| Those who actually know me, know that I'm a total MAC fanatic. For those of you who don't know what MAC is, it's a makeup brand. Sold in department stores. In comparison to most department store brands, it's probably the cheapest. Still kind of spendy, but in general MAC is still a very good brand of makeup.
For the past two years, nothing but MAC has touched my face. I'm very particular when it comes to my makeup, and for the past couple of years I have practically cursed at drug store brands like Maybelline and Revlon. They just can't COMPARE to MAC. I still believe that.
But crunches in my budget have forced me to make a rather tough decision. I'm shelving my MAC products. I've put them away, to save them for 'special occasions'. Over the past couple of months my drug store makeup has gradually growing in number.
It started off as me wanting to experiment with wet eyeshadow application. I don't use my MAC eyeshadows for that because once the moisture is actually ON the palette, it makes it hard to ever use it dry again. So I invested in an eyeshadow duo by Hard Candy. The duo was an irredescent white and black combo. I decided I really liked it.
It didn't quite go on as easily as my MAC stuff. It was kind of chunky and it bunches in my crease a bit, but a little blending made it presentable. From there, I invested in two more eyeshadow duos. A pink and purple, and a cream and teal. All Hard Candy. Over the last few months I've kept returning to the store and picking up a few more Hard Candy products with each payday.
I've gotten several colored mascaras. Gllitter eyeshadows. Plumping lip glosses. Colored liquid eyeliners. Glitter mascara topcoats. Eyecolor sticks. I now have an array of various Hard Candy products. Enough to sort of... REPLACE my MAC stuff, for the time being. Today, I went to Wal Mart and bought some concealers and a L'oreal foundation.
I wore entirely drug store brand makeup to Thanksgiving dinner today. I ended up looking no different than when I wear all my MAC stuff. But I could definitely tell the difference. I can feel the difference in the cakey feel of the foundation, the way the eyeliner kind of crusts. I can tell because with my MAC stuff, all I used was moisturizer and foundation. But to achieve the same amount of coverage with the drug store stuff, I need to use a moisturizer, a tinted moisturizer, a green concealer for the redness in my cheeks, and pale yellow concealer for my dark circles, and then foundation, and then two kinds of finishing powder.
I've been working with makeup for long enough now that I can take what I have now and make it WORK. I just hate how much I have to work WITH it in order to achieve the same results.
Ugh. I hate being poor. | |
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|  IT'S HERE!! Freakin' finally. After about two months of waiting, I finally got the stepdad to dig it out of his garage. It's sooo old. An antique little vanity. It's in desperate need of a paint job. It's stained and the paint it does have is a gross off-white yellow color and it's chipping off. The foil under the mirror's glass is cracked in the corners. The handles to the drawers are rusted.  This is the top of the mirror. The paint in the engraving is just plain yellow. I think I'm gonna try and get my hands on some gold paint for that part. Big ol' chuck of paint missing, too. XD  Say hello to my makeup collection. XD I could have sworn I had more than this. But come to think of it I DID get rid of a whole bunch of stuff a couple months ago. Stuff that was old, or that I just didn't use much. The black thing in the center front is my eyeshadow compact. Has twelve eyeshadow colors in it. The pink thing with the big obnoxious gem on it, left side, is another MAC eyeshadow compact. With six colors in it. I'm totally the queen of eyeshadow, I've realized. The black thing in the top right is actually an ink stone, used for chinese caligraphy. I use it for mixing eyeshadow colors with water. This week is Thanksgiving. I only have school Monday and Tuesday, and have thursday and friday off a work. A four and a half day weekend... You'd think I'd be excited, but I'm kind of... NOT. Elam's not going to be home. I'm going to be bored out of my freakin' MIND. Who would have thought boredom would be so terrifying? Ugh. I'm sure I'll be fine. I have plenty of stuff to keep me occupied. Typically I'd be chatting it up with my Long-Eyed Sister. But she's actually in Washington for the next couple weeks for a much-needed visit to the fam. I honestly don't expect her to be online until she returns to California. I have a Thanksgiving dinner at Elam's sister's house on Thursday. And friday I'm going to be kidnapping Nikki again. Then I plan on getting around to painting the vanity at SOME point in the weekend. But that honestly won't take up a whole DAY. Ugh. I guess this means I'll get some good writing time in. But I'm finding that staying at my apartment and tryiing to write is a rather... impossible task. I always seem to get distracted by random stuff. I think I'll pick up the laptop and go to the coffee shop down the street. Sip on a latte and chip away at stuff. Overall it's going to be a very short, easy week. And hopefully an extended, boring weekend will mean I get some productive hobby-related things done. We'll definitely have to see. | |
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|  Um... What? O.o I never really thought of my face as all that symmetrical or even remotely attractive. This website is calling me a liar. And yes, I did take a picture of my computer screen. My 'print screen' was being a bitch and it wouldn't let me click on 'share', so... I improvised. The last two things it points out are things I already know. I have a black person nose (I blame my black dutch great grandfather. XD), therefore it is very wide. And I already know that my face is square/oval, therefore too long to be considered the perfect 'oval'. Jeese. I hate these things. But people have always told me I should be a model. This thing is telling me my face is nearly perfect... I just need a nose job. XD Maybe after I get my ears fixed. | |
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| I nearly died on the freeway tonight. Yeah... totally fell asleep at the wheel while driving to school. Thank God for rumble strips. It scared me so fucking bad I nearly peed my pants. I was practically in tears by the time I got to school.
