Hi, my Name is Cat and I’m your typical run of the mill
‘forty-something’ single mum of two man-boys, Sam, aged 19 and Conor aged 15, affectionately
known to me as ‘Kevin & Perry’ (anyone who’s seen this film and has two
teenage boys, will understand why I call them this!) and my Miniature
Schnauzer, Gerrard (this little dog is my baby and completely and utterly
spoiled and definitely runs our household!) and yes, he’s named after a
football player (would rather it was
Gerard Butler!).
By day, I’m a Director of a B2B Telecoms company, i-ComSolutions, that provides Mobile devices, landlines, vehicle tracking and lone
worker support devices. For me, being in
business is all about building up a long standing relationship with a client
(they have no choice with me, ‘cos boy can I talk!). I also help out some of
our clients with their social media platforms and also do some blogging for
them too!
I’m also a hardcore networker, who’s day sometimes starts at
5am (due to the networking and the time it takes me to get ready and at least
try and feel human enough to talk business with other professionals!).
This project I was (nicely) cajoled into through Bethan, who
I actually met through Twitter, chatted to for a while and then bumped into
each other at the local supermarket! Needless to say, Bethan recognised me by
my hair colour!
By night, I’m a Bokwa instructor, running 3 evening classes
a week. Running the classes ensures I keep up my training routine, otherwise I
may be tempted to sit at home in a onesie drinking coffee!
After my Bokwa classes, I’m then doing all the usual run of
the mill housewifey things! Trying to spend some ‘quality’ time with my boys
went out the window ages ago! The 19
year old is either in work, playing football for the local team or out
socialising with his mates and the 15 year old gets in from school, either goes
to Army Cadets, out with his mates or is locked into the Playstation 3. We do try and grab some time though and we do
call ourselves the ‘dysfunctional four’ (including the dog!) as we all realise
we are not perfect, can make fun of ourselves and also act ourselves without
worrying what others say about us! Doing Bo’ Selecta impressions in the
Supermarket is one of our favourites!
When I do then find the time, catching up with my mates has
to be done. We all have socially defunct
calendars as one friend runs a pub, another is a Policewoman, another is a
Doctor and the other is a manager for a well known Swedish store (blue &
yellow in colour), you can imagine how different our work schedules are, so
arranging a social night for us all to be able to attend is like asking
Mohammed to move the mountain!
I drink way too much coffee but otherwise only drink water,
so in my mind I balance it out………… I also don’t sleep enough! Nowhere near as much as I should, even at
weekends, my brain clicks into gear and I have to get up. 8am is a lie in for me!
I am a lover Kurt Geiger shoes….. I know nearly all women
love shoes (and I hate to be stereotypical) but these are my weakness, fuelled
by the constant bombardment of emails from Kurt Geiger when there is a sale
on! My finger just clicks that link and
off I go into my own little world of shoe porn!
I also love the colour red (as you can tell by the
photo!). There’s a story as to why my
hair is red, short version is because I can now!
So what do I keep in my make up bag? I’d love to say I have a great skincare
routine….. It’s getting better as I get older as I do not want to grow old
gracefully! Waking up every morning and
staring at the female version of Animal from The Muppets in the mirror kick
starts me into action!
I’ve recently been introduced to Theraderm Skincare and
wow! What a difference to my skin! It feels fabulous and it seems to have taken
on a new found glow all of its own! I got given a travel pack trial (around £30
retail price) and after 3 weeks I was a convert! The full size pack costs around £100 and does
last 7-9 months, so this is now part of my daily regime! The Theraderm skincare
comprises of, a cleansing wash, Fruit Acid Exfoliant, OPC Reparative Gel and
Enriched Facial Moisturiser. Since I’ve
started using it I have had quite a few comments on how good my skin looks, so
that’s good enough for me, even though I know I have a long way to go!
Since hitting 40, I’ve started to REALLY worry (I only did a
little before) about getting old, how my skin will fare as I’m on the wrong
side of 40, will my face look like a pair of Nora Batty’s tights (I hope I’m
not showing my age too much by Quoting ‘Last of the Summer Wine?’).
For years I’ve used Boots No. 7 make up. It is my make up bag staple. I find their products stay put all day and I
don’t have to carry around a full make up bag for ‘top-ups’ throughout the day,
especially when I’m leaving the house at 6:30am and have to carry on until 8pm
at night! I start off with the No.7 Primer and My favourite foundation is No. 7
Protect and Perfect and I top it off with the No. 7 Bronzer. Being a red head with the complexion of a
pint of milk, fake tan is a must for me.
I refuse to use sunbeds as I don’t want to damage my skin or have the
threat of skin cancer hanging over me, so for me Unreal fake tanning mousse is
my MUST HAVE beauty product. I’ve used
fake tan for years and have found some great ones and some seriously bad
‘tangoed orange look’ brands but for me Unreal is perfect! It’s reasonably priced, dries instantly and
doesn’t have that awful ‘burnt biscuit’ fake tan aroma. I met Liz who is the owner of Unreal at a
networking event and she sent me a few samples and from that moment on, I knew
I would never use another fake tan brand.
