Sensitive Skin: Morning/Night Skin Care Regime

I have the most sensitive skin in life. 

Everything reacts with it. And I do mean everything. It scars extremely easily. A pair of sunglasses I wore several years ago still has its dark scars where it rested on my nose. I have long since misplaced those shades but thanks to my nose, I will never quite forget them. I have also been wearing standard spectacles since I was eight and every pair of glasses has marred my nose. Now when I get a new pair of spectacles I make sure that they are 1). plastic frames, and 2). rest on the already scarred part of my nose, because I figure if I already have the marks, they might as well rest on them and not create new ones.

Anyway, the point is, that caring for skin this reactive is not an easy task. I have learnt the hard way that while other people can venture outside and return completely unscathed, if I do the same I will return with five more freckles and new sun spots. Living in the tropics with this skin means copious amounts of sunscreen, no lower than SPF 30, must be applied before I go outside. And reapplied every two hours, just to be safe. 

This skin has led to a certain sort of paranoia and a negative reaction to the sun. I basically try to avoid the sun at all costs, and when I do go out into it, I ready my skin like a fighter suits up to go off to war. I regularly take a hat with me and I never leave home without my umbrella. The good thing about this paranoia is that it has led me to a skin care regime that is not only pretty darned effective for myself, but which might help others out there. 

So let's get started. I don't like to use a lot of products, so I try to keep it simple.

Exfoliant - Aveeno Positively Radiant Skin Brightening Daily Scrub 

   Its a gentle scrub that I use as an exfoliant. I know its described as a daily scrub, but if you have super sensitive skin like me, I wouldn't advise scrubbing your face every single day. I try to use this two to three times a week. I like this product because its the only scrub I found that did not irritate my skin. Its microbeads are small enough that its gentle, but densely-packed so it is still effective.

And on the weekend I also do one of those DIY steam facials which is a fancy way of saying you hold a towel over your head above a hot bowl of water and use that to open the pores to get the excess oil and sebum (yuck!) out of your pores that you might have missed during the week. Hey, you gotta go through the ugly to get to the pretty. I figure as its a natural procedure, it can't do too much damage.

And by the way, I've noticed people here use St.Ive's apricot scrub with the reverence usually ascribed to a sacred ritual. Personally, I do not even think people with normal, flawless skin should use that. The grains in that thing are massive! There's a reason dermatologists use that thing as a foot scrub.

Oh, and with sensitive skin I'd avoid harsh procedures at the spa like chemical peels. Just a word of advice.

Face Wash - Aveeno Active Naturals Ultra-Calming Moisturizing Cream Cleanser (Discontinued)

  Are we noticing a theme here? Yes, Aveeno is a favourite brand of mine because its products are actually gentle enough for my skin. I don't think I'm getting across how big of a deal that is for me. Even Simple is too harsh for my skin - I'm sorry, but Simple's products are so drying! On the other hand, its as if Aveeno was created with sensitive skin in mind. It's actually more due to the fact that they are all about natural solutions to skin care, but it works for my sensitive skin and for that I am thankful!

Anyway, this face wash cleanses your skin without stripping everything away (unlike Simple, cough!) and is really creamy and moisturizing. It feels like milk!!

Toner - Aveda Embrightenment Brightening Treatment toner. 

  I don't even know if this thing is legit brightening my skin; all I know is that it feels so freaking good. Its one of the few toners that does not dry out my skin, and thats a big deal. I would actually buy it again just because of the soothing effect. I only apply it at night because I figure the skin repairs itself the most at night, so it would be most effective then. And I swear when I go to sleep with this thing on, I sleep more peacefully.

Moisturizer - I have two moisturizers right now (I don't use them simultaneously!). Both are old classics and personal favourites of mine. 

  The first is Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion. Its step 3 in Clinique skin care system. Now personally, I found the first two steps (a cleanser and toner) to be mediocre. The toner especially I found to be rather drying. I mean, if you want a drying toner, witch hazel is way cheaper. The moisturizing lotion however is the piece de resistance of that skin care trio. It is so moisturizing. Its like my skin breathes a sigh of relief when I apply it. And it definitely brightens complexion and makes skin look awake.

  The second moisturizer is Pond's Clarant B3 - I don't understand how a drugstore product that contains ingredients as harmful as parabens can be this amazing. But it is. And honestly its the only product that lightens my sun spots, treats the hyperpigmentation and treats the sun damage. And the best part about it is that its cheap!! It's less than ten dollars at all the stores I've checked.

