September Glymm Box

This month's Glymm Box was pretty amazing! Especially since it had a full size blush in it!

If you want to sign up for your own Glymm Box click the link below :)

Treat yourself to something beautiful!

John Masters Organics – Blood Orange & Vanilla Body Wash 30mL

Retail Value - $25.40 for 236mL

Sample Value - $3.23

On the Card – Bet you've never smelled blood orange & vanilla in the same breath! Nothing less than botanical, this all over wash foams to gently remove dirt and leave you feeling clean.

My Thoughts – This smells amazing!

John Masters Organics – Blood Orange & Vanilla Body Milk 30mL

Retail Value - $25.40 for 236mL

Sample Value - $3.23

On the Card – Delicate and mild, milk thistle, aloe and essential oils are absorbed quickly and happily to leave your skin replenished, detoxified and nourished in the most organic way.

My Thoughts – Smells amazing, and it extremely moisturizing!

Oscar De La Renta – Esprit d'Oscar

Retail Value - $78 for 1.6 oz.

Sample Value – unknown

On the Card – Oscar and daughter Eliza modernize the signature de la Renta scent to capture women of the new era. Bright, citrus, floral and warm scents surround you to relay your chic and sophisticated sides.

My Thoughts – Extremely small perfume sample. I wouldn't even call it a sample, it is like a spritz. For me to know if I like a perfume, I need to be able to try is a handful or two of times. I also would have preferred if the sample, had a spray nozzle or roller-ball so it was easier to use.

Vasanti – Rockies Blush 3.2g

Retail Value - $15 for 3.2g

Sample Value - $15

On the Card – The silky smooth coral with subtle flecks of gold and silver will blend flawlessly with your skin giving you a natural, radiant glow as you transition from your summer to fall wardrobe.

My Thoughts - I have been looking for a coral blush for a while now. I have never been able to commit to buying one though because I'm worried that once I try it I'm not going to like it. I like the slight shimmer in this blush that eliminates the need to put on highlighter.

Sloan taking a nap, while the rest of us are hard at work.

Croc Mirror

Value – unknown

On the Card – Let the animal in you come out and play! Reptile-inspired trends graced Autumn's runways and we're making sure you are up-to-date with your BONUS Croc accessory! See you later, alligator!

My Thoughts -  Acute addition to this month's box and perfect for my makeup bag at work. However, having seen the cute alligator makeup bags that other people received I wish I had gotten that instead.

Jelly Beans

Value – Priceless

My Thoughts – Delicious!

Winners Beauty Find: Bella Pierre Cosmetics

So this is another Winners Beauty Find Blog. Having watched xsparkage on YouTube for years now, I have always loved all of the pigments she uses. Especially the Naked Cosmetics pigment stacks she has been showing a lot lately. Naked Cosmetics are not readily available to me, and I'm not a fan of buying cosmetics online without being able to check them out in person first. While at Winners a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a new brand of makeup I have never seen there before, BellaPierre Cosmetics. They are a mineral makeup brand that promotes their products as multipurpose. All of their pigments can be used wet or dry, or you can mix them with a clear gloss or nail polish to create your own custom lip and nail colors. There were 7 different kits available, ranging from small 3 color sets to full face kits complete with foundation, blush and bronzer. I purchased the Bella 9 stack kit that also came with an eyeshadow base, eyeshadow and eyeliner brush, clear lip gloss, and an instructional DVD. The colors in this set are all varying neutral shades and extremely shimmery. Only the white and black colors look more matte. The eyeshadow base that comes in the kit is apparently supposed to make the pigments look matte and take away all glitter and shimmer. The lip gloss is vanilla scented, however I find it very sticky a quality I hate in lip glosses. Overall, I find this set an extremely good value compared to the price of these kits online. The website you can find these products at is www.bellapierre.com/shop/ and all prices are in US currency.

The All in one Bella Pierre 9-stack shimmer kit is $134.99
The Eyeshadow Base is $9.99
The lip gloss is $9.99
Eyeliner brush $12.99
Eyeshadow brush $19.99
And the 9-stack by itself is $89.99
Buying each of the kits contents separately will cost $142.95
So online when you by the kit you are saving $8.00

I paid $29.99 for the kit at Winners. If that isn't a deal I don't know what is.

