Make-up Application Tips, Tricks and Tutorials

Almost every lady loves to wear make-up. I’m no different, but it’s taken a long time for me to feel confident that I don’t look like a clown when I walk out the door. I’ve started teaching myself a more professional make-up application process and in that I’ve found a lot of excellent resources online that I want to share with you. Of course, if you have other tips you’d like to share, I want to know! Leave a comment below with your own make-up tricks.

I’ve been watching a ton of tutorials on YouTube recently. There are some fabulous make up artists on there sharing everything you could imagine about make up. I love it!

Favorite Make Up Professionals on YouTube

• TiffanyD
• MichellePhan
• EnKore Makeup
• Monroe Misfit Makeup
• RenRen
• MakeupGeek
• MissChievous

Foundation

• Applying foundation
• 20 Tips for Gorgeous Skin
• Face: Foundations, Concealers, Powders and More
• A Strong Foundation: How to buy it, how to apply it–no matter what your skin type
• Makeup Foundation tips, applying foundation, matching foundation to your skin tone
• Foundation Secrets For A Flawless Complexion
• How to Apply Foundation

Blemishes

• Cover Blemishes, Dark Circles and Spider Veins
• Covering Blemishes
• Hiding Birth Marks and other Natural Blemishes
• Cover Up That Pimple
• [Video] Tips for Covering Blemishes

Cheeks

• Applying Blush
• Top Tips and Advice: Blush, Cream Blush, Makeup Blush
• Blush: The Makeup Tips & Tricks for Using Blushers
• How to Apply Blush Makeup
• Bronzer and Blush Makeup Tips
• Blushing with Tan Skin: Blush Makeup
• Winter Blush: Make-up Tips for the season

Eyes

• Eye Makeup Tips that Work
• Eye Make Up Index from Free Beauty Tips
• Eye make Up Tips to Look Stunning
• 8 Great Eye Make Up Tips
• How to Apply Eye Make Up in 8 Steps

Lips

• Beautiful Lips
• Make Up Tips for Lips
• Beautiful Lip Tips
• [Video] Voluminous Lips
• Tips for Kissable Lips

photo by jalvear

The Top 30 Posts of 2009

A year ago I started a small blog project called Submissive Guide. I wanted it to be an organized place where I could voice my opinions about submission, help novices discover who they are and explore BDSM through the written word. Since that time it has grown to so much more, including an e-book, a newsletter and video posts.

To celebrate one year of excellent writing I wanted to showcase the top 30 posts of 2009. I’ve noted in the link if the author was a guest post. Please take a look at what has had the most views since starting out one year ago. You may have missed a few gems!

1. What is slave training?
2. Rituals that Work
3. 2 Weeks to Better Submissive Positions
4. Best Submissive Blogslist
5. The Difference Between Bottom, Masochist, Submissive and Slave
6. 7 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Submission
7. Discovering Your Submissive Nature
8. How to Beg When Asked
9. Mapping Out Your Ideal Submission
10. A Great Example of a Slave’s Rosary
11. Learning To Kneel (from 2 Weeks to Better Submissive Positions)
12. The Importance of Rules
13. Beginning Your Training Resume
14. Dominance as a Slave Training Tool for Better Submission
15. Caring For Yourself After a Scene: Self-Aftercare
16. The BDSM Checklist That Will Really Help You
17. Offering Your Body for Service (from 2 Weeks to Better Submissive Positions)
18. What it Means to be an Owned Kajira by dina
19. The Nitty Gritty of the BDSM Lifestyle
20. 5 Ways to Recognize Topping from the Bottom
21. Another 7 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Submission
22. Your Bathing Regime
23. Where to Buy a Collar Online
24. The Importance of Journaling Your Submission
25. Pet Play and Human Pets Primer by skylerpet
26. The Realities of Online Submission
27. Two Dominants by Aria
28. Submission By Choice: Learned Submission
29. Sub Drop’s Emotional Side
30. 10 Helpful Websites for the Busy Submissive

Here’s to another year of great content!

