A couple of months ago, I received a (birthday) present from one of my dearest girlfriends.
After I rushly enthusiastically unwrapped it, I was super excited to discover the most exquisite selection of beauty products (I am a big beauty junkie and more than obsessed with collecting/trying new products).
Then, as I started scrutinising what each product was, I was stunned that ALL of them were either a product/benefit combination I coveted or a brand I loved. As I was obviously doing this “discovery” exercise in my typical “son et lumiere*” style, I shouted whispered “This is amazing – all the products are so….ME !!!”. To which my friend replied “Of course they are YOU. I know what products YOU need and the brands YOU love!”.
Ah. If you ignore the potential implications of beauty products “I need”, this is actually the best friendship testimony ever. I realised that everything my friend picked was indeed a clue to who I am (sounds deep I know, but it’s kind of true so who cares!).
So what do these amazingly selected products tell about me?
1. False Lash Mascara: ever since I started using make up (depending who you ask …my mum says 18yo, my friends say 15yo…the jury is officially still out on this one in case I have a daughter someday…), I have been obsessed with eyes, following on the glamorous footsteps of generations of north African women. In my case though, I have decided to swap the mesmerising kohl eyes for a less intense look and fell in love with Mascara. I am so hooked that I buy it on a monthly basis, stay tuned to the latest and greatest launches (even bigger lashes) and would not venture out of the house without it- either on my face or as back up in my bag. I have learned though to control my impulses (endless number of coats) as I have realised they can become kind a barrier towards, erm, keeping my eyes open. The weird thing is I tried other methods (false lashes and lash curlers) but they didn’t really work for me. I am a Mascara girl through and through!
2. Bright Red lipsticks: If my Mascara addiction is an easy guess (the clue is visible on my lashes) , the lipstick one is a more insider intelligence. I have always loved lipsticks but they didn’t love me back. Or at least so I thought. Some months ago, I decided to start giving my lipstick collection a go (not wearing them DIDNT mean I was not buying them), here and there, but mostly at night time. But I did share with my friend my desire to break my beauty mould and start wearing bright Reds by day. I guess she has now enabled me to make that wishful thinking become true 
3. Trusted Skin Toner: At the risk of revealing yet another beauty addiction, I am obsessed by Skin Care. I have lived to see what good skin can do to your morale and confidence ( I hope that now that I have written that bold statement I am not going to wake up to some spot tomorrow). So I am very serious with skin care and follow a very regimented routine – as a teenager my dad used to drive me to a top dermatologist 3h away from our home town so I can feed my obsession (isn’t amazing what parenthood makes one do !). But the thing that I enjoy the most is cleansing OR to be more precise toning. If I am honest, my over zealousness on cleansing is driven as much by the benefits to my skin as by the sheer joy of applying/spraying/splashing my toner on my face. I heard that statistically women had to use 2 bottles of cleansing milk for 1 toner – in my case it is actually the opposite!
4. Luxurious body scrub: This one can be rightfully seen as an extension of the above point – cleansing. Newsflash – I love scrubbing. In fact, I can scrub everyday. But to be able to that, I need a soft scrub (to remove death cells whilst still keeping the good ones if you see what I mean) and a subtle smell (I am not a fan of overwhelming too-sicky smells). I have one that I LOVE because it makes my skin so soft my beautician always comments on it (is it me or is this quite a sad statement?) and most of all was my skin’s absolute saviour when I was pregnant (no stretch marks, touch wood). And I made sure my friend – who was pregnant – knew about it. So she returned the favour 
5. Thin Hair Love Cream: Contrary to my fellow homies whose signature is their powerful luxurious manes of thick’n'curly dark hair, I have what they call in Morocco, “european hair”: lighter coloured (some call it even blond to the surprise of anyone who lives north of Jibraltar), straight-ish and thin. Growing up, in typical girl style, all my friend wanted straight hair, whilst all I wanted was volume/curls. I tried brushing and drying my hair upside down, sleeping in rollers, using Mousse an almost trying that explosive Coca-Cola + laundry powder famous Moroccan tip (ah how I don’t miss being a desperate teenage girl!). But nothing really worked as much as I wanted. What I learned by getting older is to accept my hair AND to start caring for it so it looks thick by being healthier. Enter the need for thin hair strengthening cream.
The only thing missing would be the pill/gel/drink that would make me 5kgs lighter over night – but I don’t blame her for not getting me that
What about you? How do you recognise yourself in your best friend’s presents? Or even through your beauty regime?
Bisous bisous.
PS- I wrote this post MONTHS ago and it has been sitting in my draft forever (well, for months) because I couldn’t find the right illustration. Well, finally the need to get it out there became so big (and I kept telling my friend about it so I kind of had to proof it existed and wasn’t some cheep decoy to get her to give even more products ). Anyway, yes, need so big, I resorted to..gasp..draw something. In my mind, it was very clear, insightful and pretty. In reality, it’s the scribble above. My Little Man could have done better – and to be clear the only reason I didn’t use one of his own drawings is that he doesn’t work on “briefs” and he is currently in a car/cat/monkey phase which I would have struggled to fit with the above post.
