making faces :: indispensables [the basics]

cosmetics and vanity products in general are about excess and luxury, but they can become so ingrained in your life that it's hard to picture going without them. i know how to cut back in lean times, but there are a few things that i would turn to crime before giving up. here are a few, from the category of beauty basics- everyday things i use, not including colour... i think i could deal with each colour individually ::

moroccan oil :: my mother actually turned me onto this trendy hair treatment after her hairdresser used it on her. for me, it was love at first try. i would never have thought to put oil in my hair on my own [don't you wash hair to get the oil and dirt out?], but this makes my dead follicles feel amazing. the only down side is that i find it difficult to stop touching my own hair, which gets to look a little creepy after a while. [tends to be good for getting people to leave you alone on the bus, though.]
there are a lot of argan oil [which is what moroccan oil actually is] treatments on the market and it's become very popular to bash the original in favour of its imitators. nonetheless, i can be surprisingly brand loyal when i try and i'm so happy with how soft and smooth this makes my hair feel that i get a bit nervous thinking of how sad i'd be if i got a bottle of another brand and found it inferior. i'd have to work through that whole bottle before i could go back to having a happy head again. scary stuff.

lush "cynthia sylvia stout" shampoo :: it's made with stout. do you require further explanation? well, fine then. it literally gets my hair so clean it squeaks when i'm rinsing it. squeaks. my hair runs a bit dry and i find that "cynthia" leaves it healthy enough that i can actually skip conditioner if i want to [although i do put the moroccan oil on as a leave-in]. i'm consistently amazed at the healthy shine it imparts, particularly since my hair is prone to being a little dull.

shu uemura cleansing oil :: aside from my hair, about the least likely place for me to apply oil would have been my face, up until an enterprising sales associate got me to try a small-size version of one of their famous cleansing oils. i'm sold.

i absolutely love the rosemary-y scent and the fact that it works as both an effective makeup remover and cleanser, allowing me to be lazy by accomplishing everything in one step. i'm very into stuff that lets me be lazy. it removes makeup, even mascara, pretty easily and rinses away with water. it doesn't irritate my skin [which is prone to redness and patchiness if i have to rub it too hard] and, contrary to what i might have thought, it doesn't leave my skin feeling oily at all, just soft. so i can pat my cheeks when i get bored running my hands through my hair.

the bottles are not cheap [there are two standard sizes and different formulas depending on skin type], but my travel size bottle lasted me almost two months using it every single day, so you're not going to have to make the investment that often. amortised over its life span, it's actually not a bad deal at all. and remember, it's filling two roles.

body shop body butter :: pick your flavour. personally, i'm a big fan of the nut-related ones- brazil nut, coconut, almond [although i think that might have been discontinued]- but if you're not a nut nut, there are still plenty to choose from. i'm glad to see that they've finally introduced "economy size" versions for those of us who use it every day, which i do because it is literally the only thing i've found that i can apply to my freshly shaved legs that doesn't make me feel like i've doused myself with hot sauce.


made to order vegan cosmetics "revamp" :: i should have a section of this blog entitled "cool sh*t my friends do", because one of the reasons i have things to do and write about is that i generally surround myself with people who are more interesting and talented than i am. a good example is "made to order vegan cosmetics", the new brainchild of a fellow skincare natural product lover who decided that, since a lot of her favourite products were always getting discontinued, that she'd strike out and make her own.

"revamp" is a moisturiser and after-sun treatment which is a great idea in the summer, when every night basically demands after sun treatment. there's aloe and witch hazel, which help soothe and smooth skin, but what makes this a really perfect summer moisturiser for me is that it's not heavy. the consistency is like butter and, like butter, it becomes quite viscous on application. however, it absorbs within a couple of minutes and my skin feels perfect- not like i'm slathered in heavy cream. it's become the only night cream i use over the last month.

there are a whole range of products available, exclusively [for the moment] through their facebook page [linked above] and new ones are being added regularly.

so what do you always need to have around the house? what products would you secretly harvest your neighbours' organs to buy?

making faces :: product review [mac "fashion flower" collection]

first off, my apologies for not getting this up earlier. the collection has already been in stores for almost a week and i'd meant to recap my thoughts last friday, but things got a little crazy, the weather got nice for a couple of days [encouraging me to do things outside]... well, time gets away from you. at any rate, here are my thoughts on mac's latest colour collection.

