Most Played Songs Of June

Hello lovelies! I know I've been really bad about posting lately, sorry! I'm dealing with a lot at the moment so it's hard to focus on writing things to post. I thought that I would post this so that I at least posted something! Fear not though, I do have some fun posts on the way...whenever I'm able to finish them.

Also I am SO happy that same sex marriage is legal everywhere in the United States! I honestly never thought that I would see the day, but I am ecstatic. I am a huge supporter of gay rights, I have a gay relative as well as some gay/transgendered friends. I am so happy that they are finally able to marry whomever they choose. It's about damn time that they have the basic human right that everyone else had! Finally, someone at the supreme court stopped being ignorant.

Anyway, I listened to a LOT of music to try to calm my nerves this month, so here are the songs I listened to the most as well as some bonus picks for you all to check out.

1. Crystal Kay - Motherland

This song is from the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime, it was a closing song. I love it so much, it is such a beautiful song. It tends to mellow me out so I was listening to it a lot.

2. Mika Nakashima - Glamorous Sky

This song is from the Nana live action movie. It is one of my favorite Japanese songs. This month I dug through all of my Japanese music and added more of the older ones to my ipod. I love belting out to this one so I heard it a lot in the shower this month.

3. New Years Day - The Joker

NYD is one of my favorite bands. I also realized this month that this song reminds me a lot of a person that wronged me. It helped with my rage a lot xD.

4. Black Butler Book of Circus - All Around Player

[I couldn't find a version of just this song, so here's the whole soundtrack. This song is #2 on this video]

I listened to the Black Butler/Kushitsuji OSTs on repeat a lot while reading this month and I have done a LOT if reading this month. This one stuck out to me a lot.

5.  Skye Sweetnam - Number One

In May, I found my giant CD case containing all of my CDs. This one was in there. When I was in middle school, I was obsessed with this album. My best friend at the time burned me a copy and I listened to it on my long bus rides home. This was back before iPods existed. I decided to upload this album to my  ipod for nostalgia's sake and I had listened to this song in particular a lot.

6. Iced Earth - Phantom Opera Ghost

This song is pure badass. It's an old love of mine. Iced Earth is this theatrical metal band. They do lots of long, jam session like theatrical songs. All of the songs I've heard by them have been based upon stories.

This particular song is based on The Phantom of the Opera (one of my favorite movies). The lead singer of the band sings as Eric (the phantom) and a female singer (I don't know her name) sings as Christine. I was first introduced to this song many years ago while I was watching anime videos on YouTube. Someone did a Bleach cosplay skit of Hollow Ichigo and Rukia to this song. To this day I wish I could find that video again.

This is one of those songs that I can leave on for an hour on repeat and still be cool with it, so I listened to it a lot.

7. The Used - Pretty Handsome Awkward

I had a very frustrating month and this is a pretty angry song. It comes from my favorite The Used album, which I rediscovered in May after not listening to it for a long time.

8. Alesana - The Thespian

This is my favorite Alesana song. Shawn Milke has such a beautiful voice and Dennis Lee's voice is a good contrast. Anyway this song is just badass, whenever I'm irritated I just want to blast music with lots of screaming.

9. Three Days Grace - Riot

Gee can you guys tell I was frustrated? This song kind of summed up how I had been feeling and it was really therapeutic to listen to. This is one of my favorite Three Days Grace songs.

10. My Chemical Romance - Demolition Lovers

My favorite band ever. I was listening to their album, I Brought You Bullets You Brought Me Your Love a lot this month. It is their first album. I don't listen to it as much as I listen to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge or The Black Parade so when I needed the comfort of these wonderful human beings, I listened to this album. I love Demolition Lovers, it's like 2 songs in one. It's calm yet gets intense. I just love it so much.

11. 2 PM - Take Off

This is my JAM! One of my feel good songs. This is one of the EDs for Blue Exorcist. I love listening to this in the car, especially on the highway. It makes me feel like I'm in the closing animation! I once was listening to it in a car, on the highway while it was getting dark out. I totally felt like I was in the anime.

12. Bad Wolf - A Better World

I can't remember if I've mentioned Bad Wolf here before. But I love this band so much. I discovered them because I was following both the lead singer and bassist on Instagram for different reasons...and I discovered they were in the same band! I checked them out and instantly fell in love. Their music is wonderful. Of course their band name was taken from Doctor Who. This particular song features the model/cosplayer/singer Traci Hines (she is the BEST Ariel cosplayer. Check her out) and was inspired by the Hunger Games books. It is such a beautiful song. I would love to cover it someday.

Bonus Picks:

AFI - Beautiful Thieves 

AFI- Girls Not Grey

I honestly had a really hard time choosing which AFI song to recommend to you guys! I love AFI so much. So I chose two songs for you, a newer one and an older one. Beautiful Thieves is my favorite from the Crash Love album. Not their best album but still good! It's just a chill song and it calms me. Girls Not Grey is a classic. It is one of their best songs. I discovered AFI when Decemberunderground first came out, when Miss Murder and Love Like Winter were popular. I became totally obsessed with those songs and Kill Caustic...so naturally I had to download their entire song catalog. Then I listened to them so much my parents became fans too.

The Academy Is... - We've Got a Big Mess

The Academy Is... is an awesome band, sadly they broke up some years ago. William Beckett, the lead singer has such a beautiful and unique voice. This was the very first song I ever heard from this band. Back before when the music channel, Fuse played good music they used to play the video for this one all the time. Oh how I miss the old Fuse ;____;. Those were some good times.

Sister Sin - On Parole

This is a really good song. I listened to a lot of songs I listened to back in middle school/early high school years this month. Honestly it was my favorite era for alternative/rock/metal music especially the 2006ish time frame. This is just one of those old songs hiding out on my computer. It's pretty unique, I've never heard a female singer with a voice quite like this one.



Anyway, there's some music for you all to check out. What have you all been listening to this month? Comment and let me know.

Xoxo

Moon Prism Power, Makeup!

