Good/bad MUA products!

Hey guys! :) Hope you've all had a good weekend, mine has left me absolutely knackered! :)

So recently i've been buying a few MUA products, everytime i'm in superdrug I always see them and think 'may aswell try it for £1' which is ridiculously cheap and so worth a try! Some I have been impressed with, some not so much!

GOOD products: 

Bronzer - I use this bronzer almost everyday, saving my favourite GOSH bronzer for going out etc.  and I love it! It's a nice colour that blends well to create a natural looking bronzed cheek and not a strip of orangey brown which to be honest, I did kind of expect for £1!

Blusher - I have a blusher which is barbie pink and I love it, again it blends nicely and I just love the colour as its a brighter pink but it's not TOO  bright so it ends up looking like something you'd do for fancy dress!

BAD products:

Eyeliner -  I brought this as my Rimmel eyeliner was running out and so thought I would give this a go, however I have gone straight back to my usual! On first putting it on it did feel reaaaally soft and went completely blunt after applying it to one eye, it didn't take long before it smudged under my eye and it actually smudged quite far under my eye which was definitely not a good look!

Mascara - Again, my usual mascara was running out and so I thought 'may aswell give it a go' however I wasn't overly impressed with this! It made my eyelashes a bit longer but it took a lottttt of coats and felt like there was hardly any mascara on the wand, as if it was running out! It was also really dry and flaky and gave me really itchy eyes!

OKAY products:

Liquid eyeliner - I actually really like the bit which applies the liner as it's flexible but not too 'fling all over the place' and on first impressions I quite liked this, however it faded quite a bit and also flaked a bit. I might actually try this wand in a different liquid liner with a nicer solution! 

Lipstick - I bought this lipstick as I wanted to see if the colour would suit me, without spending too much incase it didn't! I do quite like the colour which is a slightly orangey/coraly pink and so might invest in a better lipstick in this type of colour. Although I like the colour I don't particularly like the texture, it's really soft but i'd say it's too soft, it just felt like it was gonna slide everywhere and I thought I was gonna look like my little sister had put it on for me, it also didn't stay on overly long however it's not too bad, especially not for £1!

I didn't actually realise until I did this post that there actually seems to be a pattern with cheek products being good and eye products being not so good! I havn't tried any of the other MUA products such as the nail varnishes or powders but overall I am quite impressed considering the price! 

What do you guys think of MUA products? Any you would recomend? :)

Emily xxx

How to make a bow with your hair!

Hi guys! :)
So I did a post the other day of an OOTN and got asked to do a tutorial on how to do a bow with your hair! I always thought this looked so hard and confusing until one day I saw a youtube video and it is SO simple! There probably are other ways of doing it which may be more confusing and may work better but this one is simple and it worked okay for me! 

PS: please ignore my terrible terrible roots!

So you know when you make a loop like this...

Loop it to the front instead of the back so the long bit's pointing forward

Pull the loop into two even parts

Then pull the long bit back between the two parts and clip it at the back! If you have short layers they won't reach the back and will ping out to the front so this might not work for you!

 Make sure you use lotssss of hairspray and if you need to, which I did, used a kirby grip on each side to hold the bow down. You will need lots of hair grips to hold to middle part back or it will ping forward which is definitely not a good look! 

So yeah as you can see this is really quite easy and definitely makes a change to the usual! I got so many compliments on it and I was just thinking 'hehe it really wasn't even hard', it's definitely one of those things that looks more special than it is haha! 

Hope you're all having a good weekend :) i'm going to peppa pig world tomorrow with my little sister, think i'm almost as excited as she is!

Emily xxx

EDS awareness month

This month is Ehlers-Danlos syndrome awareness month, a rare condition I have which has very little awareness, probably 99% of you won't have heard of it!

EDS is a defect in collagen proteins which are found in many areas of the body and so can affect tendons, ligaments, cartilage, skin, bone, blood vessels, the gut and the spine. It is caused by alterations in certain genes which therefore make the collagen weaker. As this weak collagen can affect a lot of parts of the body, EDS can cause a lot of problems. There are six main types of EDS however most people will fall into more than one category; hypermobility, classical, vascular, kyphoscoliosis, arthrochalasis, dermatosparaxis.

EDS, depending on which type, can cause: 

Loose, unstable joints that are prone to: sprain, dislocation, subluxation and hyperextension
Early onset of osteoarthritis
Easy bruising
Dysautonomia typically accompanied by Valvular heart disease (such as mitral valve prolapse, which creates an increased risk for infective endocarditis during surgery, as well as possibly progressing to a life-threatening degree of severity of the prognosis of mitral valve prolapse)
Flat feet
High and narrow palate, resulting in dental crowding
Vulnerability to chest and sinus infections
Fragile blood vessels resulting from cystic medial necrosis with tendency towards aneurysm (even abdominal aortic aneurysm)
Velvety-smooth skin which may be stretchy
Abnormal wound healing and scar formation
Low muscle tone and muscle weakness
Myalgia and arthralgia

Other complications may include:
Headaches caused by an acquired Arnold-Chiari malformation (brain disorder)
Osteopenia (low bone density)
Problems with proprioception including dysmetria
Talipes equinovarus (club foot), especially in the Vascular type
Deformities of the spine, such as: Scoliosis (curvature of the spine), Kyphosis (a thoracic hump), Tethered spinal cord syndrome, Occipitoatlantoaxial hypermobility
Functional bowel disorders (functional gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome)
Gastroparesis (partial paralysis of the stomach)
Early-onset periodontitis
Nerve compression disorders (carpal tunnel syndrome, acroparesthesia, neuropathy)
Vascular skin conditions: Raynaud's phenomenon, Livedo reticularis
Blue sclera
Swan neck deformity of the fingers
Insensitivity to local anesthetics
Premature rupture of membranes during pregnancy
Platelet aggregation failure (platelets do not clump together properly)
Weak muscle tone (hypotonia) in infancy, which can delay the development of motor skills such as sitting, standing, and walking
Arterial/intestinal/uterine fragility or rupture

 Yeah that's a lot of things right! 

My personal EDS causes me loose joints (i am ridiculously flexible), easy bruising, flat feet, high palate (top of your mouth), stretchy skin, abnormal wound healing (i bleed for aaages) and scar formation (i scar SO easily and my big scar from my operation is widened), low muscle tone and weakness (i get tired really easily and have 'weak days' where just holding a glass of water my hand will shake as it's too weak to hold it), scoliosis (curved spine, i had a major operation to straighten it in august), raynauds (bad circulation causes problems in the fingers and toes, tooo long to explain in a bracket haha) and blue sclera (blue whites of the eyes). 

EDS is also very frequently misdiagnosed/undiagnosed and as it's an 'invisible illness' can cause problems with people not believing you or thinking you are over exagerating or not caring etc. Most types do not decrease life expectancy however the vascular type reduces it to 40 years, luckily I don't have the vascular type!
  
EDS is a serious condition which, as you can see, can cause LOTS of problems and yet even many doctors have not heard of it. We need to raise awareness and help people to get diagnosed and get treatment. I know this is a very different post to my usual but I want to make as many people aware of this as possible!

Do any of you guys have EDS, or anyone you know? Or even think you may have it after reading this! I'd be really interested to know so comment this or email me if you like! You can also email me about anything else at all, if it's about my blog or make up or whatever! My email is emilyjane--@hotmail.com

If you'd like to be reaaallly lovely i'd be so grateful if any of you posted about EDS, even a simple tiny post nothing like this! Or a simple tweet or anything just to raise awareness even of one person! :)

Emily :) xxx