A Traveller in Time

Greetings from Tracon X, the anime and roleplaying convention held at Tampere for the tenth time! I've been working there with roleplaying games occasionally, game mastering or doing presentations. This year I talked about how roleplaying games, cosplay and video games as hobbies tie in together and what skills can be used in each and did a panel discussion on uplifting cultures in roleplaying games and fiction. Tomorrow I'll be talking about Cities: Skylines, I think this will be the first presentation about the game in Finnish that I've done!

Originally I had not planned to dress up, but I saw so many great costumes at Pax that I got inspired! The theme for Tracon this year was time travel, so I put together a costume from steampunk and Victorian things I had in my closet.

The main thing is the bustle skirt and the matching hat. I paired them with a dress I bought from the flea market some time ago that is the perfect cream colour that works well with the copper orange taffeta of the skirt. On top of the dress I put a steampunk themed harness, strapped some vintage leather pouches on the waist and put a pair of goggles to hang on my neck. The curly red wig seemed like too much of the same shade with the copper orange top I made to match the skirt, but with the cream top part it went really nicely!

My other half dressed up too to be my time-traveling companion!

<3

Come and say hi if you see me tomorrow! I'll put together a different costume, so don't look for a huge orange skirt :) One day of dragging wet hems around is definitely enough ;D

Seattle Shopping

Last weekend I went to a business trip to Seattle for Pax Prime. A cruelling 12+ hours of flying just to get there, and the same back, naturally. The jet lag was horrible! On the bright side I immediately noticed the hotels was to my liking when they told me that they had a complimentary shuttle service that stopped right in front on the biggest Sephora in the city. Perfect!

I've been super busy, but here's a quick look into what I got for myself.

Urban Decay After Dark pencil set, Kat Von D Ink Liner Trio, Urban Decay de-slick makeup setting spray, GlamGlow mud mask, two Kat von D liquid lipsticks, Sephora cream lip stain, two Sephora masks and a tiny pencil sharpener.

I recently fell in love with Urban Decay's pencils, and when I saw that they had a pencil set with the same name as the game expansion I'm working on at the moment, I just had to have this! I tried them out already and really like the shade of purple and brown, they make for great smoky eye looks. The Kat von D liner set was an impulse buy, I wanted to try them out. I'm a bit bummed that only the black liner is waterproof, but I have to see how they perform.

I didn't own any Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks by Kat von D before, but they are a product I've been wanting to try. I like dark, vampy reds so Damned seemed like my kind of a shade, and Echo looked very unique, it's a navy blue.

I tried to hunt down this shade of Sephora's Cream Lip Stain when I was in NY in May, but it was sold out everywhere! Now I finally found it and I love the shade. These have a very thin, light consistency so they are comfortable to wear, but they are still opaque and don't fade.

I needed a pencil sharpener for my carry-on makeup pouch, so I got the smallest one Sephora carried. I haven't tried the masks before but they looked interesting!

The de-slick spray was something I wanted to try, but didn't want to commit to a full size one in case I didn't like it. This smaller version seemed perfect for me! I love GlamGlow's moisturizing mask, so I'm thinking the other ones could be to my liking also and went for a trial size.

This is the Powermud Dualcleanse Treatment, I'm excited to try it!

The After Dark pencil set has an example of a look done with the pencils on the inside cover. The pencils in the set are Voodoo, Zero and Corrupt. Corrupt is especially lovely, it's quite light for a brown liner and looks gorgeous smudged.

The Kat von D liners. These I haven't tried yet!

I'm eager to get to dig in to this pile and tell you what I think of the products, but first I have to handle the anime and roleplaying convention, Tracon, here in Tampere. I'm giving two presentations and participating in a panel discussion tomorrow, so if you are attending, pop in to say hi!

Brocade Bag from Moodswingsonthenet

I think I've found my new favourite bag! Recently moodswingsonthenet contacted me and asked if I could review a product from them. I took a look at the selection and the style of the shop looked like it fit me nicely, so I said yes. I chose a black velvet brocade handbag by GG Rose (note, the link is to the same bag in a red colourway, because black seems to be currently out of stock!), because it looked like a bag that would fit many of my outfits well and be a bit different from my usual bags.

Moodswings is based in the states, but the bag arrived very fast. In one week I had it delivered to my doorstep. The minute I took the bag out of the box I knew I had something than would work just perfectly with many outfits. My daytime handbag is a huge black leather thing that basically fits my whole life. For going out I like to switch to a smaller bag, but the tiniest ones are not very useful, as I often need more than just my phone, keys and credit card.

I fell in love with the purple satin lining of the GG Rose bag and how sturdy it felt. It also is big enough for my camera, without feeling too bulky or being in the way. The handles are long enough for the bag to hang on my shoulder comfortably, but short enough so it can be carried in my hand too. The snap closure feels very secure, there's no way the bag could accidentally be left half open. It snaps close reassuringly and keeps my things inside.

The brocade velvet is prone to getting cat hair on it, but the hair doesn't penetrate deep and can be brushed off the surface. I think what I want to say is just that I really, really like this bag! I took it for a spin last night when going out. I kept my heavy camera in it the whole night at it didn't chafe my shoulder, which I consider to be the ultimate test for any bag. GG Rose wins!

