Pantone Colour of 2019: Living Coral

This year’s colour of the year is a vibrant one, and an interesting pick - Living Coral. I’ve worn this colour before but not very often (like this outfit and this kurta!) and have had a few Western dresses in coral before as well. I remember wearing a bright coral shift dress to work years ago and matching it to an equally bright coral lipstick, which I got a few giggles from at work, so don’t think it’s something I’d attempt anytime soon again! I’ve even dabbled with it in terms of lipsticks and blushes, but I’m a little conservative with my colours and tend to gravitate towards deep, rich colours, neutrals or or softer colours which are slightly more forgiving!

I had a look at some examples of 'living coral' which could pop up this year in fashion and beauty, and am liking what I see - even though it's a bright colour it's serene and girly, and doesn't feel too garish. I'll be keeping an eye out in the shops to see if anything catches my eye (probably for the summer!) but I'm liking these pieces below.

I also had a look at what kind of coral pieces there are out there in the Asian fashion world – there’s a whole treasure trove of them! I love that it's such an abundant colour - Asian weddings and events tend to be lively and colourful, so this is quite an ideal colour, and I found plenty of wedding themes, outfits and decor in this this colour.

I am intrigued about this colour – its definitely a fun colour and I can imagine it will be quite popular in the summer, as well as for wedding events. It’s also quite a girly colour and something I can imagine appeals to a lot of people (unless you’re not a fan of bright colours!) I’ll be looking forward to seeing if this colour pops up this year in, as well as what other trends, colours and styles become popular.

Whats your opinion on this colour? Would you wear it?

Eid Mubarak - Our Eid Day...!

Eid Mubarak guys! 

I've finally got a chance to sit down and post about my Eid day, although unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures on the day as I wanted! You can check out my sisters' blogs here and here for when they post their pictures, so keep an eye out on theirs too.

First up, what I ended up wearing: My sister and I went shopping a few times locally and I also looked online for outfit ideas - we both found that there's a huge range of styles in at the moment - florals, frills, bell-sleeves, pearls, maxi dresses, flared trousers, kimonos and so much more, which meant there was a lot of choice, and made us feel a little overloaded in styles. I was pretty much open to any ideas, and didn't have anything specific in mind, which made my shopping trips easier, and meant I was less fussy about what to look at.

I ended up buying a jacket-and-kameez outfit from a local boutique called Golden Zari, which had some very pretty outfits, and is quite a popular place for formals for weddings. I haven't worn coral-orange before, and loved the beautiful embroidery on this jacket, which is actually quite heavily embellished with pearls, beading, metal-work and sequins all over the front and back too. I forgot to take a picture of the back, but here's the outfit - a short kameez and jacket style with tapered trousers.

And of course I couldn't resist posting some close-ups! I wanted to also show the gorgeous clutch bag (which was so teeny it only fit my lipstick) thatI pulled out for Eid, and my floral mehndi which I managed to do the night before Eid!

I'm pretty gutted that I didn't get any pictures of my sisters or sister-in-law at all - they all had beautiful outfits on, which looked very on-trend and colourful. I have got some pictures of all the toddler nieces looking gorgeous though, in lovely party dresses!

My mum opted for her favourite soft colours - a spring green and pink, while my niece looked  very cool in a gold kurta, paired with tan and black accessories - giving me a run for my money there with that pose!

The girls all had lovely mehndi on their hands too - I wish I had taken pictures of the little girls' hands, but these are my sister's and niece's hands which looked lovely.

My sister brought gorgeous rainbow glittery Eid cupcakes for us to enjoy on the day (cue us taking ten thousands pictures of cakes in different angles) which was a lovely touch, perfect for dessert after a huge Eid lunch!

One of the things we all enjoy about the lead-up to Eid is getting Eid presents for the kids - they look forward to opening them and we love seeing happy they get. They all got quite a haul this year, and of course my sisters and I overloaded each other with makeup and chocolates!

We had a fab Eid, the kids got balloons (half of which flew away in the sky) and spent the day in my mum's garden picking the cherries off a very ripe cherry tree and filling up buckets!

