October Favorites 2016

Hello, it's me, blog. Do you remember me, your creator? Probably not. But I'm going to try to be better. In leu of election eve, all of our timelines could use a little bit of a break. This is my round up of favorite products from October (and the last 6 months, really) from hair, makeup, beauty, etc. 

Makeup

1. Huda Beauty Liquid Matte Lipstick

While everyone is obsessed with Kat Von D at the moment, these liquid lipsticks are my absolute favorite. The colors are on trend, and the formula is amazing. Liquid lipsticks can feel so heavy on your lips; Colourpop is a good example, they are an awesome price point ($6!), but it definitely feels like you've got a coat of goop on your lips. Huda's are thin and smooth and don't dry out your lips! I have literally the world's driest lips, and these don't bother me. Some of the reviews online complain they don't last long enough, but because it isn't thick, it won't cake up if you need to reapply! You can buy a full size for $20 at Sephora, or there's these neat kits that you can try two lipsticks and a lipliner (I might pick them all up!)

Liquid Matte Lipstick in Flirt...I get compliments on this color every time I wear it! (Sephora)

Hair

1. Sachajuan Silver Shampoo 

Blondes: if there is one star of my life right now, it is this shampoo. This shampoo was sent from heaven itself on a cloud of pixie dust. I used to use Clairol Shimmer Lights...that doesn't hold a candle, not even a match, to this shampoo. It is pretty pricey ($31), but you get what you pay for. The packaging is sleek and modern, but the product inside is amazing. It puts incredible shine and luster back into my highlights (and it's been a hot minute since I've gotten them done). Go get it, now! 

(Sephora)

Skin

1. Murad Oil-Control Mattifier SPF 15 PA++

If you are an oily skinned girl like me, you need this. I have tried a lot of things that claim to mattify your face, but this one is the only one that has truly worked. It is a moisturizer, so I apply it under my makeup. It's pretty thick, but a little goes a long ways. The fact that it has SPF is great too! It is also formulated without parabens, sulfates, and phthalates. After watching the documentary "The Human Experiment" on Netflix, I definitely want to be better about what chemicals I am putting in and on my body!

$39.50 (Sephora)

Fragrance

1. CK2

This smell is amazing; I generally prefer clean scents. I'm allergic to plants, so floral scents are typically not my jam. Online it says its notes are "fresh notes and warm woods." Perfect for me. It's a good price as well! $55 for 1.7 oz. Another unique thing about this fragrance is its "gender free." So you and your boo can share it (not that I would know.)

(Sephora)

2. Moschino Fresh Couture

Another fresh fragrance of course. Its notes are "Bergamot, Mandarin, Ylang Ylang, Raspberry, White Peony, Osmanthus, Cedarwood, White Patchouli, Ambrox." I don't know what basically any of that means, but I know it smells good. And the packaging is so freaking cute, how can you go wrong? 

$62 for 1.7 oz (Sephora)

I think I'll wrap it up here; I will try to do an unfavorite product blog v soon! Honestly, that list might be longer. I try lots of products, and it's easier for one to not live up to expectations versus being successful. I've probably forgotten some, but oh well! These are the best of the best!

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The Divided States of America

I don't even know if I should be writing about this.

I would like to preface this by saying that I am in no way, shape, or form qualified to talk about this besides being a concerned American citizen.

And if there's one thing we should all be...it's concerned.

But more than concerned: terrified, disgusted, exhausted, of what our country is going through right now. 

If you are going to respond to this post saying I'm stupid or ignorant or whatever you can think of, you can kindly guide yourself out now. While I could be all of those things, I warned you ahead of time to get out.

Of the many years sitting through social studies and history classes, I never thought I would have to witness anything like what happened in the 1950s or even the Civil War. But here I am, 3 years removed from my last history class, and history is repeating itself. 

I hope that our country can look at itself in the mirror, like after a rough night out, and say "What the hell are you doing with yourself?"

I can only hope that one day my kids will sit in the same history classes I sat in and say, "They were still judging each other by the color of their skin? They were still being judged for who they chose to love? They weren't even safe going to their job?" 

But it doesn't even feel that way... it feels like we've dug ourselves into a hole, and how the hell do we get out?

Honestly, I don't even feel comfortable thinking about having kids because I would feel bad bringing them into a country that is literally losing its shit.

One of the most painful things for me to hear is, "America is the greatest country in the world."

Based on what?

Obviously, we have it much better than 3rd world countries, and war filled countries like Syria.

But what about our country makes it so much greater than every other country. Because right now, moving to Sweden or Canada or basically any other civilized country is looking pretty damn nice. 

