29 January 2010

Neosporin Lip Health

(the one in the little tub, not the one in the tube)
Hmmm. Well, Arizona is dry; hence, my lips are always dry. I was at Walgreen’s buying shampoo, and my lips had actually bled that day because they were so chapped…so I decided to be economical (for once) and buy something to heal them. Neosporin Lip Health looked the most promising, so I gave it a go.

First of all, it feels like lotion on my lips. In case you’ve never had that feeling, and in case you’re wondering, it’s not altogether pleasant. Also, it doesn’t really soak in all that quickly, and it doesn’t taste all that great. So I sort of sat around, waiting for it to absorb – meanswhile, I was utterly unable to drink or eat anything or lick my lips (because I didn’t want to taste it). Now, granted, I didn’t completely follow the directions because I didn’t wait for bedtime to apply. It is listed as an “overnight” product, but seriously, my lips were hurting during the day!

Even after I used it correctly, I still didn’t notice all that much of a difference. I’m still using it at night because I have it, and I figure that maybe it’ll keep me from getting those little wrinkles around my mouth. But barring some drastic development between now and the time I run out, I won’t be purchasing it again. My mouth just doesn’t respond positively to drug store makeup, apparently. Fine with me: more reason to go to Sephora/Nordstrom/Barney’s.

Dior Serum de Rouge Lipstick

Amanda gave me a tube of this (color # 710) because she wasn’t a huge fan of it. All things considered, I agree. I love the color, but the lipstick itself is nothing special (which hurts me to say about any Dior product). I wear it over my Dior Lip Maximizer, though, and it does fine.

LipFusion INFATUATION

I am, in general, a huge fan of LipFusion products. My favorite is the regular, non-tinted lip plumper (which is not a lip plumper at all, because I don’t use lip plumpers, and I love this product). When I was home at Christmas, I went shopping (and movie-watching) in the freezing weather with Amanda and Rebecca. Of course – of course – we stopped at Sephora, and I picked up a tube of INFATUATION, in Full Frontal (not lying, that really is the name of the color).

The color is fantastic: a sort of coral/neutral that becomes a little less intense after you wear it for about 15 minutes and turns to a very pretty, daytime color. Sephora bills the product as follows: “Discover the first liquid lip color with extraordinary Amplifat™ technology to increase and maintain body fat just where you need it most!” I don’ t know about all that, but I can say that it’s a nice lipgloss, though I notice no plumping whatsoever. I do notice, though, that it doesn’t clump together, the color doesn’t bleed, and the gloss lasts a while (considering that it’s gloss).

Chanel Aqualumiere Gloss

It’s Chanel. It’s lipgloss. I don’t think I should have to say more. Of course, I love it. My color: #79. I’m sorry, that’s all I know. It’s sort of a brick/rust color, with a little bit of a gold shimmer. The color if VERY sheer, though, so it’s not nearly as shocking as it might sound.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer

I read this book while I was home over Christmas. I’m only just now blogging about it because…well, because that’s how my job has been lately.

The book is told through letters exchanged between the main characters (in my English-major days, I would have described it as “epistolary,” and I admit that I gleaned some enjoyment from having remembered that word). I bought the book before I was aware of this, and if I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I’d realized that. I usually don’t care for reading letters within books, and again, in the interest of full disclosure, I generally skip over them if they’re inserted in the middle of a novel. I shouldn’t. This book taught me that reading letters reveals far more about the character than the mere contents of the letter itself; I grew fond (or not so fond, depending) of these characters as I learned their individual vernaculars, writing styles, vocabularies, and syntax.

If book awards were given out like the SAG awards, then this book would be in the “Outstanding Performance – Ensemble (Drama)” category. Although there is a “main character” in Juliet Ashton (by the by, how much do I love her name? VERY.) other characters are more developed than the usual supporting characters are, which makes the book more satisfying.

Brief plot synopsis (courtesy of amazon.com, who for once did a pretty decent job): “The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume Izzy Bickerstaff) writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate—and not-so-articulate—neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident—including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation—and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life—as will readers.”

This isn’t “literary fiction” at its most literary, but it’s often funny and heartwarming, and it was the perfect book to entertain me during my Christmastime illness. In case you're wondering: yes, the book does explain what a potato peel pie is.