Photoshoot: One Direction by Sven Jacobsen

I never got around to making a post about how great Made in the A.M. is. Or Four for that matter... anyroad, if Midnight Memories was an homage to 70s/80s anthem rock, Four was a tribute to folky rock and roll (Clouds = Band on the Run= AMAZING), then Made in the A.M. is also like the second coming of Beatles/Fleetwood Max/Paul Simon/a 70s musical dream. For example, "Olivia" was actually written in Abbey Road with strings, but no trumpets much to Harry's dismay, and sounds like late Beatles. "I Want to Write You A Song" reminds me of "Two of Us." "Temporary Fix" is like a prequel to my personal Four fave "No Control." "What A Feeling" is Harry's homage to Fleetwood Mac.  Other great sing-alongs: Hey Angel, End of the Day, Never Enough, Love You Goodbye, Wolves, and A.M. Let's not forget heartbreak/romantic ballads: If I Could Fly, Long Way Down, Walking in the Wind (rumor has it Harry wrote this for his grandma). They also released an EP with singles: "Drag Me Down" the perfect song to listen to while getting ready to do anything, "Perfect" a big FU to Taylor Swift, and "Home" the most beautiful song ever?!  Ok, so basically I listed all the songs on the album,  but they are literally all masterpieces and I'm so of proud my boys; here's the photos they did for the album promo.

On the 1st day of Christmas...

1. My true love gave to me, Velvetines matte liquid lipstick by Lime Crime. To be honest I have not tried other matte liquid lipsticks yet so I can't compare, but I really love the highly pigmented color of Velvetines. The lipstick is long-lasting, so you can eat and smooch all day without ruining your look, and best of all your lips don't look and feel as dry compared to the other matte lipsticks I have tried. These matte liquid lipsticks also come in 20 different colors (I have utopia, an orchid color that looks divine).
So that's the end of the countdown! Hope you guys enjoyed and Happy Holidays!!!

On the 2nd day of Christmas...

2. My true love gave to me True Match Lumi Healthy Luminous Makeup by L'Oréal. This is probably the best drugstore foundation out there. It goes on smooth and gives you good coverage, what more do you need? It's a lot cheaper than those other name brand foundations and works just as well. And here's a secret, the company that makes YSL makeup is the same one that makes L'Oréal makeup, so you know the quality is good.

On the 3rd day of Christmas...

3. I got the Glossier Phase 1 Set. This amazing set comes with a Soothing Face Mist: which keeps your skin and make-up looking and feeling fresh, the Priming Moisturizer: it does exactly what it's name says it does, Balm Dotcom: a skin salve you can use all over, and the Perfecting Skin Tint: super sheer and natural looking tint for your face.

On the 4th day of Christmas...

4. My true love gave to me the Laura Mercier face illuminator powder, the most perfect highlighter ever.  It's not too glittery, and its super easy to apply. Plus the golden shimmer suits all skin tones.

On the 5th day of Christmas...

5. I got Color Statement Lipliner by Milani Cosmetics. These lipliners come in 10 different colors and glide on so smooth, making lining your lips super easy. It's creamy finish lets you fill in your lips completely, so you can combine it with other lipsticks/glosses for your own unique color. My current favorite color is Nude.

On the 6th day of Christmas...

6.  My true love gave to me the most delicious smelling body scrub ever! This scrub by Frank Body  smells and looks just like coffee (they also have coconut, peppermint, and cacao) and leaves your skin feeling and looking super silky smooth. I ordered one of the bundles that came with the body balm, which you put on after using the scrub, but you can order each product individually. They also recently came out with face and lip products which I'm excited to try soon. But this coffee scrubs is gentle enough to use on your face as well. And best of all, shipping is free if you're in the US!

On the 7th day of Christmas...

7. I got the Jumbo Eye Pencil by NYX Cosmetics. These eyeliners/eyeshadow pencils are just amazing. They come in over 30 different shades and go on so smooth. My personal fave Milk, which is obviously white but the great thing is not only can you use it to line your waterline and make your eyes look big and doll-like, but it also doubles as eye primer, you can wear it under any eyeshadow to make it pop and last all day. And here's a tip: if you have trouble sharpening these eye pencils, just pop them in the freezer for 15 mins and it makes it a whole lot easier to sharpen.

On the 8th day of Christmas...

8. Today on the countdown are these amazing E.L.F makeup brushes. They are really high quality and best of all, really inexpensive. You might think you don't need all these fancy brushes to put on makeup, but trust me, if you want an easier and more professional application, you're going to want these brushes. You can order a set or order them separately and they are definitely worth getting when E.L.F has their annual 50% off sale.

On the 9th day Christmas...

