February faves and best beauty finds: My personal glow-up, cookies and a book everyone interested in beauty stuff should read.
Goldwell Elumen hair colours
At the end of 2019, I wanted a new hair colour. I planned it for 2020, I had a Pinterest board, it was on my to-do list, and I was looking so much forward to it. And then, covid happened, my old salon is no more, but now, three years later, I got my wish. A completely new look, thanks to TWO new colours (copper! Purple!), and some layers. You have no idea how happy that whole look makes me, every time I look into a mirror and between. It’s like a burst of dopamine every time.
I do have to say that Goldwell Elumen colours aren’t my fave hair dyes for nothing: they have awesome bond-repairing and hair smoothing properties. That’s the only reason right now that I don’t have strands of hair in my hands every time I touch it. I did write a post about my new routine, and also have to mention Abby Yung’s YouTube channel where I learned loads about hair recently.
Matcha cookies!
I love The Great British Bake Off, and I love Jürgen from the Black Forest, one of the 2021 contestants. He recently posted a matcha cookie recipe on Instagram, and of course I had to try it. It’s awesome: but you HAVE to let them rest at least one day before you dig in. Also, I used less matcha powder than in the recipe (7g instead of 10). With the white chocolate decoration, it tastes like a Matcha Kitkat. LOVE.
Book: Rae Nudson, All Made Up
A recent Guardian article made me pick up ‘All made up’ by Rae Nudson again, and again I am reminded what an incredible book that is.
I read Anita Bhagwandas’ article in the Guardian (I’ve always felt on the outside of pretty, looking in’: a beauty writer on how she finally stopped feeling ugly. – Excerpt from her book Ugly.), and it is a heartbreaking piece.
You can’t help feeling for the child, young girl and then woman she describes, who gets told by her surroundings time and time again that she’s different and not enough. I can’t even begin to understand the exhaustion and depression that arise when everything surrounding you (in your home, the country your parents made their home) tells you that no, it’s not made for you, your looks, your body. Not for you the clothes in the shops, not the haircare, not the beauty products. Not. For. You. Let that feeling sink in for a moment.
She draws from that the conclusion that it’s the patriarchy-driven beauty and fashion industry that’s the problem. Here’s where Nudson comes in. (Honestly, there’s no other book from which I learned so much about beauty, and what it means in the world. Pick it up!) Beauty is just a signifier, a tool, a metaphor, and in itself, it has no meaning. At all. It’s neither a tool of the patriarchy to keep women small and occupied with unimportant stuff, nor is it a tool for self-expression IN ITSELF. It becomes one, or the other, or both by the people experiencing it. Red lipstick can mean revolution (to the suffragettes who wore it), the epitome of self-realisation (to – some – trans people, for example) or being an instrument of the patriarchy. Go read Nudson, people interested in beauty, the beauty industry and beauty standards! Go now! What are you still doing here?!?
Please note that this review is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods, or money, for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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