Confessions of a make-up hoarder: Nyx Cosmetics

10 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by ejridener in Art, College, college, Life, student, Uncategorized

Tags

abandoned, cheap, College, eyeliner, eyeshadow, hoarding, Kat Von D, lipstick, make-up, Nyx Cosmetics, reliable, Sephora, student, Too Faced

Being a college student sucks for your bank account and being a make-up hoarder sucks for your already sad wallet.

I piled my Nyx collection into my sink. Please note: I can think of at least three things missing seeing as I’ve misplaced them but there could be more I’m forgetting.

I blame “RuPaul’s Drag Race” for two things; making me experiment with my face and my love of Nyx Cosmetics. In high school, I was never big into putting a lot of make-up on my face and stuck to eyeliner only. Sometimes I would branch out to lipstick and eyeshadow but both would end up smudging something fierce and making me look like I faced a hurricane head-on and lost.

Once college started, I found myself looking more into different primers for eyeshadow and ended up with a Sephora Beauty Insider membership due to the amount of money I was spending on two items at a time. My favorite was Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance Primer and Sephora Collection eyeliners. I was very into Kat Von D’s eyeshadow palettes but being a college student meant I had to plan when I would buy anything seeing as the cheapest item I would purchase was $20 if it was on sale.

College students don’t have that type of cash to toss around when one cheap version of a textbook costs $250.

In a neighboring town to my own, an Ulta Beauty was built and I consider it my make-up savior. In one section of their store was a Nyx display and, remembering the early days of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the make-up provided to the competing queens, I made my first Nyx purchases because my rationale said, “if they’re drag queen approved then they have to be worth it.”

I haven’t looked back and I think my abandoned Sephora account is covered in dust and cobwebs.

Let’s break this down: a sale item at Sephora for $20 or at least five to ten regular priced items from Nyx for $20. Usually with cheaper brands you get what you pay for and what you’re paying for is a weak pigment and a smudge if you breathe wrong.

Complete opposite with Nyx.

I haven’t had a problem with the brand as of yet. I love the matte lipsticks and lip crèmes the most because of the wide variety of shades and the amount of time they last without a lip primer. I will say I managed to eat an entire meal while out with my mother and didn’t have the embarrassment of my lipstick wearing down to a line around my mouth. Instead, I had slight feathering around the corners but my purple lips were intact.

Speaking of lipstick, I’ve found my favorite shade and it may be my favorite until I leave this realm. The not-so-great part is many people really like this shade. “Siren,” a matte lipstick, has been worn nearly every day by me and when the tube started to get to a low point, I went to order more online but it was sold out. Yes, I panicked but calmed when I remembered I could just go buy it in-store. Nope, sold out there too. When it was finally back in stock I bought two tubes just in case. They currently reside nestled in my overstock case still nestled safely in their plastic wrapping.

For the most part, I keep the style of make-up I apply the same: darker color into the crease, lighter on the lid and a light shimmer to highlight below the arch on my eyebrow. I’m usually always wearing a dark lip, either “Siren” or the Simply Vamp Lip Cream in “Enamored.” My favorite palette is probably Love in Florence in “Prima Donna” and I have yet to try the Hot Singles eyeshadows ut have been eyeballing a few shades.

I would like to point out I’m not as bad as what I am making myself seem. I don’t sneak off to buy a new palette, though if I’m near a Nyx display chances are I will go home with something, and I don’t have make-up stashed around my house because I’ve run out of places to put them.

Admittedly there are times when I’ve stumbled out of bed early in order to at very least draw my eyebrows on, I’ve stared into the mirror and asked myself, “am I high maintenance?”

Answer: Nope, just determined.

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“Outlander” season one review

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by ejridener in College, Literature, Television, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Black Jack, Claire Randell, Diana Gabaldon, England, Gaelic, Game of Thrones, Jamie Fraser, outlander, redcoats, review, Scotland, starz, television

Warning: spoilers ahead.

With it being summer, I’ve found time to play catch-up on “new” shows and if one thing is for certain it’s I am drawn to shows that take place at least 100 years ago.

Earlier this summer, I finished season one of Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful” and now I’m watching season two. I loved the show but seeing as I’m now at the point where I have to wait for the new episode each week (or until the new season starts), I had to find a new show to binge.

This is where Starz’s “Outlander” comes into play.