"fashion flower" is what i would call the last of the spring collections. summer shades, replete with bronzers and glosses are popping up everywhere and the soft pastel tones of spring are making their quiet exit. since mac releases so many collections, they get one last group of colours out before they too, start stocking the shelves for summer [actually, in just a few weeks]. "fashion flower", though, is pure springtime, with soft, delicate hues and a palette that runs slightly, but not terribly warm. by comparison with the recently launched "quite cute", the colours here are a little more neutral, less girly. the two collections actually balance each other fairly well, to the point where i think that mac could have released them together as warmer/ cooler variations on a spring theme. together, i suspect that the collections would have had more of an effect than either on their own.

i don't think that this is a particularly strong collection on its own. while there are relatively few complete misses, there are a lot of re-promotions of shades we've seen recently and some repackaging of permanent or pro shades as well. even the new shades are usually reminiscent of something else we've seen recently. although the products are nice enough, i think that it lacks any real "must-have" items [there are a couple that are guaranteed to sell out, though].

SEE WHAT PRODUCTS STAND OUT AND SEE LOOKS USING THEM



there are six shadows included with the collection ::


fresh daisy :: a frosty, slightly warm off-white
aqua :: a subdued aqua matte
free to be :: a slightly pink-cast coral matte
lucky green :: a rich, shimmery warm medium green
groundcover :: a warm medium grey matte
bows & curtseys :: a dark forest green with subtle shimmer

of those shades, aqua and free to be are permanent at pro stores and lucky green is in all stores. for this collection, all the powder products are embossed with a flower pattern, which looks adorable but which disappears with use. moreover, i found with the matte shades that applying the pattern presses the colours more than they should be, making them difficult to work with. this is especially true of groundcover, the only new matte shade [although it looks like an anemic cousin to the permanent shade copperplate], which i could barely get to show up on my skin when i swatched it. all three matte shades- aqua, free to be and particularly groundcover- are misses for me. aqua is pretty and is worth getting if you like such shades, but skip this version if you can and get the regular, unembossed version. free to be has been promoted a few times now and, while it's a nice enough coral, there are a lot of shades out there like it. even mac has the pro shade coral [slightly more orange] and sushi flower [more pink]. and if you do feel the burning need to own it, you can always get it at a pro store. [alternately, you can their customer service line and order pro items that way.]

lucky green

of the other shades, lucky green is by far the best. it's a sumptuous, rich lime with a bit of a yellow cast. it applies like a dream [even with the embossed pattern], blends perfectly and goes with a wide variety of other colours. [you can see a look that i did mixing it with purples here.] it's a colour i think everyone can use, but it's available at all mac locations at all times, so there's no great rush to get it here.

fresh daisy is very frosty, which may be off-putting for some. it's the sort of off-white shade that you see a lot, since virtually every shadow palette or collection has highlighting colours. this one reminded me of a frosted version of the limited edition shade unbasic white, which i very much liked, but again, there are a lot of colours that are similar. fresh daisy is a sort of parchment shade, a slightly yellow-toned off-white with a lot of analogues available in mac's regular line. shroom, dazzlelight, nylon and phloof are all variations on the same theme. that said, if you're in the market for a nice highlight shade and don't mind a frosty look, this is a pretty good one.

the final shadow, bows & curtseys [which i keep typing as "bows & curses", a much catchier name, i think] is a dark forest green shade that was released originally in one of mac's holiday palettes last year. strangely, mac don't really have something this shade as part of their regular line, although it's not the most original colour. there is a nice, understated green shimmer to this shade which keeps it from just looking black on the eyes. it's pretty, but in that range, nars' night porter is a better investment. the colour is richer, the green shimmer is more apparent and the texture is much nicer. if you're cost-conscious, the mac shade is, however, the lower-cost option.

moving on to the lips, there are four lipsticks and three lip gelees in "fashion flower". the lipsticks are::

ever hip, summer shower

mlle :: a very light cool pink
summer shower :: a sheer, shimmery white-teal shade
growing trend :: a light, warm brown-taupe
ever hip :: a semi-sheer pinky coral

top :: ever hip, bottom :: summer shower

of these, mlle is a re-promotion of an older shade, but since it originally came out in 2003, chances are it will seem new to a lot of mac fans. it's a whitish pink and runs quite cool and mac seems to like to torture its buyers with this sort of shade. like the permanent colours snob and saint germain, or the limited edition viva glam gaga 1, this is a shade that only a small number of people can pull off. the cool undertones will make a lot of people look yellow in comparison and the slightly greyish cast will make others look a little ill. this lipstick is a glaze finish, which makes it a little easier to wear and if you can get away with such colours then this warrants a look, but in the end, it seems like there are a lot of these shades, considering that the potential audience is so limited.

