How I achieved...Pastel Goth

I've always been mesmerised by gothic makeup in film and music. The theatricality of shadowy eyes, dark lips and pale skin shrouds the wearer in mystery. Do they want to be noticed? Or are they trying to hide in the shadows?

Rooney Mara's portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Robert Smith of The Cure, Nancy from 90s teen witch movie The Craft and Siouxsie Sioux all rock this dark and enigmatic look.

Clockwise from top left: Lisbeth Salander, Robert Smith, Siouxsie Sioux, Nancy Downs.

And it seems to be having a bit of a renaissance in the form of a new trend: pastel goth.

If pastel goth was a movie, it'd be Edward Scissorhands. The contrast between the mysterious, scissor-clad being from the eerie mansion against the perfect, pastel-coloured suburban homes highlights society's attitude to outsiders. But the pastel goth trend seems to have found a way for goth and pretty to finally get along.

A bit of a Tumblr sensation, usually consisting of girls who dye their hair pastel colours and wear clothes vaguely referencing goth culture (666, inverted crosses yadda yadda). Sometimes referred to as "soft grunge", pastel goths are often bitched about by grunge fans who accuse them of being posers. But I'm happy to embrace it, it's pretty fucking cute.

Since my hair is currently a shade of candy floss pink, I thought now would be a good opportunity to have a dab. So here goes:

Phase one - BASE

Moisturise and prime, apply a foundation 1-2 shades lighter than your skin, then apply a translucent powder over the top to set it. I used No7 Beautifully Matte cool vanilla foundation and Collection sheer loose powder. If like me, your skin resembles a warzone, dot concealer on to any scars or red marks before you apply any foundation. I swear by Kryolan Camouflage Creme Derma Color quintett palette, and use the greyish colour for masking any redness. It's AMAZING.

Phase two - BROWS

Choose a very dark brown or black eye shadow/brow shadow from a palette. You want the brows to be quite defined, so the darker the better. If you have quite thin brows, this is perfect for you! Remember the 90s when we just pluck, pluck, plucked? Mine are quite full, so I just took my Collection brunette eye brow kit, brushed the brows straight across rather than upwards, and used the black shadow to take the arch up a bit further than my natural line, to give the illusion of thinner brows. I'm not entirely sure it worked but I'm standing by my advice so there.

Phase three - EYES

The main event! Take a black gel liner, like Collection's lasting colour gel eyeliner and apply it to the upper and lower waterlines. This might feel weird compared to using a pencil, but it stays put for much longer. If it feels uncomfortable, just apply a little at a time and blink it out. Then take a black kohl pencil (I used Barry M super soft eye crayon) and apply a line to upper and lower lashes. Don't worry about it being neat as we're going to blend it out. Then take your gel liner again and apply over the top of the pencil lines. Do one eye at a time as you want to start blending it out before the gel dries. Take a small brush and blend the liner towards the crease of your eye. You don't want to go any higher than this. If you want to add more depth, repeat with more gel liner and blending upwards. You can't really have too much eye liner on for this look!

Now to add some warmth. Take a peach or matte gold colour eye shadow and apply to the lower part of the brow bone. I used the gold colour from the Barry M Eye Shine shadow and glaze palette. Blend this with the black from your eyelid. Apply a lighter brown in the inner corner of the eye and blend this with the black too. I used the 5th colour from the left from the Barry M Natural Glow shadow and blush palette. Then take a darker brown and apply to the inner V of the outer eye, remembering to blend, blend, blend. I used the darkest brown from the Natural Glow palette. Take a black shadow (Collection Work the Colour smokey eye palette) and apply this to the outer V of your eye. BLEND! Feel free to add more liner at this stage, if you fancy. Finally, add TONNES of black mascara (I used Rimmel Scandaleyes in extreme black).

Phase four - LIPS

To finish off the look, take your black eye pencil and over line the lips. This means applying the liner to the outside of your lips, which makes them look super full. Before you've applied anything else, you WILL look mental, but trust me. Take a nude lip liner, like L'Oreal Infallible lip liner, and blend with the black. Take a cherry red lip colour (I used Revlon ColourStay Ultimate liquid lipstick in Top Tomato) and apply this to your lips, sweeping in any of that smudgey black liner in with it. The finishing touch? A little more black liner to the corners of the lips.

Now, I was running a bit late and meant to be meeting my Mum in the pub in 25 minutes, so it was a quick dash to scrub all of this off before reapplying some slightly more "local pub-friendly" makeup before heading out the door. My face cloth was a very interesting colour...

I hope you've enjoyed my pastel goth tutorial! Please let me know if you have any questions about this look. You can find me on Instagram at @kurtcouturemakeup, Facebook at KurtCouture Makeup or Twitter at @k_couturemakeup. Alternatively you can drop me an email at kurtcouturemakeup@gmail.com.

johnny's bird revisited

I should be working but instead I'm rekindling my love affair with johnny's bird. I originally discovered this beautiful collection of photographs back in 2010, a mere 6 months after beginning kurtcouture (yes, my blog is 5 years old now!).

