Bram Stoker’s Dracula is absolutely one of my favorite books.  It is endlessly sexy, thrilling, and grim. As I have a dark Slavic soul and a penchant for vampires who live in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, this book was delightful and delicious (in fact, when reading this book, I pulled over and continuing reading it until finished in the parking lot of a gas station for hours instead of continuing my journey, so deeply taken was I). I would prefer to read Dracula to cheesy romantic fluff any day of the week.

Vamp lips and nails with sultry, bedroom eyes is one of my all-time favorite looks.  There is something ultra, ultra sophisticated  and polished about it, and yet simultaneously slightly terrifying as well.  This is something only a woman with some bad girl darkness in her soul can pull off effectively.  I personally am enchanted by a woman with a past.

When wearing a deep mahogany, burgundy, or violet hue, be certain to keep other elements of your outfit simple; stick to neutral colors, white, black, beige, etc. Make sure to keep the look sultry in order to not endeavor into gothic territory.  I also think this sort of color pallette is for women, not girls. You have to be full fledged confident, mysterious, and glam to pull this sort of look off with any inkling of sincerity.

“There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples.”
–Bram Stoker

Courtesy of Aerin Lauder Beauty, Bergdorf Goodman, Hello! Magazine, Polyvore, The Examiner