...

I have come to the realisation that I can't keep expecting a prince charming when I'm not fucking princess.

Oool

Judith Kerr

I just fancied doing a bit of a fun blog post, and share one of my favorite people.

This is Judith Kerr, and while you might not recognize her face, you might recognize the characters she is famous for creating. Mog the forgetful cat was recently bought back to life in this years Christmas advert for Sainsbury's. Mog was the basis for a series of childrens books which were part of my own childhood. She also wrote the Tiger Who Came to Tea, which was a favorite in my house as well as many others I'm sure. I could totally nerd over how much I used to love her books when I was little, and I will always appreciate that it was her words that my mum used to read to me to make me fall asleep, but she is so much more than that. 

Judith Kerr is the most amazing person, she was born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1923, she spent, a great deal of her childhood, moving around, living in hotels with her only worldly possessions in the suitcase she carried while her family fled the Nazi's. She went to 11 different schools before her family eventually ended up in England where she still lives today. What I love about her is her outlook on everything, her endless positivity and wisdom. She would have loved to have a terrible childhood, because all great writers have had bad childhoods and that's how they write so well. But despite everything, she doesn't say she had a bad childhood, to her, her family was together, always, and that was all that mattered. 

Even now, she is an elderly lady and her husband passed away in 2006. She has spent her most recent years writing like crazy and says that it has been the saving of her, because she has had nothing else to do. 

She was the subject of a BBC documentary a couple of years ago which is when I fell in love with her. It was called "Hitler the Tiger and Me" and I knew it had something to do with the Tiger who Came to Tea and that is all that peaked my interest. Towards the end of the documentary, she is visiting GEIS 17 a train station where thousands of Jews were taken to board trains that would take them to concentration camps. Judiths family, were extremely lucky and were warned with enough time to escape to Switzerland before Hitler came into power, they reached Zurich the day the Nazi's went to their house in Berlin for their passports. She comments on how her happy life, she has been able to live, has all been down to that warning, and her father making the decision to leave when he did. She looks at the memorial sculptures and says "the way you feel now, we owe it to them, to make something of our lives". Something I found so profound. The idea that if you are lucky enough to have lived, where others haven't been so lucky, you owe it to them to do something with your life. I think of everything that is going on in the world right now, babies being washed up in beaches because their parents are fleeing war torn countries, people in Africa, just getting over the ebola crisis again, and just yesterday the terrorist attacks in Paris. These people have lost their lives because of situations that are out of their control, wars that they didn't create, diseases that they can't fight alone. 

I have non of their problems, I owe it to all of them to do something with my life, to not give up, to keep running, to keep speaking out, to not be afraid to fight, and to make the most of the opportunity that could just as easily be taken from me.

Mog the Forgetful Cat 

Mog is the star of her own book series which in recent years came to end when Mog dies of old age in a book called "Goodbye Mog". Some might disagree that mortality is something that should be in a children's book, I personally think that it's necessary and it makes me love Judith all the more for doing it in the way she has. Mog has however been given a new life in Sainsbury's Christmas Advert for 2015. And I love it!

This book made me want to have a pet tiger, and I always looked in the Supermarket for tins of Tiger food. Apparently Judith wrote this to be a metaphor for the Gestapo coming into her life without warning and messing everything up. Powerful stuff for a kids book!

I strongly recommend her as an author, obviously if you have young kids then brilliant, but she has also written some semi biographical novels which are a brilliant read, again so profound and hopeful in time where so many had no hope at all. 

Derogatory Comments in the Workplace. - SOME SEXISM AT ME!!

