Category Archives: Behind the Scenes

What I Wore – Duran Duran! 

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This past weekend I saw my teen dream boys in concert, Duran Duran!  Who am I kidding; I’m about to turn 45 and Duran Duran are still my dream boys!  It was a beautiful spring evening and the show was outdoors, and though I was a bit chilly, I stayed warm by dancing! 

 
MAC Russian Red, you never fail!

  Ballet flats and leggings are great concert wear – so comfy!  A crossbody bag that is small and won’t get lost is also perfect for shows! 

CHIC with Nile Rodgers opened the show and did some of their biggest hits like “I’m Coming Out” and “Freak Out” and got the audience warmed up – then Duran Duran performed a nice long show of old and new tracks, opening with “Paper Gods” and later dueting with Nile Rodgers on “Notorious.”  They did a little tribute to their friend David Bowie, too.  Aw.  I got to hear favorites like “Planet Earth,” “Girls On Film,” and “Sunrise.”  All in all, it was a great evening! 

Do you ever go to concerts or festivals?  What do you like to wear? 

All the makeup sales I’m not hitting :-P

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So, there are a TON of great sales right now, so many that I could not even begin to tell you about all of them.  Here are some of the sales I haven’t hit:

Bobbi Brown 20% off

Tarte 30% off (No! You have Tarte blushes! Close that browser, imbecile!)

Sephora VIB sale 15% off

Ulta 20% coupon

Macy’s 40% off coupon (Now this one was hard.)

…and a new one hits my inbox every few minutes!

Now…why didn’t I hit any of these sales?  Because I DON’T NEED ANYTHING.  I really don’t, y’all.  I got 2 palettes for Christmas and replaced most of my daily staples in the late winter.  I don’t need anything and I’m doing better about not shopping just because something’s on sale.  HOWEVA.  There may be something you need or are ready to make the splurge on.  The best place to read about the sales is <a href=”http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/?m=1″>Nouveau Cheap</a>, so head on over there if you feel like reading about all these spring sales! I love that blog!

 

Lipstick Destash It and Trash It!

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Y’all, it feels good to get organized.  After consolidating my blushes, I realized I had so much CRAP I need to get rid of.  And let’s face it…as much as we hate it, makeup expires.  At least, the emollient stuff does on a consistent basis! Every one of these lipsticks had gone bad except the Rimmel one, which is the worst shade ever on me.  (OMG 1980s frost, guys.  I can’t even force myself to give it to anyone else.)  The balm lipsticks had SPF that probably stopped working around a year ago.  Sad face…  And OMFG…let’s not get into how many years ago L’Oreal stopped making Endless lipsticks.  I’m just gonna stop right here.

Bye bye, musty crayon smelling lipsticks of yesteryear.  You served me well.  

  
Get out!  I got too much shiz! 

😀 

DIY Hair? Sure, bring a friend!

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It’s relatively well known that I tend to have hair that is crazy, fun, weird, brightly colored, fake, or whatever else. What a lot of people don’t know is that I do my own hair. Dye, cuts, extensions, shaving, all of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when I can get to a stylist and let them go nuts with it, but I’ll be honest: I’m lazy.  

 My hair is a hot mess here. Pay attention, I’m about to talk about the gentleman on the right.
Well, I have been getting tired of my one-length, growing out, shapeless hair mass. So I enlisted the help of my BFF Kurt, (pictured above laking a very serious face for some reason ¯\(°_o)/¯)  and said “shave some of it off.”

…actually, hold up. Let me tell you about Kurt for a second because his hair is way better than mine.

 These are but a few of the incarnations of Kurt.

Kurt is a mythical creature with great hair and weird jokes. When I was 19 and had just discovered Information Society, my main goal in life became “Have hair as cool as Kurt’s.” Fast forward a bunch of years, anyway, and as a weird and wonderful twist of fate he’s my BFF and I trust him to use his completely nonexistent hairstyling training to make my hair look weird as hell. 

   
 

I had him shave off the sides and leave d everything long, well, long. It worked. Now I have a mane of long hair and the lame hair on the sides that was all kinds of different lengths is gone. 

 (Unplugged headphones were because I had not yet plugged them in, not as some sort of choad fashion accessory)



Thanks Kurt! ❤️

Do you cut your own hair? Would you let a non-hairstylist friend do it for you?

Guess how old my Tweezerman tweezers are!

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If you guessed 19 years old, you’d be RIGHT!  I bought these when I worked in my first makeup job at Merle Norman.  They still work great and I haven’t even sent them in for sharpening!  I clean them with rubbing alcohol and they are good to go.  

 
If that’s not an endorsement for a product’s quality, I don’t know what is! 

 

Purging the makeup stash — LET IT GO! 

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Today, I watched some inspiration videos on YouTube before cleaning out my makeup kit. I do this from time to time, but today I decided to get ruthless. Woohoo! I made a set of rules for myself and went to town.

