Etoile Boutique 's Fashion in Wonderland

Last week I got invited to Etoile La Boutique 's fashion in wonderland event, which were held in Etoile La Boutique Jeddah located in Al Khayat mall. The party theme and interiors made me feel like I am Alice being lost in wonderland, and not just any wonderland, THE fashion wonderland. I had the chance to browse through Etoile's latest spring/summer colorful collection. There was a mini live fashion show, where two models were styled by Jeddah's sweetheart and my own friend stylist /Blogger Dareen Alyawar and Marriam Mossalli, the founder of Niche and shoe and drama fashion website.

Styled by Darren Alyawar

Styled by Darren Alyawar

Styled by Darren Alyawar

Styled by Marriam Mossalli

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Flashback to the 80's with Marc By Marc Jacobs

I was invited to be a guest in Marc by Marc Jacobs summer collection launch, and I am not going a lone, am inviting you all to attend this fabulous party with me, where we can all design our 80' inspired apparel buttons as this collection celebrates individualism, self styling and the bad girl attitude of the 80's  pop stars such as Cindy Lauper, Blondi and Madonna. 

The event will be in Jeddah 23, April at Stars Avenue, in Manama 25th in Bahrain City Center and in Dubai on May 1st at the Emirates Mall.

Waiting to see you all, just mention you are a Chanel, Cupcakes, Cameras and Crayons.

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The Winter Makeup by The Body Shop

I was willing to write this makeup review 2 weeks ago, but I preferred to wait till I get my new camera (Finally!!!!) so I could capture the real beautiful colours of this lovely makeup collection by The Body Shop. I am very thankful to get sent this lovely gift from The Body Shop. This makeup set if from their Fall/Winter makeup collection, my gift consisted of, 2 eyes shadows palettes, 2 shimmery powders, pearl bronzing powder, Kabouki brush, 3 lipsticks and 4 Kohl crayons.

I will start by my favourite thing, the shimmery spray powder, I LOVED this product, they come in two different colours, light gold and bronze, usually because I have a fair skin, the light gold doesn't look good on me, so I tend to go for something with bronze tone, but surprisingly even the light gold one looked good on my skin, It very easy to apply you literally spray it on you body and face like perfume. it gives a perfect glow/shimmer without over doing it, and the powder smells amazing as well. I think it's one of the brilliant bronzing products I have ever seen. The funny thing that I was shopping with my girlfriends at The Body Shop, and I saw these two products, and immediately fall in love with them, but was in a hurry and left without buying them, then when I received those two I was dancing from happiness. They are a must have especially with the coming summer weddings season.

 The Eye shadows palettes are like they are tailored specially for me, just like how I love my eye shadows, When I put eye makeup I always go for the earthy colours, I feel it complement my dark brown eye colour.

The Sandy/ Earthy eye shadow palette

The bronze palette

 If you are a beginner with makeup I would suggest you grab one of those practical palettes, they are so handy, and you can easily create a hot smokey eye makeup look. If you are in a hurry in the mornings, you can apply one of the lights colours with a hint of mascara and you are ready to go, for a more edgy look, you can mix the light and darker one, a blend them with a blending brush,then add the medium colour under your eyes, just like eyeliner, and if you are going out partying, go for the smoky eye, my secrets for a fresh look is to apply the highlighter colour at the corner of your eyes, and just under your brow bone.

This shimmery bronzing powder is perfect for contour, it has nude and bronze balls, that you can just pass your brush on, or grind some balls to a powdery texture, I use it for contouring my cheeks, nose and forehead, it changes me from snow white to a hot Latin babe, mm just kidding, but it does look good on almost every skin colour, because it contains multi colours, that when mixed together gives a unique colour.

The Kabuki is so soft, and big yet it fits perfectly in my Double Nooun makeup pouch, that I keep on my everyday bag.

Honestly for lipsticks I am more in the pinks and nudes, so I am not a huge fan of the reds and darker colours, but when I tried them they looked on me, and I think I will use them when I go for a more darker, sophisticated looks.

