101 Spring Survival Kit in Black

Hello! I promised a look this week but it was impossible to photograph one. I've been fairly busy with school, so I decided to do a post on spring black fashion. For someone who only wears black, sometimes I find it quite tricky to survive the warmth felt in my city during the spring and summer months.
Here's what I have in mind for this spring!

Truth is I usually don't use prints, at least not in fall and winter. But for les printemps it's quite appropriate and flattering because it's much lighter and doesn't wear you out too much.

I thought a simple floral print dress would go well with minimal makeup, just a flush of pink on the cheeks and on the lips, and flats.

Flats are, in my opinion, perfect for spring because they're fresh and delicate.´

Again, the floral print brings a bit of life to this black and white look. How beautiful are those pointed flats tho!!

As always, a very simple and interesting way to give a touch of colour to the look is to wear a bright lipstick or lip tint that stands out from the rest of the look.

I've been looking for the perfect orange coral lip, let me know if you have any suggestions!

This one is a bit more colourful and definitely not something I would go for because it's shorts. Although I find them very beautiful, I can't get shorts to work for me. But it's still a nice option, still in the same theme: wear a print to bring life to the look.

A basic look perfect for a walk with your "person". The basic black dress makes for a beautiful statement piece to which you can add fun accessories and shoes to bring out the best of your look.

Also, no spring look would be complete without an amazing spring scent. My favourite ESCADA perfume is definitely this Born In Paradise one that came out last year, I was blessed to be given one in my two year relationship anniversary when it lauched.

This is a look I would use for a party or a night out. I would probably tone it down a bit on the shoes but it's something I would only do for a special occasion. That purse is stunning! I was out hunting for purses today to go with my prom dress and all I could think of would be a beautiful beaded little clutch that would make my look much more polished, this is something I would definitely use.

Also, despite all the Lime Crime drama that's been going on, I still love their Zodiac Glitters, this one is breathtaking! 

And that's it for this post! I have so much to do this week so I can't promise anything for the next post but I hope it's what I have in mind! Look out for it!

Love,

Anna

S/S Inspired Outfits

outfit inspired by
THE CRAFT

outfit inspired by
BRIGITTE BARDOT

outfit inspired by
CRACKS

outfit inspired by
THE HUNGER

Have a wonderful weekend.

Until next time!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Tânia

S/S Wishlist

Hello! In this last few days the weather has improved tremendously. Sun and warmer weather in general have been fun after a couple months of unstoppable rain. That has got me thinking about the Summer. I don't specially enjoy either Summer or Spring but I realised I need a few things. This wishlist includes such items. First the center piece, then clockwise.

1. I've officially given up on bikinis. I don't enjoy getting a tan and two pieces aren't too flattering on me. I need a swimsuit for this Summer. 2. Everytime I go to a field trip I break a pair of sunglasses. This is gospel truth. So I clearly broke my fantastic cat-eye shades at Mafra and I want a new pair. 3. Sunscreen. I. Always. Need. Sunscreen. 4. The only pair of flats that I own is very much in need of retirement. I'd like to find something similiar to these. 5. As I said in a previous post, I'd like to try some kind of coral lipstick. I might buy one of KIKO since their lipsticks aren't too expensive. 6. I recently got a new phone and I still haven't found a case for it. I saw this one with a Supernatural (one of my favorite TV shows) related print and I decided to include it. 7 & 8 These two are different kinds of wallets. I've never bought one that I was 100% happy with and that's something I should get sorted as soon as possible. (I love all the Beauty & the Beast things at Hot Topic they're so cute!)

Have a wonderful weekend.

Until next time

LOTS OF LOVE,

Tânia

Winterly

Hello! I keep apologizing in the beginning of every post but this time it's more of a heads up than whatsoever.
I was with the flu this week, had to skip a couple of days of school and all, all sorts of crap, so I couldn't do a look. I was supposed to do one this week, I know, but I apologize. I don't like messing around with makeup while I'm sick because the products get contaminated and then you have to sanitize everything and that's just too much trouble altogether. I have some projects coming for the future in my life that will be featured on the blog a bit later on, but I have no idea when I'm doing another look cause have no time and also no photographer.

