#I really need to stop using add glow layer

[sweetmapple]

Putting him in the blank void

[agua-cat]

RELIC HOLDERS - APHMAU

Please note this is a rewritten version of Minecraft Diaries, what is here is not completely canon to the universe and I have taken various creative liberties to create what I think is a satisfactory story. Some of these choices for the relic holders are NOT forever, as some relics get passed onto other people. This list, however, is pretty definitive.

I asked my friends if I should write starting from Aphmau or Laurence. They all chose Aphmau and I probably have the least amount of lore for her so let's see what we can crack out.

Let us Begin

There are many words to describe the lady of Phoenix Drop, though I thing a perfect one is ''Enigma''. From the very beginning, Aphmau was never normal. She was self-aware of the world she resided in to a unique degree, she could make different choices and unravel a story with her at its core.

Who she was had never truly been queried. She knew her name was Aphmau and she knew she had a village to look after. Shortly after the confrontation in the Irene Dimension with Zane, Aphmau found herself back in her old house. Her sons grown and her flame of motivation threatening to flicker out.

It was lucky then that day, Hyria came to visit. Lucinda's mother had gotten worried since some news about Laurence had broken out, and for some reason her daughter always seemed enamoured with him. During her visit, however, guilt burdened her every time she set her eyes on Aphmau's house. She had to tell Aphmau.

So, Aphmau knows that she is Irene. To what extent she believes it, she's not sure. Goddesses are supposed to be all powerful, all knowing. Even when Hyria comforts her that she was supposed to forget- the answer seems too easy. Too convenient. Aphmau wants to strive for answers beyond the blanket layer of information she was given.

Beginning the start of Season 2 for our rewrite is when markings begin to decorate Aphmau's skin. Beautiful glowing marks that define her easily; this woman is not human. She is not even mortal. Despite this, her closest friends are not put off by her change of appearance and keep her close.

Garroth brings her with him when the threat of Zane becomes evermore present once more. Zane, who now has gotten Laurence on his side. Laurence; with Shad's relic.

Every time Aphmau thinks of Shad- or Laurence- her heart pulses. She swears she can feel an echoing voice in her head. Something which tries to guide her, something with a lot more bloodlust than she could ever dream to have. Something Divine.

Travis offers her to recreate the Divine Warriors- to right the wrongs the 6 legends had before them in communication and to make something bigger and better than the burden that had been set upon their shoulders. Since she agreed, her divinity stopped hiding itself so much.

Piercing white pupils glow within her Irises. Perhaps one day they will be a pure white like the Matrons.

