Fashion and beauty Archives - Page 27 of 34

October 18, 2015

Choose Happiness with Miss West End Girl

Lynsay Neil is a 30-year-old writer, podcaster and creator of Miss West End Girl blog, from Glasgow. We chatted to Lynsay to find out how she started her blog, her style tips and tricks and her colourful tattoo collection…

How did you get into blogging? I’ve always had a deep love for writing, ever since I was a kid – when all my classmates wanted Tamagotchis (remember them?!) I was asking my parents for a typewriter. It seemed like a natural progression for me to start a blog as a platform to share my life and stories. I used sites like Livejournal and MySpace when I was younger, like most people – but it was when I took the plunge and got my own domain space that I considered myself to be a blogger.

How did you start? I started blogging under the name Miss West End Girl about five or six years ago. It started off as a fashion blog, because I was reading a lot of fashion based blogs at the time and also because I love to have fun with my own personal style. But over the years, it’s evolved into what I consider to be a lifestyle site as I love to write about all manner of things that make me excited, so much so that I have to share the details with my readers.

What can people expect to see on your blog? My blog is essentially a guide to living life with joy and style, and embracing what makes you unique. You can expect to find guides to Glasgow (my home city), personal and blogging advice, DIYs, interiors, personal style, beauty, food, travel…the list goes on! In a nutshell, it’s the things that make me smile and that I think will make other people smile or feel inspired.

You have a lot of positive messages and upbeat posts, how have you cultivated this mind set? Any important life lessons for our readers? That’s very kind, thank you! I think that happiness is a choice and it’s one that we make each day when we wake up. Negativity is pretty toxic stuff, and even though it’s easy to feel dragged down, I try to concentrate on the things that should be celebrated. We only get one shot at life, and I firmly believe we should make the most of it! Be adventurous, be kind, look after yourself and believe that you can do anything (because you can!).

Do you have any advice for people either thinking of starting a blog or who have one already? Think about what inspires you and go write about it. There is no right way or wrong way to blog – that’s the beauty of it! If you’re writing something that you don’t care about, or for the sake of it, it will show. Don’t put pressure on yourself either – some of my favourite blogs are only updated once in a while, and when a new article drops I get super excited! You’ll find a rhythm and routine that suits your writing style and your life.

How would you describe your fashion style? Where do you shop? How has it evolved? Sometimes I feel like I’m permanently dressed to attend my own birthday party – I love to wear bright dresses and statement accessories. I’m rarely seen without something on my head – be it a flower crown, a glittery slice of pizza or a massive bow. My personal style has been described as ‘cartoon-like’ which I take as a compliment!
I shop in a variety of places because I don’t tend to stick to whatever is ‘on trend’. An average outfit could be a mixture of indie designers, vintage, thrifted, high-street and high-end. I love discovering local design talent and people who are thinking outside the box. I like to have fun with fashion and dress for myself!
When I was a teenager I was a bit of a sulky goth, all black jeans and kohl eyeliner. This has massively evolved – particularly as I studied film and media at university and feel very inspired by some of my favourite colourful characters.

Does your home/homewares reflect your style? Absolutely! After eight years of renting beige nightmare flats, my boyfriend and I bought our flat last year and have been having the BEST time decorating it. I love sharing home tour posts of the flat on my blog so I can document our little interiors journey! After I posted pictures of our living room, an interiors magazine wanted to run a story on our bright and cheerful home – we ended up getting a 12 page feature in a magazine and I still can’t quite believe it! I’m proud to have created a happy home that I can relax in. It’s somewhere I can write my blog and record podcasts, as well as hang out and entertain friends.

What are your beauty secrets? Any tips or tricks for our readers? Finding products that work for you and make you feel amazing is my number one tip. I’d feel lost without my eyeliner flicks and a pop of bold lip colour! The best way to get comfortable with make up is to get in front of a mirror and practice – it’s also fun to experiment with products until you find what’s right for you.
Skincare wise, I am all about the classic advice. Look after your skin so you don’t end up looking like a second-hand handbag! Wear sun protection (minimum of SPF 50, especially on those tattoos!), drink water, moisturise plenty and always remove your make up before bed. Some advice never goes out of style!

