Nicki Minaj: The Pink Print (Anticipation)

Nicki Minaj: The Pink Print (Anticipation)

Preface

"The Music Industry is merely a representation of human nature.  It shines light on what's different to learn and take from it and once there's nothing left to take, it moves on with no regard."   

"Every single mainstream artist that ever was was not "just" a person making music or just a commodity.  They are a movement.. and are something WAY bigger than themselves whether they are aware of it or not."  

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"When I heard some recent music, the feeling I got collectively was there is this no holding back kind of feeling.  It feels like this is specifically about art.  It feels like vanity out the window,  punchlines and radio friendliness out the window,and also male friendliness out the window."

So this article today is about the upcoming release of the album "The Pink Print" from Nicki Minaj.  I was in the car and I hear " I still love, I still love, I still love, I still love, I still lo o oove" on the radio! lol.  Had no idea it was Nicki Minaj until I hear Big Boy and her having an interview saying that this was her NEW single.  Right away I was like, OK, this Saturdays article MUST be about this new album!  It took me a minute to put this together because I had to do my research you know.  So this Saturday has been Nicki Minaj'd out with all her new music, articles, recent interviews to see what she's saying about this new album.  

First, I'll just say that I loove this title!  I love the name The Pink Print because it reminds me of The Blue Print. What it makes me feel is that this album will have A LOT of information on it and a no holding back kind of feeling about it.  When I heard some recent music, the feeling I got collectively was there is this no holding back kind of feeling also.  It feels like this is specifically about art.  It feels like vanity out the window, punchlines and radio friendliness out the window, and also male friendliness out the window.  I think that it's an interesting direction and I can't wait till it actually drops to hear more music and also see how the public responds to it.  In recent interviews she's said the album is a stripped kind of feeling.  She also said all the stories on the album are 100% true!  So I'm excited to hear what she talks about!    

Honestly,  I am a Nicki fan and not just because I like her songs.  I am a Nicki fan because I like to see women like her in the industry.  Even if I didn't like her music, I feel like I would still like Nicki Minaj the celebrity and business woman if that makes sense.  I like to see women like her and women she's paved the wave for like Iggy Azalea and others that aren't even in the same form of entertainment.  I like to see the things she does and what she's planning to do next in her music career.  It's sad because we are in a generation where it's sooo unbelievably fast paced in some ways and we just hear something or see something and discard it afterwards.  We love artists and then we don't.. and for some reason at this time, there is no such thing as recognizing someones talent and accomplishments.  This especially goes for mainstream people.  It's like if someone is mainstream, they all of a sudden are talent-less and are just a commodity because they do commercial things to appeal to the mass ie you.  Why is someone talent-less because they do things that appeal to you?  ..

I personally would never want to be in the music industry for a number of reasons and that is one of them.  I'll stick to makeup and graphic design thank you very much lol.  There is no winning in that kind of game.  It HAS to be about just the art in the end.  Celebrities of today are in such a different ball game than those of the past.  I don't think the people in music in the past would get any of their recognition if they were in the same music industry but in today's time.

Anyway, I am excited for her new album nonetheless! ^_^ and of course I will be supporting my girl because that's what women should do!  Even if you don't like her music, you should just support other entrepreneur women.. as I always say.  So I will be lookin out for the Pink Print and possibly do an album review right here on TrixieLuxx!  



                                           xoxo T

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Easy Peezy How to: Contour =)

Easy Peezy How to: Contour =)

If you don't know what contouring is, then be prepared to have your life changed!  Contouring is something that many girls do and something that every woman in Hollywood has been doing for years!  I think Marilyn Monroe had these tricks down before a lot of us did lol.  She always looked so beautiful and radiant and this article will teach you how to do the same! 

What Contouring basically does is slims your face and changes facial features to what you want them to look like!  It's why you could swear some of your favorite celebrities had a nose job in one pic or they just look soo different and more than likely that was due to this very technique.

How contouring works
 The way contouring works is basically shadowing areas you want to be minimal while highlighting areas you want to be seen.

You can go from this..

Very Tired and Drab.. to this!

LOL!  I used the funniest pics but you can see the clear difference right?  I think she looks beautiful in all these pictures but makeup just helps you look your best I think!  It makes you look awake' and alive' and just highlights your best! 

This pic can give you the jist of how its done visually.

