Happy Ness

To get myself back into the time-consuming yet enjoyable habit of blogging, rather than just posting on Instagram, I thought I'd blog my pictures and memories of my most recent trip to Loch Ness, one of my favourite places on Earth.

I do enjoy reading my old blogs once in a while, as they always remind me of travels and moments in my life that I know I'll especially treasure when I'm older... I think the reasons I've been blogging less in the last year or two are:

a) now that I live in the countryside, rather than in London, I tour every month at least once. I enjoy the lifestyle very much, but it would mean a lot more blogs if I wrote up every single one! I used to write quite detailed blogs about my tours when I only did 2 - 3 a year.
b) I'm just very, very busy with doing the actual modelling, touring and behind-the-scenes work, leaving less time to write about it. I do sometimes envy models who have enough time on their hands to blog extensively!

I was on tour for three weeks or so, which is pretty standard for a mainland UK tour, but this time I booked a whole five days off in the middle to go on holiday in Scotland with boyfy. I'm friends with a lovely couple who live in an idyllic log cabin on the shores of Loch Ness, who I met a couple of years ago when I took my little car off-roading and needed rescuing. After dragging me out of the woods in a 4x4, they took me back to their place to sit up drinking Scotch and getting to know each other until the sun rose the next day, and we've stayed in touch ever since.

This picture of my butt has nothing to do with my friends at Loch Ness, but it was shot during this trip to Scotland, so behold my Bettie Grable impression.

Thank you Bareskin Beauty skincare and Mya Minerals eyeshadows.

I had already driven as far as their place over the space of a week or so of working my way up from Somerset, shooting along the way. We picked boyfy up from Inverness Airport and drove along the famous and beautiful Cattle Pass to a gorgeous little pub on the edge of a loch, where the owners row out in their boat every day and serve the catch in the pub that evening, along with lots of very old Scottish whiskies.

After dinner, we "glamped" in what I can only describe as a hobbit log cabin, then continued exploring West Scotland the next day.

We dropped in on Nessie Steve, the world's foremost Loch Ness Monster hunter, and let him know that he was in the new issue of Fortean Times! He gave me a funny little Nessie he made in his converted mobile library home.

We spent our last evening in Scotland on our hosts' private beach on the shores of Loch Ness, with them and their dogs.

We even got taken out onto the Loch in their boat! Then it was party time as the sun went down over the water.

The next day, I showed boyfy Boleskine Burial Ground, and then we started driving South the scenic route via Glencoe, so that we could have a vegetarian haggis lunch at the equally spooky C18th pub, The Drovers' Inn, which is full of taxidermy and antique weaponry. We vowed to return in the winter and spend a night at the inn when the huge open fire is blazing and it's snowing outside!

We/ I have definitely been spoiled this year; we didn't go on holiday for years, but this was our second holiday this year after Paris. Next up we are going to Cornwall in September and Amsterdam for the first time in October. If anyone can recommend places to stay in Amsterdam, do let me know using the link below, as we are still looking for an apartment for four (we are going with another couple we're friends with).

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Paris in the Spring

The Opera House, Paris: so beautiful, I almost wept. I get very emotional when I see something really transporting and ornate. My slight champagne hangover from Dita's Crazy Show vaporised in an instant! This room didn't so much take my breath away, as knock it right out of my body!

After the opera house, we had a quick coffee opposite at the Grand Hotel, then grabbed a cab for a glass of pink champagne and some caviar at Prunier, a funky art deco seafood restaurant frequented by Dita Von Teese and Jean Paul Gaultier. I don't think about what I'm "allowed" or "not allowed" to eat too much when I'm abroad; I think it's important to enjoy the local specialities to really submerge oneself in the culture.

Anyway, to stick to a strict diet in Paris, one would have to lack a pulse!

Prunier.

A last boutique I had to visit before we left was Caron, where I bought two of these gorgeous swan's down powder puffs. I am collecting beautiful objects for my dressing table at Peng Towers :) I don't have the actual dressing table itself yet, but whatever... for now I have a dreamy peach powder puff for my future dressing table, and a miniature baby pink one for my present makeup case. They are the softest things I have ever ever touched!

I also took away some French perfume samples, including one that smells just like fresh pink roses, my favourite flower.

