What It Does: Prevents the forming of fine lines, crow’s feet.
Active Ingredients: Retinoids, Niacinamide, Asiatic Acid, Red Poppy Seed Extract, Daisy Extract, Ceramides, and Olive Oil.
Verdict: First and foremost, I love how this serum feels, it’s hydrating and thick, and I prefer eye creams on the thicker side, especially for night. I wore this for three night straight though before I started noticing that my eye area was getting dry and the skin had a slight sting to it. I think this serum is best applied on top of a moisturizer to serve as a barrier, because the retinoids in the serum seriously dried out my skin where it was applied. Does it work with smoothing fine lines? Yes, it does. That’s why I suggest to use this serum on top of another eye cream because the retinoids in this are seriously powerful and will work but will leave your skin feeling a bit fiery. If your skin is more on the older side, then you’ll probably won’t have this reaction to it.
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The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught.
The prize: enough money to change everything.
Even though everyone is desperate to win—to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past—Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that.
It’s the reason she’s alive and her family isn’t.
But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.
Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide but nowhere to run.
GRADE: C
REVIEW:
I want to premise this with the fact that I have a certain fascination for abandoned amusement parks. I think there’s something really creepy about a place that used to bring so much joy, and now evokes only dread (at least I think it does). This is what made me hit request super fast. Then when I began reading it I realized that I’ve read this author before, she has written The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, and although I loved the premise of that novel, I ultimately didn’t enjoy the journey.
The same can be said of this novel. I LOVE the premise of this novel: 14 contestants play hide and seek for a week in an abandoned amusement park and the winner gets $50,000 (now I don’t know why the characters in the novel thought you could change your life with that amount because for some that was the amount of money they owed in student debt, I personally would’ve liked to have seen higher prize money in order to understand why many people stuck it out as long as they did, even after things started to get weird).
What I didn’t love about this novel was how the omniscient POV was handled. I love multiple POVs but not when the POV changes within the same paragraph! It was very jarring at times and I had to go back and try to figure out which POV I was in.
Another downside was that the protagonist Mack had an interesting background, but other than that she wasn’t that interesting as a person, nor did I care much about her surviving or not. I cared more about some of the side characters than Mack. I’ll grant that the big reveal was cool, but up to that point, it was somewhat slow and it somehow got even slower towards the end. I also feel like the end is set up for a possible sequel, however, I don’t know if I’d be interested to read it.
Overall, fun premise, sadly it lacks in the execution, and although it’s been promoted as an adult horror, it read more like a YA (not necessarily a bad thing but most adults could be turned off).
*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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Active Ingredients: Aloe Vera and flaxseed extract.
Verdict: First things first: this spray smells what you would imagine Kate Middleton’s locks would smell like – elegant and expensive. Secondly, this spray left my hair feeling incredibly soft that I could help but to want to keep running my fingers through my hair. If you have frizz-prone hair (like I do) this really helps with keeping the frizzies at bay and helps your strands stay smooth as silk. It also helps nourish your hair and prevent split ends if used regularly. If you’re going to splurge on a leave-in spray, then this should be your top choice.
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I’ve enjoyed Edgar Wright films ever since he began with Shaun of the Dead. Now, Last Night In Soho doesn’t have time to be witty or funny as it’s drenched in dread and blood.
This film has everything I personally love, London, 60’s music, and a badass chick in the form of Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy). But the true breakout star of this movie is shy Eloise played by the superb Thomasin McKenzie. Eloise has fashion designer aspirations and when she’s over the moon when she’s accepted to a fashion school in London. Only she finds out real quick that London isn’t as amazing as it seems when she fails to fit in with her college peers and seeks refuge in Soho where she rents a room from Miss Collins.
The moment Eloise enters the room, she begins to have visions of the past. Every night when she goes to sleep she mysteriously enters the world of 1960’s London and sees the night life from the eyes of aspiring singer Sandy. Initially, Eloise is smitten to enter the world she always wanted to inhabit. In her waking life, she tries to emulate Sandy, by her looks, haircolour, and speech. But she soon discovers that all the glitz and glamour isn’t as it seems especially when she witnesses a brutal murder. Soon, she’s being haunted even in her waking life, and the fine line between reality and fiction weave in a terrible fever dream that comes to a brutal head in the final act.
