I am not what most people would describe as a feminist. I enjoy being girly, I like to flaunt my magnificent boobs and I am constantly appalled that chivalry is dead. However, I do actually identify myself as a feminist. Oh don’t look at me like that, feminist is not a dirty word!

I am not a traditional sort of feminist by any means. I don’t go on rallies and I am not overly vocal about my beliefs, unless it involves a significant injustice against women, and I do not hate men. I do however believe very strongly in equal rights for females, something I do not believe we have yet achieved. That’s probably one of the reasons why I am a bit quiet about it, people take such offense to the idea of feminism, like women are lucky to be allowed the rights they have. The worst part is, a lot of women seem to agree with this way of thinking. I like to think they just don’t want to be labeled a feminist (like I said, people consider it to be a dirty word) but then again maybe a lot of women have the idea that they’re not quite as good as men deeply ingrained in them.

I only recently decided to start calling myself a feminist, in particular after reading a few blogs that were aimed at teenagers mostly, but I actually found a lot of the information on there really relevant to my feelings on the subject. I’ve always been the kind of person to get mad at anyone who claims (or even implies) women aren’t equal to men, and have had many heated arguments with people over sexist statements they’ve dared utter in my presence. But it wasn’t until reading some really good articles by these girls who identify as feminists who didn’t fall under the dreaded “feminazi” title that I actually decided to identify myself as a feminist. It’s a shame that I could never identify as one previously because I has this skewed idea of what feminism meant, and I’m sure it’s the same for most women. I think all women should be able to call themselves a  feminist, because there are different levels of belief in the cause (kind of like religion, some people are super devout while others believe without feeling the need to go to church).  All women should want to be equal to males in regards to human rights, work opportunities, sexuality etc.

One of the things that gets to me most is the difference in perception between males and females for doing the exact same thing. While I am naturally outraged by the idea of a male getting paid more for doing the same job as a female, just because of gender, it’s the smaller things that I feel don’t get voiced enough. An obvious example is the idea that a male can sleep with as many women as he wants and gets positive attention from other males while a female who does the same thing is no more than a “slut” (which is one of my most hated words, by the way). I hear guys often talk about how a promiscuous girl is a slut because she has one-night stands and has casual sex. When I interject and ask them how much casual sex they have, the fact they have a lot more than this poor girl doesn’t even matter. She sleeps around and that is disgusting and that is that. I’ve often asked how it differs between women and men, why can a man sleep with a hundred women and a woman sleep with say 20, and it be applauded for the male and found repulsive for the girl. There’s never a proper answer and usually comes down to the whole “women are not as superior as men” idea or the ridiculous belief that it’s dirtier for a woman to have had lots of penises in her than for a man to have stuck his dick in hundreds of vagina’s. And yet these guys will go buy a copy of FHM and ogle the featured girls (and possibly even fantasise about them)  and not even care that thousands of other men are doing the exact same thing. It’s bizarre.

And then there are things like how people think the worst of a girl who’s overweight and barely bat and eyelid over a guy who’s just as heavy. I’m sure the guy also gets his fare share of criticism for being large, but I find women get it much, much worse. The comments differ so much. “Wow that’s guy’s huge” vs “Check out that fat bitch”. It’s a weird one, but I do feel that fat girls are perceived far worse than fat guys. Then there’s the whole representation in the media, where almost everything can be sold with an attractive lady in the picture, regardless of the targeted demographic, bang a hot girl  in the ad and it’s gonna sell. Male-orientated advertising is going to be more sexual and in-your-face than advertising that’s aimed at women, but for the most part, it’s all about using a woman’s good looks and body to sell products and I think it’s sad. And my biggest gripe right now? The depiction of women who not only enjoy but actually get turned on by domestic violence. I have been noticing it in TV, film and even music videos lately and am shocked that it’s still tolerated. I also get riled by the women who suffer domestic violence, particularly against their famous boyfriends/husbands, and yet go back to them because it was “out of character”. I hope I do not have to explain how wrong, wrong, wrong this is.

I am not a man-hating lesbian as most feminists are perceived to be. I do not wear asexual clothing and hide my femininity because I feel I am exploiting myself for the benefit of men. I am a normal woman who loves makeup, dresses and the colour pink. I don’t demand or even want anything more than for women to have the same rights and respect as men get. I understand women have so much more available to them now than they ever did in the past, but I still feel women have a long way to go before a good level of equality is reached (I don’t excpect there will ever be such thing as total equality, not in my lifetime anyway). I just want people to accept the actions, desires and worthiness of women the same as they currently do for men.