Our last stop before picking up our cases from the concierge and leaving for the airport was the Musée de l'érotisme, which had two whole floors dedicated to late C19th and early C20th erotica, including lots of vintage photographs of the the ladies of the night of Pigalle, and real 1920s pornography playing on a loop on TV screens!

"Gigolettes" of the 1890s- the lack of makeup was compensated for by every kind of lace, silk, velvet, ribbon, pearls, corsetry and other intricate lingerie, and any other glamorous trimming you can think of!

One thing I learned at the Musée de l'érotisme is that the moment cameras were invented, the first thing people did was use them to record sex, and pictures of beautiful naked women. At the time, brothels were perfectly legal in Paris and many had stunningly beautiful ornate interiors with the ladies who worked there sometimes wearing ballgowns in sumptuous fabrics as well as the more expected lingerie (or nothing but shoes!). It seems that high heels, stockings, garters, lace, corsets, gloves, waved hair, smoky eyes and round bums have been sexy since at least the 1890s!

Parisian prostitutes in an opulent brothel in Pigalle in the 1910s.

Now to catch up with emails! Au revoir for now x

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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!

Le weekend

Let me tell you all about my Easter weekend in gay Parree!

I finally made time to go on a long-overdue holiday to one of my favourite cities, Paris. All I can think about when I'm here is La Belle Epoque, the Roaring Twenties, artists and courtesans drinking absinthe in art nouveau bars, the "leg shows" at the Opera House, the New Look, Jean Paul Gaultier...

Photographer: GSC4X | Skincare: Bareskin Beauty | Cosmetics: Mya Minerals

Pink hotel room! :D One thing I love about Paris is that decor- no neutrals, plain carpets or magnolia paint in sight! No-one is afraid to try and make a room special in Paris.

After a well-deserved lie-in at a little Baroque hotel I found online, where the rooms are named after glamour icons from Parisian history like Mistinguett and Coco Chanel, Boyfy and I went for brunch at Mariage Frères, an exotic tea salon from the C19th. We shared "Le Classique", but were so full, we still had to take the sakura blossom dessert away to share at the hotel later!

I love floral scents, so I purchased a box of rose and violette tea called Swan Lake, which will look really pretty brewing in my French press at home when I have the girls round ;)

We managed to sneak into Laperouse when it was closed at midday, for a little unofficial guided tour:

I also visited Notre Dame for the first time, which was as spooky and impressive as I'd imagined from Victor Hugo's book. I wanted to learn more about the history of Paris, so we visited the museum in the crypt.

One of the highlights of the trip so far has been dinner at Maxim's, an art nouveau restaurant and my favourite in Paris. The owner who made Maxim's so wildly popular at the turn of the century did so by ensuring the restaurant was always full of well-dressed women in all manner of lace, diamonds, velvets and ribbons, tactically seated in the windows facing the street. Jean Cocteau wrote that

"To undress one of these women is like an outing that calls for three weeks' advance notice, it's like moving house."

Hilarious!

We ordered absinthe and champagne with our meal, the drinks of choice during La Belle Epoque, and it gave me a happy little buzz to listen to the pianist play and imagine how many grand dames and dandies had enjoyed the same drinks in the very same room since the late C19th...

The Bar at Maxim's

On Sunday, we went for tea and a single Marie Antoinette macaroon to share at Ladurée (I just wanted to taste). I like the Ladurée at Harrod's, but you can't beat the real thing in Paris.

The good weather lasted just long enough for a pretty boat ride along the river, where we got our first really clear view of the Eiffel Tower. Wow! Everywhere you look in Paris, there's beauty all around.

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Tenebrous magazine, April 2015

I have not one, not two, but THREE DOUBLE-PAGE SPREADS in this month's issue of Tenebrous magazine, in a Libidex latex fashion editorial shot on location by Magpie Tommy :)

Not bad, considering we did the whole shoot in about ten minutes flat! It was February, at night, in Norfolk... so cold, I actually went jogging while the equipment was being set up! Luckily, my skin didn't dry out. Go go Bareskin Beauty moisturisers!

In unrelated news, I'm listing a few things on eBay, so feel free to look through them and add me to your watch list- there's more to follow.

Off to Singapore

I'm flying to Singapore tonight, so should be there tomorrow evening (local time).

