Life is moving on... fast!

For the last few days, at work AND at home, I have worn mainly neutral looks like the above.
Eyes: Illamasqua Trollop on lid with a tiny tiny amount of UD Sin - inner corner, and UD Smog - outer corner, Illamasqua precision ink in Abyss, Boujois Volumizer mascara and Illamasqua medium pencil in Vow (waterline)
Face: Clinique Almost Make-up and translucent powder, MAC Mighty Aphrodite blush (lighter half)
Lips: MAC Cherry lip pencil and Russian Red lipstick

Now, it's only two sleeps until I set off for London and see if booking onto an Illamasqua course was a good idea. Apart from playing with make-up, I haven't done anything creative in years... well nearly years. It's been a long time. When my degree ended I felt totally at sea - like the degree had been completely pointless - and I began baking and wearing bright eye make-up as a kind of procrastination for job hunting. The job hunt did take 8 months (and included volunteering at a gallery and a school for extra experience) but finally ended with me getting a job at a children's museum, where I still work. It's minimum wage and it's physically tiring when busy, mentally tiring when quiet. But I still figure it's better than nothing. Quite often I feel like my terrible job is everything though, a dead end I'll never escape from.

I know I should be excited for next week but to be honest I might just throw up instead (NB - I really, really hope I don't throw up).

When I booked, Illamasqua sent me a receipt and a list of dos and don'ts for applying make-up on others. It scared me, I know that's silly but it did. It does. I've only ever put make-up on friends for Hallowe'en. I was pretty anti-make-up in my late teens, I wore black liquid liner and nothing else for about 4 years (usually, not even mascara). Most of my friends just haven't been make-up people in recent years. And my mother says make-up makes her face itch... Simply put, I have no experience in make-up apart from slapping it on my own stupid face.

 I was also told to have 'clean and manicured nails of a suitable length to perform duties of a make-up artist'. So yesterday, getting more nervous by the minute, I decided to trim my nails.

I was wearing Illamasqua Propaganda with Revlon Star over the top. It was pretty. I chopped them down almost as short as they go and painted them with Barry M Raspberry. My hands look stubby and bald. I think to make sure I don't anger any make-up people, I'll paint them with Illamasqua Demure before I set off on Monday. It's a jelly, you can see the dirt through it (or, hopefully, lack of).

Bonus shot of Amazon Princess, which I'm pretty sure I called Amazonian Princess in my haul. Um, whatevs. I like it, but it's very, very pink and I am not pink toned and I don't know if it's wrong or right but I think I like it. I am also using UD Gingersnap eyebrow powder here. I know I'm not ginger, but they didn't have brown in the T.J.Hughes bargain bin and I think it looks alright. What was the point of this post... I'm not sure.

Stay tuned for an update, probably on Friday, wherein I am either elated or destroyed.

Ruth x

Bonus fact: I wanted to be an Illustrator on my art foundation course and I read a book about Shirley Hughes (author and illustrator of Dogger, the Alfie books and my personal favourite Moving Molly) - T.J.Hughes was her dad.

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