Something A Little Bit Different - 1 Page At A Time

Hello Lovelies, 

Today's post is something a little bit different, it's a post about a book, I don't think I've ever done a book post before in the 2 years I've been blogging but this book is something I've been really enjoying so I wanted to let you know about it. I did mention the book in my January Random Favourites video (click this link to watch the video) but it definitely deserves it's own post too.

I received the book for Christmas from Nichole and Alicia, having a terminal medical condition means I spend a lot of time indoors and get bored very easily, my lovely girls know this and bought me the book as a bit of a "different" gift for Christmas and I love it! 

So here's the book 

1 Page At A Time by Adam J Kurtz is described as a "creative companion" and I have to agree, it has 365 different things to do, 1 day at a time as the title of the book suggests, so each day I do one of the tasks, you don't have to do them in page order but I do, theres lots of different things to do, from drawing something to writing lists or taking a photo of the page and uploading it to Twitter with a certain hash tag, I like those ones as I love searching the hash tags to see what other people who have the book are doing with theirs. 

The above photograph shows four of the pages, these are just pages I chose at random to show you, it shows how different the tasks are, some are funny, some quite serious, some challenge me and take me out of my comfort zone but all are fun to do and I look forward to doing a different thing every day. 

I love the book, it's one of the most random gifts I've ever received but one of the best too. I think the book would make a great gift for a male or female and for all ages too, I'm the wrong side of 40 but could see someone younger or older than me enjoying the book, it would be a great gift for someone who has a long daily commute maybe, something for them to do on their journey or someone like me who's pretty much housebound and doesn't go out from one week to the next, or even someone who's convalescing from an operation for example, I think the book would be suitable for so many people and would highly recommend it, it would even make a great valentines gift if you haven't bought one yet. 

If you would like to buy the book for someone or just fancy treating yourself, you can find it on amazon here for £7.44 plus £2.80 P&P. 

I hope you've enjoyed todays post, if you'd like more book reviews please let me know in the comments. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always 

Zoe x

MAC Lipmixes - A Review

Hello Lovelies, 

I first mentioned MAC lip mixes last year on my You Tube channel during one of my monthly favourites videos, possibly my November favourites? And I was also very lucky to receive more colours for Christmas from my lovely girls and showed them in my what I got for Christmas video and since then I have been asked a lot to feature them in a blog post or video so I thought I'd do a review of them for you.

I love the lip mixes and find it really odd that they don't get much love or any at all on you tube or in the blogging community especially when liquid lipsticks seem to have been everywhere these last few months with a lot of brands launching their take on the liquid lipstick. 

I have 4 shades of the lip mixes, Red, Crimson, Fuchsia and White but they do come in 12 shades and can be mixed to customise your own shades so you could make many different shades from them. I like to mix my white with the other colours I have to make some lovely pink shades and it's nice because the shade you create is a totally bespoke colour that nobody else will have. The red and black shades mixed together make beautiful plum colours too, Nichole has a lot of the shades and mixes them to make the most gorgeous colours. I first fell in love with the lip mixes when Nichole used a red one, the red is a gorgeous vibrant red and unlike any other red I have, Nichole said of course I could use it and I did and it was love, and I knew I wanted to try more of them.

The colours I have and swatches

The Lip mixes I Have

Swatches

As you can probably see from the swatches above, the lip mixes do look slightly different in their packaging, obviously the white and red don't but I think the fuchsia is a little brighter than it looks in the packaging and the crimson too. The amount shown on the left hand side of the photograph in the colours red and crimson would be the amount I use to fill in my lips, you don't need a lot of the product at all, a little goes a long way and although these are an expensive product at £14.50 I think they would last a long time and some of the high street or drug store liquid lipsticks I feel are expensive for example the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks, they are £8.99 which I feel is expensive for drugstore or high street make up, the lip mixes are £5.50 more expensive but in my opinion, a much better product. 

I have been asked if the lip mixes are similar to the OCC Lip Tars, but having tried both I'd say the MAC lip mixes are 100 times better, I find the lip tars to be a little streaky and hard to apply and they don't last anywhere near as long as the lip mixes, I much prefer the lip mixes and would recommend them over the lip tars any day of the week. I would also say the lip mixes are more than worth the extra £3.00 you pay compared to the lip tars, I won't go into the lip tars in this post as thats a whole other review (if you'd like one) 

What I love about MAC lip mixes

First of all, here's how MAC describe the Lip mixes on their website -

A highly pigmented cream used to mix and customise lipstick to create any colour, texture or look desired for lip colour. Contains soothing emollients to help condition the lips. Available in a wide range of shades in a creme texture. 

