Teased Orange Hair: Update & Inspo

I know what this blog hasn't seen in a while - hair and makeup looks! Since I got a new phone for the holidays I've been documenting my face a lot more. My old phone's camera was gone, plus the phone was really old and slow, so using it for other than making calls was impossible.

from a while ago, going out. I need to overdraw my lips more!

We all look at inspirations for our style, and even though I do no do it too often, I love looking at picture of 80s goths for some hair goals. I know a lot of people pull off the look a lot better than I do, it's just an interpretation after all.

But I like looking at pictures of people with orange hair especially, since most goths have black hair.

 Found on Now This Is Gothic

Source
This is my favorite "warm toned" teased hair of them all. I love the length, I am aiming for it!

By now I have pretty much settled on a hair coloring routine. I wanted to make a post about how I color my hair but ended up not having the time to take pictures during dyes. Yes, dyes - it's a 2 step process, as I need to lift my natural brown hair to a brighter color. I've been orange for a year now and my hair feels amazing, so I will stick to the same routine for now. For a change, I do not have plans to change my hair color. This hair simply rocks.

From last night

Teasing long hair is more challenging than teasing your hair in the first place.

The Nr. 1 rule for teasing long hair is - hair products! Your teased hair is like a building, you need to build a solid foundation before going higher.

So before I hit the comb I apply mousse to my entire hair.

1. Wet hair in sections
2. Apply mousse in sections
3. Blow dry hair upside down
4. Start teasing with hairspray, again in sections.

These are the products I use:

  Source                           &                          Source  

The Taft mousse really does the trick, and the Got2B is a big hair staple by now for goths and punks alike. These products are unfortunately not cruelty free.

There is also an option to use teasing powder, but I haven't tried it yet since the above combo works. Does anyone have any experience with it? What would you recommend?

Having your hair cut in layers is also a huge help. I do want to have long hair, and I will probably only cut the most top layer frequently for that Patricia Morrison look.

I also don't straighten my hair (anymore). My hair is wavy which makes for a nice teased texture. I am damaging my hair enough already.

Then there's the biggest teasing trick of all - the brush. Some people use a thin comb, some use a special teasing comb. However, for my thick heavy long hair I use a round brush:

Source

This is a trick my friend showed me, and I would have never thought about it myself! This is not exactly good for your hair, but when is teasing anyway? This brush helps picking up big sections, and with your solid foundation on your really don't need to stand half an hour in front of the mirror ripping your hair out.

With a solid foundation and the right tool, your hair will last the night. I sometimes re-tease it during the night with the same brush. Take a backpack lol! There's also a mini version of the brush available in most stores.

It's funny how my hair color looks different depending on the lighting. I have to edit the saturation of my pictures to really make the red shine through the phone camera. Funny enough, all selfies in this post show my true hair color, it just depends with which lighting you look at it, hehe.

I have dyed my roots since then as can be seen in the previous picture

Here's a post-teasing aftermath. You can tease your hair, but can you bring it back to normal?

Personally, I sleep with my teased hair and detangle it the day after. The hairspray loses it's hold so it's easier.

Needless to say you need to section your hair and slowly comb through it without pulling. I use my regular brush, which is also a detangling brush. 

Some people prefer to soak their hair in conditioner and comb it when it's wet. That make sense, but I prefer the dry option. How do you do it?

Hope you liked this little hair update. Do you have any hair tricks/goals?

Wish everyone a wonderful weekend!

Maria

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Prog I

Click here for part II!

Nothing says "forever alone" than loving an unpopular music genre, be it post punk, deathrock or some weird techno subgenre. This post is dedicated to one of my biggest music loves - progressive rock.

But to make matters more interesting and exciting, I have decided to  e l a b o r a t e  on how it feels to like prog whilst being a part of a certain subculture, in this case - the goth/alternative subculture. In other words - I am going to complain passionately and discuss my favorite music. But worry not, as the following post will be a lot more fun.

