I do not recommend one ever do a full-day trunk show on 3 hours' worth of sleep. Especially after one has been getting, on average, 4 hours of sleep for over a week.

I mean, it was fine. It was a little slow, being a Thursday and all. But I easily made 3x what I needed to for variety's sake, and what was not sold will go up on my site later this week. Overall, it was a good experience to have under my belt, even though the lighting in the shop was, as one sales associate put it, "so bad the man who installed it clearly detested the idea of selling jewelry." But you know what? I can say I have shown and sold my jewelry at a fine art museum, and indeed a very nice one at that.



  

I did take an hour to peruse the VMFA's awesome Art Nouveau collection, which was absolutely stunning. The Mucha bust! The Favrile glass! Gah! I die. Plus there was an AMAZING stag-horn beetle mirror. I am not even overly fond of mirrors, and I WANT ONE. I also saw the Bold, Cautious, True exhibit, which paired Civil War-era paintings with inscriptions from Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass,' as well as an original copy of the book. My English major-y, history geeky heart was so happy. Plus a recreation of an 1880's Rockefeller bedroom. OH MAN, how much do I love historical room displays? Let me count the ways. Oh! And Diana Al-Hadid's Trace of a Fictional Third was just stunning in-person. Absolutely mesmerizing.

  

On the way home, I sang Motown at the top of my lungs to keep from falling asleep. Pandora also randomly threw some Eric Hutchinson in the mix, so I smiled and thought of evergleam83. Got home at Ungodly O'Clock in the morning.

(In other jewelry news, someone really cool and well known in certain circles bought a bunch of earrings from me last week. I don't think I should say who right yet, but if she ends up wearing them in pictures, I will probably squee a little.)

Dragged myself in to Terra Firma anyway. Bill took one look at me and told me to go home and sleep. He is the best of bosses, I tell you.

Today, I did all of the Father's Day salutations deemed culturally necessary, then hurried on to Pride where I danced with Transcendence. Aside from the set (which went smoothly and easily!), there were two notable things-- one was that my brother Matt came to watch me dance, and gave me a ride in. As we were pulling up, he was like, "so what is Pride?" and I was like "you know, gay pride," and he was like "OH." I think he thought it was part of the 1812 festivities that have taken over the city this weekend. He was basically the straightest straight boy who ever straighted at a Pride event, but I think he enjoyed himself. The other notable thing was that, due to the 1812 festivities, the Blue Angels were doing fly-bys and they flew right over our stage while we were dancing! Exciting!

Anyhow, Pride audiences are the best. They were so excited to see us dance, and smiled a lot and gave us great energy. The organizers were really happy to have us back and told us how much they enjoyed our set last year. Plus a photographer for City Paper was allllll over us after we danced, so fingers crossed for some good publicity.

(Also notable: I got into costume in a RECORD 45 minutes.)

Came home, took the BEST shower, de-glitterified (well, mostly. I am never entirely free of glitter somewhere on my person), and changed into my brand spankin' new Transcendence Tribal tee-shirt. It's cut to fit over cholis just like the FCBD ones, and it's got greyish-pink sparkly letters. Anywhoo, I love it. Well done, Jenn & Brooke.

Tried to read Sunshine but ended up ranting about it instead. Going to try to get back to it until I fall asleep. That should be in, oh, ten pages or so. Tomorrow, I have to work on 7 poetry pendants for the Poet's Talisman series, v 2.0. I have a few more Prayer of St Francis ones, a few more 'I Hold With Those Who Favor Fire,' and a couple of surprises. That and the remainder of the Wanderlust collection, plus a few odd Faerie Moons & Faery Wings, will go up on site later this week.

