I’m on the search for new make-up products as I become more and more sensitive to the regular stuff. My concerns regarding the ingredients in most cosmetics led me to Skin Deep Cosmetics Database a while ago, but it can be a little daunting if you’re not sure where to start.

So I wanted to ask…

What are the best Canadian organic, cruelty-free make-up companies?

I’d prefer a company that offers a range of products so that I could order most of what I need in one place. If I can buy it locally, that would be awesome. Otherwise, online shopping and delivery is needed.

Any suggestions?

* Note: The pics are mine. The street art is not. If you know who the artist is, be sure to let me know.

Today they were a flower:

I was at the park yesterday and took a few pictures of the sky (as I often do). When I pointed the camera at the sun, the rays appeared brilliantly blue.

Nymphia Tights

I LOVE COLOUR STOCKINGS!

Basically I love any stockings, tights, leggings, (and other forms of awesomeness for your legs) that are sleek, shiny, intricate, wild, classy, hardcore, fun, funky, exotic, and erotic.

And I looove the new 2012/2013 Hosiery from Gerbe (found on The Lingerie Addict — the best!).

Sensation Stockings

Check out this great video with FAILE artists Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, which takes a look at their past work (see pics above) as well as their current project…

“VICE and 42Below recently had the opportunity to collaborate with Brooklyn-based artists FAILE on their permanent installation, The 104 North 7^th Project. The piece consists of thousands of handmade tiles designed by the artists, each individually pressed and painted, and then fired in a wood-burning kiln and shipped to the installation site. The tiles were then applied to the surface of the building by the artists and a team of helpers over several days.

Well known for their explorations of duality through a fragmented style of appropriation and collage, as well as their use of unique materials, FAILE have created a beautiful tapestry of color, giving life and personality to a very plain structure.” Vice.com – Art Talk

Find FAILE at www.faile.net.

And check out more at Vice.com’s Art Talk.

I like to read poetry all the time.

Every day.

So, although I’m not really one to make New Year’s resolutions (I don’t have anything against them, I just never think of coming up with any ahead of time and can’t really bother whenever I happen to think about possibly doing it), this year I made one.

Every day I’ll read one poem.

Obviously I can read more each day if I want. But I absolutely, positively will take a little time every day to read (and really take time thinking about) one poem.

So far, so good. But it could be even better.

In the past few months I have been finding my daily poems in collections I already own – ones I’ve already read and ones I still have yet to read.

But I’d like to widen my scope. I took a look around to find an eNewsletter subscription that would send me a poem a day. These have to exist, right?

I’ve only found one so far. Poem-A-Day at Poets.org.

So far they’ve sent:

Useless Landscape by D. A. Powell
A lone cloudburst hijacked the Doppler radar screen, a bandit

If You Go into the Woods You Will Find It Has a Technology by Heather Christle
This tree has a small LED display

El Florida Room by Richard Blanco
Not a study or a den, but El Florida

Horses at Midnight Without a Moon by Jack Gilbert
Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.

Choke by Eileen Myles
Of all the ways of forgetting

Night by Carsten René Nielsen
At night things become ever so smaller, our shoes and teeth, too

In a Blue Wood by Richard Levine
The couple in Van Gogh’s blue wood is walking

Do YOU know of any poem-a-day eNewsletters? If so, please leave a comment below!

big long now .com by Rafaël Rozendaal

If there are two things that are obvious about me from my choice of career, it’s that I love art and I love online culture (websites, blogging, social media, etc.). So I’m utterly and completely intrigued by Rafaël Rozendaal’s work.

“Artist Rafaël Rozendaal, who makes websites as artworks and sells the domain names to guarantee exclusivity to the piece, believes domains are the only scarce things on the internet.

His websites vary in scope; some, like From the Dark Past, have moving patterns affected by the mouse’s positioning, while others seem to unfold in front of you regardless of your clicking and hovering, like Love Game Set.” Vice.com – Art Talk

Check out more at Vice.com’s Art Talk.

- from One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII by Pablo Neruda

Usually the wall is exclusively spray-paint and Sharpie, so it was cool to see something a little different.

Anyone know who TW is?

Even more has been said about his art.

But check out this video (below) that not only includes a peek at his career, but also an interview that captures his thoughts on his work, peoples’ reactions to it, and the career that has made him one of the most famous (and wealthy) living artists of our time.

“One of the most important and influential artists of his generation, Damien Hirst provokes debate. Whatever you may think of his work, the original Young British Artist helped make art headline news and put Britain firmly on the contemporary art map.

On the eve of his first major retrospective in the UK, Damien Hirst takes surrealist comedian and fellow artistic maverick Noel Fielding on an exclusive walk through his show at Tate Modern, providing a behind-the-scenes look at this landmark exhibition and a body of work spanning more than two decades.

They chat about Hirst’s career highs and lows, which, together with high-profile interviews and archive footage, gives unprecedented access to the artist and his art.” [Channel 4]

[Tip via Melissa Mercier. Be sure to check out Melissa's wonderful photograhpy HERE.]