Review: Jurassic World

I finally got the chance to see Jurassic World on Friday with my cousin Wendy. We were both pretty excited, being big Jurassic Park fans. I was also a little worried about it, especially when I think about how the third one disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the third one, but I wouldn't miss it if they had never made it. So this movie had me really hoping that they would make up for the third movie. It didn't disappoint at all.

The story picks up 20 odd years after the events of the first movie. The park has been opened for a while. It was rebranded as Jurassic World and gets 20,000 people through the gates a day. In order to maintain numbers the scientists at the park cook up a hybrid dinosaur in their lab. It quickly becomes obvious that this was a huge mistake because the dinosaur they created is highly intelligent and vicious. It breaks loose in the park and wreaks havoc. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howards star in the movie as park employees trying to bring the dinosaur down and save the day. Bryce Dallas Howard plays park executive Claire, who originally oversaw the creation of the dinosaur and who is desperately trying to track down her nephews amongst the chaos. Chris Pratt plays Owen, the Velociraptor wrangler. He has trained the Velociraptors to view him as their alpha. Owen teams up with Claire to track down her nephews and bring down the dinosaur.

Right off the bat the movie’s storyline is far better than that of the third movie. The third movie’s storyline was fairly weak and it relied too heavily on making the big bad dino scary. The storyline in Jurassic World is strong and the scariness of the big bad is more an added bonus than the saving grace. I especially loved that this movie didn’t rely on the T-Rex and Velociraptors to be antagonists. They took these dinosaurs in a different direction and gave them protagonist-type roles. It was a refreshing change from the other movies. I think if they had of followed suit with the other three movies with those dinos it would’ve been old and uninteresting.

Despite the fresh take on the dinosaur storyline this movie took, it still managed to retain the classic style that the first two movies had. The banter, dino interaction and filming style all seemed to reinvigorate that 90’s style that I and many others loved so much. The creators of the movie clearly had a lot of respect for the original movie and made sure they didn’t bastardise it in any way. I will admit that it still isn’t as good as the first two, but it comes pretty damn close. It’s a bit slow at the beginning of the movie, but it picks up quickly and is pretty much non-stop for the rest of the time. I don’t think they could’ve have got any closer to the original movie quality-wise as they did.

All-in-all this movie was everything I was hoping it would be. It completely made up for the third movie and I’m so happy that everyone who worked on it seemed to carry a great respect for the original movie because it’s what made the movie so enjoyable. Huge thumbs up from a loyal Jurassic Park fan!

Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

The other night I went and saw the new Avengers movie with my sister. I had been really looking forward to it since I've loved pretty much all the previous ones in this Marvel universe. The premise of this movie is basically a follow on from ones like Captain America 2, etc. and continues on with the 'Infinity Stone' storyline. 

In this movie they introduce two new characters to the series, Wanda and Petra Maximoff, or Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as their known in the comic book world. In the comic books the characters (from my understanding) are mutants, but since another movie company has the rights to that term, in the Avengers they are referred to as being 'enhanced'. The story deals with the consequences the heroes face when Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (Ironman and the Hulk respectively) cook up a new form of AI called Ultron in their lab. They use the power from Loki's scepter from the first Avengers to bring Ultron to life. Just when they think that Ultron didn't work he comes to life and harnesses a part of the scepter the heroes didn't know about, which is one of the six Infinity Stones. Ultron becomes crazy powerful and vows to dominate and destroy humanity. Basically the heroes then have to stop their own creation to save the world. The Maximoff twins are both enemies and allies throughout the movie and they brought a different type of storyline to the series. 

I want to also add one little disclaimer before I get into my actual thoughts on the film. I have seen how bat-crap crazy people have gone over this movie and the perceived 'sexism' etc. in it. I will not be playing into any of that except to say this. I didn't find anything sexist or horrible about the movie. I think Joss Whedon is a great writer and director. If you read this an disagree with me, that's fine, but just remember we're all allowed our own personal opinion and this is mine. I in no way support sexism or any of the other themes this movie is accused of promoting, I just personally didn't find any of those themes in the movie.

I really enjoyed this movie. I love how all the Marvel movies have a healthy balance of humor, action and drama in them and this one was no exception. It was total action from the first second and continued through the whole movie. There was barely a restful minute in the whole movie. I also loved how this movie explored some of the characters we haven't had a chance to see much of yet. I love the Hawkeye storyline and how the Hulk played a bigger part. Whedon was really able to show that Hulk isn't as useless as he may seem. I mean, sure he's huge and strong and green, but he's also unreliable and super angry and I think this is one of the first movies to make real use of him. Even the Hulk movies haven't really explored his usefulness the way this movie did. 

Probably my favourite part of the movie was the addition of the Maximoff twins to the storyline. I loved that most of the time you didn't know which side they were on. I love how they were portrayed by their actors. Quicksilver was awesome. He was a bit of a larrikin. I loved him and Hawkeye sort of riffing off each other. It gave Hawkeye a different dimension to his personality. Scarlet Witch is just awesome. I loved how they showed her powers in this red flurry of air (yep, that was the worst description of something... ever). I love that she was strong and honest and powerful. I really look forward to seeing more in the next movies!

Personally I really just enjoyed the movie. It was easy to watch and had amazing action scenes. I love the superhero movies and this one did not disappoint. 

Review: Insurgent

After many months of waiting I finally got to see ‘Insurgent’, the second instalment of the Divergent series last Thursday. I loved the first movie so much it prompted me to head straight to the book store and buy the pack of three books plus the additional book she wrote from the character Four’s perspective. I read the three Divergent books in about a week and still craved more. Of course now I’ve seen the second movie I’m still left unsatisfied because there are two more movies left. Yes that’s right, it’s just another series squeezing as much money out of us as possible by splitting the final instalment into two parts.

