#og special operations squad

[cosmicjoke]

hi

what are your thoughts on the og levi squad?

i am curious what you think about oluo and him being first levi fangirl

Hi again!

I love the OG Levi Squad, haha. It's just sad that we really don't get to spend much time with them before they're killed. So it's a little hard to form an opinion on most of their personalities. Really, I think Petra and Oluo are the only ones we get any, real look at in terms of personality, and it's funny, because they're both obviously enamored with Levi.

But Oluo is especially kind of funny, because he practically idolizes Levi and tries to actually pattern himself after him, but he's completely different from Levi in terms of personality, so it doesn't really work, lol. He's very outwardly emotional and a little silly, and he kind of focuses on making himself into an efficient titan killer to try and emulate Levi, trying to make it a contest between him and the other squad members for who's "most like Levi". One of the funnier moments in the story is when Petra calls him out on it and tells him he acts nothing like Levi, because Levi doesn't brag and doesn't need to brag about his prowess in killing titans. Everyone knows he's the best. So calling him the first Levi fangirl seems accurate, haha.

What's really interesting is that Levi isn't someone I would call charismatic. He's not the sort of person that draws you in and gains ones admiration through his winning personality, lol. He's so blunt and honest that, in fact, it tends to have the opposite effect, and turns people away. So his squad's admiration of him, we have to assume, can only come from getting to really know him, and coming to respect him for who he is. And I think that's sort of the case with everyone who gets to know Levi. He isn't going to charm you, but once you spend real time around him, you realize what a good man he really is, and how much he genuinely cares about others. And I think Oluo's desire to be like Levi really comes from that. He wants to be a hero, and he sees Levi as a real hero, so he tries to pattern his behavior and even his look off of him. I think it must be weird for Levi too, because he probably thinks he's the last person anyone should try to be like, even as we know Levi's actually an extremely admirable, even idyllic man. But it's kind of testament to Levi's authenticity, that once you really get to know him, that's when people start to really respect him and even want to be like him. We see it happen with the 104th too. They're all a bit iffy about Levi at first, but by the end of the story, they trust and respect him more than just about anybody else.

I think Petra must be the same. She has that exchange with Eren early on about Levi not being what people expect him to be. He's known to the public as "Humanity's Strongest", but when you meet him, he's this short little guy with a seemingly bad attitude. People hear his title and probably expect someone like Erwin. This idealized image of a real man, tall and shining and perfect. But then, you don't really see anyone trying to be like Erwin within the actual SC. I think, after a while, it's Erwin who maybe comes across as more unreachable and on a pedestal than Levi, and it's Levi who people begin to connect with and feel closer too. Even Erwin felt that way, opening up to Levi and revealing his true self to him when he couldn't with anyone else. I think people appreciate Levi's sincerity after a while, because they realize it means they can trust him. Charming people are often charming because they're liars and manipulators. Levi's the opposite of that.

So, yeah, I think the OG squad really admired Levi and wanted to be like him because they'd spent probably more time around him than anyone else, and came to know him well as a result. They knew they could trust him and rely on him, and understood that, despite his stoic demeanor, he's actually incredibly compassionate.

[cpacs-blog]

A fanfic I’ve been putting around a bit in my head and on my Google Drive. Origin story of how Levi picked his OG Special Ops Squad! Minor Petruo (ofc) but zero spoilers! Yay to me for finally completing 1/100000 WIPs cluttering my computer! ❤️

[thisuserislilsilly]

Synopsis: The years go by, but Jubik never forgot that day.

Pairing: Jubik x Ascilen (baby boy of @jaghatai-khock) Aureus from the same OG creators makes an appearance too

Genre: Drama/angst/PTSD mentions/ gore

TW: Blood, gore, angst, depictions of PTSD

Goblin tag squad: @cardinalcanis @finchly-tintinnabulation @artemisareia @echo-of-damnation

@meervalv0 @jaghatai-khock

The past isn't Merciful

Jubik had being sitting outside of Ascilen room nervously tapping his foot against the floor over and over, each time faster, his leg becoming a blur f speed. His eyes were fixated on the ground, his hands fidgeting with a cup of Mjod and a cigarette the serfs of the Merciful had brought him after the scandal he had just made.

He made passed a hand through his forehead, doing tiny circles in his skin to calm himself down, to shake off that memory from his mind. He had exploded there, to Ascilen, yelling and waving his hands around about how little did the Merciful seem to care about her baby, about the birth, the whole thing; treating it as another simple operation when it had been maybe the most important event in their lives, and Ascilen had been so nonchalantly every step of the process, from the moment he knew he was pregnant to the moment the Apothecary had showed them their little, precious daughter.

Some slow steps coming his way snapped Jubik out of it, he glanced upwards to see Aureus there, followed closely by what seemed to be a serf in case he needed some assistance; although Jubik knowing him for as long as he had suspected Aureus would rather fall to the ground or die before asking for someone else help.

"I heard what happened..." Aureus spoke softly, sitting down besides Jubik, glancing at Ascilen room and sighing "That memory again?" "Yes...again" Jubik returned his attention to his fingers fidgeting nervously, he was still tapping his foot on the ground "Have you spoken with him at all afterwards?" Ascilen guessed the answer before it came out of Jubik lips "I don't think he wants to hear that story now, specially with the girl in his arms" "You told me it was a woman...?" Aureus raised an eyebrow inquisitive "Fuck...I never told you the rest of it" "Heh, well, we never really got a chance to speak without formalities after the fuckers attacked the system" Aureus offered a weak smile to his friend "Wh-you want to hear it? Now?" Jubik raised his gaze at Aureus again, trying to spot any malice in his words "If that gives me further insight as to why you ran off the room shaking and tossing a servo-skull against a wall, yes" Aureus punched Jubik arm lightly "I guess..."

Jubik inhaled deeply, taking another drag out of the cigarette, tossing it to the ground and crushing it under his foot. Then he stared at the ground for a couple of seconds, lost in thoughts; minutes silently passed until Jubik started speaking without any notice, it began as a whisper that raised in tone once he realized Aureus could barely hear him over the serfs passing them by in the hall.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Indomitus Crusade had tossed us Nomads truly into the unknown, to places we could've never imagined or believed it was real if we hadn't seen it for ourselves; I was young in those days, on the mechanized company, can't remember if it was the 5th or the 6th and to be honest now that I only serve in the 10th I do not care if I am imprecise in that regard. We were tasked with being the back-up that would finally put an end to the rebellion on Fallorica IV, a pleasure World that had not been prepared in the slightest for an attack in the size and scale of the Death Guard and the worshippers of Nurgle; I will forever curse those who follow that fucking God, they had not allowed me to eat one meal since then that doesn't remind me of the pulsating tumors on a child infected with their "gifts" or a woman holing her dead child while maggots ea away the little bit of eyes she still had to see what was happening around her. It was hell, but not what made me react this way when I saw Ascilen giving birth to our girl.

No, it was the road to Kamusha. We were approaching the edge of that hill, the one every rich scumbag had once used to exploit their most wildest desires on big residential towers that, as I knew later, were used to be filled with the brim of those bureaucrats and entrepreneurs that danced, drank, fucked and ate everything they could while some poor guy had barely enough to pay for the clothes he was wearing. Those towers were no more than rubble that had rolled downhill and was now used for cover by Imperials and heretics alike. Each side trying to claim the hill for their own and have advantage over the plains below, so that was why we were there, to blow up stuff with the land raiders and repulsors and give the land troops a way up without getting shot before they reached the top.

On the way there was this camp of refugees, people that had been lucky enough to survive and flee the combat zone but not enough luck to know how to use a gun and make themselves useful for the Astra Militarum, so of course the regiments found nothing better for them other than build some improvised camps and help them with a big fireplace that they had to constantly put out at nights as to not signal the enemy that they were held up there. We were passing the first tents when the vehicles suddenly stopped, the gunners on top screaming at folk to get out of the way or else they would shoot, but nobody, not even the gunners themselves, actually believed that the Astartes would go through with any of their threats.

I was called by one of them to get up there and help with the few civilians that were already climbing n our land raider, get them out of there, simple pick the person up by their clothes and as gently as possible throw them back to the crowd below. As I began to help the gunner on that front, the tank began to slowly advance when the crowd understood what was going on, however that too made their demands for any kind of supply even more insisting; throwing their hands in the air towards us to grab onto whatever they could.

In the edge of the mob there was this...woman; by the Emperor I can't even remember what she was wearing or how her hair looked like, I just have the image of a young woman tucking her baby close to her chest, the child couldn't had been older than a year or a year and a half. She was in worst shape than the rest, that I remember clearly, because something inside of me just...had to help her, more than the others who could be able to fend off for themselves a day more or bother some guardsman for food; that mother wouldn't had a chance at doing those kinds of bargain taking into account her kid.

The gunner beside me, about the same age as me, taking into account almost the whole company had gotten out of the Neophytes around the same time that they had joined the 5th, groaned in frustration as she noticed the same woman I saw before; he bumped my shoulder to get my attention.

"To the Warp with this, someone hand me a stash"

I looked at him, shrugged, poked my head inside the land raider and grabbed one of the little bags we had stashed the supplies by the exact amount we needed for a day, upside down like that I saw the local interpreter we had brought with us if the locals couldn't understand High Gothic. He saw me, his eyes were injected with surprise and fear "No, Lord, don't try to give anything to them", he said with a trembling voice; I ignored him and returned to the surface giving the little bag to the gunner.

Taking advantage of how slowly we were moving, the battle-brother managed to calculate his throw perfectly; the bag flew in the air and landed at the woman feet. I remember the smile, bright despite the little teeth she still had left on her mouth. She picked it up with one hand as she shifted the child to his left; I remember her grip on the kid, gentle enough to not squeeze it, strong enough to not let them fall when they leaned.

The mob then opened a path big enough for the land rider to speed up, with our driver not wasting more time and hitting the accelerator with his foot while silently cursing in Cthonipem. The gunner and I kept looking at the group; then we held our breath as we understood the thing that had made the mob go away was their fixation on the bag the woman was now opening focused on the zipper while mumbling something to her kid with a smile. It didn't matter how much I screamed to get her attention, nor the threats the gunner made and the couple of shots he fired at the mob's feet.

They didn't back up. About five or six from the group swarmed on her. A second later, more joined the attempts to get the bag off from the woman. They did, she fell to the floor with the kid, the baby was crying. I remember it because it began to cry harder when the fight between the mob for the food began and the stomping commenced. The kid was far away enough, thank the Emperor, to not be stamped or squished by the bodies of the faceless mob that fought each other for getting those rations of food; the mother of that child wasn't so lucky. I watched it...I was low enough on the Land Raider to see brief glances at her body as it was kicked, punched and caused people to fall on top of her. I knew she was dead, I knew there was nothing I could do, but I felt compelled in jumping down the raider and separate the group.

I interrupted them when the bag was torn apart and the food spread everywhere; I tried to make them regain some sense of what they were doing, to control themselves. I saw the angry faces, the drive fueled by just one thought, one feeling, emotions controlling the body more than the mind could. There was no rhyme or reason; I could bet for my life that none of those citizens knew what they had done at that moment, it was just to survive, right?

They punched me, I felt nothing because of the armor, I could not move though, they surrounded me, demanding more food, for everyone, for nobody in particular. They scratched me, clawed the armor to rip it off from my body, broke there feet while trying to kick me. One of the vehicles that had stayed behind, a Repulsor, who they had just seen a Marine being swarmed by people, opened fired upon the mob; I saw each life leave their eyes as they were shot down, the last breaths, their last words in a language I couldn't understand and never wish to learn. It was brief, but I see those faces every time I wake up and when I go to sleep; just resting in Ascilen arms has made me sleep easily.

And when I saw Ascilen hold our baby like that, Aureus, I saw the woman again, talking to her kid about how lucky they had been by receiving such a boon from the Astartes that had come to make their miserable lives a bit better.

You asked me what had made me exit the room shaking, well...

There it is.

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Turning Pages

Start of Claude in Husbandry AU!

Past – Next

Tagged: @sleepyfan-blog, @whorety-k

Author’s note: Start of Claude in Husbandry AU! Claude is now in the Husbandry AU! OG goes to Kit-williams. She’s amazing, so are all the other people who write/make art/writing in the Husbandry tag. Seriously!

Summary: Claude wakes up, still almost dead on a forest floor on a planet he for sure was not on.

Warnings: Pain, wounds, injuries. Uh… let me know if I need to add any in the tags please.

Claude wakes up with a painful gasp and is more than a little surprised that he’s alive. He had thought as the Xeno scum fell out of the sky that it would crush him to death. He opens his eyes and tries to assess how he’s feeling. Pain- pain, is good and bad, pain is good, which means he can feel that his wounded. Pain is bad, he’s wounded badly enough to feel it. As he slowly looks around with a frown and furrowing of his eyebrows, he doesn’t recognize the flora and fauna of the forest that he’s in. The last thing that he recalls, he was in an open battle field that didn’t have much in the way of forests and bushes, at least the part of the world that he and his squad was fighting in. He starts by cautiously wriggling his fingers and opens, they move easily and without much pain.

His armor, from the alerts he’s getting is broken, wrenched in places from the claws of the Xeno-scum that he had been fighting. Also, his body is badly wounded from the fighting, and getting almost crushed by a falling giant flying Tyranid that had fallen… not at terminal velocity, but it was a giant beast of a Xeno-filth. While he, his brothers, and chapter are taught stealth, they’d been pulled to help another chapter when the Tyranids had attacked, and the losses he’d heard of his vox device for the wounded and fallen of his brothers had him knowing that direct, confrontational battle isn’t what he and his chapter are trained for. He’s covered in blood and gore, his own, and the Xeno’s he’s killed. He sends out a vox call for help, and as he tries to send a message his voice crackles and croaks and he coughs. He wheezes, unfortunately, he must have had his lungs semi-crushed. He’s thankful to be a Primaris Astartes, after all, his healing factor is better than a first born, and he’s still alive.  

He closes his eyes and he knows for certainty even if panic is starting to flicker into his hearts. He doesn’t want to die. Not like this, alone, and out of battle. If he’s to die, he wants to die saving base line humans, or his brothers, or in Glorious Combat. Not choking on his own blood with nary an ally or enemy in sight. The cackling and giggling hasn’t started up, usually when his emotions start to slip his hard fought control they become louder and the voices cackle and jabber lies and false honey promises. He’s no apothecary, but he’d been taught basic first aid, as a stealth operative, getting help, even from squad mates was unlikely to happen, at best they wouldn’t be close enough to help, at worst they would ignore his calls for help in order to complete the mission. He slowly shifts himself onto his hands and knees, slowly, carefully as he crawls over to a tree to lean against.

It’s slow going and his vision fades in and out as dark spots speckle across his vision as he wheezes and coughs. He knows what it feels like to be badly wounded, had been trained how to push through the pain and persevere. The Mechanicus was very through in their training of the Primaris Marines, and his Elder Brothers, among the First born have specialized his training and ensured him and his brothers would be even more fit for their holy mandates as Angels of the Imperium. He takes the few medical supplies that he has on him, and to his dismay nearly all of them are broken or busted in such a way that using them would be more dangerous than useful at this point in time. He leans against the tree tries to take slow deep breaths as he closes his eyes and reaches out, it’s harder, much hard than it should be as his spirit fades from his body and he tries to find a mind that he knows, that is familiar.

