Five Things I Loved Throughout April

As I do with most things in my life (namely men), I got bored of my usual monthly favorites posts. Or rather, just the title "April Favorites" because really, who is that going to entice? That's about as bland as my food before I learned what spices were as an uncultured swine who couldn't see beyond dousing everything in garlic. But alas, I do enjoy sharing things from the previous month that, as this title would seem to show, I loved. I just wanted to jazz up the title and will continue to test them out as I see fit just to keep my brain active, I guess, but as per usual, these are just some things from April that I really enjoyed. 

Some favorites, one might refer to them as ;)

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Guerlain Terracotta Light Healthy Glow Vitamin-Radiance Powder 

Please insert Louis Tomlinson and Bebe Rexha's "Back to You" right here because I keep on coming back to this bronzer-slash-blush duo. I have this in two shades, Light Warm, which is more coral, and Light Cool, which is more pink. The difference is tiny, but I still like to coordinate it with the makeup look I'm wearing because, I dunno, coordination means a lot to little ole me. It's the perfect blend of bronzer and blush and really just warms up your face when you really need it, like I do every single day of the year besides like, three weeks during the summer when the sun somehow penetrates my makeup and SPF layers.

Sometimes I use this on its own as blush for those makeup days when I just want to keep it natural looking, but I've also been known to use it to blend my blush with my contour in lieu of using a normal bronzer if I'm especially devoid of color that day and really need a little extra push in that department. The price tag is a little significant on these though, so if you need an alternative, just use the Wet N Wild Icon Bronzer and call it day with a little bit of extra blush for good measure. If you're feeling spendy though, these are fun to have in your collection.

Maybelline Super Stay Matte Ink Liquid Lip in Driver

These. Things. Do. Not. BUDGE. Once these liquid lipsticks are on your lips, you're going to have to apply pressure and scrub. These apply like a smooth cream (with the light shades, there's minor tugging while you try to make it fully opaque) with a matte finish and dry down to an almost matte texture. They're the tiniest bit tacky but not enough to make them uncomfortable to wear. You forget about it after about an hour anyway and by then you're just so stoked that they haven't worn off at all that you can forgive any of the flaws in its texture.

The pointed tip on the doe-foot application makes it easy to adjust to the curve of your cupid's bow and follow the outline of your lips to ensure that you don't get any outside of the lines and all over your upper lip and chin. The smell is faintly sweet but not overwhelmingly strong. It takes a bit longer to dry than other liquid lipsticks, but I recommend just keeping your lips slightly parted and fanning your face gently for about fifteen seconds to stop any lipstick transfer between your upper and lower lips that might disrupt the overall smoothness of the finish.

MAC Painterly Paintpot

There was a hot second where I was using my Lorac eyeshadow primer and before that, being lazy and just using my concealer because once upon a time, I used to do my face makeup before my eye makeup. I've since switched doing that and crawled right back to my Painterly Paintpot from MAC, the holy grail of eyeshadow primers for many. The pot packaging is kind of annoying but it's just so good that I don't mind. In reality, I use a synthetic eyeshadow brush to grab the product and place it on my lids and then use my ring fingers to blend it all out. It's a great base for shadows and truly, they do not budge. I was a bad girl and slept with my makeup on and this not only kept my shadow and liner on so well that I, uh, may not have taken it off the next morning and just touched up my wing and crease just the slightest. I'VE #EXPOSED MYSELF BUT WHATEVER! It's a testament to the staying power!

The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves

This book had me in tears. TEARS I TELL YOU! This was kind of a slow start for me, but it's also regular fiction which isn't usually my first choice but I'm slowly trying to read more of so I don't stay in my YA and books of essays by celebrities bubble. My pal Naureen copped me an ARC of this and I think I finished it across maybe five or six sittings over the course of a couple of weeks. It tells a back and forth story of college sweethearts who fell apart and try to fall back together again while reliving their previous traumas to work things out. I don't know how to describe books without spoiling them, so maybe the GoodReads section would be a better place to head if you're on the fence about picking it up. The main character, Annika, is socially anxious and sometimes seems to never say the right thing, which makes her an interesting character to follow as she goes through the normal strokes of life with more difficulty than Jonathan, her former love who kind of had it all for a while (emphasis on the kind of). I dunno guys, I just really enjoyed this book and think I'm falling back into regular fiction and reading again. All good things!

Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

This book is getting kind of mixed reviews but I'm going to try to put my complicated feelings about it into words. I really enjoyed this book. The plot was addicting, even if it took me about fifty or sixty pages to really get into it. I shouldn't admit this, but there was a day I was reading it at work a little past my lunch break because I was so hooked that I genuinely couldn't stop reading until I had to forcibly remove the book from my hands. It was definitely angsty, moody, and a little more artsy than I'm used to reading. I also had to get past the fact that the dialogue was written without quotation marks which really irked me, hence the slow start for me. In the end, it was easy to get past as the unfolding of the plot and the drama was enough for my "I hate drama wink wink" self. 

However, the characters are like, awful people. I compared this to me watching Gossip Girl for the first and last time. The difference is I actually liked this book and also the plots are obviously not similar at all. In both Conversations With Friends and Gossip Girl, everyone is just kind of awful? And very flawed? I couldn't get past this in Gossip Girl, but watching–or rather reading–everything unfolding in the book was just enough drama and people doing shitty things to each other that I was HOOKED. So, beware, you might not love the characters or think they're the pinnacle of greatness in the world, but Sally Rooney is a damn good writer and I'm stoked to read her other book!