Before I get into my thoughts on the movie I’ll give those of you who don’t know a little bit of info on what it and the series is about.

The series surrounds the story of main character Beatrice ‘Tris’ Prior, a young girl living in a dystopian future. She resides in an old destroyed Chicago where the population believe themselves to be the last left in the world. Their society is divided into factions based on their dominant personality traits.

The factions are:

Abnegation – the selfless faction;

Amity – the kind faction;

Candor – the truthful faction;

Dauntless – the brave faction; and

Erudite – the intelligent faction.

Each faction has its duty within the society in order to keep it functioning properly. When each person comes of age they must undergo a test that will tell them their most dominant personality trait, information they then take with them to the choosing ceremony. In the choosing ceremony they decide whether they will remain in the faction they grew up in or move to another, forsaking their familial ties.

During her test Tris discovers that she actually has at least four dominant traits making her a Divergent. Divergents are considered a threat and are being systematically eliminated throughout the first and second instalments. In ‘Divergent’, Tris chooses Dauntless and learns to be strong while discovering her own unique bravery. She works desperately to not only prove herself to the faction leaders, but also to keep her divergence a secret for fear of being killed. Everything comes to a head when the leader of the Erudite faction makes a power play and begins actively seeking out Divergents.

‘Insurgent’ picks up pretty well straight after ‘Divergent’. Tris, her boyfriend Four and a couple of others have taken sanctuary in the Amity camp. In this instalment you meet the factionless and discover a lot more about them as well as getting to see the inner workings of Candor, which was previously undiscovered territory in the first instalment. Erudite has taken control of the city and are hunting down Divergents. She has made Tris and her group public enemy number one and they now need to find a way to stop her and clear their names.

Now I’ve rambled enough about the plot I guess I should get into the review part of this review.

I have a warning to those who have read the book and have not yet seen the movie. It has some major plot differences from the book. In fact the main Erudite mission in the movie is completely different from the book. In the movie Jeanine and her Erudite and Dauntless followers are trying to open a box found in Tris’ parents’ house in Abnegation. She needs a strong Divergent to accomplish this. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to have to add *Spoiler Alert* at the top of this review. As those who have read the book would already know, the box isn’t in the book and the thing that is inside it is something Jeanine is already aware of and desperate to keep hidden. Her mission in the book is to create serums that work on Divergents like the ones each faction as created for their own people. That’s just one of the many changes that the moviemakers made to the story.

Now you’ve been warned I can tell you how much I actually really liked the movie. I spent a better part of the movie not being sure about whether I liked it or not because of all the noticeable differences from the book. The second book was definitely my favourite of the three and it was a little shocking to see it so picked apart and changed. Honestly, it really wasn’t even until after it was over and we were driving home that I began to feel some sort of appreciation for it. On the way home I was talking about it with my sister and cousin, who I’d gone to see it with and I found that the more I talked about it the more I liked it.

It’s been a few days of mulling it over now and I have to say that I really, really like it now. I’m not going to go as far yet as to say that it was better or even as good as the first one, I think that will take at least one more viewing, but it definitely has grown on me. I think I was unsure about it initially because of all the changes. There were characters left out and even a main character who remained nameless throughout the movie and only played a small role. I mean, at least he was in this one since he wasn’t in the first one but was in the books from the start. Also, if I think about it too much it kind of feels like the major plot change only happened in order to give Kate Winslet a bigger role. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing more with giving her character more screen time, it adds drama plus she’s awesome (Winslet, not Jeanine. Jeanine’s kind of a bitch). The thing I wonder is that if that was a defining part of the decision to change the plot why couldn’t they have just played around with the original plot to give Jeanine more story time?

I think this movie follows on really well from the first. It doesn’t feel disjointed from it, which would have been hard to avoid with all the changes they made. Nothing feels incomplete except the end obviously, because there’s two more movies to come. If you haven’t read the books you won’t notice anything odd about the flow of the story at all, which I think is a definite plus. There are so many movies out there that alter book stories so much they become unrecognisable and they are just poorly executed. I’m really happy to report that this is not one of those cases.

The movie is definitely not devoid of action, which is awesome. There’s a lot of battle-type scenes both in reality and the serum simulations just as with the first movie. Despite the fact that the whole mystery box plotline didn’t happen in the book, it’s actually a really good plotline. It brings about a reason for Tris to face the serum simulations again and this time they are even better than before.

I’d better wrap this up before I make it five pages long. Overall I really did end up liking this movie. Yes it’s very, very different from the book, which sucks a bit, but the movie people made up for it a bit by making the new stuff really interesting. If you feel pretty adamant about movies that change the book too much I might suggest giving this a miss, but if you can keep an open mind about it I would definitely spend the money to go and see this on the big screen. It’s truly a good movie and really the only thing that has let it down a bit for me is the difference from the book. For this movie though, I’m willing to suck up my pride and give it my praise.

February Favourites

Welcome to a slightly belated February Favourites! Please forgive the lack of photos in this month’s post. If I’m completely honest, I’m typing this at 11:18pm and really don’t want to get up and set up the little corner I use to take the pics. I’ll be more prepared next time. Scouts honour!

Let’s get into the good stuff!