Domesticity: The Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of any home and having a clean and germ-free work environment for cooking and food preparation is important. Knowing some skills and cleaning tips can make keeping your kitchen clean and sparkling effortless. No longer is doing dishes and mopping floors drudgery; enhanced it can be an important part of your service when you wear your domestic servant hat.

Danae on Domestic Servitude has put together a fabulous Fall Cleaning list for every room of the house. You can download the PDF of the kitchen cleaning list here! Below is my general cleaning list for the kitchen. You can make yours more detailed and edit it for your own kitchen.

Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

1. Large appliances cleaned inside and out.
2. Small appliances cleaned outside and underneath.
3. Counter tops washed, dried and polished.
4. Kitchen cabinets wiped with furniture polish.
5. Dishes washed, dried and put away or stored in dishwasher.
6. Kitchen sink cleaned out, wiped and polished with cleaner.
7. Kitchen floor swept and damp mopped.
8. Trash removed.

Listed below are articles across the web that I have found to be helpful for setting up my own cleaning routine for the kitchen. I hope that you will explore these and if you don’t have a cleaning routine in place; consider starting one with the kitchen.

Kitchen Cleaning Tips – Easy tips and preventative measures to keeping your kitchen clean and organized.

Quick and Easy Kitchen Cleaning Tips – Preventative tips and quick cleaning to have your guests complimenting your kitchen.

Kitchen Cleaning Tips – Tips submitted by readers on LifeTip.com

Kitchen Cleaning Tips for the Lazy Cleaner – Quick and easy tips for anyone that leads a busy life.

Natural Kitchen Cleaning Tips – Using everyday household items like vinegar and baking soda to clean instead of harmful and expensive cleaners.

Stop Scrubbing: Fast and Easy Kitchen Cleanup Tips – Small tips to keep things cleaner in the kitchen before you have a mess.

Kitchen Cleaning Tips - An extensive cleaning how-to for every item in your kitchen.

15 Minute Kitchen Clean Up – Cleaning the kitchen doesn’t have to take a lot of time!

Intense Kitchen Cleaning – If you have more time, here’s a longer, more intense cleaning.

Kitchen Cleaning Tips – More little tips to keep your kitchen sparkling and germ free.

photo by palindrome6996

Submissive Chat Night: 12/1/09 – Speaking Submissively

It’s time for another Submissive Chat Night!

When: Dec 1st at 8pm CST. It is expected to last about 1 1/2 hours.

Topic: Graceful Words: Speaking Submissively

Optional Pre-reading:

Graceful Speech

Etiquette of Speech

The Art of Conversation

Some chat night rules, up for discussion.

1. I would like to be able to post the edited chat log for the discussion on this website and will put it up for a vote every chat night. Vote will decide for that night only.
2. Dominant bashing will not be allowed. Gossip is not welcome. Using people’s full names, or those of people not in the chat will be subject to banning for the duration of the discussion. Please don’t make me use my powers. I’d like to keep this comfortable for everyone; even those not present.

How to get to the chat room

The chat room is attached to this site under the Resources link at the top, or you can click this link here.  It will ask for your nickname and then automatically connect you to the chat room. It is open all the time, so if you want to meet some people, hang out in there. I try to be there when I’m at my computer too.

If you use an IRC desktop client you can connect to the server directly. Here is the information you need to find the room:

Server: irc.mibbit.cm
Port: 6667
Channel: #submissive-guide

Questions? Let me know. Otherwise I hope to see a lot of you there on Tuesday!

Add Your Reading List to Your Training Resume

Since the beginning of Submissive Guide I have been writing essays to help you build your service/submissive/slave resume. This is the living document of your experience and training on different tasks and a variety of relationships. If you are interested in reading the previous posts about the Training Resume I suggest you start at the topic index.

Today we are going to compile a list of the books you have read during your service that are a part of your growth and learning. The importance of this list is not only to show a potential Dominant that you are well read, but that you have a personal desire to work on improving yourself, learning a wide range of viewpoints and opinions and learn about BDSM activities of all sorts.

