Steam Trunk Couture Archery Gloves - Five and Diamond SF

I had a delightfully quiet Thursday to myself this past week and I was finally able to make it back to Five and Diamond to take advantage of a sale they were having.

I've been eyeing Steam Trunk's Archery Gloves for more than a year now after trying them on at the Edwardian Ball. I'm happy to say that after a year of lusting I bought them.

Gloves for me, unfortunately, are a bit like hats. I seem to really love them, I spend a decent amount of money on them and then never seem to find anything appropriate to wear with them. But these gloves are too damn gorgeous and buttery soft for me to avoid wearing them. That being said they are slightly large on me, but I can accept that since they make me look completely badass.

a close-up of five & diamond's gorgeous bags

I also picked up this lovely watch necklace, mostly for the color scheme.

I stumbled across 780 Cafe in between shopping and going to a friend's place to watch Game of Thrones. It's a very pleasant space for a design geek like myself and the mocha I ordered was pretty decent. I also finally got some use out of my new h.naoto Blood bag, which I was worried was a little too small but comfortably accommodates my huge Juicy Couture wallet, my camera and my giant brick of a portable phone charger/battery with room to spare.

mm, mocha..

h.naoto blood suspender bag

I also happened to run into this little cutie, dressed to match her owner. I then creepily asked for a photo.

I wish you could see me or the bizarre window display better.

I really need to spend more of my days off in the city. It's fun to go exploring and there's a lot to see.

♥ le petit alice

Saturday Shoot

I haven't been part of a photo shoot since I left college last year, but this Saturday I decided to help out a friend who needed me to stand in to do some lighting tests for a shoot. It ended up turning into its own thing and I had a lot of fun. I definitely want to do it again soon!

I finally got to wear my new NAOTO SEVEN headband out. It's so lovely and elegant.. not something I can't see myself wearing out every day, unfortunately.

Hopefully photos from the shoot turn out decently so I can post a few on here for you to see! I'm eager to show off the GRAMM dress I was wearing. It's quickly become one of my favorites and it's super comfy as well!

makeup with sugarpill and illamasqua

My makeup was a little sloppy because I was in a rush.
Sugarpill's Tako, Love+ and Bulletproof pressed shadows.
Eyelashes, which you cannot see very well here, are Illamasqua #017.

♥ le petit alice

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

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

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

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

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