Blog banner inspired look

Lately I've been feeling very un-confident with my makeup work and the pictures I take. Whenever I've done a look it felt like it wasn't good enough and that the pictures I took were just insufficient. I guess all artists have such periods some times.

The other day however I did a look that actually turned out the way I intended it to and the pictures I took of it were not bad at all! I hardly had to edit them, even. :)

This is the look that I will be wearing at New Years Eve (at least that's what I'm planning to wear right now...). I am not going to any fancy party but glittery makeup is always fun. :)

And the glitter actually showed up on the pictures! :D *YAY!*

I figured nude lips would look best with this look.

On my lips I have Darling by Makeup Geek, which is by far my favorite nude lipstick, and on top of that the lipgloss Edelweiss by Face Stockholm (which tastes and smells terrible...).

Step 1. Put some Scotch tape on the outer corner of your eye. This will help creating a crisp edge to the eyeshadow. :) Then, apply a black gel liner as a base on your whole lid. Blend out the edge slightly.

Step 2. On top of the black base, apply a matte black eyeshadow.

Step 3. Above the black, apply a shimmery medium purple/plum. This is going to act as a transition color, which will make the vibrant, matte purple we are adding later a lot easier to blend. The eyeshadow I've used for this step is Sensuous by Makeup Geek.

Step 4. Now, take a vibrant matte purple (Poison plum by Sugarpill, for instance...) and apply it over the transition color. The only way to get a perfect gradient here is to apply, blend, apply, blend... etc. until you are satisfied.

Step 5. As a highlight color I used the lavender purple Wisteria by Makeup Geek. Apply on your browbone and blend it downwards. Then, you can add some more Poison plum blend, add Wisteria again and blend. Do so until the gradient is smooth and even.

Step 6. Remove the tape and clean up underneath your eyes.

Step 7. Black eyeliner and black eyeshadow on the lower lash line.

Step 8. Apply some of Poison plum under the eye and blend out. Apply foundation, concealer and powder.

Step 9. Mascara, false eyelashes and then some gunmetal glitter on the lid. There are several methods of making the glitter stick to your skin, but the one I like best is to first put on some glitter eyeliner and before it dries pat on some dry glitter.

Step 10. With a liquid eyeliner draw a series of "sloppy" circles (that is, don't bother if they are not completely round...), C-shapes and dots.

Step 11. Fill the dots with glitter.

Step 12. Fill in your eyebrows and you're done!

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So what about you guys, what kind of makeup are you going to wear at New Years Eve? :) Will you go for something with glitter? Something colorful?

Thanks a lot for reading and hope you have a lovely day! :)

The terrible tragedy in Connecticut

This will obviously be a non-makeup related post, but as an emotional human being I can not let this terrible event pass without even mentioning it here. I am shocked and appalled by the evil things people can do and something like this is very hard for me to even comprehend.

Today I read this great text by Bane at GIY (Goth it Yourself) and now I'm almost equally appalled by medias hideous attempts for blame the goth subculture for Adam Lanza's horrible deeds.

"From high school loner to cold-blooded 'killer': How Adam Lanza went from quiet honor student to 'goth killer' who didn't utter a word during horrific murdering spree"

This quote comes from www.dailymail.co.uk. I don't even know what to say so I will simply repost Bane's words: 

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"Yesterday morning, a man murdered more than two dozen people, 20 of them young children. After such a horrifying event, I struggle to hang on to that last bit of hope for humanity. After the irresponsible reporting of the event, I have no hope left for most American news media. In their lust for ratings, their rush to throw the sharpest hook to grab viewers, they got nearly everything wrong. They spent half the day releasing all sorts of rumors and hearsay (conveniently called "unconfirmed reports" as if that eliminates their culpability). The stories contradict each other, and in many cases, themselves.

Whenever I hear about senseless acts of violence like yesterday's rampage, I react like any decent human being would - with sadness, disbelief, and questions of "why?". But ever since the Columbine school shooting, when the killers were wrongly labeled goths, I also can't help but think, "Please don't say the killer was wearing black." Because if he was, some uninformed person is likely to call him a goth, and the American media will once again seize upon the opportunity to demonize goths.

