059. Empties and Book v. Film: Ready Player One
A lengthy round of empties and diving into both worlds of paper and screen
Hi, I’m Maggie, and welcome to Tender Forms Off-Camera: a weekly newsletter about slow beauty and slow living. Links in this newsletter may include affiliate links or discount referrals. If you enjoy and would like to support this newsletter, click the button below or shop through my links! No pressure but thank you if you do.
Under Luna x Wildcare Tulsi Bloom Shampoo & Conditioner ($78, 8oz | 236ml) Repurchase? Y
I mentioned this in my last newsletter, but Under Luna makes my favorite shampoos and conditioner. Here I have an empty of the Under Luna x Wildcare Tulsi Bloom collaboration. They came out with two rounds of this collaboration, but I wished they were available separately because I definitely have a favorite of the two. This is an excellent duo for those with sensitive scalps, post-partum or thinning hair. As you know, I have a very finicky scalp, and my hair isn’t the strongest. It’s prone to breakage, but while I have fine hair, I have a lot of it, making my mane quite thick.
This is such a nourishing duo. Within two weeks, I was seeing baby hairs and tons of them! It also made my hair stronger and healthier. Overall, there was less breakage, more elasticity, softness, and shine. My favorite in the duo is the shampoo. It reminds me of my favorite Under Luna Warrior shampoo, but I see more hair growth with the Tulsi Bloom. The conditioner is beautiful and super hydrating, but the scent isn’t for me. I think it’s also because I’ve found my holy grail conditioner with a scent I adore and crave, and it’s the Under Luna Serenity conditioner. So it was tough not to compare!
I hope they’ll re-release this collaboration annually or just bring it back every so often as a surprise. I wish I had a backup of this shampoo, especially after my hair-falling-out debacle with HiBar (head to last week’s newsletter to learn more).
YINA Anti-Pollution Mask* (from friend, $65, 50ml | 1.6floz) Repurchase? Y
I already wrote about this one in detail in Newsletter 053, so I’ll keep it short. I love this and would absolutely repurchase it. I finished this faster than I had anticipated because I just kept reaching for it. This is a great all-around choice for Spring and Summer (though I also used this in Winter and loved it). It has an instant cooling effect, and the grounding scent leads you into calm, relaxation. No mixing necessary, and it stays on the face, so you can choose to sit and bask or continue moving on with your day.
pAra botanica Immortal Facial Serum ($72, 1floz | 30ml) Repurchase? Y
I have spoken about this so many times before and will continue to. I love it. I would repurchase it in a heartbeat; it’s one of my all-time favorite serums. But, in case you’re new and want to learn more, head over to these to read or watch: Newsletter 038, 012, YouTube brand review and demo.
Maison/Made Extrait de Maison* (gifted, $165, 30ml | 1floz) Repurchase? N
You might remember from my last empties roundup that I wasn’t a fan of the Maison/Made cleansing oil because of its scent. Extrait de Maison’s scent, on the other hand, is divine. It’s fresh, floral, and botanical in all the best ways. It’s another scent that makes me smile. This facial oil is luscious but not heavy. It’s beautiful on its own or layered between other products. I especially loved mixing it with Heart of Gold’s Pastoralia. It makes a great daytime facial oil under makeup, but I didn’t find it moisturizing enough for nighttime. When I used more drops, it threw my skin off balance causing breakouts. I cannot in good conscience recommend this facial oil because of the price. Yes, it’s biodynamic, but facial oil is not a one-fits-all, even if marketed for all skin types. It worked well on my skin, though I didn’t see much of a difference during or once I stopped using it either. It’s a very middle-of-the-road facial oil for me. As with my other facial oils, I only need to use three drops each time, so it lasts a good while (five months). Still, the price is double (or more) the amount of my other facial oils! I’m very thankful that I was gifted this because I had wanted to try the brand for a long time. Unfortunately, both the cleansing oil and facial oil are a pass for me. Their Lavender hydrosol, on the other hand, is beautiful. And that price point is much easier to swallow.
*The following evanhealy items were won in a giveaway. Full YouTube review and demo here.
