The Evolution of Emerging Talent through Bayl’s Imagination

Have you ever wondered what’s more important for a creative person to showcase his creations; Talent, Capital or an Association with a renowned name to leverage their potential skills?

Sadly, we’re living in a world where our perceptions matter more than our instincts and eventually we end up opting for the things that have a face value or for branded labels which can be flaunted in the society. In other words, we are all victims of Branding gimmicks.

Ever since I was a business student, I did entrepreneurial term projects with the concept of promoting the emerging and talented designers as the potential in this category was  immense. I’d say it was the peak time when a remarkable segment of youth was getting enrolled in various fashion designing schools. But everyone realized that they’d be struggling when they’d hit the ruthless markets to start up their own fashion line. Hence, the designers in the making always aspired to get associated with a known Mentee who could guide them all the way or to get themselves enrolled in the internship or project based jobs with a leading designer brand.

But everyone isn’t lucky to land themselves the required exposure or collaboration as they didn’t have any prior rapport or sources. Considering this era certain individuals stepped up to polish this emerging talent and highlight their strengths and capabilities by providing them mentoring opportunities.

One of the recent individuals is Rabayl Mirza who plans to promote the young Pakistani fashion designers who have an edge over others, to help them find their way to the global markets. Her forte is Fashion, Fashion and Fashion.

She has rightfully understood the importance of highlighting Pakistani talent by providing the right platform to some of the ingenious designers for their publicity and that it’s the youth who’d live tomorrow and continue the legacy of this Fashion Industry.

     

In my opinion, it’s a good initiative whereby, she understands that a Creative person doesn’t work with criticism and rejection as it may obstruct their thinking and their talents might go to waste so she has a very positive and encouraging approach. I’m really excited to know what they have in store. Being a plus size person, I’ve started to think perhaps they’d bring a revolutionary change to the clothing options they bring to the table, as I’m sick and tired of the petite sizes. Every time, I visit a boutique or a designer outlet I am unable to find myself a pre-made dress.

Their website www.bayl.co  is not yet launched. However, I have big expectations from them as I’ve seen some of the designs from their Facebook page Bayl and I am already flabbergasted!  With such potential, tapping into the international market isn’t too unrealistic of a goal.

  

I am excited for something really interesting and I just hope it’s as exciting as their current Facebook offerings in order to avoid consumer expectancy disgust. I would want to wish RabaylMirza a very Good Luck for this endeavor.

Lastly, I want to convey a message to them phuleazzzzz create some ready to wear plus sizes for people like me!

PS: I’m a big fan of Forever 21 for their offerings of the plus sizes!

Lovesick Passionate- Revlon Just Bitten Kissable

So the other day, I was flaunting some of my cosmetics collection to one of my friends where I was tagged as a queen of Pinks and Reds when it comes to lip colors. I gave it a thought and that’s true! I’ve always been looking for the perfect pink and red lip colors that would look best on my skin tone.

Pinks have always attracted me; be it on the brighter pink side or the subtle pink side with hues of brown, I’ve never hesitated buying one. Considering my love for the pinks, I’ve decided to share a recent hot favorite pink lip color  on my list.

 

We all know about the new chubby lipsticks introduced by various brands with nice tints and so, I’m covering “Lovesick Passionate” of Revlon’s Just Bitten Kissable collection today.

I’ve never gone bold with the Pinks in my life ever but this time around I thought of going crazy with the Pinks. Hence, I got myself Lovesick Passionate as it has hues of shocking pink. The lipcolor has a beautiful tendency of changing colors. The more you apply, the better the shade becomes.

 This is just applied once but as you go down, the intensity of the color changes. In reality, it has a nice and warm shade of pink.

 Without Flash

 With Flash

So, you can actually apply lesser for a nice day look and apply 3 to 4 coats for a sexy night look as it gives your lips a nice moisturized look. For me, it’s more of a 2 in 1 lip color as it gives my lips the look of a lip color + lip gloss finish.

This color is always in my bag and whenever I wear it, I get the compliment of carrying off a colorful look by most of my friends.  In other words, I’ve gotten love struck with this shade and it remains intact even in hot and humid weather unlike other cheap brands that fall off if not kept in refrigerator / freezer.

#RedBull Supports Cricket for the Youth of the Nation

#RedBull has always been a part of sporting and adventurous activities worldwide. Over the past few years, they’ve come up with the initiative of supporting cricket for the nation’s youth.