I recently started working for a new company, I have the same job as I had before but a new contractor has taken over the work and so a handful of staff were transferred over, to their new office. The company itself, while being new to this particular contract, has been in business for some years, with various fingers in various other pies and so is fairly well established.
On my first day. I was sent for a Health and Safety seminar, in Manchester. Out of the five staff members being taken, and who were there with me that day, I happened to be the only female. I'm used to this. At the previous company, I was one of only 3 women in a sector of around 50 people, and it had never been something that was ever bought to my attention, we were all just 'the staff'.
For the safety seminar, our new Health and Safety manager bought us all into the boardroom for our standard policy PowerPoint presentation about the rules. We all knew what to expect, like all safety meetings this would be a 40 minute speech telling us how to not be idiots, which we all already knew, but we understand the procedure. Our Health and Safety manager started his presentation, and had given us a run down of the company history and core beliefs and was just going into office safety and employee responsibility. It was at this point that it happened.......
HSM was telling us all about how it's "down to employees to take responsibility for safety" and how "your actions can effect others around you, so it's important to think about that". He went on to say "for example if you're in the office with your tools and you put your tools in on the floor...." at which point he looked directly at me, the only woman in the room, and said "........ Or you're shopping".
.............................................
And it didn't end there, oh no no no. This guy was determined. He then went on to discuss "proper footwear", you might have expected him to discuss the importance of steel toe caps if going on site, or closed toe shoes to protect feet should anything fall on them. Oh no, this guy took a good look at my trusty brown brogues and said, "nice to see you've got a decent pair of shoes on you there love, (LOVE?)most of the others (other what? Humans?) like to walk around in silly high heels all the time and they wonder why they fall over!". Oh HA HA HA HA HA! Yes! Us women, we are relentlessly stupid fucks aren't we, it's hilarious!

Not long after this, he was required to take our ID photographs, and of course, ladies first. I walked over to the blank piece of wall where the photo could be taken, stood up straight, trying, after the previous comments, to not make any fuss or draw more attention to myself. I hoped he would just take the photo so I could sit back down, but to this particular gentleman, the fact that I was a woman, just needed to be commented on as if it where some stupendous irregularity, as if I were famous or royal. I got the impression that he just couldn't get over it. Before raising the camera, he asked me if i were sure I didn't want to check my make up, because most women like to check their hair and things. 

The whole scenario really put me on edge. Particularly as it was the first day in the new company, it made me very worried that this would be an ongoing problem, thankfully, this wasn't the case. I don't think this is the first time this has happened to me, but this is certainly the most uncomfortable I've ever been made to feel about being a woman. I felt like this man, had to make me aware that I was the only one there who was female, as if it were some obscenely ridiculous thing to be. I can't tell you how I reacted, I think I must have just looked shocked, because that's how I felt. He kept repeating "oh I'm not trying to be stereotypical (meaning he wasn't stereotyping me)" so I obviously didn't react in a way that he was used to. It made me really disheartened to know that he has probably been like this with other women in this company and that they had probably just laughed it off, disregarded it banter when they should have given him the same unimpressed frown I gave him for being so discriminating. I felt like my colleagues were suddenly looking at me in a different way, like my gender had previously gone unnoticed because I was one of them, and now this person had told them the big secret so they all knew I was different, that I was excluded. I realized that this is the first time I'd ever been made to feel like a minority, and I suddenly felt a rush of sympathy for anyone has ever been the odd one out. 

In a day and age where everyone has gone crazy with political correctness, and equality in the workplace, I didn't expect to come across this type of old fashioned attitude. I can only think that this can only be allowed to happen if people accept it. Since this incident, I've seen this mad around the office a number of times and he avoids eye contact with me. Maybe he's like that with all women, lord knows, he certainly doesn't know how to react to them, but maybe it's because I am by far the youngest woman in the company, and possibly the first to show an utter contempt for his barefaced sexism. I would encourage others, not to laugh it off. Don't make out that it's okay, let these people know that it isn't! I don't want to come across as a bitch anymore than anyone does. I don't want people to think I can't take a joke, I can, if it IS a joke. But I would rather that these small minded, bid mouthed people who have outdated opinions think I have a rod up my arse than have them think I'm going to bend over spread my legs and take this bollocks! 

Yes I am a woman, yes I work is an industry that is highly populated my men, and yes I burp out loud and tell disgusting jokes and banter with my work colleagues, but that doesn't make me 'one of the lads'. I wear dresses and skirts and lipstick, just as often as I wear trousers and brogues, because I like clothes, and because weather changes. I work bloody hard at my job....... most of the time, and I am important, people need me to turn up every day, and it pisses me off that I am made to feel like my job isn't worth doing if it's something that's so unimportant they gave it to a woman to do. It's not cool and I don't accept, no one should. Rant over.

