Weekly Favorites #5

If you have not noticed, I've been pretty lazy as far as posting makeup tutorials and reviews on my blog. I have been really minimal with my everyday makeup, which explains why I haven't posted many reviews. I have been sticking to foundation, powder, mascara, and a bit of lipstick/gloss for the past weeks; nothing too exciting as far as makeup is concerned. This week I stuck to the same routine for the most part but I changed up a few of my products. For starters, I purchased a new CC cream, the IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream. I heard really great things about this CC cream on Youtube videos and I decided to pick it up at Ulta for a hefty $38. So far, I really like it but we will see if it lives up to its hype. While picking up this CC Cream, I saw the IT Cosmetics Tightline Mascara Primer. I remember hearing great things about this one too so I got it as well (damn Youtube making me want to buy stuff!). I've used it a few times this week and, holy cow this stuff is great! This is awesome for people who want a non-white mascara primer that makes the lashes look freaking amazing. I am really starting to like IT Cosmetics! These are my first two products from this brand and so far I have great impression!

Besides the two new makeup products, I started using two other products that were already in my collection: the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in 'Diffused Light' and the NYX Butter Gloss in 'Merengue'. I stopped using 'Diffused Light' for some time because I completely forgot about it, but I fell in love with it again this week. This is a great setting powder for yellow-toned skin as well as a beautiful subtle highlighter. This is really pricey, but the product is amazing and the packaging is superb. I also starting using one of my least used NYX Butter Glosses in 'Merengue' and I can't believe I haven't used it more. It is a cool pink with lavender undertones that looks really good on my skin tone. All NYX Butter Glosses are beautiful and I love them so much ♥ I used this shade in my latest tutorial.

My last favorite of the week is actually not a makeup product, it's a book! And not just any book, it is the newest addition to my Tolkien collection! This is the translation of Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien and now published by his son Christopher. I really liked Beowulf back in high school and it is really great to read it again~ I am really excited to read this classic piece and have translations and comments from Tolkien. It's also so fascinating reading one of the things that basically inspired Tolkien to begin to create his own myths and stories, which basically lead to him creating what we know as Middle-Earth today!

Thanks for reading!

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New Literature Blog!

I mentioned I wanted to write book reviews and the like so...I made a new blog!
Right now that I am in school, I want to dedicate some time into this new blog since it actually relates to what I am studying. So if you are a fan of literature please follow me! Everything is very simple at the moment, and I have only written an introduction for the blog thus far, but I am certain I will be spending some time this weekend to make an actual review/analysis.
I would appreciate the support ^_^

http://thevastlibrary.blogspot.com/

Come join the..ugh..smart side of beauty? Oh damn. That would have been a cool name. Haha, I am such a dork sometimes >_<"

Murakami Haruki

Remember this post on Kawanabe Kyosai? I wanted to do a similar random post but this time on a Japanese author.

Just to clear things up with the Japanese name,
Surname: Murakami (村上)
First name: Haruki (春樹) 


Murakami is a Japanese writer, and one of my favorite authors of all time. He has written a number of novels and short stories. His work can be humorous, surreal, and at times, very confusing, but there is a certain depth that is very alluring. When I read his work, I am very entertained and I always want to read more.
His writing deals with many themes, and in particular deals with social issues. I hear that he is against the norm of Japanese society, which puts an emphasis on work rather than communication with others.
I highly recommend his novels, which I know are translated into English and other languages.

I can't say I have disliked any of his novels. Each one has been a pleasure to read. But if stories without a conclusive ending aren't your cup of tea, heed caution to the wind. His stories are very inconclusive, which is one of the reasons I love his work. The endings always leave you thinking, with a "WTF" expression etched on your face. I would suggest starting with his short stories just to get a taste of what his novels are like.

One of my FAVORITE of his short stories is the one called "The second bakery attack." You guys have to read it. It is odd and simply hilarious. It is a very short story, and I highly recommend that you read it. (I believe that this story was adapted to film...0_o")

My favorite novel is "The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World." Amazing novel. If you want to read something interesting, I suggest you check it out. I mean, what is better than huddling in some warm blankets and reading a truly amazing book?

Kawanabe Kyosai

This is kind of a random post. I have studied a little bit of Japanese Literature and Art over the past two years and I have learned a lot of new things about Japanese culture and history. One of the things that really caught my eye was Japanese art that is related to literature (specially folklore literature). The artist that I have admired the most is Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889). Enjoy looking at some of his paintings~

Many of you won't know this but crows and ravens are actually my favorite animals. It is a little weird, but I have always been fascinated by them. So naturally, I was drawn by these paintings.

And going into a more creepy and eerie painting...

Creepy, right? This is a female ghost carrying the decapitated head of a man. Her facial expression just gives me the creeps! It is 5 am, and I am putting up pictures of ghosts? I am so normal...

Anyways, the point of this was to show you guys something that might be new :D I think it is really important to learn and see new things. I don't know, maybe one of you will be interested in one of these paintings and learn more about them. :D Or you can just waste a couple of minutes looking at some morbid paintings~

Book List February 2011

 Here's something different. 

This is a list of 100 of the most popular books today. I love reading, so I looked up this list and I wanted to see how many of them I have already read. I am disappointed that I have not read that many :'( If I counted right I have read 28 /100. Of course, I have read tons of books that are not on this list, but it still made me depressed. 

So I decided to undergo a critical  mission: to read as many of these books as I can. I will begin this during my spring break, which is like in less than three weeks. My university is on the quarter system so classes only last 10 weeks D:

SO wish me good luck. You should check the list too~

Oh just a random nerdy fact:

~I love the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series. This winter, I re-read all the Harry Potter books in preparation for the last movie that comes out this summer. Ah, my nerdiness knows no bounds. ;)

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen x
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte x
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee x
6 The Bible x
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte x
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell x
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott x
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy x
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller x
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (partial only)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier x
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks x
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger x
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger x
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck x
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame x
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis X
34 Emma – Jane Austen x
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen x
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini x
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown x
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery x
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy x
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood x
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding x
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert x
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen x
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold x
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett x
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson x
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath x
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome x
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens x
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton x
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams x
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute x
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo x