Bits Of My Home

May 11, 201612 Comments

MAISON SPENCE

I’ve had a few requests from you lot to see my apartment, but since it has been a very s l o w work in progress since the day I moved in, I haven’t really wanted to share the whole thing – it’s just really not that exciting or noteworthy, at this point. But there are a few bits and bobs from around the apartment that I figured I’d share – mostly in the way of decoration – and some tiny peeks of how things are coming together. If you’ll remember my previous places, I’ve always been a collector of things, but when I moved out of my place with Ryan, I decided to get rid of a lot, only hold onto the things I really loved and live a little more minimalist-y, if you will (it’s so annoying to move when you own a lot of shit). So here we are. It still feels like me – girly, vintage and quirky, but a little more clean and refined.
Larkspur Vintage | Bits Of My Home

Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial

April 27, 20162 Comments

Full Out with feeling

I think every time I try a new lipstick style for this series I’m going to end up saying “okay, I think I like this one most.”, because that’s what came to mind with this style, and I realized I said that about the 1930s lip last week. I guess I’m kind of a fickle pickle, but this style feels a bit more bold (and I like bold) with it’s overdrawn, full shape and punchy red colour…more fun and less reserved, in my opinion.

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1940s lips were all about reds, “all the reds”, as us Internet-y 90s Millennial babies would say. The shade of red was up to the gal, but the one thing all 40s lips had in common was they were loud and luscious. If your lips fell a little short in the plump department (hi me), you just had to draw a bit outside your natural lip line and in no time you were joining the ranks of Angelina Jolie lips everywhere (she wasn’t alive yet, but you get it.)

-WHAT I USED-
Lip pencil: Ruby Woo by MAC | Lipstick: So Chaud by MAC

Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial 1. I’ve said this for every one now, but, get a lip pencil. It will help immensely because we are drawing outside our natural lip line…unless of course you already have full lips. But even still, pencils just make everything more clean. The lip is horizontally elongated and we focus less on the “heart shape” lip look.
-drawing outside your natural lip line, start at your cupid’s bow and create a very slight indent between the two peaks
-bring your lines out to meet your lower lip, maintaining a rounded shape all the way down. It should look a bit like a crescent, more similar to the shape you’d see on a lower lip.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial 2. Elongated and round is the look of the lower lip. Should be real easy to achieve
-drawing outside your natural lip line, start at the centre of your lip, creating an elongated U shape that meets your upper line.3. Grab your lipstick and clean it all up. Hide that lip liner and get those lips looking as punchy and plump as you’d like. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1940s Lip Tutorial And that’s it! Big, beautiful, in your face lips!

What do you guys think? A preferred lip shape yet? 20s, 30s or 40s?

Shirt: thrifted vintage | Bracelet c/o The Shine Project

I’ve Got It All

April 25, 20165 Comments

Together…sometimes…but usually not.

The weekends when I am able to fit in work and fun are the type of weekends I come away from feeling truly whole. When you work a full time job (I recently became a buyer for a second hand/sometimes vintage shop), maintain a blog and other social media platforms all by yourself, own a dog, teach dance, help your partner with work, occasionally style and model for shoots, try to attend blogging/insta events, sometimes sell clothes…it’s hard to feel like you are on top of everything. To be honest, it’s fucking impossible to be on top of all of that. The thing that usually gets pushed to the wayside for me is friendships. It’s hard to maintain friendships (I’m mostly talking about surface friendships here) when you are an introvert, but also someone who feels literal guilt when you should be getting work done and instead are spending time with someone. And as I read that sentence, it sounds kind of awful. The thing is, I love my friends, the ones that don’t feel like work and get that I am kind of busy and will often say no to something because I have work to do. But on the flip side, I’ve had to work with the feeling of guilt I get when I am hanging out and not working by actually pushing work to the side and allowing myself to have fun without “consequence”. It’s been strange acknowledging that feeling and trying to work with it…I often feel like I never get it quite right. But this weekend felt truly balanced, and I woke up this morning with a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of wholeness. I realize it won’t always be like this. I won’t always feel like I’ve got it all together, and that’s really okay. As long as I am able to appreciate and recognize the moments where it does all fall so perfectly together, then I couldn’t really want or ask for anything else. We are all just trying to get by in the ways that make us feel good or make us feel bad, sometimes. It’s those things that drive us forward, but sometimes make us stuck. As long as we can see ourselves in all the ways we are or are not driven, well I think that’s all we can really do. In my little understanding of psychology and self-understanding, it’s just being able to see the way we work that makes us able to start changing for the better.

