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pbelfz · 3 years ago

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Two to One | 8 |

Pairing: Bakugou x Reader x Midoriya Chapter Title: First Touch Chapter 7 | Chapter 9 Story Masterlist Summary: You are a simple college girl working at a cheap, back alley café! The top heroes, Deku and Ground Zero, visit your work in hopes of ordering coffee, but they pick something else up instead. You begin an interesting relationship with the pair, while slowly becoming aware of certain underhanded tactics they are using. Idolization isn't always that bad... Right?

WARNINGS: ALCOHOL, MANIPULATION, SLIGHT NSFW

The throuple continued their routine dinners and sleepovers. Becoming more considerate of (Y/n)’s schedule was a hurdle for both men, but they were trying. Moving in together wasn’t brought up again, perhaps out of courtesy of (Y/n)’s hesitance.

Katsuki, however, found himself offering to pay for her things more frequently, and very soon after, Izuku followed. Part of them enjoyed providing for someone, especially Katsuki, though he’d never admit it. He and (Y/n) always struggled to connect, and paying for a textbook for school, a restock in feminine products, or a dress she found online made him feel closer to her. (Y/n) never asked for either of their financial assistance, though, and she became wary of what she brought up to them in passing conversation. She mentioned her feet hurting after going for a run in her old gym shoes? Izuku already ordered a brand new, expensive pair of sneakers, and they’ll be here tomorrow morning. On the phone with Katsuki, telling him about how she’s only eaten gummy bears and iced coffee all day? He’s ordering a surplus of groceries to her apartment with a furrowed brow and her still on speaker.

It was subtle at first: takeout here, a coffee there. Nothing unusual. (Y/n) didn’t ask why they began gift-giving, but she assumed they were trying to “lighten her load” after learning of her financial situation. If she lingered on their gestures, it might’ve seemed as if they thought she couldn’t handle herself on her salary. She can only assume their efforts grew because she never told them to stop.

“Where the hell did you get those?” Hana gaped, eyeing (Y/n)’s new sneakers. (Y/n) tilted her foot, showing off to her friend.

“Jealous?” She giggled, sarcastic.

“Yes?” Hana snorted, leaning forward on the counter, a curl bouncing out from under her work cap. “I don’t remember the last time I bought new shoes.”

(Y/n) agreed reluctantly with a nod. Katsuki and Izuku’s gifts were typically practical, but these sneakers were the first to break the boundaries placed. They were a surprise, but upon finding them when she checked her P.O. box on her route to class that morning, she only inhaled with a tight lip. Izuku didn’t really respond when she sent him thanks and told him he didn’t have to buy this; he just glossed over her text and asked her to avoid certain roads when she went for a jog, out of precaution of villain activity. She couldn’t help the pit in her gut, telling her she was becoming a burden to the two heroes.

“You still coming to Asuka’s party tomorrow?” Hana asked slightly quieter, so the single customer working on their laptop in the café’s corner couldn’t hear her over the smooth jazz. (Y/n) sighed inwardly, going to get a new towel to clean the steamer. She, Izuku, and Katsuki intrinsically scheduled their sleepovers now, and Friday became a “date night” for the three of them.

“I… actually had plans already.”

Hana whipped around. “So, you are seeing someone–!” She accused quietly with a sly grin. (Y/n) tried to hide her smile by clenching her jaw, but her giggles burst through, joining Hana’s giddiness.

“Deku’s got a mission in Kyoto. ‘s just us tonight,” Katsuki grumbled as soon as he stepped out of his shoes.

(Y/n) clutched her bags as she followed in behind him. He couldn’t have mentioned that on the drive over here?

“Is he after that ‘mutant fucker’?” (Y/n) quoted bitterly, taking her own shoes off and setting her bags down. Katsuki hummed.

The house was so much quieter without Izuku to fill the gap between (Y/n) and Katsuki with his overflowing affection. Katsuki didn’t even glance back at her as he bounded up the stairs, to which (Y/n) made a face at.

“Don’t you want to do anything? It’s…,” she watched Katsuki trudge to the bedroom, noticing how exhausted his form looked for the first time that night, “date night.” She heard him groan in reply, a bit muffled because of his distance.

“Too fuckin’ tired.”

(Y/n) heard a creak along with a ploof and could only assume Katsuki had just flopped down onto the bed. She glanced around the downstairs area before following him upstairs, uncomfortable with how empty a suburban house could become.

Katsuki lay face down on his and Izuku’s shared bed, not even bothering to pull the blankets over him. (Y/n) stepped closer, peeking to see if he was asleep. His eyes were closed, and it would be no surprise if he had already dozed off. She used this time to undress and change into her pajamas.

When (Y/n) pressed her knee into the cushy mattress, Katsuki’s body shifted with her weight. He groaned, slightly irritated, and turned over, bumping into (Y/n) while she climbed onto the bed. He hissed in pain, wincing as he reached behind him to rub his lower back.

(Y/n) sat on the edge of the bed, not wanting to distress him further.

“… You okay?”

Katsuki sighed and readjusted, scooting away from her. “’m fine.”

(Y/n) stared at him for a moment, doubt forming between her brow. “Is your back alright?”

Katsuki didn’t answer right away, staring at the far-off wall. “Got beat up pretty good,” was all he offered. His pride was too high to give her any more details.

(Y/n) blinked, glancing over his form. She couldn’t see any injuries with the sweatshirt and sweatpants he wore.

“Just your back?”

Katsuki hummed.

“Can I take a look?”

He didn’t move at first, as he scowled at the wall, eyelids heavy. He honestly just wanted to sleep. (Y/n) waited, but eventually, she took his silence for rejection and continued to crawl into the bed.

“Fine,” he eventually grumbled.

(Y/n) paused, holding the blankets with one hand as she glanced over at him, her stomach fluttering. “Oh. Okay.”

Katsuki sat up, reaching behind himself to pull his sweatshirt over his head. (Y/n)’s eyes widened, but she quickly collected her shock. He’s acquired a few cuts and scratches every now and then since they’ve been together, but these bruises were much more than she’s ever seen. Purple and blue splotches littered his skin, from his upper left shoulder to his entire lower back.

“Katsuki,” (Y/n) breathed, reaching out towards him, “What happened?” Katsuki huffed through his nose.

“Already told you. Vil–,” he felt (Y/n)’s fingers graze over his skin, “Ow! Fuck!” He jolted away from her touch. “Don’t touch me!”

(Y/n) jumped at his volume, pulling her hand away quickly. “Sorry! I’m sorry.” She leaned forward, examining the bruises with a curious eye.

“Are they… burns?” Upon closer inspection, the “bruises” appeared to almost blister.

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but (Y/n) couldn’t see besides anything besides his huffy form. “Don’t know. Haven’t looked. Just fuckin’ hurts,” he grunted like a caveman.

“Do you have any cream or anything?”

“Hah?” Katsuki looked over his shoulder at her.

“For your back?” (Y/n)’s brow scrunched, wondering why he made everything so difficult. “If you don’t want me to help, that’s fine, too.”

Katsuki’s eyes shifted away, though he kept his chin resting on his shoulder. “You did tell me not to touch you,” (Y/n) remarked with a tone, glancing down at her fingers playing with the sheets underneath her. Katsuki clicked his tongue, the bridge of his nose wrinkling as he glared.

“Shut the fuck up. I was thinkin’ about it, but now you’re just bein’ fuckin’ petty,” he flopped back down onto his side, facing away from (Y/n). (Y/n) frowned as she looked at the hero as he rested above the blankets. Silently, after a few moments, she resumed crawling back under the covers and settled into the warmth of the sheets, facing the opposite way.

Without Izuku there, Katsuki and (Y/n) seemed to almost keep as far away from each other as possible. This was the first night they went to sleep together without their third partner, and while they both were accustomed to Katsuki being entangled with (Y/n) come morning, falling asleep while missing a link was difficult.

Katsuki almost refused to cuddle without his other partner around, and even then, (Y/n) felt him restrain himself. (Y/n) had no knowledge of the times his arms swallowed her up when she rested soundly against him, or the times he’d carry her to bed, or when he and Izuku coddled her before they both fell asleep; it was because during those times, she’d be asleep.

(Y/n) curled closer into the blankets, clinging to the minimum amount of warmth the linen provided. It was nothing compared to the heat of flesh, but it’ll suffice for the night. She wondered if–!

Katsuki suddenly shot up. “God, fuck! Fine! Go get the damn cream!”

(Y/n) jumped, shocked fully awake. She quickly looked at Katsuki, who refused to meet her eye as he swung his legs over the side of the .

“Wh–?”

“Aloe vera gel and arnica cream under the bathroom sink,” Katsuki uttered, pulling his sweatshirt over his head once more. (Y/n) could only stare at him, frozen once more by the severity of Katsuki’s back. Perhaps it wasn’t that bad, but to see a Pro Hero injured at all shocked her. Katsuki glanced over his shoulder and made a face, as if to tell her to hurry up. (Y/n) hopped off the bed and scurried to the master bathroom.

The groan Katsuki emitted rumbled throughout his shoulders and beneath (Y/n)’s fingers.

He relaxed his neck, as his eyes closed upon feeling (Y/n)’s cooled fingertips from the gel glaze over his muscles. (Y/n) sat on her knees behind him, spreading the mixed creams across his skin. She’d never touched Katsuki like this before, anticipation fluttering in her stomach as she felt just how heated his body was. Is he always this warm? She couldn’t believe Ground Zero was letting her touch him like this… (Y/n) hoped he didn’t feel the slight tremble in her touch. She’s been rubbing this spot on his shoulder for a while…

(Y/n) swallowed.

She needs to calm down.

Katsuki sighed. “You’re good with your hands.”

(Y/n) quietly giggled, ignoring the way her lower stomach ached.

She rubbed further up his shoulders. “Can you, um, move your…?” She asked softly. Katsuki understood, and easily pulled his sweatshirt completely off of his head, now fully exposing himself. (Y/n) shifted on the bed slightly. Her glossy hands smoothed up his bare back, kneading the cream into his injuries. She felt Katsuki tense underneath her, and he winced, hissing. (Y/n) drew back almost too eagerly; she couldn’t help but feel as if she were overstepping a boundary. Was it because Izuku wasn’t here? In the greedier abscess of her mind, though, she wanted to indulge in his body as much as she could. She wasn’t sure if she’s even blinked once this entire time.

Katsuki’s head whipped around as soon as he felt her hands leave him, a scowl ever-present. (Y/n) stared back at him with wild eyes, certain he was about to scold her for rubbing too roughly.

“Keep going. Why’d you stop?” He catechized. (Y/n) was just as quick to resume upon hearing his instruction.

“Sorry…,” she apologized. “I thought I hurt you,” her voice was quiet as she spread the cream on his lower back.

Katsuki spat out a crude laugh. “Somethin’ as small as you can’t hurt me.”

(Y/n) would’ve refuted him, but she became entranced in her work, and Katsuki couldn’t complain. With the creams layered onto his burns, she was hesitant to touch him anymore; however, the little sighs Katsuki breathed when (Y/n)’s palms smoothed up the back of his neck and back down again, kneading gel into his skin, gave her the confidence she needed to continue. She grew bolder, testing the waters as her hands traveled lower onto his shoulders. Katsuki’s posture tightened, and he pulled a face. (Y/n) glanced at the back of his head, her thumbs gently working in circles.

“You’ve got a lot of knots,” she murmured. Katsuki hummed, straightening.

“Go a little lower.”

(Y/n)’s insides jumped. She did as she was told, her fingers moving to the center of his back, just under his shoulder blades. The curve of his muscles flowed beneath her hands, and she realized then just how much bigger – and stronger – he was than her. Intimidation filled her blood, but she continued her ministrations. Katsuki’s breath flowed from him easier this time; she could feel it. She wondered if she should converse with him or if she preferred the silence.

With each knead of her palms into Katsuki’s tense muscles, his body slowly relaxed. Just as (Y/n) was getting comfortable in her massage technique, Katsuki spoke up.

“Stop. Gonna fall asleep.”

(Y/n) obeyed. Katsuki leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, as he dragged a hand down his face. He then stood, stretching and turning to face her, and (Y/n) watched him, glancing sneakily at the happy trail that traveled from his navel.

“You wanna get a drink or somethin’?”

Sharing a glass of wine with Ground Zero on a suburban home’s living room couch might be the success (Y/n)’s been looking for. At least, that’s what the two glasses she’s already had told her.

“So, you like your work, then?” Katsuki muttered, glancing to the side from his end of the couch. He’s had four glasses, but it’s done little for him.

(Y/n) finished the rest of her third glass. She set the empty wineglass on the coffee table before leaning back against the armrest of the couch, continuing her staring contest with Katsuki. Her legs lay across his on the couch, threatening to intertwine. She shrugged.

“I like my coworker, and I like my paycheck, but that’s about it.”

Katsuki leaned against his palm, mimicking (Y/n)’s posture. “Have you told us about your coworker before?”

(Y/n) shook her head. “Hana. She’s honestly my best friend.”

Katsuki nodded, slightly disinterested. “So, what I hear is that you like your friend and money,” Katsuki argued.

(Y/n) looked unimpressed. Katsuki stared back, unsmiling and challenging. They watched each other for a few seconds too long.

Eventually, he stood. “Kidding.”

(Y/n)’s eyes followed him.

“You wan’ another glass?”

Another glass turned into another three for the both of them. Alcohol tastes better with company, and if they weren’t careful, it’d start drinking them instead. Katsuki knew this all too well.

He felt lighter and faded, and it was different from when he drank alone. (Y/n)’s giggles were infectious, and by God, was she beautiful.

He couldn’t take his eyes off of her as she told an exaggerated version of when she and Hana closed up Satou’s while hungover. It shouldn’t have been as funny of a story as she made it seem, but with her laughter bubbling up every few seconds, she failed to notice how easily Katsuki could drink – or his piercing stare beside her.

“Can I try something?” Katsuki interrupted her, and (Y/n)’s laughter dried up almost instantaneously. She gave him a look, her leg sliding up his thigh. His hand’s been resting on her calf for a while now, but she hadn’t noticed.

“What?” She snided, a kitten grin on her lips. Her wine was forgotten about, sitting on the coffee table. She glanced down between her and Katsuki, finally noticing his calloused hand sliding up the smooth skin of her leg.

But he pulled away.

“Nothin’,” he chuckled, rubbing a hand over his eyes, a grin creeping onto his face despite his best efforts to hide it. (Y/n) almost bounced up, crawling over to him.

“Noooo, what did you wanna try?” She whined. Katsuki would’ve called her fucking annoying if he was sober, but he just rolled his eyes, rubbing his forehead.

“Tell meeee, I can see you smiling,” (Y/n) rested her head on his shoulder, her eyelashes tickling his neck.

Katsuki sighed, breathing a quiet, “Fuck…”

“Can I kiss you?” (Y/n) beat him to the punch, and her mutter of a request was the only spark of permission Katsuki needed to pull her into his lap. (Y/n) felt a fist in her hair before anything else, pulling her closer to the Pro Hero suddenly underneath her. Teeth gnashed, sloppy and unbound. (Y/n) whimpered, her arms finding solace draped over Katsuki’s shoulders. It was different from Izuku; every part of him was suffocating. He yanked on her scalp, and (Y/n) whined, rearing back, exposing her neck, and Katsuki glanced up at her briefly while he planted gentler kisses down her jaw to her collarbone. He bit into the undefiled skin he found, not hard enough to leave a mark but just enough to make (Y/n) grip him and squeal, twisting the back of his shirt in her fists. He drank up her reactions, licking back up to her lips. He caught her open mouth in his own, swallowing her mewls. She tried to pull away to catch her breath, but the stray hand that wandered to her hips pulled her closer to him, subtly grinding her against his hardening semi.

He needed to stop.

Fuck.

He needed to stop, now.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but (Y/n) let him handle her however he wished. His motions were rougher than Izuku; no, perhaps needier. Unrestrained. Alas, she clung to him.

Opportunistically, she yanked his hair back.

Katsuki pulled away from her and let out the most sinfully glorious moan (Y/n)’s ever heard from any man.

She felt his large hands around her waist, easily lifting her off of him. “Stop,” he breathed, setting her onto the couch beside him. He gave her another peck, and (Y/n) deepened it. He let her. She pulled him down on top of her. “(Y/n),” he kissed her again, bracing himself on his elbows, caging her in. “No, stop,” he repeated more sternly, but it was half-hearted.

“Why?” (Y/n) whined, wrapping a leg around his waist, but Katsuki kept his hips in place; he knew if he ground into her right now, it’d be over. He lifted his head enough to make sincere eye contact with her, and for the first time, (Y/n) felt him look at her with endearment.

He swallowed and shook his head, a hand coming down to smooth some of her hair away. He took a moment to speak, catching his breath and allowing himself to calm down. “No. Not yet,” was all he uttered. (Y/n)’s insides bubbled, but she couldn’t help the disappointment that accompanied her butterflies.

Her eyebrows screwed upwards in a pout, but Katsuki appeared immune, giving her cheek one last fleeting stroke of his thumb before he pulled away, sitting up. (Y/n) remained lying on the couch, watching him as he ran a hand through his hair, the red tips of his ears fading by the second.

“Can we at least cuddle?” (Y/n) whispered, tearing her eyes away to stare at the blank television. She didn’t want to look at him when he rejected her. She heard Katsuki inhale.

“Yeah,” he glanced at their wineglasses, “sure.” He stood, shifting slightly to adjust the discomfort in his pants. “Just… gimme a minute. Pick a movie or somethin’,” he picked up each of their wineglasses and the corresponding empty bottle before heading to the kitchen.

