What Makes Me ME

Throughout people's lives, they will all have experiences and things that will make them who they are. For those of us interested in fashion, I think this stands true even stronger. Gals who dress in vintage styles can remember the first time they had their hair pin-curled & the way it made them feel. Dapper guys can remember the first time they got complimented on their suit. Everything has to start somewhere.

I thought I'd give you guys a little glimpse into what makes me me...with a little bit of fashion thrown in there, 'cause that's how I do.



1) Rock n' Roll: I know I'm like a broken record in this blog, but at the very heart of me is a dirty, 80s rocker chick. From the first time I heard Appetite for Destruction as a kid to now, that sleazy cock rock is what really gets my blood flowing. I feel younger, more alive when I hear that shit. It's what makes me want to be the bad girl who wears red lipstick, leather and ripped fishnets...and the stuff that will always make me want to learn how to do cartwheels across a line of sports cars while my hair is teased to the sky.

2) Rocky Horror Picture Show: From 1996-1999, I saw Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight every single Saturday night at the Harwan Theater in Mt. Ephraim, NJ. Even though that was approaching 15 years ago, I still regard those years as some of the best times of my life.

My fashion took an interesting turn at that time, and some of it still sneaks into my wardrobe every now and again. I realized that instead of cursing the fact that I looked younger than I was, I should just roll with it. Therefore, I dressed like the biggest Lolita you've ever seen - schoolgirl uniforms, pigtails, lunchboxes. Hey man, judge all you want, but I looked adorable.

3) Beauty/Makeup: I don't know when my makeup obsession started, but I think it was somewhere around 2004. I was thick into Live Journal at the time, and I found a crew of ladies & gents who were so talented at the art of applying makeup that it sucked me in instantly. With them, I practiced, learned, succeeded, failed and just became generally addicted to makeup. Much of my obsession fell with MAC for the first bunch of years, but I've since spread out to other brands. To this day, I have a "makeup area" in our small one-bedroom apartment that my husband has dubbed The Makeup Command Center.


EVERYONE is shaped by experiences in their life, and I bet if you look away from the computer screen and down at what you're wearing, some of that has to do with how you grew up. Now tell me - what shaped YOUR fashion stylings?

IMATS NYC

I had a VERY good Christmas this year. Amongst the amazing presents I received was a gem of a gift - a two-day pass to IMATS (International Makeup Artists' Trade Show). I had heard stories from online friends about how amazing IMATS was in LA and London, and now that they were doing one in NYC, I could finally go. Being that this blog is about both fashion and makeup, I'm going to give a review of IMATS and how I felt about everything.

First, there was the line. If you go, be prepared to wait in line for 30-45 minutes at least. Everyone in the line was so happy and excited to be there, though, that the time flew by for me. Once I was in, I immediately became a moron. I walked into a sort of..hmm..let's call it a "museum". There was a display of a bunch of pure GORE and movie magic. While it looked fun, I was anxious to shop my ass off. (We'll ignore the fact that it took me a good 5+ minutes to figure out how to get to the shops. haha)

Once I was in the vending room, you couldn't beat the smile off of my face with a damned stick. It was nuts-to-butts crowded in there, and I was able to keep my claustrophobia mostly in check, but it was hard. There were people pushing and straining to get to each table. Once you got to the tables, though, it was SO worth it. The prices of everything were SO discounted, it's not even funny.

The first day, I got to meet Lauren/Queen of Blending and was pretty much floored by her. She knew who I was from Twitter (which still surprises me) and was just AWESOME in every way. We won't even talk about how absolutely stunning she was, too.


Lauren's makeup was obviously bangin'.

Shortly after that, I was walking around and got to meet the BEAUTIFUL Beth (uk_beth on Live Journal). We've chatted on the MAC Community online for years, and it was so great to finally meet her. Such a sweetie! We walked around and shopped together, snapped a few pics outside and parted ways.




The beautiful Beth!

I decided to go again the next day, but only because there were a few things I wanted to pick up, and a lot of people I wanted to see were going. Namely, these people:


Left to right: Josh/Petrilude, Lauren/QueenofBlending, Brooke/SayAnythingBr00ke, and Joy/JoyMeetsWorld.

