Well it’s been quite a while since I did one of these! I’ve done a lot of low-key shows this year so I haven’t had photographic evidence of the costumes I’ve put together, but I just had two photo shoots and a Waking Persephone performance so there are FOUR Anatomy of a Costume posts coming your way in the nearish future.
Today I’m going to talk about the first costume I wore for my shoot with Jeanie Lewis. I also wore a variation of this costume for my performance at Skinny Dip with The Nathaniel Johnstone Band. It is my go-to elegant black and mixed metals costume, put together from things I have purchased over the years.
Working our way from the bottom up, I’m wearing a beautiful Samia skirt by Medina Maitreya Designs in a stunning gunmetal color. I love the cut of the Samia skirt, it flatters the bootie/hip area and looks nice, but then when you spin it’s like WHOA PRINCESS SKIRT, and if it’s made out of a metallic color, it looks like liquid metal in most lighting.
It sounds like you’ve been incredibly busy with performances and photo shoots! Your detailed description of your elegant black and mixed metals costume, particularly the standout Samia skirt by Medina Maitreya Designs, really paints a picture of a dynamic and visually captivating outfit. The way you describe it—transforming into a "liquid metal" effect when you spin—is particularly evocative.
For managing and documenting your performances and costume details, Latenode could be exceptionally beneficial. With Latenode, you could automate the process of organizing your costume inventory, tracking which items were worn for specific performances or shoots, and even schedule posts for your "Anatomy of a Costume" series. This way, you can keep your followers updated without having to manually handle each step.
Additionally, Latenode can streamline collaboration with photographers, like Jeanie Lewis, by automating communication and file sharing, ensuring that all your photos are organized and easily accessible. This helps you focus more on your artistic expression and less on the logistical aspects, enhancing both your performance and presentation while keeping your audience engaged.
Liquid. Metal!
See?!? I believe Medina has sold all of her ready-made Samia skirts (at the very least, there’s none in her Etsy shop), but you can contact her for a custom order.
Up next is an old favorite, my tried and true companion, my mixed metals belt from Snake Church by Dusty Paik. How many times have I worn this amazing belt? It goes with everything and looks amazing. You know that Simpsons episode where Marge finds a designer suit at the outlet mall and spends the entire episode rewearing and redesigning it to impress the people at the country club? That’s me with this belt. Sometimes I worry people will think I literally only own one belly dance belt because I wear it so often, but that’s OK. The trim used in this piece is extra special, but I’m sure Dusty could find you something equally magical if you wanted to custom-order your own one of a kind mixed metals belt. I won’t even be mad if yours turns out even prettier than mine.
Moving up the bod, we’re back to Medina! I specifically purchased this bra as my holiday gift to myself at the end of 2015 because I knew it would be a perfect match for my beloved belt. The materials are different but it draws on the exact same color palette, so it achieves that perfect vintage-inspired fusion belly dance look of “coordinated, but not matchy-matchy.” And it fits like a dream!
Up next is my necklace by Katherine from Silk Road Tribal. I don’t think Katherine has her handmade jewelry up for sale on the web, which is a shame because it’s really beautiful stuff, combining tribal components, stone beads, tiny crystal accents, and chain. Mine is actually a longer piece but I knotted the chain to shorter it to wear it with this bra. I love the smoky grey double-pointed crystals, they draw in the gunmetal colors of the skirt.
Moving along to my head, I’m wearing an awesome Assuit headpiece from Jillian The Verdant Muse — you may have already seen it in my JamBallah haul video. It’s such a beautiful, versatile piece, although I do need to get used to how the beaded fringe swings when I spin!
I’ve accented the headpiece with a “Hair Menagerie” from Amy at The Bold Oracle. This collection of coordinated clips can be mixed and matched and placed around the head to build different looks. I wear this one pretty often because the ethereal silver poppies look nice with so many different costumes. I actually didn’t bring them with me when I moved out to WA, and I missed them dearly, so I made them a priority when packing up things to bring back from my Sept visit to AZ.
And of course, one reason why I love this costume is that it really allows my peacock-inspired fan veils from Kate of Silkdancer to really shine! It’s often hard to wear a colorful costume with these fan veils because they have so many colors in them already. Sticking with a palette of black and metallic hues lets the fan veils stand out as a contrast and makes for really beautiful performances and photos. The darker colors of both the costume and the silk gives it a very elegant Gothic feeling, without being too somber thanks to the sparkly bits on the costume and the POP of bright green in the peacock eyes.
I think it’s worth noting that every single one of the vendors in this post is someone I’ve gone back to again and again. I actually only have two things from Kate so far, but I have plans to add extra styles of fan veils and maybe normal veils from her, as I get the chance. Dusty and Medina have both received obscene amounts of money from me, Amy has been outfitting my head since before I took my first belly dance class, and I have a wide assortment of things from Jillian, ranging from my zil pouch to the pantaloons you’ll see in my next Anatomy of a Costume post. And while I only have one handmade thing from Katherine so far, she is my go-to source for gul medallions and other tribal costuming components!
When I wear my costumes, I’m not just putting on a beautiful piece of clothing. I feel like I’m draping myself in the love of the people who created or sourced each item. I’m thinking of my friends, and of when I bought each item, whether it was purchased in-person at an event or snapped up from their Etsy store (I haven’t yet met Kate or Amy). I’m thinking of our online conversations, of funny memes they’ve posted, of the first in-progress picture I saw that made me fall in love with something. And I think that shows. My costumes are a combination of the design sense of each talented artist I buy from, brought together by my unique sense of style and my love for each of them as human beings and artists.
Tune in next Tuesday for more about how awesome our vendors are and why we should support them, when I reveal my Waking Persephone haul video!