9.  My true love sent to me, TheBalm Girls lipstick Mai Billsbepaid. This lippy is super creamy and gives you the perfect matte nude lip without making your lips feel or look dry and chapped as other matte lipsticks tend to do. Plus it smells like vanilla mint and leaves your lips feeling all fresh and tingly.

Rare Photographs: Jim and Pam

Pictures of Jim and Pam are so rare compared to other rock couples. Here is one I found taken by Oscar Abolafia at the Cheetah Club in NYC in 1967.

On the 10th day of Christmas...

10. A day late but on the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Skinny Brush Mascara by Eyeko London. This is currently one of my favorite mascaras. It makes your lashes super long and dark, it's waterproof but easy to remove and best of all it's not clumpy. If I remember correctly I got this when Eyeko was having a sale, so I got the Skinny, Fat, and Curvy Brush Mascara, plus the VisualEyes liquid eyeliner in marine for a total of $30. And here's a tip: layer on 2 or all 3 of these mascaras (or any brand/type of mascara really) for out of this world lashes.

On the 11th day of Christmas...

11. My true love gave to me.... a beauty tip that made life so much easier. And that tip is a fast and easy way to clean makeup brushes. What you do is take a container and fill it up with two parts dish soap to one part olive oil, put your makeup brushes in, swirl them around letting them absorb this miracle concoction, after take them out, rinse with warm water, and let them dry. And voilà ! Clean and like-new makeup brushes.

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Remember how back in January I said was introducing some new type of posts? Well better late than never I always say, here is my 12 days of Christmas Beauty and Things countdown:

12.  One of my absolute fave palettes at the moment is the Balm Jovi: Rockstar Face Palette by the Balm Cosmetics. Not only is it very rock and roll, but it comes with 12 highly pigmented shimmery/matte eyeshadows that can be used wet or dry, highlighter, blush, and  2 lip/cheek creams. Compared to the Urban Decay palettes, it's a lot cheaper at only around $40 and you get high quality make-up for your whole face. Here's an extra tip: if you order it through Hautelook whenever they have this particular brand event planned, you can get the palette for half the price!

This is not the end...

Today's an emotional day if you're a One Direction fan. It was the boys' final performance on The X-Factor UK before they take their much needed "hiatus" and I am feeling all sorts of things.  Bittersweet is the word I'm looking for I think. I'm sad because it's the end of an era and who knows when we'll see all 4 (or 5, a girl can wish) boys together again. But I'm also happy and excited to see what the future has in store for my favorite boys. I hope they're happy and stay friends and keep their promise to come back. They've brought so much happiness to me when I needed it the most and I feel like I've learned so much and grown up along with them and I just feel like I need to thank them for all that and for just being themselves and I just love them so much. To be a bit dramatic (as if I wasn't already): Harry, Liam, Louis, and Niall, thank you for EVERYTHING, see you soon my loves!!

Honestly Harry in that red floral Gucci suit deserves his own post. Can you say style icon?!


Anyroad, here's the video of their final performance taking place on the same stage where their journey began:





In the meantime lets all look at "one direction funny moments" "A Year in the Making" and "This Is Us" on a loop and have Up All Night, Take Me Home, Midnight Memories, Four, and Made in the A.M on repeat.


(sidenote: I can't help but compare 1D to the Beatles ok, alright, and I'm just so scared they'll go down that same road, hence why I'm feeling so dramatic, but hopefully they'll follow in the steps of the Rolling Stones and keep on touring when they're  60+ years old.)

Photoshoot: Zayn Malik for Fader Magazine

Back in March I had a sappy post lined up about Zayn leaving One Direction and now that I had months to think things through, let things sink in, and see all the stuff that has happened, I'm glad I didn't let impulse win this time. Now I'm all for doing you're own thing and being #real and #happy, which is what Zayn is saying in the article that officially comes out on December. But I can't help still feel disappointed at some of the things Zayn said and did. Whether he was fired or left the band because he wanted to, its bad either way you look at it. Maybe I'm not as understandable as Zayn claims Liam to be, but I do not understand why he left 1D the way that he did if they were planning on working on music and things aside from being in the band anyway. Maybe I'm slightly bitter cos I went through a similar situation where 2 people in my life just got up and left with no real warning. You can't do that, not when there are people counting on you and you've got all these obligations. The fair and real grown up thing to do would have been to just be honest and say that you're not happy anymore and that you're going to leave. And while it is totally understandable that he was not happy with the music 1D were making and did not allow his creative input, I cannot stand when people are pretentious and ungrateful. The only reason he even has the freedom and can afford to do whatever he wants now is because he was in 1D. And just cos 1D is not the style of music you're into does not mean it's fake, and this is coming from a former pretentious music elitist.  I guess to me it's just sad that I'm getting some "George Harrison bitter after the Beatles" vibe from Zayn. That being said, I am looking forward to seeing what this "normal 22 year old" has in store music-wise.

photos by: Francesco Nazardo