Author: Eve Crabapple

Book Review: Think Like A Freak

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The title is a bit misleading. Yeah, that’s what crossed my mind at first too but it’s not what you think it’s about!
This is the actually the third book in a series of books by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, starting with “Freakonomics” and then “Superfreakonomics”. I have not read the first two and I’d never heard of the authors, but I saw this in the library and it intrigued me.

I am always interested in books that delve into understanding the motives and incentives that people are guided by and this book does just that. It explores new ways of thinking to solve problems both global and personal through stories and examples in the realms of business, sports, religion, and many more. Their examples demonstrate how “incentives rule our world” and they actually layout  a simple list of six rules that create an effective incentive scheme for any circumstance. It also goes into the art of persuasion (another one of my favorite topics) and the pointers they give on this subject are ones that I have heard before, but still, they explain abstract ideas and facts that are difficult to believe in an easy and straightforward manner. Another interesting subject that the book concludes with is concerning “failing fast and failing cheap”. We all have heard some sort of version of the virtues of never giving up (in fact just a couple of days ago I tweeted a quote about this) but the authors explore the issue with this sort of aversion for quitting and the opportunity cost of such an unyielding attitude. This subject along with the topic about incentives were the two greatest takeaways for me. I have already made plans on how to use their six step process for incentivizing in both my personal life and my work life, since being a wife and being in management both involve getting people to do things that they really don’t!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I’m always on the lookout for fresh, novel methods for approaching my thinking and this book really brought some new ideas to the table that I had never heard before. If you are like me in that regard, I think you would come away with some new food for thought as well and I highly recommend this book.

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Beauty Review: YSL Black Opium Perfume

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If you follow my Instagram you will have noticed that I posted a picture showing that I used up all of my YSL Black Opium. I purchased the smaller 1.6 ounce size since I wasn’t sure if it would suit me despite its rave reviews from everyone in the world. I bought this at Sephora in early October to use during my trip to Tunisia and I used it on average 3 times a week (mostly because I would forget in the morning) since October. For a daily user of this perfume I can image it lasting at least 3 months based on how long it took to spritz my way through this bottle.

Let’s start with the bad and end with the good because it’s Friday and I want to end on a happy note.

The Bad

When I used this at around 7AM by around 12PM the scent was gone. Since this lasted me only halfway through my day I invested in a portable perfume atomizer so that I could top up during lunch. Perhaps this is an average number of hours for a perfume to last but I’ve used perfumes that would last me the whole day from 7AM to 7PM that weren’t as expensive as this one. The lasting power for Black Opium just wasn’t there for me.

Secondly, while strangers and friends would compliment me on the scent, I wasn’t that partial to it. This is definitely an intense, darkly sweet scent that I didn’t enjoy on myself even though others liked it on me. I did start to like it once it had been on my skin for a couple of hours and the top and middle notes had evaporated, but by that time I would have only had about 3 hours of a scent that I actually did like. It isn’t smart for me to purchase a perfume for just its base notes.

The Good

While the actual product didn’t please me, I’d like to give YSL recognition for the packaging. It is beautiful. Consisting of a shiny black bottle shot through with subtle pink glitter with a glass peephole in the center that reveals the light pink liquid — it perfectly reflects the whole feel of the perfume. It tells you that it’s sweet, feminine tones are surrounded by a dark, heavy domination but still shine through at just the right angles that surprise and delight you.

The Verdict

It isn’t for me. However, I can see why it would be popular because of its packaging and mysteriously almost sickly sweet scent. It’s funny that other people liked it on me but I only like the perfume once it has sat on my skin for a couple of hours, but nobody has time for that. So now I am back to my signature Bvlgari White Tea scent until something else comes my way. Let me know if you guys have any recommendations for me for a spring or summer perfume for the upcoming season!

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My Scathing Beauty Review

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This is my review of the Yes! to tomatoes clear skin acne pore scrub. Normally, I don’t bother doing reviews of beauty products because there are people out there in internet land who have probably already done one better than I can do on a huge number of products that I couldn’t use in ten lifetimes. However, I feel very strongly about this product.

