Archive for the ‘MAC’ Category
This time last year…
A year (or nearly two in my case) feels like a long time but looking back, it’s gone quickly. Those who have been reading Just Nice Things for at least a couple of years will know the obstacle I had to face in 2011, leading me to stop blogging for a while. (Here’s a little reminder of that.)
I have openly talked about the drastic loss of hair I suffered as a side effect of taking harsh medication, and the sadness and distress it caused to see pretty much half my hair fall out. However, I knew it was just a temporary glitch and I was far more concerned with fighting my illness and recovering from that.
I stopped my treatment towards the end of March last year but I still had to be monitored with regular check-ups and tests, and that it takes up to a year for the drugs to leave the body. It’s also when the healing process began.
This February I was given the all clear and discharged. On Valentine’s Day funnily enough. And I couldn’t be happier. I’m back to my usual self and it’s as if the last 18 months never happened.
But back to the point of this post. This time last year, the above picture is how my hair looked – very thin and whispy. I barely recognise myself when a year prior to this, I looked completely different – I had a huge crop of hair!
Georgia had to cut my hair much shorter to regain its strength and to allow it to grow back healthy so it was like taking a step back to go forward. I wasn’t happy when I had been wanting to grow my hair longer but I agreed with Georgia that this was the way forward.
Yesterday I popped along to The Chapel and four hours later, I left looking like this:
Cleopatra is back!
Now I’ve had a little booster with some human hair extensions by Racoon but only in the sides as that’s where my hair is the weakest. I first tried them in the new year and decided I wanted to keep them (expertly done by Billie).
There is actually a logical explanation behind this and it’s not for vanity alone. Billie advised that by having some extensions added for fullness, they would also take the stress and pressure off my real hair at the sides from when I use straighteners. Think about it – when you run straighteners through your hair, you are pulling at it. My hair at the sides always seems to be particularly weak as a result of such actions.
After two months of wearing extensions, when they were removed we noticed a difference – the hair looked stronger. I have continuously used straighteners but running them over the extensions has meant they have guarded my real hair from damage.
Some friends have told me they aren’t keen on extensions as they ruin real hair. Not if they are applied correctly. These were attached by glue about an inch from the roots, so the new hair has room to grow and become strong and the extensions are completely separate from inflicting any potential damage. I also didn’t experience any hair loss, no headaches and after a day, I forgot they were there.
Although the extensions have been matched perfectly with my real hair, the only giveaway is they are longer in length (so I’ve cheated a bit!) but could you tell if I hadn’t made the revelation?
My real hair has been growing back quickly too; the back alone is sprouting new, healthy hair which I am so chuffed about. I try to use castor oil whenever I can as that stops hair breaking and promotes growth but my use of it is now pretty sporadic. My health bouncing back is most likely the main source of it all.
The extensions are something I don’t intend to keep forever, but they are very addictive and has made managing my hair so much easier. The important thing here is they are doing something positive to my real hair so it feels like a treatment at the same time (albeit an expensive one!)
It is a welcome change to find a salon which is concerned about progressing forward with the needs you may have, and the girls at The Chapel have done exactly this for the last two years with me. They’ve already got ideas in their heads about what they’re going to do to my hair in the summer and for Christmas and do you know what? I can’t wait.
If you’re wondering what products I used here, they are: Illamasqua Skin Base in number 12, NARS blusher in Taj Mahal (face), Maybelline’s Color Tattoo in On And On Bronze, Urban Decay’s Smoked palette, Bourjois’s Eyeshadow pot in number 16, Maybelline’s Rocket Volum’ Express mascara (eyes), and MAC’s Chilli lipstick with Illamasqua’s lip gloss in Drag.
Exciting news for all you make-up lovers. The first United Make-up Artist Expo will be taking place in London on 6-7 April. To be held in Islington’s Business Design Centre, there will be stalls, shows and discussions.
The two day event will also feature a host of well known cosmetic companies including the London Brush Company. I first came across LBC at London IMATS a couple of years ago and met the founder Siân Richards too. The brushes are most probably my absolute favourite so I am pleased I will get a chance to stock up on more.
To find out more about the event and for tickets, visit http://www.umae.co.uk/.
Prices start from £27 for one-day tickets if you book in advance with concessions for students and professionals. If you’re keen then hurry as prices will gradually rise until on the day when they will cost £45. For each ticket that is purchased the organisers will donate £1.00 to Breast Cancer Awareness.
Yesterday I grabbed what I had for a rock chick themed hen weekend in honour of one of my oldest and dearest friends. She had travelled to from Aberdeen to London and she had no idea what we had planned for her.
After giving her a location to meet at, she was blind-folded and led down the streets of London for a showing of musical Rock of Ages. It’s a brilliant show and I am itching to see it again.
It’s not often I get the excuse to wear flamboyant colours with my make-up so this was also an opportunity to experiment and I did with some of the new products from Illamasqua’s Human Fundamentalism collection and a couple of other Illamasqua eyeshadows I already own thrown in for good measure.
I used Pivot (bright lime green), *Burst (teal) and Hype (canary yellow from the Fundamental palette). I found the matte eyeshadows were fantastic to apply by patting them on first before building up to an intense, vibrant colour and then blending (of course).
I also used NYX’s jumbo eye pencil in Milk as a white canvas base so the colours popped more and there was no creasing. I highly recommend the pencil which was first brought to my attention by Frootibeauty (it’s a staple product in her kit).
For the lips I hastily grabbed Lady Danger by Mac. In the day time, the colours look garish and I’ve no idea what some of the cast we later met thought of the whole shebang but seeing as they were ambushed by drunken, uncouth hen parties at the stage door, I think my eye make-up was pretty inoffensive to them.
And if you’re wondering, my friend had a fantastic time. I’m relieved everything went to plan and I am impressed with myself for not saying anything on Twitter about it or she’d have definitely found out!
The close-up of the eyes was taken at the end of the night so you can see how the colours held up after 12 hours of wear.
(I apologise in advance for the state of my messy fringe – I’m due for a hair cut next weekend!)
*Burst – PR sample
**Remaining products used all bought by me
Remember a couple of weeks ago when MAC Cosmetics responded to the uproar about their Juarez themed collection by stating that they would donate 100% of the global proceeds of this range to a Mexican charity? Well, there has been a change of plan, whereby, MAC have decided to not sell the collection outside of the USA at all.
Here’s the PR statement:
“Out of respect for the people of Mexico, the women and girls of Juarez and their families, as well as our MAC Mexican staff and colleagues, MAC has made the decision not to ship the MAC Rodarte limited edition makeup collection.
This decision will have no impact on MAC’s commitment to donate all of its projected global profits from this collection to local and international groups that work to improve the lives of the women and girls of Juarez. We are currently conducting due diligence to ensure we donate to organizations with a proven record of directly supporting the women and girls of Juarez.
MAC and Rodarte are deeply and sincerely sorry and we apologize to everyone we offended. We have listened very closely to the feedback of concerned global citizens. We are doing our very best to right this wrong. The essence of MAC is to give back and care for the community and Rodarte is committed to using creativity for positive social change. We are grateful for the opportunity to use what we have learned to raise awareness on this important issue.”
What do you think? At least the “projected” global profits are still going to be donated, but a part of me can’t help thinking that we haven’t seen the last of the products. What’s the betting they rock up again in some future MAC collection, with new, unobjectionable branding and names? And why sell it in America still? That’s the one part of the decision I don’t really understand. Is it because it’s predominantly the UK and European bloggers that objected to the collection? I just don’t know. What do you think?
Helen