Cuddling with Katsuki wasn’t too different from Izuku. He didn’t exactly make an effort to cuddle back, so she just lie on top of him, resting her head on his chest and wrapping her hands around his middle while he relaxed against the armrest. She honestly thought he was falling asleep because she picked yet another anime movie to watch, and she didn’t think he was interested. His breathing slowed against her ear.

“Katsuki.”

“Mm.”

“You’re going to miss my favorite part.”

“Kay.”

“Katsuki, watch.”

“I am.”

She eventually stopped trying.

Once the movie ended, Katsuki yawned, suddenly draping a hand over (Y/n)’s back. (Y/n) snuggled closer into his chest, watching the credits roll on the screen, the only source of light in the room.

“… I miss Izuku.”

Katsuki, who’d been well-awake for some time now, glanced down at her. “We can facetime him. Dunno if he’ll pick up,” he muttered. “Dunno what time it is.”

“Can we?”

Katsuki hummed, reaching for his phone on the coffee table. He unlocked it, ignoring the texts from the groupchat and selecting Izuku’s contact. He facetimed him.

Izuku didn’t pick up right away, but when he did, it was apparent he’d been asleep.

He was shirtless in a hotel bed, leaning over the side and readjusting as he stared at his screen with lidded eyes. He’d been setting up his team of sidekicks to conduct a stakeout for the weekend, and frankly, he was exhausted. He rubbed his face. “Hi? What’s up? Why call so late?”

“I missed you,” (Y/n) giggled, taking in the Number One Hero’s appearance. Izuku looked confused, brow taut as he squinted and blinked a few times. Katsuki gave a sleepy grin. Izuku hummed, his lip tightening.

“Do you know what time it is?”

Katsuki glanced at the clock on his phone. “2 AM.”

“And you’ve been drinking,” Izuku was sharp. “Both of you have.”

Katsuki’s face fell into a scowl, and (Y/n) filled with a type of shame she didn’t know existed.

Izuku sighed, and he saw the way (Y/n)’s eyes widened upon hearing the disapproval in his voice. “(Y/n), I’m not mad, sweetie, but just…,” Izuku shook his head, “be careful with that.”

(Y/n) frowned, looking pitiful and feeling the vague essence of being scolded. “Oka–“

“Oh, fuck off, Deku,” Katsuki hung up the call.

Katsuki didn’t comfort (Y/n). He didn’t feel as if anything happened for her to need to be comforted. Instead, he put his phone to the side and pulled her close to him. Katsuki drifted to sleep before (Y/n). She couldn’t fall asleep as easily with alcohol in her system, and she kept thinking that Izuku was upset with her.

“Katsuki?” She finally spoke up.

No answer.

“Izuku was telling the truth, right? When he said he’s not mad at me?”

He still didn’t answer her. She only heard his quiet snores. She sighed, snuggling her head further under his chin.

She learned Katsuki grinds his teeth in his sleep.

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these-eyebrows-are-not-even · 4 years ago

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Christmas Gift Ideas 2020

All of the gifts below that I thought of can be altered/customized to your budget, personal style and resources.

Face Mask’s

If you are handy with a sewing machine then this is a great one for you, using fabric scraps you already own or thrift bedsheets/t-shirts etc you could make your loved ones some custom face masks. Bonus points if you find a silk shirt and flip that into some face masks as silk, is hypo-allergenic, breathable and causes less friction on the skin so is perfect for anyone suffering from maskne (mask-acne). However, if sewing isn’t for you then places like Etsy have a wide range of masks for everyone and purchasing from sellers on their also supports small business.

Candle and match sticks

Candles are all the rage with thousands of reels and tik tok’s on how to twist candles. If you are brave enough then go for it! You can gift your hand-twisted candles to your friend along with a box of nice matches. Writing empowering messages or mantra’s on the matches (maybe get extra-long ones if you have large handwriting!) will mean that every time your loved one goes to light a candle there is a message from you to brighten their day. There is no need to twist candles, you could support a small business and buy theirs or just get a standard candle. You don’t have to support every trend! Bonus points for matching your loved one’s colour palette to the candles or vice versa. For example, my favourite colour right now is green so a set of candles ranging from emerald to sage would be much appreciated.

Seasonal Drink

It may be the British in me but Christmas is a time where having something to drink on these long winter nights is the norm. I am speaking of something alcoholic but non-alcoholic also works. I love vintage/second-hand glasses and they can be pretty cheap €1 a glass. You could get a second-hand glass of your choosing and send it to your friend along with a bottle of their favourite drink. If you want to amp it up, you could also include a cocktail/mocktail recipe book and some drink rocks. Drink rocks are reusable and do not dilute your drink. If they aren’t a spirit/liquor drinker then a stainless steel ice cube tray is also an eco-friendly and plastic-free option. I could go on with more items to include in this bundle but metal straws, coasters, fabric napkins and more are all ways you could expand this gift idea.

Seasonings

If you know a good amateur chef or home cook then getting them some fancy salt, oil and or vinegar may be an interesting idea. You could buy; one, two or all three and either make sure they coordinate e.g. Rosemary salt, garlic oil and lemon vinegar or they could be contrasting e.g. Truffle salt, chilli oil and amaretto vinegar. The endless combinations make this a fun gift and allow for some fun experimentation when cooking. If you’re a big diy’er you could infuse the oil and make custom labels for everything. You could also add in crackers, olives and risotto to turn it into a Mediterranean hamper or harissa, dried apricots and Ras-el-hanout to make it more North-African.

In the Bag.

A thrifted bag from a second hand/vintage shop (if open where you are) or one bought of Depop/eBay may make a great gift for a fashion-conscious person you know. Then you could add in a lip balm and/or a lip-gloss, a packet of their favourite sweets, a cute bottle of hand-sanitiser and a travel-size bottle of hand cream. These are all optional, the bag would be more than enough but they are just extras for you to think about. You could also make any of these extras vegan, cruelty-free, plastic fee etc

Cosy Toe’s

I don’t know about you but I get really cold feet in the winter. So thick socks are a must! A great idea could be to give someone a pair of fluffy socks. They could be practical or whimsical. I have been gifted thick, grey woollen pairs and a fun foxed themed pair (I love foxes). You could embroider a message or design on them if that’s your thing or pack them with some foot cream and a pedicure kit. As salons haven’t really been open this year pamper time is even more important.

Dried flowers

I do not mean the trendy ones, all over insta interior posts, I mean the Victorian past time. Pressed dried flowers, you could use flowers or leaves you have, buy some and then press them or that sounds too long then you could even buy pre-pressed and dried online. I saw a cute DIY on YouTube where they had been glued on to a small bowl or plate in a pretty pattern. This could be used to display jewellery, makeup etc. Furthermore, you could also arrange pressed flowers and plants into a pattern and place them on a canvas or in a frame to make a minimalistic art piece for someone.

Body care kit

I often joke, I am secretly an old lady as I have dry skin and so am always re-applying lotion. Now, its wintertime that is an absolute necessity but it’s also an act of self-care and 2020 has been a long year so extra self-care is needed. So gifting someone a kit of body scrub, body wash and lotion is a little bit of luxury we all need right now. You could expand on this and include a dry brush to get that circulation and lymphatic drainage going as well somebody oil or a bath bomb to increase the level of pampering. Making body scrub is quite easy but I recommend sugar and not coffee grounds if you do go the DIY route and you can turn regular liquid soap into fun shapes with jelly moulds and gelatine.

Homemade bookmark

Before you laugh, I am not suggesting the ones you made when you were seven unless you were an expert crafter. I am suggesting more sophisticated ones but the end product is up to you so I take no responsibility, I am just the provider of ideas! Those pressed flowers we had earlier? Extra ones could be attached in a pattern and glued onto card. You could go full out an paint one using all your creativity. Or make one out of photos of you and the booklover you’re giving this too. Lastly, it could just be an inspirational quote like: you deserve another glass of wine

Or you could do one of each and give them a medley of bookmarks for all their mood and needs.

Last but not least a Playlist

I know this may seem a little 2012 Tumblr but bear with me. You curate a playlist for them on their preferred app; if you don’t have access or its different to your one then give them detailed instructions for how they should assemble it). The playlist could be based upon a memory you have together or something you’re planning to do with them in the future, or anything you want! Then write out an explanation behind why you chose each song, what it reminds you of and why you thought that person would get it. You could burn the playlist onto a CD if you have the tech for that. For all the artsy types you could illustrate the written out reasoning with drawings, attach photos, collage – whatever you like to get the emotion across.

To everyone reading, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and for those who don’t celebrate then this list may come in handy for another gift-giving occasion. I don’t know about you but I cannot wait to be stuffed full of food on Christmas day, opening presents and sharing laughs.

Happy Christmas!

Elsa x

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atombombbibunny · 5 years ago

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The Diary

Summary: Of course Aziraphale keeps a diary

Crowley x Aziraphale

Word Count: 1924

Warnings: none, fluff

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Aziraphale kept a diary, of course he did. How could you expect someone who loved the art of literature and not expect him to write something down? He lived an exciting enough life that it would be something any human would be tempted to read. Or any Demon.

Aziraphale was in the back, making tea and Crowley only happened to glance at the desk. He had never seen this book on the Angel’s desk before, usually he was re-reading Shakespeare or researching something he could easily look up online. Crowley’s fingers gently brushed the spin of the diary, it was calling out his name as if some sort of spell was cast upon it. Temptation was his specialty. His fingers moved past the sine and over the leather engraved initials. A.Z Fell. A slight sound from the back room caused Crowley to jump causing the book to land in his hands, his heart beat was rapid as his pushed the book into the back of his jeans, underneath his leather jacket.

“Crowley, my dear fellow. Would you be so kind as to help me?” He Angel asked coming out from the back, a trembling silver tray in hand, a box sat at the side causing an unbalance. Crowley swayed over and picked the box off. “What in go-sata-whoever’s name is this?” He asked showing the Angel the box like he wasn’t the one to bring them out in the first place. “What? They were new in the shop, I thought we could try them with tea.” Crowley scowled at the cardboard, completely forgetting about the hard book pressing against his back. “Hot cocoa cookies?” He hissed in disgust reading the label aloud, not even biscuits, but cookies?

“Oh, stop being so picky.” Aziraphale said with slight sass in his voice, he finally set the tray to the table and was began pouring the tea. “Come sit.” He nodded towards Crowley’s usual sitting spot. “Eh.” Crowley said tossing the box on the couch. “Sounds lovely Angel, but I must run.” Aziraphale’s head shot up, confusion plaguing his face. “You came here though? Demanded this tea!” He said hands showcasing the patter in front of him. “Look if they disgust you that much, I’ll put them back.” He began reaching for the box of cookies. “Really, no its not about them. I just.” He scratched at his head attempting to find a way out of the store with the book still tucked in his waistband. “I forgot about this order I received, really must get to it.” He began to back towards the door, attempting to walk as normal as he possibly could. “Are you sure you’re quite alright dear? You’re walking stranger than usual.”

Crowley lifted his arms “Stranger? Nah, just a snake with hips.” He reached behind him to pull the door open. “I’ll see you around then!” He quickly turned to make it impossible for the angle to see anything out of the norm.

The second he was around the corner of the bookshelf Crowley pushed himself against a wall and sighed, like he had just gotten away with armed robbery. He pulled the leather-bound book from his waist and held it close.

How can a book smell of the Angel?

Crowley paced in front of his desk multiple times.

“Would you stop looking at me like that? I had to!” He said motioning to himself. “Hello? Demon here!”

He shouted at the inanimate object. He finally stopped moving and sat in his luxurious chair, he picked up the book carefully like it would crumble to dust. Then he slammed it back down on the concrete surface. “Oh, blood hell, its not like he’ll know!” He shouted at nothing, squeezing his eyes shut and massaging the bridge of his nose.

He let out a loud sigh, his eyes still shut he picked it up once more and chose a random page. His eyes slowly opened and the first few words had his eyes open wide.

Could it be simple infatuation? Or is it love? I think it may be love…

For the first time in his life Crowley sat up in his chair and thoroughly read a book, front to back and twice over.

He did not sleep that night.

The next morning, he starred at the book and snapped his fingers, the book disappearing from thin air. He pulled his jacket on, shoving his hands into his pocket he made his way over to Aziraphale’s.

The ding of the bell had the curly white-haired man pop his head out from the back, a wide smile spread to his face. “Good morning dear, finish your business?” He asked coming out to the store. Crowley scanned the room and saw a few stray pages on the floor, usually (other than the book organization) the place was spotless, it took the Angel not effort the keep the shop clean.

“Erm, yeh.” He said more quietly than he’d like to admit. “Well then!” announced Aziraphale. “How about that tea then?” His face was shining, and Crowley couldn’t help but feel the warmth coming from him. “Sure” he said a slight smile coming from his tight thin lips. The Angel nodded as he headed to the back. Crowley sat like a rock in his usual spot and ran his fingers through his hair, he pulled the frames from his face and threw them on the table.

He heard the noise of the kettle being brought out as well a tea cups, then utter silence.

“Um, Crowley?” Aziraphale’s voice was muffled from the back room. “Yep?” Crowley asked back refusing to move. Aziraphale appeared from the back with a book in his grip.

“All night last night I was tearing my shop apart looking for this, and now suddenly it has appeared in my tea cupboard.” He flashed the book towards Crowley, it was of course none other than the diary.

“Mm. Interesting.” The Demon said unable to make eye contact. Aziraphale made his was to Crowley and sat beside him. “You took it didn’t you!” He accused. Crowley had to pull out his best acting skills he untangled his legs and grasped the back of the couch. “What!? Are you mad? You must have just placed it there! You know you misplace things all the time! The fact that you are accusing me simply because I’m a Demon is preposterous!” Aziraphale looked at the diary then back to the Demon. “Well, I know that’s simply not true as it was on my desk when you were here last night.” A whole second went by. “And I am not accusing you because you’re a Demon, I am accusing you because you are Crowley!” He said in a sudden defense.

“True.” Crowley said sticking his lips out, buying time to come up with an excuse. “Y-you read it! You utter bastard!” Aziraphale shouted standing from his position. “Ah! Yes, alright you caught me!” Crowley said also standing towering over the Angel. “Front and back and twice!” He yelled.

The Angel backed from him. “That is a total disregard for my privacy, good sir!” He clung the book to his chest, his cheeks turning red from either anger or embarrassment, or both.

“Well maybe if you didn’t leave the bloody thing out in the open, I wouldn’t have taken it!” Crowley said attempting to shift the blame. “I have the right to have private things in my own shop! There are some things in here I never wanted anyone to read!!” He crossed his arms over his chest still gripping the book. “Oh, like being in love!?” Crowley shouted louder than he had ever shouted at the Angel. Aziraphale stuttered and backed further away from the Demon. “What?” He asked the red covering his whole face.

The kettle was screeching in the back and Aziraphale dashed to the back room to pull it from the heater. Crowley dropped to the couch, he hid his face in his hands and onto his knees. He sighed attempting to calm himself, he shouldn’t be the one shouting at him, he should be the one being scolded, he took the book after all.

He heard the gentle footsteps approach him. “What do you mean, in love?” The question came soft and Crowley couldn’t help but feel guilt fill his body. He leaned back up and watched the Angel take a seat next to him once more.

“In the diary, you said you were in love, with a being at some point.” Aziraphale’s face filled with a mix of fear and confusion as he opened the book as quickly scanned the pages, his face softened when he reached the aforementioned entry.

“My dear.” He said patting Crowley’s hand. He held out the book as if it were poetry. “Could it be simple infatuation, or love? I think its love.” He recited. Crowley glanced at him wishing his shades were on his face. “Yeh.” He muttered. “I THINK its love.” Repeated the Angel, he closed the diary and watched Crowley. “I was but a young Angel then, he was simply the first being to give me any sort of attention. Lord knows I was in need of it.” Aziraphale’s voice quieted at the end of his sentence Crowley’s body became numb, he never pieced the date and the entry together. 05-25-1940. “Oh, Aziraphale-“He began but was cut off by the rambling Angel. “It was just before Winston Churchill would come into the government, and I met his lad at a rally.” The Angel shook his head, his eyes glossing over with tears. “He-he reminded me of someone, someone I was missing dearly.” Aziraphale lifted his eyes to meet Crowley’s whose were wide, the gold covered any white, the black slits bigger than normal to take in all that was in front of him.

“Angel, I didn’t-“Aziraphale let out a small laugh. “No, how could you. I was foolish enough to believe it was love. I had to watch as he left for the war. I had to watch another person special to me leave all over again.” He played with his fingers curling them into tangled fists, this time to be interrupted by the Demon’s hands taking both of his fists in his untangling the tight twists they where in.

“After that I was recruited by the double agent. Well, you know the rest my dear boy.” He enjoyed the feeling of Crowley’s fingers brushing over his, the were slender yet soft. Crowley put his head against the shaking Angels forehead. “What a fool.” He muttered. “What a foolish solider, he never knew what he was leaving behind.” A hand slipped from Crowley’s hold and on to his face. “But you, you came back to me.” Their eyes met once more before Crowley’s eyes focused solely on his lips, full and pink.

A quick brush over them before they met with full force, Aziraphale’s hand stayed stead on the Demon’s cheek as he pulled him closer. Crowley couldn’t help but crawl over top the Angel, his mouth and tongue devouring at the Angel, he fantasized about how sweet the Angel would taste. But all the fantasizing in the world could not prepare him for this moment, for this taste. He pulled away and opened his eyes to see Aziraphale’s watching his.