As you may already know through countless mentions of bands and songs on this blog, progressive rock is one of my favorite genres, and some of my favorite albums and songs are prog. My favorite band, Opeth, are prog (more prog metal, if you don't count the latest albums): I have been listening to prog metal and 70s prog rock as a teenager with my group of friends during middle and high school and I've been listening to Mars Volta religiously in the past couple of years.

The most frustrating thing about liking different music genres whilst hanging out (or assigning oneself) in a certain subculture is finding people with mutual musical interests. Except for one friend (and now 1 more, who is being converted to like prog!) I know virtually no one who likes post punk and progressive rock (except for Boris of course). I don't know any metal people, so maybe liking progressive metal is more common in the metal scene, but there is a limited amount of progressive metal I can stomach in the first place, not to mention goths are focused solely on the 80s and beyond and not so much on 70s.

The Cure in the 80s

Pink Floyd in the 70s

Plus there's the fear (and sadly I have made the experience as well) of being judged for liking a certain music genre that goes outside of the "goth box" - fuck you for making a face when I say I like metal music, or classic rock. People focus on the image you convey with your style or when you visit goth parties they think you like only goth music. If I'd liked only goth music I'd be literally dead by now, and not in the cute romantic goth way.

Plus I feel that when people in the goth subculture like heavier music they need to hide it or make it come across as "guilty pleasure music". Fuck that too - my love for Genesis is stronger than your love for Winklepickers, ok? Also I see no harm in wearing fishnets or whatever and listening to prog. Have you seen how dark and theatrical Peter Gabriel looked like in his heyday on stage!?! No, because you have been blankly staring at your drum machine, making cheap disco music with one button.

And speaking of drum machines, and more specifically - synthesizers - I have been loathing minimal synth music and telling everyone all about it, but simply because the sky is literally the fucking limit when it comes to what you can do on the synthesizer in progressive rock. And I am not talking about insane Keith Emerson solos (some people can't calm the fuck down), I am talking about beautiful atmospheric sounds that can convey not only emotion but also tension in a very good composed song (aka Pink Floyd).

Peter Gabriel of Genesis

I am not saying everyone in the goth subculture are discriminating against people with different musical preferences, but I am saying they're more accepting towards musical genres that have more to do with goth, which makes 100% sense, but we don't all enjoy punk bands out there, and should I really elaborate on why some of the most famous and notable rock bands of all time are prog bands?

Perhaps I love prog so much because I spent my entire childhood and teenage years listening to classical music - my mom would put cds on and play the piano, and from age 10 I began playing the recorder and studying baroque and classical music, and that has turned my musical perception and understanding of it completely around.

And it all comes down to prog rock fans, who are generally huge music nerds who either have something to do with music theory or classical music, hence making them incredibly snobbish.

Oh, I have been that route alright - knowing music theory, analyzing the songs, thinking I was the only person around me who really understood where the best music was at.

Progressive rock provided me what no other rock music did - complex rhythms and beautiful harmonies and musicians with incredible skill to look up to, without them having to wear a suit and tie in a "high society" philharmonic orchestra.

Funny enough, prog wasn't the candidate to replace classical music for me, as that demanded something a lot more heavier in the simple and minimalist sense of the word - aka punk 77, post punk, dark electro and other metal genres, which I still proudly love.

Flip it around and you have prog people who hate on 4/4 time signatures, worship the fastest drummers/guitarists and look down upon popular music and the people who listen to it. That's pretty much how a lot of classical music people I studied with back in the day were acting, and that wasn't cute either.

John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater

As my friend (the one who's being converted) said: "goth is lazy music", in the sense that once you listen to progressive subgenres like prog metal, post hardcore or mathcore, minimalist music that's being made with 1 synthesizer with the excuse of singing about "heavy" themes and dressing like (allegedly) no one else does, gives the impression like the people who're making it are investing no effort at all into the composition and diversity of the music, which if you ask me, can very well be achieved with 1 synthesizer. The question is, are you riding on the same wave as the bands before you or are you truly giving a though to create something unique? That is the one thing I don't get about the various wave genres, which are very interesting and unique genres.