I leave you with a Bean in a bag:

My Birchbox subscription continues to be awesome. In this month's box I got The Balm's Stainiac, a rosy pink lip stain with a glossy finish, as well as a FULL SIZED Stila One Step Bronze. I tend to not use bronzers, what with being a pale girl with a tendency towards red hair. Usually, bronzers just make me look like my face is dirty. But aha! I blend this with my foundation (which is more like a tinted moisturizer this time of year), and it both adds a very subtle warmth to my face AND deepens the color so I don't have to buy a darker foundation for summer. I'm pretty pleased with it.

I am continuing to love cream blushes. I've never really liked powdery stuff on my face, and I can blend creams in a matter of seconds. MAC just put out an entire line of Casual Color cream blushes, but I'm waffling on it because let's face it, MAC's quality has gone down the tubes in the last few years. I don't have a ton of disposable income to spend on makeup (which is why I love Birchbox so much-- $10/month and I easily get three times that in product), so $23 on a product that fizzles isn't something I'm willing to do. Add to that, MAC is now selling in China, and China's animal testing policy is skeevy to say the least, so I've been kind of avoiding MAC, and will be switching to another eye primer as well, since Urban Decay just decided to venture into China. If/when China changes its policies, I might change my mind, but as it stands, there are plenty 100% cruelty-free brands for me to try where I can get comparable products and not worry about the skeeve factor.

My mom just gave me a Laura Geller cream blush that I've not yet tried-- it's a little more of a fall color, with a berry undertone. What I have been often wearing was another full size I got in my Birchbox, Revolution Organics' "beauty balm" cheek and lip color in SunKissed. It's sort of a golden coral with a bronze undertone. It blends nicely and is a great summery shade for warmer skin tones. My only issue with it is that it's kind of soft, so I have to be careful and not apply too much pressure when I'm putting it on or it'll get squishy. It's really nice on my lips, too, but doesn't last long at all.

The other thing I've been loving right now are the lip products Revlon's been putting out. Early spring, they put out Colorburst Lip Butters, and the beauty blogosphere went nuts over them. I bought three. They're cheap and amazing quality for the price. I got Peach Parfait (pinky peach with golden shimmer), Pink Truffle (nude pink), and Red Velvet (deep red). The color payoff is AMAZING, and they feel like lip balms when worn-- SUPER moisturizing, which is great because my lips tend to be dry unless I constantly apply balm. They aren't at all tacky like glosses. Overall, they're just fantastic products, and entirely worth looking into even if you consider yourself a minimal makeup, Chapstick type of gal.

Revlon's new launch for summer are their Just Bitten Kissable balm stain pencils, and I am loving the one I got of those as well. They sort of look like Clinique's Chubby Sticks or the Tarte Lipsurgence pencils, but they're half the cost. I actually got a Lipsurgence full size in my Birchbox two months ago, but it was entirely too cool toned for me, so I passed it on. As for Revlon, I got Honey, which, again is a pinky nude-- it goes on matte, but moisturizing. You don't really need a mirror to apply it, so it's great for touchups. And it does leave a flattering, subtle stain after the balm component has worn off. Great as a a standalone product or under lipstick or balm. I hope they completely replace Revlon's previous balm + stain product, which were TERRRRRRRIBLE and drying and patchy. I want to try to pick up Rendezvous (orangey coral) and Adore (brick red with gold shimmer) sometime soon.

Fall collections are just starting to be teased. I am particularly looking forward to the Bobbi Bown Desert Twilight Collection. The eye palette looks like a perfect Autumnal substitute for my Stila In The Light palette (as I am already hitting pan on my most-used shades), and I have always wanted to try her lip glosses. Evening Rose, Pink Sunset, and Twilight look right up my alley. I hope Christine of Temptalia will review them so we can get a better look.

One other beauty-related find I've been loving: Yes To Blueberries facial wipes. $8.99 for 30 at Walgreens. They smell like lemon + apple, they remove makeup, they clean the skin, AND they leave it very subtly moisturized. I am super impressed. I will be re-purchasing them (in part because J has been stealing some, too!).

What beauty products have you been testing?