summer shower

i had super-high hopes for summer shower, hoping that it would show more teal than it does. it's actually quite sheer, even for a glaze finish lipstick, but it can be built up to show its lovely shimmer a little better. because of the mix of white and aqua, the shade can show up as a very cool lavender-pink in some light, whereas in others, you can see the blue tones more. i find it helps to augment the colour with a gloss or to layer it over other shades for a cooling effect. it's not quite what i expected and, although in some light it looks similar to the permanent shade pervette, it is pretty distinctive.

growing trend is the sort of earthy, mushroom-y tone that seems to be gaining popularity. it's a very nice shade, but it's almost indistinguishable from the recently released viva glam gaga 2. given that all of the money from viva glam sales goes to mac's aids fund, i'd say get that one instead [it's available until next year anyway].

ever hip

ever hip is a pinky coral that was originally released as part of the liberty of london collection last spring. this will undoubtedly be the fastest selling item of the collection, since these sort of soft corals seem to suit almost everyone. normally, that excludes me. light coral shades almost always seem to pull out the yellow tones in my skin [and my teeth!] and make me look sick. this one, however, really does work. it's pink enough that it shows as a lovely, slightly rosy peach. if it works on me, it's pretty much guaranteed to work on everyone else.

there are also three lip gelees in the collection, mac's ultra-glossy, very slick gloss in a tube. these tend to be light on colour and, as of recent launches, heavy on shimmer, which these are. all three shades are unique to the launch and they are ::

now in season :: a sparkly soft yellow-gold
fashion flower :: a very light sparkly pink
budding beauty :: a soft coral with a more toned-down sparkle

of these, the first two are similar to other products that we've seen from mac recently and if you bought gelees from the lillyland, venomous villains or cham-pale collections, i think you could easily skip the first two [unless you're really into those shades, in which case, these will make you happy]. now in season looks great in a heavy swatch, because you can really see the dark gold tones, but once applied to the lips, all the colour seems to disappear and it becomes pure shimmer.

there seems to be a lot of interest in budding beauty, which is less sparkly than the others and shows its base colour- a very soft orange-y coral- a but more. it's extremely sheer on the lips [as most gelees are], but i think a lot of people will like it as a subtle, moisturising spring colour. personally, it leaves me cold, but i'm a girl who likes her colours.

finally, there are two beauty powders, which also have the embossed flower design. beauty powders can be used as either blushes or highlighters, depending on your skin tone and the specific shade. they're a very finely milled product, which means they can be applied very subtly or built up for more effect. the texture is uniformly gorgeous and i think both of these shades are lovely, although far better suited to pale, fairly cool-toned complexions. the shades are ::

light sunshine :: an almost white pink with golden shimmer
alpha girl :: a rosy coral

alpha girl

alpha girl was originally available as part of the heatherette collection in 2009 and it's another shade i'd expect to sell out very quickly. it looks bright in the pan, but applies very softly, which i think will endear it to a lot of people. in the pan, you can see a lot of orange tones, but on the skin, it appears more like a warm pink, leaning slightly coral. on me, it's a blush, but on slightly darker tones, i think it would be more of a highlight colour. it has a bit of a sheen when applied.

alpha girl

light sunshine is a highlight shade, ivory with just a hint of warm pink and a noticeable light gold sheen. it's very similar, although a touch warmer, than play it proper and somewhat similar to miss behave blush from the "quite cute" collection, both of which which were released earlier this year. although it's really only appropriate for very pale skin, i think it would give a gorgeous, spring-like glow to the complexion. it's certainly not unique among highlight shades, but it's definitely a good one to have if you're looking.

as a collection, i found that this one was very safe. the colour palette is one with broad appeal, which is nice, but it felt like mac could have stuck their neck out a bit more and included something more unique, more daring. in fact, when they do so, those shades almost immediately become cult favourites and, in the absence of that kind of shade, this flower seems to be a bit faded.