In collaboration with the Moin Khan cricket academy, #RedBull conducted this global cricket event named as #RedBullCampusCricket whereby the first leg of the tournament includes the cricket teams of different cities of Pakistan that would play against each other. Basically, the inter-city tournament was held for one team to get a spot in the Red Bull World Cup finals that would take place in Oval, England.

 Trophies for Pakistan’s Finale

It proved to be a really nice cause as youngsters who dream of becoming successful cricketers are recognized by Red Bull with their immense support and given a chance to get a similar global exposure that our national team gets on their cricket tours.
So, the Pakistani final was held on 12th April, 2014 between the Karachi University and University of Sargodha teams.

The event had notable personalities such as the NSM, Marketing Managers, Digital Managers etc along with legends like Moin Khan and Rashid Latif. We took advantage of this opportunity and clicked a few selfies with Mr. Moin Khan

The event started with uncovering the countdown clock of the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals.

Later, the teams were introduced followed by the refreshments. The teams had their warm-up session prior to the event’s opening.

The attendees of the event were served with cocktails, mocktails and unlimited Red Bull cans to kick in some energy for the purpose of cheering for the respective teams and oh yeah..how could we forget the red bull branded mini cooper:

It was a tough cricket battle between both the teams. Karachi opted to bowl first whereby University of Sargodha was under pressure during the first over with 1 wicket down.

The end result of the Cricket Finale is highlighted below:

Karachi University 74 for 0 (Ammar 37*, Haris 26*) beat University of Sargodha 70 (Raza 28, Shahzaib 5-6) by 10 wickets at the Red Bull Campus Cricket, Pakistan finals. 

The finale event had some notable media partners. All the matches of the tournament were LIVE telecasted on Geo Super.

Captain of the Runner’s up team collecting their trophy.

The victorious captain collecting the National Champion’s trophy.

There’s more to this event. An amazing innovative idea caught my attention at the event. There was a flying object in the air which at first looked like a tower camera equipment to cover the match from top view, but then later on we all realized that they were Red Bull Drones which released exclusive special addition Red Bull cans from the above with the support of a mini parachute. It was seriously something unique to experience.

Look at these tiny little orange drones.They r #RedBull drone cans being dropped @ the #RedBullCampusCricket finale!

— Sidra Pasha (@cidrapasha) April 12, 2014

 Some cool photography frames

The official Red Bull Campus Cricket tournament details can be read and viewed here: http://bit.ly/1qHKhlt

All in all it’s a great effort pulled off by Red Bull! I believe more talent should be supported and promoted where brands like Red Bull come forward and support other sporting activities and events such as hockey, snooker, swimming, basketball and similar sports as Pakistan’s youth has a large pool of talent.

DOVE® PROVES THAT #BEAUTYIS A STATE OF MIND

So, during the past week, a group of bloggers including me, were invited to Dove’s Global launch event related to their “Dove Patches” campaign. Talking about their old campaigns, one of my favorite ones was their “Our perception of beauty is distorted”.  And this time around, Dove again brought forward a thoughtful campaign.

The main idea behind this entire launch by Dove was to instigate the belief of feeling “beautiful” from within.  It was a New Social Experiment that Illustrated the Ongoing Conflict Women Have with Recognizing their Beauty. 

Dove revealed that an alarming 80% of women feel hesitant to share the way they look, the study highlights how the right state of mind can unlock the powerful feeling of beauty that lives inside majority of women.

This launch event was held at the Verde Bistro Cafe to illustrate this Social Experiment. 

Guess who was the host of the event?? Our very own elegant @saramuzzammil

The results are documented in the short film Dove: Patches on dove.pk/patches The documentary was revealed globally in 58 countries including Pakistan.  I was glad to see quite a lot of fellow bloggers and Twitterati there as it was a nice event to socialize with them.

The Dove: Patches experiment was guided by psychologist and New York Times best-selling author, Dr. Ann Kearney-Cooke (Ph.D., Counseling Psychology)

You can watch the Dove Patches Video here:

Dove: Patches from Dove Pakistan on Vimeo.

So, did you notice the message throughout the Dove: Patches film? It revealed that”Beauty is a State of Mind”.  It becomes clear how low self-esteem affects many elements of the women’s lives.  As the women become more confident about the way they look, feel personal relationships flourish and they develop a more optimistic outlook on their daily life.

