I've completely outgrown my cabinet. This is sad.

This should be my cue to stop compulsively buying makeup and beauty products... Instead, I'm going to go get another cabinet.

I tried reorganizing it today, after trying to squeeze in some extra items... It's just not happening.

The top three shelves are all fragrance, the middle is body spray ( I don't know why I freakin buy this stuff) and the bottom ones are all lotions/creams/butters/what-have-you.

I can not even fit my Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab collection in there. I had to buy a special box for that. With the 17+ bottles on the way to me, and the mountain of imps and frimps that follow, I'm going to have to find a Plan B.

I have a small mountain of product piling up, as it has no place to go at the moment.... I'm constantly knocking things over.

My lipgloss case is also overflowing, as well as my MAC Tour de Pink. I have stuff everywhere waiting to be put somewhere... GAH! It's taking over!

I have more things on the way, too. At least with the new job I'm saving more than I'm spending... But I feel the need to collect. I love to collect things. The things I've collected are collectively collecting into an uncontrollable collection.

I need suggestions. Storage. It's insane. I think I am going to have to move the furniture around to find an attractive way to store my stash.

It's kinda funny though, when I open my cabinet. It's like a Sephora or a little makeup store, with all the bottles and jars and such all lined up and on display.

With all that's going on right now, I'm in need of some good retail therapy.

I'm making a lot more money now, so it looks like I can afford some upcoming MAC collections.

Now, people have been hearing me rave about Sweetie Cake... I just saw something this morning that pretty much overshadows Sweetie Cake. Behold:





LURE.

Pretty much my favorite collection last year was Belle Azure (tied with Rebel Rock) and this seems to be Belle Azure : Revisited.

The shadows are completely different, but look! Limited Edition Packaging! Almost entirely identical lipglasses- I can finally have Elle and Pink Clash! New pearlizers! Did I mention Limited Edition Teal packaging?

I'm a sucker for packaging. It's bordering on tacky, but oh how I am CRAVING this right now. I absolutely can not wait!

Sucks that Black Tied and Idol Eyes are being repromoted AGAIN, but I'm so totally buying them cause this time they're special. I'll just keep them in the boxes for backups, I guess. Not that I could ever imagine running out of Black Tied, but... whatever.

So I may not end up buying much from Sweetie Cake after all. Maybe. Ok. I'll probably buy a lot, but I'm more excited about this.

AND! There's gonna be a collection with NEON LIQUID LINERS! I'm also buying all of those. Not only am I a sucker for packaging, I'm a sucker for neon colors.



Oooh, aaah! The colors, Duke, the colors!

On top of all that, I just won an eBay auction for Beaver Moon and it's the most orgasmically perfect scent. I'm obsessed with it now. I am on a quest to get as many bottles of it as I possibly can.

I'm hoping that the Monster Baits are somewhat similar. If in fact they are, I'm buying two more bottles of each.

I can't get enough Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

I took a bath with a LUSH Bathos bubble bar slice this morning, and now I need more of that. Violets... Mmm... Purple water... mmm... And somehow I think it took the brassiness out of my hair. A plus.

Between BPAL, MAC and LUSH (wow, how creepy. All caps. Huh.) I'm not going to have much money left over!

Also: I need some cute boxes. I need a rather huge one to move my lipgloss collection into. My already huge one is pathetically inadequate. I need another box for my Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. And finally, I need another for my MAC stuff. It has outgrown the many homes it inhabits... It's just taking over...

I think I'm gonna go back to Ikea and get another cabinet. One just for perfumes, and one just for lotions. They're together in one right now, but it's dangerously crowded. That's sad. I need two 6.5'x2.5x2.5 cabinets to hold just my lotion and fragrances.

Hey.... maybe I should get one for my lipgloss, too!

WOOHOO! Sweetie Cake!

WOOHOO! Dragon Moon!

I dropped a paycheck on MAC and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab in the span of 36 hours.

From Sweetie Cake I got:

Lipstick - Fashionably Fuchsia (Ok, so that's from Classic Coordinates. )

Softsparkle Eye Pencil - Ultra-Chill

Tinted Lipglass - Sweetie Cake

Pigment - Pinked Mauve

Tinted Lipglass - Pink Meringue

Tinted Lipglass - Mouthwatering

4 Sweetie Cakes (palette)

Tinted Lipglass - Petit Four

Pigment - Lily White

And when I pay off my car insurance I'm gonna get the rest of the Softsparkle Eye Pencils.

