Winter skin care must haves

 

 Aaahh, winter: my favourite season! I know, I'm crazy but....hey, what's new?!

The one thing I don't like about it though is the havoc it wreaks on my face. Cold weather skin care is hard enough to crack as it is, never mind for someone with uber sensitive skin living in a really windy country. 

Central heating, wind, temperature differences, rain, snow, they all contribute to messing up the hydration balance of your skin. What I need to pay particular care to is my face, most other areas seem perfectly fine. 

So here follows a compendium

Brand focus: Cocoa Brown

This won't be the first time I mention this brand, here you can read the review I wrote last year about their first ever product.

I have decided to share my appreciation of this brand with you because it deserves all the explosive success it is getting.
Its founder Marissa Carter has always believed in us bloggers and

Nystagmus awareness day

Today marks Nystagmus awareness day.
I have mentioned it a few times before on my blog but just in case you haven't heard of it yet, Nystagmus is an involuntary movement of the eyes, resulting in a great decrease in vision acuty.
It can be either present from birth or come on later in life, in my case it comes with the albinism "package".

The newspaper article featuring me

As promised I share with you all the paper article about me published a couple of weeks back. If anyone is interested in a PDF of it, drop me an e-mail and I will forward it on.
Thank you to the ever so lovely Paula from Market Match for the scan .

I survived skin cancer -- so I warn my friends about using sunbeds
Laura Fucci tells Lisa Jewell her courageous tale, and stresses the need for skin safety

Laura Fucci was just 17 when she decided to get the mole on her back checked out by a doctor. It was to prove the wisest and most important decision of her young life.
Sitting in the oncologist's office, Italian-born Laura was given the worst news imaginable: she had a severe form of skin cancer, and the disease was already in its third, potentially fatal stage.
The teenager sat there dumbfounded. All her other cares went out the window -- she was now in a battle to save her life ...

I'm legally blind, so what?!

"Oh! But...where's your guide dog? And your cane?! So you can never get a surgery to fix it? How do you cope?!".

These are but a few of the questions I get thrown at me pretty much on a daily basis.

When people hear the word "blind", even with "legally" attached to it, they immediately link it to "seeing nothing".

I love the look on people's faces when they "realise", and how they quickly have to point out "but your make up is gorgeous! and your hair do! and your outfit is not miss matched!". A few times I actually have told someone it was down to my make-up artist/hair dresser/stylist. Hey, I need a new "spin" on the story every now and again and if I don't have fun with the situation, who will?!

Dogs scare the absolute daylight out of me after being attacked by one as a child, so getting a guide one has always been completely out of the question. Besides I don't really need one. Same goes for a cane; I do misjudge or miss the odd step from time to time, but who doesn't, right?!

Many of the people I know very often tell me they tend to forget I am "differently sighted" (I am SO politically correct like that!) most of the time, until I have to take out my phone to text someone or I ask them to read something far away for me. I have to be honest and admit that at 28 I still don't know how to react to that.
Was I wrong in not acting on my "different ability" so far and not taking "advantage" of it? Or is the fact people have to be reminded, every now and again, that I AM actually legally blind, a credit to my constant strive for normality and independence?

Since I was a teenager and had access to the Internet I have constantly kept myself updated in regards to treatments or (im!)possible surgeries to try and fix, or even just slightly better my vision. And for that reason I know that there is no operation available at the moment to improve my 1/20 vision (nope, that is NOT a typo, it IS 1/20).
It's the aspect I probably struggle with the most; mankind has allegedly gone to the Moon and back, cloned animals (and other human beings?!), invented pop candy, so on and so forth....but still hasn't been able to come up with something ingenious for us in the "not completely blind, but not with a decent eye sight either" limbo.
However, because you just never know, because it was free, and because I find it interesting to discuss my eyes, I recently decided to go for a laser eye surgery consultation.
I have to be honest, it was NOT a pleasant day. Even though I knew exactly what I was going to be told and what to expect, it STILL went on to distress me. Expectedly I was told they couldn't do anything for me: surprise, surprise!
I guess it's different telling people on a daily basis that I'm stuck with this, and actually being told by someone in the know.
It really did upset me big time, it still does: the constant thought of knowing what amazing things I could do with "that little bit extra of vision" just eats away at me every single day.
Sure I could be judged for seeing the glass half empty (hands up who drank that half, by the way!), but why should I just focus on what I can do, when it's NEVER enough and constantly makes me wanna do more?!
Recently I am finding trying to deal with this aspect, extremely hard. I think the fact I can't find a job has also critically polarised the whole thing in my head.
If you don't have a disability, you just cannot comprehend the constant feeling of frustration, the unflagging sense of "I'll never get there, no matter how hard I try", the perpetual notion of "you'll never be good enough".
And I have to live with that every waking hour of the day.
EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

So to answer to the query "how do you cope?": I just have to.
Or else.....

