Life lately: Rediscovering beauty

Well, that was unexpected: I didn't realise that writing my last post would have quite the distancing effect it had on me. Then I returned to London and got completely side-tracked. But, on a positive note, it made wearing makeup fun again! The knowledge that it wouldn't melt off my face after five minutes made me more inclined to make an effort.

My first stop, literally hours off the plane, was Liberty. My sister had us both booked in for a makeover with Hourglass, and I quickly fell in love with their products (if you follow me on Twitter you will know some damage went down in my last week). I was assured by the sales staff that women in the Middle East love to wear their primer and Immaculate foundation (raising the question of why they don't sell the brand here?) because it is humidity-, heat-, and waterproof. I already put it to test while I was in London, now just to wear it, here in Oman and see if that is true.

I also had a chance to make it to a GOSH event. Honestly, I've been to a few of their events in the past and, although I think their polishes are great, none of their makeup has ever wowed me, but their latest launches are impressive. Firstly, they have the most wearable and well-formulated high-street range of matte lipsticks launching, they deserve a post of their own, and they'll get one. They have also released some liquid foundation drops, which feel incredibly light-weight, the only downside is the colour shade selection, I'm the second to darkest shade, and I consider myself fair/medium skin toned.

Briefly, I want to mention the Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara from Tarte, I got this as part of the QVC TSV that came out back in June, and although the rest of the set was nice, this was the real star of the collection. You may have noticed I don't really do mascara reviews, and that is because I rarely notice them doing much. But I could use this mascara alone to lengthen and volumise my lashes, without feeling like I needed liner too. Bonus.

I should be back on track now with reviews and the like, although I realise I have said this many times before and failed, but the good intentions are there! Coming up later this week, the search of the perfect daily sunscreen continues...

2014 in review

I think I am just in time to sneak in a new years post, so Happy New Year all! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and the new year has started off well. 

2014 was a very exciting year for me, challenging at times and with its low points but on the whole a good year, and I'm hoping that 2015 will be even better. 

You may or may not know that if have a second blog documenting my life in Oman, if you would like to see a month by month overview of 2014, click here.

That said, my blog suffered. I didn't mean for it to, and I certainly didn't expect it when this time last year I had hoped to get to a post every week day. I didn't expect my life to change as it did, and I am still adjusting. 

Obviously I'm not a full time blogger, and although there are times when that idea sounds fantastic, I'm not confident I have what it takes to ever get to that level, especially if it means I have to post daily and keep up with the trends. I am not good at either of those things. I work full time and, being a wife now means that I have to come home and think about someone else, and as a result I don't have the time it takes to produce a quality blog post. I also realise that keeping up with the trends isn't really my thing, I like to take my time trying stuff, even making purchases in the first place, and somewhere along the way I strayed away from my blog being about me finding products I love and that work (hence my blog name), while sharing that with others. Maybe I can establish myself as the blogger that takes the longest to review, who knows, it might become a thing. 

So this year I'm going to take a more laid back approach, I want to post blogs I am proud of, of products that I have tested thoroughly, and that means it might get updated a few times a week, sometimes maybe once a week, or even longer. I know it's not ideal, but at least for now that's how it has to be. 

I also have a few other resolutions this year. 

1. Drink more water. I regularly tell myself I need to do this, especially since moving to the Middle East, it is very easy to become dehydrated and I don't need to tell anyone how important staying hydrated is for beauty and health in general. 

2. Read at least one book a month. Last year I resolved the read for at least an hour a day, and actually I managed to do this. I read the paper daily, and catch up on blogs I follow, and I also started reading books again. Before I started working I had a lot of time on my hands and books were a good escape, they were also something I could access easily since I download ebooks. At the end of last year I started a book club so I know that I'll need to read at least one book a month to have something to contribute!

3. Exercise. I took for granted my youth and good metabolism, it kept me slim and relatively healthy, but I need to help myself now and establish some sort of exercise routine. I already do pilates twice a week so I just need to add some cardio. I know the key is to find something I like doing and this year I plan to. 

4. Become better at my job. As an expat in Oman it's easy to end up in a job that is beyond your experience, which is exactly what has happened to me. I'm editor of a journal and acting manager while they find someone to fill the position, I have editing experience, but zero management experience. I know to become more confident in my role I need to take it on myself to learn as much as I can do about both roles. 

Thank you to all of you who occasionally or even regularly read my blog, and to those of you that might have stumbled across this and read to the end, thank you too. I am always so happy when someone comments on my blog and tells me they enjoy it.

Getting on track

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I arrived in Muscat safely and am hopefully over the hardest part of the settling in process!

The apartments here are mostly unfurnished so the first week was spent shopping buying all the essential things that you don’t realise you need until you miss them.

I didn’t have internet access for a week, which you will hopefully appreciate was awful. I knew that I needed the internet for work and obviously blogging, but how reliant I am on it as a form of entertainment and my link to family and friends I didn’t know, so I did suffer a few days feeling totally isolated.

I’m still in the process of setting up the second blog, I plan on writing about my moving experience, how I am settling and then of course sharing all my experiences here. I do wonder if I am best just changing this blog into a lifestyle one, after all Discovering Beauty doesn’t have to mean just makeup, but let me know what you think.

I have a few beauty posts lined up too, a very late review of February’s Birchbox and other reviews and, once I have some good pictures together, I will also do a wedding post just to share my hair and makeup looks and tips.

Thank you for sticking by me in the down time and for all the lovely comments and well wishes on my last post and on Twitter and Instagram, I promise will be back on track soon!