Halloween Tutorial: Realistic Skull

Hey guys! I am so excited about Halloween and I love the spooky season! So I want to give you all a few simple makeup applications that you can use for your costumes!

Realistic Skull Application

     Creating a convincing skull requires a mix of realism and creative liberty; however, you must be careful with your colors as you do not want to end up with a completely grey face.

    

     1)Start with a clean and moisturized face. Apply foundation that is either your natural skin tone or one slightly lighter and make sure to blend down your neck and around the collar bone region.

     2)Next, while looking at your reference photos, trace the skull on your face using a soft brown or gray pencil eyeliner. I used a grey pencil liner by Nyx. To keep yourself from getting confused, work from the top down. Also, skulls are not perfectly symmetrical, so don’t worry if all your features don't mirror each other perfectly.

     3)Using your flat angled brush, fill in your eye sockets with black body paint, I’m using the water-activated black Pro Paint by Graftobian. When it comes to your nose, only cover your nose in black body paint where your cartilage is at, it should be roughly an upside-down heart shape when filled in. Then you will completely cover your neck and ears in black body paint using your large foundation brush. This will help you be able to see your other features a little more clearly.

     4)Now use a small detail brush to fill in the teeth with white crème paint, I used Wet’n’Wild’s white paint pot, and then use either your white cream paint on a flat brush or a jumbo white cream pencil, such as Wet’n’Wild’s white Jumbo Body Pencil, to highlight your forehead, cheek bones, chin, and jaw. Don’t blend it out yet and make sure to use a small brush to fill in the teeth so that you don’t lose any details. Take a small detail brush and outline your jawbone in black body paint. Then fill in the negative space below your cheek and above your jawbone with a slightly larger brush using black body paint as well.

     5)Outline the temple area still using black body paint. We will be shading here later, so it won’t end up with such a strong contrast. Carefully, place black lines lightly between the teeth, use slow strokes to avoid making the gaps thick.   

     6)Take a makeup sponge and carefully blend out the white highlights on your forehead, cheekbones, jawbones, and chin. Do not blend out the teeth! Also, be extremely careful when you are blending and don’t blend into the black body paint or you will just end up grey.

     7)Now take a warm-toned brown eyeshadow, I’m using Note to Self from the Yes Please eyeshadow pallet by Colourpop, on an angled blending brush and blending down the lines on your forehead. These lines are to add shadow to where the skull recedes so keep the eyeshadow on the side closest to your ears.

     8)Take that warm brown eyeshadow and blend your temple area. Again, blend towards your ears.

     9)Take your small detail brush and some black body paint and make some small cracks coming from the eye sockets, nose, and anywhere else it seems appropriate. There are no specific places that need cracks, simply place them where it feels natural.

     10)Use your small detail brush and fill in the areas between the teeth and the rest of the negative space between the jawbones with black body paint. Take your angled blending brush and what is left on it of the warm-toned brown eyeshadow and gently blend the teeth upwards for the teeth on the upper jaw and downwards for the teeth on the bottom jaw. Don’t over blend, only blend it enough so there is not a stark contrast between where the teeth are and where the jawbone is. Now, add some extra highlight to any areas you need to be paler in and clean up and redefine the teeth if need be. Also, darken up any of the black body paint that may need it. Make these last alterations and touch-ups and you’re done!                   

Here is the final look!!

There are a few alterations you can make to this look if you want to. You could use a washable glue stick and block out your eyebrows or you could fill them in and make it more of a glam look. You could also use a bald cap and continue the makeup onto your head to make it a full skull look. 

Here are the products I used:

Also, here are my references:

I used some of the techniques from Glam&Gore's "Last Minute Halloween Makeup Tutorial" which you can find here.

Also, I used a few techniques from Madeyewlook's video "Get Ready With Me ~ ft a new friend" which you can find here.

  Finally, I used this image as my main reference. 

Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this post and if so please let me know so I can make more like it!

