Hey there!

Once again I haven't written in ages and I have no reasons or excuses. I just haven't felt like writing anything here. But, I'll try to explain shortly what's happened.

Quite soon after returning from England my life started going down. Like... DOWN.
I was able to do various stuff for a while, but then I started losing that as well. I've had so much trouble and anxiety over various things these past 7 months it's ridiculous.

My medication (anti-depressant and anxiety one) got raised. I managed to get some appointments with a psychiatric nurse, but she wasn't that helpful so when I (completely accidentally) missed one appointment and she didn't call me back (at all), I just decided that I'd rather not see her again.
Then I got diagnosed with anaemia as well.
So pretty much from the beginning of this year, I've been taking 3 kinds of meds. For my mental health problems, hypothyroidism, and anaemia.
SO FUN. (Not.)
The best part? I still don't have an apartment (for NO good reason), no job (I've applied to various), and I'm just... in the point of giving up.

Then yesterday something heartbreaking happened. And in a way it kinda... while it was world-stopping, at the same time I kinda realised that I got to keep trying.
Right now I'm still hurting (mentally and physically) so much, but... I guess I'll survive.

Anywhoo, in order to NOT make this a post about how I dislike life and people, I'll just show you what I bought today to cheer me up from all of what's happened lately. Hehe.

TADAH!

Okay, so in truth I just went to Sokos to get a hair treatment, but ended up getting all that. Whoops.

Lumene: Radiant Touch cleanser and toner

These have been my favourite face products lately. I just really like how they make my skin feel and look like. ( I also have the Radiant Touch face scrub. The whole family! ) And then I saw these two bottles, with +50% extra, and on discount... well... Whoops. I'm hoarding these.

Aussie: 3 Minute Miracle Colour Mate Deep Treatment.

That's a mouthful...

So I did get what I wanted as well. Good thing it was on discount too, because Aussie is ridiculously expensive in Finland. The same bottle is about £5 in England (~6,20€) where as in Finland this is 13-14€ normally. I paid 11,50€. I know, such a huge discount. Not.

You can all bet your asses that I'll be hoarding Aussie stuff when I go to England in July...

We Care Icon: Body Scrub - Love Story

These guys have 3 different body scrubs. Tropical Wind (which I've tried and it smells so good), Love Story (the one I got just now), and Fresh Spirit (which I'm gonna try after Love Story).

Right now I have a feeling that I will prefer Tropical Wind over Love Story, because of the smell, but we'll see. I doubt that they'll feel that different, and the Tropical Wind one was at least gentle, but good. I wasn't meant to get this one either but... discount. Whoops.

Shower cap!

Last but not least (?!) I got myself a shower cap. They weren't on discount, so I got myself the cheapest one. This actually smells like a beach balloon, so I assume it's made out of similar material. But this is gonna make my life so much easier. Yes.

Hmmm. That's about it.

I'll update again when I feel like it, but don't stay on your toes. It might take a while :(

Till then, stay human!

It's that rainbow time of the year again.

Yeah, yeah... I haven't updated in a while and blah, blah, blah, but my last two weeks went with me stressing over Uni work, pulling all-nighters, and so on... so I really wasn't in the mood for any updating x)

BUT HERE I AM NOW.

Munching on Pantteri-sweets, which my Finnish friend kindly brought as she's visiting England at the moment, writing something to you about last weekend and Eurovision.

Let's start with last weekend, when I went to Birmingham to a convention, and happened to meet some of my online friends IN REAL LIFE, and made new friends.
It was crazy. We were crazy. And we met some of the most beautiful people out there such as:

 

Matt Cohen. Damn that man is gorgeous in person. Photo by yours truly.

And Kim Rhodes (everyone should know her from The Suite Life of Zach and Cody), who is an amazing person and I got to enjoy her and Carrie Ann Fleming's coffee lounge. Photo by yours truly.

All the actors I got to meet and talk to were AWESOME. So amazing and funny and nice.
And the friends I made and who I hung out with... OH MY CHUCK. So many Dick jokes. SO MANY. And let's not forget muted Hollyoaks with our own dubbing. It was HILARIOUS and it was a great weekend to finish my second year of university.

Anyway, it is pretty much summer here, and I am dying because of the heat. 26C is NOT cool.
Yesterday, after my counselling, I went to the racecourse with my flatmates to have a small picnic, but I was lying on the ground, head covered with my cap and sunglasses, suffering. Over 23C heat pretty much kills me.
At some point I went to a nice, cool restaurant called Café Rouge for a dinner with my Finnish friend and her friends who she's visiting Worcester. Minute steak with the most awesome garlic butter ever and lemon sorbet + chocolate ice cream for dessert? DON'T MIND IF I DO.
Those people also managed to remind me that it is once again that time of the year when bunch of different countries gather under one roof to listen to some amazing, and some less amazing, music.

