What “Makes Up” A Drag Queen

Pinball McQueen Leave a comment

Makeup and I have a very strange relationship. I’ve gone through phases of wearing a full face, wearing no makeup, nothing but red eyeshadow, winged eyeliner, funky colorful eyeliner… you get the gist. I started experimenting with drag makeup two years ago, and back then everything on my face mainly came from drug stores. And to be totally fair, most of what I use two years into my drag career still comes from CVS and Target, since a lot of it is cheap and totally works! So I’m gonna break down the makeup I use on the regular for my drag, and my favorite brands to buy from!

The look I’m using utilizes most of the makeup I use and pretty much all of my favorite brands! As seen above, it’s a green medley artistry look with funky eyeliner shapes, glitter and sparkles, and my distinct black lip and lack of brows.

Like most drag queens, I use Elmer’s disappearing glue sticks to glue down my eyebrows. Surprisngly, those kindergarten glue sticks are still the best for glueing brows! I use elf Hydrating Face Primer and cover my brows with The Crayon Case concealer in the lightest shade, as well as my foundation in Wet n Wild photofocus Stick Foundation and Krylon Paint Stick in “TV White”, a staple of many drag queens. My eyeliner is NYX’s Epic Wear eyeliner, and I use Kim Chi Chic Beauty’s The Most Conealer in shade “White” to create my eye crease. And then the fun stuff:

The greens and yellows here are part of the Mango Tango and Virgin Mojito palettes from Kim Chi Chic Beauty. The glitter on my lips and nose is from Midas Cosmetics in shades “Soul” and “Mermaid”. All the eyeliner detailing is either NYX or Glisten Cosmetics, and the black facepaint on my neck is from the Amythest Painting Palette. My go-to black lip is a mixture of NYX Epic Ink eyeliner and Sephora black liquid lipstick.

Besides my drug store basics, I try to mostly shop from queer-owned, black-owned, or other small businesses for most of my makeup. The Crayon Case is an amazing black-owned beauty brand themed around school supplies, Midas Cosmetics is a afro-latina-owned indie brand that offers cruelty-free and vegan glitters and eyeshadows, and Beauty Bakerie (which I didn’t use for this look) is a black-owned makeup brand themed around, you guessed it, a bakery! My current go-to brand is Kim Chi Chic Cosmetics, created and owned by Kim Chi, an Asian drag queen who’s makeup artistry is To Die For! Her brand has adorable themeing with teddy bear palettes, drink-themed eyeshadow palettes, adorable heart-shaped blushes and highlights… literally the cutest brand. So if you’ve learned anything from this article, it’s that Pinball is Obsessed with KCC Beauty and that cheap makeup doesn’t have to be bad makeup!!

 

 

TOLAROIDS: Sun(s)

akilian Leave a comment

I originally wanted to create a post with sunsets, but then I found some sunrise photos I just couldn’t exclude from the post. SO, I gathered some of my favorite sun(s) from around the world. These were taken with a variety of different tools and cameras, so please do let me know if you want to know a bit more about the specific photos 🙂

 

You know where to find me @akilian.jpg & akilian@umich.edu

My Name is Minette, Chapter Six: Irons

theopoling 2 Comments

She couldn’t see any alternatives, though, as she was the eldest Coppersmith, their proud “son,” their strong heir. She’d worked in the smithy for years already and knew it well. Paw never smiled, except for when he talked about when Morty would take over the family business one day. 

One day soon.

And, of course, Minette could only do that with a good wife who had child-bearing hips.

Those were the thoughts that made her particularly dizzy, and being dizzy in a tiny dark room full of liquid copper was not a winning combination.

Minette forced herself to ignore her brain once again, grabbing one of the broad mallets from the tool bench and putting her smithing helmet on. Paw poured copper into the cauldron above the flames, and off to work they went.

It was silent in the smithy, the way Paw preferred it. He considered words a woman’s tool, and was expertly talented at never giving voice to the worries and grumps that ran around inside his head like hungry voles. Trying to talk to him about anything important was like trying to stuff your hand into the dirt and catch one of those voles without looking.

So Minette worked in silence alongside her father.

The process was, of course, all strength and brutishness and griminess, but Minette didn’t really mind the end product. The delicate, beautiful art they wrought from tough, raw, hot metal was something to behold.

Their first order today was one they’d done together millions of times: a weathervane.