I searched different Starz and Showtime series and I was drawn to “Outlander” for a few reasons. The first was the time period, or least the time period most of the show takes place in. The second was the time traveling aspect of going from 1945 to 1743. The third was the beauty of the Scottish Highlands.

I started watching not realizing the show was based on a book series by Diana Gabaldon and honestly it didn’t effect my viewing. You know how sometimes when either a show or a movie is adapted from a book you are left feeling like you’re missing something? “Outlander” hasn’t made me feel like I need to read the books in order to understand what’s going on so there’s a huge plus.

The show starts off in 1945 post WWII Scotland as an English woman, Claire Randall, and her husband, Frank Randall, are taking a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately for Claire, she visits some old standing stones named Craigh na Dun and is transported to 1743. She encounters her husband’s ancestor, Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, who turns out to be the season’s villain. She is rescued from Black Jack by a group of Scots, taken to Castle Leoch and kept under the orders of Colum MacKenzie to stay as the castle healer. Eventually, Claire is forced to marry Jaime Fraser, nephew of Colum and Dougal MacKenzie, in order to protect her from Black Jack under Scottish law. Through many ups, downs and extreme downs, the season ends with Claire, Jamie and Murtagh Fraser sailing to France in order to seek safety.

Claire Randell, “Outlander”

That’s the extreme short version of the story. Here are some details about the characters and why I’ve come to love this show.

Claire is one of the strongest female characters in a show I have ever seen. She was a nurse during WWII and seen plenty of gruesome war injuries. Being a woman of the 20^th century, she is not used to being “put in her place” by her husband. When she’s thrown into the 18^th century, she acts and speaks differently than the women of the time. One of the funniest parts of the show is watching the men react to some of the things she says and does. Because she is from the future, she also knows what is going to happen and where they will take place.

Jamie Fraser, “Outlander”

Jamie is a bit of a mystery that slowly reveals his past. You know his back is severely scarred and know it was Black Jack who did it but you don’t get the whole story until later. Claire has tended to Jamie since she first landed in 1743 due to an injury from a battle with the “Redcoats” and we see the connection early on between the two characters. Jamie is considered an outlaw because he escaped from prison and anytime the British army comes into contact Jamie is forced to hide. Though Jamie’s uncle Dougal MacKenzie forces Jamie and Claire to marry in order for Claire to be protected under Scottish law, Jamie isn’t exactly angry about the situation they’ve been put into.

Black Jack, “Outlander”

Black Jack is nothing short of a villain. He is the first person Claire runs into in 1743 and he attempts to rape her before the Scots take her. Your opinion of him just continues to drop from there. He takes pleasure in the pain he inflicts on others and views Jamie’s scarred back as a “masterpiece.” The truly messed up part? He mentally injures Jamie far worse toward the end of the season due to his sexual obsession with breaking Jamie.

Which is where the controversy surrounding the season finale of “Outlander” comes up.

There is an intense, physically and mentally, rape scene between Jamie and Black Jack. It’s made know earlier in the season that Black Jack gave Jamie a choice: take the lashings or give me your body. Jamie chose the lashings and he eventually escaped Black Jack’s clutches. The Redcoats catch Jamie again and Black Jack saves him from execution moments before he was to be hanged. After a terrible round of torture and a threat to Claire, who had tried to free him, Jamie surrenders himself to Black Jack and the rape scene is shown in flashback after Jamie is rescued.

The funny, and not funny as in humor, part is not much media coverage was given to the scene. I am a huge “Game of Thrones” fan and with the latest rape in the show, so many people were outraged and many media outlets took stands against the scene and asked “has ‘Game of Thrones’ gone too far?” That particular rape scene was not visible but you could hear the actions and the camera zoomed in on Theon Greyjoy who was forced to watch it happen. The “Outlander” scene was much more graphic and the exploited psychological damage done to Jamie was much more intense yet not many stories popped up. Is this because the show isn’t as popular as “Game of Thrones” or is it because it was a male raped and not a female?

I know it seems like I absolutely love the show and can see no wrong with it but that would be false. I have one problem; the Gaelic. I’m not saying it’s aggravating that the Scottish characters will speak Gaelic at length or just a few words here or there because I think that adds to the authenticity of the characters. I hate not knowing what they are saying though. Usually when you’re watching a movie or show where a different language is used there are subtitles telling you what they are saying so you, as the viewer, can be in on the secret. There are no subtitles in “Outlander.” It drives me crazy that I don’t know what the characters are saying back and forth but I think I know why they’ve been left out. Claire doesn’t know Gaelic and as the narrator of the show, she brings up how those around her will speak in Gaelic in order to keep something from her or to exclude her. I feel like the audience is supposed to get the same feeling in order to sympathize with Claire’s plight.

