Hey everyone. Sorry for my unexplained absence again, and also sorry that this isn't really a full post in and of itself. Things have been every colour of crazy at home the past six months, very difficult for everyone, and I'm not in much of a position to talk about it. Please keep me in your thoughts. I need it at the moment.
However, uni is going well. Third year is full on but I am enjoying it. The work is harder, essays are longer and generally everything is far more intense. But that is OK, I am getting though it just fine.
Hopefully I'll have a proper post soon enough. I have a few exciting plans for this blog
Until then, please find me on Tumblr and Instagram.
xxx Lilly
Monday, August 25, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Tea is a Goth Thing Now
It's Black Friday made a YouTube video recently discussing tea and it's associations with the Goth scene and speculations as to why tea is suddenly so much more popular. She is a relatively new Goth YouTuber, but I freakin' love her and her stuff! You can see the video here.
Now, as a tea drinker I just wanted to add my two cents and personal opinion to the topic. Hope you enjoy!
I pretty much agree with everything she states, and we have the same tea preference.
She is living in New Zealand, and while that is a different country to the one I live in, there are quite a few cultural similarities. Tea, particularly black tea served with milk, is something my parents have both always drunk, and it was natural that I started drinking it pretty much since I was a teenager. My sister doesn't like it, but my brother is starting to like it. Both of my parents, my grandparents, and myself, can hardly function in the morning without a cup of hot tea and always drink it during the 'social daylight hours'...
I think tea really was largely a rural thing in Australia until quite recently. While some people living in the city have drunk tea for a long time, in the country everyone drinks it. Well, almost everyone.
Companies such as T2 made 'fancy' and trendy varieties of tea readily available in the cities, but plain old black tea was something always drunk in the country, which is where I spent quite a lot of my life growing up. I'll always be a city person at heart, but I do love the country for different reasons. Coffee is still The Drink in Melbourne, and Melbourne is one of the biggest drinkers of coffee in the world.
As for tea being a Goth thing, I feel that tea's popularity in Goth culture is also because it is something that was popular, elegant and social throughout history, particularly in the Victorian period. Also, relative to coffee, at least in this country, hot tea is still less mainstream than coffee or iced tea, although with the recent popularity of hipsters that possibly has changed. I don't know exactly, nor do I care.
With a few exceptions, whenever I go out I almost never buy a cup of tea. This is pretty much because 9 out of 10 times it is from a crappy tea bag (I prefer loose leaf), and is over $3. I can make a far better cup of tea at home any day. But, hot coffee made by a professional barista is something that I cannot make at home, at least to the same degree as I don't have one of those fancy, expensive coffee machines. I have ordered tea once, at the Sofitel which is a 5 star hotel. Needless to say, I wasn't paying. I can't afford to buy drinks in hotels. But still, the tea was premium quality, loose lead, and tasted amazing.
As previously stated, my personal preference for everyday is black tea, served hot with milk and absolutely no sugar. I really really dislike too- sweet drinks. And while I will have sweet drinks occasionally, such as a hot chocolate or juice, I tend to prefer a fruit based sweet flavour. I tend to not like drinks with buckets of added sugar.
I also adore flavoured black teas. I adore Chai tea and anything with chilli or other spices. Recently I also tried tea with rose flavour. The flavour was slightly perfume-y, which is something that I don't like but I realised that I would love black tea with natural rose flavour or real rose. (Sweet Rose is a scent that I have been absolutely in love with lately, specifically not too floral.) I am particularly fascinated with chocolate and other warm notes. I think Chocolate Chai with Chilli and Rose would be my ideal tea, hypothetically.
I quite like many herbal infusions. Peppermint is a favourite, and I am sure that doesn't surprise anyone. I also enjoy SleepyTime Tea, which is the only herbal infusion by Celestial Seasonings that I can find here. I know they sell an Autumn flavoured tea which sounds heavenly. I love lemon and honey, either from a tea bag or made from scratch. Occasionally I will have a fruit based herbal tea, particularly with berries.
So there's my personal love for tea, and my general extra comments on the topic of tea being a Goth thing. Thanks for reading, and I will have another post soon!
xxx Lilly
Now, as a tea drinker I just wanted to add my two cents and personal opinion to the topic. Hope you enjoy!
I pretty much agree with everything she states, and we have the same tea preference.
She is living in New Zealand, and while that is a different country to the one I live in, there are quite a few cultural similarities. Tea, particularly black tea served with milk, is something my parents have both always drunk, and it was natural that I started drinking it pretty much since I was a teenager. My sister doesn't like it, but my brother is starting to like it. Both of my parents, my grandparents, and myself, can hardly function in the morning without a cup of hot tea and always drink it during the 'social daylight hours'...
