Aimee Was Reading: The Couple Next Door (Shari Lapena)

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Published by Bantam Press in 2016

Pages: 344

Genre/s: Crime, Mystery

Buy on: Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble

Goodreads

First Impressions: Pink Parcel

I recently did a post on Birchbox, a monthly subscription box related to beauty. Part of me cancelled this because I couldn't justify paying for stuff I didn't need, and also, a part of me wanted to explore the realm of subscription boxes further (so technically, my bank account is still suffering).

Now, as fun as it is to receive random bits of beauty each month, I treat myself far too often as it is. Therefore, I opted to subscribe to Pink Parcel, which has an element of need to it, as it is a box designed to help you during that time of the month. That's right. A little pick you up parcel for your periods!

MUA Silent Disco Palette Review

Hello and welcome back.

It's been a little while since my last makeup review, but that is not indicative of the amount of beauty items I have been buying. My bank account honestly hates me right now!

A few weeks back, I was watching one of my current favourite YouTubers (thisgirlcalledholly) rave about the MUA Silent Disco Palette. And of course, as the sucker for anything the internet tells me to buy, I did exactly that and purchased the palette.

Grace VanderWaal: Perfectly Imperfect

Hello everyone,
it's been a while since my last music review and I am so excited to be sharing this post. Before I jump into the review of Grace VanderWaal's EP, Perfectly Imperfect, I thought I would give a little summary of Grace, for those of you who don't know her.

Primark Matte Lipsticks: A Review

Hello everyone,
I am back and bursting with post ideas, which is a Christmas miracle!
I would like to start this by saying I sadly am not NikkieTutorials, so being a beauty Goddess is not part of my CV. However, I am obsessed with liquid lipsticks. From KVD to NYX, nudes to reds, lipsticks are my favourite beauty product.

My Sound of 2015

Hello everyone,
it seems that 2015 is almost behind us. I think one thing you've probably learnt if you've been a devout follower of my blog this year is that I love music. Yeah I know, 99% of my posts are about some band from Sydney, but today I'm going to be highlighting the realm of my musical interests, and in no particular order, telling you why they're the best. Let's go!

5SOS- Sounds Good Feels Good

Hello Everyone,
so this post has been a few days in the making, mainly because I needed to dedicate a shit ton of time for listening to the album, discussing it with friends and trying to narrow down my favourites.
As we all know, I'm a massive fan of 5 Seconds of Summer and on October 23rd I felt like a kid on Christmas as I downloaded the album and hit play for the first time. I didn't know what to expect in terms of sound, from songs that have been released such as She's Kinda Hot and Fly Away I knew it was going to be filled with catchy little anthems punching the references to 1D right where it hurts. I had read about some of the songs and was a little nervous  to hear them (aka Broken Home).
The overall sound of the album is maturity. Their self titled debut featured songs the lads had written at 16 and 17 years of age, songs that fans attached themselves too but Sounds Good Feels Good was made in real time, talking of love as the members experienced it, talking of travelling and being on the road as they lived it and on reflection of getting out of a little town and living life on an enormous platform nobody could ever imagine.
The riffs are heavier, the songs are drenched in the blood, sweat and tears of the musicians they admire and worked with, such as Alex Gaskarth, the Madden brothers and John Feldmann and, for me, the album seems to be split into stages of life- the first being the coming of age and realising life isn't all that jazz when you can't even afford a bus fare, the second being that love often SUCKS both romantically and within a family and the third is the prospect of life getting better, if you just take the bad with the good.

HALSEY: BADLANDS REVIEW

For most people, Friday August 28th was like any other day. However, for some souls, the day marked the release of the long anticipated debut record from American singer/songwriter, Halsey, as she released Badlands to the world.
The alternative musician, who is signed to Astralwerks, has an intense following. I remember when she released Ghost in 2014 and I listened to it on repeat as I paraded to university, some time later came her well received EP Room 93, which spurned out fan favourites such as Hurricane and Trouble. Badlands promised to depart from the days Halsey was better known as Ashley Frangipane and with its release, fans such as myself have been pulled into the dark, imaginative spiral which the bad lands entail.
Castle, the opening track for the record throws the listener in at the deep end, as Halsey embarks upon the dystopian metropolis and is 'headed straight for the castle' supposedly to become queen of the bad lands. There's a choir trickled into the chorous which backs up her inauguration into this seemingly sinister place. Lyrically the song offers an insight into Halsey's position as a woman fighting in a predominantly male industry. On several occasions Halsey has bought up the topic of the struggles that are placed in her way as she climbs her position within the music industry. She's rejected labels who didn't support her intentions, and took control of having a female-female love relationship for her video for Ghost. With the statement 'there's an old man sitting on the throne, that's saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut,' this power struggle punches through the hypnotic rhythm of the song.

A Little Bit of Lush

Hello everyone,
it's been a little while, mainly because I've been busy at work and planning some of my dissertation, but I'm back with a new post. This is going to be about Lush, the cosmetics/beauty chain which is as ethical as it is wonderful. I recently discovered that my local store is stocking some of the Oxford Street exclusives and so I went and got myself some treats with the hope of having a little series of hauls over the next couple of posts. In each one I'm hoping to give you a little view of three products I've purchased. In no way, shape or form is this post sponsored by Lush, I simply love their values and products and, as someone who is trying to make their makeup and beauty products vegan, I wanted to show that beauty doesn't have to be painful, for you or for animals.
So, let's get into the very first little bit of Lush (none of the following are Oxford St Exclusives):