Gather Your Books

Pull together all the books you’ve read on BDSM, specific service items and other self help resources that you have read completely. These books can be basic relationship self help, etiquette, green cleaning and simple living, How-to books, and so much more. Let your mind explore your entire library and figure out how that could apply to a BDSM service relationship. You might be surprised.

Magazines and Newspapers

Although a bit more rare or pricey, you can find excellent magazines and even newspaper articles that might help you with building a reference library for your service experience and development as a person. Perhaps you have a subscription to a gardening magazine, home repair or fine dining journal. These things can be wonderful resources for your service life. Be creative and look for learning opportunities everywhere you go.

Online Sources

Don’t forget online newsletters and blogs that you are subscribed to! Even SubmissiveGuide.com can be a great resource to list on your reading list if you read it regularly and learn from it. Make note of the posts or articles that you enjoyed the most and the URL if there is one.

General Essay websites are great too, but make sure you keep a list of articles that you have read on each one so that it isn’t assumed that you have read the entire site.

How to Make the List

For books, make a list of the titles, authors, publication dates and a synopsis of the book. Online resources need to have the name of the site, the URL, the date you last accessed it and the site owner with a way to contact them if you can find one. You can also spend time writing personal reviews of the book or essay with what you took from it and made your own.

For example, I just read SlaveCraft and reviewed it on this blog. I can add that book to my service resume in the Reading List area. My entry would look something like this:

SlaveCraft: Roadmaps for Erotic Servitude, principles, skills and tools by a grateful slave with Guy Baldwin, M.S.

Daedalus Publishing Company (April 2002)

The author writes for the submissive or slave who may already have experience and thus understand the skills and tools that will help deepen their surrender. His four principles that he describes in detail are Identity, Obedience, Transparency and Humility. Each one is artfully discussed so that while you may be walking in his world of surrender you can apply them to your own service quite easily.

Making this list now will help you in the future too when you try to remember where you read that fantastic book or essay that you’d like to refer to, or share with a friend. The importance of a list like this can help you in more ways that just your resume.

What else would you list on your reading list? Would it be beneficial to list books and articles that you want to read in the future or have an interest in?

Recommended Reading for New Submissives

The following is a list of books that I recommend for every novice submissive. The links lead you to Amazon if you are interested in buying the books. Part of your purchase goes towards supporting this site and my efforts at continuing to bring you content on this site.

Books

Learning the Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun S/m Lovemaking by Race Bannon. This brief volume explains how partners can explore their dominant and submissive S/M fantasies in a safe and fun manner. Negative myths are dispelled and replaced with the truth about the kind of S/M erotic play that so many adults enjoy. You’ll learn what S/M is, how to do it safely, and much, much more.

Different Loving: The World of Sexual Dominance and Submission by William Brahme and Gloria Brahme. A breakthrough in sexual literature, this work is a complete, comprehensive user-friendly guide to and tour through the world of alternative sexual lifestyles. While the topics are exotic and erotic, the authors handle each one in a sensitive, thorough, analytical, and fascinating way and manage to explain a secret world to those who might wish to visit.

Sensuous Magic 2 Ed: A Guide to S/M for Adventurous Couples by Patrick Califia. Mixing erotic vignettes with practical how-to advice and personal insight, Sensuous Magic is the author’s guide to sadomasochism for couples. For readers who harbor fantasies of erotic dominance and submission, Sensuous Magic demystifies S/M, explaining terminology and technique. Experienced players will appreciate the author’s knowledge of S/M safety and his insight into S/M psychology. Novices will be reassured by the book’s honest, frank approach. This new edition discusses myths about S/M, the psychology of bondage, communication and negotiation, techniques of pleasure and sensation (including tickling, pressure, temperature, impact play, and whipping), and sex in S/M scenes. Also included are a glossary, updated bibliography, and resource guide.

Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism by Philip Miller and Molly Devon. Screw the Roses enthusiastically covers all the basics and even some of the not-so-basics–bondage, negotiation, sex, endorphins, dominance and submission, toys, safety, S/M community, and beyond. It’s written primarily from the point of view of male dominant/female submissive interactions, but it’s easily translatable into valuable advice for any relationship configuration. Miller and Devon’s explanations of not just the how, but also the why, of sadomasochism are honest, sexy, funny–and a must-have for anyone who wants to learn about sadism, masochism, dominance, submission, or bondage.

The Compleat Slave: Creating And Living An Erotic Dominant/submissive Lifestyle by Jack Rinella. In this highly anticipated followup to The Master’s Manual, author jack Rinella continues his in-depth exploration and discussion of Dominant/submissive relationships with his latest book, The Compleat Slave. This informative overview of the leather scene features Rinella’s guidelines, tips, and personal experiences in creating safe and sane Master/slave relationships. Whether you are a novice or an experienced Master or slave, this insightful and forthright volume will prove to be a great read and a valuable reference guide.

Offering Your Body for Service [Day 9 - 2WBSP]

An intense and beautiful display of your body and offering yourself for service to your Dominant can be intimate, powerful and elegant. Today we are going to brainstorm ways you can offer yourself to your Dominant with them in mind. There is no proper way to do this, but once you find a way that appeals to them, you will want to continue doing so. Let’s get started, shall we?

Show Off

Think about what your Dominant considers to be your best assets. What are they attracted to most when the look at you? What do you long to have touched, played with and caressed? Pick a body part you want to draw your Dominant’s eyes and hands to. For me, my Master can’t keep his eyes off of my ass and wants to grab at my breasts every time I walk by. I can use these to my advantage in a position of offering to him. I’d like you to think about a way to expose those parts seductively. This could be in a slow and alluring manner or you could do this by being completely naked. Employing makeup to enhance areas can draw attention to you as well. Sure this sounds silly, but trust me that it will be appealing to your Dominant.

The Right Words

Next we need to come up with the right words. If you have to beg, this would be the time to do that. If you want to entice them to use you, it can be more seductive. From, “Sir, I offer my breasts for your pleasure.” to “Sir I need you to touch me so badly, I beg you to please come and do your will to me.” Be creative.

Presentation

Finally you present yourself in front of your Dominant. This can be many different forms. Here are a few ideas.

• Thinking all the way back to day 1 when we learned to kneel, pick a position that leaves you more exposed and perhaps shows off the asset you have picked. For showing off the chest, perhaps a basic kneel but put your hands behind your neck; this will lift and accentuate your breasts in an alluring manner.
• In a more formal inspection type of offering, you could stand at attention, feet hip distance apart and then bend at the waist, take your hands behind your back and offer your sexual areas to your Dominant.
• Take your breasts in your hand and offer them to your Dominant as a more visual offering.
• Lay on your back, spread your legs and taking your mound in your fingers, spread your lips invitingly.

Give this a try the next time you are with your Dominant. I’d love to know what you did and if it worked!

Two Weeks to Better Submissive Positions

How to Give a Romantic Bath

Romance gets lost in the rush of work, family, kids and obligations but a romantic bath is not only relaxing, it can create intimacy between you and your partner. In Ancient Rome and Egypt, bathing in scented oils was a prelude to lovemaking. Giving a bath to someone else is not only romantic, but a powerful service that can show devotion and commitment if done correctly.

Here are five very important tips to make sure you start out on the right foot.

1. Prepare the scene.

Clean your bathroom! There is nothing romantic about soap scum, hair in the drain or grit on the floor. Make the bathroom a priority when cleaning the day of the romantic bath and he or she will certainly notice. Make sure you have clean fluffy towels, all the soaps and oils and lotions you plan to use and the washing mitts or scrubbers are close at hand.

2. Set the mood.

Light candles incense if you like it and play soft romantic music. Provide champagne or other beverage. Shut the overhead light off, and keep the noisy vent off too.  Present yourself to your lover in a rope or other attire that you don’t mind getting wet. Make sure the phone isn’t going to interrupt you. Send the kids to stay with a babysitter for the evening.

