22nd June

I’m sitting in the airport waiting for the plane to take me to Tobago. I love invading the MACcounter at airports. Well not quite, but I love trying on all the new products. I usually look a right mess when I get on the plane with a face full of random colours. This time I bought a really gorgeous eye shadow/glitter thingy in a bronzey gold colour. I’ve just pulled it out of my bag to give you a better description ☺ They’re called Solar Bits and are pearlized pigment clusters. They’re gorge.

I’ve got my fingers crossed at the moment because the weather forecast for Tobago doesn’t look great. In fact it’s terrible! Thunderstorms all week! The good thing about Caribbean weather is that one minute there can be a storm and the next minute bright sunshine. The styling for my calendar is bright colours and I really need blue skies and sunshine. I know people think you can completely change the background of a picture with Photoshop but it’s really not that simple. I’ll let you know how it goes.

16th June

I’ve been preparing everything for a shoot I’m doing next week in Tobago for my 2009 calendar. I’ve been to Boots today and got all my bits and bobs. I always bring and apply my own mascara on a shoot so I bought a new one to take today. I think everyone can put mascara on themselves better than someone else doing it for you (unless your completely useless when it comes to putting make-up on!) Also I don’t like the idea of using a brush that’s been used on loads of other girl’s eyes. I use - and absolutely love - L'Oreal Lash Architect. I’ve always loved L’Oreal mascaras. I’ve tried many others including the pricey ones but always gone back to L’Oreal. The make-up artist I work with a lot also loves Lash Architect, but then I’ve also heard some people say they hate it. Everyone has different eyelashes and need a mascara to create different effects. I have really long eyelashes and need a mascara that will define them and coat them smoothly without clogging them up. Lash Architect really does the trick. Some of my friends have quite short eyelashes and say it gives them a really good effect so it seems it’s a good all rounder. Give it a go.

8th June

I’m really stressed with my bloating problem at the moment. It’s got worse than ever before. Normally I always wake up with a flat stomach and it only starts bloating after I’ve eaten but recently it’s been looking like a pregnant troll 24/7! OK, so that’s a slight exaggeration but it does make me feel horrible about myself. It’s a nightmare for anyone, let alone a model! I had some tests done a couple of months ago called an autonomic function test. It’s very complicated and I don’t exactly understand what it is myself. I was referred to have them done by the tummy specialist I’ve been seeing (I’ve forgotten the technical name for him). The tests have only just been developed and not many doctors know much about the whole thing. I had to do a load of random things such as putting my hands in a bucket of freezing ice water whilst being attached to a machine measuring my heart rate and oxygen levels. Very complicated and strange! Anyway, apparently the guy doing the tests found a big problem with the nerves that send messages to my organs. He is still studying the graphs produced to find out more. It’s quite worrying and I just want to know what’s wrong and what can be done now. Also he said my organs can’t absorb a sufficient amount of oxygen and that all these problems are most likely to be caused by an allergy, which would explain my bloating. The problem is, most allergy testing is very unreliable and therefore the best way to find out your allergies is to cut things out of your diet and see how you react - trial and error basically. I’ve been told to start by cutting out dairy for 3 weeks and then wheat for 3 weeks. What a nightmare!

31st May

I stocked up on my Clinique yesterday. I bought a clarifying lotion and facial soap. If you buy two or more products you can usually get ‘bonus time’. Bonus time is a free gift normally consisting of mini Clinique products and a make-up/toiletry bag. Different stores have different bonus time offers so make sure you look around to get the best free products for you. I usually go to Selfridges, John Lewis or Boots.

Clinique’s sales must be down at the moment because I was amazed with the free gifts they gave away this time! I got it from John Lewis but I think every store has the same offer at the moment. I got a really nice white leather toiletry bag with some of their best products, including a make-up remover, body scrub, moisturiser, body butter and facial scrub. The best thing was that they all came in pretty big bottles rather than the usual mini ones, bargain!

Another bargain I’m loving at the moment is the cheap tickets Virgin are offering between Manchester and London, great if you’re a model from Manchester! A return from Manchester is usually about £61 unless you have a Young Person’s Railcard, which costs £20 for the year and gives you 30% of any train journeys. The return works out at £41.20, which is still quite a lot especially if you’re just going to a casting and aren’t necessarily getting paid. Anyway, if you go on the home page, there’s a section that says something like ‘cheap tickets between London and Manchester’, between Monday and Friday they offer tickets from £1-£9 each way! It’s brilliant. You’ve got to book as early as possible though to make sure they haven’t sold out. Everyone’s catching onto it now so they’re selling out quick. If you book the week before you should be fine. A little tip there for my fellow Mancs.