So this week's post is very improvised because it was a last minute decision. But let's head to it.
I decided to follow Tânia's example and also do a winter related fashion post. I have three fashion looks that are very similar to the looks I wear throughout the week for school during these winterly cold days.

Dresses

This look exemplifies what I would wear most days during a school week.
Dresses are the easiest thing to throw on and go. They're not the warmest thing for winter but over the past year I've started to wear more dresses and skirts because they do flatter my figure a lot more than jeans or pants. I wear dresses with longer coats because they help keeping the body warm and they make up for the cold I'd be feeling in my legs.

Something I do to keep my legs warm with dresses and skirts is stack tights. A pair of thicker ones and a pair of tighter ones, usually, does the trick and makes everything so much more comfortable.

I either go for boots or shoes with dresses, depends really. Obviously a nice big bag where all my things fit.
To make the look a bit more interesting I tend to use a lipstick in a bright color like pink or red and that ties the look!

Skirts

I tend to wear skirts mostly on fridays because it's the last day of the week and idk I like to celebrate it with a skirt!
I've been into pencil skirts lately cause there's no chance for me to go all Marilyn Monroe in the middle of the street (it get's pretty windy here) and they also flatter my figure bringing my "curves" out a bit.
I'd pair it with a simple blouse and, again, a longer coat. Also, I've wanted a faux fur scarf type thing forever but still haven't gotten one, but I included it as an accessory. I use a lot of accessories with my black on black (all black always) looks just to give it more interest. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, earings, anything.
Simple comfortable shoes and a nice bag that can carry just the necessary is all that I need and I'm heading out.
I would either use a bold dark red lipstick or a nude lipstick. I've been obsessing over these Kat Von D Liquid Lipsticks and here's one in a rusty rosy pink color just like my favorite nude by Essence. These colors make your lips looks so voluptuous and sexy, I love love love these shades.

Pants

These are the careless days.
I honestly only wear pants when I don't feel like giving a sh*t about anything or anyone.
I tend to wear some knit sweater with my leather jacket and a scarf sometimes. I always wear earings and my black rose earings are my go to for that kind of day.
I've recently bought these beautiful boots that look somewhat similar to the ones on the image and I think they'll tie beautifully with a look like this.
I tend to emphasize that carelessness of the look by wearing my glasses that have, in fact, a cat eye shape to them (i love them to pieces, such a good purchase). But to make it not too too careless I always go for a dark bold lip. I dig this Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in Poison, I need it in my life asap.
And now it reminds me somewhat of a punk look??? Idk I like it a lot.


And that's it! This is a very summed up portrait of what I wear throughout the week. It's a lot around this kind of looks, a lot of the same but with different dresses and different skirts and different blouses, but all in the same line.

I hope you have enjoyed this little "trip" to my weekly fashion, I like it actually.
Hope to see you very soon with a haul/review of some new products I just received.

Love,
Anna

In The Land Of Rain

Just some trivia before we get to the post. It rains more in my city than in London. With this I mean, it rains fewer times but when it does rain, it rains non-stop and really heavly.

Trivia done, I want to say I hope you guys have been doing fine. This post will feature some outfits that I find rain appropriate. Hope you enjoy it!

THE CLASS ACT

I find trench coats the best of rainy day fashion. With rain, the temperature tends to rise a bit so I always get a lighter jacket to wear around. I have this black trench coat that I've been wearing for years now so this outfit was inspired by the classiness of it. (I'm so in love with this Collectif dress, so so in love.)

THE STUDENT

There's no umblrella in this outfit because I never really take one with me to school; which is probably a mistake but it's something I hate to do. I hate to carry them around me in a super crowded school. So I chose a confortable dress, leather jacket and leather boots for this one. Very minimal jewerly and a big bag so I can get all my school supplies in there.