Becoming Irene is something that scares Aphmau. She doesn't want to be someone she seemed so keen to run away from the past. Aphmau wants to try again- this time, correctly.

~~~

HEYY SO. I HOPE THIS WAS GOOD. I'll probably post some more stuff about Aphmau as I go- I know right now as it goes this is all very ominous and a lot of information though!

I'm really sorry if the timeline doesn't 100% add up! A lot of my information is from nostalgia, memory and wiki's. I wish I had the time to rewatch MCD ;;

Consider this rewrite as of current from past the Irene Dimension fight. There will be information and rewrites from before that period that I'm working for but you know me! I like to start in the ocean and work my way back to the creek.

Thank you for reading. Your reblogs have made my day and give me so much more confidence in sharing something I've been passionate and yet nervous about. <3 Let me know if you need any clarification.

P.S. Whilst I am happy to take criticism or discuss this in further detail, that may be best for DMs! My DMs are ALWAYS open, and I promise I'm friendly :)

[thepinkseductress]

Do you want to smell like the yummiest and sweetest slice of Strawberry Angel Cake and fluffy whipped cream?

The best feeling in the world is when you walk past a group of people and you hear someone say, "She smells really, really good!" or just simply talking to someone and they say to you, "OMG GIRL! What are you wearing? It smells sooooo good."

Well, at least, I love it when people say that about me. My biggest goal is to not only be the prettiest person in the room but also the best-smelling person.

Personally, I love sweet scents with candy or cake-like notes. I'm a gourmand girly DOWN!! Its fu-serious!

Teeny-weeny little piece of info: I have parosmia, which means the smell factory in my brain is a little out of whack. UGH! I know. I can smell just fine, but I can be a bit sensitive to certain smells, in which they may smell a little off compared to anyone without parosmia. But I swear I am reliable.

Now before I tell you what scents I like to layer and what perfumes I like to drown myself in, it's vital to understand that smelling good starts in the shower.

To me, the foundation to smelling like a literal piece of heaven depends on your body scrubs, shower gels, body wash, etc.

My shower routine:

Always Always ALWAYS start with a bar soap. It leaves the skin feeling fresh and clean. We want a clean canvas (clean skin) to work with. More specifically, this soap has a sweet and soft scent to it. Almost Angelic. It has more of a vanilla smell than shea butter but is still an exceptional cleanser. BRAVO!

At least once a week, I'll use a body sugar scrub. Usually on Sundays, before a busy and treacherous week, I'll scrub off last week's problems with a course body scrub. I like my body scrubs to be course yet moisturizing, and lucky for me, I found one at TJ MAXX (my second home).

Currently, my favorite is the Body Prescriptions Sugar Almond Body Scrub (I can't find a pic anywhere. Sorry!). It has the smoothest consistency that will have your skin feeling the cleanest it has ever felt, while leaving behind a yummy shine that will have you glowing.

Lastly, I adorn my skin with this lovely lady. She Smells BOMB.COM!!! When I say it smells yummy, delectable, edible, sweet, and everything delicious, believe me, girl. I would never lie to you. EVER.

Take my word, Bestie.

MOVING ON!

After-shower care:

Usually after a shower, my lotion depends on my mood.

She's my best friend when I'm having a mild kind-of day. When I'm stuck in the house all day or if I want to enjoy the simpler things in life. She's smells light but sweet. yum.

For a more, INTENSE day, we use her. The holy grail. You get it.

Super sweet and a little childish in my opinion. But idk its heavenly.

BODY GLAZE My Love!!! I live by these two body glazes.

You can layer them on top of the lotion if you want. It's your life… Live it. Me, I rather prefer to only layer the Birthday Frosting BODY GLAZE.

In terms of Miss Strawberry Shortcake, I'll use her all by herself; no lotion is needed. She performs better alone. IMO.

Both project very well, suuuuperrr duuuperr moisturizing, lasts all day, and will have people stopping you on the street to ask you, "OMG GIRL! What are you wearing? It smells sooooo good." …see what I did there?!…no? oh…okay. 

Let's move on, I guess.

I don't care how good your skin smells. If you're not wearing deoderant and those pits are funky, Bitch, YOU'RE FUNKY. PUT SOME DAMN DEODORANT ON!

This does not apply to my besties who do not wear deodorant due to any beliefs or discrepancies.

Anyways, this deodorant smells like a yummy slice of coconut cream pie with a pina colada on the side.

Have you ever watched your mom, grandmother, or any older woman that you look up to powder themselves?

It's not just for sweat, honey. Some powders come perfumed to add a little "umph" to your hygiene routine.

This powder holds a very special place in my heart. It smells sweet and a little floral. A very true vanilla flavor. It almost reminds me of French vanilla ice cream or syrup.

I keep my powder in a powder dish with a cute little pink powder puff sitting on top of the powder.

After spraying on my deodorant, I'll puff this on my underarms, back, and in between my legs, and at night I'll apply some to my chest and belly. Usually this is added the areas that I sweat the most.

Now on the part that you've been waiting for! Or at least what I've been waiting for…

Perfumes:

BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN!!

…No, really…bow down.

This is a very sweet, cake scent that can be a little finicky. I find it hard sometimes to layer her with other perfumes or products that are more fresh or floral rather than sweet and gourmand. But let's take into account that I have parosmia.

Nonetheless, Mama is very sweet—almost too sweet, but that's what I want. I want you to get a sugar rush just from smelling me. And this perfume does just that. Projects beautifully and last almost a day. Around six hours later, I have to raise my arm to my nose to smell it, but during those six hours I can smell myself through someone else's nose.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but seriously, she smells strong, sweet, and yummy.

I spray my clothes with perfume. And by spray, I mean DROWN. My soaps, lotions, oils, etc. are really in charge of my skin.

I see shimmer mist as more of an oil than a spray. I know that may not make sense, but hear me out.

I like to spray this on the parts of my body that will be exposed, like my chest, arms, back, and legs. I may even spray a generous amount onto my hands, until there is a puddle of it in my hand, and I will rub it into my skin like an oil. See, like I told you, I treat this more like an oil than a perfume.

˚₊‧꒰ა 𓂋 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

This concludes my usual hygienic routing, buuuuut I'll tell you a secret. Only because we're like besties or whatever.

I like to lightly spray my underwear and socks with perfume. Usually something a bit stronger than a BB&W perfume mist. A cologne, basically.

This keeps my undergarments smelling yummy.

WARNING: Your partner will want to eat your panties right off of you. Proceed with caution.

Remember, bestie, this is MY hygiene routine. I am simply sharing just in case you needed a little help adding products to your arsenal or simply organizing your daily routine. If you do not like anything that I've listed or if you wish to add something, do as you wish, babes!

This is for inspirational purposes, LOL.

I understand this post may be similar to other girly bloggers, much like me. I can assure you I am not the first person to make a post as such, and I won't be the last. I just wanted to share.

My intention is to NEVER be a kopy kat (yuck)!

Okay, I'm done yapping. CIAO!

-ThePinkSeductress

⠀:¨ ·.· ¨:⠀ ⠀ `· . ୨୧⠀

[fountainpenguin]

"I was climbing, now I'm falling- I've been pushed off by a man who has made it to the top and now defends it 'cuz he can…" (x)

---

New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season

Chapter 38 - “Tuesday: Tango's Long Night”

❤️ Read on AO3

💛 Start from Chapter 1

💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics

---

Tango layers more anti-viruses in Scott's player file. This goes against everything he knows about corrupted code... Should he keep going? ... Or, without consent, do what he knows will actually save this man?

Meanwhile, Pearl balances Rhetoric, Scott, and Grian visiting her unit at the same time. Yeah, this is gonna go well.

# 1 of 7 of our monthly intermission chapters

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

---

Tango

🌕

Location: His studio, West Bailey Wall, Bottom Floor

🖤  🖤  🖤

Tango does not often regret choosing a path of codework. He loves modding. He loves adding pretty details; he loves giving people what they want and polishing the rough edges off blocky faces and backs and butts. His species is classed as avian, though he last respawned under a waxing crescent and lacks the wings and feathers to show for it. He's got tiny talons, blaze rods, and hair that shifts into flames, and that's it. Coding the fluff-tipped tail he wears now was a challenge that captivated his brain since the start. How do add twitchy muscles to lower back? Apply tail to butt, haha. Meld it in. Let the mind control it. Do it beautifully so it's elegant and won't drop frames.

His tail isn't dexterous, but he wears it like a trophy- Adding a mammal tail to a species that’s meant to have feathers there, and not only making it twitch and curl instead of hang, but look natural, is one of the most difficult things you can ever do with aesthetic mods. He's thinking of forcing out the wings he would have under a stronger moon, but never really got around to it. The conversion time takes a kabillion years. You gotta be careful with wings anyway- they release a lot of body heat. Between's a lot cooler than the Nether, so you might fall over and croak. You ever seen strider wings? Yeah, guess how much heat they put out, even if they are tough and resilient around lava. Anyway.

Let's just say it's a good thing his office doesn't have a window. He works with a lot of film in here, so darkness is peak necessity. He's got two copper bulb lights up tonight. The glow's hazy, but at least it keeps his attention on his work, eyes all goggled up and tongue pinned beneath his teeth. Working with player files isn't like working with redstone wiring, with all its tangled tubes of dust and tiny caps that easily get lost and spill all over the stupid floor. Nah.

Code work uses the coding table, and it's a whole lot less messy. You don't need to be super accurate. It's a lot easier to tap a delete key and remove a string of words than it is to rip out a chunk of wires and get all huffy when your machine stops working. They should sell more partly assembled redstone machines in the market- more than, like, comparators. Except all the serious redstoners still won't buy 'em in case corners were cut in the process and because they have to take 'em apart anyway to modify 'em, so there you go. Fiddling and tweaking can really suck you in. It's kind of like making banners you're printing on your soul.

Tango does not often regret choosing a path of codework. But it's a good thing he doesn't have a window. He glances up only on occasion, staring at the chipped, gunpowder-streaked blocks that separate him from the rest of the world.

I should be with the pack right now.

Hey. Little recap for you: Most people aren't going to bed tonight. The hub flower got skadoodley-yoinked. Without its roots hooked in, everyone's comm is black; they're all off the system. There's no way on a server right now. There's no way out of one either. The phantoms are under contract; they can't just log people out right now. Hope they got fed, then.

Eh, they'll be fine. They've got souls in storage. Tango keeps working, checking details on his screen and typing on the table keyboard. What time is it? The sun's officially gone-zo at 14k. That was a while ago.

