Another surreal moment was meeting a BBC Radio presenter at the event, who I worked with on a radio show when I was 15. So it was so strange to bump into him here, 16 years later and see how far he's progressed (and gotten older too!)

I found that the Asians I was meeting and talking to, seemed quite different to the Asians I've met throughout everyday life (with some notable exceptions), in that they came across as far more professional, respectful, intellectual and interesting, but seemingly without passing judgement. This was fascinating to me, because it's clear that Asian creatives take a verbal beating from the South Asian community, but actually, these people are not bitter about that, they're warm, open and looking to raise up South Asians in general. I've met very few like this, and to me these people were just goals AF.

But aside from all that, the undoubted star of the show was my outfit. Off the shoulder dresses seemed to be the trend of the night, but I thought it'd be more memorable to go with something custom made. I already had the concept and vision clear in my mind, so I contacted Kizzy at Kyra Makes Things with my design and she worked her seamstress magic on it to bring it to life.

The concept is to reclaim the Urdu word Besharam, meaning "Shameless", which given the messages I was hearing on stage seemed incredibly apt.  This concept ties in really strongly with something I'm currently working on behind the scenes, and hope to be able to talk more about in the coming weeks. It's something close to my heart though, as I've been called this word Besharam all throughout my life by South Asians who just don't get that the younger generation might be different to them.

I wanted a floaty white kimono, with the Urdu script for Besharam cut out in holographic material and plastered on the back, and a silver slip underneath and Kizzy produced it exactly to spec, with high quality fabrics and stitching. If you have a design in mind for something custom, I'd definitely recommend reaching out to her for a quote, or even taking a look at her current range on her online store. Kizzy is a really experienced seamstress, and knows exactly what she's doing, even under tight deadlines, so you can trust her to deliver excellent work (as you can see!), so I was really grateful that she brought my design to life!

So yeah, what a night. But it's made me think about my place in the blogging community. I really love blogging, but I think that my future may lie away from it, and on to different and more exciting things. Oh, and on that note, keep your eyes peeled for news of my top secret project in the coming weeks..

First of all, this photo has no relevance to the post whatsoever. But new hair, so..

MUA, or Makeup Academy are such an underrated brand. You've probably walked past them umpteen times whilst walking through Superdrug without even giving them a second glance. Maybe it's because you think they're so cheap it must be for kids, or maybe you tried one of their products out once or twice in the past and they didn't impress you much. Either way, we all walk past and on to the 'good' stuff.

Me personally, I'd bought their entire Liquid Lipstick range they released a couple of years ago and regretted it almost instantly. The formula was awful, it was dry, it was crumbly and a complete waste of my time and money. After that experience, I too would walk right past them most of the time.

But something's happened recently, and I don't know exactly when this happened, but they appear to have had some kind of rebranding exercise. The packaging looks less.. cheap, and the colours seem to be a bit more adventurous than what you might expect to see on the high street,  the quality is better, but the price tag remains the same. It would seem that, to MUA at least, three (pounds) really is the magic number!

Well this all came to my attention when I was in Superdrug (of course) looking for something else (again, of course) and this MUA stand just caught my eye. It was all geared towards Halloween and there were a few interesting shades on show, though this was towards the end of the day and the thing had been mostly ransacked, so I had no idea what else was on offer. 

So I picked up two interesting looking metallic liquid lipsticks and a blue highlighter that had all escaped the wrath of the Saturday crowds, all at £3 each. Nope, that's not a typo. THREE POUNDS. So I thought 'fuck it, why not?'

The metallic liquid lipsticks were actually quite refreshing to see in a high street store, because it really got me thinking: "When was the last time I bought a metallic liquid lipstick offline?" And I genuinely came up with nothing - answers on a post card please. But it was the blue highlighter that really intrigued me. I have a few blue-hued highlighters at home, where the highlighter is more iridescent blue and quite translucent but MUAs attempt is not this. It is full on, in your face, blue. Naturally, I had to give it a go and see how it might turn out! 

For the metallic liquid lipsticks, I picked up Medusa, a turquoise-green shade and Thanatos, which is a warm toned plummy-purple. First thing to notice, is the colours are so deep and moody, and the second thing to note is they are metallic AF. The formula is quite smooth, like a wet cream, and glides on easily with the supplied doe-foot applicator. One coat of this stuff is enough to have your lips drowned in glorious metallic colour too. One. Coat. It feels nice and comfortable on the lips too, though as with any liquid lipstick, I'd recommend wearing a lip balm beneath it if you have dry lips. 

In terms of longevity, I was incredibly surprised. I drink a lot of water and tea throughout the day, and  I was expecting to have green or purple stained mugs, but no, this stuff just doesn't budge. It does start to come off a little in the centre of the lips when you eat though, but this happens with every 'unnatural' lip colour I've tried.

Even if you don't fancy these as lip colours you might sport on a regular basis, don't let that put you off, because the formula is pretty much perfect to use as eyeliner. And just another reminder - Three pounds.

On to the highlighter then, and the ever controversial Jeffree Star released a black highlighter recently, and this MUA offering is in the same vein as that. We've come to expect highlighters to shift towards the advertised colour under the light, whereas this is more like an eyeshadow, in that the colour is just full on from the start. I'd say that it feels more like a light metallic eyeshadow than a highlighter.

The Eyeshadows