Product review: Stila Plumping Lip Glaze

Lately, I've become a lot more of a makeup junkie. Not like the type that works at MAC, all drag-queened out, but I just like collecting makeup, and trying out lots of different kinds. So, I'm going to start blogging about the kinds I try. I figure I might as well pass on what I'm learning to other people who might try the same things.

I've avoided lip products for awhile. I might pick up the occasional lipstick or whatever, but for the most part, I tend to emphasize my eyes if I'm doing makeup. That being said, I went to Sephora a couple of weeks ago and got a sample of this awesome stuff. I liked it so much, I went back and bought a full-sized one (in Cherry Mint).

I love the way the gloss feels, a little tingly but not painful. It's not too sticky, either. The color is sheer and flattering, and there's just a tiny bit of glitter in it so it's not too annoying (I usually hate glittery lip stuff). I like it enough that it's my go-to lip gloss for summer. At least for now, anyway.

HBO new series: John from Cincinnati

Did anybody else watch this show? More to the point, did anyone understand it?

John from Cincinnati is a show about a family of surfers. Mitch, the retired-due-to-injury surfer; his wife, Sissy, who is about the biggest hippie I've ever seen; their son Butch (Butchie), the retired-due-to-heroin surfer; and his son Shaun, the junior surfer.

Also, there is randomly some guy who supposedly is not named John and not from Cincinnati. He repeats just about everything everyone says, and nobody really knows who he is, but everyone assumes someone else knows.

I'm really not quite sure what to think of this show. The characters are interesting enough, but the show is pretty fast paced for a pilot. I feel like the dialogue assumes we know more than we do. This might be a device to pull us in farther, but it made me feel alienated from what was happening.

Give me some feedback if you're watching this one. I haven't decided if it's going on my To Do list or not.

Knitting, and also complaining about things -- plus, those little silver balls

Wow, the title of this blog seems so harmless, right? Not for some people.

I found out recently when I was listening to a knitting podcast (yes, I knit; I'm still learning, but mostly I am just trying out different podcasts of all types) that a company is trying to eliminate all instances of groups naming themselves Stitch 'n Bitch (or any variant thereof). The company, which I will not name here but you can see in the Wikipedia article, has a cafe with that phrase in the title, and trademarked the name of the cafe (not the phrase itself). However, they are sending lawyers out around the internet, patrolling and forcing removal of Yahoo! groups and CafePress accounts that use the phrase (not the name of the cafe). So, basically, all these little communities are being removed or forced to change their names because a company is trying to claim rights to a phrase first used around the time of WWII.

As Ophelia Ford might say, "That is duuuuuuuumb."

On a related note (related in that it is something dumb being done in an area of interest of mine), do you remember those little silver balls people put on cookies and cakes and stuff. They're called dragees, and they are now pretty much outlawed in California. There's a lawyer there who sues any shop that sells them because he considers them "toxic." Here is an excerpt from this article:

"Napa lawyer Mark Pollock takes silver dragees very seriously. He started suing to force dragees off the California market when he was a Solano County prosecutor in the early 1990s, and got the spice giant McCormick to stop selling them in the state. Now an environmental lawyer in private practice, he sprang back into action last spring when dragees surged back into vogue after Martha Stewart used them on holiday cookies."

Now, they do contain silver, which can build up over time and become toxic. But you'd have to eat quite a few of them, don't you think? Not to mention, I haven't heard anything about this guy trying to outlaw silver dusting over cakes and stuff, which is pretty popular, too. The FDA classifies dragees as non-edible, but they are basically hard sugar balls with a silver coating. I've always been more afraid of breaking a tooth than being poisoned.

It just goes to show that no matter what kind of fun you're having, there's always going to be a buzzkill out there.

I'm going to try to go back to more regular blogging, now that I'm up on my new computer (Windows Vista, ooh shiny). I'll try to think of something a little happier for my next blog!