Thank You Kylie Jenner

If there's one person in the entire world that's in the news more than anybody else, it's got to be Kylie Jenner. Not even her barefaced family could contend with her social status at the moment and don't get me wrong, I DO NOT dislike her. I just have a few things to say.

As a girl,growing up in the real world is significantly hard because you actually have all of the 'normal people' issues to deal with which go on until the earths end, so I understand. I understand why someone would want to wear a cake face full of makeup or why someone would want to go out wearing a skirt shorter than is acceptable and I understand why people don't like the way that they look and I'm sure that Kylie probably does too.  The only difference between me and Kylie is the fact that I embrace my flaws and insecurities in the best way possible. I don't photo shop my Instagram posts and I certainly do not getting butt injections at the age of 17. Kylie Jenner is just so, fake. Inside and out. 

As well as having to deal with girl problems for the last 18 years, I've also had to deal with real sad problems like mental health, losses and so much more, only because I am human. And because I am human, I have human marks and scars on me, so does Kylie Jenner. In the news, this weeks biggest story was the fact that Kylie was brave enough to show off her big scar on her thigh at the Golden Globes. The internet lit up ( as per usual) and thousands of people praised her on how amazing she is for doing such a thing. So, there's nothing wrong with that, right? Wrong.

In fact, I am not dissapointed in Kylie, I am dissapointed in the world yet again. As an ex self harmer I have hundreds of scars all over my body through dealing with depression and anxiety for years. I know exactly how hard it is to wear anything that might bare your scars to the world and I know the feeling of absolute dread when somebody asks. So well done Kylie Jenner for being so bloody brave but no congratulations to the internet for making me feel worthless and insignificant.

I have gone through years of taunting and hurt because of the way that people have made me feel about my scars. I cannot go out of the house, showing my scars, without feeling like an attention seeker because people have put it in my head that that's exactly what I must be doing. I cannot post a photo of myself having accidentally captured my arms in it without somebody commenting a hurtful thing. I cannot go to the beach without people staring and whispering and I could not have gone to the Golden Globes as a normal human being without any trace of hate. Why? Because I'm not rich and famous and I am not Kylie Jenner. Probably because newspapers are running out of things to write about too but THAT'S  different story...

 It's the same with anything I do. Me and Kylie are the same age but I can bet you age appropriation and things like that go completely out of the window when Kylie posts a selfie. It's the whole thing of her 'getting away' with everything she does because she is who she is.

The thing is, it's not so much about what scars we have or how we got them but rather more who we are. I know that Kylie gets tonnes and tonnes of hate every single day but a petty little thing such as showing your scars to the public would not be nearly half as dreadful if I were famous. It is the same old thing that we go back to all the time, which is the fact that famous people are not classed as normal. Even though we have the same functions and the same meanings no matter who we are. My skin cuts juts like anybody elses, however it was cut, we all bleed and we all scar. We are all the same.

So thank you Kylie Jenner. Thank you for being brave and showing your scar. Thank you for not giving a care in the world about this one part of your body. Thank you for showing people that a scar is just a scar and that everybody has them. Thank you for being normal for just five minutes of your life. Perhaps scars might become popular now.

LR

The Big Diet - Day 1

 

My boyfriend thinks I am perfect, he says it all the time. That is the kind of sweet talk that lets my mind think that I can keep eating fast food and drinking milkshakes on a daily basis but the sad truth is, I can't do that forever. When I was fifteen I weighed about 7 stone and I was skinnier than a cigarette. Since entering into 'woman hood' and gaining my delicious curves I seem to have put quite a bit of weight on.

Every Sunday night I do the 'I'll start tomorrow' kind of thing whilst stuffing my face with Chinese food and regretting it half an hour later as my food baby magically appears. It's rather heart breaking when you look at old photos of your skinnier self and realise that you've let it all go for nothing! That is why I've finally decided to knuckle down and make no excuses this time ; I'm going to do it.

I started doing a lot of research about diets and what works and what doesn't because you can't just dive into something that you have no knowledge about. Whilst being fascinated by all of the crazy stuff I found, I came across Slim Fast.

I've never been one to trust things like diet pills and 'Get Slim in 1 Week' because it's just not realistic and that will not happen but Slim Fast caught my eye for some reason. Stood in the aisle at Boots I was baffled and spoilt for choice as there were so many different forms of meal replacements and snacks. The company provides shakes, smoothies, noodles and even breakfast bars. I grabbed a pot of chocolate shake powder and a box of breakfast bar meal replacements.

I was super excited to see how this even worked but I didn't think too much of it because I didn't believe that a milkshake or tiny bar could fill me up like a full meal. I was willing to try anything anyway...

