Mega Geeks Inc.

Meow: Scary Ghost Stories Glow Powder

2012-01-30T04:30:00.000-08:00

I don't quite know why, but I was looking forward to trying these more then anything else. Glow Powders seem like a lovely notion, I already like highlighting with shimmery stuff. I kinda want to try these all over though.

Swatched twice, once over Pixie Epoxy and Aromaleigh primer, and the second time over nothing.

Present: Beautiful tawny shade mixed with both red and gold shimmer. Which I choose to believe was purposeful on part of the creator. With present also including Past and Future.
Past: Bright orangy copper, smudges down a bit brownish.
Future:Clear red shimmer, smudged out lovely and peachy.

So that's it folks, wow all of these were exhausting to write, was it exhausting to read them all? My final thoughts on Meow are that I don't think they are getting enough recognition in the Indie Mineral Makeup world, everyone knows about them, but how many people say it's their favorite company. Their formulas are not as dry as a few I tried, they have some fantastic colors, and a lot of them. They tend to repeat themselves a bit, but that wouldn't be hard to do with the sheer amount they stock. Everything is well displayed, but color descriptions are sometimes off if there even is one, and I like a good color description to go with a photo of the product.

I would definitely buy from Meow Cosmetics again (in fact I already have), and I suggest you do as well.

Meow: Xmas Ghost, Sugarplums, Random

2012-01-27T04:30:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I only picked up three shades from this collection. Santa Baby, Midnight Kiss and Vixen look so pretty, although I don't care for the fact that Meow has reused names cause I think that might get confusing.

From left to right swatched over Pixie Epoxy on top and Aromaleigh primer on the bottom.

Ornament: Brilliant dark gold.
Grinch: Venomous golden green.
Elf: Dark hunter green with gold shimmer and red sparkle.

Okay I admit it, I might have too many golds now.

I only bought a sample Sugarplum blush, It's a dusty rose with peach tones and pink sparkle.

I received two samples with my package. Both brown, both to dark for me to use even in the summer where the most I manage tan wise is one shade darker then normal. No I'm afraid I'll have to send these to someone who does tan.

I've swatched both of these twice, one with Pixie Epoxy at the top and Aromaleigh Primer on the bottom. And once without anything.

Sizzle: Bronzer, dark with diamond sparkle.
Jadite: Glow Powder dirt brown with multi-colored sparkle.

Meow: Merry Mayhem, Reindeer, and Glacial Grove

2012-01-26T04:11:00.000-08:00

These shades were very pigmented and there was very little difference between applying them to Pixie Epoxy and applying them to Aromaleigh Primer.

Swatched from left to right with Pixie Epoxy on top and Aromaleigh Primer on the bottom.

Star: A bright light-ish gold with gold shimmer and gold sparkle.
Secret Santa: Pink toned red with pink shimmer and slight gold sparkle.
Jingle: Lovely dark Merlot shimmer with blue under tones and studded with pink and diamond sparkle.

Swatched from left to right with Pixie Epoxy on top and Aromaleigh Primer on the bottom.

Dasher: Rose gold with slight red shimmer and gold sparkle.
Blitzen: Beautiful light blue with heavy pink and gold shimmer.
Vixen: Frosty grape with a cool blue and pink shimmer.

HOLY CRAP Blitzen and Vixen are AMAZING! Why didn't I buy more from this collection? Why, why, why!? My life, it is a sucking vortex...

These were all intensely shimmered.

Swatched from left to right with Pixie Epoxy on top and Aromaleigh Primer on the bottom.

Permafrost: Frosty dusty pink shade with sliver sparkle.
Brisk: A magical shimmering pink with pink sparkle.
Gloaming: Saturated red wine shimmer and pink sparkle.

My favorite of these three is Brisk, it's just so bright.

Meow: XMAS Rant and Santa Baby

2012-01-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

Who has never ranted about the holidays. If you raised your hand you are a lying liarson from liarsville. Or your Loki, in which case your off the hook.

Swatched from left to right over Pixie Epoxy on the top and Aromaleigh Primer on the bottom.

Traffic: Bright shimmery yellow with some gold sparkle. Lovely but maybe not as intense as the site describes.
Calories: Shimmery slightly gold tangerine.
Greed: Pink with red tones and pink shimmer
Noise: Light purple with pink and gold shimmer. Startlingly unique but for the life of my I was unable to get it to go very dark.

Although I think Noise is the most interesting my heart belongs to Calories (and always will).

Yet another collection where all I wanted was all the golds they had on offer.

Swatched from left to right over Pixie Epoxy on the top and Aromaleigh Primer on the bottom.

XMAS List Glow without Primer: Applied thickly on top and sparsely on the bottom. A pale sherbert orange shade.
XMAS List Glow with Primer: Slightly less orangy over primers, a bit creamy and shimmery.
Sable: Uber glittery buttery gold.
Yacht: Gold on the darker side of the spectrum, gold shimmer and sparkle with a small spattering of red shimmer.
Santa Honey: Bronzed gold, bright and opaque. there not much of a difference for it over either Primer or PE.

I can't wait to use XMAS List Glow Powder!

Meow: Holiday Wishes and 12 Pains

2012-01-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

Holiday Wishes might be my favorite looking collection of the bunch, it includes a bunch of gold shades so I bought them all! All the golds that is.

Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on the top and Aromaleigh Eye and Lip Primer on the bottom from left to right:

Peace on Earth: A pale creamy gold with rosy copper tones.
Serenity: A silvered gold with gold sparkle.
Bliss: Intense gold shimmer with slight tangerine tones.
Joy: Rosy copper similar to Peace on Earth but darker with a more intense shimmer.
Wonder: Straight bronze shimmer.

With the exception of Peace on Earth which happens to be my favorite of the bunch. These shades aren't very complex, they make up for it by being quite intense, even if they don't look it in these pictures.

These were some exciting looking colors even though I didn't buy many of them. The names are hilarious too.

Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on the top and Aromaleigh Eye and Lip Primer on the bottom from left to right:

Yellow Snow: A pale creamy yellow with gold shimmer.
Debt: Lovely Concord grape color over Eye and Lip Primer, over PE it becomes a very attractive plum jam shade with a slight pink shimmer.
Cat in Tree: Complex green shimmer on a black base with gold sparkle.
Black Friday: A black base with diamond sparkle. The website mentions multicolor sparkle in there as well, and I can see it just barely. Honestly if it hadn't have been mentioned I wouldn't have noticed it at all.

I really like all these colors, there isn't one that I like or dislike more then the others. I really wish I'd picked up Tree Fire though, oh well hindsight and all that.

Meow: XMAS Trees

2012-01-23T04:42:00.000-08:00

Like the Snowflake Collection I bought all but one sample from the XMAS Tree collection, I honestly don't know why I didn't pick up Nobel, it seems like something I'd like. I urge you not to be fooled by the photos below aside from Cypress these shades are packed with enough gold shimmer to choke a mule. Personally I like that, gold eyeshadows are among my favorites though I realize they are not everyone's cup of tea. So if you don't care for gold this collection may not be for you.

Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on the top and Aromaleigh Eye and Lip Primer on the bottom. From left to right...

Artificial: Shimmer pale golden green with gold sparkle.
Cedar: Also a pale golden green, it's a bit like Artificial but a darker green and a brighter gold shimmer.
Spruce: A brownish olive green with dark gold/bronze shimmer.
Balsam: Simple grass green shade with bright gold shimmer.
Cypress: A bright jade green with green shimmer. The only shade without any gold to it.
Fraser Fir: Forest green with blue tones and gold shimmer though not as heavily shimmey as some of the other shades.
Pine: Exactly the shade you might imagine a Christmas Pine to be, only a slight gold shimmer.

My favorite of this bunch is Cypress, it's the odd man out I feel, but oh so pretty. I am also partial to Balsam it's very similar to Aromaleighs Serpensortia of which I wear often. I think Artifical was my only disappointment, I desperately wanted it to a be brighter lemon/lime color, less gold.

Meow: Snowflake

2012-01-20T04:13:00.000-08:00

They often don't look that good on me but I love pale shimmery blues. I picked up all but one of the Snowflake shades Avalanche did not appeal, in retrospect I probably should have just grabbed it so I could have the complete set.

Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on the top, and Aromaleigh Eye and Lip Primer on the bottom, from left to right.

Snowball: A cool pearly white with stunning blue sparkle. Not very opaque even over PE but lovely all the same.
Sleet: Shimmer aqua with golden tones and a slight pink shimmer.
Flurry: Pale blue pearl with lavender tones and sky blue sparkle.
Freezing Rain: Stunning dark teal with blue sparkle and loaded with pink shimmer.
Blustery: Frosty mid-toned blue with blue sparkle.
Brrr...: Shimmer blue with purple tones and blue sparkle. Simelar to Flurry but darker, lovely but one of those blurple shades that never look good on me.
Ice Storm: Beautiful colbalt with blue sparkle.
Blizzard: An almost black shade with blue and diamond sparkle.

My favorites of this batch are Snowball, Freezing Rain, and Ice Storm. Disappointments being Blustery, and Brrr... for being an unsuitable shade.

Meow: Ice Blossoms

2012-01-19T04:13:00.000-08:00

I bought samples of this entire collection, I'm a sucker for pastels and the visuals of Ice Blossoms or Frost Flowers was a powerful one. I'd never heard such a thing before, it's not something that I think CAN occur in the Pacific North West, as certain plants and weather conditions have to be present for it to be possible.

The collection itself is entirely pearl or frost if you will. Most shades are loaded with sparkle and though they can go opaque they would also make lovely highlight shades.

Swatched over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy on the top and Aromaleigh Eye and Lip Primer on the bottom, from left to right.

Crownbeard: In the baggie is looks peachy but swatched it's an almost golden flesh color, you could call it champagne with a diamond sparkle.
Frost Flower: A pale frosty yellow with diamond sparkle though not as much of a sparkle as the other shades.
Crystallofolia: A pale golden green shimmer with lots of gold sparkle. Not as opaque without PE.
Silk Ice: Straight up white pearl with diamond sparkle.
Frost Castle: Amazingly shimmery silver with oodles of diamond sparkle, not as opaque without PE.
Ice Blossom: Frosty glittery pink with peach tones and pink sparkle.
Ice Ribbon: An icey sky blue with pale blue shimmer, no obvious sparkle.
Hoar Frost: A lavender pearl with lavender/blue shimmer and no obvious sparkle.

Though there were no disappointments my favorites from this collection were Frost Castle for it's amazing glittery appeal, and Hoar Frost for being such an lovely lavender shade.

Item of Note

2012-01-18T04:07:00.000-08:00

Just a few small things I think are worth mentioning. First off I received my very first package from Meow Cosmetics. I bought all samples from the Holiday Collections but only the shades that really interested me.

I've separated them into their collections, for some shades I bought only one or two from that collection so expect next few weeks to be filled with Meow swatch posts. I adore Holiday collections, there are often a lot of golds and everything is really sparkly.

Liquid Fusion is officially my new favorite glue for plastic. It has a good consistency (not to thick, not too thin), isn't stringy, dries clear, and dried fast, but not too fast. Although for larger projects I'd still probably use E6000 Liquid Fusion is ideal for smaller plastic bits.

My Cold Feet sample from Geek Chic was poorly formulated so they sent me a new one, and for making me wait so long they bumped it up to a full size for my trouble which was awful kind of them. Above is the full size on the left and the bad sample on the right both swatched over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

It's pretty obvious that the correctly formulated shade is quite a bit lighter, it also applies much better, though the old sample has a better sheen to it oddly enough. Please disregard how the colors look in my original swatch post for Geek Chic eyeshadow, and my makeup look Real Folk Blues as they are not accurate representation of the color.

Top 10 of 2011

2012-01-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

Just a ten of my picks for my favorite things that I discovered for myself last year. It's not that they necessarily came out last year though some of them did, it's more that I tried them and liked them in 2011, it also includes a few things that I can't live without.

Best Lip Product of the Year

Geek Chic Cosmetics Biobalm in Big Daddy is one of the best things I've ever put on my lips. It smells delicious, heals and protects like nothing else. It doesn't have much in the way of staying power though, I've mostly been using it as a night treatment.

Best Treat of 2011
Root Beer Fudge tastes just like a root beer float but without the sticky mess, or the disappointment when your soda goes flat.

Best "New" Bath and Body
I still say Lush is the best but very close is Cleanse Your Soul which I first discovered last summer, they are chock full of fresh made bath and body products, including a few I now can't live without like their Behemoth Scrub and their hair protein spray. The scent list alone is worth it and the scents last forever.

Favorite New Eyeshadow
Even though I only got it just before the holidays Geek Chics Drunken Toast is my absolute favorite eyeshadow color from last year, it's the perfect color for lining under my lower lashes and I've used it almost every time I've worn makeup since I got it.

Favorite Tea
Adagio Chestnut is hands down my favorite tea ever. Sadly it's only available during the holidays and sells out so fast it makes me head spin.

Best Scent
I'm not much of a scent person but Cleanse Your Souls Candy Cane Fizz (Candy canes blended with 7up and strawberry syrup), it's tart, spicy, and sweet all at once and I love it so much.

Best Etsy Shop
Though sometimes it's hit or miss I love Etsy, it's only right they get their own category. And I think Ink & Paint with their truly beautiful, solid products and amazing customer service is always a win. I hope to buy more from her this year.

Favorite Eatery
Mint Tea is one of my favorite places ever, the tea they sell is excellent and the food is so delicious. I go there so often that most of the people who work there recognize me. I still really like food carts, but they're not very practical for the winter.

Favorite Outfit

Valentines Day last year was particularly fun, and I think a lot of that had to do with the outfit itself. I never mentioned it, but I was in this outfit when Heather and I went to the Dollar Store to pick up the balloons we used, when we were there two teenage boys sort of "followed" me around, one of them tapped me on the shoulder and I was sure he was going to say something disparaging or vulgar to me. He just said, "what you're doing, it's really cool."

