Dark Cupid - red and black look

So, the request was recently made for a red and black look. I agonized over what direction I wanted to take this in.. go superdark and goth, make it smokey, more red than black... Finally, I decided on a smoky black with red.

This WILL be a glasses tutorial.

Assemble your products. IT cosmetics mascara, NYX Shadow base in white (Quick note here - you reall need a black base for this look, but I don't have one and desperately need base, so this had to do.)UD 24/7 in Perversion, and MSC Optimus Primer, Ruby, Winter Rose, and Stormhold Ruby.

Glasses! Brushes! Top to bottom: fluffy shadow brush, medium angled shadow brush, sharply tapered pencil brush, medium contouring brush, large contouring brush, fluffy medium shadow brush.

Put on your primer and base.  I used just a touch of base, because I really didn't want the colors of this to be changed, I just needed that little extra "stick" for these colors

Line your waterline with UD 24/7.

Pick up some Winter Rose with your medium contour brush.

Pat liberally into your duct area.

Time for some Ruby. Pick up a good amount on the angle of the brush.

Apply to 2/3's of your lid, extending above your natural crease.

With your stiff, tapered pencil brush, pick up a good amount of Stormhold Ruby.

Keep your medium shadow brush on hand.

Do the same with your large contour brush.

DRAW IN your Stormhold Ruby.  Don't worry, it's a hot mess at first.

Use your shadow brush to gently bring in the sStormhold Ruby and distribute it on to the outer 1/3rd of your lids and into the crease.

You want your end result to look like so.

Add your glasses, and you're ready for a sexy valentine's night out!

Zombiegasm: A tutorial

What's this, you say? Halloween is over?  You don't need Halloween to have Zombies!!!  Blarggghhhh!!! Braiiinnnssss!!!!!

On to business.

Assemble your products. NYX Shadow base in white, MSC Graveyard Garden from the Alice in Zombieland collection, The Zed Word, and You've Got Red on You (the last two from the Shaun of the Dead collection,) MSC Optimus Primer, UD Perversion liner, and IT Cosmetics mascara.

Assemble your brushes. Lash comb, Floofy blending brush, tapered crease brush, domed shadow brush, and angled shadow brush.

Start with a clean face! Since it's midnight, I used a baby wipe on my whole face (including lids,) to just wipe away any oil or goop from the day.

Now apply your Optimus Primer and NYX Shadow base, in that order.

Line your lower lash line with UD Perversion. You want a medium-thickness line.

Tap out a bit of The Zed Word and pick it up on your angled shadow brush.

Apply The Zed Word to your ducts, bringing it gently down to your lower lash line.  Please note, this color is a light champagne with a pink shift, so it's hard to photograph.

Next, take You've Got Red On You and pick it up with your tapered crease brush.  I rarely use this brush for my crease, instead preferring to use it to create mid-lid columns.

About those columns.  Mid lid with a good amount of coverage. Like, expect a little fall-out.

Now, using your domed shadow brush, pick up some Graveyard Garden. (LOL, I typed "Gravetard garden" twice.) Again, you want enough on your brush to create a deep coverage on your lid.

Apply with a slight curve on the outside of your lid.  Don't worry about it being messy.  That's what fingertips and blending are for. Oh, and I promise you, everyone who works with loose pigments has eyeballs that look like this before they begin to blend and clean up.  It's inevitable.

With your floofy brush, pick up a bit more of The Zed Word.  This time you're going to pick up quite a bit, since you're going to use it to blend out those columns, as well as a brow highlight.

Bring it up from your duct up to the brow, and then blend down.  After you've softened the top of those columns, you want to use a light windshield-wiper motion to blend You've Got Red On You into Graveyard Garden.  GG is a blurple anyway, but that spot between the two is going to turn out to be this beautiful deep purple.  Again, difficult to capture.

An attempt to catch The Zed Word.  It failed.

A better, if yellowish, look at the blending.

Finally! A good shot of that purple and The Zed Word!

Add your mascara...

Put your glasses on, and voila! You're set!

As the new year comes to fruition...

I bid 2012 a joyous adieu. 2012 saw a lot of things... the end to a toxic, dangerous relationship; new health issues with the kids; heartbreak and loss.

There were good moments to be sure, but the majority of the year was spent in unhappiness.

So, it is with a glass-half-full attitude that I sit with Kinder Major and await 2013.

I don't have gargantuan hopes for 2013, just the small dream that it will bring happiness and peace.

Blessings to you, readers, and Happy New Year!

Squeee! New work from Ninette Swann!!!

My new favorite contemporary romance author Ninette Swann has just released a new novel in time for Christmas!

I've had a chance to sneak-peak read it, and let me tell you, guys.. it's awesome.  Ninette's best work to date for sure.

Go, pick it up, read it for the holidays! You won't be disappointed!

Finding Home by Ninette Swann!

Nothing I can say or do.

