A Moment of Silence

For Traditional Maiko/Geisha Makeup.




I love this video.

I could watch people put on make-up all day. Its such a transforming exercise, untainted by the passage of time.

Wiki:


Today, the traditional makeup of the apprentice geisha is one of their most recognizable characteristics, though established geisha generally only wear full white face makeup characteristic of maiko during special performances.

The traditional makeup of an apprentice geisha features a thick white base with red lipstick and red and black accents around the eyes and eyebrows. Originally, the white base mask was made with lead, but after the discovery that it poisoned the skin and caused terrible skin and back problems for the older geisha towards the end of the Meiji Era, it was replaced with rice powder.

The application of makeup is hard to perfect and is a time-consuming process. Makeup is applied before dressing to avoid dirtying the kimono. First, a wax or oil substance, called bintsuke-abura, is applied to the skin. Next, white powder is mixed with water into a paste and applied with a bamboo brush starting from the neck and working upwards. The white makeup covers the face, neck, and chest, with two or three unwhitened areas (forming a W or V shape, usually a traditional W shape) left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area, and a line of bare skin around the hairline, which creates the illusion of a mask.

After the foundation layer is applied, a sponge is patted all over the face, throat, chest, the nape and neck to remove excess moisture and to blend the foundation. Next the eyes and eyebrows are drawn in. Traditionally, charcoal was used, but today, modern cosmetics are used. The eyebrows and edges of the eyes are colored black with a thin charcoal; a maiko also applies red around her eyes.

The lips are filled in using a small brush. The color comes in a small stick, which is melted in water. Crystallized sugar is then added to give the lips lustre. Rarely will a geisha color in both lips fully in the Western style, as white creates optical illusions and colouring the lips fully would make them appear overly large. The lower lip is colored in partially and the upper lip left white for maiko in her first year, after which the upper lip is also colored. Newly full-fledged geisha will color in only the top lip fully. Most geisha wear the top lip colored in fully or stylized, and the bottom lip in a curved stripe that does not follow the shape of the lip.The geisha round the bottom lips to create the illusion of a flower bud.

Maiko who are in their last stage of training will sometimes color their teeth black for a short period of time. This practice used to be common among married women in Japan and, earlier, at the imperial court, but survives only in some districts, or even families. While this sounds unsavoury to Western ears, it is again at least partly because of the optical illusion generated by white makeup: in contrast, teeth seem very yellow; colouring the teeth black means that they seem to "disappear" in the darkness of the open mouth. This illusion is of course more pronounced at a distance.

For the first three years, a maiko wears this heavy makeup almost constantly. During her initiation, the maiko is helped with her makeup either by her onee-san, or "older sister" (an experienced geisha who is her mentor), or by the okaa-san, or "mother" of her geisha house. After this, she applies the makeup herself.

After a maiko has been working for three years, she changes her make-up to a more subdued style. The reason for this is that she has now become mature, and the simpler style shows her own natural beauty. For formal occasions, the mature geisha will still apply white make-up. For geisha over thirty, the heavy white make-up is only worn during special dances which require her to wear make-up for her part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha


Maybe later I'll expand this post into photograph of geisha and their wonderful makeup and clothing.

love,

Kayla

Edit:

Today was the old style, and tomorrow, I'll do the new style.

Love again,

Kayla

My Favorite.

Everyone has fashion favorites,

These are mine.

These are my favorite fashion photographs/outfits from where I jank my pictures from ( http://www.hel-looks.com/, http://www.flickr.com/ and http://lookbook.nu/)





I have a sweet spot for this photograph in particular because of this guy's gorgeous cheekbones, scarf and of course the composition. He just seemed so london-ish that he couldn't possibly be from anywhere else. And of course, when I checked his location, I was absolutely right. It is for blokes like him that us American girls flee to the U.K.



To be honest, this guy sort of looks like an ex of mine. That, and I adore his velvet jacket. Not many men can pull off velvet, without looking like they are in some sort of theatre production. This young man manages to not only do that, but seamlessly blend it into a casual ensamble.



This woman is the eptiome of class. She looks so proud of her tatoos, and her gown is stunning. By the way, check out her purse! Its such a cool shape, not your average clutch. I can only hope to be as awesome when I get to be her age.




This is such an adorable twist on the rockabilly style. Rockabilly gear is pretty straight forward and its difficult to get the look unless you go out specifically to purchase from those who cater to wearers of the style. This woman manages to capture the look perfectly without a single piece that would scream rockabilly as a stand-alone. I also particularly enjoy the monotone of her shoes and stockings.



It doesn't matter what this guy is wearing or where in the world he may be. This photo is a perfect example of how confidence carries an outfit. He looks so.... content, with his hands crammed into his pockets like that. Its almost as though you can hear him saying "Yup. This is what I chose to wear today."



Um...ok... I have a secret part deep hidden inside my heart behind Doctor Who and Cheesecake and Leather that is madly in love with Glam Rock. Like estactically, weak kneed, palpitatingly in love with it. I am in favor of anyone trying to revive it. I love the huge hair, tight pants, chunky leather jackets, and the bold sexuality of the whole thing. I think I'll keep this photo forever.



This just makes me laugh. In a respectful, but still hysterical sort of way.
You know how it is.



I am in love with girls who wear lots of bright colors. Particularly powder colors like powder blue, powder purple and powder pink. This is mostly because the rest of the world really doesn't wear those colors unless it is spring or early summer. However I think they look best in winter, when everyone else is weairng black and red and white.

