Will the animal (rights) movement ever succeed?

Social justice movements and answering the question, "Will the animal (rights) movement ever succeed?": presentation >>

This comes from the October 2010 animal law conference at Lewis and Clark Law School.

If I could have embeded it, I would have. So just follow the link...

Book Review: Change Of Heart

A couple weeks ago I read Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Social Change, a book by animal advocate Nick Cooney about motivating people to act in ways that benefit animals, other humans, and the planet.



The praise already given to this book describes it accurately:

“If we want to create a more compassionate world, we need to understand what motivates people to make compassionate choices. Change of Heart provides fresh, research based insight into how non-profits and individuals can more effectively create social change through a better understanding of the human mind.” - Gene Baur, Director, Farm Sanctuary

The book is a well-written and well-researched piece that belongs in the animal advocate's canon alongside Striking At The Roots and The Animal Activist's Handbook. The book is packed with scientific evidence that suggests particular strategies are more effective than others at producing societal shifts in regards to animal rights, human rights, and environmentalism.

Here's a snippet from the book to give you a taste of what I mean. This comes from chapter four "Tools of Influence, Part I: Simple Tools":

"Seeing a running meter of something—for example, the cost of a cab ride rising and rising, or calories burning off one by one on a digital counter while we exercise—has more of an impact than simply hearing the final price or number of calories burned. The Wattson, a popular item in the U.K., is a small device that displays in real time the amount of energy being used by a household and how much that energy is costing. Similar devices for sale in the U.S. show the electricity use and cost of individual appliances in real time. Watching the cost rise minute by minute can be a powerful motivator to lower energy consumption; the Wattson’s creators claim the device cuts household energy usage by five to twenty-five percent simply by providing immediate feedback to home-owners."

"Providing positive feedback on behavioral change that’s already taken place can help increase that behavior. For example, signs posted on recycling containers that proudly mentioned how many cans had been collected the previous week increased subsequent recycling totals by sixty-five percent (Larson et al. 1995). In another study, households that were mailed letters about their reduced energy usage and financial savings subsequently decreased usage by another five percent, whereas a control group that didn’t receive a letter actually increased their usage (Seligman and Darley 1977). Similarly, households in one town that got feedback on the number of pounds of materials they were recycling each week subsequently increased the amount of material they recycled by twenty-six percent (DeLeon and Fuqua 1995)."

For animal advocates who promote veganism, a similar concept could be used. For example, Eric Markus talks about "becoming an animal millionaire" wherein he means sparing ONE MILLION animals from lives full of suffering and painful death by becoming a vegan and then helping others become vegan too:

"All you need to do is to get about 500 young people to switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet. Since each 20-year-old will likely eat another 2000 chickens and other farmed animals over the course of his or her life, that works out to about a million animals for every 500 young people who change their diets." - Eric Markus

Ideas like this one will spring into your head as you read Change of Heart. You'll nod in agreement when a passage you read confirms your intuition or your own behavior. You'll cringe at some of the sneaky salesman tricks marketers have used and wonder if there's a more honest use for that information. And you'll wonder how little is really known in the fields of psychology and sociology.

A couple caveats:

Psychological and sociological studies can identify trends among certain personality types or groups of people. For example, older people tend to confuse myths for facts when given a factsheet that identifies myths. Simply repeating myths often can make many people (of all ages) believe the myths are true, even when prefaced with the word "myth" and followed by the conflicting fact labeled "fact." (I learned this from the book.) However, that does not mean that human beings always produce predictible behavior. Human behavior is incredibly complex and difficult to predict or analyze.

Likewise, these studies are not necessarily conclusive. There is room for doubt and room for error. Human beings conducted these studies, afterall, and humans are fallible.

Very few of the studies cited in Change of Heart were conducted for the purpose of learning about effective animal advocacy. Most of the conclusions drawn are based on analogies between other types of advocacy or even from the field of marketing, which means that there's room for error here.