What inspires you? I feel inspired by lots of things, but if I had to pick one thing it would be meeting other people that are passionate about what they do. That kind of feeling is infectious and you can really feed off of each others’ good vibes.

Can you tell us about your tattoos? I have 14 tattoos, and have been getting tattooed for just over 10 years. My very first tattoo was my stocking seams, which run from my achilles heels right up to the top of my thighs – go big or go home, eh? They were inspired by my love of vintage glamour and pin-up culture. This was the only grey and black work that I have had done, every other tattoo is very bright!

My tattoos don’t have too many meanings or tributes behind them – with the exception of two! I have two tattoos that are matching ones with my boyfriend. We got them on our fifth and ten year anniversaries.
I like to think that my tattoos are a reflection of my personality, as they are very feminine and colourful with a rock n’ roll twist. On one arm, I have an old fashioned perfume bottle, a Russian doll, a spider web (bright pink, of course!), a cupcake, a sugar skull, love heart candies and a lipstick. On my other arm, I have a swallow, a strip of pink leopard print and a lucky cat. My legs have identical stocking seams and I have a heart-shaped locket on my foot.
All of my pieces have been custom designed, via consultation and brainstorming with the artist so that we get it just right. I’ve never regretted a tattoo and put a lot of planning into each idea.

Do you have any future tattoo plans? Always! I think about getting tattooed all the time, and with so many amazing artists posting their work on Instagram the only question is, who to book with? I feel like a kid in a candy store.

October 1, 2015

Pastel Paradise: Lemon Freckles

Toni or Lemon Freckles is a 30-year-old illustrator and blogger from Sheffield who lives in a pastel paradise of pink hair, her pugs and girl gang inspired drawings. We chatted to Toni to find out more about her fashion and artistic style, how she became a blogger and her tattoo collection…

When did you start blogging? How did you get into it? I originally started blogging around 10 years ago under a different name but Lemon Freckles is around five years old I think. At the time I was working full-time in mental health and in need of a creative outlet, blogging seemed like something I was able to do while working full-time, I didn’t really think anyone would ever read it.

What things can people expect to see on your blog? A mixture of things, I like being able to share what is happening in my world; from my latest cute find to things that inspire me. I want Lemon Freckles to be a positive place, full of colour and silliness.

Do you have a background in art? No, my degree is in mental health but I have always been a doodler. After 10 years of working in the mental health industry, I decided to take a step back and reflect on what I enjoy doing and last year I enrolled in a year long course in design. A few months ago I went self-employed full-time and it has been one of the best decisions I have made.

What inspires you? Colour and my ever so slight obsessive collecting of cute toys from my childhood. I want to bring back a little bit of that magic I left at the school gates sometime between the late 80s and early 90s. I am a firm believer that just because you’re an adult, it doesn’t mean you have to act like a grown up.

What things to do you like to draw? The more colour the better in my eyes. I love doodling toys and making characters out of everyday objects.

What medium do you use? Pen and paper, Illustrator, whatever is to hand.

How would you describe your style, both in art and fashion? I think they are both the same, eclectic. It’s all in the detail, from the Polly Pocket earrings to the denim jacket covered in patches, the more cute the better!

Can you tell us a little bit about your tattoos? Of course! I actually only got my first tattoo last year, which was a pug (a forever reminder of my two furry pug babies, Doug and Lola) and since then I have got three more; a My Little Pony, a Lefton, Miss Priss Kitty tea pot and a sewing related one. Sam Whitehead of Blind Eye Tattoo Company in Leeds has done all of mine and also has the same love of cuteness that I do, which makes her wonderful to work with.

Do you think they have to have meanings? Nothing deep and meaningful I’m afraid. I get tattoos of things I love, things that make me happy and of course, the more colour the better.