You will see in the pictures below the colors that are included in this kit. Like I said this is a more neutral kit where as the other ones were more vibrant and pastel colors. The only color in this kit I can never see myself using as an eye color is the red. This is definitely a lip appropriate color that I want to try mixing with the lip gloss. I also want to try using this color in my next batch of homemade lip balm to give it a tinted color.

The Instructional DVD included in this kit is kind of useless. It only runs about 5 minutes and says that it will teach you how to use the products. It doesn't do that, all it does is tell you the different uses of the pigments, something you can read for yourself on the back of the box.

Bronze

Celebration

Champagne

Cinnabar

Earth

Harmony

Java

Noir

Snowflake

Eyeshadow Base

I would give this kit a 5/5 a definite must by at the $29.99 price. I do not think it is worth the online price at all. A good beginners set of mineral makeup.

Disclaimer - This product was bought by me with my own money. BellaPierre is not compensating me for this blog post and review. All opinions are honest and my own.

13 Reasons Why Book Review

Ebook Price - $10.99

Audio Book - $29.04 online, $44.00 in-store

Hardcover - $14.06 online, $18.50 in-store

Trade Paperback - $11.83 online, $13.00 in-store

*All prices are for Chapters, Indigo, or Coles stores in Canada.

Author – Jay Asher

320 pages

Published October 23^rd, 2007

Recommended for Teens 13-17 years old.

ISBN – 9781595141880

From the Publisher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate and crush -who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and learns the truth about himself-a truth he never wanted to face.

Main Character #1

Clay Jensen is a high school student who is trying to get over the death of the girl he likes/loves. He receives a box of cassette tapes that guide him and the reader through the story that is happening now but also what has happened in the past that has shaped the story now. I believe that Clay changes from a blind sheltered life into one of clarity, truth and regret by the end of the story

Clay does the right thing in the story by listening to the tapes. But I think that he also realizes during the course of the story that there was more he could have done in the past but his only way of knowing that was through how the story happened. Hindsight is 20/20 but because of that Clay realizes what needs to be done in the present day, thus the how the story ended. I can identify with Clay as he discovers that his reality was nothing that he thought because everyone’s reality is different in somebody else's perspective. Nothing is ever as it seems.

Main Character #2

Hannah Baker is the main female character in this story. Her voice is on the tapes and she leads the reader and Clay through her past and the story. Hannah changes from a young spirit to a tortured soul by the end of the story. I can identify with Hannah during this story as some of the feelings and situations she went through during the story I went through in my high school life.

Setting

This story is set during present day in a small American town. It also follows the events of the past 4 years in the town as well. I like that it is set in a small town where everyone is rocked by the death of 1 student. It gives the story more personality when I can relate to places described in the story to places like that in my town. I think that because the town was small and everyone there especially in the high school is so involved in everyone’s business played a big part in Hannah's downfall and death.

Theme

I think that the author is trying to say in this story that you really don’t know everything that is happening around you until it is pointed out to you. That one smile or nice comment can change someones life for the better. That one rumor or negative comment could change their life for the worse. And lastly to never think that you cannot change someone life. I believe that this story is about the life of everyday teens across the world, bullying, and that the truth will set you free. This book showed me that everything I say means something to somebody

I really enjoyed this book. I think that it was definitely written for a younger age group them mine, but it was good nonetheless. I did not like how it jumped around so much. From Hannah one sentence to Clay the next without warning. I read a PDF copy of the book, thus I did not have the change in font to warn me that it was changing back in forth between people's POVs. By the time I realized it had changed I had to go back and re-read parts because they didn’t make sense the first time I read it.

This was a good book, however there is talk that it is going to be made into a movie, and I do not think it will make a good movie. The actors will be too young to attract the older generations to see this movie, however the subject content of this movie is too sensitive and adult for the younger generations. There is speculation that Selena Gomez will be cast in this movie, I however, could only find a movie poster with Emma Watson, seen below.

I give this book 4 stars and definitely recommend it if you are looking for a quick, but good read.