All of the above simply mean that people who are interested in effective animal advocacy ought to spend significantly more time and energy studying how to be effective. There's a lot to be learned in this area and if we're serious, we should take to the task as though we were doctoral candidates in the subject. That is, we should do more research!

If Change of Heart interests you, then you might also consider reading:

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

The Tipping Point

Nudge

How We Decide

Have you read anything good lately?

---
Crossposted at Vegan Soapbox

"Why is everything with you so complicated?"

The title is from Rihanna's song complicated off her new album Loud! Life is complicated at the moment!! Nothing working out or going smoothly for me.... sucky sucky time :( :(

So to my last post...

Went to the gym... and kinda cut down my bad eating habits, I have been keeping in contact with friends more :), I'm in the process of tidying my room :P hehe, I havent been too strict with money because its xmas and its hard :O but i I'm trying!!

So I've been out lately... didnt do anything do wow with my makeup but this is me...

Lots of Love xoxo

Are Emails Effective?

I was recently reminded of an article I read at Striking At The Roots a while ago. The article is about email activism. Here's a quote:

Do elected officials and other decision-makers even care about the mass emails they receive?

So I called the office of Dianne Feinstein in Washington, DC, figuring my state senator would be only too happy to answer my questions. (No, I am not thrilled she co-sponsored the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, but that’s another topic.) I spoke with David Hantman, an aide in Senator Feinstein’s office. “I would say those emails are very effective,” he says.

Read the rest here >>

the Transtheoretical Model

A while ago I wrote about The Stages of Change (aka the Transtheoretical Model) in an explanation of how many vegans experience some "relapse." I said:

Most vegans get to a point where they "gave in" and ate the cheese (or the sausage or whatever). They feel guilty and wonder if they can be vegan again. These people need encouragement. Of course they can get right back up on the wagon and be vegan again! Relapses "are an inevitable part of the process," remember?

Moreover, the presence of a few ex-vegans is not necessarily a sign of our movement reversing course, as some might say, but rather is simply a normal, natural process of change wherein some relapses occur.

All of that is true, however, the Stages of Change may not be a good model for influencing people to become more compassionate and empathetic towards animals. In Change of Heart, author Nick Cooney writes:

From the late 1970s through the present, researcher James Prochaska and colleagues created and developed what they call the Transtheoretical Model, a system that analyzes how ready a person is to adopt a healthy new behavior and that provides suggestions on how to direct that person from one stage to the next. The Transtheoretical Model (TM) is used by many public-health organizations in the U.S. and abroad, particularly for providing guidance in getting patients to stop smoking, drinking, using drugs, or having unsafe sex. Despite TM’s widespread popularity, meta-analytic studies of its research have shown it to be of little use in creating behavioral change (Riemsma et al. 2003; Horowitz 2003; Bridle et al. 2005; Aveyard et al. 2006; 2009). Unfortunately, many books and non-profits continue to promote TM as an effective approach for changing behavior.

Luckily, Cooney also says that "Although the Model itself seems to be of no use, the specific stages that Prochaska identified are worth looking at as a reminder of the stages most people go through in adopting new behaviors." Therefore, my original analysis was correct. These are stages that people tend to go through when adopting a new behavior, however these stages should not be used as a guide as to how to influence change.

"Animal Tracker," an AR Data Gaphing Tool

I think I'd forgotten to blog about this when it first came out. I remember staying up late at night trying all the options and being surprised by some of the results, talking to my husband about this or that bit of research data and showing him on the graph how different demographics compared to each other on various animal rights issues.

Well, I've finally remembered to share it here. Mark Middleton at Animal Visuals created a graphing tool for the Humane Research Council. The tool lets you visualize data from HRC's Animal Tracker Survey, which is a survey that measures public opinions about animal issues.

Take a look here: http://www.animalvisuals.org/data/animaltracker/

Why put off 'til new years what you can do today!!

Ok, so I was thinking about New Years and the resolutions people make.... So I was thinking... why wait until New Years to start my resolutions, why not start now?

So resolution number 1: Eat healthy to lose weight.

Resolution number 2: Keep in contact wit friends more

Resolution number 3: Tidy my room and keep it tidy.

