but I still wanted some moisturiser. Luckily, Kowhai had come to the party with some Nude Moisturiser she’d purchased at the fabulous store of Wanda Harland for around $30. To be honest, I thought the cream was a little bit too rich for me for my face, and I’m not a huge fan of lavender scent, but Kowhai obviously likes it, and that’s a good enough recommendation!

We did some lip plumping that Amy will be blogging about soon, and then we moved on to our hands. Heather had a set of Mary Kay Satin Hands to share with us. Now, you might think that a four step process (rub on emollient, then a scrub, then cleansing gel, then wash it off, then apply a moisturiser) sounds ridiculous, but oh my lordy, your hands feel like they are made out of angels afterwards. Honestly, wow, just wow. It’s like giving yourself a stranger. And if you’re applying it at a party, we really recommend that you and your friends give each other a little handrub afterwards too, using a little extra moisturiser. You’ll feel good, they’ll feel good, and all the boys watching on webcam waiting for panties and pillow fights will get a quick thrill too.

We had more products to try out, but the lure of more pizza and more Molly proved to be a little too strong, but I will hand the computer over to Amy now so she can describe what she did to Kirsten’s hair as part of the girlification.

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Well Jo, with modern technology, girlification is made easy. I merely twirled Kirsten’s pretty locks around my Remington Teflon Curling wand* and voila! (By ‘voila’ i really mean an hour of combing, pinning, heating and holding.) Without any hairspray at hand, i left Kirsten’s new ringlets hanging. With a bit of spray i might have gently brushed through the ringlets to create a Veronica Lake do. aaah well, some other time perhaps. *Disclaimer: i’m actually a little disappointed with this curler, and hankering for a new one. So i do not recommend this product.

Yay! It was a fantastic night all around, we had lots and lots of fun, tried some lovely things, and just generally had some fabulous girl-time. We intend on having lots more of these events, so we think you should become friends of ours, and then we’ll invite you along, and everyone will have a great pretty time!