So Friday morning comes around and I start my day with my first Slim Fast breakfast bar, a huge walk and a glass of water. The bar has 217 calories in it and surprisingly filled me up pretty well for a good two hours. The Slim Fast plan is that you have two meal replacements and three 100 calorie snacks in between which left me discovering all of the unusual foods that we have in our cupboards. The most unlikely snack came around when I found out they only had 79 calories in them ; Pom Bears.

Lunch time comes and I'm not even hungry but I made up one of the chocolate shakes with 250ml of skimmed milk and 2 scoops of the powder. That goes down pretty quickly and like anything containing milk, it makes me feel bloated. I cut up a medium carrot for my afternoon snack and left it in the fridge.

So my first two meal replacements went okay and I didn't feel tired or the slightest bit hungry. I guess my only future worries would be what to snack on in between and making sure that I keep myself busy through out. I'll have to wait and see...

 

Leah x

The reason we all still have acne

No,I don't mean the fashion label sadly...I've struggled with my skin ever since I was about twelve years old and I'm still not completely there. My mum always tells me "Leah, everyone has spots" but when I look at my friends, I realise how much of a lie that is. Of course, it's totally normal to have spots now and again but it's not fair that anyone should feel so insecure for years and years. I have tried almost everything in the entire world and spent more money than I can even count on my skin with expensive make-up and skin products. I know that there may not be a natural way to help me for sure but after reading an article on Vogue, I've picked up a few tips.

1. Make-up Wipes

This one's not for me as I've actually never used make up wipes. My Mum has never bought them for me because she says that they're a complete waste of money and she's totally right. I wash my face with water twice a day instead of using make up wipes purely because water really does clean your skin where as using wipes can leave a lot of make-up, dirt and bad stuff on your skin. Switch to water and a bottle of cleanser and save money and your skin.

2. Exercising with make up on

I am a real culprit for this because I never have time to take my make up off but this is possibly one of the worst things you can do. This is simply because if you exercise when you have make up on, the sweat that comes out of your pores will not actually be able to get out because of the make up, there for it becomes blocked inside and clogs up your pores! I never actually realised this even though it seems so simple...

3. Your pillow case

Please can we just all agree on the fact that we probably don't change our bed sheets as much as we should. Yes, your pillow case holds bacteria and other nasty little things that isn't good for your skin or your health all around. Just think, you put your face on the same surface for hours night after night, dirt and oil will collect. Change your pillow case.

4. Make-up Brushes

Unless you use your fingers to do all of your make up ( you don't do that) then your make up brushes are probably kinda gross. I have now resorted to cleaning my brushes weekly just because I've become super paranoid about them being clean but you don't really need to do it that regularly. Just giving them a little scrub once in a while will help you out a lot. It's really satisfying too because you realise that your make up brush actually has a colour other than orange. Just me? Whatever. 

5. Your Hair

Got a fringe? Cut it. No I'm totally joking, don't do that. I've only ever had a full fringe once and it didn't last long because I have super curly hair but I know from hearing other people's experience that it can increase your acne chances. If you have a fringe, do not neglect your forehead and be sure that you wipe any excess hairspray or hair products from that area because harsh chemicals will definitely damage your skin. 

Those are the big ones but you can also help out your skin by drinking more water and maybe changing your skin care routine. Never settle for bad skin!!!

Dry lips disaster

Here we go again with the nasty winter dry lips syndrome.I don't know if people who live in warmer countries ever suffer with this but people in the UK do a lot when it's cold (which is pretty much all of the time,honestly).My dry lips may have something to do with the fact that I wear matte lipsticks almost on a daily basis but I cannot blame that due to the fact that shiny lips are not cool any more.

It seems that when you get dry lips it just appears all of a sudden.For example,I was at work yesterday doing absolutely nothing and out of no where I felt my lips drying up and cracking.What was the worst part?I had no lip balm.I came home and it just so happened that my little brother,my Dad and my Mum all have dry lips too,so maybe I can continue to wear those matte lipsticks after all,thank God.Something that can't continue however is those gross dry lips;they need to go.Luckily,I have a great natural remedy to banish the kingdom of cracked lips and here it is.



You have probably heard that sugar is good for ex foliating and getting rid of dead skin cells and the truth is,it is! At first I thought that sugar would be way to rough for my sensitive skin but I've been using it for ages now and one thing that I know for sure is that it works wonders on dry lips.

I bet you thought this was going to be some complicated recipe with ingredients you can only find in Thailand.It's not.All you need to do is mix about two teaspoons of olive oil with a teaspoon of sugar and then massage it into your lips for about 3-5 minutes.I would do this daily until your dry lips are all gone.You can also use this on your face and the rest of your body.A bunch of news stories came out last year about the 59 year old model Yasmina Rossi who is absolutely flawless (look it up) and one of the main things that she says she does weekly is massage her skin with sugar and oil.If it makes a fifty nine year old woman model material,it's going to work for you.Of course,just doing this won't make you twenty years younger over night however it's worth a try.

