Beauty’s time
Spent,
A crooked mirror
Going down
An empty hall.
Putrid remembrance,
Bled away
From the
Original portraiture
In cacophonous delirium…
beauty
The Dawn’s Great Reveal
Treasured darkness,
From the climes
Of bitterness
Wrought.
Sowed displeasure,
Stewed to the
Dawn’s
Great Reveal.
Punk Fashion vs. 50s Rebel Fashion vs. New Rebel Fashion Wave
Does history seem to repeat itself every two or several decades? The 50s rebels had the greaser thing going on with their leather jackets, jeans, and t-shirts James Dean style. The 70s punk fashion came packaged with something similar: leather jackets, jeans, tees, and rock patches/pins on the jackets by way of the Sex Pistols and Ramones. I’ve had a fascination with “rebel” fashion since a young age, wearing custom-made patchwork pants and dresses to high school bohemian style. Nowadays, I wear light wash ripped jeans, a leather jacket with a pop of color, and pearl adorned sneakers with faux diamond rings, hoop earrings, and cat eye shades for a statement. The glamorous rebel look is my thing, where diamonds meet dirt, gutter to the stars. My love of glamorous movie icons like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn meet rebel heroes like Sid Vicious or Marlon Brando in a Hollywood back alley. The dust kicked up by non-conformist attitudes marries with a love of flaunting beauty and bejeweled spectacle. Happy almost-weekend!
Perfume
Tricking the pages,
Appearing in perfumed fantasies.
Crystal glass,
Moments preparing the
Skin,
Budded enchantment.
Adornment, the backwards effect
Of feeling,
Plummeting to dark waters,
The absent orator.
Hers the glance to
Eternity,
His the momentary realization of
Taste.
Piece of prism love,
Fractured steps of
A cool undulation,
Soft marabou slippers
Sliding across the living room
Rug…
Diamond reverie,
Candy body topped to be savored,
Sugar lips reciting the night’s revelation…
Smoky jazz,
Wrapped to the jams,
Carried under a satin layer.
Spat way up high,
Roused in music
Trailing past itself,
The oncoming quiet…
Argan Oil
My boyfriend bought some Argan Oil from Trader Joe’s a little while back for his skin and hair. According to health sources online, Argan oil has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. It can lessen signs of aging and moisturize skin and hair.
For skin, it is recommended for people to use a small amount so there is no negative effect and the same goes for hair so the hair doesn’t get too oily.
Go to your nearest Trader Joe’s and give this beneficial oil a try. It only costs $7. Set aside some time for a little self-care each day!
Throwback Thursday
Here’s to looking back at 2011, when I wrote for a lifestyle/beauty/fashion blog called Lip Gloss Culture based out of NYC. I had just graduated from Mills College and it was a great first gig. My Mom Susan Karr, an accomplished writer and editor (Word Suite), showed me the magical Wayback Machine site where I could find prior articles I’d had published. Here are some beauty posts:
The Benefits of Aromatherapy with Rosewood Oil
Happy Thursday!
Face
Face of blue,
Coarse thorn
Behind.
Lonely
Nothing,
Dripped to
Depression.
Mean world
Chugging along,
Pretty things
Torn away.
Smoked up
In folly,
Fool’s mirror
To show
A vampire’s
Face.
Tracked down
And split,
Sod covered
Over
Wooden
Death
Embankment.
Carried along
To
Blackened
Bliss,
Moon shine
A reflector
Upon
What love
Had lain
Down.
In the Spirit of Halloween
In the spirit of Halloween, my boyfriend and I have decided to be Victorian Vampire Rockers. A bit of lace, leather, and blood… I studied up a bit on makeup tricks and tips on Youtube and came across Bailey Van Der Veen’s channel. She is a Canadian makeup artist. She does a smokey red and black eye, white natural painted face, and reddish black lips with blood streaks dripping from the corners of the mouth. We went out yesterday to purchase the makeup in SF. The first store we stopped at was Kryolan on Union Street to buy a clown white face makeup. Next, we drove over to Fillmore and headed into the Discount Beauty Supply for a smoothing face primer, white setting powder, and a package of three blending sponges. The last stop was Goodwill on Fillmore for vampire teeth including face paint.