The different aspects of what makes music to be "good music" is as subjective as anything in life itself, so I might as well end this post on the following note:
I like different music genres, there's no going around it for me, and there's no way in hell I can ever be satisfied with one music genre for the rest of my life. A kind of musicgenreamory, if you will. 

And I hate being judged for one of the things I take a certain amount of pride in: When questioned about why I like a certain genre, is for me the equivalent of being questioned about my identity, about who I am, as if I need to validate something about my individuality. 

Fuck those people. they don't know what they're talking about, and I said it before and will continue saying it again: don't let a certain stream, be it music, literature, fashion etc. dictate your entire life and put you in a box. 

And who will put you in a box exactly? Firstly, you yourself, but also the people you hang out with. Fuck those people, they are missing out on so many musically various adventures they will die of boredom in the court of the crimson king.

the most beautiful thing you'll heard today: The Mars Volta performing Asilos Magdalena

For more subculture related posts, click here.

Maria

Natual-Makeup Face Of The Day

I am positively surprised of my zero effort makeup today. I normally add a brown eyeshadow in the corner and outer crease of my eyes for a somewhat natural look, but this time decided to use Bordeaux eyeshadow and eye pencil. I usually make an inner cat-eye in some shape or form, but thanks to putting the ordeaux in the nose crease I needed no extra lines.
I have no mascara on as well!


This is perhaps the most natural and close to my no-makeup face I've ever got, minus the brows, third eye, lips and the one and only - concealer!
I will probably make a no-makeup face one day, for Halloween maybe, would be appropriate...

Fun Fact: the reason I wear concealer is because I have permanent red-pink circles under my eyes. I mentioned people mistaken be for being sick or tired when without it numerous times, which has led me to wear it non stop. The bordeaux looks pencil looks very much like my dark circles, however I find putting it under my eyes actually compliments me and shapes my eyes without being too bold like brown or black. Curious things, our bodies are...

I only look sad, I'm just anguished inside.

I felt very pretty today!

 Maria Alexander

Dystopain - a poerty book by d0ll (interview)

I love making interviews when I have the chance, so here is a recent one with d0ll - DJane, alt model and writer, who's collection of free verse poetry is now up online in Amazon Kindle books!

D0ll's direct and piercing poems are screaming with themes such as self image, romance and feeling anti-social in today's society, and self-made photographs from her travels cluster a search into one's self that is very personal and easily relatable.

All links and references are included bellow.

d0ll

M: When did you start writing poetry? What inspired you to?

D: I first started writing poems during my teenage years. I think it all started as a way to deal with emotions, experiences and the outside world. To this day, some of my writings are as if therapeutic in a way, helping me digest negative experiences and feelings and helping me remember the positive ones and all the shades in between. The other kind of poetry I write is more social or sometimes anti-social and written a little bit from a different perspective.

From Anxiety:

"Armor of inner safety falls on the floor

Attraction that leads to self-destruction

Astonishment that reaches you deeper

Angry voices screaming

At you

Aggression strikes you like a bell that tolls

A hand moves on the handle on the door..."

M: Your poems are very straightforward – we get to see the writer and become her. Were you inspired by any writers or poets in particular? (Or any other literature you are inspired by?)

D: There are certain writers and poets that I enjoy reading very much, especially classics – Honoré Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Vladimir Nabokov, Jane Austen. I like reading romantic poetry, but also modern and post-modern poetry, I enjoy horror stories, historic fiction and some (mainly older) detective fiction. But I’m open to a plenty of genres if I feel a book has something interesting tell me and is able to draw and keep my attention. As much as I love literature, I don’t see myself as influenced by any writers in particular. Although it might be a question that’s easier to answer for someone reading my poetry or short stories. I would say my inspiration from writing comes from what I observe around myself or from my experience, some of it from music, paintings, drawings and photographs that I have seen. I’ve noticed that surrealist and expressionist artworks tend to move me and influence me. A bit of my inspiration might also flow from post punk music ;)


M: Self-image is a recurring theme in the book, what has moved you to focus on it?

