#i think it's still doable so long as i stick to a formula and have ideas/themes flow between scenes

[becauseplot]

alright so good news, i think i've (mostly) figured out the final outline for the new little dagger au fic. yippee! bad news though, the fic is now *checks notes* fifteen individual scenes/sections long. with the potential for more to be added as i go in order to fill in any major gaps. uh. hmm.

#this was originally supposed to be like 7 scenes MAX. and then it became 13. and then i scrapped a bunch of those scenes and replaced them. #and so now we're at 15(+). #the outline chart is a MESS but at least there is a chart now!!! and i've reduced the story to two timelines again!!! progress!!! #the real concern is that it's nonlinear so juggling all 15 scenes without it being hard to follow is gonna be interesting #i think it's still doable so long as i stick to a formula and have ideas/themes flow between scenes #it cant be much insanity-inducing than what writing AnGELS and When and Why was like. (actually no it definitely could lol.) #anyway time to stop being scared of this idea and get to work :thumbsup: #Little Dagger AU #dont mind me im just rambling

[gargaj]

A breakdown of the Revision 2020 Threeway Battle shader

Those of you who have been following this year's edition of Revision probably remember the unexpected twist in Sunday's timeline, where I was pitted in a coding "battle" against two of the best shader-coders in the world to fend for myself. Admittedly the buzz it caused caught me by surprise, but not as much as the feedback on the final shader I produced, so I hope to shed some light on how the shader works, in a way that's hopefully understandable to beginners and at least entertaining to experts, as well as providing some glimpses into my thought process along the way.

Recorded video of the event

But before we dive into the math and code, however, I think it's important to get some context by recounting the story of how we got here.

A brief history of demoscene live-coding

Visual coding has been massively opened up when graphics APIs began to introduce programmable fragment rendering, perhaps best known to most people as "pixel shaders"; this allowed programmers to run entire programmable functions on each pixel of a triangle, and none was more adamant to do that than a fellow named Iñigo Quilez (IQ), an understated genius who early on recognized the opportunity in covering the entire screen with a single polygon, and just doing the heavy lifting of creating geometry in the shader itself. His vision eventually spiraled into not only the modern 4k scene, but also the website ShaderToy, which almost every graphics programmer uses to test prototypes or just play around with algorithms. IQ, an old friend of mine since the mid-00s, eventually moved to the US, worked at Pixar and Oculus, and became something of a world-revered guru of computer graphics, but that (and life) has unfortunately caused him to shift away from the scene.

His vision of single-shader-single-quad-single-pass shader coding, in the meantime, created a very spectacular kind of live coding competition in the scene where two coders get only 25 minutes and the attention of an entire party hall, and they have to improvise their way out of the duel - this has been wildly successful at parties for the sheer showmanship and spectacle akin to rap battles, and none emerged from this little sport more remarkably than Flopine, a bubbly French girl who routinely shuffled up on stage wearing round spectacles and cat ears (actually they might be pony ears on second thought), and mopped the floor up with the competition. Her and a handful of other live-coders regularly stream on Twitch as practice, and have honed their live-coding craft for a few years at this point, garnering a considerable following.

Just a sample of insanity these people can do.

My contribution to this little sub-scene was coming up with a fancy name for it ("Shader Showdown"), as well as providing a little tool I called Bonzomatic (named after Bonzaj / Plastic, a mutual friend of IQ and myself, and the first person to create a live coding environment for demoparties) that I still maintain, but even though I feel a degree of involvement through the architectural side, I myself haven't been interested in participating: I know I can do okay under time pressure, but I don't really enjoy it, and while there's a certain overlap in what they do and what I do, I was always more interested in things like visual detail and representative geometry aided by editing and direction rather than looping abstract, fractal-like things. It just wasn't my thing.

Mistakes were made

But if I'm not attracted to this type of competition, how did I end up in the crossfire anyway? What I can't say is that it wasn't, to a considerable degree, my fault: as Revision 2020 was entirely online, most of the scene took it to themselves to sit in the demoscene Discord to get an experience closest to on-site socializing, given the somber circumstances of physical distancing. This also allowed a number of people who hasn't been around for a while to pop in to chat - like IQ, who, given his past, was mostly interested in the showdowns (during which Flopine crushed the competition) and the 4k compo.

As I haven't seen him around for a while, and as my mind is always looking for an angle, I somehow put two and two together, and asked him if he would consider taking part in a showdown at some point; he replied that he was up for it - this was around Saturday 10PM. I quickly pinged the rest of the showdown participants and organizers, as I spotted that Bullet was doing a DJ set the next day (which would've been in a relatively convenient timezone for IQ in California as well), and assumed that he didn't really have visuals for it - as there was already a "coding jam" over Ronny's set the day before, I figured there's a chance for squeezing an "extra round" of coding. Flopine was, of course, beyond excited by just the prospect of going against IQ, and by midnight we essentially got everything planned out (Bullet's consent notwithstanding, as he was completely out of the loop on this), and I was excited to watch...

...that is, until Havoc, the head honcho for the showdowns, off-handedly asked me about an at that point entirely hypothetical scenario: what would happen if IQ would, for some reason, challenge me instead of Flopine? Now, as said, I wasn't really into this, but being one to not let a good plan go to waste (especially if it was mine), I told Havoc I'd take one for the team and do it, although it probably wouldn't be very fun to watch. I then proceeded to quickly brief IQ in private and run him through the technicalities of the setup, the tool, the traditions and so on, and all is swell...

...that is, until IQ (this is at around 2AM) offhandedly mentions that "Havoc suggested we do a three-way with me, Flopine... and you." I quickly try to backpedal, but IQ seems to be into the idea, and worst of all, I've already essentially agreed to it, and to me, the only thing worse than being whipped in front of a few thousand people would be going back on your word. The only way out was through.

Weeks of coding can spare you hours of thinking

So now that I've got myself into this jar of pickles, I needed some ideas, and quick. (I didn't sleep much that night.) First off, I didn't want to do anything obviously 3D - both IQ and Flopine are masters of this, and I find it exhausting and frustrating, and it would've failed on every level possible. Fractals I'm awful at and while they do provide a decent amount of visual detail, they need a lot of practice and routine to get right. I also didn't want something very basic 2D, like a byte-beat, because those have a very limited degree of variation available, and the end result always looks a bit crude.

Luckily a few months ago an article I saw do rounds was a write-up by Sasha Martinsen on how to do "FUI"-s, or Fictional User Interfaces; overly complicated and abstract user interfaces that are prominent in sci-fi, with Gmunk being the Michael Jordan of the genre.

Image courtesy of Sasha Martinsen.

Sasha's idea is simple: make a few basic decent looking elements, and then just pile them on top of each other until it looks nice, maybe choose some careful colors, move them around a bit, place them around tastefully in 3D, et voilà, you're hacking the Gibson. It's something I attempted before, if somewhat unsuccessfully, in "Reboot", but I came back to it a few more times in my little private motion graphics experiments with much better results, and my prediction was that it would be doable in the given timeframe - or at least I hoped that my hazy 3AM brain was on the right track.

A bit of math

How to make this whole thing work? First, let's think about our rendering: We have a single rectangle and a single-pass shader that runs on it: this means no meshes, no geometry, no custom textures, no postprocessing, no particle systems and no fonts, which isn't a good place to start from. However, looking at some of Sasha's 3D GIFs, some of them look like they're variations of the same render put on planes one after the other - and as long as we can do one, we can do multiple of that.

Rough sketch of what we want to do; the planes would obviously be infinite in size but this representation is good enough for now.

Can we render multiple planes via a single shader? Sure, but we want them to look nice, and that requires a bit of thinking: The most common technique to render a "2D" shader and get a "3D" look is raymarching, specifically with signed distance fields - starting on a ray, and continually testing distances until a hit is found. This is a good method for "solid-ish" looking objects and scenes, but the idea for us is to have many infinite planes that also have some sort of alpha channel, so we'd have a big problem with 1) inaccuracy, as we'd never find a hit, just something "reasonably close", and even that would take us a few dozen steps, which is costly even for a single plane and 2) the handling of an alpha map can be really annoying, since we'd only find out our alpha value after our initial march, after which if our alpha is transparent we'd need to march again.

But wait - it's just infinite planes and a ray, right? So why don't we just assume that our ray is always hitting the plane (which it is, since we're looking at it), and just calculate an intersection the analytical way?

Note: I would normally refer to this method as "raytracing", but after some consultation with people smarter than I am, we concluded that the terms are used somewhat ambiguously, so let's just stick to "analytical ray solving" or something equally pedantic.

We know the mathematical equation for a ray is position = origin + direction * t (where t is a scalar that represents the distance/progress from the ray origin), and we know that the formula for a plane is A * x + B * y + C * z + D = 0, where (A, B, C) is the normal vector of the plane, and D is the distance from the origin. First, since the intersection will be the point in space that satisfies both equations, we substitute the ray (the above o + d * t for each axis) into the plane:

A * (ox + dx * t) + B * (oy + dy * t) + C * (oz + dz * t) + D = 0

To find out where this point is in space, we need to solve this for t, but it's currently mighty complicated. Luckily, since we assume that our planes are parallel to the X-Y plane, we know our (A, B, C) normal is (0, 0, 1), so we can simplify it down to:

oz + dz * t + D = 0

Which we can easily solve to t:

t = (D - oz) / dz

That's right: analytically finding a ray hit of a plane is literally a single subtraction and a division! Our frame rate (on this part) should be safe, and we're always guaranteed a hit as long as we're not looking completely perpendicular to the planes; we should have everything to start setting up our code.

Full disclosure: Given my (and in a way IQ's) lack of "live coding" experience, we agreed that there would be no voting for the round, and it'd be for glory only, but also that I'd be allowed to use a small cheat sheet of math like the equations for 2D rotation or e.g. the above final equation since I don't do this often enough to remember these things by heart, and I only had a few hours notice before the whole thing.

Setting up the rendering

Time to start coding then. First, let's calculate our texture coordinates in the 0..1 domain using the screen coordinates and the known backbuffer resolution (which is provided to us in Bonzomatic):

vec2 uv = vec2(gl_FragCoord.x / v2Resolution.x, gl_FragCoord.y / v2Resolution.y);

Then, let's create a ray from that:

vec3 rayDir = vec3( uv * 2 - 1, -1.0 ); rayDir.x *= v2Resolution.x / v2Resolution.y; // adjust for aspect ratio vec3 rayOrigin = vec3( 0, 0, 0 );

This creates a 3D vector for our direction that is -1,-1,-1 in the top left corner and 1,1,-1 in the bottom right (i.e. we're looking so that Z is decreasing into the screen), then we adjust the X coordinate since our screen isn't square, but our coordinates currently are - no need to even bother with normalizing, it'll be fine. Our origin is currently just sitting in the center.

Then, let's define (loosely) our plane, which is parallel to the XY plane:

float planeDist = 1.0f; // distance between each plane float planeZ = -5.0f; // Z position of the first plane

And solve our equation to t, as math'd out above:

float t = (planeZ - rayOrigin.z) / rayDir.z;

Then, calculate WHERE the hit is by taking that t by inserting it back to the original ray equation using our current direction and origin:

vec3 hitPos = rayOrigin + t * rayDir;

And now we have our intersection; since we already know the Z value, we can texture our plane by using the X and Y components to get a color value:

vec4 color = fui( hitPos.xy ); // XY plane our_color = color;

Of course we're gonna need the actual FUI function, which will be our procedural animated FUI texture, but let's just put something dummy there now, like a simple circle:

vec4 fui ( vec2 uv ) { return length(uv - 0.5) < 0.5 ? vec4(1) : vec(0); }

And here we go:

Very good, we have a single circle and if we animate the camera we can indeed tell that it is on a plane.

