Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Books: Shutter Island

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.
"The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new ­partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple-murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems." taken from Amazon.com

I picked this up because the movie is going to take forever to be available on my Netflix queue. It's a good story but not sure I liked the book. The writing style was a bit confusing & hard to follow since it wasn't from any one person's point of view.
Good for the story but the movie might be better

NOTD: Maybelline Sunset Prisms

This is such a great glowy-gold color. Works on me but would be even better on someone with a tan

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Magazine Review: InStyle Hair Spring 2010 - Amanda Seyfried

I love special issues like this and since its put out by InStyle, you know that it's probably worth getting. Here are some of the things covered:
~Great how-to instructions for creating looks like the faux bob, pinup waves, etc
~Frizz fighters categorized by hair type, texture, weight, etc
~10 Way to Get Your Gloss On
~Rut busters like color streaks, extensions, adding jewelry, etc
~The Taming on the Do (best cuts, S&C & styling for straight, wavy, curly & coiled hair, also divided further by fine & thick in each category)
~Hue It Yourself (at-home tips for your base color -> lighter, darker or redder)
~Great Hair A to Z (DIY bang trim, face shape, hot rollers, sulfate-free, veruschka...)
~One Week, Seven Gorgeous Styles
~Many different ways to wear the bob
~How to grow out your hair w/style (w/celeb examples)
~America's most requested celeb cuts/styles

Get it & keep it for reference!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Another Fyrinnae order

I know I haven't reviewed my last order yet (promise I will soon) but I loved everything so much that I decided to spend my Pinecone survey money on a few more samples. Next time I need to try the lip lustres.
I got:Adam & Steve
Cookie Dough

When it gets closer to fall I'll have to start getting darker shades but now all I want is light & colorful.

Books: The Help


The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
"Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t. " taken from Amazon.com


This book set in the 1960s in Mississippi and tells the stories of black maids and the social issues that they dealt with in those times.
When I started this book, the writing style made me very uncomfortable since the author is a white woman. And I also got upset several times just thinking about the injustices so many faced (I was probably more touched than many since I'm in an interracial relationship & we have children together).
I'm not going to do a lengthy review since its a very popular book and many reviews have been written by others. But I will say that I enjoyed it very much & I would definitely recommend it to others

Magazine Review: Glamour June 2010 - Models


This is quite a good issue as far as articles go but nothing good as far as beauty & only a few standouts for fashion.
The articles include one page each on cheating & on female movie directors. 4 Times Not to Go "Healthy" (about not choosing lite or fat-free options), Q&A about the health care reform, 2 pages of wedding tips/advice, Should You Date a Guy with Baggage?, How to Find Love in a World Full of Hookups, Sorry but What Ever Happened to Etiquette, etc.
The Fashion standouts were How to Dress Rich on a Real Girl Salary, Michael Kors Dos & Don't of Beach Season & a fashion photo spread with Ryan Kwanten (Jason from True Blood).
Worth getting for the articles & the few pages of fashion tips.
T

Product Review: Rembrandt Intense Stain Toothpaste

Within the past few months I've started drinking 1 cup of coffee every afternoon (Nescafe Classico instant made w/skim milk - yummy!). I was surprised how much yellower my teeth became just drinking 1 cup a day. I don't really like using the white strips, except before special occasions. Saw this in the store & figured I'd try it. I saw a difference within 2 days. Don't think this will make my teeth super white but they are definately less yellow. I would reccomend this.