LATE POST! CONCERT REVIEW! Maroon 5 & Kelly Clarkson concert @ the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View 10/2/13

Posted in Music, Review by

I’m finallllly getting around to writing this post! Sorrry 😦 Since there’s been a million recaps around the internet at this point, I’ll try to keep my blabbing short and just put up my pictures and videos. Also please forgive the state of some of the videos. I usually film with a video camera, but this was the first night I had my iPhone, so I was really excited to use it. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that the camera doesn’t rotate when you turn the phone, so some of the video is upside down/on its side. Sorry 😦

Opening Act: I arrived to the show late so I can’t comment on the opening act

Kelly Clarkson:
Since I was late I can’t comment on all of Kelly Clarkson’s part of the show. However, I’ve seen her in concert before when she was touring with Clay Aiken a million years ago, so I know I adore her live performances. She’s very talented and seems sweet and kind. I have delusions of being her best friend some day 🙂
Her performance was amazingly strong. She’s so upbeat, full of energy, and sounds amazing live – no lip synching here! She puts on an amazing show, videos playing behind her, great crowd interaction, great interaction with her band/back up singers, and a few costume changes.
On an unrelated note, my mom said that Kelly looked pregnant and as we now know, Kelly has announced that she is indeed pregnant…my mom is a smarty pants.

“Breakaway”

“People Like Us”
Sorry for the awkwardness of this video, I almost didn’t post it, but I thought the staging was SO well done, that it had to be seen.
http://youtu.be/k0r_eiwQVMc&h=700&w=400
“Since U Been Gone”
I died of happiness, this is my jam, this is everyone’s jam! Clearly…

Maroon 5
This was the night I fell in love with Adam Levine. I never understood why everyone was so obsessed with him, but now I see. He is SO talented! I fell in love with his obvious passion and dedication to his craft. No one is that present and awesome on stage without putting in hours and hours of hard work, heart, and soul. I crush on musicians way too easily because I find passion, dedication, and commitment really attractive.
Anyways, their entire performance was incredible, just like Kelly. I liked how some of their set pieces/videos tied into the theme of what Kelly did. I also thought they did a great job of incorporating songs that featured other artists like, “Payphone”, without having that artist actually appear at the concert. They were so high energy, everyone was dancing and singing along – and that’s the best part of a concert. There you are, singing your lungs out, near tears because this song means so much to you and you glance over and the people around you are doing the same thing. It helps remind me that we’re all on this crazy ride together. That’s why music has always been so important to me. If I ever have a bad day, I turn on certain songs and I know the songwriter/artist has felt this way too, and they got through it & so will I. I think that’s what music does, it just reminds us that we’re not alone. I just got super side tracked, but here’s some video!

“One More Night” – show opener

“Love Somebody” – one of my favorite songs!

“Stereo Hearts”

“Moves Like Jagger” – Adam Levine is the sassiest. Also, if you’re interested in seeing the opening act, she comes back for this song. I would’ve preferred Kelly, but oh well.

“Payphone”

Final notes
Amazing, amazing, amazing show. Best show of 2013. Out of Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard (recap coming soon), and this show – I would see Kelly Clarkson & Maroon 5 again in a heartbeat! Their performances really showed off how talented these performers are and they all did an amazing job at connecting with the audience. I appreciated that they seemed to really be enjoying themselves, their enthusiasm was pouring off the stage and everyone in that amphitheater was influenced by it. I left the show high on life, feeling inspired to find passion like theirs in my own life. Cheesy, but true. That’s real artistry.

Picture Slideshow of the entire event – about 40 pictures…

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Mani Monday!

Posted in Mani Monday, New Products, Review by

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This week and possibly next week (depending on how well this polish holds up) is brought to you by Nailuv 12 piece Professional at Home Gel Nail System in the color Rum Cola. Here’s the kit in the box.

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I received this kit as a Christmas gift so I’m not sure where it’s from, probably Ulta. I’ve never used anything like this before and it was really fun to use! Yes time consuming, but enjoyable. I think with more practice I could cut down the time. More practice is definitely necessary lol! I can feel parts of my cuticle that I glued to my nails because I wasn’t careful enough with where I put the polish. Although simple, there are quite a few steps involved in this process and I can do a full review or tutorial if requested. I will warn you, be careful of lint/string/thread etc hanging around. It will get stuck in the hardened polish! I’m not sure what the consistency of the polish was like after the first curing session Bc I was too afraid to mess with it, but once the whole process was done these babies were dry and hard as rocks. I love it! I felt totally comfortable using my hands right away. Also, I definitely felt professional using the LED light. This color seemed to pool at the tips but again, with more practice I’ll learn what thickness to spread the polish. Random fact: this stuff smells great! I thought it would smell very heavy with that alcohol/nail polish smell, but it definitely doesn’t 🙂

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Thoughts? Have you ever used at home gel nail systems or anything like this? Let me know your thoughts on all this! Feel free to follow me on Instagram and Twitter @missal_leigh

New Year’s Eve Make Up Look – Dynamite Editorials!