To his dismay so many are baseline human and the Elder brothers are all strange, as his spirit walks and wanders before his hearts soar with hope as he recognizes one of the minds as a friend. As someone who he helped and helped him in training back on Holy Mars. Cedric.

[Cedric. Please. Help me.] He calls out to Cedric.

It’s never certain if his brothers can actually hear him or not when his soul is out of his body. He reaches and touches one of Cedrics arms and notices Cedric twitch.

[Brother-cousin please, I’m bleeding out in the forest three hours south of here. I… I don’t want to die ingloriously. Cedric please]. He calls out to the young Apothecary.

[error4343]

Inspired by @midnightella-mass post, wanna present to you my take on Midnight Mass post-canon:

"Eat: So You Could Feed Another": Part 1

I was firstly thinking to make it one post, but it's just too big to squeez into one, so characters future fait will be in pt. 2. But for now:

What makes the difference?

Basicly, the reason whole post-canon became possible is because Riley and John were less frantic in their actions.

Flynn decided, that he rather prioritaze helping Erin escaping than his own death. He tells her everything in her home so they could pack her stuff and somehow orginize escaping from island. However, Erin refuses to leave (she has nothing to lose either, so why bother) and suggests that they should do something about upcoming Easter Vigil.

With no better plan than just confronting Pruitt straight away, they do just that.

Side note: everything of it sounds serious and all, but I can't stop giggle when imagining save-the-island squad consisting of furous woman and ghost in sheets (all of it happends in the morning, so Riley needs to hide from sun).

But anyway, duo arrives to Pruitt's home, interrupting his meeting with Keane and Scarboroughs (yes, same one which Riley's dad interrupted in series). This subsides Greene's anger, as she reminded how wide spread Monsignor influence is, even on island officials. Using this fact and straight up bluffing, John establishes ultimatum: whatever they are about to do on Easter isn't about if this going to happend, it is about how it is going to happend. Riley and Erin can try to sabotage Vigil, sure, but they won't stop the greater cause behind it, and consequences of sabotage will be on their shoulders. So, they have to choose.

***

Easter Vigil is different from what was in og. series.

Keeping in mind expirience of calming Riley down by immidietly giving him blood and fact that Angel can feed on animals, John and co. (whom here and further I'll call cult admins 'cus it basicly what him, Bev and Scarboroughs are) buy not only poison, but also galoons upon galoons of cows blood from mainland. Also, whole process of "conversion" is different: instead of mass poisoning, when everyone become vamps in one moment, every person treated separtly, so they can be feeded.

Because of Erin telling Sarah and Mildred everything in advance, they didn't show up on that night, as well as Sheriff's son.

Everything goes as planned.

How island operates after?

In next couple of weeks Crockett island faced many changes. One of those - The "Eat: So You Could Feed Another" principle. "One blood is shared amongs many", so there's no shame in litteral blood sharing and it is greatfully incouraged. It established couple of things:

"Feeding" system and volunteering: no need to share your blood if you don't want to. You can join group of church volunteers to distribute blood among island - just like milkmen, but if milk had a red color. Also, volunteers are involved into orginizing commune feedings on special occasions. Blood used in feeding systems comes from animals sloughterhouses from mainland.

Blood donations: you have no problem with sharing blood with others? Great! Join donation team. Although, with Sarah leaving the island (more on that in pt. 2), donations are taken in more crude way with blood-letting (it will change as soon as they find new medic).

Personal trust: if there's someone whom you can trust with your body ans blood - good, share with them in case of emergency you kinky pervert.

Angel feeding: your blood was gifted you by His Blessing. Do not fear to give some in return. With now infinite food source, administration was able to keep Angel content by establishing special feeding ritual: every 2-3 weeks the random perisher is taken to "participate". They would be taken to old church, where Blessing rests, and then John cuts their neck. It doesn't take long for creature to smell blood and drag its victim into darkness. Then, Pruitt and some member of ritual procession are waiting till the sunrise to retrieve perisher's body and carry it home, so they can reginarate. Usually, Angel leaves only bite marks, no neck breaking needed, so person returns in about 3-4 hours.

All those rituals, although being bloody and scared perishers at first, later on became a daily rutine of supporting island community.

Crockett island and outside world

Unlike og. series once again, no one (except Bev) wanted to expand on mainland, esp in forcefull way. Not only it's dangerous - scared to death people won't be a good community members. But, as rumor of mysterious new island suspiciously-cult-like has church spread, and people started to move in Crockett with some of them willing to join. For those, admins established "testing period" of year so newcomer could prove themselves a good member of community.

***

With all of that, Crockett slowly started its long awaited recovery and rebirth. But about those, who made it happend, and their hard day-to-day work - in the next part.

[pickalilywrites]

An interesting fic request: What if the Smiling Titan aka Dina appeared during the 57th expedition? And the Scouts witness the power of the Founding Titan + OG Levi lives

thanks!! this was fun :)

growing pains

Eren Jaeger. Canon Divergent. 5035 words. read on ao3!

In the cold of the dark, empty cell, Eren Jaeger does not feel alone. Every night at the castle has been more warm and welcoming than the last. He would even say that it is more comfortable here than it was in the trainee barracks, where he and the others had been made to sleep on a hard mattress and pillow that was so dense that it could have been a rock. Admittedly, his treatment here should be worse than it is. If it weren’t for the Special Operations Squad sneaking in every night and giving him extra provisions — blankets, pillows, food, whatever they could find — then Eren’s nights in the castle basement wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable.  

He shifts underneath layers of thick blankets that Petra had just given him a few minutes before. She had been the third person to come visit him that night. Only the members of the Special Operations Squad visit Eren at night. The Captain only ever comes down here to call Eren up for early morning training, but he turns a blind eye to the extra supplies that somehow always find their way to Eren’s cell. The members of the squad take turns bringing Eren supplies. They come in one hour intervals, coordinating with each other so that they never bring the same thing as the last person did.  

Sometimes Eld comes down first, always with a story or two about his family or fiancée to lift Eren’s spirits. He takes the time to make sure Eren is comfortable in the lonely cell, which is fair less comfortable than the castle rooms that the other members of the Captain’s squad are allowed to occupy, although Eren finds with each passing day that he minds less and less.  Eld assures Eren that the Captain isn’t nearly as cold as he pretends to be, that his personality is just difficult to read. Eren isn’t sure how much of that is true. Despite Eld’s assurances, Eren can’t help but hold his breath whenever the Captain is in the same vicinity. He flinches whenever he hears the Captain speak even as he tries to keep in mind Eld’s words. 

“The Captain is a good guy,” Eld tells Eren, giving him a pat on the back before disappearing up the stairwell. 

Gunther usually brings him food. Eren has a sneaking suspicion that Gunther doesn’t finish his food at dinner on purpose so that Eren can get a larger portion later. When the Captain points out how little Gunther is eating, Gunther laughs and says something about how he isn’t very hungry. If he’s feeling peckish later, he’ll probably steal some bread from the cupboard. Instead of taking the leftover food for a midnight snack, Gunther sneaks out in the middle of the night to give Eren the rest of his food and anything else he could find. Eren will try to turn it down, but Gunther just chuckles and ruffle Eren’s head like the boy is just a child. Eren knows Gunther has half a dozen younger siblings. Gunther always mentions them whenever he gives Eren anything to eat.  

“I have a lot of younger siblings,” Gunther will say, pushing the food towards Eren even though Eren had declined multiple times already. “I know how much you need to eat. You need to eat if you want to grow strong.”  

Auruo is as kind as the others even though he tries hard to disguise it. He comes down to the cell, clicking his tongue and shaking his head as if despairing at the state of the cell Eren is in. He gives Eren disapproving looks as if it’s all Eren’s fault, berating him for how cold and dreary the cell is even though Eren had no say in staying there at all. He’ll hem and haw and make a big show of whatever he’s come to bring down to the cell for Eren: snacks, pillows, blankets, anything. Even if Eren assures Auruo that he’s fine and doesn’t need anything, Auruo won’t leave until Eren has accepted everything that Auruo had come down to give him.  

“You don’t have to pretend to be tough,” Auruo sniffs, shoving a pillow into Eren’s arms. “You’re still young, so you probably aren’t used to living harshly the way the rest of us are. You should be grateful we’re all going easy on you.”  

Petra looks after him the most, her watchful gaze present whether Eren is in or out of the cell. She speaks to him gently, comforting him after a particularly harsh berating from the Captain. She also spends the most time with him in the castle basement. The soldier always sighs when she sees him in the cell, a rueful expression on her face as she clutches the prison bars before pulling the cell door open. She speaks quietly so that her voice doesn’t echo against the stone walls, her voice soothing like a lullaby as she checks in on Eren. Was he cold? Was he hungry? Did he need anything?  

Tonight, she had come down to give him another stack of blankets. She always gives him more blankets than she needs to. When she had arrived at Eren’s cell tonight, she had so many blankets in her arms that the stack towered over her head. Eren had no idea how she had navigated herself through the castle and down to the basement without the blankets toppling over. She had shoved the blankets in his arms despite his protests and told him it was cold, that he’d thank her later because the temperature turns close to freezing in the early morning hours. She had stayed a few more minutes to chat with him, catching up on how he was feeling about the training and the upcoming expedition. 

“You’ll be fine,” Petra says as she brushes a lock of hair from Eren’s forehead, a comforting smile on her lips. “You’re with the best soldiers in the Scouting Legion. Just trust us, and everything will be alright.”  

Eren gives her a grateful smile in response, but he’s not sure he believes her. On the other hand, he’s not sure what the alternative is. He can only trust her and hope for the best even if he doesn’t know the full details of the upcoming expedition. 

He wraps the blankets around him tightly and thanks Petra for coming. He tells her that he doesn’t need anything else and that he’ll see her tomorrow.  

He settles down in his blankets, his head resting against the soft, cloud-like pillows that Auruo had given him earlier that evening. He’s bundled in a warm cocoon with only the top of his head exposed to the cold air of the basement cell, but he knows he’ll fall asleep soon enough. No matter how nervous he is for the upcoming expedition, he’s tired more than anything and he’s never been able to stay up when he was tired. He closes his eyes and wills himself to fall asleep so that he can be well rested for tomorrow. As he begins to drift away, he hears a voice that makes him jolt awake.  

“What are you doing here, Ral?” The Captain’s voice is as sharp as steel, cutting through the air like a blade. Eren can hear it clearly, the Captain’s voice amplified as it echoes across the basement.  

“I was just -” Eren can hear Petra begin, but the Captain cuts her off. 

“Sneaking down here to coddle Jaeger?” the Captain asks. Petra fumbles for an excuse, but the Captain doesn’t wait for her to string together a coherent explanation. He clucks his tongue instead, the clicks bouncing off the stone walls. “Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve seen all the extra blankets and pillows whenever I call him up for morning drills. He leaves crumbs behind. It’s a wonder that rats haven’t infested that cell yet.”  

“Gunther and I clean it after morning drill while Eld makes breakfast,” Petra mumbles. 

Eren knows that the members of Levi’s squad don’t mind cleaning up after him and bringing him extra supplies, but his face flushes anyway. He’s mortified, only now aware of just how much the members are going out of their way to pampering him like he’s a newborn babe instead of treating him like the soldier that he is. He wants to bury himself deeper into the pristine blankets that Petra had brought him, but he sticks his head out further, ears craning to hear more of Petra’s conversation with the Captain.  

“You’re treating him like a child,” the Captain say. Eren can imagine the disapproving look on the Captain’s face. It always appears whenever they’re training and one of the squad members check in on him, neglecting their own training just to make sure Eren is okay. Even when the Captain scolds them, the members shrug him off even when Eren flinches. They only ever return to training once they’re assured that Eren is fine.  

“He is a child!” Petra insists, and Eren’s eyes widen at the sound of her voice. He hardly ever hears her raise her voice. Previously, Eren has only ever heard her scold Auruo, but even then she’s ever done so in jest. Her shouts then pale in comparison to her voice now. The anger is unmatched, furious like a wildfire that is barely contained.  

“You pointed a weapon at that child only two weeks ago,” the Captain points out. His tone is a sharp contrast to Petra’s, calm and controlled to her indignant fury. Somehow, it makes Eren feel even worse.  

He remembers the incident that the Captain is referring to. It seems so long ago that he had nearly forgotten. He was sitting at a table with the other members of the Special Operations Squad — Eld, Gunther, and Auruo — while Petra spoke with the Captain a few feet away. He’s still not exactly sure what had happened or why. He just remembers reaching out for the spoon he had just dropped only for a bolt of lightning to strike him and partially transform him into a Titan. It was only an arm, but it was enough to alarm the squad. Before Eren knew it, he was surrounded by the Captain’s squad. People who had treated him with kindness glared at him with eyes full of fury, their blades drawn as they waited for him to make one wrong move. The Captain had to talk the Special Operations Squad down before they withdrew their blades.  

“It was a reflex. We all moved without thinking. He transformed into a Titan. What were we supposed to do?” Petra says, but her voice is filled with shame. She had been the first one to apologize once they had returned to the castle after that incident. She apologized on behalf of the entire squad even though the rest of the members would approach Eren individually and ask for his forgiveness later. She had hung her head, apologies spilling from her lips, and Eren had forgiven her without a second thought. It seems she’s still ashamed of the incident even though Eren has pushed it into the back of his mind. “We know better now, and he can control his powers better than he used to. Beneath it all, he’s still a child. Shouldn’t we be more gentle with him?”  

“He was the one who joined the Scouting Legion. He went through the training. He knows what he signed up for.” There is no sympathy in the Captain’s words, and Eren can only wince because he knows everything the Captain is saying is right. “All the other soldiers started out the same age as him, and nobody is holding their hands. Why should Eren be the exception?” 

“He’s dealing with more than any one person should, and he’s still so young. We should be easier on him,” Petra continues to protest. Her voice grows more and more frustrated. It makes Eren’s chest ache. He doesn’t deserve to be defended.  

“That’s precisely why we can’t afford to be lenient with him,” the Captain replies. “He’s not just a soldier. He’s not just a child. He’s dangerous.” 

“Levi -”  

“Petra,” the Captain says sharply without letting Petra finish. 

The soldier doesn’t respond for a moment. Silence fills the cold air of the basement. When Petra speaks again, her voice lacks the fire it had before. All that remains are the subdued embers of her cooling temper. “I apologize, Captain.”  

Eren feels his own cheeks flushing, although he doesn’t know why. He had been eavesdropping the entire time, but it’s only now that he feels that overheard something he shouldn’t have. He presses himself against the frozen wall of his cell, willing himself to disappear even though nobody is looking at him. He covers his burning his ears with his hands, the shells of his ears burning against his palms. He closes his eyes and mouths a silent apology to Petra — to everyone — for provoking the Captain’s ire when all they had wanted to do was help him.  

“Go to sleep, Ral. We have a long day tomorrow,” the Captain says. There’s no anger in his voice, but Eren still wouldn’t want to look the Captain in the face.  

