Stan Rice is amazing, you should read him.
The Strangeness
The strangeness of others—
Even your sisters and brothers—
Is a responsibility to
Overcome—or some night they will be lying
In a bed dying—and how you loved them,
Its quality—will be as unknown
To you as your own mother was
While a living stranger.
From Red to the Rind, and a sentiment that I hold very dear to my heart. Especially having recently lost an old friend, unexpectedly, suddenly, and not really ever having told her how important she was to me. The people that you care about, discover the quality of your love for them, and then TELL them. Make sure they understand also. I know it’s scary, but it’s important, so be brave, my dears.
New, bluer hair!
Just touched it up/redyed last night – put Beyond the Zone Color Jamz Huckleberry Blue’s right over the green (which resulted from a mix of the color of my hair after color-stripping, and then applying Huckleberry Blue and Tripped Up Turquoise in equal portions), let it sit for two hours, two and a half hours, -ish, and then rinsed out. VERY happy with the results, much more what I’d been hoping for the first time (even if I did like the olive-y, peacock-y-ish green). Probably going to add more peacock extensions before long; want to condition it a bit more first, though, and comb out the tiny tangles.
This is *right* after rinsing, so my hair’s still wet – but the color is pretty true, and you get the idea at least.
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Swatch Sunday (ON Sunday, yay!), 7/10/11: Black Rose Minerals
I got my very first Black Rose Minerals order a couple days ago – which was very quickly shipped, which made me very happy as I love getting mail. But it was closed with such cute tape, I waited until today to take a picture of it. I got a TON of samples, but today I’m showing you some of the packaging it came in (CUTE!), the stickers that came with it (CUTE! and generous!), and the samples from the Sprinkles Collection, because those were what I grabbed first. So, many more Swatch Sunday: Black Rose Minerals editions to come, so I hope you love them as much as I do!
Here’s the pretty red decorative tape that sealed the envelope. (Is it baroque?) I just love little touches like this, they’re so cute, and I think they indicate extra thought given to the packing/packaging/branding. Love it! (One of our couches is the “background” – sorry if there’s any cat hair on it. That’s pretty much how it is, though, when you have two cats, one light and one dark. Cat hair on everything, and at least one color is guaranteed to show up. 
)
A vellum packet contained my invoice, a very sweet handwritten note in silver paintpen on black paper (cute!!! I’m sure it’s Rosa’s style, but it’s also right up my little-inner-goth alley!), some business cards, and a gorgeous laminated flyer with a discount code for a future purchase. And here’s the pretty stamp on the front of the packet:
The back of the packet was stamped in black with “thank you!” in an Old English style font.
My samples were very neatly bagged up, and then wrapped in black tissue paper (squee!!) and sealed with a cute red BRM sticker. See?
Then, STICKERS! Lots of them! I keep my bank transactions in a Moleskine journal, and I used to put all the stickers I got from Fyrinnae orders on it. I *just* filled up my first journal, and had to buy a second one this past week. And thanks to Black Rose Minerals, it already has pretty stickers on it! It’s a little thing, but it makes me very happy.
And here are my two favorite stickers – although they're all cute.
Finally – here’s the Sprinkles Collection. Top row is Minty and Sunset. Middle row is Ultraviolence and Prozzac. Bottom row is Meringue and Bubble-Bobble. They’re all swatched over Concrete Minerals Electric Eye Primer. First photo is inside, with flash. Second photo is outside, in sunlight, no flash.
CUTE!!!
Woo WOO!
My staff picture is finally up, and it is AWESOME! Look at me, in space and shit! And the greenscreen didn’t eat my hair, either! RAD!
June Faves vid
Here’s mine – and be sure to surf on over to Youtube to check out the other ladies’ faves. 
Links for better/more visible/more accurate colors of stuff I raved about in the video:
-Nancy Botwin-inspired look, using Tarte Tipsy and Alison Raffaele Lipskins in Laugh
-Alison Raffaele Lipskins swatches
-swatches and a FOTD with Posietint
-Look using Sugarpill’s Midori and Tako
-Look using Sugarpill’s Afterparty and Tako
-Look using Dollipop as blush
And here’s the post on the look I’m wearing in the video.
