Shoes make me happy. I'm superficial. Whatever

Today, I bring to you my shoe collection! It is definitely much smaller than it was last year as I moved out of home and into a much smaller space. I used to have over 40 something different pairs of shoes, with a much larger heel selection than what I have now.

These days I have 20 pairs of shoes, literally half of what I used to have. I hope to one day have an extensive shoe collection, when me and my beloved have got our own home and he's built me an extravagant walk in wardrobe with a glamorous chandelier in the middle of it all.

So currently, my shoe collection stands at 4 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of ankle boots, 1 pair of creepers, 4 pairs of converse/converse style, 2 pairs of vans/vans style, 5 pairs of flats, and 2 pairs of heels.

All my shoes are listed from the left, and the top row.

All my flats: -Leopard loafers (Rubi, part of a 2 for $30 deal)
                   -Sparkly loafers (Recycle Boutique, $4.50)
                   - Studded loafers (Rubi, $10 (?))
                   - Kitty loafers (Rubi, part of a 2 for $30 deal)
                   - Steve Madden dupes (Kmart, $7)

Converse/Vans: -White Converse (Shoe Connection, $100)
                         - Burgunday Converse dupes (Rubi, $10)
                         - Pink Converse (Recycle Boutique, $35)
                         - Black Converse (Shoe Connection, $100)
                         - Pink sparkly Vans (Shoe Connection, $120)
                         - Hello Kitty Vans dupes (JayJays, $20)

Boots: - Biker boots (JayJays, $20)
           - Studded combat boots (Hannahs, $50)
           - Cherry Doc Martens (TradeMe, $80)
           - Black Doc Martens (Shoe Connection, $250)
           - Floral combat boots (JayJays, $49.99)
           - Taupe ankle boots (Dotti, $30)
           - JC Coltrane dupes (Hannahs, $50)
           - Creepers (Hannahs, $50)

Heels: - Steve Madden Sparkly (Hannahs, ?)
          - Jeffrey Campbell Spiked Litas (Shoe Connection, $250)

All my shoes except one pair, I bought myself. Sadly I don't often get to wear my heels because my Steve Madden heels are exceptionally beautiful and I only reserve them for special occasions. My JC Litas I hardly wear mainly because my sister has them a lot, and they need spikes replaced and the leather fixed up. I would love to wear them more often, but I just never get the chance.

All my other shoes I alternate between them quite regularly. They all get an even amount of wear. I never really spent too much on a piar of shoes except for my JC's and my Doc's. That's only because my Doc's will last me a lifetime and I wanted to treat myself to a pair of really nice shoes.

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used 
Photos edited on fotor.com

Lipstick Collection!

Now I know that my collection of 15 lipsticks isn't a very large collection, but it is my favourite type of makeup, so I tend to buy more lipstick than anything else. I always thought that reds were my favourite colour of lipstick, but now that I've gone through all of my colours, I can now see that I seem to gravitate towards oranges. I honestly would never have picked up on that ever. 

I feel that lipstick really completes my look. Whether I have minimal make up or I've gone all out an have my winged eyeliner done too. Even if I'm having a low self esteem day, putting lipstick on makes my day a little bit brighter and bearable. 

Lipstick adds a little bit of fun to any look, and makes you stand out just that little bit more. Because I have blue hair, any colour will go, but when I had pink hair, I found it much harder to wear lipstick because pinks were out of the question in my opinion, otherwise I would be overloading on the pink. Reds were also out as I felt it was too much from one colour family. So while I had pink hair, I didn't wear lipstick much, and I felt like I wasn't putting any effort into how I looked. Once I went back to natural hair, my love for lipstick grew even more and that was when my collection really grew. I could rock any colour I wanted and it wouldn't clash with my hair. It didn't help that my beloved loves it when I wear lipstick, so I bought more so I had a greater variety to pick from and not just a couple to alternate between.

The furtherest left picture, going down, I have Jordana Cherry, Lush A Million Kisses, Revlon Colourstay Ultimate Top Tomatoe and a random freebie that my friend gave me.

The middle left picture I have, going down, BYS Duo in Kiss Me Coral, Collection Passionfruit, Collection Mango Tango, Nutrimetics Flame and Australis Velourlips Rio'd.

Middle right I have, Collection Sweet Tart, BYS I Don't Pink So and BYS Flirty Fuchsia.

Lastly, on the very right I've got, BYS Baby Doll, BYS Cranberry Red and Australis ColourInject Grunge.

Hope you enjoyed!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/shannensykess

Feminism and why we need it

There isn't going to be a post about cool fashion trends or makeup today. I have a really serious topic I need to discuss. A topic I feel very close to my heart and get really fired up when ever I talk about it.

Feminism.

People hear that word and automatically assume that anyone who says they're a feminist is a man hating lesbian. It's not true. Feminists are people, men or women, who want equal rights for everyone. They don't think women are better than men. Us feminists want to be on the same level as men. We want to be paid the same for the same exact job that men get paid for. We want to be treated with the same respect as men. If a woman abuses a guy, in any way, society should react the same way as if it was a guy hitting a girl. Women can hurt others too. We aren't fragile little porcelain dolls. There needs to be gender equality.

