Birthday Dinner Look

This it what I wore to a friend's birthday dinner on Tuesday. We were supposed to go and see Iron Sky with a bunch of people, but then some couldn't come and I got tickets for the earlier show and so on. So, we just decided to go to a restaurant together and have a few beers.

My hair had nice curls from being in a bun the last day, so I only backcombed the roots a bit and let if hang loose. The Poison Plum stained my lids and left me looking like I'd cried whole night the next day, but I just put some neutral colour on top. Staying up until three in the morning is not good for having lots of time in the morning to cover staining ;P

I used:
Sugarpill Bulletproof
Sugarpill Poison Plum
Gosh lipstain 003 Berry
Evil Shades China Doll blush

I used Poison Plum to fade out Bulletproof.

I'm bummed all the pictures had my necklace cropped out, it's a skeleton cameo with black glass beads on the chain.

Daddy's Girl Half-Moon

I fixed my nails after having a french manicure with plastic tips, and put on just clear UV-gel nails. I wanted something easy to wear but with a twist, so I decided to try a half-moon manicure with my favourite purple, Daddy's Girl by Sinful Colors. It's a plum purple with pink-purple glitter.

There's no gold glitter in the polish, that's just the lights reflecting on the nails. Would look pretty though!

It was my first half-moon ever, so it's a bit messy and not symmetric, since I didn't even know you could buy special stickers to make the circles. I'm still happy, it's not too bad, and with the stickers or just a thin brush, I'll do better next time :) Now I just used the brush in the polish bottle, and it's huge. I also ran out of Daddy's Girl, but luckily found a replacement on eBay that's now on it's way to me.

Today's Outfit

This it what I wore today! Last night I was out celebrating a friend's birthday, so I was super tired in the morning but still managed to find something nice to wear. The picture is taken right after I came home from work, it was a bit windy outside as you can see from my hair ;) For make-up, I wore my lazy-day eyeshadow, Scaredy Cat Draconia. It's just a very easy and cheerful colour.

Jacket - Juunappa

Scarf - Second hand

Long shirt - Lip Service (I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a dress, but it's so short!)

Leggings - Seppälä

Bag - Second hand

Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell

Iron Sky Premiere

I managed to get a hold of tickets to the Iron Sky movie's red carpet premiere for me and my other half. So, last night we dressed up nicely, watched moon nazis, ate some delicious food and drank tasty beverages, and saw a Laibach show. Also queued in the cold rain and dodged drunken businessmen trying to start a moshpit (at a Laibach concert?!), but it was still an excellent night.

We originally had bought tickets for Tuesday's event in Tampere, but I was super happy to get tickets to the Monday's show, because Laibach was playing there. Also, it's nice to see a good movie with friends, and the whole office was invited. I've been to all the Laibach concerts in Tampere so far and love the band. First we saw the movie, then moved on to the concert venue and there's was a superb buffet. I don't even know what all the food was, aside from being delicious ;)

The movie was really great, I didn't really know what to expect, but in the end I liked it a lot. Here's the official trailer if anyone's interested.

Laibach was also great, they started the show with slower, old songs and worked their way up to Dance With Laibach and other hits. A great experience, aside from a few idiots in the audience. I don't think I've ever before been at a concert where someone throws stuff on the stage (beer can and a glass bottle, so not even pretty undies), and during a slow Laibach song it really seems out of place. And the two drunken gentlemen later on, who decided to try and start a moshpit next to the tiniest lady they could find in the audience. I guess when there are people who haven't paid to get in, they have no respect for the performers. And there was free booze, that might play a part ;) Still, those were minor disturbances, and the gig was excellent!

I didn't remember to take a picture of my makeup, I did an interesting fake crease look, but I think I'll re-do it later and then take pictures. It worked well and was easy to wear :)

Here's me and my boyfriend all dressed up! The dress code was black tie, but I didn't want to take a full length evening gown out into the wet slush, so I opted for a shorter dress (Wikipedia claimed it was okay). There were still people in jeans and t-shirts, since the dress code was printed in tiny font on the tickets, so I don't think everyone noticed.

My outfit:

Hat - Seppälä

Earrings - By me

Necklace - Glitter

Bolero - Vero Moda

Dress - Spin Doctor

Shoes - New Rock 

I did have lighter, pretty black heels to be worn inside, but I have no picture of them. They were a gift from my sister. It was an awesome feeling to put the New Rock's back on after spending the whole night in high heels, felt like heaven to have comfier shoes on ;P

My other half looks so smart in his suit, and he's wearing a steam-punk style tie clip I gave him. And he wore his New Rocks through the night, I thought they gave his outfit a nice twist :)

Club Underworld Look

Yesterday was Club Underworld, the event I'm co-organizing. We had a superb band and an excellent guest DJ, everything went really well! There were not so many people attending, but that was because there were a few other events at the same time, so no biggie :)

Wreckdance was playing, they were great! They haven't published an album yet, but it's coming.