One thing that you have to remember to do is moisturise your lips all year round and not just when it gets cold because then you'll suffer,just like me.I have so many different lip balms and chap sticks but I've picked my best three at reasonable prices.

1. Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm - £4.00 M&S

2. EOS Smooth Sphere Vanilla - £5.95 Beautybay.com

3. Mango Lip Butter - £.4.00 The Body Shop

If you're not into fancy balms and butters,a pot of good old Vaseline works beautifully.

no copyright intended,links to photos attached onto them,if you own these photos and do not want them published on this blog please contact me 

leahrose.1@outlook.com

January Lush Haul & New Products

Spending hours and hours at work a few times a week definitely has it's price when it comes to pay day and one of my New Years Resolutions for 2016 is to start taking more care of myself, so where better to spend all of my money than Lush? I got few little bits from there for Christmas and just recently I have been visiting more times than normal;sorry, I mean I've been dragged into the store by the smell of everything. 

First things first,teeth! I've never ever looked at any of the dental products, in fact, I didn't even know that Lush sold dental products! The only thing that caught my eye about this was the fact that it contains glitter and it tastes like strawberry laces. This is the first tooth powder I've ever seen and whilst I'm sure there are more in the world, this one is probably the best. If you're not a fan of the minty after taste in your mouth or any after taste for that matter, I seriously recommend this. Basically, you wet your toothbrush and then just dip it into the powder just like normal tooth past really, but powder...Oh, and it doesn't contain any fluoride so it's extra good for you! 

This pretty little thing is called the Snow Fairy Soap and I don't think you can actually buy this anymore because Christmas is over and that's when I got it. I haven't actually used it yet because I never really used bars of soap I just use gels and creams. It smells like actual candy and it's so so sweet. I absolutely love it though and I can't wait to finally use it. 

This is perhaps my favourite thing on the list and I normally stock up on this because it only comes out at Christmas. I got it in a package though and it's only a tiny bottle so I'm using it very sparingly because I don't have another one! This is the same as the bar of soap but as I said, I much prefer the gels and the bottles for some reason. Obviously, this smells just amazing and it just feels great to use. 

On first sight I thought that this was just a bath bomb and I only picked it up because I love the way it looks. I ran a bath and I put the entire thing in only to realise that it wasn't a bath bomb, it was a bubble bar,or bubbleroon as it's called. I was so so disappointed yet I had the bubbliest and pinkest bath I've ever had. This is called the Rose Jam Bubbleroon (it's a macaroon) and it looks and smells lovely. I guess this could last for as long as the other bubble bars or in my case, a few seconds. How stupid? 

Just an old favourite,I used to get this face mask when I was suffering with acne and I bought it because I seem to be breaking out a lot again. I didn't even know they still did this because they moved everything around in the store near me so I was really happy when I found it. I honestly swear by this to make my skin look fresh and clear and of course, it's all natural and test free so it's really good for you and the environment. It doesn't quite smell like a cupcake, more like a bar of chocolate, but it's still great.

These two things are both bubble bars, clearly I love having pink baths. They are so relaxing and they make everything a little more special. For some reason, they just make me feel more girly and it just makes it feel a little bit more luxurious. The top pink and white one is called The Comforter and it's extremely popular, no surprise. The bottom one is called Candy Mountain and I broke the top off but it basically just comes in a cone shape. I prefer the Comforter yet I still love both of them!

Links

TOOTH FAIRY 

CUPCAKE

THE COMFORTER

ROSE JAM

As I said, the snow fairy products are only Christmas Items so I have no idea if you can actually find them anywhere else but I doubt it. 

Images by Leah Potter

Images by Lush Cosmetics

So I Quit My Job

I don't want anybody to read the title of this post and think that I'm a bad influence or a bad person or a quitter or anything like that,I'm not.I'm just writing this blog post to express my feelings and help anybody else who is in the same position as me.I don;t think it's funny or entertaining that I quit my job and I didn't want it to go to that point,but for the purpose of my own happiness I had to.

The job that I was in was my very first job,which might make it sound even worse,but I did what I thought was right.I worked at Subway as a sandwich artist for 3 weeks and everything I'm saying at the moment is probably just making you think that I can't do work and I'm weak or whatever.I do care a lot about the fact that I just quit because I literally did just walk out and quit and I now have no job.I don't need the job because I'm lucky enough to have my parents,and again,that isn't me being careless and snobby.I'm a really hard worker and I do everything for myself all of the time there for I don't feel like a bad person for doing what I did.