Insomnia

I've called this post "insomnia" purely because I'm writing it because I can't sleep...
It's strange really because I've ways had trouble sleeping my entire life up until fairly recently where my insomnia completely disappeared. But now that it's not a common occurrence, it's really annoying when it does happen.

As a child I was always restless, I remember being awake when everyone else was sleeping quite often. I used to wake up when it was still dark outside purely because I couldn't wait around in bed any longer. So I'd go downstairs and watch t.V. I smashed a cereal bowl once and my stepdad ran downstairs thinking it was a burglar in the night, ballsack hanging out the bottom of his shorts. I mean if you're going to catch a burglar, at least put away your genitals.
When I was a teenager it was particularly bad. I suffered with depression as a teen which probably caused me to not sleep, and not sleeping made me more depressed so it really wasn't the best time to be knee deep in algebra homework and tackling an army of zits on my face too!
After getting some help with my depression, the insomnia got better, particularly when I fell in love with my ex. I find sleeping next to someone very soothing. Falling asleep next to him was very easy. Naturally when we broke up after a 4 year relationship I found it very difficult to adjust to sleeping alone. I spent the initial first few months, you know, the horrible, blubbering, snotty, won't go out the house or put on a bra unless I have to, "why didn't he love me?" stage, getting into bed with as many people as I could. Snuggling up with my siblings, or my mum, letting my baby nephew get in with me, sleepovers with friends. Eventually I got myself together and somehow my insomnia all went away, completely on its own, like never before. I have lie ins now until noon. It's brilliant!! 
I say now, because just lately I've been having some trouble sleeping but it's only natural. I found out I'll be getting made redundant soon, my sister is having some health scares and I miss a boy that I shouldn't even dare to think about because we only dated for a short time and broke it off months ago now. But such is life. On the bright side all that time I'm spending not sleeping, I'm spending filling up my blog!

Life update:
It's currently early morning on August 29th 2015. Bank holiday weekend has begun. I've had a fairly productive working weak in that I am steaming through my nvq so I have the qualification in place before my job disappears. I am going to Leeds festival for the day on Sunday. Why? Mainly because of ALEXISONFIRE!!!!!!!!  I was scrolling through instagram a few months ago and they posted a "summer festival reunion" banner and I saw that Reading and Leeds were on it and I almost shit a brick. I was heartbroken when they said they were no longer touring. And my bestie Amelia and I went to see the farewell tour and got commemorative tattoos the day after. Can't believe I'll be watching them tomorrow!!!  Im so exited I might cry!
Also Metallica are headlining so that will be FACE-MELTINGLY AWESOME!!!!!
I am going to attempt to make a mississippi mud pie tomorrow because I have been going crazy at the gym and because I keep eating shit its not getting my anywhere, so I'm going to binge like crazy this weekend, detox all next week and get on a healthy eating regime until Christmas.
My Goals for the rest of the year are as follows:
1. Find new job - number 1 priority as it will mean I am able to pay for my car, catalogues, phone bill, gym etc.
2. Get into old trousers. I am a size 14 comfortably, I piled on weight since getting into an office job and my mum being ill for a long time. I am closer to a size 16 now, and I need to shift the excess. It is most unsexy. Right now, I wouldn't want to fuck me, so no wonder Mr Shouldnt-be-thinking-about-him didn't.
3. Save money and make plans to go on an almighty, epic adventure next year. Either the Canadian road trip I've been saying Ive wanted to do or go do some volunteering in Tanzania. Now that the whole ebola crisis is no longer on the news I think it's safe (must check this).
4. Enquire about college. - We are uneducated, we must remedy this.
5. Start savings account - to save for deposit for a house so that one isn't living with ones parents house at 30. Or still sleeping in room next door to noisy neighbour, when his elderly mother dies because when she is away he is a fucking nightmare, and the next time he keeps me up all hours playing Alanis Morrisette and Christina Perri, he will be waking up VERY early to the sound of Slipknot pumping through the airwaves.

