My name is Lima, and I must confess: I'm a glitterholic. 

If you ever have the privilege of browsing around my dressing table, you'll notice a huge big box full to the brim of glitter hidden underneath it. And in that box you will find all types of glitter: finely milled, chunky, hexagons, squares, stars - you name it, I got it. But despite having all this glitter, I feel that I don't quite use it as much as I should. At the rate I'm going, in 10 years time, I'm still gonna have most of the glitter I have right now, plus the copious amounts I'll no doubt purchase along the way!

I woke up one morning determined to make use of it, but lacking in inspiration. So I opened up Pinterest and saw a whole stream full of photos of amazing eye looks created using sequins. Sequins are probably the one thing I don't have in my glitter box, but I was inspired nonetheless, and attempted to create my own take on it with some of my chunkier glitter.

To achieve this was remarkably simple. I applied my eyeliner and winged it out just as I would every morning, although as I knew it would be covered up glitter, there was less pressure to get it nailed on perfect. I wasn't looking to cover the entire liner in glitter, just the inner section, as I was going for a graphic liner look, so I took out my Lit Cosmetics' Clearly Liquid Glitter Base and applied it with a brush to edges of my liner. The aim here was to get the glitter as close to my lash line as possible, so some care and precision was required! Now, I used the same brush to pick up some of my glitter, and dab it on to the Glitter Base, working my way all around the liner to ensure full coverage.

Told you. Simple.

For Eid I also wore glitter eyeliner, but did something a little different. I applied my liner in the style of my favourite 1960s Edie Sedgwick eyeliner look, with the liner brought into the crease which gives the appearance of a curved frame around the lid - something about it just oozes style. This time, I applied the Glitter directly over the top of the liner, to give the effect of an actual glitter eyeliner. The results were mesmerising, and certainly fit for my Eid celebrations! This technique of covering the liner entirely in glitter is also pretty useful if you think that you aren't great at getting your lines spot on - the glitter hides imperfect application, and lets you dazzle instead!

I love that chunky Glitter Eyeliner gives the appearance that your eyes have been adorned and embellished, and from afar it even looks almost as if they are sequinned. The eye area truly sparkles, and brings a new dimension to your makeup look - the possibilities are truly endless, and thanks to the likes of Lit Cosmetics and Lime Crime bringing out excellent quality cosmetic glitter glues, it's so, so much easier to create something special.

 

Hola!

So Eid Al Adha fell on the 12th September, I'm pretty certain the entire Muslim world breathed a huge sigh of relief after it avoided falling on the 11th. Can you imagine the uproar in certain gutter elements of the press had there been images of Muslims all over the globe celebrating on the anniversary of September 11th? Although to be fair, a few of them were already getting in on the act a few weeks ahead of the day. Oh well.

So what is Eid Al Adha? And does it have anything to do with the Hajj pilgrimage?

I won't get too religious on you here, because let's face it, most of you just want to see the outfit and/or the makeup, but I think it's nice to give a little background at least. Eid Al Adha falls during the Hajj, and forms a part of it. Usually an animal is slaughtered in your name (not every single year though), you take a portion of the meat for your household and the rest is distributed amongst your neighbours and the poor, or you can just have it done abroad where it is all given to those who need it. Those taking part in the Hajj will have theirs distributed across the globe and given away as charity. Our family tend to have it done in the UK though, as it teaches the kids a lesson about where your food comes from, and not to take it for granted.

Now, on to the outfit! This Eid, I decided not to wear something new. It seems a little wasteful buying something brand new each year to wear it only once. Instead, I opted for an Anarkali with stone work on the sleeves and a heavy embellished long jacket on top. This was the outfit I wore to my sister's Walimah - Google that to find out what it is - and I loved it so much I just had to wear it twice!

 

Overall the dress is pretty heavy and incredibly flarey, so whilst it's beautiful, it's not the most practical thing I've ever worn. In fact, to walk up a flight of stairs, I'd have to lift the dress up to my knees just to avoid falling over! And due to the length of the thing, you can't even see the killer gold heels I wore with it!

