Natalie Wise Blog - Happiness is here.

Something We Can All Agree On: Beauty with a Purpose

The country is bitterly divided, as we just saw on Election Day. But let me share something we can all agree on: ending human trafficking. While I was further researching the dark world of human trafficking, tears of frustration, pain, and empathy were streaming from my eyes. This happens in our own country, friends. People are being bought and sold. People with families; people with futures, with big eyes and beautiful faces that deserve to smile. But I was also filled with tears of compassion as I read the stories of beautiful children, teenagers, women, and men who were rescued. Whose lives were taken back and whose spirits are being rejuvenated. Beautiful stories of hope. Stories of beauty with a purpose. Radiant Cosmetics is a company striving to create more of those stories. As they like to say, “Fighting human trafficking one lipstick at a time.”

What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is a crime of modern-day slavery. Men, women, and children are bought and sold into various forms of human exploitation, including sex slavery and being sold for organs.This is a violent trade of human beings; it is a dehumanizing crime against men, women and children the world over, including the United States. Human trade generates $32 billion (did you catch that? billion) worldwide each year from the approximately 2 million people sold. That’s 2 children every minute.

Radiant Cosmetics
The cosmetics industry generates $170 billion worldwide each year, and Radiant Cosmetics founder Nicole is passionate about getting some of those funds on the front-lines of fighting human trafficking. Radiant Cosmetics is a company founded on the belief that we can make a difference. Indeed, we must make a difference, because our brothers and sisters are depending on us.

While travelling for missions work in Thailand, Nicole formed friendships with women who had been trafficked or worked in the commercial sex trade industry. Their stories cried out to her. Their faces awoke within her spirit a cry to help and a call to action. And that call to action included, you guessed it: lipstick.

Fighting for Change and Creating Hope
Now, she partners with other organizations such as Love146, fighting the tide of slavery, and her company donates a minimum of 20% of the profits from every product sold. Nicole and her team create amazing, gorgeous cosmetics. They are showing the world that a cosmetics company can be a generous force for good. That a lipstick purchase can mean something. That beautiful redemption is possible amidst the horrific scene of human trafficking.

I love it when God gives people a passion. I love it when He gives people a purpose in an otherwise ‘normal’ profession or situation. Selling lipsticks? No one used to think it could change the world. But Nicole? When Nicole looked at a tube of lipstick, she saw hope and the beauty of smiling faces freed from slavery.

***I am so excited to partner with Radiant Cosmetics. Tomorrow I’ll be sharing the products Nicole so graciously shared with me. Stay tuned!*** Edit: You can now read my review and see the products HERE in Part 2!

Reserach from Radiant Cosmetics, love146, UNODC, and the FBI

Crazy 60s

Good Monday Morning, lovelies! I’m so excited to share with you this week, because I finally have a bit of a creative streak back after my move. Moving really takes it outta ya! For a night out at theatre and dinner, I went for a more dramatic outfit and a certainly dramatic eye look. Tell me what you think!

{Patterned dress + striped leggings + hot pink motorcycle jacket + bow flats}

{60s costume jewelry earrings}

That crazy eye-makeup is called split eyeliner. A technique often used in the 1960s and onstage to really define the eyes, it is very mod. It is also very heavy, and is therefore best used sparingly. But it’s a fun style to have in your makeup bag of tricks, don’t you think?

Go-Getter

Some days, you have to get up, get dressed, and go make something happen.

Or, at the very least, get a cup of coffee in a hot pink cup that really makes you smile.

And by “get dressed” I mean…borrow clothes from my mom. Let’s not discuss how much I want to “permanently borrow” this gingham shirt of hers.

I have to say, I had a really great day while wearing this outfit, and while I didn’t necessarily “go get” anything super awesome today, at least I tried. Points, right?

Look Like Kate

{This is my “Kate is always smiling and walking in all of the paparazzi pictures, so I will be too” photo}

So this is sort of my “Halloween costume”. I’m not really a huge fan of Halloween, but I wore this outfit today, and I put it together inspired by Princess Kate. As soon as I spotted this dress in the thrift store, I knew it had to be mine. Lucky for me, it happens to be a London brand! Kate is bringing sheer hose back in style, but the only ones I had have flowers up the sides, hehe. An older lady who saw me went crazy over these hose and insisted I show them off in the pictures, so I did:

Kate has some very similar Stewart Weitzman cork wedge heels, so I wore my patent and rattan wedges. She often wears belts, too, and the hat is so similar to her brown one from the Canadian tour! I wore my best pearl studs, and tried my hardest to curl my hair.

Her hair is so utterly enviable! Gah! My hair hardly holds a curl. Here’s how it looked at the beginning, the best it looked after all of my 30 minutes of effort:

Here are a few of the dresses/outfits that inspired me:

I feel like Kate wore a dress even more similar to mine at some point, but I couldn’t find a picture of it.

Anyway, I adore, adore, adore this outfit, and can’t wait to wear the dress again!

Have fun but be safe and smart tonight, friends!

PS. Yes, the dress fits fingertip rule!

Take Heart

These days, it’s a daily struggle to keep all of my heart here. To keep it present.

Half of it is still living a small-town-happy past life, and the other half is living a city-struggling-memories life.

