I have a dream...

...and I know it's a dream that lots of you share. The dream of becoming a make up artist.

When I was younger, I used to spend hours playing with make up... not in the classic little girl way of super bright pink lips and too much blusher (although I'm sure that happened sometimes) but in the artistic way. While other kids were drawing pictures of their teddies and painting seascenes with dolphins (seriously, every girl I knew was obsessed with dolphins - I never did quite get why), I was busy perfecting the fake bruise, the scar and the black eye. I loved the way that colours blended together and the utter transformational approach to make up.

Moving on, I never got why the girls at school caked themselves in make up. I didn't get the heavily applied foundation and the clumpy eyelashes. I didn't understand the use of using supposedly "natural" make up as a mask. I chose to ignore the natural look and went down the root of pink eyeshadow, black eyeliner and an ever changing selection of drawn on shapes and patterns. It worked. I'll say it myself, but I looked flipping awesome in those days.

Moving on again, I got a boyfriend. Let's just say he liked the very natural look.... say hello to years of make up fear.

Eventually, my sanity is regained and I discover make up again and fall in love. There's a part of me that just feels like I've come home. I love creating a natural look, I love creating a more fun dramatic look. I love the sheer act of playing with make up. The time when things started to get serious again? My wedding make up trial - hello drag queen, hello tears. It was awful. So off I trotted to Lancome and then I was faced with something I really hadn't wanted to do - I had to do my own make up on my wedding day.

And you know something? I pulled it off. I had tonnes of friends on the day asking who'd done my make up and I was so happy to be able to say it was me!

Fastforward to spring of this year and whilst sat illl in bed (a regular occurance) I discovered the wonderful world of beauty blogging and all of those childhood dreams of becoming an MUA have come flooding back. A couple of friends found out about it and asked me to do their make up for the shoot a couple of weeks back. I didn't tell them I'd never actually done anyone's make up! After 4 hours and 4 different looks, I was exhausted but so incredibly happy! At a Body Shop party a few weeks later, a couple of friends asked me to do their make up and loved it. I jokingly comment on feeling like a make up artist and deadly serious, they agreed that I should.

So what's this rambling post about? I guess it's just me starting to let myself vocalise the dreams I have. It's also a first, very shy step out into the world about this. I remember once I saw a beauty blogger on twitter being kinda mean about someone daring to call themselves an MUA and I became terrified about even suggesting that it's something I'd like to do! I'm not going to be scared of saying it any more!

I would love to be an MUA and I know that I'm nowhere near being able to charge yet (nor do I have anywhere near a big enough kit to be able to do make up properly) but over this next year or so, I'm planning on making some big investments (financial yes, but also time and confidence) and reading/practicing as much as possible.

This means you'll be seeing more FOTDs, hopefully more makeover/photoshoot type looks and also more tidbits of my inspiration cropping up. It might never happen, but hey, a girl's gotta try right?!