Hi, yes I know a bit of a huge setback there huh, but yes I am still here. For those of you who haven’t been following my social media updates on the FB page and Instagram my father had his third hospital confinement since I arrived from New York in April. He was confined in April, in May overnight for something different, and this June for another stroke. While I was in New York he had already suffered from a handful of minor acute strokes and my mother was updating me via mobile while I was abroad. When I came back I found that my father had quite significantly changed from how I remember him before I left for New York City, he was kind of mentally grasping sometimes to complete statements he wanted to make, or he wanted to make a joke but would lose the thought and become sad, and my heart would melt with empathy. God has been faithful because Dad is still well enough to walk around and play golf with assistance, but sadly his memory has been somewhat affected. Right now he has a bunch of medications, follow-up checkups, and a restricted diet we all have to be hawks about since he has no caregiver so I’ve been having to adjust and I’ll admit I haven’t been 100% a saint about it half the time. I’ve been having to deal. Thank you for being understanding in this time of the blog being somewhat blank momentarily but please believe me when I say I really do not intend for it to stay this way for much longer, I want to be back AS IN BACK and with a bang. In fact, I wanted to share something today. While I was looking for some other older music by Regina Spektor I came upon one of her music videos, and while I might be the last person on the planet to see the art direction of her 2012 video release “How” (which is like a modern female rendition of Unchained Melody in my head lol) I was absolutely delighted by the art direction and how beautifully styled Regina was that it has inspired me to blog again and create future features for the blog despite the circumstances.
I like how porcelain skin was made the brief but done in a way that was somewhat vintage but not too dated. I like that the makeup is present, noticeable, but applied in a restrained manner so that it doesn’t clash with the quirky yet effective art direction.
There’s something muted yet simultaneously vibrant at the same time about this video. I love how they made her coral lips the key vibrance in the art direction. A current lipstick favorite right now in the blog community that people are raving about and that I’ve seen look similar online is Clinique’s Matte Mandarin from their new generation Long Last Soft Matte range (which isn’t a dead matte) lipstick and it is not yet available here on counters, I inquired at the Clinique Boutique (don’t you love how that rhymes) at SM Aura. MAC Lady Danger would probably be close but a little more intense orange-y red, but Clinique Matte Mandarin which I saw Ruth of AModelRecommends wear and apply over here on YouTube looks to be somewhat of a better softer match. Embedded below is Regina Spektor’s quirky yet wistful music video for her song “How”.