Then I got over it.
I'm going to start drinking a cup of coffee before I leave for school every night. School is enough of an adrenaline pump to get me home AFTER school.... but getting there is kind of an issue. I'll fix it with a caffeine shot.
ANYWAY.
On to better news.
Tonight was my first night of Protege. Basically that just means that I shadow a Creative/Adaptive student for the night. Watch them work on their clients, help out wherever I can. Shampoo their client, drape their client, blah blah blah. It was SO MUCH FUN. It was so laid back and chill, and it was seriously awesome to watch some of the other students do their thing. Really got me excited to get a client of my own.
Which will be happening tomorrow. But that's beside the point. XD
I'm going to be getting my hair toned again tomorrow. Maybe... if I have time. We'll seeeeee.... I'm so tired, right now. | |
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So this is all the stuff I've resorted to carrying around with me, on the daily. I have a black shoulder bag (my high school bag, actually), that seems to stay with me any time I'm not in school, nowadays. This little creative kit of mine started out as just my journal, but seems to have steadily grown over the last few weeks. I find that now, since I'm not as home so much, my creative exploits have to be more portable. I can't just leave all my stuff at home now, or risk losing my muse.
I used to just write everything down in my journal. I've quickly found that this method doesn't work so well for me. I tried... but now I have to go back to compartmentalizing everything. Whenever I'd write something down related to my novel, it just kind of gets lost amongst all the other entries, and finding it again becomes a total pain.
Case and point: Yesterday, I was looking for a certain excerpt. I actually wanted to post it here, just to start getting the groove back. Took me so long to find this excerpt amongst my mind's debris that I just... lost interest.
That sucked.
Which is why I've resorted to writing Pandora's Box's full manuscript in a separate notebook. Simply because I don't have the time to type up the manuscript on my laptop. Allow me to direct your attention to the pretty black spiral marked in silver sharpie, on the top there. XD
So what is all this other stuff? XD I shall tell you.
Starting from the left, you can see a black shiny, almost snakeskin like cover peeking out of the bottom, there. This is my sketchbook. Just a normal black sketchbook. Can't see it in the picture but I wrote "doodles" on the bottom right of the cover, just so I know where the front is. XD
That red... blob is actually a collection of my BIAM worksheets. (BIAM = Book in a Month). BIAM is quite a handy little system for pounding out manuscripts. I, unfortunately, do not have the time to write a full manuscript in thirty days, but the system still provides some really awesome fill-in-the-blank worksheets that really help you analyze your characters, plot, theme, scene sequence, etc. So the red thing is just a bundle of worksheets bound by a little three ring clasp. Nothing too special. The thing on top of the red thing is obviously my Pandora's Box manuscript notebook. There aren't any notes in there. It literally is just my manuscript from beginning to end. Well... not end. But I'm working on that part. XD The thing labelled 'Artbin" is a plastic container that's holding all my prismacolor pencils, pro art graphite and charcoal pencils, sharpeners, charcoal sticks, and two erasers. For my sketches. XD The black thing below that with the silver little swirlies on it is my journal. That's pretty self explanatory. And below the journal is obviously my planner, with some pink paper sticking out of it. The pink paper is a bunch of notes I took for Fashion show purposes. Because guess who's in charge of putting it together? Yeah, that would be me. Glutton for punishment, I am. Sam is going to be helping me, but Sam is more of a creative free spirit. When it comes to keeping track of models, time, music, decorations, seating, setup, underage model release forms, theme control, etc... that's all me. It's not that I've never put together a big production before. Christ. I directed To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm pretty sure I was like Directorzilla. And you can bet that when that curtain parted on opening night, I had made sure everything was 100% ready. I even rode the set crew until they hated me, forcing them to get the set done freakishly early so my actors could practice with their sets.
