Confederate Blue & Gold Eyeshadow and the Insomnia Blues

At this writing, my Husband is blazing through the winding roads of Black Mountain, NC - fueled on energy drinks and waving the Confederate Flag out the window in honour of our new home.

He left at 9pm and drove through the night like a crazed bat-out-of-Hell (aka Chicago), sustained only by Red Bull and an intrepid spirit!

Hunter S. Thompson, eat your heart out.

And yes, gentle readers - Yours Truly is still in Hell Chicago, tying up loose ends and completing my obligations here in the city before i hop a Greyhound to join him in a few weeks.  As you can imagine, i didn't sleep much last night - envisioning my adventurous husband driving through the night in unfamiliar territory, Deliverance music playing ominously in the background, stalked by bears, without Moi to nag him about all and sundry and telling him to eat and ask for directions.  

So, my little Kumquats, this post is in honour of my husband, Dan and our new Mountain Home - as well as yet another tutorial on how to look human when one is feeling like Microwaved Death...

Let's walk through it step-by-step, shall we? 

1. Wake up - if one can call it that - after getting a staggeringly useless 2 1/2 hours of fitful sleep.

2. Stumble heavily out of now far-too-large bed, bang shins on footboard.  

3. Curse colourfully.

4. Stagger downstairs to get coffee from yesterday out of fridge to nuke before shower.

5. Find house-mate has helpfully tossed out my coffee.

6. Curse colourfully.

7. Find coffee in coffee-maker, house-mate instantly redeemed!

8. Upstairs, shower - i now have 45 minutes before i must walk to bus.

9. Stare helplessly at massive palette of eyeshadows.

10. Pick out Confederate-blue peasant blouse from closet in a fit of Irony. 

11. Decide to go all matchy-matchy with eyeshadow - because i'm all about irony.  And because Confederate-blue & gold eyeshadow, yo.

12. Finish eyes in record-time, narrowly escaping gauging eyeballs out with pointy eyeliner-brush.

13. Slap on a bit of stick-foundation on red-bits, blush/powder/lipstick GO!

Not too shabby, if i do say so myself!

Now, the key to blue eyeshadow is to just accept the fact that you're wearing blue eyeshadow - in all its' circa 1970's tacky glory, and GO FOR IT.  Especially if you're doing if for patriotic purposes. Ish.  Also, the colour wakes my complexion up a bit, especially mixed with a bit of gold.  Oddly enough, blue and gold were my school colours in my nightmare of a Catholic secondary-school.  Subconscious telling me something...?  The mind simply REELS with the potential for untapped psychological damage. ..

But enough of this nonsense.  On to what i did here:

I laid down a neutral-light base - Inglot #393 - all over the lid, then took Urban Decay Haight blue eyeshadow from the UD <3 NYC palette and worked it into the lashline, V and crease - blending the living Hell out of it. As you can see, the blue looks more or less darker/lighter and more diffuse depending on the angle, which is kinda nifty.  Then, i blended UD Maui Wowie gold shadow from the same palette across the lid from lash to crease, again blending it all out to soften. Finally, i lined with my by-now-boringly-repetetive Bobbie Brown Gel Liner in Shimmering Ivy on the top lashline in a cat-eye, and smudged softly into the lower lashline.  Then, obviously, mascara and brow pencil, blah blah blah...

Gimme a break, i'm tired, here. 

On the face, i used my I'm in a terrible rush and can't be bothered with liquids Chantecaille New Stick foundation just on the bits that need it - i.e. the T-zone and eye-area, blended with my trusty Hakuhodo foundation brush.   Then i slapped on my Nars Belle du Jour lipstick and lurched off to the bus.  

In case the first photo wasn't stunning enough for you:

And, full-frontal "artistic shot":

North Carolina, i've got you.  I'll fit right in.

And Dan - if you're reading this, this is for you. :)

xo