I continued with my smoky eye looks, and did one with black, pink and purple. The pink kind of got lost and turned purpley, but it's there, I promise ;)

I used:

Face
MAC Studio Sculpt foundation
Evil Shades Matte Silk powder
Evil Shades Pink Noise blush

Eyes
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Sugarpill Bulletproof (on lid and blended above crease)
Darling Girl Cosmetics Obviously a Wig (at the edge of Bulletproof)
Fyrinnae Nevermore (on top of Bulletproof and blended between it and Obviously a Wig)
Sugarpill Tako (on browbone and inner corners)
MAC Fluidline Blacktrack

Lips
Morgana Cryptoria gel lipstick Athena
Morgana Cryptoria lipstick Licorice

 

I did gradient lips to make them look fuller, there's black at the corners and pink in the middle.

And this is what I wore! The shoes were a bit big for me, but I didn't remember it when I put them on and was too lazy to take them off to add a thicker sock. The lacing goes all the way up and isn't the speed lacing type, so it takes ages to wiggle the laces through every tiny hole.

Hat - Seppälä

Necklace - Glitter

Dress - Lip Service

Corset - Second hand, Burleska

Shoes - Second hand, Pennangalan

Bracelets - Glitter

Here you can see the make-up better, and also my earrings. They are one of my favourites.

I carefully curled the ends of my hair, but it was raining outside so it straightened out. At least it shows in the pictures!

I tried something different with my hair, I'm not sure if it worked out so well, but there's one victory roll, a tiny hat and the loose hair is curled and there are a few black clip-in extensions tossed in as well.

I had a really fun night, the best part was when there were only a few people left and we danced to all the good songs, and the part when I remembered there was still leftover feta salad in the fridge at home ;P I also drew a heart for my boyfriend in the sleet that had fallen during the night, very romantic to stomp a symbol into the wet slush on the parking lot, so he could see it from our bedroom window. I also got my shoes wet, a sacrifice for love!

Dark Purple Smoky Look

I did another smoky eye, deciding I'll put the colour really high this time, because when it stops too low above the crease, my heavy lidded eyes can look tired. I think I did pretty well!

I used:
Concrete Minerals Jezebel (on whole lid, crease and above crease)
Sugarpill Bulletproof (on the lid on top of Jezebel)
Sugarpill Tako (on browbone and inner corners)
Gosh lipstain 003 Berry

My bangs are a bit on the wild side, but see how well the high placement of the colour opens up my eyes?

Black Smoky Eye Look

I wanted to try my hand at a black smoky eye look, since that's always been really challenging for me. Now I was armed with the new blending brush and I think I did really good! I should have maybe brought the black even higher up above the crease, but practise makes perfect and I like this look a lot, so I'll be doing it again some time soon :)

I used:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Make-Up Store Vanilla
Sugarpill Bulletproof
Sugarpill Tako
Gosh lipstain 003 Berry

 

I look a bit amazed, but this was the best picture, trust me ;P

Review of the Mariela Sarkima Blending Brush

I promised a review of the new brush I'm excited about, so here it is! The Finnish brand, Cailap, producer of beauty care products, came out with a new set of brushes at the end of 2011. The make-up artist Mariela Sarkima designed the brushes and also released a book on how to do basic make-up (haven't read it and I don't know what else she has done). The brush range includes six brushes, three of them face brushes and three for the eyes.

I had been looking at the brushes for some time, since they have pretty turquoise handles and look nice. However, the package didn't say if the bristles are synthetic or real hair, and I hadn't seen any reviews, and the shop didn't have any brushes I could tests the bristles with, so it took me a while to buy one. I had been looking for blending brushes, since I only owned one and it was by EcoTools and came in a set. I didn't need the other brushes, so it would be just silly to buy more sets to get only the blending brush. When I came across this blog post (it's in Finnish, but there's a lot of good pictures), I decided to give the blending brush a go. The blogger said the bristles were synthetic and very soft, and was generally pleased with the brush.

Here's what the brush looks like. It's 14,5 cm long, with synthetic bristles and a bright turquoise handle and a silver ferrule. The painted text says Cailap by Mariela Sarkima.

This is how it compares to the EcoTools blending brush. It's a bit smaller, but has more of a rounded shape. I'd say the bristles feel as soft in both, very nice and not at all scratchy. The ferrule is longer, as is the handle on the Cailap brush.

Cailap on the left, EcoTools on the right.

