What I'm reading + NOTD pt.17

You know the feeling when you read a book, then when you finish it, it leaves you somehow stirred and you want to know what other readers thought of this book. It happened to me with the book The Dinner (Het diner).To me, this book was very good, so I was shocked when I browsed the net and found so many one star reviews. "Hated this book! It felt contrived and stilted. I didn't like any of the characters. I couldn't identify with any of them. " "This may have been one of the worst books I have ever read." And so on. Reading this I was wondering, but it really makes a bad book if you can't identify with any of the characters or if you find them to be repulsive? For me, this certainly doesn't make a bad book. It can be a very good book, like in this case. I don't want to tell you too much and ruin you all the fun while reading the book, but I can say that during the story it completely changed how I fell for the narrator. A well written story indeed.

What it's all about. It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children.

While reading the reviews I also saw that this book is being marketed as an European Gone Girl. First thing, how can this be an European Gone Girl if this was written in 2009 and Gone Girl in 2012? Yeah, I understand that was published later in the USA and it is a marketing strategy to sell better, but still, this American supremacy gets on my nerves sometimes. And second, I'm just reading Gone Girl and I will discover by myself if the connection exists :D

Here we have the nail polish, a bright fuchsia that goes well with the cover of the book :) It's Estee Lauder in colour Fuchsia and it is the most expensive nail polish in my collection. And it's also a reason why I buy inexpensive nail polishes. Just like any other nail polish this chipped on me within 24 hours of wear. So why bother with expensive polishes? The colour is beautiful, but I must say not so glossy. Here you see it with high shine top coat. The bottle on the other hand is cute :)

I have a question for you. What makes a book a really good book in your opinion? Likable characters, good story..?

Have a great day.

What I'm reading + NOTD pt.16

With this weather it's not unusual that this is the third book post in a row. When it's raining and it's foggy outside what is there to do than read? 

This time the young adult novel A Swift Pure  Cry brought me to Ireland in year 1984. After Shell's mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. She must also deal with school, friendship and first love. At top of that Shell finds herself pregnant and the center of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again. This is a story of love and loss, religious belief and spirituality it will move the hearts of any who read it.

Here I would like to write some things about the author because she was not just the writer, but also an activist and helped the children in need. In 1984, she joined the writer's organisation International PEN, initially as a researcher for its Writers in Prison Committee and later as Program Director of PEN American Center's Freedom-to-Write Committee in New York City. Her work there included founding and leading the Rushdie Defense Committee (USA) and travelling to Indonesia andGuatemala to investigate local human rights conditions for writers. During her seven-year stay in New York, Dowd was named one of the "top 100 Irish-Americans" by Irish-America Magazine and Aer Lingus for her global anti-censorship work.

On her return to the UK, Dowd co-founded, with Rachel Billington, English PEN's readers and writers program. The program takes authors into schools in socially deprived areas, as well as prisons, young offender's institutions and community projects. During 2004, Dowd served as Deputy Commissioner for Children's Rights in Oxfordshire, working with local government to ensure that statutory services affecting children's lives conform with UN protocols.

Before her death from a severe case of breast cancer, the Siobhan Dowd Trust, a registered charity, was established, wherein the proceeds from her literary work will be used to assist disadvantage children with their reading skills. If you'd like to learn more about the Trust click here. 

After reading all of this it seems a little bit shallow to talk about the nail polish, but since this is now a regular category on my blog, here you go. The nail polish is from H&M with the name Lady Luck. It is a duochrome that shifts from green to blue. The application was easy, two coats were needed for full opacity.

Have a great day! :)

What I'm reading + NOTD pt.15

Who doesn't like Jane Austen? I don't know how many times I read Pride and Prejudice. For me it's some sort of "lift me up" novel. I haven't read Masfield Park before, as I believe it was first published in Slovenian language in 2013 and in two volumes. So here I have just the first volume. And I really don't like the cover.

Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. "Mansfield Park" is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.

The nail polish is from Manhattan Lotus Effect and it was a limited edition, it goes with the name 13. I bought it because of the colour, it is a mix between blue and purple. I believe that it the nail polish world this colour is named blurple. Two coats as usual, no problem with the application.

Have a great day :)

What I'm reading + NOTD pt.14

It's pure coincidence that today is Valentine's Day and I'm showing you here a great love story. I don't care a lot about this made up day brought to us from United States and that it's driven by consumerism but I like love stories and this one unfolds in front of us on thousand pages so magically that you don't even know that this story is also a love story. 

