It Would Appear I Have a Lot of Nail Polish...

Now anybody who is currently studying or for that matter has studied at any point in their life will probably understand the study week procrastination. (I am assuming my uni is not the only one with a study break for the week prior to exams with that statement of course).

For me study week becomes a time for getting up to date on television shows (usually start from season 1 episode 1 on shows I've never seen before lol), trying on all the lip sticks I can find in my room (but then scrubbing my face clean should I leave the house), reading romance novels, finding new Pokemon ROMs to play on the computer, organising my pens,pencils,books,papers,nail polishes etc (because that is sort of productive isn't it?) and then on about Friday FREAKING out because after all I've spent the entire week doing nothing and aren't at all ready for any of my exams.

However today is not Friday. Freaking out is days away. I just thought I should put my... I now realise quite extensive... nail polish collection up on this slightly forlorn blog. Apparently I have more than 50 nail polishes! and then a handful of top coat/base coat, a crackle polish and a sparse glitter I use over colours.

Now that looks pretty unimpressive photographed like that... I mean I managed to fit them all in the frame. Maybe I don't have an addiction? And then I lined them up in colour order.

Now I couldn't quite make them line up in a nice neat colour line - I could have stuck the pinks on the end after the white but I felt that was cheating (and even more impossible to fit onto my desk). They seemed to belong better as a deviation off from where the purple met the rainbow.

If you look over the back in this picture you can see my clear/top coat/base coat/nail nutrition clumped together and my crackle/multicolour glitter also separate.

All of my beautiful purple polishes - there's no need to guess what my favourite colour is.

For any true lover of the classics who is now fearing that I don't have a basic true red nail polish never fear I realised afterwards that I had missed my red because it doesn't live in my main collection at the moment.

Now you can probably tell that much of my nail polish is cheap nail polish. The Ulta3 nail polishes cost me between $2-2.50 each. However I only use them on my toes and it lasts the two weeks until I take it off and change colours so that suits me just fine. I've mentioned before I don't have much opportunity to wear nail polish on my fingers (though I do get the 5 nails 5 colours look out at Christmas). They also don't have the strong scent which I know is associated with a lot of cheap nail polish so I consider that to be a bonus. 

There isn't a nail polish in my collection that I'm not particularly fond of. Probably the worst is the shiny silver (third from the end). Not because the colour is terrible or even that its bad nail polish - I just can't master the no lines going which ways from the bristles of the brush. My favourite? Is actually I now realise the intersection polish so its almost impossible to see. It is most red of my purples while still be a true purple (not a burgundy). It has a very blue based pink/purple shine to a more reddy polish which give a dimension to it I absolutely love.

Now I really feel like painting my nails. Which I can't because I painted my toes yesterday and am trying to maximise my finger nail health for the Christmas season at the moment. If you were wondering my toes are currently the more apple of the two green polishes with the black crackle over the top.

Where to begin?

It's an interesting thought really - how do you start doing something new or different? I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who struggles with the whole concept of change. Admittedly I probably struggle with it to a greater degree than some but that's tales I'll save for my psych. If change was easy there wouldn't be such a huge business in self-improvement, motivational, business management... hell, everything in its essence comes down to change and people trying to control it.

Wow, I've managed to make that sounds so much more deep and meaningful than my actual topic. That must be the same writing technique I utilised on my written assignment in my Management elective the other day. My apologies. What I am actually talking about today is superficial. How to go from not wearing make-up to wearing make-up, and for that matter all the other kinds of minor superficial change you attempt to undergo in your life while being aware that everybody and their dog are free to notice.

I'm afraid of this? I mean hell you can't see anything...

To many people the answer to the question would probably simply be. Just do it. Hehe, I feel rather like a Nike ad Just Do It. I suppose that summaries my problem. Short sharp statements like that brush aside the fact that things are really hard - at the very least there is some kind of effort involved. Pros, cons, fears, judgement... contemplating all that can be soo hard.

Make-up is not the only area of my life I have this problem, I'm much more screwed up than that. I actually struggle with motivating myself to exercise simply because I struggle to change in front of the people I work with. The fear of failure is quite paralytic in those instances.

