{Health} Reasons to love your oily skin

For as long as I can remember I have always had the love/hate relationship with my oily face. I remember one of my older cousins teasing me ‘M’s face is so oily you could fry an egg or two on it’, since then I have always wanted to find products that would reduce the oiliness of my face but up to now nothing has worked. They say if you can’t beat them join them so I am taking the approach though a little bit different, I have decided to embrace my oiliness and make it work for me. After doing some research (googled) I found the following 5 (reasons) advantages and disadvantages of having oily skin.

Advantages:

- Younger looking: who doesn’t love to look younger?

- Slow to age: All that oil secreted slows the ageing process

- Softer skin: My face skin is naturally softer and am told that’s because of the oil I secrete

- Stronger/thicker - against environmental damage <- this is just added bonus

- Low maintenance – my face doesn’t require much to look good so I am blessed in that respect.

Disadvantages:

- Shiny face: As annoying as it is I am thankful for it, looking at my 50 year old mother who doesn't look a year older than 21 is great.

- Clogged pores - leads to high risk of acne, very fortunate I do not have acne or ever suffered from it but to make sure it does not catch me in the future I have invested in maintenance of my face. I now have the Derma roller, Vitamin c face serum and the latest addition the Soniclear.

What type of skin are you? Oily, dry or combination?

Quarter Reflection

As we approach the final leg of quarter 3 (Q3) I thought I reflect on this ending quarter. So much had happened and yet I feel that I have little to show for it apart from a bad hair day (e' day) and pieces of my (scattered) and rarely seen self respect. When July started I had made a decision to start making goals which I mostly achieved. I had made decisions in other parts of my life too but disappointed to say I didn't stick to them. The decisions I didn't fulfil is what took away all the self respect I thought I harboured. People have come into my life, taken a p*** and at the same time take my good nature and good will for granted and took me for a fool. I have been brought up to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, respect them and care for them like family. But it looks like not everyone was raised that way just me and my siblings and probably half the world. I am sick and tired of being "ok" with the lies, hurt, disappointment and lack of trust. I don't like to lie or appreciate being lied to because I think its wrong and despicable.

Going back to reflecting....

 July is my birth month and my blogaversary month, I love having these two special things to celebrate. I looked back at my birthday last year and my first day blogging, last year was so special but this year was even more so. Remember my birthday wishlist where I talked about wanting to go to Paris for my birthday weekend? well that didn't happen because I got to spend all day shopping and running around with my nephew, my parents and siblings. I could not have asked for more and this trumps Paris anytime. My blogaversary was a bit calmer and collected, I was fortunate enough to pair up with some lovely bloggers who supported me and I am so grateful. After my birthday and blogaversary I started to feel a bit overwhelmed with everything and blogging slowly started to take a back seat.

When August came along I was far into this "Don't feel like blogging" phase that to even get a post up was more struggle than I had the courage. I was also very scared at this point that maybe I am losing my passion and love for blogging. It is one thing to have writer's block or needing some space from the blogging world but its another to start feeling like blogging is a chore and no long fun and a hobby. I felt all these things but as you can see it is yet to shut me down completely from blogging. Reflecting on this month of august has been hard because so many "not so nice" things have happened but I will keep my chin up and walk the walk proudly. Sometimes I feel like questioning the people who seem to think I am stronger than I look/feel/know, because sometimes I just wanna be weak just for a moment.

What do I want to see happen in September and what do I want to talk about in my next quarter reflection? I have so many questions, so many ideas, so many plans but the one thing I want first and foremost is an internal peace. I just want the voices to quite down a moment and let me just be me and not think of how many people I need to help, should do things for, am expected to do/be etc. I don't want to have to wear the face so no one sees the hurt, the tiredness or the black under eyes from lack of sleep. I want peace for me, for my family, for my friends and for the world.

I apologies for the sad post but my soul felt like pouring it out, I have never been one to keep it bottled up for too long it suffocates me.

Week 21: Relationship Advice ~ You Know its worth it when...

Happy Monday peeps, welcome, its been a while since I last composed a heart to heart post. So today's post has come from some self reflection and I thought I share with you my lovely readers.

I was doing a clear up yesterday when I came across all the lovely cards that my boy friend has been sending me for the last 6 years. All the 6 valentines, the 6 birthdays and the 7 Christmas' they all have one theme in them "I love you more everyday", I will not lie to you it has not been easy but it has truly been worth it. Every relationship has its ups and downs but its how you work on it that determines its future at the end of the day.

