Sports Wear
Herr
Posted on March 25th, 2012
Categories: Feature
Hym & Herr
Floral
Herr
Posted on March 23rd, 2012
Categories: Feature
Denim on Denim
Herr
Posted on March 22nd, 2012
I wasn’t always a fan of denim on denim looks, at least not with when both pieces are some shade of blue. However ever since I started obsessively wearing my favorite GAP denim button up, I have been combining it with everything – including my blue jeans. The following are pics of street stylers/bloggers wearing their version of denim on denim.
Categories: Feature
Bright Clutch
Herr
Posted on March 21st, 2012
I love bright clutches – they are the perfect way to keep yourself looking chic and happy on dreary Spring days (like today). I am a fan of the oversized clutch for its practicality as well as how good it looks, you can use it as a purse and then throw it in your work/school tote and use as a cosmetics or personal bag.
Categories: Uncategorized
First Day of Spring: Shades of Pink
Herr
Posted on March 19th, 2012
Categories: Feature
Cool Hand Luke
Hym
Posted on March 15th, 2012
If you’ve ever driven a car in the summer you’d notice that the first thing that happens is the heat that accumulates within the cabin soon becomes unbearable. You start to sweat a bit and either have to waste gas on the air conditioner or open the window and hear the ruckus out. The worst part of it is that your hands start to sweat while gripping the wheel.
While most people buy driving gloves to act the part, look like the guy from The Transporter, most find them useful for retaining grip while they’re driving in the summer or keep their hands from frostbite in the winter. Driving gloves are an upcoming trend due to movies such as this and Drive, where the daredevil vigilante never gets in his car without putting them on.
Fact is, many driving gloves that you would find out there are pretty useless or extremely cheap looking. Nothing is worse than driving in your nice car wearing, well, what looks like the seat cover to an ’85 Civic. Thankfully (you’re very welcome) I have done the research for you. I traveled the world and drove countless days for the search of a good driving glove and well, this is what I discovered in my journey.
First and foremost, you will not, and I stress this, you will not find a good pair of driving gloves that are not made with leather. I mean, you probably can use a cloth mechanics glove or batting gloves and think you look cool. Fact is, you won’t. It’ll just look like you are coming from work and you were too lazy to take them off. It doesn’t play the part.
Leather quality is what makes the glove. Too cheap and stiff, you can barely move your hands altering your driving and making the entire experience uncomfortable. Too soft and you have no grip on the steering wheel, and that’s just cause for an accident. What you want, as everything in life, a harmonious balance between the two. Soft, supple leather with a rougher interior on the palm side of the glove to give you breath ability and use.
Secondly, do not buy a completely enclosed glove. This isn’t a driving glove anymore, it’s just a glove. I can find that anywhere, why would I utilize a regular glove for driving. A driving glove should have holes in the knuckles to allow air to rush in when you move your hands. An open patch of skin should show right before the wrist to allow further ventilation. A clasp of some sort should be included to keep the glove firmly on your hand and not allow shifting. Shifting, is when your hands sweat and create a border of water between your hand and the glove. Avoid this at all costs because you will love grip and the glove then becomes useless.
Lastly, buy a glove that fits. Most driving gloves are made to completely wrap your hands tightly. It should be form fitting and fit your hand, well, like a glove. Bulkiness is your enemy and avoid any glove that has a built in insulation inside the glove. What you should see inside the glove is the other side of the leather, and nothing more.
I think that just about covers what a good driving glove should include. These are some of my top picks for you. Remember, a driving glove is measure to the circumference of your hand. So when buying one, take a tape measure and measure the width of your open hand from left to right and all the way around, as shown in the diagram to the right. This width is then your size of the glove. Through my research I have found that Gaspar Gloves, has hands down the best pair for the best price, so I highly recommend them. But if you want to try something new and out of the ordinary, here are a couple of other choices. Stay cool.
Categories: Feature
Happy Birthday Ray!
