I originally had had some kind of hope of doing an actual worthwhile post here, with goals for 2011 - maybe thoughts about the future - something. But I realized amidst my 4th or 5th YouTube makeup tutorial video, watching my nails dry, and reading on my new Nook, all I really want to say is: 

Hah - told you I had something good in the works for you guys! Now this look is something that I played around with a while back when I first picked up MAC's Clarity eyeshadow, but it's the first time I went all the way and created something I loved. I still have this unexplainable love of blue after disliking it for the longest time, but at least I think you can really see how it can work!

I used the whole 'tape border' trick for this look, where the artist (you) takes a piece of tape and (after dabbing off some of the glue on the back of the hand) applies it along the outside corner of the eye to create a straight sharp edge to the shadow. A tricked I learned from Makeup Geek on YouTube was to apply it starting from the outside corner of the bottom lashline, to keep both pieces of tape even and flattering to the face. It sounds ridiculous but really works!

This another look where it's all about the power of blending. I've used 3 or 4 colors almost all along the crease and outside corner of the eye. Blending throughout it was what allowed me to have the smooth gradient of colors even though the lid color is very bold. I think the only thing I'd change the next time I do this look (on myself or anyone else) is that I might make the eyeliner thicker and take more of it under the lower lashline. 

Products Used:

Eyes - 

~~UDPP

~~MAC Shadestick in Sea Me

~~MAC eyeshadow in Clarity (saturated light blue)

~~Paula Dorf eyeshadow in Hussy (dark matte blue)

~~Stila eyeshadow in makalu (matte black)

~~MAC Greasepaint Stick in Slick Black (tightline and waterline)

~~MAC Fluidline in Black Track

~~Rimmel Mascara Combo

Lips -

~~NYX Megashine Lipgloss in Sweet Heart

Hope you like it and let me know if you have any questions! MWAH!

This is going to completely random - not going to lie. To start off with I'm going to admit one of my deepest, darkest, reality TV secrets: I really liked Girls Next Door. With the original cast of Holly, Bridget, and Kendra the show was funny and wacky, ridiculous in its complete inability to show any type of reality. But as reality TV, what else could anyone expect? I rooted for Holly on her quest to become an editor at Playboy and laughed at Kendra when she said something else that was completely inane (she's always so nice about it - how could you complain?). When the show ended I was said. I'm just gonna say it, I was sad. And the fact that E! thought I would watch it with new girlfriends was hilarious. I didn't watch it for the half naked women you numb nuts, I watched it for those 3 women's personalities specifically. They are not inter-changeable, even if they might be to Hef, and I refused to continue my love affair with the show.

But ok, back to 2010. Hugh Hefner has just announced he's engaged to this newest 'girlfriend' of his, Crystal Harris. Enagaged after 10 years with Holly who seemed to mostly love his wrinkly old ass! I was infuriated. What the fuck Hef? If I didn't think you were such a douche I'd definitely think it now!

Still, from the title of this article you know I'm writing about why I'd be happy if I was Holly Madison right now. You know why I think that? Because I read this Jezebel article: But Hef, What About Holly Madison? And I realized there's very little in life that I'd sacrifice decades of baby oil lubricated butt sex to have. She went 10 years as his number 1 girlfriend having Viagra induced anal sex to help rev him up for whatever other little playmate he was going to try and entertain that evening. 

It's not worth it. It's just not worth it. Holly may have spent a decade doing all that to end up with little to show for it Playboy wise (she quit her job as an editor for the magazine) but I think in the end she has better more self-satisfying things to show for it. 

She has her own tv and burlesque show, plus, as Jezebel points out, paid promotional appearances. And she now gets to have whatever sex she wants with whomever she wants. No one wants to think that 10 years of their life were for almost nothing, but if I was her right now, as angry as I'd be, I'd also be happy that Crystal is where she is and I was not. Because wrinkly old man balls? No thank you, just no thank you.