 Big Difference right?  So whats happening here is you are taking a shade of cream/powder that's darker than your skin and place it in the areas that you want to be sunken in as you can see in the 2nd picture.  A popular place to do this is in the middle of your cheek to create an illusion-ed chiseled jaw but really you can do this anywhere you want! And then blend it out!  Everyones face is different so there is no wrong.  This is just a guide.  I honestly don't do it to this level for myself because I don't change my features.  I just highlight in certain areas to make me look awake and shadow areas to give me a more chiseled look sometimes.

For the Highlight, you guessed it! You get a light cream/power and place it in areas you want to stick out.  A popular place is under the eyes because it hides your dark circles and illuminates this area to create an illusion of being more awake, looking energetic etc. When placed in certain areas, this can alter your features slightly as well.  Marilyn Monroe use to extend the highlight under her eyes out and past and around her eye close to her eyebrows.  This gave her a wider and more open face.      

A trick of Mine is I always do this stuff for job interviews and I'm telling you, it makes a grand difference!  It makes me look awake and ready, energetic, ready for the tasks ahead,healthy! lol, it looks like I got a good night of sleep which makes me look like I have good time management among other things I think.  It also just makes you look clean and neat and more attractive.  And if anything, doing that to my exterior gives me that kind of complex so It's just all a positive thing.

This is heavy contour.  There is also much lighter contours you can Google or better.. search it up on You Tube.  There are plenty of how to tutorials so you can see step by step how it's done!  I hope you guys try and enjoy!    
Yayy! A make up blog.  I haven't done one of these in awhile so I wanted to kick it off right!  I will be having some more make up blogs coming up soon and I'm very excited!!


Happy Saturday and xoxo T 

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How to be Productive and Happier

How to be Productive & Happier

 So I was watching another TED Talks on Netflix and I came across this guy who was talking about his theory on how to be more productive and how to attain happiness and success.  In short, he says in order to be productive or successful, you need to be happy first.. which is kind of the opposite of how we generally operate.  The way we think is, if I work harder then I'll be successful and if 

I'm successful, then I'll be happy.  This concept is in our parenting styles, the way we manage style, and the way we motivate our behavior and he says the problem with that is that it is scientifically broken and backwards for 2 reasons:

 1st, Every time your brain has a success, you just change the goal post of what success is.  If you got good grades, now you have to get better grades.  You got a job?.. Now you have to get a better job.  You have money?.. Now you have to get more money. You hit your sells target?.. Now we have to change your sells target and so on.  So if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there.

2nd, Our brains work in the opposite order from this.  The way our brains work is if you can raise someones optimism and happiness in the present, they perform drastically better and then success naturally follows.  Intelligence, creativity, and energy all rise and because of this, you become more productive!  

Dopamine which floods the system when your positive has 2 functions.  Not only does it make you happy but it turns on all the learning centers in your brain.  Basically, he says to reverse the formula for happiness and success by training your brain to be positive.  That's basically it.  Change your brain to be positive and the rest should follow.  The next question would be, well how do you do that?  The answer is by working on it.  

We work on everything else don't we?  Looks, Health, Money, Intelligence but not Happiness, the one thing we truley always wanted.  But don't worry.. He put together a list of things that will train your brain to be more positive. 

1. Write down (3) things your grateful for everyday over a (21) day period.  This should retain a pattern of scanning the world for the positive first.  

2.  He also recommends writing about one positive experience you had in the day.  Writing about a positive experience allows your brain to relive it.  

3. Exercise.  He says exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. 

4.  Random acts of kindness.  I think just doing things for others is like asking to be happy yourself.  That's why they say its better to give than it is to recieve. 

5.  Meditation.  When you meditate and slow things down, you can watch your thoughts and understand them better which eliminates confusion and then worry.  I look at it as creating a balance mentally though I don't really meditate like that myself I do understand it.  What exercise does for the exterior, I would think meditation does for the interior in a way.

This list is a very generic list and doesn't need to necessarily be followed.  It's more like a starting point or a point of reference kind of thing.  Everyone works differently in my opinion and you know what works for you.  If you don't , you can try following this list but if you do, don't feel obligated to start writing and making sure you noticed 3 things everyday for a total of 21 days if you dont want to.  You have to do what you like or you wont stick to it anyway.  

But I thought his whole theory of how we should go about success and happiness is spot on.  I know from personal experience that this is a real teaching because just looking back on my experiences, I either see how it's true or how it applies and have seen it work with my own eyes before even hearing this theory.  It just makes common sense.  So give it a try.  The next time your trying to get something done or are concerned with success happening right now in a frantic way, take a step back and regroup, find something to get positive about, find something to be optimistic about and go back to work with a renewed mind.

xoxo T

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***********************kisses to my readers***********************

 

 

 

 

                

Putting it out into the Universe Part 2.