So I'm not worried about making this production work, I just know I can't do it by myself. I'm definitely going to be giving out a lot of tasks to people... for the sake of my sanity. XD | |
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| So I spent most of today pursuing a few random artistic... things. The first thing I did was turn this:  Into this:  It's a character award for my teacher. I drew her name for a little thing we do for Core Graduation. Just an award based on certain aspects of that persons character. I named Teresa 'Most Likely to call you a Sucker". Because that's what she does. Call everybody a sucker. It's hilarious. I did a lot of the work on this yesterday, and spent about thirty minutes today gluing all the suckers and attacking a few more gems. Turned out kind of cool. I hope she likes it, and doesn't randomly stumble upon this entry before tomorrow, and spoil the surprise. XD I also made this:  A traceable template for fashion design purposes. I'm very picky when it comes to my drawing. I know that if I try to draw a female figure with EVERY outfit I make, I'll spend my time trying to get the figure right, and not drawing the clothes. So I put together this to trace. I'm not exactly a FAN of tracing, but like I said... the focus on these pieces will be the clothes, not the figure. It took me a while to even put THIS together, and I even left the head off of it. There are feet, but they're cut off in the picture. I have other templates to use for makeup design, and another for hair design. All kept between the pages of my awesome sketchbook.  Here's the first design I've put together. It's a rough idea of an outfit for the Paul Mitchell fashion show, and possibly my halloween costume for next year. I wish I was better at drawing different fabric textures. I guess that can come with practice. But I guess I need to stop being so picky. The purpose of these sketches are just to give me a rough estimate of the look I want. Now that I think I'm done doodling my soul out, I'm going to get Elam to order that pizza and actually get to writing me stuff. XD | |
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| Since my school announced the possibility of an upcoming Fashion Show, I've found myself thinking about it. A LOT. We do know it's going to happen, but with Caper and the 2010 Olympic Figure Skating tryouts coming soon, it may not be for another several months.
But I've been thinking about it. Thinking about the outfits I want my models to wear. I even found myself doodling a costume idea in the lined pages of my journal.
I think just that little doodle has created a monster. I've been doodling EVERYWHERE, now. Random makeup ideas, outfit ideas, hairdo ideas. Jeese... I even spent a 10$ Fred Meyer giftcard on a sketchbook today, just because I feel like I should have one, now. I was playing with some of the charcoal pencils that came with it, and Elam did this weird... GUSHING over the weird face I drew. He tells me I need to draw more often and show off my work more.
Shit. Am I about to add Artist and Fashion Designer to my list of active hobbies? I wonder how much I can actually do. My workaholic self is always trying to fill in the gaps with things that are... well... productive. And I've ALWAYS wanted to learn how to make my own clothes...
Problem is that right now, I don't have the ROOM to pursue that as a hobby. After talking with Elam today, he's finally agreed that we need to get a bigger place. He was always weirdly resistent to the idea. But I think the constant clutter is starting to get to him. We NEED more space. And he's even REALLY encouraging me to pick up fashion design, too. So I'll need a room devoted solely to my freakin' hobbies. A desk for writing, a table for sewing, a closet for keeping all my crap in, a corner for my dress form. And he AGREES with me.
Heck yes.
