Things I'm Loving

1. Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge + Laura Mercier Transluscent Setting Powder

The amount of time it's taken me to learn that using the tip of my damp sponge to apply loose setting powder to my under eye area to set my concealer instead of a brush is honestly absurd. How many years did I spend swiping a brush underneath my eye and ending up with tiny little fine lines from where I inevitably squinted in the setting process because a rogue bristle hit me in the eye? It's a dangerous game, putting brushes near your eyeballs, and it's a game I no longer have to play.

I find that when I dip the pointed tip of my Real Techniques sponge (I'm sure a Beauty Blender would work just fine too, I'm just too cheap to pay $20+ for a sponge) into the loose powder and lightly press it against the skin under my eye, I don't get weird fine lines or wrinkles in the concealer. It keeps the concealer intact and really locks it in to avoid fading and creasing throughout the day. This isn't like a new makeup fad or anything, I mean, how long have you heard the word "bake" in a makeup tutorial? This is like...the step before you would bake. I don't have the time or patience to let the loose powder sit there for that long, but I do get the appeal of applying it with a sponge instead of a brush to get a more precise and locked in look.


2. Something to Tell You by Haim

It's here!!! Haim's sophomore album is here!!! Are you just as excited as I am??? No??? You should be!!! Okay, I think I've used my rogue punctuation quota for the day. And my usage of the word "rogue" in a blog post quota. Our favorite group of sisters followed up their 2013 album Days Are Gone with yet another killer California-inspired album. I've never been to California nor do I know much about it to be completely honest, but I know that California sounds like Haim and Haim sound like California. Don't ask how I know. It's just a feeling.

Like how I tried to ramble for a while so this part of the blog post wasn't a sentence long because I can't talk about music? Any album that starts out with a song as strong as "Want You Back" is going to take you on a journey. This is the kind of album that you listen to (and that I have listened to) on a really sunny day with the windows down and your hair blowing in the wind. Actually, maybe put your hair back into a ponytail or something because there's nothing worse that getting whipped in the face by your own hair. It's like being betrayed by your own self...

I digress, even with bleak subjects matters, the songs manage to be upbeat. Sometimes that's how I feel. Strong and fun on the outside, weak and whimpering on the inside. Don't get me wrong, this album isn't nearly as dramatic as Melodrama by Lorde (dramatic, I say, in the best way possible of course). It's emotional, but not slow. It's intimate and story-telling mixed in between cohesive beats and melodies. I thought that this Slate article about the album was a really interesting read that draws a lot of similarities between Haim and other family bands.

To listen to: "Want You Back" (duh), "Something to Tell You," "You Never Knew," and "Found it in Silence." But seriously, the album is only 11 songs long, listen to them all.

3. Lion 

I finally got my stuff together and as soon as I saw that Lion was on Netflix, I immediately dropped everything and queued it up to watch. This was a movie I meant to see a million times and just...never did. Because I'm a piece of trash. That's another story for another time, though. This section of the post is all about Lion, even if it ripped my heart out and made me ugly cry in the privacy of my own home!

This movie was structured differently than I expected from the commercials. For a majority of the first half of the movie, we were following along a young Saroo (Sunny Pawar) pre and post being separated from his family. I don't want to spoil too much of this movie, but if you haven't seen it yet and aren't sure of what happens, maybe just skip this part of the blog post. I won't be offended considering I'm pretty bad at spoilers. Anyways, I digress, this part of the movie requires a lot of paying attention unless you understand Hindi or Bengali. I needed to read the subtitles and really pay attention to understand what was going on during Saroo's attempt to reunite with his family while he was thousands of miles away after falling asleep on a train he thought was out of commission.

The second half of the movie is split up between Saroo's (Dev Patel) young adult years, moving from Tasmania with his adoptive family (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham) to Melbourne to study hotel management. There, he meets Lucy (Rooney Mara) and a group of diverse friends in the same program. It's through them that sparks his curiosity in finding out where he's from. Saroo spends a long time dwelling on where he was from, what his origin story was, trying to repress memories of his estranged mother and brother (there's a sister, too, but she isn't as prevalent in his visions). There's Google Earth involved and complicated maps and formulas to try to figure out where the train he rode ended up coming from because he couldn't remember that name of the area he was from and had the pronunciation wrong because he was only five.

Obviously, we all know he finds his home in the end. It's the uplifting, beautiful ending that legitimately had me bawling my eyes out and clutching my chest. The movie was beautiful, and not just because Dev Patel was in it. There's a reason people raved about it! If you want to cry (like a lot), watch Lion. I'm not one to watch movies ever, so the fact that I was excited to see this one finally and didn't even pause it and get up because I got distracted says a lot.

What have you been loving lately?