SHRINKLE

Sugarpill IMATS LA Pasadena 2012 Pictures! That time I met Porcelain.

shrinkle — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:27:54 +0000

So I’ve been going through my iPhoto all week looking for IMATS pics to make a flyer for upcoming PHAMExpo. Then I thought hey, I should post these pictures! Irene has been hassling me because this will be her first time working a makeup show, and she wants to see what it’s all about. So here you go, Irene!

2012 was Sugarpill’s second year exhibiting at IMATS, and we were forced to upgrade to a double wide booth because our neighbors from the previous year had complained that we “caused a spectacle” when our crowd spilled out into the aisle. Hey, man! We’re just trying to share the fun with everyone!

Michelle, Lauren, Mynxii, Yume and me on Pro Night (the Friday before IMATS is open to the public… the calm before the storm!)

Gangsta! I love Lauren in the background laughing like a maniac. You can’t really see that there’s a person standing behind Michelle, so it looks like Lauren is laughing to herself.

I was trying to get David to do the Showgirls poster, but I think he was too stoned to understand.

Mynxii and Michelle playing!

We met the legendary Kabuki!! Again. Lauren and I had actually just met him at IMATS NY the month before, but I was so hungover that day I hardly said a word because I was afraid I’d puke on his table.

Kabuki checking out the Lit glitter booth while me and Lauren creepily take pictures of the back of him.

Mmmm, Lit!

Gorgeous Krishna

Awww Lauren and Elessa!

Check out this sweet eyelash display Amelia Arsenic built with her bare hands. She’s a crafty lady.

Michelle and Yume looking super cute! Photo by Brittany Lauren.

Hey it’s meeee! Photo by Brittany Lauren again.

IMATS Day 1 opens to the public! Trista gets mobbed.

This was our line within 3 minutes. Apparently getting a double wide booth still wasn’t enough, as our new booth neighbors also complained about us! Except for Lit of course, they were cool. They are the awesomest, most supportive humans ever.

IMATS staff eventually had to set up ugly stanchions and ropes INSIDE our booth to try to keep our line contained. This left us with no way to enter or exit our booth without rudely hopping over a big zig zag of people. :*(

The Amelias: Arsenic and Dinmore, the two people I most frequently get mistaken for! The look of confusion on peoples’ faces when they see the three of us together is amazing. No one ever has any idea which one of us they are speaking to until Arsenic gives herself away with the Australian accent.

Ladies working hard!

Met the incredibly gorgeous Angie of Goldiestarling! She was standing super still when I first spotted her, and her skin is so perfect and doll-like I didn’t even think she was real for a second.

The whole gang is heeeeeeere! Angie, Dawn, Bethany, Mandy, Heather, and Cora (my fellow East Bay homey!)

Ran into super sweet Mai and Anna!

I MET HAEMY, one of my favorite people on the internet. This girl always cracks me up. We had bonded over our embarrassing love of beauty pageants (yes, we realize they are totally un-PC and all, but I can’t help drooling over all the sparkly gowns and makeup AHHHHH). I was jealous that Haemy had entered and won several pageants in Korea. So she gifted me this awesome pageant photo!

Awwwww so pretty!

She also gave me this ridiculously adorable kitty makeup bag. I died.

Hey, its Mynxii behind Mynxii!

Hardest working lady at IMATS. Michelle has never been late to anything ever, and can eat and pee in 30 seconds.

Tynea! She was one of our very first supporters and I love her!

Durga and her cute kitty friend with the Amelias!

Blue hair explosion. Meow meow!

Saaammage and Dinmore. Asia power! (Yeah I’m running out of ideas for captions) My friend Natasha Lillipore made me this adorable baby chick headband.

I love Leesha and Jazzie!

AHHHH it’s Gee, one of my BFFs from high school! He might be a little bit of a Lady Gaga fan. I hadn’t seen him in years since he moved to LA, so he came out to catch up and see what this Sugarpill thing was all about. I put a logo necklace on him and put him to work passing out stickers right away haha!

It’s Anisha! Another fellow East Bay honey. Love running into her!

AND THEN I MET PORCELAIN, MY SUPREME BEAUTIFUL LOVER ANGEL. Okay, so there were no sparks that day. Josh had been sending me pictures of Porcelain for a while saying we should meet, then brought him to IMATS to work our booth. I was reeeeeaaaaaally stressed out when I met him because I’d barely slept the night before, was delirious, and had to catch a plane in a few hours (skipping Day 2 of IMATS) for a family engagement. I was probably not that friendly. I believe my first words were, “Yeah, hi. Nice to meet you. Now put on this necklace and go pass out some stickers.” Dude he looks sooooo bummed haha.

My perfect angel, I was ignorant to your beauty but now I have seen the light and changed my ways!

Michelle, Amelia, Yume, Josh and me being pretty! I love the last hour of IMATS when shit starts to die down and everyone stops pretending to be professional business ladies.