So first, let's tile it by using a modulo function; the modulo (or modulus) function simply wraps a number around another number (kinda like the remainder after a division, but for floating point numbers) and thus becomes extremely useful for tiling or repeating things:

We'll be using the modulo function rather extensively in this little exercise, so strap in. (Illustration via the Desmos calculator.)

vec4 layer = fui( mod( hitPos.xy, 1.0 ) );

This will wrap the texture coordinates of -inf..inf between 0..1:

We also need multiple planes, but how do we combine them? We could just blend them additively, but with the amount of content we have, we'd just burn them in to white and it'd look like a mess (and not the good kind of mess). We could instead just use normal "crossfade" / "lerp" blending based on the alpha value; the only trick here is to make sure we're rendering them from back to front since the front renders will blend over the back renders:

int steps = 10; float planeDist = 1.0f; for (int i=steps; i>=0; i--) { float planeZ = -1.0f * i * planeDist; float t = (planeZ - rayOrigin.z) / rayDir.z; if (t > 0.0f) // check if "t" is in front of us { vec3 hitPos = rayOrigin + t * rayDir; vec4 layer = fui( hitPos.xy, 2.0 ); // blend layers based on alpha output colour = mix( colour, layer, layer.a ); } }

And here we go:

We decreased the circles a bit in size to see the effect more.

Not bad! First thing we can do is just fade off the back layers, as if they were in a fog:

layer *= (steps - i) / float(steps);

We have a problem though: we should probably increase the sci-fi effect by moving the camera continually forward, but if we do, we're gonna run into a problem: Currently, since our planeZ is fixed to the 0.0 origin, they won't move with the camera. We could just add our camera Z to them, but then they would be fixed with the camera and wouldn't appear moving. What we instead want is to just render them AS IF they would be the closest 10 planes in front of the camera; the way we could do that is that if e.g. our planes' distance from each other is 5, then round the camera Z down to the nearest multiple of 5 (e.g. if the Z is at 13, we round down to 10), and start drawing from there; rounding up would be more accurate, but rounding down is easier, since we can just subtract the division remainder from Z like so:

float planeZ = (rayOrigin.z - mod(rayOrigin.z, planeDist)) - i * planeDist;

And now we have movement! Our basic rendering path is done.

Our little fictional UI

So now that we have the basic pipeline in place, let's see which elements can we adapt from Sasha's design pieces.

The first one I decided to go with wasn't strictly speaking in the set, but it was something that I saw used as design elements over the last two decades, and that's a thick hatch pattern element; I think it's often used because it has a nice industrial feel with it. Doing it in 2D is easy: We just add X and Y together, which will result in a diagonal gradient, and then we just turn that into an alternating pattern using, again, the modulo. All we need to do is limit it between two strips, and we have a perfectly functional "Police Line Do Not Cross" simulation.

return mod( uv.x + uv.y, 1 ) < 0.5 ? vec4(1) : vec4(0);

So let's stop here for a few moments; this isn't bad, but we're gonna need a few things. First, the repetition doesn't give us the nice symmetric look that Sasha recommends us to do, and secondly, we want them to look alive, to animate a bit.

Solving symmetry can be done just by modifying our repetition code a bit: instead of a straight up modulo with 1.0 that gives us a 0..1 range, let's use 2.0 to get a 0..2 range, then subtract 1.0 to get a -1..1 range, and then take the absolute value.

vec4 layer = fui( abs( mod( hitPos.xy, 2.0 ) - 1 ) );

This will give us a triangle-wave-like function, that goes from 0 to 1, then back to 0, then back to 1; in terms of texture coordinates, it will go back and forth between mirroring the texture in both directions, which, let's face it, looks Totally Sweet.

For animation, first I needed some sort of random value, but one that stayed deterministic based on a seed - in other words, I needed a function that took in a value, and returned a mangled version of it, but in a way that if I sent that value in twice, it would return the same mangled value twice. The most common way of doing it is taking the incoming "seed" value, and then driving it into some sort of function with a very large value that causes the function to alias, and then just returning the fraction portion of the number:

float rand(float x) { return fract(sin(x) * 430147.8193); }

Does it make any sense? No. Is it secure? No. Will it serve our purpose perfectly? Oh yes.

So how do we animate our layers? The obvious choice is animating both the hatch "gradient" value to make it crawl, and the start and end of our hatch pattern which causes the hatched strip to move up and down: simply take a random - seeded by our time value - of somewhere sensible (like between 0.2 and 0.8 so that it doesn't touch the edges) and add another random to it, seasoned to taste - we can even take a binary random to pick between horizontal and vertical strips:

The problems here are, of course, that currently they're moving 1) way too fast and 2) in unison. The fast motion obviously happens because the time value changes every frame, so it seeds our random differently every frame - this is easy to solve by just rounding our time value down to the nearest integer: this will result in some lovely jittery "digital" motion. The unison is also easy to solve: simply take the number of the layer, and add it to our time, thus shifting the time value for each layer; I also chose to multiply the layer ID with a random-ish number so that the layers actually animate independently, and the stutter doesn't happen in unison either:

vec4 fui( vec2 uv, float t ) { t = int(t); float start = rand(t) * 0.8 + 0.1; float end = start + 0.1; [...] } vec4 layer = fui( abs(mod(hitPos.xy, 2.0)-1), fGlobalTime + i * 4.7 );

Lovely!

Note: In hindsight using the Z coordinate of the plane would've given a more consistent result, but the way it animates, it doesn't really matter.

So let's think of more elements: the best looking one that seems to get the best mileage out in Sasha's blog is what I can best describe as the "slant" or "hockey stick" - a simple line, with a 45-degree turn in it. What I love about it is that the symmetry allows it to create little tunnels, gates, corridors, which will work great for our motion.

Creating it is easy: We just take a thin horizontal rectangle, and attach another rectangle to the end, but shift the coordinate of the second rectangle vertically, so that it gives us the 45-degree angle:

float p1 = 0.2; float p2 = 0.5; float p3 = 0.7; float y = 0.5; float thicc = 0.0025; if (p1 < uv.x && uv.x < p2 && y - thicc < uv.y && uv.y < y + thicc ) { return vec4(1); } if (p2 < uv.x && uv.x < p3 && y - thicc < uv.y - (uv.x - p2) && uv.y - (uv.x - p2) < y + thicc ) { return vec4(1); }

Note: In the final code, I had a rect() call which I originally intended to use as baking glow around my rectangle using a little routine I prototyped out earlier that morning, but I was ultimately too stressed to properly pull that off. Also, it's amazing how juvenile your variable names turn when people are watching.

Looks nice, but since this is such a thin sparse element, let's just... add more of it!

So what more can we add? Well, no sci-fi FUI is complete without random text and numbers, but we don't really have a font at hand. Or do we? For years, Bonzomatic has been "shipping" with this really gross checkerboard texture ostensibly for UV map testing:

What if we just desaturate and invert it?

We can then "slice" it up and render little sprites all over our texture: we already know how to draw a rectangle, so all we need is just 1) calculate which sprite we want to show 2) calculate the texture coordinate WITHIN that sprite and 3) sample the texture:

float sx = 0.3; float sy = 0.3; float size = 0.1; if (sx < uv.x && uv.x < sx + size && sy < uv.y &&uv.y < sy + size) { float spx = 2.0 / 8.0; // we have 8 tiles in the texture float spy = 3.0 / 8.0; vec2 spriteUV = (uv - vec2(sx,sy)) / size; vec4 sam = texture( texChecker, vec2(spx,spy) + spriteUV / 8.0 ); return dot( sam.rgb, vec3(0.33) ); }

Note: In the final code, I was only using the red component instead of desaturation because I forgot the texture doesn't always have red content - I stared at it for waaaay too long during the round trying to figure out why some sprites weren't working.

And again, let's just have more of it:

Getting there!

At this point the last thing I added was just circles and dots, because I was running out of ideas; but I also felt my visual content amount was getting to where I wanted them to be; it was also time to make it look a bit prettier.

Post-production / compositing

So we have our layers, they move, they might even have colors, but I'm still not happy with the visual result, since they are too single-colored, there's not enough tone in the picture.

The first thing I try nowadays when I'm on a black background is to just add either a single color, or a gradient:

vec4 colour = renderPlanes(uv); vec4 gradient = mix( vec4(0,0,0.2,1), vec4(0,0,0,1), uv.y); vec4 finalRender = mix( gradient, vec4(colour.xyz,1), colour.a);

This added a good chunk of depth considerably to the image, but I was still not happy with the too much separation between colors.

A very common method used in compositing in digital graphics is to just add bloom / glow; when used right, this helps us add us more luminance content to areas that would otherwise be solid color, and it helps the colors to blend a bit by providing some middle ground; unfortunately if we only have a single pass, the only way to get blur (and by extension, bloom) is repeatedly rendering the picture, and that'd tank our frame rate quickly.

Instead, I went back to one of the classics: the Variform "pixelize" overlay:

This is almost the same as a bloom effect, except instead of blurring the image, all you do is turn it into a lower resolution nearest point sampled version of itself, and blend that over the original image - since this doesn't need more than one sample per pixel (as we can reproduce pixelation by just messing with the texture coordinates), we can get away by rendering the scene only twice:

vec4 colour = renderPlanes(uv); colour += renderPlanes(uv - mod( uv, 0.1 ) ) * 0.4;

Much better tonal content!

So what else can we do? Well, most of the colors I chose are in the blue/orange/red range, and we don't get a lot of the green content; one of the things that I learned that it can look quite pretty if one takes a two-tone picture, and uses color-grading to push the midrange of a third tone - that way, the dominant colors will stay in the highlights, and the third tone will cover the mid-tones. (Naturally you have to be careful with this.)

"Boosting" a color in the mids is easy: lucky for us, if we consider the 0..1 range, exponential functions suit our purpose perfectly, because they start at 0, end at 1, but we can change how they get here:

So let's just push the green channel a tiny bit:

finalRender.g = pow(finalRender.g, 0.7);

Now all we need is to roll our camera for maximum cyberspace effect and we're done!

Best laid plans of OBS

As you can see from the code I posted the above, I wrote the final shader in GLSL; those who know me know that I'm a lot more comfortable with DirectX / HLSL, and may wonder why I switched, but of course there's another story here:

Given the remote nature of the event, all of the shader coding competition was performed online as well: since transmitting video from the coder's computer to a mixer, and then to another mixer, and then to a streaming provider, and then to the end user would've probably turned the image to mush, Alkama and Nusan came up with the idea of skipping a step and rigging up a version of Bonzo that ran on the coder's computer, but instead of streaming video, it sent the shader down to another instance of Bonzo, running on Diffty's computer, who then captured that instance and streamed it to the main Revision streaming hub. This, of course, meant that in a three-way, Diffty had to run three separate instances of Bonzo - but it worked fine with GLSL earlier, so why worry?

What we didn't necessarily realize at the time, is that the DirectX 11 shader compiler takes no hostages, and as soon as the shader reached un-unrollable level of complexity, it thoroughly locked down Diffty's machine, to the point that even the video of the DJ set he was playing started to drop out. I, on the other hand, didn't notice any of this, since my single local instance was doing fine, so I spent the first 15 minutes casually nuking Diffty's PC to shreds remotely, until I noticed Diffty and Havoc pleading on Discord to switch to GLSL because I'm setting things on fire unknowingly.

This is fine.

I was reluctant to do so, simply because of the muscle memory, but I was also aware that I should keep the show going if I can because if I bow out without a result, that would be a colossal embarrassment to everyone involved, and I only can take one of those once every week, and I was already above my quota - so, I quickly closed the DX11 version of Bonzo, loaded the shader up in a text editor, replaced "floatX" with "vecX" (fun drinking game: take a shot every time I messed it up during the live event), commented the whole thing out, loaded it into a GLSL bonzo, and quickly fixed all the other syntax differences (of which there were luckily not many, stuff like "mix" instead of "lerp", constructors, etc.), and within a few minutes I was back up and running.

This, weirdly, helped my morale a bit, because it was the kind of clutch move that for some reason appealed to me, and made me quite happy - although at that point I locked in so bad that not only did I pay absolutely not attention to the stream to see what the other two are doing, but that the drinks and snacks I prepared for the hour of battling went completely untouched.

In the end, when the hour clocked off, the shader itself turned out more or less how I wanted it, it worked really well with Bullet's techno-/psy-/hardtrance mix (not necessarily my jam, as everyone knows I'm more a broken beat guy, but pounding monotony can go well with coding focus), and I came away satisfied, although the perhaps saddest point of the adventure was yet to come: the lack of cathartic real-life ending that was taken from us due to the physical distance, when after all the excitement, all the cheers and hugs were merely lines of text on a screen - but you gotta deal with what you gotta deal with.

A small sampling of the Twitch reaction.