NARS SHEER GLOW FOUNDATION (SIBERIA):

After trying quite a few different foundations over the month I came to truly appreciate Sheer Glow and the way it treats me. This foundation doesn’t ever fail me. I can apply it however I want. Sometimes I’m lazy and just use my fingers, other time I like a dense buffing brush, then there are the times I like a looser brush and of course we can’t forget the almighty blending sponge (both the Beauty Blender and the RT Miracle Complexion Sponge). I just love this stuff. I’m now onto my second bottle and the couple of months I went without it sucked. I’m just glad I finally realised my true feelings for this little bad boy before I wasted more money on others that will never measure up.

TOO FACED NATURAL EYES PALETTE:

This has been my go to palette since I bought it. The colours are so beautiful and pigmented. I love that it has a great balance of finishes so you can create amazing day-night looks. I’ve even been using the darkest matte brown shade to fill in my brows, which says a lot because I usually prefer the gel method of brow filling. This is just an amazing palette!

TOO FACED MILK CHOCOLATE SOLEIL BRONZER:

Yep, another Too Faced product. This stuff is great. I love the finish it leaves and the colour is spot on for my pale complexion. It’s not too orangy, reddish or ashy. It gives my face colour and dimension without looking like my foundation it just too dark for me. Oh and the smell!! It’s everything something made from cocoa powder should smell like!

TOO FACE HANGOVER PRIMER:

Last Too Faced product I swear! I really like this stuff. I was a bit unsure of it at first (as I’ll discuss in the upcoming review), but I’m definitely enjoying it now. It’s nice and hydrating. Plus I love the coconutty scent it has. It makes my skin feel glowy and rejuvenated.

CIRCA HOME PEAR & LIME SCENTED SOY CANDLE:

I had a sample of this a while ago and after Christmas I use some of my present money to pick a full sized one up. I absolutely love the smell of this. I smelled all of the other ones like this that they had in stock and I honestly didn’t really like any of them. There’s just something about the Pear & Lime that is so yummy to smell. I can’t even describe the scent, mainly because I suck at describing scents, but trust me it smell delicious!

VERONICA MARS BOXSET:

I must have been living under a big fat rock, because up until last month I had never seen even one episode of this show. I’d been wanting to watch the movie for ages, but figured I’d need to be familiar with the show first. Once I finally got around to watching it I couldn’t stop. I’m pretty sure I watch all three seasons and the movie in about two weeks. I was obsessed. Who am I kidding, I’m still obsessed. After all, wasn’t it me downstairs tonight watching all the episodes again with my sister, who coincidentally is now addicted too. I feel like the embodiment of that Big Bang Theory Penny meme. You know the one… Oh my God, I need help!

Review: The Maze Runner

I saw 'The Maze Runner' last year in the cinemas but didn't think to review it at the time. So last night I watched it again, just to see what I thought of it now. I really liked it at the time, but it's one of this movies where so much is happening that doesn't make sense, you have to watch it at least twice to really make your mind up about it.

It's another dystopian future themed movie based on a series of books. This is the first in the series, with the second movie due for release sometime this year. I actually quite enjoy this genre. I like delving into post-disaster worlds that people create because even the ones that appear similar on the surface usually turn out to be completely different (I'm saying this with everyone who called 'Divergent' a 'Hunger Games' rip off in mind, because I personally couldn't find a ton of similarities to those series). 

'The Maze Runner' revolves around a young dude name Thomas, who wakes up in a metal box that is being elevated upwards. When he reaches the top he is found by a group of other young dudes. He can't remember anything but his name and has no idea where he is, just like the other guys. It turns out that every month for the past couple of years a new guy arrives memoryless in the box with supplies. They are in the middle of an enormous maze that is patrolled by 'grievers', which are basically massive ugly, spidery killing machines. Each day 'runners' go out into the maze to try and find a way out. Thomas becomes a runner (duh) and become determined to get himself and his new friends out. Not long after his arrival another box is delivered. This time the only thing in it is a girl with a note saying 'She's the last one ever'. It then becomes imperative that Thomas, the girl and the other guys find a way to beat the grievers and find a way out of the maze in order to survive. 

THE GOOD:

The idea behind this story is a great one. I've read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies in this genre and I haven't really seen one like this. I like that the author of the books was clearly unafraid of coming across as sexist. Don't get me wrong, as a woman I love a good story with a kick arse heroine, but I think sometimes authors and screenplay writers get a little too concerned with coming across sexist and end up missing the mark. I have no problem whatsoever with a story mostly comprised of male characters. What I look for in stories is a group of characters that are distinct and original. 

The group of actors chosen for this movie works really well. They provide the right amount of suspense and drama without overacting. I haven't read the books, so I went into this (the first time) not having the foggiest idea what it was about. All I could figure was that there would be a big maze at some point. With that in mind, I love the storyline of the movie. It really keeps you guessing. Just when you think you kind of know what's happening it changes gear and throws you in another direction. 

THE BAD:

The character Gally absolutely shit me to tears. I'm guessing he was supposed to, but for most of the movie I just wanted to slap him and tell him to stop being such a massive baby. Also, right at the end, after they've clearly left him behind in the 'Glade', which is the place they live in the middle of the maze, he shows up out of the blue and there's no explanation as to how that was even possible. I watch CinemaSins on YT all the time and all I could think was that they would totally sin the crap out of that.  

Some of filming choices were a little disorienting at times. For example, in the scene when the grievers attack them in the Glade, it's so dark you can barely see it properly and they have a lot of running shots, which are really bumpy. I get where they were coming from by having those, but I think the technique might have been a little overused.