“Crowley.” He whispered, the Demon nodded against his hot skin. “I know this time, it is love.” He was enveloped into another longing kiss as Crowley muttered against his lips. “As do I Angel.”

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obsidiancreates · 5 years ago

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Makeup haul, I Guess?

Okay, the lighting in my bathroom is super yellow. I am sorry about that. Under the cut because as usual Tumblr made the pictures GIANT and I don’t know how to fix it.

Okay, first off: the brush set! These came in a cool glittery red box, but none of the glitter came off of the box at all. Like, I ran my hand over it, and not a speck of glitter was left on my fingers. It was amazing.

So there’s an angled eye brush, which apparently is meant for like brows and liner and stuff, but I used it to just put a shimmery eyeshadow on my lid and it worked fine.

A fluffy eyeshadow brush! Very soft. These are all very soft. Soft brushes...

Fan brush! :D Now I just need to buy a highlighter...

A foundation brush!

A powder brush! For like... blushes and setting powders and stuff!

Primer water and foundation! :D

That foundation shade is... literally perfect. It’s the first foundation I’ve ever bought or worn, I picked it out online, and it is like, an exact match.

I went to Ulta and they didn’t have this type, but they had other foundations by the same brand so I just tested those and then looked at the tone and shade descriptions on the website, and picked the closest description match. And it worked perfectly! :D

THE EYESHADOW PALETTE! Look at that pretty rainbow on it! I used the flash on my camera to give you a more accurate picture of the colors, it looks really close to real life!

The shade “Heavenly”, the camera didn’t capture it but it’s got blue shimmer to it. It’s a reddish brown, with blue shimmer. I love it.

I did a look earlier when it all came and I just put “Sky Dive” all over my eye and then put “Happy Ending” on my lid, and then “Pegasus” like, under my lash line, and it looked really pretty.

I also used... the eyeliners! :D

First pic is without flash, second pic is with flash, just as a comparison of how yellow the lighting in my bathroom is.

And... with flash.

See how yellow? Yeah. It’s bad.

Anyway here’s the tips of the multi-liner! Had to crop them really tiny because my reflection kept showing up in the shiny blue pen casing, so they’re pretty blurry, sorry.

PURPLE!

BLUE!

SILVER!

GREEN! I used this one with the eyeshadow look I did, I put this in my waterline. It’s shimmery! :D

And here’s the lip glosses! They’re kinda sticky but I- I actually kind of like that. Make it fun to press my lips together. All about that sensory effect, baby.

No but seriously these are really pretty and super colorful. Like, my lips were red, man.

They did leave behind... a lot of glitter on my lips. Freaking... Twilight looking lips. My dad joked that I should go hang out with Tom from Parks and Rec, lol.

I used flash again here!

The shade names are Metropolitan, Take A Stand, and Bitten!

And I re-organized my makeup drawer too! Moved all the expired makeup to the bottom drawer (I can’t bring myself to get rid of it, I’ve always had slight issues with getting rid of things), and made it look all nice!

Pretty now, right? :D

Also. Mom was really happy and impressed with how fast the stuff came, since we got free shipping with the over $50 order. And it came in like, a good amount of protection and stuff, and yeah it was just one of the more pleasant online ordering experiences we’ve had.

And. It came. With a promotion code. For a free 32 shade eyeshadow palette if we order again before January 31st. A palette that my mom. Really likes. AND! She also saw in the sale section, a brush set she really liked.

So basically I’m going to spend another $50 on makeup soon. Which, I did get some Christmas money from my grandparents so that covers that, but holy shit I need a job because I-I want to get my savings box back up to $200 again.

Seriously, bless the sale section of the Makeup Revolution site. $5 eyeshadow palettes with twenty really pretty shades... $4 highlighters... $10 brush sets... amazing...

And not on sale! Lipsticks for $5! That’s so reasonable! I’ve seen lipsticks for like, $20! AND THEY HAVE A SHADE CALLED “VAMPIRE” WHICH I OBVIOUSLY ADDED TO MY CART IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE VAMPIRE SHIT YES YES PLEASE.

Anyway. Enough gushing. No, a little more gushing: Makeup Revolution now has my loyalty as a customer because all the stuff I bought arrived really quick in nice, protected packaging, was super affordable, and was super good quality, and when I get a job all my paychecks are probably going to them and their really fun eyeshadow palettes (well, until I need to use the money to like... live and eat and stuff. But that’s four years away so I can spend it on stupid shit for now).

But yeah! I’m happy! :D

#makeup stuffs #Making that a tag on here now

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holographicvampire · 5 years ago

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Milk Makeup x The Center

For my last official (and ridiculously late) post dedicated to pride month, I saved this. FINALLY A MAKE-UP REVIEW POST!

The makeup line in question is Milk Makeup. I’ve known about them for awhile now, but I never tried any of their makeup until 2 months ago, I was buying some foundation online on Sephora and came across this cute little kit that was specifically created for pride. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link and about 10 seconds later, clicked on the buy button.

Milk Makeup did this little limited edition 2018 collab with The Center. (For those that don’t know, “The Center”, is New York’s LGBT Community Center.) And yes, it’s still available. I don’t think it’s on the actual Milk Makeup site anymore, but it IS on Sephora’s site (on sale for $14 actually)! Oh, and for every kit purchased, 50% of the proceeds are donated to the center!

The kit includes a Glitter Lip Gloss in the shade, “Techno” which is soothing and SUPER SPARKLY HOLY SHIT. I like the texture and the shine. It doesn’t feel too goopy which I also appreciate cause some lip glosses feel like melted candy. I hate that feeling. Anyways, the description on the box reads: “Coat your lips with this rainbow glitter gloss that’ll turn up any situation. Plus, it hydrates with avocado + coconut oil, so you can sparkle non-stop.”

The kit also includes an Equality ink stamp. I definitely applaud them for this! Can be used above/below your eyebrow, on your nose, cheeks, hands, wherever you want it! The description for it reads: “Equal rights for everyone with this equal sign temporary tattoo. It’s transfer-proof, long-lasting, vegan, and hydrating - equal parts good-for-you and fun!” Here’s a link for the kit: https://www.sephora.com/product/milk-pride-set-equality-tattoo-stamp-glitter-lip-gloss-P432233?icid2=products%20grid:p432233:product

There is ALSO another pride collab kit which is available to purchase on both Sephora’s site and Milk Makeup’s site. Here’s the link: https://www.milkmakeup.com/wear-your-pride-set.html

It’s called the “Wear Your Pride Set”. It includes an all white pouch with a rainbow zipper, a glitter stick in the shade, “Techno”, Deluxe Kush Mascara, and a mini holographic stick in the shade, “Stardust.” It’s $28 and 100% of the proceeds go directly to The Center!

I hope more makeup lines do special collabs like this because the LGBTQ community definitely needs love and much needed support! AND EVEN THOUGH PRIDE MONTH IS OVER, HAPPY PRIDE ANYWAYS! WHETHER YOU’RE GAY, LESBIAN, TRANSGENDER, PANSEXUAL (LIKE ME), BISEXUAL, ASEXUAL, TWO-SPIRIT, QUEER, WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU IDENTIFY AS, STAY POSITIVE, BE YOURSELF, AND KEEP ON LOVING! <333

#makeup review #milk makeup #pride month #lgbtq #new york #queer #community #love is love #celebrate #bisexual #pansexual #transgender #makeup #beauty blog #NOH8 #the trevor project #rainbow #glitter #art

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mymakeupaffair · 6 years ago

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10 FAVORITE MAKEUP PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR: DRUGSTORE + HIGH-END

In 2017, I came to the realization that I had way too much makeup. This was overwhelming for me because I disliked seeing a majority of my makeup sitting in a drawer and not being used. Some of my followers may have noticed that I’ve taken a long hiatus from my blog (I think January was the last time I was genuinely active). This was in part due to my no-buy attitude. I felt like I couldn’t talk to you guys about makeup if I wasn’t buying anything or trying new products.

Throughout the year, I have been de-cluttering my collection. I’ve disposed of expired products, given makeup to members of my family, and reevaluated the types of makeup I will buy in the future. This year has been full of lessons for me. As I’m taking marketing classes for my degree, I’ve come to realize just how much consumerism has effected my life and how it was unnecessary for me to live with so much stuff that was going to waste.

When I did have to find new makeup or repurchase products that I’d finished, I had to make some cutthroat decisions. I refused to spend the amount of money that I previously did on cosmetics. I love Anastasia Beverly Hills, but NYX has a fantastic brow pomade that works and looks just as great.

Now let’s get into my favorites of the year.

MORPHE X JACLYN HILL BLING BOSS EYESHADOW PALETTE

This palette surprised me. I’m a fan of both Morphe and Jaclyn Hill. I’ve had fantastic experiences with Morphe products, but with recent drama online I was having second thoughts. I was watching so many reviews on Youtube from influencers that didn’t enjoy the Vault collection. I bought this palette months after the craze died down when I saw the Morphe display in Ulta. I bought the palette on a whim because I fell in love with the colors. I was immediately inspired by this palette! I’d spent all of 2018 wearing the same warm toned reds, browns, and orange toned shadows. I was ready for a change and this palette gave me the opportunity to experiment with new colors. The mattes preformed like a dream. I haven’t had one issue with blending these shades. The shimmers are stunning! Absolutely gorgeous! They apply well with a finger or a wet brush. They really pop on my lids. I have created so many different looks with this palette. I love that all the shades compliment each other, but you can mix them in different ways and get a bomb-ass look every time. I’ve really enjoyed this palette and it’s easily become a favorite.

NYX TAME & FRAME TINTED BROW POMADE

Honestly, I was skeptical about this product. I haven’t tried very many NYX products, but the ones I have tried have been hit-and-miss. I didn’t like their translucent powder, their lipsticks can be nice (depending on the formula), and their highlighter was a chunky mess. But, I needed a brow pomade very last minute and I didn’t have many choices. This product was highly rated on all sites (Target, Ulta, Walgreens). I’m so glad that I gave this product a chance because it’s actually a really nice alternative to my favorite Anastasia Beverly Hills pomade. I bought a $2 Morphe brush to use with this product and they work very well together. This pomade doesn’t go on as harshly as the Anastasia one. It’s a much softer product, but you can build it up to get some intensity. As someone who has been using a brow pencil for years, I really appreciated that this product was easy for me to use. The only downside... I had some trouble choosing a color. The boxes don’t have a clear indication of the pomade’s color. The brown shades looked almost identical on the packaging. I was lucky that I picked the right color for me, but I definitely stood in the NYX aisle at Ulta for ten minutes going back-and-forth between shades.

MAYBELLINE DREAM CUSHION FOUNDATION

I bought this product specifically to wear to work. I wanted something that would take minimal effort in the mornings and would give me just enough coverage so that I wouldn’t look so dead to customers. This product was exactly what I was looking for! It was easy to use so I didn’t dread putting on foundation at 6 A.M. I applied the foundation with a beauty sponge from Real Techniques. The finish was great! I have dry skin, so this gave me a pretty glow. This product is marketed as luminous for all skin types, but I would have to disagree. I can sometimes look oily if I wear this foundation for too long. Thankfully, I only work 4 hour shifts so I don’t wear it for long periods of time. In the few instances that I did wear it for more than 4 hours, my skin was textured and overly dewy. I would not recommend this product for people with oily skin. This is a great product for me because it fits my needs and works with my schedule (plus it’s cheap and since I wear it every day to work it’s easy to restock when I need it).

MAYBELLINE FIT ME MATTE+PORELESS TRANSLUCENT POWDER

Again, another product that I love using on days when I want something lowkey. As someone with dry skin, this powder looks great and doesn’t crease. I normally have issues with powder because using a little too much can cause some serious texture and creasing. I have never had this problem when using the Fit Me powder. I use a fluffy brush to apply this powder on my face. This is a nice, solid product and I have no complaints! It looks great, feels great, and it doesn’t have a cheap cosmetic scent. It’s my favorite drugstore powder!

MILANI MAKE IT DEWY SETTING SPRAY (DEWY)

I ran out of my favorite setting spray: Mac Fix+. So I was in the market to try something new (and cheaper). I had seen many beauty influencers use this product on Youtube, so I definitely wanted to try it. I use this product as a setting spray and as an agent to wet shadow on a brush. Sometimes I spritz just a little bit onto a makeup sponge to blend concealer (if my face is extra day one day and I need added moisture). I’ve noticed that my mascara stays on much longer when I use this spray (which is amazing because normally my mascara bleeds). That alone sold me on this product! I also like the fine mist that comes from this bottle.

KAT VON D LOCK-IT SETTING POWDER

If you have dry skin you need this powder! I can bake my contour with this highlight without looking cakey. I put a lot of this powder on my nose where my glasses sit to really set my foundation so that when I take my glasses off for a picture I don’t get that red indentation. This also does a fantastic job of setting my undereye concealer. I love love love this product! As I mentioned before, if I use too much powder on my dry skin my texture becomes really prominent and my foundation will crease. I’ve never had that problem with this foundation!

BURT’S BEES LIP BALM

I’ve never been the girl that uses lip balm. The texture has always bothered me and the fruity flavors weren’t my thing. Honestly, lip balm was something I avoided at all costs. Until I found Burt’s Bees. I am obsessed with the products! This lip balm is so soft. I forget it’s on my lips sometimes and that’s the way I like my lip balm to feel. I use this every time I do my makeup. I put it on my lips while doing the rest of my makeup so that when I put on lipstick my lips will be hydrated.

ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS LIP GLOSS IN “METALLIC ROSE”

This is my go-to lip product. My ride or die. If you see me in real life, chances are that I’m wearing this product. It’s so gorgeous. Anastasia Beverly Hills makes amazing lip glosses. They’re shiny without feeling thick and goopy on the lips. They’re extremely comfortable and wearable. I have so many great selfies with this lipstick and the shimmer just pops in the photo. Favorite lip gloss of all time!

COLOURPOP HIGHLIGHTER IN “FLEXITERIAN”

This highlight is what I live for. If I were to customize my own highlighter, this would be it. The tone is perfect! I love champagne highlights. The best thing about this product is that it is buildable. I can swipe this over my cheeks with a brush and then dab over it with a beauty sponge to get a more natural glow-from-within look. Or I can pile on this bitch with my finger, blend it out, and then top it with a Becca highlighter for a blinding highlight. I use this highlighter every day. I cannot live without it!

LOREAL INFALLIBLE PRO-GLOW CONCEALER

I have a hard time finding concealers that I like at the drugstore. This has become a new favorite of mine this year because it looks great on my dry skin. The coverage is nice and I will use it to spot-conceal. It’s helped me cover many blemishes this year. It doesn’t break out my skin, which is another issue that I have with drugstore concealers. If you have sensitive skin then I recommend this concealer!

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newstfionline · 6 years ago

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‘We Are All Accumulating Mountains of Things’

By Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, Aug. 21, 2018

It’s easier than ever to buy things online. It’s so easy that Ryan Cassata sometimes does it in his sleep. Cassata, a 24-year-old singer/songwriter and actor from Los Angeles, recently got a notification from Amazon that a package had been shipped to his apartment, but he didn’t remember buying anything. When he logged onto his account and saw that a fanny pack and some socks were on the way, he remembered: A few nights back, he had woken up in the middle of the night to browse--and apparently shop on--Amazon.

He shops when he’s awake, too, buying little gadgets like an onion chopper, discounted staples like a 240-pack of gum, and decorations like a Himalayan salt lamp. The other day, he almost bought a pizza pool float, until he remembered that he doesn’t have a pool. “I don’t really need most of the stuff,” he tells me.

Thanks to a perfect storm of factors, Americans are amassing a lot of stuff. Before the advent of the internet, we had to set aside time to go browse the aisles of a physical store, which was only open a certain number of hours a day. Now, we can shop from anywhere, anytime--while we’re at work, or exercising, or even sleeping. We can tell Alexa we need new underwear, and in a few days, it will arrive on our doorstep. And because of the globalization of manufacturing, that underwear is cheaper than ever before--so cheap that we add it to our online shopping carts without a second thought. “There’s no reason not to shop--because clothing is so cheap, you feel like, ‘why not?’ There’s nothing lost in terms of the hit on your bank account,” Elizabeth Cline, the author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, told me.

Shopping online also feels good. Humans get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, according to research by Ann-Christine Duhaime, a professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. “As a general rule, your brain tweaks you to want more, more, more--indeed, more than those around you--both of ‘stuff’ and of stimulation and novelty,” Duhaime wrote in a Harvard Business Review essay last year. Online shopping allows us to get that dopamine hit, and then also experience delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later, which may make it more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.

Sites like Amazon have made it especially easy to shop. In 1999, the Seattle retailer patented a one-click buying process, which allows customers to purchase something without entering their shipping address or credit card info. It launched its Prime program in 2005, and now more than 100 million people have signed on to pay $119 a year for “free” two-day shipping. As a result, most other major retailers offer free shipping too. Returning stuff is a little more difficult--shoppers usually have to print a label and then go to the post office or a UPS or FedEx site to return packages. Many wait too long, or decide the hassle isn’t worth it because the stuff was cheap anyway. A recent NPR/Marist poll found that nine in 10 consumers rarely or never return stuff they’ve bought online.

Justine Montoya, a caregiver in Los Angeles, buys all sorts of stuff online--baby formula, clothes, household goods. She estimates that she shops online twice a week. “It’s just so easy--you click a button, and it’s on its way,” she told me.

