Every Vote Counts

  Unless you don't live in the UK or live under a rock, you'd know that today was the General Election. Most people I know in Birmingham (as in students) actually decided to not bother voting today, which i found really sad, especially as they're more likely to be hit hardest by the outcome of this election. So here are some reasons why I decided to vote today:

1) If I'm going to have to endure at least 3 months of politicians back stabbing, lying and leapfrogging over each other to get to Number 10, you can bet I'm going to vote on it. I did not sit here for weeks and listen to politicians whine and lie for nothing, I thought if it shut them up long enough I might as well do it.

2) I like to complain, everybody does. But what gives me the right to complain about the embarrassing way this country is run if I don't vote on it first. I hear a lot of students complaining about how things aren't fair at the moment, but the minute someone asks them to register to vote they suddenly all have something better to be doing with their time. 

3) It's my first time. Like all things new it's exciting the first time and I have to say I enjoyed feeling like a responsible adult when I went to the polling station, which by the way, is a mere 5 minutes walk from my flat and I still managed to get lost. And that was with a GPS and signposts.

4) I will do literally anything to keep out UKIP. Or Labour. Or any other party and idiot who is either racist, has no idea what they're on about or spent previous governments getting the country into insane debt or dragging it into wars that didn't need to be fought. No judgment, but yeah, we all know who didn't get my vote. And even though I'm just one person voting, at least I can look back on this and say I tried to make a difference. 

  Obviously I'm sure there are loads more reasons I could think of, but they're the first that come to mind. And that is why I decided to vote today. For those of you that haven't yet, polls were due to close in half an hour, and you just wasted half of that time left reading this blog. 

  And to all those politicians waiting to hear if they got their seats...

The Eyes Have It

  As some of you know, a couple of months ago I was admitted to hospital with suspected papilledema, also known as optic disc swelling. In other words, I was having eye problems. Well, after weeks of being subjected to an MRI, tedious field vision tests with even more tedious doctors, eyedrops, and a lot of blinding lights being flashed unceremoniously in my poor eyes, I am relieved to share with you that today my test results all came back as normal. My doctor told me that although my optic nerves did in fact look like they had been swollen previously, and still remained slightly abnormal, this was actually just the way I was made, and therefore didn't require any kind of treatment.

  Today my doctor also raised an important point I feel I need to share. I spent the New Year in Ghana, and while I was there I was taking the drug Doxycycline, as an anti malarial drug. In my naivety I opted to buy these drugs online without a prescription, as the nurse doing the rest of my vaccinations had advised me it would be cheaper to do so. However I wasn't aware until today that in high enough doses, Doxycycline can trigger the symptoms and pain I started experiencing with my eyes after taking the tablets, and while there's no way of knowing if it definitely was the cause of my problems, the timeline of events would suggest it played a part. Of course I felt like an idiot when my doctor explained this to me today. It can be really appealing to purchase these kind of drugs online as it's often much cheaper, but I learnt today how dangerous it can be to purchase drugs online or without a prescription, you don't actually know what or how much you need to take without one.

  Finally, I know a lot of the people who read this blog are close friends who have been concerned for me during this time, and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you guys that I am so grateful for the way you have kept me in your thoughts and prayers throughout, without your support I definitely would have had a Britney Spears meltdown by now. So thank you for keeping me sane and with a full head of hair, and please know I have so much love for each and every one of you!

xx

The NAKED Truth

Naked 2, eyeshadow palette

Now we get to the heavyweight of the brand, one of the renowned Naked palettes. This particular one is Naked 2, and any one from the range will set you back a hefty £38, so it's definitely an investment piece, and only if you're serious about eyeshadow. I bought this one on Black Friday last year, and in the short time I've had it I now swear by it. The palette is formed of 12 shades, oozes luxury, and while I'm usually sceptical of brushes that accompany eyeshadow palettes, this is the best brush I've ever owned for applying and blending. Just be careful to use the right end, I once dipped the blending end in Blackheart and it took me forever to clean it. The shades seem bottomless, and with these colours the combinations are endless. Every shade in here is able to compliment each other, and is perfect for those who shy away from the bolder colours in Urban Decay's range. Unfortunately I have to deduct a point as it seems Urban Decay marketed this with white girls in mind. For those of you with a darker complexion such as myself, I would advise you to always put on a white eyeshadow as a base before using these colours, otherwise they won't show up nearly as well! Unfortunately, this does negate the effects of some of the lighter shades in the palette. 8/10