  Another reason I find it so amazing is that it has this matte effect that is so necessary when you live in the tropics. One of the problems I have with Clinique Dramatically Moisturizing Lotion is that it can leave you feeling greasy because its so creamy. Clarant B3's matte effect means that you don't get all oily and greasy during the day because of the heat.

  A word of advice when using this product: I've noticed some people saying they tried it for a week and it had no effect. This product is slow-acting and needs five-six weeks before you see any real improvement. You also need to use it religiously day and night for it to work properly. 

Sunscreen - Clinique's SPF 30 Face Cream. War-paint. For some people war-paint is their make-up. For me, sunscreen. I do battle with the sun with it on. I rarely win, but at least it gives me a fighting chance.

Finally, at night, after toner I sometimes use Olay's Complete Plus Ultra-Rich Night Firming Cream (Possibly discontinued). 

I only use this when my skin is feeling particularly tired or dry. I know I should use it every night but some nights I just don't feel like it. Its so rich that it feels rather heavy. And I can't sleep with a heavy face on. And I swear it only made my smile lines more prominent. I'm on the lookout for another night firming cream, something lightweight.

I don't know if this rates as part of my regime because I hardly ever wear make-up, but when I do I always take it off with Pond's Cold Cream. I swear by it. It even takes off waterproof mascara like a dream. Such a classic. Its rather creamy and rich though, so afterwards I deliberately use one of those drying Simple cleansers to get rid of the greasy feeling.

Some products I want to add to my regime are After sun care lotion, a correcting serum, and maybe another night cream because I'm definitely over Olay. And I'd like to try a mud mask. If anyone knows of one that I can use on my sensitive skin, please let me know! I also wanna try MAC's volcanic ash but it looks too harsh and stripping for my sensitive skin. Ah well. C'est la vie.

Whew! That was intense! Off for a nap! In the shade or inside of course!

Ebony and Ivory

There is so much bad make up advice out there, floating around in the world. Sometimes I think about all of the bad advice that I've heard novices and professionals alike give (no offense, but I sometimes wonder what the requirements to work at these make-up counters are). And the make up advice tends to get especially sketchy when dealing with people of dark skin tones. I have some sympathy with the make up industry because black skin is so varied and just so complex that it is always going to be difficult to give advice and provide make-up for every shade of black. To complicate things even more, many black girls are one complexion on their neck, another on their face, and then their chest is a different shade too. Or even more confusing, the outer perimeters of their face is darker, like the forehead and beneath the cheekbones, but the inner portion like nose and cheeks, is a lighter shade. Using two foundations or mixing foundations to find the right shade is a part of life for many of us.

Especially for those of the African diaspora, who are often mostly of African-descent but have such a confusing genetic make up of African, European or Native American/Amerindian influences, finding appropriate make-up becomes near to impossible. For example, my sister is very dark, but some far-removed South Asian ancestor of ours has given her a yellow undertone instead of the standard dark-girl-red-undertone stereotype. Or like for me, who's got freckles even though I am very dark-skinned from some Irish ancestor. I am yet to find a foundation that hides freckles adequately. Finding make up has been an uphill battle for the both of us. Both of us are dark, but we are different shades of dark, yet we ended up using the same powder Clinique's Almost Powder Matte in the shade Sienna for YEARS before we discovered Black|Up, which makes make-up with specifically black women in mind. Looking back now, its funny to me that we ever used the same powder because our skin is nothing alike. Her undertone is yellower than mine which is actually neutral (there is no red undertone in our family, so the make-up industry with its racial stereotypes for black people were wrong again).

Anyway, because there is so much bad advice, I decided to share some tips and make up brands that I've had to find through trial and error on my own.