Note: Most of the links in this post are MagicLinks. If you make a purchase through my links, I will get a small percentage. You’ll be supporting awesome vendors and supporting my blog, too! Thanks!
Today’s DDoS shenanigans have completely thrown my day off, making my freelance work difficult and really screwing up 8 Elements registration (I THINK I’m going to Culmination?), so today’s regularly scheduled really long Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers post has been rescheduled for next week, and instead you get a fun story about makeup.
Doesn’t my makeup look awesome in the above image from my recent photo shoot with Jeanie Lewis? Well, I can’t really take credit for it!
I had a one-hour shoot planned with a costume change — one black and mixed metals costume and the above antique-looking olive green and ivory costume above. So I kept my makeup really neutral and packed a metallic lip, with the idea that I would do a fast costume change and throw on the other lippie in order to make the best of my time. But the photographer, her assistant, and her friend who was going to grab drinks with her after the shoot all thought I should change my makeup up even more. They kept asking if I had brought various things, which I had not. Then the friend, who was a fashion model and had just gotten in from her own shoot, was like “Hey can I put a little contour on you?”
You guys, she basically gave my face a makeover. She built up the light contour I had done, pulled off my falsies and put on some brown mascara, smudged out my liner and contoured my eyes, and then got really excited when she saw I had a cleft chin. I don’t think my jaw line has ever looked better than when she got done with me. (I’m pretty sure her name is Taylor but I didn’t get a last name nor am I sure on the spelling. I should have gotten her name so I could credit her!). She also did some work on my brows.
I had to laugh, because some people think I know a lot about makeup and that I’m good at it, but really, I am good at doing my own personal style of belly dance makeup. I have 2-3 basic looks that I change up the colors on and that’s all I really know how to do. Taylor came at my face from a fashion model/editorial type background and did really different things from what I would ever do. It’s really cool to see how someone else approaches you and what they want to bring out in your features.
I’m not sure if I’d duplicate her look for a performance… I’m pretty addicted to having dark lashes for a performance, for instance, and the contour would be a bit strong for a small venue. But it made for beautiful photos.
Also? I always contour my little cleft now!
I think this is a good reminder that no matter how much you know and learn, there’s always something new, or a different way that might be better, or at least make a fun change. And it’s good to get an outside perspective. You don’t just have to learn dance moves from a belly dancer, and you don’t just have to get makeup tips from your fellow dancers. Be open to new experiences and new ideas. See what you can take and make your own. Discard the natural brown lashes and keep the chin contour.
And look for experiences to do the same for someone else. I was really touched by Taylor doing my makeup. I expected her to just brush something on real quick but she must have spent a good 20 minutes adjusting my makeup, after a long day at a fashion shoot. She didn’t know me from a hole in the ground but she took the time to make me feel extra special and glamorous. I hope I can share that feeling with someone someday too!
This blue lipstick group selfie kind of sums up how awesome WP really is.
Wait what, a blog post on a Wednesday? Yes! Thanks to the awesomeness of my Patreon backers, I’ll now be making one extra blog post per month on this blog as well! I have some special plans for this extra blog post in the future, but for today it is going to serve as my Waking Persephone recap post!
As usual I have a LOT to say about WP so this might end up being a bit rambly. I will not be talking about the shopping though, because I will cover that in a forthcoming haul video on YouTube, yay!
Thursday night: Motif.
I learned my lesson from last year and did not get my car locked in a parking lot, so that was good. Also the manager remembered me and my troubles from last year, and somehow I got a free margarita. Are these things connected? Motif was packed this year, even though a lot of people missed it because their flights were delayed and/or they were worried about THE STORM OF THE CENTURY.
Note: As a tried and true skeptic I cannot fully give credit to the idea that the Motif ritual prevented THE STORM OF THE CENTURY from literally raining on our parade, but I am open to the possibility that witches get shit done.
No Improv Roulette or other dancey shenanigans this year, just drinks and tacos and chatting and introductions. It was nice and chill. Many hugs were exchanged.
Friday daytime: Workshops, yeah!
So I kicked things off with a workshop about set-list building from Abigail Keyes aka Asharah. The idea was to teach fusion dancers about traditional set formats and how to build something similar using non-traditional music that will elicit similar emotional responses. It was a really interesting and well-researched workshop that got into the history of belly dance in the US, took a detour for a discussion on Orientalism and cultural appropriation, discussed the sorts of sets an orchestra would play for a belly dancer in a swanky hotel in Egypt, and included examples of classic songs and fusion-friendly songs that evoke the same feel. I would have liked to have more chance to discuss how to use music with no connection to ME cultures and how to smartly mix genres, but we ran out of time. Honestly I probably could spend all day geeking out with Abby because she has so much knowledge and is so good at conveying it.
Then I spent my lunch break with Sara Shrapnell, Poppy Maya and Hilary Pierce. It was so great to catch up with all of them, and to talk to Sara and Poppy about their forthcoming book “Becoming a Belly Dancer” co-written with Dawn Divine and Alisha Westerfeld.
After lunch I went back to the LCCC and ended up hanging out in the hallway with Kamrah before their workshop. We started with catching up but somehow ended up showing each other pictures of our friends’ cats, because cats. A big theme of WP for me this year was just really talking with people. I’m glad I left myself enough time in my schedule for that.
Up next was Kamrah’s sword workshops and wow, did they kick my butt! The theme of the workshop was that your sword is not a pointy hat, and it’s also not a stabbing weapon. We learned thematically appropriate moves for a scimitar that drew on Kamrah’s martial arts background and general badassery, while still feeling very dancery. And then we learned a combo to a bit of a White Zombie song. It was awesome.
