Make Up Post: Automaton Halloween Make Up

For the past couple years, I haven't really planned for Halloween. Due to a mixture of being overwhelmed with college and procrastination, my costumes have been really last minute scrambling. But this year, I wanted to do it right! I'm elaborating on the basic idea of past years, steampunk, but putting in extra effort. I was inspired by this robot make up tutorial. So here is my effort: Automaton-Human Hybrid Make Up.

You can find my full tutorial here. If you want to do a full automaton face, skip the first few steps and replicate the robot make up on both sides. It takes some time to do, but it's pretty easy and fun!

Makeup Review: Shiro Cosmetics Halloween 2013

I came across this website, shirocosmetics.com, recently and fell in love with it. All the makeup is handmade and themed around geeky themes, such as The Hobbit, Fullmetal Alchemist, Minecraft, and (in the case of this set) The Nightmare Before Christmas. I saw this collection and had to buy the full thing. I must say, I'm pretty happy with the purchase.

I apologise that some of the colours are hard to see. Those colours (Zero, Finkelstein, and Oogie Boogie) are quite sheer. Zero is a light pink, Oogie Boogie is a pale green, and Finkelstein is a shimmery white.

Here's a pic of me wearing Two Faced, Pumpkin King, and Something in the Wind.

This set will only be available through October 31st, so hurry up and order yours!

Make Up Post: Gone Batty!

Some I was perusing my favourite place on the internet to get inspiration/ideas for make up and came across a delightfully spooky Halloween look! Yes, I know it's still a bit early for the holiday, but I like pumpkins, black cats, ghosts, and bats all year round. I decided to try out this great tutorial for bat eye make up. It's by no means perfect, but for a first attempt with limited supplies (most of my make up is up at school...) I think it turned out reasonably well.

Please excuse the blotchiness of my face. I had no other make up on >.>

I used Maybelline ExpertWear Eye Shadow in Amethyst (I've had it for several years, not sure if they still make it) for most of the purple and Sephora MicroSmooth eye shadow palette in Ultraviolet (the medium purple for the outer edges and the dark purple for the crease). Really, you can use any combination of colours you like! I definitely want to try this again in the orange colour scheme once I have access to all of my eyeshadows.

For the bats, I used gel eyeliner but you might get a better result with liquid liner. Do not try this with pencil. Pencil is highly inaccurate and too soft to draw precise shapes (unless you're magically skilled in it, in which case you are amazing). It also helps if you're good at drawing in general, which I am not.

All credit for the tutorial goes to the lovely bloodsexsugarmagik at Reddit's r/makeupaddiction.

Make Up Post: Autumn is Coming

Don't know about where you are, but here in Northern California the weather is still acting like summer (that darn Indian Summer, grr!). I am completely ready for fall. All that cold weather, warm sweaters, and cloudy skies. But sadly, I get none of those for at least another couple of weeks, so in the meantime, I've been consoling myself with fall inspired make up looks. If autumn isn't coming to me, I may as well bring it to myself.

Here I used a copper shadow for about half the lid, then blended in some black on the outer edge. Same on beneath my eyes. Pretty simple, but definitely gets that "fall leaves" feeling going. I put on some coppery lipstick just to add some more autumn feel (and because I love the colour).

Sorry, I don't have a full face picture of this (turned out blurry). Also, ignore the red eyes, the store I was working in had terrible ventilation and was really dusty (a huge terror for my allergies. I was sneezing all day long). For this one, I wanted a bit of winter (it was in the 80s all that week and I was desperate for some chill). I put a dark, blackish purple all over my lid and then smudged in some light lavender in the crease. I lined the bottom lid with lavender, too. I love purple, there is something magical about the colour, and using a dark purple really brought that wintery feeling to me.

That's it for make up posts for now! There will be another Curiosities post coming up, as well as a big post about my next hair colour journey (it's a big change, I hope it turns out well).

Make Up Post: Inspired by Steam

Hello everyone! This summer, I've been working full time at a small department store and as a result, I've had loads of fun with my make up to keep my spirits up (standing on your feet for 8 hours straight is hard work). I'm only going to post two looks here, but as I am leaving my job this Friday (yay) expect a few more looks in the near future.

Anyway, this summer, I've rekindled my love of steampunk and these two looks are inspired by the subculture. To all of those silly people who say that black and brown don't go together, I say that they should rethink that arguement. In my opinion, they go together quite nicely.

Here, I'm using Esteé Lauder gel eyeshadow in Bronze (which I sometimes use as an eyeliner). The lipstick is also Esteé (in Burnished Bronze). The lipstick does look more bronze-y than in this picture. Ah, the perks (or drawbacks from my wallet's point of view) of working right next to the cosmetics counters.

I'm a big fan of the "haunted" look, so that's what I went for here. I'm using some Mary Kay eyeshadow my friend gave to me (she doesn't wear make up much). For my lips, I washed them out with foundation and then dabbed a bit of Burnished Bronze in the centre.