I think sleep may be upon me. Goodnight cruel world.

Skin blog

I have terrible skin.

I have always had terrible skin, ever since I was very young. I started puberty incredibly early and so I started to get acne before I even left primary school. It was difficult, because I was fat, I had frizzy hair and wasn't pretty, so bad skin, was just another things that made me hideous. In a time where I felt most vulnerable, starting secondary school, a terrifying time for most children, life decided to dish me out a face that looked like a erupting volcano. I'd sit on the school bus with my portable cd player stuffed into my school bag so nobody would know I couldn't afford an mp3 player, while some wankstain of a year 9 boy shouted "pizza face!", "eurgh, look at it, don't you wash your face?" - original.
Of course I did wash my face, I washed it an awful lot. It got so oily sometimes I'd try to wash off the oil in the middle of the day because I thought it might work, but it never did.
Over time, I discovered hair straighteners for my frizzy hair and starving myself for my fat arse. It was around this stage that I discovered make up for my shitty face. And you can bet your arm I slabbed tgat cheap rimmel shite on good!
Foundation was and is the greatest discovery of my life. While some might argue that make up, is just making an ugly person pretty and that "it's all lies", I would argue that actually, make allows people to see me. The real me. Not just the acne. I feel that when people see me without make up on, they don't see my face. The shape if my face, the features of my face and the way it all sits. When people see me without my make up on, they just see the bad skin, the raw, red spots, a sea of black heads and the rippled open pours.
In those early days, I slapped on foundation and concealer like there was no tomorrow, in order to cover up my spots. While this helped with my confidence, and allowed me some normality it did not help my skin. That said, it didn't make it any worse either. My skin has always been consistently terrible. What's worse is that I was the first person in my family home to have been blessed with a spotty face.  My mum, sick of looking at the enormous pustules, waving at her from my chin, told me to pop them. One the one hand this, does help the infection evaporate faster meaning that particular spot will heal quicker, on the other hand however it does make them scar. Particularly, when the spots are big and deep. So nowadays I am contending with a perfect blend of both acne and acne scarring.
Doctors would do nothing, except give you some zinc based topical ointment that will never work and tell you "the only real cure is growing up, it'll clear up in year or two", - LIES!!! I am now nearly 24 and still have the same shitty, acne covered skin I had when I was 12. Every day I wake up to at least one fresh spot which will linger for days on end, on my mush somewhere until it's time to make room for another.
Despite my skin problems, I have found solice in my one true love - make up. Growing up in the emo era, make up has allowed me to be who I wanted to be, nothing beat six kilos of goth eyeliner on your face ready to go to maths. I have loved experimenting with different colours and styles and feeling like a celebrity when I copy someones make up from a magazine *cough* Hayley Williams *cough*.
These days I find that my favourite part of the day is the half hour I sit, in the quiet, by my window, inventing my face for the day. Over the years, the products have changed, finding the right foundation for my skin has proved quite a challenge, particularly when I decided to go cruelty free. My thought however have remained the same, I don't wear make up so I can look more like someone else (apart from when I purposely copy the Misery Business leopard print look) I wear it so I look like me.

People will always say "make up won't help your skin you know", well I've heard this so often I started to believe it. I have gone for long periods of time without make up and it hasn't made the blindest bit of difference to my skin. And so I would rather wear it, wash it off properly at the end of the day, cleanse well and carry on.
I find that people can be horrendously insensitive about my acne, some simply say "maybe wash your face more often", this boils my piss something chronic. Not only has this person ignorantly assumed that acne is caused by having a dirty face, not only has this person assumed that I am incapable of washing but has also had the balls to frankly accuse me of being too stupid to realise the connection between cleanliness and acne. Others will give you every fucking tip on the planet - "oh my cousin had bad acne, she used to boil water and stick her head over the pan have you tried that?" or "toothpaste, my mum swears by it, try it?" - not only is this rude because you are discussing a personal issue that I haven't bought up, but it's also rude to force your unwanted help and opinions onto me. Do these people seriously think I haven't tried EVERYTHING!? Once I read and article online on how to get rid of blackheads, and spend the following week covering up scold marks where I had tried to boil my face while it was wrapped in vaseline and cling film (black heads unbudged by the way). People think that it's okay to discuss my acne, because they think it's a quick fix (because people are ignorant), and because it's not a disability, or a disfigurement it doesn't have the same taboo status for talking about it. And while I think nothing should be too taboo, I think people should feel comfortable enough to ask polite questions if they are generally concerned/interested, but I sure as hell don't need your advice or opinions on it. Especially if it's not you whose doing with it.

