Turquoise Mini Jewellery Haul

Salaam ladies,

I just had to share this turquoise accessories haul seeing as the items were purchased at bargain prices!

What do you think? Do you go weak for turquoise jewellery and accessories?

Top: Silver and gold tribal necklace from Primark, Bottom: Gold and turquoise hijab head chain from Chicquehijaabz, Middle: Gold and turquoise hand chain with ring and cuff from New Look, Right corner: snake skin effect bag from Primark, Below (what the items are resting on): Camel long jumper also Primark.

Beauty on a budget from Poundland!

Hello ladies. Today's post is on high street make up items found in budget stores such as poundland.
Often poundland will sell discontinued items as featured in this post.

Here are a few things I have accumulated over time from poundland.

Rimmel eyeshadow quad, blush in bronze, red nail polish, eyelashes are not Rimmel

Cherry Desirable revlon renewist lipstick

Fresh Watermelon renewist revlon lipstick

Pretty in Pink renewist revlon lipstick

Rimmel space dust aurora glitter nail polish

The eyelashes were surprisingly good. They are more for length than for volume and stay put during the night when I used my duo lash adhesive.
The lipsticks are moisturising and quite pigmented.

Primark Haul - Feb/March 2015

Red black and white tribal print kimono

Maxi shirt dress - cream and turqiouse

Blue flannel pattern / checked maxi dress

Coral aztec print jacket

Hand and arm candy - midi rings, bracelet and cuff

What's your favourite item? What have you purchased from Primark lately?

Selfridges and Primark Winter Haul 2014/2015

Happy new year guys! Hope you are all doing well.
This post features some of the goodies we purchased in the December/January sales. The primark items were bought in store while the Selfridges items were purchased online.

Primark beaded evening bag £10. Lovely and sparkly, costs over £25 in the other shops!

Primark mid length zip detail dress £13. This dress is actually bottle green but turned out black in the pictures. Will post another pic once worn. It is so smart, stylish and knee length at the front and slightly longer at the back. It has small slits at the side.

Primark tartan dress £5 reduced from £10. Also featured - 2 pack gloves for £1 and slimming leggings £4. I wear the dress around the house or at night, it is 100% cotton and ideal for these cold winter nights.

Selfridges haul. Look how protectively packaged each item is.

Fragrance lab perfumes in 248 and 249. £10 reduced from £45. One is musky with bergamont, the other is fresh/powdery. I think it's best to smell before you buy. The nail polish is azature red diamond nail polish. It was £3 reduced from £17. BARGAIN!

This sparkly azature nail polish in red contains a real black diamond!

Umrah tips part 2: Performing Umrah & Shopping/travelling

Try to perform Umrah after Isha. I found this to be the 'least busiest' time. Others say after or before fajr.
Do tawaf upstairs as it is less packed. We did tawaf in the normal place once before fajr, it was packed. The men don't care they are pushing women less than half their size and we nearly got crushed. Yes. By men. Astaghfirallah. Some people have no manners even when right in front of Allah's house. I'm pretty sure a 6 foot 5, 10 tonne Arab man tried tripping me up from behind so he could push in and touch the black stone. Even in April, before Fajr we were not able to touch hajr aswad. That's how packed it was. I can not even imagine Hajj or Umrah during Ramadan.

Khaleejis (sorry, really trying not to generalise but it is mainly the gulf Arabs) do not comprehend the notion of queuing or waiting patiently for their turn. You will find this out when exchanging money, queuing at bin Dawood or queuing up for food. They ignore you or simply push or elbow you out the way without a care.

NOT ALL WATER IS ZAMZAM - look at the signs. Some say drinking water some say zamzam. The water tankers inside the Masjid al haram say zamzam so I would fill my bottles from there.

Madina has zamzam too! I never knew this, I thought you could only get zamzam from Makkah and was sad that we never got big bottles to bring back before going to Madinah,  but Alhamdulillah Masjid Nabi has zamzam water tanks inside YAY! You can also purchase 10litre zamzam bottles (packed in cardboard boxes) to bring back home. Make sure you write your name on all sides of the box when returning home as people may just take yours at the airport.

Wash your fruit with bottled water and make tea/hot drinks with bottled water.

Fill up on the hotels breakfast buffet. If you can, take a roll with cheese and salad and a yogurt to have for lunch as you may not feel up to walking about looking for a place to eat especially if you're fussy like me and don't want junk food broast chicken (which is everywhere!) or curry.