There is so much more I could say on the subject, but I’d actually rather hear from other people about their ideas about feminism and whether you think there’s still gender inequality these days (namely in 1st world countries, as we all know gender inequality is rampant in many 3rd word nations). Tell me your thoughts, examples of gender inequality or whatever you’d like to contribute to the discussion.

Some interesting links:
Madonna syndrome: I should have ditched feminism for love, children and baking
Against the name Change: A Polemic
The F Bomb: Feminist Blog about Women’s Rights for Teenage Girls
The Sexual Behaviours of Women vs Men
Why modern feminism is illogical, unnecessary, and evil
What’s a Modern Girl to Do?
NOW VP To Sarah Palin and Conservative Women: Stop Being So Empowered, Darn It!

EDIT: Just wanted to clarify a few things. I am not attempting to justify myself by saying I am a girly girl who likes guys and wears makeup, as though trying to distance myself from the feminist stereotype. I am attempting to make a point that even though I do not conform to how people think a feminist ought to look or act, I am one and not ashamed to say so. I am aware the feminist stereotype exists for a reason, and so if you are offended by the fact I made a point of distancing myself from it, I apologise because that wasn’t my intention at all. I think all women of all walks of life should be able to call themself a feminist without thinking they’re going to be labled as something they’re not.
Also, I do not necessarily agree with the sentiments in some of those links, I just wanted to share a few that raised interesting points that helped prove what I was attempting to say. At least one of these is exactly the oppisite of how I feel but I wanted to show the “other side” of the debate.

As we already know I’m a bit of a fitness junkie. As such I finally decided it was time to buy some new sneakers as my Puma’s were kind of cheap and I was starting to get sore shins and calves because they weren’t supporting me properly anymore. I’ve been eyeing off those Sketchers Shape-Up’s that people are always talking about but I was a bit skeptical about them because Sketchers have always seemed like a casual shoe as opposed to an actual proper exercise shoe. Theta and they they cost $200!

So today I was browsing through Rebel Sport and found Reebok have their own version called Easytone. As they were only $180, and as Reebok are definitely known for being good sport shoes, plus they didn’t look quite as dicky as the Sketchers, I got ‘em! I also like their website and how they give you workouts that work best with the shoes (for free). You can even design your won Easytone’s! That is so neat!

They’re designed to cause micro-instability which basically means your leg and butt muscles work harder as you walk and move, because there’s these raised lumps on the soles that make balance just a little harder than with normal shoes. So I am going to test them out at gym and when walking and doing weights and see if I notice anything in the butt/leg region. Even if they don’t work (though I’m sure they will) they’re cool-looking shoes and weren’t too expensive so at least now my damn shins won’t hurt so much after hardcore workouts! Win’s all round!

I will keep ya’ll updated on the results!

That there is me a day after they were pierced back on the 1st October 2005. Let me tell you, lip piercings HURT! It was absolute agony getting them pierced, which is probably why I kept them for so long. I found they healed pretty quickly and never really gave me any problems. Accidentally biting down on the backs hurts a fair bit but you quickly learn to avoid doing that too often! I had metal studs for ages before I discovered the ones with plastic backings where the diamante stud kind of clicks into the backs. They prevented any damage to my gums and almost never fell out. I found the balls on metal studs would always wind themselves undone and fall off which was always a huge pain in the arse. The only time I took my snakebites out was when one of them was giving me some grief, I’d give them a day to rest before putting them back in to make sure they didn’t start healing over.

It’s been almost five years since I got them pierced and it’s probably going to take me a while before I get used to the fact they’re gone. I’m worried they’ll leave nasty scars as most people I know who’ve taken out lip rings didn’t have the piercing all that long and still have small scars to show for them. But we’ll see how it goes!

Goodbye little snakebites! You’ve served me well and I was always proud of how you looked on me But time to grow up (albeit reluctantly) and move on to bigger and better things! And may I go back to being an excellent kisser once more!