D: To me poetry is like a mirror reflecting the same person, the same picture or surroundings every time you look in it, but from various angles and in a changing light. So my poems, for a part, are as if my own mirror reflecting everything through my eyes only my viewpoint is slightly changing with time. But I have also written poems that attempt to look at myself from a different person’s perspective.


From The Sea Remains Silent:

"I stand here and wait 

In hope that I will feel 

Your ghost somewhere near 

A last gust of the wind 

A last touch on my skin

You don’t seem to come back

To say goodbye I fear"

M: Is writing a process that occurs easily to you, or do you need to be in a specific mindset in order to write?

D: Writing is a process that happens automatically, in my case, anyway. I sometimes get an urge to write and must write down what it is on my mind. Or if I cannot do that immediately, I try to hold the thought, the words in my mind and scribble it as soon as I can. I never “decide” to write, in fact sometimes I am tired and just want to sleep or do nothing, but my inspiration won’t wait. And many times, I write almost despite myself, drowning in a particular negative experience again for some time, in order to “process“ it into a poem.


M: Aside from writing you also DJane and model. These are all very different mediums of self-expression, what do you experience with each? Which do you connect with more?

D: These diverse mediums have become important parts of my life. I must say that writing is very often connected to negative emotions and experiences in my life – or realizing certain precious and positive moments after they’ve already passed. Still, I feel a sense of satisfaction and peace after finishing a poem or a short story, after expressing an emotion or a vision in its whole.
DJing is an activity that is linked to pleasure in my mind, the cheer of enjoying great music and letting others enjoy it with me, giving some joy also to those that are listening in a way. It’s also about always discovering new music that I enjoy or don’t enjoy. It is, like with many things, a process of continuous education.
Modelling is attractive to me, mostly because of cooperating with creative and talented people and combining our ideas and turning them into something new every time. I like seeing the results just as much as I enjoy the process of creation.


From Piece Me Together:

"I keep on writing this story 

Which I can’t seem to finish 

And the same events always occur 

At the end of the day 

When you look at me
Don’t say you’re sorry 

The suffering is self-inflicted 

It takes one girl to break 

This body and mind

Don’t say you’re sorry

Just make sure 
I’m not out of sight"

M: You chose English for your poetry. Why so, and are you planning on writing in other languages?

D: I didn’t choose English, I think English chose me. ;) It has been the most natural language to write in for me for years, despite not being my mother tongue. To this day, all poems and short stories I have written are in English with the exception of one poem, which is in Slovak. Maybe in the future I will write in Dutch as well. Depends on what will feel natural to me. Anyway, I think Dutch is a poetic language and I’m fluent in it, so I might as well write in it someday.


M: Anything else you would like to add? 

D: Thank you for asking me your thoughtful questions. For anyone reading, I hope you enjoyed this introduction of the person responsible for writing the book Dystopain. There’s more to come in the not-so-far future. ;)

Get the book on Amazon Kindle edition.

D0ll can also be found at:
Official DJane Facebook page
Wake The Bats - Deathrock/old school goth/post punk/wave party in Bratislava, Slovakia
Official modeling page
Tumblr
D0ll on Leaves Of Ink

All pictures by d0ll.

Maria Alexander

Halloween Face

I ended up reading Tarot cards again for Halloween, but didn´t stay for long as people came mostly to get drunk and the pub was so packed nobody paid any attention to my table. My eyes began to sting from the cigarette smoke at some point and my vibes were pretty much gone. But it was a nice evening nonetheless. I had plans to go to a party afterwards but gave it up for Penny Dreadful and beer at home. Boris was away for a gig in Lodz to it was not fun going out without him.

Kind of went for a classic goth look, I love my red eyeshadow which does not look like it should through the camera. It is very pigmented and makes perfect for a sick, beginning of 00s goth inspired look.

