thanksgiving

Hope you're all having a nice holiday weekend -- I know it can be hella triggering and terrible (usually I totally dread it), I hope it isn't the case for you and you are surrounded by people (and food) you care about. This morning I spent the day gloriously in bed, brainstorming pitches and watching Zoolander. It's a bit frightening how it never gets old. Thinking up pitches on fashion criticism while watching Zoolander is just.. really surreal and funny. Because honestly it's not that different from real life. Which makes it even funnier. 

Anyway --- these weren't taken by Tayler, she's gone home for the break. They're actually in my new studio! But it's still under construction, so it's close cropped. I am embarrassingly rusty at taking my own photos now, but I think these came out kind of cool. Blurry and void of details, yes, but let's all pretend it's #art. Optimism! 

Ok, I felt absurd with all those blurry photos, so here is ONE where you can actually see me. Bah. 

But to the clothes.... my new parka makes me feel very Blade Runner especially with my new haircut. And I am finally wearing my vintage leather pants I thrifted a month or two ago -- during Rookie weekend, so I guess it's been two months? Time flies. It feels so long ago. I was on a mission that day for some CDG because I heard someone had sold a bunch of theirs to a consignment store, and I ended up going on a really dramatic mission throughout the neighborhood looking for a mysterious CDG collection and also leather pants. I lucked out and found these in the first store I went to, for I think $12! I ended up finding way more than I bargained for and ended up having a panic attack in the dressing room with a frozen bank account because I couldn't leave without buying more than I probably should have. OH WELL. I DON'T REGRET IT AT ALL. 

I'd rather resell things I don't wear than walk away wondering what if, anyway. There is so little that I actually really want in my closet nowadays anyway so when I find multiples of things that inspire me I can't just turn away! I don't wan't to wonder what could have been. That applies to more than just clothes. 

Hope you're having a delicious day darlin. See you soon.

cdg, chanel, pat mcgrath and biba

This weekend has been super packed with makeup and brilliant babes -- my skin is crying out for pampering but I think it was totally worth it. I've been trying to be more productive lately, and so there is a few things you can read from me on the internet. I'm really proud of my Chanel SS14 Makeup Tutorial on Rookie. I also did a quick nail post for Capitol Couture (the Hunger Games Online Magazine), too.

Click for tutorial.

Those over the top makeup looks are my favorite to do -- I ended up spending the rest of that day with that makeup on and I think it looked fabulous huhuhu. I've been consciously trying to do more intricate looks, I'm treating my fashion knowledge as my makeup handbook and going through all of my favorite shows to emulate the looks so I can get better at blending and just general makeup stuff. It's a conscious and methodical effort of learning the aesthetics back and front to the point where I can reference them unconsciously later on when I'm trying to make something uniquely my own. It's how I work when I used to spend a lot of time on my outfits, and now it's how I work teaching myself makeup.

Midnight recreations of Biba Fever and Pat McGrath for Galliano. Tayler did her own makeup using the MUFE Flash Palette pretty much exclusively (honestly, it is the best makeup investment in our combined arsenal). I did my makeup using Kryolan's Aquacolor to white my face out and then powdered with MUFE, and then a bevvy of eyeshadows of my own mixing (I did a tutorial on this) and MAC's Carbon. I'm wearing Illamasqua's Kontrol on my lips because on the monitor Sasha's lips read more cool blue, but I think a deeper, more wine color would be more accurate. My drawn on eyebrows are just liquid eyeliner, I used Clarins. I've listed alternatives you can use below for the same effect. 

Tried to go to the Yayoi exhibit but the line was super long so I went to Comme des Garcons and played around in my future wardrobe instead. Give me like 6 years and they'll be in my closet. Tayler snapped this photo on the way to CDG, she ordered me into the light. It's nice having someone around who is even more obsessed with lighting than I am! I usually have to art direct everything. Anyway, I'm wearing a vintage coat, Cole Haan shoes and a dress that has been on the blog before. Here are your options if you'd like something similar:

Me in the ideal fall coat by Junya Watanabe. It's sold out on farfetch in this colorway, but is available elsewhere should you happen to have that $$$$ lying around. It's disgusting how perfect it fit and how beautifully tailored it is. I think I'm aspirationally more of a Junya girl than a mainline CDG girl most days -- I want to be the punk girl Junya creates.