I totally agree with their description, the lip mixes are really pigmented and feel creamy to apply they aren't dragging at all even though they do dry down to a matte formula you can still rub your lips together with ease they aren't in any way uncomfortable. They do have a wide shade range, I think 12 shades is a good amount especially given that you can mix the colours and create so many more shades. 

They mix well and can be stored in plastic pots once mixed. I use ones I've been given when I've been given a sample from a cosmetic counter but if you don't have any of those you can buy them from eBay here for £2.50 for 6 pots including delivery. The pots can be washed and re used as many times as you like and you can use them for asking for a sample at a counter too, win win situation I'd say. 

The application of the lip mixes is easy, I use a lip brush to apply mine and would say you will need to apply them with a lip brush as I think using your finger could get very messy. They apply easily and blend out with ease too and as I said they don't drag on the lips at all, they dry to a matte formula and the lasting power is amazing, they last for hours! I haven't experienced any bleeding but if this is something you're concerned about you could use a lip liner, I recently purchased the Rimmel Moisture Renew Lip liner in Transparent, this would be great as it would go with any colour you have or whatever colour you created, but as I said I haven't had any problems at all with bleeding. 

The lip mixes don't feel drying when I wear them, but I don't have dry lips as a rule, I put this down to the fact that when I do my skin care routine I also use all my products on my lips, even my pixi glow tonic, yuk I hear you cry, but I do think this is why I don't have dry lips, but if you do you could maybe add a lip balm before or after you've applied the lip mix. I love the lip mixes and could go on all day about them, but I won't bore you, I will just say again they are good value for money, they apply well, come in a great shade range, they remove easily with a make up remover or cleanser, they last for hours, you can create so many different colours and most of all they look great.

I am always asked what lip product I'm wearing when I wear one of my lip mixes, I have some photographs of me wearing the lip mixes (apart from the white) 

Fuchsia

Red

Crimson

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of me wearing Crimson, so had to include a thumbnail from one of my videos, which isn't the best quality I'm afraid, but you can still see the colour. I do have a lot of blue in my lips because of some of the medication I take so it can throw colours slightly and the lighting has been appalling recently so these photographs are dark unfortunately,  but hopefully you can see from both the swatches and the photos of me wearing the products how they look. 

The only down side I can think of is that the lip mixes are a pro product so this means you can't pick them up at a MAC counter in a department store, but you can order them on line here so all is not lost,  I have ordered from the MAC website many times and never had a problem at all and the delivery only takes a couple of days. 

I have also been asked for a video showing me mixing the products to create different shades or I could take photographs and write a post showing the same thing, if you would be interested in either of those please let me know in the comments. 

I hope you enjoyed todays post, as I said I have been asked for a review type post a lot so I hope this didn't disappoint, if you have any questions at all please leave them in the comments for me and I will reply asap, I always reply to all my comments and questions. 

Do you have any of the MAC lip mixes? Would you like to try them? 

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x

Wear It. Beat It

Hello Lovelies, 

Today I have a bit of a different post for you all, some of you may already be aware, some of you may not but my youngest daughter Alicia or Lissy as we call her was born with a heart condition, the heart condition she has is called a VSD or Ventricular Septal Defect, some of you may have heard of this condition as it is more commonly known as a hole in the heart. If you'd like to find out more about VSD see this article. 

I'm not going to go into detail of Alicia's condition or my experience with diagnosis and treatment etc, that's for another post if you'd like one, this post is to tell you about a fantastic way you can all help to raise money for the British Heart Foundation on Friday 6th February, that's this Friday coming  we don't have much time so I shall tell you how to get involved :-) 

February is heart month but this Friday 6th February the British Heart Foundation (BHF) have a fundraising event called Wear it.Beat it where we can all raise money, or just donate if you'd like to for the BHF, when Alicia was diagnosed with her heart condition the BHF were amazing and really helped me to understand what was going on, my uncle also died of a heart problem and my auntie had a heart condition and died when I was just three, none of this is related to Alicia's condition but as a family the BHF is a charity very close to our hearts if you'll pardon the pun.