Posted in Dynamite Editorials, Make Up, New Products, TNT Tauna by

http://www.tnt-tauna.com/new-years-eve-make-up-look-by-missal_leigh/
A New Year’s Eve make up look Tutorial I wrote, featured on TNT-Tauna.com

Please read, share, and follow my other blogging endeavor at TNT-Tauna.com!

Mani Monday!

Posted in Mani Monday, New Products, Review by

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Today’s Mani Monday is brought to you by O.P.I in the color “Rising Star”. This is from the Burlesque Collection. Does anyone remember that movie with Christina Aguilera & Cher? I never saw it but I wanted to.

This is the first time I’ve used this color.
As usual with O.P.I. products, I’m not in love with the square brush, but the pigmentation is great. I didn’t use a base coat :/ but two coats of polish and top coat worked just fine.
The quality of this polish is great. One coat was enough to create a base with very little streaks. You could’ve left it alone if you wanted a very sheer shimmery look. The second coat was perfect for filling in spaces and creating a super shiny shimmery look. I feel like my nails look like brand new pennies lol.
For some holiday fun and to add a little color contrast, I glued on some nail gems from the dollar store. We’ll see how long those last lol.

All in all, great color & I’m pleased with the turn out, but I already passed it onto my mom. I’m not a huge sparkle/shimmer person and this color is overloaded! I can tell it looks nice on my nails & I’ve gotten a lot of compliments, but it just doesn’t feel like me. I know, I’m weird.
Does that ever happen to anyone else – a beauty product that just doesn’t feel quite right with your personality? Am I alone in this weirdness? Lol let me know in the comments!

As always, thanks for reading! Please follow me here & on Instagram & Twitter @missal_leigh

Mini Review – Beautifully Disney: Fantasy in Flight!

Posted in Make Up, New Products, Review, Shopping by

Disney Haul!
You may be wondering if such a thing exists. When you work for Disney and get 40% off stuff during the holidays….yes…Disney hauls DO exist. I personally didn’t walk away with too much stuff, however, I did come away with two products from the newest collection from “Beautifully Disney” cosmetics line. This newest collection is focused on Disney fairies. Personally I think they could’ve shown some of the other fairies. They skipped any and all fairy godmothers. The main faces are Tinker Bell (of course) from Peter Pan, and The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio. Anyways, I picked up the Fantasy in Flighty Eyeshadow Palette ($36.95) and the 4 Nail Polish Mini Set ($21.95). They also had a brush set that looked really nice, but I have a ton of brushes already and I wasn’t sure what their quality was. They also had some new blushes that were really pigmented, but they had faces of villains on the front, and I didn’t want that. So anyways, here’s the pictures and some thoughts on what I’ve got. Enjoy!

Thoughts:
Nail Polish: Upon reflection I have no idea why I bought these. I have 393838 bottles of nail polish, and I really don’t need any more. I was probably stoked because with the discount these were fairly cheap. I’m annoyed because the two gold colors are pretty similar, which would’ve dissuaded me from buying them if I’d thought about it a little more at the store. I’m interested to see how the bigger pieces of glitter will actually lay once applied to the nails. I can do a full review on these nail colors if anyone would like – let me know! I’m most excited  about the red color, which I believe is “Star Struck”. I’m  not pleased that the names of these colors are not labeled on the bottles or labeled in any obvious way. Based on the ingredients in the packaging this is what I’ve decided – “Spriteful” is the darker gold with bigger pieces of glitter because the packaging says it has Red Iron Oxide & Yellow #5 in it. I figured the Red Iron Oxide is what made it slightly darker…? “Wish Come True” is the softer gold color because it only has Yellow #5. “Star Struck” is the red because it has Red #7 in it. Finally, “Something Sassy” is the blue because it has Violet #2 in it. I feel like a really dumb scientist right now. I hope those are right… 😦 I apologize if I’m wrong, and if anyone knows  for sure the correct names I would really appreciate if you let me know!