Make sure to fill up on breakfast and perhaps take a roll with cheese&tomato and a yogurt back with you for lunch to keep you going.

Shopping in Makkah & Madinah.

Bin Dawood is the main supermarket there. In Makkah there is one under the clock tower buildings and another branch to the right of the clock building, I think it's part of the Hilton shopping complex just after kfc. Let me know if I'm wrong. Bin Dawood sells everything from shampoo, juice, ice cream, chocolate dates, cheese, lassi, tea bags pots and pans, and fresh fruit. Defo go there for ice ream to cool yourself down after dhuhr or asr. And to stock up on fresh fruit and juices. I recommend fresh mango.

We stayed in the clock building - Movenpick hotel, hajar towers so alhamdulillah it was easy finding our way back compared to if we stayed in a hotel elsewhere. Mainly because my sense of direction is not one of my strong points. There are shops selling kids clothes, prayer mats, stands with ice cream and much more in the tower.

If you see something you like in Makkah, purchase it!. Everyone says Madina is cheaper-yes mostly true. But sometimes the quality is not as good. For example my sister purchased a beautiful prayer mat that comes with a matching bag for 35 rials (don't pay anymore than this price though, I'm sure other shops sell them for 30) it was really good quality. I got mine from Madinah for 20 rials but mine is thinner and of less quality.

Prayer mat from Makkah - Clock Tower. Thick material

Prayer mat from Madina - thin material

Buy abayas from Madinah. They were selling farashas in different colours for 50 riyal. I got a really nice button abaya with gold diamantes for 110 rial.

Gold and black abaya from Madina Taiba Centre.

Make use of Madinah market stalls for gifts - hijabs, tasbihs, Qur'an, perfumes, jewelry, kids clothing and sometimes abayas/jalabiyyas for under 20 rials! Yes under £4. Obviously they are factory rejects or may be slightly old in design or have a few threads sticking out or are an inch shorter than you'd like but they are an absolute bargain!!  Enjoy the stall holders shouting prices in Urdu - DAS RIAL lol

Cheap gifts for friends and family such as 12 tasbih for 10 rials, 12 itr for 5 rial, and a pack for men with a cap, tasbih and itr for around 2 rial.

You can buy gorgeous costume jewelry such as these rings for 5 rials each. The bangles/bracelets were from one of the many nearby shops.

The main shopping centre in Madina is the Taiba centre. Visit malik al oud for incense accessories. Alhamdulillah the Burmese worker is really fair and honest in his prices.

Travel by SAPTCO between Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah ( doesnt matter if its to and from Makkah and Jeddah as this is only 1.5 hours max) get tickets to a VIP SAPTCO bus if you can. They serve you a small meal and tea/coffee. It's nonstop and has a toilet. Maximum 30 people allowed and quite spacious. Costs about 90 rial or £15/person. Taxi drivers will charge you much more than this and some are known to be crazy or pervy so save yourself the hassle and use SAPTCO.

Air conditioned VIP bus with comfortable seating.

VIP bus breakfast meal from Makkah to Madina: Egg sub, water, fizzy drink.

VIP bus lunch meal box from Madina to Jeddah: Rice, Chicken nuggets, salad, apple, orange juice

That's all I can think of. InshaAllah this is of help to anyone traveling to Saudi. If you have anymore tips or questions please leave a comment!

Haul for Spring: H&M and Primark

Hey,
Here are a few things I bought in the sales which I shall InshaAllah be wearing in spring/summer.

Cream crochet style cardigan with pockets: Primark £5, Red kaftan: H&M £5.25, Grey jeggings: Primark £7

Close up of red H&M kaftan, Bow ring: Primark £1.50

Black tunic with pink/silver ethnic style patches on shoulders: H&M £10

H&M pink/silver patch black tunic

Grey high low blouse: H&M £6, Tribal print top: Primark £4

Pink glitter nail strips: H&M £1

What do you think? Have you any ideas on how to wear/incorporate the above items in an outfit? How would you guys wear them? Leave a comment!

Halal Food Festival review (London)

Salam lovelies.
I went to the Halal Food Festival yesterday Saturday 28th September.

Halal Food Festival London 2013 guide/wristband

I was soo excited especially with all the hype and advertisements. I imagined it to have a vast array of delicious multicultural foods and products. I regularly visited the site to check on the list of exhibitors and all looked promising. Being the organised person I am, I made a list of stalls I wished to visit -around 12 in total. Of those, 4 were not there!! One of them was completely empty (Bobo Macarons) and Exotic Tagine was replaced with something else. An Indian affair wasn't there either.

