Images: men in dresses (n stuff)

Photos that didn't come to mind or sight when I was working on my related post from last month.

NYMPHETS

Mykki Blanco

Miss Blanco

Christopher Schenk with a groovy pompadour shot by Anselm Woesler

Feminine identities by Laurence Philomène

baby Ezra

mykki

Steve Buscemi <3

Kanye and A$AP Rocky.

Moscow "street fashion"

I found this photo in my laptop's archives. Enjoy.

Russia can be way too strange sometimes. I was walking from the Prazhskaya station and saw this in front of a shoe store. I was too confused to think anything, so I just took a picture, hoping that maybe later I’ll be able to make sense of it. Nope. Still no idea what's going on.

Reviews & Swatches : OCC Anime Lip Tar and Too Faced Glamour Gloss in Sexpot

Since I've moved, I've been trying to build up a make-up collection from null, and I'm excited to be testing out the US market - a lot of brands are completely new to me (although I act as if I know everything about them because I read through pages of reviews). 

I've decided to try out posting some swatches of what I've lately purchased from Sephora just for some practice - tell me what you think!

Left: Too Faced Glamour Gloss in Sexpot. Right: bare lip

My lips aren't exactly bare on the right, I'm wearing Lip Insurance (a primer) underneath. I have it because I bought this set, I was interested in getting an eyelid primer at first but then decided to try out a handful of products at once, just to check them out. I'm quite happy with the purchase, however some products I like less than the others and I don't think I can return them without returning the nice ones..

On the gloss: I wear it ALL THE TIME. Whenever I feel like a lipstick is going to be too high-maintenance and a nude lip is just too, well, bare - I put some of this on. I'm not really a lipgloss kind of person, I think it's messy and sticky and I always think of all the vanilla-scented goop that little girls would proudly wear in middle school. But this product is definitely nothing like those memories! It applies smoothly and has a nice texture - it's a little bit sticky, but it won't make your hair stick to it if it's windy out!

The gloss has a nice soft vanilla scent to it, but the most important part is that it has a little bit of lip plump in the ingredients! When applied, you get this cooling tingly sensation - it's much nicer than normal limp plumps (burning sensations aren't for me!!). I think I mostly got hooked on this product because of the light tingle - it's like a small lip massage :)

Left: OCC Lip Tar in Anime. Right: Bare lip and hair. (It's actually a bare lip this time.)

Here you can actually see what the primer is all about - my lips look a lot smoother with it on! In this photo I applied the tiniest amount of lip tar. I think I just wiped the brush on the inside of the cap and that was enough!

Anime Lip Tar with Glamour Gloss layered on top.

Here I used a bit more product than necessary - you can spot it feathering a bit. Also since I layered lip gloss over it (which had no effect on the color, I must say) the lip tar is moving around a bit - you can see that the color isn't 600% even (but no one really looks at your lips this closely, they look good from a natural distance). I think this look is the most plump looking look I've ever done in one color!

Here I made a video of myself trying to eat off this look :) I think it's a really long-wearing combo. Anyway, some info on lip tars if you don't know much about them:

• They are a liquid lipstick type of product with a satin finish
• They risk to feather, so a lip liner/primer is a good idea
• They will leave marks on coffee cups etc
• If something is wrong with the products it's usually due to the distribution in the packaging - try pushing around the product inside the tube.

And some personal tips: If you're ordering online (which you probably are) use either the Sephora website (you'll get beauty insider points) or Amazon. On Amazon a lot of the listings have $1 shipping while on occmakeup.com p&p are about $5. 

Also - the clear plastic pouch isn't really that useful - it gets messy quickly if you don't always clean the brush. I really like the occ brush but when I go out I carry a retractable lip brush and a tube of lip tar - I suppose there's a risk of it leaking all over my bag/pockets, but I keep the cap twisted firmly so I'm not too freaked out about it.

Hope you've enjoyed, feel free to leave questions and suggestions!

Leave it to a teenager to put up a shelf crookedly!