Tokyo Otaku Mode Premium Shop Review + GOT Finale Thoughts

Hi everyone! I apologize for my lack of posts. I have been dealing with a lot of things and have been extremely stressed. My life for three months now has been complete hell. It has been an extremely difficult time. I'm more focused on trying to get my health back to normal than anything else at the moment. So for anyone that didn't see my series of tweets on Friday evening, I am taking a break from twitter. I'm sure I'll return before you know it!


Warning: Game of Thrones spoilers below. The highlighted spoiler alerts are there so those of you that haven't seen the finale can scroll past the spoilers.

Spoiler Alert:

Okay who saw the Game of Thrones finale?? I am STILL fuming!!! What the fuck HBO?  I can't believe that they killed off Jon ;_____;. I literally was crying and throwing things across the room when it happened. After Daenerys, Jon was my favorite character. Seriously....WHAT THE FUCK!!! I'm sure I'm not the only pissed off fangirl. I knew that there would be a shocking death in the finale because we didn't really have any this season. But DAMN did we get some shocking deaths in this episode.

I was kind of sad that Ellaria killed Myrcella. Even though she seemed like a brat (granted she IS Cersei's daughter), she hadn't done anything to make me hate her. I was kind of looking forward to her going home and seeing what would happen with her there, if she would turn out like her mother or not. I'm fairly mad about not seeing Margaery in the finale. I was hoping to see what was going to happen to her. Plus I LOVE her so I am always happy to see her.

I was very happy about what happened to Cersei, I laughed a lot and smiled the whole time. She really did deserve all of that. Lena Headey is a wonderful actress, I can't imagine that that was an easy scene to pull off.  I'm so happy that karma finally got her ass. I also wonder who her new knight is. I hope Arya will be alright, her going blind was a gigantic holy shit moment for me, being a non reader of the GOT books. I have tried to read the books. I made it halfway through the first one. But to me they are so dryly written. Nothing against George R.R. Martin, he truly is telling a fantastic story...I just can't handle his writing style. Luckily there are some cool youtubers out there that compare the books and the show for those of us that can't read the books so I do get some additional information.

I have heard a lot of people hoping for Lady Stoneheart or another character carrying on her storyline. I do know a TINY bit about that, but not much. That didn't happen in the finale, maybe next season. I was absolutely convinced that Benjen Stark  would really return at some point in season 5.

Sansa!!!! I really couldn't care less about Reek but Sansa had better be alive next season. I want to see badass Sansa kicking some ass. Not this forever victim, weakling Sansa. And Daenerys running into the Dothraki again, wow! I definitely didn't expect that. I was very happy about what happened to Stannis. Him allowing Shireen to be burned alive broke my heart, I don't even think the red wedding destroyed me as much as that scene in episode 9 of this season did. He really did deserve it, I did have a feeling that eventually him following Melisandre's every command would screw him over in the end.


Now it's time for me to go weep because we have to wait until next March/April for more episodes ;__________; 10 weeks went by way too quickly.

End Spoiler alert

Onto the point of the post!

Disclaimer: I wrote this review of my own free will. Absolutely no one asked me to write it. I just wanted to share my experience for those that are wary. I was not bribed or paid to write this. All opinions are my own.

 While browsing online I discovered a new (to me anyway) site called Tokyo Otaku Mode. It is an online store that sells various anime merchandise and items from Japan. They are having a promotion where if you sign up via referral link, you will get 10 points ($10) to spend.

Here is my link if anyone wants to sign up:

https://otakumode.com/invite/4800a3

 Again- you only get the points when you sign up via referral.

If you confirm your email you also get a $5 coupon. The best part: you can use either one of these without having to buy a certain amount (I hate when stores make you spend a certain amount to use points/perks you have earned) . For new users there is also free shipping on certain items. So how was my experience with them?

I signed up through a referral I saw on reddit and indeed I received the points and the coupon. Just a note you can't use both on the same order, it's just one or the other.

I found an item with free shipping and went to buy it. I typically buy all of my otaku goods/nerd things from Amazon or Hot Topic. But the offer of free stuff was way too tempting to pass up.

Stupidly I used the $5 coupon instead of the $10 in points...I wasn't aware until after I placed my order that the free shipping on certain items only applied to new users. I thought that I would be able to use the $5 AND the $10 in separate transactions to get some things totally free. Oh well! At least I got something. I am a little miffed at myself though...I really wanted to order a Grell keychain too.

What is nice is with every item on their site, it will show you how many are in stock. It does make me a little wary though of ordering something with just 1 or 2 in stock. But that is something I haven't really seen on any other website.

They also seem to have a decent selection of products. I saw some cool things like Inuyasha and Sword Art Online memo pads that I have never seen anywhere else

I ordered a Kirito keychain for $4.99 and it had free shipping for new users. I'm unsure of the pricing for other items, but this was a really good deal. The same keychain was about $7 on Amazon. Hot Topic usually prices their anime keychains around $7-$10. I have never ordered from Right Stuf (they're another online store that sells anime and Japan related goods. They are extremely popular), but someday I hope to try them out! Then maybe I can compare these two shops.

I used the $5 coupon and I didn't have to pay a cent. Even though my order was free, they did still make me provide payment information. That did make me a little nervous that my debit card may get charged some ridiculous shipping fee. I checked my bank account after my order shipped and I wasn't charged a thing. They do accept paypal as a payment method. However, I tried to purchase this item with my paypal as the payment option and it wouldn't allow it for some reason. I had no other problems otherwise. Their website is also safe and secure.

I placed my order on a Friday afternoon and it shipped the following Monday afternoon. The website promises orders will ship in 1-2 business days and they were true to their word! It shipped via USPS from their California warehouse (they ship certain items from Japan apparently). They sent me a shipping confirmation email that included tracking. I HATE when I order something online and don't get tracking. Hence why every time I order from Jolse I pay the extra $2 to track my order. I don't want my shit getting lost! (I actually had an incident where usps lost my Jolse package...it would've been gone had I not payed for tracking).


It took 3 days to arrive here in Connecticut which is pretty impressive! Half the time when I order something online and it ships via USPS it can take up to a week to arrive.

When I got the box my order came in, I had to laugh to myself. It was a very large box for the small thing that I ordered. I also saw that they shipped my order via 2 day priority. I highly appreciate when people ship my orders that way instead of using the cheapest method possible.