In my workplace there is a lot of stigma that goes with being a make-up wearer. Of course its not necessary completely bad, unless you're the oompa loompa (think orange). However make-up brings with it the expectation of a particular type of girl. Interestingly I don't think I come across as that kind of girl. I read romance, I cry in Disney movies, I can't handle horror, I accumulate make-up and nail polish YET I rarely come across as a girly girl. I'm actually not sure how I come across. You there, you're not allowed to answer that question you've seen much of my girliest thoughts in weeks.

I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and wear some. On a day when i don't have major physical activity (like today) though.

Gettin' to Know Me

I'm not inclined to be (perhaps to my own detriment) to be particularly disinclined to share entirely too much information. If you aren't a fan of such things feel free to stop reading. However I got this idea from Unleash The Beauty. If you want to know a bit too much about some random you've never met feel free to keep reading - I don't mind.

Vital Statistics:
Me: Bronwyn

Nicknames: Bron (always without invitation), Bronnie/Brony, Daisy

Birthday: November 28, 1990 

Place of Birth: Australia 

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius - though you knew this I've just told you my birthday 

Male or Female: Female

Occupation: Government Employee-To-Be / Undergraduate Engineering Student

Residence: Australia

Appearance:

Hair Colour: My natural mid-brown - with too strong a goldy base to misinterpreted as 'mouse brown'

Hair Length: Mid-Long

Eye colour: Brown

Best Feature: 

Height: 178cm

Braces?: nope - and I have slightly misplaced canine to show for it...

Glasses?: At one time - I'm not sure quite why though at times when I notice I squint more than other people I think I understand despite that though I have above average vision.

Piercing: Have had :Belly Button, hip surface piercings. Currently have ears (3 in each lobe), tragus, monroe, septum, 2 tragus dermals, 2 neck dermals, 2 stomach dermals and one other :)

Tattoos: Bats on my left shoulder, stars on my right foot.

Righty or Lefty: Righty

Your 'Firsts':

First best friend: Craig? in the pre-school we visited at his Nanna's at the same time kind of way... or probably Estelle

First Award: I've got no idea... probably for successfully completing homework readings or spelling tests or something dull like that..

First Sport You Joined: Swimming 

First Real Vacation: My family went for a week on the Sunshine Coast (QLD) every December for many years.

First Concert: ... The Seekers... how many 20 year olds can say that huh?

First Love: Wait out.

Favourites:

Movie: Music & Lyrics/Bride & Prejudice/Over Her Dead Body - You get the idea

TV Show: atm? none

Colours: Purple and lime green <- weirdly I didn't change this from the previous person...

Song: Dreamland Express - John Denver and King of Anything - Sara Bareilles

Candy: Anythinggggg. I love candy :) 

Restaurant: usually places where other people can get steak but I can have not steak (to clarify I'm not a vego simply not a steak fan)

Store: Officeworks and Priceline - both are incredibly dangerous for my wallet

Book: Romance - cheap/second hand is my speciality...

Magazine: the most recent one in the pile (think waiting rooms)

Shoes: my Kmart $8 coral canvas shoes... I repurchased them 4 times... I'm fearful of when my current ones wear out they don't sell them anymore :(

Currently:

Feeling: Like I really REALLY don't want to do this stupid lab report

Single or Taken: Single but emotionally taken?

Eating: Oreos

Listening To: ^ King of Anything (after having to look up the spelling of her last name i couldn't resist)

Thinking About: my relationship status - thank you for bring it up :S

Wanting: to care more about doing my studies

Watching: trying to decide on a movie right now

Wearing: my skinny jeans and an old bowling shirt

Future:

Want Children?: Yes 2-4.

Want to be Married: Before I'm 30.

Careers in Mind: electrical engineer (the kind that doesn't have to design analogue electrical circuits though yuck)

Where do you want to live?: In the same location as my husband would be ideal :P... someplace warm but not hot - so not Canberra but not North QLD.

Do You Believe In:

God: Yes - bible bearing (but not bashing) Christian

Miracles: Yes

Love At First sight: In some instances - but it most certainly grows from that point.

Ghosts: no.

Aliens: Who am I to know? Not any of the ones people make a fuss over in conspiracy theories though

Soul Mates: Yes

Heaven: Yes

Hell: Yes

Kissing on The First Date: Situation dependent

Yourself: you'd think so wouldn't you?

Practically Making Money

Ok... I really shouldn't have been buying things today. Particularly not make-up things. I mean realistically I already have more than I need and I only use it 2-3 times a week when I'm on a roll.