"fashion flower" is available at all mac stores and counters and on line at www.maccosmetics.com

to show you some of the products in action, here are a couple of looks i did with them.

"summer shower"
i really wanted to pull the cool blue tones in the lipstick, so i layered it with ethereal, a light aqua-blue gloss that was released earlier this year. if you're in the market for a nice sky blue/ aqua shade and don't mind paying a bit more than mac prices, i'd highly recommend the shu uemura colour that i used here. it's a remarkable light blue with a gold sheen that gives it depth and dimension. there's nothing else that really compares.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
mac prolongwear concealer nw20
mac prep & prime finishing powder

eyes ::
shu uemura blue
mac lucky green e/s
nars night porter e/s
mac dazzlelight e/s
mac blacktrack fluidline eye liner
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
mac alpha girl beauty powder

lips ::
mac summer shower l/s
mac ethereal l/g


"ever hip"
there's something about the combination of peaches and greens both on the face and in a salad that just says "spring" to me. in this case, i used a shade from inglot to double for free to be and it works fine. one does not need huge collections of matte corals, in my opinion.

face ::

nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
mac prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes ::
inglot 352 e/s
inglot 418 e/s
mac hot hot hot e/s
mac lucky green e/s
ysl slate green e/s
mac blacktrack fluidline eye liner
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
mac alpha girl beauty powder

lips ::
mac ever hip l/s









thanks for reading and remember to check out the ongoing lipstick saga 30 days of lips... see me exercise my lipstick collection!

making faces :: spring lips for vampy ladies

the wrong of spring

every year it happens. you've had months to indulge your love of deep, dark, come-hither lips and then
suddenly, the mercury starts to rise. sure, you can still get away with those vampy looks at night- that's always when they're most appropriate- but during the gradually extending daylight hours, those blood red or eggplant purple lips look less elegant and more emo kid. all around you, people are doffing heavy coats and black leggings in favour of featherweight fabrics and pastels. but if pink and peach make you shrink and screech, what are you supposed to do?

no! no no no no no. n-o

well, i've long since made my peace with the girlie spectrum of tones, but i still feel more like me wearing a colour that's quirkier. luckily, the world of cosmetics is no longer trying to force us into a single spring mold. there are lots of colours available that are perfectly appropriate for a balmy spring day without making you feel like you sold you dark, misunderstood soul.

in choosing a few recommendations for the rest of us, i limited myself to colours that form part of the permanent range of colours each company has available. there's no point offering help if i'm just pointing you towards things that you have to buy from scalpers on evil-bay. that said, trolling on line can be lucrative and not everyone is selling deleted items for an arm and a leg, so it's always worth keeping an eye out.

HELP IS AVAILABLE! SEE OPTIONS PLUS A SPRING LOOK



urban decay :: oil slick :: hey, haven't we seen this one recently? yes, it was getting oil slick (reviewed in detail in my last post) that got me to thinking about this subject, but i did want to underline it's post-vernal equinox appropriateness. it's black, but it's sheer enough and has that dewy sparkle that gives the impression of being ready for sunnier weather. by the time they've figured out you're wearing a vampy lip colour, you'll already have bent them to your will... or whatever you were intending on doing. [$22cad, exclusively at sephora locations or on line at sephora.com]

mac cosmetics :: date night :: this is actually a gloss, part of mac's "dazzleglass" range of products. these are very sheer, to be sure and feature a ton (not literally) of sparkle and shimmer. most are quite

date night

pastel and therefore useless to someone looking for something darker, with the exception of this one colour. while it's far from being intense, the gloss has a cool purple base that does lend a darker cast to the lips and has a lot of blue and purple shimmer (don't worry, it's not gritty), that make your pout subtly cooler. of the selections i've made, it's probably the one that's furthest from those ultra-opaque matte tones, but it does make for a hint of something a little mischievous. the formula on these glosses is quite slippery, so it requires reasonably frequent touch-ups if you want to keep it looknig fresh (and keep the pigment at its most intense). like all glosses, they are quite moisturising. i've noted in my own collection and read reports from others, that these glosses are subject to "evaporation", meaning that once you open them, they have a tendency to deplete faster than you use them. given the price, that's more than a little annoying, so keep the cap on tight and feel free to use them often over the course of the warmer months. it's not like you're going to want a gloss come september anyway. [$22cad, available exclusively at mac stores and counters and on line at maccosmetics.com]

