Gotham City Sirens | Art Round Up #1

Hello there! Just wanted to make my first art post. This round up features 3 watercolor pieces I sketched in my sketchbook. I didn't initially intend to paint them which is why they were drawn on dry media paper but the washes of paint were light enough to not ruin and bleed through the paper. Though it did warp the paper a little bit but that was to be expected.

The characters featured are Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. They're typically featured as antagonists in various Batman comics as well as the aforementioned Gotham City Sirens. I wanted the pieces to be very messy since I think that the sirens would probably be a little roughed up after fighting but I did still want to capture their beauty as well. The individual pieces also feature the names of songs I think fit their personality or story. Just as a fun little addition.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out. I hope you like them too! (:

xx Anna

Too Faced: Return of Sexy

Two eyeshadow looks featuring the Return of Sexy palette
featuring Stila long wear lipstick in 'Patina' and NARS velvet matte pencil in 'Dragon Girl'.

Gonna be real honest and let you know that I'm not a huge fan of this shadow palette. It originally caught my eye because of the seemingly super sparkly shadows and the inclusion of a purple hued section which I'm super in to, but the pigmentation is non-existent and the sparkle is rather dull, even with an eyeshadow primer. Don't get me wrong, it's an ok palette. It's just not as fun or flirty as I wanted it to be and at gut-wrenching, very unsexy $49 there are a lot of better options out there. A Too Faced alternative would be their Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette, a much better investment than this chalky brick of a palette, but it has no purple/pink shades.

Also pictured above is Too Faced's Melted Liquified Long Wear Lipstick in the shade 'Chihuahua' (that's a mouthful). This shade on the website looks like a dusty mauve color and the packaging is even more pink, but applied to the lips this lipstick is more of a muddy, brown color which is really unfortunate. The formula is also pretty weird as it's very sticky and also separates in the container. It's possible that maybe I just got a faulty product but I probably won't be purchasing this lipstick again.

I'd like to point out that Too Faced is an awesome company and have a lot of products that I really like but I'd probably avoid these if at all possible.

xx Anna

Call Me a Narsissist

Now I don't consider myself a beauty guru by any means but I do enjoy playing around a bit with makeup. I own entirely too much of the stuff, some of which I don't even use (here's looking at you, $42 'Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat'; I hate you), which means I've been able to narrow down my favorite beauty brands over the years and the only brand I've been able to trust and rely on wholeheartedly is NARS cosmetics.

I have struggled with finding a solid foundation routine for years but was finally able to find solace in NARS All Day Luminous foundation in the shade 'Mont Blanc' because I'm a vampire and I hate the sun, paired with their blusher in the shade 'Super Orgasm' which I love to say in a ridiculously enthusiastic voice. The good people at NARS also recently sent me one of their Illuminating Multiple's in the shade 'St. Lucia' which I wasn't sure what to do with at first but I've discovered its good for light contouring, blushing, etc. You can do just about anything you want with that magical multiple.

Not to mention the wonderful majesty that is their lip pencils. Hands down my favorite thing to slap on my mouth for any occasion. Between the three different consistencies they have to offer in a pencil (satin, velvet matte, and velvet gloss), there are literally dozens of colors to choose from and IT. IS. GLORIOUS. I find that lip pencils are a lot easier to use than a typical lipstick and they seem to last a little bit longer and they're all so damn pretty.

Basically I feel like NARS has been consistent and concise with the quality of their products, something I feel is sometimes difficult to find in the makeup world. This makes their higher prices absolutely worth it. You deserve the splurge; trust me. Plus, the customer service end of this company goes above and beyond to make you feel special and important. 

Purchasing their products have left me so satisfied that I felt like they deserved a quick little shout out from me, the ever pleased #narsissist, to them, the ever impressive NARS cosmetics company; I <3 you.

Check out their site right HERE.

Casual Tuesday

On the way to Dragon City, a restaurant we haven't eaten at since Alec went on his adventure/internship to Panama. Andrew and I struggle to take nice pictures together.

Attempting to wrangle teenage boys into taking pictures results in something like this: grainy, blurry, unposed pictures taken in Snapchat camera.

Seth and I don't have any pictures together which is unacceptable for two best friends. After seeing these results, the reason why becomes fairly clear.

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"Skinny = fun."

A couple of days ago, a good friend of mine and I were out and about, lounging lazily on a windy pier in Fairhope, Alabama. We were talking about our siblings and our childhood and he was running his hands along his toned, fit stomach when he said to his upwards of 170 pound friend, "Skinny equals fun."