From the Dragon Moon update I got:

Dragon Moon
Neptune
Pluto
Shill
Midway
Torture King
Snake Charmer
Freak Show
Eat Me
Drink Me

From April Fool's update I got:

Enraged Bunny Musk
Monster Bait: Underpants
and an imp of Persephone

I shouldn't have to spend any more on Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab until the next update, so I'm gonna try to save.

I got an invite to the Sundressing event in the mail today. It came in a cd-sized envelope and it was printed on a thick cardboard... coaster? It's pretty sweet. The makeup is 60's-tastic. Kinda tacky, but so awesome to look at. I haven't RSVP'd yet but... I'm going to. Is this the collection with Lure, Bait, Hooked? If it is I'm SO buying everything! (See previous post)

I decided against getting Apricot Pink pigment because it looked to similar to Deckchair and Goldenaire, both of which are kinda blah and I never use, and I only bought because they were LE... I may cave and get Apricot Pink just to have it, but... Bills. I wanna buy a HOUSE. And stuff like that.

Can you believe that this is the first time I've bought MAC since JANUARY? The last MAC I got was a Valentine's Day gift (Culturebloom!)! I feel... Kinda proud... I think. I can't remember what the last MAC I bought was... Thunder Eyes quad for sure... Tint Toons? Lingerie? Wow... That's... amazing.

I haven't bought anything from Sephora for about that long! I was gonna buy Miss Dior Cherie the night of the Culturebloom event, but Sephora was closing in... Well, it was closed. But they let me in anyway, because I'm a BEAUTY INSIDER (ha, ha...) Seriously... they did. I'm not kidding! I went in and sprayed it on my hand and fell in LOVE... But like I said, they were closed, so I got out of there before I spent another $75 on what is essentially stinky water.

I'm trying to kick the habit... I can quit anytime I want!

I bought stuff from LUSH intending for it to be here for Valentine's Day... and it's still not here. In fact, it's due to arrive on the TWENTY THIRD! I ordered it on THE NINTH!!!! WTF?!

Anyway, I ordered twice, because the first time I didn't know about the Big Frees OR the BOGO thing.

Soft Coeur (the Honeymooner)
Chocolate Whipstick
Honey I Washed The Kids Soap
Rock Star Soap

Snowcake Soap
MA BAR
Candy Fluff
Smitten Hand Cream
American Cream
Sea Vegetable Soap
Butterball
Sandstone Soap
Avobath x2 (my BOGO, although on second thought, I should've gotten HITWK)
Waving Not Drowning

All I can say is... They better send me my Big Frees and some samples! I've never tried LUSH and this is kinda expensive just for soap... I mean, a $6 bath bomb? Daaaaamn. You NEVER hear me complaining about expensive, so I'm kinda worried. I just spent $100 on a bunch of products from a company that I've never tried.

Did I mention that I got a raise?

I'm getting another raise sometime next month, too. More $$$ = More MAKEUP!

Really, it should be save more, but... I can't help myself...

I'm actually thinking about ordering Two Timing Tart, Soap Sod, Demon In The Dark Soap, Angels Delight, Cereology and another HIWTK and Snowcake. WHY?! I don't understand what my problem is.

I HATE waiting forever for orders. I haven't gotten a tracking number for CB or BPAL yet, and I haven't gotten one for my second LUSH order... I'm getting pissed. Now, I knew BPAL can take up to 2 months to ship, but the other two should have mentioned the long shipping/processing times somewhere... It seriously makes me want to eBay this stuff instead of buying it from the actual retailer.

Ironic... I see a lot of people selling their Big Frees gifts on eBay right now...

EDIT:

Ok. I caved. I got:
Demon In The Dark Soap
Angels Delight
Cereology
Snowcake Soap
Figs and Leaves Soap
Soap Sod
Blue Skies
Fresh Farmacy
Two Timing Tart
Mange Too

And that's IT! No more LUSH... Unless I'm hooked and I need more of whatever. I pretty much got all of what I wanted, save the few things I'm on the fence about. We'll see.

I had to get Waving Not Drowning cause it reminds me of a line from a Bush song- Are you drowning or waving? Need you to save me... I know, it's a poem by whoever, I saw it in my AP Lit book in high school, but Bush is close to my heart.