BEST. STAFF. PHOTO. EVER.

All serious and shit.

My annual creepy hands tradition with Mia!

Double creep action

Finally got to escape from the booth to visit our makeup BFF, David/OCC!

Also said hi to Edward from BDellium (”The B is silent!”). Love their vegan brushes!

Back to our booth for nap time with Suzy. Don’t fart!

Pursebuzz sandwich! (Keep reading for an explanation on why my hand is all bandaged up). Oh man Elessa, your lollipop is dangerously close to the nasty carpet! But then again, so’s my face.

Heeeeey who dat!

It’s totally cute Brooke!

Pursebuzz’s mom loved Gee haha

Reunited with Lauren! She was working at OCC all day, and our booths were not near each other since we got kicked out of our old spot. Sadness!

Exhausted booth babes. Porcelain recovers from the horror of his first IMATS! I asked what he thought of all the strangers coming up and touching your hair and your face, and he said it was fine. What a sport. I wanna touch his hair and his face.

So there was this. After receiving too many complaints from other vendors that our line was causing a traffic jam, IMATS staff ran tape all the way down the center of the aisle and officially designated the area as the Sugarpill line. We even had our own security guard directing traffic haha. (Sorry, I’m not trying to brag that our line was long. I know it sucks for the people waiting in it, and we are doing things to fix that for the next show. I just think this super professional-looking tape and sticker job is funny, as was having our own assigned security guard).

This is what the ugly roped off section of our booth looked like. :-(

IMATS Day 1 is over, time for the Beautylish after party at Noor! Beautylish throws the bestest parties, y’all.

Babes.

MIIIIIINE! I just didn’t know it yet.

Teeny Tiny Mandy

I wish the ghost of Amy Future had paid the ghost of Amy Past a visit and told her to turn around and love the fuck out of that magnificent creature sitting right behind her. :*(

Queen of Blending representing!

Porcelain tries to fit in with us common mortals, but his translucent white skin with its magical luminous glow reveals his true identity as a mystical creature from a world so beautiful that humans cannot comprehend its existence (Or he is just not getting enough Vitamin D).

I have the cutest friends in the world.

Thanks to Jazzie for organizing the awesome party!

Leeeeeesha

Lauren and Brooke!

Group shot before I had to catch my flight. Bye bye!

The following pictures were stolen from everyone else’s cameras, as I did not attend IMATS Day 2.

Billy B and Michelle Visage visited our booth!! Lauren looks like a cupcake. Josh has no bottoms on. Porcelain is sporting glitter boogers.

Closeup of Lauren’s makeup. Soooo cuuuuuute!

Josh and Porcelain on flyer duty.

Amelia is happy!

Michelle, Trista, Amelia and Mynxii

Sugarpill loves Michelle Visage!

Sugarpill loves Billy B!

We had the most beautiful eyelash display in the history of eyelash displays. Thanks, Amelia!

Amelia’s epic makeup. I’m so sorry, I stole this photo off the internet a year ago and can’t remember who to credit. :-(

So creepy good!

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS GUY. I guess he stopped by our booth right before closing and took 100 pictures of Amelia. That awesome stance though.

Our tiniest fan!

Aww Amelia and Leesha! Leesha looks so fancy in red.

Some cool stuff on display in the special effects room. HELLLLBOYYYYYYY!

And now, some behind the scenes pics from the week leading up to IMATS! As usual, many all-nighters were pulled and energy drinks consumed while building our booth.

Upstairs view from our warehouse in Berkeley. We were trying to figure out how to turn our single booth into a double wide, and where to put the break room.

Swapping out the previous year’s pictures of Lauren WK and Amelia with new pics of Mynxii and Dinmore!

Ta-da!

Amelia wiping BLOOD off the eyelash display she built. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the making of this. Good job, Amelia!

Epic curtain fail. I made the curtain way too short (hey, it was 3 in the morning!), then tried to cover it up by buying another curtain from Target (the ugly pink polka dot one), which ended up being even shorter than the one I made.

Another fail idea. I thought it’d be cute to make little pencils and checklists for customers to check off the items they want, like when you order a sandwich at Whole Foods. Turns out customers didn’t like this method because it was too impersonal. So we went back to the old fashioned way, and now I have 1,000 Sugarpill golf pencils in my office. Anyone want a free pencil???

Then this happened! The morning I left for IMATS, Maus got SOOOO PISSED, he bit me and chomped his teeth all the way down. The puncture wounds may look small, but they were deep, and blood squirted everywhere. My entire hand went numb, and I didn’t have time to see a doctor because I still had to finish packing my bags, lugging my shit to the airport, and catching a flight to LA.

It was almost as bad as the time Maus bit me while I was trying to break up a fight between him and the neighborhood bully cat. His teeth pierced all the way through my skin and hit a nerve or muscle, and my arm was paralyzed for a week. It swelled up so bad it looked like I was storing a tennis ball under my skin, and Kevin had to help me drain the the pus out of it twice a day while we were in Vegas for Danielle’s wedding. But at least then I was able to get some medical care and antibiotics. I was shit outta luck this time!