Resolution number 4: Be strict with money!!

So I'm starting Monday 29th November... I'll keep updates and let you know my progress :)

Fingers crossed I do good :) xx

Reading Change of Heart

I am reading Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change by Nick Cooney. This book promises to change my activism. Here's part of the official book description:

"Scientific research has generated a wealth of information on how people can be persuaded to alter their behaviors, yet this body of knowledge has been largely ignored by those working to improve society. Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change brings this information to light so that non-profits, community organizers and others can make science-driven decisions in their advocacy work. The book examines over 80 years of empirical research in areas including social psychology, communication studies, diffusion studies, network systems and social marketing, distilling the highlights into easy-to-use advice and serving as a psychology primer for anyone wanting to spread progressive social change."

I expect that much of what I learn from this book will be useful to readers of this blog. Expect to see the review soon.

Is PETA Effective?

PETA is one of the most controversial organizations in existence. People love them, hate them, tolerate them, question them. If nothing else, PETA is effective at getting attention and inspiring debate.

Even in Animal Rights communities, this question comes up over and over again:

“Does PETA help or harm the movement?“

It’s a difficult question to answer since PETA does so much and is involved in all kinds of campaigns. Moreover, few people or organizations take the time to measure efficacy. But one organization, The Humane Research Council, whose website is Humane Spot dot org, compiles and analyzes all kinds of information relating to effective strategies of the animal movement.

In their own words,

The Humane Research Council empowers fellow animal advocates with access to the research, analysis, strategies, and messages that maximize their effectiveness to reduce animal suffering.

When it comes to PETA’s efficacy, The Humane Research Council has some information that can help us answer the question above. There are two studies that indicate PETA is effective, at least in some areas.

Take a look:

1. “The U.S. Pork Checkoff (managed by the National Pork Board) conducted four focus groups of children ages 9 to 14 throughout the United States and surveyed an additional 350 children online. More than half of those surveyed had heard of “animal rights” organizations and almost one fourth of these children reported that these organizations have impacted their meat consumption in some way. There was low awareness of PETA among the children, but it had a high impact on their meat consumption. One-third of respondents had heard of or visited the PETA website, petakids.com; of those who were familiar with PETA, one-third had seen a video about animal care or meat consumption. 53% said the web site/video impacted their meat eating habits.” (source)

2. “[Another] study examined the impact of a graphic animal rights campaign launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against alleged abuses on a corporate farm. It considered the impact of the campaign upon the credibility of the target of the campaign as well as the producer of the campaign.
Results indicated that PETA’s attack message against abuses at corporate pig farms was effective in eroding the credibility of the corporate food-industry raising animals for consumption. At the same time, PETA’s credibility rose overall after participants viewed the PETA attack message.” (source)

(Emphasis added)

Neither of those studies indicates that the other PETA programs are effective. It’s even possible that certain campaigns are counter-productive. But the evidence against PETA – on the basis of ineffectiveness – simply doesn’t exist yet. So be wary of “experts” who claim that PETA “doesn’t work” or is “counter-productive.” They are likely basing their opinions on personal bias rather than actual science.

Related:

• Guide to Analyzing PETA’s Nude Activism
• Regarding the website “PETA Kills Animals”
• Everyone Deserves Mercy
• Not Just Skin Deep
  
• Another PETA Success & Covance Out Of Business

Originally posted at Vegan Soapbox.

Xmas WishList 1: Urban Decay Palette

Hey Dolls,

So I was strolling through Debenhams last Saturday while I was doing some Christmas shopping and as I was walking past the Urban Decay stand and saw this Book of Shadows Volume 3 palette and instantly fell in love, the pop up art is so eye catching and also the overall detailing and design is really cool. The shadow colours are really nice too... my favourite would have to be Midnight Cowboys Ride Again, Bordello and Psychedelic Sister.

I'm hoping to get this palette for Christmas :) Along with some Benefit products (I usually stock up around this time of year - my mom's birthday) :D

Lots of Love xoxo

A Surprise Birthday!!