Helplessness. That is how I feel right now. Helpless, angry, heartbroken, and frightened.

I have nothing to say or do to bring comfort to those families who lost their babies today. I had nothing to say or do when it happened in Columbine or any other school, either.

But I find myself angry, and wishing desperately that I could.

I want to hold each grieving parent, I want to place flowers at the childrens' graves. I want to go back in time, do something, some ripple, to make this have not happened.

I don't know why this has affected me so deeply. Perhaps because I live with the potential mortality of my children on a daily basis, and school is one of the things that provides me a sense of normalcy in our lives that are in constant upheaval.  This event makes me remember that even normal isn't safe sometimes.

Parents, friends, teachers, know my heart and my thoughts are with you. All of you, past and terribly present.

Sweet N' Sexy Tutorial

Hi hi! I bet ya'll thought I forgot how to do makeup.  Don't worry, I didn't.  I've just had allergies and then beel ill.  It's time to get pretty again, kids!

So, obviously, start out with your products.  MSC Optimus Primer eye primer, NYX White shadow base, MSC Dame, Hello, Sweetie, and Mune Glow. UD 24/7 in Perversion, IT Cosmetics Hello Lashes, and MUFE Smoky Lash.

Brushes! I only use three today.  An angled shadow brush, a floofy shadow brush, and a relatively pointed crease brush.

Prime your lids.  Add the shadow base.  Line your lower lash line pretty heavily with UD 24/7 Perversion.  You want it DARK.  Oh, and have coffee, so you don't make the face I'm making.

A close-up of how opaque you want your shadow base.

Start out with Dame.  You're going to use your floofy brush for Dame.

Pat Dame pretty heavily on the inner third of your eyelids.

Now take your pointed crease brush and Hello, Sweetie.  I love this pigment.  It's a pressure sensitive pink that reminds me of cherry blossoms, and it's a matte.  Yes, friends, I use a matte on a regular basis.  MSC's matte base goes on like BUTTAH, though, so I don't seem to have texture issues like I do with other mattes.

Pat Hello, Sweetie on GENTLY on the rest of your lid.  You want to retain that light pink color. Once you've done that, take the point of your crease brush, and apply pressure to the outer third of your lid so it darkens up.  Don't worry, the pressure-sensitive transition from the two colors is pretty seamless, so you don't really need to try and blend.  If you did, you'd lose the light pink.  You're going to pull Dame evvver so gently into Hello, Sweetie, too.

Now your Mune Glow and angled shadow brush.  Mune Glow looks off white in normal lighting, but in direct sunlight it gives off this coral orange hue.  Trust me, it's understated and positively STUNNING.

Run your Mune Glow from your inner duct to your brow.  Don't pat this color, you want to swipe.  That way there's no fallout into the Dame/Hello, Sweetie combo that you have to try and deal with.  You can *very* *gently* pull a little of it down into Dame/Hello, Sweetie in order to avoid a line of demarcation, but remember that Hello, Sweetie is VERY pressure sensitive.

Add your mascara(s).  I was experimenting today with two different brands that I've gotten super lush results with... the outcome was that I don't like to blend them.

The final look!

A nice shot of that dark eyeliner.

Here's lookin' at you, Kid.

A very good closeup of Mune Glow!

I promise I won't stay away so long the next time, and remember...

Stay Madd, Darlings!!!!!

Pneumonia in mom and the special needs child.

Pneumonia is not an easy ailment to deal with.  It leaves you breathless, exhausted, with your head swimming from a lack of oxygen.  You wheeze like an old ford truck on a frosty morning, and you bark like a seal when you cough.  Every muscle hurts from the coughing.

So what the hell do you do when you're coping with this little slice of medical hell and you have a special needs child who demands alllll of your attention allllll of the time?

Number one: Take your damn antibiotics.  Put it on the same timer that your birth control pill is on, take it when you make breakfast, but make sure you take it.

Number two: Pre-made foods are not the devil.  Frozen french toast, bagel bites, and canned ravioli are all acceptable food mediums with which your little darling can paint the room.

Number three: Dora.  Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that.  These will be your friend whilst you convalesce on the couch, still wheezing like that old ford.

What to do when your little darling demands to be on top of you, because you're an attachment parent and have worn said little darling since day one, and it's now year three and he thinks he still has to be touching you or on you at all times?  You begin the weaning and self-soothing process.

Fair warning, this may involve lollypops as rewards.

The long and the short of it? Take care of yourself.  Your kiddo, while being special needs, IS CAPABLE of playing on their own, soothing on their own, eating on their own, and pottying on their own, when you need them to be.  The NF1 makes Bug a very dependent child in many ways, but these coping mechanisms, while not necessarily the ideal activities for every day, will make it possible for you to take care of yourself while still providing the basic necessities for your child.

Oh, and one more thing - going over all the therapy techniques that are required by the therapists that you see three times or more a week?  Those can slide a little too.