GUESS WHAT? I finally got with the times (about 10 years too late) and got a webcam. And by “got a webcam” I mean “nicked the one my boyfriend owns and never uses from his room while he was out”! Mwahaha!  I have ALWAYS wanted one but always chickened out of it, like I was being too vain or vulgar for wanting to project my face to the world on the internet at any time I felt like. Sometimes I am weird like that. By the way, that face up there is how I look about 90% of the time when I am on the internet. Except my hair isn’t usually up, you can thank tonight’s exercise for that. So now that I have a webcam, I now also have ROBO.TO!!! Check mine out: robo.to/rockfotze

Anyway, the main reason or today’s blog is that I decided to bring it back the good old days of LJ where we all used to do little memes and share them around. I saw this one at Monster Girl Writes and liked the questions so decided I’d join the fun!

1. Would you ever get cosmetic surgery? If not, why not? If yes, what would you want done?
Yes. I don’t believe in cosmetic surgery for the sake of it (I’m looking at YOU Heidi Montag) but if you’re really unhappy with one of your features and have the funds to fix it, then I don’t see the problem. Make sure you’re doing it or the right reasons though, not just because some assholr guy will like you better if your nose was smaller and your boobs were bigger. Personally I’d get lipo like THAT if  I had $10,000.

2. What is “your drink”?
I don’t know if I have one! I enjoy a range of drinks depending on where I am and the occasion. I tend to go for vodka lime soda’s the most though I am very partial to cider.

3. What are your five fashion essentials?
Mascara, an excellent bra, a cute tutu or amazing dress, bright shoes and perfect hair.

4. Do you have any tattoos? What are they? If not, do you want some? What would you like to get?
Yes, I have many. On last count I have 13 and I will probably get more in the future though I have slowed right down and am pretty content with how many I have at the moment. They range from the grisly (skeletons/skulls, zombies etc) to the girly (pansies on my feet) and the downright geeky (TWO Harry Potter tattoos so far).

5. What is something most people don’t know about you?
There is a lot people don’t know about me. I am quite secretive about most things and have a lot of issues without opening up when it comes to my honest, inner-most feelings. I am also totally paranoid about hurting peoples feelings or making people worry unnecessarily so I usually keep anything that might cause hurt/concern to myself to avoid and bad feelings. It’s terrible, I know, but I’m working on it constantly and am getting much better. Oh and I am crazy shy! I know I don’t look like I would be, and I tend to come off as bold and abrupt to most people but I am painfully shy. Another thing I am constantly working on!

Please feel free to share your answers in the comments!

I would love to live in a world where we can all appreciate one another for how we look and the different choices we make. But I am also a realist and know that unless we all get full frontal lobotomies or turn into those old fashioned depictions of the future where we all wear the same space-age outfits and look kind of the same, that ain’t going to happen. It goes against human nature not to comment on other people, be it in a negative or positive way. Expecting women to look at celebrities who are wearing dresses that cost as much as our cars and jewels that cost more than our houses and not have something to say is preposterous. If we don’t like what they’re wearing, we have every right to say so if we want to. It’s not very nice, and we all should learn to stop being so damn critical all the time, but it’s what most people do and it generally doesn’t hurt anyone because most of us whisper such comments to a friend, have a chuckle and move on with our lives.

Mia Freedman strives for women of realistic body shapes to be seen in magazines and on TV. She’s not campaigning for a world where anyone can wear whatever they want without someone out there not liking it. Give her a fucking break. We live in a world where terrible things happen everyday. There are entire countries and religions that force women to live like slaves to their husbands and wear clothing that ensure they do not look desirable to any other man. We live in a world where LGBT people aren’t allowed the most basic right of marriage and are often persecuted and in severe cases, killed for having the “wrong” sexuality. And yet here we have people getting so mad about something so trivial. Yes, someone making a snide remark about how they don’t like what some celebrity wore to an awards show is trivial and meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Because a) There are far more important thing to worry about in the world and b) The celeb’s don’t give a shit what we lowly common folk think, and even if they did I am sure they can dry their tears with their big wads of cash and buy a few Cartier diamonds to cheer themselves up!

When we live in a world where there’s no discrimination about race, gender, religion or sexuality then we can all go crazy and stop people from having opinions about what other women wear. If indeed that’s what you really want.