STEPS:
I first wash my face with a Skin Resource MD Cosmeceuticals Soap Free Total Facial Cleansing Gel. Bailey Van Der Veen starts with a Smashbox spritzing primer, but I just plan to spray a bit of rose water on my face. I add a Kiss New York Pro Touch Smoothing Primer and then go to filling in the brows with a Malibu Glitz 2 in 1 brown brow pencil and filling powder and angle it upward to give the brow character like in the video. Next, I apply Milani eye shadow primer to the eyelids and under areas. After that, I put on red eye shadow all over my eyelids plus the under areas. Black eye shadow goes over the lid and underneath and blends out. I take a Lancome black eyeliner pencil and draw it into the waterline of the eye and above as well as along the crease of the eyelid. In addition to what she does with the eyeliner, I paint on a Rock N Glitz Silver Liquid Liner for some added sparkle. Next, Bailey glues on fake eyelashes, but I simply apply Vibely XPress Control black mascara to the lashes. Next, I dip a blending sponge into the Kryolan Clown White Makeup and blot it onto my face, smoothing it in to give the face a natural dead look without being too clownish. After that, a Kiss New York Pro Touch Setting Powder is applied with a medium brush to the face. She also addresses contouring the cheeks and forehead areas with brown eye shadow and gray for the nose. I may or may not use this tactic for my boyfriend and my faces. A cool tip I learned for the lips is to blend black and red lipstick and Cinema Secrets Pro FX blood with a syringe for the corners of the lips, but I’ll probably line the lips with L.A. Girl Sexy Red lip liner and then apply Sinful Color Legacy black lipstick and layer it with Smashbox red gloss as well as to the corners of the mouth for a dripping blood look.
Vampire Face Makeup Products Used:
Kiss New York Trio Blending Sponge- $6.99
Kiss New York Pro Touch Smoothing Primer- $11.99
Kryolan Clown White Makeup- $27.95
Kiss New York Pro Touch Setting Powder- $8.99
Stay tuned for the REVEAL!
Lemon Fresh Sun-In Hair Lightner
My boyfriend and I took a trip to a Walmart around the Oracle Arena area and I found a cheap bottle of Lemon Fresh Sun-In Hair Lightner for $3.48. Since the Balayage appointment at The Root Salon in Phoenix, I’ve been wanting to lighten my hair much more. This 4.7 oz. yellow bottle contains aloe, chamomile, marigold, flaxseed, and it’s alcohol free. Aloe contains antioxidant and healthy plant properties while chamomile treats the scalp. Marigold takes away dandruff and flaxseed has Omega-3’s and fiber. After spraying my entire head and combing the Sun-In Lightener evenly through my hair, it really softened the strands immediately while bringing out a honey hue. You can either blow dry the hair or I find simply giving your hair time in the sun does the trick. I also like the light lemony fragrance. Professionals say for getting maximum results, you should spray your hair every couple of days after showering for a summation of three applications. I’ll post the final reveal soon!
Balayage
I had been playing with the idea of going blonde again for several months, but knew I didn’t want to go fully blonde like the last time. I dyed my hair black about a year and half ago and let it grow out to a medium brown, as was my original hair color. The original blonde I’d gotten done was a gift from a boyfriend at the Atelier Emmanuel Salon around Union Square in San Francisco. For touch ups, I went once a month to a hair salon in Rockridge on College Ave. close to where the BART stops. Both places offered me a high quality service.
This time, I was determined to do a coloring where it kept my hair natural looking. Through researching and talking with my boyfriend, we discovered something called Balayage. I noticed a lot of women have this hairstyle. It’s a French hair technique where the hair is painted on in a way so as to create a graduated and natural-looking effect, which is exactly what I was looking for.
My boyfriend took me to a salon in the Mission and one on Polk Street to see about pricing, but it didn’t seem to be these hairstylists’ specialty. Once we decided to go to Phoenix for fall break to visit Haji’s daughter Trinity, we looked into hair salons in Phoenix that did this particular hair style and we finally stumbled upon a salon called The Root Salon in the North Central Phoenix area, which did a Balayage including a blowout for a good price. My boyfriend contributed his share of the cost, as it was my birthday present.
In French, the term balayer means to sweep and balayage means sweeping. It is a technique where the color is painted on the hair in sections. It gives a light, sun-kissed touch from root to tip. It is a highlighting technique, but not one involving foils.
In ten years time, The Root Salon has become one of the best go-to hair salons in Phoenix. They give the highest quality service in terms of hair maintenance and color and use only the finest hair care products, including Alfaparf Milano and Aveda. They have paired up with L.A. Vidal Sassoon Academy and many beauty conglomerates in the industry. Their excellent staff is well-trained in various hair practices and travels to New York and other cities for extensive training in hair care.
Their commitment to making people look their best is what made me choose The Root Salon. I had the pleasure of getting my hair done by Shane, a senior stylist, who has had considerable training in the field, and his ability to find the exact coloring to match my complexion was what made the appointment notable. I am grateful to him and the team for making my experience a memorable one.