The photographer is Moni Haworth, a London based photographer who shunned the professional, well-lit safety of the studio and turned to the gritty, vintage, non-models who just don't give a fuck. You can practically hear the Hole soundtrack that would perfectly accompany these photos. You can smell the musty dinge of the grimey bedrooms. And you can sense the undeniable freedom. Moni chooses her models on their carefree attitude, and this jumps out of the shots and slaps you right in the neat and tidy face.

Her influences are trashy americana, David Lynch movies and the whole boy/girl on the run kinda vibe.

And did I mention how adorable the couples are?

Procrastination at it's sweetly grubbiest.

And on the 8th day women created porn.

"Feminism and porn go hand in hand" - Casey Calvert, adult actress.

Let's talk about sex, baby. More specifically, the debate of objectification of women in the pornography. Yes, the industry is seedy as fuck (no pun intended). And there are adult actors and actresses getting ripped off left, right and centre. But you could be subject to that no matter what your job or who you work for.

Casey Calvert, i-D Magazine

Social media has exposed young actresses - or female actors if you wanna get P.C,. bla bla - within the adult film industry who have been born in to the millenial generation. Why have one career when you can have 5? These gals are porn stars/fashion models/DJ's/jewellery designers and whatever the fuck pies they wanna get their fingers in to (sorry).

FFFFound.com

Artists like Japanese fetish photographer Nobuyoshi Araki have long since been lambasted by the general public for their perverse artistic vision and wholly recognisable S&M style. Yet it's been creeping in to the fashion industry for a number of years, perhaps without your every day consumer even noticing it. Alexander McQueen, Helmut Newton and Marc Jacobs have all taken inspiration from Nobuyoshi's erotic work, with the inevitable trickle down to the high street meaning you can't move in a bar for a girl in a skimpy caged bralet and choker. 

Lady Gaga by Nobuyoshi Araki

Sexual gratification is a basic human need. OK, so it's only a physiological one, (although certainly required for the existence of the human race, but let's not open that door), but the urge for sexual activity springs, for most people, from impulse and desire. Why shouldn't girls exploit this to their own advantage?

S&M Campaign by Alexander McQueen

Internet memes, hash tags and trends will come and go. But pornography in the digital world is here to stay. It's society's attitude towards it that needs to change. Let's stop burning our bras and start embracing it.

Army of Me

I'm about ready to explode! I seem to be having some sort of creative burst and I need to write (fine, type) it all up before I go nuts, so here goes.

So we've just had this years Winter Solstice, A.K.A the shortest day. This day comes on 21st December every year and it usually kick-starts a lot of complaining from the general British public - I guess we'd have nothing if not the weather to talk about. I actually find the Winter Solstice quite exciting though. The shortest day can only mean the days are about to start getting longer again, right? Although I think Winter is under-rated. So the trees are bare and it's a bit grey at times but there's some real beauty to be found too. Especially if you look up.

I've got some soul-searching to do, so I've taken some inspiration from the Winter skies and decided to go on a solo mission to Iceland for my birthday in March. Weirdly John Grant was on 6 Music this afternoon and did an hour long show called 'Songs from a Darkplace'. It was about how Iceland is a hot bed for creative talent. It was a wicked show with guests like Bjork and Damon Albarn talking about their experiences of this dark island of fire and ice that sits atop the world. Needless to say, it's cemented my decision to go.

I've always been fascinated by Bjork. My Dad used to have a few of her albums on tape back in the day, I'd never heard anything like it! She  was experimenting with unusual instruments and was never afraid to try something against the grain. Like any music that goes against the status quo, her first solo album 'Debut' wasn't well received at first - it came at a time when the music industry was swamped with men playing guitars. But today I think it has more relevance than ever. Instead of looking back to the 90s for inspiration, new artists should look to the innovative way that Bjork used disparate genres to a record without losing her sense of identity. I think this is something that Icelandic artists generally do very well.

I learnt today that John Grant actually lives in Iceland, and owes a lot of his creative abilities to his inspirational surroundings. Damon Albarn wrote 'Beetlebum' during his stay in Reykjavik (in my opinion, one of the finest Blur records) and Led Zeppelin wrote 'Immigrant Song' when they did part of a tour there in 1970 -

"We come from the land of the ice and snow

From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow" - Led Zeppelin.

It sounds as though the beautiful landscape coupled with long, dark Winters brings out your creative side. Get me there!

A close friend of mine went to see Bjork in concert in Reykjavik a few years ago and raved about it. He said he'd take me there to see the Northern Lights and do some partying in the city but sadly he died last year and we never got to do it. So Benji, I'm gonna live up to our promise.

He stole all hearts away. He stole my heart away.

