Blogged by Mays

A timeless lifestyle with Jord

Sunday, October 15, 2017 1 comment

For as long as I can remember, going back to being 8 years old and snooping through
my mother's wardrobe, my eyes filled (and still do) with absolute content whenever I
see a timeless piece at art that we all know as a watch. 

To me, an outfit -regardless of its nature- casual or dressy is never complete without
that added touch a watch can bring. Once you've fully immersed yourself in the beauty of wearing of a watch, your wrist will consequently feel utterly naked without it. This is exactly how I felt when I first took off my Jord watch after a few days of consistently wearing it. To me, I feel there is a kind of lifestyle that is brought about with a Jord watch; one of subtle luxury and timeless elegance. I sense this whenever I take a look at their collections, but I especially felt this when I first saw the dark sandalwood and smoke piece from the Frankie series which is why I knew I had to have it.
I personally believe that if you instantly feel a sort of connection with a type of product and can imagine yourself wearing it on more than one occasion, then it is highly likely that purchasing it is a very good investment. I never opt for items that I can only style once, because what is the point of that really; if it can only be enjoyed once?

Why did I choose a Jord watch?

I'm going to break it down for you in a few simple points as to the reasons I opted for a Jord watch a few months ago.
1. Unique: the wooden design gives it such a different, vintage feel and I personally haven't seen it saturated in the market. The reason this is ever so important for me is that I like some of my items and accessories to be unique from every 'Sally and Sarah' walking on the street.
2. Durability & Quality: They mention on their website a sentence that has really stuck with me and has been imprinted in my mind since; "The value of a watch is not in being able to tell how much time has passed". What I gather from that is if investing in a Jord watch, you are guaranteed preserved quality in the heart of your watch. To me that is what makes every penny worth it. It is so crucial when buying an item from a brand to rest assure and have doubts or question marks in the back of your mind of whether or not your purchase will break down in the next 2 months. I am positive that all of you reading this will also share that same thought.

First impressions:

When I first heard the delivery man knock on my door, I was so excited to open the intricately packaged box. When you first hold it, you can feel the soft grainy texture with a warm dark brown tone. Even though it is made of East African Sandalwood, I have tested it by wearing it for continuous days and it is still as comfortable as it was the first day.
The straps sit very nicely on my wrist and cause 0 discomfort.

I usually love asking my friends and those around of their opinions on my latest purchases and I received such positive feedback on the watch. Something I also loved about the brand is that they asked for my wrist size in order to send my watch accordingly. I think this is such an amazing selling point for the brand as I believe watches especially need to fit perfectly since by default one uses their arms and hands for EVERYTHING!

Dark Sandalwood & Smoke

Here's the link to the watch I chose👇🏽
https://www.woodwatches.com/series/frankie/dark-sandalwood-and-smoke

Here are the links to have a look at some other styles!
Women: https://www.jordwatches.com/shop/women/#maysbastoni

Men: https://www.jordwatches.com/shop/men/#maysbastoni
The one below is my favourite pick from the mens section. This would be a perfect gift for a father, partner or brother. Make sure to check out their Instagram for more inspiration HERE.

I hope you enjoyed reading the post. As always, let me know your thoughts!
Love & light,
Maysoon xo

Comfortable in my own skin // how to treat wax burns

Thursday, June 15, 2017 London, UK 11 comments

Disclaimer: photos in this post may not be eye-pleasing and some may find disturbing.

This is a very different kind of blog post to my usual. I normally post photos and blog posts that are all about how glamorous life and fashion can be. Sadly, that's not always the case and I am very proud of myself for sharing this post to the whole world when initially I had only been able to show photos of the incident to the people very close to me. I started blogging not only because I liked taking pretty pictures of my outfit and uploading to Instagram but also because I wanted to share my genuine experiences in life that may not all be 'pretty' and show that there is more to my Instagram and Instagram in general than just fashion. With Instagram, people have become their own worst enemy, body shaming themselves and never really happy with how they are because they think they should look a certain way. This is heartbreaking. With that being said, I want to break this cycle and show you photos of myself that are NOT attractive or Instagram worthy and it's okay because the most important thing in this doomful technological age I think is self confidence and NEVER letting anyone or any platform put you down.