But I do really like new things. It makes me forget things like leaving my USB in the classroom again and having to start my entire three week lab due Monday from scratch to get the report done. Buying make-up is better than buying food - I already do too much of that.

However I did do the intelligent thing of only allowing myself $20 dollars to spend today. After all I haven't got all that much to last me from now till this Thursday ie pay-day. Perhaps more importantly more than that would really be wasting my money.

Everybody knows I'm sure that $20 dollars doesn't go all that far in make-up... One thing pretty much. Unless you find a sales bin. And see because make-up is already in surplus in my life I really don't care if what I buy isn't particularly great - for one thing I'm unlikely to be able to tell the difference. So I found a very impressive sales table at Terry White Chemists - everything for $5 dollars.

SUCCESS! That means I get to buy myself 4 different things with my $20 dollars. Surely I won't hate all of it :). So what did I get?

• Prestige Liquid Eyeliner (Legend) ($11.16)
• Prestige BakedShadow Quad Mineral Eyeshadow (Joia) with free eye pencil ($29.95)
• Prestige Let Loose! Duo Shimmering Shadow Dust (Earth Angel) ($17.46)
• Loreal Paris Glam Shine (Moon Crystal) ($22.95)

So can you add up all those original prices? $81.52... and that is why I like that particular Terry White chemist.

Now I should probably go ACTUALLY do that lab report I mentioned I need to start from scratch...

Saturday Night At Home

I am just going to outright apologise to anybody who stumbles across my blog. This is pretty much a journal of things I wouldn't put in my journal. Currently that seems to be make-up. If you look at some of my older posts you'll find everything from Plinky posts (I still do those from time to time but Blogger doesn't like Plinky anymore so they don't show up here) to critical analysis of movies.

Why did I say all that? Mostly because the one thing I suck at more than anything is starting. The number of hours I spend contemplating the first few sentences of an essay is incredible (notably I am not Arts student, I do engineering instead).

So getting to the point. My day today was supposed to consist of study, assignments and generally getting my academic life in order. Clearly that is going to have to wait for another day. Instead I blog surfed through the make-up communities... As if I haven't done too much of that already in the last few days.  It is amazing how many hours you can spend doing that.

I couldn't actually do my make-up during that time though because I was headed to gymnastics (I'm no gymnast but flipping into the pit - and then having to climb back out again - repeatedly is good fun for something a little different). I've only done it a handful of times in the last 3 months and it would appear no more because our class ceases to exist from today :(. 

However I couldn't leave without going out with a bang. I managed to ram my knee into my own nose. I am rather hoping it isn't broken but it certainly just a little bit swollen. How does a person ram their own knee into their nose? An attempt at the vault (I told you I was no gymnast) where I was to use my hands to avoid having any contact with the vault with my legs. Well after a few tries I actually managed to get over the vault without my legs stopping me. But only just. Pretty much I got over the vault and tipped head first into the pit. My legs following behind and catching up to my face which had been stopped by the foam with enough force to give my nose a direct and rather brutal hit.

After gym I decided to pretty myself up for dinner and a movie. Dinner being myself alone at the mess hall and the movie being Enchanted since it was on Channel 7 tonight and I needed to watch some ads for a uni assignment. What a thrilling life I lead. See if you can tell that my nose is swollen =P.

This photo seems to pick up on the really goldy colour of my lids that none of the other photos I took did... 

Who is this person? Apart from the fact that my camera (which runs its own routine) has made me look like its summer not the middle of winter. I have to say that looks nothing like me (in a completely good way =] ).

Finally this one as you can probably tell has been auto-corrected unlike the others. However it probably does the best job of actually showing what my eye-make-up really looks like.

Coloured Eye-liner...

That awkward moment when I realise I have a rather large variety of colour eye liner. Now compared to true make-up fiends I'm sure my collection doesn't scratch the surface. However when you take into account that 6 months ago my solitary liquid eye-liner had been relatively untouched because I couldn't master it and didn't like it... I have accumulated a LOT of eye liner.

So yes there is some not liquid eyeliner in the bunch... a gray pencil and a purple pencil (in dire need of sharpening)... and some gel liners which I'm not sure I like.

And I'm not one for all the pretty lines and stuff so this photo is dodgy but I mostly wanted an excuse to make lines of all of them.

They are in the same order as they are in the photo above.

Now because I am a make-up hopeless its all reasonably low cost eye-liner. The gel liner 3 was $16 dollars before reduced and would be the most expensive item in the list. The four that look mostly the same and the pencils are epic cheapies - $3. 