3. Have the materials close at hand.

As mentioned before, it’s tacky to have to get up and get something you have forgotten and will break the mood you are trying to set up. Have a basket or other area where you have gathered everything you may need to lovingly bathe your partner. I recommend a bath mitt, some luxurious bath bubbles, scented oil or sea salts.

4. Learn romantic bathing rituals.

I found these rituals on Mental Foreplay.com and found them to be wonderful! You should definitely take a look.

1. The Texas Rose Bath
2. The Silky Milky Soak
3. The Zen Waters Bath
4. Lavender Lovers
5. Hawaiian Hot Tub
6. Champagne Shower
7. Ultimate Passion UP
8. Sacred Salt Soak
9. Chocolate Martini
10. Foreplay Music Bath

5. Continue service after the bath.

Once you have bathed your partner, help them out of the tub and offer to towel them off, apply lotion to dry areas, give them a pedicure or manicure. If further romance is on the menu, guide them to the bedroom and continue your sensual play there. Allow your mind and heart to guide you in your service and you will be rewarded.

photo by Alice J-T

Finding Your Spirituality In Service

A recent journal prompt I came across really inspired me to write about it.  It is spirituality. A lot of what I hear about spirituality is related to religion, but BDSM can be spiritual too and I’d like to explore that with you.

What is the relationship between spirituality and religion? Is BDSM spiritual? –Submissive Journal Prompts

Religion and spirituality have a connection but they don’t have to be connected. When you believe in a structured religion it generally means you have a spirituality about it. But when you are spiritual, that doesn’t mean you are connected to religion. Does that make sense?

BDSM can be spiritual if you feel connected to it in a similar way as you would religion. The whole idea of BDSM is an overpowering idea of all things sexual, sensual and relationship related that involve our entire being, life and identity. This isn’t about being kinky in the bedroom; anyone can do that. This is about living and breathing an alternative lifestyle that embraces BDSM in its core.

When you are serving, do you feel focused on the service and the power that you receive from your partner? Does it give you a floaty feeling or a sense of being that reminds you of inner peace and acceptance of your life? You could be experiencing service as spiritual.

My experiences with spiritual BDSM are limited, but the moments I felt at complete peace with myself I felt transcended into happiness and wholeness that I’ve never experienced any other way than when I was praying as a teen, looking for divine intervention in my sad life. The feeling that what I was doing at the time was just right, almost perfect and exactly what I should be doing gave me a strong sense of my spiritual self.

How To Connect

If you wish to grow closer to your submission and bring a spirituality in your service, you can look no further than your own religious exposure, whether you own or someone’s stories.

• Find a quote, mantra or mediation that means a lot to you and your service. Memorize it and say it often.
• Practice mediation techniques so that you can find your inner peace easier.
• Find a way to worship your owner. This can be by ritual bathing, foot worship, or other body part service. It can also be learning new skills to enhance your service with your owner in mind. Massage is one that I think of.
• Perform your service with focused slow steps. Develop your grace. Do every step with purpose and meaning.

Each of these ideas can help you connect with the spirituality of your service and will provide you with a new way to be intimate with your Dominant.

Spirituality is not required as a part of your service. It is just a way to enhance what you already do. If you are a bedroom submissive, these ideas can be applied to sexual service as well. Imagine a spiritual blow job or a ritual massage as a part of foreplay. Spirituality can be a part of anything you do.

Don’t let the idea of spirituality or religion overwhelm you. Make your part in BDSM whatever you want to make it. If spirituality is what you’d like to try, please embrace some of the ideas here, or share some in the comments. What ideas do you have for bringing out your spirituality in service?

Your Thoughts

darkpaladin on twitter gave me his thoughts on spirituality. Here’s what he had to say.

BDSM is very close to a religion for me – to me it is about lifting people up and showing them their internal energy and power. A dom acts a guide and submissive acts as the vessel of energy. The sacraments are time, trust and orgasms when a sub gives certain power away they awaken to their own inner strength and deification. We are all deities. The dom leads on the sub’s journey and the sub shows the dom in similar ways.

Do you have any thoughts to share?

photo by tapperboy