The World discovered that Morrissey has cancer this week. Now I know it's not a dead cert (inappropriate pun, of course, intended) that he's gonna feel the soil falling over his head any time soon but I can't help but feel, in typical Morrissey style, very gloomy about this prognosis. I'd kind of always hoped Morrissey would live forever and this is a painful reminder that only vampires are immortal.

I've had the good fortune to see Morrissey live twice and they were the most emotive gigs I've ever been to. Like, I wept, for real. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why I love him so much, I'd like to say it's something to do with my own miserable upbringing but I didn't have it half bad as a kid! The first time I heard Morrissey's voice was when I was about 16, and he really did steal my heart away, keeping it locked in his impressive quiff ever since. He made me laugh, he made me cry. That was all it took.

From that moment on I indulged in standard fanatic behaviour - buying the back catalogue of CD's from The Smiths to his solo albums (OK haters, The Smiths also introduced me to Johnny Marr, but that's another story), seeking out posters, basically researching the shit out of him on dial-up internet. I even got "There is a light that never goes out" tattooed on my right shoulder when I was 18. My friends didn't really share the passion, not that it mattered. Then I went to University.  A wealth of indie discos and equally indie friends. We were dead cool obviously.

As the years have gone by I've drifted in and out of interest for other bands and musicians, and admittedly I've gone through phases of fighting Morrissey in the never-ending iPod shuffle war. I haven't even explored a lot of his new albums, although I'm impressed with his ability to stick to his ethical and artistic guns. But when all is said and done I'll never tire of him. We've come too far. My love for this handsome devil was reignited again late last year when he released his autobiography. This was a comprehensive chance to really get to know him. I laughed, I cringed. It cemented my opinion of him - that yes, he really is a prick.

So Moz, babes, please don't go. Everyday will be like Sunday. Every day will be silent and grey.

Feel better my love xx

90s Movie Babes that made me wanna be a 90s Movie Babe

I enjoy nothing more than a daily dose of 90s fashion inspiration - which usually leads me no further than these movie babes of yester-year.

These beauties contributed to my passion for grunge as they showed me how to wear the look. From Dionne's (Clueless) wacky take on tartan to the childhood nostalgia of Mathilda's (Leon) chokers I've taken inspiration from these 90s movie stars and applied them to my own style. So thanks ladies!

Starting with everybody's favourite miniature femme fatale we've got Mathilda (Leon). Her signature denim shorts, black bob and sun choker spawned many'a fancy dress costume for years to come. But if like me you're a fan of the grunge look this is a style that'll incite some memories of your youth but still work on you as a adult. Mathilda is wise beyond her years so it's quite a mature look for a kid anyway - minus the fluffy bunny!

So while I'd listened to a few Nirvana tapes and outgrown Ladybird clothing by the age of 10 (ok, ALMOST), I still didn't know what the next step was for me in the style stakes. Until a neighbour a few years older than me invited me over to watch her new video - Clueless. This coming of age teen film awakened my interest in fashion (THAT wardrobe!) and I went on to pester my Mum for clothes far too old for my age. I settled for a fluffy pen in the end. But while Cher gets the lion share of the style credit, don't overlook Dionne's courageous fashion efforts that make her a total Betty. From her braid accessories to that Dr Seuss hat Dionne can pull off even the most outrageous fashion statements. Which is why she like, totally made the list.

I couldn't make a movie babe list without including Bianca Stratford (10 Things I Hate About You). She may have been undateable in the movie - only because of those damn house rules though - but she had the boys flocking after her and I developed my own girl crush on her outfits. I still WANT WANT WANT her prom outfit! Those flashes of mid riff and super cute strappy 90s mini dresses made her a firm idol of mine.

Nobody does 90s trash like Alabama Worley (True Romance). Now while her style is more call girl than grunge, I have to give her credit for her animal print pieces! I'm a firm favourite of leopard print - faux of course - and her unconditional love for Clarence from the very first moment that she meets him makes it impossible not to adore her on the inside too. And you gotta love those electric blue sunglasses.

Light as a feather, stiff as a board - many a sleepover was spent repeating this incantation with the hope of levitating a friend (being the smallest, I was usually said friend) just like the girls from teen witch movie The Craft. But it wasn't just the appeal of having magical powers that made me love this film, it was the gothic schoolgirl outfits of Nancy, Sarah, Bonnie and Rochelle that have secured them on my movie babe list. I love a good crucifix and this powerful symbol usually finds it way in to my jewellery collection in some way, shape or form.

And last but not least (although this is in no way an exhaustive list of 90s movie babes!) I've chosen Janet (Singles). This is a movie about a bunch of twenty-somethings living in an apartment block during grunge-era Seattle. So how could the female lead NOT make it to the list? Janet's classic grunge-girl look of plaid, ditsy floral, 15 denier tights and leather jackets made her the icon to end all icons for me. I'm pretty sure that if this was real life, we'd be friends.

Who's your favourite 90s movie babe?