“Yes, Captain,” Petra says. Eren can imagine the salute and the small bow of the head she gives the Captain before she turns to leave.  

Eren breathes a sigh of relief, his breath escaping his lips like a puff of smoke in the chilly basement air. He believes that everything is over until a sudden thud of the door makes him jump. Clumsy footsteps stumble down the stairs and Eren holds his breath. He recognizes the footsteps because they had visited earlier this evening. They are unmistakably Auruo’s, and Eren can hear Auruo loudly whisper, “Eren, I brought you some water!”  

Auruo must have hit the bottom of the stairs and bumped into the Captain and Petra because he lets out an unexpected yelp followed by glass hitting the stone floor, shattering into pieces. 

“C-captain! What are you doing here?” Auruo stammers.  

“Don’t pick that up with your hands. Sweep it up,” the Captain snaps.  

Eren doesn’t have to crane his head to see what’s happening outside. He can imagine it now: Petra, Auruo, and the Captain dimly lit by the lanterns that light up the castle basement. The Captain is standing with his ever perpetual frown on his lips and his arms crossed against his chest. Auruo is stooped over, frozen as he reaches for a shard of glass before being reprimanded by the Captain. Petra is probably watching with an exasperated expression on her face, torn between waiting for Auruo to clean up the mess himself or grabbing a broom and doing it herself.  

“I was just taking a glass of water to Eren. He’s always whining about how thirsty it is because of the dry air down here,” Auruo begins, but the Captain isn’t interested. 

“Clean up the mess,” the Captain repeats, “and no more sleepovers with Jaeger. He doesn’t need any of you babysitting him. He’s old enough to take care of himself.”  

“Yes, Captain,” Petra and Auruo say. 

Eren listens to the Captain’s retreating steps. As soon as he leaves, Petra and Auruo bicker quietly. Hearing them argue would normally comfort Eren, but he feels oddly unsettled now. He wonders just how long he’ll be able to hear them argue, these soldiers who had promised to protect him, or if he’ll only drag them down.  

:･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･ 

Eren can feel his heart pounding against his chest as he and the rest of the Special Operations Squad ride deeper into the forest. He could only marvel at the forest and its trees that stretch endlessly towards the sky before remembering the Titans that his comrades were currently fighting. Already, squads had been completely decimated as they were making their way towards the forest. The Female Titan, they called her, and Eren hadn’t even had a chance to fight her. He could only watch helplessly as others sacrificed their lives for him. Was it even worth it?  

He doesn’t know how long he can wait. Everyone keeps telling him to wait — Commander Erwin, Captain Levi, the Special Ops Squad — but he doesn’t want to wait anymore. How many people will die for him when he has done nothing for them? He wasn’t the one to kill them, but he can still feel their blood staining his hands. He can’t help but look back every once and a while, gripping the reins so tightly that his knuckles turn white. How many have died already? How many more will have to die before they decide that he’s not worth it? He should at least prove that he’s worth it.  

He looks anxiously at the members of the Special Operations Squad, but they keep facing forward. They seem determined to ride until they’re completely out of the forest, but Eren isn’t sure he can wait that long. He can’t leave everyone behind. He wants to trust them, but he doesn’t understand why he should wait when he could help everyone now. Is he supposed to wait before everyone he loves dies before he makes the first move?  

The Captain has already fallen back to assist the other Scouts, but Eren wonders just how much one man can help. Captain Levi is Humanity’s Greatest Soldier, but he’s still just a man. He can’t save everyone. Even with the Captain’s skill and the Commander’s plan to remain just out of reach of the Titans by perching on the branches overhead, there are still Scouts that are dying by the minute. Eren can hear their anguished cries as they fall into the jaws of a Titan, their screams even louder than the guttural groans of the Titans. How can Eren turn a deaf ear to his dying comrades when he has the power to end this? 

“Eren, don’t look back!” Petra calls when she sees Eren’s backward gaze. He can see the fear in her eyes when she looks at him despite the comforting smile she wears in a futile attempt to fool him. He knows that she, too, is not sure that this plan will work. Still, her lips tremble as she says, “Trust us!”  

Eren wants to trust them blindly and believe that everything will be okay in the end. He wants to cling onto the hope that they will all be able to return to the castle tonight. He wants to believe that nothing will go wrong, but he’s not a child like they keep insisting. He’s seen his entire town demolished and his loved ones eaten before his very eyes. He knows the reality of the world, and he can’t continue to live naively. They’re trying to protect him, but he doesn’t need protection. He needs to use his powers even if he hasn’t completely mastered them. Even if he only prevents one death, it will have been worth it.  

When they see Eren turn back in the corner of their eyes, it’s already too late. He yanks the reins sharply, guiding his horse back to where the other Scouting Legion members are fighting for their lives. He can hear the Special Ops Squad calling his name, but he ignores their cries and charges forth. He readies his 3DMG and shoots up towards the trees, abandoning his horse below. He’s sure that the Special Ops Squad is chasing after him, hurriedly turning their horses around and readying their own 3DMG, but it’s already too late. He flings himself towards the top of the trees and bites into the flesh of his hand until the taste of metal fills his tongue.  

The sky turns dark and a bolt of lightning shoots down from the sky, striking him. He feels electricity course through his entire body, the pain so intense that he wants to scream but he can’t. His skin burns as flesh and bone take shape around him, forming his Titan. He can feel himself slipping out of consciousness, but he fights to stay awake. He needs to be in control of his Titan.  

His Titan throws its head up and lets out a shriek, a warning cry to the other Titans out there that he is coming. If the squad members are still calling to Eren, he can no longer hear them. His ears are drawn to the sounds of the other Titans, screeching mindlessly as they try to eat as many soldiers as they can. They don’t even seem to notice him as he stalks down the forest towards them. They only notice him once he takes one Titan in his hands — a small Titan, hardly 10 meters tall — and snaps its neck in two. He discards the Titan’s evaporating corpse and turns to face the other Titans that have only just noticed him. 

It’s familiar scene: Titans all running towards him, ready to pounce on him and devour him. Their previous interest in the Scouting Legion members has been lost. Eren’s Titan has completely consumed their attention. They clamber towards him clumsily, uncoordinated, tripping over each other or their own feet as they try to reach them. There are more than Eren had anticipated, an endless wave of them, but Eren is sure he can take down a good number of them. At the very least, he can distract enough of them to buy enough time for the Scouting Legion to escape safely.  

He readies himself in a fighting stance and waits for the first Titan to charge towards him. It’s another small Titan, 7 meters, and it goes down easily with one punch. He utilizes whatever skills he can remember from his hand-to-hand combat training, but his mind is moving a mile a minute and all he can really remember is how to stay alive. He throws a punch whenever he sees a Titan hurtling towards him. His legs move out reflexively to kick at whatever Titan comes crawling his way, but his training had only prepared him for combat against a single opponent. Soon, he becomes overwhelmed as more and more Titans come his way. They don’t attack to subdue him. They’re not looking to win a fight. Their sole desire is to consume him, and Eren finds himself panicking, backing against a tree to help better protect his nape. He’s in over his head, he realizes that now, but he wonders if it really would have just been better to sit and wait as Petra and the others had instructed. 

His stamina is dropping, but he can’t stop fighting. He must continue until every one of these Titans is defeated. If he wants to survive — if he wants everyone else to live — he must keep fighting even though he can feel himself growing tired with each punch he throws. He looks desperately out at the forest but he only sees more and more Titans coming towards him. He wonders if the Scouts are still hanging overhead, watching him die slowly as he becomes overwhelmed with Titans. This isn’t how it was supposed to go.  

He wants to fight, he needs to fight, but he’s tired. He’s not sure if he’s the right person for this. He doesn’t know who had bestowed him the power to wield this Titan or why. He’s not a child anymore, but he feels like a child now as he’s surrounded by Titans whose only desire is to eat away at him until there’s nothing left. How had this happened? 

Stop. Stop, Eren finds himself thinking as he throws punch at pathetic punch. His punches are less calculated now. His first few punches would land solidly against the jaw of a Titan and send them flying. Now that he’s running out of steam, he’s punching air half of the time. He throws his head up and howls desperately, but no help is coming. He’s drawn too many Titans in one place. If someone were to help him, they would be caught too easily between a Titan’s jaws, eaten before they could even draw their blades. 

Stop. Please stop. Eren still finds himself praying, becoming more desperate by the second. How had he allowed this to happen? He had been too reckless. Perhaps he had been too much of a child after all, thoughtless and impulsive and never thinking things through. He should be comforted by the fact that his downfall only comes at the cost of his life rather than everyone else’s, but he can’t help but feel himself fill with despair. This isn’t what he wanted. 

Stop! The word rings out in his mind like a bell as Eren feels himself throw what he believes is his last punch, but then he feels the Titans falling away from him. Through his Titans eyes, he sees the Titans taking a step back from him one by one. The smaller ones have become completely incapacitated, collapsing onto the ground as if a switch had turned them off. Only one Titan stands before him, its hand closed against Eren’s fist. Eren’s eyes travel upwards towards its face and he takes it in — its too wide, stretched out smile, its blond hair, its glassy blue eyes staring back at him — before he realizes that he’s seen this Titan before. It’s the very same Titan that he had seen in Shiganshina. He remembers watching helplessly as Hannes carried him away, and he could only watch as the Titan opened its wide mouth and plucked his mother from the rubble of his childhood house. His mother was crying as the Titan lifted her up towards its mouth. All that was left of her was the blood that stained the Titan’s mouth as the Titan stretched its lips into a ghoulish smile.  

The Titan has the same stretched out smile as it did all those years ago. All the other Titans are walking away or lying lifeless on the ground, but only that Titan remains before him. 

“... Why?” Eren asks himself, but the Titan doesn’t answer. It just smiles back at him. 

Eren stares back at the Titan, frozen as the other Titans retreat around them. Where they go, he doesn’t know, but the Smiling Titan remains, its expression unwavering. It’s only when the other Titans have all left that the Smiling Titan finally removes its hand from Eren’s fist. It turns around slowly and walks off, leaving Eren as bewildered as the Scouting Legion members that are watching overhead.  

“What the fuck just happened?” Eren hears a familiar voice ask, and he looks up to see Auruo and the rest of the Special Ops Squad above him. They all wear matching perplexed expressions.  

Eren wishes he had an answer. 

:･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･ 

Eren finds himself once again in the cell, but he shivers underneath the blankets. Petra had brought him extra ones just like she does every night, but he just can’t seem to get warm. He wraps the blankets tightly around him, but the cold basement air stings his cheeks and buries his face against his pillow to keep himself warm. It does little to help.  

He still doesn’t know what happened during the expedition. After the Titans had left, Captain Levi had quickly cut him out of his Titan and he had been reprimanded by the Captain and the Commander for defying the orders of his superiors. He had hung his head in shame, cheeks burning as the Captain berated him in front of the entire Scouting Legion, but he only heard half of the reprimands. All he could think about was the strange way the Titans had all fallen away once he had made contact with the Smiling Titan.  

He had heard the whispers between the squad leaders, about how he possessed more powers than they initially thought. He had seen the way the Scouting Legion members looked at him, glancing at him and then quickly looking away when they made eye contact with him. Even the way the Special Ops Squad treated him is different now. They are still kind to him, but they’re cautious now. They speak carefully around him, their eyes wide when they speak to him as if they’re afraid he’ll do something unexpected. He wants to assure them that they don’t have to tiptoe around him. He’s still the same person they knew before, but he knows that that’s not true. 

Eren has never really wanted to be a kid. He wanted to grow up as fast as possible and travel past the Walls. He wanted to explore the vast world that was described in the book that Armin had shown him when they were little kids. He thought he was mature, signing up for the military and forcing himself to go through drill after drill to prove that he was worthy enough to join the Scouting Legion. He believed that he could prove himself to be a soldier if he just did as he was told and felled as many Titans as he could, but he knows that’s not true. He feels more like a child than ever, but the Captain was right. If he were simply just a child, this would all be a lot less complicated.  

Eren shivers and draws the blankets up over his head like he used to when he was a little kid. He used to shield himself from nightmares and monsters, the blankets serving as a protective cocoon from anything that hurt him. He’s old enough now to know that cotton sheets won’t protect him from anything. 

Tonight, the cell feels bigger and emptier than ever. The squad members had visited like they always had to pass him supplies, but it was different this time. They kept their distance from him, and Eren couldn’t blame them. He would do the same if he were them. They should have never shown him kindness at all, and yet he’s grateful that they did even though his heart yearns for the warmth they had once shown him. Now, he can only curl up in a ball, alone in his cell with only his growing pains to keep him company. 

[cleverhottubmiracle]