Hey dolls! OMG planning a surprise birthday is so stressful! Last night I attended and mainly

planned one of my closest friends, Salome, 21st birthday party.

So I found out about 24 hours before the party that nothing was planned because due

to unnecessary stuff I ended up pulling out of the planning originally, so I had to sort the cake and decorations on the day of the party. I got my good friend Rose to help me out in the shopping and other party sorting tasks. So I started drinking and got ready at Rose's apartment, we were due to set up the decorations at 7.30, people were due at the venue at 8pm. So I didn't arrive til 9 with the decorations because I was so stressed out getting ready I needed to drink and calm down for 5 minutes!

Once there I started putting up the decorations and by 9.30 there was 7 people there :O So I was getting the place set up and it was sorted so I got a drink at the bar and sat waiting for the birthday girl... more of our friends showed up so there was a good crowd

there by the time the birthday girl came at 10 :D

When Salome first showed up she was so surprised and happy she started to cry! It was so cute and really made all the stress I went through worth the joy she had on her face! She was really surprised.... there was loads of opportunities for her to cop on because some people slipped but she never did!!

This is when me and Rose first saw her at the party and she thanked us for the effort and was telling us how surprised she was and happy.

This is me with Salome and her mom :) I invited her mom 24 hours beforehand too. Everything was badly organised but it all went fairly smoothly as the night went on. Her mom noticed how stressed out I was. She thanked me for planning and sorting everything, which was nice of her :)

Cake time!! Yummy, I got her a chocolate cake from Tesco! I lit some 2.1. candles and we sang happy birthday and she wasn't expecting a cake but she got a yummy one :D (I look Spanish with the red flower in my hair haha)

The night went down well and after the pub we moved onto a club and shook some bootay :D It was a good night and we had loadsa fun!

So don't overplan but organise timing better is my main lesso learned from this experience :)

My new brand love: Lipsy

I love Lipsy! All there dresses are stunning and can be for any occasion. They have savage shoes, gorgeous dresses, lovely jewellery, cute velour tracksuits and of course all different types of bags.

Beaded Pocket Bustier Dress - My BFF wore this dress to my 21st birthday, another friend of mine wore this to her 21st and Snooki from MTV Jersey Shores also wore this dress.

Strapless Oversized Animal Print Dress - this dress is gorgeous and part of the Pixie Lott for Lipsy range.

Pleated Strapless Dress - This dress is gorgeous, the print is described as kryptonite print. The colours are bright and make the dress pop. The fitting of this dress is very flattering for body shapes that have or are lacking curves.

Ruched Lace Strappy Dress - I really like this dress. I like the way its body fitting, I like the ruched side and the overall style.

2 in 1 Necklace Beaded Corsage Dress - I really like this Lipsy dress because its like a skirt and top, but its all one. The skirt is tight and fitted ad the top is loose with some detail.

Bandeau Chiffon Layered Dress - I saw this dress in Cosmopolitan UK magazine and fell in love with it (without the belt). The dress was picked to help recreate the look of Leighton Meester on the cover. I love the look :)

Animal Ruched Dress - I love this animal print and the style of the dress. Its well put together and the animal print is gorgeous! This dress would be gorgeous with long curly hair, a tan, brown eyeshadows and a brown lipgloss with extreme lashes! :) (then again I'd do this with all these dresses hehe)

Lots of Love xoxo

5 for 5

A new campaign to offer free vegan starter kits online through Craigslist is based on solid research. They offered the kits online and then followed up with a survey of those who requested the kits. The survey found that most kit receivers changed their consumption of animal products, with a net result of fewer animal products consumed.

