Facebook Page New Brooches Up On Etsy

First of all, I made a Facebook page for my little brooches and accessories. You can look at it, like it or share it here! I've had a facebook page for the work I do under the title Xenocblood Art for a while now which you can see here and I've found it to be a really great way to promote my own work and discover other people's work as well.

Other than that, I put three new heart brooches up on sale in my etsy shop today: a small pink pvc one and two larger vintage style ones. Follow the links for more info.

Pink pvc heart-shaped brooch with pink lace trim. 

This little brooch is 7cm x 7cm.

Large Pink Pudding Vintage Style Heart Brooch. 

This one is 10.5cm wide x 9.5cm high, has a pink lace trim, pink bow and shows two children eating some pudding with a red cherry on top.

Large Vintage-Style Heart Brooch With Red Flower

Made of lovely blue Kath Kidson fabric with a white lace trim. It has a red flower detail with pearl beads. 

Maybelline Superstay 24 Lip Colour

I have a new love. Maybelline Superstay 24 Lip Colour. This isn't a review on anything. This is just me gushing about a product I can't get over.

I've tried all sort of "long lasting" lip colours and not really found any that I've been happy with. I've tried using stains which, although I find they're good at staying on your lips, they don't give as vibrant a colour as I would like. The best I've found so far is Lipfinity Lasting Tint by Maxfactor (which does NOT end up looking like the girl's lips in that picture, by the way) in 09.

I'm also really fussy about my lipstick staying on my lips and I'm terrified about getting caught with it on my teeth so I'm not one of those types of people who can feel comfortable going out without blotting my lips like a maniac beforehand.

Because of this, my red lip routine had evolved into this torturous routine:

♥ Lining my lips
♥ blotting with a tissue
♥ applying lip stain
♥ waiting for the stain to dry
♥ applying lipstick (Boots 17 Lasting Fix Lipstick in 'showcase') over the stain
♥ blotting
♥ applying a second coat of lipstick
♥ blotting again
♥ filling in any gaps with more lipliner
♥ and blotting a final time.

Ugh. A bit of a kerfuffle, you'd probably agree. And not the best way to spend a train journey. But not anymore!

This little fella from Maybelline goes on once after I've lined my lips and stays on the whole darn day. I have to reapply on the very inside of my lips if I've eaten something salty or spicy, but, other than that, it's near enough indestructible.

It also comes with a lip balm on one end to keep your lips moist. I hardly ever use it though because I don't don't find the lip colour drying at all and the balm has a slight fruity scent which I can't bare (that's just me though - I can't bare anything that smells of fruit. It probably smells lovely to most people).

Like I say, I didn't find it drying at all. It has the slightest tingle on the lips, but it's hardly noticeable and nothing like the itchiness I've had from using lipstains. The product is the consistency of a thick lipgloss and you have to paint it on carefully. Until it dries, it sticks your lips together a bit, and once it does it feels tacky and sticky, but amazingly does not come off on your fingers/cup/tissue/manfriend. Because of this, it gives the impression that your wearing sticky, unblotted lipstick, but does not come off once it's dry! Amazing.

As for removing it, I've found that it doesn't come off until the next day and then you can usually just peel or rub the remnants away. By this time it feels more like a face mask and you can sort of peel it away like you would peel glue of your fingers (you can tell I do a lot of crafts, huh?).

All the pictures so far were of me wearing  Maybelline Superstay 24 Lip Colour in 'Red Passion'. Below I'm wearing it in 'Cherry Pie'.

... Which reminds me, don't bother looking at the colours on the website or on the little colour cards under the product at the chemist - they're absolutely nothing like any of the lip colours in real life. They best way is to test them on your hand and see which one you like the best. I did that the first time and, when the marks didn't come off all day, that's when I knew I had to buy this!

Anyway, that's a very long post, but I hope it conveys a little bit about the character of this lip colour. Of course, products work differently on different people so others might not be as impressed as I am. So has anyone else used this? What did you think of it? Do you have a favourite long-lasting lip colour or technique?

*Edit: Also, if anyone could recommend me a long lasting purple-toned lipstick, I would be eternally grateful!

The Botanic Gardens

I was a beautiful sunny day last Sunday so after church we spent most of the day at the Botanic Gardens. We ate lunch outside, had ice cream and then browsed around the book fair. Definitely a cool way to spend a day.

Now On Sale In Lalaland!

My stuff is now on Sale in the amazing Lalaland, both on the website and in the lovely boutique in Creswell Lane, Glasgow. Lalaland not only sells some of the most adorable stuff around, but it also has a lovely atmosphere. It's definitely one of my favourite shops. There is also a facebook page.

My cat necklace and pvc heart brooch up on the website (next to their new stock from Locketship!)

Some of my black cat necklaces in various places around the shop. You can get them from the Lalaland website here.

