People write down New Year resolutions in a variety of categories like health, happiness, family and so on. I think beauty deserves a spot on that list too.

It’s my job to be beauty obsessed and I love it, but there are always areas of improvement for me, and maybe for you too. I think there are a few things we all need to do more of this new year. Some of them are things that you have heard me say over and over again (and yes, i’m not going to stop), and some you’re hearing for the first time.

But a new year should bring ideas, practices and habits that will make you who you want to be. Here are my (and some of your) New Year beauty resolutions for 2016.

1. Wear Sunscreen Every Single Day

I’m pretty good with this because I never leave my house without sunscreen on my face.

I use it underneath my makeup and then use my primer on top. I’m great with applying SPF on my face and all over, especially if I plan to spend long hours under the sun. But one thing I know needs improvement is being more aware of my neck, chest, hands and other areas that one might forget.

If this resolution needs to be on your list, I would suggest you apply sunscreen all year round. It is also important to add an extra coat of sunscreen on your hands when getting a gel manicure because of the UV lights often used to dry the nails.

2. Washing My Makeup Brushes

Speaking of brushes, I’ll like to mention their somewhat high maintenance nature. If you don’t wash your brushes regularly, not only are you leaving them open to bacteria, which leads to possibly breakouts, it also means that your brushes won’t pick up pigment and work as well as it should. I know, washing your brushes seems like an huge task, but if you use a brush cleaner, it is much easier and faster.

Personally, I’m going to set aside a specific time – Sunday afternoon at 2PM to do this chore every week. This will give my brushes enough time to dry properly before the start of the week. To help you remember every week, you can set a reminder on your phone.

3. Being More Adventurous with Makeup (and hairstyles)

It’s so easy to get into a makeup routine, but people like MakeupShyla do a great job of switching it up. Celebs on Instagram are a great inspiration for trying new things, gold eye shadow, bold red lips and more. Amrezy always mixes it up; glossy lips, matte, dark lips, Coloured eyeliner she isn’t afraid to try it out.

And why should she be? It’s makeup she can wash it off! We should all be more out there with out makeup looks and try out new looks. Bold red lips, more shimmer, cut crease eyeshadow – the beauty world is your oyster.

4. Book in for Regular Facials

Looking after your skin is a bit like looking after your teeth. While you may brush and floss regularly, you still need to see the dentist for a deep clean and check up.

I have a fantastic ****** routine and really good products I use on my skin, and even though this might seem enough, it just isn’t. I know that times are tough in this economy and it’s undeniably smart to cut back on extraneous purchases. However, here is my opinion on why a monthly ****** is a good investment.

Your skin is always on display and often has the power to dictate how good we feel about ourselves. Investing in proper skincare has a value that can be arguably more important than buying a new dress or going out to a fancy restaurant or even taking an expensive vacation (a ****** is a mini-vacation).

A ****** will cleanse the pores on a much deeper level, extractions/cleaning out the pores can help to maintain clear skin, stop acne formation, as well as help to change the pore’s size. Often times left unchecked, pores can start to stretch and widen with the accumulation of oil and dirt. So I have decided to get a ****** monthly, and I think it wouldn’t hurt if you did too.

5. Using Hair and Skin Masks

Hair and skin masks are fun to use and make a huge difference for soft, shiny hair and clear skin. I really love the dead sea mud mask from Pure Body Naturals at the moment. I love the way my skin feels after I use it – it’s simply amazing.

And I also love the Cantu hair masque – it leaves my hair moisturized and soft. I think I would use this once a month going forward, and also apply a facemask once a week at a time that’s perfect for me.

6. Take Care of My Natural Nails

As ridiculous as it sounds, a manicure is one of the first things people will notice about your appearance, especially if you work in an office.

For a while I have been using nail extensions and acrylics. While it looks beautiful, it also makes my nails underneath very soft. I would like to take a break from nail extensions and grow my own nails. Strong, long and healthy! This is also something you can adopt, your nails need the TLC.

