Motivational Blog Post; A bit about my life/grab life by the horns/ do it now!

If you can make it to the end it'll be worth it i promice. I'm doing this long rambling because I've just finished having a brief but heavy conversation with my Husband about his goals in life, and "getting somewhere". He had a negative response for any suggestion and this has made me realise, i wish i was eliquent enough to be a motivational speaker, because i (hope) i kicked his butt with words!

Some of you may know, if you follow me on Instagram (sway1988) or on facebook (facebook.com/kimberleycreative) that i suffer from Social Anxiety, Depression and mild agrophobia, as well as a number of medical issues including a mild scoliosis, migraines, hip issues and a heart murrmur. I'll be the first to admit in the past and sometimes even now i use them as excuses to get out of "life" things. For example if i don't want to leave the house or see/speak to anyone, i'll say i have a migraine, unless of course i do actually have a migraine then it's a bit like crying wolf. I may have promised to help someone and i've said my backs playing up, to get out of it. Harsh but true. I have done these things. But now i'm older and i'm addressing these mental and physical issues i have nothing to fall back on, and it's scary, but it's been the best thing ever. I'm now doing things with my life. If your hiding behind things too, for now it may be what you need, but dont use it forever. You need to get out there and make an effort to be a human.

If you take NO as a first and final answer you're going to get no where in life. If someone tells you, you can't do something and you let them close that door on that oppertunity and you DON'T fight to get through there, you never wanted it bad enough. If that doors closed, and you really care, you'd kick the door down, climb through a window, try the back door! Anything! And this is the same with everything, if it's fighting for someone you love, your family, your house, your job...a career...ýou scrape and claw at it until you're there. No isn't an answer, it's a momentary pause before you continue. I'm a perfect example!

My dream is to own my own Tattoo parlour. People have been telling me "no" from day one! But i'm still here trying to get to my original destination. First it was my art teacher in secondary school telling me i'm not an artist, my drawings are too "precised and technical", I do "too much research"... all of which is a GOOD thing in tattooing, she said i should "never persue a career in art"... you know what i did? I done my A-levels, and went to college to study Art and illustration, and was accepted straight away from the first page of my portfolio! My tutor loved my style and thought process. But when i finished college i wanted to go straight into a job, straight into tattooing at 18/19. But i was convinced not to by some of my family and by tutors at college, as tattooing "wasnt a real job". My ass it isn't! The tattoo industry has some of the hardest working and dedicated people you'll ever know, they put hours into their work, their art, their PASSION. And i had that passion right up until this point, when they threw a bucket of water over it. "Ÿou're too pretty to be a tattooist"- Yeah, well you're too narrow minded! That passion still burned underneath.
So instead i went to university to study Computer Game Design. It was a fantastic course, don't get me wrong, but it wasnt what i wanted. It took me two years of the course to realise, and in the end i dropped out, with half a degree and up to my eyeballs in debt. It's not a good way to start an adult life. I ended up nearly homeless at one point (with my fiance) and we had to get help from family to find ourselves a place, rented, so money down the drain, and then we had to get bog-standard boring jobs that neither of us wanted, just to get by and pay bills. I ended up in a supermarket for nearly 4 years and My other half in a large computing store. I left my job last year after my depression got too bad to function, and i only realise now that i'm getting better, that it was because i wasn't DOING anything with my life... I'd do tattoo designs for people, research local tattooists that had the right style they wanted and send them there. I'd apply to be an apprentice, get told my art was great but "they're not taking anyone on" but then i'd go in a month or so later and their "mates kid" would be working there, that's obviously great for them but i'm still stuck here with a "no". I didn't have these connections. My dad isnt a tattooist, nor is my best mate, they can't take me on! It was literaly a case of "who you know" whch is tough in a smaller town. Always a "no, sorry". And it was a "no" i'd been hearing for 5 years. Which is 5 years too long. I can't change the past, if i could i'd have gone straight into tattooing after college, but it's not worked out that way. So now i'm clawing my way down a side ally, all to eventually get to my goal of owning my own shop. I'm studying beauty part time to get myself back out into the work place, doing something i enjoy, it's not a "meaningless" job like the supermarket was. I will actually progress, get somewhere, earn the money i need to pay someone to give me the further tattooing experience i crave and need, i can even combine the two (kind of) with semi-premanent make up skills etc...