Farmer Foster wanted a cow-shaped weathervane to sit atop the barn on his dairy farm. Paw did all the grunt work, slamming and shaming copper into delicate sheets, and Minette helped work it into art, into something tangible: two interconnecting pieces that looked like delicate cows with the cardinal directions sitting atop their backs. She etched the fine details, drawing twin, smiling faces on the cows.

It was an everyday item, something so commonplace that most people never gave it a second glance, but Minette appreciated it. She found it beautiful, magical, even, knowing the work and care that went into it. They made a lot of household items and decorative pieces, things that others saw only the utility in, but she saw the art in them.

Plus, they were getting paid to make it. Nothing fostered a sense of appreciation more than a gold Drune.

All that was left was the crafting of it: heaving it onto a stake, adding decorative marbles, and all that. Paw did that work–he was still too particular about it to let Minette do it on her own–so Minette wandered to the forge’s mouth for a breath of fresh air.

The Rise of the Band Geeks, Episode 12: Requiem for Marching Band Season

Alias Leave a comment

Ice on my tongue, crusted

Over harsh, bitter puffs of nothingness

I trusted

The months would stretch and coalesce into taffy-like time

That eternities would burn in the aftermath of summer’s speed

And all evenings would be fever dreams of drill and fundamentals and Varsity

Until the sun slid behind the lids of the multihued trees and the Fearless Leader

Summoned the teeming mass of band geeks to the center of the tower and we all

Screamed “Go, Michigan!” as a team and December was but a beam on future’s horizon

 

In January’s rut I cling

To the remainder of the season in my closet and the singing, screaming shrieks of victory

Storms of maize and blue and snow that flowed round human flesh

And the heat that dwindled into a freeze as the fall washed into my memory

And the bright maize lights and the blimp and the remembrance

The fusion of fall with first Notus, then Boreas,

42-27

Entanglement of life with Heaven

 

They said we wouldn’t win until Hell had frozen over

Before they realized

Hell is a town in Michigan.

The Poetry Snapshot: Lady Waiting

nehaallathur Leave a comment

Waiting is indifferent to your desires.
Careless about the fires ignited for those
people and places you long for.

She has a cunning style,
cloaked in a fragrance of temptation.

Westchester, New York

Waiting is patient,
She waits until you cannot wait any longer.
Then She grips onto your life
with a hold that cannot be stronger.

She works universally,
unapologetically,
knows no boundaries,
dancing with our fragile hearts
simultaneously.

Waiting has no intention to comfort you.
No incentive to soothe your anxious mind
in the intervals of time in between.
For She holds time in her hand,
elongating it for no reason except for that She can.

She is cruel like that.
Waiting is cruel.

And then
just like that,
She is gone.

She’s replaced by a blink of euphoria
in the eyes that meet,
a sight of sweet smiles,
streets coming alive
just for you.
And all that time spent waiting
melts away.
She’s forgotten.

It’s a feeling worth waiting for.

Scribble #11: A Place Called Home

Sydney Braun 2 Comments

“I’m right on time, and the birds keep singing,”

Coming back to Ann Arbor has been as anxiety-inducing as it has been exciting. I am fortunate to have such a good relationship with my family, so it’s always hard for me to leave home. While it is hard to say goodbye, I know that being at school and surrounded by my friends here is a much more fulfilling experience for me than the relaxing, sleeping in, and spending hours on social media I did for most of break.

“And you’re right on line, and the bells keep ringing,”

Unfortunately, I’ve returned to a different type of Ann Arbor than I remember leaving. I once again have the majority of my classes online (albeit temporarily, fingers crossed), friends isolating with COVID-19, and constant stress and anxiety about leaving my room and being near others.

“And the battle is won, and the planes keep winging,”

It’s great to be back in Michigan, but this time my excitement is not without caution and hesitance. It is imperative to stay hopeful, but with the pandemic continuing to negatively impact our lives on a daily basis, it has been getting harder for me to stay positive. However, I plan on staying grateful, doing my best to keep myself and others safe, and remaining as hopeful as possible. So far, it’s the best way I’ve found to cope with the constant anxiety, changing information, and disappointing current statistics.

“And I’m right on time, and the girl keeps singing.”

Like PJ Harvey sings in today’s song entitled A Place Called Home, “One day I know we’ll find a place of hope.” I can only choose to hope that whatever hope we have left will help us make it out of the Omicron surge and through to the end of this pandemic. Stay smart, stay safe, stay hopeful, and go blue.

“One day there’ll be a place for us.”

Listen to A Place Called Home here: https://youtu.be/JqESjqQ-3Ko