Hym & Herr
Posted on February 18th, 2012
For Ray’s birthday I decided I would bake a homemade cake. Ray’s favorite is lemon cake with lemon icing. The homemade part was my attempt at making up for having missed his actual birthday and celebrating a week later (I was away visiting my family in Puerto Rico). Now a homemade cake may not seem good enough to make up for not actually being here, but if you had ever seen me attempting to make any food item, you would understand why baking from scratch really was a huge deal. Luckily, my very ungifted hands found a super easy recipe online. I made this no problem so I promise you can too. I found the recipe on About.com.
What you will need:
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
zest from 1 or 2 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Prep Work: Preheat your oven to 350° F. Butter up and flour a cake pan (The site says bunt pan, because the recipe was for a bunt cake – but I just used a circular pan and it was fine).
Step 1. Zest and juice your lemon. I had the thing you need to zest a lemon. If you don’t, then don’t include the zest and put more lemon juice. Though the zest does make a difference, but you will be fine without it.
Step 2. Beat the eggs and sugar until thick. I used an electric mixer because no way were my hands going to withstand using the whisk. Slowly beat in the oil. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Keep beating the mixture until it looks smooth (not clumpy). Once it’s all well mixed up, add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla.
Step 3. Mix in my two special ingredients at the end – A little extra vanilla and some Bacardi rum.
Step 4. Pour the batter into the pan you buttered up and floured previously. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake is done. I like to set my timer to 35 minutes and start checking through the oven door from there, every 5 minutes – but don’t open the oven door! I open it all the time and my cakes always fall slightly.
Step 5. While the cake bakes, you can make the frosting. You can always just use vanilla frosting since the cake is lemony anyways. Ray really loves the lemon flavor though so I used my dad’s homemade frosting recipe. If you are going with store bought, skip to Step 7. Now I should mention, I first tried a lemon icing recipe I found on Martha Stewarts’s website. That turned out badly. Thankfully my dad is kind of really amazing at making frosting and helped me start over with his recipe.
For the my dad’s frosting: mix 4 egg whites with one cup of confectioner’s sugar (I put regular sugar in the blender and blended it until it looks like baby powder). Add in any leftover lemon juice ( I just gave my lemon a good two squeezes right into the bowl) and add a teaspoon’s worth of lemon zest (or whatever you have leftover). I also throw in another bit of rum, it helps prevent the frosting from tasting too eggy. It should look like this when you are done:
Step 6. Check your cake and if it’s done, take it out and allow the cake to cool and then remove it from the pan. I usually just set it on a serving platter. Now my cakes never come out looking beautiful or perfect, but I don’t worry about that because the frosting covers it all up anyway.
Here is my cake, frosted and partially eaten – I forgot to take pictures once it was out of the oven because Ray called that he was coming home early so sh*t got hectic.
Categories: Feature
How to Deep Condition Your Hair
Herr
Posted on February 16th, 2012
So in the past I was one to constantly change my hair color and use a lot of hot tools. Due to this my hair was always super dry and over processed. I have currently given up the dying and partially let go of the heat tools. However before and now, my hair still requires a lot of conditioning. I swear by deep conditioning and I do it once a week to keep my strands super moisturized. Moisturized hair is key to fighting humidity (my arch nemesis) and masking any hair damage you may have (dryness, frizz, brittleness, etc). Since I am always explaining to friends and family how I deep condition or doing it for them, I though I would share my process here.
I do this treatment once a week, but some people may be content with doing it once a month. Try it out and see what works for you.
You will need:
1. A thin toothed comb
2. A hair clip
3. A plastic shower cap (the cheap, dollar store kind)
4. A ponytail holder
5. Your favorite conditioner (doesn’t have to be fancy)
6. A blow dryer
7. Optional – A particular conditioning product (the really fancy stuff you splurged on)
Step 1. Wet your hair completely. I personally like to shampoo and condition my hair beforehand, this is up to you. Then pat out excess water with your towel (don’t dry it, just so it is not dripping). Comb through your hair to make sure it is tangle free.