Some good make-up lines for us dark girls are:

Black|Up -- their two-way cake is a classic, but when I bought it I thought I had a red undertone (cuz I'm black and thats what the make-up industry said all black girls were back then) but not ALL dark girls have red undertones so if you have a neutral undertone like me, don't get it in TW05 like I did! I had a red face like a mask after two hours. It was terrible! But it was all I had so I used it for two years! Luckily I was at university then and only wore make-up occasionally on the week-ends.
Looking back now, TW03, which has golden/yellow undertones would have been better.
Anyway, its not a drugstore brand, so it's kinda pricey.
But I feel like that brand really understands black women's skin. No one beats them for shade, not even Mac. But honestly, apart from shade its just meh! The two way cake can be a bit drying after awhile because its matte. The matte-ness would probably appeal to you more if you have oily skin, as you'd have to blot less through out the day. But I have non-oily, sensitive skin, so maybe I should have purchased another foundation instead, maybe their fluid fountation. I have yet to try their Sublime Powder which I hear is the piéce de resistance of all their cosmetics. I love bright finishing powders that give you a gold glow, so I can't wait to get my hands on it!

Black Opal -- good, solid drugstore brand. You cannot go wrong with that price. Its not gonna work miracles, but all their products do exactly what they say will. Nothing less, nothing more. The foundation will do what a foundation is supposed to do - give you an even skin tone. It will not illuminate or heal your skin or any of that fancy stuff pricier cosmetics promise to do. Its a great bargain brand if you're going through a rough spot (like me). Though I have found that their stick foundation is kinda waxy and may not be so great if you have very oily skin, or live in the tropics, like me. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect foundation to be honest. But right now I am trying their stick foundation and it's doing the job.

Milani -- I had a bronzing powder by them that I really liked but I haven't tried anything else by them but I am told its another solid for dark girls. I really want to try their lipsticks but all the reviews I see reveal the sheerness of all their lipsticks, and I prefer highly pigmented lipstick. (Ruby Woo has spoiled me forever).

Iman -- I've noticed their powders tend to have a very yellow undertone, so if you have a VERY red undertone, reconsider, though I have a crazy idea that sometimes a yellow under-tone powder can look great on someone with a red undertone if used sparingly (like powder is supposed to be used) because it brightens the skin immediately, especially bronzing powders or illuminating powders which tend to have lovely little gold flecks in them.

Mac -- You know, I don't think Mac quite knows what it has done for women of colour. By expanding their shade range to include darker shades, they opened a whole new world to us. I actually get kind of emotional when I discuss Mac. All I can say is thank you to them.
Anyway, their Studio Fix foundation is so amazing. I have a friend who is NW45 and she looks so amazing in it. It's like her skin; it matches that perfectly. Sad to say but I have never purchased any of their foundations myself. I tried one once and I didn't like it very much. I suspect my search for the perfect foundation will never end. Its so hard to find one not just because of these darned freckles, but also because I have highly reactive, sensitive skin and fine lines around my mouth. Foundation gets into those creases, and stays there. And yes, I've tried face primers. I've tried everything.

Anyway, I've found that girls at the other end of the colour spectrum have the same problem us dark girls have. Very pale girls find the foundations that make up brands make for them have the wrong undertones. I've noticed that lots of dark girls and fair girls actually have yellow or even neutral undertones, and far fewer people have pink or red undertones than you'd think. There are even people out there who swear they have no undertone at all; I read a comment from a pale woman who swore her undertone was white.
If I, a lowly, infrequent blogger, can find all these complaints by just browsing the interwebs, then why can't these major companies find about about all these concerns the very dark ladies and very pale ladies have??

Anyway, I can't pretend to have any great expertise on pale skin but from what I'm hearing from other fair shaded people, some good make-up lines for very pale girls are:

Estee Lauder (so I'm told; all I know is that their blushes are divine)
Laura Mercier (I have yet to find this brand on my island so I haven't tried any of their products) 
Illamasqua (UK brand)
Hourglass
GOSH is supposed to be really good too if you can get it (I believe its based in Denmark)
Lumene -- actually a Finnish company so they should have shades for very Nordic complexions. However, they are more into Skin Care than Make-Up but their BB cream is supposed to be very good.


And here are some random bits of make-up advice I have:

• Here's a tip I have had to learn the hard way (red face like a mask), dark girls: always, ALWAYS! get a finishing powder with yellow or gold highlights if you are dark-skinned, it will brighten you up immediately. And its a good balancing act if your foundation had a red undertone. It will kind of neutralize it a bit. MAC Mineralize Skinfinish seems to work with this idea. Its gold highlights brightens everything.

• And for the pale girls: If you find that powders are too yellow-y or orange-y, translucent powder is your best bet because it does not have colour and will just blend in with your skin tone.

