Blue and White Gold

I made a look with mostly white gold (Mac Vanilla pigment) and a range of blue-green colors. I wanted to use Mac Parrot eyeshadow, but my palate is nowhere to be found. Cest la vie.

The dress that inspired the look is one I finished up before doing my makeup. It's got pockets (I love making dresses with pockets).

Blue-Greens

I just wanted to share the look that I made for my birthday. It's a blue green look with some reflects teal and iridescent pigments near the lower lash line. The dress is one that I made from fabric that I brought back from Mexico.

Halloween Update 2008 - 2014

One of my favorite times of year is Halloween. I will go ahead and just show you guys a catalogue of the Halloween costumes that I have made for myself (or my sister in one case). These run from 2008 to 2014. I haven't gotten the pictures edited from this last year's Halloween costume, but I will get it up soon!

Hand sewn costume for my sister. This year I went as Sailor Pluto, but I can't find any of the pictures from the costume that I made.

 I think she made a good Alice even though we didn't add the omega necklace or the blood stains.

I am not sure if I added pictures of this one earlier, but it's here for good measure! I made the belt and the hair bow. A former colleague of mine made the arm warmers.

This was one of the lazier costumes that I made, but I really enjoyed it. I didn't really make anything (possibly glued some feathers onto the top, but that's about it). 

 

You have all seen the Minnie Mouse costume. I just assembled different pieces together for this one.

In 2012 I had two costumes. One was my planned costume and the other was just something that I threw together because someone at work called a meeting and encouraged people to come in costume (I was the only one in costume). I just went to Good Will and grabbed some things for this one. A friend of mine who is former military personnel was kind enough to lend me his tie.

 

  

 

This is a polka dot dress that I made so that I could go as a pop art version of myself. I had a fun time watching my students realize that I was standing right next to them in the hallway without them even noticing.

I made a bright red trench coat so that I could go as Carmen San Diego in 2014. I had the yellow scarf since 2009 and figured I could put it to good use by mimicking the original CSD outfit.

Breathing New Life into this Blog

Like the un-dead this blog just keeps coming back!

I decided that I would use the blog not only for information about my affinity for makeup, but also share the process of planning my wedding. Whether you know it or not, I love to sew (for example I recently made some night gowns, tunics, and dresses). When I started going through various bridal magazines, I noticed an excess of illusion mesh.


Exhibit A: Google Image Search result for the alleged "illusion mesh"

While it is the case that this fabric will only be beneficial for some fairer-skinned people, it is absolutely the case that it will not benefit me. I need something that is closer to my skin tone that won't make it ashy or conspicuously darker if I want that chic sheer look. I went to the Britex in San Francisco to see if they carried any and they were fresh out of colors that would match my skin tone. In fact, they had considerable trouble getting it back in stock. They suggested that I contact a lingerie company that makes nude colors for people with darker skin. This of course means a call to Nubian Skin, but lo and behold, they have people custom dye their fabric and it is not available to the general public. So I figured: what the hey? I already sew, I already paint, it shouldn't be that hard to dye my own fabric to match my skin tone. In fact: it shouldn't be that hard to make my dress.

So if you are following this blog now, that is in part what you are following: my quest to make my wedding dress (and bridesmaids dresses). You are also following to see a backlog of my Halloween makeup (oops).

Belated Halloween Update

So, I just wanted to go ahead and share the stuff I did for Halloween. I was a skeleton (tell me if you know the name of the artist whose fashion is replicated in this picture). Two days before I had gotten dressed up as Janelle Monae for a work social hour. Both of these photos have already been edited (unlike most of the stuff that shows up here).

Neutral Petticoat

Here is a look from yesterday. It was supposed to be a smokey dark and neutral matte look with a couple of pops of frost (inner eye and lower lid). I wanted something neutral so that I could show off the scarf that I got at an Ethiopian gift shop (you can see that other scarf from photos back in 2010). I just used Petticoat on the cheeks to give a nice sheen of color.

Bright Blue and Classic Dark

I've been MIA for quite some time haven't I!? Well I wanted to give an update of some of the looks that I've been doing. It's been a while and I hope that I will be able to get a couple more looks out this summer (but don't hold out hope). I've got a busy writing schedule that takes me all through July and then some. This look was made after Xsparkage's Hello Kitty packaging inspired tutorial. I shifted the look from purples blues and pinks to blues/reds, greens, and turquoise/pink. Unfortunately you can't see that because there was so much light exposure when I took the pictures. I used reflects transparent teal, several iridescent blues/teals (one was from Sugarpill as I recall), colors that were similar to blue-brown, and a matte bright green from MAC. The other look I did was just a classic nude catwing eye with bold lips. My bold lipstick of course: Black.

