Every woman needs a man who will ruin her lipstick, not her mascara ( @Benefit_UK_IRE #mascarathonuk) xX

It's a well known fact amongst us ladies that no man is worth your tears and the one who is won't make you cry. Which is great in theory and I know we would all love to find the perfect man who would do anything to make us happy, who would move mountains to be with us and would willingly do anything to make us smile (and no I'm not talking materialistically!!).  For the most part, we can sort of agree that, our boyfriends/husbands are generally ok. Yes they might forget things you consider important (birthdays, anniversaries and milk on the way home), yes they might be blind to any tasks that need doing (house work, DIY, car related type things) and yes they come home drink, rambling rubbish, dropping kebab everywhere and ranting about nothing. And, no, they don't understand our love for shoes/make up /hand bags or have any insight into why we feel the need to take so long to get ready. But essentially they will listen to us going on, make us a cup of tea when we get home at the end of a hard day, make an effort to spend time getting to know our friends and support us no matter what. Admittedly when your cleaning up spilt kebab, fetching glasses of water to soothe the hangover and pretending to listen to what ever they are going on about whilst tripping over their XBox it can be hard to remember that essentially underneath all this is a lovely, decent man, who cares very much. But we know he is.... Of course there will be arguments, disagreements and times when you just don't get on (no its NOT permanent PMT boys!).  It is well documented by psychologists that the art of a heated discussion is in fact good for a relationship. To be able to develop a skill set where abouts you can talk to your partner, calmly, put you point across and not just place blame is a very positive thing. This in turn can make your relationship stronger and bring you much closer together.  But sadly for 1 in 4 women this goes too far, and they will experience domestic violence over their lifetimes and between 6-10% of women will suffer domestic violence in a given year (Council of Europe, 2002). The subject of Domestic Violence is a some what controversial one. Much of what happens (as with all abuse) goes on behind closed doors. Out of sight tragically means, for most, out of mind. The facts in black and white are shocking enough in themselves and make for uncomfortable reading.  Two women are killed every week in England and Wales by a current or former partner (Homicide Statistics, 1998) and one woman is killed every three days. Domestic violence has a higher rate of repeat victimisation than any other crime (Home Office, July 2002) and it takes on average, a woman to be assaulted 35 times before her first call to the police (Jaffe, 1982). Every minute police in the UK receive a domestic assistance call – yet only 35% of domestic violence incidents are reported to the police (Stanko, 2000 & Home Office, 2002) The 2001/02 British Crime Survey (BCS) found that there were an estimated 635,000 incidents of domestic violence in England and Wales. 81% of the victims were women and 19% were men. Domestic violence incidents also made up nearly 22% of all violent incidents reported by participants in the BCS (Home Office, July 2002).  Whilst the figures themselves are frightening the reality of domestic violence is even more chilling. It can come as physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse, but more often than not is a combination of all of them. It strips a woman of her confidence, self worth and independence.  Statically speaking, very sadly, the impact of domestic violence will touch us all in our life times. It could be family, friends or even ourselves and the effect it can have lasts years after the scars have faded. Like all abuse the only way to end it is to challenge it, to ensure that it isn't brushed under the carpetbag or accepted as a social norm and most importantly that there are services in place to support women who need to access them.  So ladies put on your lipstick, grab the girls and support  @Benefit_UK_IRE #mascarathonuk via sponsorship and retweeting!!  *All information was gathered from www.refuge.org.uk who's website offer support and advice xX