Some 19 year old self inspirations going on here

One does not simply not take a Myspace selfie with this makeup/hair. I looked up 90s hair tutorials and really wanted to try these pigtails out, it´s the closest to pigtails my hair can get, plus I had no energy to tease my hair when it´s this long.

Hope everyone has had a more interesting Halloween than I!

N. Finsternis

Face of the Day: Eyebrows on Fleek

I love the feeling of cutting your fringe, grooming your overgrown eyebrows (fringe=low eyebrows maintenance) and drawing them carefully for the world to see. 

I pluck out half of my eyebrows in order to draw it higher. Drawing them on again actually looks natural, so no awkward super sharp black liquid liner for me. I also don´t really like the full grown bushy eyebrow look. Probably will make me look very Uzbek-ish like it does to my mom XD

I used a brown pencil on the beginning and drew the rest with a black one. I usually use only brown though.

I love how my eyebrows look

I can give you a smokey eye tip, if you are not tired of reading about smokey eye tips yet: smudge a little of black pencil on your eyelid, then cover it with a ton of transparent powder. It will not move, it will stay dry all day and won´t gather inside the crease and ruin your good mood.

You know what, here´s another tip: apply black eyeshadow on the lower lash line. It doesn´t smudge like pencil, and won´t look droopy after a couple of hours. Black eyeshadow will look dramatic enough on your lower lid, it also feels less heavy than pencil or liquid eyeliner.

Fun Fact: I actually say "on fleek" a lot. After I learned that this is what the cool kids say today it would make me feel very old not to overuse the expression...

Now to have my vacation at last! We are going to Copenhagen for a week on monday to see a dear dear friend. More adventures to follow as we get back.

Have a wonderful summer everyone!

N. Finsternis

Pride: face and outfit feat. Boris

Last saturday was our first time at Berlin pride. 2 years living here and we somehow did not have a chance to go until now. We were super excited and the parade was amazing, we had so much fun dancing around (for 5 hours, parade was huge!) and looking at all the beautiful people! The atmosphere was perfect.

Boris put on his crossdressing game and did his makeup, he was the prettiest of all the gender nonconforming people out there:

No, I do not have a good location for photos, but look at those legs!

Here is a better view of the dress. It is a very old dress of mine that I wore only once :P

Still trying to figure out if Boris looks like his mom when in makeup

I did not go crazy on my makeup, it is pretty much what I do to every party, only turquoise eyeshadow on the lower lid.

Here is a better picture of the hair. I have recently been trying out a new backcombing trick that a friend told me about.

 At some point we were in a hurry, so there was no time to talk an outfit picture of me. But there is an upper half picture:

I am very pleased with how my roots blend in with the uncertain color of my hair.

 This is indeed a transparent lace bra (best bra ever) and a cut out t shirt. Lower half were shots and teal tipped stockings, but my boobs have not graced the blog yet, so there you go.

I wish everyone a LGBT* week and a happy July!

N. Finsternis

Face of the Day: absolutely nothing special

This is a very basic look that takes me only 15 min. I have missed the brown shades and I love pairing this look with a dark brown lipstick, which in the pictures seemed to have worn off. 

Thought including a close up might be interesting for you to see how little I actually did. 

I just put dark brown on the outer part of the crease, the inner upper corner of my eyes and along the lower lid. This and gel liner on the water line gives depth to my eyes (aka fallen eyelids issues). 

I have no idea how this would look on you.  Foundation only under my eyes to hide dark circles and bronzer + lots of powder on face. 

Excuse the crappy lining on the upper lid, I was in a hurry and normally you cannot even see this part of my eyes lol.

This is as natural with makeup as I can get.

Hair is getting long and looks gorgeous in these pictures.
I am happy to be a part of the world again as I can almost fully walk after surgery! I am happy to go to uni again, but more so happy to have the semester over next month to go on vacation!

Pride makeup pics are coming soon!

N. Finsternis

Face Of The Night- Drag Race

I am missing today´s screening of Drag Race because of work, when I remembered I haven´t posted my makeup look from the premiere of the show 2 weeks ago.

I need to buy new chargeable batteries for my camera, phone pictures for now...