Sitting at the airport with my super discreet and subtle Band-Aids

I’m bummed I didn’t get a side by side shot of both my hands, because my right hand was seriously double the size of my left, and it was hot to the touch. Everyone who saw it screamed at me to go home. I felt attractive.

Back to work preparing for PHAMExpo! It’s only 17 days away, and we’ve got lots of fun surprises in store. Stay tuned for more info!

XOXO
Amy

My Little Pony Project Los Angeles 2012

shrinkle — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:13:25 +0000

I was originally too embarrassed to post these pictures since they are more than a year old now, but then Irene just posted hers this morning so I feel a little better haha. Always late but worth the wait!

Last year, Kevin and a bunch of our artist friends were invited to take part in Hasbro’s My Little Pony Project, a group exhibition showcasing different artists’ interpretations of My Little Pony.

The event was so huge it took place in three different galleries/shops on Melrose: Toy Art Gallery, JapanLA, and Joyrich. Here I am at crazy bonkers packed Toy Art Gallery!

Some of the adorable ponies

Michelle showing some love for the pony designed by our friends at 6%DOKIDOKI! Oh, I took all these pony pictures a few hours before the gallery opened, so that’s why Michelle’s still in her PJs heehee. Wait till you see her awesome outfit later!

The trojan one was genius! It had a little trojan dude inside.

But my absolute favorite was “Ponygeist” by Kevin Marburg. ;-)

Closeup stolen from Beautylish.

I was drooling over J-Ryu’s pony all night! This was definitely the most talked-about piece in the show. Dude. He chopped off the legs and reconstructed them to get this custom carousel shape!! He’s just so amazing.

Irene and me with the artist. Not a bad looking fellow, eh???

I loooooooved the one by Sugarpill artist Miss Kika!

Mark Mothersbaugh

Caro’s SHOES!!!!!

It wouldn’t be a party without Jenny Rae’s cakeballs!

There was also a ton of old-school My Little Pony memorabilia on display. I remember wanting this so badly when I was little!

Original ponies before they got all long-legged and creepily “sexy”

Emi, my slanty-banged twin

Cute kid

Heeey we want in!

Cutest couple Jon and Chrissa

Sensible necklace for everyday wear

Best hair award goes to Irene.

Natasha, Luna, me and Tori!

The liiiine! Luckily I didn’t have to wait in it, since I was Kevin’s date heehee

Shannon, Michelle, me, Trista, and Amber!

Look at Michelle’s hair! It lights up! AHHHH

Chrissa, Michelle and me

Irene, J-Ryu, and my nasty ratty ass hair

Hayden and Irene

Party!!

Bebe’s sensible nail art

Open bar, y’all!

Essy and Luna

This is Kazu, my awesome hair guy! Everyone always asks about my hair cut/color, so, here you go – the man behind the magical rainbow: Kazu Miyagi of Object Salon in Santa Monica. He doesn’t look very happy to see me.

Greetings, Bebe!

Hello, White Stephanie!

Sporkii and Irene

Tweetie, White Stephanie, Asian Stephanie, Chrissa and Bebe being cute

Crowddddddeddddd

Kozik smoking bunnies

Bebe’s boobies!

Pretty Jenny

As the evening got darker, the line got longer! Craziness

It was too crowded so we decided to leave and check out what was going on at JapanLA.

Irene says this is her favorite picture of us. Probably because we are super blurry and Instagram filtered the fuck out.

Ran into Kent on the street corner.

Used my sweet marching moves to convince him to come with!

Needs! Bigger! Bow!

Chillin’ with Jenny and Lauren at JapanLA. Things were a bit more mellow there. We could actually breathe!

Danielle and Jessica arrived fashionably late, just in time for a midnight dinner date!

I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but we were loud.

Awww poor Kevin looks so tired!

Lauren the drunk angel

Slumber party at Jessica’s house! Danielle and Lumi (who arrived REALLY REALLY fashionably late haha)

Instagram party

Danielle and I are Hello Kitty pajama twins

The next day, we had lunch at Swinger’s before driving back to Berkeley.

And then… Pea Soup Andersen’s!! Every time we road trip to and from Berkeley and LA, we drive past Pea Soup Andersen’s off Highway 5 in Gustine. I’ve always wanted to check it out because of its awesomely tacky decor, but we never have time. Finally we made time for a quick stop. It wasn’t that delicious, but it was really cute and I was so excited!

Selfie! Oh and the most bizarre thing ever was that we were in the middle of nowhere but ran into our friends Adrian and Deidre sitting at the table RIGHT next to us. They too were road-tripping from LA to SF!

The bathroom had ALLLL kinds of old lady shit in it. Even the insides of the stall doors had inspirational posters to gaze at while on the toilet.

All right, time to wrap up this post and brag to Irene that I caught up to her haha!

