Mini Book Review! my grandmother asked me to tell you she’s sorry by Fredrik Backman

Hi all! Welcome to 2019! Hope you’re doing well!

I’m jumping on here quickly because I HAD HAD HAD to post about this book I just finished, “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry” by Fredrik Backman! I didn’t take proper review notes on this book because it’s not on my To Read List. I’d heard of it and hadn’t taken an interest, but my mom lent it to me – I guess I’m the test reader before she decides if she wants to take the time to read it, haha! I really didn’t expect to like it and WOW! It is an incredible story that took me through the gamut of all my emotions & I highly recommend it.

I really can’t say for sure if this story will resonate with everyone, but, “My Grandmother…” hit all the right notes for me. It’s a story about Elsa, a 7 year old who is wise beyond her years and a huge fan of Harry Potter & all things fairy tales & fantastic. She is not able to connect with her peers & is mercilessly bullied at school. Elsa’s parents are divorced & both remarried. Her mother is always working and her father is too emotionally distant to connect with, but Elsa has the support of her wildly eccentric grandmother. Together, they explore their own world of make believe, inspired by Granny’s imagination…or so Elsa thinks. This is not a spoiler, this detail is included in most summaries of the story – Granny passes away – & leaves Elsa instructions that takes her on an adventure that changes her life in ways she never imagined.

I’m sorry I don’t have a more full review on character development, quotes, etc as I usually do for Book Reviews, but I cannot stress enough – AMAZING! PHENOMENAL!
Definitely an A+, new favorite book for me!

Hope you’re all enjoying 2019, talk to you soon!

Mini Review – Beautifully Disney: Fantasy in Flight!

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