Conclusion

In the end, what was my takeaway from the experience?

First off, scoping is everything: Always aim to get an idea where you can maximize the outcome of the time invested with the highest amount of confidence of pulling it off. In this case, even though I was on short notice and in an environment I was unfamiliar with, I relied on something I knew, something I've done before, but no one else really has.

Secondly, broaden your influence: You never know when you can take something that seems initially unrelated, and bend it into something that you're doing with good results.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, step out of your comfort zone every so often; you'll never know what you'll find.

(And don't agree to everything willy-nilly, you absolute moron.)

#demoscene #live coding #livecoding #shaders #glsl #programming #gamedev #game development

[elizas-writing]

So with the high likelihood of humanity trotting its way to impending doom via global climate change in the near future— not to be dramatic or anything—, there is constant buzz across social media and real life on what consumers can do to lessen their carbon footprint. Ditching single use plastics, Meatless Mondays, composting, upcycling, shaming anyone who dares asks for a straw; you get the idea. I try to be environmentally sound where I can, and I began thinking about hair care since as a curly haired person, I end up buying a ton of products, most of it being plastic bottles out the wazoo.

Between conditioners, treatments and stylers, it’s hard to not be wasteful when you want healthy, happy and good-looking hair. But surely there has to be ways to compromise on that waste to have the hair you want, save money, and be kind to the planet. So I looked over the products I own and brands which other folks talk about, and I researched on consumer hacks and DIY methods for sustainable hair care.

The results? Well, let’s break down the three most doable options and their pros and cons.

Switching from Bottles to Bars

Instead of buying bottle after bottle, you can switch your shampoo and conditioner over to bar form. It’s all the same ingredients without any of the plastic. Shampoo and conditioner bars last anywhere from 50 to 80 washes depending on your hair length and frequency of washing. Best of all, they’re great for travel without fussing about liquids accidentally spilling in the rest of your toiletries or TSA’s fussing on the right number of ounces.

Jason And The Argan Oil with a Lush round metal tin

One of the best known brands for shampoo and conditioner bars is Lush. This company prides in reducing waste with package-free products, recycled packaging and using the freshest, ethically-sourced ingredients. Not only do they have shampoo and conditioner bars, but their solid hair care products also include oil treatments, henna hair dyes, a styler, and a co-wash. However, most of their products still use sulfates, which doesn’t sit well with most curly haired folks. I still use my Lush shampoo bar on days when I’m super grimy, and thankfully, my hair doesn’t dry out, but I’m careful to not overdo it as a precaution. Certain Lush fragrances can also be overpowering, and because some products are heavy in oils, if you accidentally use too much, you’ll weigh your hair down.

Thankfully, Lush isn’t the only brand on the bar hair care game. Shea Moisture has a small variety of shampoo bars, which I definitely need to try out. JR Liggett’s is another common brand I see popping up alongside Lush, and I’ve seen another called Ethique at Target which I wanna explore more of. You can also make your own shampoo and conditioner bars if you have the time, all the ingredients, and the right recipe. DIY is quite an investment, but if you’re itching for a new project and knowing for sure what’s in your products, the options are there.

However, there are a couple drawbacks to switching to bar form:

1. You can’t replace your whole routine: Aside from Lush, I have yet to see any variety of bar stylers, and I seriously doubt anyone figured out how to compact deep conditioners and gels into bars. Most conditioners can be easily converted into leave-ins, but that’s really it as far as bar hair care goes. So depending on your hair needs, you’ll probably still have buy some plastic containers. And of course, with trying any new products, you may come across items your hair won’t like, and you’ll have to do some trial-and-error to find a cocktail which works for your needs.

2. You have to be diligent to make the bars last: Unlike bottles where you can just leave them on the shower shelves, no big deal, you can’t do that with bars. If left in the shower without proper containers, the bars will slowly dissolve and crumble, stick to the shelves, and, heaven fucking forbid, may become a breeding ground for mold and mildew. The last thing you need is money going down the drain. Just throw down the extra few dollars for bar containers, and you’ll be good to go!

Shower Cap Conundrum

This was the main catalyst for me exploring environmental sustainability in hair care since I use a plastic cap every wash day for deep conditioning. Sometimes I’ll reuse grocery bags when I’m feeling really cheap (and I hoard them under the sink out of habit), but it’s still using plastic week after week. Disposable plastic caps are too easy to go to since they mostly adjust to any size of head with any hair type and length, so we usually don’t think of more eco-friendly alternatives like freaking reusable shower caps. Yeah, the solution is so stupid simple, I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner.

This requires a bit of research, because a lot of product descriptions don’t want to be specific what material lines the inside of the caps, and you don’t just want to throw on whatever and hope it works. I recommend focusing on products with enough customer reviews to gauge if a certain reusable cap is right for you, especially if you have long or afro-textured hair. I found one from Lulu Beauty through Ulta which seems promising enough, so I have my fingers crossed that it’ll suit my needs and I can stop wasting plastic. Most options I skimmed through in a couple stores range from $5 to $10, maybe $15 to $20 if you want it made out of King Midas’s silver or whatever. And in the long run, I know it’s going to be way cheaper than constantly buying packs of disposable shower caps.

One of the biggest issues in switching over to a reusable cap is that it’s very difficult to find a wide variety of such in most retail stores. That’s when the temptation to just go to Amazon kicks in, and I’m trying to not make that my automatic go-to site for shopping unless absolutely necessary. I don’t like giving Amazon my money as much as the next person, but I’m also a tired millennial without a car who loves convenience and options. Just the little joys of trying to be an ethical consumer in late stage capitalism. It’s worth checking through Ulta or Target or anywhere else first if at all possible. But if Amazon provides the best variety of what you’re looking for, I won’t shame you; I don’t have time for that, and I don’t know your life.

And speaking of companies and ethical consumption, that brings me to my last point…

Support Sustainable Companies & Pressure Others to Follow Suit

Left to Right: Maui Moisture’s Nourish & Moisture Conditioner, Smooth & Repair Shampoo, and Nourish & Moisture Weightless Oil Mist

Individual choices are fine and dandy, and any little effort we make helps. But to make the biggest impact, we gotta hone in on the companies that genuinely care about environmental sustainability, both in packaging and ingredients.

A lot of major go-to brands for curly hair already have a knack for ethically sourced ingredients and recycled packaging. All of Maui Moisture’s packaging is post-consumer recycled, and some select Shea Moisture packaging is made out of recycled resin. Not Your Mother’s is constantly pushing their Naturals lines to deliver salon quality with 98% naturally derived ingredients. And some brands which focus on solid beauty bars, like JR Liggett’s and Ethique as mentioned earlier, make it a mission to go plastic-free and ethically source all their ingredients

Another brand which sticks out most on environmental sustainability is Love Beauty and Planet. While I only tried out their rose hair mask, I appreciate their intensive dedication to do right for hair care and the planet. They admit their shortcomings and the difficulty to be perfectly sustainable, but they’re always looking for ways to do better with tangible goals in mind. They even recently changed their shampoo formula to sulfate-free! If you haven’t seen their website or social media on their sustainability goals, I definitely recommend doing so.

The fun thing about beauty companies is that they pay attention to demographic shifts, and they will do everything to target certain consumers to guarantee higher profits. Fenty Beauty starts off with 50 shades of foundation, which includes dark skin tones? Time to broaden the variety of foundations! Curly hair folks lean towards sulfate and silicone free formulas? Change up the formulas and throw in natural extracts!

Garnier Fructis is one of those brands really itching for the curly hair market by shifting towards more natural formulas without sulfates and silicons. Their One-Minute Hair Masks are the most impressive of this feat, especially with the recyclable containers and the list of ingredients. I actually love that the larger size uses all that space to break down where each ingredient comes from; I don’t know why most products of anything don’t do this, cause I think consumers get too paranoid on ingredients when there’s a big word they don’t automatically know. While Garnier Fructis is taking baby steps compared to most other brands, at this point, any progress a company can make to do better by their customers and Mother Earth is better than no progress. With companies and corporations being the largest producers of unneeded waste, we can’t afford to give them too much leeway anymore.

Sadly, I haven’t found any methods to go completely waste free as far as hair care goes. And that is completely fine. A lot of dialogue in reducing waste, especially plastic use, focuses far too much on shaming consumers for not being perfectly ethical, and I’m not here for that. We can always make the effort to do so, but it takes time to shift purchasing habits, and some alternatives may be too expensive. The best action we can practice is showing support for companies aiming for environmentally sustainable. We only got one planet Earth, and we all need to do our part to help it heal!

Environmental Sustainability & Hair Care: Is it Possible? So with the high likelihood of humanity trotting its way to impending doom via global climate change in the near future— not to be dramatic or anything—, there is constant buzz across social media and real life on what consumers can do to lessen their carbon footprint.

#conditioner bar #earth #eco #ecofriendly #environment #environmental #environmental sustainability #environmentally conscious #garnier fructis #hair #Hair Care #hair care routine #lush #maui moisture #plastic free #reduce waste #shampoo bar #shea moisture #sustainability #sustainable #Tips

[valentianking]

// hello!! i feel like i had questions that i wanted to ask the next alm that came in here, but.... i forgot what they all were |D instead, do you have any like hc reasoning/explanation/whatever behind alm picking up the bow when he goes hero? thank you!

/ Not a prob!  I know that feeling all too well, haha. So frustrating.

Sure!  I can try to answer that to the best of my ability. ovo)b

The biggest clue I’ve got is from this:

Alm: I’m just saying we could do it together. …Fighting, I mean. Not the lance. Grandfather trained all of us, right? Not just me. You already know how to use a sword and a bow. So what’s the problem?

Though, I can’t tell if that implies Mycen also taught him how to use a bow too or not….  So I’m going with as a fundamental basis that the village kids were taught how to hunt with a bow (their skills and interests in further learning may vary).  Alm was decent at it, perhaps even exceeding normal expectations as he learned quickly.  Young Alm would put too much power behind shooting his arrows, however, causing them to self-destruct or splinter over half of the time.

I’d imagine Ram Village’s most accessible weaponry (or… what could pass as weapons) are swords, wooden bows meant for hunting, short spears (not anything like a battle lance, also meant for hunting or self-dense, can’t really kill someone with it reliably).  Lightweight books from the local school/library that only teaches the basic formula of black/white magic.  (And probably only a few spells… I won’t be surprised at all if Rigelian magic was deemed evil witchcraft and got banned from Zofia schools/libraries.)

So, why does Alm pick up bows as his secondary weaponry?

 It’s what he’s most familiar with, and he isn’t really fond of… change.  He does have his moments of being surprisingly adaptive, but many things do hit his stubborn bone.  Learning a whole new skill to wield a weapon when he already had basic skills of another count toward that.

Your question gives me some excuse to put some relevant hcs I had buzzing around in my head, I’ll get back to bows in a bit! 

His secondary choices are, from least to most doable:

1. Black/White Magic

Alm sucks at magic.  Not into reading complicated things, and magic is complicated to him.  Extorting oneself’s strength or health [?*] sounds too risky for his own wellbeing in battle with his fighting style, so he doesn’t even try.

( *Valentian magic meta isn’t my area… or my expertise either, I’ll leave it up to the more magical-inclined SoV muses to advocate, >_/. )

2. Lances

Considering who his father is and being under Mycen’s tutelage, one’d think he’d be all gung-ho about using lances eventually or be good at them, except it’s the exact opposite.  He’s the kid who tries using short spears like a sword.

Ram Village’s got their working horses for farming and pulling moving structures uses, and you’d be lucky to find a horse strong enough to let a person learn how to ride for long.

.Ignoring gameplay—from what I can tell, the mounted fighters are all of high noble birth or has reached high in the military ranks (Clive, Mathilda, Clair, Fernand, Mycen, Conrad). They have the wealth and training to fight horseback using warhorses compared to some backwood runts having played sticks.

Alm has no experience with fighting horseback, and I’d believe he tried learning once (whether during the war due to his commander status or postwar to appear all imposing as king).  It never works out for him as he’s much better off fighting on his feet on the ground.  His fighting style and agility are all ingrained into his footwork, too, that not being able to use his legs around the battlefield would take eons to re-learn on horseback.

Alm doesn’t find the time to learn to efficiently fight enemies as an infantry soldier with a lance like Lukas or Forsyth, either.

