Tales from my Gothic Days

And you just want to share everything you can about it? Well, I have recently found the most amazing product by Sally Hansen Nail Polish I have found the most amazing color called Uptempo Plum Against my skin it appears black, but in the light there is a slight deep plum color to it. AMAZINGLY beautiful!

This is called Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nail polish and it does dry that fast! I love the brush because it is flat instead of round like most nail polish brushes. It wears good also, I did not get the clear insta-dri top coat (but will this weekend) even without it the nail polish held up pretty good. I am a rough one with my hands, between doing art, typing, cleaning house and gardening, mine still held up for about a week. Not bad.....

I do hope you try this nail polish oh, by the way they do also sell Night Flight (black) but uptemp plum is just about black.

Deadly Nightshade back in 1998

Sensual Lips

The lips, the very sound of them are sensual to my ears. The soft way they move as the words flow from them, the sexy little soft smiles one gives to another in a flirtatious way. The soft pout of a sensual kiss right before it happens. Yeap, the lips are the key to some people's sensual essence.

For many years, the lips are listed in the top 10 things that you first notice when you see someone you are attracted too. With today's wonderful little tools such as lipsticks, liners, and brushes we are able to bring out even more of the sensuality in our lips. Before lipstick, people use to use herb roots and different kinds of berries to tint their lips. So I wanted to share some of the products I use, how I use them and the results I get for my skin tone.

One of the most important things about lipstick is: It has to stay put! That means, I do not want to reapply it every two minutes, I do not want to kiss someone and have my lipstick smear all over their mouth or mine, and I do not want to smile and have lipstick all over my teeth! So I wear lipstick that is going to stay where I put it and take it off when I want it off!

Many people do not like the way "Stay On Color" lipsticks makes their lips dry out. In the evenings after I wash my face and put on my moisturizer, I rub some of the lotion over my lips, and then I use an aloe and vitamin E chapstick before going to bed. The next morning my lips are very smooth and the lipstick applies very softly.

I wear three brands of "Stay On Color" lipsticks and lip liners: ColorStay by: Revlon, GreatWear by: Maybelline and sometimes Colour Endure by: L'Oreal. A couple of MUST have accessories are: a Maybelline lip brush, trust me I have purchased many and that one is the least expensive and works the best and make up Q-Tips swabs.

I believe when you purchase lipsticks and lip liners you should be able to use them in combination with your others. I adore black lipstick but the problem is I have not been able to find one that does not smear all over my mouth and teeth. So, I found the next best thing. It is a GreatWear lipstick called Maroon. It goes on very deep dark purple that almost looks black. With that lipstick I use a Vixen lip liner by Revlon. I have all dark features, dark eyes, dark hair, dark lashes and brows, and very pale skin. So trust me I have wasted a lot of money trying to find the best combinations for my features. Another good shade is by GreatWear called Walnut. I used the Walnut/Noix lip liner with it. It is a deep dark brown, with a blackish tint. And of course every collection needs a Deep Dark Red Lipstick. Now this is tricky because red lipsticks either have a yellow undertone or a blue undertone. The yellow undertone are more for people with dark features which would be the warmer tones and the blue undertone would be for someone with blondish hair and lighter eyes which are cooler tones. L'Oreal's Colour Endure collection called Wine and Dine is perfect for the warmer tones and the GreatWear lipliner called Brick/bisque goes very good with it.

So how do you put all of this together to create those luscious lips? Well, a while back I went into a well known cosmetic store at the mall to have them teach me how to put a lipliner on. NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO! The woman treated me like I was stupid to say the least. She TOLD me, "Well, I have never had to explain to someone HOW to put lipliner on themselves before!" Come on was I the only person on the planet that did not know how to use a lipliner? Anyway, I went home and taught myself. I practiced so much that honestly I made my lips sore!

I adore full luscious lips! In order to get this effect you need to line your lips on the very outter edge of the rim of your mouth. If you have full lips but want to narrow them; you would line your lips on the very inside of the rim of your mouth.

So the first thing to do would be to use the lipliner and outline your lips. Slowly, trace the line around your lips working with one side at a time. On the bottom lip, draw a small line in the middle bottom rim and trace one side to the corner and do the same with the other side. Second, you want to fill the area with your lipstick. Since I wear mine very dark, I place the lipstick on then go over it using the lipbrush. This helps the color to get into all the creases of your lips and it makes the color stay on longer. If you make a mistake use a little remover on a Make-up Q-tip swabs, clean it off and do it again. Be sure to blot your lipstick and always try to stick with matt colors and not frosted lipsticks.

Photo was found at PhotoBucket