THE LAZIEST

You can trust me to wear this quite often. There's just some days when I don't feel like rolling out of bed and going to school, so I get up really late and I put on whatever I have handier. In those days I'll just wear my hair up, no make up and I'll be solely fuelled by coffee. My striped shirt is a very common piece in those days so I had to include a similar in this outfit.

THE NOT-ALL-BLACK

I've realised that most people wear darker colors during winter or rainy days, yet most of them still need some color in their outfits. (Mariana, I'm looking at you) So for this outfit I picked very basic blacks and then a green velvet cardigan and a burgundy scarf; both match those amazing Dr. Martens. Have you noticed the Hieronymus Bosch print? I certainly did.

And this ends this week's post. I hope next week I'll be able to bring a look to you!

Until next time!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Tânia

Festive Black

Hello! So this week I bring you a post that I loved doing.
This post is for those of us who only wear black. It seems that my parents and family in general find it somehow offensive that I wear black in these special holiday occasions because "it's a sad color". I personally think that black is a very classy colour that flatters everyone, no matter your size, your skin colour, your height.

My intention with this post is to show you some options to turn your all black look into something more festive, more appropriate for the holiday season.
I will talk you through all my choices but I want to say, in advance, that these looks I put up are a bit more on the "classy" side of the black but these are my personal choices, this is how I would put up a black look for the holiday season that I would actually wear.
With no further due, let's get started!

Nude

When I think of looks for this season, I always think of dresses.
I wear dresses and skirts most days and the holiday season is not an exception.

For this look I picked a black velvet dress with a flared skirt and a boat neckline.

This is the central part of the look. To turn the look a bit more festive I would pair it with nude shoes. Nude shoes elongate the legs and make you look much more elegant because of that fact. These Louis Vuitton Allamanda pumps would be a good option because of the silver point that give it that glamorous look. A clutch in neutral colour is something you can go for to lace up the neutral look, after all you're only using neutral colours.

For the makeup I would suggest a neutral eye with some shimmery eyeshadows to highlight and a nude lip. I chose Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G. lipstick in Hepburn Honey.

Finish the look with some silver jewelry and you're done! 

A very neutral and elegant look!

Golden

If you're going to a big party, a long dress or skirt is the perfect choice!
Here I paired a lace crop top with a very full maxi skirt.
If you know me, you know that I hate crop tops but only when they're not used correctly. I selected a crop top to pair with this skirt because this skirt sits high around the waist so it doesn't show too much skin with the crop top.
The lace gives this look a more sophisticated feel and you don't need to worry about necklaces because the beauty of the lace embellishes the neckline beautifully.
Any type of black pumps would go well with this type of look, pointy or round.
Since it's such a simple look and gold compliments lace beautifully, I would go for gold simple earrings and some sort of golden clutch. I love Alexander McQueen and these clutches that have the places for the fingers are just to die for so it would be an amazing option.
Go for a neutral nude eye with a winged liner and a very bold reddish purple lipstick to finish off this outfit.

A touch of colour: Red

Now to get out of the neutral and to add a pop of colour, red is a great option. Jewel tones like red, green and blue are always good colours to match with black.
In both of these looks I mixed colours and textures.
For more girly and flirty look like the one on the left, I would use a bardot style top and a flared leather skirt. A red chunky necklace and very simple red pumps would do great as a pop of colour.
For a more bold and professional look I would go for a V neck top and a pencil leather skirt that goes a little past the knee. A bordeaux necklace and bordeaux platform boots would be a great combo.
I also picked a bordeaux overall that would go with both looks.
Simple jewelry and simple makeup, topped with either a red lipstick or a rusty pink lipstick and you're done!

A touch of colour: green

For a more casual look, go for pants and flats. Here I picked some loose black pants with a bit of detailing to them. This kind of pants can easily conceal the shape of your body, so I would go for a peplum top. I love peplum tops in general because they give you a hourglass figure even if you don't have that body shape.
Nothing is better to give that touch of colour than shoes and accessories so the shoes I picked are obviously green. I think they are beautiful, I would totally wear them, just an amazing way to make the look more fun. Use whatever jewelry you feel would go well with the look, I would obviously go for some silvers and golds and greens.
Pinks and purples go beautifully with greens so I would suggest a purple pink lipstick and nail polish to finish the look.
If you're getting out of the house, a blazer is the solution.