I have a few events and weddings up coming this month (July will be a pretty busy month!) so can't wait to post more pictures - so watch this space!

I hope you all had a lovely Eid weekend - what did you wear?

THE WEDDING POST: Mehndi Memories!

Can you believe that it's been a year since my wedding?! I really can't, it seems like only a few weeks ago that I got married and moved away from my parents, and yet I'm so settled and comfortable in my married life that weirdly enough, it feels like I've always been married!

So this time last year, on this day, I had my mehndi night. which was surprisingly an emotional day but a lovely one, surrounded by friends and family. There's a lot of things which I stressed about at the time but on that day, walking in under a curtain of flowers and looking at all of my friends, a lot of that stress and anxiety melted away (to the music of Ali Zafar's Jhoom, if anyone wanted to know!)

I thought I'd do a series of memories posts this week - what I remember from my events, including my mehndi day, the good, the bad and the funny, especially as it's amazing what sticks out in your mind afterwards!

So here's a few random things I remember from my mehndi night, in no particular order, although I'll try not to complain too much! I do remember wanting to do a hundred and one things and stressing about it, and I'm only mentioning them now because a year later looking back, I really don't know why I worried as much as I did.

Getting ready
I'm lucky enough to know a lot of make-up artists and henna artists, so naturally I got my sister-in-law to spend do my makeup, which I loved. We even managed to spend a little free time in the the day where she took me out for brunch before we got ready, which helped relax me a lot. She got the look even better than I thought, I wanted simple and glowy and she managed both without making my face look too heavy or busy, and I loved the result.

It made me happy that I was able to save so much money by booking a makeup artist for my main wedding day, as it can really add up with the more functions you have. I was also glad that it looked the way I wanted without having to compromise - I've met so many women who have opted to do their own makeup or ask a friend to do it, for one or more of their wedding functions and they've looked great, so I'd definitely encourage that options for brides who are thinking about it.

My hair and the mess at the end of the day!

My jasmine flowers (which were such a headache to buy, because I wanted fresh ones!) came loose half-way through the mehndi and basically looked a mess by the end of the day - you can see them unravelling in pictures below, and the before/after of the flowers! This isn't to criticise the hair-stylist at all - I got my hair and dupatta setting done by Shamalah Hairstylist and LOVED what she did, the flowers themselves just wilted and were bound to fall down after a lot of dancing and moving around! The hair looks not so bad in the second picture, but by the time I got home the flowers had dried and my hair was all over the place!

Also, if any Londoners wants to know where I got the flowers, Vallis in East Ham, East London do them at an amazing price of £1 per string meter and they smell beautiful! A tip for any brides using flowers though, keeping them in the fridge really helped me in keeping them fresh overnight.

Even worse, when I got home, it took me ages to undo my hair and get my hair sorted out. It was actually more painful than my wedding hair was because there was a lot more extensions and back-combing involved, and worse for me because I didn't realise it would be this difficult! 

Non-attendees

A few of my friends didn’t turn up to the mehndi, which I was a little upset about at the time, although I did get over it 15 minutes into the mehndi, once the dancing started! I only mentioned this because it's inevitable that someone can't make it, or something can happen which can be really annoying - try not to let it get to you too much. A friend of mine who got married around the same time I did told me that she was pretty upset that a some of her friends and family didn't make it to her mehndi, enough that when she went home she was upset and even cried a little. You're bound to be emotional but don't let these be the last and defining moments of your Big Days, the last thing you would want to remember about your events is being upset for the wrong reasons.

It's also easy to get annoyed at the little things like these, when it's so much better to appreciate people who DID turn up and make the effort, which can really make a difference on the night! It's fair to say all of the right people turned up and it was really warming to see that they made the effort, not to mention all of the hard work from my mum, sisters and sister-in-law!

Asian Timings

I got to my mehndi venue really early, and was a bit annoyed that I turned up before the guests, particularly as it meant my brother, who was my chauffeur for the night, and I had to wait because I didn't want to talk into an empty hall. Thankfully, my photographer was already at the venue, and used this time for a quiet photo-shoot which I loved – some of my favourite pictures are from this shoot. I was also glad to be punctual because it meant I had some quiet time to myself beforehand.