A while back I was complaining about breakouts on my face and wanted a quick solution. I started using 'ACNELYSE' which is a Turkish brand for treating acne that a doctor recommended. I was warned that my skin would become extremly sensitive and thin due to the cream that would cause my skin to peel, but this fact completely slipped my mind when I had arrived at my upper lip waxing appointment.
The term 'SKIN LIFTING' up until that point had been foreign to me, and instead of finding out what it meant by googling it or watching youtubers talk about it like I do with everything else, I learnt the term the very hard way; by painfully going through it first hand. Lifting is when wax pulls off both live and dead skin. When the therapist pulled off the wax strips I did not feel anything different, it was the usual slight pain that a lip wax would be like. But when I looked into the mirror I knew something had gone terribly wrong... You could see the whole upper layer of my lips was gone. Because I was so terrified that something was wrong, I left the shop immediately and being the person I am I casually walked into Primark acting like nothing was wrong. It was 1 minute after this fake shopping stroll that I tried to open my mouth slightly for some reason and I felt the most excruciating pain, it was as if someone had ripped my lips off. I immediately started crying and frantically trying to facetime my mum for help but she wasn't answering (as usual!). I literally sprinted to Boots pharmacy and the only thing the pharmacist said was to use an anti septic cream called 'Savlon' and that is all I could really do....... I was NOT having that. She pissed me off as she was utterly useless in trying to calm me down even though she saw how distressed and panicky I was.
I know some people may read this and think I am a drama queen, and frankly I may be that exactly. But to be completely honest, I don't mind people thinking that, as from a very young age, my mum had always taught me the importance of looking after my face. As with old age, our hair falls out and our bodies change inevitably. Yet my mum had always taught me, you can never tell a person's age if they have good skin and that is so true. Skincare is so underrated. After becoming a bit obsessed with having perfect skin like my mum and other beauty bloggers (something which I am yet to attain but will update you on that If I ever do manage to get it ha😓). The reason I became SO worried and manic (understatement honestly) about this incident is my fear of developing marks and scars on my face which are results of wax burns. If this happened, my dream of perfect skin would actually be flushed down the toilet.

Photo of my upper post a few hours ↴

1st STEP IN TREATING A BURN -----> Savlon anti septic cream. (Purchase HERE)
This is SO important so the wound does not get infected.
2nd STEP -----> A soothing and calming cream: Aqueous Calamine Cream (Purchase HERE)

Photo of when it started to scab ↴

3rd product----> I used Acriflex skin cooling gel which helped decrease the burning heat sensation I was experiencing. (Purchase HERE.)

4th & 5th products: now these are THE HOLY GRAIL products that I swear by and that helped heal my wound within 5 days no joke. I would apply Guinot 'Longue Vie Cellulaire' which is a skin renewing treatment and around an hour after I would use Fucidin (this is prescription only, but you can click here to start a consultation). I would perform these steps once a day and once a night, which rapidly helped my skin heal.

Throughout this process, I cannot stress enough how important it is to NEVER expose the wound to the sun as this is what causes marks and scarring. That's why I would apply a very high SPF sunblock (Guinot Newhite Brightening UV shield SPF 50) that would turn into a concealing cream when rubbed in (INSANE I KNOW, purchase HERE.) I literally walked around London for 5 days with this mask on my face and I did it so confidently you would think I'm an absolute nutter. (P.s Although at some times, I would feel a bit broken and down.)
I had people stare at me like a weirdo and even a bus driver say madam and point to my lips when I first had a thick layer of anti septic on. I've learnt from this, that I will never ever stare at a person if they have some deformity or some kind of scar on their face because some people might not be able to be as strong and brush the stares off their shoulder like I did.

Day 5: Final stages of healing ↴

All the creams for reference ↴

Photo: Jersey Beauty Company

Now it's been over 3 weeks and I have NO MARKS OR SCARS. Thank God, I am so blessed to be able to say that and I pray for anyone who has suffered from worse conditions such as acid attacks.

