Gore and Glitter

I'm baaaack

2012-04-03T14:06:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night and Welcome to Spring!

Here in sunny Florida we really didn't have a winter to speak of so it actually feels more like summer here. I'm sorry I've been away so long, it feels like I've missed so much. I missed last week's episode of Monster Man (which I promise to catch up on soon) and after my bacon nails I had to abandon my latest project.

April is Autism Awareness Month and April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day and Light It Up Blue Day. On April 2nd all over the world people light up blue to shine a light on Autism Awareness and Research. More than 1000 structures in over 180 U.S. cities and 30 countries joined Autism Speaks. Iconic landmarks around the world – including the Empire State Building and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, Universal Studios in Hollywood and Orlando, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, along with the Niagara Falls and CN Tower in Canada, Gano Bhabon, the Official Residence of the Prime Minister and hundreds of other buildings in Bangladesh, Christ the Redeemer Statue in Brazil and the Sydney Opera House in Australia – as well as people's own homes lit it up blue.

Great Buddha of Hyogo Kobe, Japan (image source)

Empire State Building New York, New York (image source)

Christ the Redeemer Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (image source)

Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia (image source)

Niagara Falls, Canada (image source)

Well today I'm going to do something a little different. I was going to participate in the Blue Nails for Autism for April but I quickly realized I only had two bottles of blue so that wasn't going to work. However I did do one mani for Autism Awareness month. This is one coat of nail Life Gripper, two coats of Wet n' Wild Denim Chrome and Sally Hansen Super Shiny. I then drew a puzzle piece in white on the ring finger.

For more information or to join the cause you can go to Autism Speaks. Every post during April I will start with one Autism Fact.

Hope these motivates you to go out and fight for the cause. Do any of you know someone with Autism? I'd love to hear your stories.

Thank you for reading.

It's not forever

2012-03-26T12:40:00.002-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a little break for awhile. No more than a week, I swear!

Thank you for hanging in there with me!

What's That Say? I Can't Read!

2012-03-23T14:19:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night! Well here is my first post in a series all about food! OK, I admit it, I'm *obsessed* with food. Well, maybe not obsessed. It's more of a love/hate relationship really. However, I'm not about to get into my food issues here and now. On the up side though there is one food I will always love, bacon.


Sun

This is my homage to bacon. Please tell me *someone* else actually sees the bacon in this? I'll be honest, this mani was a total pain in my @$$! I didn't have a brown red so I mixed one drop of Sally Hansen Cherry Charisma with two drops of Finger Paints Sketchy Character (the bottle in the picture). In the light, it came out a smidge too red for me. The lighter meat color was an ancient bottle of Cutex Beige and the white "fatty" base color is Sinful Colors Snow Me White. So it's one coat of Nail Life Gripper, two coats of Snow Me White, and then the stripes.

Sun

Shade

For those of you who don't get the title of this post, here is a little reminder of the Beggin' Strips ad.

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Hope y'all enjoyed my bacon. I'm going to try water marbling again for an event this weekend, then food number two! Thanks for reading.

Monster Man Cometh

2012-03-22T12:24:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night. At the urging of a reader, I am going to replace my usual weekly Face Off post with a little run down of this week's episode of Monster Man.

Last night was episode two of Monster Man and I...am...hooked! The personalities are great and nothing beats good old fashioned, hand crafted monsters. Another upside of this show, is it highlights all kinds of fun indie films I'm now going to have to try and track down and see.

Each episode seems to focus on two different films and two different projects for Cleve Hall, his daughter Constance, and the rest of the team at SOTA FX. This week's projects were a practical werewolf for Hallow Pointe, directed by Thomas J. Churchill and Princess Polly for Forbidden Zone 2.

Cleve and Constance Hall (image source)

“Hallow Pointe” is a chilling story about love, life and what lengths you go through to try and save someone; all told within the classic horror staple, a creature feature. The filmmakers’ vision for the film is to bring back the feel of old school 80's horror (ie: “The Howling,” “American Werewolf in London”) giving fans something movies today are lacking – great creature development with hard core visual FX. - PRLOG

Constance's Sketch (image source)

It's incredible the lengths this team goes to, to hand create these monsters; to make them seem real. I love the fact that some movies are moving back to practical effects and away from CGI. Constance did the sketch and they showed the actual process of moving from a ho-hum sketch to something spectacular. The team even took a field trip to an attack dog school (complete with Cleve in a bite suit) so they could all actually see the mechanics of a dog bite in action.

Muscle Suit covered in fur (image source)

For a peek at the teaser trailer, click here. This teaser trailer is what we got to watch being filmed on Monster Man.The landing site for Hallow Pointe isn't much yet, but you can find it here.

Final werewolf (image source)

The second film is something that I'm going to be excited to see. In 1982 Richard "Rick" Elfman, brother to Danny Elfman, made a cult classic film called Forbidden Zone. For those of you who haven't seen it, for shame! *wags finger* However, here is the website for you to catch up. It seems that Mr. Elfman is at it again and there is going to be a Forbidden Zone 2. Cleve and his team made a disgusting mask for the Princess Polly Character. I'm excited to see what they do with the newest installment. Besides, Danny Elfman is doing the music and that makes me a happy zombie.

Molding of Princess Polly (image source)

Final Princess Polly (image source)

Here is the scene we got to watch being filmed on the Monster Man episode. It was also very interesting to watch the team trouble shoot. The Princess Started out in a gold bikini, but it was far too reflective to use in front of green screen. Now the princess wears royal purple.

On a random side note, in the 1980s there was an American New Wave band called Oingo Boingo, who were responsible for songs like Dead Man's Party and Weird Science. This band was fronted by the Elfman Brothers. It's funny to me to think of Danny Elfman writing 'real' music and not movie scores (even if the song Weird Science does blur that line).

