Before & After Professional Makeup by Yours Truly

The past 3 years I have not been very wise about documenting my work, but now that I have my own salon chair and I am home from college, I want to build my portfolio to the stars!  Today I applied makeup on my mother who is beautiful with or without makeup, but she was kind enough to help me start off my portfolio.  Stay tuned to see more women (and possibly men) of all ages, skin tones, and ethnicity.  If you are interested in my services, feel free to e-mail me at silberxx5@gmail.com (with “**your name** makeup” as the subject line) to set up a consultation or appointment.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

 

Feathers and Glitter and Sex, Oh My!: Embracing Burlesque in your Wardrobe.

Every young lady and woman ages 16 to 96 experienced a slight obsession with burlesque after Christina Aguilera reemerged the culture by starring in the feature film “Burlesque” with Cher about 4 years ago in 2010.  What may surprise you all is that burlesque had NOTHING to do with sex and stripteases when it was first introduced in the Victorian Era.  Burlesques were originally musical parodies of serious artistic works like ones of Shakespeare, only when this art began to decline and become Americanized did this form of expression revolve around sex.  Although curvy, playful women are the main attraction of burlesque shows today, they still maintain a level of humor, which personally is my favorite aspect of the culture.  Today sexiness is washboard stomachs, smokey eyes with long lashes, and a full pout to the lips that is almost expressionless.  Women in burlesque are ENCOURAGED to have an identity.  Not only do these women have sass and confidence as they dance and striptease, but they also make you laugh.  What’s sexier than that?!  My entire inspiration behind this blog was my past trip to Chicago to go see Vaudezilla at Stage 773.

Now that all my beautiful followers have a background of burlesque culture, let’s express our inner burlesque queens via our closet!  I’ll start off with daytime wear, here are a few pieces I could see hitting the streets this spring:

http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?BR=f21&Category=intimates&ProductID=2000065863&VariantID=

Above is the URL to a strapless lace corset from forever 21, it’s affordable and comes in adorable colors perfect for April and May.  To make it more appropriate for daytime, the two looks I thought up are: pairing it with a denim collared button up and white denim shorts, or with high-waisted light denim shorts paired with either a slouchy cardigan or a printed kimono.  But if you’re feeling bold ditch the cover-up and just rock the high-waists with the corset and a few extra accessories.

http://www.zappos.com/maaji-surrounding-melody-cover-up-kimono-orange?ef_id=UzBRtAAABEtzywEh:20140411172745:s

Above is the link to purchase the kimono pictured above!

After giving just a couple of ideas for the day, it’s time to focus on our boudoir!  Headlining in Vaudezilla last weekend was Red Hot Annie whom gets invited to perform internationally, not only that, but lucky for us she has her own Etsy shop!!  Now we don’t have to be stars of the stage to practice the exuberant act of burlesque thanks to Red Hot Annie’s hand-crafted pastie tassels.  They even come with directions on how to twirl the tassels with your lady lumps, how fun!  Also at Annie’s etsy shop, you can also order your very own custom burlesque costume made by the bombshell herself.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AnniesRedHots?ref=l2-shop-header-avatar

Above is the link to Annie’s shop, now go get your burlesque on!

My Ode to Pantone’s “Color of the Year 2014” !

Good evening beautiful readers !

Sorry I’m posting this blog so late in the day, but college is just soooo busy (bahahahah yeah right I literally had one class today, so anyways…).  As I’m sure most of you already know, Pantone has declared Radiant Orchid as the color of 2014.  Whether you are a follower of fashion trends, or just sip coffee as you watch the Today show every morning, there is a good chance you’ve already heard this.

Purple tones don’t rise into a trend very often (only about every 8 years)!  So I am taking absolute full advantage of the occasion.  As we all know, purple is the color of royals so I encourage all of my readers to tune into their princess alter egos in 2014.  Another trend finally catching in the midwest is the pointed nail (I first saw people adopting this trend in California 3 years ago and I’m just now falling head over heels for it, it’s just so feminine and sassy!) anyway, my point is, if you want to be SUPER fashion forward, pointed nails painted with “Under Where?” by Essie would be the perfect move for all the bold fashionistas.

I myself have decided to make an even bolder dive into the trend…with my hair! That’s right everyone, I will be rocking hair inspired by Radiant Orchid all year for you guys!  For all my hair stylists out there, I used Goldwell 6VV MAX with the Goldwell processing lotion, ratio 1:1.  I might be experimenting with different shades later on, but that’s a blog for the future!  I am only two days through sporting this look and I’ve already gotten more compliments than I expected, so if this is a look you’ve been curious about or wanted to try before, this is the year to do it!  

