Steph Reads: Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach

Book description from GoodReads:
"Best-selling author Mary Roach explores the science of keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war.

Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries—panic, exhaustion, heat, noise—and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again."

That description pretty much covers it! Mary Roach has nailed it again with another fascinating novel about a subject you didn't know you didn't know much about. Many who know me are aware that I give credit to Mary Roach for sparking my interest in Human Anatomy in a big way after reading her first best-selling novel, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Now look at me! Finishing up PT school and soon to be making my living off of studying anatomy and movement. For that reason I will always pick up and read whatever this author shells out. Mary Roach's writing style is about as tongue-in-cheek as it gets which allows for her books dripping in scientific fact and at times somewhat dry data to be page turners.  This book brought to light things I had never considered about soldiers and our veterans that I think are actually quite important bits of information for all of us to be aware of. I commend Mary Roach for taking on such a challenging topic and writing about various topics both interestingly and respectfully. I recommend this book to anyone interested in science, combat, and human reactions, all with a little bit of humor thrown in, of course.

Check out my other Steph Reads posts!
Morning Star by Pierce Brown The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends by Courtney Robertson
Golden Son by Pierce Brown
The Hypnotist's Love Story by Lianne Moriarty
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
Someday Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Husband's Secret by Lianne Moriarty
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty
Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Splintered by AG Howard
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Beneath the Glitter by Elle and Blair Fowler

NARS 'Sex Machine' Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

I frequently get inspired by rummaging through other people's makeup stashes. When I tried this lip product after digging through my sister's purse, I knew I had to get my hands on it! NARS' velvet matte lip pencils are ultra easy to apply with their pencil like application and their smooth finish makes them easy to glide on. 

The matte finish of these pencils are incredibly comfortable to wear and lost for about 6 hours before they start fading away. 

'Sex Machine' is described by NARS as a 'pink mauve' which is spot on. There is a bit of shimmer in this product that you can see in the pencil but not so much on the lips or when swatched. The name of this color is certainly cheeky, but I don't mind it! 

Here you can see one of the benefits of this lip product! It smooths imperfections and actually moisturizes while you wear it. The wear time is fantastic and it wears off to a natural blush of color rather than with the thick, dark line around the outside of your lips. 

This lip pencil is $27 for 2.4g of product. You do have to sharpen this pencil as the product runs low, but I don't see that as a major downside. This perfectly portable lippie is perfect for an everyday makeup kit. I love the wear time of this product because in my profession, I don't have time to stop and check my makeup every few hours. 

You can check out this product from Sephora HERE!

Check out my post about NARS Dragon Girl lip pencil HERE! (Taylor Swift's favorite red!)

xxSJ

'The Pretty Palette' by Ciate London

I have one of the sweetest boyfriends in the world! I found this little palette under our Christmas tree  and found out that he scoured my blog and makeup vanity to pick out something that I don't already have and that he'd think I would like. After watching more Youtube beauty reviews than he'd like to admit (love ya, sweetiepie! ;) ), he settled on the Ciate London 'Pretty Palette.' I was so excited to dig into this because I've yet to try anything from this brand and mostly know of them from their nail polish line.

The packaging of this is pretty cool. The petite palette has a holographic cover where the eyes are open or shut depending on your angle of viewing.

Inside are 9 colors, 4 shimmers and 5 mattes. The center color is a great, beige, all over base color with the brand's little logo, a petite bow, stamped into the shadow. I love how simplistic the inside of this palette is and how little space is wasted. There is a full size mirror on the inside lid.

The colors are very neutral and when looking at this palette, I can easily think of multiple looks.

The shadows are all buttery soft with very minimal powdery kick up (which is great considering how close the shadows live to one another in the packaging). I was pleasantly surprised by the gold color (bottom left in the palette, 2nd color from the top in the swatches). It looks like its more of a yellow-green gold in the container so I was happy to find its a wearable, neutral gold. The purples are beautifully pigmented and the burnt sienna color is awesomely pigmented and easy to blend on the lid. The one complaint I have is that there are two very similar colors in the palette. You can see in the swatches that one of the champagne colors is more peachy while the other is more neutral, but I wish they were exaggerated in finish because they are incredibly similar on the lid. It's not the worst color to have a near duplicate of, however! 

 The above eye look was achieved using every color from this palette with the charcoal black color smudged into my lash line as eyeliner.

Overall, I'm so pleased with this palette and think that it's great as an everyday, no thought needed makeup look. I also think this palette would be great for travel. You might have to pair it with additional transition colors or deeper hues if you crave variety, but I think this little palette would totally suffice.

This palette is $35.00 for 0.52oz of product and is available from Sephora HERE!

xxSJ

NARS Audacious Lipstick 'Apoline'

Everybody: gird your loins for the most perfect neutral lipstick in all of creation.

 NARS recently came out with some new additions to their incredible Audacious lipstick line. The color 'Apoline' was calling to me as the most perfect neutral lip color. I couldn't justify the steep $34 price tag for myself, so I bought this pretty lippie for my sister first (does anyone else do this???). She looks incredible in it, so I did the only other thing I could think of to get my hands on this gorgeous product--I asked Santa.
Lo and behold, I was graced by this little guy on Christmas morning. The NARS Audacious line is stunning--housed in a black, soft touch finish case with a magnetic closure, this lipstick with the NARS logo engraved on the side will certainly make you feel luxurious every time you use it.

 This satin finish lipstick is ultra pigmented while being super lightweight on the lips giving you long wear coverage and a super comfortable feel. Apoline is a warm dusty pink that is super flattering on my skin and works well with almost any makeup look.

This lipstick wears for about 4 hours through eating and drinking and softens up my cracked, winterized lips leaving a touchable, bouncy finish behind. This is definitely my favorite lipstick and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to add some luxury to their makeup kit!

Check out my other Audacious lipstick reviews!
Grace and Natalie
Juliette
Claudia and Brigitte

Check out the NARS Audacious lipstick line at Sephora by clicking HERE!

xxSJ