Favorite Makeup
I think frequent readers all know my heart belongs to the original Aromaleigh, and though it's back in it's new incarnation I've yet to try their new stuff, though I'm sure they are just as fabulous as before since Miss K has continued with the company as Creative Director (that means she still makes the colors). It surely comes as no surprise to you all that some of my favorite products were from the old Aromaleigh the eyeshadows of course are still amazing and continue to be my favorite formulation. Corset Blush, Voile Foundation in N1, and Finishing Powder in English Rose which they've brought back! I'm so happy about that, I thought when I finally ran out I might be forced to contact another mineral makeup company about making something simelar. I'm sure that wouldn't have been too difficult, but I'm relived I don't have to.

Other products I use almost daily are Sobe Botanicals Shape Up Eyebrow Styler, and Ophelia' Apothecarys Lip Scrub Stick. I still don't think it's the best scrub but the balm the sugar is embedded in is amazing.

After Midnight

2012-01-16T04:25:00.000-08:00

Ooh I got a whole bunch of compliments on my eye makeup this day, I'd like to take some credit for it, but it was actually quite simple to do. All the credit goes to the makeup itself and the wonderful people who created the colors. On my lips is Geek Chic KAOS, it's fairly flattering but a bit patchy.

On the outer corner is Geek Chics Twilight Princess, and the lid is Aromaleighs Azimuth, with AL Aparecium on the inner corner.

I used the same shades under the lower lash line. Aparecium, Azimuth, and Twilight Princess in that order from the inner corner to the outer. I used AL Bluebelle at a highlight on the brow bone.

Pretty!

When I went to work later that evening I figured KAOS was maybe a little dark, so I replaced it with Brazens Breathless, which I like a little bit better. I'm wearing Aromaleigh Wildflower blush.

Harry Potter Themed

2012-01-13T04:30:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about what I could get Maura, Rose, and Teal for Christmas, they are all Harry Potter fans and I've had my eye on this etsy shop Mud In My Blood that sells Butterbeer syrup among other Harry Potter related items. I circled it for awhile before finally breaking down and buying three for them and a sample size for myself. I figure even if it didn't taste good they would still look adorable.

They came quickly and very well packaged with each bottle in it's own little box with packing material and then in a bigger box to ship all together.

The back of the syrup bottles suggest several ways of preparing the syrup, I mixed my sample with hot water. It wasn't bad, not robust. I might suggest mixing it with milk for anyone who feels like they need their own Butterbeer, and topping with whipped cream.

Butterbeer only is kind of a boring gift SOOO I thought about what else I could include, and cute inspiration struck.

I made labels, and made them AWESOME!

I taped the wings to Ferrero Rocher chocolates to make golden snitches.

I made Acid Pops out of lollipops dipped in blackberry honey and rolled in Pop Rocks.

I had three different flavors so everyone got one of each. They stuck to the cellophane I had them wrapped in but they were really tasty, like they should start marketing and selling these in stores good. The Acid Pop label was also my favorite of the bunch.

The boxes were gift card boxes from the Dollar Store, I gutted them and put my version of a Cockroach Cluster in them. I went with chocolate covered dates as my version, not really a cluster, and I realize most people probably would have used nuts, but I like to be different.

Licorice Wands were dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with Nerds candies.

Wrapped like a tamale with purple ribbons.

Bertie Botts Candy Ceans were just packed into a cellophane gift bag with their label attached, and then I packed all the items into a box with colored packing grass. These were really fun to make, and I very much hope everyone enjoyed their gifts.

Review: ClarkLewis

2012-01-11T04:43:00.000-08:00

Becky get's perks from her work, and one of these perks are gift cards to various restaurants around Portland. She was excited to get two from ClarkLewis and offered to take us out to dinner on New Years Eve. ClarkLewis is located in an old warehouse in an industrial area, the floor plan is pretty open, even the kitchen is easily visible from more areas of the restaurant.

They also had several bunches of Christmas lights as chandeliers, at least they did on New Years. I liked them!

Drinks came first, I picked up the Rose Roller with vodka, red wine, and cherry syrup. Just okay, which was the general consensus all around for drinks. Beckys Lime Rickey just tasted like rum and we had to get some simple syrup for it.

Fried oyster appetizer, those rounds on the bottom are deep fried lemon slices. It was a really unique way to serve them, pretty tasty too. I don't know if the lemons were weak or if the frying process mellows them, they were really good.

Look at Heather and Becky eat that thing! Look at them! Randall got lentil soup which he claimed had too much stuff other then lentils in it. He also got the cheese plate, and Mike got a salad with fire roasted walnuts. I do not care for walnuts but these were not bad, I would have eaten them.

For dinner I got the chestnut ravioli with butternut squash in brown butter. It was really delicious but not better then butternut squash ravioli I've had at other places. I had some at Mint Tea last month and got more for a better price. There are like 9 of them and the plate cost 14$. That's roughly 1.56$ for each ravioli, I was still pretty hungry afterwards so I finished Heathers pasta too since she didn't like what she got.

Both Becky and Mike got the Lamb Tagliatelle which were decent sized portions.

For dessert we got this Chocolate Hazelnut Napoleon which was excellent and a plate of random sweets like chocolates and cookies that was just okay.

All in all I found the place to be rather hit or miss in terms of how good a plate might be, and how much of it you'll be getting. Personally it's not worth the price, and I won't be going there again, but it was fun to try and I love Becky for taking me along.

Never Brought to Mind

2012-01-09T04:43:00.000-08:00

This was the makeup I wore for New Years Eve 2011, Aromaleigh foundation with Aromaleigh finishing powder in English Rose over top, and Geek Chic Touch Me blush.

Under the lower lash line we have Geek Chics Drunken Toast which I wear all the freaking time now. Seriously where has this shade been all my life?

On the outer corner of the lid is Aromaleighs Plush Romantic, AL Athena in the crease, and the pink above and below the crease is AL Little Craving.

On my brow bone (and also my cheeks, nose, and chin) I've patted on Flirt! I'm Whipped eyeshadow in Good Girl as a highlight.

And then lastly on my lips is Brazens Breathless gloss so my lips could be shiny kinda nude pink.

The Real Folk Blues

2012-01-06T04:36:00.000-08:00

Yes Cowboy Bebop is still super amazing!

All shadows are Geek Chic with Cold Feet on the inner corner, then Across the Narrow Sea, and lastly on the outer corner Solid Snake.

On the lower lash line I did pretty much the same thing as above.

The lips are Geek Chics Tentacle Grape.

Edit: Actual color of Cold Feet here.

Toxic

2012-01-04T04:16:00.000-08:00

This was my makeup for Christmas Day!

I kept my eyeshadow very simple, It was just Geek Chics Drunken Toast all over the lid and a little under the lower lash line. Then I used this gold glitter by Milani that my mom sent me, it comes in this gel and you pat it on wherever. I don't particularly care for it, it kept sinking downwards even though I never touched it.

I'm wearing Aromaleighs Corset blush and Geek Chics Toxic Unicorn on my lips.

All I got for Christmas...

2012-01-02T04:35:00.000-08:00

Was some pretty awesome stuff! Everyone on my fathers side of the family made it to the Christmas gathering this year. It was wonderful to see all my cousins in one place. I look super tall compared to my other cousins on the floor with me, but I'm not, I'm just on my knees while everyone else is on their butts.

Teal sent me this hat from South America, she actually sent it to me on my birthday in May but told me I couldn't open it until Christmas. It's super cute, I wear it all the time.

The Sigma Cleansing and Polishing Tool. Review to come.

I live with Randall so I also got a bunch of new movies including two Muppet movies, X-Men: First Class, and Wanted because apparently Randall has discovered my crush on James Mcavoy... But now that I think of it I suppose it wasn't that subtle.

Mom got me some clothing and accessories including these Betsey Johnson earrings, which are cute and pretty comfortable to wear.

I got some other items too, a bunch of socks, Lush products, and some new car accessories. Did you get any fab holiday gifts? What were they?

Beware the 456

2011-12-30T04:01:00.000-08:00

Have I been wearing Geek Chic a lot? Yes, yes I have. There's just something about wearing geek themes on my eyes that makes me a bit euphoric. Even if I'm not telling people, it's like I've got my own geeky little secret plastered on my eyelids. I was happy to get to use some brazen and Black Rose this day as well.

On my brow bone I've got a light dusting of Black Rose Minerals in Sunset, and On the inner corner BRM Goose Egg. On the lid is Brazens Prowl and then on the outer curve Geek Chic's We Are Coming.

On the lower lash line is BRM Goose Egg and GC We Are Coming.

On my lips I've used Aromaleigh color creme in Wallflower, and Aromaleigh corset blush.

Christmas Trees

2011-12-28T04:22:00.000-08:00

I thought you guys might get a kick out of my trees this year.

This is my lovely pink tree I got from Heather for Christmas last year. It doesn't have a lot of decorations, I'll be working on that for next year. I've got big plans next year, to put wings on piggy and make a tree skirt for it, that kind of thing.

Since the pink tree is mine I've takes to calling this one Randalls even though I insisted on buying it, and I put it up, decorate it, and take it down each year. My mom sent me those really gigantic ornaments this year. They're WAY to bit for my tiny tree. It's sad to say but they'll have to go. I'll give them to a more deserving tree for next year.

Eyes of the Rising Sun

2011-12-26T04:18:00.000-08:00

I got bored a few nights ago and decided to do something weird to my eyes using my new Geek Chic makeup. Halfway through one eye my back started to hurt so I had to finish up quickly. If I was doing this look for a photoshoot I probably would have brought the stripes all the way up to my eyebrows, I also probably would have taken the time to make sure they were straighter.... Probably....

For the stripes I alternated Geek Chic shadows Kingslayer, and Prototype A over Aromaleigh eye and lip primer, and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

I also used Aromaleigh Perihelion on my brow bone.

My lips are bare but I used a light wash of Aromaleigh Corset blush on my cheeks, chin and nose. I actualy really like this, it's simpler then it looks, and surprisingly wearable.

Review Geek Chic Lippies

2011-12-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

Geek Chic currently has 19 lip products and I bought half of them. Mostly I've wanted new lip sticks, my colors are pretty limited at home so I grabbed some of the craziest Geek Chic had!

From Left to Right:

Joy Sticks

Back to the Fuchsia: A bright glossy fuchsia, pretty much the same color Nicki Minaj always wears. It's really soft and melty and would probably would work better as a gloss. It applies well but sinks into every little crack and cranny like crazy.

Not a great picture, but you can kinda see what I mean. It lasts a very long time but that is because it stains pretty badly. Prepping with lip primer and liner is advised.

KAOS: A very dark grayish purple, takes a few strokes before it goes opaque but it's been pretty patchy so far.
Toxic Unicorn: An acid green shimmer, takes a few strokes before it goes opaque. I think I'm going to wear this color for Christmas!
Electric Rat: Bright primary yellow, takes a few strokes to go opaque. It's quite a hard lip product and dry. Wearing a gloss over it is recommended.
Bulma Briefs: Sheer seafoam green shimmer, patchy and sometimes get's mistaken for white in certain lights..

Geek Gloss

Tentacle Grape: A purple shimmer gloss with subtle green shimmer and green sparkles.
Mana Potion: Sky Blue with subtle blue shimmer.

Bio Balm

Big Daddy: A beige color with an almost creamy consistency. It's got a barely noticeable blue shimmer and feels amazing on. The website recommends using it as a night treatment, and I did! My lips felt AWESOME in the morning.

My favorites include Back to the Fuchia, Toxic Unicorn, and Big Daddy. Disappointments are KAOS and Bulma Briefs....and I so wanted Bulma to be awesome, but in all fairness they website says it's sheer, on my lips it looks kinda white.

The difference in texture between one Joy Stick to another is kinda odd with some being harder or softer then others, the only color that seemed a normal consistency to brand lip sticks was KAOS. Geek Gloss is not my favorite formula it's a bit 'drier' then I normally like and you have to really work to apply it evenly. But it's not very sticky and lasts a long time. I will buy EVERY Bio Balm though super impressed!

Review Geek Chic Shadows

2011-12-21T04:48:00.000-08:00

The only thing I bought for myself on Black Friday was a bunch of stuff from Geek Chic Cosmetics. I made myself promise to only spend 50$ and only went 10$ over LOL... I have a problem. The box was sent within the normal Geek Chic turn around time, and since they're so close I got it in two days after it was mailed, SCORE! It came with a full size prototype shade, a sample of Companion Cube, and three coupons for future use.

I didn't buy any full size eyeshadows since I've never tried the company before. They come in clam shells which I've mentioned before I HATE, HATE, HATE! It's a personal preference, and I'll be investing in tiny bags soon to put my new samples in.

Shades from Left to Right and swatched over Aromaleigh Eye and Lip primer:

Solid Snake: A dark almost black blue with purple/blue sparkle. Lovely but it's just a dark version of those blue/purple shades that I keep buying but never look good on me. But I keep buying them because they're SOOO pretty *sobs*
Stay Indoors: A black base with purple sparkles.
We Are Coming: A very dark antique brown/copper with copper sparkle.
Twilight Princess: Dark olive/gray with a cool aqua and seafoam sparkle.
Bigger on the Inside: Teal with gold shimmer, smooth and opaque.

Across the Narrow Sea: Beautiful cerulean blue loaded with sky blue sparkle and a sea-foam shimmer.
Blood Bond: A dark rusty burnt orange color with slight red shimmer. Disappointingly un-red.
Yes Sir: A dark orange with pink tones, mostly matte with a spattering of blue sparkle.
Cold Feet: Though a really pretty shade it had some bits of un-blended white in it. It's a sky blue with lavender shimmer. Edit: actual color description here.

Sorry for the not great picture, but you can still see all the un-blended white bits. It's just white, not pearly or anything.... sad. I don't really know what happened here.
Edit: I told GC about the problem, they kindly offered to re-send me my sample of Cold Feet.

