With Pure Jergens

There is nothing quite like the feeling of putting on hydrating lotion in the midst of winter, when your skin is at its driest. Lotion is one beauty product that I just can't deny myself, especially if it has a particularly pleasing scent. I have been switching between three different lotions lately, so I thought I would do a little review about them all: Hilary Duff's With Love, Victoria's Secret's Pure Seduction, and Jergens Ultra Healing.  

First up is Hilary Duff's With Love. I came across this by seeing Hilary Duff's music video for "With Love," in which she sprayed the With Love perfume. Assuming I would like the scent, I bought the gift set, which included the perfume, lotion and a small hand mirror. The gift set version is the only one I have been able to find and the largest bottle it comes in is one of 1.7 fl oz. On the bottle, it claims that it is a hydrating lotion, but the hydrating feeling does not last very long at all and when putting it on, I felt almost a grainy substance. This was probably to help exfoliate the skin, but it wasn't very pleasant. The only thing I still like about this lotion is the scent(as long as you don't use too much lotion), but I could as easily get that from the perfume. 

Next is Victoria's Secret's Pure Seduction from their Secret Garden selection. This has been one of my favorite scent since high school, when one of my friends introduced it to me. I have always just stuck with the body spray, but I thought I would give the lotion a chance. Unlike the With Love lotion, the Pure Seduction has 6.7 fl oz in the particular bottle I bought. It is described on the bottle as an "ultra moisturizing hand and body cream" and the moisturizing feeling lingers for a long time. However, the lotion takes absolutely forever to sink into the skin and it leaves you with a greasy feeling on your hands. 

Lastly is the Jergens Ultra Healing lotion. Out of the three lotions, the Jergens had the most lotion in one bottle with 10 fl oz. I especially liked this lotion because it is extremely hydrating and it sinks into the skin pretty quickly. As the name suggests, it has some healing qualities. After a few days of using this lotion, any cuts I had on my hands were healed up completely. 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Going into this movie, I wasn’t aware of the rating, but I tried to prepare myself for probably some gore and sexual content. However, I had no idea that those factors would be so extreme in this movie.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) follows George Smiley (Gary Oldman; The Dark Knight, Dracula), who has come out of retirement to find out who the mole is in British Intelligence or “The Circus.” It was directed by Tomas Alfredson(Four Shades of Brown, Soldiers by Moonlight) and adapted from John Le Carré’s novel by Bridget O’Connor(Mrs. Ratcliffe’s Revolution, Sixty Six) and Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, The Men Who Stare at Goats). According to IMDB, the film is dedicated to Bridget O’Connor, as she passed away from cancer after she finished work on the film.

            Gary Oldman played the main character, George Smiley. He was nominated for an Oscar and won several other awards for his performance, but I didn’t really understand why. The majority of the movie, Oldman doesn’t speak, but merely stares in an intimidating manner at everyone to whom he is speaking. Colin Firth(The King’s Speech, Love Actually, Mamma Mia!) was more deserving of an award, in my opinion because of his part as the suspicious Tom Haydon. What really made me notice Firth's last scene with Oldman and the way he broke down during the conversation. Normally, I am a very big Oldman fan, but this time, I just did not think that his performance was worthy of such hype.

            The beginning of the film really caught my attention because it just throws you into intense action before you know what is happening. The movie starts off with Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong; Emma,Stardust), a member of “The Circus” that is sent to Hungary in an attempt to gain information, but he gets shot in the process. You don’t find out more details about this mission until much later in the movie.

            Something that really caught my attention in this movie was the soundtrack. The main piece that was composed for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was called “Salut D’Amour”, which could be translated into “Hello, Love.” “Salut,D’Amour” was composed by Edward Elgar and it was arranged and produced for the movie by Michael Price (Lord of the Rings, Love Actually) . The movie had a fairly happy ending. It showed what each of the characters (that were still alive) were doing and La Mer sung by Julio Iglesias played in the background. It is a very happy song, so it was a nice way to tie up a rather dramatic movie in a light hearted way.  

            If the reader is interested in seeing this movie, I would advise that they do a little reading on the movie before going to see it. While the scenes can go by very slowly, the plot is very fast paced and if you miss one detail, you will probably be confused for the rest of the movie and you won’t enjoy it as much as you would have if you knew what was going on. Also, if you are not a fan of movies that have to do with espionage or anything to do with a war, this movie is probably not for you.

            The movie is very dark, not just because of the content (war, death, espionage, etc.), but also because of the coloring. There were no bright colors in the movie; everything was brown, black, grey, navy, forest green, maroon or something along those lines. There were some focusing concepts that I didn’t quite understand. At some points, the camera would stay focused on an object or a person that wasn’t really that vital to the scene. For instance, there was a scene in which Oldman and Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch; Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl) were talking. Smiley said something, then turned around to look at Guillam, but instead of focusing on his reaction to what Smiley said, the camera stayed focused on the back of Smiley’s head.

            Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was very rightly rated R because there were some things that are not at all suitable for younger viewers. There were several bodies that were shown after the person had been murdered and it was incredibly gory to the point that I had to look away from the screen because of how disgusting it was. So, if blood and guts make you uncomfortable, you should not see this movie. There was also full on nudity at some points and people doing some very inappropriate things. The gore and nudity were really not needed. There are better ways to show that something bad is happening and it would give the actors a chance to show off their talents.

            This movie caters to a specific group of people and unless you are okay with gore and nudity and enjoy very dramatic movies, you will not like this one. I left the theatre feeling the need to watch something extremely happy and stress-free. However, if you enjoy and are okay with the things mentioned above, you will like this movie.