Do you have any future tattoo plans? I’ve got one later this month actually, a Roly-Poly doll, which will be going on my arm. I’m wanting to get my full arm covered in cuteness over the next year, much like my style, eclectic and cute.

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015

The Art of Kaethe Butcher

Kaethe Butcher is 25-year-old illustrator based in Berlin, she creates beautifully simple line drawings that explore themes of sexuality, relationships and the body. Kaethe has created an illustration titled ‘Washing out the Realisation’, especially for Things&Ink inspired by the newly released Horror Issue. We chatted to Kaethe to find out more about her style and what inspires her…

Do you have a background in art?
If you ask whether anyone in my family is an artist then no. Once my mother told me that when she was young, she wanted to do an apprenticeship as a porcelain painter and I guess she was talented, although she wanted more practise. But in the DDR (German Democratic Republic, a former state) it was difficult for her and she gave up painting. I studied. I studied fashion design at university but we didn’t draw much on the course, in the first term we had a nude class. I guess that it trained my eyes to see more aesthetic things.

Photograph of Kaethe by Robin Kater

How would you describe your style?
Erotic artwork that is melancholic and mournful.

What inspires you?
Mostly through my own heavy heart and mournful thoughts. Melodies and song lyrics inspire me. I also pick out quotes from books when I am reading, or perhaps a movie scene or little details will inspire me. Like Moonrise Kingdom or Tomm Moore’s superb and lovely animation movies – just the colours or scene compositions. Also thoughts from people around me are very important!

What medium do you use?
Pencils from 2H to 8B, fineliners and eddings and copic markers, I want to use crayons again soon.

Which has been your favourite piece that you have created?
AURYN is my favourite piece currently. And ‘We Don’t Talk About That’ is my most important one for myself.

We Don’t Talk About That

Are there any artists you admire? Do they influence your art?
Yes! Takato Yamamoto, Vania Zouravliov, I enjoyed the Vania artbook that I got from a friend so so much!. I also love Egon Schiele.

Where can people buy your art?
Original artwork can be found on my Bigcartel shop. Prints and other stuff like mobile phone cases, t-shirts or totes you’ll find on Society6 and on Juniqe.

Can you tell us about your tattoos?
I have two! On my left shoulder I have the white rabbit illustration by John Tenniel from Alice in Wonderland, and on my right thigh I have one of my own sketches. It is of a girl and a little rabbit from behind . All of them are just black line work. I have wanted a third tattoo so bad for a really long time – a sleeping lion illustration from a Grimm fable book.
I mostly like tattoos which emphasize the character of a person or have a little story or thought behind – nothing spectacular but something. I don’t like those old-fashioned, pin-up, rockabilly style tattoos very much or those IT tattoos – even if they’re looking super good. They just bored me.

AURYN

September 10, 2015January 4, 2016

Sick Girls Official

Our guest blogger is 34-year-old Southsea creative Alanna Lauren, founder of RubyxRedxHeart. She chatted to Natalie Watts and Fox Xoft founders of Sick Girls an online store which sells creepily cool prints and accessories, about how they met, what inspires them and their tattoos…

Tell me a bit about yourselves! How long have you gals known each other and what was the inspiration behind sickgirlsofficial.com?

Fox: We’re both freelance illustrators from Toronto, Canada who graduated from OCAD University in 2012. We weren’t friends right away though. Eventually we bonded over Keyboard Cat, because remember that used to be a thing?

Natalie: We met in second year, some bogus computer class, it was supposed to teach us how to make a website, but clearly I learned nothing.

Fox: SadGirls started off because I used to be really into making zines at the time and Nat and I had a graphic novel class together and liked each other’s work. We decided to do a zine based on bad ass babes. I think we were vicariously living through our work and creating the world we actually wanted to inhabit, because in reality we were VERY poor, eating A LOT of ramen, while our tears bled the ink on our mountains of school assignments. Fast forward to three years later and basically we just got our shit together and shifted our medium from viewable art to a wearable product with a similar intent.

Can you tell us about your tattoos?

