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.