Monday, February 27, 2012

Cyperous Wig Review & Strawberry Pudding

doing my best kpop idol impression
I'm fortunate enough to work in an environment where no one cares that my hair is green, blue and purple... I'm equally fortunate that they seem not to care that I'm constantly wearing different, oddly colored wigs.

September of last year I ordered a few things from the Japanese wig company Cyperous. I ordered a 'point' wig that I used to do my Marie Antoinette/gyaru inspired hairdo:

huuuge poof that I love
I also got some curly purple extensions and this long two-tone wig in wine red/black:


As far as quality goes, it's pretty soft and doesn't give off too much shine. I've had a lot of people mistake it for my real hair. As you can see from the photos it's a very lovely color and shape. Everything came packaged very well, with complimentary wig caps that I actually get a lot of use from.

Cyperous makes a lot of really lovely styles and does have support for international customers so you don't have to use a shopping service. There is a link on their site to assist international customers with ordering that is pretty easy to follow.

I will say this though, the payment system they use looks EXTREMELY sketchy. I was initially worried I had been the victim of a type of phishing scam. So be wary, but I can vouch that that weird payment page you receive at the end is legitimate.


Cyperous also has a cosplay wig division that has a pretty good selection. My next order will probably be this blond wig to replace my current 'Alice' wig and this blue-green curly wig.



In completely unrelated news, Paris Baguette near me recently started carrying pudding. This strawberry pudding is like crack to me.


♥ le petit alice

Monday, February 20, 2012

Tutorial - Ga-In, Bad Temper Mono-lid look

I don't listen to that much K-pop music honestly, but I fell in love with Ga-In of Brown Eyed Girls after seeing her dance in the video for their song Abracadabra. Since then she's become kind of my mono-lid hero.. much like Kiera Knightly is my small-boobs hero. But I digress.

Ga-In had some interesting mono-lid catering makeup going for her single Bad Temper.

Ga-In in all of her sexy, sexy glory...
I decided to take a stab at replicating the look. I did this literally a few hours ago at about 3 in the morning with no references in front of me, so unfortunately it's not super accurate After looking at a few photos of Ga-In after the fact I realized there are quite a few details I screwed up. At any rate, this is my interpretation of her Bad Temper look.

First I applied my foundation normally and primed my lids with Urban Decay's Primer Potion in the regular shade.

For this look I used all Sugarpill pressed eyeshadows. It did occur to me that using a regular black liquid eyeliner might actually have sped up the process, but what can I say.. I like doing things the hard way.

I used this brush to apply Tako to both lids first. I admit one side came up slightly higher than the other, but I was too lazy to redo it.



After that I slowly traced a line above the white with the tip of an angled brush, applying Afterparty wet.



At some point I realized I probably should have done the black winged liner first, but it didn't really matter yet, so I went ahead and added it then to give me some guideline as to where the blue should end. Again, angled brush applying Sugarpill's 'Bulletproof' wet.



Here's what I had so far. I decided to leave the black very thin for the mean time and build it up thicker after I was finished with the blue on top.


I finished the blue line so the end rested a little past where the corner of my eye is. It was still just kind of a sketchy outline at this point.


Once I was confident with my outline I thickened the blue line at the corners so there was a taper and added blue above the winged black liner and overlapped it a bit with the black.


I lined the bottom lash line with black, lightly.


Then I went over that black with a little bit more blue, filled my brows in and added a very, very subtle highlight with Tako to my browbone.


Here's the finished look. The wings tilt are angled further upward than Ga-In's and the color placement is a little off.. I may try this one again, but it still looks okay, so I'm not completely disappointed.


♥ le petit alice

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Skinny Bones - Outfit Post


I've been obsessively following StregaForest on tumblr recently because I find myself quite taken with the dark mori look. A huge plus is there seem to be a lot of Gramm pieces posted to Strega Forest, and my closet is like half Gramm already. Today's look was inspired by what I've been looking at there.