Putting it out into the Universe Part 2. <3

Three months ago I wrote a blog entitled putting it out into the universe.  I wanted to put on the internet and just put out into the world some things I was working on and wanted to be accomplished or at least be closer to accomplishing within 3 months time.  That blog was written in the beginning of my quarter this year.  The list was to have together my portfolio, to get through my quarter which is just all of my final classes including all the prep for my portfolio show, to do my testing for my first kyu brown belt, a new design job, and the last is kind of a two in one which was a new laptop and a specific software suite that I had been wanting for a few years now.  I don't know if that's a lot or not but yeah those were my goals.  So now to reveal what actually happened lol.

If you follow on twitter which I always say because I guess I share everything on there and all my updates and whats happening with me ends up being on there first or just there just because its easier for me.  Anyways, If you do, you've probably seen a few pics and heard me say some things which gave some of it away but firstly I'll share that I passed all my classes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I can say I will officially be a graduate of 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mentioned in my last blog how big of a deal this was for me so yeah.  I'm very very proud of myself for that!!!  I guess I will mention what actually came into fruition and then what didn't lol.  So that happened so obviously I finished my portfolio too which was soo stressful at the time.  I'm just thankful it's aaall over.  Part of getting things together for the end of the quarter for graduating students (which I didn't know when writing the last blog) was that not only did you have to make a final portfolio, we also needed a design website and business cards and that we were actually participating in the portfolio show!!  So I made my business cards, my portfolio, did my portfolio show and my design website which is online right now!  It was stressful at the time because it was a very short amount of time to get all that together + my regular classes/projects but I did it!!  So I'm happy about that!  Then the next was my computer.  I was looking around for a computer for a little while and if you follow me on twitter you've already seen pics but I'm in love!  It was very important to me that my computer was pink.  I know that's silly but yeah, so I got my pink laptop that actually comes with a Photoshop elements which is kind of cool.  I use CS6, but if all else fails, then at least I have something.  For the software I decided that I don't want that suite anymore and am thinking about just finding one or two software's for cheap and just using those.  This year I also had been applying for freelance gigs around along with design jobs.  My goal was to have a regular 9 to 5 design job with a good company or that still is my goal because it's more concrete than freelance which sad to say I didn't get yet but I did get a few freelance gigs so I'm actually happy with that and I'm still trying for something so we will just see what happens.  I guess ideally I would write to you guys everyday for a living.  I would have that be my everyday 9 to 5 thing verses just doing blogs weekly/almost on the side kind of thing.  I would love that but right now that isn't possible so I will just have to settle for doing it how I am which is weekly.  Lastly,  For my first kyu brown belt,  I ended up not taking the test this time around because I had to take about a month off from training for personal reasons so by the time the test came around, I decided on my own not to take it because I felt I wasn't ready.  I'm still training and prepping for my 1st kyu testing which will probably be at the end of this year.  While I'm writing this,  I feel like I should do a part 3 to this just to see what ends up happening within that time.  Anyways,  I would say overall,  I am happy with what I accomplished within these 3 months!!!

Not only did I accomplish some of the goals I set out for this article but I accomplished something big by just starting this blog in general and everything that comes along with it!  The Facebook page, the Twitter page, the book club I just started which by the way, the author of the book read my article and retweeted me which was kind of a trip!  just everything really and honestly this all happened within the span of less than four months!  And honestly I have a lot more readers than I would expect in that very little bit of time.  Four months is a very short period to have regular readers and I do!  Not only regular readers but it's very international too!  I see all you guys in France, India, The United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and a few other places and everyone in the U.S and I appreciate you guys!!  
You know that saying where they say shoot for the moon and if you miss, at least you land among the stars or something like that?  This moment kind of feels like that but better.  happy Wednesday! and as always.. 


xoxo T  
                          *kisses to my readers*  =)                             

            

TrixieLuxx Book Club!!!!!

TrixieLuxx Book Club <3

The other day I thought, if Oprah could have a book club than so could I!!  I was thinking about this for awhile and wondering if I should start it, if I should wait but then I just decided to go ahead and put it out there so I am.  So today Saturday April 26th is the launch of TrixieLuxx: The Book Club!! yaay!! we will start it off with something juicy. The first book to launch my book club with is Baje Fletcher's A Golddiggers Guide.  Here's a look at the cover.  

