Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The House of Hades Book Review



“Tell the sun and stars hello for me.”

 House of Hades was utterly incredible. It was funny, sad, and swoon worthy all at the same time. I also have to say, the character development is incredible. You learn so much about the characters, that you didn't know before. I can't give this book enough praise. Yes, its a middle grade book but almost everybody would love this series.

Rick Riordan has such talent. I was laughing one minute then smiling then sitting on the edge of my chair, the next. He really is one of my authors of all time. He makes mythology interesting (even though I already like it, but I know some people don't) and memorable. But can I just make one request? STOP WITH ALL OF THE FUCKING CLIFF HANGERS. Your killing me here Rick and he knows it.

“To my wonderful readers:
Sorry about that last cliff-hanger.
Well, no, not really. HAHAHAHA.
But seriously, I love you guys.”

Yes, the cliff hanger at The Mark of Athena was awful. There was subtle cliff hanger at the end of House of Hades. Every damn book, BOOM CLIFF HANGER. I have a theory: he is just trying to land us in a mental hospital.

Okay so from here on out, there will be spoilers if you haven't read the first three books in the series and the original Percy Jackson series.  I warned you okay? Don't blame me. 

At the end of The Mark of Athena, Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. They are literally in an evil god's body with a bunch of monsters and other killing stuff. They have to make it back to the Doors of Death, to get to out of Tartarus. But that is like impossible. But then they find a friend who helps them on their journey.

The rest of the half-bloods on the ship are going to meet them on the other side. But of course, they get lots of problems. The book has point of views for all of the 7 half-bloods and also Nico! I think he only gets one or two chapters, but still. But Riordan manages to make that not confusing at all. Half of the time we are reading about the ship, and then we are reading about Percy and Annabeth the other half of the time.

House of Hades doesn't surprise me with its awesomeness, I knew it was coming. Because everything that Riordan writes is awesome. It is packed with everything a reader could want. Including most of this.

(This isn't mine by the way, but props to who ever made this)
 
So don't be fooled. This is a middle grade book, but its more than that. Pinky promise. Do yourself a favor and go and binge read this one. 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Divergent Nail Art and Makeup Looks

Hey guys! I have been preparing this post for a while! As you may know, one of my favorite book trilogies is Divergent by Veronica Roth! My review on the book is right here. So I was making a nailing the book design based on the book and decided that it would be fun to do makeup looks for the different factions as well! The post will be very picture heavy, so I'm just going to jump right in!

Nail Art:


This design is based off of the Divergent factions! If you need a review, they are right here. From thumb to pinky I have Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, and Dauntless. I used Elf Nude for the base on all of my nails. Then I used Elf Smoky Brown and Sinful Colors Nirvana for my thumb. I used L.A. Colors Black Velvet for my pointer finger and Revlon Diva for my middle finger. Then I used Sally Hansen Blue Me Away, Revlon Midnight, and Sonia Kashuk Contessa for my ring finger. Finally I used Revlon Diva and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed for my pinky finger!


Makeup Looks:

Abnegation (The Selfless):
 "I choose to turn away from my reflection, to rely not on myself but on my brothers and sisters, to project always outward until I disappear." - Abnegation manifesto

If I were being realistic, the Abnegation don't wear makeup. So I tried to make this as simple as possible. I just put on some grey eye shadow on my top lid and bottom lash area and  then applied some mascara. 

Products: 
Benefit "They're Real!" mascara
Colour Couture Cosmetics grey eyeshadow

Candor (The Honest):
"Truth makes us transparent. Truth makes us strong. Truth makes us inextricable" - Candor manifesto

The Candor's colors are supposed to be black and white. No grey, because they don't believe anything is grey, it is either black or white. So here I have white eyeshadow with black in the corner of my lid. Then I did winged eye liner and lined my bottom lashes too. Then I finished with mascara.

Products used:
Benefit "They're Real!" mascara
Elf black liquid eyeliner
Colour Couture eyeshadows

Amity (The Peaceful):
"Give freely, trusting that you will be given what you need... Do not be angry. The opinions of others cannot damage you... The wrong is past. You must let it rest where it lies... You must no longer think cruel thoughts. Cruel thoughts lead to cruel words, and hurt you as much as they hurt their target."  - Amity manifesto

This is my second favorite one! The Amity's colors are supposed to be red and yellow. So I have yellow on my lid and some red in the corner. Then I used liquid eyeliner and mascara to finish the look!