I hope everyone enjoyed my Monster Man post and thank you for reading. I have a great idea for a new nail series that I'm hoping to start this week. I went to strip my ruffian last night and The Boy looked at me and said, "you're doing your nails again?! You're addicted." I didn't have the heart to tell him that most nail bloggers spend hours swatching new colors. :-) So needless to say, I'm a little behind in my new designs. I'm hoping to do my first one today.

Have a great afternoon!

Ruffian? What is this?

2012-03-21T14:27:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night and Happy Hump Day.

Hope y'all have had an exciting, or at least productive week thus far. The Vuppy, (vampire puppy. It's the nickname I've given to the teething chihuahua puppy) The Boy, and I are all awaiting the newest episode of Monster Man tonight. While I miss my Face Off, this show rocks! If you haven't seen it check it out tonight. It's in the Face Off time slot (10pm) on SyFy.

Gratuitous Vuppy Picture

Anyway, in my journey to find a new project I ran across many pictures of what is being called the Ruffian manicure. I know for many nail bloggers this is old news as it first appeared on the runway for Fall 2010, but seeing as how I'm new to the nail world, I had never seen this before. In fact, the idea of watching fashion shows for the latest nail craze and the fact that polish companies like China Glaze and O.P.I have seasons is all news to me. Shoot, I just discovered companies like Butter LONDON and Deborah Lippmann!

I figured while I was giving the water marbling a break I would try this. Now keep in mind I *bite* at doing a free hand french tip so I was very very tempted to break out the guides and not attempt to do this free hand. However Laquerized provided an amazing how to so I figured I would give her directions a go and*voila* perfect (well nearly perfect) Ruffian.

I'm also calling this the coffee mani. I did one coat of Nail Life Gripper, one thick coat of Sally Hansen Mochachino, then two thin coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Expresso. While staring at my nails I was moved to add a little something more... SPOTS!

Using Sally Hansen Hard as Diamonds Amethyst Diamond I put random shaped blobs of color and partially outlined them with my Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen. A final layer of Sally Hansen Super Shiny and I am more than happy with the results.

Sun

Shade

I was very sad to find out that Mochachino (the bottle in the pictures) is a discontinued color. I love the shimmer, almost metallic, quality of this polish. I also love how close Amethyst Diamond and Expresso are in shade. The spots just take on a shimmery quality without actually changing the color. At this angle I think you get a really good view of the contrast.

So how many of you follow the latest nail trends? Anything y'all would like to see me attempt from this year's spring collections?

Water Marbling, my new foe

2012-03-19T14:24:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night and a big hello to my new followers! Thanks for reading.

As I'm sure most bloggers are, I'm a junkie for other blogs. Eventually I'll get around to posting some of my favorites on here. I've been seeing a lot of buzz lately for water marbling. It seems to be the new 'it' thing on nail blogs everywhere. I read up on it, watched *tons*of YouTube videos and thought to myself, "hey self, that is a really cool effect and looks really easy. Let's try it!" So I did. *snorts* Easy it is not!

I figured I would do peacock colors. I picked out a dark navy chrome, a purple shimmer, creme teal, shimmering green, and a really pretty deep metallic gold. I used many different brands (maybe that was my problem?) but it was the Finger Paints that refused to spread. My water may have been *slightly* too warm.

Left (non-dominate) hand

I love the way my pinky came out here. You can really see the green and gold. Even the thumb looks OK.

left thumb

My polish wouldn't spread, it dried way too fast and then I ended up with some really muddy marbling.On this hand though, you can see all the muddy-ness and the air bubbles. Again though, the ring finger and pinky came out pretty good.

right hand

Over all, it came out *ok* for a first attempt. I'm not giving up though. I will win! *brandishing fist* Ahem, yeah enough of that. Have any of you tried water marbling? How did yours come out?

Irish Toes are Smiling

2012-03-17T05:00:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I usually wouldn't think of posting a picture of my toes seeing as how I know it can just weird some people out. Well, that and I haven't had a proper pedicure in *years*. However I was struck for an idea for this skittle pedi and after the Boy's reaction to it I felt it should be shared with everyone. When he saw my toes, he blurted out, "why can't you just get drunk on St. Patty's Day like a normal person?!" Personally I like the end result.

It's one coat of Nail Life Gripper and one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. After that I put a second coat of color on each nail; the green is Sketch n Etch (Finger Paints), the orange is Wet n' Wild Fantasy Orange. The big toe is just a taped off stripes (I use blue painter's tape) to resemble the Irish Flag.

Simple but a fun effect. The Boy can't wait for me to take it off. He likes it when my fingers and toes match. What did you guys do for St Patty's Day? Leave me a comment and share.

The Green Eyed Monster

2012-03-16T13:13:00.000-04:00

Top O' The Morning My Children of the Night!

Honestly if you're anything like me you have a tendency to curse the day star. All the same, St. Patrick's Day happens to be one of my favorite holidays, right next to Halloween. That meant I just *had* to do a themed mani. I had a good friend post a picture for me on Facebook of some really lovely inspiration. When I tried it, it really didn't work out for me so I ended up doing something slightly different.


Image source

Instead, I started with one coat of Nail Life Gripper then a shear lime green color and did two coats. It's from the L.A. Colors shimmer brights collection. The color itself doesn't seem to have a name. After that I did the top third of my nail in two coats of Finger Paints Key To My Art. Once those had dried I used a cosmetics sponge and sponged Finger Paints Sketch an Etch in the middle of the nail. This ended up giving me a really cool ombre effect. After they all dried I put two coats of Sinful Colors Green Marsh over the top. Green Marsh is an ancient color I can't even find on eBay. It's a lovely green and silver holo bar glitter in a clear base.I ended with two really thick coats of Sally Hansen Super Shiny.