Step 2. Use your comb to section off your hair, one section at a time, starting from the bottom. Clip the rest of your hair to your head.
Step 3. Take your conitoner (whichever you use regularly) and coat the hair you sectioned off. Once your hair if full of conditioner, comb through it to spread the conditioner out evenly. Take any excess left on your comb and distribute it through your hair again.
Step 4. Go through your whole head this way, sectioning each piece off and conditioning each section. Once all your head is done, comb all your hair into a ponytail. Again any excess should be re-distributed into your hair. If you have a special conditioner you like to use, apply it to the ponytail part of your hair. Your hair is healthier at its root, since this is the part of your hair that is just growing out. Your ponytail in turn is the oldest (and most damaged) part of your hair. I focus the extra good conditioner on this end. If you are only using your everyday conditioner, just apply some more of it on your ponytail.
Step 5. Once all that conditioner is in, twist your ponytail into a bun and secure with a ponytail holder. If your hair is too short for this, just clip it up.
Step 6. Place a plastic shower cap on your hair. They sell them at the dollar store. Make sure it is snug against your head.
Step 7. Put your blowdryer on a High/Meduim heat setting (your choice), but keep the power on Low ( so it is not blowing off your shower cap). Basically you blow-dry your shower cap (never press the dryer onto the cap directly!!). Try to do this for 15 minutes, or until both your arms give out, and alternate with small burts of heat under the shower cap, this will trap some heat inside.
Step 8. After blowdrying, spend as much time as possible with the shower cap. I like to leave it on all night and wear it into the next day. If this is not possible (I realize you may actually have a life to get to), I suggest you leave it on 30 minutes at least, 1 hour if your hair is on the thicker side. Your hair should be stiff and dry when you are ready take off your cap.
Washing Out: I like to take my time washing the deep conditioning treatment out. Take time massaging out any conditioner on your scalp especially so it doesn’t feel oily or flake. Some of you may want to rub in a little shampoo, but only to your scalp!! Shampoo dries out hair so if you use it all over you will undo all the conditioning. If I feel like I need shampoo, I will mix it in with a little conditioner to soften the effect. I also like to keep a comb or paddle brush around to help comb out the conditioner and keep the hair from tangling as I wash the products out. Most importantly, use cold water. The colder the water the better your hair will look. I don’t know why, outside of the heating step, this is the most important aspect of the conditioning treatment. I have tried a warm water rinse and it was not the same.
Categories: Feature
New Denim
Hym & Herr
Posted on January 23rd, 2012
Lately I have spotted a streetstyle trend I am very into – denim jackets under coats. I have seen this done both men and women. I like figuring out new ways to wear denim, especially a denim jacket, which for me is a wardrobe staple (plus its super American classic). The blogger behind the awesomest Atlantic-Pacific did this trend perfectly, as did designer Sam Shipley (of Shipley & Halmos), as featured on Refinery 29.
The key to pulling this look off successfully is to keep the layers light. Since you will be wearing two coats, you do not need any more layers underneath. For both men and women, the addition of a thin cardigan or sweater should be enough for this extra cold days. Put your jean jacket on top of your ensemble as you would normally and just throw your coat on top of that.
When picking a jean jacket, I suggest it be waist length, slightly fitted, in a dark or light wash. Please no embellishments (read: no bedazzled accents), major bleaching or distress effects, etc. Keep it classic, you’ll get the most wear out of it.
Our go-to label for a great jean jacket has always been Levi’s. For women, I like this classic style, $49 and the dark wash option, $78 (from $210).
Categories: Feature
Winter Coat Sale: Picks by Hym
Hym
Posted on January 23rd, 2012
Usually by this time I am searching for a Winter coat. I try to wear my old one until the end of December and buy a new one in January. Right now is the best time to get yourself a new Winter coat since they are all on sale and Winter just got started (we had our first snow here in NYC just yesterday). You would be surprised how much you can save if you wait until January when its actually cold enough to wear one rather than when they first hit stores in September. Here is what I found online, these are the best buy in my opinion.
My Picks:
Categories: Feature