• Another tip for pale ladies: Splurge on a good foundation adjuster. I read that many foundations are always too orange-y or too yellow-y for them. A good alternative to just throwing out the foundation is to buy a pure white foundation adjuster, mix it with your existing too yellow/orange foundation, and keep mixing until you create the shade that is closest to your complexion. This one is supposed to be pretty good: http://www.cocobeau.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=80_143_83&products_id=472

• AND to all girls: HIGHLIGHTER IS OUR FRIEND!! It will add dimension and give you that healthy, glowing look.

 I use bronzer as highlighter btw. That's another tip for dark girls. Pale girls can use it for contouring but I advice against it because... (see following rant)

• Another great tip for both ebony and ivory girls is to forget about contouring. Just forget about it. No, hear me out. On pale girls it just looks muddy and too dark if not done by a professional. Everyone across the board is too heavy-handed with contour, even some professionals. It's supposed to look natural. No one seems to understand that you have to BLEND the stripe out. To be honest, its more hassle than it is worth. On dark girls you can barely even pick it up because a lot of us are naturally darker under the cheekbones. So instead, REVERSE contour! As in highlight in order to create contour. The highlighted area will make the underside of cheek look darker in comparison to it. I don't know if that sentence made sense. Lemme try again. When you brighten the high points of the cheeks, the un-brightened area will naturally seem darker because you left it alone. I hope yall understood that.

Thats all for now folks. The struggle of being dark-skinned in an industry that can't figure your people's skin out and isn't interested in doing so continues. We just have to do everything ourselves, and learn from trial and error. Learning the art of mixing foundations and learning to disregard the wrong information you get at the make-up counters is a big part of life for us. But I press on.

Ka'Oir Lipstick Review: Sex

It's been a very long time since I did a lipstick review - I believe Mac's Ruby Woo was the last one I did back in 2010. This blog has gone through a variety of changes since then as well. Recently I've been looking at pop culture and lifestyle more so than make-up products. This blog is kind of like a revolving door to be honest. You never know who or what's going to come through.

Disclaimer: Image courtesy of kaoir.com

Anyway, to the lipstick! So I found out about the Ka'Oir brand through an upscale hair salon on my island (Algernon Edge Hairdressing) which also now sells make-up and does facials, nails, etc. I happen to know the owner of the high-class salon personally and when I went to visit him recently, he liked my afro so much he insisted that one of his girls put some make up on so he could take some photos for their facebook page. Now I'm never one to refuse a free make-over, so I was all for it.

They used some Medusa eyeshadow and some eyeliner, filled in the brows etc., but to be honest all I was really interested in was the lipstick. At first I was hesitant because it looked black in the tube and I actually told the girl flat-out that I did not want to wear black lipstick. Because trust me, I have tried to make that look work and I just don't have the face for it. She assured me it was not black. I was still worried but I let her have at it.

When I looked in the mirror I could not believe it. I was wearing dark lipstick and I actually looked good! First of all, its not black but a deep vampy red-purple. Its somehow pigmented yet sheer at the same time. It's very buildable. One coat and you can still see some pinkness of your lip shining through. Two coats and its opague. It's extremely moisturizing so its the polar opposite of my last lipstick review of Ruby Woo in that it isn't super-dry and won't flake. However, some cons are that it will stain your lips. Just tissue alone  won't get this off. You will need to use witch hazel or something even more intense like an oil or my go-to makeup remover which is Pond's cold cream (its a creamy classic!). It also tends to spread. Not past the lip line, as in the majority of the colour migrates to the limits of the lips, but then doesn't budge any further. So that you end up with a lipliner effect even though you have only used lipstick. Now I don't know about yall, but I love a lipliner effect so I was pretty happy about that. But I can see how other people would hate that the product does not stay put.

Its still pretty long-lasting in my opinion, but not as long lasting as a matte would be. But for a pearl-creme (which it was described as on the tube) I was very impressed by its endurance. I have sadly had to give up wearing matte lipsticks as my lips are naturally too dry for them, no matter how much I exfoliate, regardless of how much lip balm I apply before and no matter how much lip gloss I apply after. So I am all about cream lipsticks like KaOir's sex and also satin lipsticks like those of Mac's Pro Longwear collection.

