Flores Magazine

CONTENTS -Flores Magazine- The tradition issue-

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EDITORS NOTE

SARRAH MOHAMMED

GIRLS ON FILM

Time & Traditions

A candid conversation about the beauty of Muslim wedding traditions

11 UNIBROW-NITED

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Interview with photographer Alia Romagnoli

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RUBY VIZCARRA

UNTAINTED

Interview with artist Shari Loeffler

Q&A with Albino model Ruby Vizcarra

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BROWN GIRL FRIENDLY

THE SKIN THAT I’M IN

NOSTALGIC BEAUTY

Interview with makeup artist Osase Emokpae

25 BEAUTY COLLECTION Looking at the art of bringing together beauty collections

A photo series showing the beautiful nature of skin

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Q&A with clean-beauty makeup artist Khandiz Joni

Beauitful moments embedded in makeup

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BOTANICAL BEAUTY Q&A with beauty brand owner Michelle Ranavat

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ANIKE RABIU Q&A with creative hairstylist Anike Rabiu

119 FROM BENGAL, WITH LOVE X

SKIN DEEP

Indian dacner Sparshita Dey tell us about beauty traditions from Bengal

Words with entrepeneur Keira Walcott

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TIME Let’s take a moment to talk about time.

Traditions are woven throughout our life time.

Time is something we all have, yet it is invisible. It’s something that can be measured yet can also be timeless, and it’s something that you can feel yet can also never be touched.

Time is something which we all view in different ways; some of us value our time, whilst some of us like to waste it. There are some who have a shorter amount of time left whilst some people seem to have all the time in the world. No one really knows the value of its intangibility until it is taken away from us.

Time is a value of tradition, tradition is the reason we continue our most sacred practices and consolidate why they mean something to us.

The beauty of a woman is connected to her long roots in tradition.

This may be inherited from our ancestors, like the wistful eyes that are passed down from your grandmother, or the familiar sound of your mothers laugh - these are the parts of you that are defined by family.

Or it may be created by you, deciding to make a break from the past and form traditions of your own that you can take with you and pass on.

It continues to weave throughout our lives, as it narrates the history, culture and tradition we share to create our own unique story.

Stories so inspiring that they show more about who we are than we could tell you ourselves.

Traditions are sacred, through them we become us.

We are who we are because of where we are rooted.

The traditions that unite us and inspire us every day.

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Words by Editor: Fiona Kirkup

UNIBROW-NITED Taking us on a journey of self-acceptance and love, today we are speaking to the inspiring Shari Loeffler, who has been reunited with her unibrow after 25 years apart.

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“WHAT IF I LET THE REST OF MY EYEBROWS GROW NATURALLY AND GROW IN MY UNIBROW?”

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And so, that is just what Shari Loeffler did.

Shari created her very own Instagram page “my fierce brow”, after she felt empowered by her traditional Persian beauty culture. Self-confessed “creative schizophrenic”, Shari Loeffler has a colourful career driven background: philanthropist, artist and with a future of exciting up-and-coming projects, she has always had the drive to create and inspire.

Coming from a Persian family background and being born and raised in Massachusetts, Shari always hated the unibrow she was born with. “I felt so different having a unibrow. I loathed myself tremendously, all I ever wanted in life was to have two separate eyebrows. I could not wait until the day came where I didn’t have a unibrow”. Her mother would not let her pluck her unibrow, even though she begged her to everyday.

Although eventually, she finally gave in, “When I was 13 and a half, my mother finally let me tweeze it, and the only reason she let me tweeze it was because we had moved to Florida, and I was starting a new school. It was at volleyball practice, and it was a week before real school started and I said to her, I need to start with a new identity.”

Shari goes on to explain that there is a reason why her mother would not let her touch her unibrow initially.

“I’m 100% Persian. My family immigrated from Iran to America, so I was born in America. And in my culture, you are considered not a virgin anymore if you get rid of your unibrow or you tweeze your eyebrows. So, it’s a very cultural stigma. It sounds so messed up, but the middle eastern thing is that you must keep yourself a certain way and when you are married off, only then you can get it removed. And so, my mother was so stuck on this archaic rule, she didn’t really think how this was impacting her daughter being raised in America.”

This turning point in Shari’s life sparked a new way that she looked

at herself. “I think for about 25 years after that, I became obsessed. And in the 90s, everything was super thin; if you think about Kate Moss, those super thin eyebrows were in, so I didn’t look like what was being represented in the media, and I slowly started to tweeze more and more of what was there. I had disgusting eyebrows.”

Fast forward twenty-five years, and Shari was about to undertake a journey that would reunite her with her unibrow. It all began after an intensive month of public appearances: “In New York City, they call it the Gala season. When you’re in the scene, there’s a fall/ spring season. I went to 60 events.

It was intense for me, it was my first time and I was constantly getting photographed. I became my own stylist, head to toe figuring out what I was going to wear, how I was going to do my makeup and my hair and all that stuff, because I look at it as a form of art. And I think I was so exhausted by the vapidness of that bullshit, and worrying about am I going to get photographed? Are they going to put me in Vogue? Totally ridiculous, I’m now owning what I went through.”

Now married with three young daughters, Shari tells me how she and her family flee the New York city heat and spend their summer in their house in Amagansett, in the Hamptons. “So, I spend all my summers there, there’s a house which I’m building there. It’s a chilled small town by the water, there’s a farm there that I do a lot of work with called Amber Waves farm. I’m like really immersed in this farm, I surf in the summer, I’m very into physical activity, I’m a dancer.

I see a lot of mind, body and soul connections and I’ve always used athleticism to heal myself. So, being in the farm I was so sick of being in hair and makeup all day, that I kind of just let myself go natural, still shaving my armpits, but not tweezing the centre of my eyebrows.

I have not touched under my eyebrows since June of 2017.”

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The idea for the Instagram account “my fierce brow”, was born one late summer evening, “So I was with my best friend Zoe Buckman, at my house on a Sunday night, and we were having a cup of tea on the couch at 10 o’clock. And she’s like, Shari, you’ve never looked more beautiful, you look so much at peace, what are we going to do about your unibrow? She said, I have an idea for you, I think you should start an Instagram page and you should post photographs of your unibrow.

And I said Zoe, why the fuck would I do that? What would I even call it?

She said, I think you should call it ‘my fierce brow’.” And so it began. A detailed account that Shari has been running for nearly a year since the summer of 2017 where she details how she was reunited with her unibrow after nearly 25 years.

“Then the summer ended, and I was feeling so much more restored with just being natural. Then September came, and I came back to the city and I got thrown back into my crazy life again, filled with all these events, and at my best friend’s birthday party, an artist named Natalie Frank approached me and said, “you have the most beautiful eyes and eyebrows, I would love to paint you!”.

And I thought to myself, that’s really fucking weird because I haven’t gone to my eyebrow guy who I have gone to religiously every three weeks for 19 years, like I haven’t seen him in three months but this chick thinks I’m worthy enough to be painted!

That sparked this conversation within myself to say, well if she thinks I’m good enough then why do I find myself not to be?”

Watching her unibrow grow back in, Shari details how difficult she found the process. “I am someone who forces herself to be in very uncomfortable situations to grow from it...It was really uncomfortable, and watching it grow was a kind of analogy for how I kind of re-created a narrative of how I view myself.”

Coming back after the summer, she wasn’t sure what people’s reactions were going to be, but unsurprisingly, everyone loved it.

“Dear Unibrow - it’s been 25 years since we last saw each other.

While I spent all these years embarrassed and trying to hide you, tweeze you, erase your memory & stigma away, I grow you back with loving acceptance for the knowledge that you dropped - self love, acceptance & belief in yourself is the greatest super power you can ever possess.

And so begins the next chapter of our journey together.

I used to think that you defined me, but, in fact, i’m the one that defines you”.

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“I got a lot of positive feedback, and encouragement and I kind of used that for myself. When you grow in your unibrow, you have to stare at it every day, you can’t escape from it. It forced me to go through this exercise of trying to love the face that I was given, my birth right so to speak. The face god gave me.”