Are There Any Girls There?: A nice pink color, on the dusty side with a pink sparkle.
Companion Cube: Vibrant barbie pink with pink sparkle.

From Left to Right swatched over Aromaleigh Eye and Lip Primer:

Prototype A: A bright hot orange with gold sparkle.
Riddle Me This: Pale Grass Green with lavender sparkle.
Continuum: A sunny true primary yellow with gold sparkle.
Where Are The Cheese Puffs?: A buttery shimmery sherbert orange with gold/orange sparkle.
Prenup: A cool toned pale pink with pink sparkle and blue shimmer. Together they give this shade a lavender tone but only slightly.
Bubble Hearth: A dusty peachy/pink shade with a pearl sheen and pink sparkle.
Drunken Toast: Super shimmery butter yellow with gold sparkle.
Glass Cannon: Super soft winter blue with aqua sparkle.
Kingslayer: Snowy white with gold sparkle

Favorite shades include We Are Comming, Bigger on The Inside, Continuum, Where Are The Cheese Puffs?, Prenup, Bubble Hearth, Drunken Toast, and Glass Cannon. So yeah, I like a lot of these!

Disappointments are Solid Snake, Blood Bond, Yes Sir, Cold Feet, and Riddle Me This but not because they're bad colors just because they're not what I thought they'd be.

The formula they use at Geek Chic is nice, a little on the dry side so a base is recommended. The colors are unique and wonderful and I will be buying from Geek Chic again!

The Muppets

2011-12-19T04:15:00.000-08:00

Oh I love the Muppets, they're one of the few parts of my childhood that doesn't feel played out or mean. I think Gloria said it best, "the Muppets make you feel like nothing hurts and everything is beautiful," and that is exactly right, it's also something we as a country really need right now.

2011 has been uncompromisingly cynical, The Occupy Movement brought attention to a national problem by using a word usually reserved for invading countries. This was the year we killed Osama Bin Laden widely considered to be Americas greatest enemy, and an actor named Charlie Sheen still got more attention. And the hipsters, oh the hipsters....

We are honestly lost in a sea of terrible and The Muppets are a bright green lighthouse of hope bringing us home. It's not the greatest movie ever made, it's not even the best of the Muppet movies, but it's a step in the right direction. Feel good, funny, and a great way to introduce a new generation to characters who've had such a pivotal role in so many lives.

Thank you Jason Segel for not ruining the Muppets, remember guys as long as there are Muppet's, there is hope.

Guro Lolita Christmas

2011-12-16T04:12:00.000-08:00

Guro Loli Christmas by brushfire0

Christmas Tree
Hands down a white Christmas tree is best, you could go with silver as well, or one of those Lighted Twig Trees. You're white tree could have some sparkle to it, but if you're really want a Guro Loli tree it's got to be white. The lights should be white too.

Ornaments
I would stick with mostly red, white, and silver ornaments. Any other colors can work but must be few and far between, you can go as gruesome or not as you'd like. Pointsettas, holly berries, and icicles would still look innocent and not freak your parents out. Hearts fit the Guro theme, you could even make them bleed if you'd want. If you want to get more themed try fake plastic knives, felt cut out of bloody hand prints, start collecting light weight body parts and organs at Halloween to attach to your tree. For a tree topper it depends on your sensibilities and what you've got on hand. A ghost, zombie or vampire angel, a Brain, Halloween Mask, my personal favorite would be to attach a bloody hands grasping a candle thrusting from the top.

Stocking Stuffers
Think spooky but remember Guro Lolita is not Goth so try to think of items that are spooky with a Victorian edge. Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs fit's the theme and there are enough scents that anyone could find something they'd like, the Mad Tea Party is recommended. Movies like Coraline, Rocky Horror, and Nightmare Before Christmas, which are spooky but not gory can work well. If you know this person well and know how much gore they can stand try Battle Royale, Sweeney Todd, or the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead.

Avoid black items or at least try to stick with items that have very little black in them. Try typing Memento Mori into Etsy, but remember to think about what you're Guro Lolita friend could handle. This kind of necklace looks really cool, as does this, and this, but they might not feel comfortable wearing animals parts. Maybe give this a try instead, it's on theme but not too gruesome.

Small BLOG SALE!

2011-12-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

I will accept Paypal only and I'm only shipping to people in the U.S, I'm really sorry to inconvenience anyone out of the country but I just don't want to deal with international shipping prices right now.

It's first come first serve (no holds), please comment with your Paypal address and the items you wish to purchase. Then you have 24 hours to after I send the invoice to pay, after that the item goes to the next person on the list who's requested it, and so on and so forth.

Shipping is 3$ for the first item, then .50 for each additional item.

Aromaleigh 3$ each

Most of these have been used before, but when I get full sizes I always put the left over of the sample I got before in it, so most of these have more the the usual 1.2 gram net weight.

Grace Frost
Lush Memoir
Chantal
Blueshift
Nyx
Escape Velocity

American Idol Beauty 4$

I've only tried two of the lip glosses but none of the shadows or the blushes.

Sobe Eyeshadow 3$ each

Going Bananas
Oak Moss

Tarte Gloss Set 5$

Discontinued gloss set by Tarte. I've had it for years but never really used them, there is one missing. On the bright side the missing one was just a clear gloss with gold shimmer, they are all flavored with cinnamon.

Lush Karma Solid Perfume 3$

Slightly used, still plenty left. Looks beat up cause it spent a year living in my purse.

Ulta Makeup Gift Tags 1$

Never been used.

Lime Crime Eyeshadow 1$ each

Circus Girl
Dragon Scales
Snow Queen
Fairy Wings

Shoot with Revolution Intermedia: Part 2

2011-12-14T04:00:00.000-08:00

I brought a few more outfits with me down the beach and for the second part of the shoot we went with this one. I changed in the wooded area up from the beach. The blush stands out much more in these photos too, it's kinda crazy.

My favorite.

So what do you think? Do you like the first outfit or the second outfit better?

Shoot with Revolution Intermedia: Part 1

2011-12-12T04:30:00.000-08:00

This was a shoot I did back in the last week of September. The photographer, Kenny asked me to wear something "flowy", but to have my makeup be sort of dark and edgy. I wore my black fingerless gloves and black boots to help reign in the angelic feeling of the dress.

I'm afraid I don't remember what makeup I wore. I'm pretty sure I'm wearing Aromaleighs Cherry Bomb blush, and waaaay too much of it if I'm going off these pictures. I over did it because I thought the wig and the sun would wash me out more then it did.

It was really freakin hot this day, and I was wearing a wig, and I didn't realize Kenny was gonna have me walk half a mile in heels up the beach. I ended up looking like a sweaty mess in a lot of the photos I got back. Thank goodness some of them turned out. I like my precise lip line in this picture, I'm also pretty sure I'm wearing Clinique Lipstick in Cranberry Creme.

Most of my favorites are of me not looking at the camera, it was so bright, that with the reflector shining at me I was squinting like hell. I felt really terrible over it actually, but there was also nothing I could do about it, if you've got to squint you've got to squint

Pirate Lolita Christmas

2011-12-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Pirate Lolita Christmas by brushfire0

Last year I tackled the big three Lolita themes: Sweet, Classic, and Gothic. Even though they weren't popular posts I still really liked putting them together, and with some encouragement from Teal I've decided to put post on some of the less popular Loli themes. Pirate Loli has some of my favorite coordinates this is probably one of my favorite looks ever. On top of that it makes for a really bad ass looking tree, growing up I always wanted an "Under the Sea" themed tree and this is pretty close.

Christmas Tree
Although I think any tree color would work depending on what colors your Pirate Loli wardrobe contained (got to be match-y right?) I still wholeheartedly believe a dark blue tree is perfect for every Pirate. It mimics the rolling waves of the open sea and the adventures that await. Pair with blue and green lights with maybe some small white lights embedded deep into the tree to mimic the murky mysterious ocean.

Ornaments
Use green tinsel garland, or shiny curled green ribbon as tree "flotsam". You can make your self ornaments out of shells, tie them to the tree as is, or cover them with your choice of glitter and rhinestones. Sea life shaped ornaments can feature heavily, crabs, mermaids, you could make your own felt fish. There must be a pirate ship on the tree somewhere sailing her open branches. Lego makes some neat pirate ships if you're interested, and can't find anything you like better. Treasure chests, gold doubloons, skulls, and cutlass could also work.
As a tree topper you have a lot of options available to you, a large grinning skull, a Pirate flag (make your own Jolly Rodger design for an added touch of creativity). My favorite idea was to place a "Kraken" on the top of your tree. If you make your own you could give it long arms and tie them so that they wind around the tree like it's attacking it.

Stocking Stuffers
If it's in your price range and you have taste I would suggest boots. If there's one thing a Pirate Lolita cannot live without it's several pairs of fancy kick ass boots. Tickets to an aquarium or a special trip to the beach. Look for themed jewelry such as skulls, cutlass, ships, peice of eight, and sea life. As a general rule you should stay away from dolphins, whales, seals, and penguins unless you know she likes them already, though often cute they are not considered Pirate-y. Other ideas are ornate compasses, leather, or leather like harnesses for her sword and muskets, poofy poet shirts, eye-patches, and tricorn hats. She could decorate plains ones to match her outfit. Of if you REALLY like her you could get her THIS! Maybe it's not to everyone's taste but damn I wish someone would buy that hat for me!

Christmas Wishlist 2011

2011-12-09T04:15:00.000-08:00

Snow White by brushfire0

It's that time again to ask for things you don't need, but still really want damnit! This year's list feels odd to me, there's not a whole lot that really stands out for me. Even when my family has asked me what I'd like I've mentioned small things like an electric tart warmer/ night light, or curl formers. Never the less there were a few things that got me excited so I'm sharing them with you wonderful people.

Pagma Buckle Shoes

OMG These are so cute! Maybe the first kind of shoes I've ever wanted in every color they have, but I suppose if I had to pick I'd go with the red since it's my favorite color. As a bonus they look comfy, and the low heel would be very nice. Plus super cheap so essentially I could buy them in every color.

Nerd Lacquer by String Theroy

Loving nail polish is a new thing for me, these were mentioned on one of my favorite blogs. and they look so pretty, also nerdy themes abound. Their Holoday collection looks amazing, I do love sparkly pastels. Entirely Unlike Tea, All of Time and Space, and Beggars Canyon being a few of my favorites from their regular offerings.

Preserved Tentacle

Okay I know this seems slightly morbid, but etsy shop Silent Cheesecake makes these lovely, if creepy little pendants with bugs, flowers, and skeletal bits set in clear wax. My favorites are the tentacle pendants which I always think look elegant especially with a little starfish or sea plant life next to them.

Snowflake Necklace from Callooh and Callay

They make some cute stuff, but they've really outdone themselves with their Christmas collection. I like almost everything in it, particularly this mirrored snowflake necklace which looks amazing!

Pastel Rainbow Wig

I always want a ton of wigs, but I really, really want this wig! I don't know what I'd do with it but still, I want it like Myfanwy wants a tasty cow. Also if you get that reference you are hard core!

Sigma Cleansing and Polishing Tool

If I'm being honest this just seems like a fun and efficient way to clean your face. It's gotten some good reviews and at 39$ it's a good 100$ less then the Clarisonic. And it's pink. Which I know shouldn't effect my opinion, but it kinda does.

The Usual

Adagio Tea
Fabric
Indie Makeup
Tasty Treats
Lush Products
OMG Lolita Coat (seriously why do I keep putting off buying one?)

So those are my impractical wishes this year, do you have any of your own you'd like to share? I would love to hear about them.

Arika is a Doll...

2011-12-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

For my part of the photoshoot I put on my Black Forest print dress, and made myself a new head piece. I did my makeup and hair, and brought a Pomegranate as a prop, I called him Mr. POM he's the original forbidden fruit.

I glued cellophane to a headband and cut it down to a more manageable size.

The end result kinda looked like a bonnet, I wanted to add more stuff to it, but I ran out of time, still looked cute though, not as cool as Brennas.

I kept makeup simple. I used Aromaleigh Champagne Toast on the lids, and Drama Liner in Copper. I also used Aromaleigh Rocks! glitter in hothothot on my lips over a red gloss. But you can't really tell. Lame... Also Aromaleigh Corset blush.

I painted my nails using Sally Hansens Hard as Nails in Cardinal, with a Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Strobe Light over that. OMG it's so pretty you don't even know!

We did the shoot over at the Red Cross entry way, Brenna helped me tape the stars up, she also helped me cut them out. Afterwards we put the stars up next to the Heroes posters. Now have some Arika spam!

Brenna is a Deer...

2011-12-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

Brenna and I collaborated on a photoshoot for a contest we were trying to enter. I did her makeup made her a really cute hair piece and created a "background", she used one of my wigs and looks AMAZING in it! She was very patient with me as I kept adding more and more stuff to her face. And then when we were done I was like, "okay, let's glue stuff to you arm now!"

So I totally put way too many colors on Brenna, and I can't remember them all but I will tell you all of what I do remember. I used Aromaleighs Almost Midnight to made the dark line around her eyes and Hit or Miss on the lid and under the lower lash line. After that the eyeshadow get's fuzzy, I'm pretty sure I used Athena, and Imperial as well.

On her face I used Aromaleigh Wildflower blush, Ben Nye's Lux Powder in Ice, with Lime Crime's Empress dusted over a piece of lace to create that pattern. On her lips is Lime Crimes Airborne Unicorn lined with Aromaleigh Wildflower blush, and Aromaleigh eyeshadow in Fume patted on the middle of the lips.

I drew out the background for her freehand and cut it out with a dull exact-o knife. It was very hard.

But damn it looks good. Now have some awesome Brenna spam!

Dim Fire Light

2011-12-02T04:43:00.000-08:00

I put together this eyeshadow look after being inspired by a look I saw somewhere else and really loved. I didn't quite meet of the mark, but it's not horrible.

All colors are Aromaleigh, I used Party Dress on the inner corner, and Athena on the lid with a small bit of Asteria on the outer corner.