I got a link to an article called “Best Friends for Never” by my best friend today which, as I first started reading it, made me angry. I got my female-thang on instantly and was all “Oh NO he didn’t” but then I actually thought about it, stopped being such a girl and had a laugh and realised it was all pretty much true. I hate to admit it, but girls are such bitches! No matter how nice we are or how hard we try not to, we all love to bitch and gossip and there’s nothing we can do to stop ourselves from doing it. I try not to bitch too much, though as a female I still do it and will reluctantly admit it’s kind of fun to do.

I am absolutely hopeless at being a bitch. I may come off as one with my ranty blog posts and sarcastic tweets, but I am generally a really nice person in real life. I’m the kind of person who will stay friends with someone who may not be all that nice to me, just because I don’t want to hurt their feelings by ending the friendship. Problem with that though, is that I am a girl and so leaving those sorts of people around in my life result in the need to bitch. And since I am such a social networking whore, naturally things get out of hand and very recently I ended up bitching about a friend on twitter with another friend, which the person in question later discovered. Needless to say I had some explaining to do, which has now resulted in me losing a friend. This outcome was actually something I wanted but because I had to be a typical female, I’ve hurt someones feelings in a public forum and made myself look like a right cow.

So my advice to all girls is this: Learn not to bitch. I know how unfeasible that sounds given how it’s apparently ingrained in all of us (boys too!), but we need to get out of this trap where we deal with our problems with other people by bitching about them behind their back! We all need to face up to what’s bothering us, particularly when it comes to the company we keep and start being upfront and honest instead of sneaky and nasty. I can think of about 1000 things I’d rather do than tell a friend they piss me off and I don’t want to spend any time in their company any more, but in the long run you’re better off getting it out there and saying it to their face so you can clear your conscience and not look like a total twat when they find out the smack you’ve been talking behind their back.

I made a dumb mistake by venting online instead of getting the balls to confront my friend, something I’ve been dying to do for ages but just never found the confidence to say it. Once I’d been found out, I told them what I’d been meaning to say to them all along and while I know their feelings are hurt and they now hate my guts, I had to do it in order to stop the vicious cycle. Otherwise, had I lied and apologised for being mean and patched things up, things would have just stayed the same and I’d keep bitching behind their back and being friendly to their face before eventually slipping up once again. I’ve caused some hurt in the short-term but in the long-term I’ve made both our lives much better.

Think of someone who you like to bitch about all the time. Do you need them in your life? Or could you it them down and work things out? Bitching causes small issues to become massive dramas because you work yourself up and your friend/s encourage you by listening and participating until the little thing that annoyed you in the first place has become somethings you’d be likely to see on Days Of Our Lives. Confront the issue without the bitching and get rid of the problem ASAP. Negativity is unhealthy and the less you have in your life, the better you will feel.

There’s nothing much boring than a person who’s all gung-ho about health and fitness and works out five days a week and actually uses their gym membership on top of exercising at home or going for jogs after work. I say this as one of those people. I used to always sling off at fitness freaks, mutter about how they need to go get a life and think about how much I was looking forward to sitting on the couch, watching TV and eating dinner later that evening while they recovered from an exhausting workout and ate a salad. And then I started exercising to lose weight, realised exercise actually made you feel really, really good and kind of got into it at some stage.

The difference between me and most of the people I see at the gym or when I got for a run is that I don’t get all “fitness jerk” about it. You know the kind of person I mean, they’re obsessed with exercise and make you feel bad because you don’t think about working out every minute of the day. They strut around the gym like they’re gods gift to whatever and flirt with the opposite sex by flexing their enormous muscles or showing off their perky butts by doing squats in the middle of the weights area. God I hate them!

You can love exercise and not be one of those creeps and I highly recommend it. You don’t have to do it for weight loss (though that’s obviously the main reason why people exercise at all) because the other benefits are boundless. Just by adding regular exercise to your weekly routine will improve your health and well being dramatically. I’m not talking about going for a slow half hour walk once a week either, I mean a proper work out where you sweat a lot and hurt at least a little bit the next day. You don’t have to sign up at the gym or get a personal trainer to do this, though I find have a gym membership motivates me since I refuse to waste money so make myself go as often as possible in order to make the membership fee worth it. If you can afford it though, a PT is great to get the ball rolling on your fitness and also teaches you how to exercise the areas you want to target (and then you can just keep it up by yourself). You really just need motivation and and someone to do it with, as nothing kills motivation to exercise faster than having to do it on your own all the time.