Sweets and Favours

I barely saw the beautiful sweet table my sisters made and set up. I sure as heck didn’t get to eat anything from it. At least I had lots of photos of it afterwards! Similarly I had spent a lot of time with my sisters making up favour bags, sweet cones and decor boxes in a peacock print theme, which kind of got lost in the hall decor, but admittedly on the day, it didn't matter as much to me anyway.

Ghagray

We’d bought lots of jasmine strings to make into bracelets (ghagray) for some of the guests, and some of them got forgotten. Two of my friends ended up putting dolly-mixture sweet bracelets on my wrists to make up for it because we forgot to get my best friends to put the flowers on my wrist! I don't know why I look so serious in the photo below because I remember laughing about it all!

Food!
Our food got served late, which was very frustrating, as the caterers had been calling me all afternoon while I was getting ready to ask me about venue access and set-up. I actually got up from my stage at one point during a break when the guests managed to eat, to go into the kitchens and tell off the caterers. They learned their lesson and served the food on time on the wedding day though, so at least I told them off effectively!

Dancing the night away!
We managed to get some of the older ladies, the mums and aunties, up for a Beyonce dance which was fun, and it was even better when my sisters and friends joined in too. One of my friends is an amazing (and enthusiastic!) dancer so she stole the show with her moves and got me to join in as well, although I'll admit I was a lot more embarassed!

My niece and I doing twirls!

It feels pretty strange to look through some of these now and see myself all dressed up, especially because I looked pretty calm in a lot of photos and I know I was quite nervous!
A friend of mine got married a few days ago and told me she felt the same - I think it was that point after months of stressing that she walked in and decided to just enjoy herself rather than look for things that had gone wrong.

I know there were a lot of things which were missing, didn't look the way I thought or just general things I thought were needed - looking back I now know that as much as we brides love the little details. the beautiful decor, the amazing dances, it's more important to enjoy the night and being with your close ones. Above all, just sit back, relax and focus on looking good!

Curly Fry's Shopping Therapy! Bourjois Nudes and Pink Lip Creams

I've written before about my love for matte liquid lipsticks, and this hasn't changed as I'm discovering more and more colours and textures.

I've been using Bourjois' Rouge Edition Velvet lip creams a lot recently, and was really happy to see that alongside their usual vibrant colours, there's also some more natural shades, in nudes, pinks and even a brown which I loved. I'm not a huge fan of brown lipsticks, but I love this one, it's a muted pink-brown and very flattering - definitely a shade I'd recommend for most skin tones!

Naturally I ended up with most of the colours in the collection, especially because they are perfect for every day wear without feeling too bright or too much of a hassle - perfect for the office and for a simple, fresh look!

Have you tried any of these? Which colour did you like?

RE-INVENT YOUR WARDROBE #1: Add a Jacket on Top

I'm a big advocate of re-inventing your wardrobe, whether it's just mix-and-matching your outfits, altering your outfits, or just changing a look so that it looks different to the original.

I thought I'd do a short series of posts about re-inventing your wardrobe - where instead of buying a whole new wardrobe, you just use what you have and make it look different and more in line with current trends.

(Although a quick side note to say that not all of these may work for some people, and I understand that not everyone has as many jackets as I found in my wardrobe!)

1. Wear a jacket with a jumpsuit.
I've posted before about experimenting with a jacket on top of a jumpsuit, and I loved the results. This was a simple embroidered jacket from one of my Eid outfits that I wore with a jumpsuit from the high street. I know the trend is also to wear wider-legged jumpsuits for a looser, flowier look, but I wanted to try the jacket with the one I had, and loved it.

I've had a really good response from a lot of readers about this outfit, with several people saying they wanted to try this - it's ideal for a night out as well as an Asian event, and it's also more of a fusion look. While it's not completely modest (the jumpsuit I had was quite fitted), it can be made to look modest and for a first attempt, I was quite happy with the style.