good to be bad

mac cosmetics :: good to be bad :: i have no idea why, but it seems like someone discovered a burning need in the hearts of cosmetics consumers sometime last year: women everywhere were tired of having to choose between the pigmentation of a lipstick and the soft, moist feel of a gloss. and so, this spring, every company in the world seems to have responded with their own version of a hybrid product. chanel launched their rouge coco shine collection, guerlain's rouge automatique is hot off the presses and dior, not to be outdone by anyone, has just revamped their entire dior addict line with an overwhelming 50+ shades as a gel-based hybrid product. the thing is, the huge majority of those products (editor's note- i haven't seen guerlain's in person yet) are pastels.

as usual, it's mac to the rescue with a smaller collection of a new product called "sheen supreme", which has a nice range of colours from soft pinks to this shade, a vampy dark red that any black-clad girl would love. the colour can actually get pretty intense on this one, but it can be applied sheer as well (i'd say the image on the right represents a medium between the two).

these products are super-soft and moisturising, but i find that this also makes them prone to melting. it's not a product i'd recommend carrying in your purse if you're going to be out and about in the summer sun all day. that softness can also make them a bit messy to apply if you press too hard, so a light hand is always a good idea. the pigmentation is excellent and it actually lasts longer than most gloss-type product. [$17.50cad, available exclusively at mac stores and counters and on line at maccosmetics.com]

nars :: fast ride :: nars has a whole collection of sheer colours that are often quite pigmented and warrant a look from anyone searching for a decent pop of colour that isn't heavy. fast ride looks almost intimidating in the tube (or at least it would to people who don't normally wear dark lips), but in fact it's colour is an inviting currant red that seems to blend with the natural lip colour of the wearer. the pigmentation is good, although you're not ever going to get it close to opaque and it glides on easily.

fast ride

compared to the other products mentioned here, i found this less moisturising on the lips. it did have a bit of a tendency to settle into lines a little, although it's far from uncomfortable. it also has less of a sheen than the other products mentioned here and tends to look more like a nice stain, as if you've been drinking a little red wine, or the blood of your enemies. because it blends with one's own lip colour, i can picture this working on warm or cool skin tones, although i think on very dark lips, it wouldn't show up as well.

for a fairly sheer product, the lasting power is very good. i didn't find i needed much in the way of touch ups unless i was eating and/ or drinking. it's a lovely colour that feels very "me" without calling a lot of attention to itself. [$29cad, available at nars counters in major department stores, murale locations in canada and, for u.s. customers only, on line at narscosmetics.com, also available through nordstrom.com]

if none of these grab your fancy, here are a few suggestions from old mac collections that you might be able to find through the magic of the internet ::

overdone :: originally released in 2006 with a collection called "rockocco", it was described as a "smoky plum". it's a brownish berry tone with hints of purple in a lustre finish (look here if you're confused about what that means) with a faint shimmer. it's fairly light and sheer in texture, but it's still definitely the kind of colour you don't see every day. i almost cried when i finally had to admit that, yes, i'd used it all up.

jampacked :: this deep grape coloured gloss was released in 2008 with mac's "cult of cherry" collection, also known as the greatest cosmetics collection in history. any lady who likes deep lips should own at least a few items from this. although it was released for fall and the colour is pretty deep, i find jampacked looks sheer and juicy enough to work just fine in the spring.

boys go crazy :: released as part of the 2010 "digi pops" collection, this is a dazzleglass, like date night, but it's more like date night's cousin from the wrong side of the tracks. it has the same sparkle effect, but deeper, darker, and an overall bluer shade of purple. apparently, there are a lot of women like me, because when the collection launched, this sold out in about a week.

and, to wrap things up, here's just something that i did for a spring day that i think still sticks pretty close to the look i have regularly (insofar as i have a regular look). all products are from mac unless otherwise specified ::

face
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes
painterly paint pot as base
unbasic white e/s
silverthorn e/s
fashion e/s
shu uemura metallic olive e/s
carbon e/s 
blacktrack fluidline eye liner
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks
vintage grape blush ombre
springshine blush ombre

lips
nars fast ride l/s

friday favourites 18.03.11

it''s friday friday! time for favourites favourites! why am i saying everything like jacob two-two two-two? well let's just get down to business shall we?