Sex has been a great introduction to Ka'Oir's cosmetics and I'm very impressed. The deep purple/red feels very nineties to me and reminds me of Lauryn Hill. The lipliner effect reminds of Selena somehow too. But the nineties icon it reminds me the most of is Dawn from En Vogue in the "Don't Let Go" video. Her dark lipstick looks so FIERCE here!

I will forever be an En Vogue fan. En Vogue and Salt and Peppa and TLC were the females that made the 90's great.

Anyway, back to Sex! I didn't like the price of the lipstick, it was $45.80 on my island but everything is super-expensive here because of the high standard of living, shipping, etc., But in the U.S it's only like $17 so it's not so bad there.

I think back in the day when I did the Ruby Woo review I mentioned that it is super hard for me as a dark-skinned girl to find a lipstick that suited me. Quite frankly, the make-up industry decides to make make-up for black people as an after-thought and even then they tend to get it all wrong. I also recall pointing out that this is a problem which girls at the direct opposite of the spectrum: very, very pale girls also have to contend with. So now I do this odd thing where when checking out lipsticks of seeing whether it will not only suit me, but also very pale girls. Cause the ebonies and ivories are all abandoned on this make-up game so we gotta look out for each other right? Anyway, I found another review of this lipstick by a pale girl and it looks great on her too which is excellent. Here is the link: Cult Colours and Ka'Oir Lipstick


That's all for now folks!

Musings on Gender

I have been thinking a lot about children lately. Mainly because of my nephew. His name is Christopher, and his first middle name is Robin. Believe it or not, he was named after Christopher Robin from the Winnie the Pooh children’s story. My sister really loved that cartoon. Plus she was going through a depression at the time of her pregnancy so I guess she thought that maybe if her kid was named after a cartoon character he’d be happy and not depressed like she was.

 

 Anyway, the point is that I have been much about children, and babies recently. Christopher turned a year two months ago in April. But what I am intrigued by is how manly he is already, even from as early as nine months. Everything he does: how he twists his body, how he deliberately does things to annoy the girl holding him, how he immediately stays silent and unmoving when a male holds him… 

This is highly ironic because his mother is one of the girliest people I have ever come across and his father is rather metrosexual; the epitome of the Western, civilised, self-effacing, 21^st century male. The only other person who lives with them is sister’s mother-in-law and she is a very sweet little old lady herself. So where did all this manliness come from all of a sudden? 

There is something interesting in my family in that all of us look very muscular and tough even though we hardly exercise. Both Christopher’s mother and I have rather large calves. People always ask my sister if she was an athlete. I have very well-shaped arms and whenever I stand with my hands akimbo people ask me if I work out because biceps appear from nowhere. My other two siblings, another sister and a brother, have smaller limbs but even they look tough. The brother because he is a martial arts champion has trained his body to look fit. But what was startling was that as soon as he started to work out, he very quickly looked super muscular. Honestly, I work out for a week and I start getting a six pack.

The true test is my other sister. She has very smooth slim legs and arms, which have only recently started to get bigger because of her diet, but she is changing that now. But she has the kind of extremely firm, very large, round behind that one would normally associate with an African American athlete. I’m talking a Serena Williams behind. How can her derriere be so firm if she hates exercise?

Anyway, I’m getting off track. This isn’t meant to be about fitness or my family’s weird athletic looking features. This is meant to be about Baby Christopher (never Chris). And I’m about to get academic sounding here but its nothing too ivory tower so its cool. Baby Christopher really challenges all the beliefs of the gender theory and Judith Butler's Gender Trouble. She and that school of thought believes that gender (not equal to sex) is not biological, but taught. This theory believes that all of the behavioural traits that come along with gender are taught to us by society and not inherent by our sex. I am still a firm believer in this because notions like boys shouldn’t cry and girls are hysterical pretty much get thrown out of the window when babysitting at daycare I observed the fact that male babies tend to cry more than female babies who are often more composed. Anyway, then along came Christopher with his masculinity who made me doubt my beliefs. I still believe many traits are taught and I hope Christopher’s masculinity won’t hold him back from crying (which indicates emotion which is a necessary sign of humanity and the denial of that component in masculinity is what turns some men into uncommunicative, heartless monsters). But the intuitiveness of his masculinity really makes me wonder. Is this an essential, unchanging part of him? Or will it change? Will he outgrow it? Or will his masculinity only get more…intensely masculine? 

