Tag Archives: 80s

welcome to the house of fun

2 Jul

It’s all go here at ImogenMaxwell.com this month; my birthday is coming… 

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… my new smart phone has made me 100% more obnoxious… 

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… and I’ve got new digs in Glasgow.  I move early August into the most friggin’ gorgeous flat I’ve seen in real life.  From the swamp of responses I received to my gumtree ad, a lone flower emerged from the mire… well, crap analogy but anyway, the best response to my ad led me to three girls around my age with a spare room in the west end.  Score! 

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they don’t know I look like this in the morning. Yet.

So that’s it.  I’m moving to Glasgow, decision made.  I now have the timetable for my course, I’m there 4 days a week (annoying) but have Friday-Saturday-Sunday off (excellent).

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Makeup Forever aqua cream shadows, Illamasqua powder shadow and sealing gel

 

Anyhoo.  Today’s hair metal classic is another wee diamond with a slightly WTF opening sequence, Summertime Girls by Californian poodle-permers Y & T.  Within this video you’ll find a wide world of 80s wonder – men in crop tops, a bikini that looks like pubes (why why why), a “heavy metal detector” detecting one of the band members buried under the sand, an actual mermaid and painfully high-cut swimwear that only the 80s can do.  

It’s this kind of fun, feel-good, dumb ole rock-n-roll that really makes summer, for me; it’s sure as shit not the drizzle, 90mph wind and 11-degree days here on the west coast of Scotland.  Enjoy!

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one day, grasshopper

22 Jun
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pop art makeup by Karla Powell

Yep, that’s a photo.  Of a person.  Not a photo of a drawing.  Isn’t that just MADNESS?  

Now that I have a not-that-smartphone, and Instagram (@imogenmaxwell of course), I can follow all the big kid makeup artists like the incredible Karla Powell who created the photo above, and feel sick with jealousy wherever there’s WiFi.  I can’t wait ’til I’m that good.

Why don’t you go have a look at the progress shots of Karla recreating this look at this weekend’s IMATS – http://www.instagram.com/karlapowellmua –  friggin’ mindblowing.

Anyway.  Next agenda item.  Today’s cowboy-metal gold is brought to you by Company of Wolves.  If you can ignore the horrendous opening, about a minute in comes the good stuff.  

80s dudes lost in Scotland, rocking out.  Kind of like me, but I’m a girl and my mullet’s not that long (yet).  Enjoy.

The pub in Doune is actually called the Hog & Heifer now, or something like that anyway.  Monty Python fans will recognise the castle.

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Titanium Dioxide strikes again!

25 Mar

mr burns

Just when you thought you had all the knowledge-power needed to win the war against makeup supervillain Flash Face…

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… THIS goes and happens.

The flash has picked up that Irene’s hair is loaded with Schwarzkopf got2b Volumising Style Powder; a product which has gotten quite mixed/negative reviews online.

As I have a mullet…

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Me and Chloe, ruling the world

…which is quite short on top, I find this product pretty good for fluffing my hair up.  Sure, it makes your hair feel a little matted, and yes, when you try to shampoo it out, your shampoo won’t lather.  If you put conditioner on it first it comes out fine.  I think the trick is to just use it sparingly… I seem to recall it took a good few days for Irene’s lovely hair to return to normal after this!

Do you know of any volumising powders/dry shampoos that are big-hair perfection?  Especially any that are darker in colour- a good dry shampoo that doesn’t just look like you’ve dumped a whole lot of talc in your barnet?  Do tell 😀

PS Today’s product recommendation – Maybelline Master Smoky shadow-pencil, which is a fat eye crayon number with a pointy foam smudger thingy on the end.  Pointy foam smudger thingies are great for sharpening/cleaning up a winged eye; use a clean one to give a sharper edge to a flick you’ve created using eyeshadow, for example.

The Master Smoky pencil itself is soft, full o’ pigment and excellent for darkening up underneath your top lashes, if you want them to look thick and fluffy and amazing.  That there tip, courtesy of Kevyn, is a great way to really define your eyes – it’s subtle but makes a helluva difference, I think.  Give it a go.  Any big-fat eyeliner pencil is good for cutting your teeth on that one.  They’re easier to apply.

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it’s raining rock n’ roll

23 Mar

What’s that you say?

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You like posts with photos of me in the nuddy the best?

You’re only human.

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But anyway, I didn’t put black lipstick with pink lipliner on to discuss that.  No.  I’m here to deliver the interesting-only-to-me news that my Jettblack tickets arrived.

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I love Jettblack because Jon Dow.

the man I'm going to marry

I’m pretty sure he wrote this song about me, which is awesome because I think it’s the best love song I’ve ever heard.  I very much look forward to meeting him and moving our relationship to the next level (reality).