I have so much more empathy now for anyone who moves. The next time a new girl comes up to me, I will say, “I will be your friend! I will sit with you at the lunch table! I mean, get coffee with you!”
{this section refuses to get on the ‘centered’ bandwagon tonight for some reason…}

Also, I have only unpacked about 20% of my closet, and I haven’t figured out this “why my hair looks so terrible here most days” thing yet, so I’m really limping along here with style posts. Good thing this blog isn’t just about fashion 🙂

PS> I had to wear this leopard coat because it was snowing. Again.

Wait for the Lord! Be strong, and TAKE HEART, and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14

Have a great week!

Holding Patterns

Have you ever been on a plane that’s been put in a holding pattern? You’re ready to land, the plane has reached the destination, and all you want to do is hit the ground running in your destination city. Instead, you are still strapped into your uncomfortable seat on the airplane because someone “up there” in the control tower put you in a holding pattern. Why? Well, who knows: the airport might not be ready to accept your plane yet. There may be a bad storm beneath the clouds. You may need to use your gas before you can land (I never understood that one). So they have you fly in a circle over your destination.

That sounds like the most pointless thing in the world, right? To you, on the plane, ready to go, of course it does. But the airport controller has his reasons. He can see the other planes on approach, knows how busy the airport is, and knows what is safe on the ground. While the pilot may have actual control over where the plane goes, he trusts the controller and listens to the advice, which unfortunately means you get another round of stale peanuts on the airplane.

Sometimes it may feel like God puts us in a holding pattern, especially when it comes to love. We cry out thinking, “God! I’m here! I’m ready to love!” just like we are ready to get off the airplane and hit the ground running. But as ready as we may think we are, it may feel like we’re going in relationship circles. We may be put in a holding pattern for any number of reasons unknown to us at the time, including the fact that God may want us to remain single. But here’s a big one I was thinking of today: We may be ready, but our future significant other may not have lived out the part of his story that brings him to us yet. Much like waiting for the airport to be ready, or for the weather to clear on the ground, we may be waiting for God’s work in our future husband’s life. The best thing we can do in that case is to Pray for him. As we wait, God refines us constantly, takes care of us, brings us closer to where He wants us to be.

Rest and take heart in this fact: God has has the control tower’s view. He will let you land when it is safe, when it right, when all is well. And if that happens, you’ll never have been so happy in your life to run towards love.

PS. Just wanted to mention this is written specifically with the girls of our (in)Courage group in mind!

Falling

This city has yet to really impress me.

But this weekend…well…I might be falling for it a little bit.

See, I realized something.

This city owes me nothing. In fact, it has no idea who I am. It won’t draw my name out of a hat and invite me to hold the golden key to the city.

I must fall for it.

I must find the moments and the places that make me come alive here. I must find the space I wish to inhabit within this city, and I must inhabit it.

No one else can give that to me.

I have to thrift it along with vintage clothes, write it at coffee shops along with poems, and I must embrace it along with my family.

In time, I will snowshoe along the banks of its frozen lakes, and I will think quietly in my heart:
I have found peace.

And I have found a place here.

Monday Remedy

I’ve got a bad case of Monday Malaise. Which I just made up, but it’s real.

In case you’re with me, here is the remedy:

Solange’s new single is just the right vibe for a day like today…

{thanks refinery29}

Combine with delicious Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (the make-at-home version):

{image from & available here}

Add a walk in the crunchy leaves:

And voila! Feeling a bit better.

Now it’s time to settle in with a Monday night movie.

Here’s to Tuesday!

Possibilities

In a new town, everything seems like a possibility.

I kid you not, in the past week, I have Google-d and decided I was absolutely going to try rock climbing, trampoline exercise classes, and being a mystery shopper.

See, the problem is, there’s a disconnect. I can’t recreate my old life here. I must become a slightly, somehow different version of myself, just by the nature of moving. And while everything seems to be a possibility, I don’t want to lose my center of gravity either.

Who are we kidding here? A trampoline exercise class would make me, at best, extremely dizzy and probably motion-sick.

So I guess I’ll keep on working on it.

And in the meantime, there’s still a small chance I’ll see you at trampoline exercise class.

What?!

Weekend?

Oh how I spent today wishing it were the weekend! It was gray, rainy, and my heart just felt a bit downcast. So I decided to share a few of my favorite weekend things, even though it’s Wednesday…

Favorite Snacks by fashionatalie

Amazing tea I discovered on my road trip!
The BEST yogurt in the BEST flavor…anything strawberry rhubarb is kinda my favorite, but this is above and beyond.
Udi’s Cranberry granola is so delicious for this time of year.
Pamela’s Chocolate-Chip Coconut “Whenever Bars” are a delicious GF treat.
This chocolate bar was a gift…and man, was it delicious!
It’s that time of year again…I’m getting out my Urban Moonshine Immune Tonic, one of my favorite health products.

And here’s the outfit I desperately want to be wearing right now….

Weekend Cozy by fashionatalie

H&M print dress, $40 / H&M , $48 / H&M , $13 / H&M , $13 / Wallis low boots / Muk Luks military glove

Sweatshirt DRESS = GENIUS. Pair it with a cute vest, polka-dot tights, tall fair isle boot socks, cute ankle boots, and some great gloves.

Now I think it’s time for tea and reading…that oughtta help me through till the real weekend!