Christmas card inspiration

I'd like to tell you a little bit about the unseen making of this image, which I shot for Beyond Burlesque couture in London a few years ago (the Beyond Burlesque designer also creates corsets for Vivienne Westwood, a perennial favourite of mine):

Photographer: David Angel

It was a snowy day in London, which was perfect for the glamour fairytale we created... but in real life, snow is cold! Bare skin in the snow is very cold. I had blankets thrown over me between shots, flasks of hot drinks and even hot water bottles to keep my skin the right colour and my muscles able to move freely throughout the shoot. I am fairly sure that in this particular shot I had the hot water bottle pushed up the front of my dress, and that exaggerated hands-on-waist pose is helping to keep it pushed in!

I love it as a festive image not only because it is so chic and timeless, but because its back story reminds me of Christmas itself- all the less-than-glamorous rushing around, preparing, shopping and wrapping that goes on behind the scenes before the moment of calm when the payoff comes: a special person opens the gift that's perfect and personal for them.

I think sometimes with social media we feel we're lagging behind if we're not up doing yoga every morning, followed by sashaying into town and easily finding a slew of "perfect" (expensive and 100% ethically sound) gifts, AND not forgetting to keep our noses perfectly powdered the whole time while we're at it. Really, who remembers that stuff? The part that I remember is that "wow" moment when someone opens that little thing that's perfect just for them- regardless of where it was acquired or if the price tag was in single digits.

With this in mind, and with the photographer's kind permission, I have turned this snowy couture image into a Christmas card that anyone can afford. If you know someone who would enjoy an elegant Christmas card, why not order a couple? At just £1 each plus postage, they make sweetly sophisticated little tokens- and they are printed on premium matte recycled stock.

Order your cards in time for Christmas by clicking here.

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Tips on how to buy your first house on the cheap(er)

Okay, so here's that blog I promised about how I bought my house!


Mortgages

Step 1: ask your bank about Help to Buy. We just missed it, but it's where you get free money from the government to help you buy your first home, no strings attached. Have a meeting in person and figure out the most efficient way to save money for your deposit. It's cheaper and easier to buy a house with someone else- doesn't have to be a romantic partner, can just be a friend, or several friends.
Step 2: You can get a free mortgage broker at London and County (they take their fee from whichever bank they hook you up with). Our broker was called Scott Jackson, and he was absolutely excellent- just sorted it all out for us, completely for free and with no strings attached. His number is 01912 693606, call him!


Boats, Park Homes, Static Caravans, Log Cabins etc

I looked into a range of alternatives to a traditional home but it felt as though the system here in the UK is more or less set up to prevent people living in a truly alternative way. It is difficult and expensive to get a mortgage on a boat or caravan/ park home, and even if you can afford to buy one outright, they get less and less valuable as time goes by, like a car would- not more and more valuable, like a house or flat should. And even when you have bought your boat or caravan, you still have to pay rent to "park" it somewhere at all times, to the tune of thousands of pounds a year. This wasn't the right choice for me.


Estate Agents

Estate agents are not legally obliged to tell the truth either verbally or in any of their literature, e.g. the brochure you get when you view a house, or the description on RightMove- so you can pretty much ignore anything they say. You are not their client; the seller is, so that's who they care about. The only person you can really trust is your lawyer (hopefully).

Lawyers

It sends a chill down my spine to think that I ever for a moment considered doing my own conveyancing in order to save money! I was like, well I've not bought a house before, but I've bought stuff before... you just pick the one you want and hand over the money, right?

DO NOT DO YOUR OWN CONVEYANCING unless you are qualified! It is way, way, way more complex than it looks, and on top of that, you need a genuine understanding and practical experience and of how it all works as a whole, and then the ability to think outside of the legal box to be a good lawyer. I would recommend making Juliette Scarfe at Carbon Law your first point of contact, as she was excellent with us, even though she is in London and we are in Somerset. We lost so much time and money on disingenuous sellers until we reached out to her, and she got it all sorted for us very promptly and cleanly.


Moving In

The less you have to move, the cheaper it will be, so have a brutal clear-out and donate unwanted items- even quite scruffy clothes and shoes can be donated into clothing banks if they are still functional. Anything with resale value can go on eBay or Depop.

