making faces :: january's pretty things

'tis the post-holiday season of cold and wind and arctic air and snow and, to be honest, whatever excuse i can find to stay inside covered in a comforter and cats all day is generally a good thing. however, i have ventured out from time to time and even endeavoured to make myself presentable around the house so that dom doesn't have to come home to this:

how about a kiss honey?

i sort of wish that the weather wasn't so disagreeable, because low light and long nights are great conditions in which to show off pearly skin and deep lips, a look i prefer as a matter of course. but i suppose there's still lots of that left given that daylight savings doesn't kick in for a month and the sun stays mostly hidden until about the middle of march. and sometimes we get a bit of a thaw in february, which can be nice but also kind of a tease.

what i've been reaching for in my cabinet of pretties [actually dresser drawers] this month basically fits with what i mentioned above- highlighters to diffuse that wintry dullness, lips in shades of berry, plum and dark purple and, so as not to overbalance, a lot of neutrals and greys on the lids.

SEE SOME FAVOURITES & PHOTOS AFTER THE BREAK

mental health mondays :: too good to resist

pick a colour, any colour...

that's right, it's mental health mondays. i haven't done one of these since suspending activity on this front a few months back and i'm still not sure if i have it in me to do this regularly, but we shall see. in the meantime, when i saw that my hero/ girl crush jenny lawson [the bloggess] posted this npr article on twitter earlier today, i couldn't resist resurrecting mhm at least for this week.

it seems that studies have shown ketamine, normally used as an anesthetic by surgeons and veterinarians and [at lower doses] as a party drug by ravers. ketamine is a fairly popular anesthetic because it has a relatively low side effect profile [at least compared to those of other similarly effective anesthetics, which have a nasty tendency to screw with your respiratory system]. in fact, even occasional recreational users are on fairly safe ground, since harmful, long-term damage has been confirmed chiefly in chronic users and addicts. timothy leary experimented with the mind-expanding qualities of ketamine and he was pretty much a poster child for surviving psychedelic excess.

MORE CRAZY TALK AFTER THE BREAK...

the montreal metro project, part 8 [the grand finale]

here at last are the final photos in my series on montreal's metro system. i hope you've enjoyed this look at what i consider in my hometown pride to be one of the most fascinating underground networks in the world. although some stops show serious signs of disrepair, each one is unique, something highly uncommon in public transit systems in the western world. [subways in former eastern block countries were often made more with aesthetics in mind, with the aim of making them testaments to the power of the workers and the state.]

to start us off, there are a few images of the cote-vertu metro station, which lies at the western terminus of the u-shaped orange line. it's one of the network's most used stations, as it serves as the hub for buses going to the suburban west island and to the western side of laval, to the north. i had to transfer to a bus from this station for over a year and in my daily rush, i can't say that i ever remarked at how striking it is. it's that sort of reaction that made me want to do this series to begin with. 

from the western prong of the orange line, we skip over to the east, to take a look at the last few stations on the other end.

below are a couple of shots of sauvé station, which is more or less parallel to cote vertu. it's one of those unassuming "we couldn't think of a theme so we went with beige" stations, but i've always thought there was something a little spooky about it's long, shadowy corridors and blind staircases. i would love to shoot a horror film in here.

and from there, we move to station henri bourassa, formerly the end of the orange line, before it was expanded into laval a few years back. the image below is actually a piece of art, which shifts as you watch it [should've taken a video], but it's also a functional piece, since it helps direct passengers. not too shabby...

 MUCH MORE AFTER THE BREAK!

making faces :: a mediterranean escape with edward bess

much of the hype around former model edward bess' cosmetic line is focused on his ability to make magic out of seemingly mundane shades. the collection is focused on naturals and nudes, the kind of colours that have been around a long time, but which still form the staples of most cosmetic stashes. after reading so many rapturous reviews of his products, i overcame a little of my hesitance [mostly caused by the fact that his line seems to have a distinct bias towards warm-toned complexions] and decided to dabble my toes in the sea of bess.

although the greatest number of rave reviews are for his eye shadows and lipsticks, i decided to take a chance on one of his "quad royale" palettes- a soft highlighting blush with four slightly different [both in tone and texture] shades designed to be used on the cheeks or as an all-over powder. i think i was drawn to these because it's dark and grey and snowing periodically and these quads are all named for locations along the mediterranean coast- "south of france", "summer in capri" and the most recent addition "monte carlo". these stir visions in me of gorgeous vistas of sea and sky and glowing, vitamin d-enriched faces lounging in the afternoon warmth and enjoying the sea spray in the air and a good strong cocktail à la "tender is the night".

i selected "south of france", the lightest and coolest of the three, figuring that this would perk up my pale face without giving me the "fake bake" look i so detest. i wasn't sure what to expect, because some highlighters hardly register at all, while others tend to be overly shiny and emphasise pores. since i was buying this sight unseen [thank you, zuneta], i was taking a bit of a chance. but i felt good about it and my guts are generally very honest with me.

and indeed, it steered me very, very right. "south of france" is a sandy highlighter with a slight mauve-pink cast that comes mainly from the deepest colour of the four. it would serve purely as a highlighter on most skin tones, but on pale types [like me!] it has enough colour to work as a soft blush. it comes in a sleek black case with a brush provided. the brush itself is good mostly for a light wash of product, but not much more. i actually think that one of arthur's paws would be perfect for this, but he has no interest in helping me out, even though opening a salon with cats who could apply cosmetics would undoubtedly be a golden ticket for all of us and we'd be booking appointments well into 2016 already. so i've been using a regular dense, fluffy brush, which gets the job done, but isn't nearly as cool.

