Sparkly, lovely, things....

So I'm mad about make up.  Always have been.  Years ago when I was living at home and had the attic room all on my ownio I used to sit cross legged on the floor in front of my teeny radiator peering through a pink pound shop mirror and happily trial and error the contents of my make up.  Back then, my make up bag consisted of Constance Carroll Candyfloss lipstick (everyone's first lippie, right?) and a Constance Carroll deep orange and dark brown eye shadow pallet. No foundation but sure I was 15 and had mahoosive skin :-) Looking back, I'm SCARLET!  I never even heard of tweezing so it didn't matter if my eye make up was blended to high heaven, the stragglers underneath my brows had a life of their own ha ha. 

Fast forward to today and my make up routine has changed little.  I now sit at the kitchen table with my No 7 large make up mirror balanced on the biscuit tin.  Not a frosted pink lippie in sight although I must confess to several deep orange pigments (a la Mac).  For me, getting ready for a night out, starts the week before.  Skin is readied in preparation for the false tan (I'll blog about this later), nails are either filled (acrylic....thanks Eve) or painted depending on the occassin and the outfit (yes, it's THAT serious).  I've started to skip getting a blow dry because I'm never happy with the outcome.  It's sooooooo hard to find somebody to do your hair the way you want it.  Now maybe that's because I want Penelope Cruz hair and it's just never gonna happen but I'd rather spend my money on a new pigment than on my hair.  I know some girls hate doing their make up and spend 10 minutes on themselves before a night out and all I can say is....HOW and WHY?  This is the best part of going out (besides the actual being out part of course).  It's like deciding what to wear, deciding what make up to go with.  Smokey eye and pale lips, pale eye and strong lips, strong eyes and strong lips sure why not?  Primer or highlighting primer? Matt or dewy foundation, gloss or lippie or both, falsh lashes or lashings of mascara, powder or pencil in brows, shading or highlighting or both.  See, to me, it's an art form.  Make up can transform a person visually but more importantly it can transform how they feel about themselves and that can only be a good thing!