After the failures with magic and lances, this brings us to:

3. Bows

Let’s be real, Alm loves the power he can put into his attacks.  Behind his sword swings or his arrows shots.  He hits hard and gets a mid-battle thrill out of it.  Basic skills from using a hunting bow can apply to a real bow for battle, they just offer better befitting bows and arrows.

They’re also a decent counter for magical enemies when it’s too dangerous for melee what with his low resistance to magic attacks.

I’d still imagine Python or one of his village friends (whoever becomes archer) assists Alm in his archery mastery.

#redmessenger #( asks. ) #( headcanons. ) #/ hope the answer is sufficient! haha #long post /

[howtoloseweightfastsafely]

How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence

1. Set a specific goal

a. Write this goal down somewhere you can see it every morning when you wake up, and every night before you sleep

i. Train your thoughts to remember this goal daily and keep it in the forefront of your mind

b. Goals must include both of the following:

i. A measurable metric ("10 pounds" or "2 dress sizes")

ii. A deadline or time frame ("June 30th" or "2 weeks", preferably use both)

c. Here are some bad goals

i. "Lose 20 pounds"

ii. "Get lean"

iii. "Look hot for beach season"

d. Here are some good goals:

i. "Lose 50 pounds before beach season (June 30th)"

ii. "Drop 1 dress size in the next 2 weeks (November 25th)"

iii. "Lose 4 inches from my waist in the next 6 weeks (December 25th)"

e. Every 2 weeks or every month, review your goal and adjust it based on your progress so far

2. Understand that everybody needs a "Harajuku Moment"

a. This moment is an "an epiphany that turns a nice-to-have into a must-have." Without this tipping point, you will fail.

b. This was first popularized by Tim Ferriss in the 4 Hour Body, and it has been crucial for all major obstacles I've overcome in my life

c. Until I had the psychic shift which turned "I want to lose weight" to "I must lose weight", I never had lasting success.

3. Relax and ease your mind with meditating

a. Start with just 2 minutes a day and slowly build the habit.

b. Add 1 or 2 minutes each week, until you're up to 10-20 minutes daily.

c. This can come in the form of prayer to, or a mix of both.

4. Write a very short, simple daily journal in which you record "wins", priorities, and gratitude

a. Every evening take just 2-3 minutes and write down 3 "wins"/things that went well today.

i. This can be something major "prepared and packed all meals for the week" or something very simple like "paid my phone bill".

ii. We all deserve great things, yourself included. Let these "wins" serve as a daily reminder of the positive momentum you're making towards your dreams.

b. Also, plan out 3-5 things you want to get done throughout the day.

i. This "priorities" list makes it clear what needs to get done to reach your goals.

ii. By keeping it at a max of 5 things to do, we keep the list manageable and doable in a daily basis.

iii. Imagine how productive you would be in just 1 month if you did anywhere between 3-5 things every day in pursuit of your goals.

c. Lastly, record a very simple daily "gratitude list"

i. Basically, write the names of people you're grateful for today

ii. For me, this usually comes in the form of family, close friends, co-workers, and anybody else you feel has had an impact on you, on a certain day.

iii. Feel free to write things/material possessions or spiritual things also

On certain days, I may even write down how grateful I am for the simple things like having a roof over my head and a warm meal at night.

This is made even more clear to me from walking around lower Manhattan at 9 a.m. and seeing homeless, penniless young people my age (25 y.o) who slept on the street overnight, in a thin sleeping bag, with 30-degree temperatures outside.

iv. This is a daily reminder that whether you have just 1 person or 1 thing, or if you have 20 things to be grateful for, you're doing OK, and no matter what obstacles you're stuck with, you'll be OK.

 5. If you feel out of place in the gym, repeat this simple mantra a few times to remind yourself to work hard and stop thinking that people are watching and judging you:

i. "You look amazing. No one is watching you. Keep up the good work."

6. Every weekend choose 2 meals each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Write them down in your journal or in a safe place.

a. Then head to the grocery store and buy the ingredients you need

b. Then cook the 1st set of these meals to last you 3-4 days.

c. Once these run out (usually on a Wednesday or Thursday, if you cook on Sunday), cook the 2nd set of the meals to last you til the weekend.

d. As a result, remove all barriers and unnecessary "thinking" attached to food choices.

7. Look at other "little things" in your life that take up big chunks of mental space, and hack away at the unessential. Some of my personal examples:

a. I use Mint.com to track spending, and I use CreditKarma.com to monitor my credit score.

i. Instead of constantly thinking about how much money I "need", I start by identifying weak points/unnecessary spending

b. I never watch the news on TV. I'll occasionally talk to people for a few minutes to hear what's going on in the world, or if I have a few free minutes I'll scroll through the major articles online.

i. As a result, I have much less stress, more positivity, and don't worry myself/build an unhealthy fear around things that are 100% out of my control.

c. I've cut out "binge" TV watching, and instead spend time doing productive things that allow me to help other people (and feel amazing as a result), like writing this book and building up a health business.

i. I'll occasionally watch an episode of something that makes me laugh like Family Guy or The Office if I want to de-stress a bit

ii. I try to never watch TV series and/or dramas since they are very, very easy to get addicted to. (I make a weekly exception when Game of Thrones is on).

iii. Don't be that guy or girl who watches 6 hours of the Walking Dead or one of their 7 other "can't miss" TV series, and gets nothing done for themselves.

d. I have 7 "nice shirts" (5 dress shirts and 2 sweaters) and 8 "nice pants" (5 dress slacks and 3 pairs of jeans/casual pants).

i. These are all well-fitting and comfortable, and I just rotate this week by week.

ii. I no longer worry about what to wear in the morning or how I'll look or anything meaningless like that.

iii. Live is much, much simpler in the morning. (I can actually get ready, from bed to the front door, in less than 7 minutes on any given day. Sure it's a bit rushed, but it works like a charm.)

iv. Also, I used to always worry that "people saw me wear this shirt last Tuesday, I can't wear it again!!". This is crazy. Trust me, no one cares to remember what you've worn on any given day, so stick to a few simple clothing choices and just rotate them every 7-10 days.

Remember: None of these strategies will work for you if you don't do them! So get to it!!

 Interested in losing weight? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

Read the previous article about "Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality"

Read the next article about "Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results"

Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster, and feel great doing it.

Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com

#weightloss #diet

[prettynerdyjuicemaloose-blog]

Tools of the Beauty Trade: The Face

Even though pretty much all makeup can be applied to the face using your phalanges (maybe not well, but you’ll definitely get it on there), the civilized among us will seek out different tools for different jobs, depending on what sort of look we’re going for. These days there’s a sheer plethora, a menagerie if you will, of different sponges, brushes, combs, spatulas, silicone gimmicks and battery-powered devices that will promise you the best looking face you can manage out of your mixed bag of features (which are gorgeous as they are, mind you). But where do you start, and what are your choices, and what the hell do you do with it? Well, that’s a long story, so we’re gonna start with applying the base makeup and work from there.

Applying Primer - Since all you need is an even layer to start, blending it on with the fingers is fine. Some use a foundation brush to avoid icking up their fingers, the choice is yours.

Tools for Applying Foundation

I have to believe that the fingers were the original tool for this job (anyone know the history of this?) and to this day it isn’t necessarily the worst option. The benefits probably don’t outweigh the disadvantages considering the cost-effective, convenient solutions available on the market today (see below). Applying foundation with your fingers is doable in the absence of all other options, but you’ll find it harder to blend the makeup evenly as your fingers will remove product from your face just as easily as they apply it. Also, other tools generally have a larger, more even surface area than your fingertips (unless you’re using your whole palm to apply makeup of course), which will allow you to get the job done quicker. It’s also messy to use your fingers, and as most makeup products are made with the intention to stay on your face a long time, sometimes just washing your hands afterwards isn’t enough.

A Foundation Brush, like this one from Sephora, is usually on the larger side to cover more area with less work. This one is shaped like a paddle, meaning it’s flat and wide, with a round or tapered tip to allow you to blend foundation in the nooks and crannies around the nose. There are also kabuki style brushes that are used to buff on makeup, and tend to spread product on more evenly, whereas a paddle brush can make it feel like you’re painting a house. Generally you’ll want a brush with bristles that are densely packed, so that it holds on to product without soaking up too much, which results in wasted makeup. You’ll also want the brush to be quite soft to the touch, so you’re not scratching at your pretty face for one, but also because it promotes better blending. Cousin to the kabuki brush is the stippling brush, which is intended for lightly patting or stippling makeup on. With any of these options you can swipe, swirl, stipple, buff, or whatever your makeup on; some just do better at certain motions than others.

Some beauty enthusiasts swear by using a brush, as seen in this video by Laura Lee with her favored Y6 Morphe brush. Others may complain that a brush makes some makeup harder to blend, or leaves streaks behind. Usually this depends on the quality of the brush and the product you are using.

The brush’s biggest opponent in the beauty world is the Blender Sponge, often referred to as a beauty blender, based on the original of its kind. Here’s a video of Tati using a beauty blender to apply foundation and concealer. Nowadays a blender sponge comes in many shapes and sizes, but traditionally it is an egg-shaped, dense, yet soft foam that expands when soaked with water. Alternatively, a blender sponge might have a sharp, flat side that can be useful for applying makeup to hard to blend areas, like the under-eyes or the sides of the nose. While you may use the sponge when it’s dry to apply makeup, often the best results come from first running the sponge under water and squeezing out the excess so it is damp. Doing this first ensures your makeup will spread and blend better onto the skin, and with the sponge already wet it will absorb less product, allowing you to layer on plenty of coverage.

Not all blender sponges are created equal. A sponge that is too dense will make it tougher for product to spread evenly or blend well into the skin, and a sponge that is too soft and airy will absorb more product (a waste of money) and potentially leave your foundation patchy and uneven. Shape is important as well, as too many sharp edges might leave lines or tracks of foundation on the face. A sponge that is completely round will give you a tough time blending the area around the nose and eyes. Usually an egg shape, or a round sponge with a flat side will work the best.

Sponges also come in different sizes, from very small to quite large. Your best bet is to stick with a standard size that easily fits in the palm of your hand as this allows you to cover the face quickly while still being able to get into the tight areas without needing a separate tool.

Tools for Applying Concealer

First things first, in order to understand the best tools for this task, it’s important to know where concealer should go on the face. The truth is it can go wherever you want. Where concealer is applied varies from person to person based on preference and where areas of discoloration exist on your face.

Traditionally, concealer is used as a spot treatment for small areas of discoloration when foundation isn’t enough. Think zits, hyper-pigmentation, scars, etc. Likewise, many beauty enthusiasts will use concealer that is a shade or two lighter than their foundation to highlight certain areas of the face for more dimension, which can be very flattering. This would primarily include right under the eyes, and sometimes the areas of the t-zone (forehead, nose and chin) that are naturally more exposed to light. Lastly, concealer can be used for more advanced beauty techniques, such as “cutting” a crease along your cheekbone contour, or in the eye area.

While many low-maintenance makeup users will simply use the fingers to apply their concealer, others may prefer an alternative option due to the fact that the texture of your fingertips will remove product from your face as easily as it lays it down, often making it harder to blend. Even so, many swear by using the ring finger to gently lay down product, as it is generally accepted that the ring finger applies the least amount of pressure.

Like with foundation, there are various brushes available for the purpose of applying concealer. Some will simply use their foundation brush, though a brush that is very large may dispense concealer in a much larger area than intended. A Concealer Brush, like the famous 195 from MAC, is a small flat, “paddle” brush with a round or tapered tip. The flat side is used to ‘pat’ on product, while the tip is great for doing detail work and softly blending the edges.

Blender sponges are often considered more convenient for applying foundation and concealer with one sponge (as opposed to multiple brushes). If your sponge has a pointy end, or a flat edge, this is a great option for applying concealer under the eyes and being able to get close to the bottom lashes, as demonstrated in the video by Tati linked earlier in this article. Many find sponges to be the more versatile tool given their ability to be manipulated (see: squished) to fit all the different contours of the face. Like with foundation, a damp blender sponge is often the best for blending on concealer.

