Leigh Bardugo's Blog, page 887
February 25, 2011
Sparkle in a Jar!
From Jonathan Adler's Barbie collection at Royal T. I wanted them all but I limited myself to one. Can you guess which?
February 23, 2011
Too Much Bubbly: Why Glee Needs to Sober Up
Glee is frequently muddled in its message and its plot and, usually, I don't much care. It's one of the few shows that I really look forward to every week and I don't need it to hold together on every level. But I was really irked by last night's episode and its decidedly bleary focus on teen drinking.
According to Glee, as long as you don't drive drunk, the worst repercussions from getting wasted seem to be 1. You kiss a dreamy gay boy 2. You vomit on a friend.
Look, I like my cocktails. A lot. But I think it's tacky and irresponsible to do a show that is explicitly about underage drinking and not even touch on issues like date rape, the shoddy decisions that get made while intoxicated, or addiction (aside from mocking 12 step programs). It doesn't have to be A Very Special Episode, but there should at least be some suggestion that the pleasures of losing control can come with some ugly consequences. A drunk dial and a little puke just don't cut it.
February 16, 2011
Affordable Steampunk Baubles
I mostly feature one-of-a-kind designs on Marvelous Items, but I also like the reasonably priced pretties being created by the nice people at The Weekend Store. (Here is the "Time Flies" locket I bought at UniqueLA. A little bit Steampunk, a teensy bit Mockingjay, no?)
They also feature exposed clockwork pendants (just $28), typewriter key bracelets ($76), map lockets ($36), and transit token cufflinks ($46)– though I'm hoping they add more cities soon.
Deal: Enter coupon code "vintage" at checkout and receive 20% off your entire purchase. You can thank me later. (Note: I prefer to be thanked in jewelry or gin.)
February 14, 2011
That "I sup on dewdrops and dine on dandelions" glow
In honor of Valentine's day, I've decided to launch a new feature: "Products I Love."
First PIL (not to be confused with PiL) designation goes to Benefit's . This is a lip and cheek stain that will give you a dreamy, Pre-Raphaelite flush that lasts. For those of you intimidated by stains, fear not. Posietint has a little more "play" than typical stains, meaning that it stays blendabe and workable longer. And, though it looks like pink nailpolish in the bottle, it goes on sheer and the effect is 100% natural.
Use it over foundation, under bronzer, or, if you want to add a little sparkle, mix it with Benefit's shimmering liquid highlighter, "High Beam."
Tip: Posietint darkens slightly as it dries. Apply one layer and give it a few minutes to work its magic.
Deal: Try Posietint, High Beam, and Benetint (Benefit's original lip and cheek stain, also gorgeous) for just $15 at Sephora.
February 7, 2011
The Balm: Beauty Tips from the Icy Tundra
During my time on the tundra, I've heard a lot of talk about chapped lips. If you want to be ready to pout with fervor in all sorts of weather, just follow my lippy commandments (there's only five and none of them involve adultery):
1. Use lip balm once or twice a day at most. Don't become an addict. Use balm too often and your lips will stop producing their natural oils so you're actually making life harder on yourself. 
2. When your lips feel dry, don't lick them. It just dries them out more. Gently press your lips together to stimulate oil production.
3. Use the right product: Avoid anything with lanolin. Want to know what most lanolin is? RENDERED SHEEP'S FAT and that is just gross. Kiehl's is always a nice choice, but I'm partial to the reasonably priced, delightfully retro Smith's Rosebud Salve (their web site is a wreck but I feel this adds to their charm), available many places including Drugstore.com (unlike Sephora, they have all of the Smith's products). Rosebud is the classic, but I use the Mocha Rose every night and could not do without it.
4. Avoid anything with menthol (I'm looking at you "medicated" Blistex). That cooling tingle can irritate chapped lips.
5. If you apply the Rosebud Salve to your lips every night, your lips should be in great shape. But if you're going to be wearing a 
dark or bright lip color and want to guarantee a flawless pucker, exfoliate. There are a few lip exfoliants out there. I'm partial to Sara Happ's lip scrubs. But if you're in a pinch, a little brown sugar or even a regular granulated sugar packet will do. Use your finger or a disposable mascara wand to massage into the lips. Don't go overboard, and remember to soothe with lip balm after.
Beauty questions? Send them my way and I'll do my very best to answer.
January 30, 2011
On you huskies!
As I mentioned on Twitter, I'm at an undisclosed location in the icy tundra until February 9th. Don't believe me? Wise. I've been known to fib. But here are some shots of life in the frosty wilds. Tundra reading list coming soon.
