Bare faced, but for what

Truth be told, I don't wear makeup everyday, there...I said it. It is not a requirement for my everyday life to wear makeup on a daily basis, particularly in my line of work, with early mornings, sweaty showers and running around feeling a little headless at times, the least of my worries is if I am wearing makeup. That being said, it is something I enjoy to wear and will indulge in whenever I get the chance.

However I feel that it is important to allow women to feel the freedom and confidence of being able to rock their bare skin, without having to fall into the self-conscious state that I know comes with the taboo of going naked faced. I believe it is important to embrace your natural beauty, without makeup, because its the skin your going to have for the rest of your life, why not love it?

This post comes at a time when the barefaced selfies, or nomakeup selfies, are doing the rounds on the internet, particularly twitter and facebook, to raise cancer awareness. I looked into how the nomakeup selfies started, and found that it was originally to raise money for a UK cancer charity organisation, but has blown up into a global phenomenon of beautiful women of all ages posting bare faced photos of themselves to raise cancer awareness.

Although a controversial topic of late, as many argue that posting these photos isn't really benefitting those who are fighting cancer, who have lost loved ones to cancer or those who have passed on as a result of cancer, I believe that the old saying of all publicity is good publicity and that the more awareness their is, in promoting cancer awareness, the better the outcome for those trying to raise money for cancer.

So whether its jumping on the bandwagon, trying to feel empowered or trying to empower others, I think the nomakeup selfes, or barefaced selfies are a trend that could benefit more than just those affected by cancer in the long run, I think it could affect the perception of beauty in women, and I think we should all strive for that.



                                    Thankyou for reading, please leave any thought you have on barefaced or            
                                    nomakeup selfies or the trending pictures.

                                               XOXO Jess

Engagement Party Makeup

So on the 9th of November 2013, my best friend got down on one knee and proposed to me. Here we are 4 months later and we finally had our engagement dinner, We chose to keep it small with only close family and the bridal party, but it was a wonderful night full of laughs and love and WAYYY to many photos.

I thought since I put in a little extra time to do my makeup that I would put some photos up with what the finished look was and what products I used.

For my base I used RCMA cream foundation in Ivory in the high points of my face and Gena Beige in the other sections of my face to give it a slight   contour and dimension. this foundation is 50% pigment so you only need a little bit to go a long way, aswell as having no SPF and being oil free, so no greasy looking photos and definatly no flashback.

For contour I used NYX blush in taupe, for blush I used Tarte's amazonian clay blush in exposed and for highlight I used Josie morans liquid gold highlighter.

For my eyes I used Mac's paint pot in rich ground, along with three Smashbox eyeshadows, bliss in the inner corner, dusk in the crease and cabernet all over the lid. I used Mac's paint pot in blacktrack for my eyeliner and revlon lash potion mascara.

I had a fantastic night and the makeup look lasted all through the night and the burgundy eyes really made my green eyes stand out.

Thankyou XO Jess

Healthier lifestyle choices: How i lost close to half my body weight

When i was growing up i was proberly always an average sized child, never really thin but never really large either, just average. Then puberty hit and it was like BAM instant weight gain..... okay proberly not that instant, but my weight definatly increased throughout my high school years, slowly creeping up on me, as weight so sneakily does to those of us who don't make good food choices, until I was in my first year of uni and ultimately very unhappy with myself.

I didn't make the decision to eat well and make good lifestyle changes until maybe my second year of university, although i understood the concept, i never fully understood why i couldn't eat what ever i wanted and just work out like all the skinny girls i knew, but for me that was never going to work and it took my until the ripe age of 19 to figure that out.

So in 2012 I (and my boyfriend) made the conscious decision to eat better and exercise regularly, which sounds easy but isn't so easy in practise, it is very difficult to give up foods you've grown up eating regularly and not knowing any better, but slowly but surely by swapping foods out for healthier versions we were able to make the changes we needed to slowly start loosing weight.

It was never easy, but anything worth getting never is. I am nowhere near where i want to be, but i am a lot closer to where i should be and it makes me happy.

If anyone would like some food substitution ideas for weight loss please leave me a message, and i hope that this helps everyone to see that if I, a completely sedentary obese teenager who couldn't run for 1 minute, can do it (i can now run 40mins without a second thought) then SO CAN ANYONE!

Before and during weightloss: fitting into jeans that have never fit before. Proud fit moment

Have a little faith in yourself, you are capable of the worlds treasures.
xxx