Matti May Hardie: November 2016

My lack of an attention span is something I entirely blame on the internet. I mean, I have a short attention span to begin with, but I'm pretty sure the internet did not help even slightly. Because of this, it makes things like watching films and doing things that mean where I need to focus for longer. Saying this, I have found a couple of podcasts that managed to withhold my attention, and I wanted to share them with you guys!

Ctrl, Alt, Delete

You've probably already heard of this podcast, it's by fellow blogger Emma Gannon, and it's got the same title as her book, and in the podcast she interviews different women who are on the internet. I mean, when the first interview is with Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love), you know that it's going to be good! My personal favourite is with her interview with Zoella, not just because it's Zoella, but because the questions and answers are really interesting.

EW's Game Of Thrones Weekly

Game Of Thrones is basically one of my top 2 favourite shows. Orange Is The New Black and Game Of Thrones. This podcast basically consists of two guys talking about the new episode of GoT, talking about what they liked, what the didn’t like, theories, what they think could happen, that kind of thing. It’s obviously a given you can’t really listen to it without having watching GoT, but if you do I’d definitely give this a try.

Ear Biscuits

This podcast is bought to you by the lovely gentlemen of the Youtube chat show ‘Good Mythical Morning’, Rhett and Link. They interview different Youtubers and ask some really interesting questions, and it’s a good way of getting to know the Youtubers on a more personal level, but also they do other episodes now and again (monthly, I think?) where they talk about a different subjects and it’s just Rhett and Link talking. In those episodes they literally just tell anecdotes about them and it’s really funny.

What are your favourite podcasts? Let me know because I swear I need some more to listen to!

P.S - Stop judging me for not sorting my layout out yet. I am utterly shit at HTML and I have absolutely no idea how to get rid of the black bar at the top of the screen. Fun times. I am sorry, I shall do my best to try and sort it out.

Matti x

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It's a glorious Sunday as I'm writing this. I have The Michalaks' latest vlog in the corner, my lunch was amazing and fairly healthy too, and I'm now drinking coke from a coffee cup because why not.
I've been thinking a lot recently and I didn't want to make some big convoluted post about it so I figured I'd do a Cup Of Tea and A Catch Up and talk about it here.

On my blog, I'm generally quite grumpy, sarcastic, with a very dry humour, and if not then I'm just very excitable and a *bit* like a toddler who's had to many sweets. I'm not into collabs, I'm not cutesy, I try to avoid being like some teen bloggers who just seem overly happy and positive all the time. I complain, I'm always real with you guys and I swear. I try and stay as human as possible, and sometimes I worry I'm too real, I've realised from this that because I'm so frank, I now feel like I can't do stuff like tags and blogger awards and that kind of stuff, because, well, that's not how I am. I mean, I'm not, but about a month or so ago, a fellow blogger tagged me in a blogger award, I was flattered, but then I worried because, oh, wait, I can't post this on my blog. This isn't the kind of stuff I post, this isn't my kind of content, I'm the sarcastic one that swears! It annoys me that I feel like I've written myself into a corner so now I can't let myself do things that I do kind of like doing from time to time.

This is something that I hate about putting myself on the internet. I feel like I've created a "brand" (ew) for myself that I can't get out of now. I've created this character, if you will, and I'm now scared to break character, out of fear that you guys are going to be like "oh right, okay, she's gone all cutesy on us, let's go guys". It's stupid, I know, but it's something I worry about.

I pride myself on being able to talk about make-up and fashion and shit like that and still have a manner of speaking that isn't classed as a classic 'beauty blogger'. That's actually quite a nice segway for my next little piece of information, which is that I'm going to try branching out my content. It's another part that comes with feeling like I'm cornered against a wall, it's because I feel like I know have no choice but write the same kind of posts all the time. I've brainstormed a lot (a two-hour round trip on the bus to my friend's house for Halloween helped with that) and have decided to shamelessly make posts about cross-dressing, LGBT stuff, and mental health. Because I refuse to be 'that blogger' who never makes anything that isn't beauty, fashion or lifestyle-related. I have opinions on things and I want this to be a more diverse place, where it's not just "today I'm wearing Lady Danger on my lips!".

Let me know what your thoughts are on the subject as I'd love to hear them.

Matti x

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I don't actually have that many beauty related favourites this month, simple because I don't have the will to put on any make-up whilst at school.

