VERY RARE mini beauty haul & my previous skin problems.

I've never been a typical girly girl who's into beauty products. I don't wear fake tan, fake eyelashes, fake nails, I've never dyed my hair, I never straighten/curl my hair and to be honest I rarely brush it (don't worry I'm not a tramp, brushing makes it frizzy so I prefer not to touch it)! I am by no means perfect, but I've learned to accept myself and to be content with what I have. There's nothing wrong with people wearing fake tan or fake nails if it makes them happy but it's just something I've never been interested in.

 

I don't know if my school days have anything to do with this or not. When I was about 12, I started getting really bad skin. I used to come home every day from school crying because people were bullying me and saying that it was somehow my fault that I had acne. 'I obviously didn't wash my face properly' or 'I obviously had a shit diet', teenagers are so ignorant to these kind of issues and cruel enough to revel in someone else's misfortune. My mum took me to the dermatologist and spent hundreds of pounds on medication to sort my skin out but nothing ever worked. I was even on the strongest possible drug for acne which is so dangerous you have to be monitored every few weeks because it has been known to cause suicide. Thankfully I never experienced any of those side effects but lets just say my teenage years weren't the best for my self confidence. From the age of around 13/14 I was put on the pill (one specifically used to help people will acne) and to this day my skin is still reliant on the hormonal balance the pill gives me. I stopped taking it about a year ago and my skin went straight back to square one, something I won't be doing again. All I ever wanted was clear skin, and almost 9 years later, to some extent I have achieved that. My skin isn't perfect, it has its good and bad days, but it isn't a problem for me anymore and it's not something I ever get upset about. As a teenager, all I worried about was my skin, almost to the point where nothing else about me bothered me. Just my skin. I can remember thinking 'if my skin is good, I have nothing else to be unhappy about.' Although they knew no different, it annoyed me when people at school used to pick fault in themselves all the time. All I could think was 'you don't know how lucky you are that you have perfect skin!!' I know that was unfair of me because everyone has their insecurities, but to me, bad skin was the worst thing any teenager could ask for. I'm sure anyone else who suffered through it as well will agree. It knocks your confidence like nothing else in the world. So when my skin started to get better, the last thing I wanted to do was to find something else about me that I hated. My bad skin had gone.. as far as I was concerned, I was the happiest person in the world. Since then, I've never tried to change my hair, or my skin colour, or anything else for that matter. What kind of life would we all live if we picked up on every little fault we had, then fixed it, then picked another one, then fixed it... everyone would be living a life of unhappiness and never being content with themselves. You have to learn to accept yourself, look at your good points and realise just how lucky you are.

 

I guess this brings me on to my mini beauty haul. I realised the other day that I've probably been wearing the same foundation since I was at school, and as my skins circumstances have changed, my foundation probably should too. At school, all I cared about was getting the right colour (not looking orange), a good coverage (for obvious reasons) and that it was cheap. After watching one of Zoella's make up videos, I realised that I wasn't really doing myself justice by sticking to the same boring brand when there are so many products out there that would make my skin look 100% better. I did my research and couldn't believe how naïve I'd been. Obviously I have naturally oily skin, had I ever taken that in to consideration? No. Bothered about the texture or the finish? Nope! I much prefer the natural look when it comes to make up so I wanted a barely visible foundation rather than one that is caked on, a matte finish rather than a dewy one and a smooth consistency rather than a sticky one. After reading a load of different reviews, I settled on Revlon's COLORSTAY in Buff for combination/oily skin (£12.49). I'd also seen a lot of beauty bloggers using the Real Techniques make up brushes but never really understood how to use them. I didn't really wanna spend a tenner on something I had no idea how to use but I decided to just go for it in the hope that it would make my skin look flawless like it seemed to do with everyone else's. I don't know how one brush can make such a difference but it really does work!! The combination of the foundation and the brush is amazing, I would recommend it to anyone! I hate spending ages doing my foundation but the smooth texture of the foundation and the easy application of the brush meant I was done after 2/3 minutes! I loved the matte finish of it too, perfect for someone like me with an oily t-zone!

I also bought a new powder brush from Boots (£3) and some white nail varnish from Topshop (£5). White nail varnish is everywhere at the minute so I couldn't wait to get my hands on some!

I apologise if anyone has found this post reallllllly boring, I feel like I've been writing it forever! Hopefully some of you have found it interesting and can relate to things I've spoken about. Let me know if you'd like to see more posts like this in the future or whether you prefer the more short and sweet type of blog posts. I always like to read what people think so please feel free to leave a comment below!

xxx