Happy new years!

2015 in hindsight: Everything else

Best reads

Okay, I admit it: I haven't read very far in this one yet (About 3/4 in the first one), but Neal Asher's Owner trilogy. But oh yes.

Although I am fairly sure you could do the "Every death in..." as with Game of Thrones and it would look just as crazy... It gets a bit first person shooter at times and little too detail-heavy, but so far so good.

I take everything back. Halfway through book #2 and I haven begun seriously hating this thing!

The books goes in excruciating details with everything, including characters that so far yet haven't been vital to the plot (At least what I have understood).

Worst reads

This one made me sad on so many levels. With Pratchett being dead, there will be no more Discworld novels. This one wasn't exactly ending it with a bang...

Moist von Lipwig is my favourite character in the Discworld universe and I thought it was impossible to write him boring, but there we go. The entire book was just such a "Meh" for me with no real humour and no real suspense, so after two attempts I still haven't finished it.

(Dis)honorable mention

I have some seriously mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I think these two books are amazing: Every bit of dark, brutal and fascinating as Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro 2033 and Metro 2034. The kind of books that gets under my skin. In many ways I think Djakov's are actually better than Glukhovsky’s books. More character in the characters, less "big, undefined evil", more dark and twisted.

But. And here's the but: About halfway through the seond, a plot emerges as the reason behind events that drives the book. It makes perfect sense. It's awesome and twisted and awful and logical in itself, and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. But at the end, it turns into a random plot twist instead. A less awesome one. A less logical one. And it really pissed me off.

Best TV

One punch man. Okay, I admit it: This is hopelessly bandwagon. 

But both Hubby and I found it hilarious and we really appreciated the spoofing(?) of ridiculous anime-battles. Can't wait for season 2!

Worst TV

Arrow. What the hell was this thing? How did it get so many seasons?
Damn, this thing is so bad. Least likable and most hypocritical main character ever, every single character on the show has the wildest mood and opinion-swings ever for no real reason, none of the characters ever really communicate outside of the whiny "I can tell you're lying to me! I want you to be honest to me!" and everything has the most cliched cliches ever in everything. Oh and every single female character has to bang the main character for no apparent reason.

Best music

To Dust. At first, I wasn't so hooked. It isn't really my type of metal, but maybe the fact that we know one of the guitarists warmed me up to them some? 

It's good to widen your horizons from time to time. 
Speaking of which: I hope I can find time to go to Copenhell in 2016! I haven't been able to the last few years.

Worst music

Five finger death punch: Got your six.
Okay, so this was never the most original band on my playlist but Got your six just sounds more like a tribute band to Five finger death punch than the real deal. Maybe there is only so much you can do with music when you're stuck lyrically in military-images and violence? 
Also, is it me or does the song Got your six sound a whole lot (Both lyrics and music) like Dot your eyes from 2013's The wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell?
I don't hate it, but I am disappointed.

Best purchase

We bought a bunch of new kitchenware this year. When we were finishing the order, almost sort of for fun, we added a cheap pan to our order. A big pan with a lid by a brand name I've never heard of before: Andersson. We were amazed you could even produce a big pan with a lid for only 100 SEK ( 81 DKK, 11 Euro, 12 USD) and it turned out it was every bit as good as the other brand named pots and pans we got (Tefal and OBH). Not the last time we buy anything from that brand if that's the quality they have.

2015 in hindsight: Beauty

Eyebrows

A good, full set of eyebrows is still the best accessory and I hope it stays that way in 2016. I've maintained a soft, K-pop inspired arch and kept them almost natural.

It appeals to my lazy side: I just need to clean up the unibrow with a slight tilt at the edges (Opens up the space of my forehead) and remove the worst strays and voila, done. 

Skin

My skin continues to confuse and aggravate me. This year I tried to keep a journal of my skin (Mostly just a number /10 of how well my skin was behaving that day) to see if I could find a hormonal or dietary problem, but no such luck. It seems completely random. 

I had expected problems around Christmas from a combination of fatty foods, way too many chocolaty sweets and and that time of the month. But nope. That doesn't trigger my skin. 

So what the #"+{[¤%&/#":\£@ does??

Anyways. Still hopelessly in love with the maximaslist Korean skincare routine. It does help my skin. (Funny how the minimalist benign neglect is the best for my hair and scalp, and yet my skin loves the time and effort-consuming Korean skincare?)