Fox: I’m in love with Alex Snelgrove’s work. She did the black woodcut flowers on both of my arms. Last month she did a woodcut Pegasus on my hip because I’ve been obsessed with Greek mythology for as long as I can remember. Those ones are amazing, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the stick-n-poke on my ankle done by the talented Open Entity, which is a drawing of the welcome mat on the door to Hell that Natalie drew as flash art. Because Nat is MLC (Major League Complainer) and has that WAH tattoo, I started calling her “Wahwah” or “Wahtalie” a while ago and it stuck.

Natalie: I have one tattoo I had done when I was 18 somewhere in Oshawa that is of a Welsh Dragon and then two that are stick-n-pokes. One of them was done by Open Entityand of just ‘zzz’ on the back of my arm, and the other on my ankle by a guy I was seeing – which is probably my favourite one – of the letters ‘WAH’… because I like sleeping and complaining.

What’s in a name? Who came up with sickgirlsofficial.com and what does it mean to you?

Natalie: I came up with the name Sick Girls one night while we were drawing, the name describes our style of art and ultimately it’s just who we are… I like the idea of being an outsider, and I like illustrating really gross shit. I am very shy, and have a hard time expressing my thoughts; I’m also a huge mumbler. I like the idea of being able to express myself through my illustrations. Sick Girls is a unisex brand, but definitely caters towards more females who want it to be known that they aren’t just your average girl. Pretty flowers and kitties? BORING! Slime and barf coming out of your eye sockets? Now that’s more like it!

What took you down the patches and pins route to showcase your designs?

Natalie: At first we didn’t have any patches or enamel lapel pins, for our first pop-up shop we began making Sculpey candy pins and necklaces, which were entirely handmade. I was also producing ShrinkyDink pins, which I still make today, but is time consuming and labour intensive. Once we started getting noticed on Instagram and making more sales, it was hard to keep up with producing all handmade items, so we started designing lapel pins and patches that we can get mass produced.

Fox: Patches and pins are great because they can add personality to a plain old bag or denim jacket. You can customize or make a statement on articles of clothing you already have. It’s great because everyone has their own collection that tells a story or says something about their personal aesthetic. I have my own pin collection on my bag, and I’m stoked every time I add a new pin because it’s another brand/artist I admire.

sickgirlsofficial.com has a strong message for women. What does it mean to be part of the ‘sick girls club’?

Natalie: For me, it’s just not really giving a fuck, like what you want, even if it’s not the norm. I mean I like drawing stuff that gets me excited, and I get excited by drawing gross shit. I’m happy that other people enjoy it too.

Fox: We’re all about being tough, never giving up and in general not giving a fuck if other people tell you you’re not good enough. We’re “sick girls” because we don’t have a “typical girl” image to promote. Being ‘girly’ or ‘feminine’ isn’t a fault by any means, but we’ve always balanced the feminine imagery with things that were gross, disgusting, and visceral. Even though “girls” is in the name, the brand is unisex though obviously some products cater more to the ladies.

What does the future hold for sickgirlsofficial.com?

Fox: We’re working on the wholesale game right now. We’re still selling products individually from our online store, but we’re starting to sell wholesale to shops worldwide. So far our merch is available in stores in Toronto and Ottawa and few cities in the USA. Next THE WORLD.

Natalie: I’d really like for Sick Girls to take off, I think in order for that to happen we just need to keep creating as much as possible. We’ve been discussing some collaborations with other companies, as well as working with a large design label, which will be using one of our products on their next spring/summer line. We seem to be getting more and more interest from stores to stock our products each month. It’s crazy to see how far we’ve come in less than a year, I think things just seem to be getting better with each passing month and can’t wait to see what happens!

September 4, 2015September 4, 2015

House of Butterflies

Justin Taylor and Charlie Lane are the creators of House of Butterflies, a small online business that sells framed butterflies, moth and beetles. The couple set all of the specimens themselves from their home in Maidstone, Kent. We chatted to Justin and Charlie to find out more about their arty adventures…

How did you start House of Butterflies? What do you create? The House Of Butterflies started from an idea we had at a craft fair, where Charlie was selling prints and original artwork. We thought it would be fun to do something together, we both share a common interest in taxidermy and art so thought why not combine the two. The framed butterflies idea came from Justin’s grandparents house as they have a small collection of framed butterflies hanging in their hall way. We both thought how great they look and wondered if we could make something along the same lines. We sat and researched the idea for a month or so before finally taking the plunge and having a go.