Have a poke around on Groupon for cheap services, like this moving service. If you can't afford a man in a van, just hire a van and drive it yourself :) ZipVan might be a possibility.

Supermarkets throw away hundreds of big boxes every day, so if you go in and ask for some, they'll be happy to let you take away as many as you can carry.

We didn't really have any furniture when we moved in because we'd always lived in fully furnished accommodation. I got an original Deco dressing table with mirror on eBay for £25, and winged Chesterfield chairs for next to nothing- all I had to do was pick them up. Freecycle is also worth checking out for items that are literally free if you are willing to collect them. Sign up for groups in rich areas- I saw numerous nearly-new Miel cookers given away where I used to live in North London just because their owners wanted a new one in a different colour. Furniture and accessories can be painted to match a room, which is often cheaper than trying to buy everything in the right colour, and tools for redecorating can be rented rather than bought.

There is of course tons and tons of detailed information about this complex process online, but these little pointers come from my personal experience as a first-time buyer, and not a desire to try and sell anything ;) If you think you know someone who might be interested in this info, please share this blog using the Facebook link below.

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So... what have I been doing?

I've had a strange sort of August... waiting to see if house #3 pans out is starting to get to me. I've felt homeless for the last two years. However, I have enjoyed the luxury of a summer in Somerset with no real ties... the weather and the little towns are beautiful. There are some great restaurants, pubs and days out to be had here. But I would like my own place to return to at the end of each day.

Something I have learned through trying to buy a house here and (so far) having had two fall through, through no fault of my own, is how dumb and self-entitled rich people can be. I was sort of raised to think that if you're rich, you probably got there by being smart and working hard. Well, I'm now dealing with my second millionaire in a row, and he appears to be just as dense and lazy as the first one. I feel like if I had that kind of money, I would use it better ;) For example, we had to break off with buying the last house we were interested in (the really big one!) because at the last minute, the (millionaire) seller asked us to pay his £5000 back-taxes for him. Uh.......................... no?

So having thrown literally thousands of pounds around this summer already and still being no closer to having our own home than we were a year ago, things have felt tough. I finally have a really excellent/ scary London lawyer on my side now, who is a partner in her own law firm, so hopefully that will help move things along. I really want to be in the new place by October, in time for my favourite holiday!

I've ended up getting a lot of little bookings in a lot of different places next month, which is unexpected and exciting. I love travelling :) Here is my current list... if you'd like to book me for a shoot in any of these places, email me! contact@anitadebauch.com. I've rented a car for Ireland, which should make getting around a lot easier and more efficient!

The Milan Fashion Week booking came in just last night. It's not what you think ;) Stay tuned and keep an eye on the news.

I'm planning on giving myself a big makeover over Christmas this year, while I'm off work... let's see how that turns out. Today I'm starting small by experimenting with some wigs and the many, many Mya Minerals eyeshadows I seem to have acquired (thank you!) :) She also sent me something called Fairy Dust, which is supposed to be for highlighting your face, but I'm thinking of dusting my body with it for fashion nudes and bodyscapes. Hmm...

I'm supposed to be saving money atm, but it's hard when you have a shoe fetish... I was bad and bought these:

I plan on having a wall of floor-to-ceiling shelves in the new place, dedicated only to shoes... *dreams* One day, I want to have a whole room dedicated to nothing but shoes, hats, corsets, sunglasses, latex, lingerie, jewellery, dresses and playsuits! I will eventually need one, that's for sure.

I really feel like I should post some modelling pictures now! Here are a couple of new natural-light portraits shot this summer, if you haven't already seen them on Instagram. I did my own hair and makeup as usual, and the skincare is all from Bareskin Beauty :)

Photographer: Tim Bircher

Photographer: Shawn Spencer-Smith

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

Gorgeous Freaks editorial

I have a Lady Allura's Latex (soon to be House of Vestress!) and Mya Minerals cosmetics editorial in the latest issue of Gorgeous Freaks 'zine, shot by Luci Alice :) Natural skincare provided by Bareskin Beauty.

I have listed one of my steel-boned latex corsets for sale on eBay >HERE< Don't miss it.

