Fables in Fashion

I was aiming for an innocent, sweet yet dark look for this entry. I’m… still not sure I completely hit the mark, but I think I came close. Altering the shape of my brows really pulled it all together. This is the wig I have set aside for some future Yuffie cosplay, and I love how it looks on me. Makes me ALMOST tempted to cut my hair this short, though I can see my partner freaking out already.

I’ve become so addicted to playing around with my “studio” lights (I say “studios” because all I’m really using are two $20 lamp shades from Ikea lol). See how different the feel of the four smaller photos are compared to the middle photo? and all I did was move closer to the camera by a few inches! Amazing After Manifest, I will probably get a couple more lights to see what else I can come up with

Instead of just listing the products I used, I’ve decided to turn them into tutorials instead. Hopefully people will find them to be a lot more useful

How to reproduce:

Face
Apply 2 pumps of Revlon Photo Ready in Shell all over the face, don’t forget to blend into neckline. Conceal dark circles, redness and blemishes with Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Beige. Then seal with a light dusting of MAC Select Sheer / Loose in NC15.

Eyes
Prime eyelids and around the eyes with NYX Eyeshadow Base in 02 (pearl white). Apply a liberal amount of NYX’s Eyeshadow in Rust all over the lid with a focus on the crease, wing out to the side and apply under the eyes as well. Apply NYX’s Eyeshadow in Prune just above your crease, blend well. Next using MAC’s Technakohl Liner Graphblack, line 2/3 of your upper and lower lash line, including your waterline. Then extend the liner to create a wing like effect. Use MAC’s Eyeshadow in Carbon to re-trace these lines and smudge it out, then use it to go over the crease with a wet brush to intensify the look. Remember to wing out your eyeshadow. Add some MAC’s Eyeshadow in White Frost to your brow bone and inner corner of your eye.

Curl your lashes, and apply two coats of Covergirl Lash Blast in Very Black.

For the brows, brush them out, then shape them using your concealer. I flatted my eyebrows by concealing the “high points”. Then extended them to align with my eyeshadow with Lancome’s Le Crayon in Poudre Mahogany. Apply a coat of clear gel if your brow hairs need to be set.

Lips
Prime my lips with any matte, non-greasy lip balm. Then outline and fill in my lips with NYX’s Jumbo Lip Pencil in Vixen. I use a lip brush for precision. Finish off with a liberal amount of Chanel’s Aqualumiere Gloss in 17.

Finally, bring on the wigs! As a cosplayer, I think last I counted I have about 25+ wigs in storage? But due to my taste in costumes, they all seem to be the same short blue colour :/ So I dug a little deeper and pulled out this cute number. It instantly reminded me of pixies, and as I’ve been meaning to do a Winter look for ages, what better combination? I kinda wish I attempted something with my eyebrows… they look a little out of place being so black.

Let me just say, two days after shooting this look I still find glitter randomly on me @_@ And yet when I look at these photos, I can’t help but think, NEEDS MOAR SPARKLE!

Products used:

Face & Neck
MAC Mineralize Satinfinish SPF15 Foundation NC20
MAC Select Sheer / Loose NC15
MAC Studio Finish Concealer SPF30+ NC20
Coastal Scents Glitter Powder Fairy Dust
Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder Light
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Soft and Gentle

Cheeks
NARS Blush Orgasm
NARS Highlighter Albatross

Eyes
NYX Eyeshadow Base with Pearl
NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil Milk
NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil Baby Blue
Coastal Scents Ultra Shimmer 88 Palette
Maybelline Lash Stiletto Very Black

Lips
MAC Lipstick Creme D Nude
Chanel Levres Scintillantes 96

I’m loving this look, I’m not sure where I could wear it, but I love how virbate the colours are! And I have to thank pigments for that, unless I apply my eyeshadows wet, I can never get the colours to be this stand out.

My face powder did have quite a bit of shine in it too, something in retrospect I probably would avoid in the future. I’d rather got more matte, and then selectively highlight later. In some of the photos I feel like my entire face is glowing, not exactly the image I was going for.

As for the name, I came up with the idea when I was thinking of the shell of beetles (and you can blame my current addiction to StarCraft 2 for that), how there sometimes is a rainbow effect under certain lights. As much as I hate insects, I think the pattern is really beautiful.

Products used:
Face
MAC Prep + Prime Skin Base Visage
MAC Mineralize Satinfinish SPF15 Foundation NC20
MAC Iridescent Powder / Loose Silver Dusk
Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Beige
Bobbi Brown Sheer Finish Loose Powder Pale Yellow

Cheeks
NARS Orgasm Illuminator
NARS Blush Orgasm
Canmake Highlighter

Eyes
Urban Decay Shadow Primer Potion
MAC Fluidline Blacktrack
Anna Sui Eye Shadow 001
L’Oreal Extra-Volume Collagene Noir/Black
Lime Crime Eye Shadow Empress
Lime Crime Eye Shadow Lime Criminal
Lime Crime Eye Shadow Circus Girl
Diorshow Brow 000

Lips
NYX Lipstick Frosted Beige
Chanel Levres Scintillantes 96

This look was inspired by Baroque music, namely Bach. I’ve been actively playing the classical piano for over 21 years, and every time work gets more intense (as per my last post), I find myself immersing myself in my music even further. It definitely helps relieve my stress levels, not to mention making my teacher very happy since I’m currently pursuing a diploma in the field.