Black knit top - Black Peace Now
Birdcage rose necklace - Suppurate System
Chiffon Skirt - h.naoto MELT
Cream top - Free People
Tights - Topshop
Baroque Boots - John Fluevog



There are not words to describe how lovely these Fluevog boots are. I don't wear them often because there's honestly much I feel is worthy of wearing them with. ;-;


I've been wearing variations this ball-jointed doll inspired eye makeup look with this bob wig kind of frequently:


BJDs often have a very high gloss look around the lips and eyes. Occasionally the shine that you see around the eyes looks like it may actually be a painted in highlight (like this), I have a hard time telling.. bjd owners, please enlighten me. At any rate.. a good way to mimic that look around the eye area is to stipple some silver eyeshadow (wet) on the lower lash line and just above your eye.

It does look a little awkward on the upper lid since I'm not a doll and I have to blink.. which reveals the fact that it's just kind of a silvery line sitting awkwardly in mid-lid.. but it's a look I'm constantly working on making better because I really do enjoy doing BJD inspired looks.

I decided not to go for really showy eyelashes today though.. I'll probably try this look with more doll-like falsies in the future. I'd do a tutorial if I thought anyone would be interested.

the shine looks a lot more intense in person
♥ le petit alice

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

EOTD - Two Hearts

I used to wear a pink and silver look pretty often a few years ago and I decided to resurrect in a slightly toned down version for Valentine's Day using mostly Sugarpill. Sorry I look a little messy, I took all these photos after working all day.



Sugarpill "Tiara" on the inner corner
Sugarpill "Magentric" center
Sugarpill "Love+" and "Decora outer
Urban Decay "Virgin" from the original Naked palette highlight

I kind of left my brows natural and I passed up fake lashes.

Happy Valentine's Day~

♥ le petit alice

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A is for Arsenic - Taxidermia

I got my A is for Arsenic order in a mail about a week ago and I'm pleased as punch with the items I received! I ordered three items from the new(ish) Taxidermia collection.

The attention to detail with the package design really kind of blew my mind. I have a special place in my heart for beautiful packaging.




Signed card from Amelia which was a very sweet touch 

I ordered the Vanitas Ladies Grey Shirt and the Vanitas Ladies Black Tank. I pretty much knew from the start that the tank would be entirely too large for me to wear in public without the danger of accidentally flashing passersby.. I got it mostly to replace some old dusty pink tanks that I use as pajama tops.

The Vanitas Shirt, while still large on me, still looks flattering and I'm seriously regretting not getting the Macabre Menagerie shirt because of how beautiful the Vanitas shirt turned out to be.



I took two hasty shots of my outfit from today. All I can say is these tops are incredibly comfortable and I really can't wait for another collection to be launched. Please excuse my non-makeup face and horrible camera work, I was in kind of hurry to get out of the house.




The third item in my order was the Bleeding Antlers necklace, which I admit I almost didn't get because it was black. I wear SO MUCH black that when I wear black necklaces they tend not to stand out against my top/dress/etc. I broke down in the end because I have a serious antler fetish. It's got a gorgeous high-gloss finish and I'm sure I'll find something to wear it with.

the box that the Bleeding Antlers necklace came in





♥ le petit alice

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Peacock

I've wanted peacock colors in my hair for a long time, but I couldn't bare to completely part with my purple, so I made a compromise. I also gave myself a little trim. I'm wondering when I'm going to get tired of this hairstyle... I guess I have enough wigs that I can change it up whenever I feel like it.


There are actually a total of five colors in my hair. I mixed dye in different cups to make sure it gradated the way I wanted it to. The only color I didn't use completely by itself was Special Effects Limelight, which is just mixed 50/50 with Stargazer Tropical Green. I also used Crazy Color Pine Green, Directions Turquoise and Alfaparf Jean's Color in Violet.

I'm pretty happy with how the colors turned out. They all seem to be very vibrant. No word yet on their staying power, since I've only had these colors in for three days now, but I'll probably post of photos of how it fades.


Also, I know everyone and their mother already has it, but I got Urban Decay's Naked Palette, which I used in these photos. There would be no point in swatching it since every single beauty blogger has already done it.

Some of my favorite things were laying out on my desk recently.. making it all the more clear how much I dearly love black. The perfume is Kat Von D's Sinner, which I wear daily. The nail polish is Illamasqua's semi-matte black, Scorn.


♥ le petit alice