Lies My Father Told Me Playlist

As my novel, Lies My Father Told Me, gets increasingly close to querying– my soft deadline was April and it's looking totally reasonable– I decided to share some of the music that helped me write it. I have a very specific way of listening to music while I write, one I recently learned I'm not totally unique in as Alex Brown does the same thing. But basically I have to listen to the same song on repeat dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of times. So for that reason my playlist is pretty short. The music has to blur away so I can focus on my own words and not the song, though it often does help to have the melody in the background, somehow it helps me maintain a certain mindset and keeps the flow of the novel for me. 

In sum, Lies My Father Told Me has been influenced by five different songs, which I listened to in the following order. They were all songs I hadn't listened to before writing this novel, though I have been drafting since November, so iTunes will tell me exactly how many times I listened to them also, which was basically only while drafting, although sometimes while drafting and actually procrastinating on Twitter. If I added up all the song lengths and multiplied I could maybe even figure out the approximate amount of time I've spent on Lies. That would be interesting. 

Anyway, I'm going to include YouTube videos so you can listen to songs where possible, even if there isn't an official music video.

My playlist is:

1. Intro by The xx (xx) - Listened to 166 times
2. Bigger Than Love by Benjamin Gibbard (Former Lives) - Listened to 50 times, although some of these times may have been when taking a break from song #3, and not all before.
3. Dream Song by Benjamin Gibbard (Former Lives) - Listened to 370 times, not entirely in a row because I sometimes come back to it even now, but definitely the majority of the times were one after another.
4. Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (Up From Below)- Listened to 60 times
5. Fix Me Up (feat. Zach Sobiech & Sammy Brown) by A Firm Handshake (Fix Me Up) - Listened to 147 times 

Although much of the first draft was written listening to Intro for the self-titled CD by the xx, as these numbers make obvious, the major inspirational song for Lies My Father Told Me was definitely Dream Song by Benjamin Gibbard. It was such an inspiration that whenever I played it when my boyfriend was around, he would look at me and say I must be writing. And I was. 

There's something so amazing about how one kind of art can inspire another. If you write, do you have a repeat-addiction like I do? What music is inspiring your words lately? And even if you don't write, have you heard any of these songs? If not, definitely check them out. They are all a bit low-key, and all incredibly beautiful... just like the book they inspired, I hope! :)

Orly: Buried Alive

Alright so I had a lot of fun with my first nail swatch/review of Hampstead Gardens by Nails Inc., and last week I picked up a brand new polish by Orly– well not brand new as in from a new collection, but brand new as in I just purchased it, so of course I decided to give this polish review another go and maybe eventually my photos of my hands will get less awkward and claw-like.

The polish I was so excited to find is Orly's Buried Alive, which was on sale for $3 and my first time testing out an "official" Orly polish, since I own quite a few of their Quo line which is a lot easier to find in Canada. Buried Alive belongs to the Dark Shadows collection, inspired by the film.

Buried Alive is a rich, dark brown filled with an underlying gold shimmer that gives it some sparkle during the daytime, while keeping it professional-looking indoors. I also detected some coppery shimmer as well, which helps give depth to the brown though my photos aren't the best at capturing it.

 

While wearing it, I never picked up quite as much gold on my fingers as I did in the bottle, but working in a lab indoors all day, and being in the midst of a Canadian winter, means I might have missed out on the bright sunlight needed to pick up the glitter.

In these photos I'm wearing a quick-dry base coat by Revlon, two coats of Buried Alive and a quick Seche Vite top coat. It definitely needed two coats because it turned out kinda splotchy or streaky in some places after just one. Two coats was perfect for keeping my nails covered and giving it an even, opaque, colour. That said, the polish was a tiny bit thick, but I didn't have any problems applying it.

Honestly, I'm usually not a fan of browns but the gold in this one captured my attention and I'm glad it did. It's such a rich, full colour, and the gold shimmer just brings it to life and makes it something special without being totally flamboyant. I don't think I've converted over to brown nail polish, but I'll definitely be wearing Buried Alive again, and I'll be keeping my eye out for future Orly's in the bargain bin.

Do you have any brown polishes you're in love with? Have you found any awesome polishes in the bargain bin lately?

Nails Inc: Hampstead Gardens

I really love nail polish. Like really. So inspired by my lovely friend Kylie (aka ChicBananas) I've decided I'm going to try my hand at swatching the colours that I wear, just to show them off and give anyone who is interested a reference for what the colours really look like. 

First up is one of the strangest polishes I own. I bought this one, my first and only Nails Inc. colour so far, last summer, when I spending a week and a half in New York City with my best friend Laala and we stopped by a Sephora where I found it on incredible discount. It was only a couple dollars, and we both bought a bottle. I was instantly in love with this ugly-pretty shade, Hampstead Gardens.

I'd definitely describe Hampstead Gardens as an authentic mustard. It's a funny colour that tends to look more brown indoors than in natural light– I actually had a family member compliment me on it one evening, only to tell me it was horribly ugly the next day when they saw it in different lighting! That said, it definitely has tones of yellow in it that give it its unique colour. I have quite a few polishes, but I've never come close to having a dupe of this one.

In these photos I'm wearing a quick-dry base coat by Revlon, two coats of Hampstead Gardens and a quick Seche Vite top coat. The colour is really opaque, and I probably could have gotten away with one coat but I still always go with two. If you don't want it so shiny, it is wearable without the top coat as well, I just love the extra gloss.

I'm really impressed with the quality of Nails Inc. polish. It definitely lasts longer than many of my other polishes, even using the same top coat. If I could find more on discount, I'd definitely pick up more polish by them in the future. The bottles are usually about $10, at least in the US, but are only 10 mL in size which is a bit smaller than the average polish. I actually appreciate the size, as given the number of nail polishes I have, the likelihood of me finishing one isn't that great. Though I do have a few favourites that are at risk!

I would definitely consider Hampstead Gardens a love-it or hate-it polish, and I just happen to love it. 

What do you think about strange polish colours? Would you wear this mustard nail polish?