Alice & Black Tulip Beauty

Alice is a 21-year-old singer and blogger from Bristol, we caught up with her to chat all things beauty, tattoos and music…

How long have you been blogging? Officially I’ve been blogging just over a year but not consistently, I started my blog in January 2017 and posted a few bits and bobs on it, but unfortunately got really unwell and diagnosed with a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease so it took a back seat for quite a while. I’ve been unable to work properly since my diagnosis, so my blog has been a great point of focus for me and something I love that I can do from home. I started blogging consistently in July 2017 and other than the odd small break due to health complications, I haven’t looked back!

How did you start and what inspired you to create your own blog? I’ve always been more of a creative person than anything else. I had quite a lot of people coming to me and asking about my makeup and my skincare, so I thought creating a blog would be a great way to share my favourite products and my progress. I also worked in The Body Shop for a year and a half so I learned a hell of a lot about the beauty industry, ingredients and benefits for the skin from working there.

What do you blog about? What can readers expect to see? If you want to check my site out, you can find me over at www.blacktulipbeauty.co.uk. I have focused mainly on beauty with the odd post about my life, my illness and holidays chucked in. I do hope to expand the topics I cover on my blog in the next few months and start writing about fashion, events, health and food. I would love to start raising more awareness for the illness I have too as I feel it’s misunderstood and undermined as to how much it really changes your life.

What is your must-have beauty item? What can’t you live without? Oh gosh those are two very different questions! My must have would be the Morphe 35F palette, it holds incredible shades and is SUCH amazing value for money, the pigment is incredible! But a product I couldn’t live without is the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer, it’s incredible and covers my eye bags a treat!

How would you describe your style? I always say it’s kinda gothic/punky mixed with a bit of girly glam?! I love doing all my makeup and hair nice but there’s nothing more personally empowering than wearing a leather dress and fishnets and big chunky boots.

How do your tattoos fit in with this? Can you tell us about your tattoos? I think my tattoos fit perfectly with my style, I’m a big wearer of black and red which is what my tattoos are. The first one I got was a skull and rose at the Bristol Tattoo Convention in 2015. I’ve wanted tattoos since I was 12 and I decided to just dive in with my first and not bother getting a tiny one to test the waters. The second was my Grim Reaper which I got done at Broad Street Studio in Bath by Jimmie, it took a few sketches to get the ideal Reaper I had in my head right but I absolutely love this guy and it’s probably the tattoo I’ve had the most compliments on! My mum absolutely hates it though, she tells me to get him covered up.

My third was a floral mandala on my shoulder, I saw someone with something quite similar and fell head over heels in love. I got home and emailed an artist I’d been obsessing over for ages and booked it straight in. This has been my most painful as it stretches slightly up onto my neck so that wasn’t the most pleasant feeling. This one and my Medusa were done by Iain Sellar from The Black Lodge in Portishead which I’d highly recommend. Such incredible artists in the studio and I’ve had amazing experiences both times I’ve been!

My most recent was my Medusa, she is probably my favourite. I LOVE how badass she is and I think Iain did such an amazing job designing her. I love how intricate the lines are and I’m so glad we chose to keep her eyes hollow aswell, I think it adds an awesome extra creepy vibe to it. These are all I have for now as the medication I’m currently on slows down my immune system which could cause complications with the healing of any new ones but I really want Iain to finish my sleeve when possible and then I want to start on a big back piece!

Do you consider yourself a collector? I collect skulls! (not real ones!) I have over 100 skull related things in my room and my collection is still growing. This week I managed to bag a skull lamp for £10 in Asda and I’m not going to lie it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve been asked so many questions as to why I like skulls so much, I just think they’re quite fascinating! There is a post on my blog where I do a tour of my room and you can check out my collection on there if you’re interested.

Can you tell us about your singing? I discovered I wasn’t all that bad at singing and started having lessons around the age of 14 and went on to study it at college and then university. I realised the course I chose at university wasn’t for me and dropped out but still have a huge passion for singing. I’ve been in quite a few bands over the years and played all around Bristol and a few times in Bath and London. I don’t really feel like I’ve ever been in a band where I’ve been on the same wavelength with other members, in the sense of where we wanted to progress with the style of music we were creating unfortunately. I would really love to be able to find that in the near future as I really miss performing. I am currently working on a dance music project with two producers though which I’m really looking forward to as it’s a genre I’ve never done before!