I'm still in my dressing gown.

I've decided that it's about time I started posting some information about myself as, although I do force my opinions on you pretty much all the time, there's not a great deal of stuff on here about ME. For all you know, I could be a middle-aged dalmation breeder named Dwight living in the Outer Hebrides who writes this blog surrounded by squirmy little puppies and lives in constant fear of the arrival of Cruella DeVille...rest assured, I am NOT that man. But if you are out there, Dwight, drop us a line, we can talk polka dots and drink tea (or any other beverage of your choice, let it be known that I am not one to force hot drinks on my guests!)

Anyway, dalmations and tea aside, today I'm just going to talk about my makeup, because this is my blog and I can do whatever the holy seashells I like.

Ever since I was old enough to sneak upstairs in my nan's house and play with all the makeup my auntie kept in her dressing table, I've been obsessed with the stuff. When I was little I thought that makeup meant bright blue eyeshadow, mascara and pink lipstick (to be fair, it was the late 80s/early 90s so I probably wasn't too off the mark). Fortunately this kind of thing was only for playtime and I was never allowed to actually go out when I was wearing it (otherwise people might have started to believe that my family were actually bringing up the world's youngest drag queen...). When I got to about 11 or 12 I started reading those pre-teen magazines which came with a free crappy lipgloss or hair mascara and my collection of makeup began. My mum was always quite strict about makeup when I was that age, so makeup was very subtle with maybe a bit of clear mascara (basically the most pointless thing in the world) and some tinted lipbalm. Again, looking back, this is probably a good thing as there's nothing worse than seeing frighteningly young girls with a face full of foundation and eyeliner. Although I did also have A LOT of body glitter gel and those little stick on star things that everyone used to wear around the corners of their eyes. Lovely.
When I got a bit older, maybe 14/15, it was fashionable in Liverpool (as it still is...) to be ORANGE and one of my favourite products was a cheap bronzer called Pot of Gold which was incredibly sparkly and left the collar of your school shirt looking filthy. Every evening after school a gang of us would go to the toilets to reapply it all before getting on the bus (just in case we saw...God knows who...) and you could guarantee that the area underneath the mirrors would just be completely covered in a rather ominous-looking brown powder. Ah, those teenage days of bronzer, fake tan and ironed (yes, that's right, actually ironed) hair, how I miss them.

Hopefully nowadays, my makeup style is somewhat more natural, although bronzer is still a main feature in my makeup bag. I don't wear foundation because I don't like how it feels on my skin, although I'm quite intrigued by all this new mineral stuff. So my day to day look is a clean, slightly bronzed face, a natural eye with a line of liquid liner and maybe a bit of light-coloured or shimmery eyeshadow and some lipgloss. Things tend to get a bit more interesting if I'm going out in the night, but we'll talk about that another day.

Anyway...here's a photo of the makeup and tools I use on a daily basis...

From the back; Cath Kidston makeup bag (where I keep everything safe), eyelash curlers (just some cheap ones from Boots), Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick (which I use on my eyes and have had for about 4 years...not sure if that's a good thing or not), an old mascara wand I use to tidy up my eyebrows, Tickled Pink duo blush by Trucco, Tweezerman tweezers, Guerlain Divinora liquid eyeliner, Guerlain Terracotta Bronzer in 02, Guerlain powder brush (which I got in a bronzing set, again YEARS ago), Blistex Daily Lip Conditioner, 17 Ultimate Volume Lip Gloss in Dainty Indigo Pansy, Collection 2000 Kohl Eyeliner in Black, Ruby and Millie Eyeshadow Brush, GOSH Angled Eyeliner Brush, Urban Decay Skyscraper Mascara and of course Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat.

So there you go, that's pretty much what I use on a daily basis; the Touche Eclat, bronzer and mascara are probably my absolute necessities that I'd hate to go without, but I generally do need (or at least, feel that I need) everything else that's there too. As you can see, I've got a fair few fancy products; as I've previously mentioned, I'm a big fan of Guerlain and the YSL Touche Eclat is just brilliant. Yes, they're fairly pricey but I believe that, as with high-class prostitutes and sandwiches (and pretty much everything else in the world that costs money) you get what you pay for. Expensive makeup generally lasts longer and is of a much better quality than cheaper brands, therefore, can be seen as an investment. Plus it's always so pretty...

Even so, there's plenty of cheaper products that still do a great job. The 17 lipgloss is cheap as chips and yet whenever I wear it, I get so many compliments about what a good colour it is. And I know there all sorts of fancy heated eyelash curlers and special comb type things out there, but the ones I've got do the job just fine and probably only cost about £4 so who can complain?

This post is so much longer than I planned - I guess I just like talking about myself.

Tomorrow...a guilty secret...