  

You may recognize the author from Tv shows and music videos/modeling.  Where I recognized her is from MTV's Paris Hilton's My New BFF.  This was a reality show back in 2008 so people on these shows, you are not invisible lol.  

Anyway, since then she has launched her own business as a life coach and motivational speaker which I personally think is great!  I haven't looked at her site in awhile so I did and noticed she has a 2nd book coming out also but I will focus on a Gold diggers Guide.

A Gold diggers Guide or GOAL Diggers Guide is a self help book for single financial savvy women and I think it's great.  It's also obviously a tip guide for gold digging.  Rules for what to do and what not to do, what works, what doesn't and her personal bad experiences and good experiences shes had while doing it.  There's even a gold diggers kit not to give too much away about the book.  In general, I think it's filled with great tips and is very motivational. 

I will say I don't agree with everything.. but just because you don't agree with everything doesn't mean you should completely turn your back and be un open to what people have to say or at least that's how I feel about things. So I bought it lol. And turns out I loved it. 

This is NOT an article promoting and supporting Gold digging lol.  Well I guess it is promoting it in some ways but I'm anti- gold digging to put my stance out there.  To me, it's a waist of time but everyone has there right to different opinions.

A little about TrixieLuxx's Book Club

Obviously this won't be a stuffy book club like a lot out there.  This is just a fun book club with fun reads.  This book club is bimonthly.  I hope you guys enjoy and buy the book!  It's always good to support other entrepreneur women.  I will have a few links below to where you can purchase it and her website just to get to know the author.  Follow me on twitter and if you buy the book, tweet me a pic!  If any of you would like to discuss anything in the book, tweet me as well and we'll just have a big ol book club discussion on twitter!'

xoxo T

Where to buy a Gold Diggers Guide:  

You can purchase on Barnes & Nobles online, Amazon, or through her personal website.

- Purchase through Barnes & Nobles

 -> http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gold-diggers-guide-baje-fletcher/1102012557?ean=9780615248240

-Purchase through Amazon 

-> http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Diggers-Guide-without-giving-ebook/dp/B004YXVVWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398557234&sr=8-1&keywords=gold+diggers+guide

- Purchase through her website ->  

http://bajeonline.com/products-page

Get to know the Author

- http://bajeonline.com/

-My Links-

- Facebook -> www.facebook.com/trixie.luxx

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*kisses to my readers*

      

            

Hair Dye [EPIC FAIL] and General RANT!!!

Hair Dye EPIC FAIL =(  and General RANT!! 

  

Firstly, I apologize for not having a blog last week but once you read on you will see what happened.  So my little sister wanted to try this new thing or what's new to us which is dying your hair with food coloring.  This is suppose to be easy,cheap, non permanent, non toxic.  She asked if I could do it for her and I said ok.  For those following on twitter,  I was out of town all of last week/ took a mini social media hiatus just to take a break from everything.  So the day that I came back we went to 3 different stores to purchase everything she would need for this.. got home. she washed her hair.. I took pictures of all the products.. did some research and then we got on it.  First, I had to Vaseline her edges to protect her skin, (which this didn't do ANYTHING to protect)  second I had to mix the colors to make the color that it is she wanted for her hair which was a certain type of red.  Then I began the applying it part.  At first it seemed pretty easy and not a problem.  About five minutes in, the entire bathroom pretty much looked like a murder scene.  It was just aaawfulll!!!!! AND, after using most of the food coloring, I could just tell it wasn't really working on her hair.  No matter how neat and careful I tried to be, it just got everywhere.  the floor, our clothes, the counter, even in the tub.  It literally looked like a honey boo boo mess.  I just couldn't believe it! We had to clean the whole bathroom up and I kind of let the dye sit for awhile to hopefully have its effect on her hair.  I put a bag around her hair because it was just that messy.  I waited awhile so that maybe it would have time to dry some on it's own but when I took the bag off, it ruined the entire floor again.  I blow dried all her hair out and all of that work and mess added up to a very light tint you could barely see in the sun! lol  Not to mention that for sleeping, it could easily come off on things!! which at the time we didn't think about.  So she had to sleep with a bag around her hair at night to not mess up anything and the next day, Easter Sunday, It got all over her clothes again even though her hair was completely dry.. So it messed up the brand new sweater she was wearing, her pjs, the clothes she was wearing when I put it on, her school clothes.. It was just one GIANT MESS! and I can't stand messy complicated things.  I think it's still coming off as we speak.  Needless to say, I will NEVER do that again! lol and for those reading, word from the wise, never try food color hair dying!!  Ugh!