Sun

sun

In this picture you can really see the holo/rainbow effect in the silver bar glitter.

sun

shade

indoors with flash

I think you can really see the gold tips from Key To My Art and the ombre effect. I love Key To My Art in the bottle. It looks like liquid gold.

indoors no flash

Green March #175

Here is the bottle of Sinful Colors Green Marsh. My mother bought this for me when I was still in high school as a St Patrick's Day gift. I had *completely* forgotten I even had it until I found it in a box of goodies at my mothers house. I added a little cheap clear polish and *voila* it was just like new! I guess my Sinful Colors obsession started young.

I really wanted to go back to my nail art roots and do a little free hand design but I just haven't been able to find the time. I've been cleaning like a madwoman for the company we're having on Saturday for dinner. At this point I'm just hoping that my mani will last until Saturday.

Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy a pint for me.

Face Off Episode 210

2012-03-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

Greetings children of the Night.

Alas, the winter season of Face Off is over. Yet, there has been a promise of a summer season. This makes me one happy zombie.

The season finale was interesting. Each of the three contestants chose a film genre: sci-fi, fantasy, or horror, and had to create three characters. All the contestants from this season came back to create teams to help each artist realize their vision. Michael Westmore even came in to mentor the finalists. Can I just say I am shocked it took them two seasons to tap that?

Each of the make-ups had to survive a vigorous dance routine. This episode was a clone of the zombie episode from last season with the song Zombie by Natalia Kills. If you've never heard it, shame on you. Here's the link. The dance was performed in front of a live audience who got to vote on their favorite. The judges still picked the winner but they could take the audience vote into consideration.

Ian had horror. For his team he chose Matt, Sue, and Tara. They created a Lucifer type character with two hell hounds. Glenn loved the concept but didn't feel the paint job was cohesive. Patrick loved the white Lucifer. I agree with Patrick. I was impressed with Ian's concept going back to the original definition of Lucifer as the bringer of light. Everyone agreed that he had an incredible and impressive sculpt but a very flat paint job.

image source

Rayce had sci-fi and his team consisted of Jerry, Miranda, and Heather. His concept was of a light and a dark entity tearing apart a female entity. He used a concept of four dimensions when creating his characters. They were absolutely beautiful and created a shadow like effect across the stage when they stood in a line. Sadly though, they showed the most wear at the the end of the dance number.

image source


image source

Lastly RJ had fantasy. His team was Beki, Brea, and Athena; "RJ's Angels." His concept was a little off. Honestly, I didn't even get it watching. He created an evil alchemist, Mother Earth, and a phoenix. Ve felt Mother Earth should have been prettier but Patrick loved the way the vines followed the muscle in her extremities. Even after a major change in the sculpt, the phoenix still ended up looking like an over sized parrot.

image source

The winner of this season was Rayce. I was a little disappointed, I would have liked to see Ian win but I am more than impressed he made it to the season finale. All three of the finalists with have *no* problem finding work in the future.

I was a bit disappointed in some of this season. It reminded me a lot of last season. Over all though the show is still a lot of fun. I'm also very pleased with the show they moved into the Face Off slot, Monster Man. Looks like I'll have something else to watch on Wednesday.

Can We Talk?

2012-03-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night.

Getting back to my roots I have something a little more 'gothic' to show you. Sinful Colors Let's Talk is the most delicious shade of purple. It's a true grape-y purple. My pictures for what ever reason actually came out far too blue, and not enough purple. It's got a really pretty subtle shimmer to it. It's only a two coater, and after the top coat tool on a almost jelly-like quality in person. The first coat it comes out a really dusty purple. After the second coat, it matches the bottle perfectly. These pictures are one coat of Nail Life Gripper, two coats of Let's Talk, and a coat of Sally Hansen super shiny.

shade

In the flash pictures you can really see the shimmer and how this color is far more purple than blue. Here I think you can also see some of the brush stokes. That isn't evident in person. I don't feel there is a brush stroke in sight.

flash

sun

I love this color. It's such a pretty true purple. So many purples have too much red or pink in them. For $2 I love it.

Tonight is Face Off season finale. Will you be watching? I know I will be.

Oldie but a Goodie

2012-03-13T12:30:00.002-04:00

Greetings Children of the Night.

My original plan for today was to start the 31 Days of Nails Challenge. Instead though I figured I would wait until Monday. Actually, at this point, I may wait until next month and do the 31 days of April.

Today I have for you one of the duo-chromes in my collection. I went into the box and picked out a random color. I had forgotten how much I love these kinds of colors. It's Sally Hansen's Nail Prisms in Amber Ruby. It is an extremely sheer color. Had I remembered I would have layered this over a white or black. Instead, I figured I would layer this to opacity for the pictures. Here I have four coats, and you can still see a little VNL. All the pictures are one coat of Nail Life Gripper, four coats of Amber Ruby, and one coat of Sally Hansen Super Shiny.

sun

In this Picture you can actually see the color gradient moving down the nail. Closer to the cuticle is red, and the tips are the mossy green.

shade

Flash

Sun

Indoors (no flash)

Here's the green. When I realized today that I hadn't gotten a single picture of the green I quickly snapped a few shots at an odd angle. Glad I was able to capture it.

Indoors (no flash)

The color though is just so pretty. It moves in a spectrum from red to orange to 'amber.' At some angles, in the shade, you can actually see a mossy green. This color also has a shimmer that is much more evident in the bottle than it is on the nail, but can be seen in the sun or under the flash. I took a ton of pictures trying to get the entire spectrum. This one just has to be seen in person.

Going to start cleaning the house today for the company we have coming on Saturday. Hope y'all have a great day. Thanks for reading.

Taxi Cab? Not quite

2012-03-12T05:00:00.004-04:00

Greetings Cildren of the Night!

It seems I finally have my feet under me again and can get back to posting on a semi-regular basis.

I went to Target recently and found two pretties that my mother bought me (thanks Mom!) and they were under a dollar each! In my excitement just to see them on the nail I actually swatched them in the car (I had one bare nail. I had lost an acrylic earlier in the day) and I loved the combo so much I ended up doing all of my nails with it. As you can see I also lost the rest of the acrylics. I'm really glad they look as nice as they do in the pictures. I was a bit concerned by nail nubs wouldn't photograph as well.I'm also aware my cuticles look like crap. Those nails just ruined my cuticles.

I am the princess of cheap polish; one of my favorite brands is Sinful Colors, yet I hadn't really tried NYC. This is NYC Taxi Yellow Creme (114) with NYC Starry Silver Glitter (105). Eventually I'll swatch Taxi Yellow Creme by itself, but the pretty glitter hid all of the flaws in the yellow.

All these pictures are one coat of Nail Life Gripper, 4 (yes 4) coats of Taxi Yellow Creme, 2 coats of Starry Silver Glitter, and one coat of Sally Hanson Super Shiny. This was not a very thirsty glitter. One thick coat and there wasn't a bump in sight.

Shade

Sun

Flash

I love Starry Silver Glitter. It is really really sparse though, so it's definitely a layering color. I don't event *want* to think about how many layers it would take to make this color opaque. It is a silver micro glitter in a clear base with lavender and blue hex glitter. In the bottle it is so pretty. All that silver glitter just flashes a rainbow of beautiful colors. On the nail however, it loses that rainbow quality. In the bottle you really don't see the two colors of hex glitter. That was a really pleasant surprise.

Failed Macro

Now that I have my natural nails back I thought I would play with the macro settings on the camera. Come to find out, I have *no* idea how they work. :-/ I also don't know where the manual is so I'll be experimenting for awhile.

I'm thinking about starting the 31 day nail challenge. I saw Nails and Noms do it and I'm very inspired. Honestly, I was just waiting to add a yellow to my collection. I generally don't wear yellow. With my skin tone, it looks like I'm going through liver failure. What do y'all think? Think I should try?

Face Off Episode 208

2012-03-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

Burtonesque... has quite the ring to it doesn't it? From the time I was a kid I've loved Tim Burton and his work. The first movie of his I remember seeing was his original Frankenweinie (1984). This is now being remade and you *know* I'll be the first in line when it comes out. It's scheduled for my birthday weekend too!

Each artist was tasked with turning the mundane into the fantastic, a la Tim Burton. They were given a profession to put their own spin on, similar to Edward Scissorhands cutting hair. The guest judge this week was Catherine O'Hara. If you can't have Burton himself (or for that matter Helena Bonham Carter) she's a really good choice.

Sue: Sue had the toymaker. This was a complete fail! The only aspect of this that was even remotely Burtonesque was the puppet and even that was sketchy. She bit off way more than she could chew causing her to actually ask the model to help her with the build in the end, instead of just doing the applications. Glenn said it best when he said [her] "build turned into a ballet of idiocy."

image source

Beki: She had a baker. Instead of actually doing something original she chose to borrow directly from one of Burton's films. Her baker is a resident of Wonderland who went crazy when her love, the Mad Hatter, moved away. Beki chose to spend her entire three days building that idiotic cupcake. The make-up was awful and the dental appliance didn't even make sense!

image source

Ian: Ian had the plumber. He went very safe with minimal appliances and a really eerie resemblance to Edward Scissorhands. The "hydraulic plunger backpack" though was awesome. The biggest observation about his work was that all the interest was put in the back of the character instead of the front.

image source

Matt: Matt's profession was the ice cream man. Holy cow was this ever awesome! He had cones, ice cream, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles everywhere. Ve and Cathrine were very impressed, feeling it was comical but horrific at the same time.

image source

Rayce: Rayce chose the cellist. This was my favorite creation. The character lost the love of his life, transforming it into a cello. The translation from the cello to the face of the character was flawless. The entire character was so romantic, soulful, and yet very very sad.

image source

RJ: RJ's bellhop was hysterical. When I was watching him do the sculpt I was scared for him, it didn't strike me at all like something that would be classified as Burtonesque. The final product though, was astounding. The 'chest' of drawers was comical (especially with the clothing stolen from guests hanging out) and the bell on the hat was a perfect touch. Glenn thought it was the perfect mix of RJ and Burton.

image source

The top three were RJ, Rayce, and Matt. Rayce won and they sent Beki home. I completely agreed with their decision. What the hell possessed her to spend all that time on the cupcake?

Over all this was a really good episode, then again, who doesn't love Tim Burton?

Face Off Episode 209

2012-03-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

Greetings to my Children of the Night!

Holy cow, I know it's been forever. This Party Like A Pinup stuff for Pinups for Pitbulls has been taking over my life! It's for such a good cause though. I hope y'all don't mind.

Today I realized I still haven't caught y'all up on Face Off. Oh my word I am slacking! Today I'll post about episode 209- Dinoplasty, and tomorrow I should have episode 208 (the one I missed) up.

Dinoplasty was a really cool episode. It actually set records for viewership, at least according to Face Off's Facebook page. The remaining artists were sent to Los Angeles Museum of Natural History to wander the dinosaur wing for inspiration. Their goal this week was to create dino/human hybrids. After each artist decided on their dino and did some sketches, they headed back to the lab to begin work.

There was no guest judge this week, instead Cleve and Constance Hall showed up to give some pointers and tips. The Hall's had a mini series back in October called Making Monsters, and starting next week they will have their own series called Monster Man. Their appearance was a giant plug for Monster Man, which is more than likely going into the Face Off slot after the finale next week. Anywho, on to the creatures.

