Stop shaming...

*TRIGGER WARNING* I'm going to touch on the subject of rape culture at some point in this post so just a little heads up incase anyone wants to stop reading.

So it's a bit of a serious one today. And it's not all about make-up, although make-up is a part of it. It's something that's been bothering me for a while and after seeing some more of these "hilarious" or "inspirational" memes, I've felt the need to have a wee rant.

My Facebook seems to be plagued with memes regarding women wearing too much make up, men don't like you if you're too fat, men only finding women attractive who are curvy, men don't women who sleep around etc..

So much about this pisses me right off.

I'm going to open this up, not just targeted at men, but the human race in general.

I have full autonomy. My body is my choice, and so is what the hell I want to do with it! If you want to sit and judge me because of how I look, dress or act, then you can turn your ass around and make your way out of my life.

I don't choose my clothing or make-up to please any man or woman. If a man, woman or anyone in  between happens to find me attractive then that's great but none of my choices are made with the sole intention of pleasing a sexual partner or a potential sexual partner.

My choice to wear make-up is for a few reasons, none of which I should justify to anyone but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. Make-up is a creative outlet for me, it's a point of self-expression and it gives me a bit more confidence. Not the confidence that comes with looking good for the benefit of other people but using my skills to make something that I feel proud of. Whether that means looking like I've been rubbing my face in a paint box or not, at least I'm happy with the finished product. I won't stop wearing make-up because people find "cake face" unattractive. I love make-up, I can't wear enough of the stuff. It's awesome.

My body is slightly on the chubby side. I'm not going to lose weight just so someone else will want to give me one, if I choose to lose weight, it'll be to look in the mirror and find myself more attractive and give me the confidence I need to walk out the door and feel like a queen.

Now, putting my feelings about myself aside, everyone in the world has beauty and not everyone can see that individual beauty. Whether they choose to wear make-up or not, my hope in the world that the people in question feel happy in their skin. Even if that means using a little bit of make-up here and there or plastering their face full of the stuff, what's important is that they feel happy. Would it be better if I look in the mirror and feel like crap but be grateful that someone might find me more attractive because I'm not covered in make-up? Fuck no it wouldn't. That's not how life is supposed to be. What's the point in living an unhappy life for someone else's benefit?

As for the weight thing, nowadays, I see more body shaming geared towards slimmer women rather than curvier women. In support of the typical 'poking fun at fat people' mindset. Well, let me tell you something, if you feel the need to empower yourself by bringing another woman down, then you're just as bad as the people out there taking the piss out of people like you. Body shaming is not cool in any way, shape or form. I've been attracted to women who are very slim, I have been attracted to women who are very curvy. There is no "perfect" body shape. If you're going to be concerned about anyone's weight, it shouldn't be about how they look, it should be about their health and even at that, it's not your business to raise the issue.

In an ideal world, I'd make myself a few dress sizes smaller and my boobs a few cup sizes smaller but that's my business, that's about how I feel when I look in the mirror. If someone only finds me attractive based on how my face and body looks, well, that's a shallow bastard that I really don't want in my life to begin with.

On to the "slutty" clothing and sleeping around section of my rant. I can wear whatever the hell I want without earning your judgement. If you don't think I look good, then tough titties. I do. If I want to have my cleavage busting out of my top or wearing a skirt which comes just below my arse cheeks because I'm embracing my curves then that's my business, not yours or anyone elses. My clothes are not for you! They are for me. My clothes are not a representation of my virtue, neither are they worn so that you will find me attractive. Whether I want to wear a boob tube or a turtle neck, I'll be wearing it because I feel comfortable and attractive in it. Rape culture & victim blaming has a tendency to become more obvious an issue when it comes to clothing. If a woman is provocatively dressed then they're "asking for it" or should expect some sort of sexual advance. Yeah, you might end up with someone chatting you up but wearing items of clothing doesn't take away your autonomy and your ability to give consent. If you're sitting saying that a woman deserves to be raped or that it's her own fault simply because she's wearing certain clothing, then you're as bad as the rapist involved in the situation. You are sympathising with a rapist. That is the fact of the matter. I AM NOT DRESSING FOR ANOTHER HUMAN BEING! No matter what their intentions.