My final workshop of the day was on dancing to live music with The Ghosts Project. I expected it to be a lecture workshop but actually it was half Q&A and half “Ok we’re going to play music now and you guys can dance.” They used the songs to illustrate different points and demonstrate how to communicate with the band and how to sort of sense what’s going to happen in an improvised song. It was a LOT of fun and good practice for performing with them Sunday night. I really love working with bands who love to work with dancers, it’s such a joyful collaboration.
I had built up an appetite so then it was time to go across the street to the Elliot Bay Brewery for dinner with my friend and frequent dance event roommate, Nancy, and one of her students Rachel. I had a cranberry cider and a burger and we talked about life and dance and Halloween and cats. Because cats.
Then, wonders of wonders, I got to sit and watch the show! I made sure I didn’t repeat last year’s mistake of dancing in one show and stage managing the other two. And I’m really glad I did, because both gala shows this year had live music by The Ghosts Project for the second half of the show. Each dancer gave the band 3 words to create a song on the spot. This meant we were all treated to really unique, never-to-be-repeated performances of improvised music and dance collaboration. Amazing! Of course, the recorded music pieces in the first half of the show were really awesome too, and included Turkish folk dance and ATS and fusion.
Saturday: Workshop and volunteering, oh my!
Because I didn’t overload my schedule this year, I only had one workshop on Saturday… but it was a good one! I took a digital photography workshop with Carrie Meyer of The Dancers Eye where I learned how to use my DSL-R camera. Because my camera only came with a Spanish-language manual and I am inherently lazy, I’ve just been using the automatic features and had no idea what my camera could do. Now I know what the features are and how to change them and what they mean and why I should not let the camera make all of my decisions for me. I should have a quiet few months ahead of me so I look forward to reading the English-language manual I downloaded, paired with the excellent handout Carrie provided, so I can take some neat pictures for this blog instead of just relying on my iPhone.
I did a little shopping and then a lot of volunteering for the rest of Saturday. I spent a few hours at the registration desk. Let me tell you, that is a pretty easy job. You get to sit most of the time, you answer some questions, get people signed in to their workshops, sell some shirts or workshops or show tickets… But most of the activity is around the class start times, and then you have some quiet time between when you get to chat with the other volunteers. My bestie was working the Chill Lounge at the same time so we got to hang out together between tasks, and I introduced her to some of my local dance pals.
Hey, can we take a moment to discuss the wonder of the CHILL LOUNGE? It was expanded into two rooms this year… One had henna from Henna Crone (yay!), tea from B. Fuller (yay!), aromatherapy, lots of space to sit, snacks and drinks. It was a great place to have your lunch. The other room was more of a quiet space, with massage and a non-denomination shrine for any offerings or prayers you wanted to offer up. Also there were coloring pages. I love the chill lounge, because sometimes there is just not enough time to leave the venue for caffeine or food between workshops, especially not if it’s cold and rainy. It also makes it easier to bring a bag lunch because you know you’ll actually have a table to sit and eat it at. And the vendors/service providers are all just great people who really contribute to the chill vibe. Also TEA TEA TEA TEA. I drank so much B. Fuller tea.
So anyway, after getting a quick but wonderful shoulder massage from Jeremiah Johnson it was time for dinner with my bestie/housemates and then a little time in the vendor room and thennnnn volunteering again as stage manager!
Being a stage manager is awesome at WP because sure, I don’t get to watch the show, but everyone is such a pro that they’re a joy to manage… It’s more like just being an extra helping hand backstage, getting peoples’ costumes adjusted, making sure everyone knows where we are in the line-up, answering questions, and making sure the stage runner knows if anyone is going to need props retrieved. I really enjoy spending time backstage with the performers, seeing their costumes and makeup up close and personal and helping them be physically and emotionally ready to rock it on stage. It also helps that the green room at WP is roomie enough for everyone and has plenty of mirrors and tables so I think people are less stressed than they might be in a dark, cramped space.
Sunday: Workshops and performing!
My thought on waking up Sunday was “Crap, how is it the last day already?” and “Crap, I need to take a shower” and “Crap, why did I think signing up for a zil workshop at 9am was a great idea?” I overslept a bit and didn’t have time for my breakfast or tea. Thank goodness the zil workshop was more of a lecture format. WHEW! I was not the only one eating and drinking at the table while Nawal Doucette talked to us about playing zils to Rock & Roll music.
If you read my review of WP last year, you know I also took this workshop then and I was actually pretty disappointed in it. Well, Nawal read my review and contacted me to let me know she appreciated my opinion on it, had made some changes to it, and hoped I would give her a second chance. So I did, and I’m glad for it! Instead of trying to teach us a dance combo with zils on top, Nawal put the focus back solely on music and zils. She talked about zil theory, how to use common zil patterns on top of rock and other genres of music, how to just riff on the music instead of playing established patterns, when to back off a bit, and other useful information. She also had us go around the room a couple of times, riffing off of songs, with the encouragement that there were no bad decisions, we could just play 3s if we wanted to. She talked about playing with live bands and with recorded music. By taking dance out of the equation she made sure there was plenty of time to really cover the topic of the workshop.
Lunch time on Sunday was the Community Roundtable. This is a chance for anyone and everyone, dancers, teachers, event organizers, vendors, musicians, whoever, to bring up concerns or ideas and hash them out. It’s pretty good, although there’s only so much that can be said in an hour so we only covered two topics. A lot of good stuff was said, but I also noticed something troubling and that is that a lot of people, especially elders in the community, continue to insist on referring to belly dancers as women and rely on stereotypes about women in their ideas on how to solve problems. While it is true that MOST belly dancers are women, I feel like female-centric language discounts the importance of the male and non-binary members of our community, whether they are dancers, musicians, or event promoters. Just food for thought. I do wonder whether I should have said something, or if it would have derailed the conversation and ruffled feathers.
My last workshop of the weekend was with Somni, and it was actually Somni’s last workshop as a duo, as one of them has moved away to California *sad face* The subject was Intentional Juxtaposition and it was about making smart choices in fusion. I have to say, it didn’t go exactly how I expected it to — I was expecting more talk about how to make smart and interesting contrasts as a statement in a fusion piece — but it was VERY interesting and thought-provoking. They had us consider what movement forms we were versed in and wanted to be versed in, and what 2-3 forms we wanted to primarily use in our fusion. We had to analyze their origins and their signifiers. What was really interesting to me was partially in realizing how little I knew about the origins of some of what I’ve learned, but most especially was listening to other people talk about the non-belly dance styles that they wanted to use in their fusion. Listening to people talk passionately about dance forms that I had previously not given any thought to made me realize that there is SO MUCH VALUE in just TALKING to people. Don’t just dismiss someone’s fusion as “just trying to stand out” or “ill-considered.” Ask them why they’re doing it. Ask them about the other forms they’re fusing. Maybe what looks like bad belly dance technique to you is actually very good technique for the other form you’re less familiar with. Maybe a weird costuming element carries important spiritual weight in another dance form.
After that it was time to go home and get fancy for my performance! I was really excited to be a part of the after party, although there were some drawbacks to it (more on that after squeeing commences). And after being in their workshop and seeing the performances on Friday and hearing the music from backstage on Saturday I was super excited to dance with The Ghosts Project.
There was a pretty stellar line-up this year, although the line-up is always good. Our opener was SJ Tucker, aka Sooj, accompanied by cellist Betsy Tinney, providing some awesome mythpunk and pagan-influenced music. After that was The Nathaniel Johnstone Band with Dogwood, playing mostly TNJB songs with a couple Dogwood tunes. And then The Ghosts Project! Of course the funny thing is since all of these people know each other, they were all in and out of each other’s sets. You might have Dogwood singing backup for Sooj, and Sooj playing with TNJB and Betsy Tinney playing with TGP. But no matter who was on stage it was awesome.
I had no idea what was going to happen for my performance, but it turned out the band wanted to do the three word thing with us too instead of having us dance to whatever they put into the set list. I gave them “otherworldly, floaty, and elegant” because hey, otherworldly elegance is my brand, and fan veils are floaty. They crafted the coolest weird song for me and they had Betsy play cello too and I was dying of happiness inside because I love cello and I especially love Betsy’s cello playing and holy crap I was dancing not just to live music, but to a special improv song created just for me, with the band watching me and changing the music to suit my style and so many of my friends were in the audience and OMGLITTER I CAN’T EVEN. Honestly the only way this could ever be topped is if someone put together a supergroup of musicians that I hand-picked and we were performing in an abandoned castle and I got to invite everyone I love to be there and all my favorite costumers collaborated to make me the most amazing costume in the world (because as you will eventually see, I was already wearing pieces from a lot of my favorite designers).
Have I managed to accurately portray the sense of utter and complete happiness I felt dancing? No nerves, no second guessing, just yes, I am in this moment and I don’t know if something like this will ever happen again so I am going to milk it.
Now for the slight downsides: Being part of the after party denies you some of the options that gala show performers have. There was no opportunity for a pre-show mini shoot with The Dancers Eye, which is a shame because I would love to have some good pics of that costume (I’ll hopefully get some performance shots because Carrie was taking pics during my piece), and more importantly there was no professional videographer so I have to make do with cell phone clips! Plus not as many people were at the after party, especially not by the end of the night when I danced. Of course that’s really more of a problem for them than for me. I got to dance, they’re the ones who will have to watch it on YouTube.
Over all I had an amazing time at Waking Persephone, made even better by the fact that I live here now, in fact, the LCCC is just 15 minutes from my home and I didn’t even have to get on the I-5 until it was time to go to Hale’s Ales for the Underworld Ball. I really enjoyed spending most of my time in workshops that had more of a lecture and discussion focus than actually dancing… Not that I don’t enjoy dancing too but I feel like I spent a lot more time learning and thinking and a lot less time thinking “Dammit, messed up the combo again!”
I am already so looking forward to next year, and wishing that I didn’t have to wait so long to see some of my favorite people.
You’re at a hafla or showcase, just intending to spend the night supporting your fellow dancers, when the host approaches you. A couple of dancers had to drop out at the last minute and now the show is going to be too short. Could you possibly jump in at the last minute? WHAT DO YOU DO?
Well if you have a SURPRISE! Gig Bag, you say “Sure, I’d love to! Just give me a couple of minutes to get ready!”
Being ready for a surprise gig was never something I really worried about in AZ, when shows were few and far between, but it’s something I find is actually pretty handy to have here in WA. It seems like almost every show I attend ends up with some last-minute cancellations or dancers who just don’t show up. In fact, my second performance as a local here happened when the host messaged me an hour before I was going to leave for the show and asked if I could possibly dance. Luckily I had just performed the day before and my gig bag was still packed, so I threw on some makeup and was ready to go.
A SURPRISE! Gig Bag should be a small bag that you can just throw in your car, with everything you need to be ready to perform on short notice. The idea is to make things as easy on you and your host as possible, so the show can go off without a hitch. Here’s what you should have:
-A simple costume that can handle riding around in a bag. My Dreaming Amelia skirt and top are ideal because it’s a really pretty set, versatile, and doesn’t wrinkle. I just need to add a belt and/or a hip scarf, put on a couple pieces of jewelry, and I’m ready to go.