Black History Month: Music

Long time no post. I just wanted to start off black history month with a newish artist who I really like. His name is Tinashé and he is from Zimbabwe, but grew up in London. I really like his song Zambezi which is a historical fiction piece about the colonial war between the British and the inhabitants of Rhodisia. This particular memory takes place at the Zambezi River (hence the title of the song).
I really love the mbira version a lot (some people refer to it as a thumb harp), but there is also the pop version too.



Enjoy!

I'll post some more makeup related things soon.

Lace Up Your Nails

Here is a quick update. I did this yesterday while doing data entry. I didn't get my makeup look because I was dealing with a crashed computer.



Here is the youtube link that I used for this look. I changed a few things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydgbh9Q29hs

Base Coat:
Milani Angel
Some old Gap polish (use vanilla plus a nude to get this color)
Diagonal:
Milani Sandman
OPI Warm and Fozzie
Sephora by OPI Gold and Copper Glitter
Black Lace
Miliani Black Nail Art
O RLY Top Coats.

Dropping back in for Halloween

Well I know that I haven't been on much (work has been keeping me busy), but since today is Halloween and I did dress up, I thought I would post.




Oh yeah, and here are some things that remind me of fall:

Humid Moonlight Jealousy

This is really nothing more than just updating to be active. I realized at the end of the night that I had already missed the opportunity to take good pictures (i.e, when the sun was out and when my hair was still nicely done). This look features: UD Grass, Humid, Jealousy Wakes, and Moonlight Path.

Sparkle Peridot

This combo is a coat of Chanel Peridot and OPI Simply Smashing. I don't own simply smashing, but I am definitely hunting for it now! If anyone knows where I can get this, or of a great dupe, let me know.

Murmur

This look incorporates my two favorite colors for my b-day. :)
Unfortunately I was running late so I didn't get many pictures of the look until AFTER the flowers started to wilt. :( Other than that, I forgot my black lipgloss at home, so I had to improvise with Lancome juicy tubes. The pictures with the black gloss were taken after I got back and everything had kind of melted.










Here is a picture of one of the turf dancers:

Yellow Plus Mellow

Sorry for being kind of MIA. Here is a recent look that I did.







The bright yellow nail polish was a custom mix of OPI's Megawhatt? and Need Sunglasses with top coats of ORLY fifty-four and the OPI-Sephora Gold glitter at the tips.

Duochrome Golds

Tonight I went ahead and used some oldies but goodies.
The eyes looked so much better irl, but I only got pictures after the good lighting was gone hence the flash.
I found that Moonlight Night (from Tartan Tale) + Old Gold make an amazing combo. I need to play around with these two colors.
The nails are also one of those things that looks better in real life. I used duochromes that have the same back color (green). One is pink and green (from Sally Hansen), another is silver-purple and green (OPI Katy Perry), and the other is gold and green (Chanel Peridot). There is black laced throughout the marble.

Rosa Ardiente on MM

Hey guys: Just in case you're interested, I'm on MM as Mayhem #2157672. Let me know what you think, any suggestions that you might have for shoots, or if you want to work with me.

What's Black, White, and Red All Over?

As promised, here are some of the pictures from the shoot that I did today. It was a lot of fun. I'm surprised that the photographer got back to me so quickly with some of the photos! All makeup and wardrobe by me.

I've been a little MIA

I know I've been gone for quite a while, but things got crazy busy for me.
I am going to be doing a photoshoot tomorrow so hopefully I can get those pictures up as soon as possible. Right now I've got one hand of nail polish finished.
Essie Sand Tropez (2 layers)
Essie Kisses and Bisses (1 layer)
Sephora by OPI's gold multi-sized glitter.

I will be doing another photoshoot on Monday, so unless the photographer cancels, you can expect pictures of that to come too.

More Summer Blues

This is a look that I wore on Sunday to a BBQ. It's very similar to the last look that I did except it incorporates more colors into the face. I have some pinks on the cheeks (instead of bronze) and teals and blues on the lower lash line. The scarf was actually really useful because it started to rain. Since it's a long scarf, I just made a makeshift hood and was able to keep dry that way. :)

Delft Blue

So I know it's been forever since I last posted, but life got very busy very quickly. Now that things have calmed down, I had the chance to get my brows done and do my makeup again. :D

The most exciting thing about this look is really the nails. I picked up a dark teal from Essie and one of the mini OPI polishes in teal. Put in a sprinkle of reflects teal and you've got a nice combo going. I decided to keep most of the other things toned down, but I will be looking at Essie again!

This look was inspired by Delft Blue. I picked up the scarf in Berlin last summer because I really like the blue over white. I mean, sure Delft is in the Netherlands, but oh well. We can mix and match right?