Sue: Her Hipster/Girl Power dino didn't go over too well with Glenn. However Ve adored it. Glenn actually couldn't get past the concept to look at the sculpt. Funny enough no one mentioned the sculpt; it didn't look that impressive to me. Sue chose the dinosaur she did for it's bright colors and the Mohawk in the back.

image source

RJ: He also went a little clever with his Veloci Rapper. (he he he get it? Velociraptor... yeah never mind. I thought it was funny) Once again Glenn didn't like the concept but at least this time he could get past it to appreciate the sculpt and the make-up. Patrick really liked the flow from head to tail. Personally, I loved the details. The dino 'bling' sold it for me.

image source

Matt: Matt did a Holy Roman Emperor dinosaur. Seeing as how he chose the Tyrannosaurus Rex, I thought the emperor angle was clever. In the end though, his creature looked nothing like a dinosaur. Ve liked the chest plate but the rest of the judges agreed with me; more demonic, less dinosaur.


image source

Ian: My home town boy did it again with his Triceratops. I loved this idea. His was the most dino-y of all the creatures. It had very impressive hands and feet, along with the the head piece. The beak even looked a little slimy. While Ian was doing his application he ended up nixing the fat suit feeling it looked to comical. Later Glenn stated he wished the character had a barrel chest. *facepalm* Oh well, Ian still did an incredible job.

image source

Rayce: Rayce chose his dinosaur for it's silhouette and he definitely used that to his advantage. He had some serious problems getting his latex to work right though. The tail stared out as a total disaster. However no one seemed to notice. They were too busy praising his face sculpt. The over sized eyes were just stellar.


image source

This week was a double elimination presented in a different format. Instead they chose who was going on to the finale. Rayce won this week, and with good reason too. Ve even said it made her like blue paint jobs. Both Ian *squee* and RJ were moved on the the finale as well. This meant that Matt and Sue were eliminated. Thanks to the Universe! I was getting so very tired of Sue and her whining. Was she talented? Maybe, but I couldn't get past her personality.

Overall I loved the episode and can't wait for the finale. Living in Florida this means I've already heard about casting calls for next season. I'm so thrilled. I loved the last two seasons and I hope this show lasts quite a while.

Sorry folks

2012-03-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

Hello my children of the night. I know today is usually the day I post the recap of the Face Off episode. However I've spent all day getting ready for a Party Like A Pinup event tonight. I *promise* tomorrow I'll have it for you. Thanks for being patient.

Zombie Madam

Pretty in Pink

2012-02-27T13:10:00.000-05:00

Greetings Children of the Night!

I've been crazy busy since Friday night. I am now the volunteer coordinator for this year's Party Like A Pinup event at the Cuban Club, Ybor City, Florida. All the proceeds will benefit Pinups for Pitbulls. We're being hosted by Little Pet Project as well as Pit Stop Bully Rescue. If you live in the Tampa, Florida area please come and join the party! If not, Pinups for Pitbulls does take donations. *wink wink*

Anyway on to polish! Here is the color I chose to wear for our event Friday night. It's a lovely rosy pink, berry-ish color by Mary Kay called (funny enough) Roseberry. I have no idea how long I've even owned this color and I almost never wear it. I'm not a huge fan of pinks. This color went amazing with my dress for the event though. So 40s and retro.

Here it is with one coat of Nail Life Gripper, two coats of Roseberry, and one coat of Sally Hanson Super Shiny. I'm not impressed with the wear on this one. I did my nails Friday and I already had tip wear by Saturday morning. In these pictures you can actually see some chipping.

It was a really cloudy day so my pictures didn't come out nearly as good as I'm used to. *harrumph*

Today I have another meeting with the PLAP crew and Saturday night we have an event with Gaspar's Grotto in Ybor.

Have a Morbid Monday and thank you for reading.

Ren Faire stripes

2012-02-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hello Children of the Night. It's been awhile since I did a nail post and this one (again) is not one of my best. I got really sloppy with the striping and you can see some serious bleeding around the tape lines. Next time I'll make sure not to rush it.

It is Bay Area Renaissance Faire time here in Florida or BARF as we call it. Here is a link if you're a local. Make sure to come out and see it. My ren costume (yes I'm one of THOSE people) has a green striped underskirt. I figured I'd do my nails to match. I didn't actually end up going, funny enough. The weekend I do go though I'm going to repeat this mani but much more carefully. It's two coats of Nail Life Gripper, two coasts of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and the tape stripes were done with scotch tape and two coats of Finger Paints, one coat of Sally Hanson top coat.

My cuticles finally look good *grin*


Ignore the chip in the pinky

Here is the skirt I used as inspiration.

Ren skirt with overskirt


Ren Skirt without

So here is the picture I promised of my V-Day mani. It was taken on my phone so not the best but you get the idea.

I'm going to be doing some work for Party Like a Pin-up (here's their link) so I'm going back to my red nails for awhile.

Face Off - Episode 207

2012-02-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

Greetings Children of the Night!

It's a dismal day here today is sunny *ahem* Florida. I, however, wouldn't even notice because I slept last night! Yesterday a lovely friend came and adjusted my neck and massaged my shoulder. Holy Cow is there a HUGE difference. If you've never had it done, find yourself a licensed professional and go have it done! No more pain, no more headaches... oh it is bliss.

Anyway, last night was the new episode of Face Off. Is it just me or is Sue a whiny pain in my a** and deserves to be shoved to the curb?

This episode started with an awesome floating police car and some sketches by Patrick Tatopolous for the new Total Recall film. Each artist was to take Patrick's sketches and turn them into an alien creation with Patrick as their client.

Tara: She had a grand idea for these massive arm extensions. It really didn't work out. As a matter of fact, none of her creature worked out. She ended up ditching all the teeth as well as the arms. Not a good move Tara.

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Ian: He made this really cool pig vampire creature. His appliances had some massive flaws including a huge tear. He managed to turn it all into battle damage. Patrick loved his creation more than his own sketch and Ve was impressed with his paint work as was guest judge LeVar Burton.

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Jerry: His monster resembled some aqua-demon. At the risk of sounding unoriginal, it did resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Ve felt it looked like a bad Halloween mask (I felt that way about RJ's creature). LeVar said the paint job made it look aquatic and Jerry threw a mini snit fit over that, not too mature.