 

  

As for the makeup, I thought I'd go a little extravagant and experimental so I punctuated my tried and trusted 60s liner with sparkles of glitter, though I'm not sure whether it best resembles sequins or fireworks. I won't go into any detail here as to how I managed to pull that off, but I will be posting about it in the very near future so keep your eyes peeled!

 

Finally, Eid is always a good time to remember just how old you're becoming. As each year passes by, you suddenly find yourself getting less and less Eid money, and you end up actually dishing some to the younger generation too. How did this happen exactly? When did I get old?!

The Internet is full to the brim of Mermaid-esque nail art designs. What I find so amazing about this, is not just my love for all things mermaid, but more the fact there are so, so many different takes on 'Mermaid' nails. One in particular that has caught my eye, is the fish scales look, that gives the appearance they've been printed on to the nail. There are even a few different methods of capturing this look: free hand, using a stamp kit or going with sticker templates.

I decided to go with the latter.

Instead of going full steam ahead and covering the entire nail in scales, I thought I'd try something a little different, so I went half way down the nail from the tips. But to add an extra little something to the overall look, I created a gradient within the scales so they almost fade into the lower section of the nail. The effect I was going for was something quite ethereal, but also quite raw. I didn't want something that looked perfectly and flawlessly gradiented, I wanted something with a little rough edge to it.

PRODUCTS USED

This is the sticker template I used to create the fish scales effect, as you can imagine it's very simple to use. More importantly though, they're ridiculously cheap - I found mine on eBay for just £1. Yep. One. Pound.

 

(L - R) H&M Nail Polish - Skyline (LOVE THIS) & Barry M Nail Paint - Matt White

(L - R) Essence Effect Nail Polish Liquid Foil - Lady Mermaid, Barry M Nail Paint Aquarium Collection - Pacific & Lottie London Nail Polish - Just Dance

TECHNIQUE

Once the Skyline was touch try, the next step was to take a makeup sponge, dab on some of Barry M's Matt White and sponge it on to the tips. Follow that up with some top coat to seal it all in and leave to dry. Once dried, I grabbed the sticker template, placed it on to the nail and started to sponge on the remaining three polishes. Again, I wasn't going for perfection, so these three polishes were sponged on quite haphazardly, whilst being careful enough to ensure I got that fading effect.

And that's it, folks! All you need to do now is let it all dry off again, seal it in with some more top coat and you're ready to go out and show of your sparkly mermaid talons! The effect is quite different to the nail looks I've seen out there currently, which tend to cover the entire nail and look like utter perfection. As incredible as these look, it's important to put out an alternative, something with a little character.

Today marks the 7th Anniversary of my blog! Did I have cake? No, but I did have a muffin, surely that counts? Anyway, it's come a long way from the good old days of Designer Spray (yes, I cringe at the name!) all the way through to the Fashionicide you see in front of you today. I've lost count of the number of blog makeovers and redesigns I've had, but it's been a lot of fun all the way. But things are very, very different now.

I remember when I first started blogging, I got it into it because there were very few voices for Asian girls on the internet. We were basically the third wheel when it came to magazines as well, often very little by way of advice tailored to our skin tones. We were given some pretty basic 'rules' and anything outside of that narrow spectrum just 'wouldn't suit' us. I started because I wanted to experiment, break these rules and find new things. Basically, a journal expressing my trials and tribulations, hopefully for other Asian girls to find a space that wouldn't tell them what to do, more tell them what they could do.

Over the years, I feel that the whole social media landscape has evolved. There have been some really great things and some really not great things. People are making a living out of this now, and that's pretty amazing when I think about it, but not all the changes have been good. It hasn't been an overnight thing, for the most part, but it feels like there's been a concerted effort by brands to control our definition of beauty.

I've noticed with makeup brands on Instagram in particular, that there's a tendency to feature people with excessively flawless, smooth looking skin, to the point where you have to question whether or not the person is actually human. Of course, there are other issues of representation along the lines of race, gender, size, sexuality etc... It just feels to me that in their pursuit of the inoffensive and vanilla, brands are starting to actually become pretty offensive.

I find it offensive that makeup accounts tend to feature perfectly flawless photo-edited women/men, over girls/guys with small flaws or imperfections. I find it offensive that many campaigns only feature a token person of colour, at best. Saying that though, NYX actually featured me on their account last week, which was lovely of them, but I received a few non-constructive comments about my eyelashes - because they were my actual, real eyelashes. Beauty is subjective, and we all have different tastes, but brands are clearly trying to steer you towards their own increasingly warped visions of beauty.