This comment hit me like a ton of bricks and I'm pretty sure I looked just as dumbfounded as I felt. I couldn't believe that someone so close to me would say something so insensitive, so clearly wrong, so casually to someone so clearly NOT skinny. After the initial shock of how quickly the conversation had turned from 4-year-old versions of ourselves shoving crayons up our noses to the serious topic of body image, I realized I didn't feel angry... but sad. I wasn't sad for myself; I was sad for him. His "skinny equals fun" comment wasn't intended as a malicious snipe at my body. It was a self-inflicted jab at his own physique.

I asked him what he meant. He went on to tell me about how growing up his family used to tease him about his weight, gave him a nickname based off of his chubbier body type that they still use to this day, and that eventually it had instilled in him a great deal of self-conciousness. He told me that he used to read magazines and watch movies that portrayed all these "skinny" people having a good time, doing cool things, looking glamorous.

It's highly unfortunate how much pressure is put on both women AND men by the media to look a very particular way. Women need to be "tight" and "thin" but also need big boobs and a butt. Men need to be "ripped" but "fit" (read as: washboard abs) and be strong enough to do like a bazillion push-ups. Not only are the standards of beauty set so high above average, but it seems nowadays that even after you've achieved this untouchable level of beauty that only celebrities or supermodels can reach, you still come under fire on social media outlets. "She must have had plastic surgery!", "His weight loss just accentuated his crooked nose!", etc., etc., and on and on it goes.

It's not just the media that's pushing this idea of a better, thinner you. When I was in high school, I struggled with an eating disorder. I was convinced that if I was skinnier, I would be happier (much like my high school aged friend thinks now). I didn't eat during the week, wouldn't bring lunch to school, and if I ate anything at dinner it was small portions of vegetables which I promptly vomited out of my system 10 minutes later. I went from 160 pounds to 135 over the course of a few months. People praised me like you wouldn't believe. My parents, my classmates, one of my teachers even pulled me aside after class to tell me how great I looked and how proud of me she was.

And man, that kind of attention and praise amazing. I ate less than ever! I hadn't had a french fry in 4 months. I didn't even know what chocolate or cheeseburgers tasted like anymore. I was "happy" but I was miserable. I had to watch myself like a hawk. There were times when I would cry over the toilet bowl because I just did not want to throw up again but I knew that if I let that donut I'd just eaten be digested, my whole system would be ruined.

Luckily, I broke myself of this cycle after I graduated. It was partly on accident since I went through a terrible break-up during which I drowned my sorrows in hearty meals of McDonalds at 11pm. Regardless the method, I gained all the weight back and then some. It's been three years since then and every now and then I still struggle with being positive about my body. I just have to remind myself that my self-worth is not tied to a number on a scale, big or small.

It's impossible to please everyone with the way you look. There will always be someone who thinks you're too fat or too skinny or they won't like the way you fix your hair or the way you do your makeup. You have to realize that the only person you need to please is yourself. If you don't like the way you look, change it. But don't change yourself because some reporter on E! News or some troll on Twitter or a naive classmate thinks that you'd look better if you were 10 pounds lighter/heavier or wore different clothes.

You are beautiful but it's not your weight that makes you that way. It's your confidence and your positivity and your uniqueness (as cliche as that sounds).

I love you. <3
-
If you have an eating disorder, you're not alone. You can message me on any platform if you ever need someone to talk to. You can also visit NEDA to get more information.

Have A Little Faith

Recently (and by recently I really mean the past 3 years), I've been struggling with feelings of hopelessness. At the ripe age of 21, I feel like I've already made enough mistakes to last an entire lifetime and really my mistakes have run the gambit category-wise. I've screwed up relationships, academic plans, job opportunities, etc. The list goes on and on. I want to believe I'm not the only person I know that feels like a total failure, to the point where it is debilitating and I can't bring myself to do anything other than lay in bed for hours, but I look around me and everyone I know seems to be making their way in the world with far less anxiety than I seem to have experienced.

I've taken some time to quietly ponder how this could have happened to me and I've realized that, while there were some outside influences causing me to make negative decisions and some people in my life that were not doing anything but "poisoning the water supply" as it were, most of my negative experiences have been due to uncontrollable feelings of fear and panic that have manifested themselves inside me. They are mind-made anxieties that have stopped me from progressing at a normal developmental pace. Now while this revelation is helpful as it has made me realize who my enemy is, how exactly do you combat the fears inside your own head?

The only solution I've come up with so far is to HAVE FAITH. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Right there in writing God is telling me that the feeling of hopelessness and like I have no worth in this world are not true. They're little lies that Satan and his little demon friends tell me to ensure that I stay this way, frozen in fear and uncertainty.

This doesn't only apply to me. It applies to you too, reader. I know it's hard to have faith. It's something that I truly struggle with too; it's a daily battle. If you ever feel lost and like there's no point in living or continuing on, just remember that God has a plan for you and it's one that will fill your life with purpose and joy.