“I forced myself to love it, stare at it, hate it, but whatever feeling came out, I needed to sit with it, if that makes sense?”

Although it was only last year that Shari stopped tweezing her eyebrows, it was in fact a moment four years ago that started her thinking about her traditional heritage. That moment, was when her youngest daughter, Selene, was born. “When she was born, she was significantly darker than my older two girls. This is so sad, but I remember when they were born that it literally crossed my mind that they were not going to have a unibrow, just to give you perspective of how much pain I had over this childhood scar. But she was significantly darker and I remember inspecting her eyebrows and being like, shit. This kid might actually end up with a unibrow! Which sound so messed up now and I find the irony quite amusing at this point.” The irony is further flipped on its head by her daughters, constantly telling her how they yearn to have a unibrow, “My middle daughter, she’s actually quite hairy, you could never tell! And I think I may have mentioned this on my Instagram, she once wrote a whole book on unibrows and she’s always like ‘Mom, my unibrow’s invisible, but you can feel it!”

It’s the labour of love for her kids that drives Shari’s journey, and it’s clear that she is using her journey of self-acceptance to inspire her children to own who they are. “When my baby was born, truly if she does or does not have a unibrow, now she knows that if she has one that her mum had one too as an adult.

Whether she uses that to make her choice to continue to have one or not is up to her but at least she has a visual representation of a role model

who had one, like I did not.”

Shari’s social media is a platform that allows her not only to delve into her journey with her own beauty, but she also believes it is a space for community to connect with other people around the world. When I asked her if she had to inspire one message within women everywhere in the beauty community and why, her response was simple: “I would hope to create dialogues with women”.

What if it was okay to have flaws, to be less than perfect?

Not only okay but actually preferred and even celebrated?

“I think I have been viewing my unibrow as my super power, and what I mean by that is that it’s a mask that brings my face and makes me who I am. And when you can embrace whatever that you find is your quirk, when you create from it, talk about it, look at it; when you are honest about it, and you don’t try to hide it and you just accept it for who you are? Then that is the greatest superpower that you could have.

And so, if there’s any message that I could give to any women around

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the world, is that I am with you. I understand the struggles and the pressures that society and media companies have on us.”

“One of my hopes is to help women psychologically. As one of the frontiers of feminism, as I do really consider myself to be a feminist, that I think is yet to be really tapped is that although we might fight for equal rights and equal pay and all this other stuff, unless we start healing ourselves psychologically from societal pressure, beauty pressure, and all this other stuff, what’s going to happen to us when we have that equality? Like we might still crumble. So, if I can help other women by being honest about what I’m going through and help them open up themselves to do their own exploration, I feel like now I’m just starting to understand who I am and when you understand who you are and what inspires you and what drives you and fuels you and fires you up, then you can focus your energy on doing things that make you happy. I think when you’re happy that is when you really succeed.”

Shari’s passion for her journey radiates from her as I listen to her talk about her the beautiful journey she has had with her beauty. A combination of breaking barriers, self-actualisation and pushing herself to be a role model for her daughters and women around the world, it’s clear to see that she is part of the new age for women that shows that beauty exists in us all, and it is our uniqueness that makes us beautiful.

“I think for me, the unibrow represents my heritage and actually just the face that I was born with, and that being okay even if I thought for myself that I was so different and ugly. Being different and ugly can be acceptable too. You know what is funny is that I look at myself now, and I look back to photos of myself, with two eyebrows and I think I’m so much prettier now. I think that just has to do with my own confidence, like I don’t think I look ugly with a unibrow - I find it very attractive.”

BROWN GIRL FRIENDLY Noticing a lack of representation for women of colour within the beauty industry, makeup artist Osase Emokpae decided to do something about it.

Creating the Instagram ‘Browngirlfriendly’, Osase shows makeup swatches and reviews for women with darker skin tones.

Having 30,000 followers on her Instagram, Osase has captured the eyes of the fashion after being featured in websites like WGSN and ELLE.

What is your main aim of your social media?

Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your background?

My aim with social media is to be a voice and resource within the beauty community. I want to use my platform to share with others what all the latest launches from the popular brands we keep hearing about actually look like on a regular black woman giving her honest opinion, especially as a working makeup artist. I want to reach as many people as I can who need information on beauty products and what they look like and how they work for deeper skinned people.

I have worked as a professional makeup artist for the last 7 years, i’m also a creative director, and I dabble in photography! Anything visual and creative, I’m all over it!

When did you first Launch “Browngirl Friendly”?

Why did you decide to launch it?

Brown Girl Friendly was originally launched in January 2012 as a blog. It was almost impossible to find a reliable, consistent resource for makeup swatches of the hottest makeup on deep skin. Back then, MAC Cosmetics was the biggest beauty brand and was constantly coming out with new collections. At the time, I worked for the brand, so I had access to all their makeup. I figured I could bridge that gap and give in-depth reviews of each launch and show all the new products on deep skin with good quality photos. Most times, swatches on deep skin back then were very grainy or taken in bathroom lighting so you could never really tell what a shade actually looked like. From there, Brown Girl Friendly was born. I am so happy I built the foundation back then, because when I launched my Instagram account in 2016, it was so easy to pick up where I left off, but now introduce and showcase other new exciting brands on the market. Often at times, the swatches shown by the brands themselves were lacking in inclusivity and did not show their products on skin like mine or deeper.

You could only find swatches on varied skin tones here and there only through hashtags and luck! I would often wonder why all the high quality, professional looking images on Instagram rarely featured deeper tones! So, once again, I decided to develop that space by combining my background as a makeup artist and part-time photographer.

How do you feel that your social media has been creating a community online?

I feel like BrownGirlFriendly is a place for people to come and talk about the newest products and give their opinions.

Not only do people come to see my take on a product, but they also want to talk to others about it and share their personal experiences with it. Makeup is fun so I like to keep my platform positive and a place to have safe, comfortable beauty chit chat where ALL are welcome!

What brands on the market do you feel have achieved a full range of diversity for women of colour?

There are many, many brands that have been offering a wide range of products to suit a variety of consumers for decades, long before it became trendy and popular to do so. I don’t think any brand can ever completely “achieve” a full range without getting into customized cosmetics, but it is a goal that more and more brands are continuing to pursue. I will always be happy to see that growth and inclusiveness. It’s long overdue.

How do you think as a beauty community, we can work towards diversifying traditional beauty standards?

And so, BrownGirlFriendly 2.0 was born! I am so proud to say that the platform I have built serves as a reliable, consistent, and beautiful resource that anyone can turn to for swatches, information, and reviews.

The more visible and vocal we are as a community about diversity, the better! Change does not come through silence. No matter your race, gender, culture, etc, we can all jump in and show support and shed light on issues that affect those who are underrepresented in the beauty world.

How does makeup inspire you?

Makeup inspires me not only to be creative but also as an avenue to serve others and to be helpful! Working as a makeup artist, I never take it for granted what an honor it is to be entrusted with someone’s most visible asset: their face! It has inspired me to keep striving to better myself within my craft so I can serve a wider audience. Makeup also inspires me to show myself and others what else is possible to achieve with beauty products. I love showing my clients a different side of themselves and also showing the possibilities of what they can achieve through makeup.

What are your future plans for your social media channels?

Continued growth beyond Instagram into other platforms!

I want to be the number one resource for discussing, showcasing, and reviewing beauty products on diverse skin tones, all done by the expertise of a makeup artist, and beautifully showcased through my photography!

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“So this is what having options looks like: brown skin is not a one size fits all type of situation.�

Beauty Collections

The precious art of slowly gathering together a number of beauty items

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“I first bought Chanel N°5 when I got married, it’s all i’ve ever worn since.”

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“I just can’t stop buying makeup.”

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Keira Walcott We speak to entrepreneur Keira Walcott as she details how she turned her journey with Vitiligo into a positive beauty brand for women everywhere living with skin conditions

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SKIN DEEP. Photography: Daria Ansari Words: Fiona Kirkup

Keira Walcott, 20-year-old mum of two living in London, was diagnosed with Vitiligo when she was 10 years old.

