Stamps!

A brand new custom made stamp! I'm having a wild Friday night alone at home trying it out and preparing some jewellery to sell at next week's otaku & roleplaying event.

Upper loop of the letter B is kinda lost, but it's still really pretty! I love how
rough the edges become and how unique each stamping is.

It's All Taupe

I re-did an old look! It looked so nice in pictures and is quite hassle free so it's easy to do even when in a hurry. I also tried a different brow shape. What do you guys think, does it suit me?

I used:
Pollen Cosmetics Rare Find (a light taupe, on the lid)
Geek Chic Cosmetics The Pointy End (darker taupe with metallic shimmer, in the crease and blended up)
Sugarpill Tako (matte white, inner corners and brown bone)
Catrice Colour Infusion lipstain in Red & the City
Clear lipgloss (on top of the stain to give moisture and gloss)

Teal Look

Here's a look from this week! I haven't had the time to do complex looks in the morning, but like to put some eyeshadow on whenever I can. Also dyed my lashes again, make life so much easier!

I used:
Innocent+Twisted Alchemy Silent Jealousy (a vibrant turquoise, on the lid)
Concrete Minerals Temptress (a dark teal, in the crease and blended upwards)
Sugarpill Tako (plain matte white, inner corner and brow bone)
Black kohl pencil (lower lash line and outer upper lash line)

Paired it with a mix of two lipstains!

Om my lips I have Catrice in Holly Wood and Rimmel 1000 Kisses in 200 Grippy Grape. I put the Catrice stain on first and added some Grippy Grape on the edges to create a fuller look.

Interview with the Gothic Divine Magazine

BallerinaDark from the Gothic Divine Magazine interviewed me, and here's the link to see the results! Very interesting and fun questions considering being a goth, have a look :)

Moi Cosmetics Labels and Review

I was so excited when Holly from Moi Cosmetics contacted me about designing labels for her a while back! I'm a trained graphic designer and love to work with printed material every now and then, since I don't get to do that at my current job.

So, after many revisions, the new Moi Cosmetics labels were born! Holly wanted to have the same lovely lips as the new webstore banner had and wanted to have a classy but still fun and whimsical feel to the labels. I tried many different colour combinations from the palette chosen for the website and in the end we settled for a light colour scheme.

Holly sent me a huge packet of Moi stuff as a thank you and I couldn't be happier!

So much stuff and a cute thank you note form Holly!

This is all that was inside!

I asked for a few eyeshadows, blushes, some glitter and a lip gloss sample, and I was very eager to try out the High Beam shadows which looked like something I had never tried before. Holly put in a few extra goodies too :)

Here's pictures of all the products, I'm sorry the colours are a wee bit off. The evenings are getting darker and I just wanted to photo everything as soon as I could, so the lighting was not optimal. All photos are taken under a lamp. I think you can still get a pretty good picture of what the products look like! I didn't photo the glitters, since they are just a generic glitter set, really nice quality still.

Cheeky blush

Rose Wood blush

Blushes

Cheeky - A light coral, matte

Rose Wood - A dusty dark pink, matte

Shiner

Pluto

GoldMine

Diego

Nigh Shift

O'baby

Tattle

Venus (discontinued)

FarAway

Babylon

Eyeshadows

Shiner - A muddy dark red with clear shimmer.

Pluto - Blackened purple with red and purple shimmer and lavender sheen.

GoldMine - A greenish base with tons of golden shimmer.

Diego - A taupe with a vibrant blue sheen.

Night Shift - Black base with red shimmer.

O'baby - A shimmer baby blue.

Tattle - A cool medium brown base with pink shimmer. Very unique!

Venus - A dark pink with tons of shimmer to match. Discontinued.

Far Away - Black base with multicoloured shimmer. Reminds me of Sugarpill Stella.

Babylon - Deep blue with pink and red shimmer and blue sheen.

EggPlant

Man-Eater (sample)

Deep Purple (sample)

High Beam shadows are super glittery shadows (that are also a pain in the behind to photo!). I haven't seen anything like these before and I'm very interested in trying them out in action! In my photos and in the jars they look very similar, but swatched the base colours become visible. EggPlant has a very distinct purple sheen. Man-Eater and Deep Purple are very close to each other, with a bright silver sheen and a purple base, but Deep Purple is slightly colder and more blue.

Paranormal lip gloss (sample)

The lip glosses looked fabulous, so I chose one sample. This is Paranormal, a plum purple with a crisp blue shift. I goes on fairly sheer, but the shift is very visible.

The finished labels! My photo is a bit off, the background is really white/babypink
and the text is outlined in dark grey. The first picture of the post is more accurate!

I'm very pleased with how the labels turned out, my printer malfunctioned and I didn't get to print a sheet to check if the colours are on spot, but luckily they looked nice in the end. I sure hope Holly is as pleased as I am :) 

A fun fact for international readers, in Finnish "moi" means hello!

