My first introduction to horror movies that I can remember is watching the original Nightmare on Elm St. I was never allowed to subscribe to Fangoria (more on that here) but my parents did allow me to watch any movie I wanted. My mom always said, "I'd rather have you learn from a movie than in real life." Looking back on this statement, that's bad parenting, but at the time I was the cool kid that told all my friends about the latest and greatest horror movies. We rented the Nightmare on Elm St. VHS from the neighborhood video store as soon as it came out and watched it as a family. I was hooked on horror from this point on.

That night I heard my mom get up to go to the bathroom, it was probably about 2 am, and I followed her. I was worried that Freddy would come through the wall above my bed. She didn't know I was up and I waited outside the bathroom for her until she was done. She opened the door and I think I scared the bejesus out of her. I was promptly tucked back into bed and told if I couldn't handle horror movies then we wouldn't rent them anymore. After that I conquered my fear because I never wanted to live a life without watching all the blood and gore.

Fast forward. It's the 35th anniversary of Nightmare on Elm St. I own all the DVDs (but not the remake, we don't talk about that.) I bought the Never Sleep Again Palette from Hot Topic in celebration. I've heard mixed reviews about their eye shadow and was drawn in by the packaging. Currently it's out of stock, but it did have a five star review!

This palette opens to the left, which is a little odd. I thought it was a defect, but then I looked again on the website and it was correct. The colors are both matte and metallic. I like the metallic ones because they are easier to blend, but these mattes are nice too and highly pigmented. The "Sweet Dreams" color completely disappears on me, I'm very fair (I'd say the fairest in the land 😉), so I used it as a highlighter. Note that I didn't use a primer on my arm.

 
As with some of the other palettes I've reviewed (Lunatick Cosmetic's Elvira Palette, Sugarpill's Feline Fancy Palette, Wet & Wild's Goth-O-Graphic Set) I'll only use the palette for my full face look. (I like the challenge.) I'll tell you if I needed to use anything else.

 Naked face.

I usually start with a moisturizer and my standard liquid foundation. For color I began with the matte blacks "Slash" and "Don't Fall Asleep" for my eye brows and "Burned Alive" for blush. It's a great bronze-y metallic shade.

Next I added "Dream Realm" blue on the outer crease of my eyes, "Incinerator" metallic gray for the lid and inner corner, and "Elm Street" for the center lid. I'm loving this color because it matches my new hair!

Last but not least, I added "Sweet Dreams" as a highlighter on my nose and cheeks, used "Blood Bath" as a top coat over chapstick, which turns it a nice brown-red, and threw on some fake lashes. I'm good to go!

Overall this palette has some great pigments that are easy to blend and I like all the shades. My only complaint would be that these pressed shadows are flakey. If you use a brush to apply any of them, I'd suggest dampening it first so it doesn't end up all over.

Thanks for reading about my soft spot for Freddy, and watch me play with makeup! Until next time friends, don't fall asleep....just kidding, sleep is really important for a healthy lifestyle.

I just wanted to take a moment to THANK YOU for following my page. I've slowed down writing because I've been very busy running my store Cats Like Us, but I haven't forgotten about you! I have ideas for more blogs, I just have to sit down an actually write them.

Without further ado, here's what you can win...

1. Suffer Pinhead Bath Bomb from The Mad Bombers

2. The Craft Bath Dust from Pop Natural

3. Pusheen Latte Stencil

4. A Tarot Spread Kit from Feather Fox Tarot

5. J.Cat Eye Shadow palette in Secret Haze

6. Blood Sucking Brady Bunch Decal from Vampyre Coven

7.Planchette Compact Mirror from Misfit Mombie


All you have to do is...

1. Like the Fluffy the Vampire facebook page

2. Comment on the Giveaway post

3. Share the Fluffy the Vampire facebook page

Good luck! Winner will be picked Fri., March 8, 2019 and will be contacted via facebook.

I've seen the word "chonk" thrown around in kitty memes for a couple months now. It usually refers to an overweight cat, but  could that chonky kitty just have a poochy belly? Yes! There's a difference!

 Chonk Chart.

How do you know if your cat falls into one of these CAT-egories? You look at it's fuzzy wuzzy belly of course! Some cats don't have either, and there's no rhyme or reason to it.

Cat with pooch.

It's a poochy belly or "primordial pouch" or "belly flap" if...

