INTERVIEW: Arabelle from Fashion Pirate

Do you ever discover a blog and just fall head over heels in love with it? That was exactly how I felt upon visiting Arabelle's Fashion Pirate for the first time! Here was a person who was not only blogging about beauty and clothing through her own individual perspective, but also was tackling subjects not usually talked about in the blogging community - and all the while being incredibly articulate.
Much to my surprise, Arabelle agreed to be the next blogger interviewed for this feature, and I got to ask her about make-up, film, and the future.

Where do you hope to see yourself in five years?
Hopefully I'll be working in beauty at a magazine, and doing something regarding women's rights as well. Honestly I have so many interests right now that I'm juggling I'd be happy to do any of them.

Describe the average day in your life.
I'm boring as hell most days, I fluctuate between never leaving my room/computer and never being in my room/running around screaming, and rarely like, just hang out with my friends. They yell at me sometimes about it and have to drag me to be social. I wake up (late), fall asleep standing in front of my closet and wake up leaning over drooling on one of my dresses, pick that one to wear because why not, and go to class. Then I watch a movie 'cause I'm doing a 365 film challenge that I've fallen behind on because of fashion week and general madness. In class and between them I answer emails, tweets, schedule photo or video shoots for Rookie or powder doom or whatever and do my social media internship with a company that hasn't launched publicly yet. On week days I'm really boring and just go to class and be narcissistic and outfit blog or stuff. I get everything done on weekends when I can go back home / into the city and visit showrooms and designers and whatever and do fashion stuff.

Can you remember what the first makeup product you completely fell in love with was?
I was way into this shimmery blue lipstick from Hot Topic in middle school. I thought I was hot shit when I put it on, and used to smell it a lot because it smelled like vanilla. Wish I still had it, it'd probably look dope with my hair. Also I could probably pull it off way better now.

Let's say your a superhero - what are your powers, and more importantly, what does your costume look like?
The power to convince anyone to do anything I want. I wouldn't be a very good hero, I think. Maybe an anti-hero. I'm way too much of a sociopath to be a proper good girl, I know this already. But ummm... I'd wear a costume designed by Yohji. He's dabbled in movie costume design before so I'm sure it'd be rad.

I love reading your thoughts on movies - are there any in particular that have inspired your style?
Not really, no. I like movies more for the feelings than for the visual effect in a lot of cases. My favorite films re: style would be maybe The Fall (SO BEAUTIFUL I WANT TO CLAW MY EYES OUT) and Top Hat. My personal style is very much a uniform as of late and isn't influenced by music or movies or what have you -- more by... Wednesday Addams. I guess The Addams Family would be my major filmspiration if you were to pick one. I just want something to feel safe and dangerous in at the same time, which is why I wear what I wear. It gives me that feeling. I guess it's no surprise Thrillers are my favorite movies. I can be a voyeur and safe as the viewer but still be totally caught up in the danger of a good plot.

If you had a dinner party and could invite any five people, living or dead, who would they be?
Rei, Audre Lorde, Luce Irigaray, John Waters, G-Dragon.

You are one of my favorite voices in the blogosphere - do you ever have difficulty expressing how you feel in writing?
I think the hardest part is just pressing publish. If I've written it down already, it means it's been in my head for awhile. I'm in my own head a lot, I am my own best friend and enemy for this, but it makes me a prolific writer when I get off my ass. I've never had a problem saying what I mean -- I used to get chastised by people for not shutting up or not thinking before I speak. But I can't help being truthful. I don't want to help it. I like to be liked by people on the internet, but I also don't seek anyone's approval for what I say. I just need to say it. It's a need. I need to say these things. I think if I didn't write or vlog or whatever I'd probably just sit consumed in my own thoughts to a point where I would go mental and start gnawing on peoples spinal cords.

If you had to choose, would you rather live without lipstick or eyeliner for the rest of your life?
Eyeliner. I feel naked without at least 2 lip products in my bag. I would cry if I could never do a cat eye again but lipstick makes me happy. I remember in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Hepburn would always apply lipstick to arm herself against the world and bad news. I do the same thing. When I'm stressed out you have to pry my chapstick or lipstick from my manicured talons.

Want more? Visit Arabelle at these links!
Fashion Pirate
Powder Doom
Rookie

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David Lynch Inspired Nails

Last month I finally watched ERASERHEAD for the first time, and was inspired to do my nails based on some of David Lynch's most iconic imagery.

Thinking of David Lynch, immediately red, black, and white come to mind - all of his work has a very distinct aesthetic to it (something I absolutely love), from the rich blues and reds in BLUE VELVET to the stark and crisp black and white Eraserhead was filmed in.

For the TWIN PEAKS inspired design on my index finger, I turned to "The Red Room" for inspiration - I painted the nail white, cut tape into thin strips, arranged them in a zig zag pattern, and painted over the tape with black polish.

On the middle finger, I painted the nail a blue color that resembled sky, cut more thin strips of tape, arranged them like so, and painted white over the nail. After this new coat had dried, I used a toothpick to carefully drop three small dots to suggest roses. My inspiration for this was the infamous opening scene of Blue Velvet.

