About Me

Hi everyone & welcome to my blog!

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My name’s Tania. I live in a small market town in Warwickshire but grew up in a seaside town in Essex. My family still lives there & I visit as often as I can. I live with my husband & our two rescue cats, Mylo & Freya.

Mylo & Freya

As well as beauty & style, I love yoga & music. I’m a classically trained oboist, but have struggled playing recently due to my health. You can read more about that in my Physical Supports Made It Possible… post. I’ve really gotten into photography, particularly since starting my blog. I have my Grandad’s Minolta 7000, which he bought in 1985!

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We’re all a little bit different in our own ways. I want this blog to be a safe place for us to share & celebrate our differences. I try to embrace my differences & encourage others to do the same. Whoever you are, whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll find something here you’ll enjoy. From beauty reviews, hauls & general musings, (like my post where I show you how to create the effect of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushes using blushes you already own & the Hourglass Ambient lighting palette) to my thoughts on fashion, style & accessories, as well as lifestyle posts. Below is a little of what you can expect from my blog…

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Beauty

Since I was a kid, I’ve had a large number of allergies. I wanted to do my own makeup for my wedding so spent a LOT of time reading the ingredients lists of everything, from foundation to lipstick & blusher. From this experience I learnt how difficult it can be for someone with allergies to purchase cosmetics. So I decided to dedicate a section of this blog to helping others in a similar situation to me. I’m keeping a running list of main allergens found in cosmetics & have information about what the term ‘hypoallergenic‘ really means.

I’ll be honest with you; a lot of my purchases are high end because, while the drugstore/high street has come on leaps & bounds in terms of product quality, they are still often lacking in the availability of ingredients lists. It’s common for cosmetic stands to have either no ingredients available, ingredients available within packaging (really not helpful) or ingredients booklets not up to date – particularly with new releases. This is despite it being a legal requirement for ingredients to be labelled. You can read more on this here.

I aim to provide as much detail as possible about common allergens in products. I am allergic to an ingredient in some lip products & am currently trying to work out what this is. I have made a feature out of this to show you how you can work out allergens through an elimination process.

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Fashion

I have recently been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Hypermobility Type. I have subluxated (partial dislocation) countless times and have a number of different supports for various parts of my body. I’ve shared posts about my journey of using mobility aids & becoming a wheelchair user.

I also have a rare form of migraine, Basilar Type. It started when I was 11 & has never stopped – I go to bed with it & wake up with it! I take lots of medication to keep this under control. Some of the medication I have been on has made me lose weight & others caused me to gain weight. As a result of this I am working on learning to love my body whatever size & shape I am.

I am photosensitive – lighting affects my migraine & is related to my Meares-Irlen Syndrome & Dyslexia. For this reason, I wear precision tinted lenses; at the moment they’re green, but I’ve had other colours too. Hats help me cope when lighting is difficult as is cuts out a lot of what you see in your peripheral vision, so you’ll see them feature quite a bit!

For a long time I was unhappy with my body & didn’t let my inner fashion blogger out. I’ve come through the other side & want to show everyone that whatever size you are &/or physical supports/adaptations you need, you can look amazing!

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Life

As you may have gathered, my life is rather different! I want to be able to share snippets of my life so you can get to know me despite my conditions.

In addition to the conditions mentioned above, I also have IBS – a common complaint amongst the EDS community. As well as medication, I am also on the FODMAP diet to reduce my symptoms. I’ve had lots of questions about this recently so am going to start posting some simple & delicious recipes in the hope that it might help others who are trying to manage their symptoms.

I’ll be provide information, help & tips on living with the conditions I have, as well as personal anecdotes & updates. I will also be documenting my process & experience of becoming a parent despite chronic illness.

I’m part of the Kind Act & #TakeBackWhatsYours campaigns & set up the #SpoonieSpeak twitter chat for those with chronic illness to come together & share some positivity! Do come & join us, Friday 7-8pm.

I really hope you enjoy my blog, if there’s something you’d like to see featured let me know & I’ll see what I can do!

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You can contact me via email at whentaniatalks@gmail.com.

You can also come & say hi on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumbler, Facebook & Google+.

Like what you read? I’m also on YouTube!

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Mini Me