What inspires you? The inspiration for our boxes comes from the idea of preserving something beautiful. They are inspired a lot by the seasons, nature and by things we really like. We find when we sit and talk about ideas we tend to inspire each other. We try to choose the butterflies or moths first and then try to match the background to them rather than the other way around. The art in general is inspired by the outdoors; gardens, plants and animals.

Do you have a background in art?
Charlie: Yes, I studied at Maidstone UCA and have a degree in print making. I learnt a lot about etching and I helped with adult courses in a print making studio. I have done a lot of commission work for small businesses, band logos and for special occasions. I spent a couple of years in the tattoo industry working in a couple of small studios.

Where do you source your items from? We source all of our specimens from a entomologist based in the UK. He sources all of his specimens from butterfly farms abroad, people hear “butterfly farm” and usually think how terrible. When actually they are the most ethical way to source specimens, they bring employment to poor areas and stop the practice of wild collecting which has had a devastating affect on some species. Finding an ethical source and supplier was a big thing for us, a lot of time and effort went in to finding the right supplier with the legitimate source.

How do you create them? What is the process? The process is a fairly long one and takes time and patience, we had a few disasters at the beginning. We are completely self taught when it comes to the setting of the butterflies and it was a total case of trial and error. Internet videos make it look easier than it actually is.

The process starts by having to relax the butterfly, moth or beetle as they arrived to us in a dry/closed state. The specimens go into a relaxing tub which has a mild chemical solution in it. The chemical solution breaks down the enzymes in the specimens body making it pliable again. The specimens stay in the relaxing box until the reach this state, once there you can remove them and start the setting process. Opening the specimens is always the most fun part as you get see the true glory of what your setting. We pin the specimen to a setting board, which is a board with a small channel down the centre to hold the specimens body in place when you spread the wings. Then we very carefully pull the wings into the position we want using tweezers and then with strips of wax paper pin the wings so they are secure. We then leave them to dry out again for a number of days, depending on size. Then we unpin the specimen and then you have a set specimen, which is always very rewarding.

The vintage frames we stain ourselves to give them that old look, then we add the vintage artwork and add specimens we think work well with the artwork.

Where can people buy pieces? Do you do commissions? We have a small Etsy shop where people can buy from us, we update regularly with new items as we like to keep a good variety of pieces on there. We can be found on Instagramwhere with have a direct link to our store.

We take on commission work and our always up for a challenge, whether it be artwork or a specific butterfly or a combination of the two, we will always try our best to accommodate.

What are your plans for the future? We are hoping to keep going and maybe expand more, we do a lot of craft stalls, especially in the winter months leading up to Christmas. The big plan is to have a small high street shop where people can come in and browse.

How did you meet? How long have you been together? We met through a mutual friend who Charlie was tattooing, she thought we would get on well, turns out she was right. We had a few dates, realised we shared a lot of common interests and thats about it, and people say romance is dead! We have been together now for two years.

Can you tell us about your tattoos?
Charlie: My tattoos are a mix of things that remind me of all the places I have lived across the world as a kid, and pattern work that I’m really into. I like the geometric and dot work tattoo styles as it is how I myself draw. I like the work of Vana Chanelle, who has tattooed me a few times, along with Dan Frye who done a stunning traditional style Indian bride on my arm. I have tattooed myself a lot.

Justin: I’m a big fan of traditional style tattoos and love fat lined pieces. I have a lot of skateboard related tattoos as it used to be my favourite past time. I have a bit of a mix of black and grey, traditional colour and pattern work. I have my good friend Ben Griffiths to thank for a lot of my work, also Dan Frye and his partner EJ Miles.