rock on

Rocks are so lovely. I really like rocks. I hang-out-in-the-natural-history-museum like rocks. I like trees and plants and other things that fall under the umbrella of nature as well…but especially rocks. Rocks, crystals, other kinds of mineral deposits that harden into rock-like structures…

After all, you can wear rocks.

While I do like stones that have been formed into beads, faceted, manhandled, I have a visceral appreciation for the raw beauty of a more organic presentation.

semi precious stone necklaces

Really craving this kind of large, raw-edged, stone jewelry for the last few years. Such stones feel somehow naked and true. Anchoring.

amethyst necklace

Here is a gorgeous piece of amethyst and citrine crystals, unabashedly bulky and heavy. While potentially [ideally] imposing, I find such jewelry capable of being casual where a more ornate (“fine”) piece would feel overdressed and out of place. It’s simultaneously overstated and understated. Eye-catching and bold yet approachable, relatively inexpensive, versatile.

turquoise necklace

Turquoise I love any day of the week, in all forms. There are a number of stones available in this format of bulky puddle-stone style necklaces and I find myself drawn to them. In wearing such stones I seem to be saying, what more processing do they need to serve as worthy embellishment? None. Pull them from the ground, clean them up, drill some holes, et voilà. Fit for a queen.

There is something stately about them, too. Solemn, even. Something not at all frivolous, unlike those ubiquitous faux-stone bib necklaces, for example. Not that I can’t appreciate those but they have little stylistic weight, if that makes any sense. Even when well-played they are still merely trendy. Trendy can go far, very far indeed in our culture, but do we not want to go beyond that?

I think the word I’m looking for is fierce.

amber necklace

Love the warmth and luminosity of amber. One does feel rather like some goddess of the earth when wearing a rustic band of jagged amber, bedecked with the fruits of the underground (one’s shadowy domain? I like where this is going). I recommend it. I happen to have picked these pieces up on eBay. Others like them aren’t hard to find, and beautiful semi-precious stones abound.

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distraction: bold blush

I scroll through so many made-up faces in the course of my style and beauty browsing, online or in magazines, that I rarely give a look much attention. Perhaps I note liking a certain color that is used (probably the shade of lipstick), or thinking that there is something appealing about the peculiarity of the model’s face, but it’s extremely uncommon that I pause, am arrested. Am interested.

Stumbled across this image in a more or less unrelated marie-claire article about pro make-up tips, wherein this image was a sort of useless illustration of a category heading in the piece. [Because you can’t have an article without pictures!] I forgive it this superfluity, however. This is a stunning, strange look. The kind of look that makes me want to sit down and play around with make-up.

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The pale pastel eyes and lips seem like your usual spring stuff but then these great windburned cheeks pull the look well away from the shores of the ordinary. This is bold, beautiful blush. I love when a look conveys the idea of wearing too much blush on purpose. That is, not too much blush, exactly the amount desired. It seems to me this is the trick with anything outlandish or unconventional: to look as if you did it on purpose.

This is editorial, yes. I mean, this is a lot of blush. The look is so fierce, though. The icy blue of the eyes, such a cool color…probably terrible on me but it is so great here I want to secretly try it anyway. Did you see the Lisa Eldridge tutorial of Tippi Hendren’s make-up from Hitchcock’s The Birds? That was a look that stuck with me, that I also wanted to recreate faithfully, reminds me of this eye look. Pinned.

There’s something to be said for too much blush. It’s dangerous territory but with treasures to be unearthed for the adventurous, those who go beyond the rookie realm of gauche overapplication into that of decisive, savage color.

image via marie-claire.com