1. How did you come up with your name? I knew that I was going to be posting swatches and reviews about my products, rather than focussing on looks or on tutorials, so I wanted something that reflected this. I originally intended to show similarities between the big-name makeup and indie makeup, build something of a centralized reference for finding dupes at a lower cost.

2. What made you want to start a blog? I'm going to assume that this is aimed at my beauty site. I've been blogging at one home or another since 1995 (Yes, really that long. Xoom, Geocities, Crosswinds, LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, and several self-hosted sites along the way. I've been totally self-hosted since 2004.) I decided to start my beauty site in 2009, after being hit by the beauty bug in late 2007 and amassing quite a large-ish collection once I found loose-mineral makeup on Ebay. I did it partially because I wanted an excuse to organize and compare swatch photos.

3. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? I'm a web producer and project manager. That means I coordinate, I plan, I organize, I help people figure out what issues they want to fix with a web site and how to best implement the solution(s)...and while that may sound boring to a lot of people, I love it. Not only does it get me money to pay the bills, it plays to my deep-seated desire to organize things so that they're easier to do efficiently and effectively.

4. What’s your favourite thing to do during your free time? Writing and reading. Also coloring: mandalas, geometric patterns, art deco designs...

5. How would you describe your personal style? Casual eclectic. Some days, I wear jeans and a knit top and minimal makeup. Other days I'll put on my wide-leg boho pants or full-circle skirt, a poet blouse, and a slightly more dramatic (but not overly dramatic, because I'm lazyefficient) makeup. It all depends on how I'm feeling that day. (And occasionally what's not in need of being laundered. When I want to wear my schmancier clothing but they're all waiting hand-washing...I default to yoga pants.)

6. What’s your favourite colour? Blue! No - yel-AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!!! Seriously - it varies. I'm a pushover for just about any jeweltone shade, from amethyst to emerald to tourmaline-gold to sapphire- or lapis-blue. I love rich, jeweltone blues, but I also love carnelian red: red clothing, red eyeshadow, red nail polish. I'm a bigger fan of deeper, cooler reds than brighter pink- or orange-reds. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest sub-collections in my horde of eyeshadows are my blues and reds. Followed by browns, because there's no better way to balance out a jeweltone eyeshadow than with a good solid neutral shade.)

7. Who’s your favourite youtuber? I don't have one. I don't really like watching YouTube videos, or any videos, when I want to get information. (I have the same hang-up with audiobooks. I can listen to them without running screaming for the hills, but getting any information or enjoyment out of them? Nope. My brain isn't wired that way.) This is probably why I haven't ever bothered starting my own video channel: I don't care for consuming the medium, therefore I can't get energized about contributing to the medium.

8. What’s your favourite food? This is an awful question, because there's no one answer. Hmmm... oatmeal with cinnamon and honey; warm blueberry muffins with butter; Celebes Kalossi coffee; hot pastrami sandwiches from Erik's Deli (which I got to have over the weekend while I was visiting my parents); rosemary-and-olive-oil Triscuits with melted cheese; thick medium-cooked cheeseburgers; fresh-caught salmon drizzled in pesto butter; Greek pizza with pepperoni, mozarella, parmesan, and asiago cheeses (Spiros!!!); red velvet cake; neapolitan ice cream. There, there's a couple of meals' worth of my favorites.

9. If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be? ...me. Maybe it's because I've always been such an old soul, maybe it's because I'm in my forties and past the "I really want to be someone else" stage, or maybe I'm just boring as fuck-all. But I like who I am. I like where I am in my life (except for the "currently unemployed" bit, and some other minor things which wouldn't be fixed by changing who I am for a day.) I can't think of anyone else I'd want to be.

10. What’s your favourite season? Why? Either fall or spring. They're transitional seasons, so I get to see the full range of weather, and I'm comfortable temperature-wise - neither melting nor freezing. I also like watching things change: from dormant browns and tans to vibrant and alive greens and a riot of blooming color, or vice versa.

11. What country would you like to visit most? The UK. I've got friends in England and Scotland I'd like to visit (and some friends in Ireland, so really, that whole landmass.) Aside from that, I'd love to visit Iceland and visit the glacial caves.