The EcoTools brush came in a travel set, so it's really short at only 11,5 cm. I personally feel the longer brush gives you a better grip, and when blending it's important because you really have to work the shadow on the lid.

Here you can see the size difference!

I usually use Gosh eyeshadow brushes to put shadow on the lid, so here's what the blending brush looks next to one of those. The Gosh brushes are flat and made from animal bristle and have held up nicely (I have five, since I don't have the time to wash my brushes every day), but their flat shape prevents blending neatly and the range doesn't have any brush that looks good for blending. The full, roundish Cailap and EcoTools brushes are way better for blending, naturally.

Gosh flat eyeshadow brush, Cailap blending brush, EcoTools blending brush

Every brush is of different length

I already got a little excited and have three of the Cailap brushes, I don't want to use the same brush twice without washing it, because I use bright colours and don't want to get them muddy. You can only get them at Sokos department stores in Finland, but I happen to be so lucky as to have one next block ;) The quality of the brushes seems to vary when you look at the packages, some had bristles pointing every which way or were squashed against the top of the package, but I just spent time picking the nicest ones and they have all performed really well. The brush costs 8,90 euros, and you can also buy it in the Smoky Eyes set, which has an angled eyeshadow brush and a regular eyeshadow brush to go with it.

I'm hoping the brushes will last long in my tender care, so far I've washed them a few times and no bristles have come loose or become scratchy, so they look very promising. I emailed Cailap about the fact that they didn't tell if the bristles are real or not on the package, and they replied that they will "try and add" it to the next batch. We'll see, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who's interested about it when making decisions on what brushes to buy.

Recent Shopping!

Recently I've descented upon the local fleamarkets in search of pretty things. I've been working on putting some nice frames on our hallway wall, to go with new lamps we brought last month. Last weekend I found a frame, a mirror and 50cm clip-on hair extensions (brown, I'll dye them black) that were luckily real hair. The price tag didn't say and I couldn't be certain from the feel, but I took off a single hair and tried how it reacts to fire once I got home, and it didn't melt into a lump of plastic. Yay, extensions for 2,50 euros!

I'm still working on the hair, but here are the mirror and the frame. The mirror cost 22 euros and the frame was 14 euros, if I remember correctly.

The mirror and me.

The frame, look how well it fits with the others! The small oval one is from the Salvation Army fleamarket.

I also got a big mirror a few weeks before from Jysk, you can just see its frame in the picture above. It has a beautiful painted ornate frame in silver. I had some trouble with it, since my mother brought it to me from the store because I don't have a car and the mirror was so big (160x70 cm), but when I took it out of the package at home, one corner was already smashed. I called the store the first thing and they just complained that having a new mirror delivered to my apartment would cost them too much and promised to call me back. When that didn't happen in three days, I sent an email to the customer service, and what do you know, I got a new mirror delivered to my doorstep the next morning ;)

I stopped by Anttila yesterday and they had a sale, most of the picture frames were -70% so I couldn't resist a small one. And when I set eyes on the black framed mirror, I knew it was mine. I did still spend some time contemplating between a black mirror and a purple version. The mirror was 19,90 euros and the small frame a little under four euros.

In the back is my new notice board! It has a kitschy plastic frame, but it's black and shiny and pretty. It's from Tiimari and cost 9,90 euros, although the price tag said 13,90. Well, I don't complain! Now I can get rid of the pile of tiny notes floating around my desk, they can all go on the board. I might add some nice fabric to cover the ugly brown cork, but I'm not sure how to get the frame off. I'll first test if it just gets covered in notes so the brown won't show ;P

 

I've gotten rid of so much useless stuff that I deserve to have some nice new ones, right? A few weeks back, I carried three huge Ikea bags of stuff to the Salvation Army and I've sold stuff at the fleamarket, too. I'm still missing a carpet for the bedroom, want to upgrade my makeup storage and get frames for one mirror and the poster I bought from the Current 93 concert.

Here's some kitty pictures when we were playing around with the new frame. Don't they look happy? ;P

Möttönen

Mü

Nana

Nana posing nicely

Purple and Pink Look

Today I went to work and did a presentation for some media students in the afternoon. I did spend about ten seconds thinking if I should try and look respectable, but then I just donned on a little black dress and put some eyeshadow on. They study games, programming and visual design, it's not like a bunch of boring engineers, so I can look like myself ;P I used the new blending brush, it works like a dream! I'll do a review of it later.

