Austenland book & movie

I was gifted a copy of the Austenland book for Christmas and got around to reading it this month (I suppose Valentine's Day put me in the spirit for a romance story). The story centers around Jane, a woman in her thirties who has yet to find true love...mostly because she is obsessed with the fantasy that someday she'll find her own Mr. Darcy. A rich aunt guesses Jane's secret fantasy and bequeaths a trip to Austenland to Jane. Austenland is a place where women go to live out their Austen fantasies complete with actors to play out the Austen roles.The premise is pretty ridiculous to me. Who in their right mind would think a fake pseudo-romance with a paid actor could bring happiness. However, the book was a quick easy read so I muddled through (albeit with much eye-rolling). Perhaps someone who is a big fan of Austen would enjoy the book more. I do like Austen, but am not obsessed. The ending was predictable (sort of) but also incredibly unlikely.



Although I was rather disappointed with the book, I decided to give the movie a shot since it has just recently shown up on Amazon Prime (and DVD). Surprisingly, the movie was much better and actually kind of good. The premise is mostly the same with a few details changed. The ending was changed enough to make it (slightly) more believable. I found the actors made the characters come to life a whole lot better than the written word. I had a hard time getting a feel for a lot of the characters in the book, but in the movie, every role makes sense. Jennifer Coolidge is fantastic as is JJ Field who is very Darcy-esque. All of the Austen characters are delightfully over the top. It was a fun way to spend 90 minutes. Skip the book, watch the movie.

Mostly the duo has rekindled my interest in Jane Austen. I've queued up Northanger Abbey on my Kindle to read next.

Tally-ho!

The All Natural Face March subscription box

It's time for another TANF subscription box. This month's theme is Pot O' Gold, just in time for Saint Patrick's Day.

The box included another very generous set of ten eye shadow samples, all in various shades of green and gold. Green is sometimes hard for me to pull off with my pale skin and brown eyes but I am looking forward to giving these a try.

There is a sample of Diva Stick Eye Shadow Primer. I've tried two other of their eye shadow primers. Both have inconsistent reliability for me. They must be used quite sparingly or I find my eye shadow creases. So we'll see how this one fairs.

There is gold gel eye liner. Not a fan of their gel liner so this will probably go straight to the swap box.

A sample of Tea Tree Hydrosol Toner. I can't find any information about this product. I believe Tea Tree oil is good for oily/acne prone skin. Mine is neither. I may hold on to this for summer, though, and see how it works as a refresher on hot humid days.

I'm super excited to try the Argan Oil roll on. I love argan oil and this will be a handy, non-messy form of application.

Finally there is a tub of French Green Clay. I love clay masks so this is a sure winner.

My Beauty Addiction haul

Having a pale skin tone and leaning a bit towards the goth, I'm always on the search for a good, wearable purple lipstick. I thought I had found my holy grail in Pumpkin & Poppy's Lily Boob Tube Lip Butter, but it is sadly discontinued (a fairly common occurrence with indy makeup companies). So before my tube of Lily is completely gone, I decided to start looking again.

Since I'm trying to keep my makeup as natural as possible, I decided to look around Etsy to see what I could find. There are tons of options available but one that caught my eye was My Beauty Addiction. A quick look on Facebook and I discovered they were running a sale that weekend so I jumped on the opportunity to place an order.

My ordered arrived lightening quick, within 4 days! Everything was well packaged and a free eye shadow sample was included. I picked up 3 lipsticks, the Sand & Sea eye shadow sample kit and eye shadow primer (which I forgot to include in the photo).

The lipsticks are available individually or in a set of 3 choose your own colors. I went for the set. MAB offers a wide range of fairly unusual shades as well as awesome everyday shades. The 3 I chose are (from left to right) Candy Baby, Paranormal and Exotic Orchid. They look a bit bumpy in the picture, but they go on totally smooth. The colors are highly pigmented and last for hours. The formula is creamy and moisturizing. The purples probably look a bit wild in the tube, but I find them totally wearable. I've found I can change the look up quite a bit by layering them over a nude lip pencil or under a gloss. A+ for these lipsticks!

I wanted to try some of their eye shadows too and the Sand & Sea sample set seemed like the best value. The set includes 12 extremely generous pots of eye shadows (Cloud Nine was the free sample I received). In retrospect, the set probably wasn't the best choice for me as I don't wear a lot of pastels and even the darkest shades in the set are quite pale. However, I have used them all week and have loved them. They apply and blend beautifully. They don't have fallout and I haven't had much issues with creasing (the primer really helps if creasing is an issue for you). MAB has tons of pre-picked color collections to choose from or you can buy individual colors or choose your own color sets. I can't wait to go back and try some of their darker shades!

If you are on the hunt for unusual lippies or some fine eye shadows, be sure to check out My Beauty Addiction.

Newly loved on Youtube

A few years ago, my super smart sister started gifting me a subscription to Mental Floss magazine each year at Christmas. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before. Its a fabulous mag. I hope it's making me smarter but at the very least it is immensely entertaining.