Spiked Punch is the orange-y eyeshadow on the outer V.

With White Wedding gently brushed toward the brow.

Ophelias Apothecary Review

2011-11-30T04:14:00.000-08:00

I acquired a Heartsy coupon for Ophelia's Apothecary back at the beginning of September and made my order the same day. It took a little under 2 months to get to me, I was updated by the company from time to time, but still, it was a bit frustrating.

My products came in a bubble mailer.

I bought

Lavender Rosewater Cream Facial Cleanser
Sugared Candy Cane Shea Butter Lip Scrub
Cool Cucumber Hydrating Facial Toning Mist
Clarity All Natural Acne Spot Treatment
Green Tea All Natural Hydrating Face Cream

Lavender Rosewater Cream Facial Cleanser: Okay I really didn't like this, it smelled of watered down dish soap and didn't seem to do much in that way of cleansing my face. I almost always use "gentle" cleansers. But maybe there's such a thing as too gentle.

Sugared Candy Cane Shea Butter Lip Scrub: The only lip scrub I had tried before this was the scrub they sell over at Lush. I thought I might like Ophelia's version since it's on a stick and I don't have to put my finger in a pot (I hate that). But Ophelia's version doesn't scrub as well, and the sugar crystals are quite large and sharp. The lip balm however is wonderful, and while I don't think I'll be buying a sugar scrub again I think I'd be up for one of her other lip products.

Cool Cucumber Hydrating Facial Toning Mist: I really have no complaints about this product, it's smells fresh, feels nice, and does an excellent job.

Clarity All Natural Acne Spot Treatment: This products does nothing for me. But no spot treatment ever has so I can't be too upset about it. Because of all the essential oils it smells quite strong and can make your eyes water if you have a pimple you need to get rid of near your eyes or nose. Instead of drying it leaves a sticky residue which can be annoying. Even though this product didn't work for me I still liked the roller ball applicator. If spot treatments have worked for you in the past I would suggest you give this product a try.

Green Tea All Natural Hydrating Face Cream: An excellent facial lotion, I only require a small amount to make my face comfortably moisturized, smaller if I'm using toner as well. The texture is velvety, smells lightly of green tea, and soaks in pretty fast. It does leave a powdery film when I apply is to "thick", but other that that great product.

So, would I buy from Ophelia's Apothecary again? You know, I think I might. I do have plans to pick their their lip balm (and we all know I'm a lip balm freak). We'll see whatever else strikes my fancy when I get there.

The Day of the Comic Show

2011-11-28T04:45:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the comic book show under tables grubbing for the comics I wanted, no pictures of it, not much to see in any case, there were some folks in costume but for whatever reason I always get nervous asking for pictures at this show. But here's the makeup I wore that day.

I'm using Aromaleigh Cherry Bomb blush, and Aromaleigh Wallflower lip color.

All shades are Aromaleigh with Zeus on the inner corner, Serpensortia, then Jessamine.

I love these colors.

My comic haul from the show! My goal was to pick up mostly Mark Waid BOOM! stuff. I got Potters Field (a really interesting read), Incorruptible, and Irredeemable which is currently my favorite comic.

I took Becky and Mike with me to the show, afterwards to went to Slappy Cakes for awesome food stuffs.

I had my usual sweet potato pancake with apples and goat cheese. They had green apples that day WOOT!

Becky with my awesome Kiddy Creamsicle.

Anyway, it was an excellent day, I have a lovely time and I'm looking forward to next year. Hopefully Randall can come with me again.

Holiday Milkshakes

2011-11-27T04:11:00.000-08:00

Burgerville is a fast food chain that can be found only in Southern Washington and Oregon, they differentiate themselves by using fresh, local ingredients. And they have tons of monthly and seasonal specials. They do everything right except fry chicken, and that's only because they try to make their food somewhat healthy. So yeah, stay away from the any fried chicken and you be in for a tasty meal. To those of you who will never taste their awesomeness, I'm so sorry.

The seasonal special this holiday includes Chocolate Peppermint and Eggnog milkshakes and on Black Friday they had a buy one medium milkshake or smoothie and get one free. So I got one of each! I shared so don't think too bad of me.

My milkshakes! They makes their shakes with real ice cream, the Eggnog is only lightly flavored, it's perfect for those that normally find eggnog too strong. Burgerville makes their chocolate milkshakes with Ghirardelli and the Chocolate Peppermint is no exception. I do wish it was both more chocolatey and pepperminty. The candy cane is crushed into the shake, and it's really, really good.

Black Rose Minerals Look

2011-11-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

Black Rose makes some lovely colors, they blend very well together, but they never seem to go as opaque as I'd like. I've also found that Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy doesn't work very with these shadows, they became "clumpy" when I tried to use them together.

All colors are BRM over Aromaleigh Lip and Eye Primer. On the inner corner is Goose Egg, and under the lower lash line Mother Sunflower.

On the lid is Gargle Blaster, Venom, and then Minky. Gargle Blaster and Venom are quite attractive together, don't you think?

Oooh shiny!

More Adagio Tea

2011-11-21T04:47:00.000-08:00

Almond: Smells and tastes similar to marzipan. It's a tiny bit bland when you drink it, but very smooth.

Ginger Peach: It's not a bad tea, but it's also not particularly gingery or peachy.

Toasted Sesame: It's not a terrible flavor, definitely quite unique. Slightly sweet, a bit nutty, I'm glad I tried it but i don't feel the need to try it again.

Dewy Cherry: One of Adagios herbals, all the fruit herbals smell overly sickeningly sweet, but after brewing it's somewhat tart, not very sweet. It's pretty delicious, but since it's an herbal it's somewhat lost on me. Adorable name though.

Blood Orange: I used this to make Popsicles all summer, it's hugely flavorful and quite tasty.

Raspberry Patch: Not my favorite, but still pretty good. Tastes fresh and very tart. Not unnatural, but like eating raspberry's that have been frozen and thawed before eating.

Wild Strawberry: This did smell really gross in the package, but it made a delicious cup of tea. I like mixing with my black teas.

Love Lettuce Fresh Face Mask

2011-11-18T04:07:00.000-08:00

Like all fresh face masks Love Lettuce must be kept refrigerated and has an expiration date. Though you can use it on other, less sensitive areas like hands and feet so it doesn't go to waste, it's Lush's most exfoliating mask with almonds, and almond shells scrapping away dead skin and debris. It also includes plenty of skin nourishing oils, so it's kinda the jack of all trades of face masks.

That being said, while it does a decent job of both on my dry skin, I think it would be more suitable for someone with normal skin. It's a lovely buy with a light lavender scent, and it makes you look like the Wicked Witch of the West when you put it on, which is both frightening and entertaining.

Victorian Night

2011-11-16T04:31:00.000-08:00

My eyes looks oddly dewy don't you think? It's the lighting I'm sure, but it's quite pretty.

Even though I kept this simple I still think it's stunning. Evil Shades Victoria Night is on the lid with Aromaleigh Verdant Wisp on the outer corner. I figured VN is a purple with green shimmer, and VW is a green with purple sparkle that they would pair nicely. I was right!

I used Aromaleigh Aparecium on the inner corner, mostly because it's a grey with "interest". Not too noticeable, but I thought it might accent the other shades nicely.

Crap I love Victorian Night, in life it looked almost liquid on my lids.

To finish off the look I'm wearing Aromaleighs Wildflower blush, and Evil Shades Hardcore lips in Lost Kiss.

Tales From Avonlea

2011-11-14T04:07:00.000-08:00

As a little girl I was very much taken with the Edwardian Era. At that time I didn't actually know it was the Edwardian Era, I just knew I enjoyed the stories and fashion set in that period of time like Mary Poppins, American Girl Samantha Parkington (who was my favorite doll), and the stories of Lucy Montgomery who wrote most famously "Anne of Green Gables", and made me want long red hair I could wear in pig tail braids.

There was a sort of beauty in these stories, these girls were strong, and in their own ways magical. As I grew older I learned more about the lives they would have had if they'd been real. Ones with hardships, possibly loveless marriages, womens right's were in their infancy in America, working conditions and child labor were monstrous. In reality the time was hardly as romantic as I was brought up to believe, but I have to remember they were stories for children.

I adored Anne of Green Gables, but on a whim my grandmother picked up "Tales From Avonlea" (sometimes called "Road to Avonlea"), a T.V series from the early 90's staring Sara Polly (and later Gema Zampronga) who you might know as Sally from "The Baron Munchausen". Oh was I hooked on Tales from Avonlea, Sara Pollys character, also named Sara was one of those nicely complex characters, she's haughty, smug (which she is very good at), but still likeable. Also I wanted to wear her clothes, I still do sometimes.

Recently while flipping through channels at a friends house I was surprised to find "Road to Avonlea" playing. It's just as innocent and heartwarming as I remembered, though I do find it a bit naive, it brings me back to childhood tea parties, making fairy houses in the back yard, and and pretending to be a mermaid princess. I'm really happy to see it playing somewhere and I hope future generations enjoy it as much as I did.

Daily Wear: Cozy Pantry

2011-11-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

Fall and Winter are my absolute favorites in terms of what I can wear and what shades look best. I love layers and cuddly clothing, scarfs, hats, gloves. I am however super sad to find I'm currently missing my nice red leather/spandex gloves and I hope they turn up soon.

All eyeshadow is Aromaleigh with Zeus in the inner corner and brow bone. Mega Parsec is lined halfway under the lower lash line.

On the inner part of the lid is Tarantellegra, then Spiked Punch, then Mega Parsec.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I did my best but it was a very grey day. For blush I used Aromaleigh Corset, and on my lips is Aromaleigh Coquette

I finally got around to putting together an outfit for the Pantry Skirt my mother sent me last Christmas. It really is very cute but it's a bit tricky to pair with other articles of clothing, you could very easily look uncoordinated or like an old maid. I wore it with my fuzzy gray boots, wet look leggings, a black T-shirt, red scarf, Free People sweater, and Tarina Tarantino butterfly hair clip for added sparkle.

Also how do you guys feel about the hair? Last winter my style was poofy and curly, I think relaxed and wavy is where I'm going this year. Do you think it suits me?

Zaras Costume

2011-11-09T04:49:00.000-08:00

Zaras is Randalls niece, she lives with her grandparents, and she is obsessed with Ariel, she has Little Mermaid products I didn't even know existed, and I turned 5 the day after that movie came to theaters... I'm just saying I had a lot of mermaid stuff. Anyway, I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, and guess what she said? A pickle.

No not really, Ariel of course I bought fabric for her costume that week.

At first I was planning on making this the cutest child's costume ever, with glittery details everywhere. Sewing rhinestones on the tail like mine, then I realized she's 3 and she won't fit into it next year.

Tail, shirt, and a sea shell shaped treat bag.

Grandma made some adjustments...

Also I had nothing to do with that wig. I'm glad Zara didn't want to wear it Trick r' Treating.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

For Halloween I needed a costume that was cute and comfortable, because I was taking Randalls neice Zara Trick r' Treating, and afterwards going to dance at a club. So I went with the old standby my strawberry lolita dress. It's cute, comfy, and if I had to I could carry Zara if the occasion called for it.

I was thinking Strawberry Shortcake at first, but I did not want to wear my pink wig for either activity even though it was super cute. I'm wearing red gloss (brand unknown) with Aromaleighs Pink Fingers eyeshadow dabbed in the center for depth.

Eyeshadow is Aromaleigh with High Heels on the lid and Pink Fingers in the inner corner. Asteria is the purple shade on the outer corner and under the lash line.

Flutterby is the peachy pink arching over High heels and blended high on the cheek bone. You can't really tell but over Flutterby on the cheekbone is Fanclub.

Petunia is brushed onto the brow bone as a highlight, under the lower lash line is Aromaleighs Rocks! Glitter in Valentine, so pretty.

I ended up going with a short blonde wig. Not as cute as the pink wig, but small price to pay for comfort on a long night. Blush is Evil Shades Gossamer, and Flirt I'm Whipped eyeshadow in Good Girl is dabbed as a highlighter on my nose and chin.

Zara and I walking back to the car. Randall and I took her to the mall for Trick r' Treating since she's 3 and didn't need to be walking around in the cold.

Jelly Shot Orange Slices

2011-11-04T04:09:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been experimenting with Jelly Shots, and orange slices I think are an awesome delivery system for them. I made these is small batches using Knox plain gelatine, in general you can make them out of any liquid and it's one full cup of liquid for every one packet of gelatin so it's really easy, you don't need crappy Jello brand gelatin.

I made 6 small batches as follows:

1st batch Chamborde Raspberry liqueur and water
2nd and 3rd batch Strawberry Kiwi juice with Raspberry Vodka
4th batch Black Cherry Soda, Grenadine, and Raspberry Vodka
5th batch Coconut juice, sugar, ginger beer, tropical rum
6th batch Coconut juice, sugar, ginger beer, and passion fruit vodka

Mine were made using half alcohol, which I don't recommend, just adjust your liquid ratio. Also I suggest using strongly flavored fruit concentrate, syrup, or soda rather then already made juices which just become weaker when mixed with gelatine and alcohol.

I made mine a few days ahead of time, by slicing oranges in half juicing them and scraping out their insides. I placed them in cupcakes tins I borrowed from my grandmother and filled them with the gelatin mixture, put them in the fridge to cool, and then sliced them in half.

Shannons Birthday/Halloween Party

2011-11-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Halloween Shannon had his Birthday party. He was born the day before Halloween, so his party is always Halloween themed. There's good food, fun movies, and plenty of booze.

I invited Brenna to come with me, I did her makeup, which was cute, but if I hadn't been in a hurry I think I could have done better. She's a kitsune which is Japanese for fox I believe, no tail though, since she couldn't find good material for a tail, but isn't her dress so pretty? She bought it off of Ebay.