It took a lot of guts to post these images but I am always trying to grow and hope to at least help one person out there that might be going though the same thing or even similar.

How to prevent skin lifting:

1. Do not wax or thread the face if you are on ANY acne medication/ creams like Roaccutane or similar products.

2. Make sure to always wax or thread one small part, leave for a few minutes and check how your skin has reacted before moving on to another area.

3. Do not wax or thread if you have any kind of burn from the sun or any other cause.

---

Leave me a comment below if you have any suggestions of other creams or techniques that are also helpful or if you have experienced this horrible process too!

Love you & leave you for now,
Maysoon xo

BREAKING: CHECKERED POWER SUITS

London, UK Leave a Comment

TRENDING: This year the runway didn't stop at just plain power suits. No, designers played with cut, shape and length, from cropped length to wide legged suits and even bringing back padded shoulders. Not to mention, the return of the checkered pattern combined in these power suits CANNOT go unnoticed and so I knew I had to dedicate a blog post to it.

SHOP THE BLAZER HERE.

BENEATH THE FASHION: It's safe to say that designers' message this year is obvious; the border line between men's and women's fashion is almost obsolete now. There are no rules when it comes to dressing in whatever makes you feel your absolute best. If that means walking around in a tiny crop top or covering up in a long modest dress, then go ahead as everyone is free to do as they please. Let this be a sort of lesson to those who judge others based on their lifestyle and dress sense rather than personality and mind.

MAKEUP: writing about my favourite part, FINALLY. It is not a shock that I rarely wear nude or pink toned lipsticks and always opt for dark red or burgundy toned colours on my lips as this is more of my signature. Although I do aim to change it up a bit once I am more tanned (which will suit my heritage more than my British pale skin at the moment). The lipstick I used in this shoot is my current favourite liquid lipstick as it's matte but still leaves your lips moist rather than chapped & dry which I found when using other matte liquid lipsticks.
P.S the lipstick is only £6!!!
LIPSTICK SHADE: SHOP COPENHAGEN HERE.

If you are looking to splurge over a pair of high end designer heels then these are the ones for you. They are actually so comfortable which I didn't expect at all as they do not have a platform. But, I managed to wear these to a wedding last summer where I was standing nearly the whole night and dancing for a minimum of 3.5 hours to be exact & after that I was still ok! These will always be a timeless classic and there is absolutely nothing in the world that they don't go with as the metallic studs can go with BOTH silver and gold hardware, which is VERY rare to find. Shop my Valentino Rockstuds HERE.

TIP 1: Bored of your usual blazer? Easy enough. BELT IT UP.

TIP 2: NEW SUNGLASSES HOLDER? YES, THE BELT.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it!
As usual, leave me a comment below of any thoughts or opinions -

Photographer: Zoe Griffin, make sure to check out her IG page HERE.
Love & light
Maysoon xo

How far can a leather jacker really go?

Friday, May 5, 2017 London, UK Leave a Comment

Coachella season is now over. But then again Instagram won't let us scroll an inch without finding a post related to it. Now, the countless number of cute outfits I put together in my head for it is quite sad because I didn't actually go. But I'm slyly okay with that, because to be fair & 100% honest, on nights out here in London I always end up thinking about my next fun snack/food that I'm going to munch on after rather than actually focus on the music I'm supposedly "dancing" to. Also, some of you girls will totally get me when I say that 40% (actually like 70%) of why some of us girls get SO hyped to go out is that whole thrill of imagining an outfit and being able to bring it to life while also contouring as if you're about to cut a diamond. (shoutout to my friend Mon for that life-changing comment on one of my instas).

This is where Derya and I introduce to you all @chictimetraveler, an up and coming fashion business that started 3 years ago in a small store on Portobello Road. The name comes from selling both vintage and modern items, and I personally don't know a lot of other brands that can bring both these segments into one sole brand together. The photo above is a piece from their collection and you can clearly see why I love it. Fashion is about giving a message. With that being said, I will leave you to interpret what message you believe the jacket above is sending^.