So an issue or two back there was a story about John Green. I had zero clue who he was so I skimmed the article. He sounded like a really interesting guy. The article mentioned Green is involved in several YouTube channels and being the YT junky I am, I decided to scope them out.

I've only scratched the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure, but my favorites so far are:

Vlogbrothers John & his brother take turns posting videos to each other. The topics are diverse and quirky.

Mental Floss A video version of useless(full) information much like the mag.

SciShow Cool sciency stuff. (are you 1% nacho??)

I'm having a blast with these channels and recommend you check them out if you're looking for some truly awesome educational entertainment.

Valentine's Day/Anniversary 2014

As always, C treated me to lots of goodies for our anniversary. Beautiful roses and candy.

  

And a new charm for my Pandora bracelet. All the charms on this one are from him. The wheels are from a few Christmases past, the love birds and fleur de lis are from a previous Valentine's day and the heart is this year's.

Check out the suprise inside!!

 

This, obviously, was NOT in the plan. Could someone PLEASE turn off the snow?!

 

Cocoa Pink review

Several months ago I came across a cool etailer called Cocoa Pink. They specialize in handmade bath & body products with a massive scent catalog. They have some designer dupes but it seems their forte is custom blends. They also periodically allow customers to design their own scents, custom combining any of their available scents. They offer several types of products from perfumes to lotions and scrubs to hair care. I've ordered from them several times. Shipping takes a few weeks, particularly during promotion times, but it is well worth the wait.

This is just a portion of things I've picked up from CP.

They offer their perfumes in either oil or perfume base which I feel is somewhat unique. Most of these types of sellers only offer oil base and I've come to prefer perfume base, it just seems to work better with my skin. They offer several sizes. I love their 6 dram sample packs where you can try 6 different scents for less than $20. They also offer roll on perfumes and larger spray bottles. A cute touch to the sprays is they include crystal beads in the bottle, I suppose to aid in mixing the fragrance with the base. I find their perfumes to be richly scented and long lasting.

The other product that I have to rave about is their Shower Butter. While the label on the package says to use the product in the shower on wet skin and rinse if desired, I see the website now suggests applying to towel dried skin. This is how I've found it works best for me. The product is a blend of butters and oils. It is solid in the container (at least in our current cool temps it is) and liquifies to a creamy oil when applied. This product has been an absolute holy grail for me this winter. I feel it may be too heavy for warmer weather. Bonus...it's 100% natural, no parabens or preservatives.

They have always included samples with my orders. I've received samples of both their Voluptuous and Mango body butters, Soft Bubbles scrub and Shine conditioner. So far I've only tried the Shine conditioner. While it smells wonderful, it is not hydrating enough for my hair. I'm looking forward to trying the other samples soon.

All in all I highly, highly recommend Cocoa Pink. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter. They don't seem to publish very frequently but it is how they announce promotions.

Sephora birthday haul

Very small Sephora haul this year. I actually only ordered one thing.

There's been some buzz lately about the Sephora Favorites Beauty Oil Essentials kit (tried to link it but it appears to be sold out already!) Since I am a great lover of oils for skin care, this kit sounded right up my alley. Plus by ordering now I could get my birthday perk (this year is a mascara/lipstick combo from Make Up For Ever in a shade I might actually use!) I think they were running some kind of deluxe sample promo as well because I got large samples of Tarte Maracuja oil and Illamasqua Hydra gel as well as the normal freebie samples.

The products in the kit are all quite generously sized. I've tried two of these products previously. I had a sample of Nude ProGenius treatment oil once but I can't remember if I liked it (obviously it didn't make a huge impression on me at the time!) And I have a full size of Tarte Maracuja oil which I adore! I've been using it for nearly a year and have only used half the bottle (so yes, the 2 samples I received in my order will be passed on). I use it at least 3 to 4 times a week so you can see a little goes a very long way. Everything else in the set will be new to me and I am super excited to try it all.

In it's rightful place

My super wonderful, fellow Harry Potter geek sister suprised me with this delightful present for my birthday...

My Marauder's Map (also a b-day gift from her a few years back) finally has a home. The display case is beautiful, much nicer than it looks online. I'm so happy to be able to display my map now! The shadowbox style case has a magnetic closure so it is easy to access the map. Thank you sis!

January 2014 beauty haul

I had a couple of orders from different companies come in recently and thought I'd share them as one huge post. January has been snowy and cold this year (a big change from last year's mild winter) and I find getting little treats delivered right to my door to be a big pick-me-up.

First up is some nail polish (which I need like a hole in the head). Zoya was running their (annual??) 3 for $12 sale a few weeks back. I had intended on passing it up but in a moment of weakness I succumbed (insane hours at work will do that to you!)

I like Zoya polishes a lot. The formula is relatively clean (I think they claim to be 5 free now). They apply evenly and last as well as any polish does for me. Their color selection is vast but their website has really nice search/refine tools that make it easy to find colors you are looking for. The colors I chose this time are Belinda, a gorgeous royal purple, Ginessa, a frosty white (I'm trying to step out of my dark nail comfort zone), and Claudine, which looks like a violent storm cloud in a bottle. Love them all and can't wait to get them on my nails.

