Dark spring/summer fashion inspiration: black & pastels.

I get emails everynow and again with requests to do do articles about gothic fashion tips for the Summer. Well, I have decided to start a new "series" covering the subject.
This post is about black & pastels. We had a short summery phase here in North England, a sneak preview of what to expect in the following months prior to returning back to the dark days of Winter (which is fine, nothing to worry about. It still is skiing season, you know?)

I've always been an advocate for pastels (I have written posts about it before), specially if they are skintone shades or ivory/cream. They bring out the best of our skinshades and because they are so light, they are easy to combine with other shades/colours and that makes them a perfect alternative to the "common" white to use as a blank colour to start an outfit with. Some people are a bit uneasy with the black&white combo for fear of ending up with a "waitress" look.

Despite their lightness, pastels work beautifully with black, as proven by the pic below, creating a gorgeous look that not always has to be "romantic" or "sissy". You can thoughen it up with dramatic accessories or textures like velvet or leather.

I love this look:
Black blazer/jacket/coat in wool or velvet!
A romantic or sleek fitted dress in skintone/pastel shade
black shoe/boots. Love that chunky heel. Much heavier than stiletto but so much more stable and therefore comfortable to walk with.

What do you think? Would you wear pastels?

Gothic make-up tips for the summer (olive skin)

Here is the kind of post that my followers love to bits: fashion tips! Everytime I do one, it seems like half of the internet stops by to check it out. The visits go through the roof!

One of the main problems of Gothic fashion is that is a winter fashion. For british goths/goth enthusiasts or people who live in Britain, this is not a big problem; as summer doesn't exist here. However, for the rest of the world, specially in the Mediterranean, this becomes a huge huge problem. So, after so many requests, I am starting my new fashion tips series: Gothic fashion for the summer. This post will cover some make-up tips for olive skin, as this is the tricky one, and no-one seems to have bothered with the subject.

During summer, I don't know if this is your case, I cannot wear full make-up because the sweat will sweep it away. Therefore, the old school trick of applying talc or white powder to make you look paler doesn't work anymore. It is time to confront the golden sun-tan your skin is achieving and embrace it. This means, either leave it plain, naked; or use a blush to accentuate it (pastel or deep 80s style strawberry shades)

I am pretty sure, you must be wondering how you can still achieve that "dark" look, then? You can still dramatise your eyes with deep eyeshadows and/or deep make-up. It is not going to look as edgy as it would on a fair skin person. It would look slightly more harmonious as your skin is already dark and any light shades you apply to it, it would absorbe them.


These are the options I can think of:

SMOKEY EYES
(deep make-up on the eyes, and that's it - no dark lips, no shade on cheeks). It doesn't have to be always black or grey. You can still achieve amazing dark results with other deep colours such as gold, turquoise or deep blues (I'll do a post about).

However, with the black or grey colours, you can achieve the exact density of pigment you want on your eyes.
You can make it soft so the eyeliner stands more or for a daily look (see picture1) or you can make it properly pitch black (see picture3), however this one is extremely difficult to apply because is incredibly messy. So while I am writing this post I am arranging the next one, which will be about its -several- methods of applying.


DARK FULL MAKE-UP
Because your skin is of an olive shade (due to sun tan or genetically), you can get away with a full make-up look, during the sunny day.
I have broken down this idea in two further options you could go for:
red lips - for a classier look but still looking very vamp (picture2),
dark lips - for an edgier and alternative look. These can be black or any other extremely deep shade of red and purple such as aubergine (picture3).

As you can see, both full make-up looks work well with either soft blush or deeper strawberry shade.