Skin, Glorious skin!

As a teenager, I was sadly the sufferer of bad skin. It actually started in Primary school for me, so it was about the age of 8 that I experienced my first white head. It was of course, the biggest white head you've ever seen. It was actually THAT big, if volcanologists had known about it they would have given it a name and tried to predict when it would erupt. To make matters much worse it sat there on my nose (of all places) right a the tip I got the nickname 'Scarlett the white nose monster'. Kids are so cruel sometimes. Likely, it never stuck.
My wonderful mother told and I quote 'under NO circumstances do you pick it or squeeze it'. Now, something you should all know.. I am a very good girl. I was back then as well. I'd be lying if I said I never went through a 'naughty stage' BUT I grew out of that quickly. I was the girl who liked to hold the teachers hand, walking around the playground. I must say that it was a shock when I went to secondary school. No one warned me there were no teachers hands to hold at 'play time' (I really wasn't prepared for that) ANYWAY, back on track, I was told not to squeeze it, so I didn't. I was laughed at and pointed at all day. As a child, it was awful. I remember telling my friends that it wasn't a spot, it was, in fact a cut that had got infected. Sounded like a plausible excuse as a kid.
Little did I know that things were about it get worse. MUCH worse. It really went downhill from there. Spots popped almost everyday. My face became oily, the skin tone was really uneven. My mum gave me a bar of soap (body soap) and told me washing my face would help.... I believe the bar was called 'imperial leather body soap' (we are talking about 20 years ago) It went on to make my face worse. My mother bless her, was never very 'beauty aware' herself so she had no idea. She believed makeup was age restricted which is why she never thought to buy me any.
When I went to secondary school, luckily, a few other kids started developing spots. Funnily enough it was always the 'geeks' that had what others would call 'pizza faces' the 'popular' kids would only ever get the occasional one. The people that were not geeks or popular were known as 'the others'. These had neither clear skin, nor very bad skin. My face, was mostly covered by them, all shapes and sizes.
I was never introduced to makeup until much later so I had suffer on. What I wasn't aware of was how these spots could and would scar me for life. My cheeks are the places that bare all my scars.
It wasn't until my late teens that I found out the importance of proper facial cleansing. I just wish I found out years earlier. Maybe it would have helped reduced the scarring. Maybe it would have made me fit in, made me more 'socially acceptable'.

So I hit (lets say) 19 years old. For my birthday I get something I find rather baffling and quite frankly distrubing. It was a £30 gift voucher for a beauty salon. I remember thinking beauty salons were for men to get body massages and 'more'.. more being naughty things that really shouldn't happen in these places but who am I to judge. What made the situation worse was that my brother MY BROTHER gave it to me. Luckily, there was a brochure attached that listed all of the treatments available. After a lot of consideration, a lot of hassle from my brother NOT to waste it for it had costed him £30 after all. I decided to go for a facial. Should anything untoward begin to happen, it was at least at the top end and I'm sure I could regain my composure and get the hell out.
So the day came for my facial. That day I wore so many layers, I looked like the marshmallow man. Thank goodness it was cold outside. I could use that as my excuse.
Seeing the salon for the first time really put me at ease. It looked nice, it looked profession, not shabby or dodgy. The staff were all beautiful (a little worrying I must say) all blonde and all women. Hmm I thought, alarm bells started to go off. They all had beautiful skin, beautiful eyes, beautiful nails. I felt uneasy. I was for one, dark haired with spotty, oily skin, crappy nails and female.. I didn't fit in. I wanted to run but it was too late, I was lead in to a really beautiful room, with soft music and beautiful scented candles glowing. \i'm surprised I didn't start hyperventilating  The fact that she didn't ask me to take anything other then my coat off, relaxed me slightly. I don't know what I was expecting... all I knew was I didn't 'go that way' and I'd made note of the exits. To my surprise, I went on to have an amazing facial and an amazing insight to how skin works, how to work with you skin and how to help stop stops occurring. I was also told to book in for an eyebrow wax and a make up lesson... She didn't bother to hint at these things. She just outright told me.
I left the salon, happy, not violated in anyway, relaxed and ready to start life with beautiful skin. It is amazing how that one experience changed who I was and made me who I am today.

If only I had known then what I knew now, I could have had a childhood which involved less spots and more confidence.
It is for this reason I'm going to write a section on how to look after your skin. I will not bore you with anymore of personal experiences tho.

So keep a look out for my post tomorrow on how to look after your skin. If I can figure out how, I will put it under the skin tag... can't promise that tho as i'm still learning.

Just so you know...

I have to admit, I'm new to all this blogging stuff and to top it off, I'm not very good with computers. I'm THAT girl that sits in the library and writes all her assignments in a book before transferring them to the computer. I must admit this drives my partner CRAZY as he doesn't see the point. However, computers scare me. In fact, I should really just stay away from anything electrical really cause you can bet your a** I'll break it, crash it, loose data OR if none of those happen, I ensure you, I'll blow it up somehow.  I know this due to past experiences. My parents refuse flat to let me borrow anything that has a power supply while my husband ensures we have insurance on these such things, including myself. I would say he's out to kill me BUT after managing to blow up a printer at work, covering myself and a consultant in, all I can describe as, Black dust that smudged when we tried to wipe it off. I've come to the conclusion that actually, I'm just THAT accident prone.