Stay tuned for more make up posts and at least one outfit post in the next few days!

Make Up Post: 4th of July and Double Winged Eye

So, here's just a quick post about my red, white and blue make up for the 4th and some make up I had for work/going to dinner with family that I thought was really good/fun. Nothing special for now, but I will be posting some writing in the next few days.

I realise now that this is also the French flag... whoops.

The little dots were at first a mistake, but instead of risking messing up the rest I incorporated it.

I hope all of my American readers had a good 4th.

Makeup Post: Last Day of Finals

I'm almost done with school! Well, not forever, but still. I just have one final to go and then I fly home. Very excited. I'm looking forward to relaxing for a few days and then working full time (not looking forward to that as much). Still, summer will be nice and hopefully I will succeed in writing everyday (or most days).

I really like my makeup today. I think it sort of gives me the big-eyed dolly look.

Well, that's all for now, off to take a not so fun test.

Movie Review: Evil Dead (2013)

This weekend I went with my buddy to see the new Evil Dead movie. While I don't pretend to be a movie critic or a movie buff even, I do have some comments about this movie. This post contains some minor spoilers (mostly of details of the movies and less of actual plot points) so beware!

(I decided to celebrate with a zombie themed outfit. It was super fun to wear, though unfortunately it was over 80 degrees outside...)

     

First off, I am a big fan of the original trilogy (and of Bruce Campbell). The reason I love the originals so much is that not only are they horror movies, but also satire (at least in my opinion). There are many moments of humour, particularly poking fun of the movies themselves and of horror movies in general. The memorable decomposition scene in the first Evil Dead that seems to last five minutes is a great example, as well as that all of the movies (including the newest) contain a lot of blood/gore. A lot. In addition, I also think that the original movies, Evil Dead 2 in particular, show the character arc of Ash very well. At first, he's scared out of his mind about what's happening and then as the movie progresses, he gets so fed up he decides to fuck everything and kill the evil.

"Give me some sugar, baby"
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Now, I know that everyone is calling the new movie a remake of the original Evil Dead, but I don't feel that it is. I like to think of Evil Dead (2013) as a reimagination of the original movie. To begin with, they changed so many details of the cast and situation that I can't consider it a remake. I'm not saying I did not like the changes, I feel they worked just as well as the original details of the trilogy, but just that I can't comfortably call it a remake because of those changes.

There are many things about the new movie that I liked and many that I did not like. Let's start with what I liked:

First, I liked all the references to the original movies that were included. They were subtle but detectable to fans of the original trilogy, so I enjoyed those greatly. The music also reflected the music of the originals, and on its own it was fabulous and intense. Also, I liked some of the acting. Jane Levy did an excellent job of acting all crazy and evil and she did freak me out many times. The prosthetics and makeup were great and gorey. That leads me to the gore: it was just the right amount of grossness. I, personally, can't stomach slasher films but do like some gore. I feel that this movie came right up to the brim of my gore tolerance and I loved it. It was realistic and disgusting and uncomfortable (I mean, seeing huge nails penetrating out of someone's face or watching someone pull a hypodermic needle out from beneath their eye is pretty gross). Another thing: the build up on tension in most scenes was done very well. (SPOILER HERE!!!) In one scene in particular, I was dreading the moment when a character pulled back the shower curtain to reveal another character mutilating her face because the entire time you know what she is doing and can hear it too. Also, I'm freaked out by the idea of someone pealing off their skin.

There are some things I didn't like too. For one, they cut to a black screen and silence a bit too much for my tastes. This is a popular technique in horror movies and in some situations it works very well. In fact, in this movie there were instances where it worked incredibly well (when Mia runs her car into the water and hits her head on the car wheel for instance). When there is a natural transition, black screen can work. But there were a couple of times when they would cut to black screen randomly or just because an intense scene just happened. Then, it didn't work very well for me. Also, earlier I said I liked some of the acting and that is true. But there was some acting I hated. Shiloh Fernandez's acting was horrifically flat and boring. He delivered almost all of his lines (many of which are packed fully of emotional context) in monotone. If there's one thing I hate in this world, it is monotone acting.

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But there are two major things about this movie that really got on my nerves (SPOILERS are in this section heavily, beware):

1. They twisted the plot too much. I had heard before hand that they had changed the main character from male to female. Obviously, the beginning of the movie makes it clear that Mia is the protagonist, so I was very surprised (having been familiar with the story of the originals) that she was the first to become one of the dead. The focus then shifted to David being the protagonist and thus would be the one to save the day and make the horrible sacrifice of killing his sister. BUT, then they pulled bullshit and had him resuscitate Mia. Now, in the second Evil Dead, Ash does become "infected" by the dead, but unlike the new movie, it is through his own strength that he resists and defeats it (plus cutting off his hand helped). But in this movie, Mia does not fight the evil off herself, she actually succumbs to it. It is only through the help of her brother that she survives. I was actually very afraid that after she came back from the dead that she would still be evil. But nope, she's perfectly fine and continues on to save the day! That felt a little forced and too plot twisty/deus ex machina to me (but that's just my opinion).

