Slim is in, but make sure you accessorize

When it comes to pants and jeans for women, slim is in. Fashionable women everywhere are wearing tight-fitting jeans and pants that accentuate slender features. However, many women also combine this with a snug top – while this might seem to make sense, the end result frequently makes it look too much like the person is wearing a dance leotard and little else.

Instead, women should consider more billowing and relaxed tops. One thing that can bring balance to a silhouette is fashion jewelry. Pieces such as Fiona Paxton jewelry can sparkle and dazzle, bringing attention to the upper half of the body and adding fullness to the overall silhouette.

So the next time you go online to buy the latest skinny jeans, consider also heading to a fashion jewelry online store such as Rilee & Lo to get some necklaces, pendants and other accessories to bring some glam balance to your look.

Jewellry Organizing Made Easy: How to Sort and Arrange

Keeping earrings, chains and bracelets all in one place and organizing them properly can be a difficult task. Finding the right jewellry to complement your outfits can be hard enough if everything is easily found, but if your collection is disorganized, then it can be a nightmare. Organizing jewellry is a process very specific to each individual, however just follow these simple rules and you should be able to get your jewellry organized well enough.

Keep everything in one place
First, gather all your jewellery and place it together. Keep aside the pieces that need to be repaired, thrown or given away. With the pieces that you choose to keep, sort them according to colours first. This will make it easier when you have to match your jewellery with your outfits. Then, group all like items together, and put aside those that you have outgrown, or impulse purchases that have never been worn.

Organize Jewellry According to Type
Sorting out jewellery according to type can also be very useful for you. Basically, divide the gold, silver, etc. If you like, you could also sort out jewellery according to formal, casual, office wear categories. If you do not own too much jewellery, then dividing them into categories like earrings, chains, pendants, and bracelets might be make things easier for you.

Cleaning Jewellry
Prior to storing jewellery, remember to clean and polish it. Clean silver jewellery with silver polish and a soft cloth. Gold and diamond jewellery can be cleaned in warm, soapy water and then, rinsed and rubbed with a soft, lint-free cloth. If you have any items with broken clasps or missing screws, keep them aside and take them to a jeweller for repair.

Storing Jewellry
Store everyday-wear jewellery in a jewellery box on your dresser, while family heirlooms must be placed in their special cases. Another method of storing jewellery is in dresser drawers fitted with drawers. You can also store earrings in ice trays placed inside your dresser drawer, while necklaces and bracelets can be hung on a row of hooks near the dresser.

Egyptian Jewellry

Ancient Egyptians made no distinction between jewellry and amulets worn for protection. As a result, many examples of ancient Egyptian jewellry have survived to this day. English archaeologist Howard Carter in November 1922 after breaking into King Tutankhamen’s tomb started a fashion craze that is still immensely popular today. Carter and his team removed treasures from the tomb, left behind by ancient Egyptians to aide their god-king in his afterlife. These treasures once revealed to the world, began to influence architecture, artistic styles and most importantly, jewellry.

Jewellry modelled after the items of jewellry brought out of King Tut’s tomb are still popular today. Egyptians wore amulets both for decoration and function throughout life and into death. Jewellry was made with the choice of precious metal and stone chosen carefully, as each element had specific meanings to them.

Glass in Egyptian Jewellry
Glass surprisingly was a highly prized element used in Egyptian jewellry. Unlike precious and semi-precious stones, ancient Egyptians found working with glass very easy, while reproducing the colours for each gemstone was done through a well-known formula at the time. They made glass into beads, which were then set into channels for collars and pectorals.

The meaning of colour in Egyptian Jewellry
Each colour had a specific meaning in Egyptian religion, as did each gemstone and precious metal. For instance, green jasper stood for rain, while malachite was connected to health. Silver was frequently used in jewellry-making, while gold was used as often as possible as it was considered to be the skin of gods.

Use of Amulets in Egyptian Jewellry
Amulets were very important to Egyptians. They were incorporated in designs of jewellry, while Egyptians spent their whole life collecting jewellery so they could buried with it for protection in their afterlife. Common amulet shapes were the Ankh, symbolizing life; or the Scarab which stood for rebirth.

Appropriate Jewellery Gifts for Specific Occasions

Every few months there comes yet another opportunity for gift giving. Deciding on an appropriate gift can be difficult and sometimes, the best gifts come in the form of jewellery be it Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, engagements or weddings.

Valentine’s Day
On Valentine’s Day you appreciate your loved ones and bestow special gifts on them. Small tokens of jewellery are the perfect way to show someone you care be it a boyfriend, girlfriend, son, daughter, wife or husband. Shop around for a heart-shaped diamond necklace, a bracelet or a pair of earrings for the ladies in your life. For the guys, diamond-studded cufflinks or a beautiful watch would be perfect.