The campaign organizers say:

we found that 5 minutes spent posting ads on internet sites lead to about 5 Vegetarian Starter Pack orders. Although the percentages quoted in the paragraph above are likely inflated a bit due to response bias (despite our attempts to minimize it, people who adopted changes were still probably more likely to answer the survey than those who didn't, and respondents may have over-represented the extent of change), consider the following: even if we completely ignore the huge number of animals spared by all of those who partially or significantly reduced their meat consumption, and just look at those who had gone vegetarian, simple math for five minutes of work indicates: 5 (Veg Starter Pack orders) x .03 (a very low end estimate of the percentage of people who went vegetarian; based on the data above it seems more like 5-7% than 3%) x 40 (approximate number of animals spared per year for each person who goes vegetarian) = about six animals per year spared a lifetime of suffering with just five minutes of work!

Here's the link: http://www.eleafleting.com/take5save5/documentation.htm

Birthday nights out since my birthday! :P

Ann's 21st :)

Una's 19th :)

Lots of Love xoxo

My 21st!!

Hey everyone!

What an event my 21st was :O The day began good, then unlucky and then funny, then...!! Ok, so starting off I had 3 of my friends stay over the night before the party so we woke up and had a chillaxed morning! :)

Me and Salome went to collect the balloons with my sister and they had the wrong order done up so gave me a free bunch of balloons! And then I got a huge 2 and 1 balloons and walked out of the shop and the 1 blew away! So with all this time going by I was building up a sweat from panic and rushing!

This is me and Salome before we started getting ready, we just sat on the bed moisturising our legs and me sipping on some red bull :D

TAN TIME!! haha Ok so I started to do my tan and used a hand mitt with Sally Hansen in medium all over my legs, arms, back and chest.

And We're ready!! :D AnnMarie, Sharon, me, Salome and Ger got our drink on :D Ger called oer at 8pm so we could drink some Mojito's and alcopop's. We finally got to the venue and had everything set up by 9 when people started to arrive!

This is me n my guy BFF Mark. Got the yellow badge from my sis, and the "birthday girl" tiara and sash from my friend Sinead as part of my present :)
This is me and Jen, we were in primary school together and managed to end up back in school together 6 years later :) crazy! :) haha.
This is me and my BFF Sharon all smiles after a few drinks :D

We had some night! Once we hit the club Salome went missing for 2 and half hours and passed out in the bathroom of the club! :P Some dramatic but funny night :D

Lots of Love xoxo

Ups and Downs of recent times :) xx

Hey Dolls,

This is my ups and downs for recent times :)


Too Faced Naked Eye Palette:
I love this palette. I got it from my sister who recently got back from Orlando and New York. I got an email from Sephora about this new palette and emailed her to see if she could get it. At the time it wasn't even on the shop floor :)

I love each of the three looks that the cards show... classic, day and fashion :) There really pretty looks. I've tried each of them.






Angel Porrino (Holly Madison's Assistant):

She is in Holly's World as Holly's assistant. She is absolutely stunning! I love her hair, the length and colour of it! I love her style, its very like Holly's with the denim skirt and knee high socks and cute tee's but I love it! Its so so cute.

This is a pic of her at her 21st birthday! She has a gorgeous smile and looks amazing. I am so jealous of her outfit... so cute! :)

She has a gorgeous body and is mom to one year old Roman.

She seems very down to earth and willing to help Holly Madison out with anything considering there BFF's.

NO BOYS!! :

Since splitting with my boyfriend of nearly four years I've had my ups and downs with guys. Been hurt three times (not seriously), went a bit wild and got a bit slutty. I've calmed down a bit now.

I decided to check out internet dating for 4 days and ended up meeting a friend off it - I wanted something more but it didn't work out so we're buds which is cool :) Another guy i liked got back with his ex-fiance!

So now I'm trying to stay off guys for a small bit and take time for myself... go to the gym, do some paintings, do what my driving theory test and get on the road... things I want to do for me!! :)

Lots of Love xoxo

Oxegen 2010

Hey Dolls!

I was at Oxegen again this year. AMAZING isn't the word to describe it really. I saw so many groups and had so much fun with the friends that came with me! We all got along and had loads of drink... despite the bad weather we had a blast! :)

This is AnnMarie, me, Ashleigh, Sorcha and Salome looking stylish drinking before we hit the main Arena for the bands of the day. We had a laugh and thats the "Love Shack" tent in the background :) - which unfortunately didn't make it through the bad weather so came home but won't be used again :(

This is the lads Edward, Eoin, David and Ger (except Mark) posing for D12! We went to oxegen with these lads last year too.