1. Look for anything that has gone bad or expired. Do you really want an eye infection or breakouts? Let it go!

2. Look for anything that just plain looks bad on you and you haven’t been able to make work. That nude lipstick that didn’t work before ain’t gonna work now. Let it go!

3. Look for anything you have dupes for. It’s fine to have different types of red lipsticks (deep red, orange red, cool red), but do you need 3 that are exactly the same? Make some room. Let it go!

Going in the bin:


You guys, those MAC eyeliners are from 2009.  And no, I wasn’t using them.  A couple of those lip products haven’t gone bad, but I can’t stand how they feel or smell (better luck next time, Ipsy).  I can’t tell you how bad those Benefit products smelled.  Cream and liquid products go bad faster than dry products.

(I had a bigger pile of stuff to go to my sister – she loves that!)

So, I’m not going to give you a hard and fast list of rules on how long to keep things before tossing them – not everyone agrees on the rules anyway, but a quick Google search will tell you some guidelines. In general, don’t keep your mascara and eyeliners longer than 6 months at the most, and everything else lasts a while longer.  In general, if something feels or looks really off and has stopped performing as it normally does, you should probably toss it. You can give things the old sniff test if you’re uncertain.  If it has the funk, toss it!  I believe as long as you don’t get a powder product wet, it should last you a good long time. Of course, if you get some horrible infection or have eye surgery, toss it all and use it as an excuse to shop for new stuff! (Like I did years ago when I had LASIK eye surgery).

So go forth my friends and liberate the old crap sitting in your drawers and makeup bags! BE FREE! 😀 When was the last time you purged your old and unused makeup?

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Pet Post!

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This is my cat, Jethro.  He’s 2 years old this month!  He’s a Humane Society rescue and he pretty much came home and decided he was going to try to be king of the universe.

  
Straight chillin!

This, however, is the actual Queen of the Universe.  This is Bella – she’s 14 years old, half Jethro’s size, and regularly puts him in his place. 

  
(If it not made for sits, why is it made of warm?)

Do you have any pets? 

What jewelry are you rocking for summer?

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I have a deep, abiding love for white metals, always have.  I have a great big bunch of sterling silver jewelry…ridiculous amounts of it, since you can sometimes find such great deals on it.  One of the things I love about the current revival in 90s fashion is that suddenly, my jewelry is back in style.  No, I never stopped wearing this stuff!  

  
All those pieces were found in expensively on eBay…except one.  I bought the thumb ring at a hippie boutique in 1994.  Bringing back the 90s?  Or kept it alive all this time?

So, I showed this photo to Kristin and she said “You know we all wore that stuff!  Oh, and the black cabochon rings with the filigree around it.”  To which I said, “Ahem, left hand,” and sent her this photo:

  
Pardon the swollen hands, but it’s hot as HECK here.  

What jewelry are you rocking this summer? 

It’s Sunday – time to organize and clean!

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So, if I can get to it, I usually wash my brushes on Sunday (unless I haven’t used them much).  This weekend I’ve been cleaning a lot and today I rearranged my new makeup desk setup (I recently moved EVERYTHING across the room because I decided standing up is for the birds). I’m sure I will keep moving it around because I cannot seem to get good lighting even with 2 lamps and a lighted mirror.  Well…I got the cheap one…not the $200 one…ah, that’s a post for another day.

Last night as I kept dropping things while getting ready to go see Fury Road (holy shit, Kristin, you were right, OMGGGGGGG), I got sick of my desk space being taken up by my brush roll, dropping things, etc, so I went back to my cases and vase filler I put together with supplies from Michael’s.  In no time, I will be sick of dust and random cat hairs…there is no winning when it comes to brush storage.  (And yes, I’m running a brand new air purifier in here!) 

  
That’s an obscene number of brushes.  Some aren’t even shown here.  I take really great care of them, though, and most of my MAC brushes are about 13-14 years old – no lie!!  If you invest in quality brushes and care for them properly, it’s a worthwhile investment.  That’s not to say there aren’t some cheap gems out there – see that $1 ELF concealer brush?  I spot conceal with it nearly every day.  There are some Sonia Kashuk and Eco Tools brushes in there, too, along with the MAC and Sigma.  You might even spot one or two detail brushes from the art store! 

What brushes are your favorite?  Any special tips for how you store them? 

And now, your moment of fail

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I recently ordered some stuff from NYX from their Memorial Day sale.  Some sweet warehouse person saw that I ordered a black eyeshadow and threw in a freebie pencil brush – how nice!  As I was snipping off the plastic wrapper, the brush slid down in the package…


Well, it’s the thought that counts.  Sigh.

Have you ever had an un-boxing disaster?  This is not my worst one, by far.  I once stabbed a pair of scissors right through the fabric of a corset.  Luckily, it was a cheap one (giggle)!  Yes, yes, I know…each time I swear I will pay better attention!