Becky's not a costume wearer, but she let me do her makeup. I used Aromaleighs Fume, Planet Earth, and Hades, which comes out super lovely and green on her skin. I'm jealous! It looks Halloweeny right? She's also wearing Aromaleigh Wildflower blush.

Auz in her Gir costume excited over a cupcake! Just like the real Gir!

A head...

Yasi as Chell from Portal 2, her Portal Gun actually lights up and the potato talks!

She also made Shannons cake, it's the Portal Cake Core. Made with fish shaped dirt and volatile milk impoundments.

Randall and myself in my mermaid regalia! Randall is not dressed up cause he's lame.

Evelyn chilling in her Valkyrie costume watching Ernst Scared Stupid.

I made orange slice jelly shots, aren't they so pretty? I also made goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, they look gross but taste so good.

At midnight we walked over to a Pioneer Graveyard.

Evelyn wished them well in Valhalla!

Pretty nice party, very little drama, I got to see people I haven't seen for a very long time, and hang out with some awesome people. I still miss my hardcore costume friends and I hope they all had an awesome Halloween. The rest of you too!

Heavy Metal Mermaid

2011-10-31T04:45:00.000-07:00

My roommates 3 year old niece wanted to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid for Halloween, so I went out and bought the cutest mermaid pattern I could find which was Simplicity pattern 4043. I'm not really fond of Simplicity patterns but included was a pattern for adults as well, so I was like, "yeah, I'll be a mermaid."

I didn't care for the top included in the pattern so I made my own by decorating an old bra with sheer green fabric that I burnt around the edges, black gemstones, pearls, and fun foam seashells that I painted silver and decorated with black glitter. There is now black glitter everywhere by the way.

In the pattern the waist of the tail, is not really meant to be shown, and I could have gotten rid of it, but I kinda liked it so I decorated it with black painted henna patterns, pearls, and black lace. For the fin I hand sewed gemstone trim in theses swirly patterns. I'm really happy with this costume, though it's unfinished since I ran out of monies. I have big plans to make spiked bracelets only the spikes are seashells. Cool right?

On my head I wore Stephen Stegosaurus. He's a headpiece I had leftover from a photo shoot I did last winter. The photos were crap so I never posted them here, and he's not really mer-oriented, but he's so cool and I just wanted to wear him.

Once again I invite you to ignore my horrible faux eyelashes. The primer is Aromaleigh lip and eye primer, with Evil Shades Noir primer on the center of the lid. All eyeshadow colors are Aromaleigh with White Wedding on the lid, over the Noir primer it's goes silvery and it's amazingly sparkly in life. Hades was used to create the black spikes.

Fume is on the inner corner with Hydrangea on the brow bone as a slight purple highlight.

My scales were made by first patting on Ben Nye's Lumiere Lux Powder in LX-1 Ice. It needed a sticky base to go kinda opaque, the good news is I found a use for Sobe Botanicals Mineral Setting Spray. Then I used some fishnet tights to pat on Ben Nye Creme Color CL-25 in Steel Gray. It was not easy, It's a bit of a three person job, one person to get painted, another to hold the fishnet, and another to pat the makeup on. But it was just me and Brenna, she held the fishnet while I patted it on myself, hard to do when you can't see anything.

On my cheeks is Aromaleigh Wildflower blush, and on my lips is Clinique lipstick in Cranberry Creme over Aromaleigh lip and eye primer.

Benefit: b.right! Radiant Skincare

2011-10-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I hang out at Sephora, I don't often buy anything cause I still prefer buying from Indie makeup companies, but the Benefit display had some new lotions out to try, I tried some of the Total Moisture on my arm and though it was very nice, I was not going to spend 38$ for it however. BUT they had a trial kit for 12$ and that sounded pretty fair. Along with the Total Moisture this kit also includes, the Triple Performance Facial Emulsion SPF 15, and Refined Finish Facial Polish.

This is not the thickest cream I've ever tried, it goes on like velvet without being oily. I don't plan on buying it, but I would say it's actually worth the 38$ pricetag. By chance I happened to get sick while I had this and used it to sooth my nose after blowing. It worked like a charm without stinging and was possibly the first time I've had a cold when the skin around my nose didn't flake.

Full sizes of this are 28$. Like the Total Moisture it comes in an attractive glass container, it's surprisingly thin but does a great job. I cat really say how well it works as a sunscreen, but it must be FDA approved so there you go. My only real beef is with the container itself since it's glass you can't really squeeze it out. When my Total Moisture was gone I transferred the remaining Triple P. into it's container for easy access. I believe the full sized are pumps, but I don't like those either.

Probably the only disappointment, a full size of this are 22$ and it is a truly terrible scrub. For one it doesn't seem to exfoliate that well. When I exfoliate I scrub gently in circles for a full minute, this stuff seemed to dry out and become waxy on my skin before a minute was up. At first I thought, well maybe it's working really well and that stuff is dead dry skin it took off, but it wasn't.

This whole line is scented with a watery floral/cucumber scent, which smells lovely don't get me wrong, but the only reason my face products should smell like cucumber and flowers is if they have cucumber and flowers in them. I'm not perfume sensitive, but a lot of people are, and seems like the product wouldn't smell BAD without the perfume in it, so just take it out.

Most of these products are formulated with what Benefit calls their tri-radiance complex which brings hydration to the skin, keeps it there, then helps skin to develop long-term reserves of water for genuinely moisturized skin. Which just sounds like what a good facial moisturizer is supposed to do anyway, they've just given it a fancy name. The complex uses a mixture of vegetable sugars, glycol derivatives, and different sizes of hyaluronic acid molecules to get all this done.

My skin does look nice. Not drastically bright, but not quite as nice as when I use only Lush products, (which I'm not currently using since I've been trying out several different skin care products over the last few months) but still good. Maybe a little bit of acne on my chin, but I don't think that is the fault of the moisturizers.

All in all this stuff work well and is a pretty good deal 38$ for the Total Moisture will get you 1.7 oz. of product, which is a pretty fair amount and will last you a good long time.

Random Pictures: Last Days of Summer

2011-10-24T04:34:00.000-07:00

Randall, Becky and I went to the Sausage Fest (no I did not make that up), which is held on the grounds of a catholic school I often teach at (didn't make up that part either). They only have one sausage though, so calling it a fest is kinda misleading.

There are rides, games, and just TERRIBLE parking.

They looked pretty at night.

My first drink at Trader Vics, man they make an awesome beverage, I highly recommend them.

Orange slices filled with lime Jello. It looks like a murky ocean scape, kinda pretty, don't you think? Pretty tasty too, though maybe next time I'll invest in a juicer.

At a Red Cross meet and greet in Eugene. The theme was Hawaiian Luau, in fact I'm pretty sure I won Best Dressed, but no one there knows me since I'm from WA and we were just integrated. So what I think happened is someone asked who I was and pointed to me, and whoever answered said the name of the girl sitting right next to me. Of course this is all conjecture, but still... I think I won.

Brenna and I had a small tea party, and Brenna brought cupcakes, don't they look tasty?

Brennas Awesome Makeup

2011-10-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

I met Brenna at a photoshoot last winter, we hit it off and like a lot of the same things so we began hanging out. She's a model too and I did her makeup for a photoshoot earlier this week. Nothing too dramatic, the photographer wanted makeup to be light and simple, which kinda takes the fun out of it, but Brenna looked lovely either way.

All eyeshadow colors are Aromaleigh over Aromaleigh eye and lip primer. Apollo on the inner corners, with Fume under the lower lash line.

Wonder on the lid and Air and Light on the brow bone. We used a white liner on the lower water line, and a brown eyeliner on the lash line to keep it warm.

Top it with pink Flirt blush in Sweet Surrender, and a L'Oreal gloss in Coral Cascade. I also used some pink Cream Eyeshadow by Flirt in Good Girl on the cheek bone, nose, chin, and bow of the lip, although you can't see it in any of these pictures.

Weird face!

Gustav's

2011-10-14T04:31:00.000-07:00

Gustav's is our local German chain restaurant. I'm not the biggest fan of German food, though I do like fondue. But after looking for an open BBQ place one evening we finally got fed up (and hungry) and pulled into the nearest place with a happy hour. We then promptly ordered everything on the menu...well almost everything.

Pesto Fondue with assorted bread, we had a separate plate of crostini to go with this as well.

Shannon with his beer!

Cheese bread, SUPER garlicy.

Potato croquettes with red peppers, olive oil, and balsamic. Delicious but quite big for croquettes. We also got salmon bites, pasta, schnitzel chicken strips, and Shannon got these....

Scotch Eggs, basically a hard boiled egg wrapped in ham then coated and fried in breadcrumbs. Might be the heaviest thing ever made. I've seen these on a lot on menus lately there coming back into vogue, you won't get me to eat them though.

Apple Strudel, sadly this was just okay, tasted like they just used pre-packaged puff pastry for it. But the apples were delicious and tasty.

Threadless

2011-10-12T04:58:00.000-07:00

Threadless had a BIG sale in September and my best friend had a birthday in September so guess what? I bought him a bunch of awesome cool Threadless shirts!

This was my first time ordering from Threadless, I was recommended by friends to buy a size larger then you usually are, and yeah you definitely want to do that. They're good quality, the prints are beautiful, the fabric is nice and soft, not cheap and scratchy I'm exceptionally happy with what I received.

Arabian Crescent: Reminded me of The Baron Munchhausen, one of Randalls favorite movies. And one of the few movies we like in common.

Recently Deceased: Beetlejuice references anyone? I loved the style of this one.

Schrute Farms: Randall and I enjoy the U.S Version of The Office, Dwight is Randalls favorite character ever, and makes him laugh all the time. This shirt is probably the perfect representation of all that Dwight is.

Review: Black Rose Minerals

2011-10-10T04:56:00.000-07:00

On my search through indie mineral makeup companies I stumbled across Black Rose Minerals, they have plenty of yellow/gold shades and I think we all know my heart belongs to pale golds and bright yellows... Eyeshadow wise at least.

My package came with stickers and an handwritten card. I adore it when companies do that.

From left to right:

Mother Sunflower: Golden yellow with gold sparkle.
Sunset: Sherbert orange/golden shimmer with gold sparkle.
Goose Egg: Bright true gold shimmer.
Minty: Pastel seafoam with blue/mint sparkle.
The Brain: Dark rosy pink with diamond sparkle.
Lilac to Me: Perfect lilac shade with pink/blue sparkle.
Gargle Blaster: Bright orange gold shimmer.
Venom: dark fuschia with pink/purple sparkle.
It's Electric: Ocean blue rife with blue sparkle
Cactus Flower: Matte dark terracotta.
Minky: Rich plumy brown with blue/green sparkle.
Bleed Black: Black with diamond sparkle.

These shades are for the most part uncomplicated, but still lovely and true, many including Bleed Black, It's Electric, and The Brain were sheerer then I though they were going to be.

Gargle Blaster is described as more gold on the website but I would defiantly call it more orangy, truth be told I only picked it up because I'm a Hitchiker fan. And I also picked up The Brain for similar geeky reasons, every time I see it this goes through my head.

Minky was a beautiful and unique surprise, but my favorites of this bunch were Minty, Lilac to Me, and Sunset.

Review: Lush Deo and Toothy Tabs

2011-10-03T04:08:00.000-07:00

I do love Lush, and I adore their unique take on products and many of them are holy grail for me. But every now and then there's a flop, their solid sugar scrubs, and several holiday products that shall remain nameless for example.

I can now add Aromaco Deodorant to this list. I picked this up on a whim one day, I will admit I've always had issues with deodorant. I'm allergic to regular store brands and generally use the salt crystal which only works so, so for me. But Aromaco might take the cake on extremely bad deodorants. It's quite hard for one, I was told by the in store people to break off small pieces to rub on my underarms, but that didn't work cause they wouldn't "melt" so I just started rubbing the whole bar on my pits. This felt terrible because the bar is filled with sharp scrubby bits but I kept using it for the next month, "in the name of science" I would tell myself as I applied it.

The smell is mostly patcholli, which is fine if you like that kind of thing, it didn't do anything to stop my moisture though. But the last draw was the day I applied it and it made my arm pits BLEED! Seriously I have the worst luck. I washed my pits, applied a strong moisturizer and discontinued it's use that day

Toothy Tabs are a different story. I bought a pack in Sparkle which is Vanilla and Lemon flavored, but mostly just tastes of baking soda. When your done it leaves your mouth tasting of black pepper. These do an excellent job of making your mouth feel squeaky clean, I only use half a tab per cleansing, half in the morning and half at night, they don't make my teeth sensitive but they are quite expensive 4$ for 40 tabs and they won't last you long even if you half them like I do. I think they're well worth it if your looking for something different, and I'm more then willing to try the other flavors but I wouldn't permanently abandon my old toothpaste for them.

Trader Vics Makeup

2011-09-30T04:17:00.000-07:00

Recently Portland got it's very own Trader Vics, which if you're not familiar is a tacky over the top Tiki Bar, with an extensive drink menu. You know those drinks you can buy that come in bowls with 18 straws and a fruit salad on top? Trader Vics is to be blamed for popularizing that. Of course I HAD to go.

I had to go with some seriously bright makeup on. In the inner corner is Aromaleighs Crescent, then on the lower lash line Green Hell, and Planet Earth.

On the lid is Brazen Cosmetics Prowl, and arched above Fyrinnae Chaotic Evil. With Aromaleighs Perihelion on the brow bone.

Pretty tropical if I do say so myself.

On my lips is Brazens Burlesque, and my cheeks is Flirt blush in Sweet Surrender.

Yuzu: Last Night With Rose

2011-09-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

I put off writing this post because it kind of makes me want to cry. Logistically I know that from an outside perspective this post is nothing special, just me and some friends with some pictures of food. I know that. But I miss Rose, I miss Maura, I miss Teal. I missing having someone around to talk shop with, I miss going to conventions with friends who like the same things I like and do the same things I do. I miss the 4am rush to finish a costume, and the random days I want to dress up and all I have to do is call one of them to go along with me.

