updated repost from my old blog

The British Book-Store Chain Books Etc has gone bust, which is sad, but in a way i'm pleased because there is a small second-hand bookshop near me which is still going strong, and that makes me happy.
Anyway i picked up some things from the local Books Etc's closing down sale:



So i got the best of Jackie, a book of prints from the Day of the dead (i love Day of the Dead stuff, my dad's been to mexico on the day and it sounds amazing, I am very envious) and a book that is basically 'the big book of serial killers'.
Yes i am one of those people who really likes reading/watching/learning about serial killers. But then i like reading/watching/learning about most things.

I'm watching Jeepers Creepers 2, which is one of the gayest films i've seen in a long, long time. I don't mean gay in the new sense (as in a synonym for crap) i mean literally gay. It's incredibly homoerotic. The beginning 3/4 of an hour of the film basically involves a bus full of shirtless, oiled up high school boys running around a cornfield, peeing in large groups and alluding to one and others sexuality. There are only 4 female characters (in a cast of about 25) and they are basically given no character, only get tiny bits of dialogue and are so completely inconsequential i can only imagine they are there to stop the whole thing looking like a gay porn (which doesn't really work)

Aah i love trash.

My poor Guinea-pig Lettice has got a dodgy eye :( we took her to the vet and hopefully it's ust an infection, but she still might lose it. It only happened two days ago, one minute she was fine, the next her eye was red and cloudy and sad. Poor girl.

Update:
poor Lettice died a few days after i wrote this. We don't know what happened, it was really sad. Lettice was such a lovely spirited piggy and now the other two are all sad and the cage seems so much more quiet :( RIP Lettice.

Sexy Men! (repost from my old blog)

So i've seen a tag going around called something like 'men i fancy that i really shouldn't'. Well for me every man i like is like this! I fall deeply in lust, think they're the sexiest thing in the world, tell friends and then am confronted with 'WHAT?? He's HIDEOUS!! Ha ha ha ha!'
I swear (with the exception of Johnny Depp and George Cloony, who i do think are attractive but don't really 'fancy') any man who is considered conventionally attractive seems ugly to me!

So here are the men that i lust after:

David Mitchell:


He is the king of the sexy men! I actually go all flirty when he comes on the tv or radio. I just think he is perfect.

Eddie Argos:


PHWOAR!!! He's friends with Mikey so sometimes i see im in the flesh and he's just gorgeous. I think his little paunch and huge eyebrows are a real turn on.

Charlie Brooker:


I've actually gone off him a bit recently because he's just getting a bit predictable. I do still think he's got a great face. Like a sexy toad.

Bill Nighy:


Ok, less weird of a crush i think, but still he's so so much older than me it seems a bit weird. Also he looks ever so slightly like my Dad which makes me worry about myself :P

Jarvis Cocker:


My second ever crush (first one was Damon Albarn, ick), i used to watch the Common People video and be a very happy 8 year old. And he's still just gorgeous. I like his weird little beard and straggly hair and particularly his bean-pole body.

Carl Hill:


The only person on the list who isn't a celebrity of some sort. He is my frenger (not quite friend and not quite stranger) and the only man i have ever asked out (he said yes but then it never happened because he is even more flaky and frustrating than Mikey). When i told my friends of my crush on him i was very much laughed at. I'm not enamoured with him anymore thank god, but i still think he's good looking.

So anyone else share my passion for the less conventionally beautiful of men? Or do you all agree with my friends and family that i am just a huge weirdo :P

Mikey (repost from my other blog)

A while back i went to see my friend Mikey play a gig at a pop-up gallery in Putney.

This is Mikey:



(i helped make the video :P i made the little forest set he's in and on the day of filming i had to keep running back and forth between two rooms putting the track on for him to lip-synch to. My arm can be seen for about a second XD don't ask me what's going on with the weird psychadelic editing bits)



He is the most pretentious person i've ever met, flaky and frustrating beyond measure, arty to the point of nonsense and i love him.

To me there are few things better than watching a 42 year old man doing scissor kicks in a black glittery (possibly womans) catsuit singing to a backing track infront of a baffled crowd.