The Kohl Crayons are just perfect, I loved the formulation, they are creamy, yet can last for hours, two of them has two ends, one the Crayon, and the other a smudging brush to blend the liner if you want to play with your makeup and create a darker look.

My favourite is the blue, because this is my typical makeup look, I can always be seen with a blue or brown eyeliner, I only use the black, if I will go out with no makeup at all, and just one to look a bit groomed.

 
Here are swatches for the lipsticks

Swatches of the eye liners.

*The Whole Collection is available in all the The Body Shop stores.

Disclaimer: The above mentioned review is a 100% honest review, If I don't like it, I won't write about it.

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Interview with Nut& Ptah

I have been wanting to publish this interview from long long time ago, precisely from the past Amman fashion week time, Hala and Sarah or Nut are Ptah are half Jordanian half Egyptian sisters duo designers, whose work have been turning heads recently. Their pretty pieces caught my attention from Amman fashion week, and I wanted to know more about these beautiful sisters.

 
-Tell us more about yourselves ?  
Sarah: I've always been artistic and have an eye for detail.
anything inspires me. Hala: I also have an eye for detail and travelling is what keeps me motivated

- Tell us more about Nut and Ptah, and how did you start it? Nut&Ptah is a vibrant,feminine and bold Jordanian brand which is strongly influenced by the Egyptian Jordanian and Palestinian dynasties as well as the rich cultures of the world.we started it officially in 2009 when we took a in soul Jara .it was the best decision we've ever made. thanks to the encouragement of our family&friends especially Sabein, our sister.
  

- Nut and Ptah is not such a common name, what does it refer to ?

Nut & Ptah = [noot and petah] 
Nut: An ancient Egyptian guardian of daytime, in which production is at its utmost. 
Ptah: Another ancient Egyptian guardian of skilled craftsmen, artisans and creativity.

- How it feels like to be working with your twin sister? 

Well, we could easily be mistaken for twins but the truth is, we're 2 years apart! however the fact that we look and act alike is a strong indicator that we complement each other. we function best when were together and we've always made a good team.but of course, and only rarely, we want to kill each other over work..like all sisters do.

 - How do you see the fashion scene in Amman, and how it is different than in Egypt ? " I heard you are half Egyptian" 

we haven't embarked on the Egyptian market yet so we cant really compare but we can definitely say that the fashion scene in Amman is booming and is ever evolving and we love being part of this chic movement.

Which piece took you the longest time and effort to design?

 the piece that took the longest time in making is a handmade headpiece which we made especially for her Majesty Queen Raina. We wated to express our appreciation by making a piece of art. So that took a while. As for the piece that took the most effort, we'd have to say most of our dresses for MBFW. the opulent amount of details which every piece entailed meant that we had to work day and night.

- What was the public reaction to your first collection? 
It was a hit.

  
- How do you describe your own style and how it reflects to your collections? 
our collections are a finer and much more detailed representation or extension of our personal style.And our personal style is ever evolving. 

  

- You have just participated in Amman Fashion week, tell us more about the experience our participation in the first season of AMBFW was a rich learning experience. We haveenjoyed

every minute of it. From creating a collection, doing fittings and rehearsals with models
to meeting local and international persons in the the field.It all translated beautifully for us. We
also were thrilled to see Jordan taking its first step on the fashion map.

 
  
- What was the toughest moment for you during the FW ?
  making sure all the models looks were flawless right before the show starts .what people might not know is that it becomes a bit of a circus behind the runway walls. the pressure of perfecting every little detail must be the toughest moment. Sarah once said ''I wish we could clone ourselves and have more of us to ensure it is all immaculate''.
  
- Which celebrity or socialite do you wanna see rocking your designs one day ? 

  Aimee Song, Lykke Li, alexa chung, Florence Welch, Olivia Palermo

 

- How can we buy your designs?

Right now, were taking appointments so anyone who would like to purchase any of our items can call 00962 79 580099 3/2. we do have a Facebook page and an Instagram account. 

