My Make-Up Story

I was inspired to do this post by one of my all time favourite beauty bloggers, Anna, from Vivianna Does Makeup. I loved reading her 'Tale of Makeup and Me' post, which got me thinking nostalgically back to my first days of experimenting with makeup.

Now I can't remember the exact age that I started using makeup, but performing in dance shows meant I was introduced to bright blush, red lips and blue eyeshadow at an early age. My real interest came about as a result my admiration of my older sister, whom I would copy everything from. I learnt a lot from playing around with her lotions and potions and begging her to do my makeup and nails for school discos.

I used to love spending my pocket money on Mizz Magazines, which were sure to give away a free nail polish and give basic tips on how to apply makeup. Claire's Accessories was also the coolest shop ever for getting all the glittery products you could think of. The days of blue eye-liner, gloopy lipgloss and hair mascara were the best days. I still feel sentimental if I spot my first proper fragrance (that was not a Impulse body spray) Fantasy by Britney Spears in shops today.

I remember waking up for my first day of secondary school and putting on my AVON tinted moisturiser and Miss Sporty Clear Mascara and feeling the epitome of a grown up teenager. Looking back at my school photo, you can't tell I'm wearing a thing (and I look as goofy as ever), but I do remember the feeling applying the makeup gave me.

Later came the days of the Dream Matte Mousse Foundation, which I feel everyone tried out as a teenager. Despite not actually being a suitable match for most people's skin - it was the cool foundation to have. There was also the popular phase of putting the foundation on your lips to eradicate them altogether..(still not quite sure what that was all about).

After a few clumsy years of teen magazines, makeovers at sleepovers and going crazy over the tester products in Superdrug, I managed to do my own makeup without looking completely ridiculous. With my eyebrows, however, the damage was done, and I am still paying for my teenage pluck-happy mistakes.

For Christmas one year, I received my first high-end beauty product, a Benefit blusher set, followed later by the Benefit Celebutante Beauty Kit. My sister and I had always got excited around the Benefit counters and getting into their products was very exciting. My magazine taste became more sophisticated too, as I started collecting "grown up" magazines like Elle (which provided me with more Benefit products in the Subscription gift).

It was shortly after this that I came across the Beauty community on YouTube which really cemented my interest in makeup. The first YouTuber I think I came across was Sara Walker Makeup, after being linked to the Look Your Worst Tag video. I soon discovered the likes of Beauty Crush and FleurDeForce (among many others) who I can thank for teaching me a lot of what I've learnt about beauty. I've been following various beauty bloggers and channels for about three years now and have loved watching some of my favourites become successful as well as discovering many more along the way.

When I was 17 I got my job in a department store, which meant I could get staff discount on all the high-end make-up and skincare brands I was growing to love (No need to explain where my wages went!).

After a lot of deliberation and a few failed attempts, I'm turning my passion for makeup and beauty into a hobby, in the form of this blog. I figured if I love reading about beauty so much, I would probably enjoy writing about it too. So far its been one month and I'm absolutely loving it.

Can you remember how you got interested in make-up?