My current skin regime:

Treatment - I have been prescribed lymecycline once a day to treat the acne, plus a topical ointment for the "effected area" called Differin gel. I have also been trying to take one teaspoon of coconut oil a day.

Routine:
When I wake up I go to the bathroom and wash my face with hot water and a gel/soap facewash (not a scrub).  I like superdrug tee tree with pink grapefruit, Palmers cocoa butter daily face wash but at the moment I am using Lush Coalface. It's designed for teenage skin and leaves my skin feeling smooth and like all my pours have tightened up.
Pat dry my face with a clean towel.
I will then tone using a pretty standard superdrug toner and a cotton pad. Leave this to dry.
Moisturise, it's been difficult for me since going cruelty free to find the perfect moisturiser, my skin is really sensitive and some of the more perfumed ones can make my skin burn up. I like a sorbet moisturiser but haven't found a good cruelty free version. I am currently using superdrug B. Daydream for group A (20s). Smells awesome and is lovely and creamy. Leave this to absorb.

Make up!!!!!
I start with a primer. I use Nyx photo loving primer for everyday, if I know I'm going to have my make up on for a particularly long period of time on the day, I will first use Nyx pour filler on the areas I have open pours.
I leave this to set a little.

I use a mix of different foundations, I have around 10 in my drawer currently, because I haven't yet found the perfect cruelty free dupe. I use one or two a day to build up coverage and get the right colour tone (most are far too far for my pale skin). I then proceed to set with powder (again I have about 12 powders at the minute trialing them and mixing them up. My lifelong favourite is body shop press powder. It is simply the greatest powder foundation known to man.
Oh wait I forgot concealer. After foundation, if there are areas that need coverage I use a blob of concealer. I use an elf full coverage concealer.
I complete every day make up with bronzer, eyeshadow, eyebrows, eyeliner and mascara. Occasionally a lipstick.
Body shop setting spray too!

When I get home I remove my make up with a make up wipe, and wash the rest off at the sink with my gel facewash. I never leave it just with the make up wipe. While good at removing most of my daily make, some wipes use the same ingredients as antifreeze and the residue left on your face can cause spots. Always wash off.
Then I normally pound it out at the gym for a few hours, and will end up showering, and I will wash my face again with gel wash or coalface soap.
Sometimes I put on night cream if my skin is dry, if my skin is feeling sensitive, I will just use coconut oil but most of the time I let my skin breath overnight.

I do a superdrug mud mask once a week to matify the skin. Every couple of weeks I try to do a full facial where I will steam the face, using my soap and glory face brush and coal face to cleanse the face while the steam opens the pours.
I will then apply Lush Cupcake and sit with that on for an episode of Orange is the New Black. I will take this off with warm water, then I will dunk my face into a tray filled with icy water. Once I'm done I will pat my face dry with a clean towel.

There are so many things I could talk about to do with skin, and cosmetics, dermarolling for example, or how important it is to keep make up brushes clean but perhaps that's another blog for another day.

Peace out!

Make Up, Paramore and Going to Cruelty Free

Its been apparent to me for some time now that one of the most important things (and I mean things) to me, in my life is make up. I spend a grand portion of my wage on make up. I have arranged my tiny bedroom in order to showcase and store my make up in the best way.I have even made room for it by putting other (less important) items in the attic, things like, my artwork, my books, my photography equipment. I have a dressing table as wide as my double bed in order to accommodate the sheer volume of make up I use daily.
I am not a make up artist. Not by any stretch of the imagination. That said I am a dab hand at it, hundred of Youtube tutorials, magazines and years of copying Hayley Williams will do that for you. It is the best stuff ever.
I have terrible skin, I have had the most horrendous acne imaginable since the age of thirteen. And in an effort to get rid of the spots, I squeezed them and so this has left me scarred. The one thing that got me through high school was being able to cover up my skin with make up.
Of course, the fact that in the early years of secondary school I was widely known as "Jess Goth" and so a fuck load of eyeliner and black nail varnish was a must.