read more:www.marieaustralia.com/long-formal-dresses

www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-brisbane

Under the facemask
I hid my life
my sorrow,
my pain

my love
for you
I save
for another time


But for this
moment
I let my tears
to fall

i have been telling this story for years
most people think it's a made up joke
but let me show you the high relief
fingernail scars on my ******* and
back let me take you
back to the basement made of music
back to the beat of the drums
back to the bumping grinding and *******
back to the girl i fingered on the field trip bus when we were 14
jesus christ i'm sorry okay we were only kids then
playing an obsessive tug of war game with
her wrists weighing my handlebar collarbones down
while exhaust fumes belched warm through the floorboards
her ankles wrapped sinuously around my ankles
the sun peeling through the windows like a nectarine
she straddled her first white stallion ******
buzzing like a wind up toy on my teenage knuckles
two years later in high school she was my tutor but
we learned more about *** than computer science
she showed up ***** in a corset get up
to my best friend's halloween party
where i was dead set on getting hammered
she set me on fire with her feral hair
and her feline eyes begged to become the nail
i was drawn to her like a planet being pulled
into the orbit of a red dwarf star and after she
danced the boogaloo with her hips
sequestering my glittered face
i became a deep sea diver on the dancefloor
facemask and snorkel full of sweetmeats and sap
her thighs covered in salty drool and
shrieks cutting through the *** cloud atmosphere
building into a honking goosey crescendo
we took a steamy cold shower together afterward
and i really saw god's big face when
her eyelashes licked the fog off the bathroom mirror
and she proved to be a balloon knot artist
with grape sized ******* and a soda straw
tongue like a butterfly imagine me squealing on tiptoes
in the bathtub clawing toward the shower mouth overhead
with her laughing underneath creating a complex layer
of parrot echo-thunder tapping my lowest vertebrae
internally in a sophisticated cole porter rhythm
i've slept trembling crooked on the bed ever since
with beads of sweat arranged on my upper lip
remembering the gleam of the baby oil bottle standing
proud in the corner of the shower receiving window starlight
and waking up with smears of wet lipstick embedded
in the secret tender spots of my body and the leftover
sound of her fingernails raking through
the stubble on my sensitive cheeks

she finally told me her secret flippantly
the night before i went to jail
in the safe shadow of
soft candle flame snuggery

oh just pure mdma and ******* sprinkled on my tongue

reminders for tomorrow:
wash my hair
don't eat ******
don't be ******
smile at the stranger
slow down
be better than today
do a facemask
call the financial aid department
apply for a credit card
look at clothes you can't afford
buy something you can't afford
go to the gym
or don't
but cancel your membership
go to yoga
look up what namaste means
don't be ******
email people your new phone number
make friends
smile with more than just your mouth
wear something comfy
relax
take patrick and leo to golf
patience is key
let them look out the window
be on time
hug leo when he cries
hug myself when I cry
don't cry
don't be ******

I want to start over but from where I am now
I may be old but my mind knows how
To listen to the knowledge of the street
And not college where the frat boys meet
Inventing the art form of a young man’s life
Trying to find himself before he finds a wife
Not playing all the people like they’re a game
Making their heart remember your name
Not because they made love with you
Or what you dropped inside just came due
It’s more like this where a girl walks away
Thinking what the **** did he just say
That was like watching a movie or a play
But it was in my bed and he knew what to say
He told me the way but first I had to weep
No way somebody’s spoon could dig that deep
It had to be with my hands my mouth my feet
Nothing left for me except a mind ready to eat
Ancient texts about suffering causing my desire
Or reading stories written by a winner and liar
How pretty can I be if the world is still on fire
Nobody gives a **** except that boy I inspired
The one who won’t call me love but still wants more
How can I tell until I give it all away like I did before
Well maybe I should just not make myself a temple
Instead I’m a sidewalk where a memory is a riddle
You walk on me and there I lay white naked cracked
But now I know you and the manhood you lacked
Yes it's the way to be, unlike a ****** drinking tea
The more my body takes the more my mind can see
Because nothing’s sacred besides what I think of me
And the truth of the world is not so shocking or free
I wish you hadn’t started over like I thought you doing
But what I must ask is who is listening and who is drawing
Shapes on the sidewalk where blood was finally spilled
And the sermon given by a **** whose mother was killed
I haven’t confused the parked cars yet with my directions
And the ***** I made was the least my own affections
The movie had an intermission asking what year it was
The lobby was wearing a facemask that only said because
It’s the rebellion of the common man after quitting time
Nobody can tell who they are but still they wait in line
Did you go my girl to the grave of an unknown soldier
Do you know what it is that makes him your keeper
He died didn’t he and the headstone said he was brave
It’s act two scene three of the conversation with a grave
You’re not feeling so pretty now because he can’t see
It’s up to you now to think of something to say or be
That’s what I wanted you find inside the history of man
The terrible tale that a spider and a planet understand
But let’s not fret about that we can’t change the past
Maybe we should start instead with what we thought last
Did it make sense did it mean anything did it feel good
It was the flame you ignore though you piled on the wood
It’s not really suicide as much as it is ripping out the wires
And walking with candles for eyes and years for hours
It’s living without giving a moment or a life away
What’s real is everything you do and everything say
Do you really think you’re evolved because you laugh
Was it your own wit or something you read in the bath?
Don’t be so shallow that the pool you drained is on me now
I can’t take it any more I can’t take it though I know how
Let me start again let me start again let me start again
Then you can listen in yes then you can listen in
Because what I’m ready to say is what you just heard
But you can’t remember because it’s not actually occurred
Has it my friend, a dream hasn’t actually been your story
It’s only what you wanted to live but all you can be is sorry
Just like me the courage to be was only the fear to be
But the genius inside of you is also the genius inside of me
And wherever whenever I leave you I will draw a line
We were here because the sidewalk witnessed our crime