Towards the end of the event, there were a few activities lined up like a Twitter quiz, A Selfie contest while incorporating the hashtag #BeautyIs and mentioning @DovePakistan profile in the responses and some prop photography with positive supportive statements with the #BeautyIs.

Attendees of the event are participating in the Twitter contest!

  @rabeeyah and a fellow blogger

 #beautyis watching her excitement of winning the last voucher!

  Debenhams Voucher

  Selfie Contest – Selfie Maniacs

@auradil @saramuzzammil @amk @anushehshahid

My favourite activity of that evening

   @Anushehshahid @mahaasif  @harimirchein and I  #BeautyIs prop photography

The quiz included a total of 10 questions which was based on tweeting the fastest correct answer with the desired hashtag. It was a fun-filled activity. The winners were given a valuable Rs.1000 voucher of Debenhams. Luckily, I was one of the lucky 10 winners who was able to score one voucher.

At the end of the event, we all were given free Dove giveaways to make us feel beautiful and confident. The giveaway basket included Dove’s Shampoo, Dove’s Conditioner, Dove’s Bar and some chocolates to nibble on and feel beautiful along with another Debenhams voucher.

 #BeautyIs Exclusive Dove Giveaways

To sum it up, when women look and feel their best, they feel happier, and Dove believes it is important for women to see the beauty in themselves so that they can inspire the next generation.  The brand has set a goal of reaching 15 million young lives with self-esteem programming by the end of 2015 and has reached over 12 million to date.

So, if you’re a core believer of Dove’s initiative, join the conversation by using #BeautyIs on Twitter and Facebook to become a part of this beautiful campaign thereby showing your support for it.

Pizza Hut Spring Fling

For those who didn’t know, I’m also a foodie and would love to write about my food experiences. I realized that I didn’t write any material on food yet, so why not write something about it now!

I recently switched my office so, these new colleagues of mine love to go to Pizza Hut. Honestly, I had stopped going there for a while now but due to peer pressure one has to eventually go to a certain places. It came to my surprise that their quality has gotten better than what it used to be in the past few years. We tried the 200/head lunch deal which had a personal pan pizza, a drink and 2 pieces of garlic bread which was good enough to fill our tummies.

Later, in the same month, I was invited by some of the friends to attend this #SpringFling meetup organized by Pizza Hut.

It revolved around a few deals introduced for Spring season. They had reasonable deals which were priced around Rs.1000 each. We had ordered Fling 1 which was a better deal for us.

Believe you me, the quality of their food has revived and each and everything was fresh and hot.

The garlic breads were crispy and aromatic with the right balance of herb sauce and butter.

 

The pizzas didn’t have an overdose of cheese or lack of chicken chunks. They were substantial this time around!

The same spring fling deal that we had ordered had 1 brownie too mentioned in the list. At first I had my doubts about the brownie, as in how could just 1 brownie be sufficient for 4 people as it’s a deal for 4 people, but then when it actually came, the platter was generous enough to please 4 people. The brownie was soft, moist, warm and above all gooey to fill us all up.

Later, one of my friends ordered this new drink that was there in their menu for quite some time now ‘Size Does Matter’. This drink was as lovely to consume as it was to be seen. One Humongous and heavy Ice cream Drink which I’d want to title as “Faluda with a modern twist”. It was truly a treat to our taste buds.

    Size Does Matter!

We got some exclusive book marks for attending this event.

I guess this kind of meet up was mandatory as it again opened up my gateway to go to Pizza Hut in the near future. This meet up proved that Pizza Hut is an economical option for us as the per head rate for Spring Fling deals is Rs. 250. Guess what happened during the following week? I ended up visiting their Zamzama Branch  and tried out some of their new menu items (limited time offer). So, brace yourselves…another review will follow soon!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure – So Much Fawn

So..I’ve been really occupied with my work lately due to which I’ve ignored my baby for long enough! But not any more, I’m coming up with another post about a sultry nail color. Basically, I got the much awaited Sally Hansen nail color from one of the Pakistani beauty pages;  NY The World of Makeup. I’ve always wanted to try it out as there’s decent fan following of it.

Starting off with the nail color bottle, it surely is a unique one. For me, it was a “love at first sight” situation. Coming down to the quality of the brush applicator, it was amazing and wide enough to cover almost 3/4^th of the nail in just one coat. Its brush has a round curvy shape which makes it easier to apply.

