Cassy - the girl whose nails were on fire

Like most other humans in the world, I went to see The Hunger Games this weekend. I didn't go until today, though, since my viewing buddy was my mother (who is getting too old for midnight showings) We both enjoyed the film, though, and didn't find it to be such a far cry from the books that it was annoying. Something very interesting to me was their take on Seneca Crane's involvement/situation. An annoyance was how much the cave scenes were whittled down. 

I wore my Peeta shirt today. I'm not "team Peeta" in the sense that I think it's another Twilight love triangle. It has nothing to do with Katniss (who I also love) or Gale (who I happen not to like) I just like Peeta a lot. Plus they didn't make a shirt for "team Greasy Sae," ya know? I also wore my Katniss braid. I was the only one at the theater who was enough of a loser to have done these things. Glad I wiped off my orange "firey" makeup before I left (it came our terrible anyway)

The nails were actually kind of a cheat. I did them last weekend as my anti-St Patrick's Day manicure, but they worked for this weekend as well. I used Butter London's Tart with a Heart over Funky Fingers Kingston. The result made me think of Katniss's interview dress with the jewels on the shoulder.

Did any of you see The Hunger Games this weekend? Anyone else getting tired of people calling it a Battle Royale ripoff? It's like fighting about Lady Gaga being a Madonna ripoff. Maybe it's true in a way, but who really cares in the end? 

Versatile Blogger Award

Nomination for this award came via the quirky and adorable aki!/7% Solution. Her blog makes me feel right at home as she also is a life blogger. Cute outfits? Check. Makeup? Check. Food? Check. While I do like topic-dedicated blogs, it's also nice to not know what's going to come next.

The rules:

1. Thank the person who awarded you.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 bloggers.

1. I have a Keifer Sutherland/David from The Lost Boys action figure hanging on my wall.

2. I read the entire Cirque Du Freak/Darren Shan series in like 2 weeks. Granted they're teenager books, but sooooo addictive. A woman at the bookstore told me it was a boy's solution to Twilight. No sparkly vampires, lots of violence. 

3. My grandma and I email each other about once a week. We don't talk about anything especially "heavy," mostly just trade opinions about our respective weather. 

4. I have a doppelganger at my doctor who apparently had a baby recently. If they (staff at the office) ask me one more time if I just had a baby, I'm going to pull out my hair, or theirs, or everyone's.

5. Matt has a popcorn ceiling in his bedroom and sometimes I lay on his bed and just count all the little "kernels"

6. I cannot operate tools, even simple ones. I tend to use a butter knife as a screwdriver and my dvd player remote as a hammer.

7. I like stopping my car for pedestrians who want to cross at crosswalks, it makes me feel good. I cannot stand people who loiter right at the edge of crosswalks even though they're not looking to actually cross. I was nice enough to stop, now you should be nice enough to cross (and I don't really care if you want/need to)

Passing this one on to (and trust me I will not be offended if you don't do this)

Vulcan Butterfly

The Peach

Larie/Eye Heart It

Chalkdust and Boots

Hillary

Gazel

Laura/Blog of Worldly Delights

Anita/Thick Threads

Rachel's Symbiotic Life

Lycanthropica

Laura/That Gurl Who

11 out of 15 is good, right? I don't know why the fonts are all different/different sizes I'll get IT right on that...

Public Service Announcement #2

I was a little iffy on posting this one, but thanks to a nudge from the fabulous Anita of Thick Threads!  I am bringing you my second PSA. This one is in regards to skin care products. Now I have heard testimony on both sides, but I am of the thought that a new product should NOT make you worse before it makes you better. I've heard some people say that it's pulling the impurities up and out, but I don't buy it. If something is wreaking havoc on your skin, STOP USING IT. There are plenty of products out there to try, you should not have to suffer with one until it gets better (and I only think it gets better sometimes because you finally build up a tolerance... but why just tolerate your skin care products?)