I think tea really was largely a rural thing in Australia until quite recently. While some people living in the city have drunk tea for a long time, in the country everyone drinks it. Well, almost everyone.
Companies such as T2 made 'fancy' and trendy varieties of tea readily available in the cities, but plain old black tea was something always drunk in the country, which is where I spent quite a lot of my life growing up. I'll always be a city person at heart, but I do love the country for different reasons. Coffee is still The Drink in Melbourne, and Melbourne is one of the biggest drinkers of coffee in the world.
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| Source: Tumblr |
As for tea being a Goth thing, I feel that tea's popularity in Goth culture is also because it is something that was popular, elegant and social throughout history, particularly in the Victorian period. Also, relative to coffee, at least in this country, hot tea is still less mainstream than coffee or iced tea, although with the recent popularity of hipsters that possibly has changed. I don't know exactly, nor do I care.
With a few exceptions, whenever I go out I almost never buy a cup of tea. This is pretty much because 9 out of 10 times it is from a crappy tea bag (I prefer loose leaf), and is over $3. I can make a far better cup of tea at home any day. But, hot coffee made by a professional barista is something that I cannot make at home, at least to the same degree as I don't have one of those fancy, expensive coffee machines. I have ordered tea once, at the Sofitel which is a 5 star hotel. Needless to say, I wasn't paying. I can't afford to buy drinks in hotels. But still, the tea was premium quality, loose lead, and tasted amazing.
As previously stated, my personal preference for everyday is black tea, served hot with milk and absolutely no sugar. I really really dislike too- sweet drinks. And while I will have sweet drinks occasionally, such as a hot chocolate or juice, I tend to prefer a fruit based sweet flavour. I tend to not like drinks with buckets of added sugar.
I also adore flavoured black teas. I adore Chai tea and anything with chilli or other spices. Recently I also tried tea with rose flavour. The flavour was slightly perfume-y, which is something that I don't like but I realised that I would love black tea with natural rose flavour or real rose. (Sweet Rose is a scent that I have been absolutely in love with lately, specifically not too floral.) I am particularly fascinated with chocolate and other warm notes. I think Chocolate Chai with Chilli and Rose would be my ideal tea, hypothetically.
I quite like many herbal infusions. Peppermint is a favourite, and I am sure that doesn't surprise anyone. I also enjoy SleepyTime Tea, which is the only herbal infusion by Celestial Seasonings that I can find here. I know they sell an Autumn flavoured tea which sounds heavenly. I love lemon and honey, either from a tea bag or made from scratch. Occasionally I will have a fruit based herbal tea, particularly with berries.
So there's my personal love for tea, and my general extra comments on the topic of tea being a Goth thing. Thanks for reading, and I will have another post soon!
xxx Lilly
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Quick Update and Apologies
Hi everyone. Sorry for being more or less silent in the past six months. I've essentially completed the 1st semester of mthey third year of my undergraduate degree (I still have one more exam to go). This semester has been the busiest and most intense of all of my studies thus far, and I have been working harder. Hence, I haven't had the energy required to put into blogging properly. I am very sorry.
I'm not ready to totally give up on this blog, and I'd rather keep posting on occasion. But, as many of you know, my education is always my highest priority.
Hopefully I'll have some proper posts for you all during my break!
xxx Lilly
I'm not ready to totally give up on this blog, and I'd rather keep posting on occasion. But, as many of you know, my education is always my highest priority.
Hopefully I'll have some proper posts for you all during my break!
xxx Lilly
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Summer Updates
Ahem, sorry for not posting all summer so far. I have no real excuse, except that we have been dealing with some horrendous weather and everything has been unpleasant. While I haven't been doing that much, except holiday things like flute, cleaning and re-organising my room and that sort of thing, my brain has been in a busy and difficult place and I haven't felt in the right moment to blog. Hopefully that'll change once I go back to uni, which is on Monday. Also, fun fact, I turn 21 on Tuesday! Whoop Whoop! I am excited! Instead of having a party my mum and I are going to go out for dinner somewhere special. =D
I've been thinking a lot about the future of this blog, where I want to take things and what concepts I want to explore. Never have I seriously considered making money off my blog, I'm just too disorganised for that, I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet, even though I've essentially dropped off the blogging perch.
In the mean time, please check out my Twitter (@lillypeppermint) and my Tumblr page. I'm far more active on those sites, so you'll hear from me more often.