I used:
Fyrinnae Kitten in Heels (on inner part of lid)
Concrete Minerals Jezebel (in crease and outer lid)
Sugarpill Tako (inner corners and brow bone)
Sugarpill Poison Plum (just a hint on top of Jezebel to make it more purple)
Gosh lipstain 003 Berry

Current 93

Yesterday I went to listen to Current 93 in Helsinki. The band is one of my favourites, although their records are quite varied and I don't like all the albums. The gig was at a theatre, with the audience seated. I had a good seat right in the first row on the balcony. I don't know what I was expecting, but I think the fist half of the performance was a bit boring, but luckily the last songs saved it. I love The Inmost Light and Lucifer over London!

Here's a version from youtube so you can enjoy it too :)



I wore a brown smokey eye look and forgot to take a picture of my outfit, but I had a simple little black dress, black tights and a black pvc bolero. When I got back to Tampere at 01:00 am, it was snowing and the whole city looked magical, if somewhat damp. The snowflakes were HUGE and wet and didn't last long on the ground. The poster I had bought at the show got some damage from the melting snow, but it's a nice souvenir still. When my hair was damp from the snowfall I put it up for the night to keep, and in the morning it had lovely waves to cheer up my tired start of the day!

Here's my look from yesterday. I first did it with only Detrivore Cosmetics, but felt the darker brown was still too light, so I added some Doe-eyed on top and somehow messed the blending and had to fix it with q-tips. I also used a new blending brush, it's nice but I need some time to get used to it.

I used:
Detrivore Cosmetics Tarantula (on inner half of lids)
Detrivore Cosmetics Wraith (on whole lid and crease)
Concrete Minerals Doe-Eyed (to darken the outer crease)
Evil Shades China Doll blush (I think my blush brush wasn't clean, the colour looks too dark to be only China Doll)
Gosh lipstain 003 Berry

Weekend Link Love!

Here are a few links from the Meep Moo Facebook-group, hope you like them!

Claire is starting a new project at Claire's Beauty and wants your help!

RSVP to Bekka's Birthday Party Giveaway at glostix! Open internationally!

Hang out in the cemetery with Oh Honestly Erin! 


Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Stephanie's been playing with green and orange yarn at From Star Stuff.

Neutral for the Day, Dramatic for the Evening

I did a neutral look in the morning to wear at work and upgraded it to a more dramatic look in the evening to go to listen to Oldschool Union at a private event.

I put Moonchild from the inner corners to the centre of the lid and continued with Wraith for the rest of the lid and also put in the crease. For the evening, I added some Wraith to make the colour more vibrant (or it might have faded a bit during the day) and put a small amount of Bulletproof in the crease and blended it with Wraith. I lined my waterline with Blacktrack and added some mascara, too.

I used:
Detrivore Cosmetics Wraith
Fyrinnae Moonchild
Sugarpill Bulletproof (added for the evening look)
MAC Fluidline Blacktrack
Lumene blush Sweet Blush

Lips
Lumene Lingonberry Lip Stain Eternity (for the day)
Elf lipstick Classy (for the evening)

Morning look

Just leaving for work!

Morning look

Evening look

Evening look, I also put my hair up!

And here's the evening outfit! I added a bolero on top before going out, just in case it would be cold at the venue.

Dress - Lip Service

Shoes - Spirit Store

A Guest Post on Toxid-Lotus

Please have a look at my guest post at Toxid-Lotus! I did a gothic look with Detrivore Cosmetics samples that came in the mail today, and used a brand new Morgana Cryptoria lipstick as well :) Here's a sneak peek of the look!

Morgana Cryptoria Swatches

Yesterday a long-awaited package arrived, the lipsticks I ordered at the beginning of February. Everything takes so long to reach Finland!

A pretty bag!

Everything was packed neatly and came with a copy of my invoice. When I took the lippies out of the bag, I was a bit worried since one of the slim tubes had a lip balm label and I had ordered two gel lipsticks and three regular lipsticks. Luckily it turned out to be the right product, the label was just wrong.

There were also two different kinds of lipstick tubes, Licorice had a taller, slimmer tube than Iced Latte and Darkwave. All worked fine, although the fatter tubes were a bit easier to open. Today I noticed the cap of Licorice is actually cracked, despite the bubble mailer it came in. I dropped the company an e-mail to see what can be done about it.

Three lipsticks and two gel lipsticks

Darkwave, Iced Latte and Licorice.  Iced Latte looks a lot warmer than in real life.

Athena gel lipstick, Aisling gel lipstick, Darkwave, Iced Latte and Licorice regular lipsticks.

The gel lipsticks seemed to go on very thickly when I swatched them, but the colours were really pretty and deep. The regular lipsticks had a thinner consistency, but were opaque with a few swipes. I'm not sure if Iced Latte looks good on my skin tone, but every colour is very nice and what I expected. Aside from the cracked cap on one of the lippies, everything was excellent.

I'll update the post when I know how the broken cap will be handled!