Happy New Year!

What a year it has been! I'm eager to welcome the next one with high expectations, if it's even half as good as the previous one, it will be great!

Here's a few silly snaps with bat wing headband and crazy edits, just because :)

I hope the next year has lots of travelling, great photoshoots, good friends and excellent projects in store for me! I don't make any new year's resolutions, I'm way too lazy for going to the gym or trying to eat healthy. The only thing I might try to be better at is making new friends and getting closer with old ones. I'm pretty protective and tend to keep people away, but I'd love to have more close friends in the future. Wish me luck!

Christmas Dress

I've got a new dress I want to show you! It isn't technically a Christmas present, but I kinda. My other half and I were visiting his mother during the Christmas holidays, and among other topics, we discussed sewing and I mentioned I've been planning to make a historical dress now that I've stocked up on fabrics. My other half's mom said she had once sewed an Edwardian dress as a part of her studies, and that she might still have it. After some rummaging in the closet she pulled out a wondrous dress made of black and purple striped fabric. She told me she had no use for it any more, and I could have the dress if I wanted to. Naturally I did, it's gorgeous! And it fits me perfectly, lucky me!

I had some trouble with the lights, so these are not the best possible pictures of the dress. I'm planning to do a photoshoot with it outdoors when I find the time. I know just the place with a neo-Gothic mansion that's the perfect backdrop for this dress. Thank you so much, Marja!

The dress a a turtle neck, large pleats on the top and medium leg-o-mutton sleeves with beautiful black rose buttons on the cuffs. The hem has corded appliqué work, but the picture doesn't show it well, and I guess the dress needs a little bit more ironing. There's also a separate collar, which I didn't remember to take photos of, and a belt.

I don't have proper underwear fit for Edwardian styles, so a petticoat in the right shape might make the dress even more awesome. Or a corset, but then again the Edwardian silhouette looks like it might not benefit much from a corset. The big sleeves make posing a bit of a challenge, but I'm sure I'll find poses that work. The sleeves have a lovely shape, they just tend to look like one big lump with the bodice, so I need to find ways of keeping my arms quite far from my body.

Here's the belt too. It has a bow in the back and is made of black satin.

And the cats always want to participate ;D This is Tirri!

Outfit of the Day

Today I mainly lounged on the sofa at home, but also popped to a friends' house party for a few hours. Good food and board games, just my kind of party! It's so easy to get around now that we have a car, I usually hated going anywhere for just a short time, as it meant spending almost as much time waiting for the bus and on the bus. Henna the car works like a charm and gets me around.

I'm not a Christmas person and I'm happy that it's almost a year until the next one. One of our kitties needed to be taken to the vet on the 23rd, so we spent most of Christmas tending to him. He had a cut that had been infected, so nothing serious, but lots of bad tasting antibiotics to feed to the cat who would much rather not eat them!

Cowl neck dress - Seppälä

Belt - Infinity belt by Fox & Owl

Tank top under the dress - Cubus

I'm enjoying my Christmas vacation, it's great to be able to just rest, eat and play games. I've done some sewing, played lots of Mass Effect and watched so far 4 out of the 6 Harry Potter movies. I've had a crazy year, so some rest & recreation is good!

Samhain Costume

I just noticed I had not shown you my Samhain party costume! I planned to be Maleficent, but the silly horned hat I ordered would not fit over my hair ;P So I did a different version with my favourite horns.

The top and corset are by Artifice Clothing. I really like the corset, many longer corset can be uncomfortable, but this one is so short it sits on your waist very comfortably, even when tightly laced. The collar I bought at WGT last summer, it's made by Videnoir. I sewed the skirt myself from the cheapest taffeta I could find. It will work well with many outfits, and it's so wide I can fit as many petticoats under it as I want! For this costume I donned on a fluffy tulle petticoat to make the skirt flare out and accentuate the tiny waist the corset gives me.

I also finally got to wear the cute little tiara I bought at a goth flea market event!

I just bought a serger and a huge amount of fabric from an outlet. Looking towards plenty of sewing projects in the future!

Photos by Eliza Rask

Moth Dress

I did the neutral look for this quick photoshoot, as I needed a less formal picture for an interview and felt like I didn't have good ones in store. I bought the dress some time ago, it's a Dark Moth vs. Play With Me inside out dress from Black Milk. On the other side there's a creepy doll print, so it's basically two dresses in one, and that saves money, right? ;D I can't wait for summer, as the dress is pretty and very nice to wear, but too thin for winter time.

My tattoo moth and the dress match!

And the realities of taking pictures in an apartment that has cats. Here you can see a gorgeous shot of Nana's impressive tail, with some blurry mess in the background.

Neutral Spectrum Palette Look

Can't get enough of the Spectrum palette! Here's a neutral look done with it :)

I used these shades:

Daybreak

Burn

West

Protest

(Sugarpill Tako for highlight and inner corner)

I started by patting Daybreak, they lightest brown in the palette, to the inner part of the lid. Burn is in the crease and on the outer edge of the lid. To darken the crease, I added West on top of Burn and blended carefully. West is also on the lower lid. At this point I was pretty much done, but decided to add something non-brown to the mix. My choice was Protest, an olive green, that I put in the middle of the lid. It makes the look a little like camouflage patterns which use the same shades often. I think it's a nice effect!

I added Corrupt pencil, a dark brown, for the waterline and a little of it on the outer lashline.

Autumnal Photoshoot

The snow just fell, so it was just the right time to get some finished pictures from the photoshoot I did in the autumn. These were taken at a friend's summer cottage. I was super lucky and it was a very warm day, despite the autumn weather, and there was almost no wind at all. I was expecting to be cold but was pleasantly surprised! I love the autumny, witchy feel the pictures have. I bought the wig from Gamescom last summer and this was the first time I wore it, and it seems just perfect for a neutral, long hair look. I predict you'll be seeing it a lot more in the future!

