Day and Night

All week, I've shown my daytime birthday looks. Today, I'll be showing off my nighttime look, and the look that I wore to bring in my birthday!

As you know from a previous post on The Mod Little Melanin, I love my velvet two piece sets. A lot of people tend to limit their wearing of velvet to only winter months, because they see it is a thick fabric, that can only be worn to "stay warm." I'm here to tell you that velvet can most certainly be worn year round. While it is not ideal for daytime wear during the summer months, it is the perfect fabric for nighttime wear.

I wanted an outfit that would not only stand out when I was out on the town celebrating my birthday, but also capture the attention of others. I decided on a two piece velvet set from Missguided.com. This set differs from the one I posted last week (that I wore to The Formation Tour) in many ways. The velvet on this outfit is a crushed velvet, and has a sort of design due to the irregular patches of velvet that are stitched together in different directions. What I love most about this set is the color. Blush has been in for quite sometime, and is still an in-season color for this summer.

I originally wanted to style this look with faux fur heels, a DIY I was planning to complete but never got around to doing. You can of course find faux fur heels online, but I refuse to pay a large amount of money for a shoe that will cost less than $20 to make. Instead, I added a pair of silver heels that I already had in my closet, because I was trying my best to avoid spending anymore money on clothes. I feel the shoes allowed me to dress up the outfit, but they were not comfortable and were a pain to walk in throughout the large Westport District of KC. Silver shoes called for matching silver accessories, so I added silver '60s style hoop earrings and stacked silver rings on my fingers. Since I was going to a variety of bars and clubs, I didn't put any effort into selecting a purse and instead opted for a wallet.

I actually did my make up for this look, which is important because I don't wear makeup, ever! All of the makeup I used was drug store makeup, from Essences Cosmetics, Rimmel London, Elf and Wet n Wild. I won't go into detail because I'm not a makeup artist, but I will discuss the products I used to contour and highlight my face. To contour, I use Essence Contour Powder in 02 Medium. What I like about this palette is that it gives a subtle contour, rather than a drastic look when blended properly. It allows me to still look natural with my makeup which is important to me! For highlighting, I use Essence Soo Glow in 20 Bright Up Your Life. It's a soft pink color and gives a highlight that is simply to die for. I apply it with my finger so I can decide how much of a highlight I want for the occassion. I set my makeup, with Essence All About Matt. It's a sheer (clear) fixing powder that is meant to be blended on top of your makeup in order to set it and correct any areas that did not blend properly. My lipstick is from Wet n Wild, I know a lot of people frown upon their cosmetics, but I feel some of the products are just as good as the higher end drug store makeup.

Fun fact: My birthday outfit is originally the outfit I purchased for The Formation Tour, I decided to swap it out for the other outfit once I realized that I wanted a dressier look for my birthday.

Thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday! I look forward to seeing what the year of 23 has in store for both my life and The Mod Little Melanin. Stay true to you!

- Chelsea Nicole, The Mod Little Melanin 💋