Lately there has been a bunch of shootings in the USA. The one that gets me the most is the shooter from the recent California shooting. He went out with the intention to kill people because he didn't get any attention from women. He never went up to women, he didn't make any attempt to talk to women, but he still blamed the female race for not giving him attention. He blamed girls who didn't know who he was for why he was so angry at the world. In his mind, women deserved to be killed because they didn't give him the time of day. This guy has been called a hero by some men in the USA. He is not a hero. He was a sick boy who needed help.

I have a great quote from Tupac that helps me get my point across, that feminism is needed. "And since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman, I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it’s time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women. And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, that make the babies. And since a man can’t make one he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one. So will the real men get up. I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up”

- Tupac Shakur

This brings me to my next point. We are taught to not be raped, instead of do not rape. We are blamed for walking down the street and a guy not being able to control his sexual urges. It's out fault this happened. This is even the culture that is being introduced into schools all over the world. Girls are being given strict dress codes, for example: no leggings, no sleeveless tops, and a limit on how short skirts and shorts can be. Boys don't get te same treatment when it comes to what they wear. Girls are being told that they need to cover every inch of skin so they for arouse boys. That boys can't control any urge they may have over seeing a shoulder or the fact that a girl wearing leggings actually has an ass. 

Another point I have to get across is the words slut, butch and friend zone. Slut is attacking a woman's right to say yes. Friend zone is attacking a woman's right to say no and bitch is attacking them for their right to call you out on it. Slut shaming should not be a thing. Good on the girl who wants to have srx every night. That's her right. Just like it's a girl's right to say no to a guy she isn't interested in.

Don't even get me started on how women are treated in the media. Men are treated like people while women are just sexual objects. Take a press interview for The Avengers. Robert Downey Jr. gets a really great philosophical question about he approached playing iron man, while Scarlett johansson gets asked about her diet to fit into the Black Widow costume. This happens again in another interview where RDJ gets a really thoughtful question and then ScarJo is asked if she could wear underwear under her costume. This is not right.

Why is being compared to a woman an insult? Like 'you throw/punch/hit like a girl'. Why is it a sign of weakness to be compared to a girl? Women are strong. We push mini humans out of our vagina. We bleed constantly for a weak every month. Boys are down for the count when kicked in the balls, but as Betty White says, vaginas can take a pounding. Punching like a girl should be a synonym for being strong, not weak.  

I've got some statistics if you don't believe there is a fight for women. 

If that doesn't convince you then I don't know what will. Yes there are women that hate men and abuse men, but as men's activists say, not all (wo)men. This is 2014 guys. Get your fucking shit together.

Cleaning Out My Closet

Hello my name is Shannen, and I'm addicted to shopping.

Today was a day off from work so I decided to clean out my clothes. Because I work in retail, I am regularly buying clothes, so this expands my wardrobe pretty fast. It also means that I end up with a lot of clothes that I do not wear, mainly because it is no longer on the shop floor.

Every couple of months or so, I make a day where I go  through my entire wardrobe and get rid of anything I haven't worn in the last six months or so. I do this so I have more room for new clothes, but also I don't like having a lot of clutter, and my wardrobe is exposed so I don't like seeing it all crammed into one area.

All the clothes I decide to get rid of go to my sister, or to my beloved's sisters. I have thought about selling them, but I don't like having a massive pile just sitting in the corner waiting to be sold and posted off. It's an untidy idea that I do not want. So instead of this I just take it to my sisters or the girls and they get to go through it and take what they want. Whatever they end up not wanting, I take to a charity shop like Salvation Army. That way I am also helping people who need decent clothes to wear.

Just a nice short post today!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Edited on fotor.com

BLUE HAIR DON'T CARE

I have had many hair colours since I was about 14 or so. Mostly natural colours like black, brown and an assortment of blondes up until my last year of high school. That was when I started experimenting with bright colours. Because I was still at high school, I wasn't allowed to actually dye my hair all one bright unnatural colour, but I didn't really care for the rules and did what I wanted to do anyways (I do not recommend this as it gets you in a lot of trouble). So as an introduction into the world of colourful hair, I started a simple dip dye. As I didn't know of a lot of brands that did colours like I wanted, I used Fudge Paintbox. The first colour I used was called Red Corvette. Now this sounds like it would be an amazing bright red colour but it leant more pink on my hair. After that colour faded and I bleached my hair again, I used Fudge's Green Envy. This colour was amazing and so uber bright! It lasted a very long time on my hair without much fading. I eventually got bored of this colour (I have a short attention span and need change regularly) and that was when I discovered La Riche Directions. This is one of the best brands I have ever used. This was the last time I dip dyed my hair. I used turquoise in this brand. After high school I pretty much stayed normal because of my job, but then I started studying and had to leave my job as it was too hard to work and study at the same time. So when I left I straight away brought Direction's Cerise. And for most of the year I was doing my diploma I had pink hair. Then I had lilac hair, which was just purple shampoo mixed with a tiny bit of cerise and left on for hours. Then I went yellow, which was meant to be orange, similar to Hayley Williams of Paramore. After all that dying I decided to give my hair a well deserved break and went back to my natural hair colour. After about 6 months I decided to do what I love most, which was dye my hair crazy colours. So now I am blue. This time I used Manic Panic which is like the second best brand I have ever used. My blue is Shocking Blue heavily diluted by conditioner.

