I love make up

So I don't really talk about myself on here (mostly because I'm not interesting in the least) but I wanted to talk about something near and dear to my heart: make up. I have a lot of make up. I buy it all the time. I have no idea why. Lately I've not bought a lot but I recently got back into the swing of things. So today I wanted to share with you a few of my great finds and a few things I've tried that I would suggest staying away from. If you enjoy this I might do it on the regular, though I don't plan on doing MAC. Not because I don't use it, (ask Jennifer she will tell you) but because people already know that MAC makes good make up. Their eye shadows have fantastic pigment, I really enjoy some of their lipglasses, and I like fluidline. Though I will say when I don't like MAC products (like today). So without further ado, some happy faces and sad faces from the make up world.

HAPPY FACES


1. High Beam from Benefit: I love this product. It goes on smooth and really gives you a dewey complexion. I have had problems with some Benefit products because I have sensitive skin and they put fragrances in their products and it breaks me out. But this doesn't have that and I've never had a problem using it. I really suggest using it, especially going out at night or summer. This is a product I use everyday.

2. NYX Eye Shadown Sticks: Pronounced Knicks (like the basketball team), these inexpensive sticks have great pigmentation, go on smooth and they last. Sadly they are not readily available everywhere. If you have an Ulta they are sold there, they are also available online. I have heard about them being sold at random beauty stores and drug stores as well, though I have never seen it. I do not recommend their eye shadow pods though, because I don't feel the color goes on great and you have to really dig into it to get any type of pigment. I have also used lipgloss from them and I liked it, it isn't sticky and that is a big thing with me and lipgloss. I have tried hundreds of lipglosses so I sort of consider myself a lipgloss expert.

3. L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes Mascara: I am always on the hunt for good mascara. I have gone through so many different types it isn't funny. I bought this from the recommendation of a make up blog (at the moment I can't remember which one but I know there are several that recommend it). I'm glad I did because I really like it. First of all, it isn't clumpy. For some reason I always pick the clumpiest mascara, never fails. This goes on great and even after a full day of classes (9am-5pm) there haven't flacked or clumped once. I got blackest black and the color is great. It's a trend to have lengthening mascara right now but I already have freakishly long lashes so lengthening would be scary and this mascara makes them look fuller without making them longer. I highly recommend this if you're looking for an inexpensive mascara to try out.

4. Bobbi Brown Shimmer Lip Gloss: I love this lip gloss! The color is so beautiful and it goes on smooth. The shine doesn't have those little specks in it that make it grainy (is that glitter or something?) I know that the price is high, but I feel like it's worth it (probably until I go to Target and find one I like just as much way cheaper).

SAD FACES


1. MAC Plush Lash Mascara: STAY AWAY!!! This mascara is awful. I can't stand it. So clumpy and flakey. It smeared and it itched! For the money you pay for it you'd think it would only have one of these problems, but it had all of them. I wouldn't recommend this at all.

2. MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer: I promise this isn't a rant on MAC list. But their concealer isn't the greatest. Mostly because it doesn't...conceal. It's pancakey and way too dark, no matter how light a shade you get (I am NW20, btw). I feel like it makes your make up look heavy- the opposite of what we all want. Overall I would stay away from MAC complexion unless you've got skin that can handle anything.

3.  Benefit That Girl Primer: One of my best friends swears by this stuff. So I was excited when there was a sample of it in a kit that I bought. The problem is that it has a fragrance and I have sensitive skin. This stuff broke me out, and not with pimples, but with red splotches and hives. I was really sad about it because I like Benefit and wanted it to work. I give every sample of this I get to my friend, because it works well for her. But for me, it was a disappointment. So if you have sensitive skin and fragrances irritate you- this is something to avoid.

4. Cinique Eye Shadow: I used to be a big Clinique person. I still use their complexion since it's the only thing that won't mess up my skin, but I haven't used anything else by them since I was in high school. I used to use a duo called Strawberry Fudge- I would literally wear it everyday. I don't think I even owned other eye shadows! The problem was that it creased. At this time I didn't know about primers so I would just put foundation on my eyelids (I have heard it works just as well as using primer) but it would still crease. Before the school day was even over there was a gross line going right across my crease. I have never had that problem with MAC eye shadows, and since they're relatively the same price (MAC is a dollar or two more) I still with MAC. The shadow's from Clinique are pretty in the pot but aren't pigmented well and coupled with the creasing issue for me it's just a hot mess.

