// Soon my arms will be wings…
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | 4 Comments
Barbara Munsel is doing some awesome things with feathers and ombre colors this spring.
I especially love the tiny feather sleeves, they make me think that H.C. Andersen story about girl and her brothers — the brothers were turned to swans by evil magic, the girl had to knit magical jackets to them to free them from the spell. She had to keep silent the whole time… …she was accused of witchcraft and brought to be burned alive… ..she knitted and knitted… …only the last sleeve of all jackets was unfinished when she threw the jackets on the birds, so the youngest brother had a wing instead of the arm.
I’m churning out the posts here in uncontrolled pace, but my inspiration folder is bursting…
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | 4 Comments
// Seeing red
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | 1 Comment
Red is a difficult color for me. Bright reds look ok on me… …but I have hard time in the attention screaming company of this color.
However, I’m inclined to readjust my attitude after seeing this weirdly fascinating rose jacket from H&M garden collection. It would create a sea of outfit problems for me — the color and the shape have serious auntie connotations and come on, I’m on the auntie age already, that doubles the dangerousness — but I would still love it’s unapologetic rosey kitchiness.
I would probably try to tame it by slipping it over white and nude underwearish slipdresses. Over a beige fitted mini dress. With jean shorts, simple T and clumpy strappy sandals. The playful part of me wants just to go for the full blown gold coast granny style with this (actually Lin Shaye is wearing a pink, toned down version of rose jacket in one of the pics) — yeah, maybe on next Halloween… Or then again it could just hang on my wardrobe and I could recoup my courage with a half bottle of summery rose wine.
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | 1 Comment
// Walking, talking art gallery
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | 1 Comment
I’m very fascinated by these picture frame necklaces by elhombreylaluna.
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | 1 Comment
// Make me up, part one
Posted on | February 6, 2010 | 2 Comments
It was funny to realize how bare faced I tend to go on everyday basis. I totally agree with Varpu — make up is fun, but dependence on it is something I want to avoid. Visiting in local supermarket or coffee shop 100% bare faced is not an issue for me, and that is the way I want it to be.
But on the other hand the entertainment value… I have collected a decent stash of stuff and tried numerous brands, formulas and techniques — I definitely could make better use out of them. I’m skipping the makeup too often because of my laziness and/or lack of time.
With makeup I’m definitely not going for luxury brands. Functionality, colors and price are the factors that interest me. If I have to name some well known brands available here in Finland, MAC would be the one to get the credits from me. Their professional approach really appeals to me, and the prices are not outrageous considering the quality and product sizes.
I never spend my cash for the “it” colors of selective cosmetic brands. Nobody’s going to see the difference between them and more reasonably priced options after the color is applied to skin — and there will always be more affordable color duplicates with same — or even better quality payoff.
So here are the tips from makeup lover — who loves also go barefaced — and has no respect for traditional cosmetics marketing 
.
The basics I use almost everyday are:
Base
Couple of years ago I made a transition from liquid makeup base to mineral powders. That was not particularly easy — changing to the dry base implicates automatically some changes to skin care routine. Another challenge is that mineral makeup comes from multitude of small brands and they tend to have much wider shade selections than any liquid makeup — suddenly the shade that was ‘ok’ was not satisfying enough, I had to find the perfect match.
What are the pros of mineral powders? A good mineral base feels absolutely nothing on my face — plus a light application is almost undetectable, just evens out the skin color and covers small imperfections. Some powders have also neat optical illusion effect, they make the skin look very even and radiant from a small distance. Light application of it does not stain easily and it does not run if I sweat or if the weather is humid. I can have a perfect match to my skintone. It has a very short list of chemically stable ingredients (mineral oxides), so it reduces the daily chemical load a bit. The ingredients are practically all pigment, covering agents and light reflecting agents, so I’m not paying for water and other fillers — plus the non-organic formula is very hygienic. For my surprise mineral makeup is also extremely quick to apply — and streaky application is almost impossible.
Products: Lauress Face Fundamentals — great color selection and three options for different finishes — all of them are good. They ship the samples really fast and the shipping costs are truly reasonable. For application brushes I go for MAC #128 or Alima foundation brush for slightly heavier application and Everyday Minerals eye kabuki for details (around nose, eyelids, inner eye corners).
My favorite brushes. Synthetic Alima brush is very firm and super soft, it gives relatively heavy coverage with minerals easily. Fluffier Mac kabuki is perfect for lighter — and super fast application. I can do my base with eyes closed with this!
The coverage of mineral makeup base can be greatly adjusted with application. A loose, fluffy brush gives a light application, if you want more coverage go for a dense and stiff brush. Different brands have different finishes, the variables are usually the maximum coverage and amount of light reflecting ingredients. The looks vary from very glowy to full matte. The powderiness of mineral base almost disappears when the oils of skin eventually mix to the base, you can speed up this process by using mineral water or face toner spray after applying the base. A light layer of mineral makeup ‘sinks’ to skin perfectly. If you want powdery finish you might consider heavier application and/or separate finishing powder.