I’m excited for season two! I haven’t read the books and I don’t know that I will get around to it therefore I’m not sure what’s ahead for Jamie and Claire but I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with the two in France.

Making things: herb infused olive oil

05 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by ejridener in college, cooking, Food, Life, student, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

basil, cooking, crafts, DIY, figuring it out, garden, gardening, how-to, new things, olive oil, photography, project, student, summer

The basil, a mix of blue spice and cinnamon basil, in the colander fresh from the garden.

There are times when I fancy myself an “accomplished” cook and by accomplished I mean I haven’t given anyone food poisoning…yet.

I like to try new things, most of which are found in the middle of the night when I have nothing else but Googling to do, and I have had few fails. That being said, I’ve found there are a few things I cook with frequently.

Thoroughly rinsing.

Butter, because it makes everything taste like a delicious heart attack waiting to happen and keeps things from sticking to the pans.

Garlic, because I love the taste and find reasons to sneak it into any recipe.

Olive oil, because it gives a great flavor when roasting chicken or cooking some sides.

Take all the basil leaves off the stems.

The butter and garlic are fairly straightforward ingredients. Yes, you can alter them but that takes serious effort and they come with short life spans. Olive oil though? It’s like the old Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven’s, “Set it and forget it!”

Basil, mortar and pestle and Mason jar at the ready.

I like basil but unfortunately don’t cook with too much. It adds a fresh flavor to dishes but it doesn’t always work with everything. One of my favorite things to cook is a roasted lemon, garlic and rosemary chicken. One of the steps in the prep process is to give the chicken a rub down with olive oil because it helps with browning the skin while roasting. I normally use a garlic olive oil but given I’ve recently began gardening, I have so much basil I don’t know what to do with it.

Cue the olive oil!

Basil leaves nestled at the bottom of the Mason jar.

I like herb infused olive oil because it adds flavor that’s not overpowering but an all around great kick. Seeing as I have Google skills, a Mason jar, some extra virgin olive oil and more basil than an Italian bistro, I set to find out how to make my own basil infused oil.

Warning: it’s super easy but not instantaneous.

Begin pouring in olive oil.

Pour complete.

Step one is making sure you have clean basil. Whether you are buying from a store/farmers market or growing it in a raised bed like myself, it needs to be washed thoroughly before you do anything with it. As I cut my basil from the stalks I was putting it right into a colander, stems and all, in order to cut down on the amount of potential dishes I would have to deal with later. The other plus was once done with collecting basil, I was able to put the colander right into the sink and start rinsing any dirt and gross nature off the leaves.

After a thorough cleansing, I put paper towel at the bottom of a container, began picking leaves off the stems and dropped them right into said container. Once the leaves were in the container, I covered them with another paper towel to dry them. One of the keys to the herb infused oil is the herbs must be dry. I discarded the paper towels and recovered the basil in a fresh towel to let them completely dry over night.

The next day, I emptied the basil into a mortar and ground them with a pestle in order to bruise them.

The recipe I was using had a hot and a cold method and seeing as the steps after combining the herbs and oil were the same, I’m going with the cold and less complicated route hence the reason I’m only bruising the basil.

Once I was satisfied with their state I dropped them into the Mason jar and poured the olive oil over them and left about a half inch from the top of the jar because I wanted to make sure I had enough room to shake the jar as instructed.

Every day for two weeks the jar must be shaken at least once.

After tightening the lid, the oil and basil has to sit for about two weeks with a good shake at least once a day.

That’s where I’m at right now. The two have been hanging out in the jar for about three days and once ready I’ll have to separate the oil and the basil via a strainer. I’ll likely bottle it and save it for my roasted chicken and turkey.

This seems foolproof. If I fail, I need to sort out my priorities and reflect on why it turned out terrible.

ejridener

~ "This above all; to thine own self be true." – Hamlet, William Shakespeare.

Author Archives: ejridener

Confessions of a make-up hoarder: Nyx Cosmetics

“Outlander” season one review

Making things: herb infused olive oil