Yes, it is time for Eurovision song contest once again. My life is once again complete.

As I was watching the first semi-final yesterday, one of the stars being interviewed referred to the contest as this "circus extravaganza" which had me thinking that I want to do a make up to go with that sentence.
Now, I haven't ever been to circus as a performer, but I know that the make-up is similar to what singers, dancers, figure skaters or any other performer usually have to use in performances.
It has to be visible to the very back row, and considering it's circus, should probably be rather colourful as well.

This also a good excuse to re-do one of my older make-up looks, which I probably never posted here, and change it a bit:

Green, orange and pink with black eyeliner and Sleek Amped lipstick.

I did this look in February already, and I really can't remember posting it (I checked and couldn't find it in my blog) and as you can see, it was quite soon after I had dyed my hair red since there are no roots.

Now then. Circus. Extravaganza.

circus  /'sks/

▶ noun  (pl.  circuses)
1. a travelling company of acrobats, clowns, and other entertainers which gives performances, typically in a large tent, in a series of different places. ■ (informal) a large group of people travelling together on the circuit of a particular high-profile activity: the Formula One grand prix circus. ■ (informal) a public scene of frenetic, noisy, or confused activity: a media circus.
2. (in ancient Rome) a rounded or oval arena lined with tiers of seats, used for equestrian and other sports and games.
3. [in place names] (Brit.) a rounded open space in a town where several streets converge: Piccadilly Circus.

- ORIGIN late Middle English (with reference to the arena of Roman antiquity): from Latin, ‘ring or circus’. The sense ‘travelling company of performers’ dates from the late 18th cent. 

extravaganza  /kstrav'ganz, k-/

▶ noun 
an elaborate and spectacular entertainment or production: an extravaganza of dance in many forms.

- ORIGIN mid 18th cent. (in the sense ‘extravagance in language or behaviour’): from Italian estravaganza ‘extravagance’. The change was due to association with words beginning with extra-.

These definitions are provided to you by Oxford Reference Online.

In short circus extravaganza is a spectacular performance by various entertainers, performing in a large space.
Exactly what Eurovision is about. Costumes, hair, make-up and the show.

Something about these words made another thing in my head snap and this morning I took out my make-ups and went half-crazy.

 Yes, I re-dyed my hair red and got complimented by Jim Michaels and Kim Rhodes about it, just FYI.

Also, I've been hearing some complaints about how "you can't do nice, colourful looks with the cheap eye shadows", which is (in my very honest opinion) complete bullshit.

You don't need to spend all your money on the most expensive eye shadows, when you can spend that money on a good base and primer.
Let me tell you from experience, the "cheap stuff" on a good primer and base is enough to get noticed and get compliments. I should know since I my most expensive eye shadow is M.A.C.'s Electric Eel satin, which I don't even use extremely often even though I love it.

Sure, more expensive stuff is usually better, but like I said, it's complete bullshit that one can't do colourful and nice looks with the "cheap stuff".

For this look I used:

♥ A bit of Gosh X-Ceptional wear to hide most of the imperfections around my eyes.

♥ Collection 2000 Pressed powder

♥ Gosh Velvet Touch eye primer.

♥ Lumene Arctic Definition Mineral Eyebrow Pencil.

♥ Green and yellow eye shadow from Gosh trio eye shadow palette TR20 Tropic Fever (upper lid)

♥ Orange and pink eye shadow from beauty UK's eye shadow collection 2 (upper lid)

♥ M.A.C. Electric Eel Satin eye shadow (lower lid up to the eyebrow line)

♥ Sleek Flamingo 937 blush

♥ Sleek Mystic matte lipstick

♥ Wet 'n' Wild Mega Shimmer illuminating powder brush 11 White Glow
♥ M.A.C eyelashes

Now, before any of you go off and start yelling at me that "M.A.C., Sleek and Gosh are not cheap" let me say this: I KNOW.
I know they are not the cheapest, but compare that to stuff like... gee I don't know, Lime Crime or L'Oréal, the cost-effective with M.A.C., Sleek and Gosh is so much better in my opinion.
They're affordable, their eye shadows are pigmented, and M.A.C. and Sleek's lipsticks are so good to apply, not to mention Gosh's foundation.
My Gosh Tropic Fever was about £7, and since it's really nice, easy to apply and lasts long, I don't think it's a bad prize. I can't remember how much I paid for my Sleek blush and lipsticks, but they couldn't have been over £10 per product.

BUT beauty UK is not expensive at all. I got my 10g eye shadow palettes (which both have 10 different eye shadows) for £4 pounds per palette. That's £8 for 20 different colours.

Granted, the palettes are not that big, nor are the colours massively pigmented, but they do their job just well with the primer, so I don't feel the need to go and pay myself sick with expensive eye shadows when these work well.