I'm going to do a quick one line review of all the colours in here though, as there are so many. Bear in mind these reviews are all based on my skin tone Here we go:

Foxy- disappointing highlighter, but could be worse 4/10

Half Baked- slightly grainy, bold,makes a really good look on a night out 7/10

Bootycall- even more pointless than Foxy 1/10

Chopper- for those feeling a bit more daring 8/10

Tease- Not too bad when applied thickly, works well with YDK 7/10

Snakebite- You know my views on this :) 10/10

Suspect- good when used as a highlighter 8/10

Pistol- Gunmetal just with less glitter 7/10

Verse- again, good highlighter but can work as a main colour 8/10

YDK- darker version of Chopper, doesn't show up as well but a subtle look 8/10

Busted- I use this a lot as a transition colour between Snakebite and Blackheart 10/10

Blackheart- the ultimate black, necessity for a good smoky eye. A little goes a long way and heavy handed usage will result in being mistaken for a panda. Approach with caution, and not for the faint of heart 10/10 

Urban Decay- Review

  Calm down people, this hasn't morphed into a beauty blog, the apocalypse has yet to happen. However after my previous post I did feel inspired to do a formal review of the brand Urban Decay, mostly because I felt I was plugging their products a lot in said former post. 

  Ok, so where to start. Well nearly all (and by nearly I mean all but one) of the products I own from Urban Decay are eyeshadow, so I feel this ties in pretty neatly with todays posts. I'm basically going to just rate out of 10 and say why you should buy them. I also feel the need to add in a little disclaimer that anything said in this post is my personal opinion and does not reflect the views of the brand. Ok enough of the formal stuff, let's get to the real thing.

Long Lasting Primer Potion

You guys can read the caption, this is primer. For you males reading this, firstly I'm sorry. This is a girly post. Secondly, primer is what you put on your eyes before the colour goes on. Think of it as a base paint. This particular primer is the Long Lasting one from the range. It's probably the most expensive one I've every bought, and retails at £16 in Debenhams for 11ml. Honestly you don't need very much of it for each use, a little really does go a long way. It also prevents my make up from creasing throughout the day, and 9 times out of 10 I won't need to touch up my make up. It also takes less time to remove eye make up at the end of the day. 8/10

Left: Gunmetal, eyeshadow
Right: Snakebite, eyeshadow

  I'll review these one at a time. Gunmetal is actually in the original Naked Palette, but as I only wanted this colour it made more sense to buy it separately. Honestly I was disappointed in this colour when compared to other colours I have, it's too glittery for my liking and doesn't add to any of the other colours I've tried mixing it with. 5/10

  Snakebite is my personal favourite in the range. It's part of the Naked 2 Palette which I own (we'll get to that), but I use it so much I bought it separately too to pop in my bag when I'm out and about, rather than take the whole palette with me. It's an amazing colour and is perfect for when you want a smoky eye with a bit more colour to it. The name is also pretty cool. 10/10 

Also, both will set you back a hefty £14 each, making it not the most wallet friendly option, but I won't deduct points as every penny is worth it. 

All Nighter Make Up
Setting Spray

  This is the newest addition to my collection, the Long Lasting Make Up Setting Spray. This caught my eye over Christmas when I was with my flatmate helping her shop for some friends. It's £21 for 118ml at Debenhams, and slightly more expensive in Selfridges (I think, I may have misheard the woman selling it to me but I swear she said £27. Man I was robbed). I've only used it once but all indications point to it working. A criticism would be I felt a bit uncomfortable wearing what is essentially hairspray on my face, but it wasn't that sticky and my make up didn't need retouching during the day. The only other criticism is that it made it a bit harder taking off make up, but I guess that shows it's effective. 7/10 

The Golden Rules of Eyeshadow

  So I have this friend. I've known this friend since I was 15, and even though we go long periods of time not talking, when we get together we always have a laugh. However in recent months said friend has taken to wearing garish shades all over her eyelids. Now I'm not criticising wanting to use bright colours, in fact if you're one of those people then all power to you. However I do have an issue when you girls decide to just slap a colour on your eyes and go.