And that's it!
These are the suggestions I have on how to make your all black outfit a bit more festive and on how to give more of a holiday feel to it. Even if you're not the kind of person who always wears black everything I think these looks would still be a good option for the holiday season cause black is a classic.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and I hope to bring you a christmas look next week!

Love,
Anna

Winter Wonderland

Hello! Today's post is going to be slightly different than usual. Next Monday's a holiday here in Portugal and as it just right after the weekend, my parents decided to take a little road trip. We're going to visit a village in the countryside and I'm sort of excited about the possibility of snow, which I've never seen. These are some outfits that I'm planning to wear this weekend. Hope you enjoy it!

THE ROAD TRIP

For the trip itself I've choosen to wear more comfortable clothes. I don't feel that much comfortable in jeans, to be honest, but I've found that it's better to wear them rather than dresses or skirts for long car rides.
This is a pretty simple outfit allied with some Winter essencials. A warm leather jacket and cozy jumper are mandatory and so is a big bag to carry all your things. Comfortable shoes, gloves and a wool hat are also elements that I thought that would be useful.

THE LOUNGE

Unfortunely, I'll still have to do some homework so I decided to put togheter an outfit to wear around the lodging. As I've said before I prefer skirts to pants so to make myself feel better after a whole day wearing jeans I've picked a maxi skirt. The fur blanket seemed appropriate since I'm taking my own with me.

THE TOURIST

This looks a lot like the first outfit. I've added a scarf and a knit jumper. These seem more appropriate to visit and explore the woods around the village I'm visiting.

And this ends this week's post. I hope you like it and that I've taken some ideas for your own Winter outfits.
Until next time!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Tânia

Birthday Haul

After all the issues I had with my software, I realised that it reduced the video quality from 720p to 360p. I need to fix this before I do another video. Once again, it features my awkward self and my broken English.

Nevertheless, I hope you like it.

I Love... Cosmetics

Cruelty Free and Vegan info, here.

MAC Dupes available at KIKO:

609 Cherry Red - Diva

914 Amaranth - Rebel

LOTS OF LOVE,

Tânia

Halloween Special: Little Evil Riding Hood

Hello! Today I bring you the look I'll be using for my own Halloween celebrations.

Since childhood I've felt this extreme fondness for fairytales. Some of my favorites are Beauty & The Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. I believe this love for storytelling that I feel to this day comes from these tales that we all know.

The original idea comes from my sophomore year, when I decided that I was going to use my most beloved black velvet cape as part of my costume on Carnival. I wanted to invert the plot of Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of the Big Bad Wolf chasing and eating Little Red, I wanted her to chase and kill the Bad Wolf. Why? Well, I do believe in pretentious statements, so in this case I wanted to show people that even little girls can destroy big bad wolves.

I hope you enjoy this look!

Make up for this look isn't too complex because it doesn't really matter if it's messy. I used my regular foundation but skipped concealer. I contoured my face with the same medium grey eyeshadow I used all over my eyes, to make them look more sunked in. I applied a little bit of blush on my cheeks, in this case the brightest red I have. I made my eyebrows much thicker and darker than they actually are. You can choose any eye look of your choice but I do love a bold, black, smokey eye. On my lips I wore a cherry red lip liner with Essence's XXXL Longlasting Liploss in the shade 07 Silky Red, which is a matt lip product; I then applied a little bit of the same black eyeshadow I used earlier on the center of my lips.

The blood you're seeing in the pictures is fake blood from a costume store, but you can make your own! I covered my mouth, neck and chest with it. Fake blood becomes a little bit sticky after awhile on your skin and leaves a slight stain so you should wash your face thoroughly when you take all your make up off.

I took some pictures of the accessories that I chose to complete my look. A red bow that I plan using on the back of my head, a pair of lace gloves and my cape. In case you're wondering I do use my cape during Winter, usually on top of a bigger coat.