DEB vs. Charlotte Russe

Being a rather girly girl, I enjoy such things as shopping, clothes, make-up and nail polish. Some high end nail polish brands include Deborah Lippman, OPI, and Essie. However, they brands tend to be ridiculously expensive for not that much nail polish. These brands are very popular because they are high quality and they do not chip as easily as a brand that is cheaper. Deborah Lippman is probably one of the most popular among the high end nail polish brands, but it is horribly expensive, ranging from  $12 to $20. OPI is another good brand, but it runs between $5 and $15.  Essie is another one of the high end brands of nail polish, but they can cost anywhere between $5 and $10. While these are very good quality nail polishes, every day people cannot afford them. These $5 to $20 nail polishes have the same amount in their bottles as a $1 bottle of nail polish from a drug store. The problem is that the nail polishes that most drug stores provide are not good quality and chip very easily.

I recently went shopping and got two different nail polishes from two different stores: DEB and Charlotte Russe. I decided to test out the quality of each of the nail polishes by taking a photo right after painting, then another photo testing how they compared. I did not use a top coat or a base coat for either of them.

DEB is overall a clothing store, but scattered throughout the store, there are little accessories, like jewelry, hair things, belts, shoes, purses and nail polish.

This was the nail polish that I got from DEB, as it says on the label, for $3. Their selection was not the best, but this color caught my eye. I opened it slightly before buying it and I saw that it was a very thick polish, which was just what I was looking for. 

         

This photo was taken right after I painted the nails. 

This was taken the night after I painted the nails, which was only a few hours later.

 

While the color and thickness was exactly what I was looking for, the quality was not. This nail polish chipped extremely easily and there was an imperfection not long after I finished painting them and let them dry. 

Charlotte Russe was the second store that I went to and it is a very similar kind of store to DEB, but focuses a little more on the accessories. They had a much larger variety of nail polish colors and types than DEB did, so it was very difficult in deciding which to buy. 

I ended up buying this color, called Cherry Bomb.  It was $2.50 and has about the same amount (if not more) in the bottle than the DEB nail polish did. This polish is much more watery than the gold nail polish, so I didn't have high hopes for it to begin with.

This is the photo taken right after the painting.

This was taken the night after I painted the nails. 

The Charlotte Russe nail polish seems to be of much higher quality because it is now days later after I did this little experiment and the red polish is just now starting to chip. It was cheaper and better quality than the DEB brand. 

Afghan cartoon

When you hear about the country of Afghanistan, what first pops into your mind? Most people might say  something along the lines of war or violence. But how about educational cartoons? BBC reported on February 10, 2012 that the very first Afghan children's educational cartoon was created. This was the first cartoon in over 10 years that used the voices of Afghan children. In the past, the Afghan educational system has only used Russian or Iranian children's cartoons to teach their children to do certain things.

The cartoon is very basic and uses songs to teach the children to do certain things like how to treat animals with care and how to shower properly. There are no assigned characters in the cartoon, but instead there are rather generic Afghan girl and boy characters that sing and talk to the audience.

In the past, the educational system in Afghanistan has not been too great and I am so happy that they are taking strides to promote good education. This cartoon is very small compared to some things that other countries have done for education, but hopefully it's a step in the right direction.

Say Anything!

The thing that drew me to Say Anything(1989) was the writer and director: Cameron Crowe. He directed and wrote such movies as Jerry McGuire and Elizabethtown. His movies are mainly romance, but they also have some sort of side plot.

The movie starts out after the graduation of Seattle High School with Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) asking out the anti-social valedictorian, Diane Court (Ione Skye) and she grudgingly accepts. The party that they go to is the first experience that Diane has with meeting other people because during school, she was 100% focused on her schoolwork and her grades. During the night, it is obvious that Diane is becoming more comfortable and more attracted to Lloyd because he adores her and wants to make sure she’s safe and having fun.

Next the movie begins to show a little bit of Diane’s home life. Her parents are divorced and she decided to live with her father because she believed it was safer. Her father is very over-protective and over the years, has pushed her to be a straight A student. Her father owns a nursing home, which is very important later in the plot. It is revealed early on to the watchers that Diane won a full ride to a school in England and she only has 16 weeks left at home. In the beginning, when Diane and her father are talking, Ione’s acting is extremely awkward. It was very forced and not believable at all, but as the movie progressed, her acting gradually got better.

Diane agrees to go on a second date with Lloyd, but the ‘date’ is having dinner with her father and two of his colleagues. That evening, two IRS agents come to the house to announce that Diane’s father is under investigation because of his spending habits. Right before this, he mentioned that the jukebox in the living room was $9000 and he gave Diane a brand new car as a graduation present.

            

          Diane buckles under the pressure of everything that is happening with her and her father and she breaks up with Lloyd. This idea was planted in her head by her father, who thought that Lloyd was a distraction and he wasn’t good enough for her. However, Diane finds the money that her father had been accused of stealing from his clients and goes back to Lloyd. He gets arrested right before Lloyd and Diane move to England.

                 

          It centers upon a main theme of adolescence and the problems that come along with being a teenage, about to go into college. The party was a big part of this because it showed people being pressure to drink, sexual pressure and other kinds of peer pressure. And then, of course, the pressure of trying to be perfect for your parent(s).

                There were a few things that really caught my attention with this movie. One was that the boy in the relationship was the most heartbroken after the break-up. Traditionally in romantic stories, the girl ends up heartbroken and defeated, whether she did the breaking up or not.

                My critique of this movie might be a bit blinded by my love for Cameron Crowe, but I didn’t find much to complain about, save for Ione’s acting towards the beginning. Overall, it is a really good movie that forces you to experience a majority of emotions during viewing. 

The Lloyd Dobler boombox scene is a pretty famous scene in movie history, so I'm sure you've seen it before!