Style Inspired Autumn 2015

 I always get inspired to up my fashion efforts this time of year. Something about layering on clothes and being comfortable without needing to leave the house wearing a sleeping bag makes for a good reason to beef up your closet. 

As always my inspiration lies in rockstars of the past and the women who loved them. This time of year groupie chic is joined by witches, cool boots, sexplotation movie heroines and well dressed trannies past and present. 

Yeah this is totally the kind of inspiration you see on a normal fashion blog. 

London #zitosonparade

 As yesterday was the first day of Fall I thought it was only appropriate that we close it our with the last of the pictures from my summer vacation.

London is easily my favorite place in the world. My pictures here were sporadic because I was so happy to just be there with my family walking all over and soaking it up. 

It reminds me of a lot of the reasons why I love New York. It's artistic, eclectic busy, metropolitan and simply my favorite place.

We stayed in East London's Bethnal Green in an AirBnB that was good, somewhat less successful than Glasgow but I was so excited about the neighborhood and the people nearby. If you find yourself in the area there is a bar restaurant called The Hemingway that is hilarious and delicious and manned by some of the most polite and funny people we met throughout the vacation.

It's Cheaper At Home

 I went all the way to London, trolled the Charlotte Tilbury counter at Selfidges and then came home and snapped up one of the newest shades of the Matte Revolution lipstick. 

What? It was cheaper at home.

Nails:New In

It has been quite a while since I've purchased nail polishes. Not just since I've featured them on the blog but since I've bought any period. 

I had amassed such a large collection at one point that it became overwhelming.

A little over a year ago I got rid of a whole bunch of colors and have bought very few new colors since. 

When I was away on vacation though, I thought it would be a lovely opportunity to give a couple of new to me formulas a shot.* 

Quick and Easy Weekend Makeup

Quick and easy weekend makeup can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. In some cases for me it means no makeup but on some occasions I like to spiff up for a day at the park.

A couple of weeks ago I hit up Astoria Park in Queens with some friends and nabbed seven quick items to play with.

The Warm Weather Dark Lip Obsession

I'm not sure what it is this year. Normally I am SO on board with spring this-summer that but this year it seems the only shades that have graced my lips have been in the blood red and burgundy families.

Admittedly I'm having a bit of a baby goth girl moment as my Instagram can certainly attest to.

I think there is something about a more generous makeup application that feels fun for me right now.

I have mentioned a fair few of these babies before but as they have barely left my lips in nearly a month I think it's high time they got another shout out.

I Miss Making

 You may have noticed a bit of radio silence over here on my corner of the internet. 

I took a week off to enjoy a family wedding and give myself a bit of a break and then that week turned into something of a creative crisis.

I am someone who has been making things for many years. From studying fashion design to some ill advised Mod Podge I've run the DIY gamut.

Now I am very fortunate to be in a position to live in a place I love, that inspires me, motivates me and, gives me access to all the resources necessary to turn that motivation and inspiration into something tangible.

The only problem is I wasn't doing that.

Makeup Bag Extras

Sometimes the things that make us feel the prettiest are not the best looking things in and of themselves.

Today (well yesterday, I'm behind this week.) I want to talk about all the not so pretty things in my makeup bag that make me feel extra good some days. 

Impulse Purchasing 101

If there was going to be a blog post on how not to shop responsibly this would be a good place to start. 

Do you know when you see a product and you go...eh, it's ok, and then you look at the name and everything changes. 

Well when I saw the name on one of Marc Jacobs Beauty's newest Le Marc Lip Creme's I knew I had to have it. Even if it is a member of the color family that I admit I almost never wear. 

That Contour Thing

I don't know about you but this whole "sculpted face" contouring thing that's taking over lately has me a little confused.

Now don't get me wrong, I like a bit of shape just like anyone else. As you can clearly see my collection of products and tools for the purpose is certainly not lacking. I'm just not certain that I need a palette of shades that may or may not work for my skin or a collection of cream colors that can be mixed.

I am not a makeup artist and therefore do not need to make my contour work for all kinds of people...just me. 

So what do I reach for when I want to carve out a little space on my face?

Brown Lips | An Eperiment

 I first saw this lip color on YouTuber Erica Fae who does some of the most beautiful and simple editorial beauty looks I've ever seen on the internet and the minute she put this shade on I knew I wanted it in my collection.

The color is Maison from the NYX Matte Lipstick line which, is a formula I have often sung the praises of. The shade is slightly more grey toned than it appears here and I the minute I got it home this look just sort of came to me. So with the afternoon to myself  I started to play and I love how it turned out. 