I know it's almost too late, but at least by East Coast standards I still have 2 more hours or so to wish all everyone a

and  a Happy Holidays! I've spent most of my day doing nothing, waiting around for the snow, but I did manage to get in TWO makeup looks! My eyes might hate me in the morning and wow can I tell where that new benzoyl peroxide in my acne routine is taking a toll, but it's all worth it because I can't wait to share them with you! Stay tuned for pictures and descriptions and I hope that in the meantime you're all eating a bunch of yummy food and watching some great bad TV!

Later!

~Dana

Hey Everyone!! Sorry I've been lacking in the makeup posts lately. I had some personal stuff go down in November and that prevented me from getting my eyebrows done which in my head is a little catastrophic. I'm vain enough that there was just no way I was going to take up close pictures of my eye makeup with scraggly brows. Luckily we can begin moving past that now as I have freshly done brows and can start contemplating what I'm going to do for New Years - get ready for some more bold evening looks!

Still, we're not there yet, and I'm almost ashamed to say that one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to on Saturday are Christmas shows and movies. I love them. I mean really love them. Some of them are picks I remember from my childhood, some from a little later, but all of them are near and dear to MY heart and just so damn happy I can't contain myself! I like happy endings - pretty much all the time - but especially at Christmas and the best thing is that at Christmas I can get them. No ones gonna argue with me and tell me how the sh*t that just went down on screen is building someone's character. Instead I get to watch happy, love filled stories (often with music) and have no worries that I'm going to be left feeling more depressed than when I started. 

In case any of you readers out there were feeling stumped about what to watch yourselves, here's my 

(not really in any particular order)

10. Claymation Christmas Celebration
(I don't own this but who doesn't love the California Raisins singing Christmas carols?!)

If you're looking for some more good ideas, try out this fantastic article from CNN, Geeks' Most Beloved Holiday Classics - you'll be set for life with that one!

I love the holidays. I love Christmas and how everyone enjoys it and the spirit of goodwill that everyone seems to possess. I don't care how corny that is, it's the truth. And this year, even at the office, the decorative air is continuing!

Cute right? While it's not an angel I have to admit I like the Santa's hat on top.

This is the whole reception area (mostly) and over there on the right in front of the computer is where I sit. (Sidenote - taking these pictures was a pain. I had to try like 3 different settings with and without flash on my camera before anything came out. This might be a little blurry but it's the best of the lot let me tell you!)

And finally, since we didn't want it to feel left out, we decorated our year long greenery:

One of my favorite looks from the past few months has definitely got to be hands down this one I wore for my birthday. It's incorporating MAC's mineralized shadow in Blue Flame and it's so much fun! I'd bought it awhile ago from my local CCO but hadn't quite figured out how I was gonna use it. On top of primer, on top of the black NYX Jumbo pencil....I knew it was going to be something but I wasn't sure what. Then - but oh then. Then I found a new guru on YouTube that I love (Vintage or Tacky - go check her out) and while she was demonstrating a different mineralized shadow in one of her tutorials it was her methodology that blew (blue- hah!) me away.

She created this beautiful dark green smoky look and did pretty much the opposite of the usual steps: she created her crease shading first and then went back with a stiff shader brush to lay down her lid color. I was inspired - amazed - ENTHUSED - because I finally knew what I was going to try.

(Plus there was that whole easy just dampen the damn brush for mineralized shadows thing she taught me, but I feel kind of like an idiot that I didn't think of it before so we're gonna gloss over that.)

I went with my new shadestick in Sea Me as an overall base under the look because I figured that if for some reason the shadow didn't last then that particular stick would look better peeking out beneath the sparkly black than my bare skin would. After covering the lid with Sea Me I used Soft Brown to warm up the crease and then went back with Contrast to really deepen the blue and create a soft focus affect around the eyes. Finally I dipped my shader brush into a bit of water, grabbed some Blue Flame and patted it on my lids. I finished everything off by lining my water lines and upper lash line, throwing on some fake lashes and adding my new YSL Mascara.