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Rayce: His was this incredible cyborg thing where the tubes have been fused with it's skin. Glenn was very complimentary; he felt the sculpt was massive in scope given the time given. LeVar loved the eyes as well. The biggest concern though is that the "actor" can't see out of the mask.


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Sue: Her biggest point were the spikes coming out of her creature's skin. They didn't come out properly so she fashioned them from nail extensions. Ve was impressed with her improv skills but she lost major points for the fact that she only did the face and painted nothing else (including her model's hands.)


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RJ: He too had some major molding issues, and just like Ian made the best of it. Due to a switch in molding materials his headpiece came out really really stiff. Over all though it was an impressive build including the arm pieces Tara couldn't pull off.

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Matt: His albino creature was middle of the road and got almost no feedback. Shame, I loved his paint job.

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Beki: She did the other cyborg. Her's had some incredible fluid-filled tubes. I found it interesting that both cyborgs were bright red.

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Ian won this round (yay hometown boy) and instead of getting immunity he received two tickets to the premiere of Total Recall. This week was a double elimination round and Tara, Sue, and Jerry were all put on the block. Tara and Jerry were cut. Tara saw it coming but Jerry (surprise) threw a fit. His attitude was making him lazy but I would have rather seen them cut Sue. I'm so over her nasty, whiny, attitude.

Next week *drum roll* is Tim Burton!!!!!! That is going to be in competition with Tom Savini for my favorite episode and i haven't even seen it yet. See a clip here. I'm so excited.

Shoes!

2012-02-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

Hello Children of the Night! How many of you celebrated Mardi Gras yesterday? We did. We had dirty rice, king cake, and hurricanes. Dinner was amazing but my king cake was a mitigated disaster. Oh well try again next year.

For those of you that are unaware, I have an affinity for shoes. I had a girlfriend this week send me a link to a Glamour Magazine contest. Tweet them a picture of your favorite shoes. How am I to pick one pair? Here are the three pairs I'm deciding between.

Iron First Zombie Stompers

Torrid

Not Rated

Help me decide my leaving me a comment!

Tonight is Levar Burton on Face Off. Can't wait! That and I get to have my neck and shoulders adjusted today. Thank you Jesus!

Have a Wicked Wednesday.

Face Off- Episode 206

2012-02-17T12:24:00.000-05:00

Well day late but here it is, the Face Off Episode from Wednesday night; Triple Threat.

Here we see the end of the cliffhanger from last week. The foundation challenge started right away. There seem to be a lot of challenges this episode dealing with exhaustion and sleep deprivation. As the artists enter the stage again a series of runway models come out. Their challenge is a 'make under.' Turn these models into Plain Janes. Kim Greene (Scream 4, Terminator Salvation) is the guest judge. Rayce and his librarian win the challenge and immunity.

The spotlight challenge is old age make-up. Each team of three is given a set of twins to do an age progression. One is to be aged to 75, the other to 100. Greg Cannom, Oscar winning make-up artist (for Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is the guest judge. McKenzie then returns to inform the contestants that they are not actually twins, but sets of triplets and the third sibling joins to be aged to 50 years.

Beki, RJ, and Heather: Their concept was that as their model ages she becomes more gaunt so they start with a really overweight 50 year old (Beki). RJ does the 75 year old and when application time hits, RJ's model has a major allergic reaction to her makeups. Is it just me or does it seem like they're intentionally putting in models with allergic reactions just to see how the artists react? They substitute in another model but this model is significantly smaller, with a more delicate bone structure. RJ must "cut and dart the appliance like clothing." Heather has the 100 year old and hers has significant anatomy issues and looks more like a "melting zombie."

Beki (50)

RJ (75)

Heather (100)

Matt (50 year old), Tara (75 year old) and Sue (100 year old): This group did not work well together at all and I'm going to blame it on Sue's nasty attitude. She can't seem to work well with anyone. Their concept was an aging mobster and instead...well... no. Matt's creation was described at a 'were-chia' with it's puffy head and bad hair. Tara's make up was lovely but the shoulder length hair Ve found "distracting." The judges found Sue's make-up amazing. I don't think she took it far enough, I didn't think he looked old enough.


Matt (50)

Tara (75)

Sue (100)

The final group was Rayce, Ian, and Jerry. They did and aging hippie. This one was my favorite. The judges felt that Rayce's 50 year old was far too subtle and she had diseased looking skin. Ian's 75 year old was also too subtle and his coloring was off. Jerry saved the group even if his was generic.

Rayce (50)

Ian (75)

Jerry (100)

The top three were RJ, Jerry, and Sue, with Sue winning the challenge. They sent Heather home.

Next week they will be creating aliens with Star Trek's Levar Burton as the guest judge. A sneak peak can be found here.

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Valentine's Day

2012-02-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

Hello to my Children of the Night. I hope y'all had a bloody good Valentine's day. I ended up spending it with my folks instead of the boy (really not sure how he felt about that, he's been kinda snarky.) He an I however, went to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert the Sunday prior so I'm going to count that as our 'date' *giggle*.

For the evil love holiday I was going to paint my nails black but I had a girlfriend request I do something for her. She wanted hot pink, red, and black. I immediately figured I would try to do an ombre (seeing as how that's hot this spring.) Oh my word what a complete fail! In the interests of full disclosure I am going to post the pictures of my fail. Don't worry I did NOT leave the house with my nails like this. I ended up with a red glitter paint with gold stamped hearts. Silly me though broke a nail before I got really good pictures of it. I may be able to find a crappy one on my phone to post.

First I put down a base coat of Nail Life Gripper and two coats of Sinful Colors 24/7. After that I added Sally Hanson Rapid Red tips. I really should have just stamped on some red and white hearts and called this a good job. Oh no, I had to be 'creative.' *rolls eyes*

I then used a make-up sponge to blur the red farther down into the pink. This is where I started to go wrong. My lines are far too clean. There isn't enough bleed through.