Happy, glowy skin. No makeup needed.

Itchy, red and pissed off skin.

2015 in hindsight: Hair

The big news of 2015 is definitely that I have decided to cut my hair back to a length I enjoyed more!
It's a very strange realisation that I have my problems wrapping my mind around.
Ever since I started growing my hair out from bald, I've been aiming for one thing: More length.
Even those times where I had to trim off a lot of length to get rid of the irritating layers, the goal behind the necessary evil was to gain more length in the future.

But the decision is so logical.
It doesn't seem my hair can really grow beyond top calf and I enjoyed mid thigh a lot more.
So I will gradually trim it back, 3 cm or so off every month until I reach a length I enjoy more. Or maybe until I find it too short to do my crown wraps? Hmm.

Maybe I can grow it longer in the future. Letting the ends thicken up is never a bad thing.

I have made a simple Healthy hair 2016 plan I hope to stick with.

Impulse buy

I already have heat pads for my hair treatments, but these were so cute I couldn't pass them by!
Found them at Lidl for 20 SEK (16 DKK, 2 Euro or 2 USD)

Christmas calendar content

22nd: A little mascara. Nice. It looks pretty sample-sized so it might be good to bring in my shoulder bag.

23rd: Fuji green tea body scrub. I already got a shower gel in this line.

24th: A full sized body sorbet in the Fuji green tea line. I don't mind, but I find it a little odd that I got 3 products from this line the last 4 days. I wonder if this is their "good stuff" or something?

Christmas hair

I had the idea of braiding this glitter-garland thing into my hair for the Christmas party.

But I expected that it could be difficult and tangling my hair up, so I gave it a test shot.

It was a lot easier to braid in that I expected. But I think maybe this particular silvery glitter might be better for new years instead?

Something like a crown braid might be good with this!

Christmas calendar content

19th: Strawberry shower gel. Gosh, this smells good! Like actual strawberries, not nasty and artificial.

20th: Coconut body milk. Another product that smells divine. Gotta give it to Bodyshop, most of their products smells awesome.

21st: Fuji green tea shower gel. A full-sized bottle. Nice! Unlike the other two products, this doesn't really smell like anything. Hmm?

Well, here's a new: All 3 products are something I will use.

Milestone

I just chipped my last intact comb and realized I have found a bizarre new milestone.
My hair is now so long that when I put a comb down while doing my hair, I always have this annoying, sneaky little strand stuck in it. No matter how much I try to make sure it's not there, I always end up pulling it when I continue handling my hair and then *bang* goes the comb on the floor.

Weirdest milestone yet.
And now I need new combs.

Huh. I went looking for my lesser good replacement combs and found two broken ones in a drawer. Why have I kept these??

Look how identical the damage is to all the combs!
It's pretty obvious that they get tipped over the edge of a table and then drop on one side.

This is my second "destructive" milestone. I had one around the time where ponytails was the only updo I could do at all. I broke crazy many elastics! When my hair became long enough to do a self-stabilising bun it really took the strain off the poor elastics.

So I'm in the market for new combs and of course I would like some nice, hair friendly and high end ones again. But if I'm going to murder all my combs like this, it would be a huge waste of money to get some expensive ones. They don't get more resistant to being dropped on the floor just for getting pricier!

Christmas calendar content

16th: A facial buffer sponge. Hmm. Honestly I haven't purposely exfoliated my face since I got my Clarisonic brush. I might use this anyways.

17th: Vitamin E hydrating toner. After the craptastic tea tree toner I expected a skin disaster. Although COSDNA tells me it isn't that bad, I'm still not impressed. Seriously, is 10 separate ingredients for fragrance-purposes really necessary? I might actually use this though.

18th: Chamomile eye makeup remover. Eh. I might use this.

Wow. All 3 products are an unenthusiastic "Yea, I might use this." Meh.

Christmas hair

I decided to try braiding a Christmas ribbon into my hair. This time with a paranda-like start since the last one didn't look so good at the beginning.

How do people normally keep their hair detangled and smooth while they add the paranda?  Luckily my ribbons were pretty smooth, or my comb would have caught on it a lot.

I had some problems keeping the ribbons uniform on the sides of the braid. At around mid back they all suddenly switch to mostly one side and at hip to the other side. Meh.

I liked how fat it made the end feel!