Do you remember our biology fritter-fratter from before Dog's Life began? 'course not- That was a long time ago. Well, no worries! we'll cover it again. See, the Nether doesn't have a day-night cycle. The heat waves shift. Sometimes the dimension cools. There's never a schedule to it, but when the heat's down, it's down (whether it's been hours, days, or weeks since the last lull). Nether creatures group together for sleepy times. If Tango played on some of those raw servers where traits are turned up to max, he wouldn't even survive the Overworld- Not without a lot of prep from his friends on the other side. Thank goodness for vanilla servers that even out the playing field.

Blaze don't really hang out alone in Between. When they do, they have to keep their internal fires up, and that can really drain the metabolism. The pack is warm. The pack is safety. And Tango's fingers tremble as he blinks his lashes, pushing through the dimension's fading warmth. Nightfall is here. Capture the Flag will be winding down. It's time to go to sleep.

He does his work. He chose this path. Scott's crystal floats on the crying obsidian block beside him, casting a white glow over his workspace. The goggles tune it out a bit. Tango yawns wide (like one of those lions in the emerald savanna biome), then realizes what he did and shakes his head back and forth. "Brrrr! Whatchu doing?" He smacks himself in the cheek. Hard. "Come on, man- He needs you."

He keeps typing. Scott's code is layered in anti-virus protections. Lots of stuff to dig through. Tango's got a book on the edge of his desk, open to a page about data conflicts, and he's still checking and closing loops. Scott didn't want to amputate. He didn't want a graft. "More anti-virus protections," he said, and he was serious.

"Are you sure? That- That probably won't work. If you wait too long, there's no chance a graft will take. That kinda sets you up for like, either being an allay with a prosthetic or just a vex."

"No grafts, please. Just tell me where to sign."

"Okay, buddy… but that's against medical advice. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"He prob'ly would've listened to Etho," he mutters, typing more. "I swear, everybody thinks I just do visuals: slap a little colored fire on this guy, slap some wings on her… Hey, just because I work in the aesthetics department, it doesn't make my license any less legit. I've been doing this almost as long as he has." Who scrubbed in to save Impy? Who helped him and Skizz with the soul-sharing? Who once patched BigB up when he got shot in the neck? That was a Tango original. Just me. Why is he even doing this? All evidence in book and mind is screaming that this isn't going to work.

Fingertips stall. Blank stare. Soft breathing.

Scott would've listened to my medical advice if I was Etho. Should he have tried harder? Should he have done more? He got the signature, Scott confirming exactly what he wanted. He really shouldn't go against that. It'd be medical malpractice at this point.

… Even though the anti-viruses aren't going to stop him from becoming a vex.

Which he's trying to avoid by using stupid anti-viruses.

[Full chapter on AO3 - Link at top]

[talulajones-stories]

"We are about to have our first fight."

She stared at him like he grew another head. She folded her arms at him, as he stood half-naked in their bedroom, looking almost human in the glow of her lamplight.

"Um, you and I have had plenty of fights, we've had more fights than anyone else I know in my life, we have fought so mu– "

He cut her off, "As your husband. This is going to be our first fight," he paused briefly before continuing, pushing himself to be honest, before resorting to drinking it away or draining it away, "You said, 'we' when you were talking to Marcel," Damon pointed out, watching confusion settle on Bonnie's face. "When you advised Marcel to tell Klaus to do a better job at the facade of being on the run, you said, 'we.' Which got me thinking," he paused and asked, "Does Klaus have a decoy you with him?"

She sighed deeply, "Yes, he has witches available, using glamour spells to resemble me. It adds an extra layer of protection, making it seem like we're constantly on the move together. It's a strategy to throw off the Coven and keep them off our scent, or at least that's been our hope."

His eyebrows shot up, "That's what I'm talking about?"

"What?"

"The 'we' and the 'our' you keep referring to means you and Klaus." He sputtered, his anger growing, "Meanwhile, he's out there with your son, roaming the streets with a witch that has your face, pretending to be a 'we' and an 'us.' Do you understand what I'm getting at now, Bonnie?" 

"No, I am not following your crazy train of thought."

He held a hand to his chest, "When I say 'we' and 'us,' I mean me and you." He explained before adding, "And I don't make life-changing plans and leave you out of the decision-making. "He stressed.

She looked as if she might spit fire at him, and it would have been deserved, but she managed to ask him what was really bothering him.

He then considered his witchy wife. His Bonnie. And he thought, Who was she, really? How did she change in his mind when he added Klaus to her story?

For him, New Orleans was a shapeless blur in his understanding of her—a mere blip in her life. He ignored the fact that it was where she became a mother and had been engaged in a romantic entanglement with their sworn enemy.

And it wasn’t like he’d interrogated her to fill in the gaps, to piece together the timeline. Because asking those questions would mean facing truths he’d been avoiding.

"Is Klaus hoping to reconcile with you?"

There was a moment of deliberation, where she turned her green eyes away and then reluctantly said, "Yes," triggering a wave of old emotions for Damon, reminiscent of when he was in a former love triangle.

"But I already tried to reconcile with him,” she added.

Stunned, he had to sit. Without thinking, he sank down on the bed next to her, his movements heavy. The first time he had heard her admit to being in a relationship with Klaus had been a revelation—a gut punch he hadn’t been prepared for. But now, hearing that she had entertained the hybrid a second time? That was something else entirely.

He couldn’t stop himself. "What happened?" He heard himself ask.

She gave him a pained look, the kind that begged, please don’t make me revisit this. But she sighed and then tucked a loose tendril behind her ear and started, knowing he needed to hear it.

"I thought we were done, you know? He—um—he got involved with someone else pretty quickly. Another witch," she said, her voice still hesitant. "They were together for, I don’t know, a month or two. And then he came back, saying he wanted his family. Wanted me." She stopped for a moment, her gaze dropping as if gathering her strength. Then she pushed on. “And I wanted that too. So, I tried to approach things differently, to... rebuild. But he—he just wanted to go back to how things were before." Her voice wavered slightly, but she continued. "And during that time, the witch he left behind... she showed up at Klaus’s one night and she tried to kill me." Bonnie paused, her lips tightening before finishing with quiet finality. "He killed her instead. And that’s why her coven is after our son. And you know the rest."

In his ignorance, he’d convinced himself that her getting with Klaus was because she’d been through too much. She’d lost too much. She’d been a ghost, an anchor, had died too many times to count. What was left for her in Mystic Falls? What was left for her with friends like them—friends who had taken her for granted? He’d reasoned that her running off to New Orleans had been a good bet, that she deserved a life of her own, far away from them. Far away from him.

And even hearing that she’d gotten mixed up with Klaus had made sense at the time. He’d shrugged it off as her good girl gone bad phase. Hell, if he hadn’t been so far up Elena’s ass back then, maybe she would’ve gone bad for him instead.

But hearing her say she’d tried again with the hybrid? That did something else entirely. Made him feel things he didn’t want to name. And still, it made him ask for more questions, even though he didn’t know how he’d handle the answers.

A masochist to the end, he pressed on. "Do you still love him?"

She traced her fingers slowly along his spine, grounding him even as his chest tightened. She paused, her lips hovering near his shoulder before she kissed it softly. "There’s history between him and I," she said finally, her voice steady. "We share a child. But I am not in love with him. Not anymore."

Her words were measured and sure, cutting off the feelings that threatened to take him down. She met his eyes, her gaze unwavering. "I love you," she stressed, offering him a small, knowing smile—one that came with the press of her mouth to his and a quiet whisper: "It’s always been you."

He let out a deep exhale, his mouth curving into a placated smile. "I want to help," he said, his fingers grazing her cheek in a gentle caress.

"I know you do," she conceded. "And I need your help."

Hearing her say that sparked something in him—ready to be put in the game, to prove himself. He assured her with a smirk, "I’ve taken out my fair share of witches, you know."

She rolled her eyes. "Now, what were you saying earlier? Something about packing?"

He revisited his plan to move back to Mystic Falls, speaking in detail about returning as soon as possible—not just for the arrival of their daughter, but for Gabriel.

"Your son will be safe there, with all of us protecting him. I promise you," he said, pulling her into his arms. "Trust me, baby," he added, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

[gaylittleguys]

2024 movie recap

New watches:

2024 releases:

I Saw The TV Glow: AUGH. Amazing. Definitely top movie of the year. Heartbreaking and gutwrenching, stunningly beautiful and extremely hitting all the boxes of things I love. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that captures the feeling of suffocating in yourself that this does. Had to get it on dvd though I have yet to prepare myself to rewatch it… haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw it in July.

Smile 2: ACTUALLY really really good! I didn’t really like the first one (which I watched the day before seeing this) but 2 is LEAGUES better. Really makes use of the premise and is scary and unsettling AND has some really sick practical effects!

Cuckoo: I really liked this. I didn’t see a lot of talk about it, though. It was weird and PLEASE watch it without looking anything up. I went in pretty much blind and it was great. Hunter Schafer is amazing and we should get Dan Steven’s to play more unsettling European creeps

Abigail: Dan Stevens again lmao. This was really really fun it was everything it needed to be! Watch this vampire child attack the fun cast of characters!

The Wild Robot: sooooo cute 😭 such a gorgeous movie too. I cried most of the way thought it (positive) (bc it was very cute) aughhh the robot learning emotions got me augghhhhh noooo

Dune 2: I actually didn’t like it as much as the first half, but that’s also a pretty high bar to be fair. Stunning movie.

New to me:

Brazil: wow! Definitely taking a lot of inspiration from 1984, this has such an interesting intricate world. Not as ‘weird’ as I had been told, but definitely a surreal dystopian journey.

Dark City: I have no idea how I hadn’t heard of this movie until this year??? I loved it, such a strange distinct style, and the kind of weird story I like. Near the ending I think it wasn’t quite as strong as the rest of it, but really good!! Check it out!!

Silence of the lambs: watched for the first time somehow. I did really like it, it’s extremely well acted, and sickeningly tense. It’s objectively a really amazing movie, definitely worth its status as a classic. But. It’s really hard to ignore how much it pushed real life transphobia which adds another layer onto an already difficult watch.

(Sillay) anthology horror: Campfire Tales, The Monster Club, and Creepshow. Apparently I’d seen some of Campfire Tales before?? It was silly, very campy (ha) very much the caliber of stories told around a campfire. Monster Club was unique, the in-between story was a lot more memorable than the actual tales, much help from Vincent Price. I LOVED Creepshow, it was 100% up my alley and was such a treat, a really fun homage to old horror comics.