Here is the third book, or better said the third part of 1Q84. In the third part the things are moving forward, and Aomame does not yet know that she and Tengo are more closely bound than ever. Tengo is searching for Aomame, and he must find her before this world's rules loosen up too much. He must find her before someone else does. 

A book that has a grip on you right from beginning to the end. If you missed first part, here it is. 

Also a shout out to my mum and dad, who are celebrating tomorrow their thirtieth anniversary of their marriage. A love story in real world :) Congratulations! 

The nail polish is from Bourjois, from the line So Laque! Ultra Shine, number 22 Rouge diva. Easy application, two coats, classic red. Nothing special, but at a same time classic and pretty.

Have a great day ;)

Essence the gel nail polish in 33 wild white ways with nail tattoos

I got this nail polish along with nail stickers as a New Years gift from my cousin. We were both happy that I didn't have a nail polish in my collection and that this polish was actually on my wish list :)

The nail stickers or maybe nail tattoos have the design of comic books/graphic novels and in the package you get three different designs and each design has twenty sheets. Because I so stupidly threw away the packaging (to save the storage space) I can't tell you the name of the tattoos. 

Today was the day that I decided to try these nail tattoos and show them on the blog. These are the instructions.

Apply one to two coats of (colour) nail polish and allow to dry.
The nailpolish itself it is fully opaque in two coats, and there are no problems with the application, witch is great for a white nail polish.

Cut out the tattoo you want to the nail size and remove transparent protective film. 

One thing I should do next time is to cut the stickers first and then apply nail polish. It is extremely difficult to draw and cut the sheets in form of your nails when you have freshly painted nails and I'm also extremely clumsy, so I managed to ruin my manicure in the process. Two nails were more than enough for the first time.

Place tattoo briefly in water. Place tattoo on the nail and press down for approximately ten seconds. Remove backing paper and coat tattoo with a layer of Top Coat to seal.

Next time I should put the tattoo in the water with tweezers because the design transferred on my fingers and it is a little damaged on my nails now, but otherwise it's fine.

Here is the final result, on just two nails :)

Have a great day! ;)

What I'm reading + NOTD pt.13

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. This is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. 

The title in English is The Sense of an Ending and the novel is the winner of Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2011.

The nail polish is from Kiko, and this was the first Kiko polish that I bought. It is number 244. I don't know why, but I have problems with the application with this one. The colour is a really deep plum, it almost looks black, but it's not. 

As always, two coats, a base coat and a top coat in the pictures.

The photos in the category What I'm reading + NOTD are usually taken with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4 mini) and look fine on the mobile, but when I transfer them to the computer I can see they are not so great. See below.

For this post I tried to take them also with the camera that my friend so kindly lent me. They are better, but there is a problem. The camera is heavy to hold with one arm, and I can't wink, so I can't see what I'm photographing. See below.

We have quite a prodigious photographer here :D

Have a great day ;)

Catrice Ultimate Colour 450 Legend'Berry

Catrice changes their assortment twice a year. Now was the time for the spring/summer edition. I always look forward to this updates and this time a lipstick caught my eye. Catrice added three new colours in their Ultimate Colour lipstick line, I bought the darkest, number 450 Legend'Berry.

You should see me standing in front of Catrice stand for about ten minutes or so, figuring out if the darkest red lipstick in my collection is as dark as this one I wanted to buy. What I really hate is to have dupes in my collection but at the end I decided to risk it and bought the lipstick.

The lipstick is very pigmented and it glides on beautifully. It is quite soft though, so I had problems with the precise application. If you are not careful it goes quickly over the lines of your mouth, so maybe a lip liner underneath wouldn't be a bad idea, or maybe I should try to apply the lipstick with a lip brush.

It is also quite shiny so it is definitely not for the matte lipstick lovers. Because of its creaminess it also transfers quite a lot, so no eating, drinking or kissing if you want your lipstick to stay intact, otherwise you will have to reapply it. This is the reason why I prefer matte lipstick over creamy lipsticks, they don't transfer this much.

The colour, to my relief, is darker than my darker shade at home (it is also from Catrice, but a limited edition one, and matte). The colour in the tube is dark red with brown undertones. On the lips the brown is not so visible, but it's there. Here is the comparison with Catrice lipstick from Revoltaire LE, Bloody Red, velvet matt lip colour, and with Essence lip liner Red Blush, which you can still get (crazy I know :) )

As you can see, the colour is darker than both of them, you can also see the difference in the formula, since both other colours are matte. This is how it looks on me.

I like the packaging of Catrice lipstick. It's sturdy and elegant and it look like it could cost more than 4,29 €.

Do you like the colour? Peffer matte or creamy lipsticks?

Have a nice day! :)