In the last few months alone, I bought an $18 smart watch from Wish.com that I will probably never use, a second Kindle because it was on sale and I am worried my first Kindle is going to die soon, an electric space heater I no longer need, and a pair of wireless earbuds that I had hoped would allow me to charge my iPhone and listen to music at the same time, but that instead just fall out of my ears whenever I put them on. I also bought, on Amazon, a (used) book about hiking in the Sierras for $1.99, only to find the exact same book in a box of my stuff in my parents’ basement. I didn’t return any of it.

In 2017, Americans spent $240 billion--twice as much as they’d spent in 2002--on goods like jewelry, watches, books, luggage, and telephones and related communication equipment, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which adjusted those numbers for inflation. Over that time, the population grew just 13 percent. Spending on personal care products also doubled over that time period. Americans spent, on average, $971.87 on clothes last year, buying nearly 66 garments, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. That’s 20 percent more money than they spent in 2000. The average American bought 7.4 pairs of shoes last year, up from 6.6 pairs in 2000.

All told, “we are all accumulating mountains of things,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He sometimes asks his students to count the number of things they have on them in class, and once they start counting up gadgets and cords and accessories, they end up near 50. “Americans have become a society of hoarders,” Cohen said. Montoya said she has more stuff now that she has started shopping online: “It’s easier to accumulate more, and it’s easier to spend more.”

At the same time we are amassing all this stuff, Americans are taking up more space. Last year, the average size of a single-family house in America was 2,426 square feet, a 23 percent increase in size from two decades ago, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The number of self-storage units is rapidly increasing too: There are around 52,000 such facilities nationally; two decades ago, there were half that number.

Of course, not everyone is a part of this hoarding revolution. There are people who can’t or don’t shop online, because they don’t have credit cards or because they are barely making ends meet. Only about 29 percent of households with incomes under $25,000 are members of Amazon Prime, according to Kantar Consulting. Some people are embracing the zero waste movement, or have followed the example of the author Ann Patchett, who published a widely-circulated op-ed in The New York Times about how she resolved to stop shopping for a year. When she ceased buying things like lip gloss and lotion and hair products, she started finding half-used versions of them under the sink, and realized she hadn’t needed new things after all. “The things we buy and buy and buy are like a thick coat of Vaseline smeared on glass,” she wrote. “We can see some shapes out there, light and dark, but in our constant craving for what we may still want, we miss life’s details.”

But most Americans are not curtailing their shopping habits. And as consumers demand cheaper clothing, electronics, and other goods, manufacturers are spending less to make them, which sometimes means they fall apart more quickly. The share of large household appliances that had to be replaced within five years grew to 13 percent in 2013, up from seven percent in 2004. Cheap clothes might lose their shape after a wash or two, or get holes after a few tumbles in the dryer; electronics become obsolete quickly and need to be replaced. While some of this stuff can be recycled or resold, often, it ends up in landfills. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, Americans put 16 million tons of textiles in the municipal waste stream, a 68 percent increased from 2000. We tossed 34.5 million tons of plastics, a 35 percent increase from 2000, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Over that same time period, the population grew just 14 percent.

“Sometimes, people sit down and cry when they see the amount of garbage we produce in a day,” said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Recology, which handles recycling for West Coast cities like San Francisco. Centered in America’s tech capital, Recology has seen an increase in discarded electronics, including products with lithium batteries, Reed told me. In 2016, a lithium battery fire burnt down a waste management facility in San Mateo.

The 16,000 students who live in dorms at Michigan State University left behind 147,946 pounds of goods like clothing, towels, and appliances when they moved out this year, a 40 percent increase from 2016, according to Kat Cooper, a spokeswoman. The university packs up these goods and donates to them to its surplus store, so that incoming students can buy used, rather than new, stuff. In recent years, dorm cleaners have been finding so many packages of unopened food and toiletries that the university started a program to get students to donate leftover food and toiletries to local organizations like food banks when they move out. This year, it collected 900 pounds of personal care items and 4,000 pounds of nonperishable food items to donate. Pomona College has seen the volume of packages delivered grow by 325 percent in the last 12 years, according to Patricia Vest, a spokeswoman; it, too, asks students to donate unused goods to a resale program. This year, it diverted 42 tons of clothes, furniture, and office supplies.

The Internet has also made it easier to recycle some of the stuff Americans buy and no longer want. Online consignment shops like thredUP and Poshmark help people buy and sell clothes from their closets. Secondhand stores like Goodwill have moved online, too, selling the growing pile of goods they get on the Internet.

But the ability to easily get rid of stuff may be making people feel a little better about buying things they don’t need, and motivating them to buy even more. On a recent weekday, I stopped by the massive warehouse where workers from Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin sort donations to Bay Area stores. Some of the stuff that’s been donated has never been used. Near the front of the warehouse stands a rack of clothes with their original tags on--a $245 blue Nicole Miller cocktail dress, $88 Kit and Ace pants, a pale green J. Jill blouse. “We are seeing items that have been barely used or not used, because when people shop online, it’s a lot of work to return it,” William Rogers, the president of the Goodwill, told me. Rogers himself is guilty--when we met at the warehouse, he dropped off four wall sconces he’d bought a year ago on Amazon. He had tried to put them up, decided they didn’t look good, and brought them to donate.

Secondhand shops can’t resell all of the donations they get. Cline estimates that 85 percent of the clothing that is donated to secondhand stores ends up in landfills every year. Just nine percent of plastic that ends up in the municipal waste stream gets recycled, according to the EPA, and only 15 percent of textiles get recycled. It can be difficult to take apart clothes and re-use the fabrics, Cline said, so lots of clothing in the waste stream gets sent to the developing world, used for rags, or sent to a landfill.

Fifty years ago, the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick coined a phrase for these “useless objects” that accumulate in a house: “kipple.” In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for the movie Blade Runner, he theorized that “the entire universe is moving toward a state of total, absolute kippleization.” Kipple reproduced, Dick wrote, when nobody was around. The ubiquity of mobile devices and the ease of online shopping have made Dick’s prediction come true, with one small tweak: Our kipple does not just multiply on its own, every time we turn away. We grow it ourselves, buying more and more of it, because we can.

#consumerism #shopping #shopping online #online shopping

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anneedmonds · 3 years ago

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Beverly Hills MD Review

Looking good is big business but not everyone can afford the Hollywood A-list beauty treatment. Or perhaps you can, if the widely rated Beverly Hills MD range is within your price range. Founded by two cosmetic surgeons, this skincare range aims to offer cutting edge anti-aging products without the sky-high salon price. But this still doesn’t make them low budget.

So, is the Beverly Hills MD product range worth the premium price-tag? If you are concerned about the signs of aging and stress on your skin, then adding some Beverly Hills MD to your bathroom cabinet could well give you the results you are hoping for. And their use of premium ingredients is impressive, as is their science-backed approach to skincare.

In this review, we peek beneath the Beverly Hills MD gloss and packaging to explore the company’s philosophy, its product range, and ingredients, as well as those tell-all customer reviews so you can decide whether this is the skincare range for you.

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About Beverly Hills MD

Behind Beverly Hills MD are John Layke and Payman Daniel, two cosmetic surgeons who met during their residency at New York’s Nassau University Medical Center. The duo had already developed a strong reputation in their chosen field before deciding to get together to set up their own company. In 2014, Beverly Hills MD was born.

Making the City of Angels their base, Beverly Hills MD was created to provide solutions to support women and men ‘to feel and look their very best’. Layke and Daniel draw on their 10 years of plastic surgery experience to develop at home skincare products to target specific skin and ageing concerns. Thanks to their innovative formulations, using proven active ingredients such as saw palmetto, vitamin A and fruit extracts, their products are also safe for all skin types. Many ingredients are organic too, and the company is animal cruelty free.

Key skin concerns the Beverly Hills MD product range aims to address include scar reduction, wrinkles, acne, dullness, and sagging. They also offer formulations to enhance your skin and features, including eyes and brows.

Beverly Hills MD prides itself on being able to offer professional-grade skin care for both the face and body which can be used at home. And while the range is a premium product, it does come in at a relatively affordable price-point, considering its quality and scientific background.

Pros and Cons

With a clear philosophy, backed by the experience of two cosmetic surgeons, the Beverly Hills MD approach has not got unnoticed. We dig a little deeper to highlight the brand’s main benefits and disadvantages.

Pros

Formulas backed by science and cosmetic surgery expertise

A good range of products to tackle all the main skincare and aging concerns

High quality active ingredients, many organic

Range also includes vitamin and dietary supplement range

No animal testing and cruelty free

Impressive 60-day money back guarantee on all Beverly Hills MD products

Socially-minded – the company supports Smile Train, a charity that provides cleft lip/palette corrective surgery for children

Cons

A more expensive range compared to similar online brands

Information on their shipping and returns policy is difficult to find

Can be a little intimidating to first time premium skincare brand users

Product Review

From fuller eyebrows and tackling pigmentation to plumping, hydrating, and filling wrinkles, there is a Beverly Hills MD product – or combination of products – for most skin concerns and types. Here are six of the brand’s current bestsellers.

Lift + Firm Sculpting Cream

One of Beverly Hills MD’s core products, we like the double action of this anti-aging cream, as it lifts and firms while it hydrates. The result, says many of the customer reviews, is a visible impact on the skin, with many reporting some tightening to create a rejuvenated, more sculpted appearance. Lift+Firm Sculpting Cream uses an exclusive blend of amino acids, tightening fruit extracts and collagen supporting ingredients to boost natural elasticity and create more firmness in the skin on both the face and the neck. Think of it as a natural support system for your skin’s internal structure and you can see how it can work to create a more youthful appearance. And, with 4.78 out of 5 on the brand’s own website, this hardworking cream has its fair share of fans.

Suitable for all skin types – but especially mature skin – Lift + Firm Sculpting Cream needs to be applied twice a day and massaged into the skin. Night-time application should be prioritized as the formula’s active ingredients can support your skin’s own regeneration process while you sleep.

For all this sculpting and lifting, you can expect to pay a price, as each 5.6-ounce jar costs $120 but a little does go a long way. And you can also save up to $12 per jar with Beverly Hills MD’s multi-buy offer.

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Dark Spot Corrector

As your skin ages, it can develop patches of discoloration and uneven pigment, such as age and sun spots. But with Dark Spot Corrector, you have a light gel which can work to help reduce the look of dark pigmentation, leaving your skin brighter and more radiant. And all without bleaching or irritating the skin.

Dark Spot Corrector uses a concentrated blend of natural ingredients, including vitamin C-rich Kakadu plum, vitamin B which protects against environmental damage and skin-evening daisy flower extract, to create a light, cool gel which rapidly absorbs into the skin.

Dark Spot Corrector can be applied up to three time daily, depending on how severe the dark areas are. And for best results, you should also exfoliate your skin at least twice a well to allow the gel to penetrate more effectively to do its brightening work. An SPF moisturizer is also recommended.

A 30ml bottle of Dark Spot Corrector will set you back $129.95, so this is one of the most expensive products in the Beverly Hills MD range.

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Deep Wrinkle Filler

Now on to one of Beverly Hills MD’s consistent bestsellers, Deep Wrinkle Filler. The aim of Deep Wrinkle Filler is to erase those pesky wrinkles and creases that can be found across the forehead, between the eyes and around the mouth. And the beauty of this lux-feel product is that not only can it soften deeper wrinkles on application but with regular use works to improve the skin’s texture over time. And this means you should get both short and long-term results.

So, what ingredients make this such a wonderful addition to your anti-aging skincare routine? First up, it has a polymer blend which instantly ‘fills’ out the appearance of deeper lines on contact for day-long confidence. Then there is diamond powder which reflects light away from the skin to disguise the look of any wrinkles. And for a longer effect, there is also a special formula called Tightenyl, which has been designed to improve the texture of the skin for a smoother, more youthful appearance.

Using Deep Wrinkle Filler is quick and easy, all you need to do is apply a small amount to deep wrinkles or fine lines and gently pat with a clean fingertip into the skin. However, you do need to leave the product to dry – around one minute – before applying your makeup.

A 0.6-ounce tube of Deep Wrinkle Filler will cost $125, although you can make some savings on the multi-buy deal via Beverly Hills MD’s website.

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Ultra Firm Lifting Eye Mask

Your eyes are the window on your world, but they are also one of the first areas to show the first signs of aging. Which is why Beverly Hills MD have developed their Ultra Firm Lifting Eye Mask to help correct all those tell-tale signs. Each mask is pretty potent but is gentle on your skin to give you a relaxing eye treatment that also helps to stimulate the circulation in the surrounding skin.

And it works hard too, as it tackles not just fine lines, but also lifts, reduces the appearance of crow’s feet, plumps thinning skin and reduces under-eye bags. Like many of their products, Beverly Hills MD has come up with their own problem-specific formulas, including BeautifEye, which lifts saggy eyelids and ‘UnisoothTM EG-28’ which helps to fade dark circles and reduce puffiness. You also get Rhodiola Rosea Extract, a proven antioxidant that is effective in hydrating and energizing the delicate skin around the eyes.

Each eye mask has been designed for optimum coverage and needs to be worn for 15 minutes to allow the serum to penetrate the skin. For best results, you are advised to use every two days, but as there 15 mask pairs in each box, you should get a month’s use per pack. But this comes at a price, as a box of Ultra Firm Lifting Eye Mask retails at $128, with a saving of $20 per box if you buy three at once.

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Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum

Full, shapely eyebrows are here to stay, so if you have thinning brows, or over-plucked in the past, a serum can help to bring them back to life. And with Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum, you can be sure you are using a hormone-free formula that is safe for all eyebrows.

Easy to use, this advanced formula needs to be applied daily for the best results and gives the follicles of your eyes a real nutrient boost to help them grow and thrive. With active ingredients such as polyphenols, proteins, and vitamins as well as fruit extracts, Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum can help to make your brows look thicker and fuller as well as more natural. It can also be used on eyebrows that have thinned due to age. A slick of this serum is all you need, and the formula also helps to gloss your brows and make them shine with health.

Results can vary, although many customer reviews show that improvements can be seen in as little as three-four weeks. However, this is not the cheapest eyebrow serum you can buy as Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum cost $88 per tube.

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Crepe Correcting Body Complex

And finally, to a product from the Beverly Hills MD body range. And one that aims to tackle a very specific concern – crepey skin. Typically found on areas such as the arms, knees, stomach and decolletage, as well as the hands, loose, creased skin can make you look prematurely aged, or emphasize the appearance of loose, older skin.

The Crepe Correcting Body Complex is a deliciously rich formula that intensely moisturizes at a cellular level while it works to firm and improve the look of crinkled skin on the body. With key ingredients including niacinamide, which supports the body’s natural production of skin-firming collagen and protein, this high-quality complex also contains Beverly Hills MD’s own formula, Hydrafirm.

Packed with skin-boosting algae as well as hydrating and smoothing ingredients such as lentils, apple and watermelon, Crepe Correcting Body Complex is a crepe-busting powerhouse that is also a delight to use. Used daily, your skin should feel softer, smoother, and beautifully hydrated. Suitable for even sensitive skin, Crepe Correcting Body Complex costs $100 for a 118ml jar.

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Beverly Hills MD Customers Reviews

If you look online or in the fashion magazines, there is clearly a buzz around the Beverly Hills MD range, and the two co-founders are adept at publicity to promote their brand. But ultimately, it is down to the user and their experience of the Beverly Hills MD product range that really counts as to service, quality and ultimately, results.

Overall, customer satisfaction is high, with the range scoring on average 4.5 stars out of five, both on Beverly Hills MD’s own website and independent review sites such as Site Jabber and Trust Pilot. It’s clear that some of their classic products, such as Deep Wrinkle Filler have loyal fans, and overall, their Beverly Hills MD range do show results, albeit of varying degrees.

Here are just a few examples: “It has unquestionably and undeniably altered my deep wrinkles around my mouth…”; “I have found this product works so well and improving the texture of my skin, after only one week”; “My skin is tighter, lifted and younger looking in just a few days. And wrinkles are extremely lessened”; “This Lift & Firm Sculpting Cream has definitely shown results”; “I was about to get Botox for them, but I thought I would give Deep Wrinkle Filler a try.”

From the full product range, it seems that Beverly Hills MD’s face masks, serums and anti-aging creams were repeatedly acknowledged for showing results.

However, the same cannot always be said with the company’s customer service, which appears to be the main bone of contention when it came to any negative reviews. And it is the company’s return policy and shipping times that attracted the most comment on Site Jabber and Trust Pilot, such as: “I have canceled my subscription due to the poor customer service”; “I noticed they make it extremely difficult, despite the videos saying no questions easy returns”; “I ordered to Australia a month ago and have still not received my item.”

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Where to Buy Beverly Hills MD

All the Beverly Hills MD product range can be bought directly from their own website as well as a few online retailers, the largest being Amazon and Walmart. However, you are only covered by the company’s 60-day money back guarantee and access to their VIP discounts if you buy direct from www.beverlyhillsmd.com

beverlyhillsmd.com

Beverly Hills MD Shipping and Return Policy

The shipping and returns policy of Beverly Hills MD is not immediately obvious on the website, and it takes some digging to find the information before you decide to buy. But in a nutshell, you can get free shipping on all orders over $39, but only if you live within the US.

Their return period is generous – 60 days – and it covers all their product range, if you are unhappy in any way. However, the kicker is that while you will get a full refund, you as the customer will have to pay all the return shipping fees. And this 60-day refund policy only applies to products bought directly from the Beverly Hills MD website.

To start the return process, you also have to contact the customer service team directly first.