Photo by Darren Birkin

Book news! I have ten signed and numbered collector's copies of the hardback edition of The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling: No Agency? No Problem! for sale HERE! Reserve your copy before they're gone.

I have also had a second book accepted for publication, which is exciting. The publishing house hopes it will be ready for release in time for Christmas. I have to be a little mysterious about what kind of book it is until we are ready to start promoting it, but let's just say you're in for a treat or two ;)

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

Dita Von Teese at The Crazy Horse, Paris

After champagne, oysters and ile flottante at Bofinger, Boyfy and I spent a rainy afternoon shopping in Paris. I love to visit the original Dior flagship store, est. 1949. I also don't mind being offered complementary champagne while I try on dresses, that's for sure.

I wanted to go to the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz, but when we got there, the whole place was closed for refurbishments. Disaster! I've added a book called The Cocktails of The Ritz to my Amazon Wish List so I can make them at home, but I think it will be a while before I order myself any more gifts- living it up in Paris comes with a price tag!

The evening was the highlight of our trip, Dita's Crazy Show at the legendary Crazy Horse, which has been a burlesque house since the 50s. We saw Dita perform her new acts, which made clever use of lighting technology and the small space. The Crazy Horse has a small stage with the audience almost touching distance from the action and no room for feather fans, giant Martini glasses, or the like- but there was room for the Lili St Cyr-inspired bathtub :)

I'm happy to say that photography of the show was strictly prohibited, so the audience wasn't constantly alight with people trying to record everything on their phones, blocking each other's view, checking in on Facebook, etc etc. In fact, I didn't even take my phone with me on this trip! I really wanted to just live in the moment of being in Paris, thinking only of the now, and not of how best to record it for when I'm back home. It was a good experience. I'm sure I will still take photos on my phone from now on, but probably fewer pointless selfies. I'm getting a bit bored with this "pics or it didn't happen" social media culture we have.

So, here is a photo I lifted from Dita's Instagram (I also reposted it on my Instagram) of her first of the five acts she appears in (maybe call it four and a half as her final appearance is really at the end of the finale, where she just comes out and waves goodbye). I have to say, this show is genuinely very sexy, and definitely not a family show or something toned down for tourists! It is a proper strip show- just an extremely imaginative and high calibre one!

The founder of the Crazy Horse said of the world-famous nude-dancing Crazy Girls,

"...what we do with the girls is magic, too, because they aren't as beautiful as you see them onstage. It's the magic of lights and costumes. These are my dreams and fascinations..."

There are even strict guidelines on how the dancers may appear offstage, on their way to and from work. A man after my own heart! Modelling is all about lighting, costumes and fantasy, too, or at least, it is for me. I go into this subject in depth in my book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, which is £12.99 from various online retailers and should be of interest to all self-made glamour goddesses.

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Who still needs this year's Christmas cards?

Just a little blog to remind you that packs of chic fashion 'Winter Wonderland' Christmas cards shot by David Angel are available to order HERE.

Enjoy!

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Bath night!

I'm on tour round Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham and Bristol atm, so Friday was spent prepping for 8-9 days of shooting:

• Full body wax (ow, but worth it!)
• Mani/ pedi (my favourite part)
• Dyeing hair
• Shaping eyebrows
• Working out hard all this week! Lots of yoga, Pilates and tai chi :)
• Laundry
• Cleaning makeup brushes
• Getting the car valeted (I'm in it a LOT)
• Booking hotel rooms
• Packing
• Buying bunny slippers (most important)
• Going on a date :)

This photo was taken by lovely Glenn Cockerill at a beautiful C13th stately manor here in Somerset last month :) I did the hair and makeup using Bareskin Beauty skincare and Mya Minerals makeup.

My slippers and I are currently staying with my good friend Ivory Flame in Leicester. We watched The Conjuring last night after a nice little Lunar Samhain dinner and both ended up hiding under the duvet, screaming. The soup was great, though.

New photos from my last Asian Tour

New photos shot by lovely photographer Geoffrey Pereira in Singapore during my 2014 Asian Tour :)

First up, me modelling nothing but the $1 sunglasses I bought in the market after I managed to break the £90 pair I brought with me. Skincare by Bareskin Beauty.