Christmas calendar content

13th: A tough skin... stone? Kind of thing. Hubby eyed it with interest. I expect him to ask me how you work one of these the next time we take a bubble bath together.

14th: Nail polish. This is just not a flattering colour! In direct (Weak, winter) sunlight it had some strange neon, almost orange colour. In artificial indoor light it had a dark red, bordeaux, "lady is a vamp" kind of tone. I can't imagine this colour being flattering on anyone.

15th: Vitamin E night cream. So now I have a set?

Serious question here, you guys: Is this Christmas calendar getting into "Bitch eating cracker"-territory for me or is my lack of excitement justified?

Hair envy

The throwback Thursday-post made me think: The picture of me age 14 (ish?) must have been from right before I started experimenting with dyeing my hair.

I had a period from around 14-17 where I dyed my hair a lot. Mostly I bleached it a lot, I also had the whole mane green, I had so many different streaks, mostly green and blue.

Wait. Age 14-17, that was 17-20 years ago...

Anyways...

I honestly loved having my hair coloured like that. It was so much fun!
What I didn't love though, was that the colour always turned out puke green after two weeks. Of course back then I shampoo'ed 3 times a week and only used conditioner on my tips, so the colour (and my hair in general) didn't get the same care as I give it now.
But the biggest issue is probably that hair dye technology back then wasn't as advanced as it has become.
I see so many awesome, fun and gorgeous heads of hair in vibrant colours now!
Every single time, I feel a slight pang of envy. I miss it.

Don't get me wrong: I love my hair like it is. Otherwise I would have changed it long ago.
But I'm still allowed to be envious of  the more adventurous people out there having so much fun with the new hair dye technologies and techniques.

Rainbow hair

Sunset hair 

Or how about this one: 14 Reasons Why Rainbow Colors Look Gorgeous On Black Hair

(Can't link to individual pictures in that one)

Tie-dye

Fluid hair painting

Mermaid hair

 

 

  

24 colorful hairstyles

Christmas calendar content

10th: 15 ml Vitamin E day cream. Hm. I'll probably use this on my dry shins instead.

11th: 60 ml Rainforest brilliant shine conditioner. This will only be enough for my ends-only treatments, but I'll probably mix it in with something else for a CO wash. Has a good, discrete scent.

12th: 60 ml Peppermint cooling foot lotion. Uh, isn't this sort of for the wrong time of the year? Hubby eyed it and commented he would have loved it this summer. It goes into storage until then.

Thursday throwback

Two old photos of me, framed at my grandmas house.

I think I'm around 14 on the left and maybe 11 on the right?

I have two thoughts on this, and in order they are:
1) Arrrrrrrrrgh OMG OMG OMFG aaaaaargh
Those bangs. Those awful, horrible, craptastic bangs!
They were so massive, and so unflattering on me! They make my cheeks look even worse than they already are. And since my hair has a tendency to get crazy amounts of volume when provoked even the slightest by wind, I looked like the 80s threw up on my forehead most of the time.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did no responsible adult ever take me aside and explain to me how unflattering they looked on me?

2) Did my hair change colour or is the left picture from a winter and the right from a summer?
The sun has a tendency to lighten that dark blonde/light brown colour hair (Called "leverpostej" in Denmark)
It could be a bit of both. I'm fairly sure I had no sign of my beloved redness before in my late 20s, so maybe my hair changes colour from time to time?

Christmas calendar content

7th: Japanese cherry blossom shower gel.
I expected this one to smell as divine and fresh as the first showergel, but it didn't. It sort of smelled perfume-y or powdery or something. Meh.

8th: Exfoliating gloves.
On one hand I'm pretty pleased with these. Even though I throw my old set in the laundry once in a while, I can't remember how old they are. They could use a replacement.
On the other hand I'm disappointed. The lid for the 8th was huge and I expected a bath salt or something like that.

9th: Organic cotton pads.
Very nice! I prefer mine a size bigger and "fancier", but I can definitely get behind them being organic. Cotton-production is one of the worst offenders when it comes to the environment, both with usage of water and chemicals, so this is awesome. Maybe I should check and see if Bodyshop have them in a bigger size and get those next time I need new ones?

This is the first time I've received 3 things I can and will use. I'm not super excited about any of them, but none of the things go to Hubby or my discard-pile.

Hubby commented: "So, do you pay extra for the surprise or something...? I don't think you're getting the moneys worth of stuff."

My reaction: