Beauty tips of Ms. Audrey Hepburn

(This is a canvas painting I've had for a long time so I decided to jazz it up and add makeup to her face, not sure if you can see here!)

I've never really had a role-model before. Well, besides my family and such. But as regards to an idol, I was missing that whole aspect of star-gazing. However, the more I read about Audrey Hepburn the more I fall in love.

She was an absolutely beautiful woman, inside and out. She was elegant, poised, intelligent, talented and humble in her success. When I compare her to celebrities these days it's really sad that we have no one near as worthy as her to look up to. She encouraged women(and indeed people in general)to care for themselves and one another as beautiful people with souls rather

than the vain monkeys we all seem to be now. I'm sure you have all heard this quote, but I'll share it with you anyway seeing as it's my favourite quote of her's and indeed one of my favourite general life-lessons to live by. As a make-up artist especially, her "beauty tips" truly inspire me.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows.

The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

If you share this with another woman, something good will happen -- you will boost another woman's self esteem, and she will know that you care about her.

How could anyone not love this woman? She is a prime example of what women should be and one whose footsteps I strive to follow in(though I fall short most of the time). I, like her, would like everyone to love themselves for who they are and help other's to love themselves also. Don't hate people for their decisions, talent, intellect or life choices. Just realise that success means something different to everyone. You are absolutely beautiful, and so is the person you scowl at everyday, or the person who always seems to be just one step ahead of you. Just be happy in what your life is and who you are because I guarantee someone is looking at you wishing they had what you have. If we live by the words of Ms. Hepburn we will be a lot happier and more fulfilled than the way we have been conditioned to be in this society.

If you take nothing else from this post, please take the knowledge that we are ALL beautiful; beauty is in our souls, not how toned our bodies are or how structured our faces. Let's all stop competing and appreciate each other for the individuals we are.

Aila Maritz xox

Bitches be crazy

**sighs, closes eyes and rubs temples**

Women are stupid. Why? Three words.

Chris fucking Brown.

I HATE Chris Brown. Genuine hate, with every atom of my being. If his music comes on the radio, I'll turn it off. In a club, I'll sit down. In my eyes he doesn't deserve the privilege of my listening to his music. Reasonable, I think, considering he's a scumbag who tried to kill his girlfriend.

Yet, YET, he still has a successful music career. What. The. Fuck.

Excuse my language, but this is very confusing to me. People actually listen to his music. Worse still, women listen to his music. I don't want to offend anyone reading this post, but if you listen to his music, Bitch you crazy.

Let me just remind you all of some of the details of Sir Brown's attack. He tried to push her out of the moving car, but she had her seatbelt on so he carried on driving with his left hand while beating her with his right hand. He told her he was going to "beat the shit out of you when we get home", and when she rang for help she was told "you just did the stupidest thing ever, I'm really going to kill you now." He then grabbed her in a headlock, bit her ear while squeezing so hard she almost lost conciousness. During examination they found further bite marks on her inner thigh, her arms and several of her fingers.

I could go into more details of what he did after the attack, such as release ridiculous love songs in which he is the best boyfriend in the world, breaking windows at interviews, having nothing to say for himself on the assault except "it's just like...wow", but I don't need to. Just those details of the attack alone are enough to make anyone hate him.

BUT, women still listen to his music. How can you carry on supporting his career when you see all he did? By dancing along to his music, you're saying it's ok to beat the living shit out of fellow woman. It's beyond me how people help him to make money after this, I for one am absolutely sickened at the sight of him or the sound of his evil voice. There is NO excuse for what he did, to try make excuses for him like "stress" is absolutely pathetic.

Please, look at this woman's face. Forget that it's Rihanna, forget whether you like her music, or even if you like her as a person. She was a 20 year old girl who was beaten to near death by the man she loved. How can you carry on listening to his music as if nothing happened?

Aila Maritz xox

Change....

I'm scared of change. I'll admit it; I'm one of these sensitive people who cries at goodbyes and worries about the future and hates the thought of life being different. Silly, I know, since life is one big series of cycles that will inevitably end.