  Every girl should know that make up is an art. You can go ahead and think of your face as a canvas, but girls we are not practicing any of that modernism or surrealism stuff. I personally believe less is more, and advocate minimalism when possible. However, if you're daring enough to pick out a bright blue or baby pink eyeshadow, I must press upon you some serious advice. These aren't the only things you need to know, but it's a good start. So here goes.

Rimmel London, Glam'Eyes
Quad Eyeshadow (6.99 each)

1) Pick a colour/palette and stick to it- so you wake up in the morning and reach for the neon green sitting at the bottom of your make up bag. Don't be also reaching for the equally offensive shade of orange next to it! You're already going to be looking like a lime Starburst, why go confusing everyone! If any of you are confused, Rimmel and Revlon do some really good palettes where all the colours you need for a look are there in one set.

2) Always throw in a darker colour- and by dark I mean grey, black or a darker shade of your main colour. Don't be throwing a dark purple with a light green. The lightest colour should always be inwards, and fade outwards to a darker shade. Don't just use one colour only, it looks like you put no effort in.

Urban Decay, Long Lasting
Primer Potion (£16)

3) Primer- I cannot stress how important this is. Priming your eyes doesn't just set a foundation which keeps your make up set for longer. Primer is kinda the same shade as your skin, so I use it as a guideline once it's on to know how far up the eye lid I need to put the eyeshadow. Think of it as colouring inside the lines.

Urban Decay, Naked 2 (£39)

4) Don't be cheap- As I said earlier, make up is like art. If you're painting, you won't want to go to Asda when you could be getting your paint from Hobbycraft or a specialist art shop. So why do the same with your make up? Better quality brands may be more expensive, but consider them an investment. Also, read reviews before you buy. It will save you a lot of time and money. My go to brand is Urban Decay, extremely pricey (one colour sets you back £14) but superior in quality and long lasting. The shades I use personally aren't the brightest, but if you visit their website they have all kinds of crazy colours.

Left: Urban Decay, Gunmetal (£14)
Right: Urban Decay, Snakebite (£14)

5) The Golden Rule, Blending- Great so you managed to fit all your colours on, now what? You can't be going out there looking like you have rainbows on your lids. Blending is my number one rule. I remember being reluctant at first because I was scared all the colours would blur into one, but it did nothing of the kind. Blending smoothes it all out and you see one colour blend seamlessly into the next. If I can see a definitive line in your handiwork, it's not on.

Next Stop, China

  Recently I decided that I want to be a teacher. I know, how original of me. But being myself, it wouldn't be right of me to follow the crowd and end up in a depressing UK school full of rebellious adolescents trying to "find themselves". Which is just as well as at 2am this morning I was offered a 5 month internship teaching English in Southern China, starting in September this year. Yangjiang to be exact. Yeah I never heard of it either, but I Googled it (as you do), and discovered it's a lovely little city right on the southern coast of China. 

  Anyway, I digress. To keep it short and sweet, it's an amazing opportunity so I accepted it without hesitating. I mean, if somebody is going to throw my dream job my way and mix in free food, accommodation and $550 USD a month, I'd be crazy to pass it up. To be honest I was sold at the free food bit. So fingers crossed I get it and I'll be shipped off to China in 5 months :) 

Note to self: I may want to invest in one of these 

Ghana's Newest Volunteer

  For those of you who don't know me personally, I'm going to Ghana this summer to spend some time volunteering as an English teacher for a couple of weeks in a local school in Accra for underprivileged children. I'm extremely excited to take part as it's been something I've wanted to do for many years but have never had the courage to do up until now. To take part I'll need to fundraise first, so that's what I'll be doing a lot of from now up until I go. 

