Easy Ways to Help Deal with Stress, Anxiety and Depression

Some people deal with stress and other things in their lives by turning to alcohol, smoking or drugs. This will only help you to 'cope' momentarily. The moment you come off of that substance you will feel the same way you did before taking it.

Just in case you wasn't sure about what anxiety / stress is then here is some symptoms, dizziness, tension and muscle aches, tiredness, insomnia, trembling, dry mouth, excessive sweating and headaches. Some people like to write an anxiety journal to help track when they have these moments and what drove them into the situation.

Firstly, you must think positively. This is what I struggle with, once something bad happens I find it really difficult to get out of the rut and to figure a way to sort it or make it better for myself. It is said that the feeling of 'loss of control' is one of the massive contenders into stress and anxiety. You can use these steps to figure out how best to re-gain control of whatever situation you are in.

Talking to your doctor and figuring out how you are really feeling and possible reasons as to why you are feeling this way will be a huge weight off of your shoulders. Just remember a problem shared is a problem halved. Sometimes when you work yourself up so much you think it can be 1000000x worse than it actually is. The doctor will be able to reassure you that you are not crazy.

Another great way you can release some of the stress is to just let go of things that you can't change. By worrying about these things they will not go away and you still cannot change it so what's the point in hanging on to them?

Things to do to help reduce stress, anxiety and depression:
1. Exercise - this helps to clear the mind and make you feel better all round.
2. Breathe - usually when you are having an anxiety attack your breathing will be really quick and short, by taking control of your breathing and taking deep, long breaths can take you out of the attack because your mind is no longer focused on being anxious.
3.Try not to vent your emotions when they are so high - if anything it will get you into more trouble than its worth and it usually heightens the emotions you are feeling towards a particular person / situation.
4. Try to keep busy - this takes your mind off the bad thing that is happening and gives you something more positive to concentrate on.
5. Try not to spend too much time in bed and sleeping, although this can be nice to begin with and it will become all you want to do. You have to try to get yourself out of this funk.

I hope this helps some of you. Thank you!

Ebay find : Liquid Lipstick

Liquid lipsticks are all the craze at the moment and everyone seems to be bringing them out, even MAC!

I haven't tried many as I hate the feeling of them on my lips. I honestly walk around thinking my mouth is a desert. I wish I could just put up with the annoyance as I LOVE the look of them.

I purchase one from Ebay just to see what it was like and I loved the brown colour it offered me.

It did apply really easily however, if you apply too much it will bunch up and look really really bad! You better not reapply this throughout the day either because that is just tragic, It will look really dark in places and light in places and bunch in places. It is just plain bad in that respect.

It is also not transfer proof, if you are drinking something I would recommend using a straw but if you are eating you don't have a chance in keeping this on your lips. Especially if it is oily.

I don't want this to be a bad review as I do like the colour and when applied right it is fine. I know this product was under £3.00 so I cannot moan too much and if you are on a budget I would defiantly recommend the MUA Luxe velvet liquid lipsticks a lot better than this one for a cheaper option.

The final thing I would like to add about this liquid lipstick is the fact that it is SUPER sticky. If you press your lips together and try to part them, they will legit feel stuck. I set this with a translucent powder to minimise this issue.

Here is what it looks like on my lips. I know it isn't a great application but I didn't want to use a lipliner so that you could see a true representation of the colour.

L'oreal True Match Foundation Review

Finally a high street brand has made foundations in cool, neutral and warm shades with the relevant lettering to go with it (C, CN, N, WN, W). I feel like true match is not really the right name for the foundation though because it gives the consumer the idea that it is one of those self adjusting foundations.

I really enjoy a full coverage foundation but always hate how thick all of the formulas are. The L'Oréal true match foundation is not thick at all. it is possibly one of the runniest foundations I own. If you pump some on your hand it will run. This means you can add layers to places you need more coverage without it looking like there is a lot of foundation on your face.

This foundation gives a matte, natural looking finish. I love applying this foundation with a flat top kabuki brush from Zoeva mainly as it gives me the most coverage out of it. I do normally apply with a beauty blender when I want a more natural medium coverage.

I do feel like the foundation can be quite drying on the skin and if you have visible dry patches the foundation will cling to these areas. I have combination skin with some dry patches but mostly oily and normal skin and it works brilliantly for me. This is now my 4th or 5th bottle of it and I think this is the only reason why I haven’t splurged and bought a high end foundation.