However my favourite of them all is the bronze/gold one (its called Golden Girl) - which is made by a chemists brand Ultra3. Basically the one that started it all (my fascination with not black/brown eye-liner). I'm going to have to collect some of its friends I think. That is now at all how I should be thinking - must resist urge to buy more eye-liner.

I love Bloggable Chain-Mail: ABC Me

Ok I've been epic blog stalking the beauty blogosphere on my days off this week and I came across a series of tag posts. This one reminded me a lot of those chain emails I was addicted to as a teen - I am definitely of the modern generation I love to share information about myself in these formats. It seemed to be a self-tagging one so I figured count me in (I don't have the blog friends to be being tagged or tagging others). [Please note that as a teen I only sent them to two friends NEVER my whole friends list or anything.] 

Anyway here's an alphabet listing of things you probably didn't need to know about me.

A. Age:  20

B. Bed size:  A king single - I just count myself lucky its not single.

C. Chore you hate:  I really, really dislike the dishes - seriously I'd clean 10 toilets to not have to wash a small stack of bowls after people have eaten porridge (notably I also don't eat porridge).

D. Day:  Saturday because it is as close as I get to having a free day.

E. Essential start to your day:  Breakfast. I'm not one of those people who skip it or have to work themselves up to it. I start the day with breakfast.

F. Favourite colour:  Purple and let me say I'm dedicated to it.

G. Gold or silver:  I wear both - but then again I only wear a gold & silver banded watch and silver (cheap) studs 99% of the time.

H. Height:  178cm (5'10") - My mum started telling me at 6 or 7 that she hoped I'd be 5'10" because she thought it was a good height. Always glad to be a good daughter.

I. Instruments:  My musical talent is decidedly limited however I have an appreciation that comes with doing both Piano and Flute. 15 years and grade 3 for leisure was my greatest accomplishment.

J. Job Title:  Somewhere between government employee and overpaid full-time student.

K. Kids:  At some point in the future after I have a husband. In the meantime I'm not a babies girl - I don't goo, I don't gah and I don't enjoy the fact that no other conversation takes place even if the party goes for 3 or 4 hours if a baby is present. I'll have to deal with that enough 10 years from now thanks.

L. Live: Canberra - against my will. I actually don't mind the size or the atmosphere of the country town city because I'm not a city girl but what sadist came up with out thermostat readings?

M. Mum’s name: Jenny and if you call her Jennifer on the phone she'll probably assume you are a telemarketer and hang up because she is NEVER Jennifer.

N. Nickname:  Bron/Brony/Bronnie (yes I know the last two are said the same way) however unlike my mum I will generally introduce myself as Bronwyn and let you shorten it all on your own (everybody does Bronwyn is just that kind of name).

O. Overnight hospital stay:  As a child to get my Tonsils out.

P. Pet peeve:  My biggest pet peeves is other people who have pet peeves and let other people know about them ALL THE TIME and the people who seem to be perpetually developing new pet peeves. Seriously stop letting it BUG you. This seems like a rather odd pet peeve to have - I mean do I bug myself? Short answer is yes however the long answer is that I generally reflect other peoples emotional conditions - if your happy I'm happy, if your sad well I'm hopeless and if you seem to be angry at somebody I feel like you're angry at me and I react by being angry at you.

Q. Quote from a movie:  'They come here, they all come here, how do they FIND me?' The Producers (basically he's bemoaning the fact he attracts absolute pathetic psychos). Now I don't really get how people (particularly guys) master a swag of movie quotes but I get this one in my head whenever the situation seems appropriate to it.

R. Right or left handed:  Right.

S. Siblings:  I always think to say one - my younger brother. However I'm one of those people blessed with a late-in life half-sister thanks to my dad's marriage to a much younger Indonesian woman. No seriously I love Mel she's a great little girl (if you excuse the terrible twos).

T. Time you wake up: On a working day 0550 h. On the weekend approximately 3 snoozes after my initial alarm which I set to 0730-0830 depending on how lenient I'm feeling. Yes I'm alarm obsessed. I hate feel like I've wasted the day - do you KNOW how much of your life you spend sleeping? I prefer to limit myself to 8-10 hours a night.

U. Underwear:  Plain and cream/tan/fawn/bone (I've forgotten the actual colour word I was looking for if you can't tell) in colour. Not particularly sexy however practical under white clothes.

