I'm on XO Jane!

Just a super quick post today to let you all know that the good people at Xo Jane have been kind enough to publish a little ramble from me on making your own jewellery with nail polish!

You should head on over and make me look all popular and stuff!

Melancholia: A Powder Perfect swatchathon

I know there's been an absolute ton of Powder Perfect around here lately, but they just keep making so many pretty things, and keep being kind enough to send them to me, which means you guys get bombarded with pretty pictures! I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not really.

Melacholia is a sequel of sorts to the Euphoria collection from Powder Perfect earlier this year, and it's a DOOZY. It's kind of odd having so many awful, personal memories attached to words like "Foreboding" and "Despair", and still being so excited by how freaking gorgeous the polishes attached to these words are. Lot of cognitive disconnect, and being me, I'm sure there will be a pseudo intellectual analysis of that soon enough. But for now, PICTURE TIME!

Powder Perfect Lady Is A Vamp Collection Review

Just a quick little post today, in preparation for a MASSIVE picture post tomorrow! I was lucky enough to be asked to swatch a few of the most recent collection from Australian indie label Powder Perfect, Lady is A Vamp. This collection is a celebration of all things femme and fabulous, and the statement for this collection is something I can really get behind!

"Lady Is A Vamp collection is about celebrating what makes us feel good!!

Does getting dressed up to the nines make you feel good? Fantastic!

Does wearing your favourite old faded jeans and a t-shirt make you feel sexy? Great!

Just bought a pair of bright red stilettos that you plan on wearing out tonight? Rock ‘em!

These colours are inspired by those things that make us feel our most vibrant and alive."

The three polishes I got my hands on are With My High Heels On, a stunning classic red creme, Jealousy, an incredibly bright raspberry holo, and Boudoir, a really interesting cobalt blue creme with gold glitters.

I'm A Bad Fatty and I Don't Care - Brainy Femme Repost

This post originally appeared on Brainy Femme - I'm going to be reposting particularly relevant posts from Brainy Femme over here from time to time. 


I have a confession to make, and you might want to sit down for this because it’s kind of shocking. I a fat woman - that much is clear from any picture ever taken of me. But I’m also a fat woman who has no interest in losing weight. I am a “bad fatty”.

"Glutton" by the amaing Natalie Perkins,
available as a print from Fancy Lady Industries

If you’re not familiar with the terminology, this is the best primer I’ve seen on the subject.* Even if you’ve never heard the phrase “good fatty” before, if you’re even a little aware of the unwinnable weight war that woman can get locked in, you’re guaranteed to be familiar with the assumptions this terminology describes. Fat people, and especially fat women, are supposed to be ashamed of their fat. We’re supposed to be aware of, and acknowledge, that our fat is a failing - of willpower, of morality, of character. We’re supposed to be either constantly willing to explain in depth, to anyone who asks, our excuse for being fat; or alternatively if we have no “acceptable” excuse, we’re supposed to be doing everything in our power to become a more “acceptable” size.

Me, I don’t have an excuse for the size of my arse, acceptable or not.  I don’t have any medical conditions that I’m aware of that prevent me from losing weight. The women on my mother’s side of the family do tend to be bottom heavy, but my mother is tiny, so it’s not like my genetics are inescapable. I’m not an athlete, so I can’t attribute any of my kilos to muscle. I mean, I’m sure there’s some in there, and I’ve always had big muscular horsey thighs, but I would be seriously reaching to attribute any significant proportion of my weight to muscle.

Smooshing on Softness - A Lazy Skincare Special

For all the money and time I spend on making my nails and my eyes pretty (ie. glittery as hell), I'm still appallingly lax when it comes to my skin. I've been hanging out in the beauty community a lot more over the last year, and as well as teaching me that I really should do something with my eyebrows, they've also taught me the importance of having a skin care routine. It doesn't have to be a complex, military operation involving dozens of products costing a year's salary per jar - but I've decided I can and should muster at least a little more effort than just soap and water.

( most days anyway)

I've very half heatedly run through a ton of different creams and potions and unctions, trying to find something that made enough of a difference to make it worth my while spending extra time smooshing stuff that's not even glittery on my face. Seriously, I could moisturise a small country with the products I have hanging around my cupboards that I used once and discarded for one reason or another. They're too greasy, they're too drying, they smell weird, they make me itchy, they make my skin burn...for the longest time it seemed like nothing was just right.

My face is very particular about what it does and does not like on it. Any moisturiser heavier than "featherlight" brings me out in absolutely DELIGHTFUL rashes of blackheads, and a lot of random ingredients seem to make my skin flushed and blotchy. Parts of my face are super oily (hello pools of sebum on my nose under my glasses), but other parts are quite dry in comparison. "Oily skin" face washes always seemed to strip the oil off the greasy parts, leaving the dry parts like parchment, and "combination skin" washes didn't seem to do anything at all - not even take off dirt.

My hands...well, let's admit it, I'm pretty darn hard on my hands. I change my polish a LOT, and use acetone remover for that. I've also been crafting with resin a lot lately, and guess what is the only thing that'll get that stuff off your hands - that's right, more acetone. Of course, I tend to only take photos for you guys when they're looking their best, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they can get pretty manky and gross sometimes.

I really want my face and my hands to look...well, nice. It seems a shame to have such nice cosmetics to put on them, if the shiny is sitting right next to blotchy, pissed off skin. So I've kept at it, and after much trial and error (and occasionally reverting back to straight up soap and water in frustration), I finally have a couple of products I like enough to actually recommend.

I know, I'm sure you're all absolutely shocked that I've chosen entirely indie products.

From left to right we have; Purify Facial Cleanser from Rhasdala Beauty, Cuticle Cocktail and Rub-A-Dub Scrub from Help Me Ronda, and Clay Block for Face from Corrynnes Natural Soaps.