What is your favourite foundation from the high street and who remembers the old packaging of the True Match foundation?

Beautybay.com Update

Hi Everyone,

I went to buy a couple of bits today on beautybay.com and realised that they are now stocking the Makeup Geek brushes, sparklers and other bits on the website.

I am sure you can now get everything from the main Makeup Geek website from the UK stocklist beautybay.com.

This makes me extremely excited! I defiantly need to try more things from the brand as I love the eyeshadows so much!

My Makeup Geek wish list goes as follows:

Fortune Teller (Foiled)

Day Dreamer (Foiled

Boo Berry

Morrocco

Simply Marlena

Wisteria

Mermaid

Shimmermint

Fuji

Lemon Drop

Poolside

Havoc (Duochrome)

Pop Culture

White Lies

Whimsicle (Foiled)

This will be my colour palette. I have always been super scared of colour but now that I am thinking of doing an evening course in Makeup Artistry I thought I would dive out of my comfort zone and find the perfect combos of a lot of beautiful colours in which I can create some really cool looks with. I will obviously have to buy a new Z Palette to put these in once I have bought them! I think I may buy one of the colourful ones as it seems appropriate! I love the blue and purple shades! You can see swatches on the Makeup Geek website to see how beautiful they really are.

 

Makeup Geek shipping US to the UK

Hello, welcome back! Today we are going to be chatting about ordering Makeup Geek from the US site and what it was like to order from it. I found it particularly hard to find many reviews or videos on shipping US to UK from the Makeup Geek website so I thought I would let you know what I think about the whole thing.

Makeup Geek are now being stocked from the UK site beautybay.com. Unfortunately beautybay.com only stocks the pigments, eyeshadows - foiled, duo-chrome and standard and the blushes. So the Makeup Geek brushes, sparklers and gel liners are not yet available from a UK stocklist.

Shipping US to the UK can be risky as many people may know due to custom charges because you can never really estimate how much you will be charged. However, sometimes you are charged and sometimes you are not.

I placed an order with Makeup Geek of the following: 13 eye shadows and 2 pairs of lashes.  This came to a cost of around $85(£57). Shipping was then around $10 (£7)  and I paid an £18 ($27) custom charge. This all in all would have cost me… £82 ($122) which to me is a lot for eye shadows. From the day I ordered it took three and a half weeks for my parcel to get to me!

I would like to point out that the Makeup Geek website is really easy to navigate and you can find everything you need including FAQ’s without any hassle! I also love the fact that it shows looks of what people have been doing using Makeup Geek shadows which really gives me inspiration for looks I could be doing with the shadows I have got!

The Makeup Geek eye shadows on beautybay.com are sold for £4.95 if they are the standard shadows. The first time I ordered from beautybay I ordered 15 shadows which came to a total of £74.25.  I paid absolutely nothing for shipping and they came after 2 days.

My experience shopping with beautybay was better but that is due to the fact I am so impatient waiting for my delivery to get to me and there is no hidden charges. the only problem with ordering from beautybay was that Makeup Geek sells out really quickly.

I hope this helps!

What's In My Z - Palette...

So today I am giving you a tour of my Z - Pallete with swatches. This is not a review on the Z - Palette or the eyeshadows in my palette. I will be doing another post all about that!

I have the extra large Z - Palette in the black colour. This palette fits 35 standard sized eyeshadows. I ordered mine from a UK stocklist being beautybay.com and it was £20.95, I did pay for this myself and spent ALOT of money filling it. Luckily it is not all MAC shadows because that would be hella expensive! The eyeshadows in my palette are either from MAC or Makeup Geek.

Top Row (Left to Right): MG White Lies, MG Rapunzel, MG Shimma Shimma, MAC All That Glitters, MG Cinderella, MG Cosmopolitan, MG Glamourous.

Second Row (Left to Right): MG Foiled In The Spotlight, MG Foiled Starry Eyed, MAC Woodwinked, MG Prom Night, MG Duochrome Ritzy, MG Foiled Grandstand, MG Foiled Showtime.

Third Row (Left to Right):  MAC Satin Taupe, MG Beaches and Cream, MAC Malt, MG Crème Brulee, MG Petal Pusher, MG Desert Sands, MG Barcelona Beach.