“My mum actually discovered it before I did. She noticed a white patch underneath my eye and took me to the doctors”. Discovering her skin condition so young, understandably Keira was left feeling confused and alone “at first I didn’t really know what was going on, but once the dermatologist started labelling it as a disease, I was very scared and upset.”

Vitiligo is a skin condition where the skin cells attack each other and melanin is lost from the skin creating white patches over the body.

However, little did young Keira know at that moment that she was not alone. In fact, according to Vitiligo Society in the UK, around one percent of the world’s population is living with vitiligo right now. A substantial number that translates to 70 million people living with the condition worldwide.

“There is a lot more awareness now than there were a few years back, I think most people seem to have some sort of idea what vitiligo is”. As there is a growing diversity within the beauty community,

people are becoming much more aware of the different types of beauty that exist around the world.

Thanks to stars such as International model and activist Winnie Harlow, vitiligo has much more of an understanding within the beauty industry today. “I didn’t have a problem with myself or my skin. I had a problem with the way people treated me because of my skin. They tried to define me”. Now a successful international model, put across the covers of fashion magazines around the world, Winnie is educating the public, through her 3 million followers on Instagram, about what it’s like to be living with vitiligo. And this global recognition is giving others living with disease, like Keira, a chance to shine.

Keira’s body positivity led her to create her very own makeup line, Kandor Cosmetics when she was just 18 years old, “I always wanted to create my brand but never knew how to go about it. The thing that made me get really stuck in to it was around the same time I took the course with the Princes Trust as I joined a few groups online and posted before/after pictures and had a lot of interest in what I was using and where it could be purchased.” A line of foundations, concealers and finishing powders, this diverse line of cosmetics is

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perfectly empowering women all around the world living with vitiligo and other skin conditions, as Keira tells on her website that “It’s not so much hiding who you are but just wanting to feel ‘normal’ for a day, that one day of zero questions and zero funny looks can change how you feel about yourself forever”.

Before creating her own brand, Keira began her own beauty rituals by creating cover-up makeup a few years after she had been living with the skin condition: “I started mixing my own makeup formulas for myself aged about 14 when my Vitiligo was becoming aggressive.

I left school at 16 and had my first child at 17. I went to college to study business as it’s something I really enjoyed but I found the classes boring and uninformative so I left. I then approached the Princes Trust to win a start-up loan with my business idea and secured it at 18.”

After securing the business at 18 years old, Keira’s business is going from strength to strength, her ethos inspiring others living with vitiligo and other skin conditions across the world. “I just know the impact it would have on peoples lives to have these products in stores just for people with skin conditions, it will make them feel more included”.

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“Love the skin you’re in.”

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SARRAH MOHAMMED Religions are made up of beliefs. Beliefs in different gods, different visions and different values of life. Religion is beautiful: it is the art of embracing traditions within all walks of life.

It’s beauty narrating through the traditions that we uphold through these beliefs.

Today we are speaking to Sarrah about the values of tradition within religion and family, and how the two intertwined to help her family organise the weddings for both her brother and sister last year.

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Can you tell me a bit about your background?

So, I was born in Edinburgh in Scotland. Grew up there, been there my whole life, haven’t moved around. My dad was born in Glasgow and my mum was born in Pakistan and moved to the UK when she was just two years old so she doesn’t really count as living there anyway.

It was actually my grandparents that made the move over from Pakistan to the UK, I can’t remember what year it was, but according to my mum it was my Grandad that made the trip over by boat.

No way! By boat?

Yes, by boat!

And is that how he met your Grandma?

So they made the trip together, all the way to the UK! And he got a job as a bus driver, and from there they settled down. So yeah, I’d say roots wise, that it’s my grandparents that obviously connected us. Obviously we’ve always had that connection but they initially made the first move from there.

Are you close with your grandparents?

Unfortunately no, but I wish I was.

Since I’m quite young compared to my brother and sister, there’s 15 years between me and my sister and 13 years between me and my brother: both my grandads passed away before I was born. And then my gran passed away around 10/11 years ago, so I’ve only got one gran left.

She does know English but her first language is Urdu. It’s not Arabic, Arabic’s more from the DubaiSaudi Arabia, middle/east sort of area, Urdu is more Pakistan.

Ah that’s interesting, so that’s her first language?

That is her first language. I only know a few words, so I can say a few sentences to her but I can’t have a full-on conversation with her that’s the one thing that I find quite hard because I want to know so much about her, but I can only find out through my mum and dad who ask her the questions.

So your parents speak it?

They speak it yeah. I’d say because of both my gran and grandad, they also have that first spoken language when my grandad picked up English whilst my gran stayed home and looked after the family side of things.

When my mum and dad were both born, they were obviously both speaking that constant language whilst my grandad was saying the English so they had both languages to learn. So when it came down to the third generation of me, my brother and my sister, they both just said straight English to us and I think they didn’t really force it upon us from the beginning so we never really picked it up, so it was hard for us to learn when we were older.

Yeah because it’s quite a hard language, isn’t it?

Yeah, it’s like different scriptures, different order of words, you read from right to left instead of left to right.

I bet that’s so complex!

So, what’s interesting is I can read the holy book, the Quran, in Arabic - but I don’t know what I’m saying. That’s what I find so bizarre is that I can read it but I have no idea what it means.

So you have a brother and a sister?

Yes, my sister is 36 and my brother is 33.

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Was it your sister who’s

wedding you went to last year?

It was both my brother and my sister’s weddings! Oh, yes this was two years ago in my first year of university.

Can you tell my about the process of a Muslim wedding?

Is there lots of stages?

Are you asking me the process of the engagement to the marriage, or the marriage time?

Both!

So basically before you get engaged, the parents in our culture meet up. What they call that kind of tradition is called a Pukigal, I’m not sure what It means but it’s kind of like confirming that these two are going to get married, more like a confirmation. Nothings singed or anything like that, it’s a relaxed meeting to make sure both the parents and the children are happy.

Then you get engaged, that’s quite standard there’s nothing unique in that. Girl usually gets a ring, and the guy gets a watch traditionally. Yeah, the guy gets a gift himself!

Then when it comes to the wedding, from what I know now and what I’ve grown up with, it’s changing now but I’ll come up to that part, there’s traditionally three ceremonies: the first ceremony is called a Mehendi, which is a kind of henna party.

Yes, I’ve read about this! Can you tell me more about it?

Okay so I’d say it’s more of a party for the girls. We don’t really do a ‘hen do’ as in the British sort of culture...

More of a henna- do? *Laughs*, yes more of a henna do.

The family gets together, and the relatives come up and give her a blessing. So, what they do is she

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has a leaf on her hands, and apply henna. Obviously, she already has henna on her hands in a patterned design, but then actual henna also gets put on the leaf, it’s sort of a ritual to wish them good luck. The relatives would also give her money, all the money that they collect is then given to charity, as a good thing to do community wise.

There’s also dances, it’s basically a big sort of party for the girls.

Dancing wise, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen stick dancing in the sort of Indian/Pakistani culture. It’s more of an Indian thing, but lots of people within Asian culture do it anyway.

Sort of stick dances and stuff.

What else do we do? We get that part before with the henna and the money, we also give her a bit of fruit as a bit of nutrition getting her ready for the wedding!

When it was my sister’s wedding, I was in charge of getting ready the platter of food, so I spray painted a pineapple gold and put tooth picks around it and added strawberries, to make it kind of decorative. It’s a very big presentable party,

Sounds like a lovely tradition to have It’s such a lovely tradition to have.

The boys can also have that too, similar things happen there, nothing much different to that. Sometimes they can do a joint mehendi party, so the boy and girl are both present but that depends on what the families want for that.

Then, second of event is the big wedding! Now traditionally for us, that is hosted by the girl’s side of the family, I’m not entirely sure but from what my mum has told me, this is so obviously they can give the girl away.

And I think with Asian families being so so big, like compared to a British wedding where you can’t invite everyone that you wanted to, within Asian culture you invite everybody and everyone! That’s obviously why the numbers are traditionally so big.