Tools for Applying Setting Powder

Even though most setting powders come with their own little powder puff, a Powder Brush is arguably the better tool for the job. Generally, a good powder brush, like this one from IT Cosmetics, is large in size with a dome top, good for dispensing powder evenly over large portions of the face. Some prefer a separate, smaller brush for the under-eye area, like this one from Real Techniques.

Powder Puffs is still a viable option, though some complain about the lack of control in how product is distributed, as brushes generally sweep away excess powder without disturbing the makeup below better than a puff. That said, some prefer the puff for blotting, which is to lightly pat the puff on your face to “blot” away excess shine, something that can be carried with you for touch-ups throughout the day.

Many beauty enthusiasts like to “bake” their powder on their face, which is an advanced technique explained well in this video, once again by Tati. Typically this is accomplished using a damp blender sponge to pat on the powder, which is then later brushed away with a powder brush.

Alternative Tools

Trends come and go everywhere, and cosmetic tools are no different. Lately the goal seems to be trying to invent a tool to apply foundation and other makeup flawlessly, without absorbing any product (saving money and theoretically being more hygienic). This has resulted in the SiliSponge, the Evie Blender, and dozens of derivatives that are made of a firm silicone. While the concept is sound, those who are new to makeup may find brushes and sponges to be more forgiving in getting that seamless finish with little effort.

Another fad was started by Artis, and their line of uniquely shaped brushes. Highly rated by the beauty community, Artis brushes are incredibly soft, and blend product well with hardly any work. The bristles are packed together very tightly, allowing for most of the product to stay on the surface of the bristles rather than soaking in. As favored as these brushes are by many, they’re also very expensive. You’ll find inexpensive dupes of the Artis brushes almost everywhere, especially on Amazon, but the quality and density of the bristles will vary.

This rundown is based on my own knowledge and experiences with this topic, and individual experiences will of course vary depending on the formula and consistency of the makeup you use and the quality of the tool. Hopefully knowing a little bit about what type of tools exist will help you decide which works best for you.

#makeup #cosmetics #cosmetic brushes #face makeup #foundation #concealer #beautyblender

[kimpossiblygorgeous]

PIXI + ItsJudyTime Collaboration: ItsEyeTime & ItsLipTime Review

It felt surreal when I had the chance to meet Judy Travis of ItsJudyTime and her adorable family back in January. She’s one of the OG beauty gurus in YouTube and she also has a daily vlog channel that I follow every morning since roughly before the twins can stitch three words together. Remember “You want palo?” LOL I’m a fangirl and I love the baby bears way too much, okay Judy and Benji are not far behind… So when Pixi Philippines invited me to the launch of Pixi + ItsJudyTime palettes (with a meet & greet!), I almost replied “Yes, mommy!” to the email. Almost. Whew!

Anyway, I’d leave these photos from that special day here so that we can go on with the true purpose of this post – the palettes, silly, don’t let Julianna, Miya and Keira’s cuteness distract you further.

With the guidance of Petra and Pixi Beauty, Judy and the other #PixiPretties collaborators have created their “dream” beauty products that not only represent their individual points of view but parallel Pixi’s philosophy of fuss-free in a few minutes. Judy transitioned to a mom on-the-go (which she does gracefully) who loves glamming herself up from time to time over the years. So I expected her product to be practical, no-nonsense and efficient. And we got it; actually, we got two! A 12-shade eyeshadow palette called ItsEyeTime and its lipstick counterpart called ItsLipTime.

ItsEyeTime – Retailing at Php1,495 at Glamourbox, this eyeshadow palette is very Judy. Do you see it, too? You get equal amounts of matte and shimmer neutral shades, which lean on the warmer side. The colors are pretty true to what is in the pan, and the actual formula is pretty hard to beat – I’m talking about nice pigment, very blendable and long lasting. The dark shades have better texture compared to some of the light mattes, but all they ever need is a slight boost of an eyeshadow primer.

Order of swatches is from bottom to top, left picture first then right. Sorry, I kinda messed it up.

Snowflake – Light champagne color that’s really creamy.

Bubbly – Another beautiful shimmery color in gold.

itsmommyslife – My go-to soft, warm brown shade.

Good Morning – Good transitional peach color as it’s sheer enough for that purpose.

Brick – True “brick” shade and very pigmented. One of my favorites!

Honey Bear – Typical matte light brown. Good coverage for a matte finish.

Tu Tu – Another favorite! Reddish brown that looks great on brown eyes. Take note!

Getaway – Ahh, look at that rich pigment! It’s a copper shade with loads of shimmers.

Ping – Deep brown complement of Getaway. Shimmer-wise.

Dark Chocolate – Chocolate brown. ‘Nuff said.

Aww Snap – Brown with slight red undertones. Quite patchy but doable.

Night Night – Black with bluish silver sparkles. I wish it’s more intense and not “soft” because blacks are not soft!

ItsLipTime – To start, I’m a big lipstick girl but not a fan of it in a pan. My old all-in-one palettes have lipsticks still untouched. Maybe I never got into using my fingers to apply, and I’m all like “who has time for that?” to look for a lip brush when I’m rushing in the morning. However, I find that Judy’s take on lip palette is actually good. The colors, albeit not created equal, are beautiful and creamy. The lighter shades require at least two layers using your finger (yes, it’s better than a brush with this palette) for the full opaqueness to show. They are lightweight and with decent wear time. If nude and berry lipsticks are your jam, you get a color for Php125 as this retails for Php1,495 at Glamourbox.

Again, order of swatches is from bottom to top, left picture first then right.

Ta-da – A very sheer, very pale nude. I cannot wear this on its own unfortunately; I think its better to pair with another color to create an ombre look.

Peaches – A peachy kind of nude with a good color payoff.

Julianna Bear – JB! LOL It’s a pinkier nude, very versatile and everybody can wear it.

Milk Chocolate – This one looks soft brown on my arm yet sheer dusty pink on my lips.

Kiera Bear – The rosy peach twin. It looks similar to Ate JB. LOL

Miya Bear – The muted rose bordering brown twin.

B Did It – Barbie pink with just enough brightness.

Falling Leaves – My favorite! Like the warmness Autumn color on my lips.

Chewy – Describing shades is tough! Does this look like reddish Miya Bear to you? It does to me.

Fierce – A deep berry. Perfect for night outs, but then again I don’t do night outs. Haha

Sweet Cherry – Classic red shade. Because it’s not a lipstick palette without it.

Sultry – Intense wine red. Another favorite because it has the most perfect formula from the bunch.

Wearing Pixi + itsjudytime ItsLipTime Get The Look Palette in Fierce

While I think they are good travel palettes, the Pixi-signature light green packaging has a flimsy clear cover. It feels like a toy, which was the first thing that came into my mind. I appreciate the mirror you can stick on though, that’s a lovely bonus.

--

Overall, I’d bring these when I go on vacations because it’s practical, I cannot complain that I cannot find a suitable eyeshadow or lipstick shade. But not when I’m going to have a long day here in the city, because imagine if I need to retouch my lipstick and a whip out a palette – a bullet is just easier, right? Get them because the darker shades (in both palettes) pack quite a punch, or if you need new colors to play around with, or if like me, you feel the need to get every makeup with Judy’s approval. Haha!

WHERE TO FIND: Glamourbox

BLOGLOVIN  |  FACEBOOK  |  TWITTER

#itsjudytime #judy travis #itsjudyslife #pixi #pixi beauty #review #itseyetime #itsliptime #lipstick #eyeshadow #palette

[whatevernevermind]