2024 was the year of Alien a bit lol, watched the rerelease of the original in theatres for my birthday, which was fantastic. Watched both Prometheus and Covenant in a weekend while sick, and Romulus as well. I don’t think Prometheus deserves the dislike it got, Covenant was pretty bad (except for the little chestburster guy) and Romulus was fun and had some excellent practical effects.

The Exorcist (1973) and The Pope’s Exorcist double feature was a blast, I think The Exorcist would have hit better at the time or if I was more religious, but I liked it. The Pope’s Exorcist was a BLAST however it was very fun and kind of bad and I do keep telling people about the Catholic Avengers ending and the funniest sequel bait I’ve ever seen

Redline kicked ass what a fun movie and just stunning to look at. Lu Over The Wall was so so good too, I loved how gloopy the animation was.

Nimona was honestly kind of disappointing for me :( I was definitely holding it to the book which I loved and was rly important to me as a teen. It was cute and would have probably been better if I didn’t have something to compare it to, but honestly it felt a little toothless? I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. Rip goldenloin’s hair too 😔

Cursed and Wild Country: my only 2 werewolf movies this year :( I’m falling behind… Cursed had the bones of a good movie, you can really tell it was screwed over by the studio. The sfx are great and the werewolf suit is fantastic, but they ditch it to use ugly cgi or just have the werewolves in human form 😔 Wild Country was fun in a kind of bad way! The werewolves look kinda like boars? Bears??

The Sudbury Devil and The VVitch: New England religious horror lets gooooo. The Witch was great, loved the sense of atmosphere, and it was really immersed in the time in a way that’s rare to see. The Sudbury Devil was definitely trying really hard, but I don’t think it quite achieved its aims. It’s disorienting in a confusing way, not a surreal way, and it doesn’t feel as grounded in the time somehow, although I do like its commitment to period accurate pronunciations! A strange watch.

Barbarian: REALLY good. Nauseating horror. Didn’t know much before going in and I think that was a good choice!

Donnie Darko: was ok. Seemed like it was Trying to be really smart without reeeaaallllyyyyy saying anything smart. Was expecting it to be weirder than it was.

Blue Velvet: 4th times the charm on finishing this lmao. I did like it, but not as much as Lynch’s other work I’ve seen.

Singing in the rain: this one’s a classic for a reason!!!! It’s great!!

DnD delayed double feature: Dungeons and Dragons (2000) was uh. A journey. I actually would not really recommend it as it was stretching even a so-bad-it’s-good watch with friends. I don’t know why a dnd movie is seemingly so allergic to having anything dnd-ish in it. Not even Jeremy Irons as the villain and his strange blue lipped henchman could save this. The cast of heroes are completely forgettable and contribute somehow basically nothing to the plot. #ripSnails. HOWEVER, the new one, which I’ve seen before, is great!! Really fun to watch again with my dnd group. :)

Legend: what the fuck. Just check this out. How’d this get made. What’s going on.

Honourable horror mentions: Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Bloody Valentine, High Life, Infinity Pool, The Others

Rewatches:

The Green Knight: yesssss my beloved green knight ❤️ bought the special dvd for this this year. The people I know have seen this are pretty split on it, but I love it.

Jaws my angel ❤️

The Thing my love ❤️

Dead Poets Society: hadn’t seen this since I saw it in high school, still heartbreaking. What a good movie.

The Last Unicorn: didn’t really like this as a kid, but I hadn’t seen it for a while. It’s soo pretty. I really loved it on this rewatch.

[doomedandstoned]

FLESH OF THE STARS Reveal Fifth LP, ‘The Glass Garden’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

I've had my eye on FLESH OF THE STARS since 2016's most excellent Hossana and we invited the group to be a part of our compilation Doomed & Stoned in Chicago a year later. Now the Chicago progressive doomers return with their fifth full-length, 'The Glass Garden' (2023). Described by the band as "a southwestern ghost story to match the eerie, elemental tone of the music," the record dares us to imagine a ruined world inhabited by mournful spirits. "Atrocities of the past echo in paranoid visions of creatures in dark corners and hidden signals in the static."

First track "Terraforms" comes rampaging out of the gates with an offbeat rhythm accented by signals which subtly flutter and spurt on the synthesizer. Guitars are emphatic and glowing with irradiated fuzz. You might be expecting black metal shrieks or deathly growls to emerge at this point, but the band contrasts the driving beat with earnest vocals that hover and swirl above the strewn landscape like ghosts. It is precisely this contrast that makes Flesh of the Stars so compelling.

Lyrics present a fluid stream of consciousness, giving up vivid descriptions of the scene before us:

Floods buzzing like a hive over fortified ground. The only voice in the vastness as I idle on thru, uncertain & unbound, onto bear witness to the plague, leaching into tender soil. What will ever stop this meaningless machine? All will be consumed when the floodlights beam.

While you don't need the words to genuinely experience this music, the lyrics really deepened my own appreciation for each track and what it was trying to accomplish. I'm once again drawn to the stark post-apocalyptic short stories of Philip K. Dick for comparison.

With its bittersweet strumming, "Overworld" has the feel of some lost Renaissance air just now unearthed. The soft cooing of the keys and pedal steel guitar in the backdrop adds a layer of uncanny atmosphere to the disquieting narrative. Crashing chords follow, reminding us that we are, after all, still in Doom's domain.

Sand, fragments, and dirt, whirling & rising, pelting my skin, blurring my eyes red & raw. They say, don't turn away until I feel the pull. Gather my strength, cover my eyes, and wait.

If you've appreciated the vocal harmonies up to now, "Into The Maze," pairs them so effectively with the warmth of the bass and some positively Elderesque guitar leads. It's hard to know when "After the Dream" begins, as the previous song melts so seamlessly and naturally into it. There's a dreamy wistfulness about the song, as the lyrics and melodic vocals depict a "surge growing stronger, washing away cars up on bricks. Foundations split, plague comes, mud sticks." Immediately following the emphatic thud-thud-thud-thud of guitar, bass, and drums at the nine-minute mark, synth and lap steel take the reins for a section worthy of a John Carpenter soundtrack.

"Unseen" concludes the album with earthquaking low-end (captured pristinely on this recording), joined by wave-crashing symbols, warm, sustaining bass tone, and clean, consoling vocals. Things end on the single note of feedback that the record began with.

Throughout The Glass Garden, songwriter Matt Ciani (guitar, keys, vox) builds atmosphere like a mighty cloud formation that builds slowly, but eventfully, into massive cumulus monoliths. Matt's ethereal, melancholic singing is especially effective, grounded to reality by stalwart percussionists Nico Ciani and Sam Corman Penzel, with Will Phalen on the pedal steel. In sum, a slow burn that is a genuinely moving album.

Look for The Glass Garden by Flesh of the Stars this Friday, October 27th (get it here). Stick it on a playlist with Elder, Deafheaven, Chrome Ghost, Messa, and Moon Coven.

Give ear...

The Glass Garden by Flesh of the Stars

SOME BUZZ

After ten years of progressive doom metal & synthesizer worship from Chicago’s Flesh of the Stars, the band is closing out their current chapter with the sprawling new full-length The Glass Garden, to be released on October 27, 2023. It is their sixth release, following 2021’s Mirror / Vessels EP and four LPs, including the acclaimed Anhilla (2017) and Mercy (2019).

Recorded in July 2022 with Doug Malone at Jamdekand at FotS home base by frontman Matt Ciani, this new LP embraces sonic clarity & simplicity. The drums hit harder, the guitars blossom in tremendous widescreen, and the keys maintain a sense of unease to match vocalist Matt Ciani’s intimate performance. 'The Glass Garden' is a meticulous blend of synthesizers, electric pianos, pedal steel, and, of course, massive towers of fuzz guitar.

"Compared to our previous work," the band says, "the riffs on GG are more serpentine, the drums more muscular, the BPMs a bit higher, and the arrangements more live-sounding, presenting the band in our core elements with minimal overdubs."

Album opener “Terraforms” starts with a blast, doom but almost not, quickly making clear that Flesh of the Stars are again expanding their sonic capabilities. The story begins with a drive south through the desert as the sun sets in deep red. Dozens of abandoned cars line the highway as we barrel through slinky guitar leads and disorienting whirlwinds of drums.

“Overworld” introduces haunting pedal steel guitar, played by Chicago multi-instrumentalist Will Phalen. His performance ranges from barely-there uneasy swells to hollow ghost town howls to full-on shrieking as the song abruptly shifts in tone and volume.

“Into the Maze” is a marathon - a feast of riffs, melodies, and time signatures, each morphing into each other and then recalling motifs from six sections back. Corman Penzel’s drumming takes us fully through the wormhole, mirroring Ciani’s storytelling, which takes us into an otherworldly aperture, a tunnel “too tight to crawl”, but we’re “too far to turn back.”

Side B begins with a moment to breathe. A lone somber clean guitar patiently coaxes the band back to life after the tumult of “Into the Maze”. It is eventually joined by Fender Rhodes, pedal steel (this time pushing even further into ambient country territory), and Ciani’s quiet & mournful vocal. Over 12 minutes, “After the Dream” builds from near-silence to absolute doom bombast before descending into a subterranean synth finale in the oscillating, modulating void.

“Unseen” seamlessly picks up where “After the Dream” ends, swapping bass synth for a veiled nylon string guitar to begin a 5-minute synth-folk ballad, at times reprising album opener “Terraforms”, taking the listener back to “the all-seeing red” of the nuclear sunset in the desert. What follows is nine minutes of twisting, hurtling, downtuned prog intensity, as The Glass Garden reaches for its highest highs before its startling and abrupt end.

Taken as a whole, The Glass Garden stands as Flesh of the Stars’ most ambitious and fully realized LP, a final word from a band that has never stopped honing their style and skills in their ten-year run.

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

[cleverhottubmiracle]