I know, change is good, yadda yadda yadda. But I don't like things to change! If I love someone, I'll keep them please, if I like a place, I'll stay there please, if I like a sandwich, I'll eat that day in day out and there's feck all anyone can do to stop me.

I don't like change because what if things don't turn out as good as they are now? What if right now is the best time of your life, but you don't know it so you don't try to maintain it? What if change takes people you love away from you? Change is scary.

And right now I feel like my life is going to change, a lot. I've just finished college (AH!) so obviously enough, that's one chapter in my life done and dusted. Now I'm in the "real world", and it's scary as fuck. The scariest part is I don't feel one bit different, but I'm supposed to be a totally different person. I'm only 20, not even old enough to be the alcoholic that I am here were I in America. Yet I'm supposed to know what to do with the rest of my life.

I just got my first a job. Ever. Due to a long series of boring circumstances I've never had a job before, so I'm excited and terrified about it at the same time. I'm still on a trial run so they will decide if I'll be full-time or part-time when the trial is over. I've been told full-time is very tough and I believe it. If I had the choice, I would probably start off part-time and work my way up, but I'll take whatever they're offering now 'cos I'm a feckin pauper. I'm half delighted and half scared shitless. I'll get money, awesome. But.....I'll get money. Which means saving, and figuring out what I want to do with that money, and where I want to go with it. I feel like I'm going to see everyone a lot less, and some relationships I have are very dear to me and the time I get to spend on them is limited as it is.

I'm so grateful I have a job, not many do. But.....I'm just plain scared. I'm scared of change. I just want to skip over this transition in my life and see where I will be next year, if I'll still have the same amazing people I love so much in my life, if I'll have moved to America for a while which is my dream, if I'll still be in the exact same position in my life and look back at this post and scoff.

I hate now knowing, and I'll inevitably worry about all these things until my brain fries and I cry myself to sleep. I know there's absolutely nothing I can do and I have to cruise along life and let it all happen, but that just aint me. I'll just sit here and panic, as always....anyone with me?

Aila Maritz xox

How to prevent creases in your hair

One of the worst things about doing make-up is having to clip your hair back while doing it, giving you an unwanted line or bump in your fringe/bangs. Alternatively, you have to do your hair after your make-up which is less than ideal.

No more!! The best way to keep back your hair: velcro.

Noft side of velcro obviously, but the rougher side. You can buy patches of it online, but I have a much easier and more convenient way to get some, or make it yourself.

Get yourself a big velcro roller, you can get them really really cheap at a beauty supply store, mine was less than 3euro for 6. Now, cut the velcro off the roller, or better yet find the natural crease where the velcro meets and it should easily pull of the roller.

Now, sweep your hair back off your face and press the velcro down where your hand is. It's perfect! It keeps your hair back, no creases, no bumps, no messing of the do. I love it!!! When your make-up is done, simply pull it off and let your hair sweep back into place. This is one of my most annoying problems with make-up sorted, I am so excited I now have this you have no idea. I'm positively giddy!

The over-sized rollers can even be cut in half to make two, so you have a back-up for if or when (lets be serious, when) you lose the other. Or, if you do make-up on clients like myself, it's the perfect way to keep their hair back without messing it as usually clients will have their hair done before the make-up! So you have one half for yourself and the other half for your kit. I'm so excited I just feel like over-using the exclamation point!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, some of your are probably thinking dear God this woman has gone crazy, but if you do make-up on other people you'll know the importance of keeping their hair off their face without messing it. You could be undoing hours of work with one little clip!

Seriously lads, go try this, I promise it will change the life of my fringed lovelies!

Aila Maritz xox

My Friday 13th horror reality!

When I was younger, I babysat my cousins a lot. It was the only source of income available to a youngin under the age of 16. They were young also at the time, between the ages of 3 and 11 I would imagine, and there were two boys and one baby girl.