People were crowded around for free samples which some stalls offered such as chocolate samosas, Malaysian pancakes, cheese and so on. Some sampling visitors wouldn't budge an inch. With that in mind plus the crowds as it was a small space, it was hard to see everything on offer.

Source

I also received a £5 voucher for Sisters Magazine which stated it was no strings attached. But indeed upon visiting the stand it became clear that you were expected to sign up for a subscription before being given a free (old) copy of their magazine with the voucher.
There were non food items such as itr, books, scarves and clothing.

I did purchase some vegetarian sweets from goody good stuff, a scoop of pistachio ice cream, a falafel wrap and a pack of chocolate & nut samosas which I am yet to sample!
All in all, I would give the event a 5/10. They should maybe cut down the number of days to two and work on hiring a larger space and more stalls. I liked the demo classes they held where you can watch chefs prepare different dishes. When we got there it was quails that were being made.

Bhangra Burger Stall

Falafel Wrap

Pistachio Ice cream

Were any of you guys there and what did you make of it?

Eid in the Square: 17th August 2013 (Review + Pics)

This Saturday just gone, I attended an Eid celebration in Trafalgar Square. There was a stage with a variety of guests and performers such as Adam Ali, Saif Adam and Darren Cheesman and a few others.

Stalls were also set up selling food from different cultures, they had Turkish Delight, Baklava, Koshari, smoothies, waffles, chicken satay, biryani etc. Huge crowds surrounded the food stalls, so it was a bit difficult to see everything that was on offer.
Having never tried Malaysian food before, we decided to go for the chicken satay (see pic below) which came with peanut sauce and (plain boiled) rice cubes. Although the flavour and seasoning of the chicken and peanut sauce was delicious, some parts of the chicken were pink so we didn't get to finish the dish. However, there was quite a bit of a crowd so they must have rushed to make the food and I'm sure if you were to go the their restaurant, they would ensure the food is cooked through properly.

As well as food stalls, there were stands selling Islamic books, costume jewellery, party handbags and itr.
Here are some pictures of the event:

Stage

Crowds of people and food stalls

Fountain

Costume Jewellery

Chicken satay with peanut sauce and rice cubes from Nur Muhammad stall

I purchased this lovely smelling purse/pocket spray

Cute illustrated children's book of stories from the Qur'an

Handbags Haul: Aldo!

Handbags from Aldo. Above: Hovermale, Below: Earostmo

From the inside:

Aldo Hovermale in black inside view

Inside view of Aldo's Earostmo

Vitality Show 2013

Hi, just a quick post about the Vitality show that took place in Earl's Court March 2013!

The show took place over 4 days and we went on the weekend. The guy who took our tickets (Spencer Matthews from Made in Chelsea look-a-like) was kinda rude and when we first walked in, we couldn't see any fellow hijabis :( but saw 6-7 later on. The majority of the people there were 30+.

There were workshops where you could do yoga workouts or listen to talks and lots of different stalls for beauty, food and well being etc. They even had a few stalls selling hijabs (but you can get them for half or a third of the price elsewhere).

They gave out free goody bags with random items if you filled in a form:

It consisted of:

• Sakata Japanese rice crackers in sour cream and chive

• Loreal shampoo and conditioner sample

• Belvita yogurt crunch

• Sprite 
• Nivea Pure & Natural sample

• Sudocream sample

• Hermesetas sweetener pack

• Tate & Lyle Half spoon 20g :S

• 2 Coffee sachets

Vitality Show goody bag.

A different flavour in the Vitality show goody bag that my sis got- Roast tomato and balsamic.

They had a lovely stall selling bath products which reminded me of Lush. One of their displays was set out like a vintage tea party/cake stand. SO cute! Its called BOMB Cosmetics and their products are "natural and home made".

Bath time tea party?

Bath melts. Look like cupcakes right?

Scrubs and polishes

Other stalls included nail/brow bars, vegan cakes and breads, bakhour/oud, olives and baklava, Samina pure make up, teeth whitening, diary free "milk", jewellery, healthy snacks, you could also get your BMI tested and have a go on this exercise machine that vibrates your legs.

They also had a tooth whitening stall which I shall write about another day Insha Allah.

Did any of you go? Would you go in the future?