Cream blush has become one of my favorite makeup essentials. For years, I was loyal to powders, but somewhere along the way, I realized they were starting to sit on top of my skin rather than blend in. They seemed to emphasize everything I wanted to blur. So, I made the switch to cream blush—and haven’t looked back since. Here’s exactly how I apply it for a fresh, natural flush that doesn’t settle into fine lines or look overly made-up, along with a few personal favorites I keep coming back to. You might also enjoy reading about the Best Foundation for Women Over 60 and The Best Affordable Korean Skincare for Aging Skin. Step-by-Step: How I Apply Cream Blush on Mature Skin Step 1: I Start With Moisture—Always Makeup tips for older women need to be tailored to our skin, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hydration is everything. I never apply cream blush on bare skin. I start with my usual skincare routine, then layer a moisturizer and either a tinted sunscreen, lightweight foundation, or tinted moisturizer…depending on what my skin feels like it needs that day. CHANTECAILLE TINTED MOISTURIZER Right now, I’m loving this Chantecaille tinted moisturizer in the shade Opaline. It gives me just enough coverage and leaves my skin looking plump and healthy. If my skin feels dry or tight, the blush won’t blend in as well—and let’s face it, nothing looks good on dry skin. Cream blush plays nicely with moisture. Anything too matte just makes my face look tired. Step 2: I Choose Cream Formulas That Aren’t Too Dewy Not all cream blushes are created equal. Some are far too greasy or loaded with shimmer, which sounds fun, but on my skin, it just emphasizes every pore and fine line. I look for formulas that are balmy but not slippery, with a satin or natural finish. No sparkle, no glitter…just a soft, healthy glow. Some of the better ones even dry down to a soft, powdery finish, which helps with longevity and avoids that sticky feeling. Step 3: I Apply With Fingers—or My Favorite Brush On days when I’m rushing out the door, I’ll just use my fingers, being careful to use soft, upward motions and avoid rubbing or dragging, which can pull on the skin. They suggest warming up a little blush on the back of your hand, then gently tapping it onto your cheeks using your ring finger, but that seems silly and wasteful. OGEE SCULPTING STICK BLUSH / MERIT BLENDING BRUSH I prefer to use a stippling brush with soft bristles. My current favorite is this Merit Blending Brush, which is nice and soft. It gives me more control and helps me build color slowly. I’ve tried a damp makeup sponge, but to be honest, it soaks up too much product for my liking. My brush gives me just the right amount of color without waste. The goal is to build slowly. Start with a tiny amount, blend, then step back and assess. You can always add more, but it’s hard to take it away once you’ve overdone it. Step 4: Placement Makes All the Difference Here’s where I really changed my approach. In my younger days, I used to apply blush directly to the apples of my cheeks. But as my face has softened, I’ve found that those “apples” have dropped when I stop smiling. Now I place it just a little higher, above the apples, and sweep back toward my temples, which gives me a more lifted look. Smile softly and blend upward. This keeps the color off areas with deeper lines and subtly lifts everything. The keywords here are ‘lift’ and ‘glow’ rather than ’round’ and ‘rosy’ 😊. It’s more flattering and modern. Step 5: I Only Set It If I Absolutely Have To Most days, I don’t set my cream blush at all. But if it’s a hot day or I know I’ll be out for hours, I’ll lightly dust some translucent powder around the edges, often one that contains an spf like this. You can also tap on a bit of matching powder blush over top to lock in the color without dulling the finish. You may also enjoy reading How to Reapply SPF Over Makeup Without Ruining Your Look. The Best Cream Blush for Mature Skin Here are a few of my favorite cream blushes, plus a few others I’ve heard great things about: FLUSH BALM CREAM BLUSH IN STOCKHOLM When I put color on my cheeks, I prefer a cream blush to give a dewier, more radiant look that doesn’t feel cakey. The Flush Balm cream blush by MERIT is blendable and gives off a healthy glow. It’s so easy to apply that you can’t mess it up. Depending on the look I’m going for, I’ll switch between Stockholm (baby pink) and the Cheeky, which is a cool pink. There are 12 total shades to choose from, all of which look pretty natural! ILIA MULTI-STICK The ILIA Multi-Stick is very versatile and designed for use on both lips and cheeks…which I often do. It was the first ILIA product I tried, and still my favorite. It glides on smoothly, providing long-lasting color and a healthy, radiant finish. LYS BEAUTY HIGHER STANDARD SATIN MATTE CREAM BLUSH I haven’t tried this one yet, but it keeps popping up on my radar. The finish is described as satin-matte, which is something I usually look for in a cream blush because it adds a soft, natural flush without too much shine. It’s also part of the clean beauty category and is formulated with ingredients like kaolin clay and avocado oil, which are said to help smooth texture rather than highlight it. OGEE SCULPTED FACE STICK I read great things about this Ogee Sculpted Face stick, so I ordered two to try. They’re made with certified organic ingredients that are sustainably sourced, and they’re also cruelty-free, which is important to me. The one on the left is called “Pearl”, and the one on the right is called “Pink Diamond”. Final Thoughts Cream blush is one of the easiest ways to revive your complexion and add a healthy glow, especially for those over 60. With the right technique, it won’t highlight texture or fine lines…instead, it can soften and lift. The secret lies in choosing the right formula, applying it gently, and placing the color where it flatters your unique face. What’s your favorite blush, and how do you like to apply it? You May Also Enjoy Source link

[norajworld]

Cream blush has become one of my favorite makeup essentials. For years, I was loyal to powders, but somewhere along the way, I realized they were starting to sit on top of my skin rather than blend in. They seemed to emphasize everything I wanted to blur. So, I made the switch to cream blush—and haven’t looked back since. Here’s exactly how I apply it for a fresh, natural flush that doesn’t settle into fine lines or look overly made-up, along with a few personal favorites I keep coming back to. You might also enjoy reading about the Best Foundation for Women Over 60 and The Best Affordable Korean Skincare for Aging Skin. Step-by-Step: How I Apply Cream Blush on Mature Skin Step 1: I Start With Moisture—Always Makeup tips for older women need to be tailored to our skin, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hydration is everything. I never apply cream blush on bare skin. I start with my usual skincare routine, then layer a moisturizer and either a tinted sunscreen, lightweight foundation, or tinted moisturizer…depending on what my skin feels like it needs that day. CHANTECAILLE TINTED MOISTURIZER Right now, I’m loving this Chantecaille tinted moisturizer in the shade Opaline. It gives me just enough coverage and leaves my skin looking plump and healthy. If my skin feels dry or tight, the blush won’t blend in as well—and let’s face it, nothing looks good on dry skin. Cream blush plays nicely with moisture. Anything too matte just makes my face look tired. Step 2: I Choose Cream Formulas That Aren’t Too Dewy Not all cream blushes are created equal. Some are far too greasy or loaded with shimmer, which sounds fun, but on my skin, it just emphasizes every pore and fine line. I look for formulas that are balmy but not slippery, with a satin or natural finish. No sparkle, no glitter…just a soft, healthy glow. Some of the better ones even dry down to a soft, powdery finish, which helps with longevity and avoids that sticky feeling. Step 3: I Apply With Fingers—or My Favorite Brush On days when I’m rushing out the door, I’ll just use my fingers, being careful to use soft, upward motions and avoid rubbing or dragging, which can pull on the skin. They suggest warming up a little blush on the back of your hand, then gently tapping it onto your cheeks using your ring finger, but that seems silly and wasteful. OGEE SCULPTING STICK BLUSH / MERIT BLENDING BRUSH I prefer to use a stippling brush with soft bristles. My current favorite is this Merit Blending Brush, which is nice and soft. It gives me more control and helps me build color slowly. I’ve tried a damp makeup sponge, but to be honest, it soaks up too much product for my liking. My brush gives me just the right amount of color without waste. The goal is to build slowly. Start with a tiny amount, blend, then step back and assess. You can always add more, but it’s hard to take it away once you’ve overdone it. Step 4: Placement Makes All the Difference Here’s where I really changed my approach. In my younger days, I used to apply blush directly to the apples of my cheeks. But as my face has softened, I’ve found that those “apples” have dropped when I stop smiling. Now I place it just a little higher, above the apples, and sweep back toward my temples, which gives me a more lifted look. Smile softly and blend upward. This keeps the color off areas with deeper lines and subtly lifts everything. The keywords here are ‘lift’ and ‘glow’ rather than ’round’ and ‘rosy’ 😊. It’s more flattering and modern. Step 5: I Only Set It If I Absolutely Have To Most days, I don’t set my cream blush at all. But if it’s a hot day or I know I’ll be out for hours, I’ll lightly dust some translucent powder around the edges, often one that contains an spf like this. You can also tap on a bit of matching powder blush over top to lock in the color without dulling the finish. You may also enjoy reading How to Reapply SPF Over Makeup Without Ruining Your Look. The Best Cream Blush for Mature Skin Here are a few of my favorite cream blushes, plus a few others I’ve heard great things about: FLUSH BALM CREAM BLUSH IN STOCKHOLM When I put color on my cheeks, I prefer a cream blush to give a dewier, more radiant look that doesn’t feel cakey. The Flush Balm cream blush by MERIT is blendable and gives off a healthy glow. It’s so easy to apply that you can’t mess it up. Depending on the look I’m going for, I’ll switch between Stockholm (baby pink) and the Cheeky, which is a cool pink. There are 12 total shades to choose from, all of which look pretty natural! ILIA MULTI-STICK The ILIA Multi-Stick is very versatile and designed for use on both lips and cheeks…which I often do. It was the first ILIA product I tried, and still my favorite. It glides on smoothly, providing long-lasting color and a healthy, radiant finish. LYS BEAUTY HIGHER STANDARD SATIN MATTE CREAM BLUSH I haven’t tried this one yet, but it keeps popping up on my radar. The finish is described as satin-matte, which is something I usually look for in a cream blush because it adds a soft, natural flush without too much shine. It’s also part of the clean beauty category and is formulated with ingredients like kaolin clay and avocado oil, which are said to help smooth texture rather than highlight it. OGEE SCULPTED FACE STICK I read great things about this Ogee Sculpted Face stick, so I ordered two to try. They’re made with certified organic ingredients that are sustainably sourced, and they’re also cruelty-free, which is important to me. The one on the left is called “Pearl”, and the one on the right is called “Pink Diamond”. Final Thoughts Cream blush is one of the easiest ways to revive your complexion and add a healthy glow, especially for those over 60. With the right technique, it won’t highlight texture or fine lines…instead, it can soften and lift. The secret lies in choosing the right formula, applying it gently, and placing the color where it flatters your unique face. What’s your favorite blush, and how do you like to apply it? You May Also Enjoy Source link

[boheewohee]

Where to Shop Trendy Partywear Dresses in India

Let’s be real—party season never really ends. From last-minute dinner plans to that college fest or your BFF’s birthday bash, you need that perfect outfit that screams “I didn’t try too hard but still ate.” But here’s the plot twist: you don’t need to spend a bomb to look 🔥. Enter: BoheeWohee – your new BFF for trendy western partywear that’s budget-friendly, high on style, and always Instagram-ready.

💖 Why BoheeWohee is THE Destination for Partywear Dresses

BoheeWohee isn't just another fashion brand. It's for the girls who love twirling in satin, slaying in co-ords, and showing up like the main character in every reel. We design every piece keeping Indian body types, current trends, and that Pinterest aesthetic in mind.

Whether you’re into bold fits like cut-out dresses or flirty basics like half sleeve tops for women, there’s a party look waiting for you at BoheeWohee.

🔥 Trending Partywear Picks at BoheeWohee

🖤 Black Satin Top

An absolute classic. Dress it up with a mini skirt or keep it chill with mom jeans. Add a pair of hoops, and you’re party-ready.

🐆 Animal Print Tops

Make a bold statement with animal print—it’s fierce, trendy, and looks amazing on all skin tones. Perfect for concerts or late-night hangouts.

🌿 Green Jumpsuit

Your one-and-done outfit for those “I have 15 mins to get ready” moments. It cinches in all the right places and works for both brunches and birthdays.

✂️ Cut-Out Dresses

A little skin, a lot of confidence. These dresses are perfect for girls who love making an entrance.

💁‍♀️ Half Sleeve Tops for Women

Your closet essential. These tops are easy to style, breezy for summer nights, and come in neutral and bold shades alike.

