The Snow White Effect // Callie's Corner

I find that lot of people are envious of pale skin. I mean, Snow White really set the standard didn't she? However, pale skin isn't really all that it's cracked up to be when it comes to finding makeup - foundation and concealer in particular.

When I tell you I've been through a lot of foundations and concealers I mean it. From drugstore brands to some more upmarket ones and I will tell you now that the struggle is real. For concealers I've gone from spending about £2 to around £10 in desperation because let's face it, I'm a teenager and I'm gonna have acne and I'm gonna want to hide it.

Quite often with concealers they only appear to come in three shades: light, medium, and dark. However if you're "blessed" with pale skin you'll agree with me when I say that light quite often just means a little bit lighter than medium. No amount of blending will hide that fact.

And example of one such concealer would be Revlon's ColourStay Concealer. Now, while it does come in more than three shades I can honestly say that their lightest shade fair is not nearly light enough.

This is the Revlon product in comparison to the ultimately cheaper Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. As you can see there is a massive difference between the two brands lightest shades, and while both provide excellent coverage and lasting power, it's obvious which is best for pale skin. As an added bonus Collection's concealer will only set you back around £4.

My top foundation recommendations for pale skin? Easy!

If you're like me and want something high coverage that doesn't feel cakey then your best bet is Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation (oof talk about a mouthful). It's not exactly cheap at £10.99 but it will last a very long time as all you really need is one small pump for great coverage. 

However if you've also been truly blessed with perfect skin as well as being pale then I'd recommend Soap and Glory's Show Good Face 2-n-1 Foundation and Primer. This foundation is a lot more liquid-like than the other and doesn't provide nearly as much coverage but the two lightest shades are honest in what they advertise as, plus the lightest is called The Fairest of them All, I mean c'mon! But be warned that this foundation is most certainly not matte and has a slight shimmer to it, so powder might just come in handy. Also, if you want to use a foundation that is matte and has higher coverage but it is just slightly too dark, then this foundation is great for mixing. Once again though, this isn't cheap at £11.

As always with any foundation I'd still recommend using a primer but it's up to you.

Anyway, that's my slant on it. I have nothing against being pale, and God knows I'll never tan, but it would be nice if the makeup industry would realise that one shade does not fit all whether you're pale or dark.

Callie

Who? What? Where? Why?

What is it with our generation today that we always want to know what people are doing, who they're with, where they are or just why. 

For example I was in town a couple of months back with my mum and little sister. I saw a girl I knew so I smiled and waved at her, she waved back and turned round to her friends to say she'd seen me. It was if her friends were meerkats, their heads shot up and they scanned the area for me, I was spotted and stared at. As they walked out I overheard the questions; "Why is she here?" "Who is she with?".

Well what did they think I was doing? I was in Primark looking at clothes...what else would I be doing? Getting my hair cut, having lunch? It was pretty obvious what I was doing and there was really no need for stupid questions, surely they could have just thought about it for a moment.

These days people feel a constant need to keep tabs on people but why? 
What do you think? Let me know in the comments or on my social media links! 

Esmee x

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Do I Really Look That Young?

The other day I commented on a youtube video about only having one exam left and some one replied to it with something along the lines of "Why are you sitting exams, no offence but you look about seven...". This comment effected me more than I was expecting it to. I know the profile picture I had was a few years old but not so many years that I actually was seven. A friend of an old crush of mine once said I looked 13 (this was when I was 15) which fair enough I didn't really care about that comment but the fact that this stranger on the internet said I looked younger than my littlest sister (who is 10). The comment both angered and upset me (but only just a little) because why would someone go out of their way just to make a petty comment like that, it's the sort of thing they could think but it doesn't necessarily need to be said out loud. It upset me a little because it made me think...do I really look that young? Obviously not seven, but if I look young for my age? When I'm older I'll probably look back and wish I looked younger but right now I don't want to, I want to look my age. 

Not younger, maybe older but at least 16.

Here is a photo of my two sisters, my dad and
myself last summer in France.

