Notoriously Morbid Mystic Matte in Tarot

Notoriously Morbid Mystic Matte lipsticks are great! I previously showed you the product in Arcane. This one is called Tarot. I like neutral, light shades and Tarot is right up my alley. It's a mauve dark enough to give my lips some definition but light enough to not need much touching up when it starts to wear off in the middle after a couple of hours. Such a pretty shade! On my lips Tarot lasts the whole day if I touch it up once or twice. It does not feather and is not too drying. I really like the consistency of the lipstick, it's easy to apply evenly and doesn't crumble when I apply some more on top of the old colour when touching up the center. Tarot has quickly become the shade I reach for when I'm in a hurry and know I won't have the time to fiddle with a classic lipstick product or to do many touch ups during the day.

I don't know why I look like I have no chin in this one ;D But the lipstick looks nice!

Preparing with Dolls

I'm back! I returned from Beijing on Monday, then did one super busy day at work, and headed out to Kajaani for a seminar. If all had gone well, I would have been back home and writing a blog post on Friday, but there was a storm that disrupted trains. This meant I spent an extra four hours traveling from Kajaani back to home. Also crossing a ditch in the darkness in 10 cm heels was interesting, as the train broke down in the middle of a forest ;D

But enough on that! Normal, sensible people prepare for a trip abroad by reading travel guides and packing bags. I re-painted Monster High dolls. Because I can.

I have a pile of pictures from China, and lots from yesterday's bloggers' meet, but I'll start with the doll pictures :)

Skelita and Cleo with the original face ups. I've rooted some pastel hair on Skelita.

After my treatment. Cleo's hair needs some TLC and I might curl Skelita's fringe, but I'm quite happy with the faces.

I did the face ups with water colour pencils and acrylic paints. I had never tried water colour pencils for this before, but turns out I really like them! I have an old set that has been laying in the closet for years, but they are as good as new. It did take some effort to get the colours to show nice and bright, but for a first try with this medium I'm very happy. The basic technique is to remove old face up with acetone, then spray coats of varnish and draw the face between the coats. I invested in better quality matte varnish so I can perfect my technique.

I love doing crafts as a way to relax! Working on the tiny doll faces is rewarding and fast, perfect for me. I'm a bit too lazy for sewing clothes for dolls, so I ordered a bundle of different shoes and clothes for the dolls on eBay. Skelita would absolutely need a hi-low dress to show off those bony legs, so maybe one day I'll make her one!

Custom Cleo de Nile

Custom Skelita Calaveras

Both of the dolls together

I have a Draculaura I repainted a long time ago, I think she will be my next victim ;P Do you do crafts to wind down?

Off to Beijing!

Hello! I'm on my way for a short holiday in Beijing! This means I will not be able to update the blog for a fee days, but I can promise you lots of pictures when I come back. Wish me luck, it's my first time in China!

Dark Eyes

I found these two nice shots stashed away! I'm a sucker for dark, dramatic eye make-up with a splash of glitter, paired with dark lips and bling. The necklace is by Lumissa's Purple Octopus, earrings by me and bindi from Claire's.

Notoriusly Morbid Mystic Matte Lipstick in Arcane

I had no tried Notoriously Morbid cosmetics before, but I saw their matte lipsticks in many pictures on Facebook's makeup groups. I'm a huge lover of liquid to matte lipsticks and always on the lookout for cool new shades, so I ordered a few. So far I'm very impressed with the quality and the shades are just gorgeous! Here's Arcane, a dark purple.

Mystic Matte Lipsticks are liquid-to-matte products and come in tubes with generous amount of product. They are applied with a doe-foot applicator and dry to a matte consistency. The formula is very light on the lips but opaque with just one layers, which is excellent! Arcane is just my type of shade, dark and purple. After 4-ish hours the lipstick tends to feather a tiny bit on the center of the Cupid's bow (center upper lip basically) but it's barely noticeable and the little feathering can be wiped off with tissue paper easily. The lipstick leaves very light marks on glasses, but nothing like regular lipstick. Re-applying is not a problem, this formula does not crumble like many others. I really like how light it is on the lips, barely noticeable, and still gives great coverage and is easy to touch up. A great product and it costs only 9 dollars, well worth it!

Arcane in the tube.

Doe-foot applicator.

Notoriously Morbid Mystic Matte Lipstick in Arcane

Buyer Beware! Beautiful.Mess Dreads Follow Up

I promised some pictures of the falls and here they are. See for yourself if these look like 90£ falls to you. I'm currently working on a claim through my credit card company, so it's still possible that I'll get this mess resolved. Beautiful.Mess has banned me from their company page and blocked my account from their personal account (through which she wanted originally to communicate) even when I've been nothing but polite.

I still have received no apology for the late shipping or anything, but she did unblock me to provide me with the return address I had been asking for on several occasions. I consulted my credit card company and they told to me not return anything before PayPal has reviewed the dispute, so the falls are packed and ready to go but waiting for the resolution.

The falls

This picture tells more than a thousand words. The falls are not the same length, the ends are blunt and the ribbons don't match. Both seem to have roughly as much hair, so I'm unsure how they can be of different lengths. Both feel equally curly and even if I try to arrange the hair so it would lie similarly on both falls, they simply are not the same length.

The ribbons

One is purple and one very bright pink. The elastic is okay, personally I prefer wide elastic that's less likely to tangle with hair, but I didn't specify that so thin would have been okay, if it just matched.

Blunt ends

To my knowledge squiggly dreads usually have tapered ends, like in Beautiful.Mess page's pictures. These do not look the same to me. I'm not sure if the ends are cut or if these are just the ends of the dreaded hair, but all of the dreads I've ever owned have had tapered ends.

A close up on the ends.

Falls worn.

I tried the falls on to take a few photos and you can tell even from the pictures that the length is not the same pretty easily. This is not something that I could hide when wearing the falls. Below is a screen capture from Beautiful.Mess Facebook page to show off her work. My falls don't look like the ones in the pictures. The blunt ends make mine look a bit unfinished. I ordered the falls based on product photos like these and I'm disappointed that I received something I don't feel matches the quality I was expecting. Most of all I'm sad and disappointed that Beautiful.Mess could not meet the deadline we agreed upon, did not notify me on this and never apologized, even when I tried to resolve the situation politely many times.

Screen capture from the Beautiful.Mess Facebook page.

800 Readers Giveaway!

I'm a bit late with this giveaway, but I wanted to get an amazing prize because you are the best readers ever! When I started the blog in 2012, people warned me that blogging means getting nasty comments and that it would be hard to get in touch with readers. My experience has been the opposite. I can almost count the rude comments with my fingers and people comment often, which is great!

I love getting to hear from you guys and I'm grateful for each an every comment. You say the most amazing things and it makes writing a blog very rewarding. So to everyone reading this, thank you!

And now on to the giveaway! Bought this Urban Decay travel pencil set from a Sephora in Seattle. I got one for myself too and I really like it. The set has a basic black liner, Zero, an awesome purple, Voodoo, and a shimmery medium brown, Corrupt. Voodoo is exclusive to this set and can't be bought separately.

This lovely set (it's naturally unopened, the pencils next to the box in the pictures are my own) can be yours if you just comment on this post. I'm thinking of doing a new cosplay costume, so share ideas with me :)

To enter giveaway, comment on this post and tell me what characters you would think would suit me well, or just which characters have cool looks!

Winner will be chosen randomly. The giveaway is open internationally, I will cover the shipping fees. Giveaway is open until 30.9.

Pencil swatches. Zero, Corrupt and Voodoo.

The pencils are travel size, cute and small!