Grad ball outfit plans

Today I’m attending a graduation ball*. It’s my second one. Last time I was graduating with my MSci in Physics and I knew basically the entire graduating class. This year, most of us who picked up MScis last time around are now collecting their PhDs. Seriously, most of them – although several went to other universities to do it. So, a handful of us got together and decided we’d go to the grad ball, even though it’s usually for undergraduates. We’ve got half a table of postgrads – I just feel a bit sorry for the other half of the table.

Last time I wore a lovely pink dress that I’ve worn for a few events. Here’s me wearing it a couple of years ago at a different event with P (who still prefers to remain anonymous online):

 

Pretty, right? Plus, with a dress that pink, everything else either has to be really neutral or… also pink. I think I went with a French manicure for the nails on that occasion, but I’ve done various shades of pink with that dress before.

This time around, I’m retiring my lovely pink cocktail dress. It’s had its fair share of outings and it feels wrong to wear it to two different grad balls, five years apart. Instead, I’m wearing a mid-length, black off the shoulder dress with a lace panel in the midriff. It’s pretty and classic and not too ott. However, with black, the easiest thing to do is to go with black accessories, and I am. I have sparkly black shoes and a faux lizard skin black clutch. I obviously will not be going with black nails. I’ve done my goth phase and I don’t feel the need to revive it.

So I’m thinking super classic, right? Red nails and red lips and heavy black winged eyeliner. What can go wrong? Well, needless to say, I spent yesterday afternoon going through every single bottle of polish that I own unable to find exactly the right shade. Eventually, I settled on a polish called Midnight Passion by H&M (have I mentioned I love their polishes? I totally have). Actually, now it’s on I kind of love it.

No pictures of the full outfit yet I’m afraid! I’ll be leaving that to the professionals, but I promise a photo later on (probably with P redacted again) so you can let me know whether or not I got it right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and fail horribly at getting my winged eyeliner right.

 

*Graduation itself is on Thursday.