Contact Beverly Hills MD

The main way to contact the company is via the Beverly Hills MD website – beverlyhillsmd.com – or email [email protected] To speak directly to a member of the customer service team, you should call 1-877-828-5528

You can also keep in touch with all the latest Beverly Hills MD news and offers by signing up as a VIP and receive their e-newsletter, where discount codes for members only are also promoted.

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Beverly Hills MD: Editors Verdict

If you are looking for a boost to your skincare routine and want science-inspired products that actively tackle the most common anti-aging and skin concerns, then Beverly Hills MD has a lot to recommend it.

With two surgeons behind the company and its philosophy, there is definitely a cosmeceutical approach to the brand’s formulas which can inspire confidence in the user. And overall, customer reviews indicate this is a skincare brand that can achieve results, although they do vary and there is a limit to what these ‘over-the-counter’ products can achieve.

For tackling fine lines, plumping, hydrating, and boosting, the Beverly Hills MD range is worth considering, especially if your budget doesn’t stretch to cosmetic surgery or surgery is an avenue you would never go down. But as everyday skincare, this is an expensive line, particularly if you have several skin concerns you are looking to address.

We do like the quality of the ingredients however, and the formulas are pretty impressive without being harsh on the skin. In fact, the whole product range is animal cruelty free, which is a selling plus.

As a skincare line, it does seem to be focused on the older customer who is looking for improvements in the look, feel and overall health of their skin. These customers also seem to be drawn to and reassured by the experience and knowledge of the company’s founders as well as the more scientific approach to skincare. And the growing reputation of Beverly Hills MD as a premium skincare brand that has the skills, ingredients, and know-how to tackle the main skin concerns can help to soften the blow of the higher price-tag.

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cosmeticnews · 5 years ago

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personalisedgiftideas · 5 years ago

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allofusandco · 7 years ago

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Is this a date?

Ronnie and Nik on their first date.

With @moonoverbourbon

Ronnie:

Veronica had a couple of days off – too many nights in a row on stakeout, and her body clock was completely upside down. She needed some time to decompress and rest up. She’d imagined breaking into the market in a new city would be difficult, but whether it was that people recognized her name, or that they didn’t, she’d been outrageously busy since she’d set out her shingle in New Orleans.

She sat on the swing seat on her porch. A tiny bijou home in the Garden District – she loved it, and it had been shockingly easy to buy, after only a short stay in a rooming house a ten minute drive into the city proper. It was far too big for her, and she didn’t like to think about the rooms that were closed up and gathering layers of dust. She also didn’t like to think about the boxes of things she hadn’t yet unpacked. Well, another six months, maybe? She liked the little office looking out into the greenery, she liked the kitchen despite the fact she only ever used the microwave and the coffee machine, and she liked her bedroom, tucked in the back (how anyone could sleep upstairs in this humidity without an air conditioner, she’d never know).

So, she had the night off. And Nik had only sent that one adorably shy message so she had his number. Apparently he couldn’t summon up the guts to make a date for dinner.

Fine, fine. Veronica was a lot of things. Shy wasn’t one of them. She tapped out a quick text.

[@nik]: I give up. It’s Sadie Hawkins week. I have the night off, and I’m taking you for dinner. I guess you’re working tonight, which means an early one. [@nik]: I mentioned I don’t take no for an answer, right? Where should I meet you?

–––––

Nik:

Spineless.

Nik was a spineless coward. He’d had Veronica’s number for nearly a week now and had only managed to text her once. She’d even said she was asking him out, and he still hadn’t worked up the nerve to set up a date. Tonight he was off work (actually had the next two nights off…) and had repeatedly pulled up her number to shoot her a message. Every time, though, Nik had closed out without sending anything – he simply couldn’t figure out what to say that wouldn’t make him sound like a completely desperate moron.

He was all set to try it again when her text message came through. Grinning like a fool, Nik typed out a quick reply now that the ice was broken.

[@Veronica]: I was just about to text you. I’m actually off tonight, and would love to have dinner. There’s a place in the Garden District on Magazine Street – The Rum House. Meet you there at 7:30?

Then he tossed the phone down on the worn couch in his small apartment and rushed off to get ready. He hadn’t given himself much leeway, so it was going to be a rush job. Nik hoped she didn’t mind a little disheveled.

—

At 7:28, Nik was standing in front of the Caribbean inspired restaurant dressed in faded blue jeans, a grey Henley, and black Doc Martins that he’d had forever. He’d picked casual for a reason, not wanting the pressure of having to get all fancied up on top of the other first date jitters.

Flashing her a smile as she approached, Nik closed the distance between them and handed her the pale pink rose in his hand. “You look lovely, Veronica,” he said leaning in to kiss her cheek. Before things had gone sideways with his family, his mom had impressed on him the importance of treating a lady with the utmost respect. Nik knew how to be chivalrous and polite…even if he didn’t get out much.

“Thank you for texting,” he said, holding open the door for her and flashing two fingers at the hostess as she grabbed menus to lead them to their table. “I was working up the nerve; I’m pretty useless when it comes to asking a beautiful woman out on a date.” Pulling out her chair, Nik took his own only once she was seated. “How has work gone this week? Any more cheating spouses?”

–––––

Ronnie:

That was close enough to walk, Veronica realized. She thought she’d even seen the place, but short of being asked to investigate it she might never have gone inside.

[@nik]: Sounds perfect. I’ll see you there.

Veronica took her time getting ready – it was such a novelty, not dressing for a job (variations on ninja-esque or completely dowdy to avoid being noticed, all the way to absolute vamp if she had a job baiting a potentially unfaithful partner) that she found herself frowning at her wardrobe like she couldn’t remember sho she was, when she wasn’t being someone specific.

Probably, definitely, time to hire an assistant.

Anyway; a pretty blouse, light enough to cope with the humidity, and a denim skirt which modestly hit her knees, and a pair of boots which were probably going to prove to be a mistake but that made her legs look incredible. Was she really doing this? A date?

“Yes,” she told her reflection, once the cherry red lip gloss was in place. “You’re going on a date. It’s a thing people do when the meet a mysterious stranger with fanfiction blue eyes and curls you sort of want to pull.” She stepped away, and back again. “And dimples,” she told her reflection. I’ll see you later.”

She left the house with half an hour to spare, wandering through the pretty streets, enjoying the natural air conditioning providing by the trees. The Garden District lived up to its name. She checked her small handbag on the way out the door – not that she was paranoid, but a tazer was never a bad thing to remember, and she’d already shown one would-be mugger why it was a bad idea to mess with Keith Mars’s daughter.

She grinned widely, and bit her tongue, when she saw the rose.

“Chivalry’s not dead,” she said, on tip-toes to receive a kiss to the cheek. “I’ll have to alert the media. There’s a rumor going around than men have forgotten how to woo a woman.”

The blush was so worth it. And of course he followed up by holding the door, and her chair. He was racking up brownie points by the dozen and it was only seven thirty-two.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, waving his apology away. “It’s been a while for me, too. And honestly, I surprised myself the other morning. I’m out of practice, but I’m a sucker for dimples and blue eyes, so there.”

She took the menu. “I think I need to start with a ridiculous cocktail. Something with things hanging off it. I don’t even mind what it is, as long as it turns my tongue a different color. Oh, but a daiquiri,” she said, with a wink. “They won’t actually make me pick a rum, will they? Watermelon daiquiri, heavy on the decorations.”

She put the drinks list aside. “All the cheating spouses,” she said. “But I’m pretty sure New Orleans economic life would grind to a halt if I stopped them all. I keep telling the men – buy jewelry, and promise never to do it again. But do they listen?”

–––––

Nik:

“Chivalry was one of the things my mother drilled into my head from a very young age. She was all for the man pulling out chairs and opening the doors for ladies. It’s become something of second nature, but it gets me yelled at a lot these days.” Nik grinned, ducking his head behind his menu as he studied the food options he’d already memorized by looking for a place online.

Veronica made mention of his eyes and those cursed dimples, and it had Nik blushing furiously. He wasn’t used to that kind of attention from women that weren’t drunken members of bachelorette parties or tourists that had wandered in after taken a turn off the beaten path. “You look lovely,” he said, not sure if he’d said that already or not.

Hell, even if he had, she deserved to hear it again. She was, he assessed, simply stunning. Nik had no idea what she was doing here with him.

“I don’t know if they will, but I’m sure you can just tell them whatever is on the top shelf. Try Bacardi Reserva. It’s one of the best mass markets out there. I’m not much of a rum drinker myself, but a regular customer brought me a bottle of El Dorado for Christmas last year. It is still sitting unopened on my counter at my apartment.”

Perhaps if the date went well tonight, he’d invite her over for drinks and movies. That was more his speed anyway; Nik wasn’t much of a partier, despite working in a bar He much preferred the low key to the flashy and flamboyant.

“You should come into the bar one night. I make the best daiquiri this side of the Mississippi – or so I’m told. I’ll even throw in a set of Mardi Gras beads and an extra umbrella.” He cracked a smile, finally getting comfortable, and closed the menu.

When the waitress came by, Nik asked if they could just start with drinks and chips. He ordered her watermelon daiquiri for her, using ‘bartender speak,’ so they’d know not to under pour the drink – and he even asked for an extra plastic flamingo and a sidecar shot of the Reserva to float on top. It wouldn’t be one that he made, but it would be as close as he could get for her. For himself, he simply ordered a glass of bourbon, and picked at the chips on the table.

“It amazes me, honestly, that people do that. If you’re unhappy, then bloody leave. My mother cheated on my father.” He paused, wondering if he was saying too much. But no, she didn’t need to know that he was the result of that affair. “They managed to work it out, but I don’t understand how you can do that to someone you love. It’s never made a bit of sense to me.” He shrugged, running a chip through the salsa in between them and popping it into his mouth.

“You’d be surprised at the number of blokes I see in the bar with wedding rings picking up women without them. It never ceases to amaze me. And the tourists… they treat New Orleans like the Las Vegas of the south. What happens here is apparently supposed to stay here. And… I’ve gone off on a tangent. You should stop me by telling me something about yourself.”

–––––

Ronnie:

“Too many syllables,” Veronica said, raising an eyebrow as the waiter came by. She was glad when Nik ordered for her – he managed to sound suitably professional, and she suspected the drink was going to be strong. Lucky the last few years had left her with a better alcohol tolerance than she’d once been able to boast.

“My mom did the same,” she admitted. “And it nearly killed my dad, but just between you and me – nineteen years later he took up with a married woman. Cheating spouses were his bread and butter, he saw what it did to people. If spouses didn’t cheat, he probably would have been out of a job. I kinda grew up figuring everyone cheated except him. And then there was that. So yeah. Big fan of just calling it quits before you do something that will tear your family apart, but then I’d be down to insurance fraud and workplace theft, so color me a big fat hypocrite.” She sat up straighter as the drink was delivered, suitably decorated, and turned. “I vote for a change of subject. Something more cheery, like the state of the Middle East. Or this drink. Wow, that’s… big.” She took a sip through a straw that was dissected by a paper toucan. New Orleans was great. “And it tastes like heaven. I promise you, this is way better than neat bourbon. If you can really beat this, I’ll be there. Is it really alright to give away beads without seeing some skin? I’d flash my boobs quite happily, but last time I did that I got mistaken for a fifteen year old boy and thrown out of the bar.”

Okay, not true, and she wasn’t the surfboard she’d been in school, either, but still. Not a lot of rack.

And she’d made Nik blush again. Smashing. He was so cute when he did that.

“Alright, something about me.” She paused. If she thought about it, it really occurred to her that since the moment they’d met, she’d done an awful lot of talking about herself, while Nik neatly redirected questions about himself right back to her. Well, some people took a while to warm. Not their fault. She spun on her stool so she could better see him – and the room.

“I nearly became a lawyer,” she admitted. “What am I saying? I did become a lawyer. But right when I was supposed to be starting a bidding war between the top tier law firms in New York, I got sucked back to California to help a… a friend who’d been accused of murder. Some people, you know? All they have to do is ask for help and you’ll run. So I kinda pulled on the PI britches again and then…”

And then what?

“I remembered how right this work felt,” she said, laughing nervously. “I could be working sixteen hour days in a corner office, with a closet full of Manolo Blahnik’s and a different Coach clutch for every day of the week, but I think it took me longer than it should have to realized I was bound to be miserable doing it. So I upped stumps and quit. I didn’t want to stay back in Neptune. Too many difficult memories. I more or less dropped my finger on an atlas when I was choosing where to go. But I like it here.” She managed not to embarrass him further by mentioning that the company was good. “The summer might kill me, but I like it. I bought a house. Feels kinda permanent to me.”

–––––

Nik:

A change of subject. That was something that Nik could readily get behind. Talking about cheating spouses opened up a whole can of worms that he’d rather not think about right now, especially when he was attempting not to make a fool out of himself in front of a beautiful woman. This line of conversation always caused him to spiral into the self-doubt that Mikael had caused, the memories of his brother’s death, the loss of the rest of his family.

He’d seen Rebekah last week at an antique store on Royal as he was walking back to the bar from dinner. She looked right at him, but the gaze had been one she might have given a total stranger on the street. So, Nik was more than grateful to change the topic.

Nik caught himself laugh at her reaction to the drink, but he nodded his head. “A change of subject would be for the best I think. We could perhaps talk religion or some other hot bed topic.” A cheeky grin, and then he was burying his head behind his own drink to hide the growing smile. “They make them bigger, by the way, so if that one is not enough….” Nik held his hands out wide, indicating the size of her head. “We could get you one that would make sure you weren’t walking unaided by the end of dinner.”

That damn blush. He could feel the heat on his skin as he ducked his head at her fifteen year old boy comment. Nik was a man, his first instinct was to look and see if she was correct, but he forced himself to keep his head bowed until the urge passed. “I’d never mistake you for a fifteen year old boy,” he said, but that was all he allowed himself to say about the comment.

He looked genuinely impressed to find out she was an attorney. Nik hadn’t expected that, though he reasoned that she was certainly smart enough to be one. Seeing her in that world though…that was something that he just couldn’t do. It wasn’t like he knew much about her at all, but from what he did know she was a free spirit – a desk job like that would have drained her soul; it would have taken her spark.

Nik was suddenly very glad she had left that line of work – and not just because an attorney wouldn’t have even looked twice at him.

“New Orleans has been in my blood since my family came here from London. This city has a way of digging in and not letting go. It is hot, miserable, and crowded, but the people are amongst the nicest I’ve ever met. History drips from every wrought iron bannister, almost like it is a living, breathing thing. I cannot imagine, honestly, hanging my hat anywhere else.”

The waitress came back, taking their food order and disappeared into the kitchen with a promise that it would be out before they knew it. Nik honestly wasn’t in much of a hurry; he was enjoying just getting to know Veronica and having that brief moment of contact with someone that didn’t want a drink from him. “For what it’s worth, I’m incredibly glad that you think it feels permanent.” Nik downed the rest of his drink before he could say something even stupider. “I’ve an apartment above a tourist trap T-shirt shop on Dauphine. I’m quite jealous of your house. Is it in the city or out?”

–––––

Ronnie:

“Religion, politics, was the book better than the movie – good topics for a first date,” she said, glad to be off the heavy stuff at least for now. “And if you think I’m going to be walking unaided by the end of dinner now? You haven’t noticed that I’m the size of a pixie.”

Well, five foot one was probably taller than a pixie, but not by much.

Chips and salsa, good start to the night, and something to soak up the booze. Veronica surveyed the restaurant – bar? – whatever, food and drink, it was a place, and noticed there was a dance floor, and a band setting up.

“Aye Carumba,” she said. “You should know, unaided or not, I’ll be dragging you onto that dance floor later, buddy. And don’t try to tell me you can’t dance. I won’t listen to a word of it.”

She listened to Nik talk about New Orleans and wondered about the sorts of people who would adopt a new home town – and really, it couldn’t have been much more different from London. “I guess it’s familiar, what with the snow, and the… I have nothing,” she said with a shrug. “But if I had something, it would have been hilarious. I don’t know, guess I’ve floated around more than I’d ever expected to. Neptune is where I grew up – little town with a huge gap between the haves, who are all involved in computer science, or Hollywood, pretty much, and the have nots, who are the rest of us… but the truth is, after a scandal in my first year of college close by, I left with no regret. I realized it hadn’t really felt like home since Lilly was murdered. My friend I told you about, you know. I went off to NYU and stayed in the city, but I think a part of me knew it was never going to be home, not really.”

She brushed it off. “My house is right here in the Garden District – it only took me half an hour to walk here, and I walk slowly. Still haven’t gotten accustomed to the humidity, you know. You’ll have to see it sometime. It’s my office, too, got a little sign and everything. There’s to levels, but it’s so hot upstairs all I’ve done is determine that I need an air conditioning technician to do something about before I try again.” She tried to ignore the little flicker of warmth she felt when he said he was glad she planned to stay. Too early to wonder what on earth this might turn out to be.

The food was delivered, and Veronica’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

“You weren’t joking about the size of the burgers, were you? Holy smokes.” She examined it from four different angles.

“Good thing I can dislocate my jaw, like a snake,” she declared. “If I spill hot sauce down the front of this dress, you can’t laugh. Deal?”

She took the burger in two hands, and attempted that first, crucial bite; the one that might end in tragedy or ecstasy.

–––––

Nik:

He couldn’t dance. In fact, Nik was the very definition of two left feet. There was a mildly (okay, a little more than mildly) panicked look on his face as she spoke of dragging him out on the floor, and he raised his hand in protest. “Had I known there was a dance floor we would have gone to Burger King.” Nik was teasing; he had manners enough to never take a date to a fast food restaurant, but the thought of dancing in front of her was as humiliating as it was horrifying.

