Captain America: Civil War

If I'm being honest, the moment they announced that the third Captain America movie would be "Civil War" I lost every shred of interest I had in it. Which is really sad because in the Marvel films, Captain America has been my favorite. Partially because of how amazing Peggy Carter was in the first movie, but also just because I really enjoyed the character and Chris Evans' portrayal of him. Which surprised me because in the comics, he's not my favorite.

But the Civil War storyline in general was one I found boring, and in the context of the Marvel movies it seemed even more boring. It also seemed to be playing into some fan-interpretation weirdness with the characters that I just didn't see in the movies. Ramping up to the release, absolutely nothing made me interested in it again. The trailers, the posters, the marketing hype, nothing drew me in. It still looked boring. I ended up going to see it because my husband wanted to and I figured well, it probably wasn't going to be BAD, just mostly uninteresting. Kind of like Age of Ultron (which I found kind of tedious despite some great moments).

Reading this you probably think I hate the Marvel movies but the thing is I really don't. I enjoy them quite a bit, and it's revitalized some stories that I'd gotten tired with in the comic books. There's a lot of great stuff in the MCU, and the casting is so pitch perfect that it lets a lot of other things slide.

Anyway, so Civil War the movie. The movie didn't really end up winning me over. The way I put it to people is that it's the second best Avengers movie, as Black Panther 0.5 it's wonderful. It's even got a few scenes that serve as a great Spider-Man reboot and made me want to finally get around to watching Ant Man. But it was not just the worst Captain America movie, it's very far below the quality of the first two to the point where I don't think it's worth considering it part of the same series.

It only just barely continues Steve's story, and it twists his character in ways that make no sense except when you think that the Marvel Execs said "we need X to happen" so well, they made X happen. Steve has plenty of faults, but lack of clear communication haven't been on that list until this movie (insubordination, sure, but he says what he means and elaborates on it well usually). Which is infuriating to me because his point of view isn't wrong. The Russo brothers have said that they didn't want either side to be right, which I think comes across actually as a cop-out, but the other thing is that in order to do that they basically had to make Steve have a good point of view and then support it with absolutely nonsensical actions. They've also been saddled with a storyline that has an enormous amount of historical context regarding the efficacy of peacekeeping forces/the UN and ignore that context so thoroughly you wonder if it doesn't exist in their timeline.

The whole thing comes across less as a "life is complicated and these people have complicated problems to figure out" and more "we wanted interpersonal conflict so everybody stopped talking to each other and acted like five year old's so we could make things go boom and have a cool poster."

There were amusing bits to be sure, and some great lines. The acting as always was great. But unless they go and put together a "Here, just watch Black Panther's scenes and let the rest fade from your mind" version of it, I probably won't bother watching it again.

Well, they can include Falcon being snarky to Bucky, that was fun too.

Dreaming Tree Soapworks

I've risen from the dead! I know, this blog has fallen behind on my schedule but I want to get back into the habit so here we are just jumping right back into the swing of things.

Got my order from Dreaming Tree Soap Works today. All discounted plus some a free sample. Fires At Midnight is so wonderful.

A photo posted by Elizabeth (@onegirlsreviews) on Jul 20, 2015 at 4:44pm PDT

I stumbled on Dreaming Tree Soapworks because another indie brand I like had a sample of their soaps and a coupon in my order once. And I'll be honest with you, I can't at all recall which one. Geek Chic Cosmetics maybe?

Anyway, I checked out their offerings and ordered some stuff to use the coupon and fell in love.

At first I was a bit cautious because to be honest, I just don't go for solid soaps and that's the main offering at Dreaming Tree. I've probably talked about it before, they're just not my thing. But if they're your thing, the samples I've had are fantastic, and I always end up using them up. The smell is always heavenly, and the sample I have right now (Every Flavor Beans) has this subtle shimmer to it that's really fabulous.

I go for a couple other things on their website, some of them you can see in my Instagram photo above.

Velvet Dream Scrub: To just call this a sugar scrub is under selling it. I don't even know how to say how fantastic this scrub is. I've tried scrubs from numerous national brand names, and none of them come close to the Velvet Dream scrub. It really does the job, it feels wonderful while you're using it, and leaves my skin super soft and smelling wonderful. She recently changed her formula a bit, and because I had some already I only just started using a sample of the new formula. It's in a scent called Bombadil, and was a surprise sample in my last order. It's just as wonderful, and the scent is SO good. I can't stand to get sugar scrubs anywhere else anymore, they just don't hold up.