👘 Kimono Tops

Soft, flowy, and super versatile. Style it with denim or layer it over a satin slip dress for a dreamy party look.

🛒 Where to Shop BoheeWohee?

BoheeWohee is just a few taps away— ✨ Shop directly from boheewohee.in for the freshest drops & exclusive styles ✨ Also available on Amazon for easy orders with Prime shipping ✨ Live on Meesho for girls who love casual scrolling and surprise steals

Pro tip: Sign up on boheewohee.in for early access and discount alerts before things sell out 👀

💸 Partywear Under ₹1000? Yes, Please!

We believe fashion should be affordable AND fabulous. That’s why most of our party wear western dresses for women are priced under ₹1000. So whether you're a college girl on a budget, a petite fashionista, or looking for plus-size western wear for women—we've got silhouettes that fit just right.

👗 Styling Tips for Every Body Type

For Indian body types: Go for structured satin tops for women and high-waisted pants or skirts for a flattering look.

For petites: Choose short hemlines and vertical prints that elongate. Western co-ord sets for women also give you proportioned elegance.

For curvy girls: Try wrap-style cut-out dresses or flowy kimono tops that accentuate your curves beautifully.

📸 BoheeWohee Looks That Went Viral

Our #BoheeBabes have already styled these hits:

Trendy western dresses for girls at low price—perfect for college fresher’s or mini getaways

Best affordable western wear for women online—with no compromise on fit or flair

Western outfit ideas for women on a budget—think crop tops, co-ords, jumpsuits, and more

Satin tops with jeans = instant glam, effortless charm

🧿 Final Thoughts: Glam Without the Guilt

If you’ve been endlessly searching “top 10 affordable western wear websites India” or “party wear dresses under ₹1000,” stop scrolling, start styling. BoheeWohee is your go-to for all things glam, gorgeous, and Gen Z-approved 💅

From half sleeve tops that double up for college and club nights, to that green jumpsuit that steals the spotlight—your perfect fit is just a click away.

✨ Ready to glow up your wardrobe?

👉 Shop now on BoheeWohee.in 🎉 Also available on: Amazon & Meesho 📲 Follow us on Instagram: @boheewohee_india

[chilimili212]

Cream blush has become one of my favorite makeup essentials. For years, I was loyal to powders, but somewhere along the way, I realized they were starting to sit on top of my skin rather than blend in. They seemed to emphasize everything I wanted to blur. So, I made the switch to cream blush—and haven’t looked back since. Here’s exactly how I apply it for a fresh, natural flush that doesn’t settle into fine lines or look overly made-up, along with a few personal favorites I keep coming back to. You might also enjoy reading about the Best Foundation for Women Over 60 and The Best Affordable Korean Skincare for Aging Skin. Step-by-Step: How I Apply Cream Blush on Mature Skin Step 1: I Start With Moisture—Always Makeup tips for older women need to be tailored to our skin, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hydration is everything. I never apply cream blush on bare skin. I start with my usual skincare routine, then layer a moisturizer and either a tinted sunscreen, lightweight foundation, or tinted moisturizer…depending on what my skin feels like it needs that day. CHANTECAILLE TINTED MOISTURIZER Right now, I’m loving this Chantecaille tinted moisturizer in the shade Opaline. It gives me just enough coverage and leaves my skin looking plump and healthy. If my skin feels dry or tight, the blush won’t blend in as well—and let’s face it, nothing looks good on dry skin. Cream blush plays nicely with moisture. Anything too matte just makes my face look tired. Step 2: I Choose Cream Formulas That Aren’t Too Dewy Not all cream blushes are created equal. Some are far too greasy or loaded with shimmer, which sounds fun, but on my skin, it just emphasizes every pore and fine line. I look for formulas that are balmy but not slippery, with a satin or natural finish. No sparkle, no glitter…just a soft, healthy glow. Some of the better ones even dry down to a soft, powdery finish, which helps with longevity and avoids that sticky feeling. Step 3: I Apply With Fingers—or My Favorite Brush On days when I’m rushing out the door, I’ll just use my fingers, being careful to use soft, upward motions and avoid rubbing or dragging, which can pull on the skin. They suggest warming up a little blush on the back of your hand, then gently tapping it onto your cheeks using your ring finger, but that seems silly and wasteful. OGEE SCULPTING STICK BLUSH / MERIT BLENDING BRUSH I prefer to use a stippling brush with soft bristles. My current favorite is this Merit Blending Brush, which is nice and soft. It gives me more control and helps me build color slowly. I’ve tried a damp makeup sponge, but to be honest, it soaks up too much product for my liking. My brush gives me just the right amount of color without waste. The goal is to build slowly. Start with a tiny amount, blend, then step back and assess. You can always add more, but it’s hard to take it away once you’ve overdone it. Step 4: Placement Makes All the Difference Here’s where I really changed my approach. In my younger days, I used to apply blush directly to the apples of my cheeks. But as my face has softened, I’ve found that those “apples” have dropped when I stop smiling. Now I place it just a little higher, above the apples, and sweep back toward my temples, which gives me a more lifted look. Smile softly and blend upward. This keeps the color off areas with deeper lines and subtly lifts everything. The keywords here are ‘lift’ and ‘glow’ rather than ’round’ and ‘rosy’ 😊. It’s more flattering and modern. Step 5: I Only Set It If I Absolutely Have To Most days, I don’t set my cream blush at all. But if it’s a hot day or I know I’ll be out for hours, I’ll lightly dust some translucent powder around the edges, often one that contains an spf like this. You can also tap on a bit of matching powder blush over top to lock in the color without dulling the finish. You may also enjoy reading How to Reapply SPF Over Makeup Without Ruining Your Look. The Best Cream Blush for Mature Skin Here are a few of my favorite cream blushes, plus a few others I’ve heard great things about: FLUSH BALM CREAM BLUSH IN STOCKHOLM When I put color on my cheeks, I prefer a cream blush to give a dewier, more radiant look that doesn’t feel cakey. The Flush Balm cream blush by MERIT is blendable and gives off a healthy glow. It’s so easy to apply that you can’t mess it up. Depending on the look I’m going for, I’ll switch between Stockholm (baby pink) and the Cheeky, which is a cool pink. There are 12 total shades to choose from, all of which look pretty natural! ILIA MULTI-STICK The ILIA Multi-Stick is very versatile and designed for use on both lips and cheeks…which I often do. It was the first ILIA product I tried, and still my favorite. It glides on smoothly, providing long-lasting color and a healthy, radiant finish. LYS BEAUTY HIGHER STANDARD SATIN MATTE CREAM BLUSH I haven’t tried this one yet, but it keeps popping up on my radar. The finish is described as satin-matte, which is something I usually look for in a cream blush because it adds a soft, natural flush without too much shine. It’s also part of the clean beauty category and is formulated with ingredients like kaolin clay and avocado oil, which are said to help smooth texture rather than highlight it. OGEE SCULPTED FACE STICK I read great things about this Ogee Sculpted Face stick, so I ordered two to try. They’re made with certified organic ingredients that are sustainably sourced, and they’re also cruelty-free, which is important to me. The one on the left is called “Pearl”, and the one on the right is called “Pink Diamond”. Final Thoughts Cream blush is one of the easiest ways to revive your complexion and add a healthy glow, especially for those over 60. With the right technique, it won’t highlight texture or fine lines…instead, it can soften and lift. The secret lies in choosing the right formula, applying it gently, and placing the color where it flatters your unique face. What’s your favorite blush, and how do you like to apply it? You May Also Enjoy Source link

[two-fu]

my art process

it still amazes me how a blank canvas can turn into a concept from your head like woah there hands and brain thank you for cooperating during this crucial time in my life /hj

if anyone's curious about my art process, i'm gonna put it down below (otherwise, just scroll past pls i'm mostly just rambling) this is not a guide. i repeat, this is not a guide (￢з￢)

ok, first let me let you this. sometimes my last few braincells work and i actually sketch out a concept straight from my head, but most of the time i just get inspired by a random editorial pic i find on pinterest or a movie scene that i find interesting and then just start with that. be warned that my process is pretty messy and probably only makes sense to me [lmao] but this is how i usually do it so...

i'm gonna use my most recent art for ref which was inspired by a ghost in the shell movie scene. first i sketch the character placement into the scene, then i move on to the bg. i loosely paint the background in one layer first, then paint the additional background details on a separate layer (in this case, the ceiling...holes?? yeah those holes with the light coming in)

i keep going and add in the rest of the background details as much as possible before i draw in the characters: glass panels, lights, wires. once i'm kinda satisfied with the background, i start to add the characters. i usually just paint them in a single layer, except for when some additional elements that need to be in the front/back of the character come into play.

in the case with kdj, i drew him in one layer, the wings on a separate layer, and the wires on another, so it would be easier for me to modify them as needed without messing up the kdj layer. for yjh, i just painted him in a single layer since it's only just him sulking lol

[also, whenever i feel like the character placement/scaling is off, i'm not afraid to resize the necessary layers because i know i can just correct the bad resolution by painting over it]

then i add a bit of lighting/shadow elements on the characters (don't come to me for this bc i don't have a solid grasp on that either. i swear i'll diligently study it someday but for now i just put in whatever feels "right" lmaoooo)

when i'm satisfied with how the characters look, i add in more small details that i hope could make the piece a bit more interesting and not too flat: glass reflections, floor texture, yjh's shadow, and some light reflecting off the cement floor

another thing i added was the bloom effect on a duplicate layer of the copy-pasted canvas. then i lowered the opacity for the bloom layer so it wouldn't look too severe, just the right kind of ambient glow from the lights and kdj's coat. ok that's about it. i could stop there BUT...

personally, i like to do a bit of post-processing after. this part takes a lot of experimenting and this is really the part i enjoy the most, especially when playing around with the colors to really set the mood for the illustration. for this one i...

added a layer for grainy texture and set it to soft light at 9% opacity

copy-pasted the entire canvas then duplicated it before adding a gradient map for the dupe layer then setting it to color dodge at 24% op (just to give it a bit of color and not make it look to desaturated like it originally did)

added an additional color dodge layer to brighten up the lower part of the canvas a bit

and that's how i usually make my art ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

sometimes it takes me only a couple of hours, sometimes times it takes days when i'm procrastinating a piece, and sometimes i just completely give up and trash an entire concept lol yeah it's fun and can be frustrating but i like that it shuts my brain up for a while and keeps me from thinking about awful stuff. idk maybe that's just me idk idk

if you've made it this far in my post, wow, i really appreciate you for sticking around through my yapping /srs ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[jonathankatwhatever]

