My HD Brows experience

Eyebrows are a BIG thing in beauty right now. Some say if you do nothing else to your face at least do your brows. Earlier this year I decided it was time to try the process that all the celebs seem to have done, HD Brows.

The first time I did anything to the eyebrows was in 6th form and I had them waxed very thin, as was the trend 12 years ago!

Since then they've undergone some form of treatment every now and then. However, despite mine being dark and very thick I don't get them done enough or maintain them at home much. I'm just too lazy and forget about them. Most of the time I therefore sport pretty unrurly brows!

I've plucked, i've had them waxed and i've had them threaded. The problem is though that my eyebrows never look like the perfectly groomed ones I see on TV and magazines.

I wanted them defined with a clean shape and no gaps and the HD Brow process seemed to be that solution. It did used to be an exclusive treatment only done in select places but now everyone seems to be trained in the process. HD Brow's differ in that it combines all techniques together in one treatment. By using a mixture of plucking, waxing, threading and tinting it provides a shape that suits your face.

An explosion of typing without thought - Real Life Lately

I've been trying to promote my blog more recently and one of the tweets i've been sending out is 'for real life, travel and lifestyle'. So i figured lets do a real life post. Most of my posts are this really, we have my struggling with uni post, reading a brilliant social media chick-lit and struggles going to the blog awards. That's life but specific parts of my life. But what's going on with me?

The Aubrey Rules by Aven Ellis - Recent Recommended Read #4

Can you believe the last book review I published was in January? I haven't read many since then, partly because of time and partly because I don't like to rush books. I did set a book reading goal at the beginning of the year but I soon came to realise this was silly. When I finish a book I like to wait a little while before moving onto the next, I like savouring the story and remembering the characters. This review is about The Aubrey Rules by Aven Ellis, number 1 in the Chicago on Ice series.

Do you like:

• Social media?
• America?
• Hot sports players?

I reckon you'll devour this book as fast as I did then.

Aubrey is a newly graduated social media professional with a rule for everything in her life, from what she eats, her work and even to dating. When she unknowingly bumps into one of the hottest ice hockey players around, she starts to question these strict rules she's made herself as she finds her work and personal life increasingly interlinked.

I'm a sucker for a romantic novel and when social media was thrown into the mix I couldn't resist. It was a brilliant idea to tie that into the book. It's something that most of us and certainly almost all of the books target audience use on a daily *ahem* hourly basis and is a very hot topic at the moment.

STRUGGLING WITH EDUCATION

Just a quick post about something I came to realise today.

I was always of the thought that at university, the 'youngsters' didn't work much and were clueless.

But I was stereotyping and tarring everyone with the same brush.

Whilst I am sure there are a fair share of slackers in uni as a whole, on my course at least, the young uns' are hard workers. They do their reading and they know their stuff. I believe this is partly due to the type of course but I also think that having just left school and still being in the education frame of mind helps greatly. As mature students, there is a mix of those who are working in the way I thought we would and others, who like me, are not doing as much as we could. I'm not disrespecting them or anything and I know they will put the hours in soon when the work builds up.

But as for myself,  I thought that returning to uni as a 28 year old I would be motivated, efficient and just in general work hard. But I guess I didn't think of the effects that being out of education for so long would have. You would think I would be ok. For one, I recently completed a home learning course in sociology. Showing evidence of recent study was a requirement for entry onto this course but it obviously wasn't enough to get my mindset right for full-time education again. Secondly, earlier in the year I worked as an academic support worker at a local university. This meant supporting disabled students and taking notes for them in lectures. We were trained in taking useful, concise and detailed notes. What better prep than that you say? You'd think so wouldn't you, but apparently not.

I'm not being any of the things I thought I would be when returned to education. I turn up to everything but i'm not reading, i'm not making my notes into something useful, i'm not passionate, i'm not doing anything. Being away from education has had a huge effect. When I was working I liked going to my job, doing my hours and going home and switching off. I'm not saying being at uni means you have to work any extra hours than you would at a standard job, but outside of our contact hours i.e. lectures/seminars I struggle to make myself do anymore work. I only have part-time contact hours yet when a lecture has finished i've essentially switched off and don't do anything else ,as I would with a job, and this is not good.

So yeah, being a mature student hasn't meant what I thought it would. Although only 28 (yes only, shhhh) I thought life experience and knowing what actual full-time work was like would make me a better student. I was wrong about that and I was wrong to judge the 18 year olds. Some young uns' are hard workers, some are not and it's exactly the same for us mature students. There are other reasons why i'm not at all motivated but I shan't go into that right now. I'm not sure even I have sifted through it all myself yet.

But essentially what i'm saying is, returning to education is a struggle and I was wrong to judge.