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.