Check out Derya's IG and blog (@heyderya), I'm so happy to have met her! I feel that we are very in sync in terms of what we like to rant and post about. Having said that, it's quite hard to meet people in the blogging industry who are genuinely supportive and want to help you, I don't know why. For instance, I see some influencers on IG who are incredibly stuck up when they have barely accomplished anything in life (with that I've decided to unfollow them). On the other hand, I follow others that are so genuinely nice and humble with their followers even though they've built a kind of empire. (@hudabeauty) is only one example here. Do any of you relate to this?

Going back to fashion now, I mean who doesn't love a plain white tee and a laid back pair of mom jeans?

It's a tad weird not to!

Then again, the idea of this outfit does seem a bit too plain and laid back if you take away all the extra bits and bobs of accessories. But what if you added this custom design @chictimetraveler hand painted pink leather jacket..?

For me, there is 1 rule that I always follow whenever I plan an outfit and it is sacred. I make ONE piece stand out in my outfit. So for a night out, you could wear a sexy LBD that is the highlight of your outfit, and I would go for a simple black strap stiletto rather than a pair of busy embellished heels let's say. You want to give that dress it's justice and not take away from it's glory. The reason for that is understated and sophisticated outfits always 'do more' and go that extra mile for me.

So, as this gorgeous jacket is hand painted giving off a wet embellished/embroidered kind of look (which is VERY in style at the moment) I paired it with a basic tee and pair of mom jeans in order not to divert any attention away from the jacket.

So if you feel like you need a staple piece in your wardrobe that stands out and speaks for itself then @chictimetraveler is your go-to brand. As I said before it can honestly get a bit dead/ repetitive shopping from the same high street stores and I tend to get bored easily and that's why investing your money in a few unique vintage pieces is a must every now and then.

Take a look at some of the other pieces that I loved:

Alternatively, don't take my word for it and have a look at their website & IG to see for yourself! www.chictimetraveler.co.uk // IG: @chictimetraveler

***P.S As I am always pro #honest blogging and use this hashtag underneath my IG posts, thus I must mention that this is part of a sponsored collaboration with @chictimetraveler, but I am in no way obliged to post pictures or write a blog post about it. I personally chose to feature this jacket and write a blog post as I felt it was true to my style and personal sense of fashion.
Leave a comment down below if you have any feedback or comments!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post.
For now I love you & leave you,
Maysoon xo

Finding Beauty in Vintage

Wednesday, March 8, 2017 Leave a Comment

Last year, a very close friend of mine (Clara) moved back to the U.S to pursue her career as a comedian (FYI keep an eye on her, she's probably going to be bigger than Kevin Hart). Before she moved, my friend Veronika and I loved visiting her warehouse because we'd hangout with Clara of course but also with all of her 11 super artistic, alternative, retro, crazy flatmates. These people of course were anti 9-5 office jobs, mocked shopping anywhere near a high street and relentlessly grilled me for getting a Kylie lip kit. They screamed originality and art in everything they touched, painted, cooked, spoke about, and of course wore.

Every time I would ask them 'where is this from?!' The only answer I would receive is either thrift shop or vintage market. The minute I heard that my mind would instantly go blank because I knew vintage shopping just was not my thing as I had never done it before and it just wasn't 'my style.' And that creativity-killing label that I gave myself was my biggest fashion regret.

A year later and it is now 2017, I plucked the courage up to start a blog so I knew I had to change my basic Zara ways and try something new, (EXTREMELY hard I know, as Zara is legit Allah's fashion gift on earth).

So I hit Bricklane's Vintage Market and spotted this vintage shirt that I had to have... Did anyone else also get an Hermés kind of feeling seeing this shirt? I know I did.

As you have probably noticed from my previous blog post, I am obsessed with anything that is leather. These are H&M and you can shop these leather trousers here.

Fishnets are everywhere this season but styling them is tricky, as they can look cheap in some ways, but when they are successfully pulled off, they add such an edgy look. Shop them from Missy Empire here!

