June Box: First Items

For some reason, my hand did not want to write items. It kept writing time. That is very annoying. Anyway, my June box from Sephora Play! came in. This time, all the products were in a little cloth baggy with drawings of women in bikinis. It's pretty adorable. The theme is Summer Starters. The thing is, the two items I'm going to talk about today seemed rather out of place in this bag. Neither of them really felt summery to me. I could make a case for both of them being in this collection, somewhat, but the color of the lipstick and just the overall nature of the scent just don't give me summer.

The scent is Black Opium by Yves Saint Laurent.  It retails for 91$. I didn't exactly like this scent. It has some nice elements to it and a somewhat candy-like fragrance, but it also contains notes of patchouli and I've never been a fan. Granted, they handle the patchouli well. It doesn't swallow up everything else, but it does add this kind of heaviness to the scent that doesn't please me and certainly doesn't feel summery. I know a lot of people would balk at this review because technically, this is an award winning perfume. It just isn't to my taste.

The next item was one of Kat Von D's Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in K-Dub. The product retails for 20$. It comes in 42 shades and some of them have glorious names! One shade is called Backstage Bambi and one shade is called Underage Red. I want to buy Underage Red just so I can tell people I have a lipstick called Underaged Red! Anyway, back to the review.

Everlasting is actually a pretty amazing product. It stays on quite well and it feels really light on the lips. Even though it feels like nothing, the shade has quite an impact because it's highly pigmented. This is cool, but it also causes some problems. My roommate said it didn't LOOK very light, and I'll agree with him there, but the feel of it is great.

Part of the issue is that I didn't exactly like the K-Dub shade. Like with the lipstick last month, this one, while very pigmented, was matte. I'm just not a fan of matte lips. The other problem is that it's kind of a noncommittal magenta. If it was either pinker or more purple, I would have liked it more. As it was, I just wasn't feeling it.

Despite the color, I would completely recommend this lipstick. If you want something that gives a lot of intensity without feeling like you missed seven clowns to achieve the color, Kat Von D's Everlasting Liquid is a good way to get it.

The Wailing and Keening that Lures in the Roaming Ones

I have a friend on Facebook who loves summer. He gleefully posted about how the next weeks should bring temps in the 80s to where we are.  I kind of wanted to kick him.

As much as I was tired of winter, I'm so NOT overjoyed about the prospect of hotter weather.  My house is old and has an AC unit that eats electricity and does very little for us. During the summers, we can see week of 100+  days and that is before you factor in the humidity.

Besides the nasty heat, there is also the increase in bugs, slugs, and roaming children. Yes, I say roaming children because I don't think they're from the neighborhood, or even the town. I think they bud from slime and plant matter and just walk around, screaming and popping fire works, for no better reason that to just make summer suck more.

Of the three though, I dislike the bugs the most. And by bugs, I mean fleas.  I have cats and somehow, no matter what precautions we take to keep the fleas from showing up, they always do.  Then there is the seemingly endless struggle of baths, vacuuming, and plates-with-water-and-dishwashing-liquid-death traps. Well, and the lavender, but that part is fine.

The heat (and humidity) also puts everyone in a bad mood.  My roommate and I end up snapping at each other. Arguing about when the AC should be turned in, unwilling to even consider cooking.  The cats look at us like it's somehow our fault that it is so damned hot. Then they hiss and growl at each other.  It's just one fabulous suckfest.

Oh yes, one more think about those roaming children.  The gaggle of them also summons something else that is shitty about summer. The dreaded Ice Cream Truck of Doom.  I have this theory about ice cream truck music. I think the music is made by the ice cream truck abducting a clown and then removing its soul.  The soul is then poked by a hundred gom jabbars and forced to sing.

Yes, that is correct. Ice cream truck music is made from the tortured souls of clowns.

I think that exemplifies everything I feel about summer.