Saying we're the greatest country in the world is insinuating that we have every aspect of our country perfected past all the others. And there is nothing perfect about the world we're living in right now.

Maybe at one time America was the greatest country in the world. But I also think, that people are grasping so tightly to the past and that somehow, miraculously, our country is going to snap back to a time long, long ago. One of the things that pisses me off the most is when anyone states that the founding fathers did this and that because they foresaw this happening. If you genuinely think that the founding fathers foresaw anything that is happening right now, you're out of your mind. The founding fathers didn't even know there would be cars and electricity, let alone this shit. God bless the founding fathers, but please, leave them out of your conversations about today's current events.

It honestly boggles my mind that immigrants even want to come to America anymore. Maybe they don't see the news stories that pop up numerous times a day about everyone being shot, from club goers to black men to police officers. I don't know what their American dream is but mine is to make it through each day without being in a public place and being shot. I wish that sounded ridiculous, but  it just doesn't anymore...

While I won't directly state my opinions on gun control, obviously something that we're doing is not effing working. Going back to living in the past, get over it, we're not. We've been rudely and abruptly been evicted to the past. You can either stand there staring at the house that was once yours, or you can get off your ass and go find a new one. SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE. I don't know what that is, but the scary thing is, no one does. Not even our two presidential candidates (I'll let you form your own opinions on them; Kanye for 2020 isn't looking too bad). I just wish everyone could stop being so caught up in their own selfish feelings. We get it, you're a Democrat, you're a Republican. Now that we've gotten the titles out of the way, maybe we can work towards a compromise. Because as much as I wish I could live in this country completely alone right now, I'm stuck with you millions of other people, so I might as well think about the resolution for the greater good.

While I know some people want to blame everything on terrorists, I hate to break it to you, but terrorists are a tiny fraction of the issue that is going on within our borders. The events that have happened in the past couple days have not included a single terrorist, just plain ol' American citizens like you and me. It is police officers killing black men, black men killing police officers, mothers killing their daughters in the streets outside their home. "But that lady was crazy." Well thank you for guiding me to my next point. There is an overwhelming correlation between mass shootings and mental health issues. While gun control is a major issue, we have to, have to, have to look at our mental health services. While the population is growing, governors like Terry Branstad are closing mental health facilities. How does that make sense? A higher population of people means more people affected by mental illness but let's just shut these places down? I'm not a genius by any means, but for me, the numbers aren't adding up on that one. I also don't think it should be controversial to want a country where mentally ill couldn't as easily purchase guns, but..what do I know, right?

And the fact that race is a huge fuel to this whole nasty fire...like why? I saw in a story about the Dallas shootings that police were talking to a "lighted-skinned black woman." Why does it matter what race she is, but even more so, the level of her blackness? If that's a thing; I didn't think it was, but the story seems to state otherwise. Like that should be our smallest issue, so we could focus on important things, but instead, we are all still caught up on a biological trait that no one can help. I think we should all just take "black" and "white" and "Muslim" (which by the way isn't a race) out of our vocabularies. It shouldn't be a relevant fact in any story that "they were black" or "they were white." They were a person, just like you. 

A word that is seemingly often forgotten is the world "united." Yes, the world in the name of our country...where is it? I know it's not here. There's absolutely nothing "united" about our country. Black versus white. Gay versus straight. Democrat versus Republican. Guns versus no guns. It's a joke to call ourselves the United States of America...we're the Divided States of America. 

I don't know, this post probably rambled and possibly made no sense. But my mind just races thinking about all the atrocity that is happening in our country. I don't care what your opinions are or if you care what mine are, but I just hope one thing everyone can agree on is that there needs to be change. I just wish people would get mad, but instead of at each other, mad at the situation our country has made for itself. Mad that we've become complacent to the terror that exists every day for an American citizen. Mad that our newsfeeds are constantly filled with story after story of people being murdered. Mad that amongst it all, we can't even come together, look past each other's physical appearance, and try to figure out a solution. 

"The best way out is always through."

Alanna's Summer Chronicles: Volume 1

Summer Chronicles a la Alanna.

I thought about calling it "The Intern Diary" but I feel that my summer will consist of more than just that.

I transported myself out here to good ol' Omaha, Nebraska (thanks Mom and Dad).

I am interning at Hayneedle, Inc. as the Merchandising Intern.