Lil

an update

This is a continuation/update of this post.

I did e-mail a few eye clinics in Dublin, 6 to be exact, seeking help pro-bono or for a very reduced fare. And only 2 got back to me.
One through a very useless phone call; the doctor told me that they wouldn't be able to perform "that" kind of surgery at their clinic. He then went on to tell me that if I got a referral to an ophtalmologist from a GP(that's €40 for a trip to the GP) I MIGHT be able to be put on the waiting list and because I'm a EU citizen it MAY not cost me. Which I REALLY doubt as virtually NOTHING in the health system is free anymore. Any other questions I had for him were met by a "I'm not sure". Right....thanks for calling, or NOT!

The second response I got was through e-mail.
He was very kind in the words he used. He told me that they wouldn't be able to perform the strabismus("unstraight" eyes) operation at their clinic and he personally would have doubts about it because, as I' d mentioned in my e-mail, the brain is already formed and the op MIGHT give me more vision problems. However he said that vision wise he's helped other people with my condition in the past and I should go to my GP and get a referral to an ophtalmologist that do deal with these conditions. Which I took as "we're too expensive for you".
Right, thanks anyway.

The other day the boyfriend and I hopped along to Vision Express on Henry St as we had booked a free eye test each with the possibility of me getting spanking brand new designer specs for €100. Well the other half test come out "irritated" me by it basically saying that he has above average exceptional 20/20 vision and may not need glasses for another 20 years at least, if ever at all. Bastard! Call me childish but it really did bother me.
As for my vision there's no news really, I'm still 1/20 (or 10/200 as you prefer it), and it isn't deteriorating, The only "good thing" about my vision is that it won't decrease other than for normal aging factors.
The lovely lady that did our tests, Tara was VERY helpful and totally understanding. For the first time in my life when having an eye test done, the person dealing with me knew all she had to know about my condition and didn't ask stupid/useless questions.
At the end of the appointment I took the chance to ask her about an ophtalmologist and all that.
She was very helpful and gave me the name of a GP in the south side linked to good eye doctors. She also went further in telling me that if I was to go public, the average waiting list in the city is now, wait for it.....EIGHTEEN MONTHS!!!!! 18?! A blooming year and a half?!?! Unfortunately she was NOT joking, and she too wasn't sure if I'd get it for free as a EU citizen.
So what if I wanted to go private? She said waiting time she wasn't sure but for an ophtalmologist consultation it would set ,e back a good €200.
I was not happy, I am not happy. Taking advantage of someone who's trying to just better their vision not get their boobs enlarged.

It is VERY frustrating, I am VERY frustrated...

E.T. phone home! In Russian!!

I have to say I REALLY like this video and the song!!
And I know why I love the song, because it REALLY reminds me of this....



Mind you the Katy Perry has a plus: it features Shaun Ross a very established American model with albinism. And I think Kanye (who I artistically worship) had some input in the video making process. Why? You ask... Well because he himself featured a model with albinism in one of his videos last year



Any artist, director, etc etc out there: I'M YOU R GIRL FOR A COOL NEW VIDEO!!!!!

...A Different Perspective

Hello there,
so nice of you to pop by!