This is a picture of me and all the lads. Looking stylish in my polka dot socks and hand print on my ass (smudged). This was the last day of gigs. We had some fun sitting out in the sun :)

I saw bands like 3oh!3, Eminem, Plan B, Republic of Loose, David Guetta, Jay Z, Dizzie Rascal, Bell X1, Kasabian, Goldfrapp, Gossip, Florence and the Machine, Paolo Nutini, Tinie Tempah, Darwin Deez and I also saw part of the World Cup Final on a huge outdoor screen :D

Lots of Love xoxo

My NEW tattoo!! :D

Hey dolls...

Remember a while back I posted on what I wanted my first tattoo to look like...?? :)

Well I finally got it done today :D YAY!! Its still red in the pics but u get the idea! I love it so much! Its so cute! And perfect! :)

I'll post some pics next week when its all healed and not so red :) Let me know what u think, like it/ hate it? I really don't mind because its on me not you so honest opinions :D

Lots of Love xoxo

My hair! Grrr!

Hey girlies,

Ok, so lately my hair HATES me! haha. I've tried everything to untangle my hair, I've even used more conditioner in the shower but no matter what my hair always tangles and goes into bumps when I try to tie it up. I don't want to have to straighten my hair after every shower so I really want a solution to having smoother sleeker hair. I've used leave in conditioners, hair milks, and even VO5's hot oil to re boost some of the natural shine and condition to it. But no... my hair just doesn't want to like anything. I think my fault was washing my hair with the garden hose a few weeks back... I was desperate because I was going out that night and needed to wash my locks but the electricity happened to be off for the whole day :( Grr... so now I need help! Any suggestions? Oh and I've tried brushing it... it makes me cry it hurts so much... I'm like a child haha.

And also as you may see from my blog pic that I now have a fringe? Worst idea for me ever!!!! haha. I tried to re cut it n ended up with a sidewards fringe, AND it NEVER stays straight! :( Oh how can I get my normal side fringe back!! :O

Thanks babes xx

nonvegans think differently than vegans

Some vegans watch Earthlings or Meet Your Meat and go vegan overnight, but most vegans went vegan slowly. I've long believed that the path most vegans arrive at veganism - the path that begins with reducing or eliminated consumption of mammals and then extends to birds and then to sea creatures and then extends beyond flesh to milk and eggs - is a path that follows a natural or logical progression of empathy extending out from our own kind to those who are similar to us.

That is, it is common for humans to feel some empathy for cats, dogs, dolphins, horses, rabbits and other mammals like cows and pigs. Some people act on that empathy by eating only certain types of animals that they think of as dissimilar to humans (such as chickens or fishes). Some people act on that empathy by eating only animals who have been treated according to certain "humane" standards. Vegetarians extend the empathy and choose not to eat animal flesh. Vegans extend that empathy to reach all sentient species and refrain from intentional and unnecessary harm to them.

But what gets someone who cares about animal suffering to make the leap into veganism?


A recent study on empathy compared omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans. The study looked at the brains of vegans and nonvegans while showing them images of human and animal suffering. Among other findings, they discovered "a distinctive pattern of empathic response and emotional control in vegans."

"while omnivores are characterized by a greater activation of the bilateral posterior MTG during both human and animal negative valence scenes, vegetarians and vegans have constantly an higher engagement of empathy related areas while observing negative scenes, independently of the species of the individuals involved" [...]

"Collectively, our results reveal that distinct brain responses are evoked by emotionally significant pictures of humans and animals in people with vegetarian and vegan feeding habits, as well as between vegetarians and vegans, suggesting that different motivational factors might underlie their preferences and moral attitudes."

What can a vegan advocate learn from this? The take-away, as I see it, is that nonvegans think differently than vegans. We don't just have different beliefs, habits, education, resources, etc. though we may have those, too; we literally process the knowledge of others' suffering differently. We literally think about animal suffering differently than omnivores.