He is funny, smart, kind and really wonderful to have a conversation with. I wish i could spend more time with him, he's a great person to have as a friend/aquaintance.

It was Guy Fawkes night and my journey there was lovely as i could see fireworks bursting in the sky through the tube window.

I got to the gallery and was insantly completed intimdated by the many many cool, arty looking people milling around. I seemed to be the only person who came on their own and weren't actually connected to the gallery somehow. It was quite horrible. Some of the art up was very nice (someone had made a bunch of 2-D birds from pipe cleaners that were absolutely beautiful) but there was also a lot of stuff of the sort that makes people say 'its crap this modern art stuff, a child could do it!'.

Anyway Mikey played and that was good, except people kept talking over him and i could see his face crumpling with impotent rage. Also people kept pushing in front of me or just standing far too close and i began to feel panicy.
I'm not short by any means (im 5 foot 8) but for some reason whenever i am a crowd everyone seems to tower above me and i begin to feel very boxed in and feel invisible and yet at the same time i think everyone is looking at me in disdain.

After he finished playing i had planned to just leave without saying goodbye, because i feel like i am usually just bothering him. Unfortunately my plan went horribly wrong when i turned towards the door to discover a lot of the arty students (or indeed art students) were sitting on the floor right in front of the door.
I began to feel trapped and panicked horribly. For about 20 minutes i stood staring at a painting desperately trying to fend off tears and work out what i could do. You see in my head i was now trapped with no escape. I couldn't just walk past them. I feared them staring at me if i tried to go around them, and then there was the possibility that i could tread on someone or something important. I didn't know them so i couldn't ask them to move or even say 'excuse me'.

Eventually i began to hyperventilate and then had to go and find Mikey and get him to help me get out. How incredibly pathetic, i need someone's help to leave a room now! Anyway he was incredibly sweet about it and led me out and didn't make fun or anything. Afterwards he sent me some messages checking that i was ok and apologising that he couldn't do more to help me. While the experience was horrible it's really reaffirmed my friendship with him and in a way made me less ashamed to have this phobia. I can't help it and just need to be able to ask for help sometimes. And it was also nice because i was starting to think he didn't like me anymore.

Guildford Exhibition (re post from my other blog)

A few months ago i had a near disastrous exhibition at the Presence Art Space in Guildford. Firstly due to my social phobia and the slight flakiness of Suzie (the owner of the space) it took me about 2 months to actually sort ot when i would be exhibiting. Then less than a week after i had put my work up i recieved word from Suzie that the space was having to close down (due to something to do wth council taxes). It was really a shame because Suzie had paid the rent for the space, which was a disused shop, for a year, and it was a non-profit cultural busness she was running, but the council wanted to charge her the taxes for a shop just because that is what the building was made for.
Anyway it was still worth it because Suzi was a wonderful person who said she'd like to do something with me in the future, and some Guildford Council people saw my work, so hopefully something good will come out of it.
Anyway heres some pictures.










It's a real shame that the space is a bit derelict looking because the amount of space i had was amazing!

TKB Trading Haul

About 2 months ago my girlfriend and i made a huge order from TKB Trading. When it arrived we were so excited, the stuff is amazing!










Ok so we got:
1 pound of lipstick base.
17 1/2 fl. oz bottles of liquid lip colourants
40 10 gram jars
5 samples of glitter (these arrived in a brilliant set of stacker jars, which we were not billed for!)
22 samples of mica
3 samples of pigments
and 1 planetary sampler, which contains 7 samples of colour-shifting mica.

A TKB Sample is huge. For $1.50 you get over a full tablespoon of mica or pigment. There are a few exceptions to this though, for instance in the planetary micas we got the sample is a full teaspoon because these colours cost more to produce. But

And all of this, including shipping to the UK came to less than $150, which is about £90. So seeing as we were sharing we paid less than £45 each. To me this is AMAZING value. We have been playing with the lipstick base (will post some pictures tomorrow, but at the moment we are having some problems getting them to be opaque) and using the jars to make our lipstcks in, at a guess i think the 1 pound of lipstick base we bought could fill about 50 of the 10 gram jars!
The mica powders are beautiful and can be used as eyeshadow on their own or mixed with a base (which is going on my next order) to make them last better and adhere more. The glitter is stunning and will be a brilliant in lipsticks and eyeshadows and everything!

