for black girls who walk on the weird side of life

Color Me Goth: This is a blog written by a Goth woman of colour in America. She blogs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and it’s gooooood.

Afropunk caters to black people from all ends of the alternative spectrum in all ways. There’s stuff about the Afropunk Festival, tattoos… there’s even a documentary about the black punk scene in the US and UK.

Gothic Charm School is a cool website if you happen to swing that way. The self-styled Lady of the Manners generally gears her website to Goths of all races, but the page I’m linking you to is geared specifically towards black Goths (on account of a reader request).

Black and African-American Goths is a Facebook group dedicated to connecting black Goths all over the world and making more of a community.

If you know of any other websites, please send links to the ask box or submit a text post!

As the name of the product says, it’s a felt tip liner. I bought it when my Rimmel Liquid Eyeliner in the Blackest Black shade finally ran out (RIP). The felt tippy-ness of it means that as long as you put the lid on properly and don’t break the pen, there’s very little chance of leakage or of it drying out in your bag or whatever. The two I’m holding in the picture above are in Black and Teal.

(Please excuse the really tired face/skin and the horrendous hat; I was up ‘til 3 last night/this morning rehearsing for a Drama production.)

The nib - as shown in the picture above - also means that it’s incredibly easy to draw whatever kind of line you want, from Cleopatra-eque cat flicks to simple thin lines above the eyelashes.

My real problem is with the eyeliner itself. It dries incredibly quickly, yes, but it promises all day wear and doesn’t deliver. Not only does it fade really easily, but the colour isn’t thick enough at all and it goes all weird when you apply on top of foundation or primer. I remember one incident a few weeks ago; I put it on in the morning, and a few hours later, my cat flicks had faded, and the rain/drizzle had smudged the lines beyond all recognition.

They are really cheap (£2.99 each from Superdrug), but then, you get what you pay for. When these two finish, I will buy an expensive gel eyeliner and see how much difference there is. If there isn’t, then back to my beloved, mid-range-price, expensive-feeling Rimmel I will go; I wouldn’t recommend buying these ones.

The problem with never doing your own hair is that you never really get a first-hand sense of what actually works for you. You get lazy. I’m firstborn and the only girl in my family, so in terms of hair, I was very lucky. My mum always had time to do my hair, and it’s only in the past four years or so that I’ve started caring for it myself. This means that it’s rare for me to have a huge attachment to a hair care product.

But one day, I discovered Dr Miracle’s Damaged Hair Medicated Treatment.

This stuff makes my hair (and me) so happy. It smells like Christmas. It tingles. It’s light. If you rub it in properly, it doesn’t leave grey/white patches in your hair. It’s a rinse out treatment (rub in, leave for 5-15 mins and then rinse out and style as normal), but sometimes when my hair is really dry, I rub it in like an ordinary moisturiser and it softens the curls beyond belief; they’re soft and I can get a comb through them without pulling! And I’ve been complimented on the smell so many times that when I’ve freshly applied the cream, I don’t bother wearing perfume (especially on hot days).

I also use the Stimulating Moisturizing Gro Oil, which has the same lovely tingling effect as the Medicated Treatment and can also be used as a hot oil treatment, should you so wish.

I’ve included a link to their website above, but if you’re not in the US (I have a feeling that the shipping outside of America  would be horrendous), you can generally buy them in black hair shops; I got mine in Brixton. The Medicated Treatment was £4.99 and the Gro Oil was about the same price, possibly a pound more. If you live or in a place where black hair shops are scarce on the ground (like me right now), you can order them from Amazon for roughly the same price.

And I appreciate you muchly :)