Hey, Blondie! Colouring Your Hair Like A Pro

I get a lot of questions regarding my very blonde hair colour - and so i decided to do an in-depth post about what i do and the brands i use to keep my hair looking bright, shiny and professionally coloured.

    Me in my goldie-locks phase - before chopping it all off

          

Why 40 is Awesome...

                                Clear skin and killer cheekbones ;)  Self-portrait.

Pretty on the Outside - Beauty for Sick Girls, Pt. 2

Yesterday, i talked about how to make oneself fit for human eyes when one is sick as a cat.  Today was a real challenge, too - like a sick cat, i wanted nothing more than to crawl under an El Camino and die.
BUT - i had Things to do!  Final perfume orders to pack before the Lab gets shipped down to North Caroline (eek!), errands to run, yet MORE bubblewrap to acquire, et al.

And a girl simply CANNOT greet a day like today with a green face, my dear.

And so, i drank coffee & showered myself into some semblance of sentience and pulled myself together - with a little (a lot, let's be honest) help from my friends - if one can count cosmetics as friends.  I know I do.  >_>
And also Husband - who went out and got the coffee AND drove me to the Post Office, which is only two blocks away. <3

Today, i tested out my Guerlain Parure de Lumiere  foundation - by which i mean i needed to see how matchy-matchy it is with my skin now that i've got a bit of colour underneath my sickly pallor - and i wasn't too sure if it would be too pale.
Alas, it was.
However, this foundation oxidizes ever-so-slightly and so blends in almost perfectly after about half an hour; so, while not ideal, it certainly looked good - even very good, which is what one would expect from this foundation, after all.

Now, after trawling my already-weary-at-10-in-the-bloody-morning carcass out of the shower, i realized i had to get it together fairly quickly (am i not always in some kind of terrible rush?).  And, also like yesterday, i have limited energy to devote to my beautification process; but deal with it i must, if i am to confront the world sans the green face.

Sick and Pretty - Beauty for the Chronically Ill Girl

Today's post is about how to make oneself fit for human eyes when in the throes of an Autoimmune flare-up - or maybe just a really bad cold.

Which is how this started out, to be honest.

The thing with having an over-active immune system is that it comes and goes in waves - and something as simple and lame as a nasty cold or too much stress can trigger it.
Much of the time, nobody would guess i'm dealing with chronic illness/pain.
I've learned to hide out on the really bad days as much as possible (i'm lucky that my job allows this), and when i can't, i make damn sure i am looking as good as possible so nobody is asking me "are you feeling OK??"
There is nothing that a Chronic Illness Person despises and dreads more than the Are-You-Feeling-Ok  questions.  We feel crappy, and suspect we look crappy. This question just confirms it.

Perhaps you would think the solution is spackling on inch-thick foundation, piling on blush and painting my eyes a la Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.  But no.  In fact, in a situation when one's skin is pallid and weirdly dry-yet-clammy, and one's eyes are prone to puffiness and redness, the last thing we want is to slather on the Warpaint.

                                                     Maybe this weekend...

Just as the extremely young can get away with unseemly amounts of makeup and still look good, the opposite holds true for the sick person.

Harlequin Makeup - Not Acting My Age

Hi, everyone - i'm sick with a cold so today is another self-portrait post from my portfolio.  

I really enjoy doing fantasy-makeup - and this was relatively easy to achieve, using black eyeliner/shadow and lipstick, and a set of false eyelashes. Sometimes, the most dramatic effects can be achieved just by keeping things simple - i used no blush, and only two colours - black and a highlight under the browbone - to do this look.

The eyeliner is all pencil - the blackest black you can find, and preferably waterproof.  

I like UD Perversion eyeliner, as well as Chanel Stylo Yeaux in Noir Intense, and YSL #1.  On the cheaper end, Milani Black is very good as well. 

The lips are MAC Black Knight lipstick, which you can find on eBay, but you can just as easily use black eyeliner if you don't feel like shelling out the cash for something you won't use very often.  Manic Panic makes a black lipstick as well, which i used in high school :).

The fun thing about makeup is that, ultimately, it's ALL fantasy, ALL frivolity.  

I am 40 (ish) now (and in this photo), and still love doing this sort of makeup for my self-portrait photography projects.  

Crush With Eyeliner

Good morning, my little Kumquats!

Today i thought i'd write a bit about my obsession with eyeliner - we all have our go-to look for days when we're pressed for time or maybe just feeling lazy.  For me, it's a relatively clean-eye with maybe two (at most) light coloured eyeshadows, gel eyeliner and a nude lip.

No matter how little time i have to get ready, i know i can whip on some eyeliner, practically with my eyes closed.
In fact, if i was forced at crossbow-point to choose only ONE cosmetic product for the rest of my life (what a terrifying thought!), it would be eyeliner.  I pretty much feel naked without it.  I learned how to do a basic cat-eye when i was a wee Twiglet of 14 - and now i'm so adept at it that i can whip it on in under a minute.

Androgynous Monday

I'm a bit knackered for a full-blown post/tutorial today - so here's a self-portrait pic straight from my portfolio.

If i had to define my style, it would most definitely be what is referred to in the fashion world as "Garconne" - which in English loosely translates as "tomboyish" or androgynous.
The term was coined in France in 1880 to describe women who dressed in mannish clothing and cropped their hair short.
Katherine Hepburn is a classic example (long hair notwithstanding); she was rumoured to have not one dress in her closet.
The style -  the way i manifest it,  anyway - is a fine balance of both the masculine and feminine.
I love makeup, obviously - but i'm not much for frills and lace and other "feminine" trappings. Once in a while i'll get bitten the dress-bug - but i'm most comfortable in slacks/jeans.
On the regular, my daily "uniform" consists of boots, jeans and a tank or T-shirt and a hoodie.
I keep my hair and nails short (keep saying i'm going to grow them both out...ha!), i don't really see much point in high heels (except on rare occasions - it has been known to happen).
If i wear a more "feminine" outfit, i *need* that short hair to balance it out.
And i wouldn't be caught dead without eyeliner.

Conventional Femininity, to me, has far too strictured rules - and i'm not much for rules.
Even living in a big, ostensibly cosmopolitan and modern city like Chicago, i still get the regular "dyke" comments - which doesn't bother me except the fact that it's meant to be derogatory.  It's the ignorance and bigotry that bothers me.

Seems to me there's not much more feminine than loving other women, after all...

I happen to be married to a guy - but on the continuum of sexuality as well as style, i seem to fall pretty neatly right in the middle.
To me, style and sexuality are fluid.  I've always been a fan of guys in drag and women in combat boots.

Rules regarding style, just like in life, are meant to be broken.

Happy Monday, and see you all soon!

xo