Here are a few pictures of what I paired with the bag. Since it was a regular Wednesday night concert at Klubi, I didn't put on anything too fancy, which let the new bag take the spotlight :)

Outfit of the Day

It was a really hot day, so I finally got to use my hotpants that have been waiting for their time for ages in the depths of my closet. The outfit is really simple, but looks quite nice photographed with my home studio setup. I put on nice make-up to take a few "official" pictures, as I needed a profile photo that I could use for work if someone needed a photo of me. Those I took with a game t-shirt, but changed into something a bit more me to go out for tea with a friend.

Top - Seppälä

Bra - H&M

Hotpants - Bik Bok

Magnus the cat was very helpful. He loves to hide behind the backdrop for some reason!

Work Me!

I needed an official looking photo for a work, as some sites and magazines occasionally ask for a face shot to go with an interview or a story. I had been meaning to take one for ages, but only now got around to doing it. This was taken with my home studio setup (a whopping two lights with softboxes and an Ikea curtain as a backdrop) by my fiancé. I really appreciate that he's willing to help me with my picture projects often, as he takes great pictures and takes direction really well! I usually have a picture in my mind of what the final result should be, so working with a person close to me is optimal, as he understands me when I try to explain what we are going for.

I'm a trained graphic designer so I finished the photo myself with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. It didn't need much, just some adjustments to the lighting, tiny bit of colour correction, getting rid of the bags under my eyes (too little sleep and too much tea!) and toning down my hair colour so it wouldn't overwhelm everything else. I think the final picture is very nice, it looks like me but isn't too goth-looking to be scary and the make-up isn't too loud. And my Chirpy t-shirt shows, which is always a plus! He's the blue bird mascot of Cities: Skylines, the game I'm working on ;D

Buyer Beware! Beautiful.Mess Dreads Review

I've never before had to write a negative review of any service, but it has finally come to this. I've tried my best to resolve the issue with Beautiful Mess Dreads but they are refusing to respond to my messages any more and my posts to the company page keep getting deleted. If you are contemplating making an order, please read of my experiences before you commit, so you can be sure if you want to take the risk.

I ordered a pair of falls from Beautiful Mess Dreads for Amphi Festival. I specified the date when I was leaving for the festival and that I needed the dreads for the event, if it was possible. The seller promised me that they would absolutely make it for the occasion and there was still weeks of time. After some time, I messaged her asking about how the falls were coming along. She assured me that they were being worked on, so I assumed things were fine.

On the week of the festival I was getting worried and asked for a tracking code and about how the dreads were shipped. I finally got a picture of a receipt, whic showed me that not only were the dreads shipped way later than what we discussed, there was no way they could reach me in time with the type of shippings chosen.

Beautiful.mess never notified me of any delays. When I asked about the shipping, she just told me that she can't help if the post office works slow, even when she herself had shipped the falls ten days later than what we agreed, and the shipping she chose had a longer estimate on delivery than what was the date I should have had the falls. She only purchased regular shipping, which could in no case have made it to me in time, even when she was already behind schedule.

I asked for a partial refund because of the delayed shipping and she was immediately very defensive and told me she can at most refund the shipping, which she said was 4 pounds. Well, she had earlier sent me a picture of the receipt and the shipping had cost more. Plus a 4 pounds discount on 90 pound falls that were shipped late with no notification of delay does not sound like a fair deal to me. She did not apologize for the late shipping at all. I opened a Paypal dispute, but they resolved it to her favor.

When I finally had the time to look at the falls in detail, one is longer than the other and the ends are not finished like in all other dreads posted on her page, and the ribbons on the falls are not the same colour (one is pink and one is purple, not even close, she only commented that if I wore the falls "right" the ribbons would not show).

The falls do not look or feel like they should according to all other product pictures, the ends are blunt and not feathered like in the pictures. 90 pound falls should have matching ribbons. I have received no refund and no apology at all (well, she apologized for my country's post not working fast, if you count that...). A simple "I'm sorry" would have gone a long way.

I asked for a return address so I could return the falls. Now I'm unfriended on Facebook and Beautiful Mess flat on refuses to give me one, saying she will not discuss the issue further with me. My post about the issue has mysteriously vanished from the company page.

Just in case something would go wrong with your order, you might want to consider companies that actually care for their customers and respect set schedules. I have ordered dreads and falls many times before for many different companies, and never had problems before. I am very disappointed in the way Beautiful.Mess treats their customers and hope others can avoid having to go through the same ordeal as me.

Key words: Beautiful.Mess, Beautiful Mess, Beautifulmess, Beautiful.Mess Dreads, Beautiful Mess Dreads, Beautifulmess Dreads, dreads, synthetic dreadlocks, dreads and accessories, review, customer experience

La Splash Malevolent

I've been playing around with the La Splash liquid to matte lipsticks. I've found that the formula really differs between shades. The best ones I've tried so far are Ghoulish and Untamed. Malevolent is a gorgeous cool dark red, but a bit thicker than the best ones. Being thicker means that Malevolent feels more drying and is more likely to crumble in the center of the lips. It still wears well, just not as well as the best ones. In photos Malevolent looks blotchy easily, but IRL the effect doesn't really show, it's just the bright photography lights.

La Splash Malevolent

I'd say Malevolent is one of my top dark reds easily! I've yet to try Fyrinnae's darkest matte red, but it's warmer than Malevolent. I'm going through a dark lipstick phase and Malevolent is just what I need: dark, but still a natural shade, does not smudge, does not bleed and hardly need touching up. The shade works well with my skin tone and I think it makes me look paler, which I like.

Malevolent looks way less blothcy in full face shots. This is closer to what it looks
in real life than the close-ups.