When you watching TV dramas and movies they seem to give the illusion that everything works out in the end or that love shouldn't be hard or difficult and I agree at the most but I disagree too, why? Well because reality is different and man does it hit you hard once you wake up to it. There is a saying and its one of my favorite, it goes "Everything good is worth fighting for" or "Good things don't come easy".  Most say love shouldn't be hard but when is hard hard? I mean is it hard when you don't talk for a few days, weeks, months? or is it hard when you are totally ignored for 6 months? Hard is different for everyone so you can not compare your hard to your friends hard hence why I mostly disagree with TV dramas and movies when they try to portray relationships.

My advice to you as always:

• Look after number 1 (that's you)
• Bring everything to the lord in prayer
• Trust
• Compromise (both parties 50/50)
• Love - to encompass all of the above

Don't ever be fooled into thinking when you start everything will be and should be easy in a relationship, trusting and  loving your partner in all ways possible is what its about and then things will be as it should be. Do not know get me wrong, even a bad relationship can emanate from having all the above. Only you can and will know whats what for you.

That's all I had for this Monday morning, have a wonderful week.

Week 6: Mind Sharing ~ Reflection

Have you ever come to a point in your life where you just want to reflect on your life? I certainly have many a times and in the last 6 months I have seen so much and learned so much I feel like I was there for the last 6 years.

What has the last 6 months taught me? Well I will use the commonly  known sayings "know your friends", "keep your enemies closer" "if they can talk about other people behind their backs trust they can do the same to you". Let's starts with know your friends.

1. Know your friends- my parents always told me if you hang with intelligent people you are more likely to be influenced by them and therefore be intelligent yourself. But as a child you always just want to do your own thing and not always what your parents have said, I hang around people who not only are intelligent but are loyal and trust worthy. I am not perfect and I may have spoken about people behind their backs and not as an excuse but when I do that it's because I can't get to you or through to you, I will ask other people so I can understand the reason am not getting through. Maybe me and my big mouth did or said something which to me may have been nothing to me but to you may have been a big something and to those friends I may have done that too I apologise. I know who my real friends are and I am grateful for them and to them.

2. Keep your enemies close - up until now I did not think I had any need for this statement I mean haters will hate but I never thought I would have to keep my so called enemies close (arms length). I am sure there are people who don't like me because am me or because am blessed or maybe because am black I don't know. But I do know of one person who despite my best efforts seems to think back stabbing me makes them a better person. I had never in my life gotten so angry that I resorted to putting my anger and feelings on Facebook. I am ashamed to think this person brought me to my knees because I stooped to their level. Everyday I learn that they talk about me, stalk me and degrade me just so that I can be isolated and not have any friends. Unfortunately for this person I have so much love, respect and God's knowledge to know that I will never walk alone EVER. What I do not understand is what did I ever do to this person for them to hate me so much. I know people in this world can be two-faced and believe me this one is but I just don't get it, how interesting am I to this person that they feel every waking moment they want to smear my name. This person knows nothing of my life, my plans and my ambitions and to make matters worse this person I can guarantee you will ask me who upset me (hahaha) I can't hack this. My advice to people who going through what am going through feed them nothing because anything they see or hear they twist it and try to break you but your stronger than that I am stronger than that. 

3. If they can talk about others behind their backs they can talk about you - since I finished uni and started working have heard that people talk about me, some tell me it's because I inspire them (I am humbled by this) some I hear it's because they despise my simple mind. I like simple things in life and I flourish on them quite well I am told. There people who believe that such a simple life is a waste of time, having a bf who earns more than God is what they want not someone who earns enough to support you, your family, and maybe a holiday a year. No that's not acceptable I am told. The most funny thing about all this is this person has no love or true friendship in their life but they think I am at a disadvantage because of how simple my life is and they can not comprehend why I go to church. I feel so sorry for this person and yet this person does not see how happy my life is, God has given me so much and I believe all this that I am experiencing, this person who is trying to beat me down is just part of the trials and tribulations of this world. My God knows that I will come out on top not boasting just a matter of fact because God NEVER  gives you more than you can handle. 

Like I have mentioned in my earlier post I am an emotionally driven person and sometimes my emotions get the better out of me and I make mistakes but I am learning like instead of putting my frustrations on Facebook I have decided to always speak to my mother about them first or my partner or my friends. I have learned never to stoop to these people's level and avoid giving them the ammunition to fire at me. 

***Word of advice to my haters, just because I put something on Facebook doesn't mean I am talking about my life sometimes I just watch movies and I comment on them. Even when I write a post or comment about how my partner has pissed me off it does not mean I have broken up with him or I don't love him anymore because my dear if that was to happen only my family and friends would know and I would inbox them not post it directly for your eyes to feast on.***

I feel so much better getting this off my chest and off my mind, now time to pamper me before the closing the year service, NYE fireworks display and a long kiss for my partner. Happy New Year to you all and thanks for reading my little baby blog.