The most frustrating one of all is the sleeping around part. Humans are sexual beings. They want to have sex for pleasure, they want to have sex to procreate. So why is it that men are allowed to sow their seed as they please but women are slut shamed if they enjoy sex and want to have it? I've never understood this frame of mind. If a woman wants to have sex with one man or a hundred men (or of any gender), she has the ultimate right to do so because it's her body and if she wants to go out and get the same pleasure that a man would without being judged for it, then she bloody well should do it. As long as both parties are being safe, why is there an issue here? Again, the rape culture issue comes up in that people have the opinion that if you sleep around a lot then you're fair game. Why can't you see what is wrong with that sentence? If you're one of those people who says these things, you might want to take a seat and have a real think about the sort of person you are and if you really think that you can condone assault of any sort based on a woman's (or man's) appearance or actions. CONSENT IS THE ISSUE HERE, NOT HOW A PERSON LOOKS/APPEARS!

And what the fuck happened to feminism? A lot of these memes are geared towards the male opinion but most of the time, it's women I see sharing them! Why are we bringing other women down? Aren't we all fighting for the same thing? To wear what we want, be equals, look how we want, act how we want? Yet we have women ripping other women to shreds simply to make themselves feel better. Well, I'm sorry but that's not how life works. We're all in this together, we're all beautiful and we should all accept that we have the rights to our own bodies and what we choose to adorn them with or what we choose to do with them.


All human beings are beautiful. Yes, it might be that not everyone finds a certain person attractive, we all have our own tastes, but as long as they see the beauty in themselves than that's what's important here. Attraction is subjective. We like what we like and that's fair enough. But what isn't fair is using our preferences to make other people feel like shit.

I have no idea what the purpose is behind this rant except maybe to get it off my chest and let people sharing these memes see another perspective.

Stop shaming other people guys. Whether it's body shaming, slut shaming or whatever, I don't care, just stop!

Peace and love to everyone. Go look in the mirror and see the beauty in yourself. Embrace that beauty. Do not let anyone else tell you that you have to look different for anyone else's benefit.

x M x

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick restock, new shades and Jeffree/Kylie drama!!!

All my constant refreshing finally came to fruition this morning when I came upon the new Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick shades live on the Cocktail Cosmetics website! 

At the moment, Scorpio has already sold out and from the looks of things, Gemini hadn't yet been added to their site. Currently, Redrum, Queen Supreme, Unicorn Blood, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Dominatrix are still in stock but I'm not sure when exactly they'll be getting more of the Scorpio or if they're even going to get any of the Gemini.

The plan was to order one of each of the new shades but as Gemini wasn't being stocked yet, I decided to order Dominatrix alongside the Scorpio as I've been lusting after it for a while and with £4.25 postage and packaging, I felt it would be best to make the most of it.

The new shade, Scorpio, is absolutely stunning from what I've seen in photos. I'm a sucker for a purple lip and Scorpio is a beautiful muted grey-purple shade. I cannot wait to get it on my face. As for the Dominatrix, it's a shade I've been wanting to buy for ages but never got around to it. It's a rich chocolate brown shade and it seems to suit any skin tone from what I've seen online. I know that Cocktail Cosmetics have said themselves on their site to allow 24 hours for orders to be processed as they're expecting a high volume of orders due to the JS restock so I'm not sure exactly when it's going to be here so there's going to be a lot of order update checking over the next few days.

Now I must weigh in on the Jeffree Star/Kylie Jenner shenanigans that's been plastered all over social media. So, I've seen a lot of people bitching about Jeffree and complaining that he's being unprofessional calling Kylie out about the quality of her lip products (specifically the wands). Now, I might seem biased because I love JS but I don't see the problem with this. It's probably notable that the Kardashian/Jenner clan have a massive following who seem to get defensive at the slightest negative implication towards them but would people rather be ignorant to a problem, buy it and be disappointed or have the real truth and be aware that they're paying a considerable amount of money for a considerably poor quality product? Maybe it's because I love a bit of shade but I was cheering from the sidelines. Thankfully, it's now been promised that all customers will a faulty product WILL be receiving a replacement so I have to give her credit for acknowledging that there was a problem there and trying to rectify it. But I have to wonder what the quality control is like in the factory if so many faulty products were able to slip under the radar.

It's probably worth noting recent speculation that the Lip Kits might actually be a product of private labelling. I can't confirm or deny this so I'm not going to pretend I know for definite but I'd be extremely unhappy if I found out that I had been paying $29 (approx. £20) for a possibly repackaged Colourpop product (the Colourpop mattes retail at $6 on the Colourpop site which is approx. £4). Now this isn't a slight against the Colourpop mattes because I'm desperate to try Colourpop myself as I've heard so much about the Colourpop lipsticks being amazing, but a slight on the speculation that these lipsticks might be repackaged and sold at a considerably higher price. I imagine that we'll hear more about the subject over the next wee while and I'm truly hoping that private labelling isn't the case here for the customer's sake as well as hers because I doubt people would be very happy to find out that the wool had been pulled over their eyes. So here's hoping that it's all a huge misunderstanding.