I never look like an oomp-loompa and know I can put it on last thing
before I go to bed and within minutes, jump into bed without having to do the
‘tan dance’ to dry it off! As I do use
so much fake tan, I do exfoliate a lot using Soap & Glory Sugar Scrub and
body moisturiser afterwards (and a cold shower to close the pores back up!)
The rest of my make up bag is made up of an array of No.7
Blushers, Eyeshadows, eyeliner and Long lash mascara, as I have the worst
eyelashes EVER! I have no length or curl
on them and I they seem a little sporadically placed around my eyes, so if I
use too much mascara I look like I have spiders hanging off my eyelids!…… I’ve only used fake eyelashes once, by the
end of the evening they were hanging off my eyes, which resulted in me ripping
them off in the middle of a pub!
In my quest not to grow old gracefully, I am going to admit
that I do visit The Heaven Sent Day Spa based in Newport for a treatment called
CACI on my face. I’ve just started
having these and CACI is a non-surgical Botox for any part of the body. The CACI Machine was originally invented for
people who suffered Bells Palsy or a Stroke as it puts electronic pulses into
the skin to re-train and stimulate the muscles.
My weathered face is having the CACI treatment at the moment and in a
few sessions, my winkles, frown line and lip lines are all looking so much
better. It’s also making me feel good,
which is what it’s all about for me!
It’s all part of me feeling good, trying to look (relatively) good for
my age and all part of my health and maintenance, which for me is
paramount. It’s also a relaxing
experience, doesn’t hurt and leaves me feeling quite serene. The sessions only last about 20 minutes each,
so doesn’t even take up a lot of my time (not that I have much spare anyway!).
I suppose all this boils down to how I perceive myself and
how I think others see me. You see, I
was one of the ‘ugly kids’ at school, you know the ones, buck teeth, terrible
hair, chubby. I did however have a
sister who was beauty personified. This
obviously made me feel a lot worse and I was always being compared to her. She was stick thin, gorgeous long flowing
thick dark hair, beautiful face….you get the picture? When you stood us together, we looked like
the number 10 (she was the number 1, I was the big round 0). I suppose in a way I’ve always had to compete
with her in the looks department, so for me, now having treatments at the spa
is my way of making me try to look and feel the best I can with what I’ve been
given. That’s all part of why I train
too, I don’t want to look or feel my age!
I’m not sure if being
single has something to do with how I look after myself too? I’ve been on my own for 2 ½ years now and not
that I’m complaining, as my second husband wasn’t the mot charming of men……. He is one of the reasons my hair is red. Silly as it sounds, he stopped me having a
life, going out with friends was not an option, dying my hair brown was ok, he
liked to destroy the house a lot (ripping doors off was his speciality!) and
made me feel completely worthless and trapped, so now my confidence has
suffered and my beauty regime is being reflected in this. Does this make me vain, or just another
victim of manipulation and bullying by a man? I can’t even go to the local shop
without make up on! We’ve all been there….I can go out all made up and see no
one I know, yet the minute I step out the door without a stitch of make up on,
hair all over the place, looking horrific, I bump into my Ex or a person I
don’t get on with!
I do think however, the beauty magazines and industry have a
lot to do with it. You pick up a glossy
brochure and spy a model or actress with perfect skin, no blemishes, no marks,
just pure. Stick thin and long legs (I do have those!) I am under no illusions
that I will ever look that good or have skin like that but do those models have
it either? The media are so good at
airbrushing and touching up photos now that I do look at them and think, are
these real people? Do they look like
that all the time? Catwalk models are so
painfully thin, it’s unreal! The
pressure put on those poor young ladies to be that thin must be immense! Is any woman naturally that skinny? It’s the young teenage girls who see these
pictures that it affects….. They think they HAVE to look like that in order to
be loved or noticed. Not the case!
WOMEN NEED CURVES!
Bust and hips are a must!
I do love it though when you see photos in magazines of
these models and actresses without the make up, lighting and fabulous clothing,
all looking a little more ‘natural’ and more like us!…… Makes you realise that
they are all human after all! Can we
have more of these please?
Social Media is changing the boundaries of photos too…. Instagram for instance…. Filters….to make
your face look better. Ok, so we all use
a little one now and again to enhance our features…… There is also an app called ‘Perfect 365’
which can completely alter your face! You
can slim down your face and jaw line, smooth skin, change eye colour and even
add make up, which to me seems pointless!
I did one as a comparison (I did however take it to the extreme) and put
the two photos side by side, my natural face and the made up face. I looked like a mannequin! Completely un-natural and plastic! Why would
anyone want to make themselves look fake?
Or is that what I do anyway by having treatments, dying my hair and
wearing false nails? Am I not being true
to myself or just trying to give myself a confidence boost?
Someone told me recently, you’ll never look as bad as your
passport photo or as good as your Facebook photo and I think they may be right!