Academic Achievements
High school and college graduations are special occasions no matter what they are celebrating, it is a pretty important moment in their life. Jewellery is a great option to consider when gift giving on such an occasion. A perfect unisex gift is a diamond-faced or gold plated watch, while women seem to prefer diamond rings. To make it more personal, engrave the student’s school and year of graduation on the inside of the watch or ring.

Mother’s and Father’s Day
This is not just a holiday to take your parents out for dinner. Present them with a special token of appreciation in the form of jewellery. Perhaps something with their birthstone or favourite gem would be an ideal gift.

Engagement and Wedding Presents
Yet another major event in a person’s life which warrants giving jewellery as a gift; consider gifting the bride with a string of pearls or diamond earrings. Grooms might enjoy special gold or silver cufflinks to wear on the big day.

How to use a Color Wheel

Selecting colored gemstone jewellery accurately to complement your outfit can be quite a task. However, the use of a colour wheel makes this process faster and more accurate.

Primary, secondary and tertiary colours
Red, blue and yellow are primary colours, while violet, orange and green are secondary colours. The mixture of two primary colours makes a secondary colour.
- red and yellow = orange
- yellow and blue = green
- blue and red = purple

Tertiary colors are a combination of any primary and any secondary color.
On a colour wheel, complimentary colours are those opposite each other. For example, the complimentary colour for red is green. Any arts and crafts store has a complete colour wheel for around $5. It will show the complimentary colour combination for the primary colours and many secondary and tertiary colours.

Pairing complimentary colours can be visually striking. The key to such pairing is to make sure that one complimentary colour dominates. For example, a red dress paired with an emerald or green jade necklace is very attractive and striking. Colour wheels also match up other colour relationships and help to easily select gemstone jewellery to dress up your outfit. Use diad colours to create more striking colour combinations. Diad colours are those that are two colours apart on the colour wheel. Black, white and brown are neutral colours and are not included on the colour wheel. This is because these three colours can be combined with any of the colours on the colour wheel.
Consider investing in a colour wheel. It will not only save time, but also costly mistakes when looking for the accurately colour gemstone jewellery to create that dashing look.

Buying Jewelry on eBay

Buying expensive pieces of jewelry itself proves to be quite a task at hand, let alone buying jewelry on online auction sites like eBay. Use these three tips to protect yourself when purchasing jewelry online: picture, feedback, policies.

- Picture: consider the listing only if its picture clearly shows every single detail. If not, simply move along. Jewelry is extremely hard to shoot. Good pictures on the listing indicate a seller who is in for the long run and thinks it worth it to invest in proper equipment or even a professional photographer. This indicates a professional attitude. Also look for clear, well-though out descriptions of the pieces of jewelry – which can also be considered when deciding on the legitimacy of the seller and the jewelry.

- Buying diamonds / precious gemstones: first look for a scanned laboratory certificate in the listing of the jewelry. Look for authorities such as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), American Gem Society (AGS) and the European Gemological Laboratories (EGL).

- Feedback – carefully read through the seller’s feedback and individual comments left by purchases in order to gauge whether you would consider doing business with this seller or not. Keep in mind that any small suspicion is a clear indication that you should simply move onto the next listing.

- PowerSeller – it is important that you check if the seller is considered a PowerSeller by eBay. The auction website’s criteria for this are quite high. This is a clear indication towards deciding if the seller is an honest businessman.

- Policies – go through the seller’s policies and his return policy. Determine on how easy it will be to get your money back if you are not happy with your purchase.

Star-Shaped Jewellery

Fancy getting yourself some star-shaped jewellery? Here are a few unique pieces you can get for yourself.

Necklaces
Courtney Laine Mazza, Broadway star wore a stunning single, silver, star pendant to the 18th Annual MTV Movie Awards in May 2009. Dangling mid-chest from a simple silver chain, it made the perfect accessory for her silver-toned dress.
If you want to achieve the same look at Mazz, log onto Eve’s Addiction which sells a 1-inch stainless steel star pendant hung from an 18 or 20 inch link-chain. Priced at $28, engraving costs an additional $9.

Earrings
Melissa Joy Manning’s Star Hoop Earrings available in recycled sterling silver, rose and yellow gold come complete with a continuous hoop close and available in 2.5″ and 1.5″ drops. The sterling silver large star hoops are priced at $125 while the gold hoops are $185. They are available at Barney’s, New York and on their website.