Not only that, I've also been featured by Illamasqua and a few people took issue with my eyebrows being too long, telling me I should trim them. Honestly. U wot m8? That's not to say that the negative reactions outnumber the positives, because they don't. It just feels like an unacceptable standard of beauty is being set, and an increasing number of people are buying in to that. We need to remember that makeup is all about self expression, and there are no rights or wrongs when it comes to expressing yourself.

Going back to my recent NYX thing though, don't get me wrong, I do like the occasional set of falsies, for special occasions and the like, but it seems to me that brands are starting to redefine beauty again. Of course, they've been doing that for years, but now it's not just supermodels or professionals that are being put up on a pedestal, it's your everyday Instagram girl/guy. The standards are being redefined: you need computer generated skin, perfectly blended eyeshadow,  and a brash set of falsies to look beautiful.

But that is all so, so wrong. If you have naturally bountiful lashes, flaunt them, don't hide them! If your skin isn't flawless, forget about it! We're all human, and it adds character! If your eyeshadow isn't perfectly blended, good! Perfection is over-rated. It drains the soul from the art of makeup, and makes it all a bit more identikit, bland and boring. I want to see your slightly imperfect makeup, because that's where real inspiration comes from.

A similar thing is happening to fashion, where bigger brands are reposting photos of fashion bloggers posing outside a nice pretty door in Kensington, Chelsea or somewhere else in London with astronomical rent, house prices and cost of living. It's just not attainable for so many to achieve this jet-set lifestyle that's being promoted, and what's worse is it isn't even real. It's not even their door. They're selling a lifestyle that is out of reach for so many. And that's not to say that posing outside someone else's house is wrong, but give me some variety, give me some individuality!

To me, makeup and my outfit choices are an act of self expression, and I'm certain this is the case for a great number of other people putting themselves out there. I just hope that brands recognise this, value this and take advantage of it in a far better way, instead of trying to kill it off. At the moment, they're more likely to make people feel inadequate and feel the need to change something about themselves. My advice? Please don't change. Do what makes you happy, and don't let any fucker (brands or individuals) make you feel like shit about yourself. EVER.


I could go on and on, including about these so-called 'Desi Inspo' accounts but hey, maybe I'll save that rant for the 8th Anniversary? Here's to another great year on Fashionicide, I hope you've enjoyed the journey so far. Thank you to my loyal followers who have been there from the beginning and those that hopped aboard along the way and supported me. You make it all worthwhile.

I probably don't need to tell you, my avid readers, that something pretty crazy spread across the Internet like wildfire back in April of this year. Yep, I'm talking Rainbow Highlighter. And more specifically, I'm talking Bitter Lace Beauty's Rainbow Highlighter - the original. I have to say, it looked pretty epic and certainly caught my attention. Unfortunately, I was still on a bit of a post-Japan downer, and managed to miss out on the first wave of hype, but when I did eventually get swept up by it, I wondered to myself what Rainbow Highlighter would look like on darker skin tones like my own.

But Depop came to my rescue, because let's be honest. I needed this. Or at least I thought it had came to my rescue. I purchased a Bitter Lace Beauty Prism Highlighter for £20, and it arrived just a few days later. Result. It looked the part: the packaging, the business cards and the highlight was embossed in the style of Bitter Lace Beauty. I took an excited pic, posted it to Instagram (obviously), and Bitter Lace Beauty themselves commented saying it was a fake. No indication as to what gave it away, it was just a fake and that was that. I can understand people taking their idea, but faking it? I don't get it.

 

Would I wear this one again? Probably not, I have no idea who made it, or what's in it, and I do value my skin too much to throw caution to the wind on this one. Will the trend still be around in the 9 or 10 months Bitter Lace Beauty are saying you'll have to wait for their Prism Highlight? I don't know, but if you just can't wait that long, Phee's Makeup Shop offer their own alternative in the UK, as do Chaos Makeup in the USA - both look every bit as beautiful as Prism and will be well worth a try.