The peace in my make up

Hi Everyone,
  Very sorry this took so long for me to write.  I was gone out of town for five days and have been busy since my return.  I want to try to tell you a little of why I am so interested in make up artistry.  It's difficult to explain so please be patient with me if I start to ramble and some of it is very sensitive to me and I've not shared it openly like this before.  (WARNING: I often do ramble..LOL)  I'm going to write this in two parts.  The first part will be about when I was young and the second about my more recent falling in love with make up and the art of it all.
  When I was a little girl, about 10 years old, I started begging my Mother to allow me to wear make up.  Not only for the "usual" reasons that little girls want to wear make up though that was indeed part of it.  However, I will start by explaining a little about the more typical reasons which you'd suspect a little girl wants to delve into the exciting world of make up.
  My Mom and several of her sisters were very much into make up and fashion and hair styles and all that sort of beautiful fluffiness that girls tend to love.  My Mother and two Aunts in particular always stand out in my mind as the three who lead the rest of the women/girls in the family as far as all that was concerned.  It was a very large part of their lives and thus trickled down to myself and my Sisters as well as many of my Aunts, cousins and even friends growing up.  Because a few of my family might be reading this I want to name the Aunts for them.  Aunt Jane and Aunt Madge and of course my Mom, Carol.  I do have vague memories of Aunt Norma always having her hair and make up done too but I wasn't around her much growing up so I have fewer memories of her in that manner.
  These women were always on top of the latest trends as far as hair, make up, clothes, shoes, jewelery, purses...you name it, they had it!  Merle Norman make up was quite popular at that time so that is one of the brands I used first when I started wearing make up.  I remember using their creme foundation all the way up until ten years ago when I got married.  My Mom's make up bag(s) and my Aunt Jane's vanity drawers were like shelves in a Merle Norman store.  Every new color of shadow or lipstick or eyeliner etc that was created, they had it and probably had it before many others.  I remember them always being given the "gift with purchase" for purchasing a certain dollar amount of product or for coming in to get the latest whatever it was within a certain time period.  Those gifts they were given ended up being a large part of my make up collection back then because they would always say "I don't need this, I'll give it to Nikki".  (that's what my family call me, most of them anyway) I LOVED those gifts.  They were always so exciting.  Even now I get a little "rush" when I think of them.  :-)
  And now on to the less obvious and more sensitive reason I wanted to wear make up so badly at such a young age.  My number one reason was that I had something to cover up.  When I was very young, I believe around five years of age, I started pulling out my eyelashes and eventually even my eyebrows.  I'm not sure why I did it.  Some say it was a nervous habit, others say it might have been an emotional issue I was dealing with.  Whatever the reason, it was SO VERY incredibly deeply embarrassing but I could not stop doing it no matter how hard I tried.  Kids at school made fun of me, my family commented on it often (hoping they could get me to stop doing it) and I was ashamed.  All the way through my childhood, teen years and even into early adult hood I would become so embarrassed and humiliated at the sight of pictures of myself when I had no eyelashes and very little brows that I wanted to burn them all.  If anyone brought it up they were shot "the look" which meant STOP TALKING ABOUT THAT OR YOU'RE GONNA GET IT!  (no one ever got "it" by the way...) I didn't want "new people" in my life to know I had done that including my Husband.  It took a long while before I shared that with him.  I'm not certain why it was so incredibly humiliating but it was.      So...the reason I wanted to start wearing make up was to try to hide the fact that I had no eyelashes/brows.  I figured if I could use make up to cover it up the ridicule for my embarrassing "habit" would stop.  So I begged and pleaded but alas, the answer was no.  My Mom would only allow me to wear a little blush and lip gloss.  Mascara, eyeliner etc were strictly forbidden and those were the very things I needed to cover up my "problem".  I couldn't take it anymore so I snuck eyeliner to school and was wearing it there and wiping it off before I got home.  (bad girl!)  Eventually she allowed me to wear them and I must admit I wore them WAY too thick!  My eyeliner was more like that of the rings around a racoon's eyes.  Thank the Lord it was trendy back in the 80's to have thick black eyeliner on.  Whew!  My best friend at the time, Lisa Wilson, wore hers the same way.
  So basically I sort of "inherited" my love for make up etc and out of a need to hide my lack of lashes/brows that love grew and grew and grew until today...............well, you'll have to wait for part two for that!  ;-)  Until next time,
Miss Dress Up
(I'll also explain that name in my next blog)
PS..I have lashes and brows now by the way!  It took until I was a grown up to stop pulling them completely.  Don't know the reasons why...............

New video on lashes!

Hello and thanks for visiting my blog.  I posted a new video on YouTube today and I wanted to share it with you.  Click here to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktUk6ip_NWs
A couple of people on facebook asked me to do a video on the quickest way to apply false eyelashes so I tried to make it as quick and "painless" as possible. (it's only painful if you get glue in your eye..ha ha)
My camera is charging so I haven't taken any photos yet but I will do that tonight and get them up for you tomorrow.  Enjoy the video and I hope it's helpful to you!  If you have any suggestions or questions please leave me a comment either here or on the video on YouTube.  Have a great day!

Welcome and New Video

Hello and thanks for stopping by my new blog.  I created this blog to correspond with my YouTube channel and the videos I upload there.  When I post a new video there I will blog about it here with links, photos and more here.  My channel is mainly for make up tutorials/reviews and the like but I may throw in a "freebie" of something a little more personal now and then as well.  You'll just have to come back often to see what that might be!
Today I filmed my first ever tutorial!  There are two parts to it entitled "Kim Kardashian Smoky Eye Part 1" and so on.  (It's actually still uploading as I type)
A couple of my friends asked me to do this for them to teach them how to do a classic smoky eye look.  Tomorrow I'll write more and tell you the very "exciting" story of how I became fascinated with make up artistry and how I got started doing make up and making YouTube videos to teach others.  So pull up a chair, grab your coffee and enjoy!
Pictures of the look:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10769175@N00/sets/
Video part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-RjTQ_R-h4
Video part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFnjGR02vWQ