Much to my surprise I think I might even wear this one out. Maybe even to work.

Hair Routine Part Deux! Fine, Curly and, Bleached|TheUnanimosMolly

I posted a video talking all about my hair routine almost 2 years ago now on my YouTube channel. 

To date it is one of my most viewed videos so I thought since there was so much interest I would film a follow up.

A little about my hair:

It's fine, it curls very very tightly and it's prone to both frizz and fallout. Cute huh?

On top of that I decided about 2 and half months ago to bleach the bottom four or so inches so I could pop in some fun colors. Now what was tricky to begin with needs even more TLC. Since I've finally found a new routine that works for all my hair's new quirks I thought a rundown was in order. 

The video is a long one but packed with a lot of info so if you are interested take a peek behind the cut!

The "Ready for Spring" Wishlist

The change of season means it is definitely wish list time!

Gotta love a wish list. 

On top of that the last two days have been sunny and 40 degrees here in NYC. You would think we'd all lost our minds. All of a sudden everyone is like WooHoo 40 degrees, it's summer! Let's wear shorts!

No joke. 

While I'm not quite there yet the few extra hours of sunshine certainly wants to make me add some springtime sass to my beauty wardrobe. 

These are the things on the list.

Morning Skin Perfected

 My skin has been a bit of a roller coaster lately. It's been dry and cranky, it's broken out and I can't quite seem to keep my makeup in place much past lunchtime. It gets to this state around this time every year. I think it gets sick of the cold and the indoor heating and it just kind of gives up. 

Despite all this, the one thing that seems to have made things ever so slightly better is the presence of a well rounded morning routine. It has never been something I've quite gotten right and for the first time I feel like I have a lineup of products that are giving me exactly what I need.

The Best of The Drugstore Feb 2015 | TheUnanimousMolly

After my recent beauty clear out I finally started to realize that there were a lot of budget conscious beauty bits that I wasn't reaching for in favor of my other slightly pricier options.

Armed with this new information and a MUCH smaller collection I thought it would be a good time to go through the good stuff that was left and pick out all of the drugstore goodies that had earned a spot in the new lineup. 

Some of these are old, some of them are new but all of them are honestly some of the more affordable pieces that I will reach for on the regular. 

So what should you pick up the next time you're perusing the aisles of the local Rite Aid?

Check out the video and find out! 

The Current Concealer Wardrobe

No product has the ability to illicit more excitement in me than concealer.
I've never been much of a full coverage girl when it comes to foundation, hell I've never been much of a foundation girl in general. When it comes to hiding imperfections and evening out my skin tone concealer has always been where it's at for me.
Targeted application is key and finding the right texture is a constant mission in my life.
As such at any given moment my collection has what seems to be an ever growing and changing selection of products.
Today we're taking a tour of what's in the lineup right now. 

Shopping My Stash #2

One of the best benefits of purging a collection is suddenly finding things that you once used all the time or were really excited about when you bought but somehow made their way to the back of a drawer instead of onto your face.

It's inevitable when you have an unnecessarily large amount of the same thing that shades and formulas get neglected. As part of my ongoing mission to use more of my stuff and part with things that don't make the cut I've pulled a selection of things to start playing with. 

Beat the Winter Blues and Dye Your Hair Purple

Guys I did a thing!

A thing I practically never do. A Beauty something that really quite intimidated me for a long loooong time.

I put a crazy pants color in my hair. 

Now I realize that this is super popular right now and "everybody's doing it" but, I don't fucking care. I love it and I can't wait to do it again.

The Beauty Purge 2015|#3 The Thing About Pink

As I wade through my acrylic drawers full of excess makeup (mainly lip products) I've suddenly noticed something.

I own A LOT of pink lipstick.

Do you know what I almost never wear?

Pink lipstick.

The Beauty Purge 2015|#2 Thoughts on Blush Palettes

With the holidays and all of the holiday gift sets behind us and my recent collection purge on my mind I was thinking a little bit about some of the the most popular offerings from brands at the holidays and how/when I use them throughout the year.

The first thing I thought of were the constantly reappearing blush palettes, initially brought out by NARS, I believe, in 2012 and then again every year since. Not to be outdone Tarte followed suit with collections of their much loved Amazonian Clay formula.

After three holiday seasons and two different palettes added to my collection how do I feel about this as a part of my collection and would I buy another one?