GET THE WHOLE LOOK

• Since Little Red Riding Hood is, in fact, little, try to use clothes that reminisce children wear or schoool uniforms.
• All clothes that I chose are black but you can use any colors you feel like wearing. But have in mind that the traditional color palette is red, white and black.

As always, I hope that you liked this post! 

LOTS OF LOVE,
Tânia

Halloween Special: Shattered

Greetings! This week I bring you a Halloween look.
"Viewer description is advised".

FX makeup has always been something that fascinates me. After watching a considerably big amount of videos and experimenting with makeup myself, I have gained a little bit of practice with FX makeup, so I decided that I would show you a little bit of what can be done with special effects makeup.

For this look, I decided to go very bloody and graphic. I had this idea in my mind last year of creating something like an iconic persona or character that had classic pin up makeup but that was corrupted in some way. Last year I used this idea and corrupted the character with a shot in the head. This year I decided to use "glass" stuck to the face to corrupt my character.

The makeup itself was pretty easy, just a classic pin up look. Dramatic eyeliner and red lips will do the trick.

For the wounds you can use a variety of different materials to achieve the same result.

To create the texture of the ripped or pulled skin you can use liquid latex, neutral gelatin, 3rd Degree, which is a silicon compound, or molding wax. I used liquid latex as it is pretty inexpensive and you can find it in any art supply store you may have near you. If you cannot find liquid latex, neutral gelatin is even less expensive and you can find at the supermarket.

After I placed the liquid latex in the desired places, I waited for it to dry and once it set, I used scissors to rip through it to create that jagged effect on the skin.

For the next step you may want to visit an Halloween store and buy some face paint, since that's the least expensive alternative. 

Face paint is easy to find and not expensive at all but I personally used cream colors. Both will work. If you want to invest a little bit of money in this, you can even buy alcohol activated paint, which is much more expensive. You will need a rage of reds, some purples and bruise colors and a black color. Use the reds and black inside the wound and the purples and bruise colors around the wound. Also place some red on the outside of the wound.

For the glass I crushed a CD case, if you have acrylic, you can also use that. Glue it inside of the wound with liquid latex.

For the blood you can find fake blood in all Halloween stores or you can make your own. There's a couple of different recipes. I personally prefer to mix food coloring in neutral gelatin. I mix some red and some blue until I achieve the shade I want. Add more red to make fresh arterial blood or add less red a bit more of blue to achieve venous or dry blood shades.
You can apply it with a straw and use a tooth brush to splatter it all over.

This is pretty simple to achieve if you have the notion of what glass stuck to the skin would look in real life.
To create all looks with FX makeup, you will want to analyse a couple of different images of real life situations that portrait what you want to mimic. That could be the worse part for some.

To finish off my look, I did some pin curls in my hair and then molded them to the shape I wanted, to get the final pin up look.

The look wouldn't be complete without a pin up dress and some Mary Jane pumps.

If you want and can afford, you can purchase white contacts to emphasize that dead look.

 I hope you have enjoyed this post and this look, good luck if you try to do it on yourself!

 Love,
Anna

Halloween Special: Death

Today's makeup look is, finally, a Halloween look! I'm one of those annoying people that make Halloween a year long holiday, and I love everything about it. Too bad it isn't really celebrated here in Portugal.

I bring you one of my favorite comic book characters as inspiration for this first look. Death, of the Endless, is part of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series. She's the main character's older sister and she's often described as the "goth girl next door".

There is a very important thing missing from my look, but I'll get to it later.

Death's makeup consists on bold eyeliner and black lipstick. Since the first publication of The Sandman, there has been various interpretations of Death and her look but the Eye of Horus inspired cat eye and black lipstick have, along with the all-black outfit and Ankh neckless, defined her.

All contour was done with a medium grey eyeshadow and it looks (surprisingly) almost natural. I did my eyebrows just a little bit thinner and darker than usual. With black gel liner I created an thick cat eye. On the inner corner of my eyes I used a smaller brush to continue the line I'd made before, designing a little triangle when connected to the lower lash line, which I also lined with the gel liner.

