Sunday, April 1, 2012

Paganfest III Makeup

Sorry, none for you guys again! Why?

BECAUSE FUCKING WAR PAINT!

Turisas, Alestorm, Arkona, Huntress, Aversed, & The Flooding at The Palladium in Worcester, MA

For the record, this show was Friday and I'm exhausted and ready to pass out at the drop of the hat. Epically good times, my friends!

The Flooding - Local metal band with their drummer doing vocals! The Flooding was fantastic and really brought the energy. It was too bad that their set was only about twenty minutes long but that's what happens with local opening acts. I really liked these guys and am hoping to see them again on the 21st because I clearly need more metal in my life. We actually wound up hanging out with the drummer/singer and the bassist for a while. Very cool guys!

Aversed - Another local act. They weren't bad but they didn't quite hit the spot for me. However, I will admit that it was pretty cool to see an Asian metal singer. You go, little dude!

Huntress - I have an immense hatred of female vocals in English and this is no different. The music itself isn't bad but the shrill vocals just annoy me. Naturally, I hit the bar and scoped out the hot metal heads (there are always TONS at folk metal shows) in the pit. Fun Fact: I ran into Huntress' singer in the bathroom. She's mega pretty and very nice.

Alestorm - Pirate metal! These guys were a little gimmicky but still a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised by how hard they rocked and would totally see them again.

Arkona - Second time seeing this fabulous Russian band and, as before, they did not disappoint. I wish I knew Russian so I could tell them how much ass they kick but buying a shirt will have to do.

Turisas - First US headlining tour! Also, my first time getting to see them! It was absolutely INSANE! They played a long set and even gave us an encore (BATTLE METAL!). They went above and beyond my expectations. I mean, I knew they were good but DAMN did they put on a show! I don't think I've ever seen such crazy moshing in my entire life. I got to meet Olli randomly early on in the night and he was a total sweetheart. For those of you who don't know, Olli's is their awesome violinist. He'll play your fucking face off and you'll like it.

Achievement Unlocked:

- We made so many new friends it was ridiculous. I can't wait to see them all again!
- I got the numbers of a few cute guys. One was a hottie I'd seen fucking shit up in the pit at the Korpiklaani show in December!
- We hit Denny's with a bunch of the fans and took the place over!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

GWAR, Municipal Waste, Ghoul, & Legacy of Disorder at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, MA

Okay so due to being in a ridiculous hurry, I didn't take any pictures of my make up for the night. It would have been washed away anyway so no big deal!

On with the review!

This was my first trip to the Wilbur Theatre and although it's been my smallest venue to date, it made for a wonderfully intimate show. I'm also glad I got my tickets early as the show completely sold out.

Legacy of Disorder - Apparently these guys are from New Zealand, pretty cool! They were a magnificent opening act and really got the crowd going. It isn't every day that I'm this impressed by some random band no one's ever heard of.

Ghoul - I had seen them once before, back in October, so I knew to expect GWAR Jr. Not that it's a bad thing, no, far from it! I love these guys, they make you wanna fuck shit up. Also, their bassist is hilarious.

Municipal Waste - I had no idea what to expect as I had never heard any of their music and I have to say, MW did not disappoint. I thought I couldn't love RVA more than I already do and it just keeps shoving great music down my throat. I would gladly see them again.

And last but not least, our lords and masters, GWAR! This was my seventh time seeing the RVA legends and I wasn't really sure what to expect with the passing of Cory Smoot aka Flattus Maximus but they just keep getting better and better. The set list included a great mix of tracks some newer albums and old favorites - Salaminizer, anyone? Actually, we all pretty much lost our shit as soon as that riff hit. However, the most power part of the show took place during the encore when every last soul in the building joined Dave Brockie in belting out The Road Behind in honor of our fallen Scumdog. It was not uncommon to see bohabs around you with tears in their eyes and I'm not ashamed to say that I was one of them.

All in all, this was one of the best shows I have ever been to. Everything was perfect, from the sound system, to the fans, to the set lists. I don't have a single complaint, even our parking was only $10 which is completely unheard of in Boston.

Now to look forward to April when I catch them all over again in Hampton, NH with Kylesa replacing Municipal Waste.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Makeup - Wine & Roses

1. Apply primer and/or foundation as usual.

2. Apply a shimmery, translucent white shadow on your brow bone and along the inner side of your eye.

3. Apply a black shimmery shadow all over your lid and crease - I'm using a cream based shadow. Extend it beyond your eye as far as you are comfortable with.


