BETTER IN BLACK

The weeks I do my early work shifts I still go for some version of my black uniform I wrote about several years ago. Quick, easy, rather incognito, but still stylish enough considering I get up a bit after five in the morning (or, rather: at night).

Black is the great disguise, a perfect way to cover tiredness, pluffiness and bad hairdays. Sometimes in more drastic ways, sometimes in more subtle. I know for some this might not work and colours and flair may do the trick instead, but I am better in black and it has to be lots of it. Especially when getting up early in the morning, having loaded a few ships already before the average office worker has had lunch, and, especially, like here, when having to go some place and be representable in the evening.

(Cat pics added for bonus comments.)


As you know from before my basic trick is to cover my hair with my beret, and make a few big rolls in front. Basically if your hair is not too messy or dirty you could skip the beret and just do a plain chingnon in the back of your hair as the curls in front will look nice enough.

For my hair in this one I rolled four curls, all in the same direction, and secured them with one pin in the middle.

Some highlighter, a good f foundation and lipstick does the trick on my weary face, but I think the most important is to do my eyebrows - I never leave the house without a few quick lines and a brush trough on them.

For my black look I also, always, do a strong eyeliner. Another easy face-saver is to cut a piece of old false eyelashes, about 1-1,5 cm in length and glue it in the outer corner of your eye. The small pieces are really simple and quick to apply, idiot safe to so say, and gives your eyes a totally different look - perfect cat eyes!

You may have noticed, at least I have, that most of my hint and tutorials always contains the words "easy" and "quick" - I like to be fancy, you know that, but I like to get away with as little effort as possible, unless the occasion is very special, then it doesn't matter. But my poiint is that you don't have to have all the time and skill in the world for a nice look!

The dress is an old knitted one from H&M. You've seen it in drawn sometimes in the very beginning of this blog.

Edit : OK; I have to add as you all seem to read the post this way - I do not look like this at five in the morning, of course not! I put on my black stuff yes - the "uniform" I refer and link to or a black dress- but come on, I work in the harbour, outside, no false lash bits or hair rolls... This is after work, when tired and having to go somewhere! But maybe one is not very good at expressing oneself late in the evening when having woken up some 18 hours earlier :)

A FINAL TOUCH

Been trying to bring on the warmth -I listen to Hawaiian guitars and we went out for (a lot of) tiki cocktails, but it didn't help - it's just getting colder and colder here! (But it was a good excuse to have lots of tropical drinks.)

Dress - 1950's vintage from Love Miss Daisy

MAKING A WAVE / BY THE MAKE-UP TABLE

Concentrate...

concentrate...

concentrate...

That's it!

And now I'm off out to town for my sister's fare-well party from the harbour! In high waisted trouser and high heeled brogues but no time for pictures on that. And one has to leave a little for the imagination you know.
Have a nice Saturday night y'all!

LEE AND STUFF

Some time ago I said that you could ask questions if there was something you were wondering about. So here's the answers. And some soft Sunday music to go along:


(I always like the Lee parts better in all Lee and Nancy songs).

At some point earlier I got the question of how I decided where to live?
-Well, apart from a couple of student exchanges abroad I've always lived in the Helsinki capitol area, the past eight years rather central. I joke that I'm slightly geographically discriminative in terms that I could not really consider myself to live elsewhere in Finland than around Helsinki. (It would probably be different if I'd have grown up somewhere else I guess...) When it comes to part of town I've lived in the same area the past five years, I originally moved there since the prices are more affordable. This summer however we'll move west of the city to a bigger home.

What computer do I have?
-I used to have an 22" iMac, now I have a MacBook Pro 17". ALso dreaming about the 27-inch iMac, but I guess one computer at a time is enough...

Do I work with photoshop to get my pictures so white or is it just the natural vibe of the cold north?
-It depends on the picture, when and where taken. If there's good light I use manual settings for a slightly overexposed effect, with long shutter speed. Otherwise I adjust the curves and/or add some white to faint out the edges for a more dreamy look in the pictures (like here, also with added lens flare).

Then I get a lot of questions about make up:
-A tutorial? Noup, I don't think I'll ever do one but I have promised some sort of make up post forever. Now I'm really going to try and do it soon!

-The blusher I use is GOSH; the peach and the dark pink shades.

-If I change my skin routine in winter? Yes. My skin gets both flakier and fatter in the beginning of winter but evens up after some time. When cold I try to avoid too much water on my face; I wash it in the evening just before going to sleep but not in the morning, perhaps only wipe it off with tonic. I put a lot of moisturizer on at night but none in the morning, except for some eye serum. I use a serum for my lashes and lots of hand creme in winter too.

Could I post about how I tie my scarves around my head?
-Yes, not that I really tie them in any special way but I'll give it a go at some point!

Is it possible to buy a IttyBitty Tease Cabaret Shake! patch anywhere?
-Yup, we sell them at some gigs of ours but you'll be able to get them trough my blog soon too :)

BLACKER / COVER UP

If you have a bad hair day, cover it.
If you have a bad makeup day, paint over it.
If you dont know what to wear, wear black, and wear a lot of it.