Memrise

I heard about this from Eve Bennett's video, and it intrigued me because as you guys probably all know by now, I am trying to learn Korean. I've been trying and trying and looking for different websites and apps and they've all been okay but not quite what I'm looking for - then I tried Memrise. You basically have different levels and you can review stuff you've already learnt so you don't forget it and it's actually got me wanting to learn Korean again! I don't know about other languages but for Korean they do linger on Hangul a fair bit but I guess that's understandable seeing as if you don't know Hangul you're not going to get very far!

E.L.F ‘High Definition’ Loose Powder

I’ve had this for an age and a half, you’ve all already heard about it, but I’ve actually learnt how to apply it properly (!!!) and I’m now well and truly in love with it. It mattifies really nicely, even though you can see it if you haven’t blended it in properly, but that’s a small price to pay for such an amazing natural matte finish. One thing that really sells it for me is that isn't doesn't get into any creases or my pores and just sits really nicely on my skin. And, icing on the cake, since it's E.L.F, it's super affordable.

CVS Pharmacy Cold Sore Treatment

I got this an age and a half ago, back when I was in New York. I have a bad tendancy of developping cold sores at the worst possible moments, and this was one of those times. When in the big apple, the point is to look as fly as possible, and not like you’ve developped herpes - yum. I decided to go to CVS (I had no idea that it was CVS until now when I read the name) and pick up some cold sore treatment. I didn’t look into it all that much, I just wanted something to help clear up the unwanted thing on my lip. Well, it worked. I can say with conviction that this beats everything. It beats every other cold sore cream, gel, and potion I’ve ever tried. I don’t know why, but it’s very drying, and if there’s one thing you want to do with cold sores is to dry them out. It’s a really weird consistency, kind of a gel but then when you’re applying it it goes at dry. It’s really difficult to explain, but my point is that this works really well. In order to combat cold sores, I tend to wet a tea bag (yes, really) and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, stick that on the sore in the morning until it’s de-freezed (if you have the time, otherwise just leave it on for as long as you can), then apply the treatment. It works really well since the tea bag helps stop it from swelling too much, and the treatment works to get rid of it entirely. Teamwork!

Death Note

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I’m so glad I’m keeping my favourites jolly, eh? I’m just kidding, this is an anime I’ve recently gotten into. I’ve only recently started watching animes, and I’ve quickly realised they’re perfect for me because I have such a short attention span, I’m struggling with hour-long episodes. Anime episodes are about a half-hour long so it’s half the length of a TV show episode. I’ve got a post on my k-pop blog here if anyone’s interested in getting into anime.

Anyway, Death Note is a really cool anime about a guy called Light who finds a book, owned by a God of death, Ryuk. The book, called a Death Note, controls death, and writing a name in the death note can lead them to die from a heart-attack. He decides to start killing people, because why not, and the police decide to investigate, with the help of a brilliant detective who goes simply by the name L. Shit + fan. All I’m going to say.

Saint Young Men

Again, Japanese shit, I’m sorry, okay! I tried not to go all fangirl on you but this I couldn’t miss out. This manga, quite simply, tells the story of when Jesus and Buddha, go on holiday to Tokyo. This is fucking mental and so Japanese I could cry but my god, it’s gold. It’s a bit tricky to read so you may not get it if it’s your first time reading a manga but once you’ve got the hang of it it’s great. I can’t find a website particularly to buy mangas but I found them on eBay here so knock yourself out.

70’s Style Coat

I mean, technically, this isn’t mine; it’s Mama’s. But! She’s been in Australia recently and hasn’t had any need for her coat (for obvious reasons), so I took it upon myself to steal it because lordy lordy, is that a coat I need in my life. I feel like I’m in one of those 70’s British crime dramas that are on TV sometimes, especially paired with my black jeans and Derby's. Hubba hubba.

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child

Me and my educational assistant are in a constant battle for me to read French books instead of constantly in English. I've tried and failed many times, but when she told me that she has bought a copy of the new Harry Potter book, I got rather excited. She said she'd lend it to me but it was in French. I bit the bullet and read 3 quarters of it in 2 days. I didn't get chance to finish it since we broke up for the holidays and I had to give it back to her, so I'll finish it in two weeks (hopefully). It's so good and I was constantly gripped. Every person I talked about it to said the same thing - it reads itself. It's really easy to read and it's so easy to get really sucked into the story. I'm not going to talk about the plot because knowing me I'm going to say everything. I just regret the fact that I couldn't snap a picture of it before I had to give it back!