So that'll be something we're definitely going to be working on. Saving the money for a deposit on a bigger place. Maybe even a house... but let's not get too carried away. XD
Until that time comes, I'm just going to be working on filling my sketchbook with ideas. And dreaming of the day when I'll have my dress form and that hobby room. XD | |
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| So today marks the first round of my Core testing... Today is the written exam, tomorrow is the practical. I'm weirdly nervous, of course. If I fail either of these exams, I'll be expelled. They'll throw me out and blacklist me from the local schools, because I'll prove myself to be completely incompetent and a liability. I'm totally kidding. Failing isn't that big of a deal. You just take the written again and again until you pass, and the instructors basically WALK you through the practical. The only reason I'm nervous is because I want to make my teacher look good. I know that sounds kind of weird... but Teresa is seriously awesome. I love her to DEATH. And my class is the first Core class she's ever taught, and she wants to know that she's done a good job. She HAS done a good job. And honestly spending the last two nights at school with two instructors OTHER than her...? It really makes you appreciate her. Teresa went to Orlando for a training conference. She should be coming back today. But her being gone meant that we had subs to teach us Monday and Tuesday. First night, it was supposed to be Zack. Zack is probably the only one who rivals Teresa on the Awesomeness Scale. He's seriously talented, a GREAT teacher, and very strict. The greatest part of it is that he LOVES the Night Core (my class). Zack is very dedicated, and you can tell that he gets frustrated with some of the Day girls. Just because they seem to cut corners, and they don't really LISTEN to him. Prime example was when we were doing our training for haircutting. Some of the Day Core girls had missed their cutting days, so they came in to make up the time with us at Night. They were... weirdly disobedient. Zack would give them instructions and they'd skip ahead. Zack FORCED them to wear their aprons, too. It was hilarious. Zack never made US wear our aprons. Funny. Anyway, when Zack was out of the room, one girl straight up ASKED us: "Is he ever mean to you guys, too?" That was shocking. Up until then we didn't even know there was a mean bone in Zack's body. But after spending some time in the Day classes (when I got my hair bleached), I can totally see why. There's a completely different... aura in Day. Even sitting in the chair and watching others, I could SEE these girls cutting corners. Bending rules. Slacking. It's totally... not like that in Night Core. Every single one of us in Night work our TAILS off every day. We work full time jobs and we still go to school at night. Because we WANT to be there. We're totally driven and 100% focused. Don't get me wrong. There ARE girls in Day that are like that. I could totally name some right now. But the GENERAL atmosphere is one of people who are just... doing this because their rich mommies and daddies paid for it, because they needed something to DO after High School. I think that's why Zack likes us so much. ANYWAY. I've gotten way off topic, here. Zack was supposed to be our sub on Monday, but he called in. Some kind of emergency. So another instructor came in to take his place. This instructor... wasn't all that nice. You could tell she was tired and really DIDN'T want to be there. You could tell she was used to the 'slackers' in Day, because everything we told her about normal Night Core procedure, she had to verify with somebody else. Like we were lying to her? Whatever. It was stressful. Yesterday was manicures, and we were taught by Francie. She's the SWEETEST old lady. A little off her rocker, too. But I seriously love her. She's chock-full of all kinds of stories, and has been with the industry for 42 years. She has the tendency to ramble and overexplain and repeat herself. It annoyed some of the other girls in Night, but I seriously didn't mind. It was WAY BETTER then Monday. Francie told us a story about how a woman who worked in the same salon she did, bought a bottle of SIXTY VOLUME developer, once. Just so you know, the mild developer is a 5 volume. 5 volume developers are used for demi-permanent colors and toners only. 30 and 40 volume developers are for permanent hair color. When used with bleach, the higher the volume, the FASTER the bleach eats at your hair and bleaches the color. Now, sixty volume isn't even CERTIFIED for use in America. You can only get it from Europe. Francie told us that the bottle her salon-mate bought EXPLODED when it was sitting in their sink. Developer is basically peroxide, and 60 volume is EXTREMELY volatile. The developer was so strong it ATE AWAY the pipes of their SINK. They had to get the whole thing replaced. Note to self: Don't EVER use 60 volume developer on anybody's HAIR. Yeesh. 60 volume is only available in Europe because it's used on Ethnic hair. Ethnic hair is very coarse, and wiry. You COULD get away with using 60 volume, but only for a REALLY FAST processing speed. It's really not necessary. And not something I will EVER risk using. ANYWAY!!! I'm off topic again., Despite how awesome Francie is, I still miss Teresa. She makes class unbelievably fun. And I want to knock this test out of the park to help make her look good. Because she IS good. I should bake her some cookies. | |
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| I guess it's something I'm really starting to see more and more with each passing day. A natural side effect of being such a busy girl. The people who used to be my 'best friends', the people I'd hang out with on weekends and spend my time with... They're not a part of my life anymore. It's kind of something I never saw coming.