I'm having an issue with Lush on the name of Mange Too. I know that it's Mange- the word for "Eat" cause I'm Italian and you're always hearing your grandfather telling you, "Mangia! Mangia!" so I'm assuming Mange is French, like the Italian Mangia... I just can't help but think of mange.. The dog parasite...

Mange is kinda like lice and it's really not something you'd want to name a product after... It looks like a treatment more than an edible massage bar... But, whatever, I didn't name it.

Now to wait another 2 months for my damn orders to ship. No free shipping, either! I must be crazy.

I'm in a fragrance mood lately... I've been buying them like crazy this month. I've been rounding out my Comptoir Sud Pacifique collection, and finally got around to ordering my CB I Hate Perfume stuff and my first order from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

In all:

Escada Pacific Paradise
CSP Vanille Banane
CSP Vanille Pinapple
CSP Vanille Extreme
mark. Karmala
mark. Luxe Fever
mark. Hollywood Pink
Aquolina Chocolovers

CB Burning Leaves
CB Winter 1972
CB Russian Caravan Tea
CB Mr Hulot's Holiday
CB In the Summer Kitchen
CB In the Library
CB M1 NARCISSUS

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (just Imp's Ears until I find out if I actually like them)
Black Forest
Hamadryad
Follow Me Boy
Whip
Asphodel
Black Tower
Tempest
Empyreal Mist
Leanan Sidhe
The Ghost
Omen
Hellfire

Did I go a little overboard?

The next one I'm gonna buy is Miss Dior Cherie. And then I think I'm done for a while...

I've never tried Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab before, but reading the descriptions of some of the scents really has me intrigued...

BLACK FOREST
This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress.

THE BLACK TOWER
A sepulchral, desolate scent. Long-dead soldiers, oath-bound; the perfume of their armor, the chill wind that surges through their tower, white bone and blackened steel: white sandalwood, ambergris, wet ozone, galbanum and leather with ebony, teak, burnt grasses, English ivy and a hint of red wine.

EMPYREAL MIST
A hazy, soft, veiled scent: mist floating through twilit skies, curling gently towards the heavens.

HAMADRYAD
...Seven dry woods with mossy lichen and a gentle breeze of forest flowers.

LEANAN SIDHE
...Her perfume is a crush of Irish herbs and flowers, Gaelic mists, and nighttime dew.

OMEN
Deep, mysterious, and full of dark portents: oakmoss, juniper berry, myrrh and patchouli.

TEMPEST
A crisp ozone-tinged breeze. The scent of the first gentle rain before the storm.

THE GHOST
A thin, sinuous, creeping chill, the scent of glee-filled undeath: white iris, osmanthus, Calla lily, tomb-crawling ivy and a coffin spray of gladiolus, lisianthus and delphinium.

WHIP
Agony and ecstasy: black leather and damp red rose.

ASPHODEL
The grey and ghostly flower that fills the fields of Hades.

HELLFIRE
A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass.


I really can't wait to smell some of these. I've had a craving for rich, woodsy scents and some of these sound incredible. We'll see, though. They were cheap, so no loss if I hate em!

Hopefully they don't all smell like headshop and stinky hippies.

Tomorrow is the Culturebloom event that I was invited to. I RSVP'd and they said they'd give me a confirmation call with a time slot, but they haven't yet... Ummm? It's tommorow and I'd like to know when I'm supposed to come. If not, I'm not too upset about missing it... I can wait three more days to get my hands on the collection.

I think I'll save my money for Sweetie Cake, since I just saw all the pictures of it. I think I like it better than Culturebloom now. Hopefully the quad isn't blah and boring like all the recent ones have been.

Boudoir Hues, I'm so disappointed in you. You too, Thunder Eyes. Laze Eyes, I'm not even gonna go there.

I actually don't feel the need to compulsively buy makeup right now. Amazing.

I can't help but feel a strange sense of glee when I open up my... what should I call it? Beauty Cabinet. Yes, I have one of those. It's around... 6'.5 x 2' x 2.5'-ish (yeah, pretty damn big) and overflowing with product. I don't keep my makeup in this, but I do keep most of my non-makeup beauty products. It's so full, I'm actually thinking about buying a second one.