Lingerie by Playful Promises, shoes by Fabulously Fetish. Apologies if you already saw this one on Facebook!

Leather jacket my own, ended up in the bin after being eaten by extreme high humidity in the Malaysian jungle later in the trip. Oh well!

Back from a last-minute weekend in London modelling for four Olympus workshops and a beauty magazine editorial. I left the house at 4.30 on Saturday morning and arrived home precisely 48 hours later at 4.30 this morning, having stopped at three sets of services on the way back for an hour of sleep here, an hour of sleep there, and finally, when that didn't work, a 3am stop-off for caramel soy cappuccino, brushing and flossing of teeth and a DIY Bareskin Beauty exfoliating facial in the toilets at the last motorway services. I'm very tired today, but at least my skin is glowing!

Here's a clearer shot of those $1 sunglasses, 'cos I know you're dying to see them.

Broke my £90 #sunglasses so bought these replacements from the local market for $1. Just taking a break between two photo shoots here in Singapore today. I don't know why my arms came out looking blue. #redhead #modeldiary #travellingmodel

A photo posted by Anita De Bauch (@anitadebauch) on Oct 22, 2014 at 11:38pm PDT

Dentist appointment first thing tomorrow, followed by seventeen full days of shooting in a row in Somerset, Kent, the Isle of Wight, London, Milton Keynes and Norfolk. Woooooo!!! So close to having the deposit for my dream house now ^_^


5.45pm EDIT: I forgot to say, if you are a freelance model like me, or interested in becoming one, and would like my book on how I do it, the posh hardback version is on special offer on Amazon UK atm, reduced from £26.99 to £16.89 + free P&P :)

Free "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling video: Maintaining perfect "model" skin on tour (or on holiday)

Welcome to my first #MondayModelBiz video!!! :D

Scroll down and click the play button to watch it!

If you've read The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, you'll know that my nutritionist, Juliette Scarfe and I talk extensively about how to achieve and most importantly, maintain (isn't that the hardest part?!) what I call in the book perfect "model" skin.

Hopefully you've enjoyed some of The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling easy and beautifying vegan recipes, tested some of the advice and are already experiencing great results every day! Even if this is new to you, though, you should be interested in this video I made for you about how to maintain great skin on the road, whether you're a model on tour or getting ready to have the best holiday photos ever when you go away this summer!

Planning your Summer holidays? Our favourite model Anita de Bauch gives us her beauty tips when travelling, including several products from our range, thanks Anita!
Posted by Bareskin Beauty on Saturday, 6 June 2015

Now I'm off to yoga, followed by lunch with my inspirational grandmother (88 year-old vegetarian with decades of yoga under her belt, and still a size 8!), and my cats, Dexter and Lilith! Have a great Monday, beauties!

Anita x

Porta-model!

I love this fun new art nude piece by Tim Pile. We found this great old trunk on location that I just LOVED and had to climb around naked in :D I love glamorous luggage! Thanks to Bareskin Beauty, Tim didn't have to retouch my skin in Photoshop at all for this shot :)

^ Click the image to see a larger version.

I'm having a lovely time celebrating my first Beltane weekend. Glastonbury is certainly the place to be! I missed actual May Day as my love and I were both working, so I just read about some traditional Beltane celebrations in my Almanack. They're pretty steamy! There's one that involves all the men carving a huge phallus from a fallen tree. The women all kind of hump it and then it gets symbolically lowered into a special hole in the ground the women dug. Then they basically all have an orgy, from what I could tell. Gosh!

Yesterday, we went shopping in Glastonbury. The atmosphere was electric! I got a full body wax and bought myself some treats, including my favourite, raw chocolate, which is an aphrodisiac, and treated myself to an almond milk latte at La Terre.

Today's #Glastonbury #Beltane weekend haul! 💖😻💏👰💕💞🍬🍒🍸💋 #love #lovers #sex #romance #tantra #beltain #magick

A photo posted by Anita De Bauch (@anitadebauch) on May 2, 2015 at 9:01am PDT

The lady who ran the shop where I bought the incense and the book wished me a happy Beltane and said, "We have until Monday to misbehave."