If my mailwoman...yes I said woman didn't know that I was a nerd already...she does now! The boxes that TOM ships orders in has their logo all over it and the phrase "Otaku life" all over the place. I love it though, I'm proud of my otaku status!!

No I didn't order a book. That's just there to cover my address. I don't need stalkers .____. there are some seriously creepy people out there (probably including me. Hehehe). I'm currently re-reading the Fruits Basket series!

When I opened the box, I saw why they chose to send it in one of that size. They put my order summary form in a really cool folder! Please ignore the glare on the folder. It is SUPER shiny and difficult to photograph.

The back of the folder

Seriously, look at that artwork. They also included a thank you card with beautiful artwork and a button. I forgot to take a picture of the card. Oops!

My keychain was at the bottom, not only in original packaging but wrapped again and taped to the bottom so it wouldn't be floating around.

Kawaii Kirito!!! 

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my experience with Tokyo Otaku Mode. If their shipping prices aren't outrageous I would definitely buy from them again. For me, shipping prices can be a deal breaker. I think their shipping prices vary by order, as I did not see a fixed shipping price anywhere. They do have the option of free shipping when you spend a certain amount...but I think that amount is something like $100.

 I am so very happy with my order, I highly recommend that you try them out!


Xoxo

Moon prism power, makeup!

Yona of the Dawn

Hello internet!  I have returned! I stayed away from my social media accounts as well as this blog for a little while due to some personal reasons.

SPOILER ALERT:

Who saw Game of Thrones on sunday?? That was INSANE! Fucking white walker zombies! I was freaking out so hard. Like full out flailing, clapping, bouncing in my seat and various "holy shits". It was just glorious. Like The Walking Dead on ice. Ironically, 10 minutes before that huge battle I was telling my mom (who watches GOT with me) how I hoped they would show the white walkers this season and have them interact with people. I totally did NOT see that coming!

END SPOILER ALERT

I thought of saving this post for one of my "recently watched anime" features but this show deserves its own post! In my absence I have been binge watching SO much anime. My anime list has also been a big motivator in me finishing up shows. If you would like to keep up with what shows I'm watching, send me a friend request at:

http://myanimelist.net/profile/Lipstickzombie

A few weekends ago, I decided to start watching a new show (well, new to me) called Yona of The Dawn (or Akatsuki No Yona). I was browsing my Crunchyroll queue trying to decide what to watch and I thought that I would give this show a try. I normally am not a fan of feudal era shows (except for Inuyasha. I LOVE Inuyasha!) So I wasn't sure how much I would be into this show.

However, I'm so happy that I took the plunge! I binge watched the entire show all weekend, enduring WAY too many Six Flags El Diablo ads. Have I mentioned how much I HATE the ads on Crunchyroll?? I finally caved and got a free trial for premium after seeing the same ad 15 times in a row made me want to bash my head into the wall. I can be very picky with the shows I watch (especially anime) and I was hooked within 2 episodes. I haven't seen a show that made me want to binge watch and never stop watching since Golden Time.

So, Yona is about a young princess in feudal era Japan named Yona. She is initially a happy, carefree and sometimes bratty girl. Her father a very kind and gentle ruler dotes on her. She is beautiful and in a way, self absorbed. She hates her unruly yet gorgeous bright red hair (I am seriously jealous of her hair!). Yona lives in her father's palace, Hiryuu castle in the kingdom of Kouka and has a bodyguard (who is her childhood friend) named Hak, since her mother was murdered.

Sexy men make everything  anime better *^*.

Hak is sexy as fuck *^*. Hak also has feelings for Yona.

For the celebration of her 16th birthday, her beloved cousin who she looks up to and is actually in love with (hey, cousin loving wasn't all that uncommon back in the day!) Su-Won (can also be spelled Soo-Won) visits.  He was always very kind to Yona, comforting her whenever she was sad. He treated her like a little sister and a child though Yona wanted him to see her as a woman. For her birthday he gives Yona a beautiful hair pin and tells her that he loves her hair.

I wouldn't mind a man giving me that hair pin, just saying!! Haha, seriously though I LOVE her hair pin. I tried to find it online but sadly couldn't find a replica anywhere :(. And seriously....I LOVE Yona's hair! It's a gorgeous pink toned red. I'm pretty sure that Manic Panic's Cleo Rose matches it pretty spot on. Haha I've spent so much time looking at hair dye in my life that I didn't need to look the color up. Yona makes me want to dye my hair that color.

Of course Yona's carefree lifestyle comes to an end when on Yona's birthday, Su-Won murders her father and she witnesses it when she was going to tell her father King Il that she can't get over her love for Su-Won( Her father was previously talking about marrying her off).  Su-Won then orders all of the guards (traiterous assholes) to kill her. Yona thanks to Hak saving her gets away and the pair must remain on the run to avoid Su-Won's minions.

They eventually make it to the wind village where Hak is head of the Wind tribe and is from there. Hak intends to leave Yona there where she will be safe and go off on his own, but the Fire tribe, knowing she is there begins to do things to endanger the villagers. She refused to allow the kind, welcoming villagers to suffer so she insists on leaving with Hak. Hak's grandfather Mun- Deok (can be spelled Mundok..I guess spelling depends on which source you watch it from) tells them to search for a priest named Ik-Su. On their journey they run into some of Su-Won's minions and ultimately fall off of a cliff. They assume that the pair fell to their death. I had to laugh at the fact that the lord of the fire tribe was evil. Gee...where have we seen an evil fire lord before? (*cough* AvatarTheLastAirbender *cough*)

Ik-Su is a clumsy but very generous priest who lives out in the middle of nowhere. Any time he has gold and tries to help people they take advantage of him.

He lives with a boy named Yun who takes care of him. Yun finds Yona and Hak after they had fallen and treats their wounds. Yun acts coldly towards them but grows to like them. Ik-Su tells Yona of a prophecy, claiming to be speaking the word of god. The prophecy goes:

"When darkness falls upon the land, the dragon's blood will restore life once more. In accordance with the ancient pact, when the four dragons gathered, the sword and shield that protect the king awaken. The red dragon will return at dawn."