Isn't it pretty? And sparkly? I absolutely love it.

Product List:

~~UDPP

~~MAC Shadestick in Sea Me

~~MAC eyeshadow in Soft Brown

~~MAC eyeshadow in Contrast (deep blue)

~~MAC Mineralize eyeshadow in Blue Flame

~~Stila matte eyeshadow in makalu (black)

~~Sephora Kohl Pencil in 01 keep black

~~YSL Effet Faux Cils Mascara in #1 Black

~~Sonia Kashuk false lashes

You know what else I love in these pictures? My hair. I'd just gotten in cut and blow dried earlier that day and I swear it seems like Josephine has the hands of a goddess. When she blow dries my hair it still comes out super straight but has body!

I'm projecting into the future but I'm sure by this point I've succumbed to food coma and am wrapped up on the couch watching Charlie Brown. Or at least that's my hope for the day and since I'm visualizing it now it damn well better come true.

I hope that all my readers out there are happy and healthy and spending the time with their loved ones. Blood relatives are not, being with those who make you happy is what's important. Life's too short for anything else. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I blame my roommate and her bad influence, but this past weekend I bought TWO scarves. Two! And they're mostly decorative - I didn't buy them to actually stay warm.

I consider my purchases a bit random, but they just 'spoke' to me, if you'll forgive my use of the phrase, and at Forever 21 prices I couldn't resist. 

The first scarf is this cute fuchsia on black with fringe:

It's my new favorite and I've already worn it about 4 times. In fact I'm wearing it as I type this :)

The second is an almost French-inspired (or I like to think so at least) infinity/circle scarf:

While I don't want to sound like a complainy pants, as nice as it is to have your birthday on a Friday there are some drawbacks too. Like the fact that when you try to stretch your birthday celebration out for multiple days it's inevitable that some of them will fall on a weekday and you'll have to design your makeup accordingly.

Unsurprisingly I like dramatic makeup for evening. Day too depending on who's opinion you're taking, but for evening you'll really see it. But if I have to wear my makeup to work I kind of have to pretend at least that it's not ridiculous...especially when I'm wearing contacts and nothing is hidden behind glasses. For my happy hour get together I decided to go with an old staple - purples.

This purple is again my new fav Mac's Violet pigment with the Graphology to smoke out the crease. It's hard to tell in the bottom picture but to make it slightly more 'evening' I added more Graphology in the crease, smudged black eyeliner across the top lid, and lined my waterline. With the mascara is still slightly subtle but emphasizes everything enough for a dark bar.

On my lips is a Wet N Wild lipstick that I of course don't have with me....grr it's a subtle pinky brown and worked very well (I think) with the purple eye.

I do have to admit that I LOVED my outfit for the night. Neither the top or the boots are really office appropriate so I changed into them later but I think the whole look is so fun. The shiny sequin top you saw in a different Forever21 focused post that I did before (you can find that here), the jeans are Faith21, and the boots are Kelly and something that I got from DSW a few weeks ago. I was a little concerned about 4'' stiletto heel but actually by the end of the night everything was feeling pretty comfortable. I probably should be concerned about showing this outfit off too much because I do intend to wear the exact same combo again, but you now what? I don't care. It's fun, I like it, why not show it off?

Hello my  beautiful blog readers! In case I have not inundated you with the news in person, let me tell you that today is my birthday!! 25 years I've spent on this great earth, playing and messing around, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I don't know what that is yet but I want to say thank you to everyone who's been putting up with me while I figure it out. 

Turning a year older is a momentous occasion in my opinion, whether it be my turn or someone elses. It's almost like your own little new year chance, an opportunity to reflect and keep it moving (possibly in a new direction, possibly not - it depends). The roomie proclaimed this to be my  year, and I feel for the most part if hasn't been too bad (some people could have been less idiotic in general, but I've decided to be the bigger person and let it go). 

