Nails: Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Collection (LE) by OPI in "Get Your Number"

The product being reviewed in this post was purchased by me with my own money. The opinions stated further are my own opinions. I am not affiliated with the brands featured in this post. 

Hi all. This is one of my posts that was due a loooong time ago - the pictures, in fact, are from when I still worked at Duane Reade, back in April. OPI is a brand that I consider high-end for nail polishes, though I've since realized that the price is actually average when compared to other brands such as Deborah Lippmann. I never even looked at their products until one of my favorite YouTubers, FrmHeadToToe, published a blog post about one of the polishes from their limited edition Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Collection (I don't know what the 'official' name of the collection is - sorry!), which I'll link for you here.

The color Jen reviewed was "Get Your Number" which - tada! - is the color I'm going to talk about today. The gorgeous blue and interesting sparkly-but-matte formula in her pictures had me curious and, I may as well put it out there now: OPI's liquid sand is now my favorite formula/finish of nail polish. I only own two colors because of the price, and there are other nail polishes with similar effects that I have yet to try, so my feelings may change, but for now that's the bottom line.

Anyway, onto the review!

Jeweliq: My First Purchase

Hi all. I remember when I made my first blog banner about a year ago. There was jewelry in some of the pictures, but only for the purpose of decoration. Truth is, I don't own much jewelry. I bought some rings and bangles at Forever 21 last year, have a couple of owl necklaces because they're another one of my favorite types of birds, and, of course, have some jewelry boxes with sophisticated hand-me-downs and cheap, pretend-play jewelry from when I was a little girl. Lately, though, I've been wanting a statement necklace because I like how they enhance certain outfits.

So when I saw MakeupByAlli's video here and heard her talk about Jeweliq while talking about her own statement necklace in the video, I decided to check the company out.

Sakamoto Maaya: Hajimari No Umi (LE) + First Press Bonus Details (07/31/13)

**I am a CDJapan affiliate and this post contains affiliate links.**

Hi all! Hooray for Sakamoto Maaya's newest single, Hajimari No Umi, which I would've reviewed sooner except its release date was 07/31/13, and I didn't get my copy of it in the mail until 08/01/13. Super quick delivery as usual, but I was leaving for California the day after! I literally snapped some pictures of the sealed album in crappy lighting the same day so I could open it, and then transferred the songs to my computer. As for the DVD, I watched it at the last minute - probably 2 A.M. or so.

As per the title and some details above, I bought the limited edition version of this single, which differs from the regular edition in the fact that it comes with a second CD: a DVD with the PV for the single's main track, "Hajimari No Umi," and footage from her Countdown Live 2012-2013 - Tour "Mitsubachi" Final (CDJapan refers to it as a "digest" on their website). And, as usual, because I preordered the single when it initially became available for preorder on the CDJapan website, I received the first press bonus.

This post will include pictures of the single itself and the first press bonus, as well as my thoughts on both the songs in the single and the content of the DVD. So, if you're interested, you know what to do. =P

Stephen King: Joyland

Hi again. Time for a book review, yay! And a King one at that.

When I heard that Stephen King was releasing a book - Joyland - that had to do with murder, ghosts, and theme parks, I was thrilled. I love murder mysteries (hence my loyalty to the deceased Agatha Christie), I love horror built around ghosts (which feels like the most believable kind of horror, to me anyway), and I think that theme parks/amusement parks/carnivals - however you want to call them - are the perfect setting for anything horror. They have so much life flowing through them that there are as many happy memories in them as there are chilling histories. In carnivals, ghosts are inevitable.

So when 06/04/13 came around, and my preordered copy came in the mail as a gift from my boyfriend, I couldn't wait to start reading it. Of course, I was working on another book that is way longer and more complex to read at the time (and I have yet to finish), so I didn't get the chance to read Joyland until my flight to California. I finished it in about 3 sittings, though, and the reason is simple: King knows how to write.

The IceBlock [15]: Nikki's Back

Hello hello. I mentioned it here and there, but never officially announced that I would be leaving for California between the 2nd of August and the 12th of August. I had Internet access this time around, but let's be serious: it was not reliable enough to post anything (and probably wouldn't be able to support any picture-uploading on top of that). So I've been gone, happy and gone, and now I'm sad and back, but it always works out that way unfortunately. I am happy to be with my family again, and I'm excited to be back on here, but I miss my boyfriend and I miss being in the city that I hope to live in someday. Aaaand, above all, I detest being back in New York City. But that's a story for a different day.

Mainly I've been gone because of my trip, and I thought that this time around I would at least, at LEAST, post a picture or two from each of the major places I went to. That's what this post is about, besides announcing that I'm back. So it won't be super picture-heavy (at least not as picture-heavy as it could be), but I hope you enjoy the ones that I do include. With that being said, let's move forward.