an early present to myself

Well, it is December so that means one thing if you live in the US, Christmas stuff is everywhere.  New York is especially strong with the holiday cheer pouring out of every store.  Traditionally this is a time of gift giving so I had been compiling my Anja X-mas list (glittery wings, wigs, stripper heels, etc).  Now, there had been something I hadn’t put on my list because I wasn’t aware it was out again, but when I saw it in the store I didn’t want to risk it selling out again, so I snatched one up early.

yes, those are rhinestoned antlers I'm wearing!

That’s right folks, the Urban Decay Vegan Pallet is back!

Urban Decay, a company that doesn’t do animal testing and is really upfront about which of their products are vegan, had come out with an all vegan eyeshadow pallet earlier this year, but it sold out so quickly, I couldn’t get one.  I feared that it would never come back, hence my fear of waiting for someone to get me it as a present!

I have been very pleased with Urban Decay in the past and since there are many Sephora stores throughout New York, I can typically find any Urban Decay item I am looking for, well when it isn’t sold out! Now according to the website, the eye shadow primer potion attached is not vegan, and they are looking to fix that. Otherwise, this pallet is hella sweet. Click here if you want to buy the specific pallet or Click here to look at all of Urban Decay’s vegan items. I’ll have to do a makeup review at a later date when it isn’t so late!

check it out!

 

slacker

I don’t want to come off as phony or a liar here, so let’s be honest, I haven’t updated in a long time and have sort of been a slacker. Now this does not mean that I have been lazy , in fact, I have been a very busy busy lady.  Here are some of the things I’ve done lately and will do soon:

World Famous *Bob* - photo by Jac Chandross

“Your Face for the World to See” – A makeup and wig crash course on how to unleash ones inner drag queen/sowgirl. This class was awesome and The World Famous *Bob* is super duper sweet and informative.  I took this class through the NY school of Burlesque and I’d highly suggest it to anyone!

Pinups for Pitbulls – I had mentioned this on facebook and this blog, but last weekend I went down to Philly to meet up with Dale Rio and two of my friends and their pitbull Wilma joined us to shoot photos for the 2011 calendar.  There are lots of rules about the submission photos, so unfortunately I cannot show you the results of this photo shoot, but they are amazing!

This past weekend was my sister’s wedding ceremony so I had to go back to Pennsylvania.  This also means I had a chance to stop by Underwired Boutique to buy a whole bunch of fun vintage goodies I’ll have to show in a later post.

This weekend I am in a music video for the band The Electric Mess! I found out about this gig via the NY Pinup Club on meetup.com.  This I am super excited about and will try to get some pictures this weekend to show the process of being in a music video.

makeup purchasing

Now, you can get makeup anywhere, but getting vegan makeup is a bit harder.  There are several criteria to achieving animal free makeup.

Different levels of anti-cruelty found in makeup

• makeup is not tested on animals
• ingredients are not tested on animals
• the product contains no animal products (beeswax, lanolin, caramine, etc)

Many makeup companies will have some of their products meet some of this criteria so it is important that unless a company specifically lists their ingredients you should shoot them an email just to make sure.

One company I recently stumbled across was Scarlett Cosmetics.  This small, independent company based out of PA has a wide variety of vegan glitzy eyeshadow that can be pbrushed on dry or mixed with water to create a liquid. The company practices all of the above criteria with their Glamo Glitz makeup.  I wrote to the company just be to sure and got this message back.

Glamo-Glitz are totally Vegan. They are the amazing mineral eyeshadows and are all organic. My cosmetic chemist who happens to be my cousin has been totally Vegan for 12 years.  Thanks Scarlett (edited for space and relevance)

The next makeup prurchase I need to get is red lipstick, which is difficult due to the use of beetle shell (carmine) in most red makeup products.  It seems Urban Decay has a pretty nice looking vegan red lipstick I’ll have to look into.

I also bought fake lashes that i’ll be trying out for the first time tomorrow at Coney Island.  One time in the past for a halloween costume I tried them and failed miserably. Cross your fingers and hope for the best for me tomorrow folks!

The Coney Island stage where 'Burlesque at the Beach' takes place.

learning how to do makeup

I grew up in a house where makeup was not a common occurrence. Throughout high school I would actually have to put makeup on my mother if she was going someplace fancy because she didn’t own any and didn’t know how to apply it either. My sister, who is 6 years older than me, did wear some, but our age difference prevented me from really learning from her, since I was the dorky younger sister while she was in high school. Any make up tips I learned when I was younger were out of magazines I would borrow from the local library because I was “too cool and feminist” to actually subscribe to those “girly” magazines.

In 12th grade I was in my high school’s production of Guys and Dolls as part of the “hot box dancers” (ahh, we can see the burlesque in me beginning to blossom!). The choreographer taught us all how to apply stage makeup, which she equated as simply her everyday makeup but emphasized to be seen across an audience. These tips I have used since, but now that I am trying to learn how to look more glam, pin-up, and bombshell, I am realizing I need to increase my knowledge of makeup and how it should be applied.

Since I lost all my old makeup earlier this year on a trip, I have started fresh with all vegan makeup selection. I purchased most of mine from Aveeda, E.L.F. and MAC, making sure to check with the companies websites or emailing them first to confirm that they were indeed vegan products. I also dream of walking into a Sephora (or online where they have a specific vegan page listing all their vegan products) and picking up some of the uber glam Urban Decay vegan stuff. That will come in time.

yes, so enthused....

This past Saturday, when I attended the Wasabassco burlesque show, I decided to try out a more retro, pin up look. Using the almighty power of the internet I stumbled across Kandee Johnson, a makeup artist who has posted tons of instructional makeup videos on youtube. Although Kandee makes no claim of being veg, I was surprised that she mainly used Hard Candy and MAC products, two companies that are known for being vegan friendly. Here you can see my attempt at doing the Marylin Monroe look she shows in the youtube video below. I was lacking the specific kinds of makeup, but I tried my best and was somewhat surprised.

My makeup: white and medium brown eye shadow from E.L.F on my lids and brows, dark brown eyeliner from E.L.F., dark purple shadow for around my lids by Aveeda, berry colored lip tint from Aveeda.