I had to declutter the following evanhealy items. They all have a 6-month PAO and stand true to that timeline! There are very few ingredients and no preservatives in these formulations, so they did start to turn right after the 6-month mark. But keep reading for why most of them will be repurchases for me!
evanhealy Tinted Oil Serum Foundation* ($29.95, 1floz | 30ml) Repurchase? Y
This is my holy grail tinted oil serum foundation. User-friendly, looks like skin, applies beautifully, small but fresh ingredient list, and offers a wide shade range. Aside from the shorter PAO lifespan, I can’t find any fault with these. I wish they lasted longer, but at just under $30, you can’t go wrong with this. If I didn’t currently have other foundations to go through, I would pick up another bottle right now. Did I mention these are also available at Whole Foods, making them an excellent pick for those Beauty sales?
evanhealy Color Balm* ($19.95, 0.17oz | 5g) Repurchase? Y
After half a year with them, I’ve narrowed my favorites down to two: Medina and Sibyl. Vintner is beautiful, but I go for very natural no-makeup looks daily, so I couldn’t work through it quickly enough. Medina would be my pick for Spring/Summer and Sibyl for Fall/Winter. These are some of the best multi-use color balms out there. I am always in awe of how much I love these whenever I use them up. The same issue, of course, is the PAO. Like clockwork, at the 6-month mark, they go off. But again, at under $20, the minimalist in you would be overjoyed with any of them.
evanhealy Brow Pomade* ($19.50, 0.12oz | 3.5g) Repurchase? N
This is the only item I wasn’t blown away by, mainly because it’s not something I tend to use. I like to fill my brows in with powder, and then there was the issue of shade matching. I have it in the shade, Taupe, which is the coolest they offer, but it still comes across as way too warm on me. However, I found that it makes a beautiful eyeliner! It stays all day, looks natural, and gives the lashes a bit of love with its nourishing ingredients!
Saie Slip Tint ($32, 40ml | 1.35floz) Repurchase? N
It’s been a rollercoaster of a journey with these Slip Tints. It started with pure adoration, then rage, then an “oh, this is interesting” moment. I have shades Two and Three. The two mixed gives me my closest match. However, there seem to be some formulation discrepancies between the two shades. With Shade 2, the beginning to the halfway point has beautiful pigment and formula. It spreads easily, covers, and provides sun protection. However, halfway through, the pigment seems to separate, and it just looks terrible on the skin, even when my skin looks great. I also can’t stand how dewy and slippery this gets. It transfers everywhere, so beware if you’re wearing lighter clothing and tend to touch your face throughout the day. I ended up mixing these with the MyChelle Sun Shield Liquid SPF 50 (I got the shade Light) to help bring down the shine and up the blend-ability and staying power. I am almost done with Shade 3 and honestly can’t wait.
This combo brings out the best of both. I am also delighted with the new MyChelle light shade! It’s a great shade match for me on its own. Previously, I was using their Light-Medium, and it was too dark, and the consistency of the untinted version is strangely greasy and gritty.
Saie Brow Butter in Clear* (from friend, $20, 4.4g / .16oz) Repurchase? N
I actually have two empties of these. The first one was a GWP when I ordered the Slip Tint, and the other was from a friend. The more I used this, the more I disliked it. It gives beautiful feathery brows if you use a lot of it, but the hairs collapse within an hour. I also wasn’t a fan of the thick and heavy feeling on my brows. Because I had to apply so much to get some semblance of hold, powder and pigment would catch on it throughout the day, which did not give a good look. The Kosas Air Brows are superior in every way.
A positive is that I did see hair growth when using this consistently! I was surprised because usually, items marketed for brow growth don’t do much, but maybe it was from my daily over-application!
*Light spoilers ahead.
I recently finished the novel “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. I gave it ★★★★ because I had such a fantastic time. But it got me thinking about the film adaptation that came out back in 2018. Before I read the book, I was trying to remember the film, and I couldn’t picture much aside from two scenes. This is usually a tell-tale sign that the film was, indeed, forgettable. However, while still on my high from devouring the paper version, I thought it high time to revisit its screen companion.
The first time around, I had rated it ★★★ (which Husband reminds me was very generous). Upon rewatching, I upped it to ★★★½.
