THE MAKEUP EXPERIMENT | BY TAYLORED BEAUTY

Today, I've got a great post by Taylor from taylored-beauty.blogspot.co.uk. Taylor challenged herself with the question 'Why do we bother to wear make up?' and has written her thoughts after doing her own experiment. It's one that makes you think and we would both love to hear yours thoughts and experiences too. Enjoy! 

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water - Review

I know this isn't my usual type of post, but I've wanted to do a product review for a bit now and after lots of encouragement from some lovely fellow bloggers, I have decided to go for it!

As someone who struggles with dry, very sensitive skin, finding any sort of face product that doesn't give me a reaction can be a rarity. Face wipes are the worst, as even ones that are designed for sensitive skin, can leave me with an unsightly, red, burning skin. They often make my eczema worse too (read my Dealing with Eczema post here). This has led to me giving up of face wipes all together and I now use baby wipes to remove my makeup. Now obviously, this isn't the best way to care for my skin, and can dry my skin out a lot. I know that I should have a proper skin care routine (and my current one isn't doing me any favours) but, I'll hold my hands up and admit that I'm pretty lazy and view cleansing, toning and moisturizing as an absolute chore!

Do YOU want to get involved with my blog?

Hey! How are you all? This post is more of an update than anything and I want to put a few ideas out to you. Starting a new year at university and keeping up with volunteering means when I do get free time, I want to spend it with loved ones (or taking a nap), so unfortunately, my blog tends to take the back seat.

This blog, so far, has had a really great response, so I want to try as much as possible to keep up with regular posts as much as I can, but I know that I'm going to struggle to do that as the work load at uni increases, so I've come up with a couple of ideas to keep the blog going until I can find time to do posts that I'm happy with and that are good enough, rather than write a post for the sake of it...

I've been thinking for a little while about having a guest blogger do a post for the blog and think now would be the perfect time to have one. The whole aim of this blog is to try and increase body confidence by sharing experiences,  giving advice on how to overcome insecurities and to remind everyone that they are beautiful! I think it would be great to have others share their stories and advice too! Do you think you could be a guest blogger? If you have an experience that you'd like to share or any advice you would like to give or just want to write about anything that is linked to body confidence then email me @ katielewis780@gmail.com telling me your idea for a post and I will get back to you as soon as I can and we can sort it all out!  

Another idea was to post a question or topic and have people comment on the post with their advice based on the question or topic? (This idea may be a bit more hit and miss). I've already had some lovely ladies leave their own thoughts in a comment on some of my previous posts and I love reading them and finding out what others think. I know that there are some issues when trying to leave comments, but, if enough people do like the sound of this, I think it could be really successful!  If  the commenting is too much of an issue maybe a twitter chat could be arranged?

I'd love your help and to hear your thoughts on this. I really appreciate when people take the time out to read and comment and I take everything on board!

And finally on a quick note, you may have read my last post (read here) on my thoughts about Dan Wootton's 'No More Skinny' campaign in The Sun and how I didn't agree with his approach (since this post, I haven't seen anything more on this... hopefully he is rethinking his approach) but recently I have come across another campaign which is great, puts across the right message and is trying to "change attitudes to body image and build a body confident nation". Go and check out berealcampaign.co.uk from what I've seen so far, I think it's great!

Looking forward to (hopefully) hearing back from some of you! x

Why I don't agree with The Sun's 'No more skinny' campaign...

Be prepared, this post will be a bit of a rant. I do not read tabloid newspapers or read gossip magazines, so this 'campaign' only came to my attention after reading a small article about it on Facebook. If you have read my blog before, you may have read my 'Real Women' post, so will already know some of my thoughts on the way the media portrays beauty and will also understand why this campaign has infuriated me...

Me time - Pamper Yourself!

In this hectic world, it almost seems impossible to get a minute to ourselves sometimes. Taking time out of your day to focus on just you is really important, I think. Whether it's half an hour, an hour, an afternoon, or an evening, it's never a bad thing to give yourself some TLC. A bit of time where you don't have to worry about anything or anyone, relax and do whatever you like!

'Real Women'

The media has piped up once again since the rise of the #fatkini selfie and in some cases has dubbed the ladies posting the selfies as ‘real women’ and I have a bit of an issue with it (now, hear me out before you go off on one…). The fab women posting their #fatkini pictures are inspiring and I admire each of them for their self-confidence and let’s be honest, they all look great! Obviously my issue is not with them, but instead with the media and the term ‘real women’. This phrase depicts the ‘perfect’ woman as someone who is curvy and voluptuous.  As someone who has quite and athletic/ boyish (I don’t particularly like that term either for describing body figures) I can’t help but wonder if this means that I’m not a real woman? Does my lack of hips mean lack of femininity? Of course it probably seems that I’m over reacting, but I think the associations with the phrase should be changed! Because, of course, EVERY woman is a REAL WOMAN – tall, short, skinny, fat, athletic, curvy, hourglass figures, pear shaped, apple shaped, carrot shaped, WHATEVER!

 The media is so confusing with its portrayal of beauty. You aren’t beautiful if you’re not a 6ft tall, size 6 perfectly proportioned model, but you aren’t ‘real’ if you don’t have curves and a cracking rack – confusing much?! I could go on forever with my issue with the media and how shitty it can make us feel, with the number one culprits being crappy celebrity gossip magazines (“How dare ~insert celeb name~ allow herself to be papped wearing no make-up! Oh, the shame!” – YAWN!!)… I’ll save that rant for another rainy day…

Basically, I wish I had the body confidence of any woman who posts a bikini selfie. They all look fab, and anyone who says otherwise or criticises them need a quiet word with themselves. Keep up with your #fatkini and #bikini pictures ladies, and ignore stupid media and any tag they want to put on you.

What are your opinions? Am I overreacting? Should the media's or even society’s narrow minded views on beauty be tackled? 

The first step...

I'm 20 years old, I'm 5"3, size 6/8 with a weight that hovers around the 8 stone mark.  I study biology, I have a long term boyfriend and have slight addictions to shopping and junk food. I'm just an average person, with life so far, working out quite well. I'm the sort of person who tends to be quiet and reserved when you first meet me and then after a while, I'll drive you nutty when I won't stop chattering away. I tend not to care for peoples opinion of me (after I stopped caring, I found I was much happier) and go for whatever makes me happy. However, I find myself on a regular basis, looking down at myself or at my reflection in the mirror and having a tidal wave of insecurities consume me. I often wish to have longer legs, or bigger boobs, a flatter stomach or to have tanned skin, for my eyes to be a different colour, think a bit of plastic surgery wouldn't go a miss, wish my skin was better... (You get the idea). I look in my wardrobe and wish it was a bit more up to date fashion wise or look at selfies on Instagram and wish I could make my own face look amazing through the power of make up. I certainly wouldn't leave the house with at least mascara and concealer on at the bare minimum (wouldn't want to scare people, would I?) I feel pressures from all possible angles to look a certain way. I compare myself to every other girl and wish I looked like them in some way. My boyfriend tells me on a regular basis that he thinks I'm beautiful (I don't even need to fish for the compliment) and I believe that he thinks that, but I, myself, couldn't disagree more, and it's dragging me down enormously.