(If you happen to go to a circus-themed burlesque party the same night it makes it easier not to spare the eyeliner, drag a scarf out of the closet and go all gypsy fortune teller from a travelling circus sometimes long before you were born. If you're not, go for it anyway, think silent movie star in an exotic role. The one a of gipsy fortune teller in a circus perhaps.)



The scarf is from Tunisia, the hair flower from Rascal, the earrings a gift, the eyeliner thick and covers most of the eyelid.

HALF MOONS

My nails are rather small and I seldom do anything else with them than just paint them red or pink. Sometimes however I go for this vintage style manicure; colouring the moons in a paler colour, or leaving them without varnish with only the base coat showing. I don't use any manicure strips or fancy nail paint for this, only a precise hand, but it's a bit tricky that way so I have been thinking of investing in either one to make the painting a little faster.

I've come across pictures and videos on the web calling a manicure like this "Dita nails". Surely she has her nails painted in this 30's style from time to time but it's not like she has come up with the idea herself. (It's not like all shoes with something heart shaped are called Minna Parikka shoes either :).

I saw the movie Public Enemies some time ago and noticed that you could catch a glimpse of Billies nails painted in this style in one scene. I like those small details in movies that you might or might not notice, but still add an over-all touch to the authenticity of the era pictured.

AT THE CHANGE OF SEASON

The end of summer is somewhat always sad, even warm and perfectly fine sunny days feel like one is sort of fooling one self, since autumn is just around the corner. Not that it's all that bad, as I have stated that autumn kind of is my favorite time of season.

As the weather now has varied from cold, windy and rainy one minute and pretty nice and hot the next, and with rather chilly mornings I'm slowly starting to get into that autumn mood - over romanticizing the image of walks under colorful trees and clear skies, wrapped in big scarves, legs covered with warm stockings (you know, all those thing you are happy to get rid of as spring turns into summer...), wet leaves on the ground. My colours of choice change from pastels into classical september-y ones like plum, petrol, okra and brownish shades. These autumn vibes got even stronger when I went to pick up a parcel with some H&M things I''d pre orderd one hangover morning in June - tweed shoes, headbands and knits.

So, if I'd go all fashionista I'd say these were some of my autumn favorites for the soming season. (I don't really talk like that no but I guess I just said it anyway.)

Headband -New, scarf - Grandma's old.

Shoes - New, Stockings-old

MY GLITTER-HEAVY HEAD

I don't think I've ever had so much glitter in my face before!
(We had dinner backstage in between our numbers and I think we ate more glitter than lasagne).

I love doing a full show make up (even though I sometimes slightly resemble a drag queen. Not that there's anything wrong with that, really). And then it's always really sad to wash it off afterwards.

ALOHA

Some nights ago I put a lot of flowers in my hair took a quick trip to the pacific, splashing waves and swinging palm trees.


I didn't have to go that far though- me and most of the other Itty Bitties went to a Hawaian themed Dr.Sketchys with flowers and floral shirts, a hula dancer and the right tunes!



I did some drawings. They pretty much all ended up looking the same.

Interested in Dr.Sketchy evenings but there's none near you? Then you can just start your own! ... but you do need to contact the founder Molly Crapabble first, via Dr.Sketchy's.

Next week I might post a short tutorial about how I did this hair...


..but first I'll go catch some sun and snow in Lapland for a few days!
Have a great weekend :)

SOME POSTS HAVE NO DEEPER MEANING

Last week I had the longest lashes in the world for a little while.

I GOT A LITTLE PRINCESSY FOR A WHILE

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a thing for the circus, but as with many other things; when you really start thiking about it, it's mostly the concept and images that surrounds it that fascinates me.


Think of the red curtain, the golden pollets on the shoulders, the smell of horses and sawdust, the sound of a barrel organ (and a little monkey clapping those cymbals! You know I love monkeys but oh well, let's not get in to those now).

Think of tattooed ladies portraid in old photos, siamese twin beauties, strong men, lions, ballerinas , sideshow freaks and snake women, romanticised versions of gypsies (ehrm, or to be more exact; Johnny Depp in The Man Who Cried. Think of some artwork of for example Johanna Öst, the Tv series Carnivale, Burton's Big Fish...

So when I went to see the circus I dressed up a little bit with a circus princess on my mind (even though I doubt anyone actually payed any attention to it) - as many bows as possible, a puffy skirt, a patterned hairband and switching my basic black makeup (happens very rarely) for some electric blue, gold and purple.



But to be honest, if I would have lived a hundred years ago and joined a circus (I would have done so even if there wouldn't have been a horseman-Depp hangin around :) I might not actually have been so much of a circus prima ballerina princess then. I think I would have been more of a tattooed acrobatic snake lady , the knife-thorwers partner or a musterious oh-so-good-at-faking it clairvoyant. Who knows.