XOXO
Amy

Michelle’s Fancy ’20s Great Gatsby Birthday Party at the Millennium Biltmore

shrinkle — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:39:52 +0000

Watch me frantically edit pictures from Michelle’s LAST birthday because she has another one coming up this Monday! :-O Last May, Michelle celebrated the end of her 20s with a ’20s Great Gatsby-themed birthday party (Oh you clever lady!) at the beautiful Millennium Biltmore.

Jessica, Michelle and me. How freaking amazing does Michelle look?! Jessica and I are idiots and just look like we’re dressed to go clubbing or something. We do not own any elegant ladylike clothing.

And these were Michelle’s bad ass shoes. This lady seriously blows me away with her sweet ass DIY style.

Exploring the hotel with Jessica and Yume. There was a high school prom happening that night, which we were trying to spy on because we wanted to see all the pretty dresses. We weren’t able to crash the actual prom, but we did get to see a constant stream of girls coming in and out of the bathroom in their sparkly gowns and tiaras. Then we stopped spying because I realized I’m a creepy lady in my ’30s loitering around high schoolers. Someone call security!

Beautiful Michelle

Chrissa, Michelle, and Jessica. Birthday girl’s starting to get a little tipsy!

Jessica, Jon and Chrissa. I have the same Betsey dress as Chrissa but in pink, and the same stockings too. Shoulda been twinsies if I’d known!

Pillkitty love!

I adore Michelle’s hair. Always.

The bathroom was super big and fancy!

The hotel was seriously gorgeous. But I read that it’s all a facade and that the rooms themselves are secretly shitty and falling apart. Didn’t have the pleasure of finding out, only hung out in the pretty areas!

Blurry makeup shot! Eyes: Sugarpill Velocity, Acidberry and 2am. Brows: Inglot gel liner. Lips: Shoot, I honestly can’t remember because it’s been so long, but probably either theBalm Mia Moore or OCC NSFW.

Hope you all have a fun Cinco de Mayo weekend! I’m sad I won’t be at the New York Makeup Show with everyone (way too much work to do in prep for PHAMExpo) or get to be with Lauren on her birthday because she’ll be having a blast in New York without me. :-( Today my goal is to cross off at least 5 items from my to-do list so that I don’t have to feel guilty about going to GOTH DAY AT DISNEYLAND ON SUNDAY! I haven’t been to Disneyland since our annual pass expired almost three years ago. Now I have to find something black to wear! And I’m gonna try to do my makeup like THIS minus the contacts because my eyes are too fucked up to wear colored contacts anymore, much less fancy creepy ones. Wish me luck on my entrance to the dark side!

Oh and I know I’ve already posted this on Facebook and Instagram, but in case you are like me and trying to avoid all that nonsense, here we go again:

“I’m so excited to announce that Sugarpill is now available at Nigel’s Beauty Emporium in North Hollywood! Nigel’s is L.A.’s premier destination spot for industry pros and beauty junkies alike. Cosmetics, hair, nails, special FX stuff, wigs, beauty tools – if it’s not at Nigel’s, it probably doesn’t exist! We are super proud to be carried alongside incredible brands such as OCC, Kryolan, Inglot, Too-Faced and Make Up For Ever. Eeeeeeee!! You can also shop their online site. Go have a look at all the amazing stuff they carry!”

XOXO
Amy

Dinner at the Galley in Santa Monica, Trash Can on Fire, How to Stop Wasting My Life

shrinkle — Fri, 03 May 2013 02:40:34 +0000

If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a theme restaurant! I was so excited when Jessica introduced us to The Galley, a ship-themed restaurant that looks like Christmas threw up inside of it. Apparently this place opened in 1934 and is one of Santa Monica’s oldest restaurants. Pretty cool!

Susie, me and Kevin

This was our table. Amazing.

The entire restaurant looks like this. It’s so obnoxiously awesome. Supposedly the walls are covered in movie memorabilia and artifacts, but seriously all I see is CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS!!!!

Jessica and Greg

Haha this guy is not amused that I’m taking pictures while he’s trying to eat!

’80s time warp with that neon signage!

On our way home, we saw a trash can catch on fire. Within seconds the flames started to blow towards the nearby trees, and the whole street filled with black smoke. Luckily someone called 911 so it ended up being okay. But this is why you don’t throw lit cigarettes in trash cans, kids! Totally scary how quickly it spread.

Yeah, I totally just made a blog post about eating dinner and seeing a trash can catch fire. Don’t be jealous that my life is so exciting!

On an unrelated note, I want to clarify something I wrote in my last post: “I’ve gotten better at identifying the shallow stuff, eliminating deadweight and time wasters from my life, and focusing on the people and things that really matter.” I did not mean for that to be a stab at any of my friends, and I’m embarrassed and sorry if anyone thought it was! Eek! Here are the ways I’ve improved my life by cutting out the stupid stuff:

1. I disabled AIM/iMessage from all my computers last July
2. I turned off all my Facebook notifications years ago and disabled FB chat
3. I removed Facebook and Twitter apps from my phone
4. When I work from home, I always keep my phone in a separate room, out of sight and out of mind. I started doing this a few months ago when I realized how much time I spent zoning out on my phone, mindlessly refreshing my Instagram feed. Yuck! I do NOT want to be a slave to my phone.
5. No more going out unless it’s someone’s birthday, visitors from out of town, or there is good food or drag queens involved.
6. Make a to-do list every morning, keep it in front of my face at all times, and feel good about myself whenever I cross something off.

If you were to actually record how you spend each hour of your day, you’d probably be pretty horrified. Most people, myself included, have NO idea how much time they waste chatting, texting, worrying about other people’s gossip that has nothing to do with them, and looking for distractions via Instagram and Facebook. Dudes seriously… it’s okay to go a few hours without knowing what every person you’ve ever met since the 8th grade is doing.

I don’t feel like I have to be in 100 different places at once anymore. I’ve distanced myself from things I deem meaningless in the long run, and I’ve never felt more liberated.

That is all I meant.

XOXO
Amy

Tess’s Going Away Dinner Party at Dosa!

shrinkle — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:36:00 +0000

Last year Tess and her man moved to New York and celebrated with a going away dinner at Dosa in San Francisco. Mmmm Indian food! Oh and these pictures are exactly one year and one day old, which is my new world record for late blogging.

Me, Kevin, Tess, Nate, Hairy, Twinkie and Jen

This bread was huuuuuuge! I wanted to take it home and use it as a pillow.

Creeper

Ahoy!

Romance

I like tiny, fancy desserts.

I’m going to keep this post super short and sweet because I’m soooo sick I just want to pass out, and I have a crazy busy week of stalking ahead of me. Lauren and I just found out that Latrice Royale is performing THREE shows in L.A. this week, and yes, we’re gonna try to go to every single damn one because we are crazy!

I’m so happy I finally took the plunge and moved to L.A. I resisted for ages because I’d heard so much about people who come here with big dreams, get distracted by all the partying and bad stuff, then end up lost, broke and jaded in 5 years. But the ironic thing is, I go out way less now that I actually live here than I did when I was just visiting. I guess there used to be so much pressure to go out as much as possible when everyone knew I was only here for the weekend. But now that I’m here for good, I don’t feel bad about saying no and staying in because I know the parties/clubs/shows/whatever aren’t going anywhere and will still be there next week. I’ve gotten better at identifying the shallow stuff, eliminating deadweight and time wasters from my life, and focusing on the people and things that really matter. I’m just an all-around happier person lately!

XOXO
Amy

New York IMATS Trip… 2012

shrinkle — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 01:21:33 +0000

I guess since I am going back to New York tomorrow, I should probably post my pictures from last year’s New York IMATS trip, ha! Sugarpill wasn’t exhibiting, but I like to check out all the different shows to see what’s new and say hello to friends, namely OCC! We stayed at the beautiful Night Hotel which prides itself on being super dark and gothic. It was awesome except that it’s SO DARK, we had trouble getting dressed and doing our makeup all weekend.

We were thrilled to learn that Twinkie and Amanda happened to be in town that same weekend for a craft fair.

Amanda, Sarah, Twinkie and me in the hotel bar before heading out to dinner!

Can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but Twinkie and Amanda seem to be enjoying themselves!

This was our room. I brightened the hell out of this photo so you can see all the pretty details, but in real life it was so dark I kept losing things, the mirrors were tinted to the point of being completely useless, and the dim lamps next to them may as well have been keychain flashlights. HORRIBLE for doing makeup! We tried bringing our makeup bags into the hallway to do our faces there, but the bulbs were even dimmer and mirrors tinted darker there. I picture everyone walking out of this hotel with horrendous makeup and mismatched socks.

Hotel lobby

Sarah in Times Square

Saturday: IMATS Day One, here we come!

NY IMATS was quite interesting. The venue was ginormous, but it was a ghost town compared to LA IMATS. I was very surprised. But in a way I liked it because it made browsing/shopping a lot easier. No stampedes to die in like at LA IMATS!

Sarah, Lauren and me!

Student makeup competition. This girl did such an amazing job!

Stopped by Inglot photographers.

I met NiniLuvsMakeup! She has such amazing skin and is absolutely flawless in real life.

AHHH! I was also SO excited to meet Jean Francois and Nikkie Tutorials even though I felt like a freaking hobbit!

The best part of the weekend was watching Nikkie give birth to Lauren…

…Quickly followed by Lauren giving birth to Nikkie, who is over 6 feet tall.

Julie G was there showing off her new nail polish line. A lot of them were sold out. Good job, Julie G!

Sorry, had to!

I didn’t know this boy, I just thought he was pretty!

Right before Lauren got in a fight with a security guard hahahaha. He was trying to kick her out because he didn’t believe she worked for OCC. Because you know, Lauren just likes to make her own bootleg OCC employee T-shirts to fool people.