The prophecy is based upon the legend of the creation of the Kouka kingdom which goes like this:

The red dragon god took a human form, descending from heaven to rule the Kouka kingdom on Earth. He became the first king of Kouka, king Hiryuu. Hiryuu eventually had to fight humans. The humans' hearts turned evil, they forgot their god and their country fell to ruin. Hiryuu was captured by humans who desired power. When he was about to be killed by them, four dragons descended from heaven to save him. They proclaimed a desire to destroy the humans who had forgotten their faith and then return to heaven. But Hiryuu rejected their wish. Though the humans hated and betrayed him he still loved them. The dragons loved Hiryuu and did not want to lose him so in order to protect him they gave their blood to human warriors, granting them strength. One of them gained sharp claws that could tear through anything, another eyes that could see across great distances. The third gained legs that could jump high into the sky and the final warrior gained a strong body that could never be injured. The warriors became the dragons' other halves. Their destiny, to serve Hiryuu as their master and protect him with their lives. With those powers, the warriors were able to protect Hiryuu and bring order to the kingdom. The red dragon eventually grew tired of fighting and fell asleep, which ended the mission of the dragon warriors. In their grief, the dragon warriors left their tribes and dissapeared. Their tribes still remained and became the Kouka kingdom tribes.
Ik-Su tells Yona that she must search for the four dragons of the legend, that they will lend her their strength. He believes that god is leading her on this path.

So along with Hak and Yun (who Ik-Su asks to go with them) she goes to look for them. First they meet the white dragon, Kija. He lives in a village that pretty much worships him.

 His entire village celebrates the fact that he is the white dragon, he spent his entire life waiting for his master to come so that he could use his skills. When he meets Yona, the dragon's blood within him awakens and he knows that Yona is his true master (or I should say king). He had never left his village before, so he is very naive. But he is very loyal to Yona and feels a very strong sense of duty to protect her. He has the power of the dragon's arm.

I truly believe that Yona is Hiryuu reincarnated.

Next we meet the blue dragon. He was shunned and treated badly because of his power of the dragon's eyes. He possesses eyes that could paralyze a person if they look into them. So he wears a mask all the time. He is quiet and shy. He's a tough, muscular man but he's very gentle. He didn't even have a real name until Yona named him ShinHa. ShinHa is so freaking adorable!

                                           I think he may be my favorite of the dragons. Just look at that face!!!!

The third dragon we meet is JaeHa the green dragon. He's a pirate that is very flirtatious with the ladies. He didn't want to go with Yona because he loved his free life as a pirate. He has the dragon's leg.

The last dragon, the yellow dragon is Zeno. Hilariously enough he was randomly wandering in a forest. Yona and Yun find him and he was starving. While eating, he nonchalantly divulges that he is the yellow dragon. We don't know all that much about him yet. But he is clumsy. So far he doesn't seem to show any sort of special power and he didn't feel the awakening that the other three dragons felt.

As the anime progresses, Yona becomes stronger. She starts as a weak, sheltered girl and becomes a warrior. She was tired of being useless and not only wanted to be able to defend herself, but Hak as well. Night after night she would practice with a bow and arrow, shooting 200 arrows a night. Though not physically strong, mentally she becomes determined. She fights for what is right and acts like a true and good ruler. Watching her growth made me so proud. She turned out to be pretty badass! I grew to love her so much. She could have remained a sheltered princess and hidden for the rest of her life but she didn't! She kept going and she learned to fight. She rose from tragedy and became a stronger, better person. Sure she does cry and get upset throughout it but that's what makes me admire her even more. She picks herself up through the tears and keeps going despite that. I love that they made her slowly begin to be able to help out and defend herself, rather than keep her a defenseless princess that needs protecting.

I also loved the progression of her going from caring so much about her appearance to not caring. In the  beginning of the show, Yona was shown as being very into her appearance. She would request various jewels and high quality makeup from her father. She was very worried/conscious about her hair because it would never do what she wanted and she hated the color. But during a battle, she allows her hair to get cut and from there she stopped worrying about it and worried more about surviving. I thought that this was some great character development. And don't worry Yona you're still gorgeous <3.

I found myself relating a lot to Yona and I really admire her. When I lost my father, I had to become strong and grow up quickly. I had to be there for others so I needed to pick of the pieces and continue on.

Because of this show, I definitely learned the Japanese word for princess, Hime as the characters call Yona Hime-sama quite a bit. Seriously...we could make it a drinking game. I love it when I pick up random words in other languages when I watched shows subbed. -Sama is a more formal honorific used in the Japanese language and it's shown as a sign of respect. I love the way Sama sounds. Though I prefer the title of Khaleesi I like how Hime-Sama sounds.

I loved the opening songs. The first one is basically Yona's theme which you do hear throughout the course of the show, it is instrumental. It's very fitting. The second is a song by Cyntia called Akatsuki no Hana.  I thought it a bit odd for this show at first but I grew to love it.  As for the closings, I usually skip past the EDs on anime.

There is an English dub available for this show. I'm unsure if I'll watch it or not. I do prefer dubs to subs...but I heard that Monica Rial voices Yona. Nothing against her, I do enjoy her work but I can't see her voice fitting Yona. I personally saw Cherami Leigh voicing her. This was disappointing for me...I love Cherami Leigh (AKA Asuna and Sailor Venus) so much. She is my favorite female voice actress.

Overall, I loved the shit out of this show. Seriously, I'm hooked. There had better be a 2nd season and a 3rd season after that. I need more!! I am so tempted to pick up reading the manga not only because I loved the anime so much, but I love Yona. This is a show I feel even my non anime watching friends would enjoy. I wish someone would cosplay as Yona in an Akatsuki (Naruto) uniform. That would be pretty funny punny! Get it? Akatsuki no Yona!

XOXO
Moon prism power, makeup!

Review: Ruby Kisses Matte Lipstick

I love matte lipsticks. They are seriously my favorite, especially liquid to matte ones. For those that don't know, my favorite lipstick brand Lime Crime makes these amazing liquid to matte lipsticks called Velvetines. I probably own 10 of them. Either last year or earlier this year they came out with a new one - Pansy which is a beautiful royal purple color.

