Non-tacky Gothic Make up.

There is no denying my gothic roots and the gothic subculture is one that I will always kneel at the alter to, but in 2012 there is no need to dig out the spiked dog collar and black lipstick.  Think Lady Gaga, Dita Von Teese, and of course Helena Bonham Carter.

This post was inspired by my attendance at The Twins of Evil tour earlier this week.  The Twins of Evil tour for those that are not familiar is the joint tour of: the king of Goth - Marilyn Manson and the king of horror - Rob Zombie.  It is safe to say that 99% of the crowd were wearing black.

Makeup worn by moi:

Primer: Loreal Studio Secrets Anti-redness Primer.

On days where I am having a particularly bad skin day I wear this to combat the redness and it works a treat.  It does make me look a little more pale than usual but unless you are corpse colour like I am you will not have this problem.

Foundation: Maybelline 24 Hour Stay in 05 Light Beige.

This is my new favourite foundation, it has totally replaced my love of Loreal True Match.  The consistency of it is perfect for my dry yet spotty skin and it has great stay power.  I attended the gig straight after work, with just enough time to sort my make up.  I had been blowing my nose all day due to a cold and I could have got away with just powdering my nose.  Being paranoid I added another layer of foundation but it was unnecessary.

Concealer(s): MUA Concealer Stick in Light and Natural Collection Corrector Stick in green. 

Both budget concealers and both great.  I will be repurchasing both.  The Corrector Stick is great for days where you don't want to wear primer but want to cover blotchy red parts of your skin and the MUA concealer is thick enough to combat any spots.

Powder: Maybeline Fit Me in Nude Beige.

They discontinued my favourite Maybeline powder which I have been using for the last five year, I was more than a little upset.  I decided to give the new one a try and being honest it might be the same powder in a different packaging. But the colour range is not as great. I feel this shade is a little too dark for my skin but I am going to try find the lighter shade next time round since I have seen advertised that there are more shades.

Blusher: ELF Blusher in Fushia Fusion.

This one is not stereotypically goth but without blusher I do look like the living dead and I would rather look like a living dead doll. This blusher is not for everyone, it is very pink and has glitter through it but I adore it.  I bought it off The Beauty Fiends blog sale.

Eyeliner: Loreal Gel Intenza Pure Black.

Reviewed here: A staple for any goth or rock chick out there, I truly feel a little vulnerable when I am not wearing eyeliner.  I have even pondered getting it tattooed on like The Style Khalessi has, but I still don't know. Have any of you pondered this?

Eyeshadow Primer: Benefit Lemon Aid

Reviewed here:  Great product for tired eyes and great product for keeping your eyeshadow at bay, especially if you are a fan of dark colours like I am.  I would not be without this product these days.

Eyeshadow: Urban Decay Oil Slick and Flipside.

I have the small Urban Decay palette with four shadows in it - the one that is wrapped in purple velvet.  I love this little palette and it has lasted me for years.  It also contains Stray Dog and Midnight Cowboy which are my during the day eyeshadows. Oil Slick is a lovely black shadow with silver glitter through it - it is quite messy to put you so you really do need a primer with it and Flipside is an emerald green shimmery shadow.  I only have a smudging of Flipside on to break up the black but on its own it is very striking.

Mascara: Maybelline  Colossal Volume Express.

The one in the yellow packaging with the orange leopard print.  I don't love this mascara but I don't hate it either, it is simply ok.  I want to use it up before I buy a new mascara - what do you recommend between £5-8?

Lips: Lasting Finish by Kate for Rimmel in 04 Rossetto.

I adore this lipstick but it is not one I have the balls to wear all the time. You deffo need to have some balls to pull this off since it is super dark, almost black really.  This is the darkest lipstick in my collection and next to my Mac Marilyn Lipstick it is my favourite.  Super striking and what I would call gothic chic. What are everyone else's favourite dark lipsticks?

Necklace: Kreepsville 666 - http://www.kreepsville666.com/uk/

The dark lipped vixen look seems to be quite hot this Christmas, is anyone else having more of black than white Christmas this year?

£100 Asos Blogger Challenge

I seen this on Hannah Hindmarsh's blog and thought it would give it a go myself - for fun more than anything. The Discount Coder Blog decided to do this give-away to celebrate them hitting 1,000 Twitter followers - @DiscountCoder.  Well done indeed.

Snooping about on Asos is something I do frequently despite the fact that I have no job and therefore no money but it is fun to online window shop.

When choosing which clothes to highlight I drew on my personal style and a style icon of mine:  Carrie Bradshaw.  Cliche but her style can rather outrageous at times and that is what I love.  Her style is not always conventional fashion.  It seems to be whatever she feels like wearing on the given day and I admire that.  I feel that true style is wearing whatever you like and finding ways to work it in with other things that you like rather than simply just followings the trends and that brings us to the outfit that I have picked out.