If you’re new to the world of frequent exercise I have a few tips to get you started (don’t I always?!):

• Get decent exercise gear, especially proper shoes to prevent leg and back pain/injury. Wear stuff that’s comfortable and breathable. For the ladies, you MUST get a decent sports bra. I went without one for years and then when I finally bought myself one I was SHOCKED by how much better I can exercise when my boobs aren’t bouncing around everywhere.
• Mix it up. Doing the same exercise/s day after day will bore you to death and will probably cause you to give up really quickly. Instead of the treadmill, go for a walk or run outside, it’s better for your body and you get to see the great outdoors for an hour or so, as opposed to someone’s sweaty back. Take classes, gyms have heaps and they’re free when you are a member! Classes keep you far more motivated than if you just tried to do the same level or exercise by yourself on the gym floor. Also work out a simple routine and build it up, don’t go to every gym class in a week, exhaust yourself and have to take another week to recover before you go back (if you even decide to go back).
• Start a sport. Nothing makes exercise more fun than team sport! It doesn’t have to be something traditional like soccer, after all pole dancing is now considered a sport and is a fantastic (and sexy) form of exercise. Martial arts gives you a cool skill (ie. kicking arse) while also being great exercise and can teach you a lot about self control and anger management. I personally started boxing a few months ago and my fitness is insane now, on top of my gaining strength and losing fat. I go to Brisbane Boxing in West End which I highly recommend if you’re in Brisbane and want to hurt like a bitch the day (sometimes days) after you go.
• If you hurt really badly the day (or days) after an intense workout, don’t give up, keep it up and get your body used to the pain. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s all about building up a resistance to the pain and making your muscles stronger (see the wiki article about DOMS for more info). The pain is worth it, I promise!

So I realise I sound like a massive exercise-fanatic-douchebag after writing this BUT regardless, I think people need to get moving more often, if not to lose weight then to get healthy and make yourself live longer and stop being such a lazy jerk. Nothing grinds my goat more than people who whinge about feeling fat when I know they probably haven’t done any half decent exercise since PE in high school. It’s gonna hurt at first and you’ll feel like a massive wanker when you first put on your fancy new gym gear and sprain a muscle in front of fitter, healthier and better looking people than you, but the end will make it ALLLL worth it. Trust me. You can thank me later when you get kick someone’s arse in a race or you have to rescue a damsel in distress or next summer when you fit in your old bikini or favourite dress.

Pretty sure I need this fancy boxing get up ;)

Anyway, because of this I like to think myself quite knowledgeable about dying hair in non-natural, vibrant colours. Even before I got the pink streaks for the first time, I used to use this stuff called Magic Silver Rose which made my hair a vivid pinky-purple colour (it was a toner old ladies used as a rinse, bit like the ol’ blue rinse, but when used concentrated it was BRIGHT as fuck). As such I am a total pink-hair-snob and shudder when I see people walking around with bad dye jobs. Doesn’t matter what colour, badly done and poorly maintained colour looks nasty, though I am especially passionate when it comes to PINK.

That is why I thought I’d share my tips on dying hair vivid colours like pink so that if you’re thinking about getting your hair did BRIGHT then you won’t make the same fatal mistakes so many others have made! My advice needs to be triplicated for those who has all of their hair dyed a bold colour (or colours) as I can get away with a lot more as I have my pink strategically placed so regrowth takes quite a while to show.