So now onto other things.. I don't really remember what sparked this exactly but I started thinking, and this kind of goes hand and hand with some people needing to be soo busy that they can't even function for some type of validation. why is it that we need to create appearances? creating appearances includes but isn't limited to {a tidy house, a nice and well put together appearance, hair brushed neatly etc, appearance of working hard, not a lazy person, not a stupid person, not a person who doesn't wake up early in the day, not a person who is incapable in some way.  
I mean, I kind of understand why already but I guess I mean, why does this seem to be SOO important when we all know that it isn't.  It isn't important what time someone wakes up and it isn't important how they fix their hair.  This is one of those same things where if you ask someone on the street again is this important, they would automatically give the correct answer but it's something we seem to not have a grasp of in regular life.   In the grand scheme of things, if you brushed your hair neatly today or if you are a hard working person, it doesn't matter. (you could be bald!) We are souls that are having a life experience and we either go to heaven or hell in the end. And that's it.  In the same way that having a fancy car or fancy job doesn't matter because it's shallow, these things don't matter either and I wish I wouldn't see people place so much importance on them because they matter but they really don't.  They are a secondary thing.  Why is it important to have your house look like it came out of a catalog when people come over? It isn't.  I get wanting to make things pretty but appearances aren't everything.  Why can't people see the real way you keep your house sometimes?  What's wrong with a house that isn't so tidy?  A house is for living in.. I understand maintenance and things like this.  That actually is important.But when secondary things take the place of what actually is important, that's when it's a problem because it's like nothing makes sense anymore and it all becomes meaningless.  The problem with keeping up appearances is that.. it takes a lot of time.. It's a full time job to keep up appearances. And why would someone spend any minute of their life experience, keeping up appearances ie (doing things with no meaning basically) and then you die?  It doesn't make sense.  You should do the things you LOVE and do the things YOU actually VALUE, even if society doesn't value them with you.  Even if society doesn't value you as a person.  A stay at home mother for instance.  I don't even have to go into too much detail but if you value raising your daughter more than being in the corporate world, then you are not a villian for that.  It's sad because as I write this, I know people will agree with it because it only makes sense but then when they go back out into the real world away from the cpu, it's as if this is a foreign language I'm speaking or something.  

This is a little off subject but it reminds me of my brother and sisters dad.  He has his own praying room.  A room designated for prayer only which is beautiful but I know for a fact he has not one spiritual bone in his body.  To quickly give you a taste of who he is, he's in his late 40's, very hard working and that's about it.  He's pretty much like a machine.  Hes also one of those people where appearances were and still are more important than anything else too.  So he has a prayer room now and I know he just goes in there and asks god for things like success and other things he might want and that's it.  He has Meditation on the things that he wants and that is NOT spirituality.  That's sitting in a room and going over a wish list with god hoping you get something.  And actually he's Indian.  I think that is suppose to be the birth place of spirituality and yet I was more spiritual than he is now when I was a teen.  The point is is keeping up appearances and that being the central point of importance in your life is like having this prayer room.  Your sitting in there and yet your doing meaningless things.  And I know one day the world wont be like this.  As we evolve as a society and have more understanding of these things, we will naturally begin to value a stay at home mother as much as we value a corporate woman and we will value a messy girl the same way we value a neat and polished girl.  This was a very random rant.  A very very random one.  I really didn't even know where I was going with this but I hope you enjoy it anyhow.

xoxo T              

   

3 Month Anniversary!!!

3 Month Anniversary!!!

Yesterday marked 3 months of Trixieluxx!!!  It's been 3 months since this blog started and this is month 4 that it's been out since it started mid January!  It feels kind of surreal that it's it been 3 whole months already.  In some ways it feels like I can't believe it's been three months already because It feels like I just started.  And then it feels like it's been way longer because it's so much apart of my life that it in someways  it feels like I don't remember how it was before or something in some weird way.  Like life before your smartphone or something lol. I honestly have learned so many things since this journey has started and am soo looking forward to the future!!  I have so many plans as always.  Can't really say too much but there will be some changes to trixieluxx and then there will be a big move that I am really excited about!! ^_^  So stay tuned!!

xoxo T  

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