 This image was taken off from Google

I bought this shade named as “So much fawn” which is neither fawn nor pink nor peach. It’s a nice milky brown sort of shade which has hues of tea pink color.

  With Flash

  Without Flash

Moving forward, the quality of this product is a really big turn off! I was not expecting it to be chipping the next day where it says it’s a complete salon look. I was disappointed because, this color gets dried up quickly as compared to others but the chipping story was pure disgust.

The next time I tried a top coat along with it but even it didn’t give me as good results, considering it kept the color intact for 2 days.  It’s a good brand with decent pricing but the long lasting quality of our local brands is much much better than this.

 Day 2 and the color has gotten chipped from the tips with Top Coat

Maybelline Lasting Drama Eye Studio Gel Liner – Brown

Talking about eye liners, I’ve always been a fan of long lasting eye liners as my lids are oily and the liner ends up disappearing from my eye. Therefore, I either look for crayon based liners and for some odd reason I don’t like liquid eye liners. But this time around, I got this Maybelline Lasting Drama Eye Studio Gel Liner from one of my really good friends as my birthday present.

I was really happy as it was a gift with some thought put in place. She gifted me a brown eye liner, which I’ve never had and I had plans of buying a brown one for a change. I was really bored of blacks.

 

Anyway, coming down to the product description (do I not sound like a freelance writer at the moment? :P) This product comes in a cute little pot along with a nice brush for that great precision which you are not able to get from an eye liner pencil. I was always skeptical about using a brush eye liner as the fear of unstable hands prevailed. But believe you me, once when I applied on my eye lid and I felt as if it was as easy as pie.

   

 with Flash

My hand had some sort of magical powers or was it the brush’s flawless shape that made it easy peasy for me. Be it any style, thin, winged or cat eyes, this brush will make it all possible for you. 🙂

     

 With Flash

This product has a nice dark chocolate brown result with a little bit of shimmery tinge in it to give your eyes a perfect glam look. 😉 So, be bold and wear it on any occasion. Get noticed and make him fall for you! 😉

Don’t fret that brush is just like a magical wand and let the beauty lie in the eyes of the beholder 😉

Garnier BB Cream

I noticed that I haven’t written much about the face category. So, I thought about writing one today. Basically, I had heard mixed reviews about these BB Creams that various brands are offering. So, this curiosity led me to get my hands on one of the BB Creams. I was visiting a super market where my eyes caught the attention of Garnier’s BB Cream, produced in India. The packaging said it’s a Light Shade that has undertones of yellow.

    

I must tell you, it was a good decision made by me as it turned out to be too good for me. It comes in a nice tube with a nozzle neck which makes it easier to apply directly on the face. During the winter season, it gave me a nice glow and coverage, so much so that my office colleagues asked me for this prominent change.I really didn’t use anything else on my face except for blush. But I’m starting to have this feeling that if I want to stick to this product during Summers, I’ll have to seal it up with a little bit of face powder so that my skin doesn’t get oily during the day.

    

You can look at the result of this product, my skin is dull and where I’ve applied the BB cream swatch, it has a gleaming look.

 

 Final Result. Look at the visible difference. There are 2 tones. one on the left is without the application whereas, the right side is the one with application.

Another thing I really love about this product is its versatility. I can even use it during evening makeup or casual dinners with some patting of face powder in order to enhance it and voila; it gives your face a nice fair look with pink undertones.

It costed me PKR 399 which is pretty reasonable. If I get a chance to buy the Indian version again, I’d love to do so. I don’t think I’d be able to buy the local version now since I’ve had a nice experience with this Indian one.

Choose Products suited for your Skin type

Hello ladies! As promised, I’ve done a little bit of the leftover homework on the skin care regimen according to different skin types. I’ve been a fan of Clean and Clear’s products and every time they come up with a new variant, I try using it if it suits my skin and it did but mind you I have a combination skin, I used the oily skin product, and it sure was powerful. I gave it to my sister then as it was being too good to me. 😛

As mentioned in my earlier blog post, I’ve proposed a few products according to different skin types from Clean and Clear’s Arabia range. I got these products as a gift from one of my friends in Dubai which I distributed among my friends that suited each of our skin types. But I kept 2 of them for my skin. The oily and the combination skin products. I assure you they’ve helped us all. You’ve got to be really sure of using the right product as it might act harshly on your skin.