So yeah on that wedding day,

ceremony wise, the bride stays in a separate small room. The groom makes a separate entrance, there’s a big drum playing and everything, it goes into the hall and everyone sits down. Then the ‘Malvi’, the priest, asks the groom if he wants to marry the daughter, and that ceremony is called the ‘Nikah’.

Ah I remember you telling me about this! So the Nikah is the traditionally name for the ceremony?

Yes, so you ask the groom and the groom asks the father of the bride if he can marry her daughter, three times. Now I’m not sure why it’s three times but it’s just one of the traditions. But, it’s all done in Urdu again. So, then the Malvi goes to the bride in the separate room, and then he asks her if she wants to marry the groom three times, and then she’ll say yes. In that sense, you are married. Then the bride can make her entrance.

It’s slightly different to a Christian or Jewish wedding for example because of that. The ceremony is done before the bride walks in, so when she walks in, it’s the signing of the marriage certificate and the exchanging of the rings.

And from there, it’s just a dinner and photographs, no dances or anything like that because it’s quite a respected ceremony.

Ah, I didn’t realise that, Yeah it gets different from that point.

We do that as a sort of culture within our family.

Then the third event is called the ‘Walima’ and that is hosted by the boys side! So that is for the boys fathers guests to invite and welcome the girl into their family.

The bride and groom make an entrance together, they cut a cake or whatsoever, yes there’s a cake at the wedding as well, there’s so many cakes! Big on food. Again, that’s just another party, more photographs, big dances and then that’s it!

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What I did forget to mention in the wedding of the girl’s side, is that there’s a third little ceremony called the ‘rukhsati’ where the girl leaves.

It’s quite an emotional thing, the girl is obviously with her husband but her mother and her father walk her out to the car, it’s quite an emotional thing to say goodbye. Then it follows to the Wamila and then they go off on their honeymoon!

So did you really enjoy your brothers and sisters weddings?

What was interesting with my brother’s wedding, was I liked the way they did their Nikah ceremony, because it wasn’t in separate rooms.

Obviously it was hosted by my sisterin-law’s side so they did it slightly differently, which is fine because everyone does it their own special way. What they did was that he walked in first and they actually did the Nikah ceremony together on the stage! Which was really nice.

It was also in English, and he talked about their story and how they met.

Traditionally in our culture, you’re not supposed to meet someone until you’re ready to settle down kind of thing. So he talked about how they met which was really sweet, he styled it on the theme of patience.

They met when they were both working at a restaurant in Edinburgh. I think my brother had just finished uni but she was in her 3rd/4th year at Edinburgh, and once she’d finished her degree she moved back to London. But they still kept in touch and kept patient in that sense which was really sweet.

After that in the Nikah ceremony, they asked each other three times and then they were married! What was interesting was she was walking up to the stage they had to sit on, and my brother wanted to help her up on the stage but he couldn’t because they weren’t married! So her bridesmaids had to help her up instead!

“I think tradition is so important.

It’s really important to know where you come from, how your family have supported you.

Love and support, that’s what I always think about with tradition from that sense. And I think for me that’s the very important thing about tradition because that’s how you pass it on to the next generation, and it’s all about family history as well, it’s so fascinating.”

-Sarrah Mohammed.

I bet that was so emotional as well. What is the traditional style of dress for a wedding?

So traditionally in our culture, the bride has always worn red.

Although, from what I’ve learnt through Muslim culture is that it’s actually supposed to be white! Red is from the Indian side. We’ve always worn red from when I’ve grown up and stuff. It’s a way better colour in my eyes!

So, red and gold, traditionally the bride wears red. My sister wore

red. Then dress wise, the ways that get it made is similar to British culture: you choose a sample and then you make it to alter, you can add whatever you want to it. You can have a longer train, different beading, different kinds of embroidery, it’s very unique to what you want. And that is traditionally made in Pakistan. I don’t think I know any dress shops that would make them here in the UK, so the stores here have the samples and then they fly them over. Usually, my sister got her dress within three months, if you include fittings and alterations and stuff like that.

There’s a lot of work that goes into

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it, when you look at the amount of detail on the dress like the sparkles and the gems, then there’s this new kind of style called cut work.

It’s like laser cutting the fabric. It’s a really big trend at the moment, so my sister had that all down the back of her dress. A kind of red lining underneath, so it was kind of floating, so it looked really cool!

My sister in law went for a more traditional gold/red beading.

That is so gorgeous, the detail is incredible!

The detail is amazing and obviously, she’s wearing the diburka, a scarf which she wears on top of her head, kind of like the equivalent to a veil but she’s not covering her face.

So, hers had a long front and very long back, she had a skirt underneath. With a very long back trail.

My sister in law’s dress had gold sleeves, and red all over. Hers was a full dress instead of a skirt, and a long top. But again, red and gold sleeves made it look like she was wearing strapless. It looked really lovely.

So the amount of detail within these dresses is incredible and they’re so heavy!

At your sister’s wedding, did you get ready with her?

from here! I was like I can do my bridal duties from bed!

The reason why they come so early is because the makeup process takes quite a long time. Traditionally you go really heavy with makeup on your wedding day. Eye and lips are heavy, a lot of blending with the eyeshadows and the face. I think her makeup took around an hour and a half to do.

It’s very beautiful and glamorous makeup...

Yes the makeup artist was actually from MAC. It’s not like the Asian makeup artists use specific Asian brands, they can use anything and everything. The style is unique to what the bride wants but traditionally it’s very heavy and sparkly.

Yeah me and my mum got ready with her together, it was so lovely.

Did you have similar makeup as well?

Was there any beauty traditions in keeping with getting ready for the Nikah ceremony? I noticed the jewellery in her hair.

Yeah, I wasn’t as heavy as my sister, I went for a more natural look. Also what’s quite interesting is that my sister wore red and I wore white!

The Jewellery, which is called a ‘tikka’. I think this one is a tikka as well. Not sure why they were but I just know that they’re an Asian style, but I think that is just preference.

Another thing with the dress is that there’s a loop that traditionally would have pearls on it but she decided to take it off. You can take off whatever you want off the dress.

The tailors make the dress from scratch so it really is whatever is unique to you.

What was the process of getting ready for the day?

I remember the makeup artist came at 7am.

7am! Did she have to be up and showered by then?

Yes, but I wasn’t, I just said I’ll watch

So you went with traditionally Muslim white, and she went with red! *Laughs* Yes! So in terms of the makeup, it was very heavy and sparkly. I think because she had short hair, she had to get a lot of extensions to get it put up so that the dupatta would sit properly. Having your hair down won’t work, you need to have it up high so the dupatta can sit on top, as you will have this on your head all day. Yes so she had to get a few extensions put in to give her head a sort of backing for this.

This sounds like such a long process, how long did it take?

The hair alone took around an hour and a half. Traditionally a makeup

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artist does both the hair and the makeup. Altogether it took around 3 and a half hours for both the Nikah and the Wamila ceremonies.

When you have your wedding, do you think you will go down the same traditional route as well?

Yeah, I think I will, I’ve always wanted to wear red and have sparkly makeup and all the jewellery. It’s just one of those things that you know from when you are little, and that’s my wedding day so I wouldn’t want to break that tradition.

What does tradition mean to you?

For me, I think tradition is so important.

Especially with your own background. Traditionally wise I would have had to stay home for uni in Edinburgh, just to be closer to my mum and dad because I’m the youngest. In terms of traditions that way I’m breaking out of those traditions, and I’m really glad that I did because it made me think back to the tradition of what my family values were and what is expected of me, never forgetting my routes in that sense. It kind of makes me think more about it.

It’s really important to know where you come from, how your family have supported you. Love and support, that’s what I always think about with tradition from that sense.

And I think for me that’s the very important thing about tradition because that’s how you pass it on to the next generation, and it’s all about family history as well, it’s so fascinating.

It’s all about learning about people’s different backgrounds, so keeping to that makes you unique as a person.

It makes you a little bit different. For me, that’s super important.

RUBY VIZCARRA

Model and activist Ruby Vizcarra tells us how she wants to change the way society views people living with Albinism

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Albinism is a genetic skin condition that affects one person within every 20,000 people around the world. This rare disease is characterized by a lack of melanin pigment within the skin, hair and eyes, meaning people living with the disease are born with delicate skin and light hair.

