Get the (Lancôme) Look

I love the Sunday Times.

Even though it’s owned by the tax dodging octogenarian Rupert Murdoch I can’t help but love The Sunday Times.  It’s part of my Sunday ritual to sit and read the papers while sprawled out on the sofa.  And this past weekend was good ‘un. 

I gratefully received my deluxe sized edition of style magazine (A whopping 14 ½ inches by 11 inches - oh my!) which I think is their version of the September Issue.  It’s crammed with fashion tips, the newest trends, glorious photos, gossipy articles – I even love the glamorous, expensive looking ads – it’s like a sugar rush of high fashion each time you turn the page. 

While leisurely flicking through the mag, I happened upon the most gorgeous photoset in the make up section. 

1. 2.3.

They are utterly gorgeous aren’t they?  My photos don’t capture how wonderful the make up looks but believe me, it’s stunning.

I read through the listed products and my heart sank at how expensive they seemed.  I like my budget cosmetics and favour what Americans call ‘drugstore’ brands (the cosmetics section in Boots and Superdrug basically).  At closer look, I realised that all the products were by Lancôme.  I flicked through the other two pages and all the products listed were by Lancôme.

Huh. 

For my own amusement I totted up the cost of each list of products for each look.  They are as follows:

1. £ 148.50
2. £ 168.00
3. £ 233.50 

Now I understand that not everyone is like me in regards to what I’d pay for in terms of cosmetics.  Style magazine consumers are a well-to-do bunch and expensive brands are of course, going to be featured and I have no problem with that. 

The short paragraph accompanying the pictures says that the person who styled the make up is Aaron de Mey, artistic director of Lancôme.  Okay, well that makes sense. 

But is this feature an advertisement or an article? 

I’m not a journalist and I imagine the lines drawn are a little murky with fashion and beauty magazines (by nature they feature lots of brands and products and probably have dumpster trucks full of freebies landing into their offices, I imagine…) but this seems a little erm, blatant in terms of putting a spotlight on a brand.  I mean, the magazine is already packed with gorgeous ads which the brands will have paid for.  So why did Lancôme get this feature? 

To the magazines’ credit, it also shows upcoming make up trends with a variety of products and brands.  I just wish there was a little transparency.  I mean, at least be upfront about this sort of stuff.  Was a deal involved?  (Mag gets the amazing photos if they agree to feature all the Lancome products). 

Ah well. I hope a make up guru out there ( like my fave Klaire de Lys) does a ‘recreate the look’ tutorial or something for a fraction of the price. 

Also note to the mags and brands; consumers aren't stupid.  We notice when you do shady stuff so please bring it out into the open. 

Use It Up

Unless your introduction to beauty blogs was approximately 5 seconds ago, it’s safe to say, people who click by accident dear readers, that you've heard of ‘project pan’ – a phenomenon that has swept through beauty blogs and youtube make up ‘guru’ vlogs.  In case you don’t know, the basic concept is hold off buying any new make up products until you've finished the ones already in your possession.  Hence the ‘hitting pan’ where you can see the metal casing of your foundation powder/eyeshadow case etc. 

I’m ashamed to say I’m a hoarder of products.  I like to eke out their use very slowly.  Really slowly.  Glacially slow in pace, in fact.  I have make up products that are almost a decade old (that I still use – hello bourjois naturel lipstick in paprika, my favourite lipstick of all time).  It’s not right, is it?  I’m giving this a go because it’s a good way of using up products and being creative. 

First on my list to be used are these products by Burt Bees:

I don’t know the shelf life of Burt Bees products but I bought these products a long time ago and almost forgot about them.  As you can see, I’ve almost used up the Lemon butter cuticle crème – the most delicious smelling product I have in my possession.  By comparison, the lotion and hand salve look brand new.  There’s a part of me that still wants to hold off using them until the winter when my skin becomes dry but I remember the cautionary tale of my Burt Bees almond and milk hand cream.  I used to carry it in my bag and use it whenever I needed a hit of something sweet smelling.  Then, for some reason I took it out my bag and left it on my dresser where it lay forgotten.  I picked it up some months later to find the sweet almond smell had gone off really badly rendering the cream unusable. 