MAC 'Hug Me'

Mama went to Australia in early September, and while she was in the duty free, she decided to treat herself to a new MAC lipstick. What she was looking for, was 'Velvet Teddy' (because the thing is a cult product), but instead, the sales woman got mixed up and gave her 'Hug Me' instead. Mama didn't actually think to check the name, bought it and was on her way. She tried it whilst in Australia and decided it wasn't for her as it was paler than she thought it would be and make her look "a *bit* like a corpse" (her words, not mine!). She decided to give it to me, and I took of course because who says no to a MAC lippy, huh? I wanted to take a snapchat for my friend Frances to make her jealous (because I'm such a lovely friend) and was going to take a photo of bottom where the name is. As I went to take the photo, I saw the name and realised what had happened! I still decided to try it out and it's a really nice nude with some subtle brown tones.

I have a little announcement, which I'm going to tell you with a heavy heart. I went back to school on Thursday, and as I usually do put my bag under the staircase and didn't think any more about it. Then, yesterday evening, I opened my make-up bag in horror. Someone had stolen the entirety of my make-up bag, other than my moisturiser, my ELF powder and my Rimmel powder, my blending brush and my powder brush, and my Benefit palette. They took my Urban Decay 'On The Run' palette (which you probably all know by now is my favourite set ever), my Urban Decay 'Naked' concealer (the only fucking concealer that fit my skin tone!), and my Benefit 'Gimme Brow" brow mascara. I haven't been able to do all the maths to see how much but it was probably a good 80€ worth of make-up, but even aside from the money, it was all of my favourites, my staples, the make-up I used every single day. All that to say that I won't be posting many make-up posts for a while until I can get my make-up collection sorted and I can get myself sorted with what I have and what's gone. Saying that, I have some bits coming pretty soon from Boots so I'll probably do a baby haul once I receive it.

This post was really up in arms and really shit I'm so sorry, I'll do better soon!

Matti x

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Hey all, how’s you?

There are stereotypes for everyone. French, Italian, English, American, Asian, Jamaican; you name it, there’s a stereotypes for it. I don’t endorse these stereotypes, but I decided to ask around my English friends and on my social media, and also use stereotypes I know myself or that I had when I came to France, to put together this fun little mid-week post to fill you guys in on if the stereotype is true or not.

Also, I'm going to link anyone who helped me with this post with a link to their blog/Youtube/social media.

1/ Everyone smokes and drinks

Ehe… *scratches back of head awkwardly* okay I’ll give you this one. A large portion of the french population does smoke, and heavily, too. And everyone drinks from quite a young age. Yay, health!

2/ They eat bread at every meal

Again, I’ll give you this one. Bread is very popular and very good, too, which doesn’t help. When you first get here, you fall into this habit of eating bread with everything. Heck, I know someone who's dad eats bread with pasta. I shit you not, pasta. But then as you get into living here you don’t eat quite as much as at first.

3/ Everyone listens to accordion music

Even though accordion music is pretty popular amongst the older generation, but teenagers tend to listen to shit rap music instead. If you’re interested in extending your knowledge of shitty music from around the world, there’s Jul, Black M and Maitre Gims. I so hope you don’t enjoy it because it’s truly terrible. More decent artists are Fauve, BigFlo et Oli and Tryo.

4/ Every woman is hot as fuck and dressed insanely well and basically perfect (Frances)

Hell nooooo! It’s actually rare to find a genuinely beautiful, well dressed woman, sadly (at least where I live).

5/ All the guys are charming and want to sweep you off your feet (Ellie)

Again - hell nooo! Most guys are just generally unkempt and unattractive. It's catastrophic, really.

6/ Everyone is really elegant when they talk

Possibly one of the most ironic stereotypes. The French language in itself is, in fact, very beautiful, but most of the time, given the shitty accents most people have (other than Parisians), it's anything but attractive. It sounds a bit like when you're ill and have shit at the back of your throat and you're trying to cough it up. You can thank me later for the lovely mental images I've just given you.

7/ Everyone has a bike and rides around shouting "oui oui baguette" with stripy tops on. (Fran)

... Do-uh, do I actually have to say that that's not true?

8/ Everyone's good at cooking (Summer)

I mean, it's half true. A lot of people are good at cooking, but not all people. I know people who have burnt ready-meals before so you know, give or take.

9/ All men have long and thin moustaches. (Jago)

Surprisingly few men have facial hair. Moustaches are a rare thing, to be honest.

10/ Everyone is rude

I'll give you that because it's something that I really hate about French people is how closed and rude people are. There's a reason I get so cross when I'm outside.

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There we have it! 10 French stereotypes that I have come across. I actually really enjoyed writing this, it was awfully amusing. Thank you to the lovely people who contributed to this post, do check them out because they're great and generally lovely people.

Matti x

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