here are a few things that made my smile a little brighter...

the death of the music industry :: sure, people have been predicting it for years, but now we have ark records here to pound that stake through the heart of the last music mogul and nail the coffin shut just for good measure. excuse me, i've not written their name properly: they are actually called ark music factory and a more appropriate company name has never been entered in the ledgers of business registrations. i couldn't make that up, because i know that no one would believe me. they actually call themselves a music factory.

prepare to be rocked

the premise of this business is not to find and promote hot new artists, but to cash in on the eagerness of wealthy families to keep their teenage princesses happy in any way possible. so ark takes their money, flies their little snowflakes out to los angeles (assuming they're not there already) and has a team of songwriters compose something for them to record, fire up the auto-tune and let the music fill their ears (assuming they haven't just stopped them up with cotton or glue or anything else they found lying around). and it doesn't stop there. they then make a video with them dancing with their friends, tossing their hair and generally acting in a way that would thrill any pedophile and should scare the hell out of their parents. remember when britney spears was cute? your kids can't. they don't know how far they can slide.

SEE MORE FAVOURITES PLUS THIS WEEK'S CAT PIC!



the thing is, the music from ark music factory is, as their name would suggest, mass-market generic pop cranked out by a couple of people who can quite literally look at their bank accounts to determine the net worth of their souls and the chances that any of these divas-in-their-dreams are astoundingly slim. until now.

with rachel black, the company has suddenly been rocketed to the foreground as the people behind what many are calling the worst song ever made. personally, i think that's a bit harsh. yes, the auto-tune is ridiculous, emphasising every nasal nuance to this poor girls voice, but the real downfall is in the lyrics, which are the sort of thing those kids from high school who used to wear acid washed jeans and hang out by the back of the gym smoking pot would write for their remedial poetry assignments as a joke. and her video is getting millions and millions of hits a day.

a quick perusal of the ark web site reveals that black's "friday" is in a league of its own, but the rest of the songs are a pretty ridiculously bleak picture of a star factory gone wild. truthfully, any of the others could very well be the next britney or... whoever else those girls with auto-tuned voices are, because there is such a phenomenal stream of traffic to the ark records music factory web site that it's inevitable that some of the other videos will get watched. and i'm contributing to it because i think it's friggin' hilarious.

ark records music factory is simply making obvious what many music fans have known for years: anyone can take a pretty young thing, drop her in front of a camera and write a simple, get-stuck-in-your-head-so-you-want-to-kill-yourself song, fix it up on the computer and throw it out for audience consumption. wash. rinse. repeat.

i think these guys were also responsible for the new boris album.

9 degrees celsius :: sure, in june that would be an insult, but on st. patrick's day in montreal, that's a message of hope. a sweet chocolate of hope floating in a pool of guinness.

free with purchase? please?

freebies :: one of the fun parts of shopping for beauty products (as you may have deduced i enjoy doing) is that, in addition to whatever you buy, these companies are absolutely desperate to stuff your bag with extra goodies in the hopes of hooking you as a loyal customer. i've received about eight vials of perfume to try, a mask, moisturiser and an absolutely divine lavender-scented hand cream from sisley, samples of mac pigments (which require so little to use that even the half-teaspoon samples can last a couple of months), a miniature starter kit of bare minerals foundation (unfortunately in medium tone), a surprisingly gentle eye cream from cle de peau, a rich cream and cleanser from lush, an entire chanel skincare regimen and an ingenious little card from estee lauder that opens up to reveal four sealed blister-packs of their new lipstick formula and a tiny lip brush to use them. it reminds me of what i used to refer to as the "costco brunch". go to any costco on a saturday morningand wander from table to table, sampling the free food. there's generally enough of a crowd that you can go by the best ones a couple of times without being recognised. what's better than free stuff? lots of free stuff. now i just have to persuade john fluevog to start handing out samples...