I was kindly sent some information from a lovely lady called Lauren at the BHF all about Wear it.Beat it after I'd emailed asking how best I can get involved and let you all know about Wear it.Beat it, so I shall include that information below for you.

I also have some more information at the end of the post showing you some other ways in which you can be involved. 

This is the information Lauren from the BHF sent me - 

Wear It. Beat It. this February for Heart Month and join the nation in the fight against heart and circulatory disease with the British Heart Foundation

Did you know that one in four of our loved ones are lost to heart and circulatory disease each year? It is responsible for almost 160,000 deaths in the UK each year, an average of 440 people each day. There are currently 7 million people in the UK living with heart and circulatory disease.  

On the first Friday of the month, 6 February, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) is asking the nation to join the fight for every heartbeat and show their support by organising a Wear it. Beat it. Event, as a part of Heart Month, to raise funds for life saving research. Whoever you are doing it for, and whatever you decide to wear, it’s easy for your workplace, school or group of friends to take part.

If you want to get involved with Wear It. Beat It. simply encourage your colleagues, friends or pupils to wear red for a day and host a red event. You will find all the tools you need to help you plan a spectacular red fundraiser in your free fundraising kit available from the BHF, including posters, stickers, recipe ideas and red-themed quizzes.

The BHF is the UK’s number one heart charity. For over 50 years it has pioneered research that’s transformed the lives of people living with heart and circulatory disease. It has played a pivotal role in the discoveries of vital treatments helping those affected to live longer, healthier lives. 

This cutting –edge programme of research is powered by your generosity and support. Every pound raised will help make a massive difference to the millions of people living with these conditions.

Help mums, dads, grandparents or babies born with heart and circulatory problems by hosting a Wear It. Beat It. event for the BHF on 6 February.

For more information about Wear it. Beat it. or to donate please visit  bhf.org.uk/red

If you are unable to support a fundraising activity don't worry, you can still be part of Wear it.Beat it. If you have Instagram (here's mine) you can take a photo of yourself wearing red, it can be clothing or you can take a selfie wearing red lipstick and upload it to Instagram and tag the BHF and also use the hashtags #wearitbeatit and #wearitred, their Instagram account is the _bhf (here's a link) 

You can also text RED to 70060 to donate £3 to the BHF. It's as simple as that, you don't have to hold or attend a fundraising event to join in. If you have Twitter (mine is @mammfulzo) please use the hashtags #wearitred and #wearitbeatit if you upload a tweet or photograph to Twitter, and if you'd like to follow the BHF on Twitter you'll find them at @TheBHF. And by using those hashtags on Twitter and Instagram means you can also see how others are supporting Wear it.Beat It. 

The nursery where Simon teaches are holding a wear it red day so all the staff and children are wearing something red and they are also holding a raffle to raise money for the BHF,  we have donated a lovely heart print make up bag and some strawberry smellies to go inside it as one of the raffle prizes and both Simon and I and both our girls will also be texting RED to 70060 and donating £3 to the BHF as well as wearing red of course, it's a fabulous opportunity to wear red nails and a red lip ;-) 

I'd love it if you could join in with Wear it.Beat it and help to raise money for a fantastic charity whom without it both mine and more importantly Alicia's life would have been much harder, their research and work is invaluable and they deserve so much more recognition than they get, so please get involved if you can, please also feel free to share this post on your blog if you have one and if you don't have a blog please share it via your social media platforms so we can get everyone we know involved in Wear it.Beat it and if you do get involved please let me know, tag me in Instagram photo's or send me links to anything you do to support this great event, I'd love to see how you got involved. 

Thank you so much in advance to those of you who share this post and for those of you who will be getting involved, it means such a lot to me and Simon and of course Alicia. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always

Zoe x

Because I'm NOT "all about that bass"

Hello Lovelies,

Today's post is probably a little controversial but after a recent conversation I had with my youngest daughter Alicia or Lissy as we call her for short, it compelled me to write this post.