I like to misbehave all year :) It's hard for people to feel free enough to act the way they want to all the time, I guess, which is probably why we assign certain days for certain things. I wish it was more of a taboo to hide your true nature than express it.

I think I'm going to make some scented candles today. I'm all out, except for little soy tealights. I like good lighting EVERYWHERE, not just at photo shoots, and candlelight is the most flattering of an evening :)

Feel free to follow me on Twitter for more nude photos :)

Cover of USA's Twisted Edge magazine- latex cat and mouse!

I'm on the cover of issue #20 of the USA's Twisted Edge magazine.

It came out a while ago but I've just been too busy to post about it, even though I'm thrilled!

Shooting/ organising shoots around the clock is also why the editorial is not accompanied by an interview with me- I was offered one but very sadly didn't have time to actually do it.

I just ordered a copy of the issue here so I can see what images they used :)

This is the cover and contents page:

The editorial was shot by one of my favourite photographers, Luci Alice, and fetish designer, Lady Allura's Latex. I did the hair and makeup :)

Yesterday was such a horrible grey day here in Somerset that I just stayed chained to my computer until I basically passed out at 11pm, slept 10 hours, and woke up to gorgeous sunshine! :D

Time for a trip to Glastonbury to buy my organic hair dye, get some beauty treatments and maybe treat myself to a natural lavender candle for my trip to Wales on Thursday (I'm free anywhere between Bristol and Bangor on Thursday, btw, if anyone wants to shoot). I'm shooting two full days and then spending two nights in hotels, so I think it would be good to just relax, read my books, write about my thoughts and maybe try and meditate during the evenings at the hotels. I love to light scented candles in my hotel rooms, it instantly makes them feel more luxurious and like home!

It seems I haven't really written anything except ads in my blog since 4 January, which is a bit crap, so here's a quick run-down of wtf I've been doing since then! I suspect most of it will be excuses for why I've not been updating very much...

• deciding whether or not I can buy land in the countryside, build a log cabin on it, and live in it right now, or if it's something I need to wait a few years for,
• had a kind of triple birthday celebration: Madame Bink came to visit the night before my birthday and we camped out in her van in Cheddar Gorge in the snow! What an experience! When we woke up in this incredible landscape in the morning, the sun was shining off the snow, the birds were singing and the wild goats were everywhere! The next night, I went to see Die Antwoord, then got driven back to Somerset for a private party at a hotel being thrown for me, which was a lovely surprise! I will really miss my friends in the Southwest if I ever have to move away!
• completely sold-out, packed-out London Tour, that then got extended to London & the Southeast, then London, the Southeast and Hertfordshire, then London, the Southeast, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, then London, the Southeast, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, so I ended up being unexpectedly away from home for two very productive weeks of shooting dawn to dusk every day.
• I got to see Roswell Ivory tons while touring and really felt like we bonded :) We had an awesome end to my tour by raving our arses off at Perou's party in London for the launch of the second issue of Edict magazine, and meeting some interesting people in our little industry like David Wood and Viktoria Modesta.

• Back home in Somerset after the tour, I slept for 48 hours and then went to the White Spring Temple in Glastonbury for a belated Imbolc on 3 February. One corner of the temple is dedicated to Brigid, so it seemed the appropriate place to go!

• Madame Bink visited us in Somerset on her way back to Cornwall after her January Tour, so we got to have a good gossip and put the world to rights before she headed on the next day ;)

My next big tour is in March, so if you are interested in shooting with me in or around Hertfordshire, Kent, London or anywhere between Bristol and London (Norfolk is now sold out), please email me at contact@anitadebauch.com asap. I can offer suggestions for local studios to shoot at at discounted prices.

PETA is looking to work with me again, so hopefully I will be in London towards the end of next week (27 February - 1 March), if anyone would like to shoot while I'm there.

Much love, and I hope you are all enjoying the winter sun!

Anita x

7 original gift ideas for the glamorous gift-giver

It's that time of year again- when busy people and procrastinators alike start the mad online dash to order Christmas presents!

