Off The Shoulder Midi Dress + My Secret for Perfect Red Lips Every Time

As yesterday was National Puppy Day, I jumped at the chance to bring Pebbles along on my shoot and get some cute snaps with her. Full disclosure, I brought Penny too. But as many of you saw on Snapchat… Penny is NOT exactly the most photogenic. She hates photos and looks borderline insane in them. Case in point, there’s this photo of me and Penny:

So, yeah. She looks that way in basically every picture, which is why Pebbles is the one who makes it into the photos. Pen doesn’t exactly have a future in dog modeling lol! (PS: she loves me, I promise!)

So we headed over to the dog park yesterday afternoon, which we don’t actually do a lot because Pebbles and Penny are completely anti-social. Pebbles is slightly terrified of other dogs; when she was a baby we went to the dog park and she hid under a picnic table shaking the whole time. Since we’ve gotten Penny she’s done a lot better. (Honestly, she’s not even really a huge fan of Penny either, but she tolerates her, the way you tolerate weird annoying relatives you’re forced to be around.) Penny thinks she’s a big tough dog and enjoys growling at giant German Shepherds, so there’s that. They do, however, enjoy being outside and smelling things and such.

You may have seen this dress all over my Snapchat yesterday. A few of you asked me about it, so I linked it in the sidebar for you in the Featured on Snapchat widget! I wore it to the dog park and then switched into heels for dinner with Taudrey jewelry. The dinner was AMAZING! So beautiful and special, with little personalized touches everywhere, which is just so very TAUDREY. We were checking out the new spring line, which you must shop immediately. If you don’t know about Taudrey, you absolutely must check it out. They specialize in personalized jewelry, which you know I love. They gifted me a ‘The World is Your Oyster’ necklace and bracelet, which I immediately put on and am wearing as we speak. I also got a pair of pretty little heart stud earrings that aren’t on the website right now, but I’ll link them when they are!

OK, so I need to tell you about this dress! Guess how much it costs? $29.99! It’s from Target! It’s part of March’s Who What Wear collection. I know, I know. I’m obsessed. I’ll admit it! (I’ve already worn WWW stuff here and here. And here. LOL!) And I’ll tell you right now, I have way more pieces hitting Instagram and the blog in the next couple of weeks.

The dress is super comfy, surprisingly! It’s jersey knit, with plenty of stretch. I wore it all day, no problem. Off the shoulder is still a huge trend and I’m obsessed. It’s just such a pretty silhouette, so flattering. The nipped in waist on this made me feel super skinny and flirty. The black and white is so chic and I felt like this was really versatile! I kept it cazh for the daytime, but swapped out my sandals for heels and headed straight to dinner. This dress is also available in solid black and a black/green floral if you prefer! (Also available in plus size, which is great!)

To me, a stripe dress like this just SCREAMS for a red lip! You know I’m all about a red lip ANYWAY, so even more so with a gorgeous dress like this. Here in Miami, you know the weather is always hot and I force myself to drink tons of water to keep dehydration at bay. On days I don’t get enough water, my lips are so, so chapped, which you know is the absolute worst when you’re trying to rock a bold lip.

After I started using Vaseline Lip Therapy Tins a few weeks ago, I’ve noticed a MAJOR MAJOR difference in my lips and how my lipstick looks. You may remember I wrote about the AH-MAZING Lip Tins in this post and I mentioned yesterday in this post about how I have Lip Tins all over my house/desk and reapply constantly. Not even kidding you guys, the Lip Therapy Tins have totally changed my lips for the better. No more cracking and peeling.

In addition to using Vaseline Lip Therapy regularly throughout the day, I also apply a layer to prep my lips BEFORE I apply my lipliner and matte red lipstick (You NEED to it to prep your lips when you’re going matte, if not, your lips are super, super dry which is NOT cute.)

I absolutely love all shades of red, but for this look, I really wanted to go with a dramatic blue-red. Ruby shades feel a little more winter than spring, but I don’t know, I just really wanted to go dramatic. I love the Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte lipcolors, and Rich Ruby is a GREAT shade, perfect for this type of look. Again- anytime you’re going creamy matte anything you need to moisturize,moisturize, moisturize!

Check out the look below and tell me what you think in the comments!

Outfit Details

Dress : Target || Belt: Target || Sandals: Topshop || Bracelets: c/o Kendra Scott, Kendra Scott, Baublebar, Vera Bradley || Rings: Macy’s, Sophie Harper c/o Rocksbox get a free month of Rocksbox w/ code: STEPHANIEXOXO3 || Earrings: Baublebar || Lipstick: Maybelline in Rich Ruby || Don’t forget the Vaseline Lip Therapy!

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This post is brought to you by Vaseline. All opinions are, as always, my own. Thank you for supporting the brands who support A Sparkle Factor!