Goth Wedding Elegance Look

Last Saturday me and my other half celebrated friends' wedding. The party was great! Delicious food, lots to drink and great music, what more could you ask for? The bride was radiant and the groom was handsome, and the maid of honour gave such a wonderful speech :)

I tried a new hairdo, it's actually got a sock in it ;P I found tutorials for a sock bun on Youtube and just whipped up my version in minutes. A super easy way to style your hair (shoulder length or longer) for a formal occasion!

And here's the makeup! I'm wearing Louis by Antoinette's Revolution and some Fyrinnae Freya padded on top to darken the colour, plus some Evil Shades Suffocation on the inner corners. On my lips I have Maybelline Superstay 10 H Tint Gloss in Timeless Plum.

My undercut looks so neat, my other half shaved it with a straight razor!

I really need to fix my roots, the hair on my temples is so blonde it hurts ;P

We were in a hurry to leave, so I didn't get to take a pic of my outfit (or my other half looking gorgeous in his suit!), but here's a few snaps from the party.

Elina, me, Jani, my other half and Mikko. Thanks for the pic, Jukka!

I love a good goth wedding! Everyone was so stylish. This was taken by Hanna.

I wore a Lip Service dress with an Artifice Clothing bolero, an Art with Latex necklace, and shoes that were actually originally the bride's ;P We swapped shoes some time ago, since I had pvc-heels that were slightly too big and she had similar but slightly too small, and we wear the same size.

I think I have to get some petrol green extension streaks, since the bride had those in her long, curly purple do and looked just gorgeous!

Kuroineko Clothing Modelling!

I did a photoshoot with Kuroineko Clothing a while back. I've been modelling for them for a few years every time they had a need of a model. Kerttu who runs to shop is super nice and even offered to take some of my jewelry to sell in the webshop! Kerttu designs and sews the custom shirts and recycled EkoNeko shirts herself. This time they also added some fabulous Leg Avenue stuff to the store.

Sorry it's only in Finnish and they only ship to Finland, but I'll post a few pictures for everyone to enjoy :) You can also find my other half there, he models the men's shirts!

Edit: Kerttu just confirmed that Kuroineko does ship internationally! Email your wishes to kuroineko@juunappa.com and all will be handled :)

I still have these fabulous dreads stashed away, just in case I decide to
go blonde again! This is the Button-eyed shirt. It comes in many
colours and there's also a mens model. This was the first photoshoot
with them, if I remember correctly.

This is from the newest shoot, a simple and very wearable printed top called
Tattoo top. It also comes in black, but the white version was really pretty!

I hardly ever wear blue, so this was a new things to me ;P I really love the
print! It's Ravens, a fitting name.

I used to be very blonde before ;P This was taken when my apartment was being
renovated and I was living at my parents summer cottage, did the makeup while on
a bus! Luckily the Devil Girl shirt always looks nice, on a bus or not ;D

And have a look at my legs in the Leg Avenue section, the photographer really did a great job taking pictures of such a boring item as socks! Also featuring the shoes I got for my name day from my other half, I love them to bits :)

Kuroineko also has a few pieces of jewelry by me in their webshop! There are currently two unique pieces and two models that I'll make upon ordering. I'm hoping to set up an Etsy shop so I can offer international shipping and make only unique pieces or maybe two or three copies, since my passion really is making jewelry, not so much selling it. I'm waiting for some business cards to arrive and to get a quote from a shop that makes custom stamps. I want to make the packaging pretty and have everything ready, so once I open the shop there will be no delays :)

Dymo Junior Label Maker

Do you know the saying that when you have hammer, everything seems like a nail? Well, that's kinda what happened to me ;P I saw cute labels on the Kesällä Kerran blog and just had to have similar ones. So off to eBay I went and got me a Dymo Junior Label Maker and some black labelling tape with white letters.

Dymo Junior Label Maker. There's an arrow (obscured by mu thumb) that tells you
what letter you have selected, then you just press the long part and the letter is
imprinted on the label tape and it automatically moves forward to accept another letter.
You just roll the thing with letters to choose the one you want.

Suddenly there were many things that needed labelling once it arrived ;P I've now personalized my contact lens box, most of my craft stuff boxes and I'm still looking for more to label! I also ordered another roll of labelling tape because I would be devastated if it ran out in the middle of something.

This is my nail polish box. I don't have that many polishes, but I use each
and every one!

Craft organizer with labels.

It's about 100% easier to distinguish the chickpea flour from the soy flour now!

This was the original idea I saw and fell in love with. Spice jars from Ikea with labels.

I even used some on a card I made! Very versatile and looks really nice. The labels also seems to stick well, so I'm assuming they will last nicely. On paper they are impossible to remove, but I'm sure the glass surfaces will be much easier if I ever need to change the labels.

Haul from Germany

I managed a quick visit to a DM store while in Cologne. I really like the German drugstores, they have a huge selection of cosmetics that are cheap compared to Finnish prices. They also have many brands that are not available in Finland. I went there mainly to get things that I didn't pack, like toothpaste, but luckily did some cosmetics shopping too because I didn't have a chance to visit the shop again, the schedule was so hectic.