Products used:
Benefit "They're Real!" mascara
Elf black liquid eyeliner
Profusion Colour eyeshadow pallete

Erudite (The Intelligent):
"Ignorance is defined not as stupidity but as lack of knowledge." - Erudite manifesto

The main color of the Erudite is blue. So for this design I used blue eyeliner and blue eyeshadow on the bottom lash line. Then I finished it out with mascara.

Products used:
Markwins eyeshadow palette
Benefit "They're Real!"
Markwins blue eyeliner

Dauntless (The Brave):
"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another... We
believe in shouting for those who can only whisper, in defending those who cannot defend themselves"  

 This is my favorite design! The Dauntless' logo has flames on it, so I did a flame look. I used yellow, orange, and red eyeshadow to make the lid. Then put black eyeshadow on my corner for a burnt flame kind of look. Then I used eyeliner and mascara to finish out the look.

Products used: 
L.A. Colors Little Black Box Natural Edition eyeshadow palette
Elf black eyeliner 
Benefit "They're Real!" mascara

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 



  

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Cover Girl Catching Fire Nail Polish Duo Swatches & Review

Hey guys! I am so tired because of losing an extra hour! I only got 5 hours of sleep than went to babysit! So needless to say, I'm falling asleep on my computer. But I have so many different designs and polishes to show you guys, I need to get a post done today! So today I have the Cover Girl Catching Fire nail polish duo! I found this at Walmart a few weeks ago, and it was three dollars so I needed it. It comes with a polish and some nail stickers. You get a few to pick from but I picked the one with Seared Bronze and some flame stickers.


Cover Girl Seared Bronze:

Seared Bronze is a shimmery bronze with hints of green and red. I like this polish a lot, I think that it is very original. But the formula wasn't great, not bad, but not great. I thought it was very watery. I had to use 4 coats (but three would work too) in these pictures shown.




Cover Girl Flamed Out Stickers:

I tried putting the stickers on Seared Bronze, but it just didn't look good to me. So I put them over NYC Times Square Tangerine Creme. The stickers are really easy to apply and look awesome!






Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Oh Shit, Another Nail Polish Haul

So I got money. And then I spent it on plenty of nail polish. Whats new right? I spent it all at Sally Beauty Supply. My nearest Sally Beauty Supply had some awesome sales! China Glaze buy one get one free and they had all of the Gwen Stefani for OPI's at 4.50! So needless to say, my money is gone. But I don't regret any of my purchases, not for one second.



Sally Girl Chocolate Chip:

Chocolate Chip is a white polish with small black glitters that look like chocolate chips! I have seen a lot of these kinds of polish around from different indie makers and have always wanted one! It's a really cute polish and the formula is okay! Here is 3 coats without top coat.





China Glaze Seahorsin' Around:

Seahorsin' Around is a textured blue/aqua with shimmery green polish. It is from their new Sea Goddess Collection! I like this one a lot! It dries fast like normal textured polishes and the formula is great. Here is two coats without top coat!





China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy:

Flip Flop Fantasy is a very bright coral orange creme. I love this color a lot and I now understand why its so popular. The formula was good too but I did have to use 3 coats because it was a little watery. It is a little more orange and not as bright in person. Here is 3 coats without top coat.





OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby:

This polish is a light gold foil with a matte finish. This is officially my favorite polish... ever. It is just so beautiful and the formula is perfect and it dries instantly. The finish on this one is really cool, OPI calls it there "satin" finish! Here is two coats without top coat!





Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Stain Glass Windows Nail Art

Hey guys! It seems like forever, but its only been a few days. But I have no good excuse, I have just been reading a lot. I'm currently reading three books: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, The Archived by Victoria Schwab, and The Pleasures of The Damned by Charles Bukowski! It is weird reading so many books at once, it seems like I'm not reading much but am really reading a ton! I also just joined a read-a-long for The Archived! It is a lot of fun to discuss the book as you go! You can find the group on Goodreads here.

For today's post, I have a nail design for you! Stain Glass windows! I have always loved this design but have never done it. Well I did it once, but it was basically a fail. Here are some pictures!



For this design I used a nail art brush and L.A. Colors Black Velvet, Nabi Metallic Lime, China Glaze Elfin' Around, China Glaze So Blue Without You, China Glaze Mingle With Kringle, and Sally Hansen Grape Going! I just drew the black outlines and filled them in the different polishes. Then I topped it with Seche Vite Top Coat.
 


Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Allegiant Book Review


"Be brave."

Seriously, you are going to need to be very brave to read this book. I'm not going to spoil it, but the ending is worse than The Fault In Our Stars. The ending is like the ending of all endings. I cried real tears guys, the tears were real. So, yes I understand why the average rating for this book on Goodreads is 3.63 stars. The ending of this book destroyed the series for a lot of people. But as sad as I am, I get where Veronica Roth was coming from and I think it showed an huge amount of character.

As normal for series, if you haven't read the first two books this will have spoilers. I REPEAT, SPOILERS FOR DIVERGENT AND INSURGENT AHEAD. Okay, I will not be blamed for this. So Allegiant picks up after Insurgent, when the Edith Prior video is released. Four and Tris quickly know that they want to get out of the city and see what happened out there, and if there are still people alive.

So them and a group of others go outside of the fence and find out what happened. Its hard to explain what happens without spoilers, so I'll just stop there. But inside the city, they are on the brink of war. A group of people that want factions back, called the Allegiant, try to take their city back. While Four's mom is leading the city of factionless. Things are a mess.

Through out the book, Tris and Four have lots of relationship problems (grrrr....). They are very up and down through out the whole story. Which is of course, really really annoying. But they work it out, so that is what matters, right? Christina and Uriah get close but don't date, which I kind of wish they did. But really I don't have much else to say.

I thought this book was heartbreaking and real and beautiful. I was shaking when I was reading it in the end. I cried, I laughed, I swooned. The Divergent trilogy is one of my favorites and I'm sad to see it end.

Friday, February 28, 2014

The Lacquer Legion Adoration

Hey guys! Today is The Lacquer Legion's day to post your #LLadoration nail art! If you don't know about The Lacquer Legion, is a community of girls who have a prompt every month to get you inspired! This month's prompt is adoration. The Lacquer Legion is run by The Nailasaurus, Chalkboard Nails, Rebecca Likes Nails, and Work Play Polish! You can find the Lacquer Legion Facebook page here. If you want to, you can still get on some "adoration" nails for today!

You can go about the prompt any way you want! I did these nails based on punk music, which I love! It seems kind of weird right? A nail polish addict loving punk music? Well I do! Some of my favorite bands are Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Mayday Parade, and All Time Low.



My pinkie finger is Fall Out Boy's logo and my ring finger is Paramore's logo. 
I used Sally Hansen Posh Plum, Silvery Streamers, and Gun Metal, Wet n Wild Disturbia, and Sally Hansen Wine Not. 



Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Yet Another Nail Polish Haul

Hey guys! I went on another nail polish haul *oops*. I went to Sally Beauty Supply and Target, and I got the Nicole by OPI at Target, but rest are from Sally Beauty Supply. All of the polishes I got were either cheap or on sale! So lets just jump right it!

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You:

This is a white texture polish with medium sized hexagonal glitters, that are supposed to represent snow. I'm kind of right in between liking and not liking it. There really aren't many of the glitters in it, but it did have a good formula for a textured polish. You can see the glitters best on my pinkie nail. Here is two coats without top coat.



Sally Girl Butta:

Butta is a clear base with blue and black glitter. I like how the blue really pops out. The formula is good too. Here is one coat over L.A. Colors Black Velvet.



Sally Girl Cul8r:

Cul8r has a clear base with all different types of glitter mixed in. I did I have how much I hate the names of the Sally Girl polishes? Anyways, this is a great glitter and has a good formula. Below I have one coat over Elf Nude.




Sally Girl Rock Out!:

Rock Out has a clear base with small green and gold glitters. I like this glitter a lot. I think its a nice and fun one to wear. The formula was good too. Here is one coat over Sinful Colors Beau Khaki. 
 



China Glaze Fairy Dust:

Fairy Dust has a clear base with small holographic glitters. I have heard so many good things about this polish, so I am not surprised to say that I love it. I made a few of these pictures a little blurry so you can truly see the holographic piece of heaven! The formula was great as well! Here is one coat over Elf Lavender Mist. 




Nicole By Opi You're S-teal the One:

This is a shimmery blue polish with a hint of purple speaks to it! You can barely see the purple in these pictures, so I am sorry! This one was impossible to capture. But I like it a lot! The formula was great too. Here is two coats with top coat.




Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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