OKAY.

In freedom, most people find sin.

[staypozitive]

[the-silent-rain-deactivated2014]

[okayjustkacey]

Wonderful!

[okayjustkacey]

[okayjustkacey]

Move Over, Sephora: Amazon Launches a Luxury Beauty Store

I've have long wondered why Amazon, which has long been buying against high-end beauty brands on Google, didn't carry those brands itself. Today, I got my answer: The company was working on it.

Amazon unveiled a new section within its giant catalog on Thursday, a Luxury Beauty Store. There, shoppers can find products from 24 prestige brands, including Nars, Burberry and nail polish queen Deborah Lippman.

The store carries luxury brands, but it doesn't look like luxury — it looks exactly like the rest of Amazon's product catalog, though thumbnail images are larger. Editorial content from Amazon's beauty editors and others from the brands themselves sweeten the deal.

Beauty brands, like fashion brands, have been hesitant to board the Amazon train. Amazon threatens to cut into their own ecommerce businesses and, should the company gain the same monopoly as it did in the book industry, price control. While some of the sellers, such as Nars, are offering a wide array of products (95 in Nars' case), others are offering only a small selection. Burberry, for example, is only selling its fragrances. And of course there are many, many brands that have not yet signed on, like Chanel, Lancome, Estée Lauder and Laura Mercier, which already sell — with the exception of Estée Lauder — on sites like Sephora and Net-a-Porter.

Still, Amazon is poised to do very well in this space. According to a 2012 Forrester survey, 30% of online buyers begin researching their last online purchase at Amazon, double that of Google.

Amazon also has more attractive shipping policies than existing competitors, including Sephora.com and Beauty.com, which charge shipping on orders less than $50 and $35, respectively. Amazon offers free shipping on orders over $25, which can contain more than just beauty products, and free two-day shipping for members of its Prime subscription program. For shoppers who just want an item or two, Amazon will look like the better option — assuming Amazon has it.

Image: Gabriela Maj/Stringer/Getty Images and Amazon

[okayjustkacey]

"We've completely internalized and accepted collectively this notion that creativity and suffering are somehow inherently linked, and that artistry in the end will always ultimately lead to anguish — are you guys all cool with that idea?" Elizabeth Gilbert

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

[okayjustkacey]

Tiger’s Nest Monastery in Bhutan.

Padmasambhava, known as the “Second Buddha,” meditated in this cliff-top carve-out for three years, three months, three weeks, three days and three hours. Close your eyes for three minutes, and inspiration will find you, too. 

[okayjustkacey]

I feel widely ashamed that there are so many starving out there, yet this artist can use food to create art. Each to their own I guess. There is no doubt that the art is beautiful though.

[fer1972]

[okayjustkacey]

Moleskine Doodles by Kerby Rosanes

just. wow.

[okayjustkacey]

My First Original Character <3 Koa La :D

[okayjustkacey]

Info-graphics are how i spend most of my time practicing my skills, but every now and again its refreshing to see how people make and share their personal info-graphics and their views of themselves (as creatives). This one had me in the giggles! i <3 helvetica. and coffee.

[photoszop-blog]

Haha almost me (not wearing skinny jeans, but jeans and changet glasses to lenses) ;)

[okayjustkacey]

HAHA! I laughed at how true it was! I'm close to that description :D my glasses are blue though :P

[okayjustkacey]

[okayjustkacey]

A hurt so small,' Say you, 'A thread of grey On blue, So slight a thing Less than a wild rose sting Nothing at all.' And yet, When thrushes call, Or winds awake And sigh – and sink – And fall – Into the evening’s grey I think – And think This small heartbreak Will wear my life away.

Marion Angus

fromThe Turn of the Day  (Edinburgh: The Porpoise Press, 1931), and included inThe Singin Lass: selected work of Marion Angus, edited by Aimée Chalmers (Polygon, 2006)

Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Marion Angus.

[okayjustkacey]

[okayjustkacey]

Info-graphics are how i spend most of my time practicing my skills, but every now and again its refreshing to see how people make and share their personal info-graphics and their views of themselves (as creatives). This one had me in the giggles! i <3 helvetica. and coffee.

[okayjustkacey]

After reading this, I believe myself to be an introvert. <3 and proud.

[okayjustkacey]

Confessions.

I came across a movement by artist, Candy Chang. I thought you might like to read a bit about it and see the work she did. it's inspiring and eye-opening.

"As they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what if we could share with full discretion? Confessions is a public art project that invites people to anonymously share their confessions and see the confessions of the people around them in the heart of the Las Vegas strip.

As Art Production Fund Artist-in-Residence at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Candy lived in the The Cosmpolitan for a month and turned its P3 Studio gallery into a contemplative place for people to anonymously share their confessions. Inspired by Shinto shrine prayer walls, Post Secret, and Catholicism, she created a place where people could write and submit their confessions on wooden plaques in the privacy of confession booths. Candy hung the anonymous plaques on the gallery walls each day and painted select responses on large canvases. The space also featured original, contemplative music by Oliver Blank.

By the end of the exhibit, over 1500 confessions were displayed on the walls: I still love her two girlfriends and five years later, Came here married to one girl and left married to two girls, I sold heroin to my friend and it ruined his life, I stole over 15,000 from the company I work for, I like porn more than my husband does, I’m afraid I’ll die young just like my mother, I’m in love with my best friend – too bad he’s married, I feel some days that I’m socially unacceptable, I don’t know what I am doing and I’m running out of time…

Every passerby is another person full of longing, anxiety, fear, confusion, and wonder. We struggle with a lot of the same issues and there is great comfort in knowing you are not alone. Through this project, Candy sought to create a cathartic sanctuary where all of us became the imperfect priests to help console one another as we contemplate our lives."

[okayjustkacey]

I shall be the fruit which will leave eternal vitality behind even after its decay

Paintings by Dennis Wojtkiewicz Title: Egon Schiele