You don't have to order everything from Amazon, though. I've collected some gift ideas together from brands I love, as well as things you can make at home, to make glamorous, luxurious, sensual gifts that are still reasonably priced. At least one of these seven original gift ideas for the glamorous gift-giver should work for whoever you're buying for- maybe more than one :)

Photographed by Peter Scott

Bareskin Beauty natural organic skincare

I'll start with Bareskin Beauty products because I just ordered a bunch as a gift for myself... my skin did not enjoy being without them for six weeks on tour! Their very high-end, luxurious raw organic products come in pretty glass packaging and smell good enough to eat. There is currently a sale on Bareskin Beauty gift sets.


Scented beeswax candles

Beeswax candles are the highest quality and most expensive candles. I got interested in beeswax candles after I learned that they actually cleanse the air, rather than polluting it like paraffin candles do, and discovering that their burn time is much much longer, making them just as good value for money in my eyes!

I make my own at home using plenty of essential oil to scent them, as the ones I've bought in shops don't smell nearly enough for me! I don't like a subtly scented candle, I want to light it and then have the whole room instantly have an opulent, relaxing atmosphere, without having to wait, or light five at once! They're really easy to make using this beeswax candle-making tutorial. I like tying ribbons around the jars to decorate them.


Playful Promises retro lingerie

A shop assistant in a sex shop once advised me, don't hesitate to buy your girlfriends sexy gifts, because why should we wait for the men to buy them for us? It's a good call! Receiving sexy lingerie from a platonic friend is good low-pressure fun, since they're not expecting to see you in it- they just want you to enjoy it! Playful Promises do lovely retro bras, knickers and suspender belts as well as makeup and corsets.

Playful Promises lingerie and Fabulously Fetish shoes shot by LanesRo1

Handmade chocolates

There is so much cheap junk "food" circulating at Christmas that it's wonderful to receive handmade healthy chocolates from friends. Sophisticated dark chocolate really can be very healthy, and it's great to turn up to a party with them as well as the bottle of champagne! My favourites are these Thyroid-Boosting Macaroons. I don't find the liquid stevia is necessary as they are sweet enough, and all the other ingredients can be found in an ordinary supermarket if you are willing to substitute ordinary cocoa powder for the raw cacao. I like to serve them on a vintage cake stand, sprinkled with extra coconut, or wrap an ordinary little box in posh wrapping paper to make a chocolate box for a friend.


Fabulously Fetish shoes

If you really want to splash out on a girlfriend, mother, sister or cool auntie, get their foot measurements and have the shoes of their dreams custom-made in real leather by Fabulously Fetish. It gives a sophisticated option for what to wear to impress on New Year's Eve.


The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling

Of course, I'm going to recommend my own book... because I made it the best resource for freelance models, and any woman wanting to gain body-confidence and model beauty secrets! It is designed to help anyone look better both in real life and in photos, as well as giving lots of information and inspiration for models at all levels, from total beginners to seasoned professionals, to get the most out of their career- something we think a lot about around Christmas and New Year as this tends to be our quiet time. It also makes a great companion to any new year's resolutions you might have to get fit, healthy, slim and more beautiful for 2015. You can do it :) I don't even know if it will be out in time for Christmas, but you can add it to your Amazon Wishlist here.


Lady Allura's Latex

Lady Allura is a properly trained fashion designer who makes latex couture to order, in whatever classic or avant-garde styles you can think of, and focuses on making styles that suit petite, standard and voluptuous figures too.


A photo shoot with me

If you're buying for a photographer, you can buy gift vouchers for shoot time with me- just email me at contact@anitadebauch.com and imagine their face!


Quality time

The most important thing about this time of year is to take stock of what is important to you and enjoy time off work to spend with those you love. We only get a limited amount of time to spend with anyone in one lifetime, so quality time really is the most valuable gift :) If you aren't able to see certain people over Christmas, use the time to make plans with them for the New Year. You'll remember the time you spent together more than you remember what you got for Christmas last year.

Much love, and season's greetings!

Anita

The Writer

Amazing news! My book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, will be published by New Haven this year!!!

No dismal self-publishing for me! I have an assigned editor and book designer and marketing person and we're all so excited we could pop!! Tuesday was one of the happiest days of my life. I mostly spent it jumping up and down, calling my mum and my best friend, crying, running laps round the house and drinking champage! I'M GOING TO BE A WRITER!