Love you guys!                                                                                                                                

~Kate ❤                                                                                                                                     

Climate Strike on September 20th

      Hello! I went to the Global Climate Strike on Friday and I wanted to tell you guys a little bit about it because it is an important matter and was not nearly as publicized as it should have been. I went to the strike in Charlotte NC that took place in front of the town hall. However, there were strikes that took place in over 150 countries around the world according the Global Climate Strikes website.

      " The climate strike on Friday, September 20^th, 2019, was both an inspiring and slightly depressing event. It was inspiring to see such a large and diverse group gather to protest and act against climate change. That being said, it was depressing to see that the people in power in the Charlotte-area did not find this to be a just or important cause. Also, the fact that this strike needed to happen is depressing and a testament about the current state of society. Overall the strike was informative and eye-opening to the massive number of issues that need fixing, however, they reminded us that there is hope and that we can fix this." - That is what I wrote for one of my college classes about my thoughts on the climate strike. 

Here are some of the key points they covered:
   
      *They want a new Green Deal
      *They want respect for indigenous peoples and their lands
      *They want sustainable farming practices put in place and enforced
      *They want gerrymandering reduced nationwide
      *They want sustainable energy sources used where they can be

Also, they brought up the article posted by National Geographic on September 19th, 2019, (which you can find here) that discusses which countries are making sustainable climate improvements and which ones aren't even trying. Can you guess where America stands?

The Global Climate Strike brought about a lot of mixed emotions but I am so happy that it happened and had a good turn out. I will post some more details about it later but I wanted to get the basic information out quickly. Here is another website to check out if you want to know more about how we can reduce fossil fuels.
BTW here are some pictures I took.





Love you all,
~Kate ❤

Boil the Frog! (Website Review)

     Hello all! Today I wanted to tell you all about this awesome but slightly strange website I stumbled upon a while back. I'm not sure how well known the website is but I've never heard anyone talking about it except for one time on Tumblr which is how I found it so I thought I'd make a post about it.

      The website/app, which was created by Paul Lamere, is called Boil the Frog (odd name but it makes sense I guess?) and the premise of it is that it "... lets you create a playlist of tracks that gradually take you from one music style to another." So you can ask it to make you a playlist that gradually goes from metal to country. Or from one artist to another, such as In This Moment (one of my favorites) to Kelly Clarkson.

Let's go through how it works together.

This is how the home page looks.

Let's us my earlier example of In This Moment to Kelly Clarkson.

Now Boil the Frog has created a nine-track playlist from In This Moment to Kelly Clarkson!

There are some other cool features on Boil the Frog that I want to show you guys. First of all, you can listen to all the songs that it puts in your playlist! You can also bypass a song if you don't think it belongs or ask for a new song.

Lastly, you can save the playlists or share them to Twitter.


      Overall I think this is a really cool idea and a fun website to play around with. I go on there from time to time and try to make the most outlandish music transitions I can think of. Also, I have found some new artists I really enjoy by making playlists between music genres or artists I already like or am interested in. Boil the Frog is pretty cool on its own but I think it has the potential to do something interesting in the future and am excited to see if the creator does anything else with it!

I hope you all enjoyed this post and if you want to check out Boil the Frog for yourselves the link is
right here!

Love you all,
~ Kate ❤

Fe Game Review

Hello guys! Sorry my posting has been so sporadic lately! I just got back from a trip earlier this week and am trying to both get back on a schedule and get some content out for you guys. It will be back to normal soon though!

    Today's post is a game review of Fe! This is in no way a sponsored post or ad. I just really love the game.

     Fe was released on February 16th, 2018, by EA games and Zoink! on Origin, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. But what really is Fe? It is an amazingly beautiful open-world adventure game! Long story short, you play as the little guy in the picture above, you look kind of like a cat/ferret/flying squirrel, and try to save the forest of Fe from the Silent Ones.

     First of all, the thing that caught my attention about Fe is how freaking beautiful it is! One of my favorite things about playing it was just being able to enjoy all the gorgeous art that went into this game.