Hello, Hex Squad! Today I’m sharing some of my favorite alternative makeup brands to try in 2025. This is not an exhaustive list of every single alt beauty brand in existance, only the ones that I’ve personally shopped at and purchased from. All opinions, as always, are my own. I do also mention if any brands have sent me PR. About Face Beauty About Face Beauty is a cruelty-free and vegan beauty brand created by Ashley Frangipane a.k.a. Halsey. They’re formulated without phthalates, PFAs, parabens, BHA, BPA, retinyl palmitate, mercury or mercury-containing ingredients, resorcinol, urea, and formaldehyde. Find them at their website and Ulta. Adept Cosmetics Adept Cosmetics is an Asian-owned alternative indie brand founded in 2017 by wife and husband Sandra and Tom. They don’t test on animals and use upcycled packaging combined with second hand mirrors whenever possible on over 40% of their palettes. All products are vegan except for Amunet Light and Amunet Dark. I’ve purchased the Cyborg Choir palette, which I adore. I was also sent the Element 115 in PR. I’m in love with Cyborg Choir! It’s a multi textured palette full of multichromes, holochromes, shimmers and blendable mattes. It’s vegan and does not contain talc, glitter, mica, oil or BHT. Aromaleigh Cosmetics Aromaleigh is an alternative OG makeup brand of artisan-crafted cosmetics and natural care products. Everything is handcrafted in small batches in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. Cristiana opened in 1988 and they’re cruelty-free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use my code CORDELIA to save 15%. Baby Bat Beauty Wearing Baby Bat Beauty Amulet Baby Bat Beauty is a Philadelphia-based alt gothic indie makeup brand. They are talc-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Baby Bat Beauty is certified cruelty free by PETA. Bellabeautébar Bellabeautébar, an alternative indie cosmetics brand, was founded in New York in 2018 but now operates out of Sarasota, Florida, about 90 minutes south of me. They claim to specialize in smudge-proof, water-proof, and lon lasting cosmetics with a mixture of handmade and manufactured items to have broad customer appeal. They’re Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty-free. Most of their products are vegan. I’ve purchased the Basic Witch Palette and absolutely adore it! It’s in my top 3 most used palettes of 2024. Basic Witch has 9 mattes, 2 holo-chromes, 2 multichromes, and 2 duochromes. It’s vegan, paraben free, and cruelty free, though the mattes do contain talc. I also bought Recently Deinfluenced and it is fantastic. I’ve never tried visiting their Sarasota location, as I don’t know if it’s open to the public. Black Moon Cosmetics Wearing Black Moon Armageddon, a sexy blackened red lipstick Black Moon Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand that makes beautiful highlighters and liquid lipsticks! Sleepwalker is my favorite black lipstick, and I wore it to my gothic wedding. Armageddon is my favorite blackened burgundy metallic lipstick. Black Moon is cruelty-free and vegan. They’re certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny. I have been sent PR in the past. Blend Bunny Cosmetics Blend Bunny Cosmetics was created by a makeup artist for people who love makeup that actually blends, is pigmented, and high quality. They are cruelty-free, vegan, and Leaping Bunny certified. I fell in love with Blend Bunny’s now discontinued Surge palette, but I’ve stayed with the brand for their cool-toned Lure Palette. The Lure palette is so perfect for neutral cool skin like mine! I love all the colors in it! Cosmic Brushes Cosmic Brushes by Fay is a UK beauty brand. I love the two palettes I’ve purchased from them. I have the Gothic Palette and the Cooltrals Palette. They’re affordable and cruelty free. Devinah Cosmetics Wearing Fairy Fire and Rain Tarts Devinah, founded by Deandra, is a west coast indie beauty brand located in Albany, Oregon. The beautiful name means beloved, divine, heavenly. Deandra creates handcrafted, affordable, high-quality hand pressed eyeshadows. They are cruelty-free and PETA certified. Most of their products are vegan. Additionally, their mica is ethically sourced and certified child labor free. I own so many eyeshadows from Devinah! Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Frozen Waves, Starfire, Fae, Salvatore, Esmaray, Centaurus, Scylla, Skyla, Luna Storm, Moonlit, and Thetis are my shimmers. My mattes include Ravens Frost, Tessa, Elysium, Gloom, Midnight, Zane, Virago, Patrina, Aria, Esme, Ethereal, Jox, Pandora, Suki, Darena, Crixus, Jaded, Elphaba, Patina and Karma. I also own and love the Phantasia Palette, as well as Prelusion eye primer, and Specular glitter glue. My most used colors are Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Salvatore, and Starfire. Use the code CORDELIA to save you money at Devinah. Fyrinnae Fyrinnae is one of the OG alternative makeup brands! They make beautiful pressed and loose eyeshadows, lip lustres, perfumes, and more! Glam Goth Beauty Glam Goth Beauty is a black-owned gothic indie makeup brand from Los Angeles, California, founded by Marley Bloodrose. They sell glitter, glitter eye primer, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, jewelry, and more! I love that Marley says “We represent and support EVERYONE and celebrate the alternative and LBGTQ+ community because let’s face it, we are the future!” They are cruelty free with many vegan options. Half-Magic Beauty Half Magic Beauty was founded by Donni Davy, an Emmy Award-winning makeup artist and designer known for her work on HBO’s Euphoria. They’re cruelty-free and vegan. I love their lip pencils, glosses, and liquid eyeshadows. I wish they would release a cool-toned red iridescent gloss! Find them at their website and Ulta. Kaleidos Kaleidos is a cruelty-free brand founded by beauty blogger Zoey Pu, her boyfriend Tony Chen, and his friend Mark Henry. They are based in China and are commited to cruelty-free beauty. I love their eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, and eyeliners. They also recently released hair dye. KVD Vegan Beauty KVD Vegan Beauty feels like they’ve lost their vision as to who they are as a brand and who their target demographic is, but I love that they got rid of Kat von D. My favorite products are Dazzle eyeshadow sticks and lip pencils. They are cruelty free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find them on their website, Ulta, and Sephora. Lethal Cosmetics Lethal Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand based in Berlin, Germany. You can also find Lethal at Camera Ready Cosmetics. I have several magnetic stackable makeup palettes filled with my Lethal Cosmetics eyeshadows and blushes. I have been sent PR in the past. My favorite palette that Lethal ever created was the 1UP palette. Lime Crime Lime Crime is one of the most controversial beauty brands out there. Once Xenia stepped away from the board, I felt comfortable reviewing them. I have been sent PR in the past. However, they haven’t released anything new since Christmas 2023.  Lime Crime decided to discontinue their makeup and focus on their hair dye in 2024. You can find Lime Crime at Ulta and Amazon. Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Lunatick Cosmetic Labs, founded in 2012, make excellent alternative spooky themed products for spooky people. They’re 100% cruelty free, talc free, paraben free, and vegan. They’re PETA approved. I have been sent PR in the past. Malagna Cosmetics Malagna Cosmetics is a Mexican alternative makeup brand that loves dark art beauty. Their products are cruelty-free and vegan. They foster a community of gothic and alternative makeup lovers, where mutual support, acceptance and respect are promoted among the entire legion. I was sent the Ocaso Palette in PR and I adore it, especially the purple glitter shade! Manic Panic Manic Panic is the OG alternative hair and makeup brand, and they’re best known for their hair dyes. I love the UV reactive shades! Their makeup is ok, but I had to include them because I love their hair dye. You can also find Manic Panic on Amazon. I dye my hair Pink Warrior because it’s the perfect medium cool toned neon pink for my hair. It’s also UV reactive!  Plus, Manic Panic donates 15% of the sale of each bottle of Pink Warrior to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. As a breast cancer survivor, this is important to me. Manic Panic is cruelty-free and vegan, as well as PETA certified. I have been sent PR in the past. Melt Cosmetics Melt Cosmetics is an alternative beauty brand based in LA. They started with eyeshadow stacks at events like The Makeup Show, and now you can find them in Sephora. Melt is cruelty free and most products are vegan. They are also Leaping Bunny certified. My Pretty Zombie My Pretty Zombie is a fantastic spooky makeup brand that handmakes everything. They have gorgeous loose eyeshadows and blushes! They are cruelty free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use code myprettyphyrra to get15% off. Necromancy Cosmetica Necromancy Cosmetica is a terrific dark and avant-garde alt makeup brand located in Puerto Rico. They started out focusing on high-quality lipsticks and have expanded to eyeshadows. They have 32 lipsticks and 16 eyeshadows and pigments available. And they’re now selling singles! Necromancy Cosmetica is cruelty-free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. Rituel de Fille Rituel de Fille is a luxury alternative witchy makeup brand. They specialize in beautiful cream products. My favorite product from them is their inner cream glows for the cheeks. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Rituel de Fille on their website, Ulta, and Amazon. Silk Naturals Silk Naturals is an alternative indie skin care and natural makeup company in Trumansburg NY. They started making affordable cruelty free clean beauty products in 2006. I especially love their cream blushes, duochrome and multichrome loose eyeshadows, Slick Sticks, and Velvet Matte lipsticks. I have been sent PR in the past. Use the code CORDELIA for 10% off. Sugarpill Sugarpill is an excellent alternative gothic indie makeup brand that started around 2010, and I was one of the first bloggers to review them. I adore their loose eyeshadows, liquid lipsticks, blushes, and capsule palettes, which is why they’re one of the best gothic makeup brands. They also make great loose eyeshadows and single eyeshadows. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Sugarpill at Beautylish too! Sydney Grace Co Sydney Grace is an alternative small family-owned cosmetics brand. They’re cruelty-free and all ingredients are ethically sourced. I have been sent PR in the past. Thrive Causemetics Thrive Causemetics is an alternative makeup brand that believes in the transformative power of beauty. They make my all time favorite mascara, the Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. Their goal is to elevate your daily routine with science-backed solutions that go beyond beauty. Each product is meticulously crafted with proven technologies to address your daily makeup needs, and every purchase you make contributes to one of their 550+ non-profit partners across the U.S. Makeup for a Cause Thrive Causemetics purchases help the following causes: cancer, domestic abuse, homelessness and poverty, Veterans, education, racial and social justice, under-resourced youth, and LGBTQ+ Thrive Causemetics products are 100% cruelty-free and 100% vegan. They use the most effective natural ingredients and safest synthetics to create the most beneficial products, and they leave out parabens, sulfates, phthalates, latex, and synthetic fragrance. If you only ever try one product from Thrive Causemetics, I recommend that it be their Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. I’ve tried the black, blue, purple, green, and pink. They’re all gorgeous! I wish they would make a deep burgundy wine red version. Get $15 off your first order of $50 at Thrive. VE Cosmetics VE Cosmetics is a UK-based alternative makeup brand by Lynsey, who is an AuDHD Vegan with OCD/Tourettes, EDS & Fibromyalgia. She launched her beauty brand in 2015 and it is 100% cruelty-free and vegan. They are also PETA approved. Use code CORDELIA to get 10% off your order. Wicked Widow Beauty Wicked Widow Beauty is a cruelty free and vegan alternative makeup brand. They recently released an officially licensed The Crow palette. I have been sent PR in the past. Notable Brands Not Featured Everyone has brands that they avoid for different reasons. I’ve removed Terra Moons, Vampyre Cosmetics, and Shroud Cosmetics from my list and no longer buy from them or feature them. Other brands I no longer shop from are Portland Black Lipstick Company, Notoriously Morbid, Chaos Cosmetics, or Menagerie Cosmetics. I’ve never shopped at Ensley Reign, Glamlite, or Unearthly Cosmetics and will not buy from them. Honestly, there are more brands I avoid, but they don’t belong in this article. For Terra Moons, here’s why. For Vampyre Cosmetics,  here’s why. And for Shroud Cosmetics, here’s why. I’ve received PR from all three of them in the past. For Ensley Reign, here’s why. Final Thoughts At the end of December 2024, Dave and I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training, which has helped me recover my strength and stamina from all my 2023 and 2024 surgeries. We’ve taught our first class together too, which was awesome. We had so much fun! If you love what I create, please share my work on Reddit, Facebook, and other places you love to talk about makeup. Google has killed traffic to little blogs like mine. I’m always interested in learning about new alternative and gothic makeup brands. If there are any I need to know about, please let me know! More to See Source link

[norajworld]