What I do know for certain is that over the next few days I will be stalking the postman and be prepared to pounce on him as soon as he appears at the door to get my new lipsticks. Decision has been made on my first video post and it's going to have to be swatches of the Jeffree Star lipsticks,. I know it's been done to death but I figure it's an easy enough choice to ease myself into YouTubing and becoming more comfortable in front of a camera. I'd quite like to record a base routine as I get a lot of people asking me what foundation I use and  I'm awkward enough meeting people in real life never mind sitting alone in my house essentially talking to myself. 

AAAAANNNNNDDDDD today is motherfucking Drag Wednesday bitch! So I'm going to do a step by step eyebrow covering photo tutorial and post the final look tomorrow morning!

x M x

Day 2... where did you learn how to do make-up? Typical make-up look...

Okay, so technically I missed out on two days. In my defense though, I had a show to go to on Friday and was too tired for make-up yesterday as I didn't get home until 3am the night before! A rare occurence for me to be happy to skip doing my face!

Admittedly, I'm pretty knackered today. We've got a poorly 6 year old who has been sick all night and then again this morning but I had to do the school run anyway with the 4 year old so here we are.

Day 2's question is "Where did you learn how to do make-up?"

Growing up, my Mum always wore make-up. No matter where she was going, she had her warpaint on before leaving the house. I remember watching her as a kid in the mirror and seeing what she was doing. It was fascinating for me seeing anyone's transformation when it came to make-up and she always stuck to the same look the whole time since as far back as I remember. It was always a fairly natural look with the eye make-up and either brown toned lipstick or gloss. Recently, I've managed to lure her out of her comfort zone and she's worn different lip colour but that's pretty much as far as I can push her by the looks of things.

When I started wearing make-up to school as a teen, I pretty much followed the same routine, although back then, my eyeliner game was pretty rough so I always skipped it. Different coloured lipsticks creeped in over time and eventually eye shadow. The best piece of advice I ever received from her was probably to blend into my neck and stop going overboard with the bronzer. Looking back at photos of me as a teen, I feel mortified (although was hideously offended at the time) seeing the obvious tide marks and the bright orange cheeks. I was a hot mess.

Over time, I managed to improve my skills thankfully. When I discovered YouTube tutorials as an adult, I was already competent at doing my make-up but it was great to see different styles and how to execute them. Particularly with eye make-up as that's my "thing".

I have to thank her for the inspiration growing up, to be honest. Without that introduction to make-up, who knows if I'd have as much interest in it as an adult? My guess is probably yes but who knows. I could still be sitting here an adult looking like I've been tangoed with lines all around my chin. Thank you mother!!

So for the photo challenge, day 2 is "typical make-up look". Well, I don't really have a typical make-up look as I like to try something new every day but I do have a failsafe for any time I'm in a rush and I need to throw on something reliable. So here goes. Basically foundation routine is all the same but instead of some bright eye make-up, it's a natural lid with eyeliner. No matter what I have on my face, I cannot skip the eyeliner!! Coupled with a red lip, it's something that'll fit any occasion and is easy enough just to whack on.

I've used the Urban Decay Vice4 palette. 'Framed' all over the lid, a small amount of 'Bitter' in the crease, a small amount of 'Deadbeat' smudged under the eyes and 'Bones' for the highlight. At the moment eyeliner-wise, I'm using B is for Beautiful gel eyeliner. It seemed awesome at first but I'm starting to wonder if I'd ever buy it again. It seems to dry up pretty quickly even though the lid is screwed tightly shut after every time I use it. Never a good thing. And for the red lip, I either reach for Jeffree Star's Mistletoe or LA Splash's Lip Couture in Poison Apple. Both are liquid matte lipsticks and don't have a tendency to rub off or bleed if I can't find my lipliner (which always seems to disappear). Links below for all products used.

This takes roughly 15-20 minuted depending on what eyeliner I use. This one is particularly hard to work with as it's drying up faster than it should (!) so it takes a bit of fiddling about with to get it just right.

It's something that suits everyday wear but can also work if going out in the evening so it's pretty versatile so a good failsafe!



Nivea for Men Post Shave Balm £5.29
B Flawless Complete Coverage Foundation £5.49 (usually £9.99) I use the colour Rose Ivory which is currently not in stock on the website but can be found instore.
MUA Matte Perfect Loose Powder £3
NYX Powder Blush (Silky Rose) £5.98
MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder £3.00 (Opalescent Amber)
Urban Decay Vice4 Palette £43
B is for Beautiful B. Precise Gel Eyeliner (currently £3.49)
Freedom Pro Brow Pomade (Ebony Brown) £5

The only thing I can't include on the list is the Jeffree Star liquid lipstick in Mistletoe. Unfortunately, it was part of the limited edition collection that was released around Christmas time. If you search about online, there might be some online stores that still have some stock but it was pretty popular, so there might be a chance that's it's unavailable. They do a similar colour called Unicorn Blood which is similar colourwise but the Mistletoe is more glittery. Alas, it's out of stock on the Cocktail Cosmetics site which is usually where I get my JS lipsticks from but they're always replenishing their stock so keep an eye out. Link to site below.