Burt Bees is like Lush in the sense that the ingredients are natural (or at least not overloaded with chemicals I've never heard of) and guess it must have a shelf life of some sort even if it’s not stated on the package.  Actually, the ingredients on the foot lotion are quite interesting to read through.  It has witch hazel, tea tree oil and baking soda amongst other ingredients. 

I’m gonna start using it and will report on it if all goes well.  Burt Bees is a great little company and I’ve been happy with their products so far (except the shampoo bar which didn’t clean my hair) so I expect great things.  

Let me shoehorn in a quick review...

Despite my ‘project pan’ I bought a new lipstick from The Body Shop.  I’d put buying a suitable shade of lipstick on a par with finding a decent pair of jeans that fit.  BLOODY IMPOSSIBLE!  I would have bought a lipstick from Revlon but I could get a major discount with my Body Shop card so I plumped for a sheer lip colour from the delipscious range.  

I’d read through the reviews on the Body Shop site and I would concur with the odd smell of the lipstick.  It’s natural fruit flavour apparently.  I’ve never smelt a fruit like it.  It smells off.  Also, weirdly, when testing the colour on the back of my hand, it looked a lot lighter than the actual shade printed on the sticker.  I bought ‘pomegranate’ colour thinking it was lighter than the sticker shade.  The reality is that when applying it to your lips, the colour matches the sticker not what's on the back of your hand.  It’s a berry colour and it looks very natural on the lips.  I'm quite pleased with it even if it's a tad darker than I wanted.  I suppose it will go well with the autumnal look although looking out my window, it’s far too sunny to make the wardrobe switch to autumn – not that I’m complaining.  This summer has been underwhelming weather-wise.  

Retro Packaging

I want to finish off my post by drawing your attention to another product that’s been sitting on my shelf.  My mum bought me this hand and nail cream.  It seems like a cute piece of retro packaging that was in vogue a couple of years back.  I think it’s cute too.  However, there’s something that just niggles at the back of my mind.  On the front it says ‘Saucy Girl’ probably in reference to the rather well endowed lady sitting pretty.  

On back it says:

Sweet as sugar

And cute as a kitten;

A night with me

Will leave you smitten.

The hand cream does indeed smell sugary but is it possible for a hand cream to be described as cute?  And does anyone spend a night with their hand cream? (Oh God, don’t answer that…).  Maybe I’ve got it wrong.  Maybe this flirty little verse refers to the ‘saucy girl’ so it’s some kind of hand cream as a girl metaphor?  In which case: eeeeeeeeew. 

And yet it sits happily on my shelf (although discreetly placed).  Secretly, I quite like the naughty innuendo.  

Oh, I’m such a bad girl. 

iLOVEfilm

Contributing in my own little way to the demise of the cinema multiplex, I like to rent films from LOVEFILM, to enjoy movies in the comfortable surroundings of my home. I rarely go to the cinema although I do cherish the cinematic experience. But then I also like to wrap up in my duvet and binge on chocolate in my pyjamas which an Odeon ‘premier’ ticket cannot possibly compete with unless they take a very relaxed approach to appropriate cinema-attending attire and provide the duvets.

Anyhoo…

LOVEFILM screwed up my 3 DVDs a month arrangement and as a goodwill gesture sent me two films in the post; ‘Tangled’ and ‘Submarine’. It was a cunning move on their part to send such a killer combination of films. Tangled was impossibly cute and sufficiently Disney-esque although I still can’t shake off the 90s glory years of ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Lion King’ etc. My tumblr dashboard seems to throw up images of Ariel and Belle at regular intervals (and I’m not complaining because I love to indulge in a little 90s Disney nostalgia). But Tangled was a cute fairytale with catchy ditties, funny little sidekicks, witty jokes and lashings of romance.