Moving on to the reason that I quit,or the many reasons that I quit.From the very first day I wasn't comfortable working there and I'm just going to say this before anybody starts judging me,I am NOT one of those people who don't like doing hard work or getting my hands messy,I don't mind doing stuff like that at all.I'm sixteen years old and one of the very first things that I was asked to do was operate and bake breads on my own,unsupervised.That's against health and safety regulations and I should obviously not be allowed to do things like that on my first week of working there.The whole place was just dirty and not clean at all either,every single part of it had dust or grease clumped on it which is a shocking thing to say about a place where open food is stored.My manger was very disgusting even though he constantly nagged me about how important cleanliness is.He actually even told me just the other day that he once came into work hungover and there up in the bin just across from the salads.He also cut his finger and let it bleed all over the floor,of course I had to clean it up.

Moving on to the ridiculous openings and closings.I understand that some Subway shops do not need to have more than one person doing opening and closing however I think it's just common sense.See,some how I don't think leaving a sixteen year old on her own on her second week at the job,to do all of the cleaning,serve customers and count the cash in the till is that clever.I was genuinely scared for myself every time I closed the shop due to the fact that I could have slipped,been broken in to,anything.On my very first closing,I did not get home until nine o clock at night time because there were so many things to do.The next day I got a warning because I forgot to do a few little things.The same thing happened on my second closing and it just went on from there.You are generally supposed to finish at around 7 if you're doing a closing,but it is so impossible for anybody,let alone some one who has been working there for a week,to do.

The verbal abuse I got from the person who owned the the phone and by text was so unacceptable and wrong.If you're going to give an employee a disciplinary,you must give them 48 hours notice in writing and offer them a witness,not ring them up and shout at them over the phone,In fact,I knew something was weird before I even started working there.I pretty much got the job as soon as I walked in the door for the interview,got asked for no ID or CV and had 4 unpaid training days.I've only just come to the realisation that I only probably got hired because I'm cheap and easy.I was on minimum wage,which is £3.79 an hour and for the amount of work that I was doing,it just wasn't enough.I've always been against the fact that young workers get paid less due to the fact that if you want somebody to work like an adult,you pay them like an adult.No argument.

You see,the contract (I didn't even sign a contract...) is a zero hour contract,like a lot of fast food franchises.I remember I had to have somebody cover my shift for me one day due to the fact that I had a doctors appointment and my manger was not happy about that.If I'm not mistaken,if you don't want to work on one day,you don't have to.That's what a zero hour contract is.

Now,on the day that I actually quit my job,every thing was fine until the chat with my manager. I'm going to admit I do have a slight attitude problem,which I know there's no excuse for but I'm just the type of person who doesn't take shit from anybody.We went upstairs and he just took me through the things that I needed to improve on like he had done with everyone.There were a few points which I argued with like the closing shifts and operating ovens and stuff and that's when he started telling me that all of the other employees were saying bad things about me.I don't particularly care about what any body thinks about me but it was the fact that I had been so kind and not said a single bad word about any of them,yet they had done that to me and also the fact that my manager actually told me that.Then my manger proceeded to tell me that the owner of the shop was going to fire me and talked about how close she was to letting em go because I was so rubbish,which was the last straw for me.So,I took my cap off,grabbed my bag,and walked away.

I may have some blame in this whole thing but I can say one thing for sure,Subway do not care about their employees.The one and only thing that the company cares about,like all companies,is the money.They hired me because I am cheap to pay even though I am doing the same amount of work and they think they could get a way with it.I'm not weak or childish for quitting my job,it is a really brave thing to just pack up and leave a job just like that.There are some times where I thought they didn't even really care about the customers.The manager was constantly telling me that he changes the date stickers on foods so that they last longer,not weighing up the right amount of meat so that he could save money and belittling customers saying that they should be treated like children. 

There are a lot more things that I could say about the company and the three week experience I had there,but I'd be going on forever and ever.There are some people who enjoy things like that and don't care about having to do ridiculous tasks.Some people are totally cut out to work in the fat food industry but not me.The way I was treated in that job was definitely not right,but then again I'm just a sixteen year old girl and what do they care?My advice,do not work for Subway.

FLAMING LIPS

I'm really getting in to all of these new summer and spring trends,even though it's not very summery here in England.I love wearing bright lip colours and I have so many different lipsticks but I never get the chance to wear any of them and I definitely rely on bold lip colours more when I'm not wearing much eye make up because the lips drag in all of the attention more.

I think my favourite out of these 3 colours is the bright pink one because it is sooo girly and pretty and it's really different too.I can't seem to think of a place where I would wear this though unless I was some sort of high end fashion model,because anything a high end fashion model does is acceptable.

These are all MUA colours but you can find similar colours from Topshop and MAC if you're into higher priced make up.

Hope you enjoy,Leah xox