I know I'm a creative person and i need an outlet, if it' sewing, drawing, designing company logos, doing peoples make up, making them feel amazing, creating blog posts! Creating things has been the only constant in my life. I'm lucky to have support from my Husband, my mum, brother and sister etc... but the only thing that can get me anywhere is me. It took me too long to realise that, and i'm still at square one, but you know what? -I've drawn myself out a new path, worked around the obsticals and i'll get there.
This long-assed post is to tell you YOU CAN DO THE SAME.

If you're told no, exhaust every avenue. If you can't decide on something, do a list, pro's and cons, narrow it down so that you have one clear choice... everyone needs a goal. If you're lucky enough to know that goal already then go for it. Do all you can to get there. Not everyone is given the opportunities they may deserve, but you can always find another way to get there. No matter how big or small your goal is, make a plan of attack and just go for it. Life's too short to put it off for too long. If you miss your bus you'll be straned somewhere you dont want to be, so if the bus has passed, call a cab; NOW! Steal a skateboard, ride a horse majestically into the sunset! Whatever you do just go for it. So when you're old, and wrinkly and accomplished, with no "what if's" and maybe a few regrets, you can pass away peacefully and look back at your life and just think "FUCK YEAH, I DID THAT"

DO IT

NOW

RIGHT THIS SECOND!

Good luck! You know you deserve it! XxX

My new Vans :)

Just a quick one to show you my amazing bargain from the Office shoes January sale!

I bought these amazing Pink and Dress-blue Vans, "old skool" style, and only £23! Also i had free postage and packaging as I spent over £50 and i bought my husband some shoes too.



I've been on the site and they are now out of stock, but you can find similar items HERE

Or, they are also on ebay in the Schuh store for £24.99 with £4.99 p+p which is HERE

The price is INSANE! The RRP is £55! So if you like them i suggest you get them now!
Unlike the regular Vans these have a padded heel so they don't need breaking in, pretty much lace up and go...and it is real suede on the shoe too. They just look so awesome!

Enjoy!
XxX

Beatiful rings from Etsy!

So, yet again I have been on Etsy, which is leathal for me. Last time I went on the app I probably favorited 100+ items... and I feel NO SHAME, they're all amazing. I had a little Christmas money left so I decided to finally get myself a ring that I had been after for ages...and I ended up with two.

The shop is called HangingByAThread1 on Etsy, ownd by a lovely lady called Angie, based in Greenbay, Wisconsin, USA. She makes beautiful individual peices, some using upcycled materials, and i just fell in love with these two adjustable Rings.



The filigree Vintage style rings were £11.32(GBP) with around £5 Postage and packaging, the postage to the UK is super fast too! One ring has a Pink opal stone, which gives off this golden glow in the light, and the other is a Green Opal stone in an identical, filigree, vintage style setting.



I'm totally in love with them. I literally couldn't decide which one I wanted to wear first! This shop is highly reccommended, reasonably priced and even has a sale section! Totally ideal for gifts!

I think the next item i'll be buying from her is either The Fire Opal Necklace or the Green Opal. They're all so lush. It's a stunning shop.
Be sure to go and check her out!
XxX

Perfume Favorites.

I only realised the other day, after watching one of Leanne Lim-Walkers Amazing hauls and seeing her 'scent', that I always say (when asked) that i don't have a "smell", i.e. a perfume that others will smell and think of me... But actually I do, and really it's a few; 90% of the time i use Very Irresistabe by Givenchy. It's a perfume I first saw advertised when I was in 6th Form (a-levels/college) , and the face of the perfume was Liv Tyler, my (at the time) idol. She was a cute but sexy girl-next door she-elf...and I wanted to be her, even if it was more like a chocolate enthusiast version!


It was, and still is, quite expensive at around £35-£60 a bottle depending on size. I recently bought it in a gift set with some moisturiser too for £35.50 with my christmas money, it really is something I can safely say I see as a luxury item for myself as I usually only get it for special occasions as a present, as it is so expensive. I also realised, when I was 17 I was wearing this as my EVERYDAY perfume! And thats crazy! Not only is it a designer name but it's pricey and smelling it now; it was far too mature for me back then. It has a wonderful warm, almost spiced floral smell, it is stunning.