Over and out!
xxx Lilly
I've been thinking a lot about the future of this blog, where I want to take things and what concepts I want to explore. Never have I seriously considered making money off my blog, I'm just too disorganised for that, I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet, even though I've essentially dropped off the blogging perch.
In the mean time, please check out my Twitter (@lillypeppermint) and my Tumblr page. I'm far more active on those sites, so you'll hear from me more often.
Over and out!
xxx Lilly
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
New Year's Happenings
Hi everyone, and I hope all of your respective End and Start of year celebrations were festive and not too stressful! Sorry I've again been neglecting this blog. My fault there. I had some busy family time over Christmas and then spent the New Year's Eve week at my boyfriend's dad's house with no internet (we were house-sitting). In interesting news, I've finally been converted to the smart-phone world. My dear mother bought me an LG smart phone for Christmas as an upgrade from my brick phone that I got second hand when I was fourteen (almost seven years ago). I am slowly getting used to it, despite many accidental calls to people and mild panic attacks when I can't figure out how to hang up...! Things can get slightly awkward there...
For New Years Eve my boyfriend and I did the same thing as last year. With a friend we went and watched the (Interactive) Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Astor. I must say, it is so much fun so see people singing along and throwing rice around and everything. If you a fan of the film or the stage show at all I really do encourage you to go to an interactive screening. It adds so much to the experience. Then afterwards we shared some wine and watched the fireworks over the city.
I'll carefully steer around telling you all about our experiences trying to get back home after midnight. Let's just say that they were unpleasant....
Any way, I hope you all have had or are still having an enjoyable and restful break.
Until next time,
xxx Lilly
For New Years Eve my boyfriend and I did the same thing as last year. With a friend we went and watched the (Interactive) Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Astor. I must say, it is so much fun so see people singing along and throwing rice around and everything. If you a fan of the film or the stage show at all I really do encourage you to go to an interactive screening. It adds so much to the experience. Then afterwards we shared some wine and watched the fireworks over the city.
I'll carefully steer around telling you all about our experiences trying to get back home after midnight. Let's just say that they were unpleasant....
Any way, I hope you all have had or are still having an enjoyable and restful break.
Until next time,
xxx Lilly
Monday, December 2, 2013
Rant: Inferior Cosmetic Packaging
Morning all! Hope you're all well. Sorry to start your day with a rant. =P
Recently, as in since I've been buying some higher-end make up only in the last few years, I've been becoming increasingly frustrated with inferior packaging when it comes to cosmetics. Particularly with the brand that I actually do love, Illamasqua, well, because the only other High End brand that I buy is Kryolan, and that is so expensive I can barely afford anything.
Anyway, there have been at least three instances where the product's actual formula (the actual make up I mean) has been amazing, out of this world, phenomenal! And yet, the product container has been so rubbish the product can no longer be taken anywhere due to potential leaks.
This has happened with both my Precision Inks (I have had two so far, both have broken in the same way. A crack along the side of the lid/wand, and it is too easy to over extend the lid when closing.) and my Pure Pigments (All four of them, despite the lids being on as well as possible, product has leaked out or build up along the edges only to create a huge mess, and wastage, once opened.)
Now, I probably could forgive a manufacturer for releasing products with inferior packaging if they were a cheaper brand, but when you are paying top dollar for frankly a great brand with fantastic formulae it is so disappointing, and honestly unforgivable, to see that they continually release poor products (I figure that I haven't continually purchased duds) when good, functional packaging is not that difficult to design and still be aesthetic, just some thought needs to be put into it and proper testing.
Another gripe with this brand I have is that I have an Intense Lip gloss by Illamasqua that is actually amazing, but the brush-tip applicator that comes built into the wand has some kind of gunk, or hard plastic on it. The bristles are synthetic, so I figure it's just some build up of the brush material, but honestly it is scratchy and impossible to apply neatly. In this instance I feel it could just be my product, as I only own one of these. Now, I know that I can easily use a lip brush for this, but that's not the point! If a product is going to come supplied with an applicator then it should be idealised for the product. Not to mention that Illamasqua have a perfectly good lip gloss tube already for their Sheer Lip glosses ( different formulation) and that functions well, so I don't see why they couldn't use that or a variation. Again, this is something you see with cheaper brands; the come with those awful sponge applicators in eye shadow sets, but really now, quality (and advertising) is what differentiates the cheap cosmetics from the High End cosmetics.