I bought myself a pink vinyl tablecloth and taped it to my wall, so now I can actually look at it without cringing - and also now I can take photographs indoors without having my backdrop look like poop. I have no idea why our walls were painted the hideous color they were, I assume it was a dare of some sort. I'm really happy I found this tablecloth at the dollar store though, I'll probably buy a baby blue one for my other wall. I'm slowly making my new living space more like an actual home, so I'll be uploading photographs of the process.

Pieces of cardboard make cool-looking picture frames that cost $0. In order to complete the look of your wall, tear a hole in your wallpaper, because that's what all the cool people do nowadays, I assure you.

In order to ensure your interior is super-hip, have the supports for your shelves drilled in crooked. Symmetry and order is so last year. (Note the little rhinestone stickers on the ends of the shelf! Those are the same ones I use for my make-up.)

I cut this out of a grocery bag and put it on my wall because I like it. 

I'm a little surprised at how pink everything is in my room. When I was 13, I would reject pink all the time, nothing I owned was pink! Right now it looks like pink is my most favoured color after green. I feel like everything I own is green!

The American Apparel Velvet Long Sleeve Mini Dress

I've been wanting to get this for quite a while now - when I walked into an AA store  last week, I knew exactly what I was doing.

"Do you have this in a large?"

I first tried it on in the AA store in London - in October I was still struggling with body acceptance, and when I put it on, I felt so strange - the material felt fantastic and the emerald green shimmered with luxury, but my body shape I feared so much was SO visible. My partner was in the changing room with me, and while he was enjoying the soft velvet material and stroking my arms, I wondered to myself - maybe this dress would be able to "trick" my mind into not hating my body anymore. Maybe if I could appreciate the material, I wouldn't be so fixated on the actual shape of my body. Maybe I could actually start to appreciate my shape?

This is from a photo shoot my friend did for school. 

I'm really happy I got it, it's good for learning how to appreciate your body if you have struggles with that, but in general, it's also a great garment to own if you're really bad with planning outfits - it's good for ~formal situations, and it's easy to just pull out of your closet and put on. The only complaint I have is that sometimes I get it on backwards and then I goofily struggle with twisting it around the right way - but I found that if you hold it by the shoulder seams you can see which side is the low-cut back and which one is the slightly less cut front. Also it rides up a bit, but that's something that isn't surprising at all from American Apparel, after all they are one of the sexier brands, even controversially so.

Another photo from that day.

I've also been experimenting with makeup a little more recently - here I just have a regular cat-eye (you can't see it behind my hair) and I stuck some pink rhinestone stickers under my eyes, because I got bored staring at my reflection. I'm feeling a need for change, hopefully I do something to my hair soon. I don't know, we'll see :)

I went to a bookstore last week, here are some things I saw there.

The Scribe by Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

There is the paradox of being human; in order to survive we must destroy. This paradoxical issue is represented in the destruction of the earth and our continued process of transforming and destroying nature. We are interested in the  rediscovery of our lost relation to nature. Through the actions of ritual in out photographs we are able to explore these issues. We create and control entire scenes and freely manufacture metaphor, re-examine myths. and perform ritualistic acts. (From here.)

I'm not even going to comment on this piece, I'll just say I think it's absolutely fantastic.  

Salustiano

This image is based in the idea of the Dalai Lamas reincarnation and his continued evolution and growth. The painting portrays the image of the Dalai Lama in his next incarnation as a young child is is a metaphor for growing, evolving, and transforming.

I absolutely adore this painting! It's been very inspiring to me, and hopefully I act on my plans and create the work I've been thinking of - it'll also be interesting to post it here and show you the similarities.

A good role model for any young girl.

This isn't the best quality, but I couldn't find anything through reverse image searching. It's from a book about the Illuminati in American culture. I like these visuals.

Images: makeup

I'm not really inspired by traditional makeup application (i.e. colorful variations of the smokey eye and slightly tweaked cat-eyes), so I'm always on the hunt for the styles I do like. Some of them are here. If you know of any blogs or tumblrs that have some good make-up inspiration, let me know, because I'm relying on a very limited number of sources.

 alexander wang spring 2013