Cheeks
Here I’m in transition phase. Used mineral products for a while — but now I’m tired for the messiness of those. I can handle it with base because minerals are so superior to liquids in my use — but with colors…
Currently I have one pressed favorite, above all colors I’ve ever had: Bobbi Brown Apricot. The name is a bit misleading, I think — the color leans quite strongly to pink. It looks super bright on the pan — but gives awesomely refreshing and very natural flush for my cheeks, instantly picking the whole face up. Blush is very underestimated makeup product in general — a good shade improves looks so much. Good contouring and highlighting products are also great additions to makeup bag. I’m not picking options here right now in the middle of this transition phase.
Bobbi Brown Apricot looks almost scary on the pan — but great on! A mix of pink and orange makes it quite versatile for different skin tones.
Decent brush is really an essential for face colors and contouring. My favorite brush type is definitely round double fiber — the thin silk-like longer fibers are great for very light (but buildable) application. Even the most pigmented face colors are easy to apply with these, with no fear of clown cheeks. The problem is that most dual fiber brushes have flat profile — which is not optimal for blush, highlight nor contour application. One well reviewed option is Morgana Minerals dual fiber brushes — they have great selection of sizes. My brushes are not these — but I can’t find the ones I have online anymore.
Brows
For brows I use both powder shades and pencil. Make Up Store has a great three color palette with pale filler shade (or for blondes) — very natural cool brown for universal accents — and grayish brown black for dramatic look. On a travel I tend to use Mac Copperplate from my eye shadow palette, it is a perfect dark taupe matching my mouse brown hair.
For pencil I use Rimmel Brown Black — it’s not all perfect shade, but the consistency is very good (not too soft, not too hard) and the little brush in the lid is handy. It lasts better than powder colors — but I prefer the look I can achieve with powders. Sometimes I use Mac Brow Finisher colored wax for setting and finishing.
Mascara
I’m using supermarket brands, only. I like my mascara water soluble (hate separate eye makeup removers), with moderate volume adding qualities and layerability for more dramatic look.
Products: Max Factor False Lash Effect — great mascara, the only cons are the clumpy wand and relatively high price for a supermarket product. But the stuff itself is good, does not glue the lashes in clumps, does not crumble or stain easily, but comes off with no pain.
Nivea Volume Nanodefinition (duh, I hate the pseudo-scientific cosmetic babble) — very much like my previous favorite, but with better wand and cheaper price. Ugly shell, though.
To be continued!
Posted on | February 6, 2010 | 2 Comments
// iPhonographed!
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | 5 Comments
Oh dear, please kill my Etsy account!
The gadget geek in me got a stroke when I saw this neat little home for my beloved iPhone. Do you se any wires or cords or stuff like that? Neither do I — they don’t exist. It amplifies the sound in quite old fashioned way…
Unfortunately there are no units of iVictrola on sale on Madecraft’s shop anymore…
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | 5 Comments
// Once in a lifetime
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | 8 Comments
A friend of mine (who I don’t see too often) discovered my blog and asked if never wear “regular clothes” — like jeans and t:s… …of course I do, but I just don’t want to document that all the time. My jean and T outfits tend to be super simplistic, there’s really not much to see.
Anyway I ordered the ‘Once in the lifetime’ shirt from Your Eyes Lie in last autumn — and I really like it. This T-shirt dress cut is good and the rayon fabric really drapes well. Plus I’m actually digging the print… …I’m quite picky with those, but would love to have more…
I’m also wearing some eye-makeup — and that really makes a world of difference when processing images. I’m a colorless olm in the state of nature — and although I kind of like the olm look in real life (and it’s OK to photograph in natural lighting targeting to images with minimal processing) it actually makes image processing relatively challenging if I don’t want to lose all detail of my face. Next step will probably be lipstick… …whoa..
The jeans are the old Lee ones, I like their slightly quirky, twisting cut, cardigan is from H&M (I think that they have pretty similar ones this spring, I’m slightly tempted by the powder color), boots are Marc by Marc Jacobs, they have very low heel and the leg length makes my legs look bit stumpy, but I love them still, they have been worn beautifully. Coat is old Filippa-K and I’m wearing the second hand — Zara vest on top of it. Have done lot of that lately, the vest is incredibly warm and I love the hunchback silhouette it creates for me. And if you noticed the blue nails… …the polish is from H&M (I picked it up on my recent visit, wanted to see if they had cheap triangle bras for fuller bust and left out with this and a pair of tights) — I deeply love it.
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | 8 Comments
// What to do with all this rock?
Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments
Finnish style blogs had a great meme going on on January about noughties music. Personally I took it too seriously and never got my post finished… …whatever, I’m posting music here anyway now and then, bits and chips of that unfinished post will end up here eventually.
Somebody might have noticed already that I’m total music genre whore. I grew up listening relatively varied stuff from the beginning, post-punk stuff, progressive/psychedelic rock, electro, some metal — mixed with pop, lived and enjoyed the grunge era… …nah, why to explain, I’m just not able to pick one team.