Hello, Hex Squad! Today I’m sharing some of my favorite alternative makeup brands to try in 2025. This is not an exhaustive list of every single alt beauty brand in existance, only the ones that I’ve personally shopped at and purchased from. All opinions, as always, are my own. I do also mention if any brands have sent me PR. About Face Beauty About Face Beauty is a cruelty-free and vegan beauty brand created by Ashley Frangipane a.k.a. Halsey. They’re formulated without phthalates, PFAs, parabens, BHA, BPA, retinyl palmitate, mercury or mercury-containing ingredients, resorcinol, urea, and formaldehyde. Find them at their website and Ulta. Adept Cosmetics Adept Cosmetics is an Asian-owned alternative indie brand founded in 2017 by wife and husband Sandra and Tom. They don’t test on animals and use upcycled packaging combined with second hand mirrors whenever possible on over 40% of their palettes. All products are vegan except for Amunet Light and Amunet Dark. I’ve purchased the Cyborg Choir palette, which I adore. I was also sent the Element 115 in PR. I’m in love with Cyborg Choir! It’s a multi textured palette full of multichromes, holochromes, shimmers and blendable mattes. It’s vegan and does not contain talc, glitter, mica, oil or BHT. Aromaleigh Cosmetics Aromaleigh is an alternative OG makeup brand of artisan-crafted cosmetics and natural care products. Everything is handcrafted in small batches in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. Cristiana opened in 1988 and they’re cruelty-free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use my code CORDELIA to save 15%. Baby Bat Beauty Wearing Baby Bat Beauty Amulet Baby Bat Beauty is a Philadelphia-based alt gothic indie makeup brand. They are talc-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Baby Bat Beauty is certified cruelty free by PETA. Bellabeautébar Bellabeautébar, an alternative indie cosmetics brand, was founded in New York in 2018 but now operates out of Sarasota, Florida, about 90 minutes south of me. They claim to specialize in smudge-proof, water-proof, and lon lasting cosmetics with a mixture of handmade and manufactured items to have broad customer appeal. They’re Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty-free. Most of their products are vegan. I’ve purchased the Basic Witch Palette and absolutely adore it! It’s in my top 3 most used palettes of 2024. Basic Witch has 9 mattes, 2 holo-chromes, 2 multichromes, and 2 duochromes. It’s vegan, paraben free, and cruelty free, though the mattes do contain talc. I also bought Recently Deinfluenced and it is fantastic. I’ve never tried visiting their Sarasota location, as I don’t know if it’s open to the public. Black Moon Cosmetics Wearing Black Moon Armageddon, a sexy blackened red lipstick Black Moon Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand that makes beautiful highlighters and liquid lipsticks! Sleepwalker is my favorite black lipstick, and I wore it to my gothic wedding. Armageddon is my favorite blackened burgundy metallic lipstick. Black Moon is cruelty-free and vegan. They’re certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny. I have been sent PR in the past. Blend Bunny Cosmetics Blend Bunny Cosmetics was created by a makeup artist for people who love makeup that actually blends, is pigmented, and high quality. They are cruelty-free, vegan, and Leaping Bunny certified. I fell in love with Blend Bunny’s now discontinued Surge palette, but I’ve stayed with the brand for their cool-toned Lure Palette. The Lure palette is so perfect for neutral cool skin like mine! I love all the colors in it! Cosmic Brushes Cosmic Brushes by Fay is a UK beauty brand. I love the two palettes I’ve purchased from them. I have the Gothic Palette and the Cooltrals Palette. They’re affordable and cruelty free. Devinah Cosmetics Wearing Fairy Fire and Rain Tarts Devinah, founded by Deandra, is a west coast indie beauty brand located in Albany, Oregon. The beautiful name means beloved, divine, heavenly. Deandra creates handcrafted, affordable, high-quality hand pressed eyeshadows. They are cruelty-free and PETA certified. Most of their products are vegan. Additionally, their mica is ethically sourced and certified child labor free. I own so many eyeshadows from Devinah! Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Frozen Waves, Starfire, Fae, Salvatore, Esmaray, Centaurus, Scylla, Skyla, Luna Storm, Moonlit, and Thetis are my shimmers. My mattes include Ravens Frost, Tessa, Elysium, Gloom, Midnight, Zane, Virago, Patrina, Aria, Esme, Ethereal, Jox, Pandora, Suki, Darena, Crixus, Jaded, Elphaba, Patina and Karma. I also own and love the Phantasia Palette, as well as Prelusion eye primer, and Specular glitter glue. My most used colors are Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Salvatore, and Starfire. Use the code CORDELIA to save you money at Devinah. Fyrinnae Fyrinnae is one of the OG alternative makeup brands! They make beautiful pressed and loose eyeshadows, lip lustres, perfumes, and more! Glam Goth Beauty Glam Goth Beauty is a black-owned gothic indie makeup brand from Los Angeles, California, founded by Marley Bloodrose. They sell glitter, glitter eye primer, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, jewelry, and more! I love that Marley says “We represent and support EVERYONE and celebrate the alternative and LBGTQ+ community because let’s face it, we are the future!” They are cruelty free with many vegan options. Half-Magic Beauty Half Magic Beauty was founded by Donni Davy, an Emmy Award-winning makeup artist and designer known for her work on HBO’s Euphoria. They’re cruelty-free and vegan. I love their lip pencils, glosses, and liquid eyeshadows. I wish they would release a cool-toned red iridescent gloss! Find them at their website and Ulta. Kaleidos Kaleidos is a cruelty-free brand founded by beauty blogger Zoey Pu, her boyfriend Tony Chen, and his friend Mark Henry. They are based in China and are commited to cruelty-free beauty. I love their eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, and eyeliners. They also recently released hair dye. KVD Vegan Beauty KVD Vegan Beauty feels like they’ve lost their vision as to who they are as a brand and who their target demographic is, but I love that they got rid of Kat von D. My favorite products are Dazzle eyeshadow sticks and lip pencils. They are cruelty free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find them on their website, Ulta, and Sephora. Lethal Cosmetics Lethal Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand based in Berlin, Germany. You can also find Lethal at Camera Ready Cosmetics. I have several magnetic stackable makeup palettes filled with my Lethal Cosmetics eyeshadows and blushes. I have been sent PR in the past. My favorite palette that Lethal ever created was the 1UP palette. Lime Crime Lime Crime is one of the most controversial beauty brands out there. Once Xenia stepped away from the board, I felt comfortable reviewing them. I have been sent PR in the past. However, they haven’t released anything new since Christmas 2023.  Lime Crime decided to discontinue their makeup and focus on their hair dye in 2024. You can find Lime Crime at Ulta and Amazon. Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Lunatick Cosmetic Labs, founded in 2012, make excellent alternative spooky themed products for spooky people. They’re 100% cruelty free, talc free, paraben free, and vegan. They’re PETA approved. I have been sent PR in the past. Malagna Cosmetics Malagna Cosmetics is a Mexican alternative makeup brand that loves dark art beauty. Their products are cruelty-free and vegan. They foster a community of gothic and alternative makeup lovers, where mutual support, acceptance and respect are promoted among the entire legion. I was sent the Ocaso Palette in PR and I adore it, especially the purple glitter shade! Manic Panic Manic Panic is the OG alternative hair and makeup brand, and they’re best known for their hair dyes. I love the UV reactive shades! Their makeup is ok, but I had to include them because I love their hair dye. You can also find Manic Panic on Amazon. I dye my hair Pink Warrior because it’s the perfect medium cool toned neon pink for my hair. It’s also UV reactive!  Plus, Manic Panic donates 15% of the sale of each bottle of Pink Warrior to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. As a breast cancer survivor, this is important to me. Manic Panic is cruelty-free and vegan, as well as PETA certified. I have been sent PR in the past. Melt Cosmetics Melt Cosmetics is an alternative beauty brand based in LA. They started with eyeshadow stacks at events like The Makeup Show, and now you can find them in Sephora. Melt is cruelty free and most products are vegan. They are also Leaping Bunny certified. My Pretty Zombie My Pretty Zombie is a fantastic spooky makeup brand that handmakes everything. They have gorgeous loose eyeshadows and blushes! They are cruelty free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use code myprettyphyrra to get15% off. Necromancy Cosmetica Necromancy Cosmetica is a terrific dark and avant-garde alt makeup brand located in Puerto Rico. They started out focusing on high-quality lipsticks and have expanded to eyeshadows. They have 32 lipsticks and 16 eyeshadows and pigments available. And they’re now selling singles! Necromancy Cosmetica is cruelty-free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. Rituel de Fille Rituel de Fille is a luxury alternative witchy makeup brand. They specialize in beautiful cream products. My favorite product from them is their inner cream glows for the cheeks. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Rituel de Fille on their website, Ulta, and Amazon. Silk Naturals Silk Naturals is an alternative indie skin care and natural makeup company in Trumansburg NY. They started making affordable cruelty free clean beauty products in 2006. I especially love their cream blushes, duochrome and multichrome loose eyeshadows, Slick Sticks, and Velvet Matte lipsticks. I have been sent PR in the past. Use the code CORDELIA for 10% off. Sugarpill Sugarpill is an excellent alternative gothic indie makeup brand that started around 2010, and I was one of the first bloggers to review them. I adore their loose eyeshadows, liquid lipsticks, blushes, and capsule palettes, which is why they’re one of the best gothic makeup brands. They also make great loose eyeshadows and single eyeshadows. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Sugarpill at Beautylish too! Sydney Grace Co Sydney Grace is an alternative small family-owned cosmetics brand. They’re cruelty-free and all ingredients are ethically sourced. I have been sent PR in the past. Thrive Causemetics Thrive Causemetics is an alternative makeup brand that believes in the transformative power of beauty. They make my all time favorite mascara, the Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. Their goal is to elevate your daily routine with science-backed solutions that go beyond beauty. Each product is meticulously crafted with proven technologies to address your daily makeup needs, and every purchase you make contributes to one of their 550+ non-profit partners across the U.S. Makeup for a Cause Thrive Causemetics purchases help the following causes: cancer, domestic abuse, homelessness and poverty, Veterans, education, racial and social justice, under-resourced youth, and LGBTQ+ Thrive Causemetics products are 100% cruelty-free and 100% vegan. They use the most effective natural ingredients and safest synthetics to create the most beneficial products, and they leave out parabens, sulfates, phthalates, latex, and synthetic fragrance. If you only ever try one product from Thrive Causemetics, I recommend that it be their Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. I’ve tried the black, blue, purple, green, and pink. They’re all gorgeous! I wish they would make a deep burgundy wine red version. Get $15 off your first order of $50 at Thrive. VE Cosmetics VE Cosmetics is a UK-based alternative makeup brand by Lynsey, who is an AuDHD Vegan with OCD/Tourettes, EDS & Fibromyalgia. She launched her beauty brand in 2015 and it is 100% cruelty-free and vegan. They are also PETA approved. Use code CORDELIA to get 10% off your order. Wicked Widow Beauty Wicked Widow Beauty is a cruelty free and vegan alternative makeup brand. They recently released an officially licensed The Crow palette. I have been sent PR in the past. Notable Brands Not Featured Everyone has brands that they avoid for different reasons. I’ve removed Terra Moons, Vampyre Cosmetics, and Shroud Cosmetics from my list and no longer buy from them or feature them. Other brands I no longer shop from are Portland Black Lipstick Company, Notoriously Morbid, Chaos Cosmetics, or Menagerie Cosmetics. I’ve never shopped at Ensley Reign, Glamlite, or Unearthly Cosmetics and will not buy from them. Honestly, there are more brands I avoid, but they don’t belong in this article. For Terra Moons, here’s why. For Vampyre Cosmetics,  here’s why. And for Shroud Cosmetics, here’s why. I’ve received PR from all three of them in the past. For Ensley Reign, here’s why. Final Thoughts At the end of December 2024, Dave and I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training, which has helped me recover my strength and stamina from all my 2023 and 2024 surgeries. We’ve taught our first class together too, which was awesome. We had so much fun! If you love what I create, please share my work on Reddit, Facebook, and other places you love to talk about makeup. Google has killed traffic to little blogs like mine. I’m always interested in learning about new alternative and gothic makeup brands. If there are any I need to know about, please let me know! More to See Source link

[ellajme0]

Hello, Hex Squad! Today I’m sharing some of my favorite alternative makeup brands to try in 2025. This is not an exhaustive list of every single alt beauty brand in existance, only the ones that I’ve personally shopped at and purchased from. All opinions, as always, are my own. I do also mention if any brands have sent me PR. About Face Beauty About Face Beauty is a cruelty-free and vegan beauty brand created by Ashley Frangipane a.k.a. Halsey. They’re formulated without phthalates, PFAs, parabens, BHA, BPA, retinyl palmitate, mercury or mercury-containing ingredients, resorcinol, urea, and formaldehyde. Find them at their website and Ulta. Adept Cosmetics Adept Cosmetics is an Asian-owned alternative indie brand founded in 2017 by wife and husband Sandra and Tom. They don’t test on animals and use upcycled packaging combined with second hand mirrors whenever possible on over 40% of their palettes. All products are vegan except for Amunet Light and Amunet Dark. I’ve purchased the Cyborg Choir palette, which I adore. I was also sent the Element 115 in PR. I’m in love with Cyborg Choir! It’s a multi textured palette full of multichromes, holochromes, shimmers and blendable mattes. It’s vegan and does not contain talc, glitter, mica, oil or BHT. Aromaleigh Cosmetics Aromaleigh is an alternative OG makeup brand of artisan-crafted cosmetics and natural care products. Everything is handcrafted in small batches in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. Cristiana opened in 1988 and they’re cruelty-free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use my code CORDELIA to save 15%. Baby Bat Beauty Wearing Baby Bat Beauty Amulet Baby Bat Beauty is a Philadelphia-based alt gothic indie makeup brand. They are talc-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Baby Bat Beauty is certified cruelty free by PETA. Bellabeautébar Bellabeautébar, an alternative indie cosmetics brand, was founded in New York in 2018 but now operates out of Sarasota, Florida, about 90 minutes south of me. They claim to specialize in smudge-proof, water-proof, and lon lasting cosmetics with a mixture of handmade and manufactured items to have broad customer appeal. They’re Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty-free. Most of their products are vegan. I’ve purchased the Basic Witch Palette and absolutely adore it! It’s in my top 3 most used palettes of 2024. Basic Witch has 9 mattes, 2 holo-chromes, 2 multichromes, and 2 duochromes. It’s vegan, paraben free, and cruelty free, though the mattes do contain talc. I also bought Recently Deinfluenced and it is fantastic. I’ve never tried visiting their Sarasota location, as I don’t know if it’s open to the public. Black Moon Cosmetics Wearing Black Moon Armageddon, a sexy blackened red lipstick Black Moon Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand that makes beautiful highlighters and liquid lipsticks! Sleepwalker is my favorite black lipstick, and I wore it to my gothic wedding. Armageddon is my favorite blackened burgundy metallic lipstick. Black Moon is cruelty-free and vegan. They’re certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny. I have been sent PR in the past. Blend Bunny Cosmetics Blend Bunny Cosmetics was created by a makeup artist for people who love makeup that actually blends, is pigmented, and high quality. They are cruelty-free, vegan, and Leaping Bunny certified. I fell in love with Blend Bunny’s now discontinued Surge palette, but I’ve stayed with the brand for their cool-toned Lure Palette. The Lure palette is so perfect for neutral cool skin like mine! I love all the colors in it! Cosmic Brushes Cosmic Brushes by Fay is a UK beauty brand. I love the two palettes I’ve purchased from them. I have the Gothic Palette and the Cooltrals Palette. They’re affordable and cruelty free. Devinah Cosmetics Wearing Fairy Fire and Rain Tarts Devinah, founded by Deandra, is a west coast indie beauty brand located in Albany, Oregon. The beautiful name means beloved, divine, heavenly. Deandra creates handcrafted, affordable, high-quality hand pressed eyeshadows. They are cruelty-free and PETA certified. Most of their products are vegan. Additionally, their mica is ethically sourced and certified child labor free. I own so many eyeshadows from Devinah! Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Frozen Waves, Starfire, Fae, Salvatore, Esmaray, Centaurus, Scylla, Skyla, Luna Storm, Moonlit, and Thetis are my shimmers. My mattes include Ravens Frost, Tessa, Elysium, Gloom, Midnight, Zane, Virago, Patrina, Aria, Esme, Ethereal, Jox, Pandora, Suki, Darena, Crixus, Jaded, Elphaba, Patina and Karma. I also own and love the Phantasia Palette, as well as Prelusion eye primer, and Specular glitter glue. My most used colors are Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Salvatore, and Starfire. Use the code CORDELIA to save you money at Devinah. Fyrinnae Fyrinnae is one of the OG alternative makeup brands! They make beautiful pressed and loose eyeshadows, lip lustres, perfumes, and more! Glam Goth Beauty Glam Goth Beauty is a black-owned gothic indie makeup brand from Los Angeles, California, founded by Marley Bloodrose. They sell glitter, glitter eye primer, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, jewelry, and more! I love that Marley says “We represent and support EVERYONE and celebrate the alternative and LBGTQ+ community because let’s face it, we are the future!” They are cruelty free with many vegan options. Half-Magic Beauty Half Magic Beauty was founded by Donni Davy, an Emmy Award-winning makeup artist and designer known for her work on HBO’s Euphoria. They’re cruelty-free and vegan. I love their lip pencils, glosses, and liquid eyeshadows. I wish they would release a cool-toned red iridescent gloss! Find them at their website and Ulta. Kaleidos Kaleidos is a cruelty-free brand founded by beauty blogger Zoey Pu, her boyfriend Tony Chen, and his friend Mark Henry. They are based in China and are commited to cruelty-free beauty. I love their eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, and eyeliners. They also recently released hair dye. KVD Vegan Beauty KVD Vegan Beauty feels like they’ve lost their vision as to who they are as a brand and who their target demographic is, but I love that they got rid of Kat von D. My favorite products are Dazzle eyeshadow sticks and lip pencils. They are cruelty free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find them on their website, Ulta, and Sephora. Lethal Cosmetics Lethal Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand based in Berlin, Germany. You can also find Lethal at Camera Ready Cosmetics. I have several magnetic stackable makeup palettes filled with my Lethal Cosmetics eyeshadows and blushes. I have been sent PR in the past. My favorite palette that Lethal ever created was the 1UP palette. Lime Crime Lime Crime is one of the most controversial beauty brands out there. Once Xenia stepped away from the board, I felt comfortable reviewing them. I have been sent PR in the past. However, they haven’t released anything new since Christmas 2023.  Lime Crime decided to discontinue their makeup and focus on their hair dye in 2024. You can find Lime Crime at Ulta and Amazon. Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Lunatick Cosmetic Labs, founded in 2012, make excellent alternative spooky themed products for spooky people. They’re 100% cruelty free, talc free, paraben free, and vegan. They’re PETA approved. I have been sent PR in the past. Malagna Cosmetics Malagna Cosmetics is a Mexican alternative makeup brand that loves dark art beauty. Their products are cruelty-free and vegan. They foster a community of gothic and alternative makeup lovers, where mutual support, acceptance and respect are promoted among the entire legion. I was sent the Ocaso Palette in PR and I adore it, especially the purple glitter shade! Manic Panic Manic Panic is the OG alternative hair and makeup brand, and they’re best known for their hair dyes. I love the UV reactive shades! Their makeup is ok, but I had to include them because I love their hair dye. You can also find Manic Panic on Amazon. I dye my hair Pink Warrior because it’s the perfect medium cool toned neon pink for my hair. It’s also UV reactive!  Plus, Manic Panic donates 15% of the sale of each bottle of Pink Warrior to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. As a breast cancer survivor, this is important to me. Manic Panic is cruelty-free and vegan, as well as PETA certified. I have been sent PR in the past. Melt Cosmetics Melt Cosmetics is an alternative beauty brand based in LA. They started with eyeshadow stacks at events like The Makeup Show, and now you can find them in Sephora. Melt is cruelty free and most products are vegan. They are also Leaping Bunny certified. My Pretty Zombie My Pretty Zombie is a fantastic spooky makeup brand that handmakes everything. They have gorgeous loose eyeshadows and blushes! They are cruelty free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use code myprettyphyrra to get15% off. Necromancy Cosmetica Necromancy Cosmetica is a terrific dark and avant-garde alt makeup brand located in Puerto Rico. They started out focusing on high-quality lipsticks and have expanded to eyeshadows. They have 32 lipsticks and 16 eyeshadows and pigments available. And they’re now selling singles! Necromancy Cosmetica is cruelty-free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. Rituel de Fille Rituel de Fille is a luxury alternative witchy makeup brand. They specialize in beautiful cream products. My favorite product from them is their inner cream glows for the cheeks. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Rituel de Fille on their website, Ulta, and Amazon. Silk Naturals Silk Naturals is an alternative indie skin care and natural makeup company in Trumansburg NY. They started making affordable cruelty free clean beauty products in 2006. I especially love their cream blushes, duochrome and multichrome loose eyeshadows, Slick Sticks, and Velvet Matte lipsticks. I have been sent PR in the past. Use the code CORDELIA for 10% off. Sugarpill Sugarpill is an excellent alternative gothic indie makeup brand that started around 2010, and I was one of the first bloggers to review them. I adore their loose eyeshadows, liquid lipsticks, blushes, and capsule palettes, which is why they’re one of the best gothic makeup brands. They also make great loose eyeshadows and single eyeshadows. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Sugarpill at Beautylish too! Sydney Grace Co Sydney Grace is an alternative small family-owned cosmetics brand. They’re cruelty-free and all ingredients are ethically sourced. I have been sent PR in the past. Thrive Causemetics Thrive Causemetics is an alternative makeup brand that believes in the transformative power of beauty. They make my all time favorite mascara, the Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. Their goal is to elevate your daily routine with science-backed solutions that go beyond beauty. Each product is meticulously crafted with proven technologies to address your daily makeup needs, and every purchase you make contributes to one of their 550+ non-profit partners across the U.S. Makeup for a Cause Thrive Causemetics purchases help the following causes: cancer, domestic abuse, homelessness and poverty, Veterans, education, racial and social justice, under-resourced youth, and LGBTQ+ Thrive Causemetics products are 100% cruelty-free and 100% vegan. They use the most effective natural ingredients and safest synthetics to create the most beneficial products, and they leave out parabens, sulfates, phthalates, latex, and synthetic fragrance. If you only ever try one product from Thrive Causemetics, I recommend that it be their Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. I’ve tried the black, blue, purple, green, and pink. They’re all gorgeous! I wish they would make a deep burgundy wine red version. Get $15 off your first order of $50 at Thrive. VE Cosmetics VE Cosmetics is a UK-based alternative makeup brand by Lynsey, who is an AuDHD Vegan with OCD/Tourettes, EDS & Fibromyalgia. She launched her beauty brand in 2015 and it is 100% cruelty-free and vegan. They are also PETA approved. Use code CORDELIA to get 10% off your order. Wicked Widow Beauty Wicked Widow Beauty is a cruelty free and vegan alternative makeup brand. They recently released an officially licensed The Crow palette. I have been sent PR in the past. Notable Brands Not Featured Everyone has brands that they avoid for different reasons. I’ve removed Terra Moons, Vampyre Cosmetics, and Shroud Cosmetics from my list and no longer buy from them or feature them. Other brands I no longer shop from are Portland Black Lipstick Company, Notoriously Morbid, Chaos Cosmetics, or Menagerie Cosmetics. I’ve never shopped at Ensley Reign, Glamlite, or Unearthly Cosmetics and will not buy from them. Honestly, there are more brands I avoid, but they don’t belong in this article. For Terra Moons, here’s why. For Vampyre Cosmetics,  here’s why. And for Shroud Cosmetics, here’s why. I’ve received PR from all three of them in the past. For Ensley Reign, here’s why. Final Thoughts At the end of December 2024, Dave and I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training, which has helped me recover my strength and stamina from all my 2023 and 2024 surgeries. We’ve taught our first class together too, which was awesome. We had so much fun! If you love what I create, please share my work on Reddit, Facebook, and other places you love to talk about makeup. Google has killed traffic to little blogs like mine. I’m always interested in learning about new alternative and gothic makeup brands. If there are any I need to know about, please let me know! More to See Source link