Alright, now that we have the boring stuff out of the way, in the past 4 days I've been here, I feel I've learned a lot. Such as:

1. You could get places a lot faster if you went the right way. 

Most of my time is driving around, realizing I went the wrong way, and desperately struggling to get back on track. While sometimes I turn to my friend, Stacy (AKA: GPS, AKA: Godsend; although, Stacy has been being replaced by Margaret sometimes. A. I don't like it. B. Margaret sucks, and says things like "Go south." That means nothing to me, Margaret), I have started to become increasingly stubborn and yelling that, "I can figure it out myself!" My work commute home could be about 15 minutes shorter if I just turned the right way. This also leads me to...

(Instagram-Norvina)

2. I'm not very observant

A main solution that would help in the lesson above is if I could become familiar with the buildings and businesses around me. I have driven the same routes everyday for 4 days, and every day, it's like I've never been on it before. I stared at the turn I needed for a full stop light rotation, and only at the last second realized I needed to turn. I proceeded to turn left across four lanes of traffic in the far right lane.

(Instagram)

3. People in Nebraska honk their horns a lot.

If one more God damned person honks their horn at me, I'm gonna freak out. Every day I get honked at at least once. But it's never when I'm doing anything illegal like mentioned above. It's when the stop light turned green a millisecond before. Maybe their teaching something different over in Nebraska's drivers' education programs, but I don't appreciate it.

4. The "bad parker disease" is everywhere.

Now, I might not be able to drive that well, but I can do the most basic thing and pull into a spot without being too close to the line on either side. We're not talking parallel or any other type of difficult parking (?), just the basics. And no. one. can. do. it. (Including my mom but I forgive her.)

(Google) While not precise, much like this.

5. If you are in the market for a children's bed, there are at least 1200 options to choose from.

I'm sure you would have never guessed this because neither would I. Until I started looking at the category placement of them. On a 5000+ row spreadsheet. I am on row 1600 some after 8 hours of work.

(Pinterest)

6. You can absolutely get sick of eating fast food.

The past 5 days, at least one (if not all) of my meals have been fast food. While I have become a burger and fry conisseur, I hope to never eat one again (JK, I'll probs eat one like tomorrow). 

7. Five Guys Burgers and Fries is overrated.

I had to get my headphones over my lunch hour, so I thought I'd stop and grab Five Guys. Seeing as it's the biggest deal it is coming to Iowa, I figured this place had to be a big deal. No. I'm over it. 

A. It was the slowest freaking "fast food" I've ever gotten. I was number 57 (arrived at 12:15, assuming it started counting at 11 when it opened; that's less than one customer per minute), and it was a good five minutes between 56 and me. 

B. I don't approve of this weird "just shovel the fries into the bag and not into a sleeve" game.

C. This weird ass man would not stop staring at me. Like not out of the corner of his eye either. Turning his whole body around and staring at me for the whole 15 minutes I was waiting for my mediocre food. Boys, this is not flattering. This is weird and rude and lots of other not positive adjectives. Look away, freak.

D. Some lady flagged me down in the parking lot and asked me if I was at all familiar with Lincoln. Well, last time I checked we were in Omaha, but I drive the wrong way so freaking often, maybe we are in Lincoln.

Creep

8. Piles of emails will plague me for the rest of my life.

As I am writing this here blog post, my phone shows that I have 21,106 emails (that was after I refreshed it from yesterday at 21,066). I understand that I have done this to myself, and that it is very unlikely I will ever crawl out of this hole I have dug. But the very first time I logged into my work email on my very first day, I had 49 unread emails. And this my friends, I simply cannot take the blame for.

The proof's in the pudding, people. 

9. Blow up mattresses are not that uncomfortable.

While, yes, I would rather be writing this atop a plush California King, this blow up camping queen has been doing me well. Most nights I am so utterly exhausted that I couldn't care less if I was sleeping on the floor. I woke up at midnight last night curled at the foot of my bed; I'm not picky.

10. I have become one of those psycho Iowa State people.

Because I am out of campus, I find myself clinging to anything and talking about everything Iowa State. I have attempted to befriend all the Iowa State employees at Hayneedle. I find myself yammering on about Iowa State all the time ("Iowa State's great." "Oh yeah, we have this street called Welch." "I'm happy to be here but excited to get back to Ames." "I love Iowa State. Do you love Iowa State? You don't? You should because I love Iowa State and if you don't, you are wrong and need to reevaluate everything about your stinkin' life.") I also found myself scowling at some man in an Iowa hat today in the office. 

(Pinterest)

Thanks for reading!
I hope to blog at least once a week to let everyone who cares or doesn't know what's going on in my life. I thought about vlogging or starting a Youtube channel, but I don't know if even I care enough about me for that. We'll see where this summer takes me. 


Live, Love, Lan