Upkeep is Hard, Don't Stress Yourself

 I was getting ready the other day when a thought crossed my mind. I stopped for a second and wondered why in the world I was up putting on eyeliner at 5 in the morning. I've gotten so used to getting up early, struggling through the first part of my day, and then crashing when I finally get home, that I never really stop to consider whether I should be doing things a little differently. My bus shows up at my house at 6:30, and I do eat breakfast in the morning and make my lunch, but that still leaves an hour to get ready. Do I really need all that time every day? The answer in all honesty is no. I'm living on 6 hours of sleep per night when I should be getting double digits, and this far into the school year I'm starting the effects.

You don't have to look like this every day
(Though she's certainly gorgeous. I'm afraid I don't know where I found this)

 As a rule, I feel Goths are often more inclined to spend time on their appearance, for several reasons. The first one being that the scene has always been full of striking people with dramatic makeup or gravity-defying hair, and clothes that turn heads. I mean, look at some of the icons of the scene! Siousxie Sioux, Robert Smith, Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, Johnny Slut, Dave Vanian....the list goes on and on. We see pictures and go I want to look just like them and spend forever trying to replicate a look that in all honesty probably took full hair stylists and makeup artists to accomplish. (At the very least an afternoon, a can of aquanet, and a whole stick of eyeliner. And we don't have time for that every day) We tend to forget that some things are staged. That people like them didn't look perfect every second of the day. (Though sometimes I wonder...)

Young Dave is gorgeous isn't he? <3

The same thing applies to the pictures of Goths you see on websites such as Tumblr. (Which I am extremely guilty of spending a ridiculous amount of time on) Sometimes I'll sit there for hours (after I've emerged from the fandom blogs headed over to the fashion) and just sigh over all of the beautiful people. They've got perfect makeup, and flawless hair and clothes. And then I have to slap myself a bit and remind myself that many of them are professional or at least semi-professional models, not ordinary people going about their daily lives. Remember that their clothes might not be their own, and that time was spent on their appearance. The photo was probably staged, could have taken time to get the angles right, and it might have been edited. Seeing all these photos is a great way to get discouraged, and think you have to keep up with that level of maintenance to be 'appropriately' Goth. It can be especially discouraging to people just starting out that don't have a wide variety of clothes or accessories, or great makeup skills yet.

Hair...

I'm very sorry I can't give these pictures credit
Most were found via Tumblr a while ago

Of course then there's the one that probably gets me the most. I suffer from the "everyone's looking at me because I'm different so I have to set a good example for the scene" syndrome. (Well that's a mouthful) There's already this stigma against alternative sorts, and mallgoths are the ones that tend to reinforce it. Not neccesarily on purpose of course, but people get a lot of their stereotypes from the kid hanging around Hot Topic with the greasy hair, Tripp pants and Slipknot shirt. As a result, I have this idiotic fear of being lumped in as yet another 'stupid rebelling teenager'. Therefore, I try to set a good example to counteract all those stereotypes. Is my makeup melting? Is my hair lopsided? Does this look cheesy? It's the little nagging voice that says if I'm alternative and people think I look eccentric I'd better make sure they think I'm pretty all the time too. I do it constantly and it's ridiculous. I'm trying so hard to steer myself away from that train of thought. There's nothing wrong with making sure you don't look a mess, but that should be for yourself, not because you're afraid of being judged.

What I'm really trying to get at here (In a vague, rambling, roundabout way) is that it's OK to slack off once in a while! You don't have to doll yourself up everyday, and it's fine to go casual and makeupless as often as you feel like. You can't let your appearance take over your life completely, while sacrificing valuable time to do other things. (like sleeping in my case) It's just not healthy. Of course, some people are more comfortable wearing skirts and dresses all the time, (I know someone who despises jeans) and some people find it fun to dress to the nines every day,  (more power to you!) but there's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of if you want to wear a hoodie and lazy pants every so often. Who cares if you skip doing your nails or don't put on makeup?

So I'm designating a day. One day every week where I'm gonna dress down on purpose. One of my band or fandom shirts, a hoodie, and comfy jeans  or my cargo pants. And no makeup to boot. In exchange I'll get a day of liberation and learn to feel pretty without makeup. Not to mention, I'll get to sleep a little longer ;)

30 Day Clothing Challenge~Day 12: A Piece of Jewelry Everyone Compliments you on.

Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but lately I haven't really had enough time to get around to blogging. (Or comment on other people's postss) You'd think I'd be free more often, what with just having Thanksgiving break, but it seems the opposite is true! Also, I used to think that in order to be a good blogger I needed to get a certain amount of posts out so I didn't bore people. Lately, I've realized that's absolute crap. I love all of you followers but I created this blog for myself, to have some fun and connect with other alternatively inclined people. Trying to get a post out every few days is stressful (Remember when Amy at Stripy Tights was churning out a post a day? I don't know how she managed it...) and I want to thoroughly enjoy blogging instead of feeling pressured to get new material on the internet all the time.