I was slightly wary of ‘Submarine’. I’d read enough reviews to know that the critics loved it but I think any semi-decent British film seems to gets hyped to skies because the bar is set so much lower. I mean, how many great British films can you remember? Only a handful, I’d imagine. I was also wary of comparisons to Wes Anderson. A film’s ‘quirkiness’ and affectations of cool are not an incentive for me to watch. I had sat through ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ in the cinema and found it dull. I remember a couple of people walking out before it was over. And yet, critics had fawned all over it.

So it was with some trepidation that I watched Submarine. And whaddya know?

I LOVED IT!

I mean, it’s as hipster and quirky as all get out – there’s even a scene with fireworks and sparklers thrown in for good measure – and yet I loved everything about it. The scenery, sets and costumes are rich in colour and detail  – there are edited sequences of startling beauty – they obviously took great care in putting it together.

The actors are all wonderful. The central character, Oliver Tate, is an arrogant and at times unlikeable chap and he’s played brilliantly by Craig Roberts.  His love interest who is fabulously unimpressed by Oliver, is played by Yasmin Paige. If the characters were American, I’d imagine them to sound world weary and achingly hip but there’s a humour that undercuts their pretension and self-importance. Oliver may think himself an intellectual but he’s still the loser getting beaten up at school (I guess only Brits would find this funny).

The Alex Turner (he of the Arctic Monkeys) soundtrack is woven seamlessly into the film and characterises the emotional journey of Oliver. I've never considered myself a fan of the Monkeys but the soundtrack is just the most perfect accompaniment.




And did I mention it was funny? It’s touching, sweet and a little dark in places but it rattles along nicely and I wasn’t bored at all. It wasn’t twee for a coming-of-age story nor a rose-tinted nostalgia fest and yet it manages to hit all the right notes. So did the critics get it right for once? I think so. It’s a fantastic film and would make a great rental for rainy night in, box of chocolates in hand.

Note to LOVEFILM: You've earned my forgiveness.  Just don't screw up again, 'kay?

Eid.

EID CELEBRATIONS AHOY & MINI FOOD PORN POST!

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!

UNF!!!

MELTED LOVELINESS!

1. salted caramel cups - recipe  2. pizza  3. grilled cheese

Ramadan has left us for another year which is always a sad occasion.  Did I make the most of it?  Truthfully, I’m not sure.  The beginning of Ramadan started out well enough but my resolve started to sag in the middle.  Tiredness I guess.  What I like about Ramadan is that you can just shut out the world and focus on faith and worship.  I’ve learnt new duas (prayers) and I want to take myself forward with a positive, upbeat attitude.

               

For Eid I wore my fuschia pink salwar kameez which is so bright it could be used as an alternative light source.  I cleaned myself up using my wild cherry scrub.  The scrub was good – it was strangely jam-like – it was sticky, sweet and I applied the scrub on my loofah like I was spreading jam on a piece of toast.

We visited another family for an evening Eid party.  It was fun although there weren’t any people around my age which sucked.  I ended up talking to a young girl of 10 who asked the most rude, intrusive questions I’d ever heard (‘how old are you?’ ‘What do you for a job?’ ‘Can you sew?’ etc, etc.)  I tried to bat away the questions (especially the age one because damn it that’s just plain embarrassing) but it was to no avail.  At the risk of sounding like a self-loathing Asian, why are Asians so damn nosey?  I mean, seriously, it’s just ridiculous the way some people think they have the right to know everything about you and your family even if you are visibly squirming and being evasive.  Just sod off already!!! Ugh. 

Thankfully, she left with her family early and the rest of the evening was spent in peace but my auntie (hosting the evening) noticed and said that the whole family was like that.  Apparently, the littlest daughter of 3 or 4 years old calls my auntie by her first name which is just plain rude. 

anyway, I’m just going to set that aside and let the Eid goodness wash over me. 