Ruby is a 24-year-old international model who has been living with Albinism all her life. Here, she details the struggles she had growing up with albinism and how she channelled her energy into modelling, and creating the ‘Albino Latino Movement’ to change the way society views people living with albinism.

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“We should not be puppets getting carried away by the idea that is sold to us that a ‘beautiful person’ is only what we see in certain magazines or on TV, that if we are not like them then we are not perfect. Beauty is in each of us, beauty is in what you think is your biggest imperfection and that in reality is what makes you unique and beautiful.”

How did you feel growing up with Albinism?

Growing up with albinism, the first 15 years of my life were the hardest because they did not understand that this condition was not known. I did not know how to defend myself against insults and taunts of my classmates, they always looked at me as if I were from another planet and that always made me feel bad.

For several years I had to dye my hair dark and wear lots of makeup so that they could not see that I am an Albino, I did all of this to avoid the taunts from other people.

When I turned 15 years old, I started investigating into albinism and found more people living with this genetic condition as I began to realize that most people with albinism were going through the same things as me and worse. From then on, I stopped dyeing my hair and tried to be myself no matter what people told me.

Why did you decide to become a model?

I decided to dedicate myself to modelling because I was so tired of the way people treated people with albinism. People would say that we are ugly and horrible beings, that we are from the devil and my main objective was to make the beauty of albino people known, a unique beauty that many do not see.

I want to show every day that a person with albinism can appear in magazines, runways, advertising campaigns and not only that, but that they also know that this condition does not prevent us from achieving our dreams.

How do you think the creation of your organization ‘Albino Latino Movement’ has benefited your local community?

Albino Latino, which is what I am currently working on, is helping at the national level since every three months I go to different states of the Republic to give guidance on this condition. To serve to inform society to stop believing in myths about albinism, because in Mexico they think that we are foreigners because of our very white skin, we have received insults because they believe that we are not Mexicans and I try to explain everything I can about this condition. I also do collections to buy sunshades and sunscreen to give away to people with low-incomes living with albinism who cannot buy them. My goal is to help internationally with this organisation.

If you had one message to tell the world about Albinism, what would it be and why?

My message to the world is that everyone should respect the differences of others, we must not exclude or discriminate for any reason. Diversity is very beautiful and we should appreciate how beautiful and different we all are in the world.

If you could go back in time and say something to your younger self, what would that be and why?

If I could say something to my younger self: I would say not to have changed her physical appearance just because others did not accept it. I would tell her to love herself and that she was very strong to withstand everything that people offended her with because of their lack of knowledge.

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Skin

Photography: Fiona Kirkup Model: Iona Song

The

That

I’m

Bring alive the five senses through the beauty of skin flooded with soft light.

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In

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The cuts And the c r a c k s ,

The wrinkles And the BURNS, I

feel them all.

The s t r e t c h e s The scars

I

carry

with 66

me.

The skin that i’m in, The skin that I live in each day, Awakens and sleeps, Rises and falls.

Surrounds my soul and carries me through my days,

A barrier A warrior

Protecting me from the world.

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68

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black, white, brown, all different,

No two the same.

Littered with marks,

Highs and lows, Dipped

hips

Smooth

legs

D r y

I remember you touch of your

hands,

as I map out the skin in my mind,

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Birth marks, Stretch marks, Burns, scars.

Stolen moments.

Part of me forever, Sitting on the surface.

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Stories,

moments I touch, running through my mind as a nostalgic glow.

Charred with Impulsive recklessness, Youth filled desire.

The marks that etch my skin with the stories of my misspent youth.

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Light pours,

Reach me into the world,

L i n e s , marks,

Abrasions that mould me.

Touch me, feel me, Absorb me.

S p o t l i g h t

my

skin,

Highlight my flaws,

Build me, Design me, Make me whole.

For I am neither before or after

I

sink

into

I am neither here or there,

the

skin 76

that

I’m

in.

Fill me up, Drink me in, Breathe.

Cling to me, Soak me, Dry me off under the burning sun.

Wrap me up, Drape me in fine silk, Parade me, Hide me, Breathe me in.

Shape me,

Create me, Infiltrate me, H y d r a t e me,

Burn me, Stretch me, Scar me, Write your name, Write me.

How I make you feel, How I make you think, How I make you act.

I am the skin that you are in.

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BOTANICAL BEAUTY Michelle Ranavat is owner and founder of luxury skincare brand, Ranavat Botanics.

Inspired by nature, royal rituals from India and a passion for natural and organic ingredients, Ranavat Botanics was born in August 2017.

As the wellness movement sweeps through the beauty industry, Michelle tells us about the story of her beauty brand and how she uses her cultural traditions to inspire her products.

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When did you start your brand?

I launched the line in August of 2017 at Indie Beauty Expo in NYC.

What made you start your own botanical beauty brand?

Ranavat is a true representation of my personal style and ethos. I am someone that will only have a few key pieces in my wardrobe but they are simple and made really well. I wanted to show how effective a small list of curated ingredients can be when they are made incredibly well. My industrial engineering side is always fascinated by how things are made - and I love making that a huge part of the story behind Ranavat. I always say, “every ingredient has a story.”

What does tradition mean to you?

Tradition ultimately means family and culture to me. Tradition is a unique way of keeping your family history alive and honouring your lineage.

How does tradition inspire your brand?

Why is it important to you?

Tradition has been an inspiration to me for as long as I can remember. I love tradition because back then, things were not created for financial gain. Works of art like the Taj Mahal and beautiful temples were all created out of pure love or devotion. I have found the most incredible works are born out of this raw passion and I wanted to create a representation of that in my line.

What makes your brand unique in the beauty market?

I think what really sets apart Ranavat is the emotional connection we create with our community. Through our content and treatments, we really take you in a luminous journey back in time where people built their entire lives around perfecting a particular process or cultivating and certain flower. We spotlight the importance of Rituals and make these treatments part of a bigger story we are telling - and I think that is what people connect with. Of course - we are a very clean company and each product is certified by either Made Safe or the USDA - but I think that’s the bare minimum of what a consumer should expect.

“That is exactly what Ranavat Botanics is: a way for you to connect with tradition, magical botanicals and your personal ritual. You will feel like royalty when you hold our treatments because of the history and incredible craftsmanship that goes into each and every drop.”

I love the ‘claim your crown’ moment you have created, how you are encouraging people to come together and share their stories of how they are #beautifullyempowered. What made you start this movement? What is the aim of the movement?

I wanted Ranavat Botanics to be more than just a skincare line - because really the evolution of Ranavat came from my upbringing as a person of Indian origin in the US. Not only is my own “Claim your crown moment” tied to why I started Ranavat Botanics in the first place, but I wanted to create a community that stood for more than beautiful skin. I knew that a Royal Beauty was someone that not only invested in themselves, but is also a person that thrives in the service of others as well.

For that, we have partnered with Rescue Foundation, a non-profit that helps women escape the sex trafficking industry in countries like India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Through Claim your Crown, I love having the opportunity to interview other men and women that are #beautifullyempowered so that we can all learn from their journey and provide us with inspiration to led our own #beautifullyempowered lives as well.

What does beauty mean to you?

I think a quote by Diandra Forrest speaks to me the most: “I think of a more “conventional” type of beauty. A “pretty” girl fits into what people used to see as the “beauty norm.” I think “beautiful” is someone who is beyond “pretty.” You’re beautiful externally and internally. You exude confidence and have a uniqueness about you. It’s something that’s so effervescent about you.”

To me - beauty is how you treat yourself and others.

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FILM.

GIRLS

ON

A photographer with a strong passion for her rich heritage, Alia Romagnoli tells us how she uses her photography to create unique narratives in her work.

Photography: Alia Romagnoli Words: Fiona Kirkup

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Alia Romagnoli.

Born in Italy and raised in Southern India, photographer, creative director and all round artist Alia Romagnoli is taking on the fashion world one step at a time with her unique and culturally rich photography.