I have other friends, close ones, ones I've had longer, but there will never be another group like them, not if I look for a million years. I know one day I'll see them all again, but I also know that time will be far in the future. Keep in contact my friends! Don't forget okay?

Christa and her first bowl of Kakuni Ramen, which has just beautiful, mouthwatering pieces of pork. In fact we all got kakuni ramen.

Kimchi rolls, with cheese and pork, man I love my kimchi!

Gyoza, not particularly special, but tasty none the less.

Rose, baby James, and Christa. Be happy everyone!

Evil Shades Winner Announced

2011-09-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

I think this contest was tricky for someone people, I don't know if it was my fault for not getting across what I was expecting, or maybe people weren't reading the description of the contest and just posting anyway, I don't really know.

My winner is someone who is known to be a frequent reader, I believe she understood what I was looking for because of that. Or maybe she just got lucky, either way I love her answer best. I found it original (I personally have never seen an item similar to it anywhere), and her reasoning was inspired and to the point while still getting the idea across. That appeals to my sense of style and practicality.

Congratulations dear! Please send me your address at arika-brushfire0 at lycos dot com, title it Mega Geeks Inc. so I know where it's from.

Review: Cleanse Your Soul

2011-09-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

Not enough peanuts and everything was tossed up pretty badly.

Cleanse Your Soul is one of those companies I would not have tried on my own, the website is extremely simple, the products themselves are not as well described as I like, and there's always a 2-3 week TAT. This is supposedly because she makes each item when you order it. Of course I only know this because I've read blog reviews, it says nothing about that on her website.

I decided to buy because Phyrra recommend it, and the lady has good taste. Also have you seen Cleanse Your Souls scent list? It's amazing and well worth trying some dubiously described products for a chance at some of them. It took me all day to narrow down my choices, eventually I had to put the list on a word document and just start removing some till I had a more manageable list.

Behemoth Scrub in Creation: Jasmine, citrus, cucumber, and mint. But all I smell is Jasmine right off. The citrus did come out when I began applying this stuff to my skin, but not mint or cucumber, still nice however.

Behemoth Scrub in Almond Snowfall: Creamy almond blended with mountain air accord and the tiniest hint of mint. Pretty much as described I can pick out each scent individually and together it's...odd. The mint is quite strong and it's menthol-y.

Behemoth Scrub in New England: Gingerbread, applesauce, and hot tea. Mostly apples and cinnamon.

Behemoth Scrub Sample in Eucapyptus and Spearmint: Yup smells like that, sugary too of course since it's a sugar scrub. The sample tub cracked badly in transit and the outside of all my containers now smells like this.

Behemoth settles, so the sugar on top is powdery, if you try to use it like this you'll lose a lot of product. You'll need to stir it up again, but then you'll also loose a lot of product. My suggestion is put a paper plate underneath while you stir to catch the stuff that falls out, then when you're done fold up the plate so the excess can slide back into the pot.

This is probably obvious but, DON'T get water in the Sugar Scrub container, you'll end up with sharp painful bits instead of nice scrubby bits.

Hair Protein Mist in La Concha: Hibiscus flowers blended with blood orange and passionfruit. The fruity notes of Orange and passionfruit show up quite nicely, the Hibiscus is buried quite deep if it's there at all.

Hair Protein Mist in Lavender Berry Vanilla: Lavender, blackberry, vanilla bean. Not as nice a combo as you might think.

Hair Protein Mist in We Gather Together: Cranberries, oranges, cloves, and nutmeg. The orange is strong in this one and quite bitter at first sniff. Once you spray it the spices come out front and center then it all mellows and blends into a fruity holiday scent.

Shower Lock in Moisturizer in Hushed: Camomile, oatmeal, milk, honey, and vanilla. It might be the camomile but this scent really bothers me. The sweet comes out more once applied but I still just don't care for this.

Soy Silky Conditioner in Chestnuts and Brown Sugar: Yeah that's pretty much what it is. Very sweet slightly nutty and thoroughly enjoyable. I bought this one cause I'm on a chestnut kick and I thought it would smell like my Adagio chestnut tea, which it does. I'm sold.

Leave in Conditioner in Vanilla Bliss: Okay so I ordered Baked Vanilla which is a blend of several different Vanillas. There's no Vanilla Bliss on the website so I assume they're the same? Apparently it leaked as well since it's got 1/4 of the product missing. Which is sad since it's a very good product and I quite like the scent, it lasts for freaking ever!

Foaming Sugar Scrub in Candy Cane Fizz: Candy canes blended with 7up and strawberry syrup. Mmm delicious sweet peppermint. You can order this in a color, and I ordered mine in light pink, however it came super pale yellow which I assume is uncolored. When I mention this to Lisa, the owner she mentioned something about color stabilizers, and not putting enough in. It's only a little sad since the product is still wonderful, it just would have been cute in pink.

For both the Foaming Sugar Scrub and the Leave in Conditioner I was offered a refund or store credit before I even asked, so let's add great customer service to the list.

Silken Body Butter Sample in Vanilla Bean Noel: Vanilla and caramel Bath and Body Works dupe. Delicious! And this lotion is amazing, it really is silky and absorbs quickly, I applied it at night and was still smelling it really clearly the next morning.

So in recap a scent list that boggles the mind along with scents that last longer then anything you've applied before. Great customer service and quick answers to my questions more then makeup for a bland website. Monthly specials make spending up to the free shipping amount easy. Also the products themselves are seriously amazing. So will I buy again? You bet your fluffy butt I will!

A Brazen Look

2011-09-23T04:03:00.000-07:00

Do I look Brazen enough for you? For this look I used Brazens Passion Pot gloss in Burlesque and Clinique Blush in Honey Blush, which is seriously the wost blush I own, it takes forever to get any color buildup.

I used Aromaleigh Lip and Eye Primer for this look only, that's why the colors look kinda matte. I used Innuendo on the lid. With Twisted and then Alluring on the outer arch.

Prowl was used on the inner corner and part of the lower lash line with Alluring on the other part.

Lovely pinky lip gloss. Seriously Burlesque is my new favorite lip color.

It was a fun look really.

Review: Brazen Cosmetics

2011-09-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

I (like many) got in on the Heartsy offer for Brazen. It's not a place I'd ever really thought of buying from before, though they always seem to get stellar reviews for their colors, the style of the website never seemed to do much for me. But Heartsy had a good deal, and I figured "why not", I've told myself that I'm going to start trying a variety of companies. Brazen Cosmetics is a company, LET'S DO THIS!

Products came in a decorated bubble mailer. The 'Thank You!' is on the outside so everyone can see, I like it.

Products came wrapped in a tissue paper in a clear gift bag with black flowers. The eyeshadow and glosses were both vacuum sealed with the eyeshadows having the sticker disc on top of the sifter as well. In short that is some well sealed product, I'm impressed already. I also received 2 eyeshadow samples (in small baggies, my favorite) and 4 red tickets which I think are a part of some sort of monthly drawing.

Passion Pot Lip Glosses

Breathless: A frosty nude champagne with pink tones. Smells like mint and even gives my mouth a nice cooling sensation for the first few minutes. It applies a bit patchy but would give a lovely frosty tint over you're choice of lipstick, I like dabbing it in the middle of my lower lip for a 3D effect.
Burlesque: Bright hot pink with a blue/purple duochrome, that's quite flattering on me. This shade is similar to Evil Shades Lost Kiss but it's pinker and kind but not quite sheer, it's actually about the same shade I thought Lost Kiss would be. It smells like chocolate cake, in fact I'm pretty sure in the early 90's I had a toy that smelled just like it since every time I sniff it my mind goes back to childhood.

I'm really enjoying Brazens gloss formula it's sticky but not gummy and quite moisturizing. It does last longer then you'd expect a gloss to, but still won't last you through eating so don't expect it to. The only thing I can think of to dislike about them is the packaging. My hatred of balm pots is well documented, and yes I use a lip brush to apply these, but I'm not gonna take my lip brush with me on the go (my purse has enough stuff in it thank you). So if I'm out and about and my Brazen gloss fades that's it until I get home.

From Left to Right with the top being Aromaleigh Eye and Lip primer, and the bottom being Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

Innuendo: A sort of beige/mauve with gold sparkle.
Prowl: Bright tangerine/copper with gold shimmer. Very wearable.
Sweet Affair: In any light source this darkish green mellows into a nice spring green because of the bright gold shimmer and gold sparkle.
Twisted: A complex dark forest green with blue/green shimmer.
Alluring: Bright lake blue with green shimmer and blue sparkle.

As you can see, Brazen shadows need a sticky base for their shimmer to be really apparent, if you don't have Pixie Epoxy (and if you don't what's wrong with you?) you can try foiling them, or applying them wet. Even without PE they're still quite vivid.

So, would I buy from Brazen again? Yes I would! I REALLY like the gloss formula but not the packaging. I'll defiantly have to try their Lipglaze next time since it comes in a tube with a doe-foot applicator. They're eyeshadow is well formulated and bright, I liked them all but none of these colors made me stand up and take notice. Never the less you can tell that she takes great pride and care in the quality of her products and I would definitely recommend spending your money there.

Arika and Roses Day of Food

2011-09-19T01:01:00.000-07:00

Okay so for Roses birthday present I told her I would take her to her favorite Portland food spots. Little did I know the danger of that statement, the all consuming need to feed, well opposite really, it was a hot day and we were like, we want to eat everything but we're very, very full and hot. It was hard work eating our way across town. But first...

We had start getting cute-ed up, even James had an awesome outfit change.

Shoujo Mafia onesie! Which was Rose, Maura, and Teals cosplay group Before they left for separate corners of the world.

First stop was Burgatroyd for Crack Burger (A.K.A Garden State Burger), it has lettuce tomato, pickled onions, provolone, and chili aoil.

Rose had to feed James, this is her staring longingly at her Crack Burger, mommy duties come first.

I bought myself a Vanilla Peach rooibos and black tea. I'm not a fan of rooibos but this was quite tasty.

Next stop was a short food break at James old NICU, here he is with some of his old doctors.

At Love Via Crepes for some lovely and delicious Japanese style crepes. I had Nutella Banana, Rose had Cupids Arrow with Blackberry ice cream. After that we took another short break and went to Lush. I bought a few things I'll be reviewing soon so watch for that post.

After our break we went to the Hawthorne Food carts for the "one true fried pie" from Whiffies. We actually got these to go. We also bought a milkshake from the crepe cart there. It was a bit of a struggle not to buy a crepe from them. They're different then the japanese crepes but still really good.

Getting fresh with the pin ball machines at Voodoo Too.

This was our last stop, Voodoo was empty, that is a rare thing.

Although these are donuts you wouldn't mind waiting in line for.

So that was our day, crazy and eventful, full of deliciousness. You know you're jealous, maybe if you come visit I'll take you all over town for the best food too.

James 1st Birthday

2011-09-16T04:35:00.000-07:00

Rose returned from Texas for a short while to be a bridesmaid for our friend Christas wedding. She took the opportunity to celebrate her sons birthday with friends while she was here. James cake looks a little bit like a Cake Wreck doesn't it? But wait...

It's a freaking volcano!

In fact the whole food table was dinosaur themed with blue ranch dip, a mountain of sandwiches, lava cupcakes, strawberry trees dipped in green sugar.

Mmmmm Lava!

Rockin' the dino hats! Gloria wears her hat weirdly.

Shannon is embarrassed.

Rose and Jamil, James is an angry boy.

A few minutes later though he's is rockin' out! Sort of Go go movements, interesting dance choice buddy.

Rose and Kenna

It was really great to be able to celebrate James birthday with everyone. Have an awesome year kiddo!

Have a Berry Day

2011-09-14T04:18:00.000-07:00

I always seem to be buying these dark blue/purple colors that I just love the look of but they never seem to do anything for me, but I still keep on trying. In this look I used Aromaleighs Wildflower blush with Evil Shaded Gossamer over top, and Evil Shades Lost Kiss Hardcore lip gloss.

All eyeshadow shades are Aromaleigh, with Air and Light on the inner corner and lower lash line, I also used it to highlight the brow bone.

I used Wonderland on the lid with Little Craving as a touch of pink to bring out the rosey tone in Wonderlands silver.

Lastly Lush Memoir is on the outer lid and corner and slightly under the lower lash line.

It's not terrible, but I'll keep at it until I've made blue/purple shades my bitch.

Win Evil Shades

2011-09-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

How would you like to win some Evil Shades makeup for yourself? I'm giving away a few samples to one lucky winner!

Colors in:

Lips

Bane
Mage
Devious Virture
Primrose Path

Cheeks

Twizted
Backtalk
Love Bites

Eyes

Imp
Seraphic
Redonite
Nightshade
Dangersox
Zombie
Wanderflower
Glooming

How To Enter

Evil Shades is one of those awesome companies that will create custom colors for their shoppers, eyes, lips, cheeks, whatever! What I want to see from you is if you were to order a custom color what would it be and why. Everyone only get's one entry, so if you want to post more then one color that's fine but I'll only take into account whatever shade you post first.

EXAMPLE: I'd like and a smokey shimmery green eyeshadow with dark purple duochrome and gold sparkle. I'd call it Mordred and I'd wear it winged out with my furry gray boots...ideally it's snowing in this little visual.

You must be a follower via Google Friend Connect.

Entries can be submitted until midnight U.S Pacific time on September 24th, and entries after that point won't be counted. U.S as well as international entries are welcome, but I'm an not liable for any fees associated with accepting an international mail parcel. I've never had any problems with it before but I like to cover my ass, if the winner is international the package will be labeled as a gift, so hopefully there won't be any problems. I will take every effort to make sure the package will get to you in a safe and timely fashion.

The winner will be chosen by me (not randomly), it will be whatever color and reason I think is the most interesting so don't be stingy in you entries.

If there are any questions please send me an email at arika-brushfire0 at lycos dot com. Title it Mega Geeks Inc. so I know where it's from.

Good luck everyone!

