Samhain Activities!

Are you in the Tampere area or near next weekend? Want to see awesome costumes or have one to show off? Come to Laterna for the Bella Morte & Club Underworld Samhain party! We have a costume contest with great prizes, a pole dancing show and a photography service so you can document your costume easily :) I'm DJ'ing, so song requests are very welcome.

Here's a link to the Facebook event with the most up to date information: Release the Bats IV

Hair Experiments

I think my hair has a curse on it, so far two hairdressers have just vanished when I've tried to get an appointment to touch up my roots. Being the strong and resourceful woman I am, I just did it myself then. Bleaching the roots is a bit tricky to do by yourself, so I only applied Elumen pink on the whole hair to get an ombre look for the roots. I was a bit scared of how this would turn out, but I quite like the result! I'm feeling bored with the sidecut, so I combed my hair in a different style for a change. How do you like it?

I'm wearing a Lip Service dress for going out to a friend's birthday party. I've had so many things to do lately it seems I've just been running around! Next week I'll have two short trips and then there's the Bella Morte and Club Underworld Samhain party I need to prepare for.

Media Museum Look

This was my face for the Media Museum gala! Black Moon Cosmetics lipstick in Deranged (the perfect dark red!) and a light smoky eye done with Concrete Minerals Lolita. I wore the Moth earrings of my own design because I simply love how turtle neck blouses work with big earrings. I was supposed to curl my hair but didn't have the time, so it's just blow dried straight. My roots are getting out of control, but that's life ;P

I spent the weekend at the summer cottage with friends. The moon is absolutely gorgeous this time of year! It was a huge, deep orange thin crescent when we were hanging out in the hot tub enjoying the night. This week is super busy so I needed the relaxation, now I'm ready to face the new week and new challenges!

Black Moon Cosmetics Lipstick in Deranged

Another shot from yesterday! I wore Deranged by Black Moon Cosmetics for the first time and loved it. It's a dramatic dark red, perfect for classic evening looks or to be paired with dark smoky eyes for a more gothic twist. The lipstick did not bleed and only needed one touch up during the whole day. I also like how re-applying on top of the old lipstick layer does not make the product crumble on lips. It's a but more dry with a second layer, but not too dry.

I'm wearing Concrete Minerals Lolita on my lids to give just a hint of colour. I had no time for a dark smoky, light ones are much faster and easier!

Outfit of the Day

Today's outfit was put together for a museum opening gala at Vapriikki museum center. They were opening a new media museum inside the center, that tells about technology in general and especially about technology and tech companies in the Tampere area. It may sound boring, but it really isn't! There has been movie productions, different radio stations, game companies and all kinds of interesting things happening! And I just love museums :)

I also enjoy dressing to the nines, so I took this opportunity to take my new Black Milk pants for a spin. They are Sheer Retro Pants, and I thought they were part of the regular selection, but they now seem to be sold out with no mention of restocking time, so maybe they were limited edition. I saw these on a friend early this summer and thought they looked very nice. I like to wait a while before buying new clothing if I'm not sure what to wear it with or where I would wear it. Because I still remembered the pants after the summer, and came up with a plan to wear them for formal events, I finally ordered them.

Earrings - Rogue x Bones & Lilies

Top - Bik Bok

Pants - Black Milk Sheer Retro Pants

Boots - eBay

Purse - Rogue

I wasn't sure what kind of tops would go best with the pants, so I checked Black Milks site. They have their own Instagram hashtags for all the pieces and generate galleries of the pieces worn (you can see the gallery for the pants on this page in the bottom) which is really helpful when you want to see what others have done with them! Almost everyone seemed to be wearing crop tops, so I got one to go with the pants. It's not very short, so I feel comfortable in it in fairly formal occasions, but still exposes a little slice of my mid-section every now and then. I think the cropped look goes very well with a turtle neck, I might need a few more of this type of tops for my wardrobe.

Do you have any ideas what other tops would look nice with the pants?

The handbag is my go-to one, a hand-printed piece by Rogue I got for the Finnish Game Awards gala but have been using for every occasion that is not good for a overly gothic purse ;D It's good to have something quirky but not very over the top. I have plenty of the over the top ones for goth clubs!

Black Moon Cosmetics Libra Lipstick

I fell in love with Black Moon Cosmetics' packaging when I saw a picture of their liquid lipsticks on Instagram and just had to get a few right when they were released. The lipsticks arrived yesterday and I tried Libra today for the first time.