This post is an attempt of a cumulative response to many questions I get asked about my being legally blind(and the sub heading of the blog).
For those of you who don't know yet, I was born with a condition called Albinism; I have already explained what this entails dermatologically wise here and here. Feel free to read, discuss blah de blah.
I'm not gonna go in minute detail of all the different problems that affect my eyes that come with Albinism but I'll try and explain some of them as easily as possible -I'm aware that not anyone is familiar with medical terms.
Just to give you a general idea of how bad my eye sight is, it's 5/100: basically what a normally sighted person sees at a distance of 100 feet, I see within 5. Oh yeah, blind as a bat, right here! It goes without saying driving is out of the question....
As for short sightedness when I read a book, I'm at the pc, I text etc etc, my eyes need to be a few inches away only, we're talking a max of 3 if the print is big. Try and imagine now the enormous effort that goes into make-up application for example: extra long tools(i.e. brushes, pencils etc) really don't help as they ALWAYS have to be used at an angle in order for me to get really close to a mirror, and I go super slow to make sure application is perfect and I don't make mistakes. As we know it's always easier to add than remove, especially colours on a white canvas(that's my face for you and me).
Every day tasks that appear effortless to normally sighted people, are enormous challenges for me. Actions like making a cup of tea for example: I have to lean forward a little to make sure I can see I'm pouring boiling hot water IN the cup and not OUT on my hand or foot.
How about public transport? Well when I used to live back home I used to go on many week-ends away with friends, most of which required me taking trains on my own. "How did you manage then?" I hear you ask, very nice of you to ask. Thank you!
Well when your senses somehow fails you, you try your hardest to find ways around it and one of them is the use of technology. In fact taking a train requires having to check the flipping screens to see what platform your train is leaving from and if it's delayed. And for that I use my trusty camera and its handy little zoom! Yep, I may look like a loon standing in the middle of a train station or tunnel seemingly taking photos of a screen, but hey, it does the trick for me, so who cares!
Unfortunately the same doesn't work for buses or airplanes. If I'm flying somewhere on my own, I have to book "special assistance" which comprises a nice little fella(they're not little, really) in a fluorescent vest walking me to the boarding gate and on to the plane and vice versa. It does have its perks sometimes: people most of the time thinking I'm some kind of celebrity requiring security, not having to stand for an hour prior to boarding to get a good seat, meeting the same security people after a few times you've used an airport and them recognising you and making you feel like they're talking to a friend of theirs. But other than that I just hate it, it's the fact of depending on someone I really can't stand.
As for buses....unless there's only ONE bus leaving from that certain stop or someone is there to tell me "this is your one", then I can't take one. The camera trick here doesn't work, mainly because I'm outdoors and don't have long enough for the camera to zoom on the bus number and for me to realise it's the right one. As for asking EVERY bus driver "is this the X?", I get EXTREMELY frustrated after asking twice.
Something else that badly affects my eyes is my nystagmus, the involuntary eye movement we ALL suffer from. However in people with albinism this is remarkable and constant and it affects our vision. Basically until 3 years ago if you looked at my face you would have been able to see my eyes rapidly going back and forth. At the moment though I manage to keep it quite under control with a daily dose of a drug called Gabapentin. I'm not gonna go into details of that, however if anyone with Albinism or a bad nystagmus wants to know more, I shall blog about it, just let me know.
The number one thing that REALLY bothers me along the bad vision, is the fact that my eyes aren't straight. And unfortunately it's getting worse and worse as I grow older. This is why sometimes on the blog you'll see FOTD's showing just one eye -it's because that particular day my strabismus is worse than usual and I couldn't find a good enough photo of my whole face- or photos taken from a certain angle -that's the angle where my strabismus shows less-.
Normally this issue is easily corrected when you're a kid just by simply training your eyes with prisms. Of course my parents being my parents gave my brother the option but not me. And now that my brain has fully formed, it's too late to train my eyes back into position.
My eyes not being straight REALLY make me extremely uncomfortable when I talk to someone or when friends ask to take photos together, with my horrible unstraight eyes I ALWAYS end up ruining otherwise perfect photos of my gorgeous friends. It REALLY bugs me as it's something I have NO control over.
My life is filled with frustration from the second I wake up as I either can't do something because of my vision, or because I have to ask for some body's help.
Not to mention the fact I'm unemployed and have much difficulty in finding anyone that will give me a chance.
Most of my friends will tell you they tend to forget about my impairment and that I'm more independent than many women they know, but it's not enough for me and I believe unless you suffer from something similar, you will never understand the amount of frustration I deal with on a daily basis.

I'm on the process of looking for an eye surgeon here in Ireland that is willing to try and address my strabismus and/or somehow correct my vision slightly. So far I've had very little success so if you know someone who might be able to help me in any way, please point me in their direction!

This post could have been a heck of a lot longer, and it's taken me a few days of editing, trimming and pondering to get it finished. I didn't want to be too medical or too burdening.

I do hope it's offered you an insight of what my life is and what living with a disability means.
If you have any comments or wish to discuss anything with me, please go ahead and do so.

Thank you for reading,

Lil

YouTube channel

So...as I said in my previous post, I have been toying with the idea of a blog and/or YouTube channel for a long time now. In the last few days I have discussed it in deeper details with a few people and tested waters on Twitter to see what kind of reaction video tutorials might have....and it seemed pretty positive.
So I have decided to go ahead with it as a trial sort of thing, see if it does actually have an audience etc. However before I do so there are a few technicalities I have to sort out like the lighting in the room(which, trust me, is beyond shocking!), get a good quality web cam and find a way around having to check out my image VERY closely whilst doing tutorials. Might take a few days but I WILL sort it out, I promise!
Now...I was thinking of not just make up tips but also other beauty products, hair do's tutorials, maybe some outfits of the day as people are always asking where I get my outfits and stuff.
What do you guys think? Leave me comments on here or messages on Facebook and Twitter, let me know, as I am doing this for you lot :-)

I promise I will find the time also to design a new layout, this is a pre-made one, but I WILL put my own touch into it, promise. I know my friends love my graphics.
This was going to be just a quick update.
Ciao for now my little elves

Lil
xx

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....