Eid Mubarak everyone! 

My brain is working at half-speed

As you might have noticed, Fasting in ramadan really takes away one’s appetite to blog. I’m not on my laptop as much. I’ve been listening and reading to the Qur’an on my electronic Qur’an player altho unfortunately the batteries have died. I could pick up an actual book of the Qur’an but I don’t wanna. Turning pages is for suckers! [/lazy]

I’ll have to scrounge around for some batteries.

*

I finished off ‘The Junior Officers’ Club’ which neatly coincided with a repeat showing of ‘Our War’ on BBC3 which I caught by accident while watching TV after I’d eaten my sehri. The programme showed the soldiers’ perspective of the war in Afghanistan. I thought it would be a very self-congratulatory piece (teary eyed piece to camera talking about ‘our brave boys…’) but it showed the human, everyday experience of being a soldier. They acted like the young lads they are with lots of goofing around and pranks interspersing the warfare. I don’t agree with the war but the soldiers seemed to act with integrity while on duty which gives me a little solace. All footage would have been greenlighted by the Ministry of defence first though so I’ll still take it with a pinch of salt.

Muslim readers may wonder why I’m watching TV and reading books during Ramadan. I’m actually watching less TV and doing more worship but I can’t give up the goggle box completely so I just try to be moderate (and realistic) with it.

I was sifting through all the rubbish I’ve accumulated in my drawers and found a calendar from two years ago. 2009 was my annus horribilis and I certainly don’t want any reminders of it but the calendar (made by Islamic Relief) is so beautiful I haven’t the heart to throw it away. All the pictures are from muslim countries and I remember how soothing it was to wake up and see such gorgeous pictures hanging on my door.

I took a few pics of my fave images:

Agra, India

Cairo, Egypt

Istanbul, Turkey

I think maybe I need to let go of things that have hurt me in the past and as ramadan is a time for renewed hope and renewed faith, hopefully I can move forward and cast away reminders from the past.

“And when My servants ask you, [O Muhammad], concerning Me – indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. […]” (Qur’an 2:186)

My fasting is going well. I find it hard but it’s manageable. I’ve fasted every single day and feel like a champion!

My ‘five a day’ quota is taking a major hit though. Do chickpeas count?

I’m taking the desi approach to sehri: Rice and chicken curry (although today I had lasagne – go figure). Iftari is dates, samosas, chickpeas with muree (puffed rice), pakora and cake (I’m gonna be one of those greedy peeps who put on weight during ramadan, aren’t I?).

Even though I can’t eat food during the day, I've discovered the next best thing:

Body Shop products smell so good. The above are papaya body butter (smells fruity and lush), wild cherry scrub and shea body butter. I have the berry lip roll-on too but I don't wear it in case I end up ingesting it. I've never paid full price on a body butter - I've always bought discounted half price ones. The scrub was on offer and it's pretty good. If you can't afford it, the ace blogger Lipstick & Pearls has her own DIY scrub.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just off to stick my nose in the papaya body butter.

Peace out!

Ramadan Part II - Electric Bugaloo

Okay, so I announced it was Ramadan in my last post but it was coupled with rather materialistic ramblings (I bought stuff, yay! I wasted food… yay?) and I want to redress that with a gigantic mega-post full of Ramadan goodness. So let’s get cracking.

What is Ramadan?

"Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you many learn piety and righteousness" (Qur'an, al-Baqarah, 2:183)

In the month of Ramadan, Muslims are required to fast everyday from dawn till dusk. Fasting means refraining from:

v Food

v Drink

v Intoxicants e.g. nicotine

v Sexual relations (ooh-err, missus… I’m sorry I can’t help it, well I can, but, you know…)

Muslims eat a meal before dawn called sehri then it’s fasting all day until sunset and the time of eating again is called ‘iftari’.