Hence, if we want to effectively advocate for animals, we can't rely solely on the reasoning that is most compelling to us. Nonvegans don't think like us. So we must include discussions that appeal to nonvegans. We must find ways to encourage animal rights that fit into nonvegans' paradigms.

---
Crossposted at Vegan Soapbox

My week of nights out... FOTN

*Nights Out*

In the past week I've been out 3 nights, which is kind of unusual for me as I normally don't go out drinking that much in one week!

So in this first pic is me and my bessie Salome. In the past couple of months she decided to start wearing full face make-up. And the revlon foundation she uses makes her face look white or powdered in pictures!
This is me on a night out with two girls from college on Thursday. This is me and Aoife in Suas. First time in a long time I've gone out with crimped hair.

This was Saturday night out for my friend Niamhs 20th birthday. I really like my makeup that I wore that night :D


This was the first week in a long time I didn't wear black smokey eye makeup!! :O haha

Lots of love xoxo

Upcoming posts :)

Hey dolls :)

So upcoming posts include...

*Matching foundation to tan
*Bronzer - applying and oopa loompa's :O
*Summer day looks
*Nail varnish reviews - primark and Barry M's new collection (2 Colours)
*General update :)

Check back soon xxx

Update :)

Hey dolls :)

This is really quick short post to let you know I'm still alive. I went to dublin this weekend and auditioned for the x factor. I will do a more detailed explanation to my experience including pictures during the week so please check back :)

Lots of Love xoxo

Summer Wish List :)

Hey Dolls,

I decided to post a summer wish list of all the new and existing products that I wanted to try :) So here goes:

First up is: Bourjois:
Healthy Mix Foundation - I really want to try this moisture boosting foundation as it would really waken up my look and make my skin look brighter to break up my usual makeup routine :)
Volume Clubbing Waterproof - I am going to Oxegen this summer and need waterproof mascara that lasts through the rain and will make my lashes look amazing so I want to try this to see if it gives the effect I want :)
Gloss Menthol - I really want to try this as a cheaper alternative to Benefit's California Kissin'. I really liked the minty taste and smell and also liked the fact that my teeth did look whiter without my lips looking blue :)

Next up is: No.7 @ Boots:
Intense Volume Mascara - I love volumising my lashes :D

Next: Rimmel:
1, 2, 3 Looks Mascara - This looks soooo cool I really want to try it :D
Glam Eyes Mono Eye Shadow - I want this in Precious Rose :) It looks sooo pretty.
Match Perfection Illuminating Concealer - its a concealer and highlighter :D Sounds like my kinda product :)

Next: Collection 2000:
Shimmer and Shade Blush - this is sooo pretty :) Love the flower detail :)

Next: 17 @ Boots:
Candy Collection Nail Polish - I love the shades! :D

Thats all for now :) There is a lot more which I will create in a new list soon xx

Next: Revlon:
Matte Lipstick - In Nude Attitude and Pink Pout :)

If you've used any of these products and have reviewed them please post a link to your review in the comments :) xx

Update

Hey dolls :)

OMG I can't believe how long its been since I did I post :( And I am so sorry to my followers for not posting regularly lately. My past few weeks have been mad busy with college finishing up and exams. I have one exam left so I am delighted to say I can post a lot more regularly now :)

So my update isn't much... I have just finished 4/5 of my exams and all went well so I am hoping that I got distinctions (highest grade) :) I have spent the past week living with my friend as she lives with her nan and her nan went on holidays so I stayed with her. We had a good week of lounging around n nights out. I was out Saturday for her birthday (pics below). It was a good night out.

Another thing is I got a fringe :O I haven't had a full fringe since I was 2!! So basically never haha. Comment below and let me know what you think :)

Me with my new hair :)

Group pic :)

Me and Ashleigh

Posing pic :P

Niamh, Ashleigh, me and Una - cute pic :)

Lots of Love xoxoxox