     The gameplay of Fe is, as far as I'm aware, rather unique and I found it quite enjoyable. You "sing" to communicate with the other creatures in the forest as well as to interact with the environment. As you play through the game, you learn new songs so that you can communicate with new creatures and parts of the environment. Speaking of the environment, it is something that you will interact with a good bit while you play the game. You climb trees, move boulders, swim in, sometimes dangerous, waters, and bounce off of giant flowers.

      Also, the antagonists of the game, the Silent Ones, don't seem like much a threat at first but later on they can make the game rather tricky. In a good way though. Also, I think their character design is really cool. If they see you, they will get you.

     Throughout the game, you collect crystals to unlock new abilities such as gliding. The crystals can be tricky to find sometimes and the first time I played through the game I managed to finish it without finding all of them. But I really wish I had.

Without giving too much away, here is a short breakdown of Fe's plot.

     The silent ones come to the formerly calm forest of Fe and start to abduct animals for their own nefarious purposes. You, the cat/ferret/flying squirrel (which I nicknamed "little guy"), work to both discover the Silent One's goal as well as to save your animal friends. You discover the story through what you witness and engraved stones you find along your journey.

I feel like if I tell you much more I may accidentally spoil something so I'm going to end it here but I really hope you all enjoyed this post and if you want to learn more about Fe the link to the official website is here.

      If you have already played it or decide to play it please tell me what you think of it in the comments! I really love this game and would love to talk about it with you guys.

Love you all,
Kate ❤

Taylor Swifts "You Need to Calm Down"

     On July 17th, Taylor Swift released the music video for her new song "You Need to Calm Down" on YouTube. Since then it has received equal parts of love and hate, for multiple reasons. The song largely has to do with telling people to calm down and take a step back AND the song and music video focus largely on homophobes as the people being addressed. Many people are upset, saying that the LGBTQ+ community doesn't need a straight white woman to make a "gay anthem" or represent the community, especially during pride month. However, Swift has one of the largest audiences of our day and has been a long time ally of the LGBTQ+ community, so by speaking out in this positive, non-hateful, way she can really help make a difference. Yes she is making a ton of money off of this, and yes it's giving her upcoming album a lot of publicity, but it's still doing more good than bad. Also, it's not that different than how thousands of companies capitalize off of pride month every year. They throw rainbows on everything but don't donate money to LGBT+  causes or give their outspoken alliance. They let the grey area cover their butts from homophobic people's anger over LGBT+ products. So, by being this blunt and outspoken, Swift is both losing fans and receiving a lot of backlash over this song.

I believe that this is a step in the right direction. Swift is an ally with a lot of influence. Should she be the center of the gay community? No, definitely not. But can she be a good ally and help make a difference? Yes, absolutely.

Sharing Some of my College Essays

      Hello all! As some of you may know, I recently graduated high school and am about to move on to college in the fall. The entire college application process can be quite stressful but I got some of, what I consider to be, my best writing thus far out of it. I would like to share some of it with you all as the essays are mostly about things I am passionate about and, honestly, I am rather proud of them all. For each essay, I will include the prompt above it. I may include a note after some of them to give more detail to it.

Note: PLEASE DO NOT COPY THESE AND/OR USE THEM FOR YOURSELF!

Essay #1. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? 

     "When I get an idea for a new makeup look, my mind goes into overdrive and I physically feel a need to try this new look right away. Whether it is a beauty look or a special effects look filled with gore, applying makeup captivates my mind. It makes my creative side run wild. Makeup is a form of self-expression. It allows the user to create almost any look they desire, be it bold and outgoing or more laid back. Makeup does not have any real “rules”, there are guidelines and some things that may work better than others but overall makeup has no boundaries.

     I am a firm believer that the idea of people, especially women, being beautiful, attractive, and worthy no matter if they choose to wear makeup or not, should be reinforced. However, makeup can help to boost some people’s confidence. All types of makeup are for all types of people.

    Unbeknownst to some, makeup comes in many different forms. One of my favorite forms is special effects makeup. Being able to make illusions on the human body so that it no longer appears to be human. Creating monsters and other mythical creatures or even creatures that are not so mythical fascinates me. The fact that by precisely applying some latex or scar wax and paint, an artist can make someone look like a zombie that just climbed out of its grave enthralls me.