15 Important Facts That You Should Know About SEO 2019

A good SEO keyword technique is like magic, working at the rear of the scenes to boost your own rankings on the search motors. A greater number associated with people will stick to tone of voice search, so SEO specialists will certainly need to adjust to this particular relatively new kind of research. Seo or SEO is definitely a powerful method to generate targeted traffic to your internet site and hopefully increase your bottom level line. Whilst many marketing tactics rely upon you reaching out to your own audience, SEO gives you the particular power to achieve people whenever they are actively searching away information related to your providers and products. White colored hat SEOs the actual recommendations of Google and other lookup engines like google. As Google's search engine outcomes become increasingly monetized and additional platforms such as Amazon plus YouTube gain more SoV plus search volume, I think wish overdue for the focus associated with SEO to shift far through Google. Traditional SEO is definitely focused on building (keyword relevant) links and (keyword relevant) content material. The main reason these kinds of are sometimes misunderstood is because there are a whole Internet underbelly of alleged SEO companies that you may pay to link to your own site on their networks associated with low-quality articles. However, before we obtain to our main event, I actually must note that after our own 2017 edition of SEO developments launched last year on Lookup Engine Journal, we heard the couple of complaints about simply how long it was. After that your boss tells you most likely accountable for search engine optimisation (SEO), too. Michael jordan Harling, SEO Specialist at Roman Blinds Direct, agrees with the particular consensus that voice search may be the trend in 2019. In 2018, SEO is content and content material is SEO, content is electronic and digital is content. Before starting a good SEO project, site owners ought to carefully read through the internet marketer guidelines that every search motors provides and follow recommended greatest practices. This is clear that when website owners hire a search engine marketing SEO expert, they stand the better chance of maximizing their own SEO services. Search motors cannot understand this type associated with content, so it's essential to design and style video pages in an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION oriented manner. Subscribe to our weekly SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and daily SearchCap newsletters for a summarize of all the latest SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION related news, tips and strategies from Internet search engine Property and other sources all more than the Web. When if you're logged in, go to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Toolkit » Keyword Research » Keyword Overview. For just about any SEO technique to operate successfully you will need content and that will can come in any type like keywords, articles or sites. From 2019, AI will certainly be utilized by the businesses to acquire higher rankings upon search engines. For that reason, it can be a great idea to incorporate expenses with regard to professional SEO content in your own quarterly marketing budget. Google will see right via sneaky, black hat SEO methods like creating duplicate pages, producing pages with thin content simply for the sake of obtaining more pages and buying inbound links. This particular means that SEOs spend the lot of time working upon getting links in a procedure called link building Link-building methods can range from simply asking for a link to writing the guest post - and presently there are many others. Basically, SEO plans the keywords that will are to be delivered plus content provides them. So, when you are considering about applying SEO in the particular broad sense, you need in order to channelize its technical specifications via content marketing. In 2019, you can wager that White Hat SEO will certainly have separated itself even more from Black Hat SEO, plus that above all else, delivering quality content will be the particular most important factor for companies ranking in search. The outcomes are not instant, you can use the time on attempting other Internet marketing techniques whilst SEO would go to function. The third major SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking signal is Google's synthetic intelligence search ranking algorithm. Sometimes SEO is definitely simply a matter of producing sure your site is organised in a way that lookup engines like google understand. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION involves a number of changes towards the HTML of person Web pages to obtain a higher search engine ranking. As a result associated with technological advancement, SEO is in order to undergo more drastic changes, plus the two latest technologies that will are expected to influence SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to some very great degree are AI (Artificial Intelligence) plus Voice Search. PeepCon (which stands for The Individuals Conference”) seeks to teach doable SEO and digital marketing classes. See how Matthew got a website from zero in order to one million visits in much less than a year, using the mix of blogging, content marketing and advertising, and SEO. Solid comprehending of the keywords, questions, in addition to phrases your ideal customers work with to find your products plus services is critical to powerful SEO. 34. Applying SEO practices (such keyword optimization) to social networking raises discoverability when users search cultural platforms like Facebook and Youtube . com. Onsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide — If you the particular actual link, you will observe a opt-in button where a person can download the Onsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide. ” Matt Diggity will a lot of testing upon his own sites, which means this manual reflects what on page strategies are working best for your pet. One important aspect associated with taking care of SEO is definitely identifying issues that are harming search engine ranking positions plus reducing the traffic you obtain through SERPs. User-generated content like reviews assist SEO through SMO, because this often comes in the type of social shares, likes, or even commenting, or common threads such as hashtags that point back toward a brand. Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services offer a very focused online marketing approach, (it's not really like dropping off brochures upon front-porch steps or paying for a good ad in a local newspapers that could or may not really be seen by a feasible client that is actually fascinated in your products or services). There will be no magic wand in your own hands to regulate or manage your competitors' strategies or administration, Google analytics update, or user's behavior communicate business but a person can manage your SEO. In this particular new environment, the digital online marketer who views SEO in the broader context will surely come away ahead of the competition within 2018 and beyond. Good SEO textbooks explain in detail how greatest to use keywords and exactly how to structure your entire site to attract the attention associated with search engine spiders and associated with human visitors, and a posting such as this cannot perform the topic justice. While businesses start on an SEO advertising strategy, they should realize that a good entire marketing campaign can drop flat on its face when a business is unable in order to reach the masses, that is definitely, their target audience. If your own pages were designed to obtain the most out of Search engines, with commonly known and today outdated SEO techniques chances are usually Google has identified this plus is throttling your rankings within some way. Several business people find keeping upward with the "moving target" associated with SEO distracts them from day-to-day priorities more than they actually imagined, so it's good in order to appear closely at what can make sense for every business. The software process for the SocialSEO Electronic Marketing and SEO Scholarship is definitely done 100% electronically and demands these list of materials. When a person think of a white head wear you may think of the particular Kentucky Derby or perhaps a Royal Wedding ceremony but in SEO speak this means the group of methods apply the best practice, the particular ones that earn you almost all of the gold stars plus brownie points, the ones that will don't use bad manipulations to get traction or ranking, but individuals who do what they perform to the best of their particular abilities, create wonderful content plus follow all the rules. Also, worthy of bearing in mind is the fact that Google pay attention to styles and what their customers would like, if you want to continue to be ahead of the game plus make sure your SEO is usually fit for any 2019 audience, that is worth ensuring you in addition include SEO techniques that embrace newer trends such as tone of voice searching. Our own search engine optimisation (SEO) providers are designed to increase presence inside the algorithmic (natural”, organic”, or free”) search results in order to deliver high quality, targeted visitors aimed at your website. We might suggest them as an agency to get a range of digital marketing solutions from content marketing and on-page SEO. In short, we think that SEO in 2019 can have to shift focus actually more towards answering people's queries and solving people's problems. With this SEO article creating guidelines formula it pleases the particular search engines and the visitors reading the content. Search Engine Search engine optimization Starter Guide — This guidebook was written by Google and possesses many SEO best practices with regard to webmasters. Still, even for the particular best websites, maintaining a best organic SEO ranking requires constant keyword monitoring and content re-doing. Writer and consultant Peter Kent offers helped businesses including Amazon plus Zillow with SEO and on the web marketing. Very first, understand that schema markup will be one of the most effective, least used parts of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION today Schema are basically short snippets of data that may give extra information to find customers and search engines. SEO is definitely a marketing discipline focused upon growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. Simply no matter how many times Search engines tweaks or evolves The Formula, from Panda to Penguin in order to Polar Bear, these logical plus intuitive core SEO tips need to remain timeless. Certainly, all those searching for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agencies will have to create their selection by passing SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION companies through careful and careful scrutiny, to ensure that all of them to get the best within search engine optimization for their particular business website. The article provides you 12 methods for E-commerce plus establishing an SEO optimized web site which will help you raise your business exposure and visibility upon search engines. Making use of keywords in your article name, article body and resource is definitely a great SEO article composing strategy that may make your own articles more effective in getting attention from search engines. Use SEO strategies like as transcripts and tags in order to help your videos appear increased in search results and appeal to more viewers over time. Without the doubt, one of the greatest trends that has already started to take place and may continue well into 2018 may be the consolidation of niche MarTech gamers by larger content cloud suppliers, with the role and significance of SEO increasing significantly all through this transformation. SEO Internet marketing offers major components, which develop the particular website traffic, and top research engine rankings. SEO is brief for Seo, and there is definitely nothing really mystical about this particular. You might have heard the lot about SEO and exactly how it works, but basically exactly what is a measurable, repeatable procedure which is used to send out signals to search engines that will the pages are worth displaying in Google's index. Topic clusters possess been lauded since the future associated with SEO and content strategy, yet are widely underreported on (so now's the time to hit! ) 93% of B2B companies use content marketing. Teresa Walsh, Marketing Professional at automobile site, Cazana, forecasts that hyper organic targeting will increase its importance in 2019 with more location search plus more voice search. We get to the particular bottom of on-page SEO difficulties in order for search motors to clearly see what your own website is all about. SEO requires you to continuously become a student because of just how quickly the algorithms of lookup engine companies change. Google's punishing methods probably class pages as some thing akin to a poor UX if they meet certain detectable criteria e. g. lack associated with reputation or old-school SEO stuff such as keyword stuffing a site. One thing is definitely crystal clear: if you would like people to discover your function, you need search engine search engine optimization (SEO). This just about all means when you're thinking regarding your SEO strategy, you require to think about how your own social media marketing strategy fits into the particular puzzle, too. As your visitors slowly increases, ensure that you include additional SEO strategies (like adding exterior and internal links, guest publishing, etc) to engage more customers and keep your metrics higher. Google has remaining a very narrow band associated with opportunity when it comes in order to SEO - and punishments are created to take you out associated with the game for some period while you cleanup the infractions. Head of Marketing, He Edstrom, at BioClarity, a San Diego based health-science company, thinks that SEO is going in order to see a decreased importance within 2019, and SEOs should begin ensuring they're competent in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. The best rank that you could see the profile with contact information and maps on right hands side of search result web page is achieved after long process for using SEO tactics. Numerous search engine optimisation. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique of customization a website for search motor discovery and indexing. SEO is actually a technique which search motors require that sites must enhance properly, so that they show up high in search results. The European Search Honours is an international competition that will shines the spotlight for the best SEO and Content Marketing companies in Europe. You may generally see outcomes of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION efforts once the webpage proceeds to be crawled and listed by a internet search motor. Possibly the best form of interpersonal media to pay attention in order to when turning to SEO is definitely Google Plus. A single of the most successful techniques to ensure your clients get your photography business is by simply implementing an SEO strategy, this specific is more than just doing it to number 1 in Google, it means ensuring that will a varied and steady steady stream of traffic is planning to your site, over in addition to above that of your competition. If you are usually willing to improvise your web site search and boost up your own Google ranking, but do not really have time or resources regarding doing that, hire an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION specialist for the same objective. Mobile SEO will be mobile search engine optimization or even optimizing content for a much better search ranking. Titles on pages and explanations affect what people see within search results, so it's important to check these out within any SEO audit. Search motors give some guidelines for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, but big search engines maintain result ranking as a business secret. Along with $80 billion forecast to turn out to be spent annually on SEO — and content marketing set to be able to be considered a $300+ billion industry by means of 2019 — it might become tempting for stakeholders to observe SEO and content marketing because cost centers rather than earnings centers. While that will theory is sound (when concentrated on a single page, when the particular intent is to deliver energy content to a Google user) using old school SEO methods on especially a large web site spread out across many webpages seems to amplify site high quality problems, after recent algorithm modifications, and so this type associated with optimisation without keeping track associated with overall site quality is self-defeating in the long run. User-generated content racks up serious SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION points by providing sites along with fresh content, bundles of inbound links, and sources for organically framing natural attributes. You'll find it right here Also really worth checking away is Moz's Beginner's Explained SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, ” which you'll find right here, and the SEO Success Pyramid from Small Business Search Marketing and advertising. Off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy refers to the impact of a change in additional websites in your search position. Bruce Clay-based set the standard for honest internet marketing by authoring the particular " SEO Code of Integrity, " now translated into eighteen languages, and it has already been a respected leader within the particular ever-changing research engine marketing industry since mil novecentos e noventa e seis. Website SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (including, content optimisation, meta marketing, the significance of links). A good SEO Specialist is someone who else is an expert on the particular topic of search engine search engine optimization. Just since a proper On-page and Off-page SEO optimization work will provide a better Ranking to your own website in Search Engine Outcome Page (SERP). The greatest SEO change and craze I realize already happening within 2018 is Google's switch in order to a mobile-first index, so in the event that a site is not however mobile-friendly and optimized for this, it's critical to prioritize this particular as it is now basic for its SEO success. With good on-page SEO, lookup engines can easily index your own web pages, understand what your own site is about, and effortlessly navigate the structure and articles of your website, thus rating your site accordingly. Based on SEO software program company Moz's bi-yearly survey upon search engine ranking factors, the particular titles on your page are usually one of the nine almost all important considerations a search motor makes. Having an SEO approach that effectively promotes your picture taking business, driving new traffic in addition to taking into consideration the demands of the site visitors even though you concentrate on perfecting your own art is a really strong tool. SEO is Research Engine Optimization and it will be required for make a web site view-able. And you may see the section on exactly where to use keywords for even more information on integrating these key phrases into your SEO content technique. 22. Use social media in order to boost local SEO. SEO is the acronym for Seo. Even though certain techniques of SEO content material What's So Trendy About SEO 2019 That Everyone Went Crazy Over It? remain the same, like not really compromising on quality; there are usually definitely techniques which have advanced from the past and a person should find out whether your own SEO articles writing services are usually very well aware of that will or not. SEO service suppliers are specialized in increasing the particular traffic to your site simply by increasing your position in the particular search engine ranking positions. Bring in international people to your sites with these SEO tips. The top challenges within organic SEO are link creating (easy-to-get links no more possess much value) and keyword analysis (the low-hanging fruit is lengthy gone). For instance, the phrase ‘SEO tips' is furthermore included inside the less aggressive phrase ‘SEO tips 2019', which usually is searched for too. Screaming Frog SEO Index tool does it for you personally inside a few seconds, even with regard to larger websites. SEOs also used to believe that buying links was the valid method of link developing; however, Google will now punish you for buying links within an attempt to manipulate page rank. Ultimately, achievement in SEO in 2018 plus forward will depend on producing amazing content and making this as easy as possible with regard to search engines like google in order to understand exactly what that articles is all about. Answer: When you focus in SEO for voice search a person need to create your written content around long tail keywords because people tend to use even more words in voice search. SEO is the practice associated with increasing the search engine ratings of your webpages so that will they appear higher in lookup results, bringing more traffic in order to your website. In the particular previous example, Bob's home web page might have the title, "Bob's Soccer Store - Soccer Sneakers and Equipment. " The name is the most important component of SEO, since it shows the search engine exactly exactly what the page is all regarding. 47. When creating SEO content material, keep the social layer within your mind. When you have time to get good search engine optimisation education, after that combine this knowledge with greatest practices and you are upon your way to become a good SEO expert. 46. Use SEO practices in order to optimize your social media articles. 4. Mobile SEO plus Local Business: - As all of us mentioned before, users tend in order to search for local business upon the smartphones. This guide will be made to describe all locations of SEO—from choosing the terms plus phrases (keywords) that generate visitors to your website, to producing your web site friendly to search motors, to building links and advertising the unique associated with your own site. With no SEO, a website can become invisible to search engines. On-page SEO refers in order to every strategy, technique, and instrument you utilize within your web-site to optimize your web web pages and content for search motors like google. Today, the quality of newly arriving links is evaluated higher compared to their quantity and may add your SEO efforts. Research engine optimization (SEO) tools assist companies position themselves to obtain a favorable ranking in internet search engine results. The particular second biggest SEO trend within 2019 will be voice research Blog9T. Wish long past mobile search plus voice-search being a ‘trend' : they are the full upon normal now, outdoing desktop research in both volume and SEO-favorability. Rather compared to marketing at people, you require to make it possible with regard to them to find you whenever they want you, and that is where SEO is available within. Prior To going BlowFish SEO full Time, Robert Headed very successful internet incoming marketing campaigns for Bella Sante Day Spa's of Boston plus Red Door Spas increasing their own yearly Gift Card Sales simply by over 400% and increasing consumer appointments over 300%. In 2019 and past, the majority of the on the internet searches will be in the particular form of conversation, and since a result, the online entrepreneurs will give more importance in order to artificial intelligence keywords for marketing of the web content. The number one particular reason for using video upon your site to improve SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is to increase the quantity of time users remain upon your site. Search engine optimization has been but still is fascinating in order to me. The SEO placement regarding any size business begins along with proper web site optimization, a good excellent link building strategy plus a well planned online marketing and advertising plan. One part of focus for better marketing and SEO performance within 2018 is the confluence associated with content, influence, and social. This can be helpful for SEO, because it helps avoid search engine crawlers from becoming confused by syntax or affirmation errors, and leads to even more accurate indexing. Stop thinking in terms associated with SEO vs. content marketing” plus start exploring how well these people perform together. (Give it a try tone of voice search using OK Google through your cell phone and enquire "What Is BlowFish SEO" ) In the event that all remains as it is definitely, Google will read out loud almost all about my company in the short to the point method, These cards are formatted in order to fit the screen of your own cell with no scrolling upward or down. Although SEO is really the time-consuming process but believes myself, if you work well along with dedication and trendy techniques, the particular combined results of on-page plus off-page SEO holds you upon the top with rank #1 for a specific search outcome. Fairly lately, I've seen a resurgence associated with on-page SEO factors making the difference searching engine rankings.

