It's been a summer full of changes. I've moved across the country, I've completed training for one job and jumped headfirst in to a second job, and I've cut in half the number of personal belongings I own. Despite the downsizing and the chaos, I've still tried a number of new things, and I've found a few more beauty products to love.
At the top of my list is Glossier Lash Slick. It doesn't give me the oodles of volume I usually prefer, but it's shockingly flake-free and non-smudging on even the longest days. I also love the stopper on the tube, as doofy as it sounds: I don't have to waste time wiping excess product off of the wand. Lash Slick has become my go-to mascara for humid summer days and 8+ hour work shifts.
Speaking of my lashes, I have to admit that I've recently replaced my Shu Uemura lash curlers with the Surratt curlers. The Surratt curlers are more readily available in the US, yes, but they also seem to be a bit better at catching all of my lashes. If you have deepset eyes like I do, give these curlers a shot.
Last, but most certainly not least, I replaced the Kat Von D Lock It Concealer with the Sephora Make No Mistake High Coverage Concealer. I'd already decided to stop purchasing Kat Von D products because of her many brushes with antisemitism, but her scoffing at people for pointing out her dangerous anti-vaccination position prompted me to toss what I still owned from her range. Swatching products against the KvD concealer in L3, I noticed that the Sephora concealer in 04 Ginger was spot on in terms of color and was half the price. Well...I actually like it even better than the Kat Von D concealer. A little of that Sephora concealer goes an extremely long way--I use a pin head side amount for the reddest blemish--and it blends out more easily.
And I know I mentioned it in the previous post, but I have to give another shout out to the beautiful card catalogue my fiance refurbished for me. I've wanted a card catalogue for over a decade, and this is more than I could have hoped for. It's now a permanent reminder of just how much he does for me, and I'll treasure it forever.
I don't have much in the way of music to talk about because...well, I've been busy with moving and starting new jobs. But even though my reading has slowed down lately, I've still found a few gems. At the top of my list is Madeline Miller's sophomore novel "Circe," which creates a compelling backstory for the mythological witch Circe. One of the things I really appreciated about this book was that it didn't shy away from showing just how nasty and selfish Greek gods were, even to their own children. By contrast, this version of Circe is often benevolent, sometimes self-centered, yet always understandable. Remember when Circe turned Odysseus's crew in to pigs, an act that seems needlessly malicious, in The Odyssey? Miller builds up Circe's motivation for that act. "Circe" may be one of the best books I've ever read, and I cannot recommend it enough.
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