I see a problem here. Masculine is too vague a term. Interestingly, its not as fixed a meaning as feminine which brings more (mostly negative) connotations to mind. Maybe that’s because women are constantly told what a “lady” is supposed to be by men. Men don't suffer from the Madonna/whore dichotomy that women do after all. In any case, masculinity in terms of how I am using it here refers more to an “Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!” Sparta warrior cry ideal. Or think the series Spartacus. Hmm, all these movies/shows are set in ancient times. For a more 20^th Century example think of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. A great 21^st Century example is Ali in Rust and Bone. It shows the kind of brutal, oblivious, insensitive force that I characterize masculinity as.

But of course, there are other types of masculinity. Forget the warrior/abusive husband/boxer uber-machismo ideal and think of the more debonair stereotype. The smooth talker. The charmer. Benjamin Schwarz wrote a FANTASTIC piece on the charmer that I suggest everyone read because it explains the manipulation of the charmer better than I can.

To be honest it doesn’t matter which one you prefer because both those stereotypes are calculating and cruel. One uses brute force/uncontrollable rage and an inclusive brotherhood that women are not allowed into, while the other uses smooth language and manipulative schemes to get into a lady’s pants while not giving a shit about her.

I don’t want either of those masculine ideals for Christopher. But you know, I am an open minded girl and so I think what needs to occur is a re-evaluation of masculinity.

Can we have a masculinity that respects women? One that, yes, provides, but understands that a woman can provide too and that that does not mean she is trying to emasculate him? Can we have a masculinity that is able to accept and understand that a man can cry and that is okay because it makes him human? Can we have a masculinity that doesn’t try to manipulate and seek to destroy womanhood at every turn? Can we have a masculinity that is not self-destructive and de-humanising of himself and harmful to all other people around him?

Cause that’s the kind of masculinity I’d like for Christopher. I love him very much, and this is why I am prepared to teach him the kind of masculinity I’d like to see in the world.

So that one day, when he falls in love with a girl or a boy or whatever, he will be the kind of caring, loving partner that everyone wants. And hopefully he will have the good sense to fall for a caring person too that gives him the kind of love he deserves too.

This is my wish for Christopher, and for the world.

Look closer at One Direction

For a long time I've wanted to talk about this boyband that has turned into this international phenomenon and because there are so many badly-written articles out there that have missed the importance of this band I just wanted to give my two cents worth. Below is a very long and hastily written post about the social impact of One Direction.

In Defense of the Hipster

To begin, I should say that I'm not a hipster. Or at least I don't think I am. It's true that I have a tumblr, an Instagram, love the Vaccines and I think hand-me-downs are cool. But I'm also a massive fan of cheesy boybands (my proudest twitter accomplishment is that the Backstreet Boys follow me), I see nothing wrong in buying clothes from major shopping outlets and I think Rihanna is everything. So I'm really not a hipster. I mean, I like One Direction in a non-ironic way. But anyway, I tend to champion the underdog, and I really have a problem when a subculture is put down the way hipsterdom is.
 You don't have to go much farther than wikipedia definition of hipster to see that hipsterdom is a very hated subculture. No, I mean its REALLY hated. As in the wrath it stirs up in people would make you think hipsters regularly commit genocide. Even on their own wikipedia page which should seek to explore the subculture and be fairly objective, their are more anti-hipster quotes than those which support them. In preparation for this blog post, I read a ton of anti-hipster material, mainly written by bitter, cynical old male journalists who are actually hipsters themselves but just don't know it and the loathing this subculture attracts is astounding.
First off, there is nothing more annoying than a journalist who clearly disdains the subject he is writing about and therefore resorts to cruelly insulting his topic without attempting to understand the phenomena he is attempting to describe. This is lazy journalism. But let's move onto why I'll defend hipsters.
I have a lot of respect for hipsters because they resist the consumer-driven outlook of the twenty-first century. Instead of buying the pre-packaged cigarettes, they roll their own. Instead of getting a case of Corona they produce home-made beer. Instead of buying from H&M they hunt through countless piles in little-known thrift stores and at Goodwill.
Plus you have to give it to hipsters: they have the best sense of irony around. While some think the word hipster is pejorative, others embrace it to the point that they call themselves the "hippest hipster" and endlessly make fun of themselves. The twitter accounts @HippestHipster and @Hipstermermaid thrive on this.
Another great thing about hipsters is that they at least try to be individual. In a world of mass-produced clothing made in sweatshops in China and pre-packaged mass-appeal pop music, you gotta give them some respect for trying to do life a little differently from the masses. I know the hipster culture has become so popular that people now say that the individuality aspect of the hipster is now void but as far as I know Nicki Minaj has sold a lot more records than Mumford and Sons so I think hipster subculture is still a much smaller subculture than people actually think. The problem seems to be that we all think that everyone who buys from Urban Outfitters or American Apparel where they mass produce hipster clothing are indeed hipsters. Nope. Wrong. True hipsters are not gonna pay exorbitant prices on pre-washed jeans when they could get them for $5 with the perfect natural fade of having been worn previously.
I have a feeling the real reason so many ppl hate hipsters is because there is a sense that they are not playing by the rules of the capitalist society that rule us in the West. I don't want to go all conspiracy-theorist on you, but for the powers that be, people who are not the mindless consumer-driven sheep must be the WORST nightmare for those who rule us (Maybe Step 1 is hipster. Step 2 is leftist. Step 3 is full-blown anarchist) I mean, sheep are not supposed to think for themselves; they are supposed to follow the shepherd without complaint. Perhaps the reason hipsters are ridiculed the way they are is because the people in control realized the danger of a sheep getting away from the pack and before it gets too far wants to hook it back using insults and condescension.