Much fun was had asking my Singaporean friends about their nudity laws, confirming that it is definitely not okay for me to wear my new slightly see-through Mango top with no bra while I'm there, and then guiltily wiping all the porn artistic nude imagery off my laptop and phone, too.

I love Singapore and I love flying, so this trip is pretty much guaranteed to be a success in my book from the moment of landing. I want to get an Indian head massage, back massage and a Shanghai pedicure on my first day, as well as eat at my favourite vegetarian restaurant in Little India, before I start shooting on Sunday!

After that I won't have much time for tourist stuff, but it's okay, as I've been there so many times already. I do want to get my traditional Singapore Sling at "my" table in Raffles' Long Bar though, and also visit Pulau Ubin for the first time. And enjoy swimming in the WARM sea! Must remember to pack my factor 50 and a bikini!

Just barely had time to get a fresh mani yesterday morning. Still don't have my Singapore $$$. I had time to fit in a MAC makeup lesson at Harrods, though, so that's okay! Got some new products for my trip and beyond ^_^

 

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Photoshop and filter-free makeup lesson face and new products to repeat it at my next shoot :)

I'm going to post this cool Lady Allura's Latex photo by Adrian Jones now! The gold peep-toes are by Fabulously Fetish. I did my own hair and makeup :)

My hair is, once again, a really bold colour, thanks to the hair shoot I had on Sunday. In case you didn't already see it on Instagram/ Facebook, this is Miley Cirus me on Sunday:

I'll probably just be posting pics on Instagram and Facebook for the next couple of weeks, while I'm in Asia... or Tweet me if you want to stay in touch. Lots of love.

... Anita xo

#FetishFriday 'Andrew McMeekin photographs Anita De Bauch': behind the scenes film of a hair fashion shoot

I thought it would be fun to post this behind the scenes film for #FetishFriday, as I thought plenty of my blog readers would like to see a latex shoot actually in progress, but it's also interesting as a hair/ retro fashion shoot. I think the black catsuit was my favourite outfit but I liked the cherry print Marilyn Monroe dress too :)



I was commissioned for this shoot to promote Andrew McMeekin's photography services in Lowestoft, Norfolk- he has a studio above his salon, Robert Owen Haircutters, so it's really convenient for getting your hair done nicely before your portrait session. I posted the photos from our shoot in my blog, here and here :)

This week has mostly been spent organising my Irish Tour in July, which is very exciting as I love visiting Ireland, working with some of my favourite photographers, and meeting new ones. I also want to visit some of the ancient mystical sites this time too, if my schedule allows! Organising so many clients from all different areas, arranging times that are convenient for everyone, and making and booking a travel plan is always a vast amount of work, but worth it for what is produced :) If you're a photographer/ artist/ designer/ hairdresser anywhere in Belfast/ Antrim or the Republic of Ireland, please do feel free to email me about a booking in July at contact@anitadebauch.com. I'm going to be everywhere :)

Other than that, the highlight of my week so far has been life modelling for art classes in London for the first time. I've never done it before as the rates of pay are so low that I sort of couldn't justify doing it. I concluded that life models do it for the feeling of having helped in creating artwork than for anything else, which I sure wish I had time to do for free or almost-free sometimes, but 99% of the time, I just don't. If I'm not shooting, I do need rest days so I don't totally burn out ;) But these ones were quite reasonably paid and I'm so glad I actually took the plunge and did them, it was such a fascinating experience! I really wish I could draw. It was very inspiring and made me want to do life modelling more regularly, if I can.

Another nude booking tomorrow, but with a camera, not a paintbrush, the way god intended ;)

Anita x

Not a very Christmassy blog... oh well!!

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I thought I should do a Christmas blog while I'm still in London :) Amazingly, I don't have any pictures of myself in a "sexy Santa" outfit or any of that business, so instead, here's a new picture of me wearing Lady Allura's Latex, by Alec Davies. The colours are sort of Christmassy, maybe :p

I'm in Somerset for Christmas to spend time with my family, catching the train tomorrow morning with the cats, which should be fun. Look out for the girl in the vintage (faux) silverfox coat and turban with two bald cats in jumpers on matching velvet and diamante leads :p Dexter and Lilith like to sit with me at a table on the train and watch the world go by out the window.