“Really though, I’d like to make it through this date without a trip to the hospital after I break your toe. I’m that bad at dancing.” It wasn’t even an exaggeration on his part; Nik could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually danced with someone, and none of them had been pretty.

Home.

When Veronica started speaking of home, Nik got a little wistful and melancholy. He hadn’t really had a home in thirteen years, not since Henrik died. Most certainly he hadn’t had one in the last ten since he’d turned eighteen. There were days when he missed London terribly, but then others when he couldn’t stomach the thought of ever going back there again. Too many ghosts. Too many memories that kept him awake at night.

“New Orleans will suck you in,” he smiled, trying to keep his thoughts on more pleasant topics. “I love the Garden District. So many beautiful houses, lots of great places to set up an easel and paint. I’m there often, painting in the cemetery…don’t judge, it’s peaceful and the light reflecting off the tombs is amazing.” Nik ducked his head, chasing a chip through the salsa absently.

“If you’d like, I can take a look at your air conditioning. I’m not the best mechanical person in the world, but I’m a bit cheaper than the average repair technician. I have a few friends about town who owe me for some free drinks, I could perhaps call in a favor.” Friends was a loose term; Nik didn’t make friends easily, and he tended to spend most of his free time alone. In fact, he had five contacts in his phone, including Veronica, and only one – his boss – was someone he talked to on a regular basis.

The food placed in front of him had his eyes drifting from her face down to his own plate. He’d gone a more traditional Mexican route, but her burger looked delicious. “You have my word, Veronica. I will not laugh nor will I make mention of the fact that your jaw comes with a reptile-like hinge.” Nik held up his fingers in a mock Boy Scout salute and grinned.

“You have to do the same though. I tend to be a mess, so if I wind up wearing enchilada sauce, then mums the word.” Still smiling, Nik cut into his food and shook his head. Perhaps he wasn’t so horrible at this first date small talk as he thought he was. “Have you found places or things you’re enchanted by in the city yet?”

He couldn’t dance. In fact, “Take a girl on a first date to Burger King and you’re more or less guaranteed that it’s your only date. Trust me, I can teach you to dance. Just for a little while, I swear,” she said, shifting the burger between her hands until she could take another bite. With her mouth still mostly full, she added, “I’m not all that worried about broken toes.”

–––––

Ronnie:

She smiled widely, once her mouth was empty. “You paint? Wow. I always wanted to be able to, you know. I can sing, and when I was a kid, I used to try to bargain with the universe – take the voice away, and let me be able to paint, or draw, or something. Never happened, though. You’ll have to show me, sometime. I can hardly make a stick figure look human.” And this was most certainly true. “Maybe you can find something for my wall. I have nothing but a series of graduation photos, and one of my dad and me in New York City the week after I graduated high school. It’s depressing. I’d totally pay. That would practically make me a patron of local arts, don’t you think?”

There had been a handful of posters – mostly noir detective films from the days of black and white film, but they’d looked so awful on her beautiful new walls that she’d regretfully rolled them up and tucked them in a mailing tube in an upstairs wardrobe.

“But yes, it’s pretty. I love it. I especially love pretending I’m working while staring out the window of my office and pretending it’s seventy years ago.”

The offer to look at the air conditioning was tempting. “If you wanted to look – yeah, by all means. I/m sure I could find a way to say ‘thank you’. Got an old high school nemesis you need the dirt on? I can cook, too. But until I get it fixed, the whole upstairs is of no use to me, so… yeah, please.”

What did she love? What had she… what was his word… found herself enchanted by? Gosh, that accent, for a start. It was tempting to mention that, watch him blush again. She shrugged, instead.

“Everything,” she admitted. “I mean, the people, for a start. That fighting spirit, post-Katrina. People rebuilding their own homes and moving right back in. I love going down to the docks, imagining what it was like back in the day. Places that have been open since forever… you know that bar, Lafitte’s? I go there on Sunday afternoons, sometimes. The food, oh my god. I always like spicy food. Big Mexican population in Neptune. My friend Weevil, I saved his grandma’s job, she used to stuff me full of tacos every time I got near that place.”

Weevil. Thinking of him always made her smile, now he was married, and wrapped around the little finger of a three year old girl who had changed his entire life.

“But I think I prefer Cajun to Mexican, by a very narrow margin. And po’boys – they’re the best. But there’s so many things I haven’t done,” she added. “You know, Antoine’s, and Arnaud’s… maybe there are some things that are better with a friend.”

She set the burger aside for a while, and returned to her drink. Contrary to her brightest hopes she sincerely doubted she could eat the entire thing.

“I don’t know why I like it. I never expected to. You know, I had a friend, once, long time back… her name was Kylie. Friend might be stretching the term. Anywho, she was kind of your standard pretty cheerleader borderline mean girl, until she came out as a lesbian, and then she was a lesbian standard cheerleader borderline mean girl, which is the same thing except like super self-righteous. I ran into her one day in New York, and she said she was living in of all places Alaska. Alaska. Went there for work for like a week, pharmaceutical sales rep, and fell in love with the place, and now she’s… I don’t know, she’s all grown up, despite taking a fifty per cent pay cut to work in the airport in Juneau. She looked so alive.” Veronica shrugged, and reached for another corn chip. “Couldn’t imagine what that might be like until I got here, looked around, and let my heart decide to stay.”

–––––

Nik:

It had been a long time since Nik had tried to teach someone to paint. When he and Rebekah were kids, she’d come to him asking for help with a school project. She had to make a replica globe out of paper mache and paint it blue and green. He’d worked with her for hours before she finally gave up in frustration and he finished it himself.

She’d gotten high marks for it, and he’d never been prouder of a painting.

“I could do that,” Nik smiled, chasing a bite of enchilada through the sauce before popping it into his mouth. The food here was good, but he hardly had an appetite. The thought of actually being on a date with a woman that he found stunning (and who apparently liked him too) had his stomach in knots; it made the thought of finishing the food the furthest thing from his mind. “I’m not much of a teacher, but I can show you some basics. At least get you passed the stick figure phase.”

Nik cracked a shy grin, head bowing as he looked determinedly back at his plate.

Nope. Not the least bit hungry.

He actually hadn’t expected her to take him up on his offer to look at the air conditioning, but Nik wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. He had been put to work more than once around the bar fixing things here and there (really, his boss was a cheap ass and didn’t want to hire a real repair man, so Nik had done in a pinch), and he was sure her A/C wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Besides, if it was a problem he knew people that could help for a few free beers. “I’m off work for the next two days, so I could come by tomorrow and take a look at it if you’d like. I don’t mind, and it would get it fixed all the more quickly for you. I hate the thought of anyone suffering through New Orleans humidity without air conditioning. It’s like hell itself spat out the city some days.”

Listening to her talk about everything she loved in New Orleans was like playing back his own thoughts. The people here were amazing, a mix of overly friendly and family oriented, and the culture couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world. It was truly like the Crescent City was its own country. It shared very little in common with the rest of the United States.

“One of my favorite things to do here is pull out my easels and paints, take them down to the moonwalk, and paint as the sun rises or sets. It’s some of the best lighting and the atmosphere can’t be beat. All the music, the locals, even those drunk tourists – there’s nothing about it that I would chance. And everyone in the Quarter seems to know everyone; it makes keeping things to yourself a challenge as well as a blessing. There’s always someone looking out for you.” It had taken him some time to get used to that, but now he wouldn’t trade his neighbor’s nightly check-ins for anything in the world.

“Cajun food,” he grinned, “is easy to find here, but getting the good stuff is a bit tougher. There’s a thousand restaurants, but most of them are selling you stuff straight out of a can or a box. If you want really good Cajun, you need to go to Arnaud’s. I could take you sometime.” God, he hoped that wasn’t pushing it; they’d not even gotten passed the first drink and main course of their first date and here he was talking about a second.

Nik didn’t even know if Veronica would be interested.

“I’m sorry. That was presumptuous. I just,” he looked down again, fighting the urge to tell her this was the first time in an extraordinarily long time that he’d met someone as fascinating. Nik swallowed down the rest of his drink and nodded at the waitress who was already on her way over to ask if he wanted a second. “I thought perhaps if you hadn’t had much of an opportunity to meet people, you might like a tour.” That didn’t make it sound any better, or make him sound any less desperate, so he shut up and took another bite of his dinner – wishing he could make the floor open up and swallow him whole.

–––––

Ronnie:

“Hell yes,” Veronica said. “The sooner the better. I wouldn’t mind actually using one of the bedrooms as a bedroom, the views from that floor are so much nicer.”

She couldn’t help noticing he wasn’t eating much. Could have been one of those guys who just didn’t, she supposed, hoping he hadn’t dragged himself out sick or something. He looked okay, though, or, cute as a bug, maybe, so maybe he just didn’t have much of an appetite?

Oh well. She could eat for two.

It really was sort of ridiculous. That hair, those eyelashes, those dimples, and he liked to take his easel out at sunrise and sunset. Like he’d been grown in a lab by pixies or something. She liked the image, imagined Nik had a t-shirt that was covered in flecks of paint tucked somewhere, probably khaki pants, but he probably wore bare feet… that time of the day the ground wouldn’t be too hot, right?

And now she was staring like a lunatic. Time for a rapid subject change.

“Why, Mister,” she said, in a sing-song voice, as southern as she could manage (honestly, she sounded a lot like a southern Californian girl trying to sound like she came from the actual south – what a strange coincidence), “if that was you subtly sneaking in an invitation for date number two while we’re still on date number one, I heartily accept. I’ve heard that place is amazing.”

And clearly, the awkwardness was just because they were two adults with inadequate dating experience, and not because he wasn’t having a god time. She felt vaguely smug. See? Take that, world, I’m not ready to learn to crochet yet! And she didn’t have to adopt a cat after all. No. Though it was definitely time to adopt a new dog.

She missed Backup.

“Or, does teaching me the basics of non-stick figure drawing count as a date? And what about the whole air conditioning thing? If I make iced tea – which I’m not completely awful at, by the way, will that count? We might actually be planning dates two to four at this rate. I might have to pull out my day planner.” Did people still have those, though? Veronica couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t keep her entire life in her pocket. Maybe the reference was too old to make sense. Whatever. “I might start to think you like me.”

It was a strange thought, after the last few years, one disaster after another, which she definitely wasn’t going to go into.

Oh, she’d actually just said that, hadn’t she? She giggled, or did something like a giggle – a very girly laugh if nothing else.

“Look at us. We’re not very good at this, are we? Maybe we should just admit it’s kinda weird, but going pretty well, and let’s say Arnaud’s next time you have a night off? I might even wear a dress. I know. That’s definitely date clothes, though, right? And maybe we should be drinking a little faster.”

She reached for her drink.

“So what do you paint? I imagine if you do it down on the moonwalk, which I have not yet managed to see, you like landscapes?”

–––––

Nik:

“I do like you,” Nik blurted out, then dropped his head to study the intricate design of salsa splatter on his plate. He certainly hadn’t meant for that to come pouring out, but there weren’t any take-backs in admissions of that sort he supposed.

Chasing his food around his plate again, Nik finally forked in another bite, his stomach a mess of butterflies that made it almost impossible to concentrate on the enchiladas. “That was certainly not what I’d intended to say,” he grimaced, but ended it with a sheepish smile. “I do suppose if there’s painting that it’s a date though. And…I’m pretty sure my mother would agree that a spot of tea makes it at date as well.”

He’d mentioned his mother with only the slightest twinge of pain – progress, he imagined.

“I’ve never been very good at this,” Nik admitted, feeling all the more silly for the word. “I haven’t been on an actual date in a very long time. I just don’t…” Understand what someone would see in him. That was pretty much the whole of it; Nik was, to his own way of thinking, boring and unremarkable. Besides, he had skeletons in his closet that should never see the light of day. Getting close to people made keeping them hidden all the harder.

“Okay,” he smiled, putting the fork down and finally giving up on trying to work food into his stomach. Too many nerves. “It’s weird, but it’s going pretty well.” Instead Nik reached for his drink, hoping that it would help settle the butterflies enough for him to have a decent conversation and not completely blow this date. “And yes, Arnaud’s on my next night off. Which…” he thought about it for a second, and then nodded. “Is Thursday. It’s better during the week, not as crowded.”

Nik had to admit, he was looking forward to seeing her in a dress.

But he was ever so grateful when the topic of conversation changed back to his painting. That was something he could talk about for days, something he wasn’t the least bit nervous about sharing. Nik finished up his drink just in time to order another from the waitress as she walked passed them. On a nearly empty stomach, it wasn’t taking much for him to start to feel the effects – a warm fuzziness was settling over him, making it easier for him to think of things to say.

“I paint anything that inspires me. Landscapes. Portraits when I have a suitable model. I don’t have a preferred muse; it just depends on what mood strikes me.” He shifted in the seat, pushing the plate to the side so he could concentrate on her. “What about you, love? What sorts of passions do you have?” He’d used passions in a sentence…yup, definitely feeling the effects of the bourbon.

–––––

Ronnie:

Veronica felt like a teenage girl, again, giggling over a boy. She felt the sudden need to shake herself, because as a teenage girl, she had never giggled over a boy. But she’d watched a lot of other people do it, and it was definitely what she was doing now. She half expected Lily to come around the corner, singing ‘Ronnie and Nik, sitting in a tree…’

“I guess I’m sort of a serial monogamist,” she said. “But it’s been a while. My last relationship ended when he realized I didn’t love him as much as he loved me…” Poor Piz. She sincerely hoped he would find a much, much nicer girl to fall in love with. “You can’t force it, though, can you.” And he’d never made her stomach flutter like this. He’d just been easy, solid, dependable, and that was not the stuff of love songs.

Okay, no more exes sounded like a good idea.

“So I don’t think I’m very good at this either, and yet, thanks to the miracle of Mexican food and alcohol, we’re muddling along beautifully, wouldn’t you say?” She hoped that funny little smile of his meant that he’d agree.

“And Thursday at Arnaud’s sounds absolutely perfect.”

Passions. Ugh, she was about to sound so weird. And this really wasn’t the sort of thing she talked about with just anyone. “You know, it’s funny. All those years I worked on my law degree, I would have said I was passionate about the law, and no one would have found that strange at all. It’s about as patriotic as being born with a birthmark the shape of a bald eagle. But it’s not true. It’s justice I’m passionate about. I love my job. I know the law has strictures around it, and that’s fine, most people can work within that. But my best friend was murdered by a movie star so well connected and universally adored that no jury in California would have ever convicted him. But I still proved he did it, and he lasted about twelve hours once he’d been released.” She shrugged. “Karma needs a hand sometimes. But I’ll tell you something else… I can belt out a hell of a show tune. I’ve never so much as come second at a karaoke night. Test me on that sometime. I read a lot. Something I didn’t really do much when I was younger, but I like getting lost in a good book. There’s a hammock in the back yard with a definitely dip in it in the exact shape of my ass,” she promised.

She gave up on the burger – it was just too big. It had won, drat the thing.

Anyway, she was more interested in the margarita.

“I don’t think I’ll make you dance tonight,” she said. “I can’t feel my knees, and by the time I’ve finished this I probably won’t be able to feel my ankles, either. Walking home might not be smart.”

She smiled, sticking her tongue through her teeth, and scrunched her nose.

“What a lush,” she joked. “Oh, well. This is by far the most fun night I’ve had in New Orleans, and that includes the night I pretended to be a cater waiter at a political function and accidentally on purpose spilled an ice cold beer down the back of some slimy advisor’s back for getting grabby with an intern.”

–––––

Nik:

He hadn’t really expected her to say yes to another date. The few times Nik had managed to ask someone out had been disastrous; he was too nervous, to quiet, and a semi-transient bartender in a tourist town didn’t scream ‘potential boyfriend’ material. After a while, he’d just given up. Then she came along, making his heart flutter and his stomach twist into knots.

And somehow – somehow – he hadn’t managed to screw it up yet.

Nik thought for sure he might be dreaming.

Veronica was a breath of fresh air, and he was utterly enthralled – especially when she scrunched up her nose like that.

“I would have paid hard earned money to have seen the look on his face,” he laughed, pulling out a credit card once the waitress dropped the check off at their table. “I can imagine had you been a real waitress that would have been your last night on the job.” Nik grinned, really wishing he was more into politics – had he been there, then perhaps this date would have happened sooner. She made him smile, and it wasn’t something he did often.

“My car is just outside. It’s a bit too far to walk here from the Quarter, so I drove. I don’t mind giving you a lift, and you don’t even have to invite me in for coffee.” There was no pressure on his end, never would be. Nik was painfully old fashioned when it came to dating; he never pushed, and he never asked for anything the other person was not freely ready to give. It was one of the reasons things never seemed to work out for him. “Though, I must say I’m breathing a sigh of relief and not being made to dance. I have a reprieve until at least Thursday.”

He signed the receipt, then stood to help Veronica with her chair.

–

The drive to her house was quick, only minutes that seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Nik was cursing the usually packed streets for being nearly deserted tonight. Once he’d pulled up into her driveway, he let the motor running and raced around to her side of the car and opened her door.

The intent was clear – motor was running, he had no intention of asking for anything more than to walk her to her door.

He didn’t think he’d ever walked so slow in his life, but eventually they came to the front door. Nik leaned in and kissed her cheek, pulling away before she would think he was trying for more. It was gentlemanly, and he hoped it conveyed that he wasn’t some sleaze bag bartender she might meet on Bourbon Street.

