Olivine

This evening I went to Olivine & Alison - a lady I met at the BCC Brighton Forum - came along too which was cool and she seemed to enjoy it.

Having not been there since November, it was a good opportunity to let them all know where I was in my treatment schedule (last time I went I was a fortnight post last chemo), to pick their brains about radiotherapy (my next lot of treatment) and to show off my hair!

When we got to Olivine, Marilyn. gave us something called a Big Box of Love, you can read more about the idea and how the company was born here. It was an enormous box and me & Rowena unwrapped it and I read the letter enclosed out to everyone. We then all got to unwrap a pressie :) I got a fab lavendar bath set, Alison got some bath salts, Rachel got Bathing Honey, there were nice notebooks, a make-up set, make-up bags and other bits - was really generous and what a lovely idea to send to people when they are having treatment to pick them up.

Sometimes at Olivine, we have someone coming in to talk to us, in the past there has been nutritionists, crystal healing, my new hair; and tonight we had a lady come in from Pretty Permanent Make-Up.

She spoke about what permanent make-up is and about the different types of permanent make-up that you can have. Although not my cup of tea (I'd be too scared of the needles!), the results did look pretty fab :)

Benefit Bonanza

Got home from first (blimmin awful) T session to an absolutely amaze-balls Benefit gift set :) Thank you so much Chelle :)

 

 

Update: So I've spoken to the lovely Chelle about this and it turns out that she contacted Benefit HQ and told them about me and this blog. Chelle always looks beautiful and loves Benefit make-up more than anything and thought that me getting something that she loves so much would cheer me up. She originally contacted them about their eyebrow kit as she knows I'm currently losing mine. But Benefit ended up sending the amazing pack above to her for me. The picture above isn't really that clear so here's what's treasures I got:

• The POREfessional
• BADgal Brown Mascara
• 10 - Bronzing & highlighting Face Powder Duo 
• California Kissin Lip Shine
• Velvet Eyeshadow
 
Lucky Me :)

Look Good Feel Better

 

Yesterday, I attended a wonderful course at Brighton Hospital called Look Good Feel Better. LGFB is a fantastic charity that helps women cancer patients in a really practical and positive way. They offer free skincare and make-up workshops, to help combat the visible side effects of cancer treatment, the idea of which is to boost confidence and wellbeing.

 

There are no two ways about it; finding out you have cancer is daunting and life-changing. The added stress of the appearance related side effects of treatment is bloody demoralising and very hard to cope with. It has serious effects on your self-esteem and confidence, at a time when having a PMA is very important, so the fact that LGFB exists is absolutely brilliant.

 

 

I turned up at the hospital, was shown into a room with 8 other ladies, and was given a gift bag (suited to my skin type and shade) filled with products donated by companies like Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Clinique, Max Factor, Dior, Rimmel & Boots No 7.  We were then taken through, (by 4 lovely volunteers) the LGFBs specially designed 12-Step Programme which covered skincare and make-up. The volunteers taught us how to cleanse, tone and moisturise properly (using the products in our gift bag), and then how to apply make up, from foundation all the way through to lipstick. At the end of workshop you get to take away your gift bag.
 

Picture of my wonderful bag of tricks

The above picture isn't that great so here's a list of the LOVELY things I got in my bag:

·        Garnier Face wipes

·        L'Oreal Cleanser

·        Rimmel Eye Make Up Remover

·        L'Oreal Toner

·        Clinique Moisturising Lotion

·        Lancôme Eye Gel

·        No 7 Primer

·        Clinique Concealer

·        No 7 Brush Foundation

·        No 7 Loose Powder

·        Max Factor Blusher

·        Lancôme Eye Make Up Brush

·        No 7 Eye Shadow Trio

·        Lancôme Eye Liner Pencil

·        Lancôme Eyebrow Pencil

·        Estée Lauder Projectionist VolumeMascara

·        Clinique Lip Liner

·        Max Factor Lipsticks x 2

·        L'Oreal Glam Shine Lip Gloss

·        50ml Dior "Miss Dior"Perfume

The 2 hours spent at the LGFB workshop were fantastic, I felt free to show my balding head (as other ladies in the group took off their wigs and head coverings) and came away feeling truly pampered. If anyone reading this is going through something similar to what I am, I would urge you to get in touch with LGFB and book onto one of their sessions. You can do so via this link.

Thank You LGFB, it was a really lovely treat