My makeup, on the other hand, is stored in two different places. Lip products are in two large cases. Non-MAC are in a very cute makeup case that my mom got from QVC and gave to me for Christmas a few years ago... And MAC lip products are in my Tour de Pink traincase (which is full.) All low-end (Bonne Bell stuff, you never get too old for that!) are in a box that a Juicy Tubes gift set came in. And then there's my MLS which I've had to divide between 3 cases because my collection is getting out of hand. Whatever isn't in those places is in my purse/car/vanity/pockets/wherever.

Non-lip products, which includes facial skincare, foundations, concealers, blush, bronzer, beauty powder, primer, eyeshadow, liner, mascara... you get the picture... Are in a large roll-top desk which I use as a vanity. I'd also consider this to be overflowing with product. Between my vast collection of MAC eyeshadows and brushes and drawers of stuff I rarely use... I have enough for 4 lifetimes.


On to the point here... Yes, there is a point. The reason I'm mentioning all this is because I'm the only one who knows about it... Besides you, cause now you know. And knowing is half the battle! Er...

I don't have any friends that wear makeup. I have my mom, who got me my first makeup ages ago.. It was a complete Victoria Jackson set. She's now LOLA cosmetics... But I remember all of that first stuff. She started me out in high-end makeup (I suppose VJ was considered high-end) and I've never looked back.

I could say that two of my friends wear makeup, but one is the wrong-foundation-color and brown mascara type, and the other is the poorly applied orange bronzer and smudged-on-the-eyelid mascara type. I don't even consider that makeup... there's no beauty in that.. Unless you consider orange lines on the side of your face beautiful.

Yes, I am completely alone in my addiction. It's difficult, because I have no one to share it with. When I've tried, they just call me crazy. K always wants me to go shopping with her, and usually I oblige her. We go to the mall for HOURS at a time, I wait patiently in The Limited while she looks at clothes and shoes and who knows what.... We go into the Gap, Old Navy, New York and Co... And I am patient, as a shopping companion should be.

When we finally pass MAC, or Sephora... or hell, even Bath and Body works... Oh boy. I go into MAC for five damn minutes and I hear, "Is that guy wearing mascara?!" "$14 for that little thing of eyeshadow?!" "Who would wear that color?!" "I would never spend that much on makeup!!" "You don't need that!!" "You already HAVE a lipgloss!"

Never mind the fact that she just bought $300 worth of shoes that she'll probably wear once, and they pretty much all look the same. We won't even go into how much she spent on clothes. But nooooo. I look at the one thing I choose to spend my hard-earned money on and suddenly I'm the crazy one.

I guess I'll find someone eventually... But for now, I just have to deal with the fact that I'm insane.

My enormous product collection has become my secret dirty pleasure. I know that no one else I know has any of the things I have. It's my way of being a snobby bitch without even trying. I just loooove being able to open my cabinet and not be able to choose which perfume to wear today because I have so many of them... I love having 30 different kinds of shower gel to match my every mood... I love being able to wear 9 different colors of eyeshadow at the same time and make it look amazing, like a multi-faceted gem glimmering in the sun.

But one day, if someone comes along... Someone just as crazy as I am... I'm never gonna let them go.

You know... As much as I love my fashion/beauty magazines... They give some pretty bad advice.

I was reading the new issue of Allure today, and in the section about brights, they tell you to, get this, "Dust powder over your eyelids before applying shadow." Uh... yeah. And that's gonna help you HOW? By making your expensive high-end shadow (like a $48 Dior palette!) so sheer it just looks like drugstore shit?

I mean... that's the LAST thing I'd tell anyone to do. The reasoning they had for that was that a creamy base would cause your shadow to be blotchy... Yeah, blotchy if you're a dumbass and can't apply it or blend... Yeeeesh. Who writes for these magazines?!

Or like when they say to apply moisturizer before your self tanner... So that your expensive bottle of self tanner is practically useless? So none of it absorbs into your skin and you have to reapply 20 times to get any color? So you're streaky like some kind of skanky zebra? Yeah, if you know how to apply self tanner, you won't have a problem. But apparently the writers of Allure don't know how to do anything...


Well, I guess if you've seen pictures of the people who write for these magazines I guess you'll understand. They all look like lazy, greasy moms who don't shower or wear makeup... Yep. That definitely makes you the authority on beauty, eh? Isn't that right, Stinky?