A happy goth

These days when I'm going out, I usually gravitate towards pants (or shorts, in the summer) and a shirt, because it's a versatile combination that can take you almost anywhere...but yesterday, I felt like wearing a dress (perhaps because the day before, I had spent the evening in shorts and a satin halter top – as seen at right – and wanted to change it up)! 

 

I immediately went for my black-and-white striped dress, because I'd just recently downgraded (or upgraded, depending on your perspective) it from a "dress I wear to work" to a "dress I will only wear outside of work" (because I decided it was just too short for the office...unless I wear it with tights, like I did the first time I wore it...but I haven't been much into tights this year...are you catching my indecisive vibe?) and I wanted to try it out in its new role.

A black and white dress lends itself perfectly to colorful shoes, and I really wanted to wear one of my new pairs of flamboyant high heels. But alas, when I tried them on, I realized to my dismay that my recently sprained ankle still wasn't up to the challenge. I was practically devastated.

But I consoled myself with the knowledge that if I couldn't have a party on my feet, I could at least have a party on my ears, so I dug around in my Unworn Jewelry Basket for some suitably new and exciting earrings.

Once again, I struck out, since I didn't have any new earrings worth wearing. But I did have a black lace choker and matching bracelet, which just felt right, even if they were somewhat lacking in the color department. I guess you could say that having such depressing shoe options had put me in a black mood.

Well, I reached into my bag of optimism and consoled myself again: if I wasn't wearing colorful shoes, and I wasn't wearing colorful jewelry, I could at least wear a colorful face!

I made up my eyes with some dramatic winged liner, a hint of purple shadow, purple mascara, and even purple "lash sprinkles" (glitter mascara). The purple mascara was a new thing for me (I've done lots of blue mascara, but never purple!), so I was pretty excited to finally try it. You know what else I was excited to try? Purple lips! A few months ago, I found this tube of liquid lip color on the sidewalk near where I work, and being a shameless scrounge, I decided I had to take it. Yes, it was opened, yes, it was potentially contaminated, but I'd been wanting some purplish lipstick for a long time, and here it had just showed up in my path! I felt like it was destiny. So I took it home and did my best to sterilize it by thoroughly cleaning the applicator wand first, then letting it sit for a couple of weeks, then freezing it for a couple of days, then microwaving it for a couple of seconds (I had to stop when the metallic ink on the tube started sparking!). I gave it a trial run at home and didn't suffer any adverse effects, so I decided it was probably safe!

And finally, I got to wear it for real. Between my black jewelry, black-dominant attire, and weirdly purple lips, I had a little bit of a goth thing going, which was totally at odds with my now-positively-spritely mood. I was so pleased at how my makeup had turned out! Psshh, who needs high heels when they can have purple lips?