The consistency is really interesting. Technically the lipsticks are liquid to matte type, but instead of drying fully, they go velvety on the lips with the tiniest hint of stickiness. This makes them very moisturizing and comfortable to wear, as regular liquid to mattes are often very drying and can crumble on lips. The closest product to the Black Moon Cosmetics' lipsticks I own are Nyx Matte Lip Creams that have a very similar feel on the lips.

Libra does not bleed and has great staying power. You don't need a liner and while the product is not smudge proof, it's not easy to get it to smudge. The website says the lipsticks are kiss proof and I think that's a greta way to describe the consistency! Moisturizing, not like regular liquid to mattes, but can take a lot of kissing without any smudges.

My only negative notion is that Libra is a lot darker on me than on the website pictures and a bit warmer. I was expecting a matte lipstick that would be very light, cool shade close to La Splash Ghoulish, but these things happen when you shop for very new products that don't have many user pictures on the net. The shade is still nice, but not as "me" shade as a paler, cooler one would have been. The models in their pictures just happen to have a bit different skin tone than me, I'm almost jealous as Libra looks so good on them!

I splurged on the whole set of four lipsticks, so I'm excited to try the other shades! The consistency is so nice that I expect the other shades to please me even more than Libra :)

Black Moon Cosmetics matte lipstick in Libra

Club Underworld Look with Green Lipstick

Here's the full face with ColourPop Ultra Matte in Dr. M and Fyrinnae Halloween collection's The Alchemist. Simple and nice! The dress is an old Lip Service Cheongsam style creation and the earrings are designed by me and made by Rogue.

Fyrinnae The Alchemist. It's a dark brown with a strong green-blue sheen. The liner is Trooper by Kat von D.

Colourpop Ultra Matte in Dr. M

I ordered more ColourPop goodies with a friend not too long ago, and finally got to try out one of the wilder shades of the Ultra Matte lipsticks. This one is called Dr. M and it's a deep petrol green or a forest green depending on the lighting. A very unique shade! I don't think I've seen another lipstick in this shade ever, let alone a liquid to matte lipstick. Dr. M is not too drying, but sadly does feather a little bit. Feathering is not easy to fix during a night out, or at least I haven't found a way to deal with it. The feathering is not too noticeable, but the bleeding is light green so it might look a bit funny when you look closely. I planning to test using some kind of a liner pencil to see if that helps at all.

ColourPop Ultra Matte lipstick in Dr. M

Club Underworld at 931 Outfit

Yesterday club Underworld happened after a long break. I've been co-organizing the club with a friend, but the venue we used to arrange the club at had some changes to how they wish things organized and we had to look for a new place. Since we are both pretty busy, it took a lot of time and some recommendations by other friends until we found 931 in Kehräsaari. The place is small, cozy, offers small snacks and a nice selection of beers, and they appreciate DJ events! Perfect for Underworld!

The event went really well, I was scared that not many people would show up on a Friday night, but the place was packed! I recently got myself a new laptop to play music with and it performed excellent. I love organizing events where people seem to enjoy themselves and just hang around chatting all night long :)

So a big thanks to everyone who came and looking forward to the next Underworld! To stay up to date, you can follow our Facebook page!

I am super proud that I had the time to take outfit pictures despite the tight schedule.

Dress - Lip Service

Leggings - Pieces

Boots - Trash mall in Beijing

Clutch - Queen of Darkness (sponsored)

I love this dress but it's super short, so I have to wear leggings with it! I like how the leather look leggings and boots make for a unified look. The boots were a great find in Beijing. They look cool and are very comfortable to wear. I got the clutch from Queen of Darkness at WGT and it has quickly become a favourite. It's tiny, but fits my essential things, like my phone, a lipstick and my credit card. The picture below tries to show the cute PVC hair clips I bought from H&M! They have their Halloween stuff out right now. These bat wing bows seemed surprisingly high quality with nice, thick PVC and sturdy clips in the back. 

H&M bat wing hair clips and my horrible roots. Sorry ;P

Beijing Shopping

In Beijing I learned that two things were essential regarding beauty for the locals: collagen and masks. The air in Beijing can be very polluted and people love using masks to clean their skin after a long day of being exposed to the smog. Collagen seemed to be very popular just now, almost every brand had their own collagen products. And naturally collagen masks for the ultimate products!