4. Apply a dark red/wine colored shadow to the outer half of your eye lid, angling it towards the inside of your eye.


5. Using an angle brush, line your eye staring about a quarter of the way in away from your inner eye with a bright red shadow. Extend it beyond your eye as far as you extended the black shadow earlier.


6. Line your eyes, upper and lower lashes, with black eye liner and apply mascara.


Final Product:

Eyes Open


Eyes Closed

Backstage Bar & Grille Makeup - Humming Bird

1. Apply primer and/or foundation as usual.

2. Using a rich, goldenrod kind of yellow, apply shadow to your lid starting about a third of an eye length away from your inner corner. Angle it out and up into the crease, then extend it beyond your eye. Feel free to go as far as you like.


3. OPTIONAL: This may be difficult to see in the picture, but I also applied a very light, shimmery yellow to my lid because I feel the yellow was a bit too dark and could use some sparkle.


4. Grab some light purple shadow (mine has a hint of blue in it) and apply it to the third of the eye lid that was left bare. Angle it out like you did with the yellow shadow and form a half circle shape. Apply some shadow to the crease as well.


5. Using some purple eye liner, line your top lash line and extend it beyond your eye for a cat eye effect.


6. Apply mascara - I always do two coats. You can line your lower lashes in black as well.


Final Product:

Eyes Open:


Eyes Closed:

Taken, Circadian Rhythm, Derailer, Til We Die, and Knightstorm at Backstage Bar & Grille in Nashua, NH

So this is roughly three weeks old because I am a horrible person and I apologize.

This was my first visit to Backstage and I have to say, I had a GREAT time! The bartenders were fantastic and that may have been the coolest Jager girl I've ever met. Also, you can't beat a $3 cover charge.

On to the music:

Taken - Female fronted metal band. I lost interested pretty quickly. They were simply nothing new and sounded just like any other female fronted metal band. So what did I do? I had some vodka, whipped cream and Swedish Fish flavored and got the party going.

Circadian Rhythm - I was genuinely impressed by these guys. They had a bit of a Sevendust feel to them and anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Sevendust. I would definitely go see them again.

Derailer - Some older rockers who know how to bring it! They were hilarious, adorable, and really awesome guys to spend time and do some shots with. My second favorite act of the night <3

Til We Die - I had never heard of this group before but they played an insanely long set which was pretty sweet. Their frontman was really into it and wound up jumping on top of the bar at one point.

Bonus: While I was entranced by the UFC fight, he walked by, smiled at me, and poked my nose. He was very cute.

Bonus #2: After they finished, he came back and had my friends and I do Jager shots with him. Win!

Knightstorm - This was my second time seeing this band and the only reason I had wanted to go out that night anyway. They didn't wear their costumes for the show but they still rocked just as hard as ever. There's something to be said about older musicians - they've had the time to really master their instruments and it always shows without fail. Hell, I didn't bother to even leave the bar until they came on. Respect!

Bonus: We got an encore!

All in all, it was a good night.

Bonus: Revlon Photo Ready Foundation Review

So I never planned on posting reviews on this blog since I wanted it to be all about music and the looks that I wear to them but last week I found myself in the midst of a crisis. I was supposed to grab dinner and drinks with a male friend I hadn't seen in years and his friends and I had been running around/working since 5am.

I had none of my usual tools on me so I ran into Target to at least try to find some foundation I could use to try and not look like I had crawled out of a gutter. I soon found myself looking through Revlon cosmetics. I had actually never used one of their foundations before but I had heard some good things about their Photo Ready line so I decided to snag myself a bottle.

Basically...I'm tossing my old foundation out the window. You see, my previous one (I won't name it so as not to slam the company) always dried out my skin no matter what I did, even though it wasn't supposed to. Revlon's Photo Ready foundation made my face flawless and dewy, not dried out and itchy. It also lasted hours beyond what I had ever experienced otherwise. I also love that it's such a light weight mousse instead of a liquid. It's sooooo easy to blend! You don't need to slather it on your face for great coverage either, a little goes a long way.

I won't lie, it was more expensive than my old one (a little over $10) but well worth the price. Hurray for happy accidents!

Note: I wasn't paid to write any of this. I purchased Revlon's foundation with my own money.

Vorse Eye Makeup - Star Fields

1. Apply primer and/or foundation as usual.

2. Grab a nice sky/baby blue shadow (I'm using a cream shadow for this look - my first time ever trying one out!) and apply it all over your lid.