Ramadan is a time for being devoted to worship and the act of fasting brings you to a higher state of mind. It’s a time of the year for self-reflection and contemplation. How big of a jerk have I been this year and what do I need to do to stop it?

Yesterday, I was practically dying for a glass of water. I got all panicked and thought I would end up in a coma and die. I had eaten and drank my fill only half an hour before. Just how on earth are people in the Horn of Africa coping with famine? Subhanallah, we are so lucky to have the luxury to choose not to eat. I hope Allah brings relief to those suffering, ameen.

The Prophet said: He who gives food for a fasting person to break his fast, he will receive the same reward as him, except that nothing will be reduced from the fasting persons reward." [Ahmad, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah, Ibn Hibbaan, Saheeh].

It’s not just about guarding your stomach though. It’s about guarding your thoughts and your body parts too. One has to be careful not to quarrel, use curse words or lie.

Now, during ramzan, I try not to watch too much TV especially stuff to do with romance (which is hard because I am or was a Twilight fan – don’t judge me!) and I turn away from seeing two people kissing on screen cos I don’t need to see that while I’m in a state of fasting (or on any other day) buuuuuuuuuuut…

... after one day of fasting, I happened to have the TV on and was flicking through the channels. The film Alexander was on and Colin Farrell happened to catch my eye as he was eating a pomegranate. I was utterly mesmerised. My pious resolve was almost shattered. Considering Colin Farrell looked like this:

Throughout the movie, I can’t decide if it was a testament to Colin’s acting or my state of piety that I could be so entranced by him eating a friggin’ piece of fruit. Moral of the story: don’t watch TV during Ramadan. It will mess with your head.

Now, it’s all very well fasting but what does one have to look forward to as a reward for all the good deeds and hard work?

In the aftermath of 9/11, the idea of ’72 virgins in heaven’ was bandied about and it caught the public imagination. I was talking to my friend about this. As a muslim, I had never even heard this phrase before but didn’t know enough to dispute it. Thankfully, someone else did the hard work and I was so happy to find this youtube clip which explains beautifully what an Islamic version of paradise is really like and debunks the '72 virgins' myth.

Beautiful gardens with rivers which flow beneath. Sounds rather heavenly to me.

photo - optical illusion

Ramadan Mubarak!

To tell you the truth, Ramadan has snuck up on me because I’ve been putting off even contemplating it. I know, I know, bad muslimah! My imaan (faith) is thoroughly worn out and my spiritual batteries need re-charging so I’m hoping I can turn things around this month, Inshallah.

I’ll quickly tell you about my weekend seeing as I never relate my ‘real’ life events. I met up with a friend of mine in Birmingham city centre. We went clothes shopping and visited the Forever21 store. It’s a pleasantly airy store and we weren’t being jostled between the clothes rails which was a nice change from the usual shopping experience.

The biggest surprise came from Topshop. I haven’t bought any of their stuff since the last millennia when I last fit into their clothes. However, when browsing I spied the most beautiful, burgundy, long flowing skirt. I couldn’t believe my eyes. A modest and appropriate piece of clothing? From Topshop? Some mistake surely! I nabbed it and tried it on expecting to be let down. I wasn’t.

I immediately bought it and spent the rest of the day in a state of buyer’s euphoria.

The best thing of all? It was a size 12. yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah. I heartily recommend any muslimahs to run down to their nearest store and snap it up. The pic doesn't do it justice.

Also, the shopping bag:

... is Slytherin House inspired madness. Amazing.

We ate at Café Soya, a Vietnamese restaurant, for lunch. I ordered a main course meal of papaya vermicelli. A huge plate with a mountain of food the size of Everest arrived and I only managed to eat half of it after much struggling. Papaya vermicelli sweats are not pretty, y'all. I felt incredibly guilty to leave food on the plate so it’s only right that I spend a whole month starving every day as penance.

That’ll learn me.