cream - The Seventh Sphinx

One does feel somewhat predatory with such decor as this going on.

This Violent Lips leopard appliqué is not disappointing. It’s strange on the lips, yes. You know it’s there, and it seems like you can’t move your lips very dramatically without the appliqué cracking (not flaking off, just cracking in place – once it’s on, barring the intervention of oil or makeup remover, it’s not coming off). That said, I’m pretty impressed. I like. It’s a playful novelty, winning me over by being just what it promises to be.

[It’s a good thing, because I got a ton of them.]

This leopard print is so unexpected. It’s distracting, and not only for me it seems, given the number of looks on the street. Any of the component colors alone would be unusual lip colors, and all three together are triply so. Unconventional, bizarre, bold…all the necessaries for a potentially fierce look, a look that says, I do what I want.

I think we need some aviators here.

This necklace features the Leo constellation (fitting, no?). Was searching for a small but not too small gold disc like this for some time, intended for layering with other small pendants on dainty gold chains with white v-neck shirts (you know how it is…). Gold and white is a favorite color combination of mine, and the uncontested favorite for summer. I was so attached to a white/gold/brown look here that I omitted blush and am only wearing bashings of bronzers and illuminators (yes, multiple, we’ll talk about that later).

Victoria’s Secret tunic dress, bowler bag (eBay, thoughts on replicas here), gladiator sandals (eBay), Free People belt, Fossil Watch, Julie Nolan zodiac necklace (eBay, chain replaced), Ray Ban aviators.

Used a combination of a gold Urban Decay 24/7 liner and a brown Tarte Smoldereyes pencil here, both great, soft, smudgeable, long-wearing formulations. Tried out an intriguing technique I picked up from this really interesting tutorial (so many techniques/perspectives here I hadn’t seen before) by Australian makeup artist Rae Morris. Applying the gold all along and down my inner corner/epicanthic fold was my idea, though. More dramatic and metallic in person. A little cat inspiration.

Regardless of where the waistband sits I like pencil skirts that hit at this point just below the knee, still showing the full curve of the calf. There is something shapely to me about the combination of what is and what is not revealed.

The pearl set* is a bit prim with the turtleneck—a turtleneck sweater tucked into a high waisted pencil skirt being already in that clean, preppy Ralph Lauren vein—but I am myself a bit prim, and I like sometimes to look it. This necklace is stunning, too, a metallic lavender freshwater strand with rosy overtones that Pearls of Joy sent over. Metallics are a special, relatively rare pearlcreature of their own.

* These are complementary but not literally a set. I mean pearl earrings and a pearl necklace together, which can seem like too much (or too formal). Sometimes, though, I like to be too much. “Too much”, or maybe “a little bit too much”, is not a bad description of my style.

This would have been a good opportunity for a belt, though I like the uncluttered color block look, too.

One thing I like especially about a high waisted silhouette is the expanse of the full…haunch, I guess you would call it, in profile. I like clothes like this, that obscure the body without disguising it or breaking up its natural lines. The outfit is conservative in its coverage yet sensual in its silhouette.

Long No. 2 pencil skirt from J. Crew (thrifted), French Connection turtleneck sweater (via Marshall’s), Zara pumps (thrifted), fingerless gloves (eBay), Mulberry bag (thrifted), natural golden akoya earrings from Pearl Paradise, metallic lavender freshwater pearl necklace from Pearls of Joy. On the lips: Dr. Hauschka lip balm (which we love).

Tag: cream

the leopard

the long pencil skirt