the rule of thumb is: you really can't go mad twice, no matter how much you try, it happens only once, and soon enough you regain a footing, on a plateau of lucidity.

and it happened to me, i thought we had a verbal
contract, a sort of understanding,
  some locket of trust -
  as i charmed a swan out of *loch lomond
to her giggling pleasure,
     and charmed her with a bedroom filled
with candles,
      i should have known that with my third
persistent impotence she was trouble -
   by the fourth she turned into melting butter...
i can and will be an *******,
  i gather that, but there's only so much
mea culpa crap i'll mantra into my life,
we had a deal, she even suggested to be on
anti-contraceptive pills, because she hated
the rubber inside of her:
  talk about a reality check in the alternative
universe of ***** latex ***,
where the whole body is attired in a catwoman
outfit...
    never mind...
         and when she called me hysterical
about hearing voice saying: i think i'm pregnant,
i told her: you know what you have to
do? what? get an abortion...
   i'm still punching myself in the face from
time to time about that,
but i only said in shock what anyone would
say in shock, then again,
  being a man: i have no chance at redemption...
by my own honest shame even golgotha is
a ******* **** mountain of insignificance...
    i retracted my position on the "enforcement"
weeks later,
   but but then she was already on track
in her insidious ways... wooing another worthy
pundit...
     i'm not painting a picture of a saint,
just another schmuck who stumbled upon a great
****...
             who was promised contraceptive
precautions, who didn't mind the rubbers as much
as "circumcising" himself during *******
by pulling his ******* back, ending up with
a purple pheasant head...
       point being, then the attempted ******:
a complete fail,
   yes, i understand,
           abortion, bad, ******: acceptable if
the person is alive...
       i get the cosmic joke,
      i deserved the attempted ******,
like i deserved the wooing of a girl of 19
with a swan and loch lomond sunset -
   and her scheming plans to "settle down" -
like **** she settled down, last time i visited her
she was already married,
  and at a party, with the slashes arm down
the route of veins, talking to some other guy brag:
oh, i ******, great ****...
     am i worried about being a suburban
cenobite these days?
    no... not really...
           only mostly, in that i am looking
at the greatest mistake that ever came my way
in life: a woman...
       and i did have the antithesis of atheism
happen to me, a psychosis -
or what's called:
    having an awakening with regard to a soul...
a second breath, a thought with a body,
the feeling of a grand puppeteer and the inversion
of unconsciousness, onto an otherwise
formerly body of perfected obedience...
  it still bothers me,
for all i know the kid has been born,
  she's a russian national,
  she's a madwoman,
               if ever the kid would have me talk
about his mother and his surrogate father
he'd blink once, turn pale & subsequently die...
    i "hear" this buzzing in me left ear
that i attribute to: why aren't you paying alimony?!
i'm supposed to pay alimony,
      for what, for a lie?!
  oh right, man up, man this, man that,
              i have enough ******* that states:
there's no chance of pregnancy if you
planned it... well thank **** i didn't...
   the "passing on of genes* argument,
that english existential blackmail argument
is about done, which is what all english philosophy
is these days: blackmailing...
       genes are there, the little ****** wasn't
aborted, someone tried to **** me,
i'm still here, the argument's over...
    there's a balance attained...
and yes, that sentiment by bukowski is spot on:
some people never go mad,
  what horrible lives they must lead...
and don't they? opinionated *** cracks unable
to summon ****-pant into the bedroom
having courted a swan beside the shore
of a scottish lake...
  to later find that she cheats on her husband
and i'm not the husband...
          yes, i did suggest her having an abortion,
but she didn't exactly suggest:
let me move to london with you...
  she sure as **** managed to follow a rich boy
from st. petersburg to edinburgh,
no! i'm done with this mea culpa crap!
i'm done with english existentialism being
nothing more than bribery!
  i'm tired! tired tired tired!
              o.k. fair enough, i can settle on
a status quo, but i can't settle on a friend of mine
acting out the judge, the jury & the executioner
part, i apologised for the suggestion
of abortion, i wanted to make amends,
to retract my original position,
   but was i given a chance? no...
     did she keep up with her infidelities? yes...
    did i keep my status as a suburban cenobite?
sorta... broke it with a ******* after
getting bored with my hand...
    oh, what great horror, when one of them
exclaimed after a string of onomatopoeia
"nursery" rhymes of ******:
  that's been the second time;
what the **** does it take these days,
    a slaughterhouse akin to auschwitz to compare
to the moderately good, but sincerely un-evil man?
guess i'll have to showcase evil
in some perverse way to get the proper
badge of "honour" around here...
   for striving down the middle is about
as recognisable as ******* a pig, donning
a facemask of a goat singing:
  jingle bells, jingle testicles,
                     banging all the way;
might as well call it the moment *** became
******...
    you know why the pharaohs had eunuchs
to guard their harems?
   you do know, right? no ****** back in those
days...
   can't keep a harem without entertainment,
the eunuchs were the ****-lords of the harems,
they were the modern prozzies!
the pharaoh ****** these women to *******
and have heirs, but he needed ****** to
"protect" the harems for entertainment purposes...
****... the ****** "guards" did more *******
than the pharaohs; thus said:
you can compliment the size of king solomon's
harem,
       admire it...
   but back when ****** was not available,
you really can expect me to believe in solomon's
******* stamina... the size of the harem
i can imagine, the stamina of the kind? nope,
esp. since there was no ****** to turn that
limp donkey of a phallus into a galloping
steed, revising 1000+ bored "housewives".