Have any of you ever had similar experiences?
xxx Lilly
Recently, as in since I've been buying some higher-end make up only in the last few years, I've been becoming increasingly frustrated with inferior packaging when it comes to cosmetics. Particularly with the brand that I actually do love, Illamasqua, well, because the only other High End brand that I buy is Kryolan, and that is so expensive I can barely afford anything.
Anyway, there have been at least three instances where the product's actual formula (the actual make up I mean) has been amazing, out of this world, phenomenal! And yet, the product container has been so rubbish the product can no longer be taken anywhere due to potential leaks.
This has happened with both my Precision Inks (I have had two so far, both have broken in the same way. A crack along the side of the lid/wand, and it is too easy to over extend the lid when closing.) and my Pure Pigments (All four of them, despite the lids being on as well as possible, product has leaked out or build up along the edges only to create a huge mess, and wastage, once opened.)
Now, I probably could forgive a manufacturer for releasing products with inferior packaging if they were a cheaper brand, but when you are paying top dollar for frankly a great brand with fantastic formulae it is so disappointing, and honestly unforgivable, to see that they continually release poor products (I figure that I haven't continually purchased duds) when good, functional packaging is not that difficult to design and still be aesthetic, just some thought needs to be put into it and proper testing.
Another gripe with this brand I have is that I have an Intense Lip gloss by Illamasqua that is actually amazing, but the brush-tip applicator that comes built into the wand has some kind of gunk, or hard plastic on it. The bristles are synthetic, so I figure it's just some build up of the brush material, but honestly it is scratchy and impossible to apply neatly. In this instance I feel it could just be my product, as I only own one of these. Now, I know that I can easily use a lip brush for this, but that's not the point! If a product is going to come supplied with an applicator then it should be idealised for the product. Not to mention that Illamasqua have a perfectly good lip gloss tube already for their Sheer Lip glosses ( different formulation) and that functions well, so I don't see why they couldn't use that or a variation. Again, this is something you see with cheaper brands; the come with those awful sponge applicators in eye shadow sets, but really now, quality (and advertising) is what differentiates the cheap cosmetics from the High End cosmetics.
Have any of you ever had similar experiences?
xxx Lilly
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Goth in a Box
Hey my darling readers, sorry for the period of inactivity; university was getting very stressful with exams and assignments, but thankfully now that is all past. Thanks to everyone who wished me well! I've been on my summer break for about two weeks now, and so far things have been good, although the weather has been heating up more than I would like...
I am excited for this summer in regards to this blog, as I have lots of interesting content coming up, so stay tuned for that!
If you can remember in an older post by The Green Fairy, she mentioned having won a subscription to a beauty box. We were all pretty much unanimously wishing that there was a similar beauty box that was more suitable to darker or alternative tastes. And that got me thinking, I wonder what items I would include if I had my own Gothinabox beauty box, in a jokingly serious way; legitimately these would all be my real choices. I also don't want this to be a Just-Add-Water Insta-Goth set, but rather key items that many Goths would use regularly and consider them favourites. Of course, I'm going to have to carefully skip over the logistics of a beauty subscription box, as that is not my area of expertise, and just focus on the 'what if'...
Enjoy!
xxx Lilly
I am excited for this summer in regards to this blog, as I have lots of interesting content coming up, so stay tuned for that!
If you can remember in an older post by The Green Fairy, she mentioned having won a subscription to a beauty box. We were all pretty much unanimously wishing that there was a similar beauty box that was more suitable to darker or alternative tastes. And that got me thinking, I wonder what items I would include if I had my own Gothinabox beauty box, in a jokingly serious way; legitimately these would all be my real choices. I also don't want this to be a Just-Add-Water Insta-Goth set, but rather key items that many Goths would use regularly and consider them favourites. Of course, I'm going to have to carefully skip over the logistics of a beauty subscription box, as that is not my area of expertise, and just focus on the 'what if'...
Enjoy!
- SPF 500+ to block out any of the disastrous and icky rays of the Yellow Hurty Thing.
- Mattifying pressed powder. Because dewy, glowing, healthy 'I just spent the day at the beach' skin is not desirable.
- Liquid eyeliner in black. With a felt tip to achieve a wickedly razor sharp point.
- Blood red lip stain. To create a freshly bitten look....
- Wine coloured lip liner. To sharpen one's Cupid's Bow to a Siouxsie-approved right angle.
- Matte black eyeshadow. For smoking one's eyes and chiselling one's jaw to taut perfection.
- Extra-Strong hold Hairspray. When Regular-Strength hairspray just won't do.
xxx Lilly
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