Perhaps the greatest genre discovery for me in noughties was desert / stoner rock… …I guess that it was PJ Harvey in the Desert Sessions who led me to the tracks. So I came aware of the genre bit late, but there was lots of happening within it on the noughties.
I deeply love Brant Bjork’s sound and his distinguishable take on the genre, the funk elements, the restrained energy.
And Earthlings?, their raw sound. Actually released 1998 — but this is noughties music for me .
From the psychedelic end of stoner rock… …Colour Haze. The longest buildup ever ends so cathartic that it never fails to move me…
Can’t really tag this with “videos” tag… …they have none.
Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments
// But threads that are golden
don’t break easily
Posted on | February 3, 2010 | 13 Comments
Ok, I kind of promised to myself to not to do these via-the-mirror-headless photoshoots — but here we go again. I just got so excited from my latest second hand acquisition that I had to take the pics instantly — although I actually did not have time for decent session. So the quick and dirty option…
But I’m wearing a pair of awesome antique gold leather shorts from Kellykitsch. They are even better in person than I had imagined — rather high waisted, soft and beautifully worn leather. Plus the length is just fine for me.
I’m still in rather sober clothing mood so I put them together simply with old sleeveless and buttonless A-lined blouse from H&M — I really like how modern those three pintucks on the hem look as an only detail of this garment, All Saints wrap cardigan, Falke tights and those oh-so-familiar Rützou wedges.
I have to say that I realized just a while ago that those are almost exact copy of Rick Owens’ ankle boots, only the zipper positioning is slightly different and the zipper might be bit chunkier in these. I’ve never paid attention to those Owens boots before, I’ve been so blinded by his other shoe designs.
Not sure what I think about that. The quality of these shoes is excellent and they have a great, super comfortable last… …but still.
Although I’m not too self conscious I have to say that the thigh-discussion in the previous post made me think if a pair of shorts really is a good choice for my build. For a very brief while. If I’m starting that I will soon wear full cover potato sacks — and when have those actually improved anyone’s looks?
Posted on | February 3, 2010 | 13 Comments
// The first month of training
Posted on | February 1, 2010 | 21 Comments
This month has been actually pretty good. I have accomplished my goal to set up a regular training routine — and have not slipped from that. oh, actually I had one longer break than I had planned, my knee got quite swollen and I had to wait it to calm down for three day instead of the planned one.
On February I will continue with the routine, progressing slowly with weights and making my cardio sessions gradually more demanding by adding some more interval cycles (all my cardio training is interval training — and there is not that much of it). But the main focus for the beginning month will be on diet — and I’m expecting to see some visible changes in the end of February.
I have been on my lowest adult weight with relatively low carb diet — and because controlling the intake of both sugar and starch is pretty hard for me (it feels like my natural sense of feeling full and satiated vanishes with high carb diet) that’s the way to go again. Beverages are not huge problem for me, I drink water, coffee and wine — but the wine consumption should be kept in control. One glass in a day is perfectly fine, though!
Image is from GI Jane, not the ultimate accomplishment in the field of movie artistry — but I find training imagery of it quite inspiring, both aesthetically and in the sense that I have never been the dancing-in-nice-clothes –kind of girl, it’s a relief to see options for that, once and then.
I wish I could have my sessions in pared down space where natural light plays with concrete and steel surfaces, worn down barbell plates giving the only color. But no, my gym is on cellar. I really, really like it, though!
Posted on | February 1, 2010 | 21 Comments
// The blizzard
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | 8 Comments
Very few magazine editorials are so strong that they really haunt in my mind and influence the way I put stuff together. But I happen to remember one Vogue shoot with extremely severe black and white images, very austere clothing and heavy layering. I think that the editorial was titled “Storm” but I’m bit unsure about that. Tried to some sloppy image searching with no success… …bad thing that “storm” happens to be model agency, too.
Anyway, since I aquired some long hems while ago, I have been trying to recreate those silhouettes by memory… …here I’m wearing Acne dress, H&M silk chiffon tunic (would love it to be slightly less opaque for the stripes really show through), A.F. Vandevorst shrug, old rubber band boots, Filippa-K coat and Zara mongolian lamb vest. This one I found from charity shop this fall and it looks totally unworn. Probably someone had overestimated her tolerance for super fluffy animal hair. The Vandevorst shrug transforms easily to giant scarf when outside — and because I can actually put my head through hand hole it really stays on place… …just come on storm, try to get me!
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | 8 Comments
About
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: kamicha (a) gmail dot com
I'm especially interested in young designers creations, non-established labels and indie fashion. So if you have something interesting to show, feel free to contact!
You can find Finnish design from both specific and some outfit posts - but both are tagged.
You might be also interested in my DIY posts, How-to posts, DIY ideas - or my adventures in Etsy =).
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Recent posts
- Soon my arms will be wings…
- Seeing red
- Walking, talking art gallery
- Make me up, part one
- iPhonographed!
- Once in a lifetime
- What to do with all this rock?
- But threads that are golden don’t break easily
- The first month of training
- The blizzard
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