I didn´t want to go crazy with makeup too much, but I´ve missed my purple eyeshadow and black lipstick. Fringe has been cut since then and is almost entirely natural hair by now. I am excited how my second coat of henna will look like, want to make the orange a lot darker, even though the radiance of the first coat has faded only slightly (seem better in natural lighting). 

Spring is slowly making it´s way. It has become a lot warmer, I have finished my uni assignments and can relax, with up to 3 working days a week. A dear friend is coming to visit us from Copenhagen at the end of the month and I will have a little vacation. So excited to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Wardrobe change is in plan as well. For now I have a goal to buy only new stuff to replace the old, which is a new jacket to diy for patches and pins, and Vans shoes (never had those before!).

Have a wonderful week!

N. Finsternis

Valentine´s Day Makeup

Fringe is almost half natural-half orange by now!

Boris has suggested to do something romantic on Valentine´s Day, and so we went to see The Imitation Game starring one of our favorite actors, Benebatch Cumberdict. The movie was beautiful and very touching, talk about homophobia preventing the recognition of war heroes! I recommend you all to see it! 

I have been working all week and wanted to treat myself to some dramatic eye makeup. I did a black smokey eye with the smokey part being purple. 

Lipstick is my Careline P37 mixed with (and in the photo already slightly faded) black lipstick.

As the best second hand dress one could ever find is not captured in the pictures (Boris was tired and couldn´t give a fuck about my hallway outfit pictures, so I cut him some slack), I have decided to show you other random parts of my outfit instead, like earrings and necklaces:

Wearing a tattoo choker. Very missed having those, and was happy to see it yesterday in the mail. The key necklace is made by me. Also my usual safety pin ears with pendulum earrings from H&M.

Concerning not posting for a very long time, it is because I have been busy with the least pleasant mundane activities: working my first week on a new job (yay!) and having feet problems and doing orthopedic checks all week (nay. They even gave me an MRI test just like in those medical TV series, boy was that so loud it felt like being in a speedcore gig). 

I have an inflammation in my left knee, and another inflammation on my right ankle (Achilles thing?). I literally couldn´t walk last weekend and was having terrible pain. In both my fucking legs. It was very saddening, as I´ve never had problems with my feet before. Luckily the pain is now gone and physiotherapy awaits me. 

New job has been hard to learn but fun to do. I am now a hostel receptionist and it´s really nice, nothing like I´ve ever done before so I am happy to work since the semester is over by now.

I still felt fabulously sexy after slipping into house clothes, and couldn´t resist taking another selfie. You can see the makeup here better too.

N. Finsternis

80s Banshee Realness

Last Saturday we went to our favorite 80s party. This is yet another attempt to use our dorm hallway for an outfit location:

Does this setting work? This is an obvious rhetorical question....

I wore Boris´ fishnet shirt and my favorite high waist pants from H&M. I also took Boris´ red gypsy blouse but didn´t wear it in the club much since it was too warm.

As for the face, I am still sticking to this brown eye shadow for the sake of looking more natural. I am in love with this makeup, it fucking suits me and for once in my life I feel that the natural shape of my eyes which normally disappointed me to bits, actually looks badass and I couldn´t ask for different eyes. 

This is what you get suddenly in the middle of your life- boundless self love despite spending the last years trying to use cosmetics to change your natural face features. Lesson learned.

picture taken from mobile phone, excuse the difference in color

I would actually go as far with my newly learned lesson and write the following paragraph using Drag Queen jargon (soo excited that RuPaul´s new Drag Race season starts in March!!):

I am serving you old school goth meets "I look exactly like my mother" realness. I am channeling fierce contemporary post punk, my makeup is on point and I am fucking fabulous, baby! 

When people see me they go: "look at that banshee, bet she got her hair of the dog done right on fascination street!"

Better stop here, since I can communicate like this for hours with no one to appreciate my skills and discuss past Drag Race candidates. But all in good time, I guess.

Have a lovely week beautifuls!

N. Finsternis