Purple is my favorite color. All of the purple lipsticks I owned were pink based and bright. While Pansy is blue based and deeper. I seriously fell in love with the color....but not the price tag! Velvetines are expensive. I used to order mine from Amazon but now it's very hard to get Lime Crime products on Amazon. Any time they get a velvetine in stock is sells out quickly. I refuse to buy directly from Lime Crime's website because of the many horror stories that I have heard. I also have been unable to buy one of Jeffree Star's liquid lipsticks (which I hear are just as amazing..and you get more product for about the same price...I want one so badly!).

I was pretty bummed not being able to get this color. Then one day I was browsing online and came across this lipstick called Purple Affair by Ruby Kisses. It isn't identical to Pansy...but it's a beautiful blue based purple! Even better, it's matte! I was so ecstatic that I immediately bought it.

The color was just as beautiful in person, but application was not fun. This lipstick goes on pretty patchy and you have to layer it a few times to get full opacity.  It also sort of bleeds. That was pretty disappointing for me as someone who is spoiled by Lime Crime's and MAC's very opaque formulas.

Above, is the application straight from the tube. Yes, I am fully aware that the lighting/lipstick makes my skin look grey here. Hey, now I look like Frankenstein's monster from Penny Dreadful!

Who watches Penny Dreadful? I love it so much. It's creepy and Victorian, which is pretty awesome in my book. They also have characters from stories of that era. Such as Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray and some characters from Dracula. I LOVE Dorian *^* he's sexy as hell.

Anyway, enough fangirling. Back to this review!  I don't mind all that much having to layer the color on because it is gorgeous!! I would recommend applying it with a lip brush, even warming the tube up by holding it in your hand for 30 seconds or so before application.  Each time I applied it directly from the tube, it was kind of messy.

 These matte lipsticks retail for about $2.99 and really I can forgive all faults for that price.

The lipstick feels super dry when you're putting it on from the tube. But once it's on it is very light weight. I didn't feel that super caked matte lip feeling that some matte lipsticks have. I honestly didn't feel like I really had anything on my lips.

The longevity was so-so. I did a kiss test (I kissed the top of my cat's head hehe) and there was absolutely zero transfer surprisingly! But after eating and drinking, towards the end of the day I noticed that some of the lipstick flaked off. So this isn't a lipstick you can apply and forget about all day. I often find myself reaching for my Velvetines when I go out because I don't have to worry about re-applying.

✩What I liked✩

• The color
• How it feels on the lips
• The packaging

✩What I didn't like✩

• The opacity
• The difficulty to apply
• Lipstick flaking off after drinking/possibly just after time.

✩Final Grade✩

C

            

Although I love the color and the matte-ness of this lipstick, the opacity is annoying to deal with as well as the application. I haven't found (besides Pansy) another color quite like this yet, so I may be stuck with the application problems until I give in and get Pansy. This isn't a horrible quality lipstick, but it also isn't the best quality. 

XOXO

Moon Prism power, makeup! 

Most played songs of April

Hello my darlings! I have you all had a wonderful weekend and a lovely Monday. I spent most of my weekend reading and watching anime. I started watching more of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars! I had watched the first 8 or so episodes some time ago but never got to finish. I'm hoping the videos don't get removed before I finish the season. This is the only Sailor Moon season that I never got to see before, since it was never released in the US (I seriously can not wait for Viz to finally release it). I also finally finished the entirety of the Sailor Moon manga last week! I have been trying to read that manga for literally years and I finally finished it. Though I read the manga, Sailor Stars isn't what I expected so far. It's totally different from any other season. It focuses more on the Senshi's personal lives and school lives. I think it's pretty cool though that we get to see that side of them instead of just them plotting against the enemy of the season. I was DYING at Sailor Star Maker's "Star Gentle Uterus" attack...yes guys, I shit you not. Her attack is gentle uterus. What even!!? So far I am loving Sailor Star Healer out of the star lights.

I spent my weekend reading a fanfiction as well. I decided to start re-reading my favorite fanfiction and it just consumed me again!! It is a Kakashi one and it's ongoing. If anyone wants to check it out, you can here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8555031/1/The-Saga-of-Sakumo . I also had an exciting venture in trying to make my own Passion tea lemonade like the kind that Starbucks sells. I'm not sure how the one I made compares (it's been a few years since I have gone to a Starbucks) but the one I made was SO good!! If anyone is interested I can share the recipe ^_^.

And before I get to the point of today's post, I made an account on MyAnimeList...or rather I remembered that I had an account and I updated it xD. For those that don't know, MyAnimeList is a site where you can keep track of all of the animes you've seen and all of the manga that you've read. I have seen/read a lot in my life time so I am still working at updating these lists. If you want to check out my profile, you can at: http://myanimelist.net/profile/Lipstickzombie


Anyway...the point of why I am posting!!

I haven't done one of these posts in so long! I listened to a lot of music in April, preparing for my birthday and because I was reading a lot. So here are the songs I was listening to the most!

1. Crazy Crazy Rainbow Star - One Piece Anime 

Okay, I have no idea who sings this song. I just know that it is an opening song for the One Piece anime. I tend to fall asleep around the time that One Piece airs on Toonami. More often than not I fall asleep as I hear this song. It's literally been stuck in my head for a month. But I love it! Crazy crazy rainbow star, twinkle twinkle rainbow star!

2. Juliet - Emilie Autumn

3. Rapunzel - Emilie Autumn

Both Juliet and Rapunzel are the result of me listening to a LOT of Emilie Autumn while planning my birthday party. Emilie Autumn is a very unusual artist who does "victorian industrial" music. Her album Enchant which has Rapunzel and Juliet on it is a renaissance era/fairy tale based album. It's beautiful and I love both songs so much. She is also a very talented violinist, which is why she uses so much violin in her songs. I just love her music so much. Admittedly she's a small part of the reason why I named my cat Autumn.

4. Decretum  - Madoka Magica OST

I listened to the Madoka Magica OST a lot, especially when going to sleep. This song is beautiful and just really stuck out to me...so of course I'd have to play it like 5 times a day.