In short, I really dislike this face scrub. This is the worst one that I’ve ever tried. Again, not that I have tried an entire aisle’s worth at Bartell’s, but I’ve purchased and used up a fair share to know what a good scrub should be like. It should be grainy, but not lacerating, it should feel like you are scrubbing away any trace amounts of makeup, sweat and grime from the day while revealing the fresh and smooth skin underneath. As you pat your face dry, your skin should feel squeaky clean and ready to drink up whatever moisturizer or serum that comes next in your skin care routine.
If what I just described to you sounds like a face scrub you’d like to try, then don’t buy this one. I have two main gripes with this product, firstly, the size and sensation of the beads and secondly, the inability for the product to remove even the most tiniest amounts of foundation, or lotion or liner from my face.
Let’s start with the beads. The beads are rough and I don’t have particularly sensitive skin. So it doesn’t feel as though I’ve gotten rid of the dead skin and other matter from the surface, it feels like I’ve just taken sand and rubbed it on my face without actually removing and revealing a cleaner layer. It’s as if my old, dead skin cells are still on my face, but just scratched up — not a nice sensation. Also, because the beads are very small, a slightly annoying occurrence that would happen frequently is that they would end up in my lashes and make their way into my eyes. Again, just not a pleasant experience.
On to the actually cleansing aspect of the scrub. I have never had a face scrub or face wash quite do what this one does. It’s like this: it’s the end of the day, you get home, you use a cold cream or makeup remove to remove your makeup and despite doing your best to remove every single patch of foundation and every smudge of liner, there will be some makeup left on your face before you go to use this scrub. Now, normally, this isn’t an issue and a facial scrub will be able to fully remove whatever traces were left, but not if you are using this scrub. I’m not sure what ingredient is specific to this scrub that makes it react the way it does to makeup, but unless your face is a clean surface to begin with, this scrub will take whatever trace foundation remains on your face and turn it into this stubbornly greasy film that just coats your entire face and it will spread your mascara and liner around until it completely smudges around your eyes. I understand that a face scrub is not a makeup remover and I was not using the product in this way, but I would expect that whenever I wash my face with any product, it would make my face cleaner and not coat my face in a greasy film. After using this scrub I end up having to use a different face wash to get my face clean.
So there you have it. I am not one to write negative reviews or positive reviews of makeup products, just because I feel like there are other blogs that specialize in that type of content, but this is one that had to be written due to the very strong feelings I had about it.

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Book Review: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

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Saturday morning I decided to go to the library to find some books on languages. After looking around and not finding what I wanted to find I was about to head out when my eye was caught by this book:


I read a couple of pages, was intrigued by the simple but profound writing and checked it out. I started the book when I arrived home and finished it the next day. It is not a long book, less than 200 pages, but the lessons within could take up volumes and volumes. Without divulging the plot, the story follows the events of a young shepherd who leaves his homeland in Spain and to travel to Egypt to see the Pyramids and find buried treasure. I love stories about traveling through the Sahara, the Pyramids, and buried treasure  so the story-line naturally appealed to me. However, much more than that is the writing itself that made me keep reading. If any of you have read “The Little Prince”  by Antoine Saint Exupery, you’ll understand what I mean when I describe Coelho’s style as simple but profound. “The Alchemist” reminded me very much of the classic by Saint Exupery and it’s no wonder that it has been translated in over 50 languages. I’m just amazed that I’ve never heard about this book. Coelho first published this in his native Brazil in 1988 and then it was translated into English in 1993 and here I am reading it 23 years later. I feel like I’m really late to the party! But if you’re late like me — don’t delay, read it now!

I need to return my copy to the library now, but I will be purchasing a copy of my own. This is the type of book that reveals a little bit more each time you revisit it.

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“Never Lose Your Childish Enthusiasm…”

Published on by Eve Crabapple1 Comment

…It’s the most important thing.”

This is a quote from one of my absolute favorite movies, “Under the Tuscan Sun”. While there are so many lessons in that movie that I like to remember over and over again, the phrase above spoken by Katherine is the most memorable to me.

I find myself more often lately trying to think back to when I was a child about what I liked to do, how I used to spend my days, and how what I remember is so different from my life now. But I suppose that it’s a natural part of becoming an adult. We can’t spend whole days playing outside. The rent would never get paid, bills would pile up, and I’d probably starve to death. But less about the actual differences in what I spend my days doing, it’s the difference in how I feel about my life that the quote above reminds to reflect on. One of the differences I remember about my life as a child compared to my life now is the feeling about my day as I used to wake up. Before I felt happy and alive. I loved school. I loved living. Now, not so much. I wouldn’t say I’m completely depressed and hating life, but it’s a different feeling. A duller, sedated feeling.

I’ve got to get that feeling back. I’ve got to get back my childish enthusiasm.

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