• Get it done properly. Either go to a hairdresser to get your hair light enough for bright colours to show or at least make sure the person helping you out knows what they’re doing. I let some friends who had NO idea what they were doing bleach my hair once which almost killed it. Luckily this was the under-part of my hair so the damage was hard to see. Having someone stuff up when they’re doing your whole head will only result in tears!
• Pick your dyes carefully! The dyes you buy at the grocery store are OK for natural colours but if you’re going got a bright red or a plummy sort of colour, you might want to look elsewhere. These dyes are designed to go over your natural hair colour and will look nasty if done over bleached blonde hair. I must admit though, store-bought black is permanent as hell and extremely good value. For unnatural, bright colours pick the brand based on how bright and permanent you want the colour to be. In Australia we really only have Fudge Paintbox which is super bright but not at all permanent (therefore ideal if you plan to change the colour regularly). The most permanent of all bright dyes I’ve found as Special Effects, which is hard to come by in Australia, though very common in the USA. SFX is therefore the best value, as a bottle of the stuff lasts ages as you don’t need to retouch the colour nearly as often as Fudge. In between Fudge and SFX are brands like Manic Panic and LaRiche Directions. Directions is a little bit more permanent than Fudge but comes in big tubs that last ages so it’s really good value. Manic Panic comes in the same sort o tubs and is even more long-lasting than Fudge and Directions so also great value. It’s an American brand though can be found in Australia easily enough (likewise with Directions, though it’s from the UK).
• DO YOUR REGROWTH! There’s nothing worse than seeing someone with a bright coloured hair with a big, nasty strip of dark regrowth ruining it. On that note KEEP YOUR COLOUR BRIGHT! You want to rock the bright coloured hair? Then keep it looking good but getting rid off regrowth and keeping the colour even and the colour you want it to be. Nothing I hate more than seeing girls with half-faded pink hair with an inch of regrowth. Not got the time to maintain the colour? THEN DON’T HAVE IT! I know some people have their days/weeks where they let their hair fade out and look crap (god knows I have) but I tend to only ever see people during this stage, and rarely see them with the colour looking awesome. It ain’t hard so don’t slack off!
• Pick a colour that goes with the colours you wear. I cringe when I see people with pink hair wearing red (and vice versa). If you’re going to dye your hair a certain colour then make sure it’s not going to clash with half your wardrobe.
• Care for your hair! Now you have bright colored hair, you need to treat it better than how you’d treat your natural hair colour. Using shampoos that are made specifically or coloured hair are a good start. Avoiding going under the water in the pool or at the beach is another big one as chlorine and salt water can strip colour out. Washing your hair less may have to be another option because you’ll find your colour feeds really quickly if you wash it everyday vs every other day. And most importantly, particularly or those who’ve had to bleach their hair to get the bright colour, treat your hair to a special conditioning treatment after bleaching. I’m lucky because I have pink and black hair because the conditioner I get with the store-bought black dye is AMAZING.

I actually remembered to take a few photos while my mum did my hair last weekend. Yep, my mum. She is a pro at dying my hair which means I know it gets done well AND it’s free (I dye hair in return). It usually takes the better part of a full day to complete but she does a top-notch job each time so well worth it. Click the pics or full-sized images and descriptions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I’m always happy to help out with tips for keeping bright, unnatural hair colours looking good! Another great reference guide is this one by Gala Darling. Just remember though, everyone is different and practice makes perfect. What may work or me might not work for you so experiment and keep trying til you get it right!

As a result I made sure to have a nice quiet weekend doing some of the things I love which I think has helped me immensely. These included going to see Alice in Wonderland at the movies on Friday night (which I loved, by the way) before coming home to find my good friends over with their Wii console where we battled it out with Wii Tennis, which I am shocking at but love it none-the-less. On Saturday I slept in late, watched Video Hits and old cartoons before slowly getting ready and catching up with some friends at an afternoon punk show. That evening I headed to my mum’s for the night where we stayed up late watching movies on TV and chatting. On Sunday we bummed around the house, did some scrapbooking, watched blue wren’s teaching their babies how to forage for food and use the bird bath (Cutest. Thing. Ever!), ate way too much food, ran some errands (which resulted in my almost having a seizure from laughing so much, I kid you not). Then it was home for $5 steak with a friend and now I am feeling refreshed for the new week, especially since it’s my first 7:30am shift at this job and the first one I’ve done in years (I really do not do early mornings so this will be a massive learning curve for me).

My plans for this week include getting back on track with my healthy eating regime, exercising an extra day this week and preparing myself for Lady Gaga on Friday night! I am too excited to comprehend and I still don’t know what to wear yet!!!

How do you  get over an extended bad mood? Do you have battle tactics to fight it, or do you just succumb and let it take over?