This outfit would be typical indie fare if it wasn't for the subtle mixture of the suspender and thin cotton tank top. With that slight change the outfit goes from tried and used to vintage army inspired. This photograph is a perfect example of how a single acessory can change the entire feel of an outfit.

There is something just so dainty about wearing a circle of braids. It reminds me of Heidi, summer days , and making daisy chains.

lovely.

This photo is property of http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ and I really hope he doesnt murder me with a lawsuit because I have it on here. I just couldn't leave it out as it is my favorite photograph of a woman that he has on there.
I just love her little mickey mouse skirt and modest top that (strangely) look really provocative simply due to the way she is standing. The glasses and lipstick look fantsastic together as well.

( Btw: Click the link and visit his site. He is a god among men when it comes to fashion photography and does many of the pictures for the gentleman's magazine GQ)

Isnt this amazing?

Doesn't it remind you a little bit of Lord of the Rings and every Elf related book you've ever read? I've been keeping this picture on my computer for literally months trying to find a post that it could fit into the category of and I simply couldn't.

So here it is, unfettered.

Doesnt she look like Heidi Klum? Yeah, I thought so too. Anyway, This photo is a good example of how if you are gorgeous and have a cool haircut and flawless skin you can pretty much wear anything old thing and look smashing.

The rest of us have to work really hard to look cool.

A round of applause for genetics!

If you have any appreciation of anything click this picture to make it bigger so you can see how rediculously gorgeous she is. This picure is all about color choice. Her hair color perfectly compliments her eye color which perfectly compliments her outfit choice and bold lack of make-up.

Most goths look disasterous, but she is absolutely flawless in her execution of this fashion trend.

My favorite Make-up Tutorials.

Done by the fabulous Pixiwoo: The Marlene Dietrich look. This is actually the first of their videos I watched. They are wonderfully professional and give alot of really good advice. I highly reccomend them and urge you to look through their work and subscribe to their channel.

The Geisha look by Michelle Phan, the youtube makeup goddess. If you ask anyone about makeup on youtube, the first name that comes out of their mouth will be Michelle Phan. Though I am not always in love with the looks she choses, her videos are always the most appealing to watch.

And finally cl2425, the underdog in the makeup giants of youtube. She is really super talented and underrated. Her makeup tips are genuine and she usues alot of affordable makeup. Also, she has this fastastic blog where she tries out products and gives reviews: http://www.cl2425.com/

If you're gonna follow any makeup blog, it should be that one.

Hope you enjoyed my favorites!

love,

kayla

Flower Hour

Flowers.

They’re everywhere for summer.

I kind of prefer the tiny dainty flower patterns over the huge eighties revival ones, but this does not change the fact that they are still everywhere.

There’s something so incredibly sweet about wearing flower prints. They’re infinitely girly and light, and they’re prefect for beaches picnics and every other activities where you have to be dressed decently so old people can look at you without disapproval.

One store that does a fantastic job with floral prints is Top shop http://www.topshop.com/ So if you’s a anti-thrifter there would be the best place to go. http://www.urbanoutfitters.com`and http://www.zara.com/ is also another place to find good floral prints.

For the rest of you guys, thrift stores have the biggest selection on floral prints out there. Since the eighties died (thank goodness) there are shops stocked with that sort of thing.
I think the best thing about floral prints is the versatility.

They look striking with black and leather, blend seamlessly with carmel browns and appear in every color combination under the sun.

As someone who lives in Chicago, I don’t really own that many summer clothes. Mostly because our winter lasts for almost 9 months and it’s pretty impractical to have a summer wardrobe. I mix my winter clothes with the scant amount of summer clothes I do own.

Last winter I got really into vintage army clothing and purchased this pea green army coat. I wore it every day since it was so freakishly warm (even for our negative 10 degree days). It looked absolutely smashing with a floral shirt I owned that had lots of tiny pink flowers on it. It was just wonderful contrast.

Since the pattern is so very frou frou and sweet, its striking to wear it with something that is traditionally masculine or tough like leather and Army and punk accessories.

A couple of interesting pieces:

1. http://us.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=20&viewAllFlag=false&catalogId=32051&storeId=13052&categoryId=151410&parent_category_rn=133427&productId=1713545&langId=-1

2.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?itemdescription=true&itemCount=80&startValue=1&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=18354944&parentid=W_APP_DRESSES_FLORAL&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,+product.marketingPriority&navCount=35&navAction=poppushpush&color=&pushId=W_APP_DRESSES_FLORAL&popId=W_APP_DRESSES&prepushId=&selectedProductSize

3.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?itemdescription=true&itemCount=80&startValue=1&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=17927435&parentid=W_APP_DRESSES_FLORAL&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,+product.marketingPriority&navCount=35&navAction=poppushpush&color=&pushId=W_APP_DRESSES_FLORAL&popId=W_APP_DRESSES&prepushId=&selectedProductSize

4.

http://us.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=32051&storeId=13052&categoryId=160968&parent_category_rn=133427&productId=1762519&langId=-1

5.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?itemdescription=true&itemCount=80&startValue=1&selectedProductColor=&sortby=&id=18133264&parentid=W_APP_DRESSES_FLORAL&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,+product.marketingPriority&navCount=35&navAction=poppushpush&color=&pushId=W_APP_DRESSES_FLORAL&popId=W_APP_DRESSES&prepushId=&selectedProductSize

Good luck!

Love,
kayla