Anyway, this is what I got! (In addition to the stuff for the giveaway)

A deodorant, cuticle oil, two nail polishes and two lip stains.

Forgot my deodorant, so I got a new one. This one by Nivea is designed not to stain clothes. I'm always worried about my collection of black dresses, so I go for the ones that promise to keep them neat. Works fine and doesn't have a strong scent, so I can still use perfumes with it.

P2 Pearl Crackling top coat Violet Fusion

I got this for the giveaway too, it just looked so pretty! I hadn't seen sparkly crackle polishes before, and this one was purple and gold, so I just had to get it! I tried it once, it didn't work very well on top of another glittery colour, but I'm sure a plain coloured polish with no shimmer would be great.

Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Topper in
Glorious Aquarius

I like glitter, and I like turquoise, so I couldn't pass this one by! It has turquoise glitter of different sizes, some shimmer silver or light turquoise, but a few have a coppery shimmer. The base is mostly colourless.

Essence Studio Nails Caring Oil

I didn't own a cuticle oil and wanted to try one, so I went with this one by Essence. It has a small doe-foot applicator to ensure quick and easy application. It has a pleasant fruity smell. I've only tried it once, and it made my cuticles soft and nice.

Catrice lipstains in Holly Wood and Red & The City

Gone2RehabBRB commented on my lipstain review that Catrice does nice stains, so I got two to test them. They cost around 4 euros, which is a really good price, and I like the colours. The red is nice and cool, and the brown makes my lips defined but still quite natural. I'm happy I got the brown one, because I've been wondering how the brown shades look, but even the cheapest stains in Finland cost 7 euros. I didn't dare to pay that much for something that might not suit me at all. Luckily the brown works fine on me!

I also got some contact lens solution, because it's way cheaper than in Finland, and a new hairbrush. Didn't take pics, since they were not so fab ;P I also bought a cream eyeshadow that I planned to put in the giveaway (forgot it from the pictures), but I didn't notice it was unsealed and some silly person had tried it. They did have testers, but still someone had wanted to try out another one. Well, I just scraped the top layer off and kept it, seems to work okay on top of primer!

Outfit of the Day

I've been working from home this week, because I have some digital painting to do and I like to use my personal drawing tablet. It's been so nice to get to do painting, designing is fun, but doing a variety of different tasks is the best! I get bored easily, so a job with variation is definitely the best for me.

But working from home means I've been too lazy to put on makeup, I just wake up, start my computer and eat breakfast while working. Here's today's outfit, since I still bother to put on clothes even when at home ;P We got a tumble dryer and have been washing clothes like crazy to get everything through the dryer and free of cat hair and dust. My long skirt is still waiting for its turn, so it's a bit hairy. The outfit is kinda victorian, which is really not my style, but the skirt is so comfy and I thought the top matched it so well!

Top - Necessary Evil

Jacket - Forever 18 (got it from Cologne last year!)

Skirt - Queen of Darkness

I also have black knee high socks with pink skulls, but you can't see them ;)

300 Readers Giveaway!

I'm so happy to have you all follow my blog! So I got some nice prizes for the giveaway from my trip to Cologne. I would have wanted to make another trip to a DM to have time to go through the selection, but I think I did pretty well even with a short visit.

To participate, you have to follow my blog and comment on this post telling me one question you would like to ask me! I'll collect all the questions in one post and answer them :) The giveaway is open internationally. It will be closed on 31st of August.

The giveaway is now closed, a huge thanks to everyone for participating!

Look at all the cool stuff and the pretty paper I got to serve as the background!
All this goes to the winner!

On to the prizes!

Color Club Fame & Fortune, P2 Pearl Crackling Top Coat Violet Fusion
and Essence Nail Art Topper Night in Vegas.

 First, the three nailpolishes. Color Club Fame & Fortune is a red jelly base with holographic flecks. P2 Pearl Crackling Top Coat in Violet Fusion is an awesome purple with gold shimmer and sheen, and has a crackle effect. Then there's  Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Topper in Night in Vegas. It's a colour shift flakie top coat, much like Essie Shine of the Times or Zoya Chloe. Looks gorgeous!

To finish your gorgeous nails, there are French manicure tip guides by Essence.

I also got beautiful earrings from Six. I got the same pair for my self, they are really comfy and look so pretty! They are NOT nickel free. (Might be, but I can't guarantee it, sorry!)

Last but not the least, there's a necklace made by me. It's made of hand-painted shrink plastic and has a silver coloured chain that's NOT nickel free. The chain is recycled, it's from a necklace I bought from a sale so I could re-use the nice beads it had attached. It's never been used, I only removed the beads and attached the new pendant. The design is unique, I painted it free-hand, it's a purple haired lady with tiny deer horns :)

Good luck to every one who participates and please share the link! If I get 20 new followers during the giveaway, I'll throw in two extra prizes so we can have three winners!

Edit: The starting amount of readers is 317, so if we reach 337, there will be more fabulous prizes for everyone! :)