Me age 15 and totally emo. Can't argue with that 'shadow though. This was at school as well! HAHAHA!

When I was around fourteen I was mad about My Chemical Romance and wanted to go and see them at the upcoming "Give It a Name" Festival, however, the tickets cost over a hundred pounds, an unfathomable amount of money for me at the time. Whilst I was looking at the ticket prices I noticed they were holding a "Give It a Name Introduces" Tour in Liverpool, these tickets cost £4. It wasn't far away and at least it was a gig. I bought the tickets and I went to the concert with my good friend Josie. The lineup for the gig was later revealed and they were a group of relatively unheard of bands, Classic Case, Drive-By and a small America band called Paramore. Paramore were on the introduces page of Kerrang! that week. They were female fronted, but the lead singer was no Amy Lee, she looked fairly normal.
The Liverpool Carling academy at the time was a small bar on the second floor. The stage was tiny, as was the area for the audience, not that this mattered, there was at most 30 people at the venue at the time. All the bands were good, I remember enjoying the whole experience very much. There was quite a lot of banter between band and audience on account of the fact that it was such a small gig you could speak and the band members would hear you.
It was nearly time for Paramore, the band were setting up and my friend Josie and I were talking to them, then I saw the lead singer, a tiny little thing, not much older than myself, wearing a hoody with the hood up, talking to a roady in the back. The band started playing and this little girl took centre stage, she grabbed the mic.......
The sound that came out of the girls mouth was the most unexpected thing I have ever heard. She had the pipes of a Goddess! I was in love, true love.
I have been an avid Paramore superfan ever since, and Hayley has been my female role model and inspiration in so many ways. One of those ways being make up.
She is famed for her brightly coloured hair, but also her radical choices in eye make up. This sparked my love for make up and the incredible colours I could apply to my face. I particularly remember going out sporting the yellow and orange eyeshadow made famous in the video for "Misery Business".
 


One thing I did fall head over heels for, which probably wasn't inspired by Miss Hayley was winged eyeliner. I have put winged eyeliner on my face almost every day since I was fifteen. I adore it.
I went out recently with a relatively new friend from work. We met in Tesco car park so she could show me the way to her house, we were going to get ready together before heading out and as a result I didn't have my normal clap on. She was so unused to the sight of me without liquid eyeliner on that she wasn't absolutely sure it was me until I waved her over (and she was in the next parking space).
I have looked to a lot of places for make up inspiration in the past few years, not just Hayley, after all, Hayley doesn't "do" contouring and I'm sorry but fucking LOVE contouring! I love the way it makes my face look properly done up. It looks brilliant.
I love vintage style make up, classic red lip, of of course my already strong love of winged liquid eyeliner. I'm in love with pinups, there something so satisfying and sexy about them so I get a lot of inspiration from Marilyn. I also love all things Rockabilly.

When I was seventeen my mom took me to the Clinique counter, my acne still hadn't gone away, even though it had left all of my friends. I was sick of being the spotty one. She had my foundation matched and bought me a full coverage foundation. I.WAS.HOOKED!
I couldn't believe how perfect it made my skin look, it was like there was nothing there at all. Photos taken of me were suddenly worth being tagged in. I loved it. For the first time in my life I felt pretty.
For the next few years I would buy that foundation and my skin wasn't a worry anymore. I could slap on the make up and my skin was beautiful. My love of make up only grew.
The worst happened, Clinique discontinued the foundation, I didn't get on with the replacement. I set out on a quest to find a new foundation. I tried everything. Nothing would do. Este Lauder doublewear didn't have enough coverage, Total Coverage was too thick. Non of the clinique ones were anywhere near as good.
I eventually went back to No7 and bought one called Beautifully Matte. It was decent, and it was cheaper, like £10 cheaper. It had the coverage I needed and I stuck with it. it was not the right colour. AT ALL!