If you need proof, I give you LUSH's Ocean Salt and my face. Let me preface this by saying that LUSH does say you can use this product on your face as an occasional exfoliant. I also must point out that my skin is not especially sensitive and I have been exfoliating without issues for years. I decided to try Ocean Salt on my face because I looooove how it makes my hands feel so so smooth (if you've never had a hand massage at LUSH, drop what you're doing and go immediately). After one use, my skin felt a little irritated. I assumed it was just the salt and no biggie I'll just moisturize super well. A couple of days later came try #2 and that's when all rash broke loose.

The little bumps were eeeeeverywhere. It reminded me a little of when I break out after eating fresh cranberry (which I have a sensitivity to and am not supposed to eat out of moderation) It's been not quite a week since I took these pictures and I have it down to a mild roar. There are still some unhappy areas on my cheek/jaw, but my forehead is completely cleared. I went back to using my Yes To products (right now I have Carrots and Blueberries) and really should just stick with them. 

All of this said, please don't think I'm badmouthing LUSH (love LUSH) or even Ocean Salt (did I not tell you to run and get a hand massage with this stuff?) It's just a product that didn't love my face and I should have backed away from after the first use didn't feel quite right. Beauty isn't an exact science, it's a lot of trial and error. There is so much on the market, though, that you shouldn't have to suffer along with a product that doesn't work for you. And above all else if your product hurts you, kick it to the curb. I wouldn't let a person beat me up, so I'm damn well not about give in to a face scrub...

The Mascara Chronicles (part 10)

I'll admit I've been holding onto this particular review for a while now, planning to use it when I got into a makeup slump and really had nothing else to show you. Now is apparently that time. I have basically hated everything I've done lately, my skin is recovering from a gross rash from a skin-care product (which I might share with you as a PSA, not sure on that one) and I'm not even testing any new mascaras as I have so many open from past tests. So here is my backup-plan post, Sephora Advanced Lash Booster.

The Manufacturer Claims:

An advanced mascara, scientifically proven to enhance four lash characteristics: length, thickness, fullness, and strength. 

This mascara uses complete 360° action to fortify your fringe and deliver an instantly visible volumizing effect. A new technique harnesses coating elements, with perfectly rounded microspheres, to triple the penetration of active ingredients into the lashes; efficiency has been measured by scientific studies

In a one-month, 20-subject study conducted under ophthalmologic control (in comparison to a placebo mascara), results showed:
- 12% average increase in length.
- 12% increase in diameter.
- Densifying effect (observed by 80% of women).
- Fortifying effect (observed by 75% of women).

The Product:

True to many Sephora-brand products, this came in a black package with white writing. Nothing special, but not unattractive at all. Probably easier to carry around in your grown-up purse than the obnoxious pink tube (which I like, but it IS obnoxious) that Maybelline gives you for their "The Falsies" mascara. The brush on the Sephora mascara was also fairly basic. Normal sized, non-curved and slightly tapered towards the ends. It's not a bad design, again just not that exciting.

Initial application definitely showed off a lot of length and I suppose thickened a bit? I have such a tough time telling. The color was black and a little glossy. I was able to get good coverage in just a couple of passes per eye. 

After a full day of wear, I could still see the length and possible volume, but the color had definitely faded some (or maybe it was just because it lost the gloss) I didn't find the formula to get crumbly or smudgey, though. Wherever the lost color went, it just was gone. Poof. Evaporated. It's not a waterproof formula, so perhaps my natural water content somehow whisked it away? I don't know, I'm not the scientist around here.

My Conclusion:

Once again it's the manufacturer claims that get me. This one gives you all these stats that you can see after a month of use, but who really is going to be able to understand a 12% diameter increase on a teensy tiny lash? And since lashes fall out eventually anyway, why care so much about the diameter? If you just take the mascara at face value, though, it does look nice. I also find for the price point ($12 @ Sephora) it's a happy medium between drug store (which I find to run $5-10) and high end (which seem to go from $15 and usually up (some of them waaaay up) 

Peep my new specs

Something about getting new glasses always makes me unreasonably excited. Maybe it's because I was so against them when I was little that now I need to make up for all that lost joy. It's so much better now, though, since you really can make glasses into a functional fashion accessory. I finally had my eye exam at the beginning of the month which meant it was time for a trip to Zenni. You may remember the name from such amazing blog posts as this time-ish last year when I asked for help picking out a couple of frames. This year I just went for it and picked my own (sorry guys!). They were also having a buy 2 get 1 sale, so I got three pairs this time!

