Spring is almost upon us, so it's almost time to say goodbye, arrivederci, adios, au revoir to all of the deep wintery shades and hello to the bright vibrant tones that spring brings. With that in mind, I thought I'd talk about some of my favourite makeup products for the spring season.
In this look I used, Lancome Teint Idole Ultra Wear foundation in the shade 010 Beige Porcelaine, Maybelline The Eraser Eye concealer, Rimmel Stay Matte powder, Benefit Hoola Bronzer, Revolution Beyond Radiance highlighter, Barry M Get Up And Glow blush, Elizabeth Arden eyesadow, Ted Baker Brilliance of Beauty eyeshadow, Maybelline Master Precise eyeliner, Soap And Glory Thick and Fast mascara, Soap and Glory Archery eyebrow pencil, MAC Russian Red matte lipstick. (links provided for everything except discontinued products)
While I struggle to part with my beloved red lipstick when spring comes I like your brighten up my eyes with some more vibrant colours rather than the nudes and browns that I use in winter so in this case, I've used a bright rose gold shade to add a pop of colour. I also like looking fresh and glowy because it helps you look more alive and alert which is perfect for spring with the rebirth of new life it's really the rebirth of colour into my makeup using brightly coloured and we'll pigmented blushes works well also. I typically use a lot of pink shades in spring eve though this look doest show it :')
If anybody knows me moderately well, you would know that I love the Eurovision Song Contest a little more than the average person, so I decided to share some songs that you should all check out! These aren't necessarily my favourite songs of the year, but the ones that should make you feel that Eurovision is more than just a mockery and that sometimes some gems can rise up out of the quagmire that is the genre of "europop". So without further ado, here are 10 songs from Eurovision 2017 that you should hear immediately.
1. Don't Come Easy, Isaiah
This is Australia's offering for the contest this year. "Why are Australia featured in a contest made to celebrate the European music scene?" I hear you ask. Well honestly we eurofans don't really know the answer to that either but when they come back year after year with jams like this we can't really complain. Unpopular Eurovision opinion alert: I didn't actually like Australia's entry last year so I'm glad that we've gone back to the Australia that I loved from 2015. This song gave me major Sam Smith vibes when I first heard it so in my head Isaiah is just Sam Smith with better hair but I'm not complaining.
2. Dance Alone, Jana Burceska
Never in all my years of watching Eurovision have I loved a song from Macedonia as much as this, they've stepped up their game so much this year and this is such a strong song. This is complete mainstream pop music and it's so refreshing it's absolutely something that you would hear on the radio and it's perfect for when you just want to dance around your room by yourself, which I guess makes the title of "dance alone" very relevant.
3. Occidentali's Karma, Francesco Gabbani
On the subject of dancing around your room, there is no song more suited for that than Italy's "Occidentali's Karma", it's not in English but that doesn't make it any less accessible for the non-Italian speaking population, there's something special about the Italian language that makes it so interesting and listenable and this song is not what I think a lot of people associate with Italian music and it's a solid jam, it's also the current favourite to win the whole competition so what better reason to give it a listen!
4. City Lights, Blanche
Although I'm not the biggest fan of this song, I do love the genre a lot and many of my favourite songs are from this genre, so say hello to Belgium's answer to deep female vocalist singing slow vibey song, if you're a fan of Lana Del Rey, Gabrielle Aplin, Halsey, Marina and the Diamonds and the like I wold almost guarantee that you'll love this because I am definitely in the small minority that doesn't.
5. Beautiful Mess, Kristian Kostov
Bulgaria's comeback to Eurovision has been bigger than Robbie's comeback to Take That, having come in fourth position last year with the absolute tune that was "If Love Was A Crime" Bulgaria are back at it again with this solid jam sung by 16-year-old Kristian Kostov.
6. Never Give Up On You, Lucie Jones
This is the UK's best entry in years, and being from the UK this makes me super happy! (It also means that I'm allowed to slate them for being crap). I've been a fan of Lucie since her days on The X Factor where she famously lost a sing-off to Eurovision royalty Jedward and I never forgave the judges. But Lucie is back and stronger than ever and this is possibly one of my favourite ballads of the year which just so happens to be written by Eurovision 2014 winner Emmelie De Forest.
7. Skeletons, Dihaj
Azerbaijan continuing their streak of sending good songs was always going to continue and they certainly didn't disappoint, this song is so solid and her vocals are outstanding, This song definitely appeals to the mass market and it just gives off an amazing vibe.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this is not my top 10 for the year, but I felt like these were the one's I should share with you all so you can get a bit of an idea as to how amazing the show is going to be in May and why I'm so excited! I'll probably upload my top 43 (that's right there are 43 songs!!!!) at some point in the near future but for now, just enjoy these seven. Let me know your favourites because I'm always curious to hear other peoples opinions.
I hadn't really taken much heed of this story before September 2016 when I heard a sermon preached on it and since then it's quickly become one of my favourite passages of scripture in the bible. Before then, to me, it had always been that passage in the middle of the story of Joseph, interrupting the flow of the story but now it's so much more than that.
Tamar, stolen from her family, sworn marriage to the son of one of the children of Israel, not that this would have meant anything to her, being a pagan from Canaan and all that, but little did Tamar know that she would pay such an important role in God's plan to salvage the world.
After being betrayed by the very man that took her for her family, belittled to nothing but a castout, no use to anyone she took revenge on her abuser because that's what Judah was, he was an abuser and that child was start the line of Judah, the same line of Judah that gave rise to Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.
