Sale Alert!

Always check for sale items when shopping.
Get more bang for your buck!

I'm keeping this post short and sweet. Father's Day is in less than three weeks, and while of course you should buy a few things for the fatherly figures in your life, you can take advantage of this holiday as well. What a lot of people don't think about are sales around any holiday. Memorial Day sales, Father's Day Sales, Mother's Day Sales especially, 4th of July sales, etc. Very often, entire stores or popular sections of stores will discount their items around 10% - 75% off. Now is the best time to shop not just for makeup, but your summer wardrobe, accessories, and anything else you want! Take my advice and take advantage of these deals while they last!

Introducing the Toolbox Trilogy

Remind me to find one of these raincoats.

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up one morning and you're just in a bad mood? Every little annoyance blows up into an irritating beast, and all of a sudden the weather is more severe than it actually is, and the only way to keep yourself from exploding on an innocent sister is to lock yourself up in your room and wait for your inner thunderstorm to pass? It's been like that all week for me. It isn't the heat that's making me nauseous, it's the humidity. It's disgusting outside, but if I close my window I'll overheat and pass out. 


On absolutely terrible days like this, I prefer to stay inside and play around with my makeup. This got me thinking, if I'm going to teach you all the ways of the makeup world, I should start with the basics. Makeup itself. Every girl needs to know what should be in her "toolbox" when she's preparing to beautify herself. 


There are so many things that can be put in your toolbox, one post isn't big enough for it all. So introducing the Toolbox Trilogy. Three rainy day how-to posts about every basic aspect of a girl's makeup toolbox. The first edition will be published very soon, so keep your eye out for it!


While you wait, what do you do on a rainy day? Do you fuss with your hair and makeup? Do you draw? Create mood boards perhaps? Do you have one of those rainy day savings jars? Write me a comment all about it!

Mood Boards... Or Whatever You Call Them.

My latest Mood Board. Took approx. 2.5 hours.

Call it whatever you want. Mood boards, beauty boards, collages... Whatever you call it, the definition is a personal manifestation of whatever you're thinking of at the time in the form of art. I call them mood boards, because the way I'm feeling usually controls the finished product. The reason why I'm dedicating a post to this is because I feel the duty to inform every girl of a productive way to make a wish list, get out some feelings, create a shrine to your favorite hobbies or celebrities... Or just do it for fun.


I like mood boards because it's a real project, but not the kind that takes several days. Just a few hours and you're free to let your creativity shine through. I also find it brings me to a point of serenity that meditating has never done. Focusing on this one thing; I forget about everything else. I barely even think. I get away from the world for a few hours and when I'm back, I have something beautiful. So I'm going to give you a brief text tutorial on how to create your own Mood Board, because maybe the same effect will happen to one of you.


Steps:

1. Get a bunch of old magazines. You can get these from friends, family, etc. (I get a ton of my mother's old magazines; I don't have the heart to cut up my own.) My mood boards always relate to fashion & beauty, and some great magazines for this are Marie Claire, Allure, Oprah, and I use US Weekly, People, Essence, and Parenting, because sometimes you find miscellaneous items in there.
2. I usually tear out the pages first before I cut to prevent frustration and accidental multi-page chopping. After I culminate a pile of pages, I cut out my favorite parts. Make sure you have a lot of little things to fill in the gaps that come between the bigger stuff. Too much big stuff means too much overlapping, and that may cover up too much of your cutouts!
3. I haven't made many mood boards, so I'm still at a loss to find the best way to glue the cutouts onto the board. (Use a glue stick by the way, liquid glue is too much of a hassle, and tape runs out too easily.) I like to arrange all my cutouts on the board first, and then very carefully lift a piece or two up at a time, and glue them down. This way I don't have to worry about gluing EVERY piece, but make sure the room you're in isn't drafty or you'll be very annoyed.

Tips:

1. Cut out more than you need. It's better to have tons of pictures and fill in all the spaces than have not enough pictures and big ugly gaps on your board. 
2. Don't be too restrictive. If you want to follow a certain theme, that's fine, but let your instinct bring you to the pieces you love. Don't say, "Oh this doesn't perfectly match my theme." You won't have enough cutouts and you'll regret it later.
3. I don't listen to music when I do this. And I'm always listening to music. But music might influence what I'm looking for. You know when you're writing and someone is talking and you accidentally write the word they had just said? Music can influence your art like that, and I want my mind to do all the talking.
4. Make sure you have a large block of time to do this. I HATE when I'm diligently working on my mood board and suddenly I'm called for dinner. Clear your schedule and eat first. Distractions get you out of the zone!