Esmee x

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Tasty but Simple Chicken Pie

I don't tend to cook much in my house and when I do it tends to be something quick and easy or a microwave meal. Whilst I was doing my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award last year I decided to choose cooking as my skill and my favourite thing to make was this chicken pie which is loved by all my family and I'm sure you will enjoy it too!

Ingredients*:
4x 180g skinless chicken breasts
a bunch of spring onions
150g button mushrooms
1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour
2 teaspoons of English mustard
1 heaped tablespoon of creme fraiche
300ml chicken stock
1 sheet of puff pastry
1 egg

*Disclaimer: this recipe serves 6 but because my grandparents were over there was 7 of us therefore I added more of the ingredients

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 200^oC/ 400^oF/ gas mark 6 (if using a fan oven set the temperature to 200^oC)
Step 2: Cut the chicken into 1cm ish strips and place them in a large wide pan along with a lug of olive oil and a knob of butter, cook this for 3 minutes or so

Step 3: Slice the spring onions and mushrooms and add them to the pan with the flour, once the chicken is cooked, and stir

Step 4: Add the mustard, creme fraiche, and chicken stock to the pan, leave to simmer

Step 5: Lightly dust a clean surface and unroll the pastry, use a small knife to gently crisscross the surface
Step 6: Take the pan off the heat and tip into an oven-proof dish which is smaller than the sheet of pastry
Step 7: Cover the dish with the pastry and tuck in the edges (like in the picture), beat an egg and the brush over the top of the pie

Step 8: place on the top shelf of the over and cook for about 15 minutes or until golden

We had steamed veg with ours but you could have mashed potato and baked beans if you fancied! 

Esmee x

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STOP ASKING ME ABOUT MY FUTURE // Callie's Corner

If your question starts with "so what do you want to do" and ends with "for the rest of your life?" you better just stop talking right now and get as far away from me as possible. Just shhhh. Nope - not today.

Be quiet, stop talking to me.

Don't even breathe near me.

I'm sick of people having nothing better to talk to me about other than my future.

Let's give this post some context first though, shall we?

Last weekend we had my sister's birthday party (cute little lady is 5 now, can I get an awww?) and my mother invited her own friend over and she brought her new boyfriend. All well and good I thought, and honestly, he was pretty alright. At least until we'd finished eating and everyone had scattered to either go to the bathroom or have their own conversations. Then it was just me and him. So, of course, it's only polite and natural to attempt to socialise by having a conversation, right? I thought so too until there was a lull and he just fired right in with the usual "so what do you want to do" followed by "for the rest of your life?".

I tried to avoid it a bit by just answering with what I wanted to study at university, because does he really need to know the rest? Apparently he did, because I then had to answer my top universities - or rather, I only answered two due to the fact that I was starting to panic and could only think of those. I just wanted to stab myself in the face right then when he finally asked what I would do after that - actually, it was phrased more like: "And do you think you're going to get a job after that?"

Do I think I'm going to get a job. 

I'd feel a little bit better if he'd asked what sort of work I'd like to go into after uni, rather than someone else questioning whether I'm going to be employed or not. I already panic about whether or not I'll get into uni or if I'll get a job. I don't need other people questioning me when I'm already preoccupied with questioning myself.

The only time it's okay for people to talk to me about my future is if I'm visiting a god damn fortune teller, and that's only if I ask them to and they're okay with it. Other than that, I don't need to be constantly questioned about what I want to do. 

I need to focus on what's going on right here and now rather than have a mental breakdown because I thought about my future for more than 3 seconds.

Yes, I understand that it's important that I have things planned out. But I don't need to be thinking about that everyday of the week throughout everything I do. And neither does anyone else.

Stop asking me about my future, because the more you do, the worse yours is looking. Like, seriously, I will spoil whatever book your reading. That is how far you've pushed me.

Sorry about that. 

Bit of a change from a usual less angry post but this has been bugging the heck out of me. So, there's my rant about my future and how everyone just needs to take a large step back off a cliff on the topic. Do you ever feel like this? Does anyone ever ask you these questions to the point where you want to stab them with a spoon? Does the thought of the future make you curl up into a blanket burrito of anxiety?

Let me know in the comments.

Callie