I LOVE TKB

Mizz Worthy/Illamasqua contest entry - chance

So here is my fourth and final look for the contest.
This one is basically a straight beauty look, the colours are unusual but otherwise the idea is the important thing, not the finished look.
Basically i was thinking outside the box by not thinking about what i was going to do.
Sorry, this probably sounds really confusing, it's hard to explain.

I decided to do my makeup in a simple style i often use, but with a difference. I gathered up all of my Kryolan Aquacolours:


then i popped them in a bag:



Then i would close my eyes and pick a colour from the bag. Whatever i picked i would have to use for the next part of my makeup (i pulled the colours out and applied in the order i usually do my makeup: eyeshadow, eye highlight colour, eyeliner, eyebrows, blusher and finally lipstick). So it was basically a straight, normal beauty look, but without any thought on my part as to the colours, it was left entirely up to chance.

And this is how i ended up:


So again this makeup isn't so much about the finished look, it's about the concept and idea behind it.

Oh and by the way, kryolan aqua colours are great for face paint or eyeshadows but don't use them on your lips, it's perfectly safe but feels absolutely horrible!

Mizz Worthy/Illamasqua contest entry 3 - Polka dotty

I decided to take a break from painting my face black by painting it pink! :P

This look was inspired by one of my favourite artists, Yayoi Kusama, who has seen hallucinations of patterns (usually polka dots) over everything for years and brings these patterns into her work.

Magical huh?

I was also interested after my face-painting yesterday to do a look that focused on the parts of the face we usually ignore. So i coloured my face, but left the bits i would usually cover (lips, eyes, cheeks) plain. Also i wanted the clean-skin bits to be circular like the little polka dots.



So what i did was just cover my face in little stickers, paint over the top with a neon pink kryolan aquacolour, then peeled them off and washed the bits of my face i wanted to be clean. And that was that. Again the execution is not great, some of the stickers slipped off my face so there are some patches where there are less spots then the rest of the face.

Oh and i wanted to say, while the look i created is completely my own design, i certainly am not the first person to paint polka dots on themselves, in fac Yayoi herself has covered her entire body in spots before.

Review - Sleek Pout Polish

This little beauty was doing the rounds on a lot of blogs a while back. When it first came out Sleek sent out some samples to some beauty bloggers and the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. When i saw these reviews i had terrible chapped lips (which i now have again :/) and they were so sore i couldn't wear my usual heavy lipsticks. I usually hate going out without lipstick on, i feel vulnerable with a naked lip (:P) so this looked amazing to me, a balm that will heal my lips while providing colour that isn't too sheer.

And basically, all of the positive reviews are absolutely true! This stuff is fantastic!

Here's what Sleek say about it:
'Sleek MakeUP is proud to announce the newest member to its lip range; welcome the “POUT POLISH,” a tinted lip conditioner that provides a sheer gloss finish.

As well as looking good, your lips will feel good as POUT POLISH contains SP15 to protect your lips from harmful rays. Highly conditioning POUT POLISH contains shea butter, almond jojoba and avocado oil to deeply nourish your lips so you can pucker up with confidence.

As if this wasn’t enough reason to make POUT POLISH your latest handbag essential this small pot of goodness has added flavour, so if you have a sneaky lick of your lips you will be met with a subtle hint of vanilla.

Drench your lips with pout perfecting moisture in one of 4 perfect shades; Electro Peach, Pink Cadillac, Chocolate Kiss and Perfect Plum come together to give your pout an instant perk. With a delicate tint of colour that gives a subtle sheen to lips, rest assured that whilst your lips are alluring to the eye, they’re nourishing.
Every make-up bag should contain a POUT POLISH have you got yours?

Available in Superdrug from September 2nd. Limited Offer: Any 2 for £6.99, RRP £3.91'



(please ignore my messy room again!)