Chloe is coming to see them too, of course.  She still owes me (and will always owe me) for the Hanson/Kelly Clarkson double-whammy.

imo at kelly clarkson

She was quite surprised when I breathlessly showed her the photo of my future-husband Jon, as she was expecting Jettblack to be in their fifties at least.  Just like every other band I’ve made her come see.

Happy hair-metal weekend, rocklings.

*No mullets were harmed in the making of this post – it’s just tied up.

PS Here’s a fun photo effects thingy – http://pixlr.com/o-matic/

PPS For my photo-editing I use http://www.photoscape.org

PPPS Oh yeah, this is a makeup blog.  So here’s a tip, I can’t remember where I saw it so I do apologise if I’ve nicked this from another beauty blogger who I’m now not crediting… but I’m pretty sure I saw it in a magazine so hopefully no harm done.  Anyway.  Make the darkest part of your eyebrows at the arch to make them look fuller, not the inside corner like you might think.  Boom.

PPPPS I STILL haven’t heard from Clydebank College about whether I’ll be offered a place on the HND in Makeup Artistry…

… the suspense is killing me…

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“Heroes”

21 Mar

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I put the brown-eye contact lens in for this.  Considering that I knew all along the picture would be in black and white, I hope you admire my dedication and attention to detail.  Dedicated enough to have an orange mullet in 2013, but not dedicated enough to shave my eyebrows off.

There is an exhibition at the V&A in London called “David Bowie is” until some time in August.  I am desperate to get down to it, so I think that’s what I’ll do for my birthday in July.  Yes.  Go down to London for a few days with Chloe.

Mum and Dad are talking about visiting from Australia in July.  Dad could take us to see where he grew up and tell us stories while we throw rocks into the Thames.  I could have almost my whole family there to watch me get old (minus big sis Phoebe, who is also my birthday buddy – we were born on the same day but three years apart).

If I get my way, I’ll also do a short makeup course while we’re there.

And then, there will be absolutely no stopping me.

how does she do it?

bowie does makeup

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is that… Alice Cooper?

13 Feb

No.  It’s Grant in makeup and a wig!

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Why so sad, Alice-Grant?  Is it because my plan to see your performance in Edinburgh on Halloween last year fell through, and you’re all bummed out because one of your fans never got to see you live on stage?  I was disappointed, too – Chloe and I were going to go as Wayne and Garth.  But it was not to be.

I didn’t think tickets would sell out as fast as they did, then BOOM all of a sudden they were £140.  Damn the scalpers, damn them all to hell (but not the good part of hell where I will be roasting marshmallows with all my friends in due course – the bad part, for bad people who rip music fans off.  Hisss)

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Well.  As I always say, if you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.  Didn’t get to meet Alice Cooper?  Just paint someone else up to look like him and voila.  We are the masters of our own destinies, the architects of our own fortunes, the creators of our own fan-girl photo opportunities, are we not?

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What we have here, for those curious about the technicalities, is MAC Paintpot in Blackground (that bad-boy’s been getting quite the workout lately, but it really is good stuff), just painted on with a concealer brush.

Add a black wig – I found this one under the reception desk – and fingerless stud faux leather gloves.  Borrow a leather jacket from a Spanish guy called Sergio (if you can find one), and Bob’s your uncle.  Or Grant’s your Alice.  Or whatever.

Have fun, dear children.

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men with makeup: Olli Herman

24 Jan

This blog is about makeup, and this photo is of a man wearing quite a bit of makeup.  So the relevance is tenuous, yes, and I’m happy to admit I just wanted to post a photo of me with the lovely Olli Herman, of Finnish glam rock outfit Reckless Love.

That’s us out the front of the Cathouse in Glasgow, after their gig in October 2012.  A lot of people, upon seeing this photo, don’t realise at first that he’s a bloke, but he’s all man in real life, oh yes.  Even with all the fake tan, eyeliner, long blond hair extensions, lip gloss, coconut-scented hairspray, bronzer, false eyelashes, skin-tight velvet trousers etc etc etc.

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A few things you can take away from today’s post:

1. Men in makeup are hot.  There were a lot of screaming women at that gig. Men in makeup are also manly. There were also a lot of rough, tough, tattoo’d, bearded, leather-wearing metal men there who were taking it seriously.

2. Anyone can pull anything off, so you should just wear whatever you want all the time, and don’t worry about what anyone thinks, because it actually doesn’t matter.  Regardless of what you look like, there are always going to be people who think you look good and people who don’t think you look good, but if you like how you look, who gives a shit what anyone else thinks anyway. Go see Reckless Love just quickly for a crash course in confidence; they’re amazing and very, very entertaining.

3. If you want makeup to show up in photos, you really do have to trowel it on.  I thought I’d gone a bit wild on my own eyeliner that night, but next to Olli I look relatively bare-faced!  Haha

Also, you have a right to know that I was wearing a pair of fingerless pleather studded gloves when that photo was taken.  Details are important.

“My style icon is anyone who makes a bloody effort.” – Isabella Blow

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