Dakota Divas Are Ready To Do The Time Warp…AGAIN!
Watch out Bismarck/Mandan – the Dakota Divas are headed your way November 2, and have we got a whole bag of tricks and treats ready to make your sequel to Halloween truly spooktacular! Our guest list for the party includes a special treat: not only are we getting crowd favorite Azalia Iman back for the shenanigans, but we have a performer making her capital city debut: Carmen Love! This gruesome twosome is ready to help us start that party on fire and head the show featuring a ton of your favorite local and regional performers! Azalia...
read moreShe Got Some More Shit To Say – Norvina Pro Palettes, Swatches & Comparisons
Alright buttercups, time to wrap this mother up! I’ve given you my thoughts on the 3 Norvina Pro palettes, and if you remember parts 1 and 2, those palettes had some struggles. The matte shades grabbed onto the primer that I was using (Crayon Case Glue Stick eye primer) and just looked patchy, inconsistent, and not worth the $60 price tag Miss Anastasia Beverly Hills is charging per palette! Now, I prefer a tacky primer base, but that can sometimes mess with matte shadows. These mattes were a different formula compared to almost...
read moreGlam Ghoul: Horror-Themed Makeup From Hot Topic
I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t see as much Halloween-themed makeup this year: last year’s Kylie Cosmetics collection gave me serious FOMO (though it was mostly just the outer packaging, so it’s fine that I skipped it) and I felt like I saw quite a few brands doing something to celebrate the day, but this year was just kind of a bust. Wet n Wild did their usual Halloween collection (which is mostly either face paint or just products that are vaguely dark with a green or a purple in their same packaging they...
read moreShe Done Had An Epiphany! – ABH’s Norvina Pro Palettes, Volume 3
So even though we just had an annoying as fuck blizzard across pretty much all of North Dakota, it’s still technically fall – and the Novina Pro Volume 3 is a perfect representation of what I would be looking for in a fall palettes: oranges, yellows and browns to capture the fall colors, crisp apple greens to brighten and provide lighter notes, and a few unexpected pops of color to give you additional variety in your looks. I generally prefer cool-toned shadows, so I really thought the Norvina Pro Volume 2 was going to be my...
read moreShe’s Not Mad, She’s Disappointed – ABH’s Norvina Pro Palettes, Volume 2
Alright, so in the last post in this series, I talked about volume 1 of the Norvina Pro Palettes from Anastasia Beverly Hills, and though of couple of the shades had some struggles, overall I liked them and I thought it was a solid palette. I also did some quick mathing, and they are a remarkably better deal than the shadows in a typical ABH palette. All was looking to be sunshine and roses…and then volume 2. On paper, this should have been my favorite palette of the three: it has the most cool-toned shades, it has a lot of greens and...
read moreShe Done Lost Her Mind – ABH’s Norvina Pro Palettes, Volume 1
Sometimes I go a little crazy, and I make an ill-advised makeup purchase. That’s ok, right? I mean, Norman Bates said it best: “We all go a little mad sometimes.” But then there are times when I go all the way around the bend and do something ridiculous like buy all 3 of the new Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina Pro palettes. That’s right, Columes 1, 2, and 3 are all in my hot little hands, and my wallet is sad and empty and alone. Woof. That was a chunk of change – these palettes had better be worth it! Maybe...
read moreCreating A Drag Queen
I was putting together a presentation for a makeup class about drag makeup, how I create my persona and paint my face, etc. and I thought it might be fun to share some of what I was putting together with a wider audience. I wanted to compile some reference images for different styles of drag, compile a list of some of the main products I use and love, tips and tricks, stuff like that. I hope that you enjoy! DRAG INSPIRATIONS The first drag queen that I remember really making an impression on me in terms of understanding drag as a type of...
read moreFull Face, (Mostly) One Brand: Nyx Cosmetics
Anyone else feeling a bit of cosmetic burnout? I still love to play with makeup, but I’m definitely in the crowd of people who feel like there is just too much, too often when it comes to makeup releases. People want to blame brands, but it’s like they’ve never heard of supply and demand: brands aren’t putting out a shit ton of products that no one is buying! If they are pumping out products it’s because there is some sort of demand for them. I hear a ton of YouTubers complaining that people will talk out one...
read moreGhosting, or Actually, Brandon, You *ARE* “The Bad Guy”
Why can’t we all just say what we mean? Of all the new cultural things my old brain is being forced to comprehend by Millennials and these strange new Generation Z creatures, the one I find most distasteful is “ghosting.” It basically just means disappearing: not returning calls or texts, leaving someone “on read” (another newfangled term that means clicking into a message that shows it was read, but not replying), and ending communication without any sort of explanation. I’m here to tell you: it’s...
read moreLime Crime Retires The Iconic Venus Palette Collection With Venus Immortalis
I’ve said this a million times before, but let’s make this a million and one: Lime Crime doesn’t get credit for starting the crazy of reddish-toned warm neutral palettes. Yes, Modern Renaissance has become a staple of every makeup maven’s collection and so many brands and influencers use it as a touchpoint for describing other products, but Lime Crime created the more vibrant and saturated Venus 1 palette more than a year before the Modern Renaissance and was way ahead of that trend. In fact, I also think Subculture...
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