    Unfortunately, no one in my family has much interest in makeup and therefore could not teach me. So I did what anyone my age would do and turned to the internet. I have watched tutorial after tutorial about how to do all kinds of makeup and have then used trial and error to teach myself how to actually do it with what I had. Over the years I have built up a small collection of cosmetics that I hold dearly as one of my prized possessions. While I do not have all of the fancy supplies that professional artists do, with a little more time and thought I can usually come up with creative solutions so that I can still complete the same kind of look as a professional. Makeup is my passion and my happy place. It is something that I am always discovering new things about and thoroughly enjoy."

NOTE: This is the first college essay I wrote. :)

Essay #2. If you could have been the author of any piece of literature, what would you have penned and why?

    "If I could have been the author of any single piece of literature already written, I would choose to have written The Turn of the Screw, which was written by Henry James. It is a half-framed story that consists of a mix of gothic mystery and a ghost story. It is one of my favorite stories. One reason I picked it is because of the real mystery taking place within the story. Are there actually ghosts or is the governess going insane? That is a question that Henry James left up to the reader, and I would love to know what was going through the authors head when The Turn of the Screw was written. Also, being able to explore the characters, especially Miles and Flora, would be an exceptional experience. I find Miles and Flora quite intriguing and would like to know what they thought of the events that take place in the book. The Turn of the Screw is a work of literature that I would love to explore in the way that only the author can."

NOTE: There were sooooo many books that I would have loved to use for this prompt but I ultimately went with Turn of the Screw because it checked all the boxes. a) actually one of my favorite books. b) I already know a lot about it from a literary view. c) is a book that will look good to colleges.

Essay #3. How do you think a college experience can help you to grow as a well-rounded artist/scholar?

    "Through my college experience, I am certain that I will learn things I did not even know I needed to learn. I am homeschooled and, while I have taken outside courses, having the full “classroom” experience is new and exciting to me and I am looking forward to it. Also, I believe that college will give me the resources and space I need to truly express my artistic side. I anticipate growing my artistic skills in many ways, such as working on my character designs. Collaborating with fellow students that are as passionate as I am about artistic endeavors, and working with my peers who are pursuing different majors than I am, on other projects, will help me grow as a person, scholar, and artist.

    I will admit that I am somewhat nervous about having a roommate. Since I grew up sharing a room with my sister, I am not concerned about sharing the space, however, I am anxious about conflicting personalities, but I feel like it will be a positive experience even if my roommate and I are not the best of friends. Meeting people from all around the globe excites me and I am looking forward to collaborating with them. I think that learning about people, whether I am rooming with them or just meeting them, will make me a better artist and scholar because it will broaden my perspective of the world."

NOTE: This prompt really threw me for a loop at first but I am really happy with how it turned out in the end. 

     So those are three of the essays I wrote for colleges. I know this is an odd post but I thought it might help you all get to know me and could give upcoming high school seniors some motivation with their writing. I am not much of a fan of writing and was honestly dreading this part of the process. But in the end, I came out of it with some of the best things I've ever written. So, even if you don't particularly like writing, who knows, you may end up with some essays that make you feel proud of what you accomplished. 

What would you all have written about if you had these prompts?

Love you all, 

~Kate ❤

Fun Facts About Cute Animals

I am a sucker for cute animals so I decided to share some fun facts about a few cute and interesting animals. This totally isn't an excuse to look at pictures of cute animals. 

1. Ferrets - A group of ferrets is called a "business."

2. Hedgehogs - Hedgehogs have horrible depth perception! 

3. Kittens - Kittens are all born with blue eyes that change colors after a few weeks.

4.Rabbits - Rabbits cannot vomit! 

 5. Gentoo penguins "propose" to their mates with a pebble. 

6. Rats can laugh.

7. A group of pugs is called a "grumble."

8. Cows sometimes have best friends.

9. Koalas can sleep up to 22 hours a day. 

10. Mother bats will adopt other bats babies.

 Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed these facts and adorable animals. Love you all,~Emma