There is however one problem I have with hipsterdom: re-gentrification. Re-gentrification may be described as the process where a low class (usually urban) area is taken over by a higher class of people. So take Harlem for example. If you know anything about the Harlem Renaissance which took place in the early twentieth century you will know it was a predominantly poor, black area. And it remained so for much of the rest of that century (can I just interject here and point out how cool it is that we can finally talk about the 20C in a cold dispassionate tone as if we haven't lived through it. 21C ROCKS). But coming on to the end of the twentieth century lots of upwardly mobile middle class people started moving into Harlem again. This on paper should be great. More wealth in the community could only be good. But what it also does is make property prices a lot higher than they used to be so that it might be difficult for poor people who have grown up in that area to buy/rent somewhere to live in that area. Basically, a lot of poor people are starting to feel the squeeze because of hipsters moving into what they consider their territory.
There is one really, really good spoken word performance that speaks of this regentrification and also of the appropriation of other cultural symbols/clothing/jewellery that some hipsters unwittingly think they can get away with (these include appropriation of Dreamcatchers, Native head pieces, Adinkra tattoos, bindi decoration are a few I can think of.)

On the basis of re-gentrification and appropriation of cultures you don't understand and have no right to, yes, hipsters can be problematic. But please don't tell me that there is something wrong with hipsters because they don't like mainstream shit. That's just lazy. And lbr, most of the mainstream shit like a lot of pop music (looking at you Ke$ha) and movies (Twilight, anyone?) are quite frankly really terrible. I salute hipsters for not buying into the capitalist regime, for thinking for themselves and being all DIY-ish, even if its just with homemade beer and rolled cigarettes, or whether its going underground to search for what they consider to be good music themselves, instead of just downloading whatever they hear on the radio. Instead of all the "Death to Hipsters" articles, what we need is MORE hipsters to topple the consumer-driven regime, they just need to be more culturally respectful.

Anyway, that's my rant, on the worth of hipsters and shitty journalism in general. I just needed to get that off my chest.

5 Favourite Albums

Hello all. I know I've been gone for a minute, more like a year. That was because I was focussing on my tumblr but my sister pointed out tonight that I was using my tumblr as a method of avoiding blogging and I realized she was right so I'm back. But going forward there are going to be some changes. Whereas I mainly focussed on fashion and lifestyle, my life has changed considerably so that blogging about those things isn't going to cut it. Plus it was limiting myself to those two concerns which led to me becoming disenchanted in the first place. Basically, I'm too random to be limited to anything so going forward I'm opening up the subject matter to anything and everything. Thats right. So if I feel like talking about movies or music or pop culture or feminism or university or sports or whatever, I won't hold back.

Anyway, to kick off this new blog of randomness, here is a list of my favourite albums of all time.

I think you will notice my randomness extends to my taste in music. I like everything from rock to reggae to pop to folk music.


5. Distant Relatives  - Nas and Damian Marley

4. Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses

3. Exodus - Bob Marley

2. Absolute Greatest - Queen

1. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman (self-entitled)