Being half Indian and half Italian, it’s clear to see through her work that Alia is heavily inspired by her traditional heritage, “Well because I grew in India, it was something very normal for me, like I would always wear Indian clothes and I grew up within a very Indian family as well so I didn’t think twice about it.”

Incorporating her Indian background into her work was not something which Alia had originally set out to do, she explains: “I realised it was something I want to continue because it was always a part of me, and I realise that for a lot of people now, more people are doing it but I think a lot of people don’t understand Indian culture. I don’t think the older generation had an outlet like social media for example to be able to educate themselves about the world and about different people in it. I think that’s where it kind of came from it was never like I wanted to Incorporate my culture, it was more: this is me, this is my culture and this is what I’ve been doing for a long time. I guess people here just like it!”

Alia has always been inspired by photography: “Well I always wanted to go into photography so I started when I was about 9 or 10 years old. My grandma got me a film camera from the supermarket and they were like £5 because in India it’s super cheap to develop film. So, I just kind of went through a few rolls of film that way and I kept taking pictures of my friends and every time I went on school trips, or holidays I would take my handy-cam that my dad gave to me with me, and this camera that my Grandma got for me so it was like making content and making videos and taking pictures was always something that I did. So, it was always a hobby and I always knew I wanted to turn it into a career.”

Currently living in London, Alia currently wants to turn her passion for photography and creative direction into a career. Having recently graduated from her three-year course of film production at Westminster University, Alia reflects how she realised it was her passion for photography and creative direction that sparked her excitement for the future. “I kind of realised that I wanted to move away from that and

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focus more on fashion photography and art direction, because that’s what I’m stronger in”. After realising this, Alia started creating editorial content showcasing her bold, colourful and unique aesthetic which tells beautifully detailed narratives that are inspired by her Indian culture. Further working freelance with different brands and publications such as Noa Vee, Sukebangang and Kajal Magazine, Alia started building a portfolio that would allow her a future in the creative industry of photography.

“I just think it’s a representation all round because I think there’s room for it?

There is room for it people just need to make the space.”

Coming to the big smoke of London, Alia missed the beautiful, rich colours that she saw growing up in Bangalore, India: “That’s the other thing I notice when I moved to London, nobody wears colour! In India if you wear colour, you don’t really stand out because everyone’s wearing colour. because there’s a traditional a lot of women wear traditional outfits like the Saari and the Kurta and a lot of people automatically wear yellows, reds and blues.” Creating colourful and vivid shoots is something that makes Alia’s work stand out from other young photographers in the industry right now, something which she details is an essential part of her aesthetic “I wanted to bring a part of that into my work so for me I speak with colour because each colour gives you a certain feeling and you feel a certain way when you see different colours together. So that was kind of my intention, speaking with certain colours within my work.”

Speaking about the Indian roots within her work, Alia also highlights her strong beliefs about the lack of women of colour within the media right now. “I think that the norm was always, that you never saw a black woman or an Indian woman in mainstream media.

I think the thing with race is that so many people ignore that there are so many different races out there and there needs to be so much more representation.

And the default was someone who is always white, even when they were making Technicolor film, it was always made for white skin you know?”. Alia’s views are of course valid in today’s fashion landscape with a survey conducted by The Fashion Spot uncovering that a substantial 78% of all models used in Spring advertising campaigns in 2016 were white. A crazy number when looking at how far we have come with some many issues of diversity otherwise in today’s industry.

“The default is always white. I think that’s why there’s a lack of representation. And in India because of that, because people have looked up to western society for so long, even the type of media that you see in India features a lot of Indian actresses and European actresses with very light skin. And we still have ads for ‘fair and lovely’ which is like a skin cream that bleaches your skin, because people want to be light skinned you know? I think now the way to progress and move forward would be to be more inclusive to the kind of actors and models people pick. I think PoC artists are so important, for me that’s the most

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important thing because it’s the representation in front and behind the camera, that’s the biggest thing because I think that because from behind the camera you see things differently if you’re from a different type of background, you have a certain kind of understanding with the person who you’re shooting and that was where I’ve come from in the models that I have photographed. I just think it’s a representation all round because I think there’s room for it? There is room for it people just need to make the space.”

The future seems to hold a lot of promising opportunities for Alia, as she tells me she’s currently building her portfolio by working with a range of magazines. Detailing projects she’s working on at the moment, it’s clear to see that Alia is heavily inspired by her heritage, as it is central to much of her work right now: “So, right now I am working on a few personal projects, I’m working on one I’ve posted about it on my Instagram, it’s a piece where I’m looking at bi-racial and mixed raced women with a certain part of their heritage from India. It’s kind of a series that is ongoing now.”

So, what’s next for Alia?

“I think I’ve been stalling because I’m kind of tired. I finished working on a short film around 2 weeks ago so I really haven’t done much since I’ve kind of just been doing stuff for myself, and really working on my freelance stuff. I’m applying for jobs now, I’m hoping to stay in London… I think I’m also going to work in Italy for like 2 or 3 months at the end of this year, I think I have a job there but I don’t know yet, I’ve been offered it but I haven’t confirmed yet! So, I need to see. And at the end of the year, I’m hoping to do a masters. I’m looking at specialising in fashion photography. Hopefully that will come through but those are my plans at the moment.”

So, with continuing freelance photography and creative direction, applying for jobs and travelling between London, Milan and India you would think Alia had her plate full. Wrong! Alia is also the co-founder of the “art babes” group on Facebook and Instagram, a platform that allows women from the LGBT community to share their artwork. The idea came for the collective after Alia and her friend Eli witnessed sexist and misogynistic comments in a Facebook group they were part of: “I’m part of this group called negative feedback on Facebook and they are basically like a YouTube channel that specialises in film photography. They’re really cool it’s just the type of people who are in the group, like the members not the admin. There’s a lot of white straight men, it was at the beginning of last year there was a picture of a woman that was posted or a model and all the comments were like, ‘send me her Instagram, I’d like to tap that, what’s her number’.

They were all horrible and misogynistic comments. My friend and I would send screenshots to each other, like why do people like this exist?”

And so, art babes was born. “So, we thought about creating a group or an art collective, that was only for women and people who are non-binary, and people who are part of the LGBT community too”: A safe space any women who identify as non-binary or are part of the LGBT community - “it’s just not for straight white men! Or straight men basically!”

The collective then turned into a project for creating a powerful magazine. “We are working on a magazine for that at the moment, it’s pretty much done but we just need to, we need to launch it. we haven’t got a date yet to launch it but we should be releasing it soon”. The magazine will be pulling together pieces of artwork from the members of the art babes community. “A few months ago, we asked people to send in their work and at first we wanted to put everyone’s work in but we had so many people sending their work in that cost wise it wasn’t cost effective to do that. So, we picked the ones that we liked the best, it’s about a 75-page magazine so it’s quite big.” Their inspiration behind the curation of the magazine shows a true sense of Alia’s character in her creative community “It’s really nice because there’s so many talented people that don’t actually post their work so it was such a nice way to have it in print, because I think that’s always a nice way of looking at your work.”

It’s clear to see through Alia’s bold and unique work, that the traditional elements in her work set her apart from the rest. Building her heritage into the narratives of her work is a huge part of Alia’s process as a creative director, and for Alia - it’s clear that her journey is just beginning.

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U

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T

A

I

N

We talk to makeup artist Khandiz Joni about how she is changing the way the beauty industry thinks about clean beauty.

T

E

D

KHANDIZ JONI Photography - Amanda Fordyce Beauty - Khandiz Joni Model: Violet Gould at The Hive Management.

Featured in WGSN’S top 10 makeup artists to watch, Khandiz is one of the beauty industry’s up and coming beauty creators right now.

Artist, innovator and magazine creator, she sets herself apart from other makeup masters in the industry with her strong focus on sustainable beauty using only toxic-free, natural and cruelty free makeup brands in her work. This led to her to create her very own magazine: ‘Untainted’, which brings artists together from all over the beauty industry to create a beautiful narrative for clean beauty.

How long have you been a makeup artist? Why did you become a makeup artist?

I have been a makeup artist for 18 years.

