Mini shopping Haul: August 2012

I am a complete sucker for chemists/drug stores like Superdrug, Boots, Savers etc I am yet to walk past one without going in, it’s like an addiction. I will have to go into all of them (drives my mates crazy as they think one is the same as the next-well their wrong) I guess you can call me a chemist whore,lol I will however often feel like a cheat as I parade my shopping bags full of goodies from their rival stores,lol This month was no exception. I just had to pay Superdrug and Boots a visit. I have recently discovered Soap and Glory and am in love, I can’t wait for their Christmas gift boxes. I have very bad dark patches under my eyes and have had my eye on their Kick-Ass Concealer for quite some time and as Boots were doing this for £3 off meaning it was reduced to £7 I thought it would be rude not too – expect a review on this at some stage. Whilst in boots I thought I would pick up the Real Techniques Stippling Brush by Samantha Chapman as I am in need of a new beauty blender but thought I would give this a go and also just to see what all the fuss was about. I will try this out when applying my makeup later today so expect a review in the next week or so.

 

From Superdrug I picked up two boxes of my all time favourite tinted moisturiser- Nivea Daily Essentials Tinted Day Moisturiser as it was less than half price (less than two quid a box- bargain) and I am very tempted to pick up a few more boxes later today seeing as its on offer.  I have also informed my mate who wears this now thanks to moi about this offer and she has stocked up on 6 boxes,lol I have been using Soap and Glory’s Righteous Body Butter Body Lotion as my daily moisturiser and I am loving it as it leaves me feeling silky smooth but I’m scared at how much I’m getting though and wanted a cheaper alternative to use at night, so I thought I would pick this one up from Nivea as it was on offer and smells lovely like all their products. Whilst this product smells lovely and leaves me feeling nice and soft for a number of hours I don’t feel  that it is anything special and certainly don’t think that it does what it claims to on the bottle (meant to lock in moisture for 24hrs) and therefore I will not be repurchasing. Any recommendations on a good moisturising body lotion that is under a fiver would be greatly appreciated. I also picked up Superdrug’s own brand of Coconut Oil which is actually a solid until you rub it within your palms. This can be used on both body and hair. I have yet to try in on my hair but use it as a barrier when applying my gradual tan. I use this on my elbows, wrists, knees and feet. It works great.

 Whilst in Superdrug I thought I would stock up on some Batiste Dry Shampoo as let’s face it a girl can never have too many dry shampoos. I opted for the tropical one in large as I love the smell of coconut (yum) as this stuff is great for when I want to get an extra day out of my hair, I mainly use this one for updos. I also got the tinted one which I use more for when I want an extra day out of my hair and I’m leaving it down, it means there will be no risk of the tell-tale grey tinge to my hair from the dry shampoo. I already have the XXL one which I use to add volume for nights out but unfortunately Superdrug were out of it, otherwise I would have picked that one up too, I might see if it’s in my local Superdrug later today.

 

I can never shop in Primark without picking up a tanning mitt, its one thing I can never have too many of. I have different tanning mitts for different types of tan and I use these ones from Primark for applying my gradual tanner and to apply Sally Hansen leg makeup to my legs for days/nights when I have the pins on show. At £2 you can’t go wrong. I was out of face wipes so thought I would pick these up. I rarely use wipes to take my makeup off and would instead use them to wipe my hands when doing my makeup. These wipes are ok for hands but I tried them last night on removing my makeup and they weren’t very good so wouldn’t recommend them as a makeup remover but they work fine for what I originally bought them for-hand wipes. The wipes were £1 for a pack of two.

 

I thought I done very well on the clothes front as I spent very little, mainly due to not getting to look around the shops properly due to my mate having to be at work. However I managed to pick up some essentials. As said before I LOVE studs, I just had to have this studded clutch from Primark (I actually got the last one) it was £6 which I thought was just brilliant and far nicer than ones I have seen in other shops such as New Look for double the price. On Tuesday I went to the cinema to see The Watch (Vince Vaughn-hubba hubba) and fell head over shit on the way home and ruined my favourite jeans (sad face) so I had to nip into Dorothy Perkins and replace them. They are from the super stretch skinny jean range. I thought I would pick up a red pair too to add a little pajaz to my winter wardrobe. However due to be rushed I picked the red ones up in the wrong range and will return them later today and get the red super stretch super skinny ones.

 

I’m a girl who loves her shoes; my daytime look will nearly always consist of some sort of a pump. When I saw these I just had to have them. They are so pretty. They were £10 from Primark. I needed new slippers and just had to have these cat ones when I saw them. They are soooo comfy, I actually walked around Primark with my hands in them they were that soft. They were £3 and I will defo be buying more pairs next time I’m in Primark.

their grrrrreat ;)

 So that was my little haul this week, Have you bought anything nice recently?

xKx

Whats wrong with imprefections? The dangers of the media on our body image.