It’s 20 June 2024 and there’s something I don’t get about Lie groups. I’m annoyed because I found the Attachment some months ago and lost it. Silly me.

I think the issue I’m having is the lack of clarity about dimensions. And that’s because I don’t think of matrices as representing dimensions though they do. So I heard in my head a dry recitation that these are the matrices which reduce into D3-4, if reduce is the correct idea. I mean that octonions and the like reduce into D3-4 through the Jacobi identity.

Let’s look at it because something’s not clicking despite the clarity. We have a, b and c and we take every associative possibility and add them up, so a times, b times, c times, and that makes 0.

——————-

Still haven’t found the mislaid kernel idea, but the general conceptions are becoming clearer almost by the minute. Example is that I finally accepted that a Cartan matrix is literally set to 2 because that embodies 2:1. And this also means 2:1 explains the concept of a field of characteristic 2, like why 1 can equal -1 and 1 + 1 can equal 0. This fits to the concept of skew symmetry.

Not sure where this goes. Maybe just keep typing to see what happens. Stop stalling. Okay, a field of characteristic 2 means we enable overlapping Irreducibles in the 1-0-1//0-1-0 form, meaning we can relate 1 to 1 over 0 or 1 to 1 as 1 to 0. What does that translate as? I mean that 1 to 0 means 1+1 equals 0 because we can read the 0 as the other 1 in the process. Same then with 1 equals -1; the bidirectional nature of gsProcess generates this result.

Not sure this is rigorous enough. The idea is that the notation includes these processes, and you can identify how and where the labels fit in the layers of counting.

That’s one way to look at Planck scale, btw. It’s where the layers of counting become visible. In other words, while the quanta appear within [D3-4], they aren’t tiny bits of counting but are whatever has resolved or otherwise collected into existence.

Imagine how much quicker this would go if you were doing this. Of course, then I would be of not much use and you would be of not much use either, but still maximizing that pairing potential can be annoying. The plasticity required is phenomenal. If I hadn’t shifted sides, could I have done this? Don’t think so. Which is also annoying because that was extremely difficult in every sense. Shifted sides to learn what the other side is like, how it looks from that perspective, and that builds a stronger mediating 1 which fits to the IC arrangement of CM16 in which we see the 2 scale over the diagonal.

That became something, didn’t it? That is where the 2 scale comes from: CM16 into the Cartan matrix. You see in that the necessary compression and expansion of the IC scale. In fact, we can see all sorts of cool things, like how we can divide permutations by saying this Halving leads this way, and this the other, like maybe these are abelian and these aren’t, like these have integer solutions and these don’t, etc. because that applies the concept of Halving, which is a specific gsProcess term which treats 2:1 as a function which inverts in and out of 2, not in and out of the 1 of CM1. That’s like saying it inverts in and out of the Ends in CM16.

This is really beautiful material. Not just silk, but knotted raw silk, like the textured smoothness of the peasant dress Julie Andrews wore in Sound of Music, glowing in the light.

Willie Mays was one of my heroes. And Jordan and Skander named one of their kittens after Willie. The other is Sandy Koufax. I saw Willie steal home when he was over 40, in the era when players were washed up in their early to mid-30’s. With modern training, he could have played until he was 50. You know The Catch was followed by The Throw. The story is that when he went to minor league ball, the other fielders were told that if a ball was hit to center to go to a base because the ball was going to be there and they needed to be ready. He had that extremely rare combination of extreme physical and mental ability for the game.

BTW, if you want to see why Brady was so good, look up him talking about playing QB on TikTok. Same thing. Couldn’t run, but he grew up in an era when running was a negative. He learned late.

So, the Cartan matrix is CM16, and that is also 2:1. Does that mean 8 appears here? And thus CM64 feeds into that directly as the root becoming or fitting to the solution? (Uh, yes. Duh.) Oh my goodness, that translates into 0Space, meaning [D3-4]. Think CM100, 50:50, and how fit occurs.

This is, btw, part of the essential discussion about choice, that it exists within layers because the permutations are available within the potential, whether that’s in 0Space or in the enclosing dimensional structure which relates to 0Space and what we think of as actual stuff.

My mind wandered. Where were we? I started to think about how this constructs all the [D4-3], which means the gsProcess and the D4-3 existences, meaning those which relate to but do not resolve to D3-4 existences. That places a Boundary between [D3-4] and [D4-3]. This Boundary is obviously for Things, meaning iObjects, meaning the operations of resolution which manifests as attraction within [D3-4]. This means field effects as those extend out in [D3-4] and in [D4-3]. This constructs across the infinities of 1’s and of course across the CM16. This explains a lot into the concept of multiverses.

I’m thinking we’re really getting Attached. I mean the work is coming together, that the 1Space is Attaching to the 0Space. I’m not sure if there’s a missing piece in this or not. The transition is the relation over pairing inherent in the 1-0Segment, so 0Space emerges naturally within 1Space. That is extraordinary, and obviously correct because 0Space must in fact emerge out of the relativity, out of the gsProcess, which means the associative in all its potential and through all the functions which generate across and into that potential, into that gsSpace. We covered this recently when we described how the relative workings of the Informational Limit as that translates into 0Space provides the motivation for existence and for animation, for life, both within and across existences.

The Triangular of quarks would be a nice title.

Another meaning of Attached is like being hitched, like a marriage, like a couple of draft horses pulling a wagon, back to back or one behind the other or side by side, in series or parallel, over an Extent, over a gsParallel. That occurs within 0Space as a manifestation of the Eternal. Oh, that’s why the idea that marriage is forever came up: the concept literalizes the Eternal, meaning the infinite process as it occurs within the finite fields of constructed 0Space existence. So the idea becomes to imitate this, which then tends to become an order or imposition rather than what develops in depth. But that also means people joined together in hate are joined together in hate, which then is true for each of them because the Registry records that as an Actuality because Actualities are counted on the szK.

The power of that idea is almost absurd. It truly does mean that people condemn themselves. It also means there are Pathways which go in the proper direction, but the process is difficult because the Jacobi identity generates 0’s and thus the accompanying 1’s for a CM16 which tips and which develops channels which pressure conformity within those contexts. This is really good if I can translate that better.

The word isn’t generates so much as reads as 0 because there are apparent solutions. Why are there apparent solutions? That’s a consequence of the context structure generated by and within any CM1. That’s permutation structures. That’s Attachment because within the +1 are all the Pathways which connect to the resolutions which are possible. That can mean a narrow range of reactions, even if the understanding underneath is complicated.

I need to go for a walk. Having a big dinner tonight, celebrating the end of our time in Boston. I hope you are loving this as much as I am. Or more.

[roofingserviceuk]

6 Types of Roof Lantern - You Can Make Yourself For Less

There’s nothing like daylight flooding in to a room via a Roof Lantern to make the room experience massive and ethereal. Whether it’s a burst of brightness from dawn, or the colourful glow of a sundown, and right in the course of the day in between, Roof Lanterns UK  carry dwelling spaces to life. Flat Roof Skylights, Non-Opening Pitched Roof Windows, and Pitched Roof Skylights are available in many designs, and even as all of them supply the equal extremely good daylight hours effect, Roof Lanterns can upload price to your home with improved architectural presence and status seems.

What 6 Types of Roof Lantern Can I Make?

Let’s undergo the variations between each of the 6 essential Roof Lanterns that are easy enough for Trade and DIY alike to create and deploy:

1. Single Slope Roof Lantern Flat Roof

Over the beyond two decades, with the advent of superb flat roof membranes including EPDM and PVC, flat roofing has advanced from the conventional felt type of roof that is fraught with troubles of leaking, in to really lengthy-term flat roof possibilities that are reckoned to final for 30 - 50 years. Now with an ever-growing reputation of flat roof constructions and architectural design it’s clean to add a bespoke roof lantern, beginning up many awesome design opportunities of Roof Lanterns Combinations.

2. Single Slope Roof Light Inset on Tiled Roof

Pitched Roofs are typically finished with a layer of water resistant felt or breathable roof membrane, after which blanketed with Slates or Tiles. Where you require a non-beginning Roof Light in a room, you may clearly do away with a section of the tiles and cut a hole among two rafters to create an top notch Pitched Roof Light. These lantern roof lighting fixtures allow some outstanding creativity and architecturally astounding consequences with options to go away uncovered wood joists for instance. The effective effect of the natural sunlight hours beaming in via these Roof Lights in any room, makes it feel larger, extra at ease and airier, as well as lowering electricity charges in any other case needed to light the room.

3. Apex Roof Lantern for Flat Roof with Victorian Ends

When you are making a Roof Lantern on a Flat roof, it’s a great concept to recollect the options of different patterns which can be first-rate ideal to the particular type of assets the Roof Lantern mission is for. As an opportunity choice to a Single Slope Roof Lantern, if the belongings is an older style, it may be more acceptable to an Apex Roof Lantern style. An Apex Roof Lantern is a Roof Lantern that has two slopes assembly at a centre ridge factor.

4. Apex Roof Lantern for Flat Roof with Gable Ends

For a mid-variety fashion, the Apex Roof Lantern with Gable Ends is a awesome alternative. The -sided Roof Lantern has a Ridge the whole length of the Roof Lantern, which means that every quit involves a vertical Apex stop that could both be solid or made a feature of as a vertical window section.

This Gable Ended Roof Lantern style can be additionally crafted from hardwood for that semi-conventional style, once more using the Rafter Top Hip Bar for the Ridge glazing so as to reduce expenses substantially. You can also don't forget the use of Polycarbonate Sheets for the glazing which might store usually 20% for your average cost.

5. Apex Inline Roof Lantern for Pitched Roof

Where you have got a vaulted apex internal ceiling which follows the attitude of the Roof Joists it gives extremely good top within the room. A vaulted ceiling internally is often determined in first floor rooms to maximise the height of those upstairs rooms, however Vaulted Ceilings also are now commonplace on first ground homes and extensions ( Flat Roof Extensions )  to give maximum height and architectural presence to the room and a sense of ambience and enlarged space.

6. Apex Inline Roof Lantern for Pitched Roof with Gable End

In the factor above we've discussed an Apex Inline Roof Lantern for a pitched roof, that is a one of the most magnificent kinds of rooflight, including fashion and finesse with herbal sunlight hours to any room with a vaulted ceiling. However, where a room with a vaulted ceiling has an external gable wall, you can create an excellent greater staggering style of Inline Roof Lantern, by way of developing the vertical gable wall with an Apex Window on the top of the wall, after which continuing the Apex Inline Roof Lantern to the end of the roof.

