Remembering the Victims of the Norway Massacre

Yesterday, Sunday July 22nd, Oslo and the rest of Norway paused to commemorate the 77 victims of the bomb and gun massacre that shocked our nation one year ago.

One year ago I was in Beijing, and it was really hard being so far away from home and those I loved - stuck in a country where it was nearly impossible to stream news broadcasts, only depending on Norwegian online newspapers. In many ways I felt cut off and isolated (against my wish).

In this way my fellow Norwegian students in China, and I, missed out on the greater part of the (grieving) process that followed in the months after, debates and that special feeling of solidarity between Norwegians that has been frequently talked about in the time after. 

Instead my fellow Norwegian classmates, some of them even having lost close friends or having friends who were badly wounded, and I, went to school as normal, surrounded by (non-Norwegian) people and teachers whom was totally oblivious to "our" situation back home. 

When I returned to Norway in December, I somewhat felt that I'd missed out on an important grieving process. 

Five months later Norwegians had mostly gotten over their shock, and had sort of moved on, while my own shock was still very much intact.

Poor Vidar would try to console me, while I was choking and sobbing - five months later - when watching the Norwegian King's speech during the memorial concert held just a few days after the attack.

I would "finally" be able to catch up on discussions, news debates etc. that had been accessible to Norwegians all along, and I'd come across videos clips that had already been frequently shown in the Norwegian media, so much that other Norwegians had seen so many times they barely noticed it anymore - I was seeing it for the first time and I felt heartbroken and would bawl my eyes out, as if it had just happened.

Yesterday, one year after the event, I went together with Vidar's mom to the city centre of Oslo to commemorate those who were lost.

I think it helped me getting my own closure.

"We are so few in this country, 

every fallen one is a brother or a friend."

Vidar's momma

 The Government Building,

where a car bomb killed eight people

and injured more than two hundred 

Memorial concert

Great view

Bruce Springsteen

 The Norwegian Parliament

"Even if we didn't know you, we miss you all".

Product review: Lush's Emotional Brilliance

I am completely obsessed with Lush Cosmetics, I almost want to work in their store. 

Imagine to get to sell products that you love and really believe in! That would be so awesome. 

Lush have just launched their new (and first?) makeup line, Emotional Brilliance. I got invited to the pre-launch for bloggers, but I had to work so I couldn't make it. A few days later I stopped by to grope and fondle their new products.

As a means to draw attention to their new makeup line, Lush has come up with this silly "game" where you're supposed to randomly pick out three colors from the wheel that 'speaks to you' at that exact moment, and they correspond with products of that color from the new line. And then the person working at Lush will make a big deal out of it, giving you a so-called "color-reading", as all of the colors have their own name like "decisive" and "bubbly".

Lol. Mumbo-jumbo. 

But I understand that it is a gimmick to attract attention to their new line - but my impression is that the quality and the uniqueness of products themselves don't need to be compromised by some gimmicky marketing stunt, but hey.

If I worked at Lush I would be very tempted to say "Screw the silly game, I'll sell you the products because they're actually really great products, I don't need to pretend I'm some kind of fortune teller reading your soul to convince you to buy them!" - and maybe that's why I don't work there, I'd be too tempted to do what feels right to me. And pretending to be a color therapist sure ain't it! 

'Randomly' choosing a color, you say?

Lush, your costumers who are 

genuinely interested in makeup will never 'randomly'

choose a color, 

when they know it'll wind up being the 

color they are going to put on their face!

(Great way to get the interest of costumers who 

know nothing about makeup but love mumbo-jumbo, though)

There where so many people there,

I feel I didn't get to play with the products enough

- I haven't even tried the cream eyeshadows or the mascara

I need to go back!

All of the products have the same packaging

- liquid eyeliner, liquid lipstick, eyeshadows and mascara all the same:

in bottles that look like nail polish - I bet the staff at Lush will get so tired of

getting that comment all day long

I decided not to "play" the (stupid) "game" and just choose the colors I wanted directly from the shelves.

"Bubbly", a liquid lipstick

"Motivation", a liquid eyeliner

"Believe" (to the far right), liquid lipstick 

"Bubbly", 

a liquid lipstick

- so far I've only used it as a liquid blush,

and it works great!

At 179 NOK per bottle, naturally it's expensive compared to

drug store brands

A small dab of Believe

- if you were to use the wand to apply it fully,

you'd probably look like a clown

- However Lush products are usually well worth the price!

Good quality and great products

I think they still have work to do on their packaging, though

The wand that is attached to the lid of the bottle seems

really flimsy and sometime soon

I will be opening it to find that it has come loose

and is stuck inside the bottle!

The liquid lipsticks that I've tried out are

really pigmented (a little goes a LONG way) and great

staying power

- just what I can imagine OCC's lip tars to be, 

without actually having tried any of them before

(comparing products with never-tried products,

oh, that's how you can tell it's a great review)

Very impressed with these, also considering that they are multi-purpose,

also working great as blush

Not very impressed with the liquid eyeliner

as it easily feathers and glides out

Maybe it'll work better as a smudged eyeliner or

an eyeshadow base

I want more liquid lipsticks!

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