This film will leave you speechless in the final act but also with a smirk.
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We’ve seen it everywhere, from journals to self-care gurus and friends and family, it seems like lately everyone is busy manifesting something. What exactly is manifestation? Well, it’s writing about what you wish you had in your life, but as if you’ve already obtained it, and this helps with aligning the positive vibrations to enter your life and help you achieve what you’re meant to achieve.
I used this journal for about two months (that’s the amount of time it took me to fill it). The power of manifestation is to write your intent three times a day (morning, afternoon, and night). Now, this helps you be accountable as the journal helps you not only focus on your manifestation but also keep you focused on how to achieve your goals and how close have you gotten to achieving it, and ultimately it has a daily reflection on what you’re grateful for that day.
Now, I know people are going to ask, “Well does this journal work?” And I suppose it all depends on what your manifestation is. Since mine was a more complex, long-term manifestation, I haven’t seen results right now. That’s not to say that I won’t in the future. However, the journal DID help me in keeping me focused and keeping my intention on the forefront and not something I could put behind me and forget about. Not to mention, that I did notice feeling more positive about my future when writing down my manifestation, so in a way, it helped with making one feel a certain inner peace.
If you’re curious and need guidance on how to manifest your desires, I think that these journals are an excellent source of inspiration and guidance that you will need.
*Thank you to @my369project for a complimentary journal.
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Why It’s Special: Three buildable finishes – Matte, Satin, and Metallic.
Verdict: Now I know that Glossier prides itself in being makeup that enhances your natural beauty and that their products are very sheer, however, I was expecting more oomph from this eyeshadow palette and I fear it never delivered how I hoped it would. Is the application easy and silky? Yes. Are the colours vibrant or pop? No. I’m on the constant look out for the perfect matte peach shade and I’m sad to say, this palette doesn’t deliver in that regard. The matte shade in this palette is so sheer that it doesn’t even look like you’re wearing eyeshadow (and it’s not even the variety of “your eyelid only better” either). The frosty shades deliver better in color and pigment, but honestly not enough for me to recommend it as an absolute purchase. Maybe the other palette shades are more pigmented but as far as this one goes, I wasn’t too impressed by the shades, although the quality is excellent as you’d expect from Glossier.*
*I used primer when applying eyeshadows so w/out primer I imagine the colours would be even less noticeable.
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What It Does: Helps even out skin tone in areas of hyperpigmentation.
Active Ingredients: Tranexamic Acid, Vitamin C, and Licorice root.
Verdict: This dark spot serum hits just the spot (pun intended)! I love that the packaging is a rollerball, so that you can target specific areas of your face (say where you have acne scars or dark spots) to lighten them up. I’ll admit that I don’t have dark spots from the sun, so I’ve used this serum primarily for the acne dark spots that tend to be left behind after having a very painful hormonal zit (sometimes the marks can last up to a week or longer). So this serum really helps speed things up, so instead of having to deal with a dark spot for a week, it’s only 2-3 days before it’s completely gone. I really do think that the packaging makes this ideal for target areas and hand enough for you to slip in your purse and dab it on the go!
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I really enjoyed the first film in this franchise and am curious about the interesting plot in the sequel:
Leena, a murderous sociopath who looks like a child due to a medical condition, escapes from an Estonian psychiatric facility. Leena impersonates the missing daughter of a wealthy family but becomes pitted against a determined mother.
DARK HARVEST
A legendary monster called October Boy terrorizes residents in a small Midwestern town when he rises from the cornfields every Halloween with his butcher knife and makes his way toward those who are brave enough to confront him.
NOPE
Not much is known about this film plot-wise, but it’s Jordan Peele and there’s a mushroom cloud in the sky, so I don’t know if it’ll be a horror movie inspired by atomic bombs?
DON’T WORRY DARLING
A 1950’s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.
