Unleashing my inner goddess

And it's not a Fifty Shades of Grey thing. I haven't even read those books.

Rather it is this week's outfit challenge, thought up by me for myself and Marijke.

In other words, choose a god or goddess and allow him or hew to inspire you.

Marijke chose Athena (visit her blog!) and I chose the Morrighan. She is from pre-christian Celtic mythology. Wikipedia states that "The Morrígan is a goddess of battle, strife, and sovereignty. She sometimes appears in the form of a crow, flying above the warriors.".

Sounds pretty badass, right?

So here's what I made of it (I cropped out my head as it just looked weird in the photo):
                                       
My black skirt from last Sunday is making a reappearance along with a black top in the gothic style that has a lot of pointy bits that could totally be feathers. You can't see it too well in the photo so click here to see it in green.

Make-up is a smoky eye with lots of black and purple and dark red nails. Lacy black scarf to keep my unruly hair in one place and to top it all off: my necklace with the silver raven skull pendant to get it that extra Morrighany edge.

I was a bit apprehensive wearing this into work as the water outfit with dark green eye make-up got a lot of attention but either this is more toned down somehow or I look to scary to invite comments. Either way, I had the guts to walk into work with it without toning it down. Yay me!

Thank you for reading!

Sunday Outfit Challenge: The Casual Romantic

Today started out fantastic weather-wise. I got up to pick blackberries and just get some general exercise and Vit-D. 

This little guy sang me a song this morning!

So onto my outfit. Marijke chose "The Casual Romantic". I definitely consider this a challenge as my dress sense is not overly girly. My main plan for the day was visiting a craft and vintage market in town with a friend so the outfit had to be suitable for that too. 

I think I was pretty successful as per below. The top (which has embroidered flowers that are not very visible in this photo) is vintage and bought from Etsy and the headscarf comes from another vintage market in town. The skirt is GAP, bought from someone on E-Bay. Shoes are just plain old Tom's. 

Here is a closeup of hair and make-up. The hair is actually so easy to do (learned how on Pinterest) and looks really fancy and romantic. I did some nice purple shadow on my eyes and a pink lip and blush. Cute, right?

A lovely outfit for a lovely day. I helped a friend find stuff for a costume party and found Marijke a T-Shirt I really wanted so I am well pleased!

Our next weekday challenge will be completely different: we will unleash our inner assassin! SWYF powerrrr! ;-)

Thanks for reading!

The Outfit Challenge, Round 3.

Hello all!

Day 3 of the outfit challenge! The choice was up to yous truly again this time and I decided on finding inspiration in one of the 4 elements. My friend chose Earth and I chose Water!
So here's the outfit against the very sexy backdrop of the bathroom at work. The skirt is a dark blue linen one, calf length from Fat Face. I am wearing blue Tom's as well. The top is H&M and the scarf is of no particular brand, just a silk scarf from my growing collection. You can't really see it but the top and the scarf both have a very watery feel due to patterns and little light reflecting sequins on the fabric.

For make-up I chose a basic smokey eye in dark green with a lip gloss. Darker than I usually wear so it gave my colleagues a bit of a start.

I am enjoying the challenge. This was a fun outfit to wear and this challenge is a reason to experiment, with my clothes as well as my make-up. And it gives me a reason to blog! 

Thank you for reading!

Outfit Challenge, Round 2

Chirp, chirp! My friend at http://ethelandilearntosew.wordpress.com chose today's theme which was to be inspired by a bird. So today I picked my brain and my closet for options. I settled on a relatively simple outfit, suited for the easy going-ness of Sunday, inspired by...

The English Robin!

I don't have much in brown in my collection so I just replaced with black. Here I am (photoshopped the messy balcony background away :-P)! The hair is not looking the best as it was still wet from showering. I did take the opportunity to do my eye make-up to match the outfit. 

My turn to come up with round 3. Time for the thinking cap!

Essence Nail Varnish Review

Last week I discovered that my local pharmacy sells a very affordable and cruelty free make-up brand called Essence (please clock on the link for their statement on animal testing). While I would be inclined to go for a premium brand for products that go on my face, I saw no harm in trying out a new nail polish at a mere EURO1,79. I chose shade 117, "I'm So Very". Take a look at it below

As you can see the shade looks the same on my thumb as it does in the bottle. It went on opaque in one layer and I covered it with a layer of top coat. I put it on on Friday afternoon and it stayed on perfectly until today and then it has only chipped in one place. So I must say I am very impressed with the quality of the varnish, especially considering the price and highly recommend giving it a try if you can find it in your area!

The Transition Phase

Due to my transition to the cruelty free lifestyle I am still in the posession of a (fortunately) limited amount of cosmetics that is not cruelty free. I have been asking myself what to do with this. So far I have been throwing out some of the older stuff but I have been hanging on to some of it too. Having already spent the money I feel I may as well although I am sometimes reluctant to use it. I welcome any thoughts on this.

Another transition is the one of companies to used to be cruelty free but give it up. Would you hang on to the products you already bought or would you chuck it all out straightaway?

Then there are the companies like The Body Shop and Urban Decay. Cruelty free in their own right but also owned by decidedly cruel L’Oreal. I am very conflicted about this. One the one hand they now slot money indirectly into animal testers’ hands, on the other they are now more widely distributed, giving more people the chance of discovering the cruelty free lifestyle (the latter being PETA’s stance). I still have some products by both brands, which I intend to use up. I will not buy any additional products from them for now until what I have is used up and will make my final decision then.

I welcome thoughts on all of the above!