Palette: I know this is not the same line of products as the Disney by Sephora collection but I feel like they’re about the same quality, so I pretty much bought this based on what the packaging looks like lol, just like I did with The Little Mermaid palette. As you can see from the swatches, the pigmentation is mixed. I passed my finger over the colors at a medium pressure, you could see where my finger had left a trace in the shadow, yet the colors were hit and miss in terms of pigment. Perhaps with a proper make up brush and technique the pigment will go on nicely if you apply it with a patting motion. I think the colors are nice. Again, no names for these colors which makes me unhappy, but oh well. They all have shimmer in them so be aware!I’m really looking forward to trying out the white as a highlight, the rose gold next to it as a lid shade, and the copper brown in the crease. Another option would be the same highlight/crease, but using the yellow as the lid shade. For a more dramatic look, I would again use the white as a highlight, the blue (above the yellow) as my lid shade, then put the dark blue/black (above the white) as my crease color. Just some ideas! Were you inspired by any of these shades, share your ideas with me!

Let me know what you think about these purchases in the comments and let me know if you’d like to see some looks created or full reviews 🙂 Please follow this blog & follow me on Instagram and Twitter @missal_leigh

Mani Monday!

Posted in Mani Monday, New Products, Review by

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Today’s Mani Monday is brought to you by Sinful Colors polish in the color “Mambo Melt”. It’s a very shiny purple, no shimmer, not metallic but it’s certainly not matte. I guess I’d call this a satin finish.

Honestly not sure where I picked this color up from. I’ve had it for awhile and never used it Bc of the finish, I generally prefer solid matte colors. However, this is what got picked out of the nail polish bin so that’s what I went with!

Quality wise, this isn’t great. The first coat was very streaky, a second coat was definitely necessary. I always use base, two coats of color, and a top coat, but something went awry this time. The second coat made the polish look thick and fully covered the nail, but when I applied the top coat, is stripped some of the color away! I tried to take a picture of this but it’s kind of hard to see…(see pic below) I definitely waited a looong time between color and top coat, so I know it was dry. I’m not sure why that happened, if it was the quality if the polish or something I did wrong..? Any thoughts please let me know!

I’m going to let this polish wear for the week and see what happens, but at this point I don’t feel a strong inclination to keep this in my polish bin especially when I have much better quality. We’ll see!

Have you ever used Sinful Colors or experienced the color stripping I experienced? Please let me know in the comments!

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Mani Monday!

Posted in Mani Monday, New Products, Review, Shopping by

20131209-122909.jpgToday’s Mani Monday is brought to you by Sephora by O.P.I. In the color “Break a Leg-warmer!” I believe this is one of the colors from the NY Ballet inspired line…which would make sense given the name.

Usually I don’t like square shaped brushes. I prefer the rounded brush like the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. However, I didn’t want to stick to just one brand for the rest of my life so I picked up some Sephora colors during my Sephora haul that I blogged about in November.

This color is super rich and creamy, almost one coat is enough, but by default I did two, along with my normal base/top coat. I worry that this will leave my nails a little grey tinged when I take the polish off but hopefully the base coat stops that from happening.

Let me know your thoughts! Do you like this color? Do you like other Sephora by OPI colors? Other brands?

Movie Review – Delivery Man!

Posted in Movies, Review by

Last night I went to see Vince Vaughn’s new movie “Delivery Man”.

“Stats”: Opened on November 22nd to mostly mixed reviews. Notable cast includes Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, and Cobie Smulders. Here’s the trailer!

Plot: “Delivery Man” centers around a middle aged guy named David who discovers he’s the biological father of 533 children due to a mix up at a fertility clinic he donated sperm to in his 20’s. A group of the kids are suing David, contesting his right to remain anonymous. The film follows him in trying to figure out how to do the right thing for his current growing family and the kids who want to know their father. Along the way his journey is highlighted by picking out select profiles and meeting those kids and helping them in some way, while trying to remain anonymous. I think the trailer does a really good job of revealing the key plot points, while not giving too much away, so I won’t say too much more.

Thoughts: I thought this movie was a standard “drama-dy” (Drama/Comedy), but it was definitely NOT your typical Vince Vaughn movie…not necessarily a bad thing. “Delivery Man” had a good mix of sweet, funny moments, mixed in with some darker plot points.

Cons: This isn’t necessarily a con, but was something I found a little off. The “name brand” actors in this movie all played against type. I understand that’s not a horrible thing, but it was just so strange to see Chris Pratt, who I recognize from “The O.C”, playing a lawyer and father. Cobie Smulders, who normally plays Robin from “How I Met Your Mother”, was Vince Vaughn’s very serious/angry girlfriend with no sense of humor.