Going Around the Bend

2011-09-09T04:43:00.000-07:00

The view outside the house.

My fathers side of the family used to take spring and summer vacations together when we were young. One of them was to rent a series of three town houses in Sun River which is just past Bend Oregon in the high desert. What you didn't know Oregon had deserts? Well we do, and they are very desert-y.

I never had fun in Sun River as a child, even though often the trips landed on my birthday. I never felt well, and slept on a tiny chair in the TV room cause my only other choice was sharing a bed with my brother. Lame....

The family that owned the town homes sold two of them and my dad decided to rent the third for two weeks. Dad and Cath had different members of their friends and family visiting them in that period, I came for three days on the tail end of their vacation on my own. I didn't really do much besides laze around and eat smoked tuna, so this post will be picture heavy, type light.

Doesn't that look nice? It's private property but I'd bring my laptop and tea out there and blog if I could.

Cath acting weird. Okay I made her do this, but both she and my dad were more then a little tipsy at this point.

DUCKS! Cute and tasty.

Day TWO

This is not an error screen, this is what the sky looked like the whole time I was there.

It's adults only from noon to 1 each day. Dad and Catherine did this pretty much every day.

Swimming is involved too of course. I didn't do much of it myself, chlorine does terrible things to my skin.

Pool is the color of my toes!

Huge-normous Dragonflies kept landing on us. This one decided he liked me and stayed for a good long while before I shook him off.

Lazeing about listening to my tunes. I got a weird sunburn this day, just thought you should know.

Day THREE

COWS! Driving home I grabbed some shots of the desert. Okay the background is desert, the foreground is farmland.

Lots of forest fires this year, here's a burnt out bit that spanned for miles, in fact....

See that? It's not a cloud, I assume it's either smoke, or steam from putting the fires out. Later on I went through a town completely covered in smoke. it was as if I had entered in a horror movie.

Anyway, that was basically my trip, later!
-Arika

Review: Evil Shades

2011-09-07T04:10:00.000-07:00

Evil Shades recently updated their website to be more user friendly, I'm loving how much easier it is to look through all the different offerings, in celebration I picked up two of their Blogger Review sets, and I'm really excited to be able to show you what they have.

Samples came in a pink satin baggie inside a well decorated bubble mailer. All samples are in clam shell containers, even the glosses which were in a clam shell tubes. You can see in the top picture, they're toward the bottom and wrapped in a separate plastic baggie in case of leakage. I love clam shells for lip samples, but I really prefer tiny plastic baggies for powders, I always loose more product then I'm comfortable with when I open clam shells. I feel baggies are easier to organize too but that's just my preference.

I swatched my lip samples first with a lip brush, I was really excited about them, they all looked too amazing on the website, and they do in real life of course, but unfortunately different then expected for most of them, but such is the curse of buying online!

From Left to Right

The first 4 are Deviant Lipsticks which are all very smooth, maybe a little dry after wearing them for awhile but last a decent amount of time even after food and drinks. They're candy scented but smell a bit like a food scented eraser to me.

Bane: A sheer but bright fuschia with a blue sheen. Though it's not labeled as sheer on the website, it really seems like it is. It's a very flattering color either way.
Mage: More grass green with a bit of metallic and almost no aqua that I could see. It's super opaque, I could totally see a Poision Ivy cosplayer rockin this shade, but it's not really for me.
Devious Virtue: Darker in person then on the website it's a brown beige with a rose tone. It applies to my lips lighter then it looks swatched on my arm, but still darker then I'd hoped. Flattering on but too dark to be considered 'nude' on me.
Primrose Path: A tangerine rose with a pink shimmer. Green shimmer the website says, but I didn't see that, nice and opaque but I was hoping for something more pink less orange.

Our next two lip samples are Hardcore Lips which is heavily pigmented gloss, I usually prefer lipstick but I am digging Evil Shades gloss formula, it's not sticky and it is HEAVILY pigmented. This shit lasted longer then the lipsticks.

Lost Kiss: This shade is another victim of screen color misinformation. It looks a lot pinker on my computer then it did in life. The good news? I FREAKING LOVE IT! This is the color I wanted Bane to be, a dark fuchsia with a very apparent blue shift when applied. It looses the lacquer sheen after awhile, but the color and the shift remain long after it's gone.
Just Like Candy: A lavender with a heavy metallic sheen, it does look silver/gray in certain lights or from far away. I'd call it a perfect cutsey robot shade, I did think it applied a little patchy, but would look equally stunning over a lipstick.

Blushes were swatched next with a fluffy blending brush. I increased saturation on the blush pictures so you could see them all, that's why the blue shade looks kinda funny. I took two picture for you guys, one with the colors as opaque as I could get them, and another with them blended out in the way you'd wear them as blush.

From Left to Right

Twizted: Blue with a subtle pink shimmer. Goes chalky when blended, but that's very common for super bright blushes. I noticed the same thing with my Aromaleigh Sonic Rouge: Cherry Bomb and Wildflower, and you can enlarge the picture below to see what I'm talking about, it sort of settles into dots. It's not very noticeable on unless you're very close so don't be scared out of trying it. Looks particularly attractive on pale skin tones.
Backtalk: A super bright Barbie in the 80's pink, there's a gold shimmer in there as well. Even more then the blue this is not a color for the faint of heart.
Love Bites: Tangerine milkshake with loads of pastel green shimmer. Super attractive!
Gossamer: An incredibly pale (bordering on white) pink, with tons of blue shimmer. You can see in the blended out picture, this shade is mostly shimmer with a bit of pink added in.

Blended out Blushes!

Lastly I did the eyeshadow and yes I LOVE Evil Shades eyeshadow! Their formula is silky with plenty of the depth in color I'm use to from Aromaleigh, in fact many of the shades I tried are very similar to ones I already have from Aromaleigh. I'm definitely not saying they're dupes of course but I know many of you who follow me have been disappointed by my makeup looks because the shades I use are now discontinued. So I will review the eyeshadows and also mention the ones that remind me of Aromaleigh colors, if it happen to be something you've noticed from one of my previous looks or swatch posts you now know where to pick up a similar product.

From Left to Right and swatched over Aromaleighs lip and eye primer.

Imp: A very shimmery silvery green with a bit of a blue glint to it. Reminds me of Aromaleighs Tea, a little less metallic then Tea was, and minus the golden tone.
Victorian Night: The softest silvery lavender with blue shimmer and green sparkle. Very complex color, very attractive...I needs it like breathing.
Seraphic: Kinda looks like Primrose Path lipstick, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they were made from the same base. Tangerine and rose with a pink shimmer.
Redonite: Greener then it looks in the picture with a bit of aqua thrown in and pink sparkle. Similar to Aromaleighs Event Horizon minus the gold sparkle.
Nightshade: Very chalky, very bright, almost matte fuchsia. Difficult to apply and about the same shade as Lost Kiss gloss. Like Aromaleighs HitorMiss.
Danger Sox: A very dark burgundy loaded with silver shimmer and pink sparkle. Similar to Aromaleighs Athena with more sparkle.
Zombie: Wine red on a black base with eerie purple shimmer.
Wanderflower: A complex dark green/blue with undertones of gray and sliver sparkle.
Glooming: Just amazing like you cannot believe until you see for yourselves. Simple enough black with blue sparkle, but impossible to capture the beauty of. Seriously I had no idea, I just figured I wanted to test out a black eyeshadow and this one appealed to me. Now I think I have to try the rest of the blacks since this one was so pretty.

Along with everything else I also received a sample of her eye primer in Noir. The primer itself is mousse-like in texture. I tried to apply it with a brush but that didn't work so well. After that I tried my finger with better results.

It doesn't go especially opaque, and it still looks a little patchy. I like the feel of it better then the Aromaleigh primer I usually use.

And look at how pretty these eyeshadows look swatched over it, from left to right it's Imp, Nightshade, Danger Sox, and Redonite. Look at Nightshades blue duochrome, I couldn't see that at all before! In fact now that I see this I again wouldn't be surprised if Lost Kiss and Nightshade were made from the same base too.

In a recap I was a little disappointed in the lipsticks but adore the gloss. The blushes are formulated well, just be sure you know if you can handle the super bright colors (which are SUPER bright), and the super shimmery colors (which are SUPER shimmery). The eyeshadows are all amazing, and though I have favorites I whole heartily recommend each and every one of them. My favorites in this batch are Lost Kiss gloss, Love Bites, and Gossamer blushes. Imp, Victorian Night, and Glooming eyeshadow, and the Noir primer I will definitely be picking up sometime in the future. Oh yes, I will buy from Evil Shades again, count on it.

Still not sure if this Indie company is for you? Stay tuned for a Mega Geeks Inc. contest where you could win samples of some of the shades mentioned above.

OMSI After Dark

2011-09-05T04:42:00.000-07:00

OMSI stands for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and OMSI After Dark is their 21 and over event they have each month. There's plenty of free food samples mini cupcakes, doughnuts, bourbon shots. You're not tripping over little kids all the time to get a look at things and there's plenty of stuff to do. I went this month specifically for the "Game On!" exhibit. Which is a history of video games, with tons of gaming stations set up, original art work, toys, etc... Unfortunately the exhibits are strictly no pictures which sucks, you'll just have to take my word, it was awesome.

Pretty much our first stop was the cafeteria which was serving up a video game themed menu of Zelda chicken salad, Angry Birds tacos (with angry mayonnaise), and Donkey Kong Drums (tater tots). Here's Gloria with the Pac-Man Tea we shared.

Lemon, ginger, mint, vodka, it was pretty good.

Gloria's having an epiphany. Sorry the plane was invented already.

Yup Shannon has done this! In fact the example they give looks a lot like Shannons main computer.

Dance my minions!

My outfit for the evening. I was really surprised nobody cosplayed, if I had had an appropriate cosplay like a school girl outfit or something I would have.

Along with "Game On!" The Narnia exhibit was still there. And they ALSO did not let you take pictures, which is bullshit cause there's a big set up of the closet opening up into Narnia that is BEGGING for me to take pictures in front of. Just super lame people! But they have the White Witches costume, which is amazing to look at up close. It's got this really intricate crochet overlay. One of Suzannes costumes (a battle one) along with her super cute crown that I totally did not want to steal.... And OMSI made a small glacier for the occasion, a real one.

Now I leave you with Gloria being and ear troll.

Movie Review: Fright Night

2011-09-03T04:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, seriously why haven't you seen Fright Night? It has Anton Yelchin AND David Tennat who swears, wears tight leather pants, and grabs his crotch. It's awesome!

Fright Night is a remake of a 1985 horror classic, and if you're sick of winey, emo, bitchy, sparkly vampires, then this is the movie to soothe your battered soul, these fuckers burst in sunlight, not sparkle. That's what a proper Vampire does damnit! This movie follows the rules, the vampires have to be invited in, garlic, crosses, the whole nine yards. It doesn't try to be clever and tie it's story into knots over semantics, or explaining WHY garlic works, it's a pretty straight forward, vampire wants to eat people, plucky teenager wants to stop him. That's all you NEED!

It's not particularly sexy, but you've got to be tired of that by now. I do however owe my friend Teal an apology, she told me that Colin Farrel (who plays the main vamp Jerry) was gonna be kinda hot in this film and I totally did not believe her cause, well, Colin Farrel always looks gross to me. You were right Teal, I was totally wrong, he looked good and did an excellent job.

I don't want to give away too much, just go see it, it's worth it.

Fright Night Makeup

2011-09-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

Okay first up, Fright Night is awesome! Movie review to come. Okay onto the makeup.

I was originally going to use red and black, but Randall took over the bathroom, and I had to use this tiny little mirror in our living room. I used greens and golds instead, otherwise I was afraid it would make a mess. All colors are Aromaleigh.

I used Zues on the inner corner and lower lash line, then Jessamine, and Chantal winged out.

On the inner corner is Serpensortia, Verdant Wisp, and Jessamine.

Chantal is black with purple sparkle what I thought would work well with Serpensortia and Verdant Wisp which also have purple sparkle. Verdant Wisp is my favorite green by the way, though I think Jessamine is more flattering on me.

I used a translucent finishing powder and Aromaleigh Corset blush with a peach gloss.

Men I Love

2011-08-31T04:42:00.000-07:00

Be prepared people, you could say this list was super bi-polar, ideally you'll spend your time scratching your head about my choices and then I'll know I've done my job. This is not to be confused as a list of men I think are hot (though I do think some of them are), there is a separate list for people I think are drop dead gorgeous but you'll never see it because there's more to life then pretty.

First up, and just kind of an all around number 1 is Joseph Gordon Levitt.
And yes I've mentioned this before, embarrassing as it is for me, but as a girl Joe was my "tween" crush (in quotes because the word tween didn't exist when I was a tween). Other girls covered their walls with the ubiquitous JTT, Devon Sawa, or the boys from Hanson (and where are they now I ask you?) I found myself a bit of a joiner in those days so I just picked a guy and went with it, that boy just happened to be Mr. Levitt, and even then I knew how to pick 'em if I do say so myself.

Aside from being a pretty phenomenal actor (have you seen Brick?), Joe here seemed to have just plain skipped over all the stupid crap that has become the child actors right of passage since T.V began. He speaks french, sings and plays guitar, and runs an online collaborative production company called HitRECord where he goes by the moniker RegularJoe, the website encourages artists to work together to create something, anything. And when a project comes to fruition the proceeds get portioned out equally to everyone involved. Seriously, check it out it's freaking awesome.

Next Albert Adria
95% of you have just done a double take and gone, "who the fuck is that?" To the 5% left over let us nod superiorly together, because we know, WE KNOW! To the rest of you Albert is the younger brother of Ferran Adria the best known chef in the world, and not because he has a show on the food network but because his flavors and techniques are akin to Jesus Fucking Christ! He can turn a flower petal into a dumpling, and a Mojito into a baguette, Ferran is a god bown down and worship peons! The man single handedly started and popularized the molecular gastronomy movement, but unlike many of his peers never lost sight that at the end of the day it was meant to be eaten.
So why then, Arika did you pick Albert for this list?