Different types of skin demands different types of skin care products and makeup. Choose product suited for your skin and you will experience how your skin becomes more balanced, controllable and left cleaner, fresher and beautiful just – as you deserve.

Products for normal skin

If you have a normal skin, you don’t need as much to treat it as those with one of the four other skin types. Still, you need to do the basic care as you for example want to reduce and prevent wrinkles and generally to keep it normal. Products designed for oily skin will be too drying for you, but products designed for dry skin will on the other hand be too greasy. That being said, you have the freedom to choose among a huge range of different products. Things you need to do is of course to by a cleanser to remove your makeup every evening and crème to moisten your skin on a daily basis.

Products for combination skin

As you experience both dry and shine skin, you need products that counters both excess oil and soothes irritated and dry skin. Spot-treat your skin in a way that you choose different products on different parts of your face, such as oil-absorbing products for your T-zone and lotion for the drier parts of your face.

Products for oily skin

The first step in caring for your oily skin is to take a look at your current skin care products. As this skin type can be a little bit difficult to control, you’ve probably already experimented with a lot of different products only to find that some of them are too harsh for your skin and others can’t control the oil. Choose product with shine control such as the ones offered by Clean & Clear suited for oily skin. When cleansing your skin, use a water-soluble cleanser, an alcohol-free toner and exfoliate with a product containing salicylic acid, also known as BHA. (Too much of technical information 😛 )

One of my friends tried using this product before she analyzed her skin and it made her skin extra dry as this product is for oily skin and she had a combination skin. So please, get the right products as there’s a reason they are made for various skin types and they actually work.

A small tip to follow if you are wearing makeup; never go for a foundation with oil and try to stick to powder and blush if possible.

Products for dry skin

The easy fix for treating dry skin would be to apply heave moisturizers several times a day. While this may show positive results in the short run, it will only decrease the skin’s production of oil even further and make you more reliable on skin care products in the long run. Instead, use a proper facial wash 1-2 times a day, followed by a moisturizer and daily cream. Most importantly, never forget to use a night cream before going to bed as dry skin needs extra moisture than other skin types. No matter what kind of skin products you use, always go after the ones containing oil.

Products for sensitive skin

Sensitive skin is called sensitive skin for a reason. The wrong products can be really bad and have the risk of messing up your skin even further. Be careful with the products you use on your skin and look for soap-free and fragrance-free labels on all of your products with no exceptions. Before committing yourself to a product, you should always start by testing in for a two weeks period. When choosing makeup, go for products containing moisturizer, BB or CC cream, those with low pigment and which contain sun protection.

I hope I’ve covered most of the essential elements of various skin types. If you’ve missed out my previous blog, do read it here

Suave Professionals – Sleek Conditioner (For Dry or Frizzy Hair)

When it comes to a girl’s beauty, I believe hair is one of the most important features. Do you guys agree with me or not? Anyway, when I’m asked about hair care products, I’m really particular about them. This time around, I visited Imtiaz Supermarket for some quick groceries and there I found this amazing little hair conditioner from Suave Professionals’ Salon Collection; Sleek Hair Conditioner for Dry or Frizzy Hair. I thought of giving it a try since its bottle caught my attention and I ended up buying it.

  Check out this bottle…Unique shape

It came to my surprise that this product worked wonders on my hair so much so that it gave a nice fluffy look to it. It was good enough to keep my hair untied and go to office that way only. To add more, it kept my hair tangle free for quite some time. I didn’t require any hair serum or anything to give my hair a smooth look as this conditioner did so, all by itself. I used it during the month of October and ever since then I’ve become a loyal buyer of this conditioner. It has worked for me during all this time, but now I’ll be checking it out during Summers as to how much it works. Let me tell you my hair during Summer is really unpredictable and frizzy to a great extent.

The display below provides you a clear picture of the post wash look where I got my hair washed with the conditioner and with no conditioner at all during Winter (which is comparatively settled).

   Without Conditioner

   With Conditioner

You can guess it all by yourself. If you use a straightener, your hair gets flat but this conditioner gave a nice bouncy look to my hair.  For an office going person like me, I don’t have the time to wake up in the morning and straighten my hair or blow dry ’em, but this conditioner served the purpose. I just ❤ this inexpensive product. It costed me Rs. 250