2. Mia jumped to being determined to kill the evil too suddenly. Like I mentioned before, the original trilogy (The Evil Dead 2, specifically) showed the transition to scared-shitless Ash to let's-kill-this-mother Ash gradually and you actually got to see him become fed up to the point wear her attaches a chainsaw to his arm to kill it. However, we do not get much if any transformation for Mia. She goes straight from scared for her life to ready to say a witty line and thrust a chainsaw through the thing's head. She is the heroine so she has to do something like that I guess, it just felt forced and sudden to me. I would have liked it more if she had undergone some sort of transformation. Then again, it would have been hard to show that since for the majority of the movie she's threatening to kill all of her friends and "feast of their souls". Maybe she shouldn't have been evil for so long...

Anywhosers, there's my two cents on Evil Dead (2013). Overall, I did enjoy the movie. It was gorey and scary. It was not very much like the original movies apart from the basic story line, however. Besides the apparent changes in details, the movie had none of the satirical humour the original trilogy had. This is not necessarily bad. I feel the serious tone fit this movie, just as the satirical tone fit the originals. It was just very different, hence way I assert that it is not a remake. So, I did like this movie, but I still love the original Evil Dead movies more.

For those of you who are fans of the originals like me, I'd saw this movie is worth seeing (if you haven't seen it already, I know this has been out for a month now...). Plus, if you do go see it, stay for the end credits! There is a special, special treat after the credits and you will be very happy if you see it (I think it actually my favourite part of the movie).

To wrap up once again, this movie was good! Everyone go see it and watch the original Bruce Campbell Evil Dead movies!

...Groovy...

Make Up and Hair Post: Smokey Purple and Bouffant Ponytail

Yes, this is another post filled of pictures of me. I had more to add onto the previous post, but I realised it was getting too long. So, hence, another separate post.

So, I know I am by no means talented when it comes to make up. I've been struggling quite recently to get it looking good and like I have some idea of what I'm doing. But today I had a pretty good make up day, so I decided I would share it.

I do love the black make up, but sometimes it's fun to jazz it up with some colour. I love purple because it looks so mystical and so I made it nice and smokey/smudgy. My camera doesn't capture it exactly like it is, so I'll explain how I applied it.

First, I started with a medium purple on the lip near the inner end. Then, I blended out to the outer half of the lid with a rich amethyst purple. The crease I filled with a smokey purple and then with some black. I lined the bottom of my eye with black pencil eyeliner, smudged that around and then added some more liner to actually line the eye, then brushed some of the smokey purple and the black over the liner. Put some bright lipstick on and voilà!

(Also, my hair isn't short, just tied back in a pony tail)

Now, onto the hair. I didn't actually do this today, it was a few weeks ago (hence why I'm not wearing the same make up in these sets of pictures). I really love this style and I think it's perfect for keeping your hair off your neck during the hot summer.

So, what I did was make a messy bouffant. To do this, I first flopped the hair that I wanted up in front of my face and then proceeded to backcomb the crap out of it. Then, once it was all tangle and knotted, I swept it up on my head, got it the way I wanted, then pinned it with bobby pins and hairsprayed it. Then, I gathered the rest of my hair into a ponytail near the bottom of the bouffant so that it looked like one thing. Fixed my bangs and tada!

I love this style for many reasons. One, it's super easy. Two, it keeps my hair off my neck, which I love in the summer. Three, backcombing is awesome so, thus, this style is awesome. Four, it's cute, what other reason do you need?

That's it for these outfit/makeup/hair posts. At least for now. I promise a far more intellectually interesting post is on the way (I might even get to posting it this weekend, who knows?)

Stay creepy and cool, everyone :)

Outfit and Make up Post: Waist Cincher and Gold Swirls

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been swamped with school work lately but I think it's starting to lighten up.

Here's what I wore Monday. I got my waist cincher belt fro eBay over the weekend and I love it.

Shirt: Ross
Skirt: Crossroads
Tights: Nordstrom
Waist Cincher Belt: eBay

I also wore this cute jacket I found at Kohl's. It was originally this pale olivey green, but I wasn't too fond of that so I dyed it black. It kind of turned out grey but I still like it. It reminds me of a toy soldier.

I had some fun with my make up too. I went for a gold theme and got creative with the eyeliner. It took forever to do but I think it turned out pretty well.

Hopefully I'll have some more time to post this week. I was thinking about posting about some of the things I enjoy (music, TV/movies, books, games, etc.). It'll add some variety and maybe I'll even help people find new interests. I always enjoy finding new things to love.

Make Up Post: Black and White

I was lazy today and decided to forgo eye liner and just stick to shadow. I got new stripy black and white tights from Sock Dreams yesterday and I guess I was inspired.

As you can tell, I'm not the best at make up. Actually, I'm sort of terrible but I try. Eye liner is difficult for me but I think I'm pretty good at eye shadow. I tend to make the colours vibrant and I love contrast.