Cocktail Cosmetics

x M x

Maybelline Flawless Nude Foundation Review

I'm going to review the new Maybelline Flawless Nude foundation (and get my basic foundation routine in there too). I got mine for £8.99 from Boots. I was a bit disappointed in the size. Foundations I've had before are normally 30ml but the Flawless Nude is only 20ml. Considering I usually pay around the same amount for 30ml, I was slightly put off by the price.

The foundation itself comes in a glass bottle which isn't handy when you're coming to the end of the foundation as I usually cut my plastic tubes and bottles open to scrape the last out of the container. There's a strange little dropper inside the bottle, after examining it, I honestly couldn't figure out what it's purpose was so looked around online to see if I could find the answer. Apparently it allows you to measure out the right amount of foundation.

Consistency-wise, it's pretty runny. I usually go for thicker foundations (up until now I've been using the Max Factor Pan Stik foundation) though. The shade (Ivory 10) was a perfect match for my skin. I noticed in the shop that there weren't a large variety of shades, looking on the Maybelline website, they don't actually offer darker shades in this particular foundation.

Time to test...

 The camera I have is quite forgiving so you can't properly see the flaws in my skin in this photo but I have lots of little spots, can't miss the one on my chin though LOL. Dark circles under my eyes and little broken veins around my nose. Normally I use a full coverage foundation, 1 coat foundation, 1 concealer, another coat of foundation.

 I put on a little bit of primer before starting. I use Seventeen Wow primer. It's pretty good but it's very shiny so you have to be careful not to use too much.

 I use a cheap cream contour/concealer palette which I got for £2.80 on eBay. It's fantastic. I use the pale purple underneath my eyes and over any dark patches and the green over any red patches. I go over the top of it with concealer slightly lighter than my own skin tone.

The kids decided they wanted in on the action...

 I always apply my foundation with a beauty blender so I just dabbed it all over my face with the funny little dropper thingy and blended it in. The coverage wasn't bad but as I said before I usually use thick or stick foundation. So I put another coat over the top of it and it was much better. It blends really well with the blender and I use my fingers to blend foundation on my nose. My only gripe is it doesn't cover *large* blemishes very well. As you can see from my chin, you really can't miss it even after trying to dab some more over the top of it. OH AND BY THE WAY!! A little warning. The foundation stings like a mother going over the top of cuts or spots. Think aftershave on a coldsore type of pain. It's very that.

 Popped on the rest of my make-up. I set my foundation using Rimmel Stay Matte translucent pressed powder with a fluffy brush. I don't use bronzer so went straight on to blush. I love NYX Powder Blush in Dusky Rose.

Overall I'd say it's pretty good but it's not the best. I don't think I'd be inclined to buy it again to be honest. 

Pros: Blends well. Don't need to use a massive amount (unless you need two coats like myself). 

Cons: Didn't offer me the coverage I needed. Not a wide variety of shades if you have darker toned skin. Quite a small bottle. Pretty runny.

All in all I'd give it... 3 out of 5. Not the best, not the worst.

If you've got quite nice skin, I think it would be a good buy for you. If not, give it a miss.

- x M x

First post...

So I wanted to start a beauty blog. Thought about it, decided it was pointless because there were so many others out there. Why would mine be of interest? Then January 1st rolled around and New Years Resolutions seem quite pointless throughout the rest of the year because I think "Why not just do it now?" Buuuuut this year I thought. I'd go ahead and start the blog anyway.  What have I got to lose?

So a little bit about me. *waves* I'm Marianne, I'm 26 and I live in Scotland. I love make-up, I love experimenting with colour and different styles. I also refuse to spend over the odds for make-up, beauty products etc. Now, that doesn't mean I'm "tight", it simply means I'm sensible (hah!) and prefer to economise. I'm addicted to eyeliner and I'm on the neverending mission to find the perfect eyeliner. Colour is another big thing, I love lots of colour! Whatever I want to go on my face goes on there whenever, wherever!

So this blog will be more about reviewing more budget-friendly products, some make-up tutorials & a little bit of health & fitness squeezed in here and there too. 

So.. that's it I suppose. Enjoy!

- M