I painted my ring finger white, cut tape into rectangles, arranged them into a checkerboard pattern, and painted over the nail with black polish to suggest the floor design in the dream(?) sequence in Eraserhead.

And finally, I painted my pinky and thumb nails a simple red to evoke all the blood that is spilt in his work! For a rough example of how I assembled the tape to achieve this design, click here!

If you want to do this yourself and have any questions, feel free to comment, email, or tweet me them to me!

What color are your nails right now?

♥, Kailey
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I'm a Mermaid ^_~

When I was a child, my favorite thing in the world was to visit the Disney Store! Does anybody remember the animatronics that used to decorate the ceiling? I LOVED those! And, of course, I would always gaze wistfully at the merchandise - especially princess dresses.

I had a Cinderella dress when I was about 8 and I was OBSESSED with it, and haven't had the heart to get rid of it. The other day when going through my old clothes, I found it again and while holding it up to myself, I decided to (try) and make a new dress that would fit me again.

That night I cut off the top and skirt puff (I'm unsure of what to call it haha!), and sewed the skirt puffs together to make half of a top. Not having much material to work with, I cut up an old white shirt in half and sewed the two halves together. The next day I glued sea shells on the front and let the glue dry overnight. Finally, I sewed the new top to the skirt and was done!

This was the first time I have ever tried to reconstruct a garment out of an old one (or even really sewed a piece of clothing), so I made just about every single rookie mistake (sewing up the armholes for one X_X) and not perfect, but I am so pleased with how it turned out!

Have you ever done a D.I.Y. project like this before? ^^

♥, Kailey
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How To: Make Your Own Valentines

Personally, I have always LOVED Valentine's Day! I take this holiday as an opportunity to give my loved ones Valentines and show them how much I appreciate them (I firmly believe that this holiday shouldn't be ~exclusive~ for couples!) and eat wayyy too much discount chocolate on the 15th. I thought it might be fun to share with you how I make these valentines, and hopefully inspire a few of you to make some as well!

You Will Need
1. Multicolored cardstock/construction paper (and lots of it! Use any colors you would like, but be sure to have white on hand!)
2. Glue
3. Scissors
4. Fiskars Paper Edgers (optional)
5. Sequins and rhinestones
6. Magazine clippings of your favorite people/things (optional)

Begin by cutting out heart shapes - don't worry about making them perfect!

Glue this heart onto white paper, and using Fiskars Paper Edgers, cut around the heart. This will give the paper a white patterned edge (if you do not have any of these scissors, you can hand cut scallops out, but this will be more time consuming).

Now, line the colored heart with glue, and place sequins around the entire valentine.

(This might take a while)

Once you are finished, we have these beautiful bases! You can decorate these any way you want - I have a few examples of what I did below!

For the valentines on the left and middle, I cut out magazine clippings of Edward Scissorhands and Saved by the Bell and used sequins to add some ~pizazz. For the valentine on the right, I sketched out Siouxsie Sioux and then cut out the shape of her hair, eyebrows, eyes, and the mouth with paper.

For this pink one, I simply glued rhinestones onto the heart. Instant pretty!

And lastly, I made this card by cutting out the shapes and assembling them into the image of Batman and Superman. As a particularly fitting finishing touch, I added this mushy line: "You're My Kryptonite".

And there you have it! Pretty please let me know if you use this tutorial to make your own (I'd absolutely love to see them), and if you have any questions feel free to leave me an email or a comment!

♥, Kailey
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MAKE-UP LOOK: Une Femme Est une Femme (1961)

photo source Film Stills

Anna Karina's role as Angela in Jean-Luc Godard's UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME (1961) has lived on in cinema and fashion history: her character's look - consisting of a wardrobe filled with primary colors, tights, and bows - has bewitched movie enthusiasts for decades.

Whilst I am not usually a fan of Jean-Luc Godard's movies, I can't help but be charmed by this one! Anna Karina is undeniably adorable, and I really love Jean-Paul Belmondo's performance as Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy's friend - not to mention the adorable 50s musicals nod!

The other day I decided it would be fun to do my make-up in a loosely based take on Angela's signature look in the movie.

I pinned the sides of my hair up, put on some bright blue eyeshadow (I used Make Up For Ever's Flash Color Pot no 20), applied black eyeliner in a cat eye style, and wore a red cardigan.

What movies to you turn to for beauty inspiration? And, as a side note, Happy New Year everybody! I hope you have an incredible 2012. ^^

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Beauty Icon: Elizabeth Taylor

How does one even begin to write a post about Elizabeth Taylor? The iconic woman who had her first break-out role at the tender age of 12, has been attributed as being the most beautiful woman in the world. Indeed, it is not hard to see why: her signature look, consisting of perfectly shaped eyebrows, gorgeous dark hair, and violet eyes have captivated film lovers over the course of many different movies, husbands, and eras!

Images courtesy of tumblr & simplyclassics

Elizabeth's incredible filmography proves she had the talent to back up her star status - Suddenly, Last Summer being an incredibly haunting and claustrophobic film. One thing I truly love about Elizabeth is she used her fame to help people - she has raised more than $270 million for HIV and AIDS-related projects.

Do you have a favourite Elizabeth Taylor film?

♥, Kailey

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