So that's it. I tried taking pictures of my products but my apartment has shitty lighting even in the daylight so sorry about that. I was thinking of doing this more often if people like it, and I might consider vlogging it if that is what people want, but if you're all okay with me just writing it I will stick with this. Also if there are products you'd like to know about I will see if I have them or I can try and get them to tell you what I think. And if you use any of these products and don't agree with what I've said- leave a comment- everyone's face is different :)

Lisa Frank

School sucks. All I do is research. I would much rather be paid to blog, but wouldn't everyone? Also not sure there is a demanding market for stuff-white-girl-in-her-twenties-likes. Alas, I'm trying to make this a priority. Sucks that the only reason I have time to blog right now is because I'm sick and the thought of walking to school in order to sit in a freezing cold archives room kills me. 

When I was young we were sort of poor, so I didn't always get to have all the stuff other kids did. Most of my clothes came from Hills or a store in the town I grew up in called Treasure Island (my mother called it Trash Island). But I always knew what was awesome, even if I couldn't own it. And Lisa Frank was, without a doubt, the most awesome of all the awesome.

you know you want to own this.

Lisa Frank has bright colors, beautiful unicorns and designs of animals in love that only someone who is really tripping on acid could think up. In fact, Miss. Frank could probably be on an episode of intervention and, like Allison, she would be walking on sunshine. I wanted it all. What I really really really wanted though, was the sticker book. 

Why on earth were sticker books so popular back in the 90s? Why did I need to transfer my stickers from their already safe place of purchased paper to a book of paper? No idea, but they were safer when they were in my diary that had a key damn it! 

She also had a trapper keeper, which I did own but had to use it for about three years because it cost so much. But I loved that trapper keeper and wish I still had those loving cats to keep me warm through the cold winter days. 

P.S: if anyone finds a Lisa Frank cell phone cover they should point me in the direction. I will pay lots of coins* for it!

obviously coins means pennies. 

Way Back Machine

The way back machine is this awesome website that lets you look at some of your favorite websites as they were way back in the day. You can watch how they evolved into what they are now and even look at some now defunct sites that you used to really love. My favorite thing is to go back and look at AOL since for some reason I'm very obsessed with AOL. Maybe because I spent so much time with it back in the early 2000s. I'm so obsessed with it I watch their old commercials!

Indeed old man, what will they think of next? The lady in the still shot used as the cover (or whatever it's called. I ain't no YouTube wizard!) has some awesome crunchy hair. 

Speaking of awesome videos I watch on YouTube, here are a series of commercials that AT&T did in the early 1990's to tell you about things we will be able to do in the future that they could already do but wouldn't give to us for 15 more years!!! Coincidence or conspiracy? Also, is it just me or is Tom Sellack the one doing the ads? Jennifer would know this. She likes Magnum PI.

For those of you wanting to check out the way back machine, here is the link. 

Romeo + Juliet

Guys, I have a confession. No matter how womanizing he is or how he'll only date models who are about 25 (meaning I was right in knowing he would date someone my age!) I will always be in love with Leonardo DiCaprio. It's a sickness. A disease. And I don't want a cure.

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet came out in 1996, and I was only 12 years old. Does not matter. I was in love. I had read the book in school (I was advanced in those days. "Gifted" as they called it. Oh if they could see me now...) and I sort of thought it was crazy for 14 year olds to be getting married and killing themselves over it. At the tender age of 12 I knew I was not going to be doing any of that in two years time. But then I saw this movie and I knew why they were doing it. That scene, at the party, with the fish tank. Come on. Everyone could see it. Leo's face just shows you how he was falling in love with her. 

See that love? That's a love that won't quit (until they, you know, die). Lately, Leo D has been looking hot again. He allowed himself to be played by Blake Lively and now he's back on his A game, hooking up with more models and not so puffy in the face and Oh My God he just filmed The Great Gatsby!!! Seriously folks, my Leo love has come back hardcore. If it stays like this I might lift my ban on seeing the rerelease of Titanic because I have to see Leo. Maybe this is what he wants. He probably gets a piece of the profits from the film and he needs people like me to remember why we love him. I didn't want to see it because it's just greedy ass James Cameron wanting more money (we don't need to see the ship sink in 3d, and if offered to me, I will not be seeing this film in 3d). Leo, is this what you're doing too? Are you trying to suck money out of me because you want it too? James Cameron sucks on about 10 different levels even if he did make some of my favorite movies (meaning Aliens I can thankfully say to this day I haven't seen that stupid Avatar nonsense. I've already seen Fern Gully. It had Christian Slater and Robin Williams AND they sang!). 

Anyway, Leo hasn't been this hot since The Departed. Do you remember the sex scene with him and the doctor?

 

I hope I haven't completely made your day useless with Leo reminiscing.  