Pros: The highlights of the movie were definitely the stories when David interacted with his kids. I feel like the actors that played the kids in these “special” stories are on their way to big things, especially Dave Patten, Adam Chanler-Berat, and Jack Reynor.
Dave Patten plays Adam, one of David’s kids who is pretty much the ring leader of the lawsuit to find out his identity. He plays a musician in the film and in real life is a talented singer-songwriter-musician who plays multiple instruments. He’s also a published author. His novel “Run of the Mill” is definitely on my book list! Also I swear I recognize him from something non-media related but I can’t put my finger on what it is.
Adam Chanler-Berat plays Viggo, one of the kids involved in the lawsuit who figures out that David is actually his father. He uses this information to his advantage to kind of blackmail David into spending some one on one time with him. Chanler-Berat is notable to me because he’s also well known for playing Henry in the stage show “Next to Normal” and Boy/Peter in “Peter and the Starcatcher”. “Next to Normal” also features two other actors I’m extremely impressed with, Aaron Tevit, probably most well known for being in last year’s film “Les Mis” & Skylar Astin, from “Pitch Perfect.” I just saw “Peter and the Starcatcher” in S.F (review coming soon!) and it was awesome – so I’m automatically enthralled with anyone who’s been involved in the show.
Jack Reynor plays Josh, one of the first of David’s kids that he helps. I think he gave a really honest performance…and he looks like Jesse Spencer (Dr. Chase from House). Reynor can be seen soon in the next Transformer’s movie, a series I generally enjoy, so I thought that was pretty cool too.

I’ve rambled enough…would I recommend this movie? Sure, I guess. I’m mostly enthusiastic about it for the performances from Vaughn and the above mentioned actors. The plot was iffy for me because it was all these kids complaining about how they didn’t know their dad so they don’t know who they are and they feel a part of them is missing. I was raised by a single mom, I don’t know my dad, and I don’t feel that way, so it was hard for me to connect with that part of the plot. Overall I’d give this film a B rating. Give it a go if you’re interested in seeing some new talent and a different side of Vince Vaughn. 

If you’ve seen the film, what did you think? Are you interested in seeing it? Let me know!

Harry Potter Gift Guide!

Posted in Dynamite Editorials, Shopping, TNT Tauna by

It’s here! My latest post on tnt-tauna.com!
I’ve put together a little Harry Potter Gift Guide to help my fellow Potterheads find the perfect gift this holiday. Or, more likely, this gift guide will help the struggling Muggle to find the perfect gift for the Potterhead in their life. Let me know what you think either here or on the Gift Guide post itself!

As always, please follow me on…
tnt-tauna.com
this blog you’re currently reading
& on Twitter/Instagram @missal_leigh

Thanks!

Writing Sample – Domestic Violence

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I’m sorry I’ve been slacking on posts lately, just been really busy and technology has not been kind to me. It’s exhausting trying to figure out how to format all the pictures and videos on here from my iPhone – but I’ll learn!…someday. So to keep the 4 of you who read this blog kind of entertained, I’m gonna post up a late post, something I wrote on FB in “honor” of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Hope you guys find this at least interesting, hopefully thought provoking too. Let me know…

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and this is a cause I’ve decided to become more vocal about. *begin rant*
Never let anyone that “loves” you make you feel unsafe, unwanted, or unloved, especially when they turn around and tell you it’s YOUR fault they treat you badly. No one is holding them back, making them stay, if you’re such an issue in their lives, why don’t they leave? The answer: You’re not the problem. They are. Their mindset, attitude, and actions are the problem. Not you. No one deserves to be made to feel like they’re worthless. There are a million other things I want to say, but the bottom line is, love is out there & it does not look like anything I mentioned above.
Be good to the person you’re with, the heart, mind, and spirit are so fragile, and they’re trusting you to take care of them. More importantly, I know this is can be so challenging but, be good to yourself, recognize when someone is disrespecting you to the utmost degree and get out! MOST importantly, if you ever have the chance to help someone suffering from domestic violence, please help them. Sometimes people can’t see their own worth because they’ve been put down for so long & they need someone else to show them that they deserve better. They may not listen to you right away, but never give up on them.
Love is out there that comes with respect and safety, and the place you should find that kind of love first before you look for it in a relationship, is within yourself. When you respect and value yourself, you won’t depend on other people to feel that way about you. You will be enough. You are enough. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.