-it's belly is near it's hind legs

-it sways when it walks

-you can't see a belly if you look at your cat from from above

Don't worry it's not a bad thing, and the pooch is there to help your cat. It's just part of you cat's anatomy! They use it to...

-stretch out to take long strides

-make room to fill tummy out, like when wild cats used to gorge on food

-protect vital organs in a cat fight

Pooch circled.

If you look at your kitty from above and it's tummy sticks out on the sides and is solid when it walks you have a chonker.

Example of chonker.

Here's a past blog on how to stop your cat from eating everything. Good luck and no matter what kind of cat you have be sure to give it an extra hug from me.

The experimental idea of making a horror movie surrounding the art world makes sense to me. I lived it~ the art part of it anyway. In my other life, I worked in three different art galleries over 8 years. So seeing the preview for Velvet Buzzsaw made me thoroughly excited.

The story throws you head first into a high art trade show, where you meet the main characters. The character dynamics portrayed in Velvet Buzzsaw are accurate. These are stereotypical, but very close to the real thing.

You have an art handler/ installer that is an artist in his own right, but is never given enough credit at his own gallery. There's a larger than life museum director/ broker that manages everything. There's the art critic that is pretentious, wordy, and smug. The art critics truly have the power to make or break an artist. (I can say this because I have a Masters in Modern Art History. Art History is studying art work, interpreting it, looking at it's historical context and being judge-y, very judge-y). Then there's the curators. They meet with artists, learn what makes them tick and they try to showcase artists in the best light while taking care to be on top of the next trend in art and educating the public. And finally, the assistants, or secretaries, or researchers, or interns that are behind the scenes. They see and hear a lot more than anyone thinks they do. They are often taken for granted and thought of as naive. All of these people are represented in Velvet Buzzsaw.

Just look at him being all Judge-y McJudge-erson.

 ***Warning Spoilers***

The story gets rolling when Josephina, the gallery assistant finds her elderly neighbor, named Dease, dead. A bug is put in her ear that he was an artist, but wanted his works destroyed. An adorable fluffy white kitty, presumably Deases leads her to his apartment, where she discovers stacks upon stacks of paintings. The opportunity to take them falls into her lap, and she pounces on it...like a cat! She takes all the paintings because she thinks they are worth money.

There's something about getting valuable things for free that makes me wary of them. (Side note: just the other day a friend messaged me about a piece of vintage jewelry. I dabble in vintage things and sometimes I know what things are and what they are worth, but not this piece. She thought it might be a piece of Victorian mourning jewelry.  She was given a box of jewelry that spanned decades and this was in it. My response "sage wash that shit." You don't know what spirit is attached to what thing, especially if it's that old.)

Ok back to the story, Josephina's not sure if the paintings she stole are valuable so she talks to her art critic friend, Morf, about them. He says that the artist is a visionary and wants in on the money grab. The art broker, Rhodora, sniffs their deal out and wants to showcase them at her gallery while taking over the storage and sales. There's a thousand plus paintings, so to catalog all of them would be a lot of work. Josephina agrees. Rhodora even makes a scarcity of the paintings, by putting some in storage....or trying to. The delivery truck doesn't make it and the paintings go missing. Here's where the paintings come to life and people st-ART dying. (See what I did there?)

 This was an artsy death.

We find out that Dease was abused, he tortured and killed his own father, he was institutionalized and experimented on like a human guinea pig, and used his own blood in the paintings, possibly in blood rituals. His spirit in the paintings makes them come alive!

Overall the movie is satire about art commerce and the greed behind it. Anyone that tried to profit from Dease's paintings died. I thought the killings were fun although I wished there was a flashback to Velvet Buzzsaw. The name comes from the punk band that Rhodora was in. She has a tattoo of it on her shoulder. She also has a Sphinx cat named Stella. Two kitties in one movie?! YES!

I enjoyed Coco, the gal that ends up being everyone's assistant because she's the one that knows everything that's going on, isn't greedy and lives. The outfits were creative and exactly what I experienced in the museum world along with the dialog. The acting was great, and styled like a black comedy, the paintings even gave me Night Gallery vibes. The ending was left open, as the missing paintings are found and shown being sold on a street corner for $5. So the spirit of Dease can live on. I'd give this movie 4 out of 5 bloody mirrored spheres. (and I'm NOT talking Phantasm.)

Here's the trailer ...