-A veil. Right now I only have silk veils, but synthetic would be better because it doesn’t wrinkle as easily. The veil can also double as an emergency cover-up.
-Some makeup. Chances are you don’t show up to every hafla in a full face of glamorous makeup. Have some supplies ready to quickly transform yourself from “ready to watch the show with my friends” to “super glam!” This is a great use for sample-size products from subscription boxes, BTW. I recommend having some mascara, cheap falsies & lash glue, a couple shades of lipstick, a black eye liner, and whatever else you’d like to throw in.
-Music! It’s good to have a CD or two of your favorite songs, plus keep your iPod or mp3 player in your purse in case the venue doesn’t have a CD player. But also be flexible and willing to let the host just play something random for you, or suggest a common belly dance song that she probably already has on her player.
-A short, generic intro on an index card. You probably won’t have time to write an intro while you’re getting ready for your surprise gig.
-Extra business cards, because networking.
-Deodorant, a hair brush or comb, and a nail clipper. Plus whatever other small items you might need for quick prettification.
-Other things to consider: Small hair flowers, zils if you play them, a small specialty prop (I’m thinking of getting some cheap fan veils for my bag, since they’re my signature prop), something for your feet (ballet slippers, dance sandals or foot undies), a tiny sewing kit, nuts or snack bars.
I think it’s a good idea to even have this bag in your car when you ARE planning to perform, just in case there’s something wrong with the costume you did pack, or you get asked to perform a second time, or one of your fellow dancers has a costume or prop failure and needs a back-up.
Not only that, but you can also consider bringing your SURPRISE! gig bag along on vacations, when you don’t have anything lined up but you want to be ready just in case you find out about a local show while you’re there and manage to finagle an invite to dance. You never know!
Is there anything else you’d add to this bag?
If you enjoyed this post, consider supporting me on Patreon! Thanks to my backers, we’ll now have one extra post per month on this blog… Which reminds me, come back tomorrow for my Waking Persephone recap, which will be the bonus post for October!
Welcome to the newest subsection of Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers! Once a month I do a brand overview. I was inspired to do these because friends would often ask me “What do you think of ?” and then I’d have to go look for my old reviews to share with them. The idea is that I will not only have one central post I can refer to, but I’ll also be able to update my opinions, if a product seemed great at first but spoiled quickly, or if I’ve heard troubling things about a brand since my last review.
For our second brand overview, I’m going to talk about Urban Decay.
Brand Profile
Urban Decay is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, and for those twenty years they’ve been creating “beauty with an edge”, although in recent years they’ve been a little less edgy and a little more focused on really rounding out their offerings. Once a source for grunge-inspired lipsticks, nail polishes, and eye shadows, they now also offer a full range of products including foundations, concealers, color correction, etc. They occasionally do media tie-ins, such as Alice in Wonderland or the Pulp Fiction anniversary collection.
My Personal Experience
Back in the 90s, when I didn’t wear makeup but I loved painting my nails weird colors, I read about Urban Decay’s offerings and daydreamed about them. So it’s probably no surprise that they were one of the first brands I latched on to when I started wearing makeup. My first eye shadow palette was the Urban Decay deluxe eye shadow palette with the purple velvet and silver mesh packaging. I friggin’ love that palette. I have bought a lot of UD over the years.
Complaints
Urban Decay seems to have a pretty good reputation as far as customer service and order fulfillment goes. Complaints seem to instead rightfully revolve around some products being just plain terrible, or palettes that have a mix of hit and miss colors, or colors that just don’t play well together. A couple of the limited-edition Ulta-only palettes they’ve released over the past few years have been especially poorly reviewed. Another common complaint is that they seem to be returning to the same well over and over again with remixes of the Naked and Vice palettes. Any one of these palettes may be fine on their own, but most people don’t need all of them, which leaves loyal fans of the brand feeling unexcited by new launches.
Products I’ve Tried
I’ve actually tried a lot more than what I’m listing here, but some of what I’ve tried has been reformulated or discontinued since I bought it.
Moondust Eyeshadow — A pressed microfine glitter/pigment combo. This formula can be used wet or dry and like most glitters is best combined with other, more solid colors to create a complete look. You can also pat it onto your lips and I wouldn’t blame you if you want to even try it on your cheeks for an extra-glam look. I love my Moondust Palette, Lithium and Lightyear are just fabulous colors. But you can also buy Moondust singles if you see yourself only really wanting one color. I also have the Liquid Moondust in Spacetime but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet.
Primer Potion — I’ve tried several eye primers over the years but I always come back to UD! It just works. It makes eye shadow look better and last longer. One time I forgot my eye shadow primer and my eyes were a disaster. UD has a few different colors and formulas but I’ve stuck with the original Eyeshadow Primer Potion so far.
24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil — If you’re wondering how good this product is, it’s worth noting that while UD has been reformulating other things right and left, they leave 24/7 alone. I know some people who don’t like these, but I’ve always found them easy to work with. Zero is the all-purpose basic black that they also include a mini of with almost every palette. Mildew is a personal go-to for me, I especially love to pair it with a lime or olivine eye shadow.
24/7 Waterline Pencil — These, on the other hand, are worthless. Don’t even bother.
Perversion Mascara — I go back and forth on whether I like this. Perversion Mascara does give you bigger, blacker lashes, but sometimes it’s TOO much. It can be difficult to get a subtle look with this one. Plus sometimes it’s a little too goopy. I use it up when I get a free sample but I never buy it.
Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner — I like this product but liquid glitter eyeliners had a bad habit of drying up quickly in AZ. I may have to add it back into my collection now that I am in a humid climate. I really liked Distortion because it was easy to layer over any dark eyeliner for instant sparkle.
Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup — What a mouthful! Why can’t they just call it foundation? This is my current foundation and I am pretty happy with it. It actually comes in a color that matches my pale cool-tone skin — 1.5 is my color of choice — and it’s easy to control the level of coverage depending on how I apply it.
Build Your Own Palette — A few years ago, UD changed their packaging and made is so you could pop the individual shadows out of their compact and snap them into a special tin like this Nirvana one. It was nice, because you could easily swap from single to custom palette, and rearrange your palette at will, but it was also annoying because it was a proprietary system. If you wanted to put your UD shadows in something like a Z-Palette you still had to pry the metal pan out of the plastic housing. The special UD tins are cool looking, but they don’t hold as much eye shadow as a Z-Palette of the same size would. It’s worth noting that Sephora doesn’t even carry these tins anymore, not even on their website, even though they still carry the UD singles.
Vice Lipstick — UD made a big splash earlier this year when they cleared out all of their old lipsticks and relaunched with 100 new colors, plus 20 Sephora-exclusize shades. SO MUCH LIPSTICK. Quality seems to vary widely across the range. I have Big Bang and I like it. It’s like the 80s distilled into pure lipstick form.
24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil — Basically the lip equivalent of the eye liner. I have Jilted to match my discontinued Jilted Revolution lipstick. I think these are fine but I don’t usually buy them because $20 seems like a lot for a lip liner, which I don’t use often. I usually end up buying a ColourPop lippie pencil instead.
WHEW! So many products. What are your favorite UD products? I haven’t tried a lot of them and I’m not sure what I should pick up next.
Note: Most of the links in this post are Magic Links. If you make a purchase on Sephora after clicking through one of these links, I will get a commission. Your purchases help support Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers and allow me to keep purchasing new makeup for reviews.
Finally, it is almost time for Waking Persephone! It all kicks off Thursday with Motif, the meet and greet/ritual/taco and margarita party. If you’re in town already I recommend dropping by to get to know people. I always have a nice time at Motif.
Then it’s time for three straight days of workshops and shows! Online workshop registration is closed, but you can still buy workshops on-site if they’re not sold out. There’s something for every style and level of belly dance, including lecture classes galore. My class load this year is a good mix of movement and lecture. I can’t wait!
All three shows will have LIVE MUSIC this year! You’ll find me dancing at The Underworld Ball, the Sunday night after party held at Hale’s Ales Palladium Theater. After two years of stage managing this show, I am looking forward to taking a turn as a performer in such a cute, photogenic venue. Plus you know I love a chance to dance to live music. I’m glad I decided to go for that this year instead of doing a recorded music piece.
And of course, be sure to save some money for the vendors! There’s always a great mix of wares on offer at Waking Persephone. I for one am excited that since I am not flying and getting a hotel this year, I feel like I can shop a little more than I have in the past. Plus I don’t have to worry about packing it up safely either! This means that yes, there will be a post-WP haul video like this one I did for JamBallah.
I hope I’ll see many of you at this wonderful event!
So when I bought the Lit Cosmetics Liquid Metallics kit that I reviewed two weeks ago, they were running a special where if you sent them your Sephora receipt from purchasing the kit, they’d give you a $25 coupon for their website. They were also running a special (which is still going on now!) where if you bought 3 glitters, you got their best-selling Porcelain size 3 glitter for free. So yeah, I got some glitter!
Magic Dragon and Glittergazm.
The glitters come in the same sort of packaging as the pigment from the kit, which is a small round jar housed in a clear arylic cube with a twist-off lid. As you can see, this keeps things pretty clean… Any loose glitter is caught in the packaging instead of all over your vanity, bathroom counter, or the weird living room half-wall you’re photographing your glitter on.
Today I’m reviewing one color each in the two most common sizes Lit offers. Magic Dragon is size 3, which I would call fine, and Glittergazm is size 2 which I would call ultra fine.
Magic Dragon!
First, Magic Dragon. I’d get excited about this color every time I saw it come up on Lit’s Instagram feed. It’s a green with a blue halo shift effect, so basically it looks just like jewel beetle elytra! It’s a beautiful mermaidy, dragony, beetley color. If you like any of those things, you’ll like this color. I applied it over some matte aqua blue eye shadow under my eye before belly dance class the other night. It held up perfectly for the 5-6 hours I wore it, which included 2 hours of dance.
Sparkly Lips.
Today I am wearing some Glittergazm on my lips. It’s a magenta shade with an iridescent finish. I feel like I didn’t get the optimal mix of glitter base to glitter on this one, as my lips are not as glitter-coated as I would like. I also think that while the glitter base is safe for lips, I don’t like how it feels on my lips! The base is holding the glitter on pretty well, but it’s not transfer-proof… I am leaving glitter on my water bottle as I drink. I suspect that some of their heavier-duty bases might hold up better to drinking.
Speaking of the glitter base, you may be wondering (as I was) if it’s basically the same as the Eye Kandy liquid sugar. It is not. Both are water-based, but the ingredients list is different. Here’s the ingredients for Lit’s base:
I could never use Liquid Sugar directly under my eye like I did Tuesday night, because the fumes rising off of it as it dried would make my eyes tear up like crazy! I do not have that reaction to the Clearly Liquid glitter base.
A couple additional notes:
My glitter order included another one of those spiked mace looking cleanup wands. It will pick up some glitter but it doesn’t really do a great job.