Forth Row (Left to Right): MG Cupcake, MG Unexpected, MG Chickadee, MG Mango Tango, MG Latte, MG Preppy, MG Frappe.

Bottom Row (Left to Right): MG Cocoa Bear, MG Bitten, MG Cherry Cola, MG Mocha, MG Americano, MG Drama Queen, MG Corrupt.

Look out for a review and a chance to see all my favourites plus combos I love to put together! If you have any single eyeshadows you think I need, let me know. I think I need to put together a more colourful palette.

New Year

Happy New Year! I am not going to say 'new year, new me' because it is silly for anyone to even say it. The likelihood is that one person isn't going to change that much and how long do we keep up our resolutions for anyway?

There is however a few things that I would like to improve on throughout this year. I would love to know what your New Years Resolutions are so comment below and let me know... I may have to add some more to my list!

Although a new year does not always mean a new start for many people I would like for it to be the start of being more positive about things and not giving up as easily. I get down and negative due to being easily stressed. Doing this blog has helped with this so far as writing really gives me something to take my mind off it all. I am also going to try to chill in my evenings whether this be by lighting some candles turning off the lights and listening to some soothing music I don't know yet but I am sure once I figure it out I will let you all know.

My second new years resolution is to save my money. This is probably the one I will struggle with the most as I love makeup so much I cannot help myself and I suppose it really helps to give me more things to review for you all! I am hopefully going on a couple of holidays this year so I really need to save, after that I am hoping to move out so I will need to save for a LONG time to do this.

Thirdly, I hope to ride my pony Eric more as I have been trying to teach my foal how to behave in the field, how to allow us to touch her and groom her. All very important steps in making her 'tame' if that is the right word to describe it. Now that she is fine with doing all of these things I have more time to ride Eric.

Finally, my last plan of action is to reduce my portion sizes when I eat. I am a very big eater! I would like to get into shape so that if I ever have to run for whatever reason (I do not run...) I can do it. This also means being a regular at the gym. Not something I am best pleased about either but I know that it will do me a lot of good, I used to go to the gym a lot and it made me feel so much better.

Review: Beauty Blender

I never believed all of the people who said that beauty blenders changed how they applied makeup or that they are worth the £16 price point. That is just too much for me to justify on a sponge. How much can a sponge really do?

Anyway… it really has changed the way I apply my makeup. I love the way it bounces across the skin and you do not need to put ANY effort into doing your makeup with this sponge. No matter how many dupes come out there is nothing that even comes close to how the beauty blender feels. The Beauty Blender works best when damp, all you need to do is run it under the tap for a few moments give it a few squeezes and you are ready to go. If you have dry skin the beauty blender is great when damp as it hydrates as you apply your products.

In saying that I do still love my Real Techniques miracle complexion sponge but it is just not bouncy in the way the beauty blender is. I think that the Real Techniques sponge is great as it has the different contours. However, I always used the curved side as opposed to the flat edge you are meant to apply foundation with. This is completely just preference.

I bought my beauty blender from one of the UK stock lists being beautybay.com – I must say this is becoming my favourite site to order from as it sells some of my favourite brands and shipping is often free and quick! I bought it in a set with the beauty blender original, beauty blender pro, mini beauty blender and one of their mini reactive sprays. This was on a great deal as I bought it on black Friday. The set is originally around £32.00 however it was around £25 due to the sale. It was simply an offer I couldn’t refuse.

According to the website the ‘Pro’ makeup sponge can deliver a higher coverage than the original due to the unique suede texture. I can only notice this slightly so if you already have the ‘original’ and was thinking about getting the ‘pro’ sponge for this feature I do not think you need both.

Left: Black Beauty Blender Pro (dry) Right: Pink Beauty Blender Original (Damp)

You can literally do anything for the face with this sponge. It is great for applying foundation, concealer and even powder (baking with the beauty blender is a dream!). The beauty blender is also great for applying any cream / liquid products such as blush, contour and highlight. You can even use the mini one to prime eyelids and even apply a base colour to the lids. I have not tried this but it is an idea!

I love the way I can clean it so easily as well! Product comes out of it easily. So far I have not had any stubborn stains to remove.  I would also like to add that the reactive spray is also great for if you are on the go. It simply re hydrates your sponge! I feel like a spray bottle would do exactly the same but it is a nice addition to the set.

This is not available on the website at the moment but I am hoping that it is just out of stock as they do not show any out of stock products on the website.