I was staying with the lovely Salla who is not new to China. She writes a blog about her time there. It's in Finnish only, but with lots of lovely pictures. Take look at the blog here!

Here's pictures of the cosmetics I brought back from Beijing.

Pack of sheet masks. This one had a few pieces of each type of mask available at the shop.

Under eye masks. Water cycling sounds like fun ;D

Tony Moly is a Korean brand. I just had to have this lip balm because it's made of awesome. What could be cuter than a tiny banana? ;D

I just had enough time to visit Etude House shop. Salla had told me stories of how cute the products were and she was absolutely right, they were super cute and very interesting! This was the gift I got for making a purchase, a collagen skin care kit.

A toner, emulsion, I take essence to be a serum and the tiny jar is cream.

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream. I've been using this one for a few years and it's the. best. thing. ever. Trust me! Light enough for my pale skin but with a high SPF and very moisturizing consistency.

Missha is a Korean brand, but since I came across the cream in the shade I use, I decided to get a back-up for the bottle I'm currently going through.

The Missha counter also gave out gifts with purchase. I have no idea what the first product is, but the second one is a BB cream and the tiny bottles could be toner.

Skin Food had lots of interesting things, but I was pretty exhausted after the shopping spree that I couldn't decide and eventually just got this eye sheet mask. I think I have enough masks to at least get me through the winter!

Last but not the least, my Etude House haul! We visited the shop briefly on my last day at Beijing, but it was worth it. The packaging is very cute and pastel, and they had interesting products.

False lashes and an eye dust. The lashes were quite small, so they might work really well with my small-ish eyes. The eye dust jar was just too cute to be left behind ;D

They had lots of nail polishes, but this one caught my eye! It's a dark purple with shimmer in it.

This Hand Bouquet is clearly meant for feet ;P I like foot masks in general, as they help me stay put for a while and not dart around the apartment like crazy. And I have spent a lot of time on my feet lately so a little pampering is in order.

These brushes looked just like my favourite ones by Mariela Sarkima. I'm always on the lookout for new, fluffy, soft eyeshadow brushes, because they work great for light smoky looks which I wear a lot. I haven't tried these yet but I just want to point out how ridiculously cute the packaging and brushes are <3<3<3

Eye dust jar. I tried to show how cute the jar is but I don't think the picture does it justice. You just have to believe me! I have a soft spot for cute pastel stuff and these are right up my alley!

That's a lot of cosmetics! I'll write reviews of my favourites once I get to try these out, right now I've been so busy that they have just sat in their cute Etude House bag in the bedroom. We just took in a new cat today, from a friend who could not keep it anymore, so my whole days has been spent herding cats ;D I have a cold and am staying at home, but the cats need some supervising to get used to the new kitty. They have been getting along nicely and I hope it continues! Once the new kitty settles in, I promise you lots of pictures!

Cat Eye Look

When I was in Seattle, I grabbed a set of Kat von D mini liquid liners when queuing at Sephora. I don't usually wear liquid liner, because on my hooded lids the liner transfers easily. I'm so glad I gave these liners a try, because Trooper is the first one ever that does not transfer! It bleeds a little bit when applied, but not noticeably, and stays deep black the whole day. I like the cat-eye look but have not been able to do it before without also wearing eyeshadow, but now I finally get to try out all kinds of wing shapes with Trooper, yay! This was my first try, a quick look for a friend's house party. Just BB cream, eyebrows drawn in, Trooper and Notoriously Morbid lipstick in Arcane. You can also see my new favourite earrings, swords by Killstar. They look so nice with the sidecut!

Progress with Magnus the Kitty

Magnus the kitty came to live with us in March 2014. He was very shy and not that used to being around people, as he had been donated to an animal shelter at 6 months old and had possibly not been handled much before that.

That's why it was a great moment for me when Magnus finally voluntarily lay on my lap! He's taken a liking to my other half and jumps on his lap, but he's been much more careful with me. That's most likely due to the fact that my other half works from home so he spends a lot more time with Magnus, whereas I go to the office five days a week and have been traveling a lot this year. It's so rewarding to see how Magnus has opened up and to finally have him purring on my lap :)

We did coach him to come lay on my legs by having my other half sit next to me, have Magnus on his lap, then he put Magnus on my lap and slowly inched away ;D But it still counts as Magnus stayed on my lap for minutes and seemed to be enjoying it!