“Good night, fair Veronica. Please call or send me a text to let me know when I should come look at your air conditioning tomorrow. I’d rather you not suffer through another miserable day if it’s an easy fix. I had a spectacular time tonight. Thank you for giving me the chance.” He nodded his head, waited until she was safely inside and he heard the door lock behind her, and then jogged back to his car – still smiling, and happier than he’d been in a really long time.

-Completed Thread

#v: i have no idea either #p: is this a date?#moonoverbourbon #ronnie rp #all of us; & queue

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cutiecrates · 5 years ago

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Cutie Reviews: NMNL August 19

So.... in the end, I decided to send those pictures after all. I’m not sure if they will do anything about it, but they usually do, I just need to wait for a response. Their usual is to send a replacement of the missing/broken item, but if they no longer have it or can access it, they will lower the price of another box usually.

“Can you believe its August already? We hope you enjoyed the summer essentials from last month’s box. Now hat you’re ready for summer we want to give your skin a natural glow. That’s why we’ve included skin care but also other exciting products like lip care products and of course makeup!“

Contest

This month, those who entered the mini-contest could look forward to products from Innisfree, including Jeju Cherry Blossom Lotion and Moisturizer, while runner-ups could obtain one of the various no-sebum mineral powder, featuring a cute bunny design on the lid.

Glam Gift

Meanwhile, the Glam Gift featured various skin products to enhance and protect its natural beauty from the brands 16Brand and Aritaum.

For August, this months horoscope was “must try face masks“. I couldn’t include a pic this time, so I’ll just write them down:

Aries: Collagen mask - for improving skin elasticity.

Taurus: Snail - for firming and protecting the skin.

Gemini: Manuka Honey - for rich nutrition and moisturization.

Cancer: Pearl - for brightening your skin.

Leo: Tea Tree - for clearing and moisturization.

Virgo: Ceramide - for strengthening and moisturization.

Libra: Hyaluronic Acid - for deep hydration

Scorpio: Green Tea - for calming and refreshing your skin.

Sagittarius: Damask Rose - for brightening and moisturization.

Capricorn: Lemon- for fresh moisturization and vitality.

Aquarius: Pomegranate - for vitality and firming your skin.

Pisces: Aloe - for calming and refreshing your skin.

Awapeccino Foaming tool + cleansing powder set

First up is this fun little tool that brings to mind a drink (the name is based on Cappuccino, a drink, and awa awa, which I think is the “noise” to describe foaming up), but you don’t use it for food, you use it to lather/foam up skin products. It includes 2 sets of powders that you mix with a small amount of water depending on the consistency you’re in search of. Now, I didn’t think to get a picture of them - but the powders are an item we had before. A few months back we got a set of them, and believe it or not I still have one remaining that I didn’t use up yet. They have a lovely peach scent~

They suggest upon using them up, you can replace them with things like body soap and other cleansers, such as another product we also got in this months box.

On one hand, you could say this isn’t a necessity product, but it’s really fun and kind of cute to look at. It also saves you from combining the product in your hands (which is how they suggested doing it before) or in food containers if you didn’t have something else, and in general it’s really easy to use and clean up.

What I found really nice was that you can leave your left-over in the container and it’ll be good later. It does thin down but you can easily re-foam it. Now, this specific product gained a yeast-ish smell by the 3rd day so I discarded the little amount left, but I’m not sure if the same would happen to the other items.

Snail Essential Cream & Deve Foaming Facial Cleanser

Our next item is an essential cream by eyeNlip, a korean cosmetics brand. This cream is made from snail secretion (this must be a new trending ingredient, I’ve been seeing it a lot more recently) and contains 10 different seed extracts and several other fun things. It’s spout pouch makes it easy to use and bring around, and it not only improves elasticity, but it reduces fine lines.

I’ve been using this after using the facial foam products and I love how it feels. It has a bit of a cooling effect while applying it, and I found a little goes a long way with this, so although its small and doesn’t seem to have much product, it will last you a good while depending on how often you use it. It’s not sticky and the skin absorbs it quickly, and it makes it feel smooth. It also smells really good.

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This item is the one the pamphlet recommends using once you use up all your powders for the awapeccino. The Deve foaming facial cleansers come in 4 varieties (Honey, deeply moisturizing, rose, charcoal) and uses all natural products.

I normally don’t like honey very much, but when it comes to beauty products you can either get items that smell like honey (a very... pungent smell <_<) or it will smell like a flowery-sweet honey or hair product. In most cases we get the second option, and this fit the bill in terms of scent. The product is thick and foams up very well, it feels very nice on the skin and I think it’s been doing pretty well. The bottle is also very full with product! It’s perfect!

If you want to check out this product then I’d recommend visiting Japan Haul, the online store for this box brand (as well as TokyoTreat and YumeTwins): https://japanhaul.com/products/deve-foaming-face-cleanser?variant=29119862767668

Choosy Moist Lip Pack

Choosy lips are a fun product that is not foreign to this blog, I’m pretty sure we had this one before too. In this months box they were available in either mint chocolate or chocolate banana, both made with the intention to moisten the lips and keep them feeling smooth after 5-30 minutes of wear.

It smells very yummy, like typical mint chocolate anything. But I love mint chocolate ♥ It makes me want to eat it~

However... in saying that, it might just be me but it seems like whenever use these (for the full 30 minutes) the effect never lasts very long, maybe a few hours if that. They’re really fun and always smell good, but I’m not really sure if there’s a way to improve that or if is just me.

Choco Mint Face Mask

Choco Mint is very popular and trendy in Japan as both a food item and sheet mask. This specific one was part of dessert mask set, which we did have before. It came about a year ago or so with another dessert ask, but this one is made with cacao, which moisturizes the skin, while the mint lightens and refreshes it.

I think I still remember using this previously. It has a very strong mint chocolate scent -again it makes me want to eat it- but if I recall the mask quality itself wasn’t that impressive or the effects didn’t last too long, there was something about it I didn’t like.

Lovely Cookie Blush

Now I know what you’re thinking, “they gave them 2 of those?“ but if you’re a reader of the blog you might remember me mentioning this blush :3 the one not being held is my original one. I’ve had it for a couple years now and its still good, it’s one of the very few blushers I own and use. The one I originally owned is #2 Strawberry Choux, and the new one is PK002 Grapefruit Jelly. Due to the numbers, I’m not sure if they got rid of mine or if this one is a modified/renamed version. The other color available in the box was PK004 Peach Choux Wafer.

I was very excited to get another one; but as you can see (or not, the picture didn’t come out as well as I was aiming for) there are a couple of differences between them:

The original one has an Etude House logo, while the newer one has a logo for the Cookie Blusher.

The ribbon on the puff is different in shape between them.

I noticed the colored part of the container on my original seems to have a very faint pearly finish, while the new ones are plain plastic.

Besides those things I didn’t notice any other differences other than the color itself, which surprised me to see that the new one is a lot more noticeable in comparison to how pale my original one was. But I still really like it in both quality and cuteness factor ♥

Petit Bunny Gloss Bar & Aurora Eye and Lip Topper

To say I was excited is an understatement when it comes to this next product! I’ve been wanting to buy the Petit Bunny Gloss Bars from Tony Moly when I first spotted them a few years ago- but I put it off and I heavily regret it now because before they had a full set and now I can’t seem to find it anymore.

These are ultra-kawaii moisturizing lip gloss bars with a sheer color and glossy finish; they come in a variety of colors, each with a bunny that has a different facial expression. These can be used on top of matte lipstick, or on their own, and they’re also available in perfume sticks, which I also wanted and never bought <.<

On Japan Haul and in the box these were available in Strawberry (which is the one I would have chosen), apple, cherry, peach, and orange. But if you go on Amazon you can find a few more flavors/colors. They are also scented and it smells very good.

The product is extremely shiny (not glittery like the pic would have you believe), and it is moisturizing. It makes the lips very smooth and even though it is orange, it looks pretty natural on the lips and isn’t obnoxious looking at all. I always worry orange won’t look good on me, but I don’t have a problem wearing this.

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Our final item of the box (see the first pic in this section) is a little container of Crayon Touch-Me Aurora Eye & Lip Topper, a product meant to be worn over other products or on its own. It was available in silver, purple, or pink.

I like it :3 it feels very light weight on the eyes and lips, and it’s extremely glittery and leaves no bumpy, crusty texture from the glitter in the product. There’s a lot you can do with a product like this.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 5 out of 5. I loved all the products! I had no complaints (unless you count the face mask remark I made, but I’ve had worse) and I feel like my skin has been very pampered and rejuvenated... even though it’s now late-fall/autumn. But it’s very face oriented, which on one hand is a little boring.

Theme: 5 out of 5. I can see how these items would be pretty nice to have during summer and for the “glow“ vibe they fit very well. But they also strongly remind me of products we’d expect to see in winter themed boxes too, or any time of the year honestly.

Total Rank: 10 out of 10. I’m not sure this feels like a summer box to me, only because of how widespread I can see these items being- but I really like them and I think this would be a really good one to recommend if you like facial products. I found the face orientation a little boring because I prefer a nice mix of products, but that doesn’t change how much I like them.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

(This might seem like a cop out but I actually liked everything so much that I found it impossible to actually rank them!)

#nmnl #nomakenolife #cutie reviews #etude house #tony moly #choosy lip #chocolate mint

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mendesamor · 8 years ago

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Under The Stars

A/N: Since it’s prom season, I decided to write a little something for it. Requests are open! Enjoy. - Emily

When I had decided to go on tour with Shawn during my last week of High School, I knew that I would be missing out on that one special night that most girls dream of going to. Prom.

Before I had even left, I would always hear the other seniors talking about what dresses they’re getting, who’s doing their makeup, who’s going with who, and how they were going to rent out a fancy limo just like in the movies.

Sure I was bummed out, but it didn’t really hit me until my friend groupchat started to send me multiple photos of their dresses, asking me for opinions and thoughts. Gladly, I responded with positive and honest comments. But I realized that I didn’t want to be giving those opinions anymore, I wanted to be the one asking others about my own dress.

Well that is if I even had one. Before my decision on leaving, Shawn knew that I had my eye on this one simple, red lace dress. He would see me scrolling through online websites on my laptop, and when he saw the red dress, he said it was very nice. But to me, it was gorgeous. I knew that it would fit my body perfectly, even if I hadn’t tried it on. I just knew I would feel beautiful in it.

Shawn had a show on the day of my prom, so I at least knew my mind could be somewhere else in the show, instead of feeling all sad about prom.

I was sitting on the leather couch inside the tour bus, Shawn was doing soundcheck at the moment, and I was waiting for him to finish up. I heard footsteps run up the steps and suddenly, Geoff appeared. He plopped himself down beside me and looked over my shoulder.

I had once again found myself looking at the same red lace dress online.

“That’s cute, planning on buying it?” He said as he raised his eyebrow. I turned to him and chuckled softly as I shook my head sadly.

“Nah, I’m just looking. It’s really pretty, huh?” I then clicked out of the tab and shut my laptop down, setting it aside.

Geoff took a sip of his water bottle, leaning back with me on the couch. He turned back at me and sighed.

“So why didn’t you go to prom? Prom happens only once in your life, and you chose not to go because of a concert?”

Looking down at my hands, I twisted the ring that Shawn had gotten me for my birthday. My shoulders shrugged in response. “I don’t know to be honest. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen Shawn in so long. I wasn’t ready to let go again.” I whispered as I took a deep breath.

Geoff only nodded and bit his lip as he thought of his response.

“I get that. You both hadn’t seen each other in months. But a few more days wouldn’t have made a difference, Y/N.”

I stayed silent and leaned forward. It was true. Geoff was always honest with me. Always. Running my fingers through my hair in frustration, I sighed loudly and looked at him once again.

“Even if I had gone, who was I gonna go with, Geoff? Hell, my so called “friends” planned on going together without me either way. They’ve been sending me pictures of their own dresses all day long.”

Geoff’s face fell and he frowned as he pulled me into his arms. He held me close as I started to let tears run down my face. I felt his hand rub my back slowly for a few minutes.

I had let everything I was holding in, finally come out. I hadn’t talked to Shawn about it because he was already so stressed out from tour. It would have just been another problem for him. Especially because I had a choice to come on tour with him.

Slowly, I pulled away from Geoff and wiped my teary red eyes. I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear as I blushed softly, realizing I had just cried in front of Geoff for the first time.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered.

“Don’t be sorry.” Geoff frowned as he gave me another hug.

4 Hours Later

It had been a while since I had seen Geoff, after our moment on the bus, I met up with Shawn again. He had no clue what had happened, and honestly, I hope it would stay that way. I didn’t want him to worry.

“Babe, I know you just got here, but I need to go out to this store. It’s really important! Go to our hotel room, and wait for me there. Yeah?”

I frowned in confusion, “What? Shawn, your show is in like 2 hours. Where the hell are you gonna go?”

Shawn shook his head and pecked my lips softly, “Don’t worry about it. Just meet me there later. Okay? I love you.”

Pecking his lips back as well, I sighed softly once again. I made my way to the hotel, quickly dodging any questions from fans. I just wasn’t in the mood to talk at that point.

When I unlocked the door to my shared room with Shawn, I noticed the lights were on. And I remember perfectly well that we had left them off before we headed out this morning.

“What the hell…” I whispered to myself as I walked in. As I got closer to the bed, I saw red petals sprawled out across the white comforter and on the floor. There was a black box sitting on the bed with a letter on top.

I smiled softly at the petals and picked a few up and let them go again, watching them fall to the soft bed.

I then picked up the letter and opened it, unfolding the letter, I immediately recognized the handwriting. It was Shawn’s.

“Dear, Y/N

I know how much you wanted this dress. It caught your eye since the first time you found it. This is a gift for you, baby. Try it on. I’ll be waiting for you at the concert.

Love, Shawn.”

Tears brimmed my eyes just like earlier and I cupped my mouth as I set the letter down. I pulled my hand away and opened the glossy black box, which revealed the familiar lace pattern I had admired for so long.

I gently pulled it out and smiled wide as my fingers traced the patterns. I set it back down, and started to pull off my clothes. I slid it on, and just as I expected, it fit perfectly.

The fabric hugged my body and slipped on a pair of nude heels that I had packed with me incase of any special events I had to attend with Shawn.

I then picked up my makeup bag that and decided to do the look I’ve practiced many times, which came out amazing every time. I figured I could go that way to the concert anyway, so I wouldn’t have to take it all off. I finally finished off with some clear gloss on my lips.

I walked over to the full mirror in the bathroom, and smiled widely as I looked up and down at myself. After a few minutes, I figured it would be best to put the dress away so I could wear it another day, and to not get it dirty. But I was very happy how it looked. Taking one last look at myself, I made my way back to my suitcase.

Before I could take it off, there was a knock on the door. Frowning, I opened the door and Geoff appeared.

“You ready to go? The show starts in 5 minutes.” He looked at me in the dress and smiled widely. “I see Shawn took my advice.”

I raised my eyebrows in confusion but then realized the time. I hadn’t realized the time had gone by so fast already. “Wait what? I can’t go with this dress”

“Nevermind, there’s no time. Let’s go,” Geoff ignored my comment and laughed, he walked into the room and grabbed the key, my phone and my purse. He gave it to me and we made our way to the car, heading to the arena where Shawn would be performing.

By the time we got there, Shawn was already on his fourth song. I had gotten many odd looks, especially from the fans. They all whispered and took pictures of me. I frowned a bit and then remembered I was still in the dress.

Shrugging lightly, I stood backstage with Geoff. He complimented me once again on the dress, telling me he had suggested the idea to Shawn.

“What idea are you talking about?” I asked, once again confused. All of a sudden, an uproar of screams rang through the venue. I looked around wondering what had happened, I felt Geoff pull me away and he lead me to the stage.

The screams got louder and I soon met Shawn’s eyes.

“Everybody, if you didn’t already know, this is my beautiful girlfriend, Y/N. She decided to skip her prom just to be here with us on this night. But I think Y/N should still have at least one dance. Don’t you agree?” Shawn spoke into his mic as he set his guitar down, the fans screamed in response and he grabbed my hand, kissing my forehead as he lead me to the middle of the stage. He nodded over to his band and they nodded back.

I looked around with a huge smile, everyone was recording this, and flashes were going off every few seconds. Suddenly, the lights dimmed down and one center light focused on Shawn and I.

The band had started to play “Like This”, the screams died down, and I felt Shawn’s arm snake around my waist. My eyes shifted to look at his and I saw his smile, he then looked back at the crowd. He turned us around so I wouldn’t look at the crowd.

“Just look at me, baby. I’m all yours right now.” he whispered into my ear as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Shawn I don’t know what to say…you even got a tux” I giggled as I finally realized his black tux. Shawn laughed softly and shrugged.

“I know you really wanted to go to prom, babe. This is the best I could think of.”

I ran my fingers through Shawn’s hair on the back of his neck, pressing my lips against his as my eyes slowly closed.

I ignored all of the cheers that came from the fans as we kissed. Smiling, I pulled away. Shawn then leaned in once again and pecked my lips softly as we swayed softly to the beat.

“Thank you for everything, Shawn. The dress….I don’t even know how you got it. But thank you.” I whispered as I leaned my forehead against his.

Shawn stayed quiet and pulled me in closer.

I looked at all of the fans waving their flashlights side to side, and then at the moon that shined brightly in the middle.

“I love you so much Y/N. I wish you would have told me earlier. But tonight, right now, it’s you and me under the stars.” He whispered back into my ear.