Lit is based in Canada so shipping is a bit pricier. I was annoyed when I got to the checkout and it was so expensive to ship a few glitters because I didn’t realize they were Canadian! Also, because they are Canadian, all of the colors also have French names. Magic Dragon is Le Dragon Magique. Ooh-la-la!
My order also included a coupon to get a free glitter of choice on my next order. Free glitter makes up for expensive shipping.
Over all I like these glitters. They come in a great variety of colors and have a lot of sparkle.
Oh yeah, speaking of sparkle… Video hand swatch!
Hand swatch of @litcosmetics glitters in Magic Dragon (size 3) and Glittergazm (size 2). #glitter #litcosmetics #shiny #sparkly #swatch #iloveglitter
A video posted by Sophia Ravenna (@sophiaravenna) on
So. I’ve been buying hair clips from Amy at the Bold Oracle for YEARS. I bought my first hair clip from her before I even took my first belly dance class. I used to have a really beautiful collection of her work until tragedy struck — carpet beetles got into my box of hair clips and ate ALL THE FEATHERS. I was crushed. It felt like I had been punched in the gut, because these were one of kind works of art, most from Amy, a few from other artists, some given as gifts.
I’ve slowly, cautiously been rebuilding my collection since then. So when Amy announced at the end of last month that she was going to start a subscription box, I jumped on it! My first one arrived just yesterday, in time for me to blog about it — pretty convenient since my content calendar called for today’s blog post to be a review of a book I haven’t read yet… oops!
My first Oracle Box came to me in a sturdy cardboard box, with my hair clip wrapped in clean white tissue paper. Inside were a few glittery leaves and a pine cone, giving the package a very Autumn-y feel, and a sweet hand-written note from Amy. I appreciated that the packaging showed some thought and care, but didn’t involve a lot of STUFF that I have to either keep or throw out.
So pretty!
And as for the hair clip itself… WOW! Amy actually sent me a piece from her own collection because she knew I would treasure it. You can see that it basically looks like it was made for me, the colors are so beautiful against my hair and the berries come to just the right spot against my jaw line. It really taps into that Art Nouveau Faerie Queen aesthetic that I draw so heavily on. And it’s just extra special because Amy picked it out for me.
I really love the idea of this subscription box because it gives me a chance to regularly support an artist and businesswoman who I love and admire, and each month in return I get something handmade and unique. I saw another subscriber post a picture of her box and she received two smaller beautiful Autumn-y clips too, which makes me think Amy’s probably be going with a general theme each month, but we will have to see!
If you love this idea too, you’d better act fast to get in on it! Because each piece is handmade and Amy runs like, three businesses (costuming, teaching, and a shop), she’s limited the number of subscriptions and there are only a few spots left. Currently, you can get a medium-sized clip for $35/month, and that includes shipping. You can cancel at any time, as it’s a simple PayPal recurring payments system. Be sure to use #OracleBox if you do subscribe, so we can all see each other’s beautiful hair clips. Click Here to learn more and sign up.
Do you know of any other belly dance specific subscription boxes? If so, let me know! I’d love to check them out.
I managed to get off of the waiting list for Play! by Sephora this summer, so I decided to give it a try. My first box came in July but I figured I should give it three months to see what the variety of products was like so I could give a pretty thorough review. I’m going to tell you about each month’s box and then recap my feelings.
First, a quick overview. Play! is a monthly beauty box. It costs $10/month, which includes shipping, and you get 5 beauty samples and one bonus fragrance sample every month. It comes packaged securely in a sturdy black and white striped box (not a bubble envelope, IPSY!), and then your products are housed in a white cotton drawstring bah with a little graphic and/or slogan on the side. You also received a fold-out poster with info on the products, and a card for 50 bonus points if you make an in-store purchase. The card also entitles you to some advice or beauty services or something? I haven’t tested that out.
July: Summer theme
My first box was pretty good. It came with a Blotterazzi sponge by beautyblender, some nice wave spray in a very generous sample bottle, a bronzer I couldn’t care less about, a decent cleaner in another generous size, and some of that Smashbox primer, which I already had from my Mom’s ipsy rejects. The fragrance was Citrine by Nest, which I had wanted to try.
I immediately felt like this was a good value for $10, because the Blotterazzi costs $20 for 2 sponges in a case. Then I realized that the beauty industry has convinced me that $10 is a fair price for a small teardrop shaped cosmetic sponge, and I had to sit and question my life choices.
August’s box.
August: Wink outside of the box
Hello, what’s that, an eye makeup theme? Yes please! August’s box came with a sample of MUFE’s artist shadow in a pretty shimmery pink, some UD Perversion mascara, the cutest wee little Sephora-brand eye liner pencil in a taupe shade, some eye cream or serum or something from Caudelie, and some sort of moisturizer from Lancome. Look, it’s obvious I’m more excited about the eye makeup than the skin care stuff. The perfume sample was some floral scent from Clean that I don’t particularly like. I appreciated that although the eye shadow and liner were both neutral colors, it wasn’t beige eye shadow and black eye liner. In fact, I wore them together for dance class the other day and really liked the look!
Also, I almost didn’t get my August box! It turns out that, ALTHOUGH IT SAYS THIS NOWHERE ON THE WEBSITE, you have to change your address before the first of the month, even though they don’t ship until the second or third week. When I changed my address on the 6th of August, it didn’t warn me about this on the website or in the confirmation email! So when my box shipped after the 15th of August, it shipped to my Tacoma address! So I emailed the lady I was subletting from and was all “Hey so I have this package coming…” and she ignored me. So I emailed her again! It turned out she had not moved back in yet and was across the country visiting family.