I was really happy that I got to use the new Coastal Scents Metal Mania palette! I’ll be doing a quick review later this week hopefully, but it’s basically a great autumn and winter palette, as per the name, has a lot of metal-like colours. I’d see this being the perfect palette for Steampunk looks!

Products used:

Face
MAC Prep + Prime – Skin Base Visage
MAC Mineralize Satinfinish SPF15 Foundation – NC20
MAC Select Sheer / Loose – NC15

Cheeks
NARS Blush – Orgasm
NARS Highlighter – Albatross

Eyes
Coastal Scents 88 Metal Mania Palette
MAC Eye Shadow – Carbon
MAC Technakohl Liner Eye-Liner Kajal – Graphblack
L’Oreal Extra-Volume Collagene – Noir/Black

Lips
Chanel Aqualumiere Lipgloss 67

I’m almost tempted to make a black baroque style gown for this look, I think it would suit very well

My favourite aspect of the entire show were the hair styles! Gorgeous!

Here are some of my favourites from the collection:

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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a bag girl. I won’t pay a cent over $200AU for shoes or clothes, but the sky is the limit (not really, but you know what I mean) for a bag that catches my eyes. My justification has always been that bags are easier to take care of, they don’t touch the floor or get thrown into a washing machine where they can potentially become damaged. Every once and a while I will wipe them down with gentle baby wipes or a damp clean cloth and store them in their dust bags, where they are safe and look good as new. To me they are worth the extra money, they last forever.

image from burberry

However, lately I find myself gravitating towards shoes. I remember a couple years back seeing a gorgeous pair of Chanel booties. And I literally fell in love, but I just could not bring myself to spend that sort of money on an item that will hit the ground everyday and most likely wear out within a matter of months. A part of me still regrets not at least attempting to find the shoes on sale.

Still, I can’t help but lovingly stare at a beautiful pair of heels in a store with my hands and nose pressed up against the window like a kid into a candy store. Dreaming of some day soon venturing into the world of designer shoes.

Random snaps of some of the new stores at Chadstone

Still waiting for this one to open tho! *_*

Finally back from a trip to Chadstone’s new luxury wing and can I just say wow! The bag and speedy exhibitions were gorgeous and insightful (the photos I took came out terrible ). Very well laid out. Here’s a quick run down of each store I managed to visit:

Louis Vuitton
My true love~ The store is much bigger and brighter than I had anticipated, everything so nicely displayed. It was great to see the Cruise 09/10 collection, and various other recent releases (eagerly awaiting the Christmas and New Years additions). They carry cosmetic jewelry, bags, luggage and shoes. The best surprise was learning that just a few days ago there was a price decrease of 10% of all stock. Yes, you read right, decrease! So if there was ever a good time to buy, now would be it.

Chanel
There are two stores under Chanel, one for beauty and one for leather goods and clothes. Chanel had released a special limited edition 2.55 quilted bag in gold lambskin just for the Chadstone opening of Chanel. Only 100 worldwide were made and they are only available from the store set at a price tag of $4910AU. After my visit today, they only had less than 50 left.

Thanks to some persuasive friends, we walked away with a couple of free goodies.

Gucci
Massive, especially when all I had to go by was the store in Melbourne CBD. Far more on display, shoes, bags, perfumes and jewelry. However as opposed to the Melbourne store, there were no clothes available. The atmosphere was lovely though, couches to relax on and soak in the environment, I see my future Gucci purchases coming from here.

Tiffany & Co.
don’t think I’ve ever stepped into a Tiffany & Co. store that didn’t have women and their partners swamped around the charms area. However I can’t blame them, I’ve started my own around the world collection, which I’ll save for another post. It’d say the size is similar to that of the city store, as were the jewelry range, though I find the CBD layout to be a little more flow friendly.

Coach
I may not be a Coach girl, but I can appreciate finally having one hit Melbourne! Coach is so full of life and colour, if LV had not stolen my heart I can definitely see myself very quickly forming an addiction to the goods they have here. Mainly with a focus on bags, not many shoes unfortunately.

Jimmy Choo
I’m going to be honest and say I was a bit disappointed, to me Jimmy Choo is all about the shoes, but not only was this store tiny (and had zero crowd control), but they focused so much on bags that the few shoes that were on display were overshadowed.

Three stores I am eagerly awaiting for (and have been told they are set to open some time after the 1^st of December, if not on that very date) are Burberry, Prada and Miu Miu, will have reviews up once I pay them a visit~

Overall
So impressed, yet so sad that I work in the city and hence can’t make regular trips down here. Guess this will have to be an after work / weekend activity. Especially with so many of my favourite SAs from LV now working in Chadstone. Also I was good and didn’t pull out my credit card once

After work before the sun had completely set I decided to snap a new photos of my new sunglasses which I am completely in love with~ My only complaint is that they only came in a soft cover, which leaves them at risk of being scratched in my bag But that’s a great excuse to get a second pair, right?