My Newest Love

OK. So I'm not sure about all of you but to me mascara is my one can't-do-without make up product. For years I have been a Maybelline girl. Define-a-lash was something that I just couldn't live without. I also thought that one mascara was the same as any other. It is all in the brush. You find a brush that you like and stick with it. I have very fine and light lashes and I need definition. So I can't very well use a mascara brush that clumps my lashes together. I need a brush to seperate every single lash an thicken them. Well Define-a-Lash has certainly met my standars for some time now. I thought that I was very happy with it. I have also put up with years of mascara that flakes and falls into my eyes. But I just thought that this is what mascara did.

Then I saw the light. I was told to try Lancome Definicils. Eager to try new products I marched out in search for this fabulous cosmetic. Once I had it in my hand my heart dropped. The brush. Oh no. I can't use this brush. I spent years looking for the perfect brush and I've found it. And this isn't it. I happened to be speaking my thoughts aloud and the sales clerk handed me a different tube of mascara. I opened it and it was like the angels were singing around me. YES, this is my brush. So I bought the mascara and gave it a try.

It was perfect. It seperated my lashes beautifully, it made them fuller and longer. I was in heaven. But the true test hadn't been passed yet cause Define-a-Lash does the exact same thing. So I wore it out and about and there was no flaking. None. At all. At one point I happened to rub my eye and inwardly swore. #*%$, I've just smudged my make-up. Off to the washroom to go fix it up. And wait a second, there is no smudge. My mascara still looks great. And that did it for me. I am a convert. I will always have fond memories of of my Define-a-Lash days but I will never experience them again. I have found a new mascara god. And I live it.

So you've just heard the benefits of this mascara. Are there any pit falls? Well yes there is one. PRICE. I was used to spending under $10 on my mascara and this is three times the price. But as far as cosmetics go $30 isn't that much. I spend almost as much on my eye shaddows. So it's your call. Do you pay the extra or not? I know I will.

True Beauty??

Many people wonder what real beauty is all about. I for one used to always want to be beautiful but how do you know if and when you really are?

First we have to actually define BEAUTY. Well the difinition of Beauty on Wikipedia is "a characteristic of a person, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. As a cultural creation, beauty has been extremely commercialized. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture." Now that is a mouthful. I would rather cut it down and say that there are two types of beauty. Internal (beauty of the soul) beauty and external (being physically beautiful) beauty. I believe that to be truely beautiful you need to possess both. That may make me sound bad. I do not mean it to sound horrible but hear me out.

We have all heard our parents tell us that we are beautiful. How many people have been told that it is the beauty on the inside that counts? And when they say that how do you feel? Horribly Ugly? Well there is truth behind that saying, and here it is. You can be the most gorgeous person to walk the face of this planet but if you are a bitch, you lose some of that beauty. So in that sense being told that you are beautiful on the inside is a compliment like it is intended to be, Im sure.

I am what you would call a late bloomer. I didn't know how to style my hair, so I pushed it up into a pony tail everyday. I didn't know how to do my make up so I just didn't wear any. You know how most children go through that awkward phase from the age of seven till lets say twelve or so? Well I didn't grow out of mine until I was about twenty. (I kid you not.) Personally I have heard the whole "beauty on the inside" thing more times then I can count. I never thought that I would ever be beautiful but here's the kicker. I AM BEAUTIFUL. There I said it. And I meant it. I always knew that who I was on the inside was great but physically I didn't think I was pretty. Well it's not that I wasn't pretty. It's that I didn't know how to bring my inner beauty out.

How do I bring my inner beauty out, you ask? Well you need to do some soul searching that's for sure. But you really need to stop thinking about what everyone else is thinking and start doing what makes you feel good. Don't be affraid to ask your hair dresser how she is styling your hair so that yu can do it yourself at home. Don't feel stupid asking questions. They really don't mind explaining it (infact I think they secretly love it). I had 2 children and was about 60 pounds over weight. So for me that included working out, dieting and starting to buy clothes that accentuated my body rather blend me right in to the world. Now I'm not saying that you aren't just great the way you are. But I for one had been embarrassed about the way I looked. So I decided to do something about it. Now, I will never be rail thin but, I am in better shape now then I ever have been (And I still have to lose about 45 pounds). I have become a runner (5K three times a week), do cardio kickboxing classes (twice a week), watch what I eat and still indulge every now and again. I am not doing this to fit into a mold of what I should look like but to feel better about myself. And you know what? I feel great. And guess what feeling great about yourself does to you? It makes you feel beautiful.

So we come back to the beginning where I say that you can't be truely beautiful with out being both internally and externally beautiful. Yes I meant it. But what I'll add in now is that you can't be physically beautiful without feeling beautiful. Without believing that you are beautiful. Now I'm not saying that the gorgeous Hollywood actresses arn't beautiful either. But their best weapon is that they know how to work with themselves and accentuate the best parts about them (or of course their hair and make up people do) but that is beside the point. They are beautiful because they know it. When you feel beautiful, you feel like you are on top of the world. And it radiates from you. People want to be around you. YOU want to be around you. It feels so good. No it feels great.

So keep checking back. This blog is about finding your true beauty. It'll have posts on a variety of different topics. Many being about cosmetics, clothing, "how to" articles to help you accentuate what you want and down play what you want to hide, self-esteem etc. I hope you enjoy the ride.