3. Apply more blue to get a nice rich color. Then, apply a gorgeous navy blue to your crease. I actually used a match to do this because I'm weird. Blend as necessary.


4. Take a shimmery, bordering on glittery, black and apply it on top of the navy shade then apply navy in the empty space left over between the black/navy and the bright blue.


5. Use a black eye liner to line your upper lash line. Drag it out a little bit past your eye for a nice cat eye effect.


6. Take a dark blue/navy liner (I used a shimmery one) and go over the black liner. I extended it a little further than the black cat eye. I also used a little navy liner to line just a small part of my lower lash line - just under a third of the way in.


7. Apply mascara. I always do two coats. Note: My curler smudged my eyeliner so I had to redo it afterward.


The final product:



Eyes Closed - Sorry it's randomly blurry!

Oops

Okay, I know I haven't posted anything in a good month or so and I'm terribly sorry! My life was momentarily flooded with useless drama and I hurt my back at work so I was out of commission for a while but I'm back now and have three new tutorials in the works so stay tuned!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Vorse - Rocko's in Manchester, NH 1/28/12

After ages of my friends trying to get me to go see Vorse, I finally had a chance to. You see, my friend is the drummer and his girlfriend is also a good friend of mine so I kind of owed them.

Anyway, apart from the venue's horrible sound system (and their douche sound guy turning their bass down to practically nothing), it was a fun show. Angelos' drumming was fantastic and I would've never guessed that their singer, Andrew, had such a big voice hidden in that scrawny little body. What little bass could actually be heard, I enjoyed but then again, I am a total bass whore and always want more.

We left soon after Vorse left the stage. Shitty local emo bands are not my thing.

Bonus: Denny's for three hours afterward!

I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Mask & Raid Masquerade Eye Makeup - Sludge


1. Apply foundation and such like usual. Primer isn't necessary but it makes your eye makeup last longer and colors appear brighter. If you don't have any primer, you can just use a little foundation on your eye lids to create a base for the color to stick to. Since we were only going to be at the show for a few hours (and were pressed for time) we left our eyelids bare.

2. Take a black/dark gray/charcoal shadow (make sure it's shimmery, this is NOT a day time/work look - unless you don't mind looking a little crazy, then go for it) and apply it to the crease of your eye. You're welcome to make it as light or as dark as you like. It's fine if you get some on the lid and/or brow bone. You can easily blend the edges. You are free to extend the shadow a bit beyond the length of your eye but be sure not to go too far! In my case, I didn't extend it at all.

3. Using a lime green/electric green/any bright neon green you want, apply a thin line starting at the inner corner of the eyelid and begin to widen said shadow line as you reach the other end of your eyelid and extend it beyond the end of your eye (pretty much as far as you want it to go). Continue applying shadow until the shadow is noticable as these shades can be very sheer until layered several times over.

Sheer


Layered


4. Apply a nice bright green (not like the neon color from the last step) shadow to your eyelid, starting at the inner corner and working it into half moon on your way out so that from the inner corner of your eye to about the middle of your eye are covered. Beyond this point, blend the shadow into the neon green shade to create a nice fading gradient on your eyelid.


5. Using a slightly brighter green (while still staying away from the neon shade), line your lower lashes. Make it as light or as bright as you please.


6. Grab some eyeliner - I used Rimmel's Black Gold pencil which can be difficult to find so if you can get your hands on a metallic green liner or black mixed green/gold/brown, great, if not, go ahead and use black - and line your upper lashes, extending the line a bit past your eye and turning it upward to form a cat eye.


7. Using a green eyeliner (or black if you lack one), go over your lower lashline. You can do this as many times as you like.


8. Curl your lashes with an eyelash curler and apply black mascara to your upper lashline. Apply a second coat.

And you're done!

Open


Closed

Mask & Raid Masqeruade Eye Makeup - Violet Decay

Note #1: My camera was acting up so some of the pictures for simple steps in the tutorial are missing but I've mentioned them in the explanations.

Note #2: I like using my fingers to get lots of color on my eyes but brushes work just as well, you might just need to keep applying the color until you get it to the shade that you're going for.

Alright, so my friend L asked me to do her eye makeup for the show with using purple somewhere in there as her only requirement. This is how it turned out:


Want to give this look a try?