Wrist Action
Available on the Tous website for $229 is a star bracelet you could wear on your right wrist to bring you good luck. This linked star cuff bracelet comes in sterling silver and is 2.25″ wide.

Stainless Steel Jewellery
A cheaper alternative to sterling silver, stainless steel is a steel alloy that gets its name because it does not rust or stain easily. Get your star-shaped jewellery made in stainless steel as it is really easy to keep clean. You can even rinse it after wearing and buff dry with a soft cloth. When storing with other jewellery, take care as it can damage softer metals such as karated gold, gold-filled and sterling.

October’s Birthstone – Opal

Legend has it that wearing an opal, if not your birthstone, will bring bad luck to the wearer. This myth does not date back to ancient times, but to 1829 when Sir Walter Scott published Anne of Gerstein. The main character dies and her death is attributed to the wearing of an opal.

October’s gemstone is the opal, the zodiacal sign for Libra. Prior to Sir Walter Scott’s book, opals were considered to bring good luck and symbolized beauty.

Modern myths however say that opals have an eerie ability to project the wearer’s energy back to the wearer. Therefore, when wearing an opal and if you harbor many negative thoughts, the gemstone will reflect negativity back to you. Try on some opal jewellery. If it does not feel exactly right, then opals are not for you.

Opals require very delicate care. The gemstone is actually quite soft and cannot be placed in an ultrasonic or steam cleaner. You must keep opals away from the heat or cold and try not to get them wet. Opals can easily be cracked, if you desire wearing them frequently, they are best on earrings and pendants, but not on rings.

There are four types of opals: white, black, transparent and the common opal. Black and white opals are the most sought after for use in jewellery and are extremely expensive. Black opals paired with red, violet and orange flashes are the priciest, while the less expensive combinations include, black and white opals with yellow, blue and green flashes.

The Charm of Charm Bracelets

The wearing of charms and charm bracelets, like all other jewellery, dates back to prehistoric times. The popularity of charm bracelets was revived when Queen Victoria of England wore charms on bracelets and pins in the 1800s. During World War II, soldiers brought back little trinkets for their wives and mothers, who then put them on their bracelets.

Charm bracelets are also passed down as family pieces from mother to daughter as a ‘coming of age’ present.

Charm bracelets are popular for many reasons. The jingling noise when you move your wrist and the fact that it looks so appealing. It is also a piece of jewellery that is extremely personal and unique. Charms come in different shapes and sizes representing zodiac signs, religious affiliations, favourite cartoons, etc.

Some charm bracelets have gemstones placed in such a way that they spell out a message. For example: ‘I Love You’ – iolite, lapis lazuli, olivine, amethyst (the gemstone of St. Valentine), emerald, yellow zircon, obsidian, aquamarine (the magical substitution for emerald which is the gemstone of Umina, a Peruvian goddess). You can be as creative as you like with gemstone selections to spell out your own personal message on charm bracelet.

Bridal charm bracelets should essentially consist of pearls and blue chalcedony gemstone charms. Pearls stand for purity and are a popular favourite amongst brides, while blue chalcedony is the gemstone of Nelle, an angel of incredible beauty. It also covers the ‘something blue’ on a bride’s ‘attire’ list.

To charm bracelets more personal, add charms to your bracelet over time – representing a period of your life, thus creating a wearable history.

Sapphire – Birthstone for the month of September

Believed to be responsible for painting the heavens blue with its reflection, the Sapphire gets its name from the Latin word ‘sapphirus’, meaning blue. Known widely for its brilliant blue hue, the sapphire comes in almost every colour other than red. Ranked the second hardest gems, after the diamond, this Mohs scale indicates that the Sapphire is a durable gem, making it a great choice for jewellery such as rings and bracelets.

When judging the value of a sapphire, the colour plays the most important role. Dark or pale variations of the blue sapphire are less valuable, while the purer blue stones fetch high prices on the market. Likewise, the cut of the stone and its clarity also add to its cost, including its carat weight.

Sapphires are believed to attract divine favour to its owner. It is commonly used as a talisman to protect travellers, ward off illnesses as well as bring around peace, joy and wisdom. Known as the stone of prosperity, Sapphires figure even in the Book of Exodus. It is mentioned that when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments he gave them on tablets of sapphire.

The most famous sapphire sits at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. – the Logan Sapphire, a 423 carat cushion-cut stone from Sri Lanka set in a brooch surrounded by diamonds. The second most famous sapphire in the world is from the Russian crown. It is
kept in the Diamond Fund in Moscow.

In addition to being the birthstone for the month of September, sapphires are also a recommended gift for couples celebrating their 5th or 45th wedding anniversary.