MORE IMAGES AFTER THE BREAK

h+m wtf?

i saw this on a friend's facebook page and felt compelled to share. basically, it's the story of a really sweet, decent gesture made by illustrator/ artist tori laconsay to show her appreciation for her georgia hometown. she decided to use a blank sign to send a positive message to the people in her community, which is something that a lot of us will never witness. what a wonderful idea for a piece of guerrilla art.

retail giant h & m evidently thought it was a great idea too. because somehow their design team came up with the same idea, using the same text style and the same heart for some of its housewares. h & m, of course, denies that their work is in any way derived from laconsay's.

this strikes me as the kind of thing that happens when you're a teenager and you come home at three in the morning and try to convince your parents that you haven't been drinking or smoking because, of course, it's not like they ever did anything like that when they were teenagers. in this case, h & m are the drunken idiot teenagers and the rest of us are the parents wondering who the hell they think they're fooling.

i suppose i can give them credit for deciding not to use the period from laconsay's original work. and they tilted the "n" a little. astounding creativity.

last week, i and a lot of others were fired up at the idea that large corporations were going to censor what we could see on the internet in the name of copyright protection. this is a case of the flip side. a large, wealthy corporation is using its muscle to scam an individual out of residual payments to which they would be entitled under the law.

you don't look nice, hennes and mauritz, you don't look nice at all.

making faces :: quick peek [guerlain spring 2012]

today it was -15 celsius outside. "spring" is not the first thought that comes to mind. certainly not the particularly delicate palette of spring 2012, marked as it is by ultra-soft pastels from the likes of dior [see here], lancome [whose spring collection features a fragile mix of pinks and cool greens] and eve guerlain. i say "even" because last year, guerlain's spring collection seemed to target those who were spending the first quarter of the year hiding in the tropics until the mercury rose. although some shades had a lighter payoff, there was definitely a lot of colour- red-corals, peach, pinks and the stunning centrepiece of the collection, the torrid "blush g", which became a popular favourite.

from that offbeat take on spring, guerlain has swung to the other side, with a palette of pink, pink and pink for 2012. [they call it "pink & black", but the black seems to refer to the packaging only. or to their newly launched mascara, which is kind of a separate thing.] i went through the whole "pink blows" phase and have made my peace with the colour. in fact, i've learned to quite like it [especially since i figured out it actually tends to make me look better]. but i have to say that it seems guerlain has really loaded their pre-easter eggs in an exceptionally girly basket.

LOOK INSIDE THE BASKET...

the right angles

i guess every girl eventually wants to write letters to the stars of her favourite television show.

dear mitt,

i hate to shatter your illusion that you're the aristocratic, above-the-fray president-in-waiting, but you need to know that your awkwardness is so pronounced that i feel awkward just watching you. the overwhelming tension that's evident when you smile makes me think you're being shot full of electrodes, or that you're about to fire me, neither of which is a good look for you.

we really don't care about your tax returns, but the fact that you squirm and stammer every time you talk about them makes us all wonder what it is you're trying to hide. and the fact is, i don't really think you're hiding everything. you say that you're proud of the success you've had, but your actions tell a different story. your reticence to throw a public light on your finances tells me that you're deeply uncomfortable revealing that you are a rich guy doing rich guy stuff with his money.






dear ron,

that moment in the debate where the crowd had to holler at john king to remind him to let you answer a question was kind of priceless. i notice cnn hasn't been running that one ad nauseum. in fact, it very much suited the outsider-ness of your entire campaign and i don't think that was lost on you.

some polls are indicating that you would be one of the party's strongest candidates versus barack obama, only a hair behind mitt romney and perennial front-runner "generic republican". i don't see you getting the nomination, but i love watching the general discomfort you cause for your party and the media.







dear newt,

whatever you're doing right now, you should take a break to send john king a great big gift basket filled with fine liquers, belgian chocolates and aged cheeses. by asking you that admittedly ill-timed question about your ex-wife and the open marriage ultimatum, he gave you a moment so powerful you could have blown your nose on your lapel, scratched your junk like there was an infection and napped for the final thirty minutes of the debate and everyone still would have said you were the winner.

i will never count you out of this race, because i know that you are the jason vorhees of the republican party. you can't be killed because you're more bogey than man. no matter how final your demise, you can just keep coming back when people think they're safe. you're probably the party's best bet, now that i think of it.





dear santorum,

i've recently realised that you bear a startling resemblance to a former boss of mine, a real leader in the asshat community. i thought maybe that was why i'd developed such an instinctive dislike of you and then i remembered that you're the one who stuck up for s.o.p.a. at the debate and who wants to ban contraception. and that you were selected as one of the most corrupt politicians in washington by an organisation that, despite what you say, targets democrats as well as republicans.

that said, i realise that i've underestimated you all along and what's repulsive to me plays very well with a certain group within your party. your performances at the debates have gotten consistently stronger, reaching their peak on thursday when your final speech. you were overshadowed by your conservative competitor and i think that, ultimately, he's going to get the better of you, but it's evident that you're going to go down swinging. and not in the gingrich way.