This stuff is great. For under £4 you get a nice big pot of the creamiest, smoothest balm with amazing colour and shine. It immediately makes my lips feel better, and honestly i don't know how, but it really did seem to 'heal' my lips after just a few applications. The chapped-ness seemed to have melted away and my lips were really soft again.

I really like the packaging too, the pot is flat and wide so dipping your fingers into it is easy as pie, and i think the matte lid with it's name and motif looks really classy and quite high-end looking.

The colour i have is Pink cadillac which is a great, vibrant bubblegum pink. It is sheer, but buildable so you can actually get a nice pigmented lip, in fact if you build this up it can look stronger than a lot of lip glosses i've tried in the past. The colour is just really lovely.



So i really love this, as you can tell, but this product does have a problem which is the 'vanilla' scent that sleek describes is s. I cannot stand it. To me it isn't recognisably vanilla. It's sweet but horribly synthetic and it tastes slightly soapish. I really hate it. Taste and scent are a personal thing, so i'm sure there are people who would have no problem with it (in fact i've read reviews where people either like it, or are neutral to it, but never seen anyone else who hates it like i do), to me it is really quite foul. Luckilly though after a few minutes the taste/smell isn't really noticeable so once i get over my initial disgust i can cope with it, and all in all it's quite a small flaw in an otherwise faultless product.

My superdrug hasn't had these in stock for ages now. When i got mine they only had pink cadillac and chocolate kiss in stock, but testers of the others. Electro peach was beautiful, a very bright orangey peach and i'm hoping to get it as soon as it comes back into the store! I did't like the other two, but they were all very nicely pigmented.

So all in all this stuff is highly recommended, but give the pot a sniff (and maybe give your swatch a tiny lick) when you test the colours!

Secret Santa!

Today i recieved my present from Sabrina at http://a-littleobsessed.blogspot.com 's Secret Santa :D Yay!

I was in the bath when the postman knocked. I had to run down in my towel to get my parcel, the poor postman was horrified :P Then i rushed back into the bath, but was so excited to have recieved this mysterious package i opened it then! XD

Here's the lovely box it arrived in and the card that came with it:

(behold as i try and cover my filthy carpet with paper and fail!)

and here's what was inside the box:


(there were more Lindors but they may have been eaten in the bath... )

I love how everything colour-coordinates! The nail varnish is absolutely stunning and i can't wait to try it out, and i'm looking forward to making a nice eye look with the pencil. And Lindors are one of my absolute favourite chocolates :D

Anyway thank you so much Ellie! If you read this give us a comment so i can read your blog :)

I really hope the girl i am acting as santa for has got her present and likes it!

Mizz Worthy/ Illamasqua contest entry - "reverse Rococo"

My second entry for Mizz Worthy's amazing 'think outside the box' contest.

So i fancied making another look straight after i'd finished my 'inside the box' look, so was trying to think of a way to incoporate my face partly painted black (because that face paint i used takes a hell of a lot of scrubbing to get off).
I suddenly got an idea that i personally think is really cool.

I adore the fashions of men and women from the 1700s and in the past i've dressed up as a rococo woman. The makeup they wore was incredibly dramatic, with faces painted stark white, red cheeks and lips and black eyebrows and beauty marks drawn on, here's an example from the net:



so i thought what i would do was create a rococo look but with the colours inverted. Here is the picture above inverted:



So here's what i came up with:




Once again, the execution is not perfect, but i think while the look is rather freakish it's also very interesting and cool . I used black face paint all over my face, layering it several times to make it as opaque as possible, then used a shimmery blue/green eyeshadow (it's a mac i've depotted and lost the name of :/) on my cheeks and lips, white mascara on my lashes, a tiny bit of pink eyeshadow (it's not in the example i found but rococo women sometimes used blue eyeshadow) and then drew on my eyebrows and beauty marks with white liquid eyeliner.

And now, the moment of truth! If i invert the photos of myself it looks like:




:D Pretty cool huh? Again, not perfect but similar to the original rococo inspiration! I'm pleased with the job i did and think it was in the spirit of thinking outside the box. It was so fun to paint up my face in such a bizarre, unusual way.

I'm hoping to squeeze a couple of looks in tomorrow before the contest ends and they won't involve me painting my face solid black! :P