Heliotro.pe » Beauty Neologisms

PAX Beauty (and beasts)

Virginia (Heliotro.pe) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:47:36 +0000

Every year since like 2006, Seattle’s own Mike and Jerry of Penny Arcade have put on an increasingly massive video game fan convention. This thing started for fans by fans (as opposed to for developers by developers), and the turnout in fantastic. Both literally and figuratively. PLUS, my work is throwing a big party for our game’s expansion launch, so things are OFF THE HOOK for me this weekend.

I always see a lot of cosplay, creative hair and makeup, and crazy clothing at PAX (in addition to more handheld consoles than I ever saw in my two years working at Nintendo). The doors aren’t even open yet, and the geeks have already flooded the site — which is smack between my home and my workplace. Geeks get mad creative with their looks — I mean, how do they get those prosthetic Link ears to stay on? I have enough trouble with false lashes!

I’ll post pics later once I’ve caught a couple amazing fashion or makeup moments! But fow now, allow me to wax geeky on my own PAXed up beauty tricks. Geeky conventions are kind of an excuse to oomph up the goth/punk/nerd/rebel chic, which isn’t my usual look. But I leaned hard on Smashbox’s Heartbreaker liquid liner pen to ensure a nice firm goth-y eye well into tonight’s Wonder Girls concert.

And today seemed like the perfect day to rock my cement gray (“DWS”) Illamasqua nail polish. Slightly edgy and different, plus it matches my gray Aion shirt that I’ll be wearing to help promote the game and show my support!

In closing, check out the vid we made to promote our launch party tonight. Seriously, isn’t this adorable? Even if you’re not a gamer, you have to appreciate the creativity of the in-game dance moves! I cannot WAIT for this show. ^_^

New term — SKINQUIRIES!

Virginia (Heliotro.pe) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:45:53 +0000

Not a Heliotro.pe original, but still a delightful beauty neologism. :)

Magic marker stylings

Virginia (Heliotro.pe) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:33:30 +0000

I LOVE this Jolinean (ooh, new beauty term!) look, but I’ve long been intimidated by liquid eye liner, because I simply suck at applying it. My hand is shaky, I guess, and many formulations are unforgiving if you have to go over the same area twice, and being extremely fair means that mistakes show up even more on my complexion. So it’s no wonder this particular makeup type has historically freaked me out!

While I did have more success with gel liners, I’ve recently been more willing to give the liquid stuff a try — thanks entirely to a newer genre of liquid liner applicators. Back in middle school I first discovered some cheap but great stylo-type liquid liners from L’Oréal and Cover Girl, but they got discontinued — so I had to just wait it out until makeup companies put these awesome flexy soft-tip markers for the eye back on the market. But my cat-eye prayers have been heard, and answered!

Smashbox, MAC, NARS and Hourglass all have pen-like liquid liners out now. The only one I’ve tried so far is Smashbox, because it seemed like the most water-resistant formulation when I tried them all out (sans MAC) at a Sephora.

New beauty term (and new category)

Virginia (Heliotro.pe) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:14:47 +0000

I sometimes get struck by utter genius when I’m in the shower, and last Tuesday was no exception. I’ve invented a whole new beauty term!

Brotox
\BROH-tawks\ noun
1 : A male who exhibits evidence of creepily unnecessary anti-wrinkle treatments;
2: An alternate name for Botox when used on male subjects.

This tickled me enough to add a “Beauty Neologisms” category, in case I come up with any more good ones. Watch out, Mickey Rourke — soon I’ll have a complete new lexicon to describe your freaky ass! (Please put down the bronzer.)