Guest Post: Lifting spirits with fashion & beauty

Illustration courtesy of Malia at deepfriedfreckles

Fashion Lifts the Spirits of Women with a Cancer Diagnosis
By: Jackie Clark

A cancer diagnosis can be absolutely devastating news for a woman to hear. Aside from feeling sadness, anger and denial, a woman may also change her lifestyle completely. Those who once cared about beauty and fashion may begin to wear pajamas or tracksuits and opt out of wearing makeup both during and after their cancer treatments.

Whether a woman is dealing with a diagnosis of mesothelioma cancer that has been caused by asbestos exposure or a diagnosis of breast cancer that runs in her family, it is important for her to try to remain a sense of normalcy. Despite a woman’s circumstances it is important to always be aware of the reality of cancer. Sadly, cancer doesn’t discriminate and once this is realized fashion forwardness can shine through.

First and foremost, fashion can be a great way to maintain a sense of normalcy. If a woman typically wore jeans and a sweater everyday, she should continue to do so. This will help her to feel more like herself than if she were to wear pajamas for example.

In addition, experimenting with new types of fashion can also help a woman with or without cancer feel more vibrant. Visiting a department store and asking a sales associate to help find the latest fashions to flatter skin tone and figure are a great place to start.

Accessorizing is also a great way for a woman to feel even more beautiful. Earrings that draw attention to her contoured cheekbones, bracelets that bring awareness to cancer and hats that help her cope with hair loss are also fantastic ways for a cancer patient to feel more beautiful.

Makeup can also be a huge part of fashion. A woman with a cancer diagnosis should continue her makeup regime in order to continue to look and feel her very best. She may also want to consult with makeup artists to help her to brighten up her face, which may appear tired from various rounds of treatment. A new shade of blush or a new tube of mascara can sometimes work wonders for a woman's self esteem.

Most importantly, women should try not to view themselves as victims but rather as victors. Try to keep the mindsets that controlling thoughts and maintaining as much normalcy as possible are the best ways to handle a diagnosis. Taking the steps to feel beautiful in her own skin is just one simple way that she can help herself on to the road to recovery. No matter what the future holds it is always important to look and feel beautiful because true beauty comes from the inside and nothing can change that!

Urban Outfitters Newcastle

Urban Outfitters finally graced the city of Newcastle with its presence and opened a lovely 3 storey store on Granger street. It's one of their largest stores, and boy is it big. When I saw the little 'coming soon' boxed up entrance months ago, where I think Kurt Geiger used to live, I thought it was going to be tiny and didn't see how they'd fit everything in there, so felt my excitement deflate a little. Until I walked through the door on a particularly horrible December afternoon and was pretty amazed at the vast size of the place.

In true Urban Outfitters style there's a little mezzanine floor between staircases filled with goods. This is where I picked up a vinyl wall frame (obviously minus the original 1960s album inside) for my boyfriend, perfect little present. The next floor was equipped with a great wall of shoes, tables filled with jewellery and little trinkets and the walls and rails clad with a lotta lotta clothes for the ladies, upstairs you have men's but I wasn't too interested in that and spent most of a good hour going around so many clothes and lovely bits and bobs dotted all over the shop. There's a great section of vintage finds which is where I picked up my 'Christmas jumper'. To the back of the women's floor theres a section thats slightly cornered off with sofas, mirrors and filled with unique beautiful clothes and just outside of that you'll find the most random and amazing products for gifts and the home.
I only picked up a few things that day, which is probably a good thing because I had a pretty Urban Outfitters themed Christmas, with presents from family and the boyfriend being from Aztec makeup bags and fringe clutch bags to analog camera necklaces and penguin fingerless gloves.

Seeing how busy the shop is when I've visited it and the shopping bags on the streets, I think Newcastle is now a little bit happier with the arrival of UO.


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Sleek brow kit

Not gonna lie, I've not posted for almost a century. However, my constant love for this product has urged me to spill my thoughts to you lot.

I believe in good brows, I'd rather walk out the house with a good set of brows than mascara. A brow (well two brows) can do so much for the face, they give structure around the eye, they give definition to the face over all and they can soften a sharp face or give angles to a rounded face. I love eyebrows me.

This little kit, made me put down a beloved eyebrow pencil, that is only now picked up when I have to wear it for work. The waxy cream is smooth and creates sharp perfected lines. The powder helps set the waxy/cream and gives a full look to the brows. I sometimes use both or just the powder, both work great on their own. Even the brushes, usually something I'd throw straight in the bin are pretty damn good. A little faffy due to the tiny size of them, but do their job just fine. There's even a little set of tweezers to banish pesky strays. I use the light kit, perfect for a medium blonde to brown hair, you'd have to be very light handed of you were very fair and didn't want your brows too dark.

Overall 10/10 for this little beauty. It's really impressed me and I'd recommend it to anyone.

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Illamasqua Freak

"Teased by the sweet pungent tang of opium". An extract from Theatre of the Nameless instantly made me think of Freak. From first smelling it I loved the scent, strong, deep & with a touch of sweetness. I'd say if you enjoy Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille you may also love this. I'd save it for the night, but cold winter days seem appropriate as well. At first & well still now, I can't quite explain the scent, it's probably one of the most distinguished perfumes I've tried. Not just for the scent, but for the feelings when wearing or smelling it, Freak has a personality.

I could copy & paste the details about the fragrance, but I think that'd take away the fun & personality away from it. That & the ingredients, to me, are a foreign knowledge, but it does make me think old worldy & all things mysterious & magical. So I direct you here. Go read!

It's released on the 20th October & will retail at £59 for 75ml for Eau De Parfum, nothing less, no eau de toilettes here thanks.

Glossybox

Be it late, very late at that, I finally have the time to compose a post on my first glossybox . When I received this I was off to London Fashion Week & as soon as I got back from those hectic 7 days I was thrown straight into university. So forgive me for being the crappest blogger of all, better late than never, right?

Firsty, as a bit of a design freak I love all the care that has gone into little details, even the delivery box is appealing. Always a good start with me, win me over with design. Unfortunately, the postman/lady may have been a bit careless with my box as my hd brows palette managed to crumble a bit & spread it's way around my box. However, getting past that, I enjoyed the range of products, from hair care to moisturiser, it was a nice selection.

I was happy to see a sample of the Moa green balm, it's something I've been meaning to try, it seemed to save my cuticle disgraced hands & chapped lips, so very happy with that one.

The HD brow set colour is way too dark for myself, but I can see it being a very useful palette, the product applies nicely & seems to be of good quality, what puts it down a bit is the packaging, it reminds me of cheap cosmetic gift sets, know the ones I mean? That's always a turn off for me to be honest.

The Green People Day Solution hydrating balancing day cream, has a strong natural smell to it, not the most appealing smell but you know you're putting something good, organic & non-synthetic on your skin. Need to test this a little more.

Plum by Mary Greenwell, not my favourite kind of scent, but always nice to get testers something new, it's not going to please everyone as fragrance is a very personal thing, a little too mature for my liking.

Rahua shampoo & conditioner made my hair feel great, I still have another sample left, saving it for when I need my have to be looking somewhat good!

I'm looking forward to getting my October glossybox & seeing what's in store for this month.