I dare you to comment about any mood board you've done, or any questions you have about a mood board... Or whatever you want to call it.


Loving Watchamacallits (mood boards for me),


Autumn =)

The Numbers Game: The Bird in the Windshield

Now is she mature enough to wear makeup?

Like every road you will travel on, there will be bumps, and deer, and potholes. Our first obstacle is similar to an irritating bird flying into the windshield as if it can't see where it's going, even though it has two eyes. Not one, two. So why must it fly into the windshield! Sigh. Never mind. My point is, we have annoying birds in our lives. They are known as the adults in our lives that are just a tad old school.


They are the ones who believe middle schoolers, and even high schoolers, are too young for makeup. So we must think about the Numbers Game. How young is too young? What age is OK? How old until I can wear this or that? The Numbers Game is simply an excuse to hide the ever elusive truth about tweens and teens like us. Maturity isn't our most widespread characteristic. Maturity will be your most important asset in the Hunger Games Numbers Game. No bow and arrow required to win.


The concept is simple: The adults in your life need to understand you are mature enough to wear makeup. This means you have to be able to wear it in a respectful, tasteful manner. Not so much that you look like Lady Gaga, no crazy colors at, for example, church, and NO LOOKING LIKE SNOOKI. EVER. I mean it. Don't even try it. It's a waste of makeup.


So if you can wear your makeup in a tasteful manner, or at least you are willing to learn how here, then you are qualified to add a little of Mother Nature's gift to your face. I don't mean the gift in the Tampax Commercial... Because I know that's what at least one of you was thinking. I mean color! Makeup! Excitement! Expression! Creativity!


Honestly, a four year old isn't mature enough to wear makeup. Most four year olds can't even handle the brushes properly. My four year old cousin recently destroyed some cream blush I had... Aww.


To the bumps, deer, potholes, and birds,


Autumn =)

Entering the Crazy, Colorful World of Makeup

World of Color - Disney World

I'd like to open this blog with a story every artist must hear... And it all begins on one dull day in the beginning of time. Young Mother Nature was sitting around, quite bored indeed. There was nothing to do, nothing to see. She decided to draw little doodles on our planet, which at the time, was just a blank canvas. A few plots of land and sea here and there, that's all. She sketched beautiful mountains, and canyons, and forests, and made the sun rise and set each morning and every evening with a little flipbook animation. But something was missing. Something to complete her painting. Young Mother Nature played around with a few ideas for a bit, and soon enough, created color. Vibrant reds, rich blue hues, shades of pink and purple, oranges, greens, and yellows. Some dark, some light. Some faint and shy, while others burst into the senses.


Mother Nature swirled colors into the sky and below the surface. Eventually, humans learned to take these colors and make even more beauty out of them. Clothing, art, even food were given beautiful tints and hues. And finally, we created makeup. A way to put these colors on our bodies and make living art. A way to enhance the beauty we were born with, and give our faces a much deeper purpose. Expression. Creativity. The possibilities are endless!


Ever since it's creation, the crazy, colorful world of makeup has grown more and more complex as time has gone by. Now there's dozens of brands, scents, and ways to add color to your face. There are intricacies as far as what brush to "paint" with, what pigment looks best, what mood and theme you want to portray. Your own face is your canvas, and it is a canvas you will grow to know so well, the most beautiful of artwork will come from it.


This beauty rant has a purpose, believe it or not. This is a folktale that has inspired the creation of Aisles of Beauty. The Aisles of Beauty is a spinoff of your traditional beauty blog. It's not made for 18-45 year olds looking for the best concealer or wrinkle reducing night cream. This beauty blog is designed specifically for preteens looking for guidance in the wonderful world of makeup. There are questions to be answered, mysteries to be solved, and stories to share, so what better place to do so than here? Welcome to the Aisles of Beauty!


Your Dedicated Blogger and Future BFFL,


Autumn =)