Me a run around deh place with out
a facemask with my Toyota corolla
Yah a smell yah breath because of corona
Me ah see a gal ah rona
she tell  meh she sista name mona
She ah ware a red dress and deh with deh owner
The thing ah pass name
Corona corona corona
We ah drink with me friends me is deh owna
Me deh with deh gal and me get a bonner
She tell me she want me to bone her
We at the hotel she said she want it in her hola
she ah halla in bed and she name mona mona mona  
She ask me who is me me tell she i am deh landowna
She ask me wha business meh do i tell she i is a mine owner
She want money i tell she Things nah do because of  
Corona corona corona
The thing ah jump from owna to owna
Yah nose a run but yah nah know is corona
corona corona corona
Yah a recover thinking is a cold but is corona
Nuff people ah dead than deh owna
Yah nah know who is deh owna
Deh owna deh owna de owna
Waring a mask looking like a doctor looking for a blood donor
Saving Lives of with the blood of corona  corona
Lady in the bus and cough everyone think she name rona
The man without deh a mask talking to rona
He go home to he wife with rona
The wife nah know but rona
Corona corona corona
Yah belly ah hut yah nah know is corona
Yah kiss yah friend she now got corona
Yah deh work with corona  corona  corona
We get bat ears because of corona  corona
We turn ninja and fight war with corona corona corona
Mortal Kombat with corona  corona  corona   corona   corona  
Ware a mask because of corona   corona   corona  
Blue ***** on yah face corona corona

some of the softest glows:
fairy lights
the moon at exactly 11:32pm
radio lights on the car dashboard in the dark
skin after a facemask
the lettering on the goodnight texts you send back
you, when you laugh

In their eyes, see the fears
facemask wrapped around the ears.

On their own, in the car
common sense removed so far.

So I'm spreading it far and wide
my face I do not hide.

Stay safe, for good health
Get to know thy self.

Stay at home
home is within,
Cannot go very far
wherever you go
there you are.

Among all facemasks I wear,
   that one special facemask is my favorite.
It oozes with a feeling of love & care,
   so unique that I find it rare.

Among all handkerchiefs that are given to me,
   that one special handkerchief is my favorite.
It smells of calm and sweet love,
   ****, I miss that special one.