I will keep you updated of when it's out, of course! It will be available globally, so no matter where you are in the world, you can pick up a copy from somewhere. Please subscribe to my blog for free (top of the right column on this page) to be the first to know when it's available to buy. I think it's the first of its kind.

Appropriately, I thought I would share this classical figure nude I shot with 25th Century Quaker in New York earlier this year. I love the rich colours and painterly feel :) I'd love to shoot more classic nudes like this.

^ Click the image for a larger version.

Skincare by +Bareskin Beauty, hair and makeup by me.

I stole the orchids from my afternoon tea at The 21 the day before :p

In other news, I visited Roswell Ivory on her boat this week. It is the cutest thing I ever saw, like something out of The Wind in the Willows! I love the idea of reverting to a simpler, scaled-down way of life closer to nature, believe it or not. I always think I love everything extra decadent but then when I go somewhere more natural and simple I feel so relaxed. I guess there is a lot of material stuff that we think we need to be happy, but really, what do we own that is still making us feel fantastic six months after we bought it?

On that note, go and bid on some of my stuff on eBay. Ha.

Anita xo

#WardrobeWednesday with Damian McGillicuddy, Olympus & Bareskin Beauty!

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this on my sofa, in a peach robe, with Lilith purring in it, and drinking almond cappuccino with cinnamon sprinkles from a big china mug. Apparently people like to know these things.

Anyway!

Check out this new photo shot in Finland last month with Damian McGillicuddy using Olympus! I borrowed my boyfriend's tie for this shoot.

I'm quite impressed by just how much you can see my nipple through that blouse. I don't know if it actually looked like that at the time or was enhanced in Photoshop. I did the hair and makeup, skincare is by Bareskin Beauty :) The hair was super easy, I just used coconut oil to slick it down.

Bought some new makeup online today, in fact; I'm gradually converting from MAC to organic pure mineral products. Less talc = less spots. I recently got a bunch of new BsB natural products and my skin looked better immediately after using the Clay Mask and Antioxidant Toner, which inspired me to think, "what else can I do? Improve my makeup case!"

Yesterday's lips =

BsB lip balm + Rimmel Dynamite pencil + MAC Girl About Town applied with MAC lip brush

Here's a little video of me visiting the BsB kitchen in London last weekend, in case you didn't already see it on Vine:

Full day shoot yesterday, spa mineral bath with Thornton's Champagne truffles courtesy of boyfy last night, and full day's domestic goddess activities today. I've already done last night's washing up, three loads of laundry, scratch-made two kinds of soup (Kim Snyder's detox vegan Thai soup, and my own vegan Italian tomato & Chanteray carrot), baked preservative-free vegan wholemeal with coconut oil and BsB Himalayan pink salt, and assembled a huge pile of clothes for mending. I feel super-efficient. Now to see if I can remember how to thread up my digital sewing machine!

 Oh and guess what?

I've officially been modelling for EIGHT YEARS this month.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! Cheers everyone!

PS, does anyone know where I can buy a pair of these in the UK??? They are actually my perfect pair of sunglasses. I think I could handle paying 250 bucks for them if I had prescription lenses put in and wore them forever.

Sexy corsetted black latex catsuit photos!

Atm I have that rather wonderful problem of having too many photos that I'm really happy with on my hard drive and not enough time to post them properly :) I like the convenience of being able to quickly upload the odd captioned photo  to Tumblr and Twitter, and Facebook if there's no "nudity" (i.e. nipple or pube nudity), but I'm a blogger/ journal writer at heart :) I really like having a record of my life that I can look back at, so it's good to write down the proper details surrounding the photos so that I remember them. I've been keeping diaries of one kind of another since I was nine or ten :)

Anyway! Here are some more photos of my me in my very own latex catsuit and Fabulously Fetish patent leather boots, from my shoot with Andrew McMeek to promote Robert Owen Haircutters last November! Just click on the images for larger versions:

 I did the makeup, as usual.