The view from my window
Snow falling on writer
The house where I'm staying (hidden in the stand of trees)
January 24, 2011
Foxy Clockworks
(First, try saying "Foxy clockworks" three times fast.)
I've mentioned Michelle Harris of Once Lost Jewelry before, but she's marvelous enough that she deserves further discussion. A lot of people are doing steampunk jewelry right now, but I think she's doing it particularly well.
Here's a shot of her booth from Renegade Craft Fair LA –>
Look closely and you'll see the scarab brooch that I mentioned in my first Marvelous Items post.
Below is a shot of the fox pendant that I was also compelled to acquire.
Click on it to see all of the lovely details. You know you wanna.
January 20, 2011
The Kitty Conundrum
The news that Anne Hathaway had been cast as Catwoman prompted me to take a look at the sleek-suited supervillain's backstory.
(I don't have strong feelings regarding Hathaway in the role. I loved her in "Rachel Getting Married," hated her in Tim Burton's "Alice" and didn't much care for her in "The Devil Wears Prada." I think she's a lovely girl with serious dramatic chops and iffy comic timing. Not a popular view, I know.) 
I was surprised at how many different backstories Catwoman has had: She's been a prostitute, a mousy secretary and, no lie, "an amnesiac flight attendant." Catwoman started out as just another villain, a (sexy) thief wielding a whip and her wiles to befuddle the Big Bat. Then the writers tried to justify her badgirl ways through an escalating series of traumas. (She survived a plane crash but her brain got muddled! She had an abusive boyfriend, an abusive husband, an abusive pimp! She was stuffed into a bag and drowned– like a cat, geddit?)
Origin stories for hero and villain alike are often loaded with disaster, misery, and death. After all, something big has to prompt one to put on a costume and wreak havoc on the world or right its wrongs. (Although, once upon a time, "I must have the world's biggest diamond!" or "That diamond doesn't belong to you!" seemed to be motivation enough.)
I think Catwoman's origin stories are so muddled and disparate because she really does freak us out. She isn't just sexy like your average villainess; she's sexy in a very specific way– in a whip-cracking, black latex, fetish-focused way. Her "look" has meaning and resonance outside of the superhero universe in a way that other villains' costumes do not. (I mean, purple suits and and monocles are not the stuff of nightmare and fantasy… unless you have a fear of being tacky or a Mr. Peanut fetish.) All badgirls wear high heels, but Catwoman's high heels mean something else.
Maybe because she freaks us out, we try to declaw Catwoman. We turn her into an anti-hero instead of just letting her be a villain. For once, I'd like to see a Catwoman who doesn't just titillate but genuinely terrifies, who gets to be really and truly, and, yes, even unrepentantly bad. I don't know what Christopher Nolan has planned or what Hathaway will bring to the role, but I hope that, this time around, we get a Catwoman that's more crouching tiger, less wounded kitten.
January 16, 2011
Aaron Sorkin wants to believe
My post on my fancy new feather headdress will have to wait til Wednesday because I just watched part of the rebroadcast of the Golden Globes and I'm a little baffled by Aaron Sorkin's acceptance speech. I mean, did it not seem a bit… I don't know… delusional?
"I wanted to say to Mark Zuckerberg, if you're watching tonight, Rooney Mara's character makes a prediction at the beginning of the movie, she was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a visionary and an altruist."
In case you don't remember the speech from The Social Network, here it is:
You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole.
So Sorkin says that Mara's character got it wrong. Delightful. Except that Sorkin WROTE Mara's speech AND he used the rest of the movie to prove her right. More importantly, he did this knowing everything about Zuckerberg that he knows today (altruism, steady girlfriend and all). I'm just not sure that it's fair to poop all over someone's reputation and then blame it on one of your characters.
But equally strange was Sorkin's shout-out to his daughter:
"Honey, look around, smart girls have more fun."
Again, a delightful sentiment and one that I wholly endorse. But do the Golden Globes really exemplify this? Let's take Sorkin's advice and look around. What do we see? What do the cameras show us? Gorgeous men, craggy men, nerdy men, bald men– all surrounded by almost universally gorgeous, slender women. I love glamour. I love looking at pretty people in sparkly gowns and I have no problem with Halle Berry's gams or the boobaliciousness of January Jones. But if there's a message here, it's definitely not "Study hard and join an improv group."
January 11, 2011
Brace Yourself!
Apparently, there's some debate over the difference between braces and suspenders. All I can say is that these hold your pants up in style.
Designer: Steam Trunk Couture (I am fairly desperate for their Vellum Coat.) Please note the marvelous hardware (double click on the image to get a better look).
