Treasury: Beautifully Abstract

Artist of the Day

Katie MacDowell, ceramic artist.

Her work is just so beautifully crafted. The medium used -- porcelain -- definitely adds to the content of the work: beauty, fragility, and phantasmality. My favorite pieces have to be where light is involved, hidden inside the works to give it a certain glow, which adds to the ghostly imagery of our collision with nature.

From her statement: "In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment.  These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops.  They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones.  In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world.  In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats.  In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices."

Simply wonderful. I encourage you to visit her website and view her work.

Krasey Beauty Giveaway!

Last day to enter: $1,000 worth of beauty product prizes, including an airbrush foundation system! Here are some brands featured in this amazing giveaway:



It's just incredible! Your chances are pretty good, and it ends tonight, so get going and enter yourself! Good luck!

Also, I'll be holding a giveaway myself soon. You've probably seen it being reviewed around the blogosphere: SkinMD lotion.

The Winter Storm.

It may be frightful, but it is also beautiful. I felt somewhat like a child again. I couldn't help but play around after checking the mail. Here are pictures I took.

Felt a little inspired by Andy Goldsworthy...




However, good things must come to an end. I'm sure by Monday this will all be gone, and it'll be back to work.

Orglamix Review & Giveaway!

The holidays have come and gone, and they were wonderful! I'm happy to have gotten what I did from my family, considering how hard the economy has been this year. Hopefully the new year will bring more joy and prosperity.

To get back into the blogging game, I'm hosting a giveaway for Orglamix makeup. If you visit a lot of blogs, you may have come across these lovely cosmetics made by Cheri. She graciously agreed to send me an eye color collection to review, as well as give away one color collection (or three single color shades) to one lucky reader!

I've won several shades from other blog giveaways, so I'm pretty familiar with these products. However, the color collection Cheri sent me was the Wicked collection, pictured here. As a rule, I'm not one to pull off bright greens and dark shades, but I felt adventurous and wanted to give it a try.

Orglamix is home to mineral makeup that is formulated without a lot of unnecessary chemicals such as nano particles, synthetic dyes, parabens, and bismuth oxychloride, which can cause skin irritation and can be dangerous in mineral makeup when not filtered correctly. Bismuth is used to make makeup shimmery and affix to the skin easier, but Cheri has found a way to accomplish this without using this chemical. Simply put, her mineral eyeshadow stays on wonderfully and shimmers for long periods of time. Her Sweet Pea shade is very light and yet shimmers like diamonds. Also, she is a member of PETA, so you know that these are animal cruelty-free.

Here are pictures of me wearing the Wicked collection. The greens Eucalyptus and Lagoon are so lustrous, and the dark shade Obsidian gives a smoky effect that really speaks of the popular Broadway show. Note that I don't have the best camera in the world.

Compared to others like MAC, Orglamix is very affordable at just $3.99 per shade (before shipping). Some would say that the container is too small, but you're paying over $10 less, and you really don't need to put a lot of the powder on! (And recently, she has upgraded her container size!) She sells brushes and Magnetism, an eye primer, but I've successfully used these products with just concealer cream and a cheap eye brush. Just imagine these with her applier products!

And now, onto your favorite part of reviews: The Giveaway!!

Mandatory Entry: Visit Orglamix's store and pick your favorite eye color collection (or three shades). Come back here and post a comment with your favorite. With every entry, including this one, please leave a way to contact you, either with an email address or Etsy username.

Optional Extra Entries:

1) Heart Orglamix on Etsy. Leave your Etsy username for proof. 1 entry

2) Follow Orglamix on Twitter @hautebeauty AND tweet about this giveaway: Giveaway! Win an Orglamix eye collection from @hautebeauty, hosted by @spektorish! Click here: http://tinyurl.com/yjuutvu Link back here with your Twitter name. 1 entry

3) Become a Facebook fan of Orglamix. Link back with your name. 1 entry

4) Follow me on Twitter @spektorish. Link back with your Twitter name. 1 entry

5) Follow this blog using Google connect. 1 entry

6) Heart my shop at laurart. Leave your Etsy name. 1 entry

7) Subscribe to my blog using the RSS Feed. 1 entry

8) Blog about this giveaway. Post a link back. 2 entries

This giveaway is open until January 11th. On that day it will close at 12pm, or noon CST. That's plenty of time to get all entries in! I will pick one winner at random by Random.org and then contact them for details. Good luck to you all!