Recently

Hey y'all! 

I can't believe summer's almost over. I don't want to go back to school and go through the dreaded college process yet! This summer has definitely been one of the most different summers for me yet. It's been such a new experience for me. And it's gone by SO fast. Excuse me while I go grasp onto as much of the summer I have left as possible. Here are some recent happenings in my (sadly ending) summer.

Recently listening to:

Passion Pit's new album Gossamer; this album is just amazing. Period. I've been listening to it on repeat for the past two weeks. Above is one of my favorites from the album (though they're all basically my favorite).

Recently purchased:

Dunnies; I collect mini toys (mostly Domo), and my friend was selling his repeat Dunnies so I decided to get some of his. They're so adorably small and intricate at the same time.

Recently read:

The Stranger by Albert Camus; this was one of my summer reading books for school. It was surprisingly a really really good, "short and sweet" read. The story progressed quickly and the whole mood of the book was quite...unsettling. It made me think and made me not want to think at the same time, yet I really enjoyed it a lot. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick, but intense/involved read.

Recently been enjoying:

Painting!!! I found this untouched set of watercolors from one of those kiddy artist sets lying around my house. They actually aren't half bad! Blasting music while painting has been such a great escape for me lately.

So that's what I've been up to this past week. What have you been up to recently?

Recently

Hey y'all!

School is finally out and I am baaaaaack! Sorry for the impromptu hiatus. But anyway, I'm so happy to be blogging again! During the past two weeks, there was always something clawing at me to post, but I resisted that temptation. I needed to get mah work did.

So to update you guys a little on what I've been up to lately, here are some things that I've been recently doing!


Recently listening to:

Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men; love the use of different instruments and the general catchy-ness of this song. The lyrics are also really nice; click that play button!

Recently consumed:

"Swiss Mushroom" burger and fresh cut french fries; my friends and I have a yearly tradition to celebrate the last day of school at this lovely place called Eagle's Deli. Of course we kept the tradition going again this year!

Recently been reading:

1984 by George Orwell; I'm part of the recycling committee at my school so at our annual end-of-the-year clean-out of the entire school, I found this near-perfect condition copy of 1984. I'm really enjoying it so far, have you read this classic before?

Recently purchased:

Sunscreen and some Infallibles; I'm going to Puerto Rico on the 30th for some family vacationing so I needed a new sunblock! I got the baby version because I thought it might have fewer harsh chemicals, but still offer good protection. It also doesn't have that nasty sunscreen-y smell! I also got these two Infallibles, which I will definitely post about later (especially about the one on the left). I would have gotten a third one called Liquid Diamond (it was this beautiful lilac/lavender silver mishmash that I can't even describe properly), but I didn't bring enough money!

Recently been playing:

Pokemon Blue; on my old school Game Boy Advance (I still have GB Color though)! Ever since finals have been over, it's been Pokemon all over the place...which partially explains why I didn't update on Friday/Saturday as promised. (Hehehe, sorry about that.)

Recently went to:

THE BEACH; we have been hit with three straight days (and counting) of 100-degree weather here in Boston...which isn't exactly very comfortable, but nevertheless summer has finally arrived! By the end of that day I had gotten 5 shades darker (despite packing on 9 billion layers of sunscreen every few hours), oh boy.

I think I might make this a recurring theme/series on this blog -- not sure yet. It's kind of like a spin-off of 'Week in Pictures'? Tell me what you think!

Charlie and the Chocolate Swatchery

In the midst of writing my research paper on Roald Dahl, I took a break to play with some of my makeup. I had hit a bump in the road, so I decided to take a breather to loosen up my mind a little. Isn't it awesome that I'm doing my research paper on Roald Dahl? I'm comparing his children's and adult's stories. I've always loved him as an author (his short stories are fantastic), and so I was really glad my English teacher approved of him for my research project!

One of the books I'm using is the classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I pulled some inspiration from all the sweets and chocolates to make a theme for my swatches. 

So I was basically still doing "research" on it, right? Ehehe. Here is one of my favorite passages from the book:

"Charlie was holding tightly onto his grandfather's bony old hand. He was in a whirl of excitement. Everything he had seen so far -- the great chocolate river, the waterfall, the huge sucking pipes, the candy meadows, the Oompa-Loompas, the beautiful punk boat, and most of all, Mr. Willy Wonka himself -- had been so astonishing that he began to wonder whether there could be more astonishments left. Where were they going now? What were they going to see? And what in the world was going to happen in the next room?"

Here's what I pulled out from my stash:

• C.O. Bigelow Winter Cordials Glossy Lip Balm in Triple Hot Chocolate: I just had to. Triple Hot Chocolate? YUM! The smell can get a little overpowering, though. The gloss is very nicely moisturizing (like most C.O. Bigelow's) and has the tiniest bit of subtle shimmer.
• Revlon Beyond Natural Defining Eye Pencil in Brown: It's such a pretty, rich red-brown color! For some reason, it reminds me of peanut butter chocolates. It's really nice and smooth.
• MAC Pigment in Cocomotion: Hehehe, just for the name, y'know? It's a gorgeous bronze gold with a stunning metallic finish.
• Benefit Box Blush/Highlighter in Sugarbomb: It has chocolate on the box! The four colors mixed together create a nice and sweet pale peachy pink color. The blush smell nice too!
• Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable: This color just screams dark chocolate to me! It's such a nice and smooth dark brown. This used to be my go-to color for defining the crease (I don't really wear much makeup nowadays).
• L'Oreal HiP Shadow Stick in Meticulous: The prettiest pale taupe ever! This reminds me of chocolate milk; it's one of the best shadow stick bases ever. I love love love it.
• Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow Quad in Coffee Bean: I realize I have a lot of makeup items with food names. Or rather companies like to name their shades after food. This is a great everyday eye palette, and I'm quite sad they don't have this quad anymore (I think).
• B&BW Liplicious Lip Gloss in Strawberry Bling: Needed something to pump up the excitement, yeah? Having all muted colors would have been a little boring, so this sparkle/glitter-packed gloss was perfect. It's SO condensed with glitters -- so pretty! It reminds me of sugar and rock candy.
• The Body Shop Lip Butter in Coconut: This smells and feels delicious! I really want to get the mango one too, especially now that they're 2 for $10. But boy, I really do NOT need another lip balm. I need to get crackin' on them!

This was really fun and such a nice little break! I think not only having a color theme but an actual theme is really fun when you're just having some fun swatching your makeup. Well, I just like swatching stuff in general LOL. So here are the swatches:

1. The Body Shop Coconut Lip Butter, 2. Benefit Sugarbomb, 3. C.O. Bigelow Triple Hot Chocolate, 4. Strawberry Bling, 5. Revlon Beyond Natural in Brown, 6. L'Oreal HiP in Meticulous, 7. Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable, 8. MAC Cocomotion, 9. Revlon Coffee Bean Quad.

Don't you just wanna go munch on some chocolates now?