And my star-shaped cookie brooches

They now also stock my book 'Underneath Glasgow', a short horror story about the pigeons and homeless people of Glasgow. I'm currently waiting on a higher quality print sample of it which I will be putting up for sale as a new edition if the print turns out alright!

And here are some of my black pvc heart brooches which you can buy here.

So what do you think? Are you near Glasgow? Have you been to Lalaland before? Do you know of any other good boutique places near you? I'd love to hear!

Charcoal Grey Pancakes

My nephew Angus requested black pancakes for lunch the other day. Black pancakes? How could I refuse! I couldn't get an explanation out of him for this very gothic request, but he seemed happy as anything with the result anyway.

Angus mixing the black food colouring into the pancake batter. 

I didn't want to put too much into the mixture in case it started to affect the taste so the mixture ended up more grey than black, but we agreed it was still pretty cool looking.

Time for a quick bit of dragon-flying while an adult the pancakes. 

Annie, not quite grasping the idea of dipping pancakes into syrup, manages to eat a bit of pancake while dipping her finger into the syrup.

She also requested some purple nail varnish so I painted her tiny fingers and toes a lovely shade of purple!

Orange & Purple Make-up, Hair Buns & Creepers

We went to see 'Don't Look Now' at the film theatre the other night. If you're not familiar with it, it's a seventies film starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie about a couple who lose their daughter in an accident, move to Venice and end up chasing the spectre of their lost daughter around the city. It's better not to know any more about the plot before watching it so I'll not say any more.

The night we went to see it was the first time I've worn buns in my hair since I had it dyed different colours recently. I had it all black the other times, but this time, because of the way my hair happened to twist, I ended up with one black bun and one reddy/copper bun which I thought was kind of a neat effect.

I should say I got the method for the buns from this very helpful tutorial here by the lovely murderotic.

For my make-up that night, I went for an orange and purple look to compliment my hair. I seem to be addicted to orange eye-shadow lately. I have no idea why since it's usually my least favourite colour.

The steps:

♥ Natural Collection eyeshadow in 'sea shell' in the inner corner and as a brow highlight.
♥ A shimmery orange on the middle of the lid, nearer the inside. Then swipe Boots no.7 'Elecric purple' eyeshadow around the outside in a 'c'-shape, making sure you pull it across the crease and a little under your eye as well.    
♥ Blend the orange and the purple with a big soft brush.
♥ A little Mac matte eyeshadow in 'carbon' to add more definition to the crease and finish with a bit of black liquid eyeliner under the eye and on the top of the eye in a 'winged' shape. 

Sadly the colours didn't show up in this light, but you can still see the general shape (and a bonus blotchy eye)

I managed to get the colour to show up in the sunlight here though (even if I did have to take the photo on the train into town... err...)

Tim and me having coffee before going to the film theatre. I still can't believe he's going to be my husband in two months.

The only slightly odd thing about the evening was when a stranger took a photo of me on the train home. I was sitting by myself looking out the window when I see in the reflection, clear as day, a man on the other side of the aisle take his phone of of his bag, take a photo of me on it then sneak it back into his bag. He looked absolutely mortified when I started laughing out of shock and turned round to look at him. Guess he didn't figure that I'd see the whole thing in the reflection! Haha.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because I don't think it was a 'being creepy' thing. I had heavyish make-up on and had my hair done up in buns that looked like daft panda ears so I think it was more of a 'taking a photo of a freak on the train' thing which is slightly better I guess. Still, maybe he'll think twice about sneaking photos of people in the future. At least, when they're facing a reflective surface!

Pink, Blue & Red

Now for some recent instagram photos, handily grouped according to colour! Search for @ariioth if you want to follow me.

Pink Hearts

1. Finally found shoes for my wedding. Sparkly black peeptoes with bows. £9 in the New Look sale. 2. I made a heart brooch for my aunt. 3 & 4. I sent of one of my brooches off to the gorgeous Aoife. It's a heart shaped lollipop brooch and comes in a coffin shaped box. You can get it here

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Homecoming Blue

1. Our first sit-down meal at a table in the flat. Homemade soup and sandwiches. 2. My sister and brother-in-law got us this absolutely amazing heart-shaped venetian mirror as an engagement present. 3. The cat necklace I made for my sister's birthday. I'm making a load more now to sell. 4. I'm reading Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle for the second time. It's one of my favourite series of books. The only problem is my fiance's starting reading them too so he's bugging me to finish book 3 so he can read it! (I'm a ridiculously slow reader...)

Vanity Red

1. Still enjoying the novelty of having red hair. It faded to a carroty ginger really quickly, but I'm still liking it. 2. Haven't been using much colour in my eyeshadow since having my hair done. Might stick to black and white and monochromatics for a while. 3. I rediscovered this green top from River Ireland which now seems to be a dress. It makes me look like a piece of military netting, but that's ok. 4. Curls!