I like doing my own makeup :)

Skincare by Bareskin Beauty

Had another wonderful shoot with this catsuit minus the corset at Murder Mile Studio in London yesterday, which is I think is run by Morrigan Hel and the drummer from Cradle of Filth, if my teenage fangirl stalking skills are up to scratch! Either way, it is a cool studio with lots of fancy furniture that I would love to own :)

Lazed around at home watching Buffy all morning and then went into turbo spring-cleaning mode this afternoon, including sorting out a huge pile of really nice quality books, platform Pleaser fetish shoes (UK 7!), Lady Lucie Latex (UK 8) and some other nice bits and pieces that I don't need anymore to list on eBay, including my worn stockings, for you nylon fans! I know you love to have my well-worn seamed vintage nylons straight from my feet into your hands :) I'll blog when they're up on eBay, so please add me to your favourite sellers list, or subscribe to my blog (above right) to be automatically alerted when they're ready to be bid on.

Must go and pack now, full day photography workshop to model for in London tomorrow, with four different looks to put together! I'm thinking latex, leather, and two retro lingerie looks :)

New York, New York! :D

Hello blog readers, and people who receive these blogs by email! *waves*

As you know, I just got back from a modelling trip in New York, which was on my bucketlist of "modelling things I want to do at some point", so I treated myself to Business Class flights and felt terribly glamorous sipping champagne and re-reading Valley of the Dolls on the way over.

I totally had this song stuck in my head:

The glamour mist evaporated rapidly when I arrived at the address of my guesthouse and found it was actually a block of flats. I scoured the road and found another address of the same number (!) that was a Starbucks o.O

I borrowed the Starbucks wifi to double-check wtf was going on and discovered that there is more than one 15th Street in New York and that I'd actually booked a place in Brooklyn, not Manhattan >.< Derp. When I finally got to my actual neighbourhood it was after dark and the street I was on was like liquor store/ liquor store/ boarded up shop with graffiti/ liquor store/ depressing ghetto housing with bars on all the windows/ liquor store. Shiiit. I was so tired that I kind of didn't care though. I just checked in, washed my face and fell asleep with all my clothes on!

After 12 hours' sleep, I caught the free ferry to Staten Island. Seeing the Statue of Liberty float past was a trip. I've only spotted her in the distance from the Empire State Building before and didn't realise how bright glowing green she is.

The area of Staten Island I went to looked like a movie set- big wide streets lined with unique detached houses, all two or three storeys plus basement, seemingly made of planks of painted wood layered over each other like upside-down pine cones. I was really glad to be shooting in a home studio so I could see inside one of them. It was old and massive and slightly reminded me of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman's family home in Practical Magic, complete with fluffy cats everywhere, and a spooky basement.

 The Practical Magic house

After a vintage 1930s shoot, shot with the photographer's own vintage fox fur stole (complete with heads and PAWS!), I got the ferry back to Manhattan.

I was a bit concerned about finding healthy places to eat in New York as I didn't remember there being many a few years ago, but now Manhattan seems awash with with vegan/ organic/ generally detox-friendly places! I went to a place called Natural Flavors and had them make me a giant kale salad with about a dozen added raw and cooked veggies, drizzled in lemon juice and olive oil.

I really liked this picture hanging on the wall of the restaurant and made it my phone's wallpaper:

As you can probably guess, most of my morning's earnings went straight back into the American economy in the afternoon. I love to shop local designers when I travel, and treated myself to a huge new Betsey Johnson suitcase, which is completely covered in a purple rose and skull print, trimmed with black patent leather and and lined with hot pink leopard print, for 1/2 price at Century 21 :D My NY shopping tactic is to browse in Bloomingdale's but actually buy stuff in Century 21! I also got a pair of CK sunglasses with orangey-yellow frames that reminded me of Fruit Salad sweets and kind of match my hair for $20, down from $68 :)

The Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge, in the rain

I started to feel a little tired and dissociated but decided to make the historic walk over the Brooklyn Bridge in the rain anyway, dragging my new purple suitcase behind me. A camp, skinny black dude with a bouncy walk ecstatically complimented me on my "Brooklyn style"- my giant 70s faux silverfox coat, the neon purple suitcase on wheels, the orange sunglasses in the rain, the bright copper hair. Didn't have the heart to tell him I'm British and naturally tacky.

I was once again too tired for dinner by the time I got back to the guesthouse, so just wiped off my makeup and fell asleep by 7.30pm.