I'm definitely more of  a Rei baby though. Who could look half as good in these ridiculous coats as me? Too bad they cost more than my tuition. I'll have to wait for a sample sale. Still, walking away from playing with CDG doesn't bother me because I know I'm resourceful enough to find a way to get what I want eventually. It might take realistically like ten years or whatever but it's never a question that it won't be mine. *muffled maniacal laughter in the distance*

Ok I really have homework and deadlines to attend to, but I hope you had a rad weekend too cutie pie. 

tweedledee and tweedledum for prada

This weeks shoot was like, really too heavily influenced by youtube videos we'd been watching the night before and also my obsession with Pat McGrath / Val Garland / Lisa Eldridge but I think it turned out really well. I can't avoid paying homage to my idols, it was really funny catching myself veering towards creams and colors that I had fallen asleep watching the night before. Doing Tayler's and my own makeup after this week's girlmonster was really kind of therapeutic actually, since I didn't have to worry about a story or anything like that, I could just think about my favorite makeup looks and pull from them without worrying if I'm erasing a story that is important to the portrait.

 

 

I began by referencing Lisa Eldridge's Biba tutorials, but then I remembered Grace Jones exists and so that happened too. I have to make the makeup very pigmented and stripey to work with the lighting setup we use so blurred out super blended makeup doesn't really work for the pictures right now. Another time. 

This look though, besides the Biba/Grace Jones connection, was heavily influenced by how much I've been thinking about the Guy Bourdain x NARS situation lately and the power of blush. I'm really into it. I used a mixture of OCC Creme Color Concentrates (which I L O V E), INGLOT & MAC* shadow,  MUFE Powder Blush*. MAC lipstick in Violetta. I've been using MUFE cream and powder blushes almost exclusively for the past few weeks and just found out they have a matte teal and purple so UMMMMM consider me a fan. 

I didn't have as much time to do my own makeup (this always happens) but I knew I wanted a kind of hazy mask like I remember happening at Valentino one year, and also, glitter. That lipstick is Morgana's Cryptoria, I've worn it on the blog before here. The gloss on top is INGLOT. The glitter on my eyelids is Naked Cosmetics on top of a combination of MAC and OCC eyeshadows. My gradient eyeliner is Makeup Geek Eyeliner in Poison blended into Urban Decay*, and I used a combination of  blue butter london mascara* with Collection 2000 mascara. 

Can you tell we both like Cindy Sherman? Like a lot? Sidenote: the identical body language was not on purpose AT ALL, which makes it EVEN BETTER.  Talk to you soon babies.

* denotes product that was c/o the brand as a gift or editorial consideration. I don't blog (or use) about products I don't like or use myself, these are all things I keep in my kit now. I highly recommend all products mentioned! If you ever want in depth reviews of makeup, you can always ask me on my makeup blog.

mermaid princesses and tartan queens

Pretty much every Saturday now is dedicated to artmaking with Tayler now, it's my only free day of the week really but I spend most of it working on my girlmonstering photo series. These snaps aren't part of it, they're just pictures we decided to snap at the end of our shoots today to commemorate our working together and our excellent outfits. I've had a rough past month or two and so I decided to wear Scott's dress throw myself into things I love and not look back. It's working and I'm really grateful and inspired by my friends and the work we're doing. 

Tayler and I dyed each other's hair impulsively last weekend and watched My Mad Fat Diary together as a bonding ritual before our photoshoot the next day. I let her do what she wanted with it really, we couldn't find my regular dye in stores (it was the weekend before Halloween also, so venturing into Ricky's was similar to a gauntlet in Hell) so she just used a bunch. 

What I would give to go back in time and run some dry shampoo through my hair before these photos, oh my god. Oh well, these were shot in like twenty minutes, you can't expect perfection. I put my makeup on real fast and didn't bother to wash the product off my hands from when I was doing other girl's makeup. That's all black lip tar on my hands by the way. Tayler's wearing a CDG skirt she spied at Tokio 7 when she went shopping with me (she went back and bought it cause it haunted her....I'm a good influence), you can see why we're friends. 

I think this snap was just to adjust the lighting but I like it the best, I think. Anyway, I hope you're all having a rad weekend. If you're located in or around NYC and you're queer and/or a WOC and down to be a model for our photo series just drop me an email, we're always looking for models. Here's kind of a moodboard and general idea of what we're focusing on if you want to know more. We're keeping all the photos under wraps which is so hard! We want to show them SO BADLY but I think keeping it close until it's ready and more finished is the right thing to do. I'm excited and proud of what we're doing though. I think you will be too once you see.