As my blog name might very well imply, I absolutely love all thinks beauty, books and rambling on about it all so I thought I would start a series. And that I would start the series today, apparently.

Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”

When you read as often and with as much intensity as I do, – I am and always have been a girl who has her nose in a book and has the ability to read them in one sitting and I am an English student after all – it’s extremely difficult for me to name a favourite book, or even a couple of favourites, but if I had to choose one, this book would be my top choice. In this postwar novel, Hemingway is at his finest with his pared-down prose and injection of dry wit that I adore. It’s a novel about how as people we connect after  the catastrophic event, the first world war but I think it can generally apply to how we connect to how we forge human connections in the contemporary world. I’ll warn you there’s some heavy angst, being a story filled with moderately problematic excessive alcohol consumption and an impossible love story between Lady Brett Ashley and our injured-in-the-war narrator, Jake Barnes. I stress that my words here are not adequate arguments to read the book but I promise that it will be worth your while.

Chanel Rouge Double Intensite in Darling Pink ($39)

Christmas money in wallet, I headed to my local Chanel counter with my usual partner in crime, Lauren, and ended up with this beauty, unable to leave the store without it – or at least that’s what I tell myself. The double ended lip product was definitely an impulse buy, being my first lip product from Chanel (and only my second purchase – my first being my foundation love, Perfection Lumiere Velvet – ) and although I’m sure my bank account balance is cringing, I’m sure it will not be my last. For one this long-wearing lip product has the best formula, not highlighting dry patches on my lips and not drying them out either but still lasting through a good ol’ meal, which is not a small feat when I’m concerned. Despite not being a gloss girl, I quite enjoy the topcoat that adds the moisture and glossy finish to the lips as it doesn’t have an  ounce of stickiness and also feels more balmy. One of the most remarkable things about the product is the unfortunately-limited-edition colour; it’s a light pink shade that doesn’t actually lean coral that I don’t hate on myself – and actually kind of find flattering. I would describe it as a neutral pink with subtle rosy undertones. I would also describe my description of the colour as fluent bullshit with description overload and a side order of word vomit thrown in. One last thing: the lip colour does not fade from the center, leaving that hideous ring that I have been spotted sporting far too often for my liking.

Any thoughts on the book or the beauty bit?

Maggie, x.