THE OVERALL:

I really enjoyed this movie. It was different from other in its genre, though my personal favourite is still Divergent. I think the casting was great and the story itself was nice and suspenseful. Apart from the possible overuse of a filming technique, nothing else felt over done in the movie (except for the screen time Gally had, but hey, I just didn't like the dude). I give kudos to the actor who played Gally, because it's very rare that I seriously hate a character. I think when you hate a character to an irrational degree you can thank the actor for doing his job so wonderfully. It's easy to like characters, but I think it must take so much extra effort to make a character really hate-able. The last character I hated to such a degree was the Governor on 'The Walking Dead'. Anyone who watches that show knows what I'm talking about. If you're in to all these dystopian-type movies (and books), I would definitely suggest giving this a go! 


   

Review: Wild

So yesterday my beautiful bestie and I decided we were going to do something different and go for walks around some national parks and animal sanctuaries. I had even planned on doing a blog on our little adventure, complete with tons of pictures and funny anecdotes. But alas, the temperature was a son of a bitch. I think it was about 35 degrees (and the ‘Real Feel’ on my phone said 44). It was so hot!! So, we decided to go shopping and then to a movie. On the upside, I got a post out of the day anyway.

We decided to see ‘Wild’, since Kate really wanted to see it. Honestly, I wasn’t too concerned with it at all. It wasn’t on my list to see, but I’m willing to watch anything I can get a review out of.

Here’s what the movie is about:

Cheryl Strayed, played by Reese Witherspoon decides to walk 1,100 miles (around 1,800km). The movie is told in flashbacks of her memories while she journeys along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). At age 22 her mother, played by Laura Dern passed away suddenly. This sent Cheryl spiralling for the next few years, while she tried to quell her all-consuming grief, until it culminated in her decision to walk the PCT.

THE GOOD:

I went into this thinking it would bore me a bit, and be kind of mushy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for inspirational movies, but I prefer the ones that are more real and raw in their emotions. I don’t really go in for the ‘feel-good’ inspirational stuff (unless it’s ‘The Blind Side’, that’s awesome). With that in mind, it was with trepidation that I entered that cinema and sat down. I was wrong.

This movie is most certainly inspirational, but there is nothing ‘feel good’ about her journey. She battled death, divorce, drugs and drowning in her own grief and self-loathing. It didn’t shy away from real parts of life, which let’s face it, can be utterly disgusting sometimes. For example, she can’t figure out her gas burner and has to eat ‘cold mush’ for days, resulting in a shot of her ‘cold mush poo’. Yep, poo. She covered it with rocks, but still. Also, the movie opens with her removing her boot to find one of her big toe nails hanging mostly off. Yuck! Even more disgusting is her pulling it off completely. Double yuck! Despite being grossed out, I was also highly impressed by the movies decision not to shy away from that kind of stuff. It’s real and the movie would have been less without it.

The chemistry between Witherspoon and Dern is great. Even when they’re at odds it works. The same goes for Witherspoon’s chemistry with her other co-stars. The best performance from her, however, comes in the scenes where she’s alone on the trail. She goes through a barrage of emotions; happy, angry, frustrated, frightened, starving, disgusted (mostly with her own personal hygiene). Witherspoon helps you get lost with her and helps you feel what Cheryl is feeling.

THE BAD:

I can’t fault this movie too much, but it isn’t flawless. One thing I found a little hard to swallow was Witherspoon as a junior in college. It wasn’t necessarily her age, although I think a 38 year old playing an 18 year old is a bit of a stretch. I think she looked too experienced. Although her scenes with Dern were fantastic, I still couldn’t help but think ‘gee, they can’t have that much of an age gap in real life’ (I was right by the way, they’re only about 10 years apart).

The only other bigger issue I found with the movie is that you don’t really know that it’s about to end until she’s speaking the final lines, of which the last word is ‘Wild’, which I found a little cliché. I don’t necessarily think it ended badly, but it kind of just ended. She does mention the life she will go one to have, but for me, it didn’t feel like it was time to roll credits.

THE OVERALL:

I really enjoyed this movie. I don’t think it’ll come close to being the best movie I see this year (that spot’s being reserved for Jurassic World), but it was definitely poignant and beautiful without being mushy and self-important. I’m not going to lie, I kind of wanted to go hiking when I left the cinemas, but then I remembered I’m lazy and not really in need of self-discovery, so I just went home instead. It also made me want to go straight out and buy the book, which I will do very soon, and review as well. I think this is a great movie. It’s not hard to watch and I definitely left feeling empowered and inspired by her story. I think the casting of Witherspoon as Cheryl was spot on and I would definitely watch this movie again. 

January 2015 Favourites

Today I am bringing you my favourite things from January. I’ve decided that this year I’ll have a healthy mix of beauty and random stuff in my monthly favourites since I really want to branch out and cover more stuff on here.

Without any further ado or babble let’s jump in!

MODELS PREFER TAPERED FACE BRUSH:

I bought this a couple of months ago (I think) and it’s really only this month that it’s been getting a real work out. I’ve used it for both blush and setting my foundation. I’ve more recently been using it for setting foundation and I love it. I love that it’s not so huge that powder gets everywhere, but it still covers a good amount of you face in one hit. It distributes my Hourglass Ambient Light Powder beautifully. It’s so soft and glides over the face so lightly that it doesn’t disturb any of the makeup it’s going over.

#GIRLBOSS BY SOPHIA AMORUSO:

I know I have a review of this, so I won’t go into too much detail, but I wanted to mention this because I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I started and finished reading it. She gave such good advice and shared some really important lessons throughout the book. It’s so well-written and so easy to read. I highly recommend it!

