Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween from Alicia and Layla :)

Recent Beauty Buys

I guess it's been instilled in me since my high school/ college years that CVS is like, the best place for beauty products. I work right across from one, so whenever I go in, I have to take a moment to just peruse the makeup section. CVS is like a blackhole and I always end up getting something! C'est la vie.

My latest buys are:

L'Oreal Infalliable Lacquer Liner 24HR Eyeliner, Blackest Black 171

This is actually a fantastic eyeliner. I'm never good at drawing decent lines, but this brush and pot combination is perfect for me. The brush gives me a lot of control and the liner isn't messy.

Revlon Photoready Cream Blush, Pinched 100

This picture isn't really true to color, as mine looks a little more coral than the orange, foundation-looking example in the picture above. It's sheer and gives a pretty little glow to my cheeks! Usually I don't wear blush, but now that I have some, I will! Thanks, CVS, for trying to make me a prettier me.

Essie Nail Color Wicked

Again, this picture isn't true to color. Get it together, CVS photographers! While this looks black, it's actually a deep garnet. I couldn't be happier with the color and it's perfect for fall! Apparently jewel tones are in this season... like every fall season before it.

Another place that I found that I LOVE is the little miscellaneous section near the check out at Sephora. I picked up some Smith's Rosebud Salve and some L'Occitane Nail and Cuticle Cream (though I didn't pay $18 for it. Hmm..)

Vive la CVS!

A Bit of Advice

Go to a museum! Go to an art museum. Go to a history museum. It's all Layla and I do when we get together, whichever coast we're on. In LA, we went to the Getty. In DC, we went to the Corcoran. 

I guarantee you will find at least one thing amazing and fascinating and be happier for having gone to the museum!

Our Favorite Scary Movies

Since Halloween is on a Wednesday this year, it's very possible you'll be staying in-- all tuckered out from costume parties over the weekend. To prepare for this, we here at Alicia & Layla have compiled a list of our favorite scary movies.  These movies range from legitimately scary to hilariously campy. There are thrillers and horror movies, old and new. Let it be noted that I'm not too keen on slasher gorefests, so if you're looking for that, my apologies! I'm a wimp, I know.

Dawn of the Dead

I haven't see the original, and I probably should. But I love this movie. It's set in Milwaukee, Mekhi Pfeiffer is in it and it's a zombie movie. I feel like a zombie apocalypse would be pretty cathartic.

Scream

I think this movie was the perfect modern day scary movie for a teenage me to watch. It's funny and meta and Neve Campbell is fab as Sidney. 

Psycho

You should watch any and all Alfred Hitchcock movies. I almost suggested Rear Window instead. Anthony Perkins is perfect in this. 

The Shining

I actually caught this on TV the other day for the first time in a while and it's such a great film! Stanley Kubrick did a beautiful job adapting this from the Stephen King novel. Aesthetically, I mean. The movie isn't terribly faithful to the book, but it's still subtly and overtly terrifying.

Drag Me to Hell

This is my super campy pick. This movie is about a scary old lady cursing and terrorizing a young bank employee after denying her a loan. Warning-- it's kind of gross, but whatever, it's fun and scary. Nothing beats Alison Lohman's screaming "I got you, you old bitch!"

Funny Games

I made the mistake of watching this movie on a weekend when my roommate was out of town, and I spent three days freaking out about every noise I'd hear. It's more of a psychological thriller than a horror movie, but it's fucking terrifying, I promise. I've only seen the original Austrian version, but there's also a shot-for-shot remake that came out in 2007 and stars Naomi Watts.

                                                                      Repulsion
This movie is so fucking intense, oh my God. The fact that it has so many scenes that are shot from the perspective of the main character makes it almost too suspenseful to handle. And Catherine Deneuve is the apotheosis of flawlessness.

The Exorcist

Let me tell you exactly what's going to happen when you watch the Exorcist. You'll rent it for laughs with some friends and expect it to be full of 60s-era special effects and not even remotely scary. You'll start to get a little scared as it goes on, but you'll play it off so your friends won't make fun of you. Finally, you won't be able to suppress a scream at a particularly scary scene, and your friends WILL make fun of you, all the while totally freaking out themselves.