My sister the fitness freak doing pushups in the hotel room while we tried to figure out what was fun to do on a Saturday night in New York City

Decided to do our thinking in the hotel bar!

Wandering around Times Square. I like how Lauren is still in her work shirt. Er, I mean, her bootleg OCC T-shirt because clearly she does not work for OCC.

Tourists!

Some exercising dude who got mad at me for looking but not tipping.

Let’s see where this train goes.

While wandering the streets, Lauren spotted this glittered up guy from a mile away, pointed, and squealed, “DRAG QUEEN!!! I’ll bet he knows what to do tonight!” We approached him and asked where he was going. His name was Delilah Brooks and he was on his way to do a drag show at Stonewall. He told us to meet him there later in the night. Okay!

We had a romantic dinner at Sushi Samba

So, I don’t know why New York has such a bad reputation for being one of the rudest cities in America. On our way to Stonewall, we got lost and decided to ask these two nice gentlemen sitting in Starbucks for directions.

They didn’t just tell us how to get to the bar. THEY GOT UP FROM THEIR TABLE AND WALKED US ALL THE WAY THERE. We invited them to come in and hang out with us, but alas it turns out they were underage and didn’t have fake IDs. So they’d walked us to a bar they knew they couldn’t get into. I think people in New York are so sweet! (Except for the exercising guy who got mad at me)

It’s Delilah Brooks! The guy in the baseball cap from the street!

After a few drinks it seemed like a good idea to start putting Sugarpill stickers on strangers.

Sarah and Lauren having too much fun

Most of the night was a blur, so thank God for pictures like this to remind me how awesome my life is.

Sunday: IMATS, Day 2! Feeling like death, napping in the OCC booth. This pretty much sums up our day.

David hooked us up with a few lip tars. Just a few. Gosh David, so stingy!

We met Kabuki!!

Look at this girl’s eyebrows! So amazing!

We missed his demo, but this is the pretty look he did on his model.

THEO WAS THERE! Her brand Armour Beauty was sharing a booth with OCC. I was so excited! Their lipglosses are beautiful and smell like heaven and cotton candy.

Inglot girls Elba and Steph are the sweetest!

5pm has never come sooner. Barefoot Lauren is ready to go home! Why is Kevin James holding a women’s restroom sign?

I didn’t get any pictures, but this was the last time I saw Mr. Inglot. As my sister and I were leaving the venue, we spotted Mr. Inglot stepping out of a cab. I ran up and hugged him and told him that we’d been looking for him all weekend. He called me “Little Friend,” then pointed at my sister and said, “New one?” I was floored that he actually noticed it was my sister’s first time at a makeup show. A lot of people see my friends as a group of colorful Asian girls but can’t tell us apart (I don’t blame them, as we do all share clothes and hair/makeup tips haha). But I liked that Mr. Inglot cared enough to notice. He always made everyone feel special and unique. He will be missed so much.

Vegan pizza date with David. I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but it was reaaaaaallly good!

David went home after dinner, but Sarah and I wanted to check out this gay club Greenhouse that our friend Harry told us about. It was really pretty!

Everything was great except for this guy who was dressed as a dirty mop and apparently sweating profusely underneath it because his B.O. filled up the ENTIRE DOWNSTAIRS.

Not even exaggerating, we were gagging so hard I almost fainted.

Brunch on our last day in New York! :-(

Visited David at the OCC shop. I drew this beautiful portrait of him.

Drinks at Subway Inn with the OTHER David K!

Oh, we also scored a few OCC nail polishes to go with our few lip tars.

Ah shit, it’s already 6pm and I haven’t packed for my trip back to New York tomorrow! I’m so excited, my stomach tickles. I’ll post a report in a year or so, ha!

XOXO
Amy

Natalia Fabia’s Miss Hooker Beauty Pageant at the Dragonfly and Group Show at Corey Helford

shrinkle — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 02:14:11 +0000

Taking a break from busy busy work to post some OLD ASS pictures!

Last year we were one of the sponsors of Natalia Fabia’s awesome Miss Hooker beauty pageant at the Dragonfly. I didn’t get any pictures of the actual pageant because I was standing in the back behind some guy’s giant head, but here are the few pics I did take!

Lumi, Natalia and me. Natalia was suuuuuper pregnant and looked amazing!

Ran into Debbi who looked super gorgeous, and got to meet Missy, one of my very first Myspace friends from seriously a decade ago! It was so crazy that we remembered each other. She is as beautiful and sweet in person as I remembered her being online!

I am so sad that Lumi moved to China. WHY LUMI, WHYYYYY

My lady Jessica Louise! She made outfits for the pageant.

Afterward, we joined Debbi and Missy at Canter’s for a late night dinner. BOOBS.

The following night, Natalia curated a group show, “Hookers” (she really likes them), at the Corey Helford Gallery.