One of the things I've had the most fun with this year is this blog. It might have evolved from its somewhat emo-esque beginnings, but I think it was necessary. I didn't so much need an outlet in that way any more. With makeup becoming more and more the focus I needed to be able to put that stuff here. It's hard to change directions and focus on something you never knew needed the focus. Makeup was always something I liked but it wasn't anything I took seriously as a hobby or a career option. Lately though with the support of the people around me I have started to. I don't know where it'll take me but I'll try to be brave and jump in with both feet. 

I think that's probably the hardest thing for me. Forcefully changing my path. Walking off the well trodden road in front of me and trying something different. An extreme aversion to drama has be quite comfortable in places/times where things don't suck - when they're going pretty good. Why rock the boat when the boat's not that bad? Well because sometimes the boat can be better than just not bad. Amazing I know, but I swear it had to be a possibility.

In thinking about all the things that had to come together to make me me I decided that music had to be discussed. I have always loved and been involved with music. Chorus for forever (DC is the exception not the rule), band sometimes, and everything else whenever there's time. I mean - my sorority line name references a song by one of my favorite bands because there's little that means as much to me. So you lucky people, here are the 25 years of ME (if it's not completely correct I don't care. I went by random Googling with Billboard Chart listings. I didn't want to double check because truthfully I have better uses of my time. This is just a disclaimer the list is probably not perfect and that's ok).

1985 - "Take On Me".....a-ha
1986 - "Faith".....George Michael
1987 - "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" .....Whitney Houston
1988 - "Never Gonna Give You Up"..... Rick Astley
1989 - "Straight Up"..... Paula Abdul

1990 - "Hold On"..... Wilson Phillips
1991 - "Two Princes"..... Spin Doctors
1992 - "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)"..... En Vogue
1993 - "Can't Help Falling In Love"..... UB40
1994 - "The Sign"..... Ace of Base
1995 - "This is How We Do It"..... Montell Jordan
1996 - "Wannabe"..... Spice Girls
1997 - "Criminal"..... Fiona Apple
1998 - "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".....Will Smith
1999 - "I Want it That Way"..... Backstreet Boys
2000 - "He Wasn't Man Enough"..... Toni Braxton
2001 - "U Remind Me"..... Usher
2002 - "Complicated"..... Avril Lavigne
2003 - "Lose Yourself"..... Eminem
2004 - "This Love"..... Maroon 5
2005 - "Hollaback Girl"..... Gwen Stefani
2006 - "London Bridge"..... Fergie
2007 - "Before He Cheats"..... Carrie Underwood
2008 - "Lollipop"..... Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major
2009 - "I'm Yours"..... Jason Mraz
2010 - "Raise Your Glass"..... Pink

I hope you've enjoyed that large random rendition of songs I love even now. There were a LOT more that could (and should probably) have been on this list, but it's a good one anyhow. Use it as a starting off point to make your own - I'd love to see and hear it!

Just in case you couldn't tell, that's me on the left in my favorite childhood post: thumb in the mouth, finger on the nose. When I was REALLY small I could suck my thumb and twirl my hair at the same time, but alas that could not happen forever. Awesomesauce.

Yay for new makeup!! I picked up a few pieces from the CCO on Sunday and then got in the stuff I purchased from Sephora's Friends and Family Sale. 

Unsurprisingly I couldn't want and wanted to try everything, so I did my usual cray-cray/schizo two eyes two eye looks. 

On the right eye is this ridiculous bright blue angled look, which I based on the gold and red Arabic eye I did forever go. Click here for that post.

On the left is a soft day look that is essentially not that different from what I usually do, but it only uses one eye shadow duo by Too Faced. I think this'll be a great one to take with me travelling because the brown is SO pigmented and buildable, even to night life appropriate. 

Both looks had UDPP as the base and was finished off with my new YSL Effet Faux Cils mascara. Which I can't decide was worth the money or not. There's going to have to be an indepth comparison post I think. 

Hope you guys like the rambling and the random! Later!