2. Add a jacket to a maxi dress or an abaya.
I know that maxi dresses and abayas are not the same thing, especially as maxi dresses tend to be more fitted and fashionable, whereas the primary purpose of an abaya is to hide the shape of the body. Nevertheless, they both are maxi length and come to your ankles (or longer), and adding a jacket is a great way to dress up both.

I don't wear an abaya but my eldest sister does, and she has worn embellished, loose jackets to dress up her abayahs for weddings or functions. I love the idea of a dressed-up maxi or abayah, particularly where it doesn't have to be a heavy jacket - one of my favourite looks has been a brocade, metallic jacket with a plain dress.

This jacket came from the outfit I wore to my sister's wedding, which was a little looser at that time! The maxi dress itself is a simple cheap one from an unbranded company (one of those random shops you find on the high street) and comes in various colours and styles, which I thought went with the jacket quite well in terms of colour and shape. I really like how modest this outfit was, and the flow of the dress with the jacket, which felt really swishy and girly one. I could have dressed the outfit up more with jewellery, like a long necklace or hijab jewellery, but I thought the jacket itself was heavy enough!

3. Add a jacket to a normal kameez and churidar or trousers.
It sounds obvious really, but it's a pretty way of layering without looking weird. It's difficult to layer Asian outfits the way we can with Western ones - where we can add a cardigan to a short sleeve top or dress, it's not always as chic with Asian outfits. This jacket came from another suit, which I wore with the outfit from my sister's mehndi - I haven't had a chance to wear either suits for a while, so I loved the fact that I could pull these out again!

I thought this outfit looked really girly and cute, it's really ideal for a mehndi function or even to wear to a dawat/dinner, without feeling overly heavy. Although there is a lot of corals in this outfit, I tried to tone it a little with maroon accents and nudes. The jacket really slimmed down my figure and gave it a longer look, and I liked the fact that this had a shorter hemline, which meant I could wear it with shorter kurtas to fit in line with current Pakistani fashion trends.

4. You can even add it to an anarkali outfit.
Rather than having a slim-line effect like the above, having an anarkali dress with a jacket gives more of an A-Line look. This might not be to everyone's tastes, but again, it's a new way to wear an an old outfit.

I chose this RDC indigo anarkali dress to wear with a jacket of a very similar colour I found in my wardrobe. I liked this look, but it wasn't my favourite, mainly because I thought the jacket was heavy and felt too much over a heavy anarkali. Having said that, the jacket blended perfectly with the dress and added to the flowy style, and emphasised the A-Line look. I would have liked to try this jacket with a simpler dress underneath, or even another colour to see how it varied, but I think it didn't look bad as it is below and it looked quite classic.

5. For a heavier, dressier look you could add it it a lengha and top.
I'm not sure this is something which wouldn't look too heavily layered, but I gave this one a shot anyway. I was going to try this with my mehndi skirt, which has a print to it and was a lot heavier, but I couldn't find anything that matched it enough for me to be happy with.

So I tried this instead, this hot pink jacket from a Gul Mohar outfit, with a plain silk maxi skirt (which is actually from Zara, of all places!) and a short kameez. The kameez itself was altered from a longer pink slip kameez which I got cut and shorted, for the lengha-choli look. Because the outfit was quite blocky, I wore my bridal jewellery with it, which looked perfect on top, with a printed pink and gold hijab scarf to finish off the look.

I loved this outfit, it's simple but embellished enough for a outfit for a wedding (I'm actually considering this for a family wedding next month!). I haven't worn a choli-style short kameez like this in years - probably not since I was a young teen, so it felt weird having this on, but the jacket made the whole look really wearable, and also modified enough to feel modest. I've love to try this look with other skirts/tops to see if it looks as nice, but I was quite happy with this look, and it was my favourite out of all the ones in this post.

All of these styles were using outfits I already had, I didn't buy anything new and simply mixed and matched (or in the case of the last one, did some slight alterations to a silk kameez!) You will be amazed by what you may find in your wardrobe - I know some of you may think that there's not much to work with, but believe me, there is!