Me, Michelle, Jessica and Yume

Getting boozy

Michelle and Caro

Haha Michelle hates me. I am a CREEPER!

Abby, Michelle, Kevin and Yume

Debbi looking super pretty again! Need that hair color…

Stole this from Jessica’s Instagram. She gets drunk, chooses ugly filters for our photos, then deletes the original!!

Grabbing some yums at Son of a Gun. My eyes are glowing hellfire from the cheesy tinsel lashes I was wearing!

Everything has been super nuts at Sugarpill as usual. We’ve been so busy tying up loose ends and getting everything running smoothly to welcome our newest employee next week, my BFF Drew! He is moving all the way from Utah to Berkeley to take over our warehouse since we live 6 hours away now. You might have met him at IMATS last month, he was the only guy working our booth so you can’t really miss him. Most people buckle under the stress of working their very first IMATS (I still do!), but Drew was like “Piece of cake! When’s the next one?” PERFECT.

My sisters are flying in to visit me this week, and our place still looks like shit because we haven’t finished unpacking from our move last December! I know, so embarrassing. So as usual, I apologize for being awful at replying to comments, Tweets, texts, emails, etc. etc. same old excuses over and over. Someday I will get my life in order! ^__^

XOXO
Amy

Sugarpill Turns THREE! 20% Off Sale. Party Time!

shrinkle — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:57:04 +0000

The terrible twos are over – We’re turning three! Celebrate with us by getting your shop on at Sugarpill with 20% off all pressed and loose eyeshadows.

Santa Monica Pier

shrinkle — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:27:09 +0000

David and Emily were in town for The Makeup Show LA when I realized that I had no idea what David looked like without an OCC work shirt because we only ever see each other at makeup shows. We decided to fix that with a day of fun and sun at the Santa Monica Pier!

Standing on the street corner with Yume and Lauren while David and Emily drove around lost for 100 hours. A very enthusiastic lady approached Lauren and kept asking for her phone number.

Yay you made it, David! And you look thrilled.

Magical Emily radiates sunlight

David got busy taking touristy pictures straight away

Cirque was in town

Emily, Yume and Lauren

We made David pose next to all the tourist traps.

He made us all fit into this car.

Heehee cute and tiny Queen of Blending, you just want to put her in your pocket

Lauren is crazy.

Amongst friends in the beauty of nature, I found the confidence to live out my life-long dream of being a model.

Favorite picture of Lauren. Someone’s happy!

Sexy stretching contest. We both lost.

WHAT IS THIS

Somebody alert the authorities!

In line for the world’s nonscariest roller coaster ever. Which Lauren managed to scream so loudly through that the ride operator asked Yume, “She’s joking, right?”

Nerds on a ferris wheel at sunset

We all remarked afterward that none of us got to enjoy the ferris wheel because we were too busy trying to take pictures. Stupid phones and Instagram and everything else that is ruining our lives!

We did get some cool pictures though. Although I bet this all looked way better in real life without a phone in front of my face.

We watched the sun set over the ocean, and Lauren laughed hysterically through the entire thing.

Then it started to get reallly cooooold so we went home!

Too tired to write a real life update. IMATS madness has ended and we’re finally settling into our new place, so we’re going to spend the next few months playing catchup and getting our lives and business in order. So many exciting and positive changes happening this year!

XOXO
Amy

Pictures from The Makeup Show LA 2012

shrinkle — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:12:03 +0000

Yume, Jodie from Lit Cosmetics, Lauren (Queen of Blending) and meeee!

My first blog post of 2013 is going to be about… The Makeup Show of March 2012! I’ve been so horribly negligent with my blog. The past few months have been nuts! We’re still not done moving all our stuff to LA, and I actually have to move again in another month or two. Our first goal was to find a work space, which we’ve been living in for the past month just to get our stuff down to LA and start preparing for IMATS. I love the new place so much! Brick walls, huge windows, super friendly neighbors and dogs galore, amazing location within walking distance of a billion restaurants and bars. But I need a life separate from work and don’t want to live in my office. I did that for years when I was designing clothes and starting Sugarpill out of my home, and it made me mental. I remember feeling like my sweatpants were going to start fusing with my skin because I never had any reason to get dressed in the morning, and when I did leave the house I’d get really bad anxiety. So after IMATS madness is over, I get to move all my stuff again! I plan to live super close to the office though, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I hardly own anything big anyway. Just cats!

The night before The Makeup Show was open to the public, Yume and I met up with friends at the Blogger Preview Night, where we enjoyed free food and open bar. Best ever!

Lili, Elessa, Pursebuzz, me and Yume being couch potatoes. Photo stolen from Lili!

A lady came up to interview us about style. I got nervous and bailed to take pictures from afar haha

Makeup people talking about makeup people things

The gift bags were seriously GINORMOUS and generously stuffed to the brim with all kinds of good stuff! The size and weight of these guys were a running joke all night because hardly anyone could walk or hold their food and drinks properly. Not that I’m complaining, of course! ;-)

Can’t lift arm! Bag too huge!