For my blue hair I don't really have a recipe or whatever that I follow. I just pour a heap of conditioner into a bowl and then squirt tiny amounts of dye in at a time until I reach my desired colour. This time I used a deep conditioner as I had run out of my normal conditioner that I use when I do my hair. Once it's all mixed I do all my roots with a tint brush then I just scoop it up in my hands and rub into the lengths of my hair until its saturated and I'm pretty sure I've covered all of my hair. I then leave it on for about an hour. To make my colour last, I avoid washing my hair as much as possible as it is only a semi permanent colour. I get about 2-3 washes out of my hair before I feel like I need to do it again. As this is the second time I have dyed my hair blue, I noticed that this colour fades to a really nice lilac colour, but leaning more pink. So I don't mind letting it fade a bit longer than I normally would.

I love having crazy hair, but with it comes a lot of attention. I'm not a big fan of this attention I get. I'm very shy and uncomfortable and awkward when it comes to strangers. I'm happy that they like my hair and they think I'm brave to do what I want with it, but sometimes I just wish they would admire from afar. I know I signed up to all the attention having bright coloured hair and I am grateful for all the compliments I get.

I have a video of me colouring my hair coming up on my YouTube channel which I will link below.

https://www.youtube.com/user/shannensykess

Shannen xx
Canon 600D camera used 
18-55mm lens
Photos edited on fotor.com

Products used :
Manic Panic Shocking Blue
Schwarzkopf Ultimate Repair Anti-Damage Mask

Nails of the Month

First things first, a big thank you goes out to Sherie who does my nails every month! She's the best (and it's not just because I'm bias) at what she does and she does an excellent job every time.

This month I had originally decided to get some kind of nails that involved pink, like I do every month. But there wasn't a pink I could really settle on so I went for this beautiful lilac colour (OPI's  Don't You Lilac It?)

It was stunning and unlike any colour I had picked previously. Like I said earlier, I mainly stuck to my pinks and blacks. I'm quite the creature of habit. I am also obsessed with glitter. I get some glitter feature nail every single time (like I said, creature of habit). It's one of my favourite colours and  I would be lost without a bit of sparkle.

The length of my nails is all my natural nail growth, aside from my pointer finger on my right hand. I broke that off at work, therefore making Sherie's job a little harder. But like I said, she's brilliant at what she does. Sherie has definitely found her calling in life. 

As I have a gel top coat, my nails last me about a month before I go back to get them done again. They only break if I'm super dumb with them; like I chew them or I smash them on something at work. But that's all my fault. 

I love my nails so much, and they're super-girly this month.

Thanks Sherie!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens 

Sherie's facebook for her nails is 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gloss-Creations/632172103529586?fref=ts

Have a look at all her other amazing work!

Daisies are the new black?

From left to right: summer, spring, autumn and winter

Working in retail I pick up on current fashion trends pretty fast, and I don't need to read any magazines to confirm it. I just take a wander around the mall and see what other stores are carrying.

This winter it seems that daisies are taking over. First this trend started with flower crowns. Then it was on all different types of tees. Then as it started getting colder in the southern hemisphere, leggings started sporting this floral pattern. And now that we are fully into winter, it has taken over sweaters and jumpers too. The daisy trend has to be my favourite of the season. I've always been a huge fan of florals, so it was a no-brainer for me.

In my personal wardrobe I have 4 daisy items that I have styled so that this trend can carry on into all four seasons. I have a summer, autumn, winter and spring look that will show how to style this beautiful trend that has popped up.

Please keep in mind that I am only 5ft tall so some of these outfits may look better on taller people, such as the maxi skirt.

Also there will be a lookbook video coming that coincides with this post, I just have to build up the courage to sit behind a camera for a long period of time!

I hope you enjoy todays blog post!
Shannen xx

Summer: Daisy top (JayJays) - Acid wash shorts (Supre) - Converse (Shoe Connection)
Autumn: Knit jumper (Supre) -  Daisy leggings (JayJays)  - Spike combat boots (Hannahs)
Winter:  Daisy sweater (JayJays) - Khaki jeans (JayJays) - Doc Martins (Shoe Connection)
Spring: Daisy crop top (JayJays) - Maxi skirt (Supre) - Ballet flats (Recycle Boutique)

All Jayjays products are either available online (www.jayjays.com.au) or in store

All photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used.
Photos edited on fotor.com