Here it *almost* looks promising.

After that dried I added Sinful Colors Black on Black tips with the make-up sponge. Again there isn't nearly enough bleed through. I just ended up with really harsh lines and a Toucan Sam effect.

In an attempt to blur the lines I added two coats of Sally Girl Disco Ball and that just gave me a shiny toucan. *snicker* Yeah this was not one of my better attempts.

Well here is the final product with the bottle of Sinful Colors Black on Black. Yeah.... not really my best attempt. I'm glad I went with a red after all. I'll have to check if I took a phone picture and sneak it into my next post.

Night now my nails are bare *ACK* and I'm out of ideas. This weekend is our Bay Area Renaissance Festival and I might be going on Sunday, depending on how I feel. I've been plagued by really nasty headaches lately but I have friend how is a massage therapist who has offered to help me out. First time for me, so we'll see how it works out. I'm trying to decide if I want to do my nails to match my Ren Faire costume. It's a green stripe skirt. with a white top. Maybe green and white french? Eh we'll see.

Thanks for reading.

Face Off was on last night. Hopefully I can have my Face Off post up tomorrow.

Face Off-Episode 205

2012-02-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

Oh good grief! Sorry Children that I haven't been posting! It's Friday and I didn't update y'all on Face Off this week. It was such an uninspired episode that I guess it slipped my mind?

This week's episode was "Dangerous Beauty." The goal of the foundation challenge was to blend a plant and animal to create a dangerous beauty.

Before we get to that Titanic of a concept the spotlight challenge was much more fun. Sam Worthington from Being Human (the SyFy version, not the *much better* BBC version) was there to inspire Werewolf wounds. There was some pretty messed up stuff that went down. The winner of the challenge and immunity was Beki. I liked it, but I really don't think her's was the best.

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Once the artists returned to the studio they found that it had been turned into a Zoological garden with plants and animals everywhere. Snakes, lizards, wolves, bears, leopards, even a rhinoceros have been brought in for this challenge.

Heather & Rayce: They blended the monitor lizard and firesticks. First off, what the hell is up with those pants? They have an amazing facial prosthetic and their firestick hair is awesome! Why would they insult their creature with harem pants?

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Jerry & Matt: They picked the leopard and yellow iris.Their creature was some kind of Mayan Goddess. To me it just looked like a kid dressing for Halloween. Patrick even said the face was overly 'cartoonish.'

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RJ & Ian: They had a panther chameleon and an orchid. This creature was incredible! There was almost no human element to it. When the model came on stage it actually unfurled itself form it's orchid leaves to reveal the lizard within.

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Tara & Athena: Picked the emerald tree boa and a stargazer lily. While I loved the color combination of pink, yellow, and green, it looked like the creature from the black lagoon invaded Disney (or a gay pride parade.) Why is it wearing a speedo?

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Beki & Sue: Picked a blue tarantula and birds of paradise. These two equal a match made in hell all the way around. They fought like cats, and their creature is a complete train wreck. Since Beki had immunity, she let Sue take the lead on this project. I understood some the of creative direction Sue tried to take, but Beki's execution was atrocious. The entire thing looked like an alien directing traffic, If it weren't for the cool facial appliance you never would have known it was a spider creature. According to Ve the texture on the body looked like "vomit." When they got called out in front of the judges for their disaster, Beki had no problem throwing Sue under the bus. That didn't go over well with Ve at all!

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Rj and Ian won the challenge with RJ being the winner for his Lady Slipper back piece and providing the creative direction. Team Tara/Athena and Team Beki/Sue were the two teams that were at the bottom but only one could be eliminated: Athena. The judges had been continually disappointed with her body makeup skills, despite the fact that she claimed this was her specialty.

This was not a good episode. The spotlight challenge felt like an afterthought, I don't care for Vivica A. Fox (the guest judge), then after Athena was eliminated McKenzie goes back stage at tells the contestants, "We're not done yet." The episode then ends. This was not a well designed cliffhanger. Yet according to Face Off on Facebook that was their most watched episode. *blarg* Why couldn't they have watched last week with Tom Savini?

Sorry about my absence kiddos, I should have some more manis for you next week. Until then take care my Children of the Night, and thanks for reading.

The Woman in Black

2012-02-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Greeting to my Children of the Night.

Happy Sinful Saturday. Hope y'all have some amazing plans for this weekend. I got my night out last night so today is spent cleaning to make up for all the crap I didn't do yesterday, Went out for The Boy's birthday dinner last night. Went to a local sushi place and it was PACKED! Honestly, I was shocked. I've never seen anyone in there. I'm glad to see them busy though; good food at reasonable prices, We walked out of there for under $40. That's pretty damn good for sushi, drinks, and dessert.

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After dinner, we saw Daniel Radcliffe's new film, A Woman in Black. I really should have known better than to go see this film on opening weekend. We were the oldest people in the theater and it was *packed*. I've spend enough years teaching that my idea of a fun night out doesn't generally include a room full of teens.

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Based on a novel by British author Susan Hill, the film is directed by James Watkins and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer, just nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Albert Nobbs. The synopsis is: a young lawyer (Radcliffe) travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorner woman is terrorizing the locals. -- (C) CBS Films.

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Over all, it's a solid B movie. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 63%. The biggest observation that all the critics seem to have is that it is a standard British horror. There are no big budget effects, there aren't a lot of big "gotcha" moments, and there is absolutely no gore. For the standard American audience that has become used to the gore of Eli Roth's Hostel series, the Saw franchise (yuck), or even some the physicality of the latest possession films, this movie may seem to be lacking. I, on the other hand, love the haunted house genre. This film reminded me of Henry James' Turn of the Screw. Having been based on a book (cover seen right), I may now have to read The Woman in Black.

