Category Archive

Style & Grooming

Even the most Offbeat Lite among us likes to wear their freak flag on their sleeve sometimes, so we’re happy to share our insights about not-mainstream fashion.

Skincare products that fight acne without tons of synthetic ingredients

To all those beautiful offbeat girlies that have perfect skin… I am a 26-year-old and still have acne. I recently went off my birth control pills in order to make some off-kilter spawn and now my skin looks like I have the plague! My skin was pretty good on the pill, but now that I’m off, these painful little bastards are seriously putting a cramp in my style. I’ve got my foot out the door to the dermatologist, but before I go… Help!

Time management hack: Iron your wrinkly clothes while you dry your hair!

I had a baskets! moment this morning. I was wearing a cotton stretch polo and, of course, the boob area was smooth and wrinkle free but not-so-much for the rest of the shirt. What to do?

Work clothes that aren’t made by little hungry children putting in 18 hour days

Good news, Homies! I just acquired my first white collar job in a while. My wardrobe is almost completely unprepared for this, and I really feel strongly about not buying sweatshop-made clothing.

I am normally a big thrift or vintage shopper, but as everyone who does this knows, it’s kind of luck-of-the-draw on whether you’ll find anything. I’m a mediocre seamstress, but not good enough to produce my own clothing en mass. Combing the internet for non-sweatshop goods, I find a lot of men’s bike clothes, a legion of organic hemp t-shirts, and a variety of beautiful things which are way too hippie to be my regular style, and not a lot I can wear to work.

If non-sweat shop clothing is also a priority for you, how do you make it work?

Converting your wedding dress into a Halloween costume

My wedding was back in January and I purchased an Ouma dress for my reception and am now trying to turn it into a Halloween costume. Any ideas on fun ways to convert your wedding dress into a costume?

At home perfumery: How to make your own signature scent

If you’re a perfume junkie but tired of wearing the same scents as everyone else with access to Bloomingdales, maybe it’s time you learned to make your own bottle of perfume. The good news: it’s really easy to do and if you already know what your favorite ingredients are, you’re set.

DIY rainbow bling for a Pride parade (or any ol’ day!)

One of the side-effects of being in a burlesque troupe is having buckets and buckets of rhinestones laying about. I had wanted to have this necklace finished in time to for the Pride Parade. As you can see in my inspiration picture above, the necklace that inspired this one is also rainbow-themed, but I wanted to take it in a more over-the-top rainbow direction. Here’s how you can over in a more over-the-top rainbow direction, too…

(With bonus applications like rainbow stagecoach robber, and rainbow garden gnome!)

Use chalk pastels to temporarily add color to your hair

If you’ve ever wanted rainbow colored hair but didn’t want to submit yourself to hours of bleaching and dye, get ready to squeal: you can use chalk pastels to put rainbow streaks in your tresses. YES. This is real!

Heal jeans with a monster mouth patch

How about turning a hole in the knee into a monster mouth? I decided to patch my partner’s jeans this way after spying this great idea on a social networking site. Here’s my version of the monster-mouth knee-patch.