(i'm also exceptionally happy that i managed to fulfill my quest- not for free, unfortunately, for a nice, opaque white lipstick that isn't part of some marked down halloween kit. seek and ye shall find, apparently.)




the naive beauty of community television :: heck, i used to work in community television. i'm familiar with the relatively loose quality requirements, but sometimes, even those slip by the wayside. still, i have to salute the guts of people who are willing to do this kind of thing. it points to a level of un-self-consciousness that's almost a zen state. here are two favourites.

if you've made it this far, you deserve a really great cat photo, so here's a double-shot of cutness. dom took this wonderful photo of simon and hecubus this week, so all the credit goes to him.

happy friday everyone and i hope this music-dominated version of friday favourites hasn't scarred you too deeply. remember, you have to see the humour in life or else you end up sniffing glue.

making faces :: a passion for purple

purple

apparently, purple is the colour preferred by most teenage girls. that doesn't entirely surprise me, because in their teens, girls still identify with the perceived femininity of the colour, but they've advanced beyond the pure girlishness of pink (although many circle back in later years, that's another story). but aside from it's feminine aspects, purple has always been the colour of the outcast- an appealing thought to any teenager- the colour of the minority. perhaps it's that's why it's still one of my favourites today; i never grew out of that phase.

in fact, there are good reasons why purple is an "outcast" colour. for starters, it's an outcast from the colour spectrum, because there is no such thing as purple light. there is violet light, which many people would say was purple, but in fact, in terms of their wavelengths (which are what makes our mind register them as colours), they are distinct. violet is much closer to blue than true purple, which is a mix of red and blue. purple, therefore, is ephemeral. it exists only as a mix of other colours.

violet

of course, originally, people didn't understand how colours in the light spectrum worked, but purple was still a special shade. the first use of purple as a fabricated colour came from phoenicia, where a colour now known as "tyrian purple" was made from ink extracted from a type of mediterranean snail. because the dye was difficult to produce, it became the purview of royalty. later on, the emperors and senators of rome adopted this shade as a sign of their nobility and thus began a long-time association of purple with the privileged classes. even after the collapse of the roman empire, when tyrian purple lost its allure and was replaced by difficult to manufacture blue dyes, a bluer shade of purple, now termed "royal purple" became the shade of monarchs.

EXPLORE THE MYSTERIES OF PURPLE AND SEE SOME LOOKS INCORPORATING DIFFERENT SHADES...

in the new age movement, purple auras- and lavender, a lighter, bluer sibling colour- are associated with wisdom, imagination and spirituality. (that last association is deeply ingrained in western culture- the coloured academic robes in french universities assign purple to those who have studied divinity.) the union of purple and mysticism goes some way to explaining why purple has come to be perceived as feminine- these areas are generally associated with the late-twentieth century burgeoning of women's studies and female mysteries, both parts of the larger feminist movement.

purple has also for years been associated with queer sexuality. lesbians in the early-to-mid twentieth century would supposedly tattoo themselves with a purple star in order to make others discretely aware of their sexual preference. now, purple is linked to sexuality that is most difficult to define- bisexuality, genderqueer identification (particularly the shade lavender) and polyamory. from the colour of kings, purple has become the colour of the resilient minority.

of course, purple is also the colour of psychedelia. there's a reason that jimi hendrix's haze was purple and not yellow. in timothy leary's eight-circuit model of consciousness, purple is the colour of the eigth level, the highest and most mystical, the level of quantum consciousness where the mind has evolved to its highest state.

there is no colour that has such varied and provocative associations as purple and, personally, that's part of the reason i love it. it also helps that being pale, blue-eyed and cool-toned means that purples of various sorts tend to suit me better than, say, browns or bronzes. plus there's the fact that purple is flexible. there is a range to any colour, but purple seems to express a wider variety than most. it can be closer to blue or red, but it can also mix with pink to form a bright magenta of a softer colour, like those of orchids or heliotrope. it can mix with silver or taupe/ brown to give a cooler cast to either colour. it's probably the only colour i can think of where virtually all of its incarnations seem beautiful to me.

and, since lent is in full swing, it bears mentioning that purple is traditionally the colour of lent. and of crocuses, those first harbingers of spring in canada, which (hopefully) soon be fighting their way through the last of the snow to lead their way to balmier weather.

so, in honour of all the shades of purple, here are a few looks that use them. check here to see the "official" names of the shades i've used (and see if you agree with me).unless otherwise noted, all products are from mac.

