Saturday, May 22, 2010

Wow....hello!!

Hello Tinterweb!!!! *waves*
Honestly.....this is a bit kinda scary....
Right....let's get to it. I have been thinking about creating my own blog for quite a while, dare I say months. Same goes for my own YouTube channel but that's a different topic entirely.
I have been wondering what kind of "cut" to give the blog, what direction to go in.
Well, I haven't quite made my mind up yet, however I thought why not start somewhere and share my life experiences in regards to my condition.
Ok let's rewind a bit...
I was born with a condition called Albinism: basically I have no pigmentation at all in my skin or hair. (no, I'm not evil, my eyes aren't red, I'm not a vampire, I don't pulverise in broad day light, etc etc. Just thought I'd clear that up...).

"Albinism is associated with a number of vision defects, such as photophobia, nystagmus and astigmatism. Lack of skin pigmentation makes the organism more susceptible to sunburn and skin cancers."

(Wikipedia always puts it SO well!)

To make it very quick and easy, there are mainly 2 types of albinism:

  • OCA (Oculocutaneous albinism): this kind involves the eyes ("oculo"), skin ("cutaneous"), and hair. There are 4 different types, according to the amount of pigmentation one has.
  • OA (Ocular albinism): this kind involves the eyes only.
(FYI I have OCA1: absolutely NO pigmentation).

So... MAJOR vision problems, cancer and sunburns aside(we'll cover those later) as far as I'm concerned the dealing with the "white" looks was a big issue throughout my whole life.
Y'see I'm Italian(apologies in advance if my English is rubbish or unreadable/not understandable!) so my whole life I was surrounded by dark skinned, dark haired people(tsk! how dare they have pigmentation, eh!).
To be honest I was a major tomboy until I was 17 or 18, plus I didn't really have anyone to ask "beauty" questions and tips to. Then one day I went to the drugstore to buy some shower gel and my eyes fell on the most gorgeous baby blue iridescent eye pencil, incredibly cheap...I HAD to have it(I have ALWAYS been drawn to blue's, esp baby blue's)! So I got it and just very tentatively tried to apply my first line of eye pencil...and from then on I was HOOKED on make up and experimenting with it.
I plan to share my beauty/make up experience/tips on this blog (...and maybe on YouTube....?!). I am not saying it's the only right way of doing things, but just how I play with products. Growing up I just had nobody telling me what kind of things to look for, what kind of colours to go for, what brands to avoid, etc etc. Trust me I have wasted SO much money on products I only used once or twice or actually never used at all, I really would have appreciated it if I'd had some kind of guidance.
I have run into many people with albinism(I, like many, am not really fond of the word "albino") that don't agree with the whole make up/dye/fake tan concept but hey, unfortunately we're not all 101% comfortable with our looks ALL the time for whatever personal reasons, or just simply fancy experimenting. I'm not saying ALL people with albinism HAVE to wear make up, dye their hair etc etc, but I happen to know a few people who have been asking me for advice for a while now, so...
At the same time if you don't agree with it, please don't start on me.

I just hope my blog will help and/or entertain people.
I guess that's enough for my introduction post. Leave comments or messages and let me know what kind of topics you would like me to cover and I will try my best. I have many ideas of matters I'll be reviewing already.
So... Ciao for now my little elves

Lil
xx

PS: I totally forgot to mention that yes, I am Italian, but I recently relocated to Dublin, Ireland. It was the dream of a life time so fingers crossed it'll all go well....

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