The trickiest part of this look is the little spiral that you should do on your right eye, for the sake of accuracy. I did this with black face paint instead of eyeliner because it was easier to create the shape with it.

I also used black pencil eyeliner to tight line my eyes and mascara.

GET THE WHOLE LOOK

• As I said earlier on this post, the most important thing is missing. The Ankh neckless is what differentiates Death from her siblings. It's her token and the symbol of her power.
• Her clothes are casual, all black, so it isn't really hard to find a pair of black trousers (she's rarely seen in dresses or skirts) and a black top. Her shoes are, most of the time, winklepickers.
• She's a huge fan of floppy hats so, why not using one to complete the outfit?

I hope you enjoyed this post, and that you've found some ghoulish inspiration for your own Halloween celebration!

LOTS OF LOVE,
Tânia

IMPORTANT NOTE: Both me and Anna are going to do two Halloween looks and we'll be posting them on the same weeks, spacing them with a different post each!

Shoe Collection

Hey! So, today I bring you a "collection" of my favourite shoes.

This post was suggested by my best friend, since I had no idea of what to post this week, so thank you so much, sweetie.

I thought of including all of my shoes in this "collection" but that would make a huge post and also I don't use most of the shoes of my "collection" that often, so I chose my favourites.

You will notice that most my shoes are black because, again, I wear mostly black.

I cannot recall the price of the shoes, so I will not be mentioning that.

Starting off with sandals.

I got these sandals in Summer because I didn't have any platform sandals.

The platform of these sandals is made of some sort of foamy material and the strings are made out of synthetic leather. They are very comfortable because, although they have a "heel", the platform makes up for it. I chose this pair because they are a bit more closed in the front, which is perfect.

excuse my veiny feet

These wedges are kinda old already, I bought these for some special occasion and I was terrified to death that I would fall in them. They are very comfortable for people who are used to walk in heels but after a couple of hours your feet start to get sore. Since they are wedges, they are very easy to walk in and you feel very stable on top of them. They have an 18 cm heel.

These flats are also an old pair, probably about 4 years (?).

They are from a brand called Melissa. I was so obsessed with this brand some years ago that I had to get a pair, and I was lucky that when I went to buy them, they were on sale. It's only a shame that they didn't sell them in my city back them, I had to go to Lisbon to find them.
Flats are generally comfortable but if you are not used to tight shoes, these can be a bit hard to get used to since they are a bit hard to mold to your feet.

Anything black and studded has my heart and these moccasins were just love at first sight.

These are my "go to" shoes and that explains how old they are already.

They are a cheaper version of the Skull Studded Loafers that Jeffrey Campbell has. I obviously can't afford Jeffrey Campbell anything. They are extremely comfortable, obviously.

These pair of flats is an old purchase as well. I bought them because I was obsessed with UNIF's Hellraisers  but these turned out to be very hard to wear because they are made out of some really stiff material that hurts my feet a lot. I love them but I can't take much use out of them yet. 

I don't need to say that I used these a lot last year, it's clearly visible. They were my "go to" platform shoes of last year. I used them with anything, they're really comfortable and don't hurt the feet at all even if you use them the whole day, as I did last year. They needed to be repaired a lot of times because I used them so much but right now they're in perfect conditions, except that they are not completely black anymore.

My mom decided that she was done seeing me with the platforms above so she told me I had to buy new ones, so I bought these. They were not my favorite type of shoe at all when I got them, but I've grown to love them and now they are my "go to" platforms. They're perfect for winter since they are very warm and don't let rain in, and also perfect for summer.

Since Autumn is already here, I figured I had to buy boots. These are my latest shoe purchase and I am so so happy with them.

Again, anything studded and black has my heart, so these caught my eye right away. They had a very small heel and are full of studs! They are extremely comfortable and I find that they are great to pair with skirts and dresses since they are so sleek.

This is all for this week's post. I hope you have enjoyed and I'm sorry I didn't post on saturday as I usually do.

I hope to start with the Halloween looks next week, so I'm looking forward to that.

Love,
Anna