I have a few more posts coming up to show how to mix-and-match pieces and re-invent styles, and I've even found a few more jackets since doing this post. I didn't get the opportunity to try shorter jackets, or even Western jackets from the high street for a more funky, modern look, but I'm sure I'll give it a shot!

What did you think of these outfits? Would you try wearing a jacket on top for a new look?

MAKE-UP REVIEW: Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream Swatches

I posted recently about some long-wear matte lip creams I bought from Nyx, I bought a few soft matte lip creams which I've been wanting to try for a while. They're quite reasonably priced on the official website, but I managed to find them a little cheaper from a seller on eBay from America, although the postage did add to the costs!

I love that these come in a large range of colours, and that they're all named after major cities in the world - it makes a nice difference from the usual names for lipsticks and made them sound really fun. I picked a bunch of colours, some nudes, some reds, some pinks and some corals, and also a dark purple that looked interesting - they all had a good variety of colour so that they didn't look the same as each other too much.

(I'll apologise in advance for the quality of the pictures with my lip swatches, I tried to use my DSLR camera to take the pictures but couldn't get a decent angle without being able to to see! I ended up using my mobile phone camera for most of them, but made sure the lighting was clear so that the colours came out as close as possible to how they actually looked!)

San Paulo
This was a lovely pink on me, slightly deeper than I thought it would be but still very pretty because it was such a fun, bright pink without being too vivid or neon like a lot of other liquid lipsticks I've used. For some reason the colour looks a little patchy in my picture, but it was a fairly flattering colour in a mid-pink shade.

Antwerp
This was a really pretty coral shade, a little bright but very summery, being a nice balance of coral and peach.. It looks a little brighter than the tube suggests, but is also a light shade which looks a little warm and suited my skin pretty well.

Cannes
This was a really pretty pale pink which had slightly nude tones to it. On me, it looked more pink with a blue undertone, but it's a very easy colour to wear and looked almost light lilac without dulling my skin. I got a few compliments from this lip shade, it's quite versatile and would suit a lot of skin shades.

Transylvania
This was a little dark for me, it was a deep, rich purple which looked amazing in colour, but not so amazing on my lips because it didn't really suit me at all, and it was really difficult to get a good picture of the colour without it looking black. Having said that, I loved the rich shade of it, I'm not sure I'd wear it on a night out, but it was lovely to try it. I think a lighter version of this colour, Copenhagen, would be a lot more wearable (I tried to get that shade but it was sold out in most places!)

Ibiza
This was another really pretty coral colour that I really loved, less brighter than Antwerp was but very soft and corally. This was one of my favourite shades, perfect for summer (and spring) and very easy to wear, although I needed a decent nude lipliner underneath to get the true colour of the lip cream on my lips.

Morocco
I quite liked this colour, it was a bright shade of red which was almost orange, and very flattering on the lips, surprisingly making them look fuller. I don't often wear post-box reds like this so it was great fun to try this one out, and it pretty much lasted right until lunch without fading at all.

Zurich
This was another one of my favourite shades out of all of the ones I bought, it was a really pretty nude that was lighter and less mauve-y than Cannes. This was another lip cream that got compliments, and also was perfect for an everyday nude which lasted quite a while.

Amsterdam

I ended up trying this shade twice, because of the versatility of this colour. From the tube I assumed this would be a deep dull red, but it ended up being a a pinky shade, due to the light coloured lipliner underneath. I loved the shade, but it made me wonder whether I could get a deeper colour by wearing a deeper lipliner under it.

So I tried this lip colour again, and ended up with a pinky-red - it's what I imagine a neon red would look like, without being

I've worn a few of these colours again, because of how ideal they are for every day, and the colours are pretty flattering. While they were pretty long-wearing and quite pigmented, they didn't last the whole day - usually it would wear off during lunch and I'd have to re-apply (I think the only exception to this was Morocco, but even this was half-worn off!)

I'd definitely recommend these lip creams, they're amazing value for their price and they come in a big enough range of colours that they would suit a lot of skin types and preferences. I'm already thinking of ordering a few more colours (although not yet, probably on pay day!) and have been recommending the colours to my sisters for them to try.

What do you think of these colours? Have you tried any of the Nyx lips creams?