To make sure I used this wonderful Sunday filled with its extra-houry goodness, my friend and I dropped by the mall. I didn't pick up a lot of stuff (yay me!) but what I did pick up are a couple items I've decided to call Birthday Goodies!

Will I wear them to birthday celebrations? I have no idea. But they were purchased the week of my birthday and it makes me happy to think of them that way.

The first thing I bought was this cute little purse/clutch from F21: 

They're surprisingly comfortable and I even like the peep toe so I'm excited to add them to my collection.

I also picked up a few things at the CCO (Cosmetics Company Outlet) but I'm hoping to actually be proactive and possibly do a video about the makeup I've bought over the last few months, so we'll see how it goes. 

Hope you're all having a wonderful evening, I'm going to go now and take my Pepto Bismol and curl up in bed. Night!

Today, Forever 21's plus size brand - Faith 21: Extended Sizes - has been renamed Forever 21+: Plus Sizes.

And I'm not sure how I feel about this. The terminology marketers use when reaching out to bigger girls changes all the time. Plus size, extended sizes, using different numbering for garments like 0 - whatever; consistency is pretty much non-existent. 

I guess I just can't help but wonder, why change the name at all? What type of re-branding does Forever 21 think this is going to do for the line? As of right now Faith 21 is already known as one of the few lines were a big girl can pick up affordable items that don't look too shabby. They might not last forever, but for those few times you wear it, you're gonna look good (probably - caveats on this kind of things are always necessary). 

Yes the new title might bring in more of a connection to Forever 21 (though I don't think that was really needed), but the way they classify the clothing line changed as well. Hmm... Is this simply a matter of political correctness? I didn't particularly care what the line was called, as long as I could get a dress for less than $25.

I can't say that I'm insulted. I'm not. I can say that Forever 21 you've made me consider once again what type of advertorial drivel I'm being fed by the fashion industry on a day to day basis.

Yay for my derby girl costume! It might have taken a bit to bring together, and I recognize that it was probably not at all authentic, but it was TONS of fun! I wore the whole outfit to the Ms. Adams Morgan Pageant, which is a drag queen pageant and was hilarious by the way. There were 10 contests vying for the crown, and audience members were treated to small vignettes ('Law and Disorder') between each talent act. I don't think I've seen such grandiose lip syncing in my life :)

I have to admit that that in the end my costume wasn't the cheapest option I could have gone with. I bought each item I was wearing new (a lot of it from Target) and the skates were a new purchase as well. I don't regret any of this mind you, mostly because I'd budgeted about $100 to spend on an authentic belly dancer outfit. Luckily for my wallet I didn't spend the whole budget on the new costume, so in the end while it was more expensive than one of those 'in a bag sets' it was a costume that was unique and made me feel spiffy. Plus people at the pageant were very impressed by my friend and I's ability to skate around the hotel AND go up and down stairs.

Now for costume specifics: 

The crop jacket is from Torrid, the black and purple tank tops from Target clearance, the skirt (which actually has two tiers of ruffles) is from Hot Topic, the pink tights + black fishnets + white and black striped socks are all also from Target. Finally the skates themselves are from Dick's Sporting Goods and have very cute lavender wheels (I'm annoyed that while stationary my costume apparently made me look short and wide, but I assure you that in life it looked much better). AND I just realized that my friend had skate padding that I was supposed to borrow and forgot about. Dammit. Oh well - there's always next year!!

And of course I'm sure you're interested in hearing more about the makeup too:

  

Originally when I did this look I used a silver liner along the bottom but I decided you couldn't really see it so instead I scrapped it in favor of just continuing the color gradation along the lash line. Everything else is pretty much the same except that I didn't end up using the NYX gloss on top of the Wet 'N Wild lipstick. The Megalast lipsticks really do last forever but with the gloss on top there seems to be a bit more smearing that happens. I knew I'd be eating and/or drinking so to limit the number of touch ups I used just the lipstick - which still looked great!