Violet Decay Tutorial

1. Apply foundation and such like usual. Primer isn't necessary but it makes your eye makeup last longer and colors appear brighter. If you don't have any primer, you can just use a little foundation on your eye lids to create a base for the color to stick to. Since we were only going to be at the show for a few hours (and were pressed for time) we left our eyelids bare.

2. Take a black/dark gray/charcoal shadow (I always use something shimmery as it catches light beautifully but you're free to experiment with matte shadows and see how it works for you - I'm thinking it'd make this look much more day time/work appropriate) and apply it to the crease of your eye. You're welcome to make it as light or as dark as you like, depending on if you're going to be using this look during the day or night. It's fine if you get some on the lid and/or brow bone. You can easily blend the edges so looks nice and smokey instead of harsh and awkward. You are free to extend this a bit beyond the length of your eye but be sure not to go too far!

3. Take a purple shadow and apply a thin line starting at the inner corner of the eyelid. About 1/4 the length of your eye in, begin to widen said shadow line and extend it beyond the end of your eye (pretty much as far as you please depending on if you'll be using this during the day or at night). Continue applying purple shadow until you get the shade that you want.


4. This is similar to step three. Using a shimmery red/rose shadow, start with a thing line between 1/4 and 1/2 the length of your eye (closer in allows you to widen it more gradually where as starting further towards the outside of your eyelid makes the widening more dramatic - it's all about what you prefer) and widen it as you move towards the end. Again, extend it out a bit as you did with the purple shadow.

5. Grab your favorite black eyeliner (I used a retractable one) and, starting at the corner of your upper lash line, line your eye and extend the line out (as far as you are comfortable with) and with a little curve upward to give yourself a cat eye. Feel free to make your line as thick or as thin, light or dark, as you please.


6. Curl your lashes with an eyelash curler and apply some black mascara to your upper lashline. Wiggling the brush a bit will help it get in between your lashes as well.

Optional Steps:

7. Line your lower lash line with black eyeliner.

8. Add a second coat of mascara to your lashes to make them even bigger.

Lower Lashes Lined


Eyes Closed

Mask & Raid Masquerade - 1/13/12 Limelight Lounge in Haverhill, MA

This was a free show so of course we had to be there! It was my first time ever even going to Haverhill but I had a blast! It was a tiny venue but those are always the best and it was great to make a few new friends while enjoying drinks (maybe a few too many), free food, and great music. Also, the Cemetary Dolls were there promoting their new pin up calendar.

On to the live music of the night!

Robot-Clean - A Misfits cover band. Now, I am not particularly a fan of punk but they really knew how to bring the energy and can anyone really resist singing along when someone randomly plays Bliztkreig Bop by the Ramones or Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen? If you said yes, you're wrong.

Bonus: Got free tickets to the gun show courtesy of the lead singer who also let me feel his biceps after their set. I'm a sucker for beefy arms!

Wolfbane - I had heard of this MA metal band before but never had the chance to actually check them out in person. Let me just say this, I definitely became a fan within their first few seconds on stage. There are a lot of metal bands out there that claim to be great and/or original (why wouldn't you just say great too?) but few can actually bring something to the table that impresses me, much less grabs my attention. That being said, Wolfbane was a welcome change from the Oh-God-A-Shit-Local-Band torture that I expect at local shows. I can't wait to see them again!

Bonus: One of their guitarists was fascinated by my coloring changing LED mohawk.

Mask & Raid - The headlining band of the night. I really enjoyed these guys, seemed to veer more into the progressive side of metal which can be very hit or miss with me but they weren't bad. They're no Mastdon but they've got some serious talent.

Bonus: I was too drunk to leave the bar and get up to the stage. Red headed sluts all around!

All in all, my favorite band of the night was definitely Wolfbane. They brought the energy (their singer wound up inches beneath the ceiling at one point), they were loud, and they were brutal. All things I look for in good music.

Bonus: Guys in masks are hot. Especially in gas masks. Just saying.

Monday, January 9, 2012

A Taste of Things to Come

Looking back on all of the concerts that I have been to and looks that I've created using some simple makeup techniques over the last few years...I can't help but wish that I had thought of starting a blog sooner. After all, the next time someone asks me about something, I can just send them here for information and/or pictures.

Anyway, this blog will be pretty simple. I plan on posting reviews of any and all future shows that I go to (hopefully with pictures) as well as what my make up for the event will look like.
Ideally, I will also be including pictures of my makeup as I do it along with what you need to do to accomplish a similar look and a list of the products that I use.

First show since starting this should be on Friday. Here's to the future!