Chloe-Jasmine Whichello also invited me over for Christmas but unfortunately I only booked off enough time to spend with my family- then it's straight back to London. This is also why I've not booked any shoots in the southwest over Christmas. Hopefully CJ and I will have time for afternoon tea somewhere in London in the new year :)

Last night, Hannah Ashlea and I met up for the first time in ages- she was terribly jetlagged from her flight from Hong Kong but still braved it out for a two-hour "Jack the Ripper" tour of Whitechapel with me last night, looking as gorgeous as ever!

The weather stayed dry and it actually wasn't that cold out of the wind. The tour was super gory and interesting and afterwards we went for mulled wine at The Ten Bells, the Victorian pub where some of the victims, and most likely the Ripper himself at some point, drank in 1888. It was creepy but fun to imagine everyone in the pub in Victorian clothing, lit by gas lamps, with the street outside pitch black, without a single streetlight.

I wore a Victorian style high-collared black blouse with a lace panel on the chest and lots of little buttons running down the spine, with my Victorian mourning locket and long black skirt. I love to dress up! I must have let my imagination run away with me as I had super-realistic dreams/ nightmares all last night about being trapped in a house with a blood-crazed disembowelment enthusiast. Um, hope that never happens o.O

TO DO!

1. Bath cats and put them in their woolly jumpers (it's cold today, even with the fire lit!)
2. Pack for my Christmas break- my wardrobe, and the cats'
3. Have a Bareskin Beauty Green Clay Mask

Over and out! This is my last proper blog before Christmas but no doubt I'll be posting silly pics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr over the next couple of days!

Merry Christmas!

Anita x

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A very British Monday

Today I visited the British Museum to see the Middle East, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome exhibits, went for a British pint (Doom Bar) in a proper olde traditional-looking gay pub in Soho (well the boys had the beer, I had wine), then came home for a pot of tea and to FINALLY watch Alpha Papa. I meant to watch it at The Phoenix when it was on but was just too busy with shoots. This always happens to me! I think the last thing I managed to see at the cinema was The Hobbit in 3D at the BMI IMAX. I also booked myself in for a TV presenting day course at Pinewood Studios next month.

Appropriately for watching Alan Partridge, here is a photo from a shoot in Norfolk in October by Alec Davies, who was visiting from South Africa.

Styling: moi

Hopefully I'll be touring South Africa in 2014, so if you're based in Cape Town or Johannesburg and would like to work with me, holler! contact@anitadebauch.com :)

Anita x

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Figure studies from the Far East to the Southeast

I can't decide if this image constitutes "implied nude" through cunning foot placement or "Playboy" levels, haha, so not sure whether to risk uploading it to Facebook! This is a Blogspot exclusive! This gorgeous black and white was shot in Singapore last month by the marvellous Callan Tham. Whatever the "level", I consider it a figure study and one of my favourites to date so have saved it the "art nude" folder in my hard drive.

Back in London later that month, I shot this black and white nude with Chris Lord at Jon Gray's art nude workshop:

Yesterday was our ninth anniversary! Liam bought me a gorgeous Parisian antique mirror that I will photograph once it's hung in our new lounge, and a really romantic card that I won't share, but it is lovely :) Today we had a special day in London...

I've been missing the Luk Yu teahouse in Hong Kong so much, but dining at The Dorchester's China Tang  certainly helped ease my withdrawal symptoms!

Authentic Cantonese dim sum in a fine Chinese 1930s deco dining room- can it really be beaten by anything other than sex??

We also sampled The Dorchester's famous Peking duck pancakes! The only thing I didn't order were the steamed roast pork buns that I ate at Luk Yu. They are a bit of a naughty treat for me- I don't usually eat pork, or white flour- so perhaps it is better that I wait until my next tour of Asia before I get to indulge in any more of them ;) I may be getting called back there as soon as March, but a particular job has to come together for that to happen, so we'll see :)

 Even the deco powder room was lovely!

After lunch we stopped off at a bar on the way to the London Eye- only really worth mentioning as they gave me a shot of Smarties with my Irish coffee for no obvious reason :D

We reached the top of the Eye just as the sun was setting; it was pretty to watch all the opulent old buildings lighting up. We could see the Palace of Westminster (which I've been reading a lot about recently, must go and visit it properly soon), Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral, the MI5 building, the Shard and lots of other famous landmarks.

On top of the world!

I'm using one of the pictures I took from the very top on my phone as my cover photo on Facebook atm, where you can see Big Ben and red buses and the Thames and everything, go see!

