Jan
09
2013

Pictures from The Makeup Show LA 2012

Yume, Jodie from Lit Cosmetics, Lauren (Queen of Blending) and meeee!

My first blog post of 2013 is going to be about… The Makeup Show of March 2012! I’ve been so horribly negligent with my blog. The past few months have been nuts! We’re still not done moving all our stuff to LA, and I actually have to move again in another month or two. Our first goal was to find a work space, which we’ve been living in for the past month just to get our stuff down to LA and start preparing for IMATS. I love the new place so much! Brick walls, huge windows, super friendly neighbors and dogs galore, amazing location within walking distance of a billion restaurants and bars. But I need a life separate from work and don’t want to live in my office. I did that for years when I was designing clothes and starting Sugarpill out of my home, and it made me mental. I remember feeling like my sweatpants were going to start fusing with my skin because I never had any reason to get dressed in the morning, and when I did leave the house I’d get really bad anxiety. So after IMATS madness is over, I get to move all my stuff again! I plan to live super close to the office though, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I hardly own anything big anyway. Just cats!

The night before The Makeup Show was open to the public, Yume and I met up with friends at the Blogger Preview Night, where we enjoyed free food and open bar. Best ever!

Lili, Elessa, Pursebuzz, me and Yume being couch potatoes. Photo stolen from Lili!

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Written by shrinkle in: addicted to pretty, adventures | 25 Comments
Nov
28
2012

Far Bar Clown Table, Ash Costello’s Birthday Party at Angels and Kings

After photoshootin’ for Amelia’s new A is for Arsenic jewelry collection (which I totally hijacked by getting everyone to wear Sugarpill so I could steal the photos), everyone met up at the super cute Far Bar in Little Tokyo for dinner and drinks.

Amelia, Mynxii and Ulorin at the clown table

My twinsie Amelia Dinmore! I don’t think we look alike at all, but I get mistaken for her almost daily so I will just TAKE THE COMPLIMENT AND RUN!! :-D Amelia Dinmore and Amelia Arsenic get mistaken for each other constantly too, but Amelia Arsenic and I rarely ever get mistaken for each other, which is funny since we should technically look alike if we both look like Dinmore, right? Hmmmm, very important questions!

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Written by shrinkle in: adventures, friends | 10 Comments
Nov
19
2012

Medieval Times, Mac ‘n’ Cheese Love, Defective Geeks Party, In-N-Out Loner Table

The holidays have always been our busiest time of year – no shock there – but things got straight up insane this year! In addition to the madness we usually anticipate (Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas), we also had a few surprises thrown into the mix. One, IMATS getting switched to January instead of June, giving us 6 less months than usual to prepare our booth and launch our new products. Two, finally caving and moving to LA after strongly resisting the idea for many years. I love living in Oakland, but the weekly drives to meetings and events were eating up our lives, and I really miss my cats when we’re away from home. We decided it would make more sense to have another office in LA. Then we realized that it needed to happen immediately, since IMATS is coming up again, and yeah, transporting a whole booth from Berkeley to LA in the middle of the night is never fun! We plan to keep our warehouse in Berkeley, which Brett and Trista will manage, so I’ll still be up here a lot. Bay Area, you’ll never be rid of me!

We’re supposed to move out on December 1, but we haven’t found a new place yet since we pretty much just decided this 8 seconds ago. I should probably be packing or researching how to not be homeless, but instead I’m going to blog about a less stressful time… Medieval Times!!

Cool kids me and Val

Lumi (right before she moved to China… BOO!), Amelia, and Kevin. I am so grateful to have friends with equally bad taste in restaurants and entertainment!

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Written by shrinkle in: adventures, friends | 28 Comments
Nov
06
2012

Girl Bike Gang at Death Guild, Fenton’s, and Amelia’s $10 Pizza Hut Dinner Box

Not gonna lie — I totally love goth clubs, despite owning hardly anything black at all. I just really like that it’s one of the few places you can go where people still dress up! When Amelia and Val came to town to DJ at Death Guild at the DNA Lounge, I was pretty excited for an excuse to go out on a Monday night.

Amelia and Val are hot girls doing stuff.

Death Guild has been around for aaaages and is currently the oldest goth club in America that is still operating. I remember going there when I was an 18-year-old college freshman. We’d party till 3am, get back to the dorms at 4am, then wake up at 6am to make it to class. Geez, I just realized that was 14 years ago, which makes me hella old! I am a total grumpypants if I don’t get 8 hours of sleep these days.

Me, Yume, Amelia, Kevin and Val

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Written by shrinkle in: party time! | 8 Comments
Nov
01
2012

Madonna Inn – A Romantical Time with Friends in San Luis Obispo

En route to Oakland from LA, we decided to take the longer, scenic route up 101 so we could stop at the glorious Madonna Inn for dinner. Madonna Inn is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite restaurant/hotel ever.

Entrance to the restaurant. Magic awaits!

At the Madonna Inn, there’s no such thing as too much or too tacky. Everything is hot pink and gold and decked out with roses, candles and hearts. Each of its 110 guest rooms is fully decorated with a different theme that looks like it came straight out of the pages of a storybook. Some rooms look like Valentines Day threw up all over them (my favorite!), others are built to resemble caves with rock walls (for you manly men). Seriously, have yourself a Google. And unlike other “theme” places, the food and cocktails here are amazing and well worth the price. I’m talking about you, mint chocolate martini!

Heeeeey, who let all these people into my house?

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Written by shrinkle in: adventures | 21 Comments
Oct
26
2012

Industrial Girl Bike Gang at Bar Sinister, Cafe Jack

Two of the baddest babes I know – Amelia and Val from Angelspit – teamed up to start a DJ project called Industrial Girl Bike Gang. Every time I start to think I’m getting too old to stay out past 11pm, these ladies come bursting through town and force me out of my sweatpants and granny slippers.

After dropping Val and Amelia off at Bar Sinister for setup, Yume, Michelle, Kevin and I had appetizers and drinks next door at Boardners.

Industrial Girl Bike Gang is hands down THE most fun DJ duo to watch! These chicks get all crazy with their robot dance moves.

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Written by shrinkle in: party time! | 11 Comments
Oct
15
2012

Saddle Ranch Yums and Good Pigeon Times

We drive past the Saddle Ranch a lot when we’re in L.A., and I’ve always wanted to eat there. Finally, we went for brunch when Amelia was in town!

What’s not to love about this place?! Creepy mannequins of saloon girls on the balcony and a dude on a horse bursting through the wall.

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Written by shrinkle in: adventures | 18 Comments