Now, I have saved the best item till last, these Gucci- inspired loafers are from Pull and Bear, you can shop them here. These are so effortlessly chic and in right now. They are perfect for travel, days out and of course getting that flat-lay/ Instagram photo. I can't get enough of them.

→ Moral of this story and post: Fashion is supposed to be fun. Wear and buy whatever makes YOU feel good and confident (not your followers). Last but not least, be thankful for friends that make you realise where change is needed in your life (and the latter is not just about fashion). 💙

As usual, let me know what you guys think!

Love & Light, Maysoon xo

The Masculine Look

Saturday, February 18, 2017 Leave a Comment

I think we've all hit a point in our lives where you're desperate to trade in that heavy, lace embellished, form fitting death of a dress for a pair of laid back, loose trousers. Lucky enough, we can! and us ladies owe it all to the ever so chic Coco Chanel who made this possible when she shocked the post-Victorian world and created masculine-like silhouettes and trousers for women in 1913.

Question is how do you rock a kind of genderless look? The answer to that is none other than a clean-collared shirt from the men's section, and this was the key item in creating this look. Shop the shirt here (p.s. it's £10!)

Key item 2: Ditch your body hugging pants for a more loose pair and have fun with the fabric! I chose sporty joggers for this look and specifically, a leather pair, as leather is my go-to fabric in colder temperatures. Shop the joggers here.

Okay, so we've styled the 2 most important parts of the outfit; the top and bottoms. But something is missing; it's too plain. That's where adding a small touch with this corset belt makes all the difference in the world, thanks to Kourtney K and other A-list celebs also rocking this trend over jumper dresses. Shop the belt here.

I frequently get a few similar comments revolving around the bizarre notion of why I would mix a cheap purchase (a £10 Primark shirt) with a high end accessory such as the bag I chose for this look. In my opinion dressing top to bottom in high end fashion doesn't make you stylish, it means you are lucky to be able to do that but that's as far as it goes unfortunately. What style actually is, in my opinion at least, is the ability to camouflage a cost-efficient low-end purchase and have it blend into an outfit that has a high-end piece and give the impression that they are all in the same range of fashion and price when in reality they most definitely aren't. Shop the bag here.

Another trend I am currently loving is clear lens retro glasses, they really do complement any outfit. (Shop the glasses here. Now, you could continue that masculine look with a pair of sneakers or even monk shoes, but I wanted to add some luxury to this masculine sporty look, and these perspex heeled ankle boots did the trick perfectly. and they are SO in style which is even better. Shop the boots here.

What do you think of this look? ❤

Leave me a comment and make sure to subscribe to my blog for regular updates.

Love & light, Maysoon xo

Photographer details:
Tufael Kabiri
Email address: tufael_kabiri@hotmail.com
Follow his IG account here.

A sheer love affair

Thursday, January 12, 2017 London, UK Leave a Comment

Sheer seems to have taken over the fashion world and particularly my wardrobe. Every corner I turn, I spot this sensational material trimmed across denim patches and sewn to beautiful sleeves. Sheer is both fashionably understated yet also overwhelming; as too much of it could be classed as a tad too revealing and that is something we definitely don't want. (personal opinion of course, I am never one to judge).
Here's a look at how styled it for this shoot: ↓

1. Bring together your sheer socks & heels

2. When the beauty of sheer meets the bell sleeve

Whoever said you can't include a statement material within 2 segments of your outfit obviously didn't know what sheer was.

Even better: Embellished sheer socks by Collette Dinnigan F/W 2012

Details

As you can see, starting with the sheer bell sleeve, running down to the embroidered mom jeans and following through to the socks and heels, all of these details are aiming to serve as the main subject of attention. So, with regards to hair, I opted for a very minimal and easy bun in order not to divert the attention away from the all these detailed pieces. As for makeup, dark maroon lip shades have become part of my signature look that I feel naked without!

Now, here's the exciting part, I payed £1.19 for these sheer socks! (YES, you read that correctly).