[chilimili212]

Hello, Hex Squad! Today I’m sharing some of my favorite alternative makeup brands to try in 2025. This is not an exhaustive list of every single alt beauty brand in existance, only the ones that I’ve personally shopped at and purchased from. All opinions, as always, are my own. I do also mention if any brands have sent me PR. About Face Beauty About Face Beauty is a cruelty-free and vegan beauty brand created by Ashley Frangipane a.k.a. Halsey. They’re formulated without phthalates, PFAs, parabens, BHA, BPA, retinyl palmitate, mercury or mercury-containing ingredients, resorcinol, urea, and formaldehyde. Find them at their website and Ulta. Adept Cosmetics Adept Cosmetics is an Asian-owned alternative indie brand founded in 2017 by wife and husband Sandra and Tom. They don’t test on animals and use upcycled packaging combined with second hand mirrors whenever possible on over 40% of their palettes. All products are vegan except for Amunet Light and Amunet Dark. I’ve purchased the Cyborg Choir palette, which I adore. I was also sent the Element 115 in PR. I’m in love with Cyborg Choir! It’s a multi textured palette full of multichromes, holochromes, shimmers and blendable mattes. It’s vegan and does not contain talc, glitter, mica, oil or BHT. Aromaleigh Cosmetics Aromaleigh is an alternative OG makeup brand of artisan-crafted cosmetics and natural care products. Everything is handcrafted in small batches in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. Cristiana opened in 1988 and they’re cruelty-free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use my code CORDELIA to save 15%. Baby Bat Beauty Wearing Baby Bat Beauty Amulet Baby Bat Beauty is a Philadelphia-based alt gothic indie makeup brand. They are talc-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Baby Bat Beauty is certified cruelty free by PETA. Bellabeautébar Bellabeautébar, an alternative indie cosmetics brand, was founded in New York in 2018 but now operates out of Sarasota, Florida, about 90 minutes south of me. They claim to specialize in smudge-proof, water-proof, and lon lasting cosmetics with a mixture of handmade and manufactured items to have broad customer appeal. They’re Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty-free. Most of their products are vegan. I’ve purchased the Basic Witch Palette and absolutely adore it! It’s in my top 3 most used palettes of 2024. Basic Witch has 9 mattes, 2 holo-chromes, 2 multichromes, and 2 duochromes. It’s vegan, paraben free, and cruelty free, though the mattes do contain talc. I also bought Recently Deinfluenced and it is fantastic. I’ve never tried visiting their Sarasota location, as I don’t know if it’s open to the public. Black Moon Cosmetics Wearing Black Moon Armageddon, a sexy blackened red lipstick Black Moon Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand that makes beautiful highlighters and liquid lipsticks! Sleepwalker is my favorite black lipstick, and I wore it to my gothic wedding. Armageddon is my favorite blackened burgundy metallic lipstick. Black Moon is cruelty-free and vegan. They’re certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny. I have been sent PR in the past. Blend Bunny Cosmetics Blend Bunny Cosmetics was created by a makeup artist for people who love makeup that actually blends, is pigmented, and high quality. They are cruelty-free, vegan, and Leaping Bunny certified. I fell in love with Blend Bunny’s now discontinued Surge palette, but I’ve stayed with the brand for their cool-toned Lure Palette. The Lure palette is so perfect for neutral cool skin like mine! I love all the colors in it! Cosmic Brushes Cosmic Brushes by Fay is a UK beauty brand. I love the two palettes I’ve purchased from them. I have the Gothic Palette and the Cooltrals Palette. They’re affordable and cruelty free. Devinah Cosmetics Wearing Fairy Fire and Rain Tarts Devinah, founded by Deandra, is a west coast indie beauty brand located in Albany, Oregon. The beautiful name means beloved, divine, heavenly. Deandra creates handcrafted, affordable, high-quality hand pressed eyeshadows. They are cruelty-free and PETA certified. Most of their products are vegan. Additionally, their mica is ethically sourced and certified child labor free. I own so many eyeshadows from Devinah! Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Frozen Waves, Starfire, Fae, Salvatore, Esmaray, Centaurus, Scylla, Skyla, Luna Storm, Moonlit, and Thetis are my shimmers. My mattes include Ravens Frost, Tessa, Elysium, Gloom, Midnight, Zane, Virago, Patrina, Aria, Esme, Ethereal, Jox, Pandora, Suki, Darena, Crixus, Jaded, Elphaba, Patina and Karma. I also own and love the Phantasia Palette, as well as Prelusion eye primer, and Specular glitter glue. My most used colors are Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Salvatore, and Starfire. Use the code CORDELIA to save you money at Devinah. Fyrinnae Fyrinnae is one of the OG alternative makeup brands! They make beautiful pressed and loose eyeshadows, lip lustres, perfumes, and more! Glam Goth Beauty Glam Goth Beauty is a black-owned gothic indie makeup brand from Los Angeles, California, founded by Marley Bloodrose. They sell glitter, glitter eye primer, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, jewelry, and more! I love that Marley says “We represent and support EVERYONE and celebrate the alternative and LBGTQ+ community because let’s face it, we are the future!” They are cruelty free with many vegan options. Half-Magic Beauty Half Magic Beauty was founded by Donni Davy, an Emmy Award-winning makeup artist and designer known for her work on HBO’s Euphoria. They’re cruelty-free and vegan. I love their lip pencils, glosses, and liquid eyeshadows. I wish they would release a cool-toned red iridescent gloss! Find them at their website and Ulta. Kaleidos Kaleidos is a cruelty-free brand founded by beauty blogger Zoey Pu, her boyfriend Tony Chen, and his friend Mark Henry. They are based in China and are commited to cruelty-free beauty. I love their eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, and eyeliners. They also recently released hair dye. KVD Vegan Beauty KVD Vegan Beauty feels like they’ve lost their vision as to who they are as a brand and who their target demographic is, but I love that they got rid of Kat von D. My favorite products are Dazzle eyeshadow sticks and lip pencils. They are cruelty free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find them on their website, Ulta, and Sephora. Lethal Cosmetics Lethal Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand based in Berlin, Germany. You can also find Lethal at Camera Ready Cosmetics. I have several magnetic stackable makeup palettes filled with my Lethal Cosmetics eyeshadows and blushes. I have been sent PR in the past. My favorite palette that Lethal ever created was the 1UP palette. Lime Crime Lime Crime is one of the most controversial beauty brands out there. Once Xenia stepped away from the board, I felt comfortable reviewing them. I have been sent PR in the past. However, they haven’t released anything new since Christmas 2023.  Lime Crime decided to discontinue their makeup and focus on their hair dye in 2024. You can find Lime Crime at Ulta and Amazon. Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Lunatick Cosmetic Labs, founded in 2012, make excellent alternative spooky themed products for spooky people. They’re 100% cruelty free, talc free, paraben free, and vegan. They’re PETA approved. I have been sent PR in the past. Malagna Cosmetics Malagna Cosmetics is a Mexican alternative makeup brand that loves dark art beauty. Their products are cruelty-free and vegan. They foster a community of gothic and alternative makeup lovers, where mutual support, acceptance and respect are promoted among the entire legion. I was sent the Ocaso Palette in PR and I adore it, especially the purple glitter shade! Manic Panic Manic Panic is the OG alternative hair and makeup brand, and they’re best known for their hair dyes. I love the UV reactive shades! Their makeup is ok, but I had to include them because I love their hair dye. You can also find Manic Panic on Amazon. I dye my hair Pink Warrior because it’s the perfect medium cool toned neon pink for my hair. It’s also UV reactive!  Plus, Manic Panic donates 15% of the sale of each bottle of Pink Warrior to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. As a breast cancer survivor, this is important to me. Manic Panic is cruelty-free and vegan, as well as PETA certified. I have been sent PR in the past. Melt Cosmetics Melt Cosmetics is an alternative beauty brand based in LA. They started with eyeshadow stacks at events like The Makeup Show, and now you can find them in Sephora. Melt is cruelty free and most products are vegan. They are also Leaping Bunny certified. My Pretty Zombie My Pretty Zombie is a fantastic spooky makeup brand that handmakes everything. They have gorgeous loose eyeshadows and blushes! They are cruelty free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use code myprettyphyrra to get15% off. Necromancy Cosmetica Necromancy Cosmetica is a terrific dark and avant-garde alt makeup brand located in Puerto Rico. They started out focusing on high-quality lipsticks and have expanded to eyeshadows. They have 32 lipsticks and 16 eyeshadows and pigments available. And they’re now selling singles! Necromancy Cosmetica is cruelty-free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. Rituel de Fille Rituel de Fille is a luxury alternative witchy makeup brand. They specialize in beautiful cream products. My favorite product from them is their inner cream glows for the cheeks. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Rituel de Fille on their website, Ulta, and Amazon. Silk Naturals Silk Naturals is an alternative indie skin care and natural makeup company in Trumansburg NY. They started making affordable cruelty free clean beauty products in 2006. I especially love their cream blushes, duochrome and multichrome loose eyeshadows, Slick Sticks, and Velvet Matte lipsticks. I have been sent PR in the past. Use the code CORDELIA for 10% off. Sugarpill Sugarpill is an excellent alternative gothic indie makeup brand that started around 2010, and I was one of the first bloggers to review them. I adore their loose eyeshadows, liquid lipsticks, blushes, and capsule palettes, which is why they’re one of the best gothic makeup brands. They also make great loose eyeshadows and single eyeshadows. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Sugarpill at Beautylish too! Sydney Grace Co Sydney Grace is an alternative small family-owned cosmetics brand. They’re cruelty-free and all ingredients are ethically sourced. I have been sent PR in the past. Thrive Causemetics Thrive Causemetics is an alternative makeup brand that believes in the transformative power of beauty. They make my all time favorite mascara, the Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. Their goal is to elevate your daily routine with science-backed solutions that go beyond beauty. Each product is meticulously crafted with proven technologies to address your daily makeup needs, and every purchase you make contributes to one of their 550+ non-profit partners across the U.S. Makeup for a Cause Thrive Causemetics purchases help the following causes: cancer, domestic abuse, homelessness and poverty, Veterans, education, racial and social justice, under-resourced youth, and LGBTQ+ Thrive Causemetics products are 100% cruelty-free and 100% vegan. They use the most effective natural ingredients and safest synthetics to create the most beneficial products, and they leave out parabens, sulfates, phthalates, latex, and synthetic fragrance. If you only ever try one product from Thrive Causemetics, I recommend that it be their Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. I’ve tried the black, blue, purple, green, and pink. They’re all gorgeous! I wish they would make a deep burgundy wine red version. Get $15 off your first order of $50 at Thrive. VE Cosmetics VE Cosmetics is a UK-based alternative makeup brand by Lynsey, who is an AuDHD Vegan with OCD/Tourettes, EDS & Fibromyalgia. She launched her beauty brand in 2015 and it is 100% cruelty-free and vegan. They are also PETA approved. Use code CORDELIA to get 10% off your order. Wicked Widow Beauty Wicked Widow Beauty is a cruelty free and vegan alternative makeup brand. They recently released an officially licensed The Crow palette. I have been sent PR in the past. Notable Brands Not Featured Everyone has brands that they avoid for different reasons. I’ve removed Terra Moons, Vampyre Cosmetics, and Shroud Cosmetics from my list and no longer buy from them or feature them. Other brands I no longer shop from are Portland Black Lipstick Company, Notoriously Morbid, Chaos Cosmetics, or Menagerie Cosmetics. I’ve never shopped at Ensley Reign, Glamlite, or Unearthly Cosmetics and will not buy from them. Honestly, there are more brands I avoid, but they don’t belong in this article. For Terra Moons, here’s why. For Vampyre Cosmetics,  here’s why. And for Shroud Cosmetics, here’s why. I’ve received PR from all three of them in the past. For Ensley Reign, here’s why. Final Thoughts At the end of December 2024, Dave and I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training, which has helped me recover my strength and stamina from all my 2023 and 2024 surgeries. We’ve taught our first class together too, which was awesome. We had so much fun! If you love what I create, please share my work on Reddit, Facebook, and other places you love to talk about makeup. Google has killed traffic to little blogs like mine. I’m always interested in learning about new alternative and gothic makeup brands. If there are any I need to know about, please let me know! More to See Source link