V. Vegetables you dislike:  It actually changes a fair bit.... sometimes I can't stand cauliflower... sometimes I have to alternate brussel sprout for beans to get through eating them... but simply put I'll force myself to eat all vegetables.

W. What makes you run late:  Other people or getting caught by the 'ten minutes I can't go yet its too early I'll just.... oh now I was supposed to leave 5 minutes ago' disaster.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth, left arm (for both a broken wrist and broken finger - the finger being the coolest x-ray I can lay claim to), back (for the chiropractor) and my ankle (always glad to know its not broken).

Y. Yummy food you make: I make... you've certainly narrowed down the field there. Myself and my good friend Louise have a tradition of chocolate chip cookies whenever I return to my hometown - I reckon after 6 years we've got pretty good cookies happenin'.

Z. Zoo:  When (and ONLY when) my best friend makes me - to be perfectly honest I don't get the Zoo thing.

Now if you have stumbled upon this I'd love to hear from you. Maybe even you want to tag yourself for a spot of fun?

A Secret Facination

I don't know how to say this... and have you believe it... but I have a growing facination about make-up. I'm sure you believe the 'obsession about make-up' part. Loads of women proclaim their make-up obsessions all over the internet. Wait I'm doing that right now too... so what do I mean secret?

I very, very rarely wear make-up... I might wear light day make-up on a Saturday to the shops once a month or put some on for going out for dinner (which probably happens even more rarely) but I don't wear make-up to work and I rarely wear it anywhere. Not a very good obsession? I think that makes for something that could only be described as a secret obsession. Make-up is my down time, my easy relaxation, and one of the only things I can take simple pleasure in. Make-up and music - the easiest pleasures around. I put make up on to study, to watch tv, to lounge around my house - on a days when I'll know nobody will ever see me - because the me the world sees doesn't wear make-up.

My make-up story is not a traditional one. I think I got my first make-up at 15... I only think that because I certainly did USE the stuff when I did receive it so I don't remember. Some girls have their mothers bemoaning their make-up tendencies... my mother went out of her way to attempt to entice me to wear the stuff... with little success. At 17 I joined the military... and at 18 make-up started to seem worth it - I got out the assortment of make-up I had (so pretty much the stuff I'd gotten at 15) and put it on in accordance with the solitary make-up lesson I had this one time at mum's insistence.

Then at 19 I started to think a little bit more creatively... make-up was kind of like nail polish only it washed off when I wanted it to and I could repeat the process without the lasting detriment of the canvas I was working from (sure excessive make-up can lead to break outs or whatever... but 4-5 days of bad skin is nothing compared with the 4-5 months of dodgy nails that nail polish abuse leads too).

Now at 20 I actively look into make-up... I love reading blogs about make-up, trying to imitate (generally with little success) the pictures and tutorials... Unfortunately I don't have the money to invest in the better quality products nor the desire to own expensive products that I'll probably only use a handful of times before their best before date... But I work with what I have and have a hell of a lot of fun...

But this is a secret. I'm not the kind of person to wear make-up let alone ENJOY make-up for make-ups sake. I don't get along with the kinds of girls who loved make-up in school or the ones who wear it daily now. I'm not that type of girl. I'm a study in contradictions a lover of romance, addicted to the colour purple, now admitting to make-up addiction - on paper I read like a girly girl I'm sure. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I'm not a very good one in actuality though... I never mastered the girlish giggle, my preference for conversation is social and cultural transitions rather than who's dating who, I study engineering and know more about control engineering than I do about flowers, cooking or men - and all my friends know that side of me... Certainly few if any of them would be interested in make-up.

And because everybody loves make-up photos a few of my own eyes =D.

Here's looking at you. (the day I was looking into 1920s makeup - I'm not going to show you the make-up I did on the night of the costume party though... I picked a gray with a blue tinge... and I looked ridiculous :( )

Today's make-up which is perhaps not really day make-up that looks nice being worn casually to the shops but I'm going to because I need to buy new eye make-up remover :P. Why am I playing so boldly? I'm in my hometown for the week - nobody to notice or to give me alternatives to do....

My attempt to follow along a blog tutorial - without having the brighter bolder colour varieties that had had... (I love the slightly hazel look my eye has in the photo though). (You can probably tell that I didn't bother with foundation that way and I've used the forbidden air brush to hide what I could)