I became a makeup artist because I didn’t know how I would make money as a “real” artist and makeup was an easy option because my mom worked in the film industry so I knew the ropes.

Where do you look for inspiration for your work?

Most of my inspiration comes from art and literature. Society and social observations. The only time I reference other makeup looks is when I am sent a mood board by a client for a paying job. My best ideas usually come to me while I am walking... the more oppressed the landscape I am walking in, the brighter the ideas.

What personally inspires your passion for clean beauty?

I started my journey into the world of clean beauty because I was environmentally conscious... and it no longer made sense that my work and my life weren’t aligned.

That’s how I came to learn about the implications that it really matters about what we put on our skin. Now, though, I am far more interested in sustainability, in its whole sense. I don’t believe the answer is the whole world switching to clean beauty, because even clean beauty isn’t always the best route. In order to make (any) colour cosmetic, we are depleting finite resources (e.g.: iron oxides, mica). I am super curious about Green Chemistry and how we can find a balance between what can be produced safely and sustainably in a lab and what can be made from renewable sources.

Where did the idea to create it come from?

I was doing a course called Mastered, and in the first module

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we had to define our goals and create an action plan as to how we plan to achieve them. I like working examples of things, so instead of just doing shoots for my study modules, I thought the work that I created needed a place to live. I needed a place to stand out from my peers and showcase my ideas without any dilution from the constraints of other publications.

Working with the brands I do means that often magazines won’t take the story because the credits aren’t for their advertisers... and I got so bored of just shooting for the sake of shooting. I didn’t want it to be a blog, I wanted it to be something that others could contribute too if they wanted a safe space to try, experiment and work with clean beauty brands.

So far, so good!

‘TRANSHUMANIST’ Photography - Henri T Beauty - Khandiz Joni Art Direction - Astrid Salas

UNTAINTED: NOT CONTAMINATED, POLLUTED, OR TAINTED.

How did you think of the name for the magazine? What does ‘untainted’ mean and represent?

What message do you want to inspire for the readers of untainted?

We need boundaries to push against. Nothing will change if we don’t start thinking and acting differently.

True artists aren’t defined by convenience, in terms of product, and they make art despite the hardships or challenges. Convenience is a mind-set.

I love coming up with names. I wanted the name to say what it was all about, but not elude to the eco, wholesome narrative of clean, green beauty. I was bored to death of soft hued back grounds, flat lays and eucalyptus leaves. I just wanted to show products that were effective and free from unnecessary toxic chemicals.

Untainted, by definition as an adjective means: NOT CONTAMINATED, POLLUTED, OR TAINTED: THE PAPER WAS UNTAINTED BY AGE. (OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY) So for this narrative however, it means clean beauty, brands that consider more than just the bottom line and ideas that aren’t stifled in order to be “safe.”

I also want my readers to be curious. I want them to question the status quo. I want them to do the research on the things that truly matter to them, that’s essentially how I have landed up with themes for each issue rather than just a hodge podge of pretty pictures, and I want them to slow down on consumption as a whole, otherwise there will simply be nothing left.

What lies in the future for untainted magazine?

Who knows... I will keep at it until I am no longer inspired. I just want it to remain true to its purpose and I don’t want to put undue pressure on its outcome, that’s the easiest way to taint it.

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Nostalgic Beauty Beautiful moments embeded in makeup

Words: Anonymous Photography: Fiona Kirkup

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DISCO

By Terry ‘Magnet Eyes’ Palette, Pixi Lip Gloss in ‘Honey Sheen’ Pop Cosmetics ‘Champagne Mocha’ palette, Leighton Denny Nail Polish, Lush ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ lip scrub

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“I remember experimenting with lip gloss or eyeshadow which came as freebies in kids magazines. Shout, Mizz and Cosmo Girl, I remember every Saturday I’d be so excited to run up and buy my favourite magazine with my £2 pocket money.”

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HOLIDAY

Aussie Miracle Moist shampoo and conditioner travel size 75ml, Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow 40ml,, Essie ‘Tart Deco’ Nail Polish, St Tropez Self Express Bronzing Mousse, , Piz Buin Active Long Lasting Spray SPF30, Boots Repel Maximum spray 50ml, Coconut Body Scrub Coconut Mango 200g

“When I got to secondary school I desperately wanted to start wearing makeup.

My mum didn’t like it and wouldn’t allow it until I was 13 so I’d buy face powder from Superdrug and hide it in my drawers after putting it on every morning. Looking back, it didn’t make any difference and I wouldn’t have wanted her to notice, but it made me feel more beautiful.”

I live for makeup on holiday. Each hot evening before we’d go out for meals I would sit and enjoy the warm air whilst taking about 30 minutes to put everything on! Bronzey, golden eyes and lots of bronzer to cover up my not so tanned complexion.

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FIRST DATE

Chloé Eau de parfum, Percy & Reid Session Hold Hairspray, Christian Dior Rouge Dior in ‘Matte 999’

“I remember discovering my mums bright red lipstick at 5 years old and smothering it all over my face. Luckily mum managed to catch the incident on home videos!”

“I remember watching my mum using her Avon cosmetics when I was small - always the same routine sat on her bedroom chair every morning. She used powder on her face which I found fascinating! She used to sell Avon “door to door” and I think used the “demonstrators” for herself. Until a few months ago I still had a concealer stick of hers - but it had to go.”

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SUMMER FESTIVAL

Nivea Micellar Cleansing Wipes, Sure Women Bright Bouquet Deodorant Aerosol 150ml, Boots Lipsalve with SPF15

I remember every evening when we would all sit outside our tents and do our makeup together. One of the girls had a glitter bag and we would each take it in turns to put colourful glitter and gems all over our faces ready to go into the festival, that was my favourite part of each day.

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ANIKE RABIU Nigerian born, New York based hair stylist Anike Rabiu has a talent for creating beautiful hair styles.

Anike, who describes herself as a “Purveyor of commercially friendly hair – with an editorial appeal”, has worked with the likes of Jourdan Dunn and actresses Dasha Polanco and Herieth Paul, just to name a few. Being featured in Allure, Vogue Italia and Cosmopolitan Vietnam, we speak to Anike and find out how she became one of the most creative hair stylists in the industry right now.

How did you become a hair stylist?

Why did you want to become a hair stylist?

What do you find most exciting about the hair industry right now?

I became a hair stylist by what I thought was an accident but the universe knew otherwise. It was more of a spiritual directive that I explored and one thing happened after the next, and I was enrolled in Aveda Institute Soho.

The acceptance of different hair textures. I LOVE seeing girls in major campaigns and in top shows wearing their natural hair texture and length.

What inspires your passion for hair artistry?

Hair: the touch, the varied transformation that can be created with it.

On WGSN you said you were inspired by “beautiful, feminine things that are relatable, but not boring- something with a slight edge or nuance”, what else inspires you?

I am also inspired by the team I am working with.

Hearing other ideas and different views helps to form a complete picture.

What are some of the most memorable shoots that you have been a part of?

Most memorable - wow, there’s definitely plenty. But, the one that’s sticking out right now is the “Bitch I’m Madonna” music video which I assisted on. This was a super fun shoot that went on all night into the morning.

The vibe and just being on set with Madonna was amazing!

What have you learnt about beauty throughout your career?

Beauty can be found in every situation whether visually or emotionally.

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Photography- Rachel Thalia Fisher Styling- Alexis Bergens Makeup- Ann Benjamas Liendo Hair- Anike Rabiu Model- Maria Dash represented by Women Management

Photography - Jena Cumbo Styling - Dani Morales Makeup - Michael Chua Hair - Anike Rabiu Assistant - John Ilmoniemi Models - Alexa Lee and Bella Davison from STATE models NY

From Bengal, with love x Words: Sparshita Dey Photography: Jimmy James & Preetam Mahajan Dancer Sparshita tells us what it was like to be born and raised in the heart beautiful and virbant East India.

It is actually quite amazing how different the cultures in different states are from each other, even though they belong to the same country: starting from language, to traditions. Now that I think about it, honestly, the way I dress or do my makeup is very a-typical of the standard that you see in East Bengal.