[id0l-atry]

15 Important Facts That You Should Know About SEO 2019

A good SEO keyword technique is like magic, working at the rear of the scenes to boost your own rankings on the search motors. A greater number associated with people will stick to tone of voice search, so SEO specialists will certainly need to adjust to this particular relatively new kind of research. Seo or SEO is definitely a powerful method to generate targeted traffic to your internet site and hopefully increase your bottom part line. Whilst many marketing tactics rely upon you reaching out to your own audience, SEO gives you the particular power to achieve people whenever they are actively searching away information related to your solutions and products. Light hat SEOs the actual suggestions of Google and other research engines like google. As Google's search engine outcomes become increasingly monetized and various other platforms such as Amazon plus YouTube gain more SoV plus search volume, I think jooxie is overdue for the focus associated with SEO to shift far through Google. Traditional SEO is usually focused on building (keyword relevant) links and (keyword relevant) articles. The main reason these kinds of are sometimes misunderstood is because which whole Internet underbelly of alleged SEO companies that you may pay to link to your own site on their networks associated with low-quality articles. However, before we obtain to our main event, I actually must note that after the 2017 edition of SEO styles launched last year on Research Engine Journal, we heard the couple of complaints about simply how long it was. After that your boss tells you you aren't accountable for search engine optimisation (SEO), too. Michael jordan Harling, SEO Specialist at Roman Blinds Direct, agrees with the particular consensus that voice search will certainly be the trend in 2019. The sensible strategy for SEO would certainly still appear to be in order to reduce Googlebot crawl expectations plus consolidate ranking equity & possible in high-quality canonical pages plus you do that by reducing duplicate or near-duplicate content. This can take a LONG period for a site to recuperate from using black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tactics and fixing the issues will never necessarily bring organic visitors back as it was prior to a penalty. The particular best SEO Guide is right here to dispel those myths, plus give you all you require to know about SEO in order to show up on the internet and various other search engines, and ultimately make use of SEO to grow your company. > > Upon Page Optimization: On-page SEO is definitely the act of optimizing single pages with a specific finish goal to rank higher plus acquire more important movement within web crawlers. There are numerous websites providing pertinent information regarding SEO and online marketing, and you may learn from them. But it's confusing why some businesses don't try out harder with analysis, revisions, plus new content with their SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION online marketing strategy. An effective SEO strategy will certainly be made up of a mixture of elements that ensure your web-site is trusted by both customers as well as the research engines. By taking their particular marketing needs online and employing confer with an experienced SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION agency, a business can achieve thousands, or even millions associated with people that they would possess not been able to usually. Something which usually was troubling about 2017, plus as we head into 2018, may be the new wave of agencies merely bolting on SEO because a service without any true appreciation of structuring site architectures and content for both human beings and search engine understanding. A huge part of SEO is within creating content which is focused towards the keywords that lookup engines users are searching regarding. Building links could be the big part of your work as an SEO because this plays such a big component in the algorithms used simply by search engines to look with regard to the order of their outcomes. Search engines like google through the King Google to supplementary ones like Bing and Google rank the websites on the particular basis of its SEO. It's since creating content and ranking this in Google is what SEOs do! SEO providers look at their links, through where their links are arriving, and what keywords they have got made a decision to optimize for their web sites. Hobo UK SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION - A Beginner's Guide (2018) is really a free pdf file ebook you can DOWNLOAD TOTALLY FREE from here (2mb) that will contains my notes about traveling increased organic traffic to the site within Google's guidelines. My conjecture is that the biggest SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trend in 2019 is heading to be Amazon search. TYPES OF SEO Right now there are two major types associated with seo, white hat search motor optimization (the ‘good' kind), plus black hat (the 'not therefore good' kind). Google's always tweaking its lookup algorithms, so there's no warranty that SEO practices that worked well in the past will maintain working in the future. PeepCon (which stands for The Individuals Conference”) seeks to teach doable SEO and digital marketing training. See how Matthew had taken a website from zero in order to one million visits in much less than a year, using the mix of blogging, content marketing and advertising, and SEO. Solid knowing of the keywords, questions, and even phrases your ideal customers make use of to find your products in addition to services is critical to successful SEO. 34. Applying SEO practices (such keyword optimization) to social networking raises discoverability when users search sociable platforms like Facebook and Youtube . com. Onsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide — If you the particular actual link, you will discover a opt-in button where a person can download the Onsite SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Guide. ” Matt Diggity will a lot of testing upon his own sites, and this manual reflects what on page techniques are working best for your pet. One important aspect associated with taking care of SEO will be identifying issues that are harming search engine ranking positions plus reducing the traffic you receive through SERPs. User-generated content like reviews assist SEO through SMO, because this often comes in the type of social shares, likes, or even commenting, or common threads such as hashtags that point back toward a brand. Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services offer a very focused online marketing approach, (it's not really like dropping off brochures upon front-porch steps or paying for a good ad in a local paper that could or may not really be seen by a achievable client that is actually fascinated in your products or services). If you understand you might have VERY lower-quality doorway pages on the site, a person should remove them or re-think your SEO strategy if a person want to rank high within Google for the long expression. One of the issues search engines like yahoo and Bing have constantly attempted to overcome is knowing which external links exist exclusively for SEO purposes and which usually links represent a true sign that the source content will be of value to the visitors. 2018 has currently seen some particularly significant SEO paradigm shifts from Mobile First” in order to the ever-advancing Rankbrain machine-learning formula. Content marketing is usually a bigger approach which along with SEO forms a part associated with your digital marketing strategy. What You Should Know: Typically the future of search engine search engine optimization is Semantic SEO. Links plus technical SEO are the biggest pieces of the pie, yet multimedia efforts such as movie, photos, and podcasts will become the game changer and differentiator in many competitive markets. Occasional, and We do more occasional and not really frequent, usage of keywords plus keyword phrases in these hyperlinks may also help very somewhat in your SEO processes. Excelling at SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION means serving your visitors—not simply search engines. Here arrives the idea of SEO or even search engine optimization. The particular fact remains that SEO solutions assure clients that even in the event that the site will not position among the top search motors like google, the money can not be a waste owing to the refund. You will become introduced to the foundational components of how search engines such as google work, how the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION landscape is promoting and exactly what you can expect in the particular future. The SISTRIX Toolbox consists associated with six modules 1) SEO, 2) Universal, 3) Links, 4) Advertisements, 5) Social and 6) Optimizer. Low-quality content can severely impact the achievements of SEO, within 2018. When your own SEO starts building strong coffee grounds, competitors can start maligning your own SEO backlinks. ” With content marketing spend anticipated to reach $300 billion by 2019, this statistic is worrisome. Now the electronic marketing companies know how in order to use AI for SEO, plus in coming years AI can dominate in developing the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies of the digital marketing and advertising companies. Ray Cheselka, AdWords and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Manager at webFEAT Complete, the design and SEO agency, states that in 2019 search objective will continue to become even more important. Expert writers of SEO articles can take the time to study the particular industry or market market. 2 tools to help with nearby SEO are BrightLocal (for rankings) and MozLocal (for local lookup optimization). Concerning on-page SEO best practices, I usually link out to other quality appropriate pages on other websites exactly where possible and where a individual would find it valuable. It includes a well known Regular Table of SEO Success Factors”, a 9-chapter guide to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION basics, and links to several from the site's most useful blog posts. SEO specialists started in order to abuse PageRank in order in order to boost the rankings. Now could be a great time to take a nearer take a look at SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION marketing information because search is getting even worse for those types of B2B plus B2C businesses. SEO marketers plus writers typically come up along with different kinds of content in order to place the necessary keywords within. These are some of the particular most used types, and every one helps to give rise to the level of variety in conditions of website content. Certain black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques, such as keyword filling, are thought to be the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION equivalent of spamming, and lookup engines will penalize them. Internet marketing is exclusively driven by SEO or lookup engine optimization. Others are usually simply traditional PR firms that have learned SEO as nicely as the value of hyperlinks. Here's a cliche among electronic marketers: Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't what used to end up being. Google announced that will they released several minor enhancements over the period of the particular time of about a 7 days and after analysis, experts inside the SEO industry concluded that will the updates were the outcome of keyword permutations and web site using doorway pages. SEO, or Search Motor Optimization, means setting up your own website and content to show up through online search results. People that want to take their company to some new height plus generally and mostly believe within the way of SEO advertising. Siteimprove SEO incorporates sixty six unique SEO checks, including tests for missing meta descriptions, punctuational mistakes, broken links, outdated data files, poor readability, and links in order to unsafe domains. But in the event that we're looking for a larger trend it's that SEO plus what we call real marketing” will continue to blur the particular lines between them as the particular job of the SEO turns into that of a traditional internet marketer - having to understand the particular user, the competitors, the industry and also the implementation part. Thanks for going to the world of Search Motor Optimization (SEO). For example, we regularly generate content on the topic associated with "SEO, " but it's nevertheless very hard to rank properly on Google for such the popular topic on this acronym alone. What can this industry shifts show about the particular future of SEO and content material marketing? Search engine search engine optimization (SEO) is on a move. Whether a person are an SEO Professional, Electronic Marketing Agency, SMB or Brand name, looking to increase your visitors or to monitor your web site's evolution, this SEO software can provide you with best within class digital marketing strategy evaluation and insights for your company. Their expertise is usually incredibly valuable because there is usually lots of science to SEO, plus it is constantly changing since search engines like Google keep on to update their algorithms. From a content viewpoint, I'd say one of the particular best ways to get SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION value out of video is usually to focus your efforts upon addressing your customer's pain factors. The much better you get at SEO, the particular more traffic - and even more leads - you're likely in order to attract over time. To find out there more read our 2019 developments in SEO marketing report. Are voice searches plus it's expected that by 2019, 67 million voice-assisted devices is definitely going to be in make use of in the U. S. These types of kinds of changes and provide on your website shouldn't end up being a problem logistically — the particular overall practice among the greatest web companies nowadays is making sure that websites are flexible sufficient, especially for SEO purposes. Whether you are usually a marketer, webmaster or company owner, it is very significant invest in voice SEO optimisation to reap benefits in 2019. We said earlier that interpersonal media isn't a direct SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking factor, so you're most likely wondering why we're even bringing up it. The particular effects of Black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION are temporary, keep in mind that take the particular search engine long before this spots these illegal strategies plus then penalizes you; the lookup engine may spam your hyperlinks and if you continue making use of these malpractices the search motor will altogether block your web site and links. Algorithmic chasers, technical SEOs, plus Google Doodle followers should develop their technical skills to concentrate on emerging voice search systems and AI applications. Single Grain is a electronic marketing agency in order in order to companies like Uber, Amazon plus Salesforce grow their revenues on the web using SEO and paid marketing. You may generally see outcomes of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION efforts once the webpage proceeds to be crawled and listed by a internet search motor. Most likely the best form of sociable media to pay attention in order to when turning to SEO will be Google Plus. 1 of the most successful methods to ensure your clients locate your photography business is by means of implementing an SEO strategy, this specific is more than just generating it to number 1 upon Google, it means ensuring that will a varied and steady steady stream of traffic is planning to your site, over plus above that of your rivals. If you are usually willing to improvise your internet site search and boost up your own Google ranking, but do not really have time or resources regarding doing that, hire an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION specialist for the same objective. Mobile SEO is usually mobile search engine optimization or even optimizing content for a much better search ranking. Titles on pages and explanations affect what people see within search results, so it's important to check these out within any SEO audit. Search motors give some guidelines for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, but big search engines maintain result ranking as a industry secret. Along with $80 billion forecast to turn out to be spent annually on SEO — and content marketing set in order to become a $300+ billion industry by simply 2019 — it might become tempting for stakeholders to notice SEO and content marketing because cost centers rather than profits centers. While that will theory is sound (when concentrated on a single page, when the particular intent is to deliver electricity content to a Google user) using old school SEO strategies on especially a large web site spread out across many web pages seems to amplify site high quality problems, after recent algorithm adjustments, and so this type associated with optimisation without keeping track associated with overall site quality is self-defeating in the long run. Therefore, cheer up and apparel up to policy for SEO- the particular organic top-ranking practice. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (search engine optimization) places your own website within the natural outcomes section of search engines. SEO is specifically important for businesses because it guarantees they're answering their audience's greatest questions on search engines, whilst driving traffic to their items and services. Intended for marketers who were brought upward in the ‘traditional SEO marketplace, ' 2018 is really the time to adapt or pass away. White hat SEO includes most the SEO practices we've spoken about so far which have got a long term approach in order to site optimization and focus upon the user experience and exactly what people need. Cost effectiveness - SEO is definitely one of the most budget-friendly marketing strategies because it focuses on users who are actively searching for your products and solutions online. The reality is that you can obtain top Search engine ranking opportunities spending a little bit associated with money and working on the particular project yourself or paying the professional Seo services thousands associated with dollars to get your Internet site on the first page. Although black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION methods may boost a home page's search engine page rank within the short term, these strategies could also get the web site banned from the search motors altogether. According in order to research and advisory firm Forrester, programmatic marketing is expected in order to account for 50% of most advertising by 2019. A few search engines have also offered to the SEO industry, plus are frequent sponsors and visitors at SEO conferences, webchats, plus seminars. If a person have a website that a person want to become easily discovered by a search engine, you need to increase your site rank by means of SEO as well. Some SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION companies focus on link building” and increasing the authority associated with their clients' websites. Through an SEO perspective, we had been introduced to RankBrain nearly 2 years ago, a machine-learning synthetic intelligence that Google's been making use of to process an extremely huge proportion of search results. Specifically, you'll observe exactly how to make use of advanced on-page SEO strategies (like Bucket Brigades”) to get higher Google ratings and more organic traffic. Search engines has introduced (at least) the ‘percieved' risk to publishing a lot 7 Things You Need To Know About SEO 2019 Today of lower-quality pages on your own site to in order in order to curb production of old-style SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION friendly content based on manipulating early search engine algorithms. Grey hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is entirely centered on enhancing search engine rankings. There are numerous aspects to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, from the words on your own page to the way various other sites link to you upon the web. So, rather than viewing SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING as an umbrella term covering SEO, it's more accurate in order to view SEM (paid search) plus SEO (organic search) as independent entities to use as portion of your Search Marketing arsenal. If you may look after SEO, you may get lost among the trillions of links out there. Heading forward SEOs have to become able to quantitatively show the particular value of their online marketing and advertising by identifying and implementing Important Performance Indicators (KPIs) that may demonstrate the value added simply by their SEO initiatives. The topic cluster model is definitely your way forward in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION this year, but it's not really the only method to obtain your website content to position higher once it's been produced. WIthout simple SEO in spot, your business may not always be a result on the look for engines when a customer will be specifically searching for your company! SEO information can help improve your cultural efforts, and social media may help with the search rankings. Within his book Ultimate Explained Customization Your Website, SEO and web marketing expert Jon Rognerud displays you how to develop a top of the line website and get top position on all search engines. 00: 38 SEO is definitely heading towards voice search. SpyFu is definitely really a paid tool that will uses 11 years of traditional data to help you discover your competitors' most profitable key phrases and the keywords they've utilized for SEO and ads. The reality is that on-site navigation hackers like search bar with smart autocomplete, internal linking with point texts or immediate customer assistance boost both UX and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Even though it is challenging to assume about the alterations that might take place throughout 2019, but we know with regard to sure what SEO trends regarding 2018 will take greater popularity in 2019. Link building is a type of off-site SEO where various other sites link back to your own site if they feel a person offer something of value in order to their audience. In many crucial areas they overlap; if SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is more technical and provides to a narrow sphere, articles marketing takes a holistic strategy. Equally, generally there is no point in losing your SEO marketing efforts simply by delivering lots of traffic in order to your website from highly related search queries, when the consumer experience upon landing on that will website is poor quality. On web page, SEO relates to keywords. In addition to the over search engine optimization solutions, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services provide other Internet marketing and advertising services, which includes: search-friendly internet design, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising strategies Blog9T, backlink programs, SMO services, blog site optimization and marketing, targeted nearby search engine marketing, and cellular marketing optimization. A successful SEO effort requires to move beyond building joyful to rank on highly explored keywords and should have the heavy focus on providing solutions for genres of unique inquiries that many people might research by voice. Learn the particular strategy behind great SEO, which includes keyword planning, content optimization, hyperlink building, and SEO for e-commerce, local search, and mobile viewers. Seo or SEO is definitely the simple process of making sure a website can be discovered in search engines for terms and phrases relevant to exactly what the site is providing. Off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION concentrates on increasing the authority associated with your domain through the act associated with getting links from all additional websites. Regarding: Search Engine Journal's flagship meeting, SEJ Summit, is dedicated to offering SEO pros the actual require, with an agenda of unique, first-run presentations covering the newest SEO and PPC tactics through renowned experts, plus excellent social networking opportunities. SEO combines official research engine guidelines, empirical knowledge, plus theoretical knowledge from science documents or patents. This is definitely a half-day workshop at LeadsCon that will be designed for you to give attendees an end-to-end watch of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), how it works, and touchable things they can do nowadays to improve their SEO functionality. After the Search engines Panda algorithm appeared, SEO professionals realized just how much key phrase frequency and density matters. SEO means optimizing your posts so it shows up a great deal more often in search results. 33. With social media systems like Facebook diminishing visibility associated with companies and brands, SEO (as well as paid promotion) will be becoming critically important for generating traffic to your social stations. 2019 dates TBD. ). Why go to: One-track conference full of forward-thinking, tactical sessions in SEO, development marketing, the mobile landscape, analytics, content marketing and more. ” Don't miss the LeadsCon Meeting in Vegas, March 4-6, 2019.