I guess I always thought that the friendships I had would be something solid, through thick and through thin. I guess I was wrong. And it kind of... hurts.
Because in the few times when I AM available to hang out with the people I used to hang out with regularly... I asked if they want to do anything... and they have better things to do now. Other people to hang out with, and I'm just... not invited.
It happens when you don't have time for friends anymore. You just don't matter to them, anymore. Not because they think less of you but just because... others have taken your place. I guess I wouldn't think so much of it, if it was one, or two... but it's EVERYBODY. And I feel so unbelievably lonely now, despite the fact that I'm constantly surrounded by people I can talk with and laugh with.
They're not my FRIENDS. They're just... people I interact with, either through school or through work.
And no, these people are not candidates for deeper friendships. Having been burned one too many times, especially recently, by people who I've blurred the line between 'friend' and 'coworker' for... Not worth it.
I'm just going to have to get used to being the person no one has time for. The one who'll only have a friend when said friend has nothing better to do.
I guess it's not so bad. It'll teach me to be more independent. Teach me that I don't really need close relationships. I mean, shit. Who does, in the end? Nothing is solid. EVERYTHING you have can be lost. And I'm losing it. All consequences of the choice I've made to better my life.
I guess it's kind of teaching me who the valuable friends are. The ones that may actually stick around... | |
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| What is a Scalp Treatment? - Think about how often we use lotion to moisturize our skin. Out of all the skin on our bodies, the scalp is the place that's left completely neglected. For obvious reasons. A scalp treatment is a way to to moisturize and exfoliate our scalps. It helps get rid of dandruff, and cures dry itchy scalps. A scalp treatment stimulates blood flow to the scalp, and can even help your hair grow faster.
What you'll need:
A scalp brush
Hair clips
Lotion
About thirty minutes
This is a scalp brush. It's characterized by bundles of hard plastic bristles. This isnt' something you'd want to brush your hair with. Because the bundles of bristles make it impossible to just.. run it through your hair, lest you just, pull all your hair out. Not pretty.
Anyway. Mine came with my Paul Mitchell kit, but you can find something like this at any beauty supply store. If you can't find something specifically called a 'scalp brush', anything with bristles that are hard, plastic and 'sharp' would serve the same purpose. Even most round brushes would work.
As for the lotion, I recommend Paul Mitchell Tea Tree hand and body lotion. But if you don't have that, any unscented lotion would be best. Use unscented, because after exfoliating the scalp, putting a scented lotion on it could cause irritation and discomfort.
PROCEDURE:
Using some kind of clip, or hair tie, bind your hair up, leaving a one inch section down at the nape of your neck. Using the scalp brush, concentrate on the scalp and brush through your hair. Take your time. Really concentrate on working those bristles over the scalp. This isn't exactly comfortable, but keep at it.
When you're done with the first section, take down another one inch section and repeat the process. Try to only concentrate the scalp brush on one section at a time. If you pull the scalp brush over sections you've already done, you can be causing unecessary irritation.
Repeat this process until you've worked all the way up the head. If you feel like your scalp can handle it, run the brush over your scalp as a whole a few more times.
After you're done with the brush. Pull all your hair back up, leaving that same one inch section down as before. Take your lotion and apply it direction to your partings using your finger. Using the same sections you used for the brushing, put lotion in each of those partings. Be generous with the lotion, because you'll be washing the extra out, anyway. Once you've applied all the lotion, leave all your hair down and the work the lotion into your scalp.
Keep at this for about ten to fifteen minutes.
Yes, your arms might get sore and this is seriously boring. But work it through. XD
Shampoo and condition like normal.
FOLLOW UP:
It's best to do this about once a week for a normal scalp. Biweekly for an oily scalp. And about twice a week for a dry/problem scalp. If irritation, blisters, or hair loss occurs, I would definitely recommend stopping. XD
But it's not likely that would happen. If it's too much, try switching to a gentler lotion.
I'm going to be performing my own little experiment to see if scalp treatments really do help with hair growth. I'm definitely going to be keeping everyone posted. XD
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jacquelyn's journal