M.A.C. OMEGA EYESHADOW:

I love this eyeshadow!! It’s the perfect cool brown crease shade. I wear it all the time. I’ll either wear it just in the crease, with a light shade over the lid or I’ll just slap this baby all of the lid. The other day I wore it over the top of my Bad to the Bronze Colour Tattoo from Maybelline and it looked beautiful. Another way I have been wearing this is as a contour. I find it hard to find a contour that I like, and this guy has been working a treat. It’s great because I can be really light-handed with it and it makes my contour look really natural. It makes me want to bother with contouring, which is very rare.

M.A.C. CREAMSHEEN IN PEACH BLOSSOM:

This is the lipstick I mentioned in my Christmas Haul. I got this when I used my M.A.C. gift card. I’ve worn this so much this month. I don’t honestly wear a lot of lipstick. I usually stick to lip balms and tints. This has changed how I feel about lipsticks completely. It’s so creamy and lovely on the lips. It builds nicely, but it can be sheer as well. It is the perfect peachy nude for the colour of my lips and my skin tone. It looks like my lips but better!

M.A.C. BLUSH IN LOVECLOUD:

Last M.A.C. product I promise. This was the other product I got with my gift card and I literally have not worn another blush since I bought it. It is the perfect pink. Although it is a little on the cooler side, I find it to be more neutral than anything. It’s really buildable and pigmented and has the slightest sheen to it, which gives your cheeks the perfect healthy glow. I just love this so much! It’s as good, if not better than my favourite blush, which is the Estee Lauder Pure Colour Blush in Peach Passion.

BURT’S BEES ULTRA CONDITIONING BALM:

This is the best night time lip balm I have ever used. I get really dry lips and I find that this keeps them nice and hydrated all through the night. No other lip balm I have even used, not even my Benefit ones, do that. I wouldn’t recommend this under lipstick, although I do if I don’t want a tinted one, because it’s the only untinted one I have at the moment, but if you have one that’s a little less moisturising I recommend that, because lipstick and stuff can slip and slide over the top of this balm. It makes your lips look nice and supple. I just love it so much!!!!

THE FLINTSTONES:

This is a really random one, but there is a reason to the madness. I spent the better half of this month with a terrible ear infection. I felt terrible and spent a lot of time lying in bed like a miserable bump. Usually when I’m sick I opt for watching my ‘Star Wars’ collection (yes, even Episode One), but I felt like watching ‘The Flintstones’ this time. So, I cracked out my DVDs. I have seasons one to three, and I like that there’s about seven episodes on each disc, so I didn’t have to get up to change them. I grew up watching this show. My mum use to tape them in the morning for me when I was a kid. She even sat there and took all the ads out, so the VHS was just straight cartoons, no ads. I still love this show (and I’m not embarrassed!) and am glad I had the DVDs on hand.

NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL BY LENA DUNHAM:

This isn’t a shocker. I’ve completely fallen in love with Lena Dunham and this book really cemented that. I’m hooked on her now, and if it weren’t for all the other books on my list to read, I’d read it again and again!

BAREMINERALS FOUNDATION IN FAIR:

I rediscovered this stuff this month while I was sick. There were times when I needed to venture outside and this is the foundation I would slap on quickly. This shade is pretty much a perfect match for my skin tone, and unlike every other mineral foundation/powder I’ve tried, I don’t have a reaction to it. All the others make me red and itchy, but I don’t react at all with it. I did ever so slightly with the matte formula, which I tried first, but the original formula is totally fine. It looks beautiful on my skin, and even in the crazy heat we’ve been having here, it stays nicely throughout the day. I wore it for 12 hours yesterday and it only went patchy at about hour 10 or 11.

AUDREY HEPBURN T-SHIRT:

I got this from K-Mart for about $15 a few weeks ago and have lived in it since. I got a bigger size so it was loose and I could laze about in it. It’s so comfy and it has Audrey on it, need I say more. Audrey Hepburn is my favourite actress of all time, and I admire her wholly. I didn’t even think twice about this shirt. Usually I wouldn’t spend more than a couple of bucks on a shirt I wasn’t going to wear anywhere but the house, but this is different. It Audrey Hepburn!

Best of 2014 - Random Stuff

Today marks the end of my Best of 2014 series. It’s covering all the random stuff I loved over the year. I really wanted to share some of my favourite books and movies, etc. especially since I only started this site in the middle of the year and I wouldn’t have review pretty much any of it.

Let’s jump in!

BOOK – THE HOBBIT:

I was very proud to finish this book. I know it’s not that big of an achievement to get through such a small book, but for some reason I have a lot of trouble with the amount of description that Tolkien put in his stories. So, to finally finish this book was really exciting for me. I really loved the book and it really helped in the wait for the final movie. I just wanted to give it a shout out since it was kind of a mini Everest for me!

BLU-RAY PURCHASE – FRIENDS BOXSET:

This is the best show ever! I have loved this show for years and I seriously wore out my DVD collection, so when I saw the Blu-ray boxset for really cheap I had to have it! I have watched it over and over again throughout the year. I can’t even tell you how many times. Friends is my favourite show of all time and I will never grow tired of it. It’s the show I go to whenever I don’t know what I want to watch, so I’m so glad to have a really good quality boxset!

MAKEUP BRUSH – NUDE BY NATURE KABUKI BRUSH:

I have a ton of makeup brushes, but this is my old faithful. I have repurchased about five of these brushes. I always keep one in my bag and I have two in my collection at home. I use one for liquid/cream foundations and the other for mineral and setting powders, depending on what my foundation routine is. I just love this brush. It’s one of those items that gets pushed to the side when new products come on the scene, but is always there waiting for me when I need it. I always go back to this brush, no matter what amazing brushes I’ve added to my collection.