Must go to bed now, shooting shooting shooting tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, followed by a full day of admin and errands on Wednesday!

Yours, a very loved-up,

Anita xxx



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This is not a blog

Hi everyone!

Well, here I am in Singapore and having a great time shooting with some of the country's best photographers! This is my third annual Asian Tour and although I somehow managed to live out of a mini suitcase for the last two years, this year I decided to treat myself  to bringing a big one and of course, instantly filled it and wondered how I ever managed with one half its size. It was so heavy that I ended up leaving my laptop at home to save the weight, so I'll just be using my little iPad for the next 5 weeks! I can't upload photos from it so I will probably save the blogging until I'm home In December :) There should be lots to talk about as I will have visited Cambodia, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Bangkok by then! Bangkok is more of a holiday, which I think I will need after the madness of the upcoming four weeks in four countries; I plan on spending lots of time in spas as well as doing a little shopping and seeing the sights.

In the meantime, I will be updating my Facebook (including sharing the photos that Asian photographers upload of me): facebook.com/AnitaDeBauch, Twitter (including retweeting those photos!): twitter.com/AnitaDeBauch, and my new Tumblr: AnitaDeBauch.tumblr.com, from which I will attempt to relay #ThrowbackThursday and #FetishFriday pictures in the forms of links to existing (free) web content. #MondayModelBiz has rather been put on the back burner as it seems that I have been so busy with my own "model biz" every Monday that I couldn't find time to write about it! I will get back to it, I promise, but until then I recommend reading the first part of my book, The Ugly Girl's Guide to Becoming a Model, for free on PinUpPixels.com.

That's all for now- join me on my social networking sites so we can stay in touch! I'm anxious to stay in contact...

Anita xxxx




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Photo scrapbook from my fabulous trip to Spain!

I just got home from a FANTASTIC week in Casares. Spain seems to be lucky for me; the last time I was shooting there for a week, I met my friends Roswell Ivory and Iveta Niklova, and this time I think I made new friends too, including with three adorable little Yorkshire terriers :)

I was staying at the Finca Cortesin, which was a definite improvement on the rather damp little villa I stayed in the last time I was working in Spain (yes, even Spain is bloody cold in March!) ;) It really was a beautiful 7* place to relax and re-charge, with lovely salt water swimming pools, a spa, beach club and rose gardens, and the most delicious food I think I've ever eaten!

Breakfast on the terrace <3

Here are some snaps I took at one of our shooting locations, the Finca Cortesin Beach Club. Sunshine, fresh tropical fruit under straw canopies, blue skies and the sound of the sea; it was a real paradise!

My suite was so huge and gorgeous that I couldn't resist inviting my boyfriend to join me from London for a romantic weekend. We really re-connected and it was absolute romantic bliss!

Me in the sumptuous-smelling rose gardens at the hotel, in my Bettie Page dress from Nikita Sablier <3

We also shot on the 5* golf course, which was especially fun for me as I've never been on a golf course before! With rolling emerald hills and bright blue sky I could see why Chris, the photographer, picked it :)

Chris shooting at the Golf Club

Chris in the distance, taking some time out to practise his swings!

I was also very kindly given a day off to hit the spa at the hotel, so as well as going swimming and using the steam room and sauna (which I was doing every morning before breakfast, anyway) I also got to have a pedicure and an oxyenating facial :)

 Crazy spa flip-flops that looked a bit like geisha sandals

 Pretty shell display in the spa <3 I love Victorian bell jars and was planning on having some with taxidermy birds in them on my mantlepiece; now I think I might do it with shells or other pretty objects instead :)

There's been such a lovely atmosphere in the house since boyfy and I got home; we feel like we've just come back from our honeymoon. Yesterday we went to see Prometheus in 3D at the BFI IMAX, the biggest screen in Britain, which might not be everybody's idea of romance, but we love the Alien films! We'll probably watch the 2003 cut of Alien tonight and then work our way through the trilogy with Prometheus as the beginning this time :)

Now I'm off to make an organic mushroom omelette for dinner, followed by Alien and sofa snuggles with the boyfriend and the cats, perhaps with a nice bottle of wine ;)

Have a lovely evening! I will post some sexy photos from Spain tomorrow to make sure you do ;)

Buenas noches, mi amor!

Anita xoxo

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