Slipping down the stairs has become like an art form for me. I've learnt to do it so gracefully, I'd have you believe that there really is such a thing as 'falling with style'. I'm constantly missing steps, walking into damn doors that just don't open, driving into, not forgetting of course, reversing into walls that refuse flat to move, even under full force of my bumper. How do I react to all of this you may wonder, well, first things first, I check that nobody saw me... you know, play it 'cool' no matter how much I hurt or how embarrassed I am. I then, of course and most importantly ,especially if any damaged has occurred to anything other the myself, deny all knowledge.

Last year, I managed to fall out of the loft and compress a few vertebrae, fracture my jaw in a freak garden accident (had a fight with a garden folk) Fall through the hall ceiling. Although with that one, luckily I had a beam break my fall, hitting me and technically catching me in the *ahem* thank god I'm not a man... it could have been much worse had I been.
I also forgot to put the handbrake on my car and watched with horror as it started 'reversing' back down the street, picking up speed as it went. Thank goodness for the car at the bottom of the road which stopped it.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say, was, if anyone is reading this, please bare with me while I figure out how to use this site and how to blog.

Me, Myself and I

Me, Myself and I

My goodness, I hate writing about myself but I love reading about the people behind the blogs which I love SO Where do I start!?!

Well, first and foremost I’m Scarlett. I’m a ‘young’  mother of 2 ‘interesting’ children who are no doubt my whole world. Well this year I hit the dreaded 30 so I’m not that young at all. I LOVE spending my time talking to people about anything to do with hair, beauty, fashion, arts and crafts, cooking… anything girly really. As a teenager, I wasn’t blessed with good looks and was never shown things like ‘ make up’ a ‘shaver’ or ‘waxing’. Why my mother never showed them to me has always been a mystery. She always tells me that at the time, she thought I was beautiful , she didn’t believe I needed such things, but actually, looking back at the photos of me with ONE eyebrow that stretched from one side of my face to the other, without a gap, she agrees that maybe she should have introduced me to a beauty salon.  Not to mention the wonderful hair that thickened each year above my upper lip… Oh the horror.  

However, in my late teens, I stumbled across this thing called a beauty salon and this thing called makeup….. Needless to say I’ve never looked back and yes, I have 2 well maintain eye brows and no upper lip hair! 

I’ve come up with a few questions about myself that I will answer so hopefully you’ll get a feel for the type of person I am: Here we go:

Where are you from?

I am from a small village within the UK. I moved here from London.  Although I LOVE the city life, the constant fashion shopping, going out for meals daily, nightlife on your doorstep, The reality of it is that when you’re not doing all the above.. You’re working. The pace in London was always so fast, I had no time to stop, to take a step back, to breathe.  I moved out of London after having the reality of my life bite me on the butt, on honeymoon. I’d been so busy that I hadn’t seen my family members in years, I had literally forgotten what was actually important in life. I was living a life of ‘work to live, live to work’ which quite frankly is depressing. I know I personally have to work to live but frankly, there is more to life. What I didn’t know when we started moving, was that the world we knew was about to change forever… not only were we moving out of the city and in to the country, I was unknowingly pregnant with my first child.

What do you do with your time?

I’m a very busy young lady. I am a *gulp* mummy! I have a little girl who is, of course, very beautiful and challenging, opinionated, compassionate and very VERY spirited.  She’s also VERY hormonal (takes after her father OBVIOUSLY) She has already told me that I’ve ‘ruined’ her life after winning a game of noughts and crosses. God help me when she actually reaches puberty. I think I’m in for trouble…

My son who is soo loveable, and sooo charming. He looks like the cutest little thing with these bright big blue eyes. He looks like such a good boy, so innocent, wouldn’t cause anyone any trouble BUT be aware, be VERY aware… He’s a complete pain in the a**. He winds his sister up no end but he is beautiful, outgoing and very VERY spirited like his big sister. My children are my world. I love them more than I thought it was possible to love. They keep me on my toes, amazed and amused. We have good days, we have bad day. We are a normal family, although slightly crazy.

Not only am I a full time mummy, I’m also a student nurse and work within a hospital. My life is based on making a difference to those in need. I have and will continue to dedicate my life to my patients and studies. I work hard, very hard to be the best I can for my family and my patients.

What do you do in your spare time?

Spare time… what’s that? When i am not at university or working, I spend my time with my family. I’m not a ‘cool’ person. In fact, I’m quite the opposite. I don’t go out at night. The thought of clubbing or getting drunk is like torture treatment to me.  My children are early risers… getting up at 5am, hungover and tired… It’s just a no go area. I need my beauty sleep (it’s clear by looking at me I don’t get enough anyway) Not to mention, the noise in the club… I spend my time with kids screaming at each other, children’s music and television in my ears, pots and pans with wooden spoons, musical instruments ect ect. Honestly, I don’t want music playing so loud that I can’t think, let alone talk to anyone. I find nothing better than curling up on the sofa with my man after the kids have gone to bed watching The Big Bang Theory, The New Girl and How I Met Your Mother.

So what do I do then you’re wondering (apart from spending time with my family)… I dance. I love to dance and I do ballet and modern. It’s a great way to relieve some tension and I just loose myself in the dance. A plus with dance, it helps lose weight.

Why have you decided to make a blog?

It’s simple really. I love blogs. I love reading them and have been for months and months. I’m hoping that my blog will give people new tips, ideas and maybe a giggle.

 

That’s me and my life in a really very small nutshell.