PERFUME – VERSACE BRIGHT CRYSTAL:

 I’ve always bounced from perfume to perfume, trying to find my perfect scent and I think I finally found it in this perfume. I wish I could describe the scent, but I can’t except to say that I never want to stop smelling it. I haven’t really worn any other perfume since I bought this. I just love it so much!

MOVIE RELEASE – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY:

This might be a bit of an obvious one, but I went back through all the movies I saw last year (that were released last year) and this is the one that when I saw it I immediately went ‘Yep, that’s the one!’ I just loved this movie! It was funny and easy to watch. I’m a big fan of the Avenger movies and this one is up there as one of the best ones I’ve seen. I much prefer superhero movies that don’t take things too seriously (except the Dark Knight trilogy, but that’s Batman, he’s in a league of his own!). I think there was a lot of cliché parts to this movie, but that didn’t bother me at all. It was definitely the cast ensemble that made even the most cliché parts easy to take in and love.

BOOK – AUDREY HEPBURN, AN ELEGANT SPIRIT:

Ahh, Audrey Hepburn. My favourite actress. I have seen nearly all her movies and think there will never be anyone like her again, but I also think we should all aspire to be even just a bit like her. This book was written by her son, Sean and in it he includes family photos, which gives a unique insight into her life outside Hollywood. It’s a very real depiction of her life, not just the good parts and it’s so beautifully told that I was very sad to come to the end of the book. A really great read, I definitely recommend it.

MANGA SERIES – MIKI FALLS:

This is a series created by an American artist, Mark Crilley. It’s a really good series. Unlike Japanese manga, his books are printed in western style, so from left to right. That makes it much easier to follow, which is cool. His drawings are great. They have so much detail and he seems really knowledgeable about Japanese culture, which he appears to stay very true to. I couldn’t put these down when I got them, and I think I even read them again straightaway when I finished them.

T.V. SERIES (DISCOVERED LAST YEAR) – TRUE BLOOD:

I know, I know, this is old news, but I only started it last year. I watch the first episode years ago when it first came out and wasn’t interested, but last year I caught a season two episode and was hooked. So I borrowed the DVDs from someone and watched them all up to season five. Then I couldn’t get my hands on season six (bummer). Foxtel recently added a channel called Boxsets, and they played the entire series so I finally got through the rest of the show. I just love it now (although, as far as vampire stuff goes, Buffy is still better)! I watch episodes on Foxtel if they’re on, and it definitely became an obsession once I discovered it last year!

NOTEBOOK:

This is truly a random one, but I loved this notebook this year. As a writer, I love to write down my thoughts and issues and happy moments and I filled this notebook up with all of those for a good part of the year. I’m very picky with notebooks used for this purpose, and I had a few unfinished ones before I found this one. I just love it. It’s red and vintage-y looking and I love that it had the sepia/yellow-y colour paper rather than the stark white paper. It might sound strange to gush so much about a notebook, but if you write a lot you’ll understand!

That’s everything I loved throughout 2014! Well, not everything, but that’s my narrowed down list anyway! I hope you guys enjoyed this series and are having a great first month of the year! 

Review: Updated Opinion on Sailor Moon Crystal

A while ago I did a review of the very first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, which aired online around the world. In Australia you can access the episodes through www.crunchyroll.com and just finding Sailor Moon Crystal in the shows section. So this Saturday just gone marked the end of the Dark Kingdom arc of the series (the first arc in the storyline), so I figured I’d do an updated review now that I’ve seen all 14 episodes.

THE GOOD:

I really enjoyed the animation of this version. I like that they were different from the original, but still retained a certain familiarity. Also, the plotline definitely seemed to stick closer to the original manga series than the 90’s series did, which went very off story a lot of the time. As much as I love the original series, I personally prefer the manga. I’ve never really watched any anime things in Japanese with subtitles, and I was very happy to find that I was able to keep up and enjoy the show despite not being able to speak the language. I think the great detail and vibrancy of the animation is to thanks for that.

THE BAD:

Okay, I know I said they seemed to stick more to the manga than the original did, and I stand by that, however I feel like they didn’t stick as close to it as they promised when they first started making announcements for it. I’m not sure, I may have to read them again, but I think there were a lot of liberties taken that maybe didn’t need to be. Also, I wasn’t a huge fan of the transformations, especially Sailor Moon’s. Her arms and legs go crazy long and look so weird. I definitely prefer the original transformations.

THE OVERALL:

Overall I really do like this series. I love that it’s available to everyone via the internet and nobody has to wait longer than anyone else for episodes. I’ve really enjoyed watching it and finding out how a new generation is interpreting the original manga. I’m keen to start watching the second arc of the series, which will cover the Black Moon arc. I think it should start back around the 7^th of February, which isn’t far away. I’m also intrigued to see what the company who is dubbing it into English does with it, although I think that’s still quite a long time away. I really recommend this for anyone who is into this style of show, or if you were a fan of the original series or manga. It’s pretty cool guys!

Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

After being thoroughly disappointed by my one true movie love (Disney) earlier this week, I was a little more than sceptical about getting my hopes up for the final instalment of ‘The Hobbit’ movies. I was particularly nervous because the second one didn’t live up to my expectations the way the first had, so I started to believe that Peter Jackson may have peaked at the end of the first one.