5. The Slightly Chipped Full Moon - Kuroshitsuji II OST

Amidst my party planning I realized that I didn't have the soundtrack for this season! Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler is one of my favorite animes and I love the soundtrack. This song turned out to be my favorite from it and I became rather obsessed.

6. I'm Just Your Problem - Rock version from Adventure Time 

It's no secret, I love Adventure Time. I'm Just Your Problem is a song Marceline sings aimed at Princess Bubblegum in an episode. There is a rock version of this song . I love it so much, I had a resurgence of love for this song in April.

7. Because - The Beatles

I am a huge Beatles fan. When I could use a smile or just chill music I listen to them. Because is one of my favorite Beatles songs. For quite a few days I had this song on repeat because it's so calming.

8. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles

Another Beatles song I love. This was due to many nights reading and listening to their music

9. Green Day - Give Me Novacaine

I listened to a lot of Green Day in April. I had been dealing with some health issues and it was very frustrating and depressing me. Green Day's music just sort of helped me to drown that out. I'm a huge Green Day fan. If I'm having a bad day, I tend to end up listening to this song because at times I can relate to it a lot.

10. Green Day - Misery

This is an old favorite Green Day song. Amidst my many GD listens I re-discovered this song. It's one of their more obscure songs which I love so much. It also tells a story.

11. Doki Doki Morning - Babymetal

I love Babymetal. To those that don't know, Babymetal is a Japanese band that combines metal music with idol pop music. It is the oddest thing I have ever heard yet it's totally badass.  I listen to them a lot and this is my favorite song of theirs. I often like to listen to it when I get out of the shower...often singing into my comb to it xD.

12. Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

Don't ask the reasoning behind this one xD, because I don't even know!

13. Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

I used to HATE Fleetwood Mac (I know, what the hell??!)...but  have always loved Stevie Nicks. I started listening to them more and Go Your Own Way is a fantastic song. It reminds me of my dad (he loved Fleetwood Mac) and I just found myself listening to it a lot.

14. Kill Paradise - Candy Land Wedding

I randomly had this song on my ipod. Okay, technically not during April but I had this song on repeat for two hours one night because it's so damn catchy and chill. I've been listening to it a lot lately while I'm reading. This is one of the surviving songs from my scene kid phase.

15. My Chemical Romance - The Light Behind Your Eyes

I love this song <3.  My Chemical Romance is my favorite band of all time. Their music always, always helps me. When I was having issues last month, I listened to this and "The World Is Ugly" and it made me feel better.

What songs have you all been listening to a lot lately? Comment and let me know!

Xoxo
Moon prism power, makeup!

Home Made Petit Fours Recipe

Hiii everyone! 

I'm so happy that so many of you enjoyed my last post about my tea party. Thank you so much for reading! I was so very excited to share that post with all of my internet friends. I have a question for you all! I know this is a long shot for an answer, but which would you all prefer for the next fangirl post? A post about fanfiction or Korean dramas? I can't decide!!

Wow it has been way too long since I have posted a recipe! Since I had fun making petit fours for my tea party, I thought that I would share my recipe for it with you all! They seem complicated to make but trust me they're surprisingly easy once you figure out what you're doing. I did a lot of trial and error with a recipe I found online and I ended up making one of my own. 

They are the perfect tea snack and a great dessert. When I first started planning foods for my party, I absolutely insisted on making these. 

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 pound cake

• seedless Jam

• mini cookie cutters

• 2 bags of meltable chocolate in 2 different colors

• Piping bag or candy making squeeze bottle 

For the pound cake: Many bakeries sell them. You want a whole, unsliced one. Entenmann's makes a good one and so does Sara Lee (this one you can find in the frozen dessert section). You can use any jam that you would like, as long as it's seedless. I went with raspberry. If I had made a larger batch at the time, I totally would have done blueberry as well.

First, take the pound cake out of its container. You will want to slice off the sides of it, to get rid of the sort of "crust" exterior. Next you want to cut slices horozontally across the cake (instead of vertically, which is how you normally would cut it). You want each slice to be about 1/4 inch thick. If it's a little thicker than that, no worries!

Take one of your pound cake slices, and begin cutting out little shapes with the mini cookie cutters. I used the Geometric Crinkle mini cookie cutter set from Wilton, and they were perfect.

I had to find a picture online of them, I couldn't find my own set to take a picture of it.

Do this with every slice until you are unable to cut more.

Once you have all of your shapes, you can begin to put together your inner cake part of the petit four. Take one of your little slices, put a layer of jam on top and top with another slice. If your slices are looking pretty thick, you can stop at 2 layers. This is what I did for my thicker pieces that ended up being around a half inch in thickness. If you stuck with thinner slices, go ahead and repeat the process so that you have 3 layers of the cake and 2 of the jam. Each Petit four should be no more than 1 inch thick. Once you have put them all together, set aside.

Here comes the fun part! Take one of your bags of chocolate and melt. When I melt chocolate, I use the double boiler method. I fill a pot with water and heat it on the stove at a low temp. I will then put a glass bowl on top and fill the bowl with the chocolate. As the water boils, the heat will melt the chocolate. It's important to keep the heat low, if it even gets to medium heat your chocolate can burn or the texture will at least be ruined. 

You will want to completely coat your petit four in chocolate. There were two methods that I used that worked. Both of which start by dipping the bottom of the cake into chocolate. From there you can choose to carefully roll the cake around in the chocolate until totally covered. Or you can put the cake onto a fork and pour chocolate using a large spoon or ladle on top. Once totally covered, set aside on a plate or cooking rack to cool and harden.

When all of your petit fours are covered, melt the second bag of chocolate like you did the first. Then either fill a pastry bag or a decorating squirt bottle (they look like this:

 ) with the chocolate. Now you can drizzle that chocolate or do whatever design you want on top of the petit fours.

When I made my petit fours, I used Wilton candy melts in light cocoa (Regular chocolate flavor) and Wilton candy melts in a green, vanilla flavor (AKA white chocolate). 

Many petit four recipes call for you to make a gounache or glaze....Don't do it!! I tried and ended up wasting an entire bag of beautiful blue candy melts. I was so lucky that I had gotten a spare bag of chocolate. The gounache I made just soaked into the cake. Covering with the chocolate works best and it actually helps to seal in the cake's freshness. Also keep in mind that these don't have to look perfect since they are home made. Mine sure as hell didn't!

