Lipstick Powder and Paint.

It's been one of those week's, you know the kind where life has kicked the shit out of someone very dear to you and you are left helpless on the sidelines.
I was meant to be meeting my lovely friend Ash in New York in September, we were both super excited. We haven't seen each other for 5 years and had made all sorts of exciting plans.
This week I found out we had to postpone, I'm not going to go into the details, it's not my story, but she's got one hell of a fight ahead of her these next few months and I'm heartsore I can't see her or be with her when she goes through it. Some times life sucks badly.

So I have found myself welling up really easily all week which is not like me, I'm usually a stony hearted mare unless it's to do with a baby elephant or something.

Talking of which Vix get yourself down to the West Midlands Safari Park and blow kisses at the new baby elephant for me please!
Elephant Story

So what else? I bought a lovely pair of lacy tights in my usual size. Now as I have said more than once me and tights do not see eye to eye but this is getting beyond a joke

I mean seriously WT actual F???  (That's a pair of my usual length tights on the left for comparison.)

I swear the tights are trying to break me.

Yesterday I had my barnet cut. Happy, happy day I was actually allowed to have just a few blonde foils in the front.

It has actually taken me by surprise how dull and flat and unlike, well, ME I have felt these last few months not being allowed to colour my hair.
There is still a way to go before I'm at the point of doing whatever I want with it but even those few blonde lights in the front have made me feel like my old self again!

Mind you I say that.

The cut Caron has given me has more than a hint of the Julie Andrews about it. indeed I'm whipping up a set of matching curtain outfits whilst singing about a lonely goatherd even as I type.....

What the heck has all this got to do with the title of my post I hear you cry.

Well I got so fed up with the crap brush on the Bourjours Clubbing mascara I mentioned a couple of posts ago I flung it in the bin in a fit of pique and opened the luscious sparkling red Boots No.7 one.

 
Well I did it again didn't I? I was seduced by the red glitter sparkles and the special offer price and yet again am left bitter and disappointed.

If you have also been tempted don't do it, save your pennies, WALK AWAY. Just walk away. It's pretty rubbish as it goes.

Having said that it does have this one magical quality, sort of a mascara clock of invisibility.
You paint it on and yet it looks like you aren't wearing any mascara at all no matter how hard you try (which is a bit distressing when you have the kind of eyelashes I do)

Somehow within 2 hours you not only have eyelashes that look naked, you also have great black smudges under your eyes!?!

The great mascara hunt plods wearily on.

Next to be tried is Rockstar lashes by Rimmel as created by Kate Moss no less.

I have this gut feeling Kate and I will be having words.


All of this left me thinking about make-up and my pretty much life long love affair with it.

I started wearing make-up when I was 13. It all began when I bought a foot long navy blue eyeliner from Doncaster indoor market for not much money, and wore it often, and applied it with a liberal hand.

Then I got spots, that meant a concealer of some description was needed fast. Back in those days you had the heady choice of 3 shades Fair, Medium, Dark.
It came in a stick and had the consistency dried out paint. It not only was a bugger to put on, it immediaetly flaked whilst also somehow making your zits look more radio active than concealed.
 A bit like drawing a black circle round them with a big arrow next to it saying 'LOOK!!! SPOTS!!!' 

As you can imagine that and the lashings of blue eyeliner were the sight to behold. Not the greatest of starts but I was not deterred. I tried all the different techniques Jackie had to offer and all the different shades (yellow pink and blue anyone?) until I discovered what suited me.

Around the age of 17 a very glamorous friend of my Mum showed me how to apply eyeshadow and blusher properly, from then on there was no looking back. I was a fully fledged, signed up member of the I love make-up club.

This is my make-up drawer as of this morning

Full and in desperate need of a good tidy!

I don't sick to brands other than my foundation (Max Factor) Concealer (Rimmel) and powder (Cornsilk) I am an absolute sucker for special offers, special editions and new brands. Thankfully my skin has never had a bad reaction to all my experimenting. Though I learned hygiene lessons the hard way, more of that in a moment.

On the whole I have found a lot of the cheaper brands work just as well and often last longer than the more expensive. I can say this with authority, believe me, I have tried the lot. From Chanel to MU (where everything in the range is a £1) The one place I would recommend spending the money is on your brushes. Cheap ones are all very well but once you have some really good quality ones you will never look back trust me. If you look after them, they will make you beautiful for many many years and be worth every penny.


My real weakness seems to be eyeshadow pallets. I have many, way, way too many. More than I could ever wear and yet I still buy more.

This is my latest purchase.

I am religious about my make-up hygiene after having painful infected eyes at one point. I clean my brushes regularly with baby shampoo.
Mascara goes after 3 months (if it hasn't already run out or been binned in a fit of temper because it's shit) or the moment it changes smell or consistency.
An opened eyeshadow pallet hits the bin after 2 years and I always sharpen my eyeliners to keep them bacteria free. 

Anyone else a make -up junkie?