A lot has happened in the last year that I would like to share with you.
The beginning of the decline of Venomous Cosmetics
My once beloved business has suffered greatly in the last year, and I am not one to make excuses for the sake of doing so. As hard as I tried to keep VC going and keep up with orders, it became impossible due to my personal life basically falling apart. I was staying up nights to get orders done and trying to work during the day to keep the household going.. and at some point everything became too much. I apologize for every time your orders were late (sometimes ridiculously late), every time you didn't receive a timely response to an email or inquiry or anytime discounts were not applied promptly. And then, the nail in the coffin:
Eczema
Such a small word to cause such enormous problems. I am sure many of you remember all the nail posts I did on this blog..
This is a before picture:
This is what eczema did to my hands:
Not only does it look horrible, it is excruciating. I had trouble accomplishing daily responsibilities like changing diapers, taking showers, washing dishes. It was impossible to press shadows or make lip poison even with two pairs of gloves. I eventually lost all my nails as well.
I found a new treatment and slowly I am recovering, but it has been a long road.
Weight gain/loss and Depression
Back at the end of 2012, I posted about a personal tragedy which I never disclosed the nature of at that time, except to a few people I considered close to me. At the time, I had no idea how much the incident(s) could change me. My then boyfriend (now husband) was unfaithful and I internalized it, feeling that it was my fault. I begin to gain weight as I turned to food for comfort. I hit an all time low when I realized I had gained so much by early fall 2013. The depression fed the need to eat for comfort. So this was me just 5 months ago at Christmas:
I saw this pic and cried.. but decided to do something about it. Here is my personal album of pics along the way, if you are interested in seeing my weight loss journey, which is right now 94 pounds lost since my start date Jan. 21st, 2014.
Here are a few pictures of me currently, without makeup, because I believe makeup is an awesome thing to make us feel prettier, but we are all beautiful in our own way without it.
Thank you all for your support of VC over the years, and when I re-open VC will be better than ever!
Much Love,
T