Eurovision, here I come~

Now after that rant, let me get back to my point about this make-up and Eurovision xD

Usually the ladies of the contest wear natural-ish make-ups and bright lips, and what the make-up lacks they make up in hair and costume. For once I would LOVE to see an extremely colourful make-up on someone on top of those costumes and hair. I would love it. Circus extravaganza at its best.
What do you think?

Anyway, this post got waaayyy longer than it was supposed to, so I'll be finishing now.
I really want to throw an Eurovision party on Saturday when the final airs, but I'm afraid no one else is willing to come and watch it with me, so I'll be dressing up alone x)

OH! Before I go, I'd like to know if any of you dear readers have any good recipes for light food that's nice during summer? My "counsellor" told me that I should eat regularly, but I barely feel like eating when it's hot outside...

But, I'm gonna go out now and see how long it takes all my make-up to melt in that heat, so stay human and blog ya later~!

Edo Haaady?

Today I have some proper pictures (that I took with my aunt's camera)! x)
Warning: this post is also full of extra a's :D

Yes, I am taking a nervous holiday from Helsinki (= a lot of people) and am visiting my relatives in Vammala, Sastamala.
Like last time (I mean Easter break) we jumped into the car with my oldest cousin and her kids and drove for about 3 hours (with all the pit stops) until we arrived to our finish line.
We've been here since Wednesday (we're leaving on Monday or Tuesday) and I'm loving it x) Green grass, flowers, bushes, trees, sauna, Little Big Planet and a big house so you can easily be alone if you want to. Ahhhhh~
And of course aunt's camera which I'm rudely abusing!

Outfit of the day.

Today I decided to go for a bit Haaady gyaru-er look with what I had packed with me.
Unlike the name suggests (and unlike some people think), it's not about dressing in as many Ed Hardy clothes and accessories as you can, oh no, it's about dressing colourfully and preferably having patterns in clothes.

Haaady, sometimes haady (if you want to Google it, I suggest 'haady'), gyaru was invented by egg and its famous model Kaoru Watanabe.

And here you also have Kaoru's haaady face! (shamefully linked from another site)

For some reason everyone seems to write "haady" instead of "haaady", but when I've seen it written in egg, it's always been with three a's so that's how I write it as well.
Not that it really disturbs me... even though I like the style, it is not my favourite x) I just noticed that you get more results in Google with "haady" (way more) :D
Aaanyway...

Haaadys love brands like JSG and Galaxxxy since they have the colours and the patterns.
Of course there are haaadys who some aim to be a bit more punk, some a bit more rock and some a bit more sweet and cute, but the style reminds (me) from 80's colourful rock style.

Here's Kaoru again, sporting the style with a strong hint of rock.
What I can read from the small print, she's wearing clothes from brands like Cocolulu (which I dearly love), Hiphop Divas, tutuHA and pumps from FLAG-J.

This picture was under the title of "Haaady PUNK". As you can see, here both Kaoru and Romihi are sporting some really showy tights.







What about the make up and hair then!?
Well, that's part why I like Haaady's make up, it is usually very colourful!
I've never noticed the hair to be nothing specific, since the focus really is on the clothes and make up.

My make up for the day was heaaaavily inspired by this:

As you all can probably tell ;D

I've done the same kind of make up maaany times before, because I just LOVE the colours!

For the eyes Kaoru's used M.A.C's eyeshadows and who knows what for the face (can't remember and I don't have the magazine with me... ooops), but my tools of trade were a bit different:


Base done with always so trustworthy Lumene Natural Code Matt Makeup (11 Cream) and 17 pressed powder (neutral).
In the picture I haven't done my eyebrows or cheeks yet, hence the paleness and lack of natural colour x)

Eyes were done with Make Up Store's microshadow (Lemon, I think), M.A.C's Electric Eel Satin eyshadow and I even used a bit of Lumene Natural Code Trio Eyeshadow's (1 Angel) light blue to change the blue of M.A.C's eyeshadow.
Eyeliners are, once again, Wet 'n' Wild's black eyeliner and M.A.C's Fluidline Gel eyeliner (Blacktrack).
No fake lashes 'cause I was being lazy AND I wanted the make up to be visible so I just used M.A.C's Studio Fix Lash to darken my eyelashes.
Afterwards I added some blush (Lumene Natural Code Mineral Bronze & Blush 10 Pinky) and defined some eyebrows (Lumene Arctic Definition Mineral Eyebrow Pencil 2 Grey Brown).
Oh! And lips with some random shiny light pink lipstick I've had since I was... 14???

Here are the eyes again:


We're actually watching the 5th Harry Potter at the moment so it's a bit weird that no one's complained about me typing... yet x)
I'd better go anyway so I won't disturb them anymore :D

Oh! Before you go, take a look at my newly decorated old mobile phone!