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Shitty samus returns review

i feel obligated to talk about how there hasnt been a new metroid game in 6 years, partly because its sad and i wanted more metroid, but mostly because every review ive seen started like this. 6 years is like 4 zeldas, 6 marios, 2 pokemons and 2 failed attempts at college. Yes technically metroid prime : chibi space marines + soccer came out in that time but if you couldnt tell by the (totally accurate title) that shit doesnt count. the world needed samus genociding aliens and promising strip teases if you do it fast enough. why not just do that by remaking the second worst metroid game(return of samus) with all the fixins of super, fusion, and zero mission. so yeah they did that something something transition story After defeating space pirates, destroying mother brain and the metroids in the first game, samus is on the galactic federations speed dial for anytime they fuck something up. This time, they find the metroid homeworld of SR388 and decide to go there without samus. 5 minutes later everyone is dead and they want samus to kill everything left on the planet. yay genocide. the story is basicly a setup to show off and kill a bunch of new metroid evolutions. its a pretty straightfoward story for a pretty straightfoward metroid game. they even got some beautiful artwork to show off these plot points as well as some chozo backstory. its some good shit. gameplay samus returns has built apon the tried and true formula of runing around, shooting aliens, and collecting shit that makes it easier to run around and shoot aliens. expect lots of caverns, hidden power ups bombable walls etc. if youve played a 2d metriod game super or after you have a pretty good idea what youre getting into. that being said there is enough new stuff here too to keep shit interesting. you have all the standard beams, missiles and bombs as well as the screw attack, morphball, spiderball, and grapple beam. the only thing missing is the shinespark, the lack of which makes back tracking a bit more tedious. most of the weapons function exactly the same althought the ice beam doesnt stack on the other beams which is kind of annoying / the grapple beam and powerbombs can pull off some new tricks. tbh im a spoiled brat and i wont be happy with the grapple beam until it has the same versatility as smash bros. as for new shit, you got a melee counter to deflect rush down enemies and set up for a quick kill or just push away critters that get to close. you have the 360 aim which makes it way easier to shoot down enemies at the cost of being locked into a standstill or jumping in place. and you got the aeion abilities that all deplete from a meter you can increase buy collecting upgrades. these abilities let you slow down time, shoot rapid fire, have a lightning armor that negates damage as well as increase the range of your mellee counter, and the scan pulse which can fill out chunks of your map and help find secrets. These new abilities are all really well implemented into the game, especially the 360 aim and the counter, i found myself using those very consistantly. they arent withought faults, the button used for the 360 takes up any space that could be used for a free running diagonal aim, something that is incredibly usefull but still doable by holding diagonal on the controll stick. the melee counter doesnt do any damage by itself which is kind of dissapointing to my fantasy of samus punching her foes to death. regardless the mechanic is still really fun even if i wish it was more damaging and could be used while running. the aeion abilities are great even if i only really used the rapid fire and slowmo when i was required. im too paranoid about running out of meter to ever use them outside of necesity or experimenting on how to kill a boss the fastest way possible. youll have plenty of time to experiment because you fight each form of metroid anywhere between 1 and 12 times. the metroids are fun, the melee counter quick time events and fighting the them in different arenas help keep shit interesting but at the end of the day youre still fighting some of these guys 10+ times. the 3 non metroid bosses are fun too, except maybe diggernaught, beating him was a little too criptic/trial and error -y. id say the bosses in this game are overall significantly harder than most of the other 2d games and im split on how to feel about it. on the one hand i like a challenge but on the other im an unstopable intergalctic genociding bounty hunter so i dont want to die 3 times on a digger robot FUCK YOU DIGGERNAUGHT. but yeah anyway i think the map is a little 2 linear for my taste. its set up in isolated levels with very little intersecting paths and almost no backtracking. for me it makes it feel less like a complete world and more like a series of stages seperated by elevators. it's a left over design from the original game that isnt exactly my cup of tea but also doesnt ruin the experience by any means. at least there are teleporters to make end game collecting easier. presentation i dont like the graphics in this game. all the edges are blocky but not really in a stylized way and the screan always seems blurry like there is to much light coming from the environment for the camera to get a crisp view. even the artwork has this overly lense flare thing going on. to be clear, the graphics in no way inhibit the gameplay. i think they get in way of the atmosphere of the game. for me id say about 50 percent of the metroid experience comes from the imursion and atmosphere that the games have. shit like big ass slugs, krysal caverns, waterfall and statues in the background go a long way to help in this department for SR but it feels like for every area there is with a great background or soundtrack there is another area with little to no soundtrack and the only background is blue or brown rocks. thats not to say this hasnt been the case in other metroid games but many of those had you spend more time running through each respective area. for me this familiarity with each area made each game feel like its own world. i remember traveling through talon IV swampy service because it was interesting, i did it a lot, and the music was great. i remember pendara drifts and norfair and kraid for all the same reasons, the seamed like part of a world. samus returns is a big circle of sometimes pretty caves and ruins connected by elevators . combine that with the less than stellar graphics (id take sprites any day) and you have a rather underwelming planet, at least on the whole. it probably doesnt help that i spent most of my time looking at the touch screen map instead of the actual game. i guess i could always just pause the game and and plan out my route on the map like i used to but meh. something i will praise about the presentation are the added cutscenes and semi quick time events. if you counter a certain bosses youll get a cutscene where you mash the missile button and beat the shit out of the bosses in spectacular ways. you fling some around by their tails, ride using there horns and all sorts of other crazy shit. these all give make samus seem as baddass as ever and really show off how strong she is. it might just be my favorite new feature in the game. i only recall 2 new/ remixed songs from metroid 2, the rest are recycled from other famous metroid games. whats there is great but id always love more. conclusion gameplay wise this might be the most refined and excessable entry in the series, at least in terms of being user friendly. controls are tight, responsive, customizable and the touch screen makes flippin through shit a breaze. the touch screen map combine with the aeion map pulse make exploring easier than ever(i haved mixed feeling but i also dont have to use it so whatever). the bosses are challenging and rarely unfair. the overall presentation is passable but not stellar. the map is pretty linear which could turn off some but does streamline the experience. overall i really enjoyed this game for what it was, as much as i harped on about things that i think have been done better in other entries in the series. i guess for a rating uh, i think i like it better than fusion but not as much as zero mission or super. lemme know if you guys want more ramblings in the future