Also Read :

The 10 Most Common Roof Lantern Questions Answered

3 Types of Flat Roofs

[cleverhottubmiracle]

Cream blush has become one of my favorite makeup essentials. For years, I was loyal to powders, but somewhere along the way, I realized they were starting to sit on top of my skin rather than blend in. They seemed to emphasize everything I wanted to blur. So, I made the switch to cream blush—and haven’t looked back since. Here’s exactly how I apply it for a fresh, natural flush that doesn’t settle into fine lines or look overly made-up, along with a few personal favorites I keep coming back to. You might also enjoy reading about the Best Foundation for Women Over 60 and The Best Affordable Korean Skincare for Aging Skin. Step-by-Step: How I Apply Cream Blush on Mature Skin Step 1: I Start With Moisture—Always Makeup tips for older women need to be tailored to our skin, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hydration is everything. I never apply cream blush on bare skin. I start with my usual skincare routine, then layer a moisturizer and either a tinted sunscreen, lightweight foundation, or tinted moisturizer…depending on what my skin feels like it needs that day. CHANTECAILLE TINTED MOISTURIZER Right now, I’m loving this Chantecaille tinted moisturizer in the shade Opaline. It gives me just enough coverage and leaves my skin looking plump and healthy. If my skin feels dry or tight, the blush won’t blend in as well—and let’s face it, nothing looks good on dry skin. Cream blush plays nicely with moisture. Anything too matte just makes my face look tired. Step 2: I Choose Cream Formulas That Aren’t Too Dewy Not all cream blushes are created equal. Some are far too greasy or loaded with shimmer, which sounds fun, but on my skin, it just emphasizes every pore and fine line. I look for formulas that are balmy but not slippery, with a satin or natural finish. No sparkle, no glitter…just a soft, healthy glow. Some of the better ones even dry down to a soft, powdery finish, which helps with longevity and avoids that sticky feeling. Step 3: I Apply With Fingers—or My Favorite Brush On days when I’m rushing out the door, I’ll just use my fingers, being careful to use soft, upward motions and avoid rubbing or dragging, which can pull on the skin. They suggest warming up a little blush on the back of your hand, then gently tapping it onto your cheeks using your ring finger, but that seems silly and wasteful. OGEE SCULPTING STICK BLUSH / MERIT BLENDING BRUSH I prefer to use a stippling brush with soft bristles. My current favorite is this Merit Blending Brush, which is nice and soft. It gives me more control and helps me build color slowly. I’ve tried a damp makeup sponge, but to be honest, it soaks up too much product for my liking. My brush gives me just the right amount of color without waste. The goal is to build slowly. Start with a tiny amount, blend, then step back and assess. You can always add more, but it’s hard to take it away once you’ve overdone it. Step 4: Placement Makes All the Difference Here’s where I really changed my approach. In my younger days, I used to apply blush directly to the apples of my cheeks. But as my face has softened, I’ve found that those “apples” have dropped when I stop smiling. Now I place it just a little higher, above the apples, and sweep back toward my temples, which gives me a more lifted look. Smile softly and blend upward. This keeps the color off areas with deeper lines and subtly lifts everything. The keywords here are ‘lift’ and ‘glow’ rather than ’round’ and ‘rosy’ 😊. It’s more flattering and modern. Step 5: I Only Set It If I Absolutely Have To Most days, I don’t set my cream blush at all. But if it’s a hot day or I know I’ll be out for hours, I’ll lightly dust some translucent powder around the edges, often one that contains an spf like this. You can also tap on a bit of matching powder blush over top to lock in the color without dulling the finish. You may also enjoy reading How to Reapply SPF Over Makeup Without Ruining Your Look. The Best Cream Blush for Mature Skin Here are a few of my favorite cream blushes, plus a few others I’ve heard great things about: FLUSH BALM CREAM BLUSH IN STOCKHOLM When I put color on my cheeks, I prefer a cream blush to give a dewier, more radiant look that doesn’t feel cakey. The Flush Balm cream blush by MERIT is blendable and gives off a healthy glow. It’s so easy to apply that you can’t mess it up. Depending on the look I’m going for, I’ll switch between Stockholm (baby pink) and the Cheeky, which is a cool pink. There are 12 total shades to choose from, all of which look pretty natural! ILIA MULTI-STICK The ILIA Multi-Stick is very versatile and designed for use on both lips and cheeks…which I often do. It was the first ILIA product I tried, and still my favorite. It glides on smoothly, providing long-lasting color and a healthy, radiant finish. LYS BEAUTY HIGHER STANDARD SATIN MATTE CREAM BLUSH I haven’t tried this one yet, but it keeps popping up on my radar. The finish is described as satin-matte, which is something I usually look for in a cream blush because it adds a soft, natural flush without too much shine. It’s also part of the clean beauty category and is formulated with ingredients like kaolin clay and avocado oil, which are said to help smooth texture rather than highlight it. OGEE SCULPTED FACE STICK I read great things about this Ogee Sculpted Face stick, so I ordered two to try. They’re made with certified organic ingredients that are sustainably sourced, and they’re also cruelty-free, which is important to me. The one on the left is called “Pearl”, and the one on the right is called “Pink Diamond”. Final Thoughts Cream blush is one of the easiest ways to revive your complexion and add a healthy glow, especially for those over 60. With the right technique, it won’t highlight texture or fine lines…instead, it can soften and lift. The secret lies in choosing the right formula, applying it gently, and placing the color where it flatters your unique face. What’s your favorite blush, and how do you like to apply it? You May Also Enjoy Source link

[norajworld]

Cream blush has become one of my favorite makeup essentials. For years, I was loyal to powders, but somewhere along the way, I realized they were starting to sit on top of my skin rather than blend in. They seemed to emphasize everything I wanted to blur. So, I made the switch to cream blush—and haven’t looked back since. Here’s exactly how I apply it for a fresh, natural flush that doesn’t settle into fine lines or look overly made-up, along with a few personal favorites I keep coming back to. You might also enjoy reading about the Best Foundation for Women Over 60 and The Best Affordable Korean Skincare for Aging Skin. Step-by-Step: How I Apply Cream Blush on Mature Skin Step 1: I Start With Moisture—Always Makeup tips for older women need to be tailored to our skin, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hydration is everything. I never apply cream blush on bare skin. I start with my usual skincare routine, then layer a moisturizer and either a tinted sunscreen, lightweight foundation, or tinted moisturizer…depending on what my skin feels like it needs that day. CHANTECAILLE TINTED MOISTURIZER Right now, I’m loving this Chantecaille tinted moisturizer in the shade Opaline. It gives me just enough coverage and leaves my skin looking plump and healthy. If my skin feels dry or tight, the blush won’t blend in as well—and let’s face it, nothing looks good on dry skin. Cream blush plays nicely with moisture. Anything too matte just makes my face look tired. Step 2: I Choose Cream Formulas That Aren’t Too Dewy Not all cream blushes are created equal. Some are far too greasy or loaded with shimmer, which sounds fun, but on my skin, it just emphasizes every pore and fine line. I look for formulas that are balmy but not slippery, with a satin or natural finish. No sparkle, no glitter…just a soft, healthy glow. Some of the better ones even dry down to a soft, powdery finish, which helps with longevity and avoids that sticky feeling. Step 3: I Apply With Fingers—or My Favorite Brush On days when I’m rushing out the door, I’ll just use my fingers, being careful to use soft, upward motions and avoid rubbing or dragging, which can pull on the skin. They suggest warming up a little blush on the back of your hand, then gently tapping it onto your cheeks using your ring finger, but that seems silly and wasteful. OGEE SCULPTING STICK BLUSH / MERIT BLENDING BRUSH I prefer to use a stippling brush with soft bristles. My current favorite is this Merit Blending Brush, which is nice and soft. It gives me more control and helps me build color slowly. I’ve tried a damp makeup sponge, but to be honest, it soaks up too much product for my liking. My brush gives me just the right amount of color without waste. The goal is to build slowly. Start with a tiny amount, blend, then step back and assess. You can always add more, but it’s hard to take it away once you’ve overdone it. Step 4: Placement Makes All the Difference Here’s where I really changed my approach. In my younger days, I used to apply blush directly to the apples of my cheeks. But as my face has softened, I’ve found that those “apples” have dropped when I stop smiling. Now I place it just a little higher, above the apples, and sweep back toward my temples, which gives me a more lifted look. Smile softly and blend upward. This keeps the color off areas with deeper lines and subtly lifts everything. The keywords here are ‘lift’ and ‘glow’ rather than ’round’ and ‘rosy’ 😊. It’s more flattering and modern. Step 5: I Only Set It If I Absolutely Have To Most days, I don’t set my cream blush at all. But if it’s a hot day or I know I’ll be out for hours, I’ll lightly dust some translucent powder around the edges, often one that contains an spf like this. You can also tap on a bit of matching powder blush over top to lock in the color without dulling the finish. You may also enjoy reading How to Reapply SPF Over Makeup Without Ruining Your Look. The Best Cream Blush for Mature Skin Here are a few of my favorite cream blushes, plus a few others I’ve heard great things about: FLUSH BALM CREAM BLUSH IN STOCKHOLM When I put color on my cheeks, I prefer a cream blush to give a dewier, more radiant look that doesn’t feel cakey. The Flush Balm cream blush by MERIT is blendable and gives off a healthy glow. It’s so easy to apply that you can’t mess it up. Depending on the look I’m going for, I’ll switch between Stockholm (baby pink) and the Cheeky, which is a cool pink. There are 12 total shades to choose from, all of which look pretty natural! ILIA MULTI-STICK The ILIA Multi-Stick is very versatile and designed for use on both lips and cheeks…which I often do. It was the first ILIA product I tried, and still my favorite. It glides on smoothly, providing long-lasting color and a healthy, radiant finish. LYS BEAUTY HIGHER STANDARD SATIN MATTE CREAM BLUSH I haven’t tried this one yet, but it keeps popping up on my radar. The finish is described as satin-matte, which is something I usually look for in a cream blush because it adds a soft, natural flush without too much shine. It’s also part of the clean beauty category and is formulated with ingredients like kaolin clay and avocado oil, which are said to help smooth texture rather than highlight it. OGEE SCULPTED FACE STICK I read great things about this Ogee Sculpted Face stick, so I ordered two to try. They’re made with certified organic ingredients that are sustainably sourced, and they’re also cruelty-free, which is important to me. The one on the left is called “Pearl”, and the one on the right is called “Pink Diamond”. Final Thoughts Cream blush is one of the easiest ways to revive your complexion and add a healthy glow, especially for those over 60. With the right technique, it won’t highlight texture or fine lines…instead, it can soften and lift. The secret lies in choosing the right formula, applying it gently, and placing the color where it flatters your unique face. What’s your favorite blush, and how do you like to apply it? You May Also Enjoy Source link