Recently whilst trawling through facebook I noticed that one of my friends had very un-natural looking pictures of herself -and by unnatural I mean perfectly flawless pictures where she has no evident freckles on her face. Upon closer inspection they looked airbrushed.  I commented on the pictures stating that the pictures looked flawless to which she replied that she had used a new software on them to give them that airbrushed look. She exclaimed that this is something that a lot of her friends are doing as they don’t like how they look in their pictures and this way they can air out any signs of imperfections-in my friends case her freckles [which I actually think are lovely and are unique to her]. I was astonished to find that these pictures had actually received loads more complements from others compared to her regular picture postings.

This really got me thinking; are we a nation so obsessed with how we look that we will attempt to attain the impossible by trying to look or at least fool others into thinking we look as perfect as those on magazine covers. When we all know deep down that those in magazines look nothing like their pictures in real life. This made me reflect on my feelings from watching a documentary back in 2008 on the subject of airbrushing. From watching Alesha Dixon’s ‘Look But Don't Touch’ documentary when it first aired back in 2008 [can be watched here] I never thought I was really influenced by the images surrounding me every day.  I just thought that I saw these images an admired them but knew they weren’t real and that was that. Watching Alesha’s documentary got me thinking and sadly I was wrong, these images had made more of an impression on me and how I viewed my body than I initially thought.

Airbrushed photos of Jessica Alba and Sarah Jessica Parker

When thinking about it and being truly honest with myself I subconsciously compared myself to these images and have done so since I first started buying magazines at the tender age of 13.  I am a small size 12 at 5foot 6.5inches, and I've always felt that I should be smaller in both clothes size and height. I have small boobs yet I have hips which to me seemed out of proportion. I have poker straight hair that I always felt should be voluminous, after all that all I ever see in advertisements. I have cellulite on my bum and thighs and visible veins on my legs which I always felt were grotesque and unnatural.  I don't have high cheekbones; I've always felt that I should. I don’t have a perfect petite straight nose, hell I even have one eye bigger than the other, in my eyes I was far from beautiful as I looked so different from the images that were being presented to me. The documentary made me question whether it is out personal preference that I want bigger boobs, smaller thighs, voluminous hair etc or is it because I’ve grown up surrounded by pictures of perfection that has influenced me into wanting to look a certain way.

As a tall[ish], small chested girl I admired the likes of Sienna Miller and Kiera Knightly as they are known for their small chests but are still considered beautiful. This is why pictures like those below really bother me, why is there a need to digitally enhance their busts. Are they trying to give us the message that there is something unattractive about smaller boobs? No wonder I had major body issues growing up.



Kiera Knightly Bust Enhanced

 Women and young girls are forever comparing themselves to women in the media. Today, we can’t go anywhere without seeing images of perfection plastered everywhere, telling us what we should be, how we should look etc. TBH I’m sick of it. Women and young girls just like me strive to gain these unattainable bodies and unfortunately too often when these images are not achieved through healthy forms of exercise etc some people start to take alternative measures often resulting in people taking drastic measures thus putting their health at risk. Just take Hedi Montag for example she underwent 10 procedures in one day putting her life in jeopardy-yet she is still open to having more surgery until she feels she has reached ‘perfection.’ 

Hedi Montag before and after.

 It's honestly  no surprise that many young girls/women [and boys/men may I add] these days are already considering plastic surgery, I was horrified to hear that Sarah Burge gave her young daughter Poppy £8,000 worth of vouchers to spend on plastic surgery for her EIGTH birthday!!! You can see her interview on this morning below;

Research has shown that exposure to false, airbrushed pictures of celebrities is linked to depression, low self-esteem, and the development of eating disorders. It is believed that one in every one hundred teenage girls may develop an eating disorder. This is an alarmingly high number. I was quite frankly relieved when I saw that the likes of Britney Spears, Anne Lynn McCord and Kim Kardashian had released untouched pictures of themselves. I felt nothing but pure admiration for these girls and I just wish that more of those in the media lime light would do so.




[L-R] Britney Spears before and after, Anne Lynn McCord touched photo and no makeup photo, Kim Kardashian before and after, Kin Kardashian psoriasis picture.Note to self they all look beautiful with their imperfections!!!

It’s sad to say that 100% of fashion magazines today use digitally retouched pictures. Yes I am aware that there's a difference between fashion magazines such as Vogue and beauty companies such as Dove. Setting aside the fact that they are different products, they are both aimed at very different audiences.  Realistically would there even be high end fashion magazines like Vogue anymore if they used natural pictures? Now I’m not totally against all airbrushing but I feel that magazines have gone overboard. I personally would find it refreshing to buy a magazine that showcased people’s imperfections, after all models are just like us-they do have bad hair and skin days. So why not show us that we are more like them than we think? Take Dove’s advertisement campaign where real woman are used-has it hindered me from buying their product? Hell no, in fact it has probably encouraged me to try more of their products. I just wish more companies would follow in their direction.

Dove Real Women Campaign

However I Honestly don’t see airbrushing going anywhere in the near future so instead I think it would be nice to look at adverts’ and see "this picture has been retouched" at the bottom just like they now do with mascara adverts where they have to say if the eyelashes have been digitally enhanced or lash inserts used- It would be a nice little reminder for all of us out there looking at these images and would hopefully hone home that these pictures are not ‘real’.

Always remember that “To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.”- Unknown.

Thanks for reading,

xKx