I’ll be posting more (and better) photos of my hair throughout 2014.  But for now here is the picture I posted to my Instagram.  If you are interested in seeing my makeup, hair, and outfits on a more regular basis feel free to follow me: mackysilber.  I also give heads-up of when I’ll be posting blogs and what I will be writing about.  On another note, feel free to comment with links and pictures of your bold fashion statements inspired by Radiant Orchid, I’d love to give you a shout-out if it strikes my fancy!  I’m thinking about creating a special e-mail for my readers to contact me at, so I’ll keep all you beautiful people tuned in.  As for now, go brainstorm some radiantly awesome ways to use orchid in your look tomorrow (see what I did there…aren’t I just one clever little lady).

Punk: Chaos 2 Couture :: Lessons Learned From The Show at the Met.

Punk is more than music, it’s an entire culture with it’s own unique, kickass history, especially in fashion. My heart literally started to pogo as soon as I hit play on this YouTube video. If you are absolutely in love with fashion as well as everything punk this is more than worth the watch and read. Tomorrow I’m dusting off my cut-up t-shirts, holey jeans, safety pins, and fuck-you attitude (yes, I did drop the F-bomb, only in the name of punk culture though, of course… *insert mischievous emoji here*).

Home

I recently stumbled across a scathing review on a show that happened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art almost a year ago. The show entitled Punk: Chaos to Couture; curated by Andrew Bolton, was to focus on the high fashion that was inspired by the original subculture.

It’s a pretty thorny concept for a movement with it’s dirty, leather buckled foothold in the muddy trenches of the working class underground, as opposed to the stiletto heeled red carpet of corporate excess. The show drew the ire of old punks and new alike. And rightly so – punk’s original values were so different to big business, corporate marketing. Let’s face it, the original scene in the 70s was everything the establishment despised, and vice versa.

But like any other movement that becomes commercialized over time, the messages become blurred as designers take elements of subcultures and market them to the…

View original post 455 more words

Daytime Cat-eye Liner

Hi ladies (and gentlemen too, of course)!

I am a licensed cosmetologist in the state of Indiana and I also work seasonally at the Sephora in my hometown.  This right here is my very first makeup tutorial, so I decided to keep it simple!  When I get more accustomed to using my camera for the purpose of these tutorials, I will most definitely show you more advanced makeup applications.  But as for now, I thought a simple cat-eye was perfectly fitting for my first time recording a tutorial.  Feel more than free to leave comments on here and/or the video I posted on YouTube.  Say anything: that I freaking sucked, that I was amazing, what other things you want to learn, any tips you may have yourself, or the cure of the common cold.  Whatever.  Enjoy!

Note: foundation, blush, contour, highlight, and brows were all done prior to the video.

Introduction to Me & Why I Made This Blog.

There’s not too many ways of beginning this blog without saying, “My name is __,” or, “I’m from __,” or even, “I’m an apparel design student at ___.”  All of which are pretty boring.  The description under the title of my blog says exactly why I’m here, to look at fashion from a more human point of view.  To see what the person is saying with their fashion rather than what the fashion is saying about the person.

I honestly didn’t truly enjoy my college experience until I chose a major I was passionate about: apparel design.  With this blog I’m hoping to keep my passion alive and remember why I took this path for (hopefully) my lifetime career.  

I was always a black sheep and I’m pretty damn sure anyone that went to grade school with me could confirm that.  I mean I don’t see very many 5th grade girls going to school in a boys white button-up collared shirt and black tie…and also a light up Santa Claus pen in the breast pocket.  Of course like almost any other tween/teen I began to blend in the crowd more, because who likes people making fun of their Santa Claus pens?  I continued to put my best effort into blending in until my patience ran thin about junior year of high school.  I cut my brown, belly-button length hair into a purple and blonde pixie cut and anyone who couldn’t deal with what I chose to wear wasn’t even on my radar anymore.  I wore what made me happy without giving it a second thought and eventually I actually started getting compliments on my wardrobe and the way I put pieces together.  I bought a daring Mac Duggal prom dress with feathers from the waist down to go with my daring new hair and it came together beautifully.

My point is that I’m writing about fashion for the soul.  Not fashion for the season.  Not fashion on the runway.  I’m writing about fashion that we as individuals bring to life on a day-to-day basis; that’s the fashion that makes us feel good.  I’m currently an apparel design student at Ball State University in Indiana but I do plan to take a semester to a year off to work full time so I can afford to attend my dream school in New York, NYC: FIT. (That is if I’m ever accepted there, which I am determined to be.) So throughout this blog I will also be documenting my efforts.