Clinique discontinued my foundation 4 years ago, and since then I have done some real deep thinking stuff. I realized I am obsessed with make up. I had realized how much I was spending and gave it some real thought. This was around the time I was shown a video on facebook of some Beagles that were being rescued from an animal testing facility.
This video shocked me, shocked me to my very core. These animals had never seen grass, or sunlight, they had lived their entire lives inside a cage. A living thing. A dog, afraid of grass, how?
Up until then I had always been very naive when it came to animal testing, I assumed it didn't happen all that often anyway, as by now, they must know whats safe and what isn't right? I assumed that somehow, even though the animals lived in a testing facility that they actually lived quite good lives, I expected that there would be certain regulations for their quality of life, I expected they probably had fantastic places to live and that the actual testing was just a small price to pay.
It occurred to me that I have a particularly vein hobby and that I should do my best to make my vein hobby as least evil as possible. I decided I would only use cruelty free products from then on. 

Since then I have stopped using Clinique and Este Lauder altogether. I have stopped using Rimmel, Maxfactor, Loreal, and Revlon. I have swapped my extortionate Aussie shampoo for Superdrug own brand, saving myself a bomb of money that can be better spent on Southern Comfort.
I still have along way to go, not all the products I currently use are cruelty free, wither because I can't find an alternative, or the alternative won't work, or because I have already bought it, so I'll use it.

My motto currently in life is, "if you can, you should". If it's easy for you to pick up the cruelty free option over the tested one, you should. The same as if you can afford to donate some money to Barnardo's you should. if you have too many clothes, and it would be easy for you to donate them, you should. If you can spend time with an elderly lonely neighbor you should.There's nothing wrong with creating good karma right? Even if you don't believe in that stuff.
There are some brilliant cruelty free products out there, usually they are cheaper than the tested versions, not always. But there is some really wonderful quality stuff out there too. i recommend that you give some things a try.  Just try it, you might be converted.
Here are my Top 5 Cruelty Free Products

Body Shop - Foundation Press Powder.
This is the best press powder ever, it makes your skin completely matte, it beautiful.
 
Batiste Dry Shampoo
Clearly the best invention since the curling wand.
 

ELF (Everything)
i was devastated to find that ELF was no longer trading, and even though this information is of no use to you now, their make up was amazing. So cheap and so brilliant. The best liquid eyeliner and the most beautiful pigment in their eyeshadows. Just amazing. COME BACK ELF!!!

Asda - NSpa
They do fruity shower gels and some nice luxury style cosmetics. I love their coconut body spray and grapefruit shower gel.

NYX - primer
I love NYX, while their foundations leave a lot to be desired coverage-wise, they do have wonderful pale colours that you just can't get over the counter here. They do a green crayon type concealer which just STAYS PUT! It's magical! They also do a pigment finishing powder which is my secret weapon. Outstanding.
 


I am not advertising any of these products, I just tried them, liked them and thought I'd recommend.

Wanted: Ass hole

Now apparently I am incapable of being attracted to anyone remotely decent and it's beginning to make me think there might be something seriously wrong with how my brain cogs are working.
I have been single now for almost three years, two of which I have been single and not looking. More recently though I have been trying to get myself out on the market and have been on a couple of dates, and I think it's fair to say, it has not been going well.
Of course, if all I wanted was a boyfriend, I could have one. The trouble I'm having is that I'd sort of like one that I'm attracted to, who I get on with and pardon me if I've set the bar a little too high by saying, they must be employed.
It's not that I am high maintenance, or a snob, the reasons for my boyfriend requirements are simple, I wasted four years of my life with the wrong person and spent two years after that getting over it, and finding myself, discovering what it is I want from a partner. I don't see why I should waste any more of my precious time on someone who isn't right for me.
Having said all of that, it all well and good stepping into the mind field that is dating with all those good intentions. The problem of course is me and my inability to choose the right person.