The first rule of True Crime and Craft Time is...

Okay so I'm REALLY sleep deprived and have been listening to Fight Club at work, our inaugural post is probably going to be a bit wonky.

I obsessively collect craft hobbies like other people collect creepy dolls but went on a sort of crafty hiatus for a while*. I've recently gotten back into crafting really hardcore and I wanted a place to talk in depth about whatever it is I'm doing at the moment.

The last time I had a collected grouping of my craft endeavours was on LiveJornal under the name Carapax. It's been a while but I STILL go back to check details from time to time. Now that I'm getting back into it I really want to have that same level of project reference.

Pretty psyched about this as it's already providing utility for me. I spent a good chunk of my drive to work trying to make sure I didn't forget about some ideas I had waiting at lights. I now have four separate project planning posts going (aaaaand I just thought of a fifth while typing this).


*not strictly true as I did a metric buttload of crafting for my wedding last year, but wedding crafts come from a different headspace and I couldn't share any of that until after it was done. 
I did however try to take lots of pics as I went along so that I could share in the future, so expect to see that stuff at some point.

Product fix: no more glistening like a pig!

Carmandized! via http://www.ajdeangelo.com/

I really enjoy the look of illuminators in real life. An ultra light dusting on the cheekbones, above the brow, on the nose, and on the chin truly does bring a glow to the face - just like Carmandy taught us! 

All the illuminators I had tried for years had a sort of super icy tone which was pretty workable in combination with my darker skin tone... in person.

But in photos? That icy ethereal Cate Blanchett elf look doesn't fly.
My cool, top-lit glow tragically translates into this sort of "mid August, waiting for the subway, all the humidity, should have worn shorts" sheen.

Thankfully I got a sample of "The Balm" Mary-Lou-Manizer in one of my very first Birchbox sets. This was the first illuminator that made me look gilded rather than just sweaty. I hesitate to call it warmer, but it is for sure neutral... er. *laughs*

Typically I go for the pale, champagne/honey toned Mary-Lou-manizer, but now that I have the cool white hair I like adding a bit of pink in to my face and have been leaning toward their subtly rosy/peachy Cindy Lou-Manizer.  

My hair and skin tone change all the time, but between the Mary/Betty/Cindy-Lou-Manizers and a couple of the new Nude Dude shades there are enough tones that I can use them in all of my different seasonal "coats". Also the packaging is adorable.

I liked the first sample so much that I snatched up a set of the full size illuminator and bronzer (i.e. Mary & Betty) when it went on sale at Kohls even though I don't have so much use for the bronzer and the pigment is milled so fine I'm STILL using up that first sample.

Not a recent pic, but it was actually hard to find one where I could tell for sure I was wearing illuminator! Which is exactly as it should be.

I'd show you a "before" but I didn't keep those.

I've gotten a number of shades as samples from different subscription boxes and so far I have been really impressed with their whole line. I always find a use for them and more often than not they become the go-to for that product type. 

They really brighten up a matte face full of make-up and add back in all the life and depth that a full coverage product can remove without making you look like you're gaining all that life and depth by running a marathon in the noonday sun.

Lifestyles of The ItsyBitsy

I am a woman of many (many) interests and I'm finding this beauty specific space to be limiting, so I'm working on ways to shake things up.

Basically what I would like to do is set up a few separate topic pages here on The Itsy Bitsy so that I can post what I like when I like, and recast this as a broader lifestyle blog.

A weirder, craftier, fussier, Itsy-er, Bitsy-er, lifestyle blog.

My goal is to make it so that people who want to come look at the blog for a specific topic will be able to find it easily as it will all be archived by topic (beyond just by tagging, that is), but if they are interested in the other stuff I do they won't have to go far.

The beauty stuff will of course stay but I'm really trying to get back into fitness and crafting in a big way and I want to talk about those sides of me without having to maintain a whole passel of separate spaces.

I'll be playing around with page layouts in the coming days but I don't expect this to be terribly intrusive, more as I get things hammered out!