THE GOOD:

This movie is every bit as epic in its battles as the third instalment of the Lord of the Rings. The soaring overhead shots that sweep into the action were spectacular to watch. I love that Jackson was able to capture so many different conflicts in the battles in a mere 144 minutes, all without any of them feeling rushed through or dragged out. The main problem I had with the second movie (the Desolation of Smaug) was that he seemed to stray way off the beaten path of the book. Now, I’ve read many a book and then seen the movie after without being bothered by such nonsense, but this is different. This is Tolkien and there were some things I found to be wholly unnecessary. However, the continuation of these additions in the third movie did not bother me at all really. I feel like they were executed far better and more in the manner of Tolkien. I was worried that the ‘love triangle’ between Tauriel, Kili and Legolas was going to be a big focus again, drawing attention away from better things, but it was incorporated into battle so well that I barely noticed it. Perhaps my favourite part was the fact that Billy Connelly popped up as Dain, a dwarf leader who showed up for battle.

THE BAD:

I much prefer the days of Lord of the Rings, where CGI was scarce. I feel like there was a little too much of it throughout the entire Hobbit series. I understand the need to have CGI goblins. Goblins are all hunched over and weird and I doubt the production company wanted to pay for chiropractors for 300 extras, but I don’t understand having CGI orcs. In the Lord of the Rings series, most of the orcs and whatnot were actual extras in costume. I’ve seen the behind-the-scenes stuff. A lot of effort went into those extras and it paid off because even now, so many years later, it looks amazing. I’m disappointed with all the CGI in this movie. It feels almost cheapened. Another ‘bad’ is the conflict between Smaug and the lake people. It only takes up the first little bit of the movie and then it’s over. It felt like too much of a major part/ending to the last movie to have been resolved so quickly.

THE OVERALL:

Overall I think this is definitely the best of the three (with number one coming in at a close second). It well and truly topped the second movie. In fact, I feel like, with all the battling, it rivalled ‘The Return of the King’ (third LOTR movie). I walked out of this movie feeling like it was completed. It wasn’t dragged out unnecessarily, nor was it rushed. I would highly recommend seeing this. Of course, if you haven’t seen the first two I would highly recommend doing that first! This movie was awesome, it really was!

Movie Review: Into the Woods

'Into the Woods'… how do I describe thee? I really don’t know. I had every intention of coming on here and posting an intelligent, articulated masterpiece of a review, thoroughly deconstructing every piece of the movies and putting back together for your reading pleasure. Well, that was before. This is now. And now is the time when I have seen the movie and that starry-eyed innocence is gone.

This is a weird one guys, I’m not going to lie. I had a bit of an idea what I thought the movie might be about. Now, I haven’t seen the musical or even read anything about, so it’s safe to say my idea of what the movie might be wasn’t really what it was at all.

There’s a lot to keep track of in the movie. It’s a collision of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel into the story of a baker and his wife who are trying to have a baby. Of course, being a Disney movie, there is a witch at the centre of it all causing trouble. It feels pretty disjointed for the most part. And despite there being so many storylines to follow, there is definitely a fair bit of drag. Then, at the same time, the first conflict in the movie seems to be solved in a kind of rushed way. After that, the second conflict seemed to drag again. Although, if it had been made a little more interesting and wasn’t trying to cram so many stories into two and a half hours maybe it would have flowed a little better. To be honest I don’t think I could have stood anymore of the movie.

What I will say is that I enjoyed the performances of actors such as Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp. Also, did anyone else know that Emily Blunt could sing like that? 

I feel like I don’t want to say that this was awful and recommend that people stay away, but I can’t honestly say I liked it all that much either. I don’t know guys. I think this one is a movie everybody should make their own mind up about, because I sure as hell can’t give you a straight answer on whether I would recommend it or not. I will say that, as a Disney movie buff this is far from my favourites list. Did anyone else feel as confused as me about their feelings for the movie? Did anyone straight up hate or love it? I’d love to hear some comments :)

My New Obsession... I Can't Believe It's Taken Me This Long!

Okay, so I’m a little late jumping on this bandwagon, I know, but hey, better late than never! A couple of weeks ago I bought Lena Dunham’s book, ‘Not that Kind of Girl’ as incentive to keep studying and get through my end of semester exams. Once I survived the horrors, I was finally able to open up the book I’d heard so many good things about. I was first intrigued by this book after watching one of my favourite YouTubers, EssieButton rave about not only the book, but Lena Dunham as a person. Before buying the book I’d never really known anything about her. I’d never seen her show, ‘Girls’ or anything else she’s been in (that I know of). The only time I’d ever seen her on something was when she was on ‘Ellen’ a couple of months ago, and I have to say that I wasn’t really paying that much attention to the interview because I was wait for Melissa McCarthy to come out.

Fast forward to now and I’m just over halfway through the book and after reading the introduction was compelled to get my eager little hands on all the episodes of ‘Girls’, of which I am currently up to episode 5 of season 1. Her writing style is fantastic. It’s quirky, sometimes a little edgy and always entertaining. The way she writes is almost as if she’s telling you in person, which I love. It makes her stories all that more real (which they are, of course). Don’t even get me started on the show. I love it. The only words that come to mind when I try to describe it are ‘HOW WAS I NOT ALWAYS WATCHING THIS?!’ It’s everything I love in a show: quirky, funny, emotional and realistic with regards to how people actually look and think and act. I’ve heard it be described as the younger woman’s ‘Sex and the City’, but I don’t agree. It’s far less glamourous and therefore far more relatable and believable. Don’t get me wrong, I used to really love SATC. I even used to have all the DVDs, but I can safely say that, even after only 5 episodes, I prefer ‘Girls’. In SATC the woman were gorgeous with their ‘perfectly’ sized and shaped bodies. They all seemed to be fairly well off with very successful careers, which isn’t completely unrealistic, because there are plenty of successful women out there, but it doesn’t really speak to the struggling woman. Also the relationships are somewhat glamourized in SATC. There’s a slew of beautiful men traipsing through the seasons (not that I’m complaining about beautiful men!). I like that the women on ‘Girls’ seem to be on different ends of the relationship and career success spectrums. Each woman has problems that appear to seem almost alien to the others because of their vast differences, yet they each try to understand one another. To me, that is far more realistic. Friends who band together despite being worlds apart in personality, etc.