[oliviajoyice21]

Hello, Hex Squad! Today I’m sharing some of my favorite alternative makeup brands to try in 2025. This is not an exhaustive list of every single alt beauty brand in existance, only the ones that I’ve personally shopped at and purchased from. All opinions, as always, are my own. I do also mention if any brands have sent me PR. About Face Beauty About Face Beauty is a cruelty-free and vegan beauty brand created by Ashley Frangipane a.k.a. Halsey. They’re formulated without phthalates, PFAs, parabens, BHA, BPA, retinyl palmitate, mercury or mercury-containing ingredients, resorcinol, urea, and formaldehyde. Find them at their website and Ulta. Adept Cosmetics Adept Cosmetics is an Asian-owned alternative indie brand founded in 2017 by wife and husband Sandra and Tom. They don’t test on animals and use upcycled packaging combined with second hand mirrors whenever possible on over 40% of their palettes. All products are vegan except for Amunet Light and Amunet Dark. I’ve purchased the Cyborg Choir palette, which I adore. I was also sent the Element 115 in PR. I’m in love with Cyborg Choir! It’s a multi textured palette full of multichromes, holochromes, shimmers and blendable mattes. It’s vegan and does not contain talc, glitter, mica, oil or BHT. Aromaleigh Cosmetics Aromaleigh is an alternative OG makeup brand of artisan-crafted cosmetics and natural care products. Everything is handcrafted in small batches in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina. Cristiana opened in 1988 and they’re cruelty-free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use my code CORDELIA to save 15%. Baby Bat Beauty Wearing Baby Bat Beauty Amulet Baby Bat Beauty is a Philadelphia-based alt gothic indie makeup brand. They are talc-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Baby Bat Beauty is certified cruelty free by PETA. Bellabeautébar Bellabeautébar, an alternative indie cosmetics brand, was founded in New York in 2018 but now operates out of Sarasota, Florida, about 90 minutes south of me. They claim to specialize in smudge-proof, water-proof, and lon lasting cosmetics with a mixture of handmade and manufactured items to have broad customer appeal. They’re Leaping Bunny Certified cruelty-free. Most of their products are vegan. I’ve purchased the Basic Witch Palette and absolutely adore it! It’s in my top 3 most used palettes of 2024. Basic Witch has 9 mattes, 2 holo-chromes, 2 multichromes, and 2 duochromes. It’s vegan, paraben free, and cruelty free, though the mattes do contain talc. I also bought Recently Deinfluenced and it is fantastic. I’ve never tried visiting their Sarasota location, as I don’t know if it’s open to the public. Black Moon Cosmetics Wearing Black Moon Armageddon, a sexy blackened red lipstick Black Moon Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand that makes beautiful highlighters and liquid lipsticks! Sleepwalker is my favorite black lipstick, and I wore it to my gothic wedding. Armageddon is my favorite blackened burgundy metallic lipstick. Black Moon is cruelty-free and vegan. They’re certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny. I have been sent PR in the past. Blend Bunny Cosmetics Blend Bunny Cosmetics was created by a makeup artist for people who love makeup that actually blends, is pigmented, and high quality. They are cruelty-free, vegan, and Leaping Bunny certified. I fell in love with Blend Bunny’s now discontinued Surge palette, but I’ve stayed with the brand for their cool-toned Lure Palette. The Lure palette is so perfect for neutral cool skin like mine! I love all the colors in it! Cosmic Brushes Cosmic Brushes by Fay is a UK beauty brand. I love the two palettes I’ve purchased from them. I have the Gothic Palette and the Cooltrals Palette. They’re affordable and cruelty free. Devinah Cosmetics Wearing Fairy Fire and Rain Tarts Devinah, founded by Deandra, is a west coast indie beauty brand located in Albany, Oregon. The beautiful name means beloved, divine, heavenly. Deandra creates handcrafted, affordable, high-quality hand pressed eyeshadows. They are cruelty-free and PETA certified. Most of their products are vegan. Additionally, their mica is ethically sourced and certified child labor free. I own so many eyeshadows from Devinah! Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Frozen Waves, Starfire, Fae, Salvatore, Esmaray, Centaurus, Scylla, Skyla, Luna Storm, Moonlit, and Thetis are my shimmers. My mattes include Ravens Frost, Tessa, Elysium, Gloom, Midnight, Zane, Virago, Patrina, Aria, Esme, Ethereal, Jox, Pandora, Suki, Darena, Crixus, Jaded, Elphaba, Patina and Karma. I also own and love the Phantasia Palette, as well as Prelusion eye primer, and Specular glitter glue. My most used colors are Fairy Fire, Rain Tarts, Mystic Moonpie, Salvatore, and Starfire. Use the code CORDELIA to save you money at Devinah. Fyrinnae Fyrinnae is one of the OG alternative makeup brands! They make beautiful pressed and loose eyeshadows, lip lustres, perfumes, and more! Glam Goth Beauty Glam Goth Beauty is a black-owned gothic indie makeup brand from Los Angeles, California, founded by Marley Bloodrose. They sell glitter, glitter eye primer, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, jewelry, and more! I love that Marley says “We represent and support EVERYONE and celebrate the alternative and LBGTQ+ community because let’s face it, we are the future!” They are cruelty free with many vegan options. Half-Magic Beauty Half Magic Beauty was founded by Donni Davy, an Emmy Award-winning makeup artist and designer known for her work on HBO’s Euphoria. They’re cruelty-free and vegan. I love their lip pencils, glosses, and liquid eyeshadows. I wish they would release a cool-toned red iridescent gloss! Find them at their website and Ulta. Kaleidos Kaleidos is a cruelty-free brand founded by beauty blogger Zoey Pu, her boyfriend Tony Chen, and his friend Mark Henry. They are based in China and are commited to cruelty-free beauty. I love their eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, and eyeliners. They also recently released hair dye. KVD Vegan Beauty KVD Vegan Beauty feels like they’ve lost their vision as to who they are as a brand and who their target demographic is, but I love that they got rid of Kat von D. My favorite products are Dazzle eyeshadow sticks and lip pencils. They are cruelty free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find them on their website, Ulta, and Sephora. Lethal Cosmetics Lethal Cosmetics is an awesome alternative makeup brand based in Berlin, Germany. You can also find Lethal at Camera Ready Cosmetics. I have several magnetic stackable makeup palettes filled with my Lethal Cosmetics eyeshadows and blushes. I have been sent PR in the past. My favorite palette that Lethal ever created was the 1UP palette. Lime Crime Lime Crime is one of the most controversial beauty brands out there. Once Xenia stepped away from the board, I felt comfortable reviewing them. I have been sent PR in the past. However, they haven’t released anything new since Christmas 2023.  Lime Crime decided to discontinue their makeup and focus on their hair dye in 2024. You can find Lime Crime at Ulta and Amazon. Lunatick Cosmetic Labs Lunatick Cosmetic Labs, founded in 2012, make excellent alternative spooky themed products for spooky people. They’re 100% cruelty free, talc free, paraben free, and vegan. They’re PETA approved. I have been sent PR in the past. Malagna Cosmetics Malagna Cosmetics is a Mexican alternative makeup brand that loves dark art beauty. Their products are cruelty-free and vegan. They foster a community of gothic and alternative makeup lovers, where mutual support, acceptance and respect are promoted among the entire legion. I was sent the Ocaso Palette in PR and I adore it, especially the purple glitter shade! Manic Panic Manic Panic is the OG alternative hair and makeup brand, and they’re best known for their hair dyes. I love the UV reactive shades! Their makeup is ok, but I had to include them because I love their hair dye. You can also find Manic Panic on Amazon. I dye my hair Pink Warrior because it’s the perfect medium cool toned neon pink for my hair. It’s also UV reactive!  Plus, Manic Panic donates 15% of the sale of each bottle of Pink Warrior to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. As a breast cancer survivor, this is important to me. Manic Panic is cruelty-free and vegan, as well as PETA certified. I have been sent PR in the past. Melt Cosmetics Melt Cosmetics is an alternative beauty brand based in LA. They started with eyeshadow stacks at events like The Makeup Show, and now you can find them in Sephora. Melt is cruelty free and most products are vegan. They are also Leaping Bunny certified. My Pretty Zombie My Pretty Zombie is a fantastic spooky makeup brand that handmakes everything. They have gorgeous loose eyeshadows and blushes! They are cruelty free with many vegan options. I have been sent PR in the past. Use code myprettyphyrra to get15% off. Necromancy Cosmetica Necromancy Cosmetica is a terrific dark and avant-garde alt makeup brand located in Puerto Rico. They started out focusing on high-quality lipsticks and have expanded to eyeshadows. They have 32 lipsticks and 16 eyeshadows and pigments available. And they’re now selling singles! Necromancy Cosmetica is cruelty-free and vegan. I have been sent PR in the past. Rituel de Fille Rituel de Fille is a luxury alternative witchy makeup brand. They specialize in beautiful cream products. My favorite product from them is their inner cream glows for the cheeks. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Rituel de Fille on their website, Ulta, and Amazon. Silk Naturals Silk Naturals is an alternative indie skin care and natural makeup company in Trumansburg NY. They started making affordable cruelty free clean beauty products in 2006. I especially love their cream blushes, duochrome and multichrome loose eyeshadows, Slick Sticks, and Velvet Matte lipsticks. I have been sent PR in the past. Use the code CORDELIA for 10% off. Sugarpill Sugarpill is an excellent alternative gothic indie makeup brand that started around 2010, and I was one of the first bloggers to review them. I adore their loose eyeshadows, liquid lipsticks, blushes, and capsule palettes, which is why they’re one of the best gothic makeup brands. They also make great loose eyeshadows and single eyeshadows. I have been sent PR in the past. You can find Sugarpill at Beautylish too! Sydney Grace Co Sydney Grace is an alternative small family-owned cosmetics brand. They’re cruelty-free and all ingredients are ethically sourced. I have been sent PR in the past. Thrive Causemetics Thrive Causemetics is an alternative makeup brand that believes in the transformative power of beauty. They make my all time favorite mascara, the Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. Their goal is to elevate your daily routine with science-backed solutions that go beyond beauty. Each product is meticulously crafted with proven technologies to address your daily makeup needs, and every purchase you make contributes to one of their 550+ non-profit partners across the U.S. Makeup for a Cause Thrive Causemetics purchases help the following causes: cancer, domestic abuse, homelessness and poverty, Veterans, education, racial and social justice, under-resourced youth, and LGBTQ+ Thrive Causemetics products are 100% cruelty-free and 100% vegan. They use the most effective natural ingredients and safest synthetics to create the most beneficial products, and they leave out parabens, sulfates, phthalates, latex, and synthetic fragrance. If you only ever try one product from Thrive Causemetics, I recommend that it be their Liquid Lash Extensions tubing mascara. I’ve tried the black, blue, purple, green, and pink. They’re all gorgeous! I wish they would make a deep burgundy wine red version. Get $15 off your first order of $50 at Thrive. VE Cosmetics VE Cosmetics is a UK-based alternative makeup brand by Lynsey, who is an AuDHD Vegan with OCD/Tourettes, EDS & Fibromyalgia. She launched her beauty brand in 2015 and it is 100% cruelty-free and vegan. They are also PETA approved. Use code CORDELIA to get 10% off your order. Wicked Widow Beauty Wicked Widow Beauty is a cruelty free and vegan alternative makeup brand. They recently released an officially licensed The Crow palette. I have been sent PR in the past. Notable Brands Not Featured Everyone has brands that they avoid for different reasons. I’ve removed Terra Moons, Vampyre Cosmetics, and Shroud Cosmetics from my list and no longer buy from them or feature them. Other brands I no longer shop from are Portland Black Lipstick Company, Notoriously Morbid, Chaos Cosmetics, or Menagerie Cosmetics. I’ve never shopped at Ensley Reign, Glamlite, or Unearthly Cosmetics and will not buy from them. Honestly, there are more brands I avoid, but they don’t belong in this article. For Terra Moons, here’s why. For Vampyre Cosmetics,  here’s why. And for Shroud Cosmetics, here’s why. I’ve received PR from all three of them in the past. For Ensley Reign, here’s why. Final Thoughts At the end of December 2024, Dave and I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training, which has helped me recover my strength and stamina from all my 2023 and 2024 surgeries. We’ve taught our first class together too, which was awesome. We had so much fun! If you love what I create, please share my work on Reddit, Facebook, and other places you love to talk about makeup. Google has killed traffic to little blogs like mine. I’m always interested in learning about new alternative and gothic makeup brands. If there are any I need to know about, please let me know! More to See Source link

[cpacs-blog]

HC Levi gets to Hogwarts and he’s weird, intense, and edgy so everyone thinks he’s going to be in Slytherin. But sike! He’s a Gryffindor, but bc he is so stereotypically ~emo and unapproachable~ he doesn’t fit in. He kinda gets bullied (for being poor, for being an orphan, for being seen as an easy target, etc) and he just takes it because he’s emotionally exhausted. And he has no friends…

UNTIL

… he gets (forcefully) adopted as a friend by two bickering Hufflepuffs named Auruo and Petra. Petra sees Levi sitting alone at a meal and purposefully sits with him (despite having to be at the wrong table), dragging her bestie along for the ride. At first Levi is just a third-wheel to their constant (but loving) arguing but that gives him the time to soften. They don’t force him to open up but goddammit they will not let him wallow in loneliness!!! He has been adopted by extroverts.

The circle grows to include a kind Gryffindor named Eld, who was one of the few in the House that was polite to Levi to start with. Eld was out of the picture until now bc he was busy running the Gobstones club. That’s why he originally wasn’t as there for Levi- simply he didn’t have time to breathe- but he learns to time-manage better and now joins the crew. He brings with him a clubmate, a contemplative Ravenclaw named Gunther. And then another, louder Ravenclaw named Hange.

(And across the Great Hall, Levi falls for a Slytherin named Erwin.)

And this crew goes on adventures and gets into soooo much trouble together. It’s a weird group but you *do not* screw with them. People no longer pick on Levi for this very reason: you know you’re about to get fucked up if you see people standing up from all four tables to come at you.

[the-traveling-poet]

hellooo! Could I request a Levi x member of the special operation squad reader, where after they go back to the HQ the reader, who has always been a strong soldier broke down in a panic attack? Like, she usually doesn’t even cry for her comrades’ deaths but after losing half of the original squad, and especially Petra, and seeing their bodies being sacrificed for nothing she can’t take it anymore and break down in Levi’s office after maybe having to report? Thank youuu <3

Comfort

The 57th expedition outside the walls was a bust, despite the information about new threat of the Female Titan the Corps had gathered. And with information, came many lives lost. Upon returning to the abandoned HQ with Eren and Captain Levi, Y/N did her best to keep her composure after losing all of her closest friends. But at the end of the day, what she really needs is the comforting reassurance of the man who holds her heart.