Other Perfumes i've had include Christina Aguilera's by Day and by Night. Both of which are amazing! They don't seem to last as long though, but also arent as pricey at around £20 a bottle. Personally the best out of the two is the By Night, it smells of cherrys... almost edible. But I have run out of that one. So at the moment i dont have a daily one.

link; HERE

Although... i do have 'Noir' from Ann Summers, it's a werid smell to explain, it contains feremones so you're more attractive apparently...or sensual. Personally I'm not convinced... although it does have a special something as it does smell different on every single person i've seen try it! That is about £15 from Either Ann Summers store, online or via a rep. It's actualy on sale for £10 online now link; HERE
I don't think it's suitable for every day use. But i'd reccomend you at least try it!

So i'm in the market for a new every-day perfume...any suggestions? Also what is YOUR scent?
I think day-to day i'll just be smothering myself in coconut body oil!
XxX

Beauty Blog; New Skincare regéme, L'Oreal Skin Perfection Review. (Product list, prices and links are the bottom)

As a training Beauty Therapist I've been learning a lot about correct skin care routeines. As a young girl I was quite happy and content with cheap make-up wipes, and that was it, that was literally all that I'd use. Looking back now; well that's just terrible! Make-up wipes are now the bane of my life! I literally cannot think of anything else that is sold in the beauty industry as a "quick and easy make up removal" option that actually would be better if you just left your make up on! They have a stupidly high alcahol content, which dries out your skin, this means your top (horny) layer just frazzles up into flakes and then you get dry skin, all the while all you've actually done is remove about 40% of the make up and smooshed the rest around your face and further into your pours, Then you wonder why you get spots! Use soap and water, with a moisturiser at least!

Rant about wipes over- I now always make sure I use my usual Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise routeine. I have always, in the past sworn by Boots No7 range, their Protect and Perfect range was just amazing on y skin type which is sensetive, with an oily t-zone and dry-normal cheeks... if you were wondering.
When I first discovered the L'Oreal Skin Perfection i was galavanting down the isles in Superdrug and saw these beautiful pink packages and bottles staring at me... yes indeed i did get drawn in by the packaging, but LOOK HOW AWESOME!



Anyway, at first all i bought was the cleansing milk and velvety soft toner, as my No7 cleanser and toner were low and i didn't have a lot of money, and the L'Oreal skin perfetion was a lot cheaper, as it was on a half price offer. I have to say I used it once, one night before bed and noticed an immediate change in my skin. Literally, my skin was so soft i can't even explain how amazed I was. So naturally I then wanted it all!
So I went out and bought the L'Oreal Skin Perfection Eye Cream, Serum and the Day Cream. I was actually excited to see the results! Of course the Cleanser and Toner worked wonders already, that night I used the day moisturiser as I still haven't found a night cream yet, and woke up the next day to the softest skin I think my face has ever had. Even my Husband said my skin looked lovely and fresh. I used the Perfecting Serum, which is best descriped as feeling like a primer in texture on your skin, it smells lovely too, then used the Day cream over the top with some of the brightening eye cream around my eyes and for the first time in a very VERY long time i found that i didn't use any foundation to cover my red cheeks and nose, i just patted on some powder and done my usual eye-liner, brows and mascara. I have to say i'm hooked on the stuff. They do have a tinted cream (L'Oreal Skin Perfection Blur) but even the lightest shade is a bit too orange for my skin tone, and I don't think I need it. I honestly feel so confident in my own skin at the moment thanks to this product!


Complete Product list and Links (Superdrug)
L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3in1 Micella Solution £4.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Blur £12.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Day Cream £14.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Eye £12.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection serum £16.99
L'Oreal Skin Perfection Soothing Gel Cream Wash £4.49
L'Oreal Skin Perfetion Velvety Soft Toner £3.99

I know it all may seem a bit pricey but even if you only add one of these items to your daily skin regeme I'm sure you'll see results. It's well worth it.
Enjoy!
XxX

Balmi Lip Balm Review.