#shawn mendes #shawn #shawn mendes writing #shawn mendes imagines #fanfic #shawn mendes fanfic #fanfiction #shawn peter raul mendes

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uyuro · 8 years ago

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💖 UYU REVIEW: dear my glass tinting lips-talk lipsticks / soon jung skincare from ETUDE HOUSE keep reading for the review!

Hello everyone! Sorry for being MIA on this blog – I’ve been in China where Tumblr is blocked so I haven’t been able to get online until recently. I hope you’ll all had a good Easter! 💕

I’m sure you guys know about Etude House if you’re into Korean beauty! They were one of the first brands I heard about once I got into K-beauty and they’re very well-known for having cute packaging and affordable products! They have a ‘princess’ aesthetic which shines through in their packaging especially - the product that got me hooked on Etude House was their Etoinette lipstick (that packaging!) from a few years back.

Today I’m going to be reviewing some new Etude House products from their Pink Bird box! The March box had a healthy mix of skincare and make-up - I’ll also be reviewing the April box very soon (there has been some mix-ups with my box deliveries, so sorry for the late reviews!)

Disclaimer: These products were sent to me by Etude House for review and consideration. I am not being compensated for this review and opinions are always 100% honest.

✏️ ABOUT THE ITEM: Soon Jung Skincare Trial Kit

The first thing I’ll be reviewing is the Soon Jung Skincare Trial Kit! This is a mini trial kit of the items from the new Soon Jung line.

The Soon Jung skincare line is designed to be mild on the skin, so it’s ideal for sensitive or damaged skin. It’s supposed to relieve skin irritation as well which fits in with the whole simple and clean design of all the products. All the products have been non-comedogenic tested (meaning that it didn’t acne in clinical tests), hypoallergenic tested and sensitive skin tested – however, this doesn’t mean the product will be perfect for everyone so I would still strongly suggest patch testing as everyone’s skin is different! For reference, my skin is normal-dry.

As I mentioned above, this is only a trial kit (I don’t believe you can purchase this exact kit directly from Etude House anymore) but the products are available in two different sizes normally. There’s an Easy size which would be good for travel and a good way to try out these products, and a Regular size, which is the full-size product. Currently, on the Etude House website you can buy a set that includes both the Regular and Easy size.

This kit only contains four items, but there are other items in the line, including a low pH whip cleanser and dry capsule sheets.

Here are the individual features and claims for each of the products in the kit:

Soon Jung 5-Panthensoside Cica Balm

The highly adhesive gel type balm is smooth and fresh, keeping the skin moist and relaxing irritated skin.

Contains 5% panthensoside (combination of panthenol and madecassoside)

Soon Jung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream

Shea butter and oil complex balances oil and moisture levels, to maintain elasticity and moisture.

Lightweight and mild moisturising cream helps keep skin soft and supple.

Soon Jung 10-Free Moist Emulsion

10-Free means this product is free from animal-derived ingredients, mineral oil, pigments, synthetic perfume, polyacrylamide, silicon, imidazolidinyl urea, triethanolamine, PEG surfactant and parabens.

Hypoallergenic and lightweight formula refreshes your skin while providing intensive hydration.

Soon Jung pH 5.5 Relief Toner

Cooling Relief soothes and calms inflamed skin, which has been caused by external stimulation.

As well as the above, every item also has a low pH which is closer to the skin’s natural pH and less harsh on the skin compared to more alkaline products. You might not know, but a lot of products, cleansers particularly, have quite high pH levels which can be damaging to the skin’s acid mantle. Another feature of the line is that the products contain panthenol, which soothes the skin, and madecassoside which takes care of skin damage and promotes healing.

I won’t analyse the entire ingredients list for everything because it would make this review needlessly long – however, I have linked to the lists on cosDNA so you are free to view them as you wish!

Soon Jung 5-Panthensoside Cica Balm Possible irritants: squalene, cetearyl alcohol, butylene glycol Panthenol is 3rd on the ingredients list and madecassoside is 6th. Good to see the star ingredients are relatively high in the ingredients list here!

Soon Jung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream Possible irritants: Cetearyl alcohol, butylene glycol Panthenol is 10th on the ingredients list and madecassoside is 11th.

Soon Jung 10-Free Moist Emulsion Possible irritants: squalene, cetearyl alcohol, stearic acid, butylene glycol Panthenol is 6th on the ingredients list and madecassoside is 7th.

Soon Jung pH 5.5 Relief Toner Possible irritants: butylene glycol, carbomer Panthenol is 6th on the ingredients list and madecassoside is 7th.

So as you can see, even though the line is designed to be mild and catered for sensitive skin, the products still do contain alcohol which can be a problem for those of you that are sensitive.

As I mentioned earlier, you can find all the Soon Jung skincare on Etude House Global. Currently you can get free shipping on orders over $50!

Here are some other retailers where you can find these items:

Beauty Box Korea — shipping by weight

Cosmetic-Love — free shipping

Jolse — free shipping

Korea Depart — shipping by weight

Roseroseshop (link to Trial Kit!) — shipping by weight

And here is a price break-down between the regular and easy sizes:

Soon Jung 5-Panthensoside Cica Balm Easy size = $9.10 for 15mL = $0.61/mL Regular size = $20.40 for 40mL = $0.51/mL

Soon Jung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream Easy size = $11.10 for 30mL = $0.37/mL Regular size = $18.00 for 60mL = $0.30/mL

Soon Jung 10-Free Moist Emulsion Easy size = $10.40 for 72mL = $0.14/mL Regular size = $15.60 for 120mL = $0.13/mL

Soon Jung pH 5.5 Relief Toner Easy size = $10.40 for 80mL = $0.13/mL Regular size = $15.60 for 180mL = $0.087/mL

Keep in mind that I used the normal prices of the easy sizes (they are on sale right now though), and also that the regular sizes are actually being bundled together in a set with an easy size (at the time of publishing), so you're getting a free easy size as well! 😁

So you can see that the regular sizes are always more 'bang for your buck' than the easy sizes, although the 10-Free Moist Emulsion is super close.

📷 PHOTOS + DETAILS: Soon Jung Skincare Trial Kit

The Soon Jung 5-Panthensoside Cica Balm has a very light gel texture, just as it says in the claims.

The Soon Jung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream has a thicker texture than the Cica Balm and definitely feels more occlusive. It's not a heavy cream, I'd say it's somewhere between a gel cream and a thick cream.

The Soon Jung 10-Free Moist Emulsion has a viscous water texture, and is quite light on the skin too.

The Soon Jung pH 5.5 Relief Toner has a watery texture, similar to most other toners. I didn’t insert a picture since it was too watery to keep on my hand.

I know that a lot of people like to use low pH toners after cleansing to help reset their skin balance – this could be a good product for you if you have a favourite cleanser that happens to have a high pH.

None of the products had a distinctive smell, so that’s a positive if you’re sensitive to fragrance!

For my overall thoughts on this skincare line, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the review!

✏️ ABOUT THE ITEM: Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk + Case

The next items are my favourite part of this box! I was really hyped for this release when I saw Korean beauty bloggers reviewing it and I'm really excited to review these for you guys!

Etude House Lips-talk lipsticks were one of the first lipsticks I bought, and I've always loved their cute packaging. Their new Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk line is a bit different though, because it's totally customisable. Instead of purchasing a whole lipstick where every colour in the line has the same packaging, you can buy the colour and case separately so all your lipsticks will be unique!

There are 20 different shades and 20 case designs that you can choose to mix and match!

As well as that, here are some other features:

High-gloss base makes lips with volume.

Gives a sliding feel as it’s applied softly on the lips

Vitamin C makes your lips healthy

f(x)'s Krystal is Etude House's main model, and there are a ton of special 'Krystal's pick' in this collection. Some of the colours she picked actually have her signature on the tube, which I'll show below.

Here are the ingredients for the colour PK003 (the other colour’s ingredients may vary sightly — you can view them on the Etude House listing)

Hydrogenated poly(c6-14 olefin), Diisostearyl malate, C12-15 alkyl benzoate, Hydrogenated polyisobutene, Polyethylene, Microcrystalline wax, Alumina, Polyglyceryl-2 triisostearate, Polyhydroxystearic acid, Titanium dioxide (CI 77891), Red 22 Lake (CI 45380), VP/Hexadecene copolymer, Polyglyceryl-2- diisostearate, Fragrance, Red 6 (CI 15850), Red 28 Lake (CI 45410), Red 27 (CI 45410), Honey extract, Tin oxide, Sodium ascorbate, Hydrolyzed collagen, Water, Glycerin, Butylene glycol, Alcohol, Sodium hyaluronate

Nothing interested popped up, except that the italicised ingredients are level 1 (very low) acne triggers, although it shouldn't be too much of a problem since this is a lip product. I bolded sodium ascorbate as it is a form of vitamin C, which was mentioned as one of the features.

As for pricing, buying this set does work out slightly more expensive than buying an already packaged lipstick — however, an idea I had, was that after you buy the cases you like, you can just buy the colours from then on and switch them in and out. When you purchase the colours they come with a plastic lid (shown below) so you can still store them outside of the proper cases.

The only downside is that you won't be able to carry all your colours at once, but 99% of the time you'll only need to take one colour out with you anyway!

Here are the retailers where you can pick these up:

Colour refills

Etude House Global: $10.40 (free shipping over $50)

Beauty Box Korea: $7.01 USD (shipping by weight)

iBuyBeauti: $5.75 USD (free shipping over $50)

Jolse: $6.78 USD (free shipping worldwide)

Korea Depart: $5.04 USD (shipping by weight)

Rose Rose Shop: ₩5,600 / $4.93 USD (shipping by weight)

Tester Korea: ₩7,200 / $6.59 USD (shipping by weight)

W2Beauty: $8.32 USD (free shipping over $60)

Cases

Etude House Global: $5.20 (free shipping over $50)

Beauty Box Korea: $3.42 USD (shipping by weight)

iBuyBeauti: $3.25 USD (free shipping over $50)

Jolse: $4.38 USD (free shipping worldwide)

Korea Depart: $2.52 USD (shipping by weight)

Rose Rose Shop: ₩2,800 / $2.47 USD (shipping by weight)

Tester Korea: ₩3,600 / $3.30 USD (shipping by weight)

W2Beauty: $4.16 USD (free shipping over $60)

📷 PHOTOS + DETAILS: Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk + Case

Here is the packaging that the colour refills come in. The packaging is really similar to the other lipsticks from Etude House, with the cute scalloping on the box. I received three colours: PK003, RD302 and BR402.

The refills come with a clear plastic lid to protect the colour from smudging against the packaging. At the bottom is where you can slot it into a lipstick case. The name of the shade is printed on the side of the tube so don’t worry about forgetting what colour you have.

This system is really easy to use. After removing the protective lid, you just slightly press the refill tube into the bottom of the lipstick case. You should hear a soft click once it's in. It's easily removed this way as well, but the tube won't slide out on it's own.

Here are the lipstick cases! I got designs #4, #15 and #17. I really love the flamingo case and the hugs + kisses case, but the lollipop case isn't really my style.

From left to right, the colours are BR402, RD302, PK003 (I accidentally smudged the top of BR402 ;n;).

Like I mentioned earlier, on the side of some 'Krystal's Pick' colours, you can see Krystal's signature. The one shown here is PK003, but RD302 didn't have the signature (so maybe it was just one colour that had it?)

✨ SWATCHES + FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk + Case

Here are the swatches from Etude House's website, for reference!

Here are some arm swatches, only one swipe was used for each colour.

Here are the lip swatches!

PK003 is a medium cool-toned pink. Initially, I thought that it didn't suit me but since I dyed my hair lighter recently it's actually been really nice 💕 It is a bit tougher to match for me because most of my eyeshadows etc. are warm-toned, but I really like it as a colour. It's not quite as bubblegum-pink or dark as it looks in the offical swatches.

RD302 is a darker, warmer pink in comparison. It's easier to match than PK003 and it's similar in tone to my favourite lip tint, Peripera Peri's Ink #1. It's a bit sheerer than Etude House's swatch but it looks very similar.

BR402 is a warm beige-pink nude on me. Like RD302, the colour looks really similar to Etude House's swatch but just sheerer. I really, really like this colour 💗 It's easy to wear as a nude / MLBB colour and I've worn it almost everyday since I got it! When it fades, it turns a bit more pink but still looks natural and easy to wear when I'm not wearing much other make-up.

Here is a photo of me wearing BR402~

💭 OVERVIEW + FINAL THOUGHTS

Soon Jung Skincare Trial Kit: 3.5 / 5

My rating on this is a bit reluctant as I feel like I haven’t used the products long enough to be able to gauge them 100% (that’s the problem with trial sizes😓) However, I didn’t overly love or loathe anything. Nothing was terrible but I didn’t really love any of them enough to consider replacing my current skincare staples either.

My favourite item was probably the Soon Jung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream, as I don’t own another cream with the same texture and it’s quite moisturising and lightweight.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the Soon Jung 10-Free Moist Emulsion actually broke me out, which was a pity because I don't actually have an emulsion product in my routine right now and I would've liked to use it up.

I do like the idea of a less harsh skincare line for sensitive skin though and I think it's good that Etude House is promoting key ingredients that aren't just hype (I've never heard of panthenol or madecassoside before I tried these products!), even though the products didn't work out amazingly for me.

One thing to remember is that skincare is very YMMV and every person is different so what works for me might not work for you!

💖 Pros: Low pH, available in different sizes, non-comedogenic, hypoallergenic tested and sensitive skin tested. 💔 Cons: Didn't seem to anything special for my skin (caution, because I haven't been able to test these products over a long period and my skin is different from yours)

Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk + Case: 4.5 / 5

Overall, I'm really fond of the formula of these lipsticks. The Glass Tinting Lips-talk line isn't the most pigmented, but that means it's a much more forgiving formula. I do have to reapply often but I don't really mind because when the colours fades, they still look pretty and they don't fade in weird patterns.

The formula glides on really easily and it feels very moisturising on the lips - this is the first lipstick I haven't had to wear lip balm under. I think these lipsticks are a good combination between a lipstick and lip balm that isn't just a lightly tinted balm. The pigmentation is alright though and can be built up gradually.

The case designs are also cute and pretty high quality - my favourites are the hugs + kisses and flamingo cases. The hugs + kisses case is actually matte on the blue part which is nice!

I also really like this system of mixing and matching, and being able to pick your own lipstick case design. Of course Etude House didn't invent this idea, but I haven't seen too many Korean brands doing it before. I'd really like it if Etude House could expand the range in the future with different formulas for the refills, and maybe collabs with artists for case designs. Ah, I can dream.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to be trying some more colours from this line! I've got my eyes on OR202 and PP501 👀

💖 Pros: Unique mix and match lipstick / case system, comfortable lipstick formula that is highly moisturising, fades away nicely, can be layered. 💔 Cons: Only one formula to mix and match with currently, somewhat limited colour range, average pigmentation, pricier than buying a traditional lipstick.

0.2 Air Therapy Sheet Mask: 5 / 5

Since we are discussing Etude House products, I thought I'd share some more in-depth thoughts on their Air Therapy sheet masks since some people have requested it and they also included a couple flavours in this month’s box~

I know a lot of people were sad when Etude House discontinued their I Need You sheet mask range, but I actually prefer this new line a lot more. Like the name suggests, these sheet masks are super thin and thus sit more nicely on the skin, plus it’s a lot easier to fit to your face. Despite being so thin, they don't tear easily when trying to open them up. Every flavour is different and some tend to work better for me. The tea tree mask + Scinic Honey AIO Ampoule is my lifesaver for breakouts. The damask rose flavour is really good for a nice skin refresher (I used this on the plane when I was travelling). The strawberry is moisturising and just plain smells nice.

Not to mention these masks are super affordable, since Etude House is a roadshop brand after all. I would highly recommend picking them up if you can, especially in bulk.

You can find these at the following retailers (prices in USD unless indicated)

Etude House Global, free shipping over $50 $1.30 each

BB Cosmetic, free shipping worldwide (you can also enter code ‘BBUYURO’ for 8% off) $17.80 for 15 / $1.18 each

Beauty Box Korea, shipping by weight $0.82 each

Cosmetic-Love, free shipping worldwide $2.62 each | $19.40 for 15 / $1.29 each

iBuyBeauti, free shipping over $50 $1.07 each | $4.95 for 5 / $0.99 each

Jolse, free shipping worldwide $3.82 for 3 / $1.27 each

Korea Depart, shipping by weight $0.63 each

Rose Rose Shop, shipping by weight ₩700 / $0.62 each | ₩6,900 for 10 / $0.61 each

Tester Korea, shipping by weight ₩1,000 / $0.88 each

Plus Etude House sells bulk packages too:

Individual sheet masks ($1.30 each)

Set of 15 sheet masks ($1.30 each)

I would recommend waiting for a sale as these bulk packages have been severely discounted before (think 50% off). It's not really worth it otherwise, because you might as well pick your own flavours individually for the same price.

Thanks for reading through this super long review today! I hope it was helpful for you 💓 Let me know if you've tried the Glass Tinting Lips-talk colours and if you liked them!

Here are the links to all the items again, if you'd like to check them out!

Soon Jung 5-Panthensoside Cica Balm (Easy / Regular)

Soon Jung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream (Easy / Regular)

Soon Jung 10-Free Moist Emulsion (Easy / Regular)

Soon Jung pH 5.5 Relief Toner (Easy size / Regular)

Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk (Refills)

Dear My Glass Tinting Lips-talk (Lipstick cases)

0.2 Air Therapy Sheet Mask

Thanks again for reading and have a great day!

#review #etude house #pink bird #beauty

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