*This review is not sponsored 

When I was doing my Lowest Cost Per Wear Everlane post couple months ago I really tried to calculate my cost per wear and found that it was pretty impossible.  So I went in search for an app that would help me do that, and that's when I found the StyleBook app.  I never heard of it before so I did a little research and it seemed to be the number one app for keeping track of your clothes.  I promptly spent the $3.99 to download and then left it untouched on my phone for over a month.  But with a trip to Europe that coincided with the Winter 10x10 challenge, I knew it was the perfect time to give the app a shot.  And well long story short, I love the app and I find it super useful and easy to use.

To get my closet uploaded into the app (which by the way I'm no where near done), for most of my clothes I did a flat lay shot on some white poster board to upload the clothes into my digital closet on the app.  It's super easy and does a fairly good job of picking up the outline of the clothes.  Here are some tips for using the photo function of the app:

- When laying out shoes, try to keep some distance between the left and right pair since if they're too close together, the app has a hard time erasing the white space between the shoes.  You can go in a manually erase the white parts that the program fails to automatically erase but it's a bit of a pain.

- This also applies for purse straps.  Try to lay it out so that there's a lot of white space that the app can automatically erase (ie don't have it criss crossed in complicated ways).  

- If your item has white in it, you have to use a towel or sheet that is of a contrasting color

-This function is hard for items with patterns and lots of different colors since the app then can't tell whats the the clothing and whats the background.  If you have a closet full of patterns, this app might not be the best for you

- When erasing the background manually, it's better to over-erase a little than to under-erase since when you under-erase, you can see the background with the clothing and it looks weird later.

You can also add clothing by finding it in their "shop".  I found Everlane items there, which was great.  But even if you find it on their shop, you still have to erase the background yourself (they basically provide you with the stock photography).  It would be the same as if you went to the brand's website and copied the picture, pasted it into the app, and erased the background (which is also another function this app can do). So if you find some time on your hands (say while commuting on a bus or train), you can add items to your closet this way.

Once you add the picture of the item to your closet, you can add details like the color, fabric, size, season, brand and price.  I usually just add color, brand and price so that I can upload and add an item to the closet in about 2-3 minutes.  You can also edit this later.

Once you have your clothes uploaded, you can start adding them to Looks and to your calendar.  I tend to make the Looks first and then add the look to the calendar so that when you take a quick look at the calendar you can see the whole outfit.  Otherwise the calendar will only show one piece of clothing (the first one added for that date).  

I also really love the packing feature of this app.  You can either add the clothes to the packing list or even better, add Looks to your trip and the app will automatically add what you need to pack to your list.  So if you want, you can plan your looks first and then pack.  These are all the items on my 10x10 plus accessories:

And now my favorite of all: the breakdown of the numbers!

So I'm nowhere near entering all my clothes but the 24 on there is probably the most worn items of this season.  I'm pretty much adding clothes as I go.  And the feature that I bought this app for:

Now this app isn't perfect (it can be cumbersome to add and organize your closet and looks), but it definitely does what it needs to.  And this app isn't for everyone since it requires tracking your clothes everyday if you really want to utilize it to its potential.  But man, I love it.  I hope to continue doing this so I can really refine my wardrobe and know exactly which pieces I'm wearing and which I've forgotten about.  Also it's been a bit of an eye opener on how much I spend on clothes (um only 24 items and I'm already at over $4k?!  I'm a little scared to see what the sum of my closet will turn out to be).

I did have a bit of a hurdle trying to figure out what to put down as the cost for items that are really old and I've already worn the heck out of.  For example the tall leather boots that I've had for 5+ years should already have a low cost per wear.  But I decided what really matters is how much I do use them from this point on.  So I gave it a fairly high start cost (as if I bought them at a thrift store), but this is a personal preference.

Now onto the Winter 10x10.  If you want to see it, head over here and you can see all 10 outfits along with the Style Book app layout for them.  I wasn't initially going to the 10x10 but when it coincided perfectly with my trip to London, Paris, and Amsterdam I thought I might as well.  Especially since it would help me to keep my luggage items to a minimum, and it would ensure that I would wear everything I packed.  And I'm so glad to have done it since there were only 2 items I packed that I never used (of course it was the last minute items I threw in, just in case).  Also the 10x10 was a good excuse to make an effort to take pictures during my trip.  

And my one takeaway from this particular challenge was it's totally okay to repeat the same outfit.  Accessories like the scarf and bag will change the look enough that it won't look exactly the same (besides no one but yourself notices outfit repeating).

Anyway anyone else use the StyleBook app and have any useful suggestions?  Also did you participate in the Winter 10x10 challenge, and if so what were some of your take-aways?