Eleven Facts About Me

1. I am an introvert. This doesn't mean that I'm asocial, or even entirely antisocial. I'm just social with smaller groups of people, and usually after socializing I need a nap. I don't say much, but I observe and notice quite a lot. When someone accidentally starts talking about something I'm incredibly passionate about, I all of a sudden morph into what they consider "normal" - animated, talkative, much gesticulating.
2. I have had a seizure disorder since I was 13. It's technically an "idiopathic seizure disorder" since I've been scanned six ways from Sunday and there's no bruise, no mass, no indications of what caused the seizures to suddenly start. They only ever happen when I'm transitioning quickly between sleep and wakefulness, and they're controlled by medication. It's been 8 years since I have a seizure or even a seizure aura, so my neurologist thinks that maybe I'm growing out of them...and so we're slowly tapering me off my meds, to see what happens. (I tried this once before, and when I had two days to go until I was done with the tapering-off program, I had a seizure...but that was over 20 years ago. So hopefully this time will be a different experience. Or non-experience, as it happens.)
3. I am extremely sensitive to textures. If makeup is too heavy, I won't wear it. (That's what lead me to categorically blow off makeup for years, was that most of it either felt too heavy, or felt too grainy/powdery.) If a pen doesn't write smoothly, I won't use it - or will use it as infrequently as possible, if it's something like a BIC ballpoint. I don't like most lipglosses because they're either too heavy, too slippery, or both.
4. I am a total chocoholic. I prefer dark to light chocolate, and I really really miss Lindt's Extreme Pear bars - dark chocolate with slivers of pear and almond. Oh my god, that bar was sheer utter bliss...
5. I am embarking on a journey to get into better shape. When I was a telecommuter (and when I was a freelancer living hand-to-mouth, but near a large park), I had more time each day at home, and so it was much easier to get out and walk two or three miles daily. I live near a great walking trail...but when I have to drive to and from an office job, the commuting sucks away all my energy and by the time I get home I just want to sit down and cuddle my cats and read a book. I really did feel noticeably more alert and energized when I could begin my day with a nice walk - and I want to get back to that. (Ideally, I'd like to maintain that once I get a job. That could be...tricky.)
6. I have to be careful when going into an office-supply or organization-supply store. I have pens that are over a decade old, and are still in their original packaging...but just last year, I fell in love with (and proceeded to stock up on) uni-ball's Vision Elite BLX pens. I don't have as many notebooks any more, but that's been through careful, conscientious use. (I do, however, have packs of legal pads and more blank journals than one person should probably have.)
7. I moved to the Pacific Northwest because I feel most at home living in a coastal rainforest...but I needed to live in one located near a major metro area where there were actually jobs within easy commute distance (ie, less than 30 minutes away.) I love living here, and while something might make me relocate in the future, I can't imagine what that might be.
8. I love soundtracks and songs sung in foreign languages or made-up languages (Cirque du Soleil soundtracks, most of Lisa Gerrard's discography.) Either option lets me put the meaning into the song, based on the images that the chords and rhythms put into my mind. Solipsistic as all get out, but...there you go. (I also love listening to They Might Be Giants' album Apollo 18 on Scramble, because the combination of full-length songs interspersed by 10- to 20-second little music clips sounds like a radio station playlist-and-ads, except they aren't obnoxious like ads. They're just itty bitty song fragments that the TMBG guys never got around to finishing or (more likely) never intended to finish beyond those dozen or so bars.)
9. I am a cat person. Dogs are great, too; but cats are more capable of entertaining themselves a bit. They don't seem as needy as most dogs I've encountered; and I am not the nurturing type at all - so all pets I ever have will be feline, rather than canine. (Though all of my cats have been Very Determined Cuddle Monsters.)
10. I bought my first Apple product two years ago. After only six years of ownership, my Creative Labs Vision M player's software was no longer supported, meaning that when I upgraded to Windows 7, I could no longer upload new music to my MP3 player - a device which, in all other aspects, worked excellently. (I had even bought a boombox-like external-speaker-docking-port with a remote control, so I could listen to my MP3 on some really good quality speakers.) I didn't want to get a "cloud" MP3 player where I'd either have limited or no onboard storage and have to pay monthly rates to use the device I'd bought, and I didn't want to put down $200+ on an MP3 player only to run into the same problem in another six years. So after talking to some friends who still owned, used, and regularly added music to their first-generation iPods, I bought an iPod (iPod Touch, gen 5). I do not want to own any other Apple products. Not because the products are bad...but because there are Apple owners (including some relatives of mine) who are very elitist about their ownership of iThis and iThat. The whole thing is rather Sneeches/Stars On Thars. This, by the way, is the same reason that I will not ever own a Prius: elitist owners and their Cargo(shorts) Cults. I know that "the experience" is supposed to be All The Rage in marketing, but...products are tools. Tools are used to perform tasks (yes, even makeup is a tool used to perform certain tasks or achieve certain effects.) I don't have much patience for folks who assert their moral superiority because they use Tool Brand A with the Pink Finish and Swivel Attachment, instead of Tool Brand B with the Blue Attachment and Kung Fu Grip action. There is very little "best tool", there's only "the best tool for you."
11. I used to be 5 feet 10.5 inches tall. I have started shrinking - I am now just under 5 feet nine inches. (And my torso was shorter, proportionally, to begin with...)

I nominate these eleven people:

1. Tori, at Biohazardous Beauty
2. Becky, at SirvinyaInky Leaves
3. Autumn, at The Daily Glamour
4. Emily, at Glittery Teacups
5. Aaliyah, at Shadowlinergirl
6. Quiara, at Typically Hazardous
7. Hillary, at @hillarygayle
8. Courtney, at Phyrra
9. Natasha, at BellezaKisses
10. Carley, at Carley's World
11. Kissel, at Palettes and Ferrules

To answer these eleven questions:

1. Who are two of your beauty-community inspirations, and why?
2. What is your spring "signpost" / what makes you "know" that it's spring? (Or fall, either one. Or all four seasons, if you're feeling particularly ambitious.)
3. What is your favorite aspect of blogging? Least favorite?
4. What is your personal kryptonite?
5. Who is your favorite musical artist, and what song(s) would you use to introduce people to them?
6. Share your favorite quote! Why is this your favorite? Tell us about what it means to you. (Sorry to sound all "collegiate-essay"ish...)
7. Assuming that space and money are not concerns...describe your ideal workroom/studio. "Work" can be any occupation(s) or hobby(ies), including crafting, scrapbooking, beauty blogging, writing, model-car-building, wargaming, painting, furniture refinishing...whatever you do that calms you and relaxes you while simultaneously energnzing you.
8. If you had to rename your site today, what would you name it? Alternative: what other site names were you considering when you started your site?
9. What was your first sign that you were "growing up"? "Growing 'old'er"?
10. What question do you wish someone would ask you in one of these things, that no one ever does?
11. What was a food you disliked as a child, that you now love?

(Yeah, I know - that last question is a little lame. I was running out of time!! Poor Kristina nominated me a week ago, and I'm only now getting around to posting this!!)

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