One of the biggest things that surprised me from this look was how long everything lasted. I've used the MAC paint before as a primer but for some reason on Saturday night my eye makeup was creaseless and just as vibrant at 2:30am as it was at 7pm when I left the house. I'd have to say similar things for my foundation. Shine is an inevitability for me, I've tried almost everything, but the MAC pro longwear concealer hid my acne scars the NARS Sheer Matte did the rest of the work at evening out my skin tone - I highly recommend both products.

Products Used:

Eyes -

~~MAC Paint in Untitled

~~NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Purple

~~FaceFront Cosmetics Loose Mineral Eye Pigment in Little Gremlin

~~MAC Pigment in Grape

~~MAC Pigment in Violet

~~FaceFront Cosmetics Loose Mineral Eye Pigment in Heroic

~~Stila Eye Shadow in makalu (matte black)

MAC eyeshadow in Soft Brown

~~MAC Idol Eyes (silver for highlight)

~~MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

~~Sephora Kohl Pencil in 01 keep black

~~Rimmel Mascara Combo

Lips -

I leave you with the 'aren't we tough' pose my friend and I did (in the middle of a jewelry/accessory store - that's right. We're some badass muthaf*&kas):




And ok sorry one more fun picnik-ized photo that I also like:

While I'm still working on the more mammoth 'this is what I looked like for Halloween' post: PICTURE FUN!

 Hmm what am I going to do with my great derby girl makeup and all this time to take pictures before I go wait for the bus?

 Think Dana, think. WAIT! I got it!

Time for a ridiculous 'ROCK 'N ROLL' shot that will make me look like an idiot!

Egggscellent.

I know it's 10pm (East coast time anyway), so it's a little late to be wishing anyone a happy anything, but still: I wish you lots of fun, candy, and great costumes (be they cute, funny, scary, slutty, or otherwise)! 

So originally my 'Fall Fun' post was going to include the pictures that I took from my evening o pumpkin mutilation.What actually happened is that I wrote out the first post, realized it was a$$ long, and decided to chop them in 2. And now as I'm writing part two I'm thinking about how since I didn't write any posts in between these two the main page of my blog is still going to be covered in high(ish) quality pictures which will make it slower to load...

Dammit.

Oh well, to MOVE ON. A few nights ago I went all Martha Stewart on the pumpkin I bought from Larriland Farms and turned it into the first carved pumpkin I've ever done as an adult. With her own apartment and everything.

Here is the pumpkin after I've taken all the gooey bits out. I was surprised at how much this 1) grossed me out almost as much as when I cook turkey, and 2) yet still made me proud of my spoon scraping abilities.

I saw this really cool picture on Google of an example pumpkin that I tired to recreate. I was a little sad that even though it was the mouth I liked the most on the picture I found, mine did not turn out very much like it at all.

BUT - when it's all dark and lit up it doesn't look half bad now does it?

FYI: You can't tell, but this is my pumpkin sitting on the front stoop of my apartment building.

They were pretty damn yummy if I say so myself. 

So there you go peeps, a close up and personal look of my Fall Fun of the moment. I highly recommend that you guys do this for yourselves, whether it be visiting your local farms or carving a pumpkin. I might even consider doing another to decorate my table for Thanksgiving :)

So apparently I'm having one of the most awesome Fall seasons this year because last Saturday I went apple picking! And there might, just might, have been some beets and pumpkins....

 Google it, it's somewhere in the depths of Maryland about an hour from DC. Even at that distance it's totally worth the drive because this farm is BEAUTIFUL!! On the way there we saw movie perfect Fall foliage. 

 My friend Christine and I walking to find the perfect places to pick Granny Smith and Stayman apples.

I told you there would be beets didn't I?! I think I'm way too proud of this picture but whatever - BEETS!

 End of the day at the pumpkin patch, a little sweaty and tired but filled with that 'I've been fake-ass working in the sun'-spirit.

Stick around for more pictures of the pumpkin itself in 
Part II of Fall Fun!!