When I take into account the expense I go through in order to maintain everything, my mind boggles (s0 I try not to think about it too much) so just for prosperity and to make you all cringe at how much of a friggen girl I really am, here’s a list of what I do to look my best everyday:

Makeup
I LOVE makeup and wear it a lot. I also have a very specific regime with makeup application and have spent a lot o time perfecting it. I am always open to suggestions about how to be more efficient/cost effective or whatever, such as my recent purchase o makeup primer. That shit be awesome, yo! I tend to stick to Clinique for most of my makeup products but do use cheaper stuff like Revlon or Rimmel for lipstick, blush and eyeshadow (plus Clinique is pretty crap for bright colours so I have to go elsewhere to get the colours I like). I am always buying new stuff, particularly lipstick, so I spend a fair bit each year on new makeup.

Hair
I am actually quite cost-efficient with hair as I get my mum to dye it for me (I don’t trust hairdressers with this since my regrowth is a very complicated matter). I do get my hair cut at Oscar Oscar every few months, and my stylist is amazing so I a bit pay extra for her services than the standard stylist. I don’t actually use a lot of hair products and have a non-GHD (therefore reasonably priced) straighter. I do however make sure to straighten and style my hair everyday. If I don’t have time for makeup, the very least I do is my hair because I’ll be damned if people are going to look at my pink/black hair and think “Ugh she should maintain her hair better if she wants to rock colours like that”.

Nails
I used to be pretty slack with nails, only getting back into painting them regularly early last year. Then I went to Tokyo and got nail bling done and haven’t looked back since. I have to get refills every 2-3 weeks (I usually push it out to a good 3 weeks) which is a pain in the arse, albeit a worthwhile one because acrylic nails are da bomb! Don’t get me wrong, the nails you see are MY nails but the acrylic and gel stuff makes them super strong and lets them grow super long. I got them done on the weekend and had to shave a few mm off as they were getting insane. I relish in having anew set with a new colour and deciding which nail stickers to use. It’s time consuming but I get a lot of comments on my nails so totally worth it!

Tanning
I only got into this REALLY recently as I’d always vowed and declared tans were stupid and I liked being pale. But then I got a spray tan for my high school reunion and fell in love with brown skin. I don’t believe in real tans – skin cancer is not something to flirt with so I am all over these sunless tans now. I can’t afford to get spray tans every week or two so have Ella Bache tan cream to maintain a sun-kissed look. It makes my legs look so much better which is a very big thing for me as I have always had a bit of a thing against my legs. Plus a tan takes a few kg off you and god knows I love tricking nature in every way possible!

Waxing & Shaving
Something no one enjoys but is a necessary evil. I tend to shave everywhere except my bikini zone because I am pretty much hairless all over and so can go for a lot longer than the average girl between leg or underarm shaves. Shaving your bikini area is  huge NO NO and if you don’t already, start waxing IMMEDIATELY! Waxing is actually kind of expensive and because it has to be done every 4-6 weeks it’s a pretty major commitment as far as time and money go.

Clothes
All girls, even those who all at the lower end of the scale of girliness, love clothes. I defy any girl to say they hate clothes and shopping and never do it. I’m pretty sure it’s inbuilt in all of us, even if some of us can ignore the urge more than others. Personally I am OBSESSED! I have so many clothes it’s alarming. I doubt I know anyone who has half the amount of dresses I have or have spent half as much money as I have on their wardrobes. A lot of what I own are all from impulse buys because I literally cannot resist a sale, but I do have some items, dresses in particular, which were investment pieces and I actually gave some thought to before buying (they’re few and far between though, I gotta admit). I recently worked out my wardrobe is my most expensive “possession” and what I value the most of all my belongings. Sad but true!

Exercise
I personally exercise to keep fit and healthy, but a large component of my wanting to go for a run instead of sitting at home watching TV and eating crap is to get my body looking good. I also swear by the gym as I’ve become obsessed with classes like Body Combat which is another large expense (something like $650 a year I think). Plus I go to boxing once a week which is another expense at $10 a class. It’s probably the most beneficial of all my “looking good” expenses but still, totally not cheap and another expensive thing I do, along with so many other ladies out there, to keep looking good.

I’m not sure if I’ve missed out on anything, but that’s a good summary of what I do to keep looking the way I do. Sometimes I think I live such a superficial existence but then realise it’s who I am and I do it for myself more than anyone else anyway, so whether it’s superficial or not, it’s my business. I like looking nice and am not afraid to let people know it! I am very curious about the regime of others and how it differs to mine and the reasons why. So tell me, what do you do to keep looking the way you do and what would you change if you had the money/time/patience?