It was funny as hell to watch Josh getting stopped every 30 seconds by another adoring fan. ;) I have to admit that I'm pretty impressed with how friendly he still is to every fan, though.

In all, I got...
- 2 glitters & glitter sealant from LA Splash
- 9 brushes & a brush belt
- 6 (!!) lip tars & a loose shadow from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
- 8 shadows in a palette from Mehron
- 1 mixing palette
- 8 pairs of eyelashes from Miss Adoro

Would I do it again? YOU BET YOUR ASS.

Here's all of the video footage I took over the two days (Warning: it's a bit long):

Sugarpill!!

By now, the name Sugarpill has become synonymous with OMG FABULOUS AND BRIGHT!! shadows. If you like a touch of color in your eyeshadows, or you like to rival the fanciest drag queen out there, you need to have Sugarpill in your life.

In truth, this entry is copied-and-pasted from one that I did about a year ago, but with a few updates (and a few better pictures).

(from February 2010)
When Amy/Shrinkle's new makeup line, Sugarpill, went online, I think I literally SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!ed outloud. I clicked on that link in a manner that people passing me might have thought I was insane. (Clicking, maniacally giggling, huge grin on my face. Yeah, I'm sure I looked insane.)

If anyone thought *that* looked like Crazy Town, they should have been there when I got my package in the mail last Friday. This is seriously the most amazing makeup line I've seen in years.

Everyone likes pictures, so I'll give my reviews to go along with the pics!


First of all, even the box it came in was adorable!! It was stamped with the cute Sugarpill kitty logo and had a bunch of stickers on it. Everything was packaged really well and nothing was rattling around.


I think that opening the box was the point at which I actually started clapping little claps and bouncing. Yep, I'm that lame. Again, everything was neatly and securely packaged with hot pink tissue paper. And the packaging...oh, the packaging. Every box that an item came in was BEAUTIFULLY and artistically done. The drawing is adorable. Plus, I have to admit that I liked seeing items in boxes like this. So many smaller makeup lines just throw things into little plastic baggies nowadays. The packaging alone of this line helps to make it look high-end. I'm a loser and love this packaging so much that I plan on keeping everything in the boxes.


Here are some cute promo items that came in the package. I got a GORGEOUS, glittery Sugarpill logo sticker and two "business cards". The photography on the business card is stunning.


The individual packaging is great, too! The lids of the shadows and the Chromalusts (loose shadows) all have the Sugarpill logo STAMPED on them. No stickers here, folks! And really...LOOK AT THIS PURPLE!! There's a slight hint of shimmer, but it's not overpowering. One swipe with your finger and the color is nearly opaque. It's brilliant.


Are you drooling yet?! Left to right: Buttercupcake, Poison Plum, Afterparty, Flamepoint (my favorite thus far!), Midori, and Love+. Truthfully, I've only swiped these shadows so far, but every.single.one went on smoothly and with such high-pigmentation that I was stunned. Makeup Forever? You have a serious competitor here.


Midori


These loose shadows - Chromalusts - I can't say enough about them. Even though I DROPPED ONE OF THEM seconds after opening it (and yes, I almost cried), there is so much product in these that it's not even funny. No dumpy little sample jars here, folks! You get a FULL 5-gram jar of these babies. The colors are...god, can I say "stunning" again?? I personally prefer to use these with mixing medium because it makes the colors THAT much more vibrant and opaque. If you use these dry, though, the color and shimmer still comes through like crazy! Left to right: Absinthe, Magpie (the one I dropped. *sniffle*), and the shining star of them all - Goldilux.


I have NEVER seen a more brilliant and perfect gold pigment in my life. When used wet, it literally looks as if you had melted gold and applied it to your eyelids. Since ACTUALLY melting gold and putting it on your skin would be, yanno, BAD, everyone needs this loose shadow.

Here is a pic from when I wore Goldilux to my work party:

(And in case you were wondering, yes. That pizza was delicious.)



Sorry that this is so wordy, folks! I just wanted to get the word out there about how amazing this line is.