HATCHING
A young gymnast who tries desperately to please her demanding mother discovers a strange egg. She hides it and keeps it warm, but when it hatches, what emerges shocks them all.
WHAT ARE SOME HORROR FILMS YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR? LET ME KNOW!
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Surrounded by barren trees in a snow-covered wilderness with a dim, dusky sky forever overhead, Siberia’s Kolyma Highway is 1200 miles of gravel packed permafrost within driving distance of the Arctic Circle. A narrow path where drivers face such challenging conditions as icy surfaces, limited visibility, and an average temperature of sixty degrees below zero, fatal car accidents are common.But motorists are not the only victims of the highway. Known as the Road of Bones, it is a massive graveyard for the former Soviet Union’s gulag prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of people worked to death and left where their bodies fell, consumed by the frozen elements and plowed beneath the permafrost road.Fascinated by the history, documentary producer Felix “Teig” Teigland is in Russia to drive the highway, envisioning a new series capturing Life and Death on the Road of Boneswith a ride to the town of Akhust, “the coldest place on Earth”, collecting ghost stories and local legends along the way. Only, when Teig and his team reach their destination, they find an abandoned town, save one catatonic nine-year-old girl—and a pack of predatory wolves, faster and smarter than any wild animals should be. Pursued by the otherworldly beasts, Teig’s companions confront even more uncanny and inexplicable phenomena along the Road of Bones, as if the ghosts of Stalin’s victims were haunting them. It is a harrowing journey that will push Teig beyond endurance and force him to confront the sins of his past.
GRADE: A
REVIEW:
From the very first page, the reader is greeted with a bone-chilling cold that doesn’t let up for the entirety of the novel. The Road of Bones is the Kolyma Highway found in Russia where some of the coldest parts of the world outside of Antarctica exist. The road got its ominous name because prisoners forced to build the road under Stalin died during the construction, where an estimated 250,000-1,000,000 people lost their lives and were buried right into the road’s permafrost. If that doesn’t already make for a chilling horror, this novel also finds itself grappling with supernatural entities and the ghosts that haunt us even when they’re merely just a manifestation of our guilt.
The protagonist is Teig, a reality-show star that creates shows much like Ghost Adventures with his best friend Prentiss. The only issue is that his past few projects have bombed and he owes a lot of people money, including his best friend. Then he gets an idea, why not make a show about the Road of Bones? A place haunted by the past as well as the unflinching cold, where car trouble could have one dying within a matter of minutes from the extremely low temperatures.
I’m a total wimp when it comes to cold temperatures, so to have a supernatural thriller set in the cold, already has me both terrified and fascinated.
The mystery amps up when Teig, Prentiss, their Russian translator, and a hitchhiker they picked up on the way, finally arrive at their destination only to find every single home in that town empty. It looks as though the residents left their homes mid-dinner and disappeared. This is when things start getting weird and dangerous for the group.
This novel is very fast-paced and it mostly takes place in one night much like those survival horror movies do. This was a fun, freaky read and I really loved how well fleshed out the characters were. I recommend this novel for anyone who loves supernatural thrillers set in Siberia.
*Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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I don’t know about you, but 2021 has felt like it was a tougher year than 2020 for me. Or maybe the last four months of the year have felt that way. So much so that I was convinced that I hadn’t accomplished much in 2021, but looking back at the goals I set for myself last year, I actually accomplished them all.
2021 GOALS & WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED
I completed my screenplay Terror!
I completed my horror novella I Want Candy
I finished editing GIRL THAT YOU FEAR
I released Tainted Love: Women in Horror Anthology
I was more active on Instagram
I put together a collection of my short stories
I published the short stories, “Boys of Summer,” “Fields of Blood,” and “Some Kind of Monster.”
Find publishers for I Want Candy and GIRL THAT YOU FEAR
Be able to sell TERROR! to a producer
Find a home for my short story, “The Unconventional Tea Party”
Complete writing my thriller, LA DOLCE VITA
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS FOR THE NEW YEAR?
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The Inkblotters 