Carrie

Here's my pick for super campy but still totally awesome scary movie. Carrie has so many unintentionally funny moments, like the one pictured above, where our teenage protagonist gets her period for the first time and proceeds to freak the fuck out. 

So I'm watching The Sopranos

I am blown away by how fantastically this show has aged. Yes, I laugh when I hear Jamie Lynn-Sigler singing "Oops, I Did It Again" and I smirked when Tony defended sending AJ to military school because "the US hardly goes to war these days."But really, I've watched four of the six seasons so far and I occasionally find myself thinking how thoughtfully written the characters are. Like, Tony Soprano gives me all sorts of feels. He is, by definition, a total psychopath. But why, as a critical viewer, am I completely drawn to him? I love Tony Soprano. I love James Gandolfini for playing Tony Soprano.

Tony is the father of two good kids and the husband to the flawless Carmela (Edie Falco). He's also the godfather of the New Jersey mafia. He has panic attacks because his mother is just insane and a total nut as well. Also because he is the godfather of the New Jersey mafia.

Tony is a relatively stand up guy. Of course, you're comparing him with scummy people in the mafia business, so his good morals usually come into play when like, someone kills their mistress. What I've noticed from the show is that it likes to punish you for liking Tony so much. You begin making excuses for him. "Oh, yeah he constantly cheats on Carmela, but at least doesn't have affairs with multiple women at the same time." "Yeah, he kicked the shit out of the poor bartender at his strip club again, but it's funny." I mean, when you think about it, it's unsettling.

I love the range of problems written into story arcs. I suppose in that business and lifestyle, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Things like the FBI bugging your basement or the neighborhood priest being a mooch and eating your whole tray of ziti. (By the way, I made baked ziti after hearing about it all the time and I now understand how there's always a tray of ziti in their fridge. There was so much I must have eaten it for five lunches and I still had leftovers. Ziti making hopefuls, beware of recipe sizes.)

On my journey to watch all four New Golden Age of Television shows (The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad [subject to vary I suppose]), I think The Sopranos is my favorite. It's the first show to inspire better television writing and I absolutely understand it while watching. I'm not kidding, this show is fantastic. It's like Breaking Bad where you're supposed to hate the main character, but the difference is you actually hate yourself for liking and rooting for Tony Soprano and a lot of the people associated with him. Also similar to Breaking Bad, the wives are the best. Carmela Soprano is my hero.

Really worth watching all six seasons. Try it!

Man Candy: Tom Hardy

Layla might disagree, but I think Tom Hardy is FINE. It also helps that he's the best part of every film he's in. If you haven't seen any, I recommend Bronson, The Dark Knight Rises, Lawless and the rest.

Azealia Banks "1991"

Azealia Banks might be the only 21-year-old I want to be like.

Watch the video here (it won't embed :\ )

Didn't we all go together to see Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

My boyfriend was really hesitant to watch The Landlord with me, his half-black, half-white girlfriend, because it's so probable that a movie about a 1970s WASP-y white kid becoming a landlord in the ghetto would be offensive. What we wound up watching was a hilarious and sweet film that handled the subject of race relations beautifully.

The film begins with a talking head starring Beau Bridges playing Elgar Enders, a 30-year-old who is still living in his (wealthy) parents' home. He shows himself to be very naive and arrogant, but he's still Beau Bridges, so he's adorable. He might actually be my favorite Bridges, but that's like trying to choose between a puppy and a (really adorable) baby. Anyway, to escape, Elgar buys a tenement house to manage in ~dark and dangerous~ Park Slope, Brooklyn. These houses are so cheap, they are "given as Bar Mitzvah presents." His parents object, Elgar calls them out as racists, and the rest follows.

"A$AP. Get like me."

I love A$AP Rocky. I think he's fine, fresh and has the benefit of some seriously sick beats (mostly produced by Clams Casino). You should really listen to him, starting with Palace or Peso. That said,  there's a lot working against this song for me. Kendrick Lamar isn't really my cup of tea [JK listened to good kid m.A.A.d city] and Drake... is Drake. There is also the issue of being totally offended as a woman, but I've learned to ignore it in this genre because, come on.

But I really love this song. I'm about to ruin it and listen to it a million times. Enjoy!