Before I embark on my story of terrifying ordeals, I would like to describe their place of habitat to you all. They lived out in the suburbs, far enough from the city and down a very dark and windy typically-shit-irish-country-road. However, they were in a housing estate, one lone housing estate in the wilderness(ahem) so I considered myself to be fairly safe. As it was a housing estate out the country, they had a fairly big back garden with a massive glass patio door the length of the back wall.....with no curtains.

Well, one night I was off to babysit while their parents went off promising to be back between 1 and 1:30 am. So I played with the kids for a while and come their bedtime, off up the stairs they went. Once I knew they were soundly asleep, and those kids slept like planks of wood, I sat down and watched tv. Flicking through the channels I realised from the date and time in the corner of the screen that it was a Friday. Near midnight. And it just happened to be the 13th.

Well, I was understandably freaked out for a second, but logically calmed myself down and continued flicking through the channels. After skipping many horror movies appropriately playing on this specific date, I settled for a random comedy film and watched away.

Now reader, I am known to be a bit of a scaredy cat, jumping at random noises and checking behind the couch every so often when I'm alone in the house. The fact that it was Friday the 13th did not help this one little bit.

The time ticked on, and I was beginning to get a little impatient and dare I say, desperate for them to come back and relieve me from the misery of knowing perfectly well that my situation would make the perfect horror movie. 1am came, and went. 2am came, and alone I was still. Every flicker of movement I saw outside I assumed would be them. I convinced myself I was watching this hilarious comedy, but in reality I was listening to every flicker of noise I heard waiting for them to FECKIN COME HOME.

Well, finally, I heard the door. Although I saw no car pull up I knew it had to have been them and forgot their key, trying to see if the door would open without one. At this stage it was close to 2:30am. Overcome with relief I skipped out the front-room door into the hall to see their friendly faces outside the foggy-glassed front door.....'til I stopped dead in my tracks in the middle of the hall.

No faces did I see, no car outside. No lights or movement in the street outside.

Needless to say, I shat a brick. I'm not one of these girls to walk towards the door and open it to see who's outside. Oh no, I ran the other direction, like a normal person would, toward the phone to promptly ring my mammy to come and get me before the axe murderer-rapist outside the door got to me first.

The phone just happened to be right in front of the massive glass door overlooking the massive pitch black back garden. There was no such thing as cordless phones in those days y'see. Naturally enough, I wailed and ran towards the cutlery drawer and grabbed the most cliché big sharp silver kitchen knife, you know the one they always get in the movies right before they die?

So there I was, staring at the glass, sobbing my heart out and shaking like a leaf, phone in hand. I urgently told my mother the situation and forced her to stay on the phone for the 20minutes it would take my Dad to get there.

20 feckin minutes. Sure at every moment I was convinced I was going to die, and the children would be next. I stared out the window, knife in a ready position, back to the wall, waiting to face my doom. His big hairy head and massive killer hands were just out of sight, I knew it. I couldn't believe I was in this situation. On Friday the 13th. I would die on Friday the 13th and my story would be made into a made-for-tv movie. I have no clue what my Mam was saying to me, in my head she was just there to hear the massacre.

The doorbell. Relief, followed by suspicion. I put down the phone and edged my way towards the front door, eyes ever watchful of all the windows I passed. I could see a big figure, who could have easily been my dad, but could just have easily been the crazy psycho who's about to murder me. The closer I got, the more familiar the silhouette was. However, opening the door I had the knife at the ready. Sure, he'd probably kill me, but I'll have screamed enough and injured him too much to walk up the stairs to get the children.

Well, it was my Dad, THANK GOD. I collapsed in his arms and bawled my eyes out for 20minutes until my uncle came home. I hastily told them my story, them explaining it with one of their neighbours being drunk and probably went into the wrong house. I went home, into bed and slept with the light on, vowing never to be alone on Friday the 13th again.

So, there's my story. Perhaps I was jumpy and over thought the noise, perhaps the fecker saw the fierce mothering instinct in my eyes and the massive weapon in my hand and knew not to cross this bitch.

I shall let you decide.

Aila Maritz xox