Early in the afternoon, I read a story that began, "A teacher's son, clad in black..." Oh, no.

Then, with a map of the school and pictures of guns, "Before 9:30 a.m. gunman, wearing all black..."

And then I read exactly what I was hoping not to read - some totally uninvolved person calling the killer a goth. Some random woman said her son knew the killer; she said her son said he was "very thin, very remote and was one of the goths."

Does it matter to the media that this woman was not even involved in the situation, that she was just a random person attending a vigil? Does it matter that her words are second-hand hearsay? No, all that matters to the media is that her words make for a jucier story.

All that's left is to fervently hope that the media do not seize upon her statement to issue condemnation of goths. It might restore the tiniest bit of hope if they instead focus on the issues that really matter; say, efforts to prevent yet another such tragedy.

It would be great if goths don't have to once again defend themselves from misinformed people who believe that black clothes = goth and goth = evil. But if they do, I hope they will do so with the intelligence, maturity and class that I know them to possess.

I understand that when something like yesterday's tragedy happens, people try to find a way to make sense of it. They want some explanation of how a human being could be so cruel and unfeeling. It's comforting when they can use a stereotype to explain a killer's behavior and say, "Oh, THAT's why he did it." It's hard to blame traumatized people for believing what the media is feeding them.

But it's harder to bear the unfounded animosity that is too often heaped on goths. Goths are people, and they're just as horrified as anyone by a heinous crime such as yesterday's. (Having been in bed sick all morning, I first learned of the shooting via pained posts on an online goth community.) No one - whether dressed in black, sporting on orange spray tan, or dripping with diamonds - no one wants to see children murdered. I hope that is never questioned.

To anyone who might happen to stumble upon this blog post, I would like to say that I don't judge all Christians by the actions of Jim Bakker and I don't judge all coaches by the actions of Jerry Sandusky. I would ask that you not judge all goths by the actions of one black-clad man.

My deepest sympathies are with those who lost a loved one yesterday."

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All I can say is I couldn't agree more with Bane. I am a goth and I am heartbroken by Adam Lanza's terrible deeds. I can assure you that there is nothing in the gothic subculture that would ever justify killing anyone! Only 6 months ago I did everything I could to save a man's life; dressed in black, my purple hair in a tall mohawk and my lips painted with black lipstick. 

I would feel terrible if people would fear that I would kill children just because the way I look or because of the music that I listen to. 

My heart is aching for the victims and their families and I wish more than anything that I could make this tragedy undone. 

Green and Silver Nails and Youtube tip

So here's another nail polish post! :) As I might have mentioned become very into nail polish and nail art lately, and I am experimenting a lot with the few nail polishes I have at home. 

The green polish I've used here is actually from Depend's 2011 Christmas collection but I think it's still available. Otherwise, any shimmery green will do! :)

The silver glitter is just a regular cosmetics glitter that I had lying around. I applied one coat of the holographic glitter polish Depend #335 and then with a brush lightly dusted on some silver glitter at the tips of my nails. 

The inspiration to this look actually came from one of MissChievous's Youtube-tutorials that is great (I love the way she says the word "gold" by the way...!); 

If you want to do a simple holiday manicure this video is definitely worth checking out! :) 

Thanks for reading and hope you have a lovely day! 

 

The Naughty Christmas Elf

This is going to be a perfectly wearable daytime look suitable for work... Just kidding! :D One of my readers asked if I could do a fairy or elf-inspired makeup tutorial and since that I have been thinking about elves and fairies a lot. Since it's almost Christmas the natural choice was of course to do a crazy Christmas elf look. :)

I didn't use contact lenses for this look, because I don't own any at the moment, but if you are going to use contacts I advice you to put them in before doing your makeup. Sometimes when putting in contacts the eyes can get irritated and start watering, and you wouldn't want to ruin your eye makeup, would you?

I can tell you that I probably never will use liquid eyeliner for my eyebrows again. Ever. It is extremely hard to get a straight line even if you have mapped out the shape with a white eyeliner pencil, and cleaning up afterwards just takes unnecessary extra time.

Now let's get to the tutorial! As in my latest post I have to apologize for the crappy lighting in the pictures and the somewhat inaccurate colors.

Step 1. Map out your cut crease with a white eyeliner pencil.