The point of this post is to neither review the book or the show, but more to marvel at the creator of both. I’m so fascinated by Lena right now, and so in love with the way she presents herself and her work to the world. In such a short time I have grown to admire and be wholly inspired by her. I love to write, but lately I haven’t been feeling inspired at all. I think very creatively and need to feel inspiration to complete creative work (although I wish I had the talent that others have of being able to muster inspiration on command). Each time I read a little of the book or watch the show and see how talented and driven she has been, it makes me want to go out there and do what I know I can do fairly well (if I do say so myself). If you’re a Lena neophyte like me, I definitely recommend you check out the book and watch anything she might be in. If you’ve been on this side of the fence for a while, then allow me to introduce myself: Hi, I’m Cassie and I’m so happy to finally be in the land of Lena.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little bit of something different. I really just wanted to share with you all the reason I’m finally feeling inspired again xx

Random Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Hey guys!

Okay, so I was feeling a little uninspired by the beauty review I had started writing for today’s post, so I decided to do another random review similar to my Sailor Moon one a few weeks ago. This one is going to be of Guardians of the Galaxy, which I saw last night. It’s going to be really quick, so don’t blink or you might miss it!

I loved it! I’m a bit of a nerd at heart and I love all the superhero movies. Honestly I am more of a DC girl than Marvel, but this movie almost swayed me to the other side! It had so many funny parts and hilarious one liners, not to mention all the awesome space action… it was just great!

At first the CGI felt a little forced, but you quickly get over it because the movie is just action pretty much from the word go.

Oh! And the soundtrack! It is brilliant! They play all these classics from the 70’s and it kind of makes your want to get up and do a little dance.

I definitely recommend heading out to see this one guys, it’s just a fun movie to go and lose yourself in for a couple of hours. 

Review: Sailor Moon Crystal Ep. 1

Hey guys!

This review is not beauty related, but I really wanted to share my thoughts, because I’ve been excited for this for over a year now :)

Okay, so when I was a little girl I LOVED ‘Sailor Moon’. I’d watch the anime every morning on Cheez TV (old Aussie kids morning show) before school. I loved it and was really sad when they took it off. So, when I got a little older I started collecting the manga and the DVDs of the anime. When I heard that they were going to be rebooting it… well… suffice to say, I pretty much lost my shit. Especially when I read that they were going to be keeping it more true to the manga, which I had come to really love, maybe even more than the first anime. The storylines in the original anime kind of steered in a different direction from the manga from which it was based, and if I’m being honest, I do prefer the way the manga storylines go.

The first episode of the new anime, ‘Sailor Moon Crystal’, streamed on the 5^th of July, which was a couple of days ago now. I’ve watched it twice. The first time was for pure entertainment purposes, but the second was because I decided to review it. I know I mainly do beauty stuff, but this is a memory from my childhood that I have always loved, so where better to share it than on a page dedicated to things I love? The first season will cover the Dark Kingdom arc, for those of you familiar with the Sailor Moon stories.  

I’ll admit now that I don’t know a whole lot about manga and anime. I mean, I used to watch ‘Pokémon’, but only because it was before ‘Sailor Moon’. And, apart from the ‘Miki Falls’ series by American manga artist Mark Crilley (which is awesome by the way), ‘Sailor Moon’ is the only manga I own.

Now I’ve given you that tiny disclaimer, let’s move on to my actual thoughts on the new show. I really liked it. Did I like it better than the original? Hmmm, I think it’s way too tell. It appears that they will be set out in acts, just as the manga are. If that’s the case, then the first episode, which was labelled as Act 1 – Usagi/Sailor Moon, was designed to match up to the act of the same name in the manga. I think it did a pretty good job too. From what I can tell, it was pretty close to being just a moving picture version of the manga. This is awesome, because it means that they really do appear to be staying more true to the manga than the original.

With regards to the actual animation etc., I did like the style of drawing that they have gone with, although for someone who isn’t super familiar with anime and manga, it was very different to the limited amount of stuff I’ve seen. I love the way the faces, especially the eyes, have been drawn. The style feels like it gives the characters extra dimension. One thing I notice that I thought was a little odd was arm and leg proportions. In the Sailor Moon transformation in particular I noticed this. Her arms and legs seemed very... I dunno, I guess Mr. Fantastic like (or Elastigirl from The Incredibles for all those Disney fans out there). It was just weird. I don’t know if this speaks to the quality of the artistry or not, but like I said, it was odd.

Overall, I’m really excited to see the rest of the season. From what I’ve read, it will be streamed every 1^st and 3^rd Saturday of the month, which is basically every fortnight or so. Season 1 will consist of 26 episodes and will have subtitles for a lot of different languages. I’ll list the sites that I know stream them below. I was also reading that they will eventually be dubbed into English, which is cool, but it won’t happen until sometime after the first season is done. If you’re a Sailor Moon fan, or think you might enjoy it, definitely give this new one a go. It’s an awesome story!

The sites you can stream the episodes are:

Crunchyroll (Australia, UK, etc.): http://www.crunchyroll.com/sailor-moon-crystal

Hulu/Neon Alley: http://www.hulu.com or http://www.viz.com/anime/streaming

NicoNico: http://www.nicovideo.jp/