Swatch Monday: Possible Lime Crime dupes (7/4/11)
Posted late because I failed (failed!) to write down what they were potential dupes to, and had to look them up again. I’m really glad I decided to go with dupes, because getting a boatload of StarGazer (and one Barry M) off Ebay was far cheaper than trying all the LC lipsticks in similar colors – and some of them are HORRENDOUS on me (although very pretty on the paper towel when I wiped them off; stupid skin tone!). So I’m glad I only spent like $2.50 per lipstick, as opposed to $16. Much cheaper, especially if I’m probably going to toss (or give away) the ones that look atrocious on me. And the LC colors I was most interested in, are sold out on the site anyway. (Not that I’m inclined to buy LC stuff, since I tend to avoid companies that have any drama associated with them. I’m not weighing in on said drama, I’m just saying it exists, and that tends to scare me off a company in general. There are plenty other places I won’t shop because I’ve “heard stories” – but I’m not mentioning them here because I’m not discussing possible dupes to their products, okay? I talk too much already; no need to clog this post up even more.)
-StarGazer 109 – potential dupe to Great Pink Planet (looks pretty hideous on me, especially when you see it on my full face)
-StarGazer 115 – potential dupe to D’Lilac (another one that’s way too light for me)
-StarGazer 120 – potential dupe to Cosmopop and/or Great Pink Planet (kind of frosty, and definitely not a dupe to Cosmopop, as it’s definitely light pink; don’t think it’s a dupe to GPP either, since it’s frosty)
-StarGazer 123 – potential dupe to Cosmopop (I would say also not even close to being a dupe for Cosmopop – too pink and too frosty; sorry for the blurry pic, but you get the idea; pretty close to 120, too)
-StarGazer 122 – potential dupe to Countessa Fluorescent (maybe? it’s hard to say since I don’t actually have CF to compare it to in person, but it’s not as obviously wrong as the two supposed Cosmopop dupes above)
-Barry M 146 Dolly Pink – potential dupe to Countessa Fluorescent (another “maybe?”)
-Stargazer 136 – potential dupe to Centrifuchsia (I don’t know if this is a dupe for Centrifuchsia, but 1-it looks pretty close, and 2-I FUCKING LOVE IT!)
-StarGazer 106 – potential dupe to Retrofuturist (no, not a dupe for Retrofuturist; but hella fluorescent – even more so in real life, if you can believe that)
-StarGazer 127 – potential dupe to Retrofuturist (pretty close, I’d say, and my other favorite of the group)
-StarGazer 104 – potential dupe to No She Didn’t (um, no, not even close to No She Didn’t; but a very pretty…what is that, turquoise? dark blue with some green? whatever it is, pretty, but not No She Didn’t)
-StarGazer 103 – potential dupe to No She Didn’t (another “no,” but also pretty, nonetheless)
-StarGazer 110 – potential dupe to Styletto (I guess so; it’s a black lippy, and not that drying, so, yay)
Next step is to *finally* get some OCC Lip Tars and start mixing up dupes per these awesome “recipes”.
FOTD: Pin-uppy, thanks to Helen (7/4/11)
Helen’s Boogie Woogie Bugle Gal look inspired the eyes on this one. I wanted to wear the red StarGazer lipstick, and thought pin-uppy eyes would go well with it.
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FOTD/Homage: Albinwonderland is a genius (7/2/11)
I *love* this look! Too bad I recreated it from memory instead of by re-watching the video first, because I was kind of way off the mark. But I still like the results! I’ll just have to have another go at reproducing it more faithfully, copycat that I am. I wore this to a cookout/pool party on July 2nd, and got several compliments. (And I’m not wearing lipliner – that’s just stain from the StarGazer lipstick the day before that I *could not* get off. That shit ain’t playing!)
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FOTD: Dollface (7/1/11)
Don’t want to wear *too* much makeup for karaoke, especially when it’s going to be super crowded and hot (Pinhook just got the Indie’s Best Karaoke award, and it was super-packed, which resulted in some unnecessary drama, but whatevs), but I wanted to bust out the StarGazer, and then Dollipop was just calling to me, and everything else fell in, and there you have it. Pretty simple, but I like it. Love Electric, really need to pick up Flipside, too, I’m thinking. And no closed-eye shot, because, really, I don’t think it’s needed. I’m only wearing eyeliner and mascara. Even if it is a really pretty eyeliner.
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Videos! And LOTS of running-on (well, in the one video.)
My intro video/13 questions tag for the collab channel, The Makeup Heroes:
And here’s the vid from my personal channel that expounds a bit on some of my “13 questions” answers – but really is mostly me going off on tangents. So, if you’ve got 27ish minutes to kill and like watching me mug, cuss, and go off on tangents, enjoy! (Also, there’s a point where I lean back and cross my legs, and it might look like you see a flash of underwear, but it absolutely is not. It’s my other leg. If it was actual underwear, you wouldn’t be seeing it. But “leg that maybe looks a bit like it might be underwear, even though it’s leg” doesn’t warrant editing out, in my esteemed laziness.)