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The 2012 version is actually a remake of a made for TV film from 1989 staring Adrian Rawlins as Arthur Kidd, Bernard Hepton as Sam Toovey, David Daker and Josiah Freston, and Pauline Morgan as The Woman in Black (seen left). There has also been a play version that has spent 23 years on London's West End. Here is a link to their website and if I ever make it over there, seeing the show is now on my to-do list.

Seeing a grown up Daniel Radcliffe was a bit surreal. His character, Arthur Kipps, is another reluctant hero and you can't help but draw parallels with Harry Potter. That, and the foggy, marshy, wasteland of a set, has you peeking around corners for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Would I recommend seeing it? Yes, and in the theater too. Some of the visuals definitely benefit from the large screen format.

Birthday Mani

2012-02-03T13:54:00.000-05:00

Freaky Friday my Children of the Night!

As you may remember Wednesday was The Boy's birthday. He turned 30 this year *eek!* and he's not too happy about it. I just refer to him as 29.99 with shipping and handling. Well when I asked him what mani he'd like to see for our dinner out this is what he asked for. I really had a hard time getting this color to photograph right. It's Sinful Colors 24/7 and I have since found out that it actually has a China Glaze dupe (Shocking Pink). It's an insanely shocking neon pink. One of these day's I'll swatch it on it's own. I love pink but this is a holy cow, day glow pink. Not anything I think I would ever wear on it's own.

Shade

Sun

Shade

As you can see some of the pictures give it a slightly purple cast in the shade that his color does *not* have. There is nothing purple at all about this color. The third picture is the most accurate. The formula is kinda streaky. It took three coats and the brush is terrible but for a $2 polish I am *not* going to complain. It's not bad enough I'm going to go out and buy the China Glaze dupe. I think the Sally Hanson Ink Splatter over it makes the pink do-able without being "holy cow look at that woman's nails! She looks like she belongs in an 80s movie!"

We didn't actually end up going out for his birthday. Instead we opted for dinner tonight and tickets to The Woman in Black. I'm hoping it's as good as the early reviews are saying. It's Daniel Radcliffe's first attempt as an 'adult' actor and I wish his career all the best.

Face Off Episode Four

2012-02-02T16:56:00.001-05:00

I actually wasn't going to get around to posting today until I remembered that today is Thursday. That means Face Off was on last night. Last night was Night Terrors. They pulled a Scream movie bit and had Brea answering a cell phone at 3am (the witching hour) and getting everyone dressed and on a bus in 15 minutes. They were all driven to Linda Vista hospital, an abandoned hospital in Los Angeles that was built in the 1920s and is considered one of the most haunted locations in the country, where they were presented with their spotlight challenge.

Fears. We all have them, some more extreme or bizarre than others. This spotlight challenge the artists had to come up with a horror movie villain that personified a phobia. Once they chose a phobia they had 30 minutes, alone, in a dark room of the hospital, to sketch their creations. On day two the mystery judge was reviled; the incomparable Tom Savini! *swoon*

Here is the break down of each character:

Beki: Parasitophobia: The fear of parasites. She created this amazing (hideous) bug like creature. She also was the fastest sculptor by far, earning extra kudos from the judges.

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RJ: Xyrophobia or the fear of razors. The twisted, evil, doctor creature that RJ created is definitely something that would give me nightmares on the big screen. I could see this kind of character making an appearance in an Eli Roth film.

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Rayce: Cryophobia or the fear of frost, ice or extreme cold. This was an incredible design with a very poor application. His edges came up and were more than apparent. However due to his very creative design and follow-through of concept he still landed in the top three.

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Athena: Merinthophobia or the fear of being bound or tied up. Her concept of a rape victim gone rogue was excellent however her execution was just terrible. Her character was almost comical. I honestly would expect to see her creation in a Halloween party, not a movie.

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Ian: Odontophobia or the fear of teeth. Ian said he was going in a tooth fairy direction. I really expected to see some extension of a Del Toro Don't Be Afraid of the Dark monster. Instead, his slimy, disgusting, and completely MALE character was incredible. Is it just me or does he look like Ron Howard?

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Brea: Chemophobia or the fear of chemicals. Her creation was supposed to look as if it was covered with mustard gas burns. Instead it looked like a hairless chipmunk! It wasn't scary at all, instead it looked like something to pity.

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Heather: Ornithophobia or the fear of birds (this is where I make some vague reference to Tippi Hedren.) Her creature had a disgusting a symbiotic relationship with it's little bird minions.

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Matt: Xerophobia or the fear of dryness. Cool but not original. It looked to me a lot like the scarecrow from the first challenge.

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Jerry: Electrophobia or the fear of electricity. His character was a doctor that was obsessed with elector-shock therapy. This moron got overly cocky and completely recast his mask not even bothering to remove it from the mold until he reached the final looks stage. It cost him too. The entire thing was a total train wreck. Instead of looking like his character concept it looked like he left the mask in the car to melt.

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Sue: Hadephobia or the fear of hell. Her character was a demon (I think) and the elements on their own were really cool but they didn't really mesh together to form a single visual thought.

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Tara: Ommetaphobia or the fear of eyes. She had no idea where to go with this character. She actually over complicated the entire process by over thinking the fear of eyes. She eventually came up with a half-baked Egyptian thing, She's lucky she was safe.

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Ian won for his amazing tooth fairy. Not only was it an original and fleshed out concept, his MacGuyver-esque use of cling wrap to texture the chest won him some serious extra points. They sent Brea home. The judges agreed that it was a half-assed execution. Personally I would have sent that ass Jerry home. He's been on the bottom every episode. This so far has been my favorite episode, movie monsters AND Tom Savini!!! *swoon*

Next week Sam Huntington from Being Human guest-stars with a whole bunch of real-life wild animals. The artists must create "beautiful but deadly" makeups inspired by animals. Here's a clip.

I hope y'all are enjoying this season as much as I am.