(Pay no attention to the makeup, I was experimenting and it was not really a successful experiment)

Pair #1 are white plastic with little pink hibiscus flowers on the sides. The flowers are actually imprinted waaay into the arms, so the texture is a little odd. I like them though. I feel like these ones are the most "me" of the ones I got.

Pair #2 are meant to be my "normal" glasses for when I need to look like a sane person. I've never had half-rim glasses. They're ok, interesting without being too over the top I think.

Pair #3 were intentionally bought to be ridiculous. I think they make me look like a superhero wearing their secret identity/disguise. I ran around the house pretending to be mild mannered Clark Kent. 

I'm very happy with all three pairs I selected and you really can't beat three pairs of glasses for less than $80 (including shipping!) More than that, I am happy to be able to see out of BOTH lenses of my glasses (it had gotten to the point I could only see out of my right eye with my old glasses)

What do you guys think? I still wear my contacts most days as I need to be able to wear sunglasses while driving (wearing contacts for the last 10 years has made my eyes really light sensitive) It's nice to have other options, though!

HITS me, HITS me with your pet shark

I know I have said it before, but I have a problem with nail polish. I keep buying them and buying them and then not even using then that much. It's not because I have something keeping me from it such as many of my friends in food service who can't have their nails painted at work for health code reasons. For me it's a mix of laziness and unsteadiness. I am very shaky with my left hand and it's a pain to clean up the mess I make with polish up to my knuckles sometimes. This is why you'll rarely see me in any extent of nail art and certainly nothing as amazing as Erika of Chloe's Nails.

(I think this picture makes my collection look smaller than it is, which is ~200 bottles)

What I am thankful for are polishes that have so much charm on their own that you don't really need to do nail art to make them special. That's what I have found in my HITS No Olimpo polishes which are holographic polishes from Brazil. I get mine through Llarowe, though she seems to be out of the two colors I want to show you now. 

HITS Poseidon (light blue with holo):

HITS Hera (deep teal-ish green with holo):

Hope everyone is having a good shortened weekend. I woke up this morning and freaked out for a minute about how late I slept, but then realized that it was really an hour earlier if I was adding up how many hours I slept. I don't even know why I care because Matt won't be up until noon anyway, lol. 

Konnichiwa Manga!

I haven't been feeling well for a couple of weeks now and haven't really left the house much aside from work and the dinner I mentioned in my last post. I have been wanting to go to a Manga exhibit at a local museum, though, so I dragged my butt out of the house for a few hours (thanks to some coaxing from Matt.) The exhibit is literally called Hello Manga! and is a collection of costumes, books, animation cells and even murals from the world of Manga and Anime. There were also some more historical Japanese paintings and artifacts which show where some of the inspiration from the animations came from real life events and objects. I thought it was pretty interesting and the museum itself is nice (we went to the regular museum exhibits as well) 

(wall mural as you enter)

(another wall mural, obviously same artist)

(wall sketchings - I don't know if the pointy-haired boy is Gohan)

(more all sketchings - I love the fish!)

(animation cells from Kiki's Delivery Service)

(Mei from My Neighbor Totoro)

(sketches of Vegeta and Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z)

(Sailor Moon! oh how I loved Sailor Moon - I was Jupiter for some reason)

(Noh masks - not gonna lie, these things freak me out)

I'm really glad I got to check out this exhibit and since we went on the first Saturday of the month, it was free! I can't believe the museum is so close by yet this is the first time we've been. 

So what are your thoughts on Manga/Anime? Any favorites? Anything I just HAVE to check out?