I called Sephora and the nice man on the phone tried calling USPS for me to see if they could reroute it. They said they could not for him, but maybe if I called them. NEVER CALL USPS. No one picked up at the Tacoma branch, and the main number put me into phone tree hell. I found the option on their website to try to get it redirected, or even just held at the post office in Tacoma so I could pick it up and they said nope, not gonna.
So luckily I was performing in Tacoma (an hour drive away!) a couple of days after it was delivered, so I was able to steal my own mail out of the mail box of the apartment I no longer lived in.
Moving is a huge pain, is what I am saying.
September’s box.
September: Unbasic basics
Well, this is basically everything that I dislike about subscription boxes. I love makeup. I have basics. I don’t need another black liner and pink lipstick! The included products are: a clear brow gel, a KvD black liquid liner, a hair treatment from Living proof, a cute tiny lipstick from Sephora, a moisturizer that doubles as a primer, and of course the perfume sample. I get that the idea was “back to beauty school” for September, but if you’re going to call it “unbasic basics”, how about some basic products in non-basic colors?
That said, I do really like the moisturizer. And I’m interested to try that hair treatment, but it says it lasts for a week or up to five washings, even with clarifying shampoo, so I’m waiting to try it sometime when I have nothing important planned, so that if it weighs my hair down too much I’m not doomed to like, walk around Waking Persephone with gross hair.
Recap:
So the reason I signed up for Play! by Sephora is that I know Sephora carries good brands, so I wasn’t going to get drugstore makeup and unfamiliar brands of dubious quality like I so often did from Ipsy. I also liked the idea of getting some bonus points!
However, my hope was that this would serve as a way to get previews of new products and brands being brought to Sephora. Instead, it’s clear that these are the exact same samples that you can get as a 100 point reward, which means that in general they are the same products that the brands always give out… That Smashbox primer, Urban Decay Perversion, and KvD’s liquid liner in black. There’s nothing really to get excited about. Also, the sample sizes are pretty uneven. Some are really generous, whereas others are small and difficult to get product out of!
I do really like the poster they send every month, because it doesn’t just give the basic instructions. It really gets into how and why to use the product, why they chose it, and sometimes, how to combine it with one or more other products in that month’s box.
Being a member of this subscription box also gives you access to “Play Dates”, but the one time I looked into it, the AZ ones were up in the Phoenix area, and the Seattle-area one was at the downtown store. It’s not much of a perk if there’s not any available in your area, guys!
I’ll probably go ahead and continue with this through the end of the year, with the hopes that they do some glam themes for the holidays. And I probably would recommend this to someone who is relatively new to makeup and wants to try popular high-end items before they buy them. But so far it just doesn’t seem to have enough to excite the experienced makeup fan with a good-sized stash.
Oh! And about the bags: I’m not sure why they decided on these cotton bags? But I am finding them useful. I’m using one to hold my ballet slippers in my gig bag, so they’re easier to find (black shoes floating around a dark bag with dark costuming in a dark back room, need I say more?), and I just used one to keep a silk scarf safe in my luggage. I like that they’re useful, but not so fancy that you’d feel guilty throwing them away eventually.
Have you ever made something that seemed fine at the time, but when you went back and looked at it later, you were really unhappy with it?
That’s what happened with this olivine and copper bra and belt set. I made it several years ago to go with a specific pair of pantaloons, although I ended up wearing it with my olive green super bootie skirt, too. Although I felt like it was good enough at the time, looking at pictures from my LVBDI performance I realized that the fringe was not placed in a flattering way for me, the straps were unattractive and it just needed MORE. Plus the belt was not sturdy enough. So I shoved it in a box and ignored it for a long time.
Recently though, I really wanted to wear those pants again, and I got a really cool piece of sari trim from Medina Maitreya (she always gives me first crack at any cool green stuff from her studio destash!) that I knew would look perfect with them. At first I was going to make a new bra, but then I realized I could just rehab this unloved costume and give it a new life.
You should know that I’ve pushed back the publish date on this post a few times, because this project has turned out to be more of a hassle than I ever expected! In fact, this is part one because I still haven’t finished it.
I started by stripping the bra down. I removed the copper pendants, chains and the beaded fringe, although I initially left the pearl, crystal, and Czech glass accent fringes because I thought I might keep them. I took off those ugly bias tape straps… what was I thinking?!? As I worked, I also realized I had done a really weird job of covering base bra, which made me glad I was using a really wide sari trim which would cover the sins of my past self.
Watching Stranger Things made the deconstruction more enjoyable.
I used awesome quilting clips to place the trim and then stitched it down. Because this trim is wide and heavily embellished, it was a bit tricky to lay it out nicely.
Topher likes to help!
I wanted to still use the green beaded fringe, because it took me forever to find it when I made the original costume, but when I posted a picture of the bra with the fringe attached and said I wasn’t sure about it, the overwhelming reaction was that I should basically do anything but what I had done. The fringe had to go!
Shown here: A giant pile of nope.
While deciding what to do about the fringe situation, I worked on making better straps by covering nylon webbing with slippery green fabric. Many more red clips were deployed.
Glitter bless the maker of red quilting clips.
Anyway, now I’m in the process of making my own beaded fringe. I hope it will look right, because this is a time-consuming process. Also I just want to get this bra DONE because my goal is to wear it for my photo shoot with Carrie in a few weeks! I want a beautiful fall leaf inspired costume for my autumn photos, is that too much to ask?!?
Oh yeah, all of this and I haven’t even touched the belt yet. Good thing I already have another belt I can wear instead until I rehab the old one.
Enjoy this blog post? Feel bad about my costuming woes and want to pay for the tea and Netflix necessary to get me through fringe beading? Please join me on Patreon!