"heliotrope"

heliotrope

this is a look a did a while ago in fits of ecstasy of mac's 2010 "spring colour forecast" collection. i unfortunately didn't get a good shot of the lids, but basically the entire look (with the except of one shadow) is comprised of colours from part 3 of the 4-part collection. each part was based on a specific colour- pink, coral, plum and amber. does it surprise anyone given this post that plum was my favourite? these products are mostly sold out, but you can sometimes track them down through ebay or, if you live in the u.s., at cosmetics outlet stores. a few pieces (although sadly, none of the ones used in this look) are still available on the canadian mac web site. no, i have no idea how i got that nice glowing halo effect around my head, but i wish i could get it in real life.

face:

heliotrope

mac studio fix fluid nc20
mac mineralize skinfinish natural light

eyes:
rosy outlook e/s
mink pink e/s
bruised plum e/s
black tulip e/s
jungle moon e/s
boot black liquis e/l
plushblack plush lash mascara

cheeks
vintage grape blush ombre

lips
radicchio l/s

"tyrian"

tyrian

before i wrote this blog, i wouldn't have had a clue what to call this colour, but, in the grand spectrum, this shade of reddened purple is what i think of when i'm asked my favourite colour. there are others that come close, but the lipstick i'm wearing here comes as close as anything i've tried to the exact tone i was looking for. the eye has some purple in it too, although it's more subtle. even the browns have a bit of a purple tinge to them.

face:
prolongwear foundation nc15
prolongwear concealer nw20

tyrian

prep & prime finishing powder

eyes:

dazzlelight e/s
laura mercier african violet e/s
star violet e/s
satin taupe e/s
blacktrack fluidline e/l
smolder e/l
black black false lashes mascara

tyrian

cheeks
amazon princess blush

lips
chanel rouge coco ballet russe



"eggplant"

eggplant

mmm... deep dark purple, almost black. i'm a huge fan of dark lips, so i tend to do looks like this a lot.  undoubtedly, it'll be the subject of a future face-post, but for the time being, here's a nice, deep purple.

face:
prolongwear foundation nc15
prolongwear concealer nw20
mineralize skinfinish natural light

eyes
silverwear e/s
to the ball e/s
hold my gaze e/s

eggplant

heather belles e/s
smoky heir l/l
false lashes mascara

cheeks
azalea blossom blush ombre

lips:
faithfully yours prolongwearl/s
fab frenzy superglass

"fandango"

fandango

what a wonderful name for a colour. why is it called fandango? i have no idea. especially since i associate the fandango with warmer climes, which might suggest fierce reds and oranges, marigold tones, russets and terracottas, but not purple. and yet here it is. a lovely pink-purple shade a few strokes darker than magenta. now i feel like dancing.

face:

prolongwear foundation nc15
prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes:
almond icing e/s
mating call e/s

fandango

beautiful iris e/s
parfait amour e/s
siahi fluidline e/l
false lashes mascara

cheeks
lancome butterfly ballerine blush

lips
quite the thing sheen supreme l/s

"regalia"

regalia

this one was tricky to place. as you've probably sussed at this point, i'm taking the colour names here from the various shades of my lips in the images. for this one, i had trouble placing something that was a rich purple with a blue sheen. i guess that's the difference between theoretical colours and real colours. the real ones have depth and layers. just to complicate things. the blush and lipstick in this look are from the "jeanius" collection, brand new from mac- available for a limited time only.

face:
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20
prep & prime finishing powder

eyes:

regalia

inglot #352
restless e/s
freshwater e/s
love lace e/s
contrast e/s
blacktrack fluidline e/l
yves st. laurent faux cils mascara (some of you might have caught that mac has a mascara with the exact same name, just translated into english. tricky.)

cheeks
overdyed blush

lips
riveting rose l/s

"lavender"

lavender

this is one shade of purple that always scares me a little. because it's both pale and cool, it matches my own colouring pretty closely and can end up making me look a little ill. so i chose to dress it up with, yes, more purple and a pop of green tucked away on the eyelid. this lipstick is discontinued and still highly sought after. inglot has a couple of decent imitations in the meantime.

face:
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20
mineralize skinfinish natural light

eyes:
inglot #352
dame's desire e/s
memorabilia e/s

lavender

vile violet e/s
lucky green e/s
shu uemura me olive 471 e/s
bad bad black opulash mascara

cheeks
play it proper beauty powder
azalea blossom blush ombre

lips
lavender whip

i could seriously go on about this a long time, but you get an idea of the range. feel free to comment with your feelings on purple, good or bad. what colours spark your imagination?