It got to the point where everyone was dragging their bags on the floor because they were too heavy to wear anymore.

Queen of Blending modeling school

Enkore showed up with this cutie redhead on his arm. We don’t know who she was, but we were so enamored by her gorgeous hair that we stalked her!

Sharon Gault and her pillkitty!

Hi Enkore!

Look! It’s the pretty red-haired girl!

This lady is 60 years old and kicking ass. We saw her again the next day and she was like “So where’s the afterparty, ladies?” So awesome. Camera flash washed it out, but she was wearing super bright eyeshadow! I want to be the Asian version of her when I grow up.

Time to go home and get some beauty rest before tomorrow!

Haha Yume shooing away her kitties so we can properly assess the contents of our gift bags!

The Makeup Show, Day 1: Saturday! I don’t think I’ll do my makeup like this again. I look like I have tarantulas crawling out of my eyes.

Got to meet the lovely Mai!

Kaytea and Yume

OCC is always one of our favorite booths! Check out all these yummy lip tars. Mmm mmm! Photo by Mai

David taking care of business! Photo by Mai

Lauren aka OCC’s star employee

Our other favorite booth to visit at makeup shows is always Lit! Such an amazing assortment of cosmetic grade glitters. If you guys haven’t tried their famous liquid glitter adhesive yet, DO IT!

Look at these NERDS!

Elessa didn’t find out until the night before that she had a booth (It was originally Crown’s space, but they handed it over to her). She only had a few hours to buy supplies to make her booth (this is something that usually takes weeks, if not months), and the only store open was WalMart. We are so proud of her! She was selling tons of cute accessories from her shop Elessa Jade and her booth was always packed. Photo by Mai

This was part of the line for Makeup Forever. Glad I didn’t need anything! Photo by Mai

Beautiful Lauren

Scotch taped onto the schedule because you’re special!

We found a secret empty room to rest our feet and watch Lauren get interviewed.

Enkore stopped by to say hello. He painted this entire 3D image on his model! It looks kind of weird here, but was crazy amazing with 3D glasses!

Our awesome new friend from the preview night! She is stylin’.

And then the most horrifying thing happened. As Yume and I were making our way back onto the exhibit floor, we were stopped by a photographer from Smashbox who insisted on taking our head shots. Yume is a great model, so needless to say her solo headshots came out really cute.

See, look how cute Yume is by herself!

But then they added me to the shots, and THIS PILE OF AWKWARD DOUBLE CHIN ACTION HAPPENED. I pretty much ruined ALL the pictures. We were given CDs of the images to “use freely and post anywhere.” I used mine freely by hiding it in the darkest bottom drawer of my filing cabinet underneath my scratch paper collection.

Earlier that day we bumped into Mr. Inglot, who told us to meet him behind the Inglot booth at 6pm for wine. You better believe this photo was taken at 5:59pm! I love Mr. Inglot. He is so nice and always remembers us despite the hundreds of people he meets at these things. He doesn’t know my name though, because he introduced me to his staff as, “This is uh… Little Friend.” That’s okay, I’ll take it!

Where there is a Mr. Inglot, there is a Lauren!

Marcie, blurry Suzy, and Lauren. Lauren once told me that her daughter no longer accompanies her to makeup shows because she’s embarrassing. WHY WHATEVER DO YOU MEAN???

Oscar from Inglot! He’s so sweet.

Val and David having a suspicious amount of fun. Why are you guys giggling so much, huh huh huh?

David gave us all the entire OCC vegan brush set. And a Chlorophyll lip tar, which Yume used to paint her entire face green for a Hulk look

Pretty Elessa!

Giant group shot with Sharon Gault’s kids

This was my makeup for the second day, no more tarantula eyes!

We went out to dinner in Little Tokyo after the show and made fun of Lauren for not taking off her badges. Might need those to get into the restaurant, Lauren!

Then we ate too much and my clothes didn’t fit anymore. At least it wasn’t as bad as the time the elastic on my underwear LITERALLY snapped in half as I was leaving Fenton’s after devouring a burger, fries, and brownie fudge sundae! :-(

The following week, we found out that OK! magazine published a photo of us in their write-up about The Makeup Show. We weren’t aware that subscribers get new issues a few days before the newsstands, so Lauren dropped everything and ran to the store in her pajamas, in the pouring rain. She grabbed 10 copies, brought them to the register, and when the cashier asked why she was buying so many, proudly declared that she was on page __. She opened the magazine to show the cashier the page… which ended up being an article about cats. Good job, Lauren!

I’m going to be slammed for the next week and a half preparing for IMATS and doing THREE photo shoots, so I apologize in advance if I don’t respond to comments, texts or emails as quickly as I’d like to. But I hope you guys stop by our booth to say hello! We’re to the right of the entrance by OCC and Inglot, so it’s going to be a triangle of AWESOME!

XOXO
Amy