Facebook:  nut & ptah 

instagram:  nutandptah 
 
- Any future plans you wanna share with us.

We are currently working on a fashion exhibition, so stay tuned.

 

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The little device that will entirely change your life.

I think women's biggest problem, no matter from where they came from, how they look like, is hair removing. Despite having many ways to do so, nothing has worked 100% , for every methods its pro and cons. for example with the traditional ways and waxing, sometimes the pain is unbearable, and if you have sensitive skin, you can break out or suffer from redness and itchiness,  as for shaving it's very inconvenient as hair grows back immediately and seriously no one wants the coarse hair and the ingrown hairs under the skin.The hair removal creams are the worst ever, it literally damages your skin, and can cause skin pigmentation in some cases, Needless to mention the mess and the long time you take to remove the hair using all this methods.

Finally someone heard women's prayers and decided to do something about. Braun has recently another miraculous devices which can be defined better as a fist size skin spa than just an epilation device. The Braun Silk Epil is not new to the scene, but I really love the fact that Braun keeps on updating the Silk Epil functions to make it suitable for the modern life. The new Silk Epil 7 "the skin spa" has many changeable heads, the first is of course the epilator head, that can work on dry and wet, and YES you can definitely use it in the shower, it can removes the tiniest hairs ever, and it also have light to show where are some little hairs hide. the second one which is the new concept is the exfoliator head, that removes all the dead skin, 4 times more gentle than all the chemical scrubs but we the same and even better effect. the other heads are the trimmer, that trims long hair, and the other is the shaver that gives you a very close gentle shave  way better than normal razors, and also works on dry or wet.

Braun has thrown up a very beautiful feminine party and invited me to attend, the party was held on the private villas overlooking the beautiful Red Sea at the Moveinpick hotel in Jeddah, where guests were lectured by dermatologist consultant Dr. Shazia Ali, where she simply explained to us step by step how to use the Braun Silk Epil, answered our endless questions and guided us how to get the perfect skin, afterwards we were entertained  to a delicious lunch, followed by an indulging hand and foot massage, finally followed by a joyful and fun photo session for each guest.

One of the many questions that Dr. Shazia was asked, is why we get red inflamed pimples after epilation, she replied that after the hair has been removed, few days and it's start to grow again under the epidermis  so if the skin above is not so smooth that the hair can penetrate, the pore will get inflamed, making the skin red and itchy, and that what makes the hair grow under the skin and make your skin looks and feels coarse. So Braun acknowledged that fact and worked on developing the exfoliator head, that allows you to get rid of the dead skin, so when the hair regrow, you want suffer at all from the ingrown hair problem. Dr. Shazia said that we can exfoliate up to 2 times a week, the exfoliator head is very gentle yet very effective, it can be used on face as well, hearing that was music to my ears, as I was looking everywhere for the clarisonic face exfoliator, and now I am using the Braun Silk Epil exfoliator on my face, and man it never felt so soft, as it does now.

There were a significant difference, even from the first time.

Dr. Shazia used a model suffering from keratosis pilaris and showed how a person with such  a sever skin medical case, can have a noticeable smooth skin in matter of few months, if used the exfoliator and epilation frequently. Another thing the Dr. highlighted, is a step that most of us forgot " moisturizing". Always moisturize after exfoliating, it's the golden rule, exfoliating without moisturizing makes the skin even drier: it's a very important steps that can be missed.

Dr. Shazia showing us how to change the heads.

The Braun Silk Epil is such a fantastic device, it's a revolution in the derma world. I can see all the dermatologist rave about such product, it's fast, convenient  for traveling you can basically throw it inside your handbag and take it with you everywhere.

Thank You Braun for always working so hard to develop your products and make it adjustable to women's constant needs, I have always loved Braun products, and they never fail to impress and surprise me with this Skin Spa and with the Braun 7 satin hair, read my review about it HERE, and as promised I will be doing a special post showing you how to style your hair with it so soon.

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