Hunger Games

I'm sure by now you've either read The Hunger Games or at least seen the movie preview. If all you've seen in the preview, I suggest you go read the book, because it's pretty awesome and will only take you a few hours. Then you'll want to read the other two. I'm not wanting to talk about the books as in  "here is what I think of them" more I want to discuss Katniss and if I think she makes very sound decisions. So I guess if you've never read them don't read this, or if you have no intentions of reading them and/or don't care to know what happens, continue onward. I'm making a jump for those who do care.

Gel Pens

Oh gel pens. In order to be cool at my middle school, you had to have them. Every year during the annual back to school trip to buy notebooks and such, it was essential to also buy gel pens. Usually though, if you didn't go early enough, they were sold out. Yes reader, there was a pen so popular that it would sell out.

who wouldn't want these?

Now there were a few different kinds of gel pens. There were the regular, metallic and glitter. The glitter were shit because it was actual chunks of glitter that would make it hard to write, but in order to show you were really awesome you had to have metallic. Ironically they were also about a dollar more on a set of pens that were already pretty pricey at $6. 

I'm not gonna lie to you reader, my family was poor. We couldn't really afford to buy gel pens all the time so when I received money I would save it so I could buy them. They became so popular that teachers had to start saying we couldn't turn in assignments written with gel pens, which was fine by us, the real magic was in note writing. 

Oh yes, the lost art of note writing. We would line our gel pens up on our desks and write our bff (phonetically pronounced) all about what was going on in that long, lonely period where we were away from one another. If we were really ambitious that day we would write every word in a new color, but usually each paragraph was a new color. It takes me days on end and a little bit of team work to be able to write a paper but I was able to write two pages to my friends who I had just seen about an hour ago about everything that was happening with me. That takes some dedication, I tells ya. 

I was recently at Target and looked for some gel pens and didn't see them on the shelf. I hope that means they are simply sold out and the allure of the gel pen lives on. If not, I will be very sad to know that they are only sold at specialty shops (yes, I consider Staples to be special) because that means they know that only old people like me are going to buy them, because what 11 year old asks their mom to go to Staples?

Marilyn Monroe

*Technical note: I had some internet issues but after telling AT&T that they can either fix my shit or give me my money back they fixed my shit. Everything should be going well now. Hopefully. Because I do have school work to do. Anyway, back to good stuff...

I don't like Marilyn Monroe. This will probably alienate some of you but I believe I'm going to make a great argument for it. First of all, she was not a good actress. Some Like it Hot was good because of Tony Curtis and in spite of her being in it. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was just a great production. This also brings me to my next point, which is her little girl baby voice. Apparently she never got past the age of ten because her voice is even more high pitched and girlie annoying than my six year old nieces. Her singing voice was as good as any actresses in a movie, although Baz Lurhman's version of "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend" with Nicole Kidman was better, but that has other contributing factors. Anway...

She was stupid. Every year (for reasons that are baffling to me and make me angry), Vanity Fair publishes passages from her "secret" diaries. And every time there are really really really simple words misspelled. This girl could probably barely spell her own name. She was sad, depressed and lonely. And while I feel bad for here there are millions of people who suffer this same thing everyday and they're aren't hailed as some champions of society. Also, newflash, she wasn't a size 12- she was actually a size 6 or 8, and by Hollywood standards nowadays she might as well been a size 26 but for when she was famous, being a 6 was actually the norm. They weren't all anorexic yet, the only people who were really like that were models. It wasn't until the 1990's when the modeling world and the acting world blended that it became imperative for women in Hollywood to be very very skinny. She had a very nice body, but it wasn't a "bigger" body and she just defied the laws of stardom and became famous anyway. She actually looked like many of the other actresses at the time. I don't really know where these rumors came from, but people need to stop believing them.

She was a slut. She really really was. I don't care if the President was the only one she was sleeping around with. It doesn't matter. It's not like he was some random off the street and she didn't know he was married. She knew, she didn't care, and she slept around with him anyway. Everyone already knows the Kennedy's are pretty sleezy, but somehow she gets to be cool and viewed as this awesome person who was just giving the man what his prude wife wouldn't. If this is something you believe, congratulations, you will probably sleep with a married man or woman and justify it by saying if they were happy they wouldn't be sleeping around.

She was not a figure of feminism. She wasn't trying to help the cause for women. She wasn't making any statements about body image or confidence or trying to be your own person. She was like a high schooler the way she fell in love. She was very insecure and relied off of the compliments of others to make her feel good and she wanted nothing more than to lead a normal life and be a housewife. Instead she was so sad and drug addicted that she killed herself. Which is sad. But nothing to be worshipped.