Step 2. Fill in the shape with Nyx Jumbo pencil in Milk. If you're worried about fallout you can do this step after you have applied the green and red eyeshadows.

Step 3. Apply a dark green (or black) base, mapping out the shape you want. I've used Envy by Makeup Geek, which is a dark green even if the camera picks it up as black.

Step 4. Above the green, apply a warm medium brown. The one I've used is Purely naked by Makeup Geek. This is going to work as our transition color between the red eyeshadow and the skin.

Step 5. Now, apply a Christmasy green on top of the dark green base. I didn't have a green that looked exactly the way I wanted so I used a mixture between Humid by M.A.C. and Ben Nye's pigment Chartreuse. Can anyone recommend a cruelty-free eyeshadow that looks something like this?  :)

Step 6.  Apply a highly pigmented red eyeshadow such as Sugarpill's Love+ with a small (read teeny tiny) eyeshadow brush. Blend out but do not overblend.

Step 7. Eyeliner pencil on your upper and lower waterlines...

Step 8. Apply your foundation, concealer and powder. Use a red and green gel liner (or liquid eyeliner) to draw a candy cane line along your lower lashline. I'm afraid there are no shortcuts here, you have to muster your patience and draw these by hand. The liners I've used are Poison and Mystic by Makeup Geek. On top of Mystic I put the eyeshadow Envy to darken the color.
I also used Poison to sharpen the edge between the green and the red eyeshadows.

Step 9. Using a black liquid liner (or gel liner...) draw a rather thick line along your upper lash line and extend it into a long wing, following your candy cane liner.

Step 10. Clean the candy cane line with makeup remover and concealer. You want it to be crisp and sharp. Apply mascara and false eyelashes. Draw on/fill in your eyebrows (if you're as bad as I am on drawing them on with liquid eyeliner you probably will have to clean it up afterwards with makeup remover and concealer...). Apply a green rhinestone at the outermost point of the shape. :)

Step 11. Apply a red lipstick (and your contacts, if you haven't done so already...) and you're done! Naughtiest Christmas elf ever. ;)

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So there you go, bold and crazy Christmas look with a lot of darkness hidden underneath those bright eyeshadows. :) Hope you like it!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day!

Easy Christmas Makeup With a Twist

Sorry about the lack of posts here in the past few days! I've been doing some makeup looks but honestly, the lighting here in Sweden this time a year sucks. Big time. I did this makeup look a couple of days back but I was first very unsure whether to publish it or not because the colors in the tutorial pictures is very, very un-true. The red somehow stands out a lot more than it should and the golden bronze looks dull and brown. Meh! *___*

Anyway, I had to experiment a lot with taking the photos of the finished look, trying out different angles to capture the tiny glitter particles in the eyeshadows.

Step 1. Makeup Geek gel liner Mobster, used as a dark base.

Step 2. Makeup Geek eyeshadow Bada bing applied in the outer corner.

Step 3. Makeup Geek Glamorous applied on the inner part of the lid and and on the lower lid.

Step 4. Red eyeshadow in the crease (Makeup Geek Razzleberry). Blend!

Step 5. Black eyeliner pencil on waterline (Illamasqua S.O.P.H.I.E.).

Step 6. Foundation, concealer, powder and eyebrows. :)

Step 7. Highlight inner corner with NYX Milk and on top of that matte white eyeshadow. Use only the eyeshadow underneath your eyebrows. Isadora Glossy Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner used to draw a line with a flick.

Step 8. Use the liquid eyeliner to draw two more flicks for a little bit more unique look. Mascara and false lashes. 

Step 9. Put on a red lipstick and you're good to go! :)
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Have you decided yet what kind of makeup you will wear for Christmas? New years eve? :) Do you prefer colorful looks or more "classic" looks?

Thank you for reading and hope to see you again soon! :)

Featured on The Crow and the Powderpuff!

Today (or yesterday, depending on where you live... :P ) I am featured on the wonderful makeup-blog The Crow and the Powderpuff in my first guest blogpost ever. :) It is truly great to have the opportunity to guest blog for one of my own personal favorite blogs!

So if you'd like to see the look I created for this guest blogpost go over to Amy's blog and check it out! :)