Next up are some cosmetics from Silk Naturals (which I also needed like a hole in the head).

I discovered Silk Naturals last year in my quest to clean up my skincare and makeup. They make wonderful cosmetics at great prices. I've always been a bit of a spaz with pencil eyeliner and mostly line my eyes with a brush and my shadow. I was drawn to SN's cream eyeliner palette since it will allow me to still line my eyes with a brush but will hopefully last longer than powder and won't have the fallout issues powder can have. The colors are gorgeous and you get 9 in one handy little palette. This winter they came out with new cream foundations which sounded quite nice so I picked up two samples to test and see if I can find a shade match. Event and Alibi are pigment eye shadows that I got for free with my order (free is good and a girl can NEVER have too many eye shadows!) I also picked up a sample of the new Cloud finishing powder. I have dry skin but like to set my makeup with powder. Cloud powder is designed not to absorb oil, just provide the flawless finish. I'm looking forward to trying it. The square container is brow cream in medium brown. Apparently one of the blessings of aging is thinning brows and I've started filling mine in just a bit. Again, trying to clean up the chemicals I was looking for a natural product. I've been using a sample of this cream for months and love it. The full size will last me forever. I imagine it will dry up before I'm able to use the whole thing! And the last item in this order is a purple lippie. They call this a Slick Stick which is sort of a cross between a light lipstick and a gloss.

My All Natural Face subscription box for February also arrived this week. As expected, it's a Valentine's themed box.

Following the order of the card: another jar of Edible Cocoa Love Dust (still haven't opened the last one I got, fail); a full size roll on of Olive Squaline Oil (I love face oils and am very much looking forward to trying this one. It feels light and has no scent); sample of Raspberry flavored Lip Gloss (can always use a good moisturizing lip gloss); Pandora's Box Massage Oil & Lubricant (again, why are they including this stuff in a "beauty" box? However, the ingredients list is straight up coconut oil which is great for a million different things so it's not a loss); full size Strawberry Face Food (I ADORE face foods!); full size Monoi Body Oil (this is a solid oil, much like a body butter. Smells of gardenia so will probably set it aside for summer when I'm feeling more like floral scents); full size Raspberry Diva Stick (I believe this can be used for lips or cheeks) and finally a vegan chocolate (oh yeah, I ate it like 30 seconds after I took the picture! Yum). All in all a great box.

I didn't post the January box I realize now. Mine came without the card and I wasn't sure if it was all there. The products were mostly all sample sizes (it seems to flip back and forth, one month a lot of full size, the next month mostly samples). There were 3 eye shadows, 2 gel eye liners (their eye liners don't work for me), a dark brown brow wax (way too dark for me) and a Diva stick (which was gorgeous).

The last thing I got recently was a bit of a splurge. Although it may not seem like it by some people's standards, I am trying to cut back on my perfume purchasing. In the last few years of my perfume renaissance I have found some real gems and I'm feeling like I want to settle down to this core of stand outs. I still love having a variety since different occasions/seasons/feelings require their own scents (I couldn't wear Burberry Weekend in the dead of winter nor could I wear M'eau Joe in the height of summer). So all that being said, I'm trying not to buy more perfume. No blind buys. No full bottles without having first tried a sample/decant. And I've been good. I've picked up some samples and decants and been pleased to have just bits and pieces to try without splashing out money for big bottles. Then a few months back (I think it was end of November) Fragrantica and Lucky Scent partnered to give away samples of a new scent from Teo Cabanel called Barkhane. I was one of the lucky recipients and oh boy was I smitten. Its a bit of a spendy purchase so I've been mostly just sniffing the sample rather than wearing it as I didn't want to use it up! I had long decided this would be my first (and possibly ONLY perfume purchase for 2014). And I figured it would be my "tax refund" treat in a few months. However, January is, as I said before, an insane month for me at work. Arguably the worst month of the year. Crazy long hours on top of the post holiday let down wear on one's spirits. I guess I'm just justifying the retail therapy but I caved and used some of my OT and an early birthday gift from C to get a bottle of Barkhane.

It came earlier this week and I was totally freaking out because it was being delivered via USPS and would be sitting in my mail box in very sub-freezing temps while I was stuck at work all day. I was so worried it would freeze and break. Thankfully it arrived unscathed. The bottle is very heavy. It looks small but is 1.7 oz. The scent is absolutely divine. Incense, smoke, spice, sweet, wood. A bit like Chergui but better. It is 100% comfort scent. I catch little whiffs of it all day as I move around and it just gets better and better throughout the day. I've worn it nonstop since it arrived. It has fantastic longevity and average projection. Non-offensive, totally work appropriate. It's early days yet, but I'm feeling very comfortable with my original, pre-purchase, plan that this could be my only scent purchase for 2014. I am a fickle soul and that may (probably will) change, but for now I am perfectly content.

Yikes!

Here's our current conditions...Tuesday, January 7, 2014, 7:35 am. Bundle up!