And there you have it! Now you can make petit fours. I already want to throw another tea party so that I have an excuse to make these again. They are that good! As always, if you end up trying out any of the recipes I have posted here please let me know how it works out! I would love to see a picture as well ^___^

Xoxo

Moon prism power, makeup! 

My Birthday Tea Party

Hello my lovelies!! Today I have a very special post for you all! It will be all about my birthday party from this weekend! I was originally supposed to have it on May 3, I had to postpone it until this past Saturday. I had spent about 2 months planning this one so it was a long time coming! I pretty much planned every detail that I could without going too crazy.

For my 22nd birthday, I wanted to do something fun and special. Something out of the ordinary. My more recent birthdays included going to the mall and shopping and I wasn't feeling anything of the sort this year. I wanted to do something very memorable. I have always wanted to have a classy tea party. So I threw myself a birthday tea party. My actual birthday this year was pretty bad, but my party totally made up for that! I invited all of my closest friends (though some couldn't make it) and had a fantastic day.

I made this sign! I meant to make something simple, but I hadn't painted in a long time and got carried away.

I had the party in my backyard, it was a beautiful day. It stayed cloudy for much of the day with (blindingly bright) sun peeking through. As I was setting up, I noticed that a tree in my driveway (I think it's called dogwood) looked like a white cherry blossom tree. There was a light breeze and the flower petals were falling like cherry blossoms. It was so beautiful! It was literally perfect for the day and I took it as much needed sign that it was going to be a lovely day (I was nervous because I still wasn't feeling well), which it totally was!

Tree on day of the party

Tree with intense sun

I set up a table for us to sit at as well as a food table. Oh yes, you have to have plenty of snacks for a tea party!

Excuse the mess in the background. No one bothered to clean it for me and I was unable to myself.

 I was aiming for a feminine and beautiful look, I tried to make it look like a British tea party with a twist. I also tried to stick with pastel colors. I went with pastel pink tablecloths, utensils and napkins. I wrapped the utensils and napkins in doilies and tied string around them. I sprinkled some fake red rose petals all over the tablecloth.

I got some beautiful black plates with a white design on them. I also used tons of doilies underneath everything. I took the remaining living flowers that I was given for my birthday (see my previous post) and put them in a blue vase as a centerpiece.

I also wrapped some pearls around the vase. I used actual tea cups and saucers as well as my tea pot. I didn't actually own enough tea cups beforehand, so I ordered a lot of 2 tea cups and saucers from eBay surprisingly cheap. I put all of the fixings needed for tea onto the table.

This was my place setting, with my special sugar skull tea cup.

 Eventually some snacks went on there too. I also tied ribbon around the chairs...which is seems I forgot to take pictures of :(. 

I brought my big ipod speakers outside with us (It's a huge tower dock) and played music the entire time. I spent two weeks curating the playlists for the party. I made four, including a classical music one, modern classical music (like more modern music mixed with classical. For example, some of the Sword Art Online soundtrack), music with words/more modern music that fit the theme (some Beatles, Adam Lambert, Avril Lavigne, Emilie Autumn and various other artists. I played this while everyone was arriving) and a "tea blend" which was a mix of all of the above. All of the music fit perfectly. Believe it or not, a lot of the instrumental stuff was from anime OSTs! The Black Butler, Madoka Magica and Rozen Maiden soundtracks were absolutely perfect and fit to a T. There were quite a few times where I had to pause in what we were doing to spazz a little over the perfection of a song playing. The music really added to the atmosphere and helped to set the tone. If anyone would like me to post the complete track listings to these playlists, let me know!

Outside selfie of me during the party. I have very long hippy-like hair and at this point, it was annoying me so I put it up. My makeup was running at this point because it was pretty warm and my hair adds a lot of extra heat.  I also made this strange-ass face HAHAHA! This picture makes me think of Chaquita Banana xD.

Beckman, Vicky and Destinee 

My three closest friends, Beckman, Destinee and Vicky (who reads this blog, hiii Vicky!!) attended my tea party. Destinee was running late due to a family illness so Beckman, Vicky and I had to start the party without her. We spent hours drinking, eating and chatting. It was pretty much everything a tea party should be. It was exactly what I wanted and hoped for!

The lovely Vicky <3, seriously my new favorite picture of her.

Beckman sipping some tea

Crumpled instructions, from after the party.

While we were waiting we played a game, tea leaf reading. It used to be common for people to tell your fortune with tea leaves rather than tarot cards. To do a tea leaf reading you need to have some tea leaves and tea in your cup. When you dump the cup over, getting rid of the remaining tea you are supposed to look for shapes in the tea leaves. Whatever the shape you get, you look it up and there you have your fortune! If you have never heard of this practice, watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It is a lot of fun to try to read the fortunes. Vicky kept getting bird shapes a lot and I got the letter "H'" a few times. Go figure since my name is Heather.

When Destinee arrived we did some more tea leaf readings and a tea tasting game. My mom (who was helping out with serving) brewed 4 different teas, then poured a little bit into smaller cups for each of us to taste and try to guess the flavor. I guessed 3 out of 4 of them!

The lovely Destinee <3 

Poor Beckman kept getting assaulted by gnats and various other flying insects while we were sitting there. It was actually quite funny xD. It got to the point where if he saw a bug, he smacked it, which resulted in me getting randomly smacked a few times xD.

Luckily Vicky had bug spray (what would I do without you?? ;__; <3) so we didn't die from insect invasion. Sadly, I still ended up covered in bug bites and itchy as hell the next day.

Out of nowhere a bee flew at us. After everyone else had run across the yard to get away from it, it decided that my dress or hat had actual flowers on them. After getting too freaked out trying to sit still so that it wouldn't sting me, I ran across the yard away from it. The stupid bee chased me across the yard...and when I ran towards everyone else the bee chased all of us!  After a little more running from the vicious bee around the yard like crazy people, some of us ran inside to escape it and it was gone.