The critical thing to remember when it comes to books versus films is the difference in format. A story reads differently in the length of a novel, just as a scene plays differently on screen, even from the screenplay itself! So many passages that I loved from the book would not have been as entertaining to watch. And vice versa. Some scenes in the film would not have been near as fun to read; I’ll cover one such sequence in a bit.
First, an interesting tidbit is that Cline is a screenwriter first, author second. Okay, technically, he’s a slam poet first (I know what), then screenwriter, then author. “Ready Player One” was his first novel, and after becoming a bestseller, he co-wrote the screenplay with Zak Penn in Steven Spielberg’s movie adaptation.
This film plays better if you’ve read the book. There are tons of easter eggs hidden within that correlates to the novel, so it’s fun to see what your eye catches. I called this the book’s “screen companion” because it is an excellent complement to the paper version. While the setup scenes are what you expect them to be, the main competition in the storyline isn’t a 1-to-1 copy. It feels familiar because it’s in the same world, but it’s a different iteration of it.
The core rules and objective remains the same. James Halliday, head of the world’s most immersive online technology company, conducts a Willy Wonka-esque competition post-mortem. Halliday’s avatar, Anorak, explains that hidden within the OASIS (the world’s renowned virtual reality) are three keys to three gates of levels to clear: the Copper Key, Jade Key, and Crystal Key. The first player to clear all three and find his Easter Egg wins his majority shares to the company: a fortune beyond your wildest imagination.
Where the two veer off into separate paths are the challenges themselves. In the book, the first challenge was to play a game of 1982’s “Joust” against a Dungeons & Dragons demi-lich from the Tomb of Horrors. In the film, it’s a race.
This might be a disappointment to those who loved the original challenges of the book, but know that I loved them too! But I appreciate the film’s take on the challenge because it kept in mind its format. Watching the main character’s avatar, Parzival, play a one on one game of “Joust” might not have been as riveting as it was to read. While a race is deceivingly the most basic way to convey clearing a game level, the race itself is skinned in a manner worthy of the novel.
All players join an unbeatable race filled with hectic physics-breaking raceways, Spielberg-approved hurdles like a giant T-Rex from Jurassic Park, or other Warner Bros. Pictures properties like the Kong that surprises those who make it closest to the end. Races are inherently fun to watch: the speed, danger, explosions, and bigger-than-life cameos add to the excitement and adrenaline. Having changed the specific challenges in the movie didn’t take anything away. Instead, it gave it an edge, allowing it to feel fresh while living in a familiar world.
How Parzival decodes and wins the race is very in line with his character and how it would play out in the book (had the race existed). All in all, while each level is different from paper to screen, they’re equally enjoyable in their own right.
And for that reason, I truly appreciated the film this second time around. What I enjoyed most the first time were the visual effects. As with any Spielberg film, its attention to VFX was stellar. Impeccably designed and rendered, seeing closeups of the avatars’ skin, clothing, hair, and motion behaviors were all marvelous to observe. And I wouldn’t have expected anything less from veteran studios Industrial Light & Magic (notably founded by George Lucas during the production of 1977’s ‘Star Wars’), Digital Domain (James Cameron is one of the founders, VFX work on a multitude of DC and Marvel titles), and Territory Studio (known for their Head-Up Displays “HUDs” and Graphic-User-Interface “GUIs” work).
Last but not least, the casting is terrific. I am in agreement with all but one. In the book, “Sho” is actually “Shoto” and Japanese. Not the 11-year old Chinese character in the film. I’m guessing they took some liberties because he and Daito’s character arcs are perhaps too dark for Spielberg’s family-friendly version.
Regardless, if you’re a lover of any of the following, both the book and film are worth the experience:
Sci-fi
The 70s, 80s, 90s
Video games
Books
Quests
Drama
Action
Life
Love
Thanks so much for reading! This workweek was crazy, yet, I stayed up later than usual on Friday night to watch ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.’ It was an excellent start to the weekend (even if I’m working Sunday/today when you read this). I have many thoughts, which will probably come soon in a newsletter.
I’d love to know which products you’ve emptied recently! Remember, you can always leave a comment (click the comment bubble icon) or reply to this email directly to chat one on one.
As always, I hope you have a great start to your week! See you next Sunday!