Beauty School 101

Last week I decided that I wanted to learn more about beauty. To some of you this probably sounds a bit ridiculous, but seriously my knowledge is very lacking! Starting out on my beauty education was both exciting and also a little bit daunting. At what age do we learn about make up and beauty tips? I feel like some people are just born with the knowledge... well not me!

I'm 34 years old (almost 35) and I rarely use any beauty products and my make up is very lacking. My hair care routine consists of washing my hair with shampoo about twice a week and conditioning it incredibly rarely when I feel like it needs it. My skin care routine is none existent. I don't use wipes or moisturise, or anything else for that matter. I occasionally use hand lotion but that's because my hands are in water for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week - at work. My makeup collection is a mismatch. I'm pretty sure I even have some makeup from when I was a teenager! I go with basic concealer, a touch of foundation powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner (occasionally) and mascara. Even then, I wear makeup once or twice a month at best!

And so I've decided to make more of an effort to know about beauty. My eldest daughter is very pleased about this as she's interested to know too. After deciding to do this beauty phase of my spring clean, I headed to a newsagents last Friday. I picked up two magazines that had beauty sample freebies, as I figured this was a good place to start.

My two choices were Marie Claire and Glamour, two magazines that I don't recall having read before.

I started with Marie Claire, which I made my way through on Friday evening.

Though the article about Katy Perry was pretty interesting, there wasn't a lot more that I read from Marie Claire. I flicked through it, sniffed the perfume samples and tried to find some information on make up or beauty products. Unfortunately Marie Claire is very fashion weighted and while I'm trying with beauty, I don't stand a hope in hell of getting into fashion! I'm sure Marie Claire is great for some people, its not for me sadly! That said, I did love the smell of "Endless Euphoria" by Calvin Klein, which lead to me ordering a few samples online - and I did like the free lip gloss from Neal's Yard Remedies.

On Saturday morning I read Glamour magazine. This is much more me. From the beginning I liked the idea that the cover girl picture had been influenced by readers. Though from what I understand, its not always that way, it is nice to see interaction with the reader. I then went on to read several interesting articles, not just about beauty but also things like cheaper shopping tips. The H&M voucher is a great save, though sadly I don't live near to an H&M (yet!). From this magazine I learned I possibly like the smell of Alien by Thierry Mugler, though it was the fading smell rather than the initial one.

I also tried out both the eyeliner and the lip gloss. Sorry its not a great picture but I'm really not one for selfies.

Out of the two, the lip gloss by Neal's Yard Remedies was definitely my favourite. The eyeliner which was by Model Co. was good, but because I wore it alone (no other make up) I found that it rubbed off on my upper eye section. I don't know if that would have been different if I'd had some eyeshadow on. Either way though, I liked both products.

Beauty magazines are definitely something that interest me and out of these two, I would buy Glamour again. I like the idea of buying a magazine that comes along with a sample, as its a good way to try out new products. I'm keeping my eye out for different magazines this month though, so I can see which others appeal to me! If you've got any recommendations, by all means let me know.

Keep tuned for more beauty updates! I have Barry M nailpolish to review, an Urban Decay pallette to try out and a Frangrance Shop Discovery Box club to sample.