I think this was my accidental find of the year! I've been hunting around for a decent lip-balm all winter and i finally found one!!!
Balmi, link; HERE

The lip balm is around £5. But well worth it. I bought the coconut one and i used it twice and my dry lips were gone! Also because of the square, sturdy packaging (like with EOS lip products in the USA) it feels a lot better when you're applying it, there will be no snappages and because of the triangular mould of the inner balm itself its really easy to apply. It also has a handy key-ring attatchment so you can clip it onto your bag or purse so you know where it is at all times! Highly recommended!
Available in a veriaty of different flavours from BOOTS (uk)

White hair up-keep. (Especially for naturally dark hair) Bleach bath. Also BLEACH London White toner review AND the Rosé answer= did it wash out!?

Bleach is bad for you children! But it's the only real way to get the desired white blonde hair i've wanted, and it's the only way to banish your roots too! It's really hard to know what to do when it comes to banishing roots, as i usually would like to leave it as long as possible between bleaches so i don't scare all my hair away but also it's well known that bleach works best closest to the scalp so the shorter the root growth the better the Bleach will take, therefore meaning less time it will have to be on for. I guess it just all depends on YOUR hair. You are the only one who knows if your hair can take a 20 min strong bleach or a 40 min weaker bleach session.
As for my hair, it can handle most things i throw at it so long as i treat it nicely for a month or so after. White blonde hair is expensive to keep... unless you have trained hairdresser in the family!
Recently to avoid bleaching i've been using an at home hair dye kit, it obvously has chemicals and peroxide etc but not quite as strong as salon-grade bleach.

So this is what i was using, It is L'óreal's Prefrence, Blondissims range in Extream Platinum. Usually around £6.99, It boasts an anti-yellow technology but i was using it on my dark hair re-growth so it was yellow. You do have to leave it on quite a long time but it smells nice, and with the oils and the conditioner after it leaves your hair feeling lovely.

If you follow my blog/facebook/instagram, you'll know i recently reviewd BLEACH london's Rosé Semi-permanent hair dye. It was lush! I've never had so may compliments with a hair colour. Hair was left soft and amazing after. And if you have short hair the bottle goes a long way. It's essentially a conditioning treatment, theres no mixing involved...amazing...anyway. It say's on the bottle 2-10 washes, (which i moaned about in my bleach london post) In answer to that question... it is 2-whatever washes. I'm not sure if it was because i had super-light hair or what but in some areas it pretty much washed straigth out and in others it stayed put like my nan when she gets good seats on the bus.... So i had to resort to bleach bathing my hair along with a full roots bleach too.

So for my roots we (my in-the-family hairdresser) applied Jerrome Russel B Blonde Maximum lift bleach, this is a blue powder based bleach, which is ideal as he blue will illiminate any yellow/red tones in your hair. This was with a 9% peroxide, both of which are available from most supermarkets or beauty chain stores. I prefer this brand for at home as is literally one saché of bleach powder to one bottle of peroxide.

The bleach powder has 6 saché's in, it's usualy around £6 and the peroxide individual one shot bottles are available in 6%, 9% and 12% strength and are usually around £1.50 each.

After the roots had been on around 20min, we applied an all over bleach bath to try and lift the rest of the pink. Bleach bath is essentially your usual bleach mix, and a plain white shampoo in equal amounts. (1:1 bleach shampoo) and yes it has to have peroxide in the bleach mix! There are so many video's where they just mix powder and then shampoo and wonder why it didn't work or went orange!
The bleach bath was left on for the last 10 min the roots were left on too, then we washed it off and shampooed, NO CONDITIONER at this poin although my hair was really needing it... Then we added the BLEACH London White toner!




The toner only had to be on for 15-20 min, then you wash-out and apply an all over hair mask, and leave that on for 15 min under a warm towel, which was strangely nice may i add...


Once the toner was washed out the custard roots were banished for another 10 weeks or so adn i was back to my normal(ish) self! So this is the routeine i go through roughly every 10-14 weeks.

Key points:
*Stick to a blue based powder bleach
*use as low % a peroxide as you can get away with
*bleach works better and quicker if its warm
*always use a toner and silver shampoo and conditioner
*Treat your hair with some respect! After bleaching, aviod heat for a few days, let it get naturally oily, lots of conditioning treatments and masks.
*don't over-bleach. If in doubt...DONT DO IT!!! (Or do a test patch)
GOOD LUCK!