What I'm reading + Mascara Haul

My Amazon book order came - finally! Been really wanting to read something new and fresh, so I hauled these three books.

Water for Elephants is a New York Times bestseller, and is the story about an old man's recollections of his youth working with a traveling circus. It seemed like a very different type of story than what I would normally read, so I decided to go for it. Apparently it's also been made into a movie starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon and will be released this spring I believe - something I wasn't aware of when I bought it.

City of Thieves is a story based in Russia during the battle of Leningrad and a young man's experiences during that time. I stumbled upon this randomly just browsing on Amazon so I have no idea if it will be good or not, but it had very positive feedback and I wanted to read something set in Russia for some reason.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the one I've already started (and nearly finished actually after one night of reading) and is the story about the unlikely friendship of two young girls from very different social classes during the 1800s in China, when foot binding was commonly practiced to ensure a good marriage. The story is about the status and everyday realities of women during this period, and also about the friendship between the two girls throughout their turbulent lives. It's a very fast and easy read, but very engrossing, if disturbing at times. I literally cringed at the description of the foot binding! Hard to imagine that this was regularly practiced by women back then.

I expect I'll be doing a LitChat review on my second channel when I'm done with these. Are you reading anything engrossing lately?

Then today I also picked up two new mascaras to try out. I'm a bit of a drugstore mascara fiend, so I thought I'd try something new. I might do a Drugstore Mascara Review 2.0 so please let me know any mascaras that have newly been released and hyped and which ones you want to see a review of, and I'll try to include them - as long as the brand and mascara is available here and I haven't reviewed them in my earlier video.

For now I just picked up the L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes and the Essence Multi action. Can you believe that the L'Oreal one costs over $25 USD here in drugstores? Yay Switzerland prices! :(

Back on Lilash

So I've been back on Lilash for a few months now and my lashes have reached their maximum splendor again so I thought I would show the reults. I don't have a good "before" picture because I forgot to take one, but this is pretty much how my lashes look now. All I'm wearing here on my lashes is Max Factor Lash Extension mascara, no eyeliner or shadow whatsoever. My natural lashes are quite unspectacular without using Lilash.

I apply the Lilash both on my top and bottom lashes each night before going to bed, just a tiny smidgeon will do (no need to re-dip to apply more product.) It does take a while to see results but I think it's worth it. I don't quite like how the lashes are curled here - I'll blame that on my cheap lash curler.

*Makes mental note to buy either a Japonesque or Shu Uemura lash curler when I get the chance.*

This mascara is actually pretty awesome for lengthening. This is Max Factor Lash Extension Effect.

It has one of those spiky rubber wands which is very long and thin, which is great for getting to the inner and outer corners of your eye, as well as the lower lashes. There's been similar wands as this seen on other brands like Cover Girl, and even high end like Lancome and Dior. But often these brushes are much thicker, making it hard to get a nice application.

This mascara really does "lengthen" my lashes, but does virtually nothing in the thickening department. It's also virtually impossible to get clumps with this mascara, even after several coats. Overall I'm pretty pleased with this, and reach for it often when I want a natural but long lash effect.

I made a video about Lilash back in February, talking about my overall experience with it, pros and cons, etc. I'll re-post it here for good measure - if you have any questions, please watch it first.

If you're interested in purchasing Lilash, you can do so here - that's where I got mine:

LiLash - Purified Eyelash Stimulator