Mango Mickey T-shirt - £14.99
ASOS Africa Organza Skirt - £40.00
ASOS Pleated Frame Clutch - £30.00 now £8.00
ASOS Spiked Cord Friendship Bracelet: £10.00 now £4.00
ASOS Push it Platform Shoe - £30.00

Total:  £96.99 - so just under £100 but there is nothing worse than a cluttered outfit and that £3.00 can go towards a swanky cocktail.

As I said I based this look partly on Carrie Bradshaw and these are the two outfits that I thought of:

So the skirt is not quite as puffy as the one pictures above but it comes close to as daring as you could get away with where I live - Glasgow.  There was also an occasion when Carrie wore a skirt as sheer as the ASOS one but I cannot find photo's.  I remember because see wore her trademark white pants under it - not a good look. I love the organza skirt because its both daring but at the same time it is classic because it resembles swing skirts from the 50's - a fashion period I simply adore.

Due to the skirt being rather over the top I decided to team with just a simple t-shirt but one that is also a bit kitch.  A statement t-shirt in some respects and there is no better icon to go with than Mickey and Minnie mouse.  Everyone loves them and a little bit of Disney never goes out of style. The polka-dot bag also fits in with this theme as it matches the polka-dots on Minnie's t-shirt and with the bag being less than half-price - a bargain not be missed.  Especially when it comes to polka-dots. Every girl should have a little bit of fun polka dots in their lives even if they are a stripe girl at heart.

With the skirt and the t-shirt together I feel it creates an outfit that is daring, classic but just a little but understated and that is why I picked the bold pink shoes.  Shoes and I have a strange relationship I utterly adore them but they need to be a little bit special for me to pay attention - a bit like men, eh?

The shoes complete the look and add colour and shimmer that is so needed in this predominately black outfit but I still felt the outfit needed a little touch of my inner goth hence the spiked bracelet in pink to match the shoes.  These bracelets seem to be all the rage at the moment across the goth scene and they make a delightful change from the traditional spiked collars that are tacky rather than stylish.  The new gothic scene allows for more creativity and colour than before.

Which trends are you loving and hating at the moment?

Glampire

Gothic Chic

When faced with the concept of gothic fashion I imagine most people conjure up images of firstly Marilyn Manson, secondly someone resembling a vampire and thirdly a bearded man in baggy jeans and a band t-shirt.  None of these assumptions are necessarily wrong but there is a lot more to gothic fashion than these three stereotypes.

At some point in my life I have fit neatly into all three mentioned categories.  Minus the beard, obviously, however on maturing and opening my mind to a wide mix of fashions I now enjoy the fashion statement I like to call ‘gothic chic’.

I’d love to say I created this trend and claim it as my invention but I did not.  It is merely just what I named the style both I and others on the gothic scene follow.

 The style draws inspiration heavily from traditional gothic trends and the rockabilly movement –think Dita Von Teese but with more wear ability.

It could also be called simply Sophisticated Goth – no striped tights or dog collars but black lace and polka dots.

It is a style that you can wear every day – well if you are the daring sort.  Replace the stereotypical black lipstick with pillar box reds and deep purples and were on to something.  Unless your place of work deems black lipstick acceptable, then work that look.

The rock chick/gothic chic trend is rather vampy but what came first the Goth or the vampire that is the question?  The fact that spell-check on Microsoft work highlights that Goth should have a capital letter answers that question for me.

The style is founded on individuality though and personal style – it is not really about what you actually wear but how you wear it and the attitude that comes with it.

Carrie Borzillo illustrates this plainly in her book Cherry Bomb- The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Better Flirt, A Tougher Chick, And A Hotter Girlfriend, And To Living Life Like A Rock Star.  A book every rock chick or chick with a little bit of a tough rock attitude should own.

For fashion section of her book she calls in advice from designers and friend Betsey Johnson, Anna Sui and rock stylist Cynthia Freund as Borzillo has proclaimed herself that although she is a bona fide rock chick, she is no fashion expert – a little like myself.

Anna Sui Advert

Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx

Betsey Johnson

Cynthia Freund the stylist of the likes of Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx gives the advice of knowing what works for your body and ‘You have to wear your clothes. Your clothes can’t wear you’.  You need to buy clothes that you like and feel express your individuality.  There is no point in buying an outfit straight off a mannequin because it might not work.

Designer Anna Sui gives the advice of ‘experimenting with new ideas, have some fun, and don’t take yourself so seriously’.

Certainly rocking the Goth look of any variation demands that you not take yourself too seriously and I’d give that advice to anyone who wishes to embrace a personal style that is not straight from the cover of cosmopolitan. Not every outfit will work but you just need to run with that until you hone in on which styles suits both your shape and personality.

 You might work this out pretty quickly or it might have a few hit and miss moments which result in times cringing at tagged photos on Facebook but let’s face it you are going to need to produce some sort of photographs for your future kids to mock.