Indian culture and traditions vary quite a lot depending on which part of India you are from. One key influence is of course your stereotypical representation which comes from Bollywood, I guess this works in a similar way to Hollywood having an influence on people as so many people look up to the stars and how they live their lives, with their beauty and fashion, etc. The second, perhaps more “culturally personal” influence, comes from the state that you actually belong to: for me this would be East India (Bengal as a lot of my family now live in Calcutta and I am from a very Bengali family).

The heat and the humidity basically makes the entire

city no different to a sauna, so people on average have really good skin and tend not to wear foundation, partially because they don’t need it but equally also because it wouldn’t really stay on their skin for very long.

The makeup is usually extremely minimalistic, people apply compact powder, they like their lipsticks and they love their black kohl.

The younger generation love to apply eyeliner and love doing eye-makeup which doesn’t consist of mascara or eyeshadow usually but instead just a lot of black kohl. The older generations tend to focus on using a lot of lipstick and compact powders. In my case, being influenced by my mother, aunt and grandmother, I have taken up the whole lipstick is your best friend trend and literally cannot deal without it! The whole minimalistic makeup rule is something that I’ve been taught to abide by from a young age. I first started putting on makeup daily when I was in year eleven, (something which

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lasted for around a month before I decided I couldn’t do it anymore!) and it was just the dark kohl that I used before I decided it wasn’t for me. The next time I started using makeup again was then the end of upper sixth, where I would use concealer, cheek and lip tints and matte lipsticks in nude colours and that is what I have stuck to ever since. Nowadays I tend to reach for bolder colours from time to time but I think that’s where the dance influence comes in a bit more, but in previous years I definitely did follow the whole go natural and minimalistic look and that was probably because of the influence of my grandma and mother.

In terms of tradition, I think tradition has also had a great influence on my dress sense over the years as well.

In terms of culture and tradition, if I was to describe the entire standard of beauty in Indian culture, you would be deemed characteristically “beautiful” if you have long, thick, black hair, sharp features. That is, a sculpted face, large, dark eyes and eyelashes, “v-shaped” chin, narrow nose, thick eyebrows, and a “fair” complexion.

In South Asia it’s culturally known that the “whiter” you are the prettier you are, nothing else matters - a bit ridiculous I know but that’s how it has been in South Asia for a long time. In Bengali culture, the hair and fairness criteria are particularly important and as far as the facial features go, more round, child-like and soft features are commonly seen to be more attractive.

In terms of how this influenced me, I can fairly say that as I have been growing up I have been always told that sun exposure is a bad thing, because it seems to turn our skin a grey like colour rather than a nice golden tone that many non-Indians tend to turn. Traditional methods of beauty such as turmeric and yoghurt face masks will make you glow and make you more fair, there is a cream called “fair and lovely” that’ll make your skin 10 shades lighter with over time use (and yes there was a point in time where everyone used to use this and still to this day, people who are well enough connected to their Indian routes will own at least one product which claims to make your skin “brighter and fairer”). Another method is applying a coconut/neem hair oil/mask to your hair at least two times a week so that your hair grows long, straight, black and thick. These traditions are so well known within the community in India, if in case you do find yourself on the darker side where you tend to grow up with insecurities and people will call you out on your “wheatish” complexion although this is slowly starting to change in modern India.

However, a lot of the maintenance strategies promoted by these traditions are actually very good for you. For example, a lot of the hair and skin care products are based on natural products: herbal remedies, masks and homeopathic treatments are actually very beneficial to the skin, hair and health in general.

In terms of cultural fashion, the traditional dress code for women is of course sarees. Draping sarees vary

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according to the state and in Bengal they tend to pair it with a low bun hairdo and a red dot that is worn on the forehead called a “bindi”. For married women they will also wear red and white bangles as well as red powder called “sindur” on the parting which in found in the middle of your hairline as a sign that they are married. This tradition is still upheld in a lot of the more traditional families, in my case traditional fashion isn’t really something which translates into my everyday life. However when it comes to going to cultural and traditional events I will wear sarees, lehengas or ghaghras, which are basically embellished crop tops worn with a long embellished skirt and a usually see-through piece of fabric draped across the front.

Indian events and occasions usually consist of people really dressing up and when I mean really dressing up I mean extra.

“There is a lot of loud makeup, crazily embellished clothes, loads of heavy jewelry, and perfected hair.”

There is a lot of loud makeup, crazily embellished clothes, loads of heavy jewelry, and perfected hair. I moved to the UK when I was around 8 and the first time I went to a party I was definitely extremely overdressed because that’s simply how it was done in the Indian community. For any sort of social gathering like a birthday or wedding for example it was expected that you dress up and you make sure it looks like you’ve made an effort. Nowadays, I like to think I know how to distinguish! Although admittedly it takes me a lot of thinking to identify what is appropriate and what’s not just because of the frequency of me going to “Western” events, (even balls for example would require “less” than what is required for an Indian ball) it’s by far a lot less than all the “Indian” events I find myself going to and the two have completely different expectations with regards to fashion and beauty.

The dance world is completely different to all of this.

The different classical dance styles have different specifications depending on the area of origin and also the time of origin. So, classical and modern (Bollywood) have very different costumes and makeup standards.

Bollywood dance is probably the most “Western” in its fashion and beauty but depends on the song/movie.

You get two types; one mimics the classical/more traditional culture within India and its various states whilst the other is very much modern day Western world. Of course the latter is what you see in people walking around every day, the impact of globalisation and particularly British culture and fashion’s evolution has been huge in relation to India ever since the partition and because of the Empire. The former aspect of Bollywood, for most people including me, basically sets the standard for the kind of clothes and jewellery you want to wear for special occasions and weddings because the actors and actresses are modelling all of the latest fashion trends and the upper end in traditional Indian fashion. The same goes for makeup for many people but for me, I would say I am more influenced by classical dance makeup personally.

The dance form I do is called Kathak. It originates in North India and is characterised by spins, fast footwork

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patterns and is a very graceful dance form, being considered as one of the most graceful classical dance forms in India. The costumes are usually quite simplistic yet very regal accompanied with ghunghroos, bells that you wear on your feet to accentuate the rhythms, along with very carefully assigned necklaces, large earrings, and a maang tikka which is a dangly piece of jewellery that you wear on your head for extra visual effect. The hair is always very slick either tied in a bun or plait, which must be very long, so you attach fake hair if your hair is naturally too short, and everything is meant to look very controlled, poised and neat overall to make you look more graceful and elegant. The costume is meant to also be fitted around the waist and flares out from the waist down so that when you spin, the skirt flares up to your waist.

Dance, being a very visual art form, of course has a set of ideals in terms of beauty. In my observations of Kathak, I think based on costumes, it sort of poses the ideal frame as tall-ish with a curvy figure and a smaller waist, as this is usually what tends to happen when you practice the dance form rigorously enough as the core exercises results in a smaller waist and due to the intensity of the footwork you tend to get larger thighs/ wider hips and just a bigger lower half in general which tends to suit the costumes better and adds to the visual effect. As dance was one of the sort of accomplishments women would collect in the past, the beauty standards for Kathak and the ones I had described before tend to coincide - sharp features, long thick dark hair, fair skin.

The way this has impacted me would be that dance has taught me to put more emphasis on core and cardio exercises, the aim was to strengthen my legs more and I think that sort of explains why I would definitely identify as more bottom heavy. In terms of makeup, the stage makeup is usually very big eyes and bold makeup which I tend to reserve for just the stage because it would stick out too much for everyday! It did get me very into lipstick though which I never go a day without, although it equally put me off eyeliner. In terms of fashion, I find that when I go to a lot of the Indian events that I attend, I tend to like going for a more simplistic yet regal look, without the Bollywood blingy embellishments, just because I feel more at home in the outfits which are quite similar.

The way I dress for more formal occasions is pretty similar to the things I would wear for a performance including jewellery and also my makeup, say if I was going to a really “all-out� event, there would be little difference between the stage makeup and what I would wear out.

Everything I know about makeup has stemmed from me understanding dance makeup, before this I had no idea what makeup was, so that has definitely had a big influence on me.

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