Can you relate? Do you have the opposite issue? Let me know in the comments below.

Jumpsuits!

April 20, 2016Leave a comment

JUMPIN’ JUMPIN’

Who else has really been loving jumpsuits of late? I now own dungarees (which you have seen), a simple black jumpsuit with a back cut-out and I’m hoping to add a colourful printed one to my roster sometime soon.

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I love the ease of jumpsuits. Much like a dress, it’s all you need to make an outfit (maybe some accessories too, though). There are so many pieces now that fit pretty well any style (sophisticated, boho, minimalist, vintage-inspired…you get it), that it would be easy to find something for yourself. I thought I’d share a few from around the web (mostly ASOS, apparently) that I found quite striking.
*all images linked to the source

So what about you? How do you feel about jumpsuits? Own one? Want to own one? Which one here is your fav? Let me know in the comments below.

Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial

April 18, 2016Leave a comment

and the world goes round

Continuing on with our lipstick styles from decades past, lets say hello to the 1930s lip. Not a far cry from the I previously shared, but definitely a few nuances to note. I think I prefer this style to the 1920s, however, I don’t love overdrawing my lips, which this style definitely does. However, it makes for a shape I didn’t even know my lips could achieve, so that’s neat and worth trying out just to see how it changes up your look.

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The art of women’s makeup took off in the 30s and started to feel like a statement; makeup was how women embraced their femininity. The style was much more refined and influenced by Hollywood, as some stars became household names and magazines were inspiring women with their colour and flare. Lips during this time were full, elongated and overdrawn.

-WHAT I USED-

Lip pencil: Follow Your Heart by MAC | Lipstick: Dubonnet by MAC | Lip gloss: Bert’s Bees (sorry, can’t remember the shade)

Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 1. A lip pencil is key for me when putting on a red lip, and to achieve this particular look I think it’s pretty essential. We’ll need to overdraw the upper lip, so having something with more precision will help you (unless you are magical, in which case, teach me!). Note that the upper lip is horizontally elongated, while still being shapely.
-starting at the cupid’s bow, draw to rounded peaks that begin to stretch outward, like an elongated heart shape
-bring your outline toward the corners of your mouth, while maintaining a slight curve that cascades down.
I like to think of this shape as a crescent, only it comes into a peak at the centre.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 2. The bottom lip is round, but like the top lip, elongated. This lower lip should be super easy to draw.
-starting at the centre of the lip, draw a shallow crescent outline reaching both corners and meeting your upper lip line; you could almost get the exact shape you want by pressing your upper lip down onto your lower lip and creating an imprint.
your lips should look like they have been stretched out, but not cartoonishly so.
Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 3. The fun part, fillin’ em in! For this one I also used Dubonnet by MAC since berry shades were popular at this time (although in the later 30s, orange shades became a thing, much to my delight). Be sure to start covering your outline and cleaning up any shaky bits with your lipstick. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial 4. When learning about this lip style, I noted many images of women with a bit of gloss on their lower lip, right in the centre. I liked the idea of recreating that look, so I used my Bert’s Bees red gloss that has a bit shimmer and applied it right to the centre of my lower lip. This is not a necessary step, but I personally like it. Larkspur Vintage | Beauty: 1930s Lip Tutorial And voila, you are looking 1930s glamorous in almost no time at all!