Of course, I'm still going to be posting on a pretty regular basis, I absolutely love blogging, I'm just not too concerned if I wait a few extra days here and there. With math kicking my butt and a freed social life now that marching band is over I have a chance to spend time with some real-life friends again. (I'm not gonna be a hermit anymore!) Point is, posts are gonna be a little less frequent but don't think I've abandoned all of you. Definitely not.

So now I'm going to continue with the 30 Day clothing challenge. I'm almost halfway there~ ^^

These three necklaces are the ones I get comments on, probably because they're among the more ordinary/conventional pieces I wear. I've had the star for so long I don't know where I got it. The music note is something I received for my last birthday. The one in the middle is jade and I purchased it at a small store in Vancouver two summers ago when we went on a vacation to Canada.

Please excuse the dog hair. I swear I vacuumed yesterday, but it just comes back!

Also, I dyed my hair! I decided to go really dark brown and I'm so happy I did. I've always loved dark hair and from here I have loads of things I want to do. Undercut...deathhawk...short hair... the possibilities are endless.And then when I get bored of this there's a host of other colors to choose from. Of course, I love this so much that I have a feeling dark hair is going to become my staple. My dad is still complaining about how I got rid of my blond hair, but he's just going to have to get used to it because I might even go black next time.

I still shock myself every time I look in a mirror.

Today's outfit for good measure. I think you might have seen this sweater before...

Finally, I know I've seen this on a blog somewhere before, but I'm going to bring it back. There's this adorable pin-up creator on Deviantart. I spent about an hour creating cute lil versions of myself. This one's my favorite.

Obviously before I changed my hair.

And that's that. I'll probably have something else up in a few days because we're going to the corn maze. I can't wait ^^

Gothic Nail Care

 Ok, so Gothic nail care isn't much different from normal nail care. Granted, most people don't file their nails into points and seem strangely adverse to black nail polish, but there are some nice general rules for keeping your nails healthy.

My nails are particularly prone to peeling when they're unhappy so I try to follow all of these basic guidelines to keep them from turning cringe-worthy.

•  First of all, STOP BITING THEM. I've never had that problem so I can't relate to how difficult it is to break that habit, but really, please try. Pretty please? Try chewing gum or something else to release your stress and you'll have one more thing to spend goth maintenance time on ;) SO STOP BITING OR I WILL COME AND MAKE YOU DAMMIT.

•  Don't use nail polish too often. I know, I know. The thought makes me groan too, but have the white parts of your nail every turned a sickly yellow color after wearing nail polish for a long time? It's not necessarily damaging, but it looks horrendous for a few weeks as the discolored nail grows out. Darker colors tend to make this occur faster so try giving your nails a break every couple of weeks.

•  Use a top coat to protect the tips of your nails. Your nails bump into so many things during the day. You'd be surprised at how much of the top coat can be gone by the time your day's over. A little extra protection never hurt anyone.

• This one will sound a little silly. Try not to use your nails. It's harder than it sounds! But if you consciously try to use your fingers more than the actual nails then they'll last much longer. I'm at the point where I ask whoever is closest to me to do things that I can't manage without my nails. You really learn to adapt. For example, my long nails prevent me from picking up flat things like coins from surfaces. I used to chase the stupid things around until I realized I could just slide them off the table. *facepalm*

• Water, soap, and nail polish remover quickly dry out your nails. Occasionally apply some hand lotion to your nails and rub it in to moisturize. Especially do this after using polish remover. That stuff, while useful, is evil.

•  Nail hardener has actually been proven to make nails less flexible, which means they're easier to break. I wouldn't really advise using it unless you have to.

• Sometimes you just have to face the fact that your nails look like crap. That means its time to cut them and start over. It pains me every time but sometimes it's necessary.

•  As a rule of thumb its advised for the white part of the nail to be no more than half the length of the nail bed. Feel free to ignore that, just know that you'll need to get creative when it comes to practical things.

And perhaps this is a bit too long.

A last piece of advice. Sharp nails are much more delicate then 'normal' nails. I break mine constantly. Which is usually followed by a curse, quick temper tantrum, and small sulk before I just accept that one of my babies is gone and move on.

I don't think there's any possible way to have all of my pointy nails perfect for more than a day. (I broke one on the fridge yesterday and since I always keep my thumbs short for practicality only six of my ten fingernails are long now. It looks pretty funny. Once, i broke FOUR playing spoons.) 

I learned lot of the helpful information here on this website. It's much more in-depth than this quick explanation and full of helpful tips for taking care of your nails

Short, long, pointy, square, round, it doesn't matter. Just take the time to look after your poor nails once in a while. It'll be worth your time :)