Despite that insanity, it was a true and fun tea party! I felt so classy sipping my tea at my fancy table with all of my little snacks. And of course the music totally made it! We had so much fun laughing and having different discussions that I nearly forgot about the games that I had planned! Of course there were discussions of Kakashi. I felt sort of bad about all of mine and Beckman's anime discussions because we were the only otakus of the group.

Awkwardly throughout the party my douchey yuppie neighbors were cleaning their yard, dumping their leaves into my yard. They've done it for years, they do the same thing with snow. If they have one leaf in their yard, they pull out their leaf blower for 20 minutes. Some of my friends weren't too happy about their rudeness (and possible illegal action of dumping shit into my yard). So when the party was over, we threw some leftover fruit and sandwiches into their yard. If anyone asks, we had a food fight!

I made a good variety of foods for the party. Everything I made was small, finger food.

 I made home made petit fours (omg they were amazing!):

Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry wafer cookies dipped in chocolate with some sprinkles

Cheesecake cream filled strawberries

Fruit kabobs

Beckman brought us a bunch of donuts

I also made crescent rolls filled with ham and cheddar cheese and mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By the time I took this picture, they were half gone:

I went through quite the ordeal preparing all of the food but I'm so happy that it all was pulled off! When I postponed the party, I had to freeze almost everything. Most of the fruit didn't thaw right and last minute we had to throw some of it away. My health wasn't so great the day before the party, it was extremely nerve wracking for me trying to prepare things while feeling that way. I still didn't feel all that well the morning of my party, but by the time it started I was feeling alright!!

We kept the pots of black tea coming. I also made home made lemonade with frozen strawberries to drink.

A woman that my mom knows who makes cupcakes for birthday parties made me cupcakes! We brought these out towards the end of the party. The tea cups and saucers are made of fondant and each one has a hand painted design. The cake was vanilla, the frosting was strawberry and they had a Lindor truffle in the middle. The best birthday cupcakes ever!

Now onto the part that some of you have been waiting for, my outfit. When I first mentioned that I was planning a tea party for my birthday many people were curious of what I would wear. My friends described my outfit as "Victorian funeral director" or morgue owner. Destinee thought that I wouldn't look out of place at a funeral in my outfit. I was going for a gothic Victorian sort of look.

I wore a dress, I guess it would be considered a sundress though it is more of a formal dress and I have worn it to fancy events before. It had a black, white and beige flower design. Here is part of the dress, as I'm honestly not comfortable posting a picture of the entire thing on me. The dress has a matching shrug jacket (mini short sleeved jacket), which I eventually discarded because it got warm.
I wore my velvetey black wedge heels with my pastel purple lace socks (the color doesn't photograph well). It sure was fun walking/running around my yard with uneven terrain on these babies!

For my hair, I planned to do this whole style like Asuna's hair and curl it...but I was having some anxiety issues that morning and not feeling great so I said fuck it. I just threw in some volumizing powder to my hair and clipped in my mini sort of lolita hat.

The front of the hat.

The side of the hat.

It's really hard to see the details of the hat in photograph. But it is a mini black top hat, with some fishnet fabric, a sort of silk flower on top of that and a black feather in the back of it. It really brought my outfit together and everyone loved it! Even my mom, who normally thinks most of the stuff I wear is weird. 

For my jewelry I wore this beautiful purple stone cameo necklace. It was a bitch to get this in time, the first one I received arrived to me damaged.

For earrings I wore skeleton lady cameo earrings in my bottom ear piercing. In my 2nd ear piercing I wore these cute little pink stone with mini pearl and gold colored metal earrings. These stud earrings I have had forever and are a hand me down from my mom.

I wore fishnet skeleton gloves. I have had these forever but never get the chance to wear them! I also wore this beautiful rainbow topaz ring that I got myself as an early birthday present. Apparently it is worth a lot more than I paid for it! I was too lazy to paint my nails, so I stuck on (and of course cut really short because I can't handle long nails) some Impress manicure nails in a bright, neon pink shade.

For my makeup, I don't think it really looks all that Victorian. But I went with a bold red lip (Lime Crime Red Velvet Velveteen. It lasted through ALL of the tea and snacking). For the eyes, I used the Urban Decay Naked and Naked 3 palettes. I did some pink on the lid, brownish-copper on the crease blended out and dark brown on the outer corners. Then I put dark brown and pink under my waterline. I did winged black liner and black liner on my outer rim. I filled in my brows with Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow. I used Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation along with some other products to make my face look flawless. I used Nars Orgasm blush (yes, guys Orgasm is the name of a shade of blush. It is actually a very popular and famous blush shade), though I apply my blush lightly so it hardly ever shows in pictures.

Fancy dress was optional for this party. I dressed up because I was super into the spirit of it.

 Destinee dressed up as well, going for an Alice In Wonderland/ Mad Hatter look. The tutu she wore she made herself by hand. She was afraid of looking silly, but I loved the outfit and think she looks fantastic. Vicky and Beckman didn't dress up (which I didn't care, I was just happy that they came!)

But Beckman did look like a butler. In fact, Beckman insisted as acting the sort of butler by pouring the tea for all of us. He understands my love of Black Butler (and is a fan himself). Personally I think everyone looked fabulous and awesome <3.

Overall, it was such a fun and memorable day. When I look back on my 22nd birthday, I will remember this day and not my actual birthday. I partied hard and got to spend it with some of the people in my life that I love the most <3. Really, that's all I wanted for my birthday. I do have some truly amazing friends and I treasure them more than anything. My closest friends have been there for me though a lot. They are the few people that stuck with me during the times that I truly needed them while others were nowhere to be found. I really can't fully put into words what their friendship means to me. I'm so very happy that I was able to spend my day with them.

My cat shoved herself into this box after the party. I couldn't resist posting, she's so cute!!!!

I think for my 23rd I should have an alcoholic tea party hahaha! After all, everyone will be 21 by then!

Now that I'm not spending so much time planning this party I'm sort of at a loss xD. But, when my health is better I will be having an adventure for my birthday with Vicky and I'm so excited for that!

Thank you everyone for sticking with this really long post! Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had fun on saturday. I will in the near future (hopefully) be writing about how I plan parties with party planning tips! 

Xoxo
Moon prism power, makeup!