Silken Reverie Luxury Lotion: This lotion is wonderful, it is easy to rub into your skin and feels great, it's super moisturizing. But that's not the main selling point here, the main point is that it smells wonderful and the smell lingers in just the right way. I have a bottle of Fires at Midnight, which is one of the best scents I've ever smelled in a bath product in my life, and I love using it because of how long it lasts without being overpowering or too much when you first use it. The only problem I have is that I wish she sold travel versions or smaller bottles, because I keep lotion in my purse and would love to have her stuff there too instead of whatever small sample I've gotten from Birchbox lately.

Magic Stick Body Balm: I got this because I was looking for something that might function kind of like the Julep foot recovery stick that I didn't like that much (bad package design) and I love it. I go for Pure of Heart, though I tried Yeti Foot first. I just like it being unscented, plus several of the scents have lavender (a scent I don't go for, long story) or patchouli which generally doesn't work on me. Nothing against them, just not my style. Pure of Heart is fantastic though, love it.

Mad Madam Mym's Bath Bubblers: I've only tried one of these, and I'm still really new to using bath bombs and haven't decided really what I think of them in general. The one I tried smelled lovely, and I'll probably try one again at some point. If you like bath bombs I'm sure you'll like them.

She's also included some of her soy melt samples in my orders before, and I did quite like them. I just have so much scented wax right now that it'll be ten years before I need any more, otherwise I'd fill up on those right now. Her scent formulas are just so wonderful, I've tried so many and they've been wonderful. I think there was only one I didn't love, and it was just not for me because I'm picky.

Be sure to sign up for her newsletter, she does sales pretty regularly and over on Facebook she will ask for input and advice on what scents people want in upcoming collections. The customer service is also great, there was a recent delay with shipping some orders that was entirely out of her control, and she more than made it up to those of us that were affected. I'm a fan for life.

June 2015 Birchbox

I've been snowed under with work on launching a podcast project and trying to finish up other things, and sadly this blog is the first thing I stop being able to keep up with. But I'm going to try to get back into it since I'm six months behind on Birchbox again!

This month's @birchbox had some fun stuff, though a few things that don't really fit my profile. But I did need some sunscreen to go in my bookbag! Full review on the blog soon.

A photo posted by Elizabeth (@onegirlsreviews) on Jun 21, 2015 at 6:12am PDT

COOLA SPF 50 Sport - Mango: I do love the smell and the feel of COOLA sunscreen products, and this one was really nice. I needed a small tube of sunscreen to put in my bag and this was perfect for that and was great for the summer while I used it. My only problem with COOLA products is the price. It's absolutely not worth the price. The Neutrogena tube of sunscreen I got after this was just as nice, just maybe not as pretty smelling.

Number 4 Blow Dry Lotion: So this is part of what I'm referring to in the caption by saying it doesn't fit my profile. I don't blow dry my hair, actually I recently pulled out my blowdryer to use a Jamberry nail wrap that I'd recently gotten and it rattled and smelled so bad that I realized it was busted and possibly dangerous. This was the hair dryer that I'd snitched from my sister that she had in college, and that was in the 90's. So basically I have no input on this one because I had absolutely no use for it.

Hanky Panky Eau de Parfum: I don't have the vocabulary to really talk about perfume samples, but this one was nice at first but as I wore it a few days I realized it wasn't really working for me. It was nice in the bottle, but just wasn't my style or didn't work with my body chemistry.

Marcelle Mini Waterproof Eyeliner: The color that I got in this eyeliner was called mulberry and it is a fantastic color. The pencil itself worked really well and I really liked it a lot. If I didn't already have more eyeliners than I could use in my life, I would have bought the full kit right away. I really liked this and the other colors were great.

Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels: This was my sample pick for this month because I wanted to check out an eye gel product and see if I liked it. I do have a problem with my eyes being puffy and irritated sometimes because I'm an insomniac (that's not hyperbole by the way) and I did like them quite a bit. But I later bought a pack of slightly cheaper Klorane Smoothing and Relaxing Patches and I like those quite a bit. But the Skyn Iceland ones are very nice, either is a good choice.

Emi Jay Solid Hair Tie 5-Pack: This is the other thing that doesn't fit my profile as I mention in my Instagram caption. I keep my hair too short to pull back, so I can't use any hair ties at all. I gave these away. But the other thing is the time before that I got a ribbon hair tie it was awful, it absolutely did not do the job it was meant to do and I could tell it was because it was too busy being cute to be as functional as it could be. A hair tie's job is to tie your hair back, if you want something cute tie a ribbon over a functional one or something.