Songs: Boum!

A sweet little French song from the 30s, by the guy who wrote the original (French) version of Somewhere Beyond the Sea. I discovered it when I went to see Christine Bovill.

Make-up: Liquid Lipsticks

Extremely tardy to the party I know, but I've recently discovered liquid lipstick and I can't stop buying it! Liquid lipstick is well, liquid and painted on with an applicator, so it's easier to be more precise than with a stick of lipstick, but its heavily pigmented nature also means precision is very important. It tends to be more matte than solid lipstick, and it has incredible staying power! Once it dries it stays put for hours. It can actually be quite hard to get it off at the end of the night! Here are the ones I've bought:

This one is Stay Matte, by Rimmel London in Rose and Shine. It's a nice neutral pink colour and good for a natural look. Putting it on always gives me a bit of a boost.

This next one, unusally, is metallic rather than matte. It's Slay All Day by Lottie London, in Boy Bye and is a really dramatic dark red colour, almost purple. The metallic sheen is really shiny and impressive and it goes on really smoothly. Good for a night out.

The next one is fun! It's also by Lottie London. It's a Glitter Switch in High Roller. It's fairly similar in colour to the Rimmel London one, but has a hidden feature. When you paint it on it just looks like a normal lipstick, but when you let it dry and press your lips together a few times it reveals that it's actually glittery. I doubt that's what they were going for when they were creating the lipstick. It seems like the sort of happy accident that they've decided to make into a feature, but still, it's quite fun. It doesn't show up too well in the photo, but I think it's the most glittery lipstick I've ever owned! I really like it.

 This last one isn't really a lipstick, but I've included it, as it's got the same sort of sticking power as a liquid lipstick. It's Extreme Resist by L'Oreal in Never Let Me Go. It's really a very glittery lipgloss. it doesn't dry like a lipstick, but stays sticky. Even so, it's got incredible staying power. It's very glittery and pretty.

Songs: Brand New Day

A little bit of Bryan Adams for you. And yes, that is Helena Bonham Carter in the video.

Photography: Dunluce Castle and Belfast

This will be the final batch of photos from my Northern Ireland Trip. They were taken around the ruined Dunluce Castle and the last photo is a sculpture in Belfast. Some photos are HDR and some aren't.

Songs: Into the West

This is From Lord of the Rings and is by Annie Lennox:

Books: The Twits

As previously mentioned, I like to reread old childhood books when I go home, and I've been working my way throaugh the Roald Dahls. Most recently I reread The Twits. It was a favorite when I was younger, and it's still great now. For me, it's on a par with The BFG.

It's about two really nasty, ugly, disgusting people called Mr. and Mrs. Twit. They spend their time being horrible to animals and plotting horrible tricks to play on each other. Until one day the family of monkeys Mr. Twit keeps in a cage in the garden come up with a clever plan to rid themselves of the horrible Twits, with the help of their friends, the birds. What makes this one so good is more of the brilliant playing with words that Roald Dahl did so well in The BFG, the wonderfully creative nasty things that the Twits did to each other, and the very sticky end that they came to. It's all very satisfying.

Songs: A Horse with No Name

I've been rewatching Friends and I rediscovered this song: