My Beauty Bible: Jemma Kidd Make Up Master Class

I love watching YouTube video for learning techniques, but it's a given that the gurus that you see online don't have you specifically in mind when they make their videos. So after looking on Amazon for a book that I can selfishly request to teach things that will suit me, I decided on Jemma Kidd's Make-Up Master Class.

This book has so many different sections to teach you everything you need to know about basic beauty. It ranges from skincare, how to shape eyebrows, colours that suit your skintone, what types of products suit your skin (e.g. for oily, dry, normal skin etc.,) looks for specific events, and techniques for every aspect of make up (e.g. blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow, bronzer, foundation etc.,).

I have to admit that a lot of the techniques are things that I had already learnt from YouTube, but I felt that Jemma also had techniques and products that are very different from the 'norm'.

For example, she doesn't just talk about liquid foundation, and talks about the positives and negatives of mineral or creme foundations. It was