This passage of scripture, although dark, is full of so much hope. Judah had backslidden so much, he was aware of the covenant, he was born into it, but he had taken no heed of it, God had already punished him for it by taking away two of his sons, and he was so scared that the same thing was going to happen again that he completely disregarded everything that he heard God say to him and went off and did his own thing, But as I said this is a story of hope and here's why.
Tamar: abused, misused and cast aside. That describes how so many of us can feel sometimes, that we're totally useless and that nobody would want us for anything. Yet look at how God managed to use Tamar, in her place of complete and utter despair after she had fully hit rock-bottom, God used her, albeit not in a completely wholehearted way, but it just shows that even in our bitterness and complete abandonment of sense and self that even those times can be used for good.
Judah: he had wandered so far away from the fold of God, that he hardly knew who he was anymore, but that didn't stop God from using him, for out of Judah came the greatest miracle that God has ever performed, His own son. Even if you feel like you've wandered too far from God or even if you've never walked with him at all, the story of Judah shows us that there is nowhere that we can wander that is too far from God's reach, no sin that we can commit is unredeemable all we need to do is return to God's side and repent wholeheartedly, for our God is an all-loving God and there is NOTHING that can separate us from His love.
Chezib, the place where this story takes place, means 'City of Lies', No matter what dire situations we find ourselves in, no matter how unsalvageable they seem, God will find a way to make things work together for your good, all we need to do is trust him wholeheartedly and surrender ourselves fully to His plan for our lives.
Everyone is familiar with the Christmas gospel. you know "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were mad,e without him nothing was made which has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."
This is one of the most famous passages in the Bible and we read it every Christmas without fail, It talks about Jesus being God and being with God at the very beginning and it refers to him as "the light" Light is such an exciting phenomenon and as a science student I've studied light for at least 5 years of my life and I still get amazed by how something can travel 8000000 metres in a second when I can barely travel one!
Light is mentioned 272 times in the Bible which shows just how important it is the first words spoken by God in the Bible are "Let there be light" Which makes it even more exciting when he sent the light down to redeem the Earth because he was returning it to its original glory. We get light wherever we go it's almost impossible to escape light, Even in the darkest depths of the ocean where it is pitch black the angler fish, you may remember it from Finding Nemo, provides its own light. In that 'light' this is what we should be doing as Christians, we are called to be the salt and the light of the Earth to reflect the light that Jesus shows.
We so often have the picture of light as something that lights our path and brings hope to dark situations but I was recently challenged by the fact that light also comes to disturb. A small beam of light sneaking through your curtains could be enough to stir you from your sleep. In the same way Jesus comes into our hearts, yes to bring us peace, but also to disturb. If the spirit isn't disturbing our hearts, alerting us if we do something we know we shouldn't and in disturbing us pointing us in the right direction,
My prayer this Christmas is that the Holy Spirit keeps disturbing me and keeps me going in the right direction in Gid's great plan for my life which all began at the birth of his Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
"Above all love each other deeply for love covers a multitude of sins" // 1 Peter 4:8
This is an open letter to the Christian church,
It is estimated that between 30 and 40% of LGBT youth have attempted suicide. Why? Because of the constant stream of abuse that they're receiving. As a body of Christ we are called to love yest it is often the very people who call themselves "Christians" that are making this number increase and now a man like Donald Trump is in charge of America, a man who claims to have Christian morals but who I assure you, does not. If we are called to Love, Why are we the very people ruling the world with hatred and looking down on others. Too often as Christians we can get caught up in our pride, we assume, oh we're better than them because they did this unspeakable thing, but are we? In Romans 3:23 it says "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" their sin is not greater than our sin. So if you use your Christianity as an excuse to hate the LGBT+ community are you not aware that the bible teaches the opposite? Jesus wouldn't want us running around, shunning people, just because they're different, after all he was the one who dined with outcasts, who talked to prostitutes and everyone looked down on him for that, yet he is the one we should look to as an example for our lives. What saddens me the most is that if a person openly from the LGBT+ community came into our church many people would make them feel unwelcome, like they are unworthy to be in God's house, but after all, so are we. So you don't have to be in love with the way they live, just like they don't need to be in love with the way that we live but after all. Love is love and God loves us, he loves us unconditionally, and he also loves them unconditionally, because that's just who he is, He's the omnibenevolent God, He loves us all equally, no one is more precious than any other. So tell me again how oppression and hatred of the LGBT+ community is biblical because to my mind it most certainly is not. We are not called to hate, We are called to Love. Love. Never. Fails. Love From, me, a young christian, ready for change.
Picture this, you're in a new place, you don't speak the language and you're lost, really lost, what would you do in that situation? I think for many of us the answer would be, wander around and try and retrace our steps or else pull out google and ask it for directions because god forbid we ask for directions even though we have absolutely no idea where we are!
So often we let our need of needing to resource ourselves, do things ourselves, that we disregard our serious need for help in certain situations, How often do we do this with God? Our Prosperity, which has been provided for us by God, to allow us to do his work at our full potential, being fully equipped, being in the top percentage of the richest people in the world, is the very thing that is holding us back from doing everything that God has planned for us. "I don't need God, I have google". So often we can put our God into a box and limit what we feel he's capable of, despite it saying in Ephesians that "he can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or even imagine" Our God is limitless and we put limits on him based on our own perceptions. We allow our want of self salvation get in the way of true salvation, salvation from the king of kings.