Photographer: Helena Pahaoja
Model, styling: Me

Spectrum Palette for Christmas Party

Yesterday we had a company Christmas dinner, and boy was it good! Delicious food, good company and a gorgeous view of the city at night. I wore the Pearl Lowe dress my other half gave me for Christmas last year, and because I'm a bit obsessed with the Spectrum palette, I used it once again.

The shades I used are Deep End, Backlash, Flashback, Omen, and Sugarpill Tako for a highlight.

Deep End is the teal on the lower lid, Backlash is a vibrant pink in the middle of the lid, in the inner part of the lid I placed Omen, and Flashback is the darker purple in the crease. Lips are Deranged by Black Moon Cosmetics.

Urban Decay Spectrum Palette Look

Here's the first documented look done with the Spectrum palette by Urban Decay! I had tried a neutral look before, but was on a business trip with no access to my good camera, so I have no pictures of that.

This one combines many of my favourite shades in the palette. I wanted to use Deep End, a vibrant teal, and built the look around it.

For the inner corners and brow bones, I used Sugarpill Tako, a matte white. All other shades are from the Spectrum palette. On the lid is Omen, blending into Madness on the outer edge. In the crease I started with Madness, then added Deep End above it and blended carefully. For the lower lid I chose Flashback. I think Flashback and Deep End are just the perfect pair, my favourite shades! As an added bonus, this look goes great with my pink eyebrows :)

Aside from eyeshadows, I drew a thin line on the upper lid with black eyeliner and added black mascara.

Urban Decay Spectrum Palette

I'll just start with: Best. Palette. Ever!

When the Spectrum palette first came out, I was looking at all the reviews and very excited. Then it turned out to be Sephora exclusive, and I was super bummed. No Sephora's in Finland, and Sephora in the states has made it really difficult to order from abroad. So no palette for me, I just gave up.

Last week I was casually browsing Finnish beauty blogger's group in Facebook and noticed a post where someone was asking if the Gwen Stefani palette will come online, as some palettes had been added that day. So I went to take a look, I like Urban Decay's palettes. And there it was. The Spectrum Palette was online and at my nearest Urban Decay counter, with no previous notification!

The palette is not hinged, but a box with lovely cut details on the edges.

Now it's finally mine! I like Urban Decay's Naked palettes, but I often use colours in my looks and I especially like pinks, purples and turquoises, so I only have a Naked Basics palette of the Naked line. Electric palette had too many shades that I wouldn't use, as did the Vice palette. But the Spectrum palette is just perfect for me. Three purples, two pinks, a gorgeous teal and blues that go well with it, and a few very usable brown shades too. I've made two looks with the palette so far, and all of the shades seem to go well together. I'm also quite impressed with the quality: the shadows blend well, have plenty of pigment and are very easy to work with. I think I could survive for weeks if not months with this palette alone! The only thing it's missing is a matte highlight for the brow bone, but I'm using Sugarpill Tako for support.

Lets take a peek inside...

Ta-dah! 15 neat pressed eyeshadows inside, arranged in rows of similar shades.

The top three rows have green and teals, blue and purple. Deep End is something that I'm itching to try, but went this morning for Protest instead for a more muted office look. I'm not usually too keen on greens, but olive green shades are an exception, and Junkie is more of a teal than green.

I can already say that Madness and Evidence will be the hardest shades to use in this palette, as blues are not my thing. But then again they look like they will be perfect with the teals, so maybe I'll find new way to use these babies.

Omen, Flashback and Voodoo are all very easy-to-wear shades for me, I love purples.

The lowest two rows have mostly neutral, everyday shades, except for Backlash, the gorgeous pink. Daybreak, Burn and West make for an excellent combination, and they seem like the type of shades that look good on all skin tones. Bordello is an interesting one, it's kinda pink, but with gold shimmer to warm it up and make it more metallic. Flatline is the closest thing to a brow highlight shade, but I prefer mattes for that task. Flatline has a nice pink sheen and can be combined with many of the darker shades for extra depth and complexity.

This is such an exciting palette! I don't think I've ever been this stoked for any palette before ;D All of the shades look like very "me" colours, the quality is great, and I just love bright colours in these shades! Especially after having a difficult time with the Edward Scissorhands palette from Sugarpill, this was just what I needed. My favourite colours in a beautiful palette.

Mac Black Night

Yesterday I treated myself to a new lipstick! Mac came out with a new collection called Dark Desires. I'm usually a fan of dark shades and this was no exception. I'm not too keen on single pressed eyeshadows, but one of the lipsticks caught my eye. This is Dark Night.

It's described as a black lipstick, but on goth standards, it's a very easy-to-wear black. It's sheer and can be used on top of other shades to darken them. The best part is the wonderful shimmer. There's copper shimmer and just a hint of green shimmer, creating a very unique sheen to the lipstick.

I tried Dark Night on top of Nightmoth lip liner and really like the result. I applied the lipstick in two phases, first heavily on top of the liner, then blotted with a paper a few times, and then added a light layer for extra shimmer.

I can imagine how gorgeous Dark Night looks on top of black liner, but it should also work on top of blue shades. I'm excited to try out all the combinations!

Adult Uniform

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner. I even took the time to dig up some led candles and put up a light string to make the living room look nice. It was so lovely to just sit, eat and talk, a great way to spend time!

I wore what I jokingly call my adult uniform ;P I got the top and skirt from H&M's sale and they make me look like a real grown-up.

Behold the Ikea folding chairs ;D We put the table together only if there are guests coming, so the chairs are folded away when not in use. And I couldn't find the table cloth I wanted, so this one had to do.