Well he's kinda adorable for one, like a teddy bear in chef whites. Second, Ferran no longer cooks for the public while Albert still works the kitchens (in a mostly experimental degree) at his restaurants 41 Degrees and Tickets, he continues the good work his brother started, experimenting and always changing. And third, his specialty is pastry and I am a girl who likes her pastry.

Daniel Radcliff
Okay, you have to go with me on this one, I expect to get some backlash because it's Harry Potter, and though I adore Harry Potter a big portion of it's fan base are twittering little girls who think they have to stand up against any opinion that differs from their own. But I don't think Dan is attractive, at all, I also don't think he's a very good actor. There I said it, and hopefully when you read this I haven't been suicide bombed by a Mary Sue. I'm not trying to be mean, it's just an opinion, if I were to pick anyone from the movies to like It might have to be Rupert Grint, not because I think he's particularly attractive either but because every expression he makes is freaking hilarious and it's hard not to like someone who makes you laugh.

So why then is Harry Potter on this list? Well aside from the two expression acting, and the fact that he looks like a less drug addicted version of my brother, Daniel Radcliff is hard core cool in my book. The boy took time in between filming of Harry Potter to be the naked lead in Eqqus, a play about a crazy boy who's sexually attracted to horses (okay that's not all Eqqus is about, but the good old horsey loving is in there), he has no problem making fun of himself as we've seen in Extras. And maybe what's most cool, he's a supporter of the LGBT community, and that is huge! As Harry Potter, Dan has one of the most recognizable faces in the world right now and that carries a lot of influence behind it. He could throw his considerable weight behind anything he wants and the fact that he's chosen Gay Rights is a definite win for the side of good.

Take that Westboro Baptist Church! We've got The Boy Who Lived on our side.

Alan Alda
Okay, I'll admit it, I love M*A*S*H. And Mr. Alda is a really cool peice of work. As a child, his father worked in Vaudville and he often hung out with the famous Burlesque names of that day. He married his teenage sweetheart, and they remain happily married today with many children and grandchildren. He's kind, funny, smart as a whip and has been active in feminism for many years working on real feminist issues, not just attacking Playboy like many lazy feminists (insert eye roll here). I'm always surprised by what I find him participating in, one day he'll be hosting a science show on the local public broadcasting station, the next he's playing Jack Donaghys biological father on 30 Rock, the next he's narrating a character for the 'book on tape' of "World War Z". His religious views are parallel to mine as well, we're not religious, or even agnostic, we just don't care.

Review: Tonight, Tonight

2011-08-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying, I thoroughly enjoy this song, it's not life changing and I'm sure I'll get sick of hearing it soon. But as of this moment it's got a good beat and some clever lyrics and sometimes that's enough for me.

But have you seen the video? Let me oblige...

It starts out rather promising with the horrible office work place, the lead and his friend are dressed up as "super geeks", and they pan over to where a guy is making out with the leads ex. I like jokes like that where you follow along with the song and there's actually a story to it all.

Then it pans to a childrens birthday party where the two guitarists are playing on mini guitars, except these guy all kinda look alike so at first I thought the lead was one of these people with different hair and clothing. But they did the tattoo joke so I'm still good with the video at this point.

After a few more shots of the office and the birthday party everything pretty much switches over to dramatic band on roof top, and dance party shots. And this is just sad! I know a lot of artists do this, maybe they're lazy, or can't think of anything better, or just don't like making fucking music videos (god knows not every song needs one)! But your song includes a joke about Zack Galifianakis, if you want to include that weirdo you'd better be prepared to deliver something other then "look at me in my super stylized clothing" (the bow tie was more fun anyway), "look at how epic and fun we are!" Lame guys, seriously.

And it was all so promising, in comparison check out this Bruno Mars video...

This is not a man known for making memorable music videos (he's also responsible for Grenade, the stupidest love song EVER), and okay there's a possibility, this is good cause Bruno is not in it. But you know if that's what it takes to make a good video so be it!

Nothing to do on a Sunday Afternoon

2011-08-24T04:12:00.000-07:00

I had big plans to go to Meriweathers restaurant which has a fantastic happy hour, but my friends bailed at the last minute pleading no money to me. It's a pretty good excuse I suppose. I decided to make the best of it and hang out with them anyway. Gloria and Shannon were doing laundry at her dads house so I joined them over there.

We watched T.V for a bit and I totally claimed the cat for my own (she looks mad, but she actually doesn't mind this position too much). We went to Ross so Shannon could buy new shorts, I convinced them to go for Ice Cream, my treat!

We went to Ice Cream Renaissance and Gloria and I got the Indecision, which is just where someone chooses your treat for you. They'll come in neat shapes, Glorias was a duck!

Mine was a snail.

Shannon had a vanilla orange soda float, it was awesome! I definitely recommend everyone tries this at home.

Afterwards we went to one of my favorite vintage stores just across the street Old Glory, most of the items they sell there really are vintage, but some are just curiosities. It a popular place with decent prices so there's a lot of turn over, that means new stuff every time I visit.

Dragon Merry-go-round display! I want this super bad!

I bought this old army hat which looks super weird with my dress and makeup. I know they still make these currently, but I think this one is from the 1970's, at least by the look of the tags inside.

For dinner it was still really freaking hot in our apartment so I had Randall take me out somewhere air conditioned.

Appetizers were polenta and mozzarella "fritters" with balsamic reduction and tomato jam. Not bad, but I'm not a fan of polenta Randall is.

He got a very tasty looking burger.

I got some Mac n' Cheese with grilled chicken, it was pretty good but the chicken was the weirdest thing, it looked like someone sliced up a whole chicken breast and then reassembled it. It doesn't make it look good or taste better so I don't know why they bothered.

Daily Wear: 08/21/2011

2011-08-22T04:11:00.000-07:00

Shades of lilac dominated this day, as I'm sure you can see. And I curled my hair, It's really surprising but the longer my hair is the easier it is to curl, go figure.

All eyeshadow is Aromaleigh with Rhea on the inner corner and under the water line.

High Heels is the silvery pink shade on the lid, then Blueshift which is not the peach periwinkle shade it appears to be it just never goes opaque, then Lush Memoir on the outer corner.

You can't tell from my pictures but in life High Heels looked a bit golden when compared to the periwinkle colors, it brought some depth to the look that I was very fond of.

On my lips was Airborne Unicorn from Lime Crime with a coat of pinkish gloss on top.

My nails, I've been doing easy solid shades lately. I really like this color, it's Sally Hansen Hard as Nail Xtreme Wear in 270 Lacey Lilac. Probably my favorite purple shade ever.

My goodness I love this dress. It's 80's, I picked it up from a vintage store earlier this summer when I realized I was gonna need something easy and breezy that I could still wear to work if I needed to. It makes me look so tall! I paired the dress with my neon yellow gladiator sandals and the peach lolita head-bow Maura sent me for my birthday.

Daily Wear: Evening Tea Party

2011-08-19T04:53:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this dress since February, not continuously obviously. Just on and off as something to do when I wasn't working on some more pressing project.

Here I am making my super weird excited for tea face!

It's a strapless lolita dress, are there strapless lolita dresses? If there wasn't before I guess there is now, it's just perfect for summer. Teal gave me the bubble fabric before she left for Korea, I was going to go sort of big top tent circus with it and I wanted to sew puff ball fringe on the bottom, but damned if I couldn't find any that I liked. I ended up going with the pastel green trim you can see at the bottom, it's LITERALLY Tinkerbell brand lace. So random...

I enjoyed creating the front lacing for this dress and well as the under bust bow that you really can't see in any of the pictures but it's probably my favorite part of the dress.

Aaahh my hair is supper fluffy and awesome, I totally want to do that all the time now! Though it did deflate throughout the night some pins would keep it up nicely.

My eyeshadow was being weird this day, does anyone know if Pixie Epoxy goes bad? It was weird, I've never had an issue before. I used three colors from Aromaleighs Opulent Lusters collection in Mandarin, Azalea, and Lotus. With Marigold as a highlight on the inner corner.

It was really pretty when I kept my eyes open.

Okay it's not bad like this.

I'm a little bit addicted to the super cute Japanese Mystery Box particularly the ones by Re-Ment. I had to figure out something to do with them, and hanging them on a necklace was better then having them clutter up my closets.

Winnie the Pooh watch I picked up at the Dollar Store, there was a pink and a pastel green one too, but I liked the picture on this periwinkle one the best. I died over the course of the evening, but it WAS only a dollar.

Evening Tea Party

2011-08-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about an outdoor night time tea party since winter and about a month ago I started putting my thoughts into action.

I'm a bit of a girl scout when it comes to planning stuff. I always want to make sure I have everything I'm ever going to need. I bought citronella candels, baby wipes, a butane powered camping stove to heat the water in. In fact everything you seen in the above picture I brought with me. Although my camping stove is excluded since I wanted to keep it away from stuff it might set on fire.

Teacups all in a nice little row, and you can see my giant basket of teas to the left. There's organic sugar, half and half, and two different types of honey to put in the tea. Under the big foil lumps are mountains of cucumber sandwiches.

I bought Adagios loose leaf tea bags and showed everyone how to use them, they're great for creating blends.

Drinking tea from my favorite cup, Cimorene.

Box O' Sweets the top layer was filled with Almond White Chocolate meringue, then tootsie pops, and my own hand made sweetener spoons.

The spoons were super cute and worked better then I expected.

Mike and Becky, and Glorias coworker Jess were among the first to arrive.

Missy and Stean brought their dog Finn, so cute!

Totem pole!

Seth and Miriam dressed kind of Hysteric Victorian.

I like random table shots I have a ton of these actually, this was just my favorite cause Jess looks so haughty in the background.

Kitty, who I haven't seen in forever since she's been away at college, and Nate.

Nates adorable sister Emily.

After cleaning up a group of us hung out at Gloria and Shannons apartment for some down time. After about an hour most people split but Randall, Shannon, and I headed for the Hawthorne Food Carts, which are open till 3 am.

I'm Whipped

2011-08-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

Flirt! is a makeup brand sold exclusively at Kohls and developed by Estee Lauder. I find they're hit or miss in terms of quality but most of their products are a very good price. I'm fond of their blushes and eyeliner but recently I noticed a new addition to their eye products the I'm Whipped cream eyeshadow.

I've never had much luck with cream shadows but I fell pretty hard for Midnight Disco. I was wary about buying such a dark cream though. I opted for the beigy pink color Good Girl. I figured if it didn't work as an eyeshadow I could still use it as a highlighter.

None of the I'm Whipped colors are solid but they're incredibly glittery and apply easily with a finger tip. This was swatched over Aromaleigh Lip and Eye Primer, and next to that Fyrinnae Pixi Epoxy. There's not a huge difference in terms of sparkle but it's still somewhat noticeable.

Here's Good Girl with some Aromaleigh Pink Fingers eyeshadow layered over top. It really does a very good job of brightening the eyeshadow up and turns it more Barbie pink then the usual powdery pink.

Here's Good Girl on the lid with Aromaleighs Hestia darkening the crease and Pink Fingers on the inner corner.

It looks pretty nice in these picture but after an hour it was creasing like crazy, even with Aromaleighs lip and eye primer on under it.

Yup I think I'll stick to using it as a sparkly highlighter. It works quite well in that respect.

Ginger Pop

2011-08-12T04:02:00.000-07:00

Becky invited me to her new favorite Thai restaurant the other day Ginger Pop, which is a freaking adorable name with an equally cute elephant mascot. We all got specialty drinks, Becky got Thai Iced Coffee. You can also kinda see she's wearing some of my Betsey Johnson jewelry. She asked to borrow it for the evening which was cool, nobody ever asks to borrow my stuff. Which is weird because I'm one of those people who's really okay with letting others borrow my things.

Mike with his Ginger Hibiscus Iced Tea, really, really tasty.

I got a Thai Ice Tea which was really super sweet. I mean it usually is but this was particularly cloying this day. Eventually Mike switched his drink with mine, which was nice of him.

After our dinner Ginger Pop had some french macaroons that we had to give a try. They were pretty good but the filling was cream cheese and was pretty strong compared to the delicate tasting shell.

After dinner we found an open bakery and had cakey awesome dessert.

I had an orange creamsicle cake, but once again it's lovely orange flavor was covered by the use of cream cheese frosting.

Becky and Mike, say it with me folks. AWWWwwww!

Random Tea Cups

2011-08-10T04:11:00.001-07:00

In preparation for a Tea Party I'm hosting I've been collecting tea cups from local vintage and thrift stores. It's been slow going since I only wanted cups not saucers and I don't want to separate any cups from their saucers. Other restrictions I've put on myself is that they have to be tea cups, not small or shapely coffee cups, and they have to be somewhat interesting to look at. I've collected 11 so far, here are 5 of my favorites.

Arthur Dent

He's a happless human just along for the ride, he's not particularly good for anything, or particularly bad for that matter. He may or may not hold the secret to "Life the Universe and Everything" but bugger it all if it can't get him a decent cup of tea.

Neville Longbottom

He might not seem like much at first but he will grow to surprise you, just give him time and access to the Herbology Department. Also if you could make sure a certain Potions Professor stays out of his way that would be just smashing.

Howl Jenkins

He's the bravest coward you'll ever meet and an incredibly powerful coward at that. Vain, frustrating, somewhat loveable. He's got a plan but you'll never get it out of him, by the time he asks for your heart you'll want to give it to him.

Princess Cimorene

She's fed up with a life of mindless embroidery, dancing lessons, and etiquette. Everything remotely interesting has been forbidden, and being a rather pragmatic girl she feels the best way to get anything done is to volunteer to become the Princess of a Dragon. This life turns out to be more more suitable.

Fay Viviane

Beautiful and powerful, delicate and terrifying. She has many names and many stories, and might hold the sword of the One True King until he comes for it. She's hardly a "good" person, but she's still probably right.