 Instead of writing a really long post about it though, I'm just going to give you guys the link to a website where I've set up a page to fundraise for my trip. Said link will be posted at the bottom of this post. Even if you aren't able to donate I'd love it if you are able to take some time to read about what I'll be doing during my time there, as it's something I'm really happy to be a part of :) .

http://www.gofundme.com/ninasvolunteering

You Know You Love Me, XOXO

  Gossip Girl fans out there will immediately recognise this title as being the catchphrase of the show. A lot of my friends bang on a lot about Gossip Girl. It may have ended a couple of years ago but that doesn't mean it's fan base isn't still going strong. It doesn't help that Netflix streams all 6 seasons making it accessible for whoever. Anyway, I finally bowed to peer pressure this week and started watching it during my depressive state *see above post* . So far I'm halfway through season 2, and have come to the conclusion that many of the characters... Are dumb.

  There's one particular episode where all the characters (who are all spoilt rich brats btw) head off to Yale to basically beg the Dean to offer them a college place. In this one episode we see one guy sashay his way into the secret society, another imitates the nerd nobody likes so people won't know he's really related to a prominent businessman who fled the country after being charged with fraud (do i hear #firstworldproblems anyone?), while the real nerdy guy chases around a girl to get a letter of recommendation. 

  You think this is bad, but it gets worse with the girls. The 2 socialites literally get into a cat fight for a coveted spot, and when one girl finally nabs an early acceptance into Yale, she turns it down to show how much she loves her friend. Somebody needs to sit her down and explain that there will be plenty of time to show some loving after she gets a college place, but right now is not the time to be taking a stand for bestie friendships everywhere.

  So yeah, aside from realising that these kids have waaaaaaayyy too much money, I was surprised that it's actually really easy to enjoy the show, once you get passed the increasingly ridiculous plot lines and superficial bitchiness that comes hand in hand with high school. However it's only been a season and a half and I'm already flagging. It's just one of those shows you can binge watch when you have nothing else going on with life.

  Also, how did it take them 6 seasons to work out who Gossip Girl was. I worked it out within the first episode, seriously people!

World's End

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but when life gets tough it’s hard to always feel like that’s the case. Recently I found out that I wouldn’t be able to graduate this year because there was an issue with my dissertation module. Apparently I missed a minor deadline, and because of that not only would I have to wait till next year to submit my dissertation, but my overall grade for the module would be capped at 40%. It was like a double slap to that face, and when I was told this by my head of year, you could hear the audible thud as my jaw hit the floor.

  For the next week I felt like my whole world had come crashing down. I didn’t go into uni, I hid away in my room not wanting to face the world. In my mind I had already accepted that my university dream was lying in tatters. I mean, this news meant that I would never achieve the 2:1 I had been so close to getting, and to have it snatched away just like that with 6 weeks to go till the end of my life as a student was soul-crushing. As an academic overachiever all my life, a 2:2 had never been in my life plan.

  In these situations it’s easy to become self absorbed and feel like you have nobody to turn to. I know I definitely felt like that for the first few days, even though I had people calling me constantly to make sure I was ok. It didn’t help matters that my best friend/flatmate had decided to remain emotionally MIA throughout the whole thing. Even though I know that’s just how she is as a person, I couldn’t help but feel hurt and resentful that she couldn’t even put an arm round me and tell me it wasn’t the end of the world. My poor boyfriend bore the brunt of my emotions and did his best to comfort me suggested I get out of the country for a couple of months to avoid the awkwardness of watching all my friends graduate while I was left behind, and believe me when I say I’m still tempted to take him up on the offer.

  The hardest bit for me was accepting this was obviously meant to be. I still can’t wrap my head around why this happened, but it’s times like this I remember that everything happens for a reason. Unfortunately I just don’t know what that is yet. So for now I’m going to continue trying to find that silver lining that I know is hiding somewhere in the storm clouds.

Dissertation Dread

  Going into 3rd year of uni I always knew this year was going to be tough. Because this is the year I've had to deal with the beast that is my dissertation. I always thought a dissertation would be more fun because you get to pick the topic and study something you really enjoy, but the reality is nothing like that. You actually end up hating the topic you've chosen, which for me in this case is the Internet. I know, who knew it was possible to hate the Internet, but there you have it. 

  I've also reached the stage many students reach at this time of year when they start to panic and count down the weeks till graduation, and then realising that there's SO much to do before they can graduate. So here's to 2 months of grumpiness and sleepless nights, it's times like this I was a big coffee drinker.