Over the last couple of months I have seen people post images on social media regarding women's size and how men "prefer women with curves" etc and then theres the Meghan Trainor hit song All About That Bass which too promotes the curvier woman, this is great and it's good to promote curves but something that struck me and was also brought to my attention by Lissy who is by the way a UK size 4 to 6 (US size 0) was that you don't ever see such images or songs promoting what people would describe as "skinny women" and she's right you wouldn't.

Now I am not a skinny girl by any stretch of the imagination,  I am a UK size 16/18 and was a UK size 20/22 but I have recently lost a lot of weight for some unknown reason ( I haven't tried to) But what I'm trying to say is, I am what some might say a "curvy woman" but I don't think it is right for such images to be promoted or songs like all about that base to be praised and loved by women all over the world. What sort of message is this sending out to young people? The wrong one in my opinion.

All the images above are what you could say is promoting women with curves, but it is also saying that men aren't real men if they don't like a "curvy woman" the top image is basically saying men who don't like a curvier women must like men and the bottom is saying that if a man likes a skinny girl he's a wimp, so Lissy's boyfriend Will is a wimp? My best friends husband is a wimp? My brother in law is a wimp? no none of them are wimps, and yes I know these images aren't real life quotes but they do impact on the thoughts of others and of those who see such images posted on Facebook. A lot of teenage girls have Facebook and can see these type of images, what sort of message is this sending to them and others too? That we have to look a certain way to be accepted, and it's wrong!

The lyrics in the Meghan Trainor song state " Yeah my mama she told me don't worry about your size, boys like a little more booty to hold at night" and "tell them skinny bitches" this is basically saying that again males prefer a larger female. 

What I'm trying to get across in this post is, why can't men like girls who make them laugh? Girls with a nice personality? Girls with a brilliant sense of humour? Girls who can hold a really interesting conversation? Why does it have to be about size? 

No matter what size we are people will have something to say, there was a recent "tell a friend they're fat" day, what on earth? Again all size related media rubbish, what about a "tell a friend they're beautiful day" nope that won't be heard of, and images like the above with "men prefer girls with a fabulous personality" won't ever be seen on social media either and it's wrong, the message being sent out to young impressionable girls and the next generation is all wrong and also what about the "skinny bitches" as Meghan Trainor so eloquently puts it? My daughters are both tiny, yes my eldest has an ED but my youngest doesn't, she is just tiny, she has size 3 feet and tiny hands too, she's just made that way but it doesn't mean her boyfriend prefers men or is a wimp and those images and the Meghan Trainor song are very offensive to her and as I said earlier in the post would we ever see a song being a hit that was offensive to larger women, would we heck and rightly so but why is it ok for there to be one clearly being offensive to smaller girls and saying men prefer larger women, do they? Is this a scientific fact? No it isn't! Size bashing is wrong no matter which way it is directed. 

Lissy was bullied at school very badly and one of the things used against her was her size, she was called anorexic and taunted because of how tiny she is, other girls are bullied if they are deemed too large or they are even slightly larger than their peers, why is size so important? Isn't who we are as people far more important than our size? Why do images like this exist and why do songs like all about that bass become hits? Because of the society we live in and this post won't change that but things do need to change, the images above are discriminatory against smaller women, and to suggest men are wimps or dogs like bones etc is awful, we are what we are, tall, short, large, small, blonde, brunette, does it really matter? I have friends and family who are all different shapes and sizes and I love each and every one of them for who they are and Simon and my girls and my friends and family love me and they love me now and loved me when I was a size 8 and they'll always love me, because of who I am not what I look like. 

I feel it is important for the younger generation to know that people will like them because of their ability to make someone laugh or a talent they may have or their personality, not because of their appearance but images like this and songs that are released unfortunately won't help that, it is up to us, this generation to tell them that, to tell them to ignore images like the above and to tell them that being a fabulous person is what matters, not their size and for us not to share such images but to share images that promote love for everyone regardless of their size, no more images like the above or tell a friend they're fat days or any other sort of derogatory images or days or slogans or songs, it is so wrong and it is something as you can probably tell that I feel very passionately about.

So as you can tell from this post I am most definitely NOT all about that bass and wanted to air my views and get some feedback from you all too, if you are smaller in size do images like the above offend you? Does the Meghan Trainor song offend you? And if you're larger in size do slogans and images offend you? How do you feel we can move forward to help the next generation see that size really doesn't matter? 

Thank you for reading, much love as always,

Zoe x

*Images taken from google images