Pairing: Levi x Reader

Warnings: Character death, angst, language, SFW, angst-to-comfort, S2

A/N: ofc anon! I love this idea so much, rip the og s.o.s. T-T Maybe a little ooc Levi, but I tried my best to keep him both true to his canon character and a little more on the softer side for reader.As always if something isn’t to your expectations just let me know and I’ll re-write whatever!

Enjoy~ 🤎

Deep breaths. Deep breaths, and don’t think about it.

You’d repeated this to yourself in your head for the past several hours, to no avail.

You were thankful you’d made it back alive from yet another expedition, of course, and was relieved to have successfully brung Eren back mostly unharmed with your squad. Well, what was left of it, at least.

As a soldier, you knew the risks you and your comrades took every time you swung up onto the backs of your horses and charged out of Maria’s gates. You’d seen death countless times. Bloody, mangled corpses littering the ground or sticking half out of steaming titan corpses before they could be fully devoured.

Over time, the overwhelming fear you’d feel every time ebbed away. It still grieved you to see familiar faces lying unmoving at your feet, but you no longer would lock up or break down on the spot.

You always saved that for later, when your assistance wasn’t needed and you had privacy to mourn on your own time.

But now? Now, that had all changed.

The deaths of your squad, the Special Operations Squad, was something you couldn’t just tune out until you reached your room for the night.

You’d been there, the moment steel met flesh and severed Gunther’s nape. You’d been there, when Eld’s body was crushed between the titan’s teeth. You’d heard Petra’s horrified screams and the sickening crunch of her spine shattering when the female titan slammed her petite frame against a tree. You’d tried to hold Oulo back, but his rage blinded him to the giant’s hand swinging towards him.

You’d frozen in fear, unable to make your fingers pull the triggers of your gear to race forward and avenge your comrades. Your friends. You’d hung in the air motionlessly, breath ragged and heart pounding. You urged yourself to move, to fight, to get out of the way and grab Eren as he zipped past you, screaming in rage.

But you hadn’t. You could only watch with tear blurred vision as the boy transformed, taking the female titan head on in combat.

It had been years since you had lost yourself on the field of battle, but here you found yourself; dangling there uselessly with your eyes stuck on the scene of the mangled redhead at the base of the tree below you.

You had dropped to the ground, barely feeling the impact that stung your feet and crouched beside your best friend. You knew it was pointless, you knew what you had seen. Yet still you reached out a shaking hand and checked for a pulse.

Gone. Just like all the others.

Unable to kneel any longer, you had collapsed to your knees, silent sobs racking your body and making your ribs ache with every jagged breath you drew.

The only thing that eventually snapped you out of it, was the sound of Eren’s titan screaming in the distance. Numbly, you’d gotten to your feet and took one last look around the forest. Though you couldn’t see Gunther’s body from where you stood, you made a silent promise to yourself to come back for their bodies.

Once the battle was won and Eren was retrieved, you had done just that. You led a small patrol to the spot in the large forest where their bodies remained, just as mangled as you’d left them.

You tried to keep your composure for your living comrades, but the dead squad’s glassy eyes staring blankly ahead, paired with their twisted expressions of agony frozen in time, you couldn’t contain the tears that rolled down your cheeks.

You’d personally carried them all in your arms, one by one, and wrapped them carefully in white sheets before setting them down comfortably in a wagon brought along for this very purpose.

You’d made it back your Captain, Levi. Taking note of his barely noticeable limp, you’d walked near him, just in case.

At the moment, your feelings towards the man were overridden by your grief, so you thought nothing much of the way he had shuffled closer to you, a worried look in his eyes aimed your way.

You never saw him eyeing you out of the corner of his eye, emotions being shown freely for once on his stoic face.

But all too soon that look was wiped away, when two scouts had gone back to retrieve the remains of their fallen friend, only to being danger hurdling towards what was left of the Scouting Legion.

You’d fought for several long minuets at titans spilled out for the forrest after the two soldiers who alerted their gaze, guarding the rear of the formation. But distinctly you heard the command being given to toss the bodies. You blood had run cold as your head snapped back towards the direction of the carts, watching on in despair as soldiers lowered the back gates and started heaving up soldier’s dead bodies to throw off the cart.

You understood this was to lessen the load, and ensure faster travels back to Wall Maria while trying to escape the titans nipping at your heels.

But the moment you caught Levi’s eye from on up ahead, and caught sight of stark red hair peeking through the white sheets of a body being trampled under foot, you again lost your composure.

It was a miracle you hadn’t been severely injured; at least physically, during the whole ordeal.

Eyes wide and a scream stuck in your throat, you watched as your closest friend, Petra Ral, was thrown over the wagon and trampled over by the hoard.

You’d wiped at your face and zipped back to your horse, landing with a barely concealed sob and raced forward after the rest of the formation.

Shaking your head once more, you straightened out your uniform and repeated that same phrase in your head.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths, and don’t think about it.

Steeling yourself, you raised a hand slowly and knocked on the door before you.

You’d returned to the old HQ some hours ago, alone with your thoughts as you helped settle an unconscious Eren into a spare bedroom to rest. His comrades had come in to check on him, but you hardly paid them any mind. At any moment, you knew you would break. Try as you might to store away your emotions for later, every minute that passed you by only made the task harder and harder.

But you had duties, as a scout. A scout of the Special Operations Squad, nonetheless.

So here you stood, before the old and worn office door, raising your fist to lightly knock on the surface.

“What is it?” a muffled voice responded to your knock.

After a short pause, you drew a shaky breath and spoke. “Cadet Y/N L/N, sir. I’ve finished the report I was assigned to.”

Though it was an oral report, as both you and your Captain knew, you’d spent some time alone to gather the right words to say in order to prevent yourself breaking down in front of someone else. Much less your Captain.

A tired and low voice granted you entry, and you slowly twisted the brass knob and entered the old office space.

Near the back wall of the office facing a window, stood your Captain. He was rigid, unmoving as he stared hard out the window. Giving a crisp salute, despite his turned back, you began the speech you’d preformed in your head hours prior.

“Captain, I’ve come to give my report on the happenings of the Special Operations Squad during the Fifty Seventh Exposition while your squad was under my care.” You started off boldly. Perhaps too boldly, you thought, as Levi spun on his heel and shot you his trademark glare.

Except this time, you didn’t detect annoyance or malice in his cold look. This time, all you saw was pain; mental, emotional, and physical, as well as a poorly hidden grief.

“Spit out then, L/N,” he scoffed, not quite looking you in the eye.

Taking a moment to compose yourself, you tried to continue.

“Yes sir. After your departure from the squad to rejoin with Commander Erwin, I took charge as ordered. We tethered the horses, as asked, and took a rest within the tree tops far away from the titan. After a rest, we were alerted by a smoke signal, one that told us you were on your way to regroup with us.”

A sudden pang of guilt coursed through you as you continued to recount the mission. Guilt for not figuring out the flare was a trap ahead of time…

“By the time we neared the cloaked individual who shot the flair, we realized…I realized…I was mistaken. When we thought it had been you; it had really been the trailer. She…She slit Cadet Gunther’s nape, before transforming and running us deeper into the wood.”

Here you voice started to waver, but you tried your best to push through your emotions and do your duty as second in command.

“Gunther Shultz fell, leaving the rest of us to guard Eren while coming up with a new course of action. Originally, we sent him away; for his safety, of course, while we dealt with the threat. By the time Eren was out of my sight, Eld Gin was slain by the Female. And soon after…After…”

Your breath was coming in rapid inhales and exhales, making you dizzy and light headed. Recounting this verbally was much more difficult than it had been earlier in the day when you recited your practiced lines in your head.

Verbalizing the events made them more and more real to you, reminding you this wasn’t some horrendous nightmare your subconscious had conjoined up.

Shifting your eyes down to your feet, you blinked back tears and tried your best to continue. During this time, you hadn’t noticed the change in expression on Levi’s face as he silently listened to your report.

“I attempted to restrain Oulo, as he lost control of his emotions during the battle when…When Petra…”

You swallowed thickly, your saliva doing little to coat you suddenly dry throat.

“Cadet Petra Ral…She fought valiantly. She attempted to cut out the bitch’s eyes, and avenge both Gunther and Eld. But before she could…She….She…”

You swallowed down your nausea as your mind went back to the memory of her twisted spine and splintered ribs. The way her uniform glistened with her own blood, tore apart by her shattered bones poking through her skin and the fabrics she wore.

“I was unable to aid them. Though I tried, I was too late. Eren Jaeger had taken matters into his own hands in my stead, taking on the female in combat…”

By now your voice wavered on every word you spoke, and your knees shook as they attempted to hold up your full weight. Your head spun, and your heart was frantically pounding in your chest; skipping beats and causing your diaphragm to ache and spasm with how you held your emotions back by a thread of restraint.

“I…I tried…I checked…I couldn’t…I…”

At this point, every word that left your chapped lips was accompanied by a deep gasp of breath. You felt as though you would collapse at any moment, and your hands shook uncontrollably.

You knew this sensation well, yet you’d never had had to suppress your emotions in front of someone like this before. The idea that you were losing control scared you shitless, but you still tried to push on.

“I’m sorry,” you finally managed to whisper, your head hung low and your vision obscured by unshed tears.

The office was silent for a long time, save for your strangled gasps as you forced oxygen into your lungs. Finally, the sound of Levi’s footsteps drawing closer toward you caused your gaze to snap up and meet his.

His expression was unreadable, as per usual. But for once, you could have sworn you caught the faintest flicker of sorrow mar his features. He slowly walked closer until he was standing before you, his eyes trained in your downturned face.

Once he came to a stop, you felt a hand gently grip your shoulder, causing you to flinch ever so slightly. Even still, he caught the motion.

“Y/N,” he whispered softly. “Look at me.”

Slowly, you dragged your gaze upwards to meet his, guilt and despair shining brightly in your teary eyes.

“You did your duty. You followed through with your orders, and helped ensure Eren’s safety. Most importantly, you made it back alive.”

His soft tone caught you off guard, causing your eyes to widen as you stared intently into his grey eyes.

“Captain-“

“No. None of that,” he cut you off. “You cannot…You will not, blame their deaths on yourself. All of you knew the risks. You all knew. Their deaths are not your fault.”

His whispered words finally broke the ever building dam in your heart, and you fell to your knees. His hand remained in your shoulder as you silently wept. Faintly, you registered his thin fingers tracing faint circles against your shoulder, but the grief you felt canceled out the feeling of butterflies in your stomach from his touch.

“I-I’m sorry. I couldn’t-“

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Y/N.”

Kneeling down in front of you, he placed a calluses hand under your chin and forced your head up to meet his gaze.

“I shouldn’t have left my quad; orders or not. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I failed my squad, not you.”

His words sent a shudder through your heart as you attempted to compose yourself.

“N-no. Not your fault, Captain.” you mumbled.

“Levi. Just Levi.” He whispered softly, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear.

Stiffing a hiccup, you looked up at him in surprise. “I’m sorry I couldn’t lead them better. I froze. I shut down and I shouldn’t have-“

“It happens. To all of us. You did what you could, and for that I am grateful.” He spoke in a stern voice, but no anger was to be found in his tone.

“What has happened, has happened. All that we can do now is honor their memories and their sacrifices by continue on in their stead.” He continued on, looking directly into your eyes. Wiping at your nose, you sniffled and tried your best to slow your tears.

“We cannot live to regret the choices we have made.”

His words sent a shock through system, but despite the grief you felt you knew he was right. Unable to resist any longer, you threw your arms around his shoulders and buried your face against his chest.

He stiffened slightly at the contact, but then slowly brought his arms up to rest upon your shoulders as he knelt with you in the office floor. Faintly, you registered a trail of warm liquid rolling down your cheek, alerting you to your tears. Without a word, Levi wiped them away.

“I’m glad you made it back to us. To me.” He whispered softly against your hair. “You are strong, and through you their strength shines. You did what you could, and you did your duty as a scout. No one could ask any more than that.”

You embraced him tightly, your anxiety ever so slowly subsiding. Never fully, but enough to choke out a few words of your own.

“I’m sorry, Levi. I’m sorry for your squad…Our, squad.”

“As you said, they fought valiantly. Up until the very end. Their loss grieves me as much as it does you, but we have to remain strong. We have to keep fighting. For them.”

You nodded your head against his chest, only subconsciously noting your tears had dampened his shirt. He ran his fingers delicately through your hair, as though trying to sooth you. Though his movement were awkward, you appreciated his attempting comfort and leaned your head snugger against his chest.

“Thank you, Levi.” You whispered.

You felt his hand trailing soothingly down your back as he sighed, holding you ever so slightly closer.

“I’m here, Y/N. I’m not going to leave you, and I’ll be damned if you try and leave me, too. We’re in this together….I’ve got you.”

[heybeybey]

Headcanon: Levi visits Petra’s grave at least once a month to clean or tidy it up.

He’d bring her orange flowers, along with a rag and a solution you use to clean the gravestone (I’m not entirely sure how these things go) or maybe trim the overgrown grass around it. 

When he’s satisfied of how clean it is, he’d just sit down in front and not say anything. 

Petra’s father once came over to visit Petra and was surprised when he found Captain Levi cleaning his daughter’s gravestone. He knows that the captain wasn’t much a talker from Petra’s letters so he just watches him. Sometimes he’d help and they both clean Petra’s grave in silence. 

And since her grave is next to Eld, Oluo and Gunther’s, he also cleans up the guys’ gravestones as well and lights a candle for each one of them.

To the Survey Corps soldiers who knows about this (which is few bec. Levi is a private guy), it just looks like his obsessive clean freakness taking over. He might also be doing it because it’s his former subordinates. 

But the truth is that it brings Levi back to the times when he orders his team to clean up their surroundings from the ground up (one of the closest things he’d associate to a “bonding moment” with the OG Spec Ops Squad). 

[everypetrapanel]

“Every Petra Panel”

Volume 6, Episode 25: Bite

[anya-grace]

i am writing a rivetra fanfic about Levi’s disappearance. no, he did not die nor did he get kidnwpped or anything whatsoever like that. nothing dramatical. it’s just him slowly fading away fromeveryone’s memory even if he’s still alive. and then bam! one day the squad just started to wonder why there is an extra room and extra chair and extra pillows and extra everything when they are only four in their squad.

She’s too forgetful these days.

Petra put the extra cup and saucer back to the cupboard, leaving only four on the table. For three consecutive days, she accidentally makes an extra cup of tea when their squad only consists of four people.

Eld doesn’t drink much tea, she and Gunther are okay with it, and Oluo...well, he’s imitating him again. He pretends to like tea when in reality, he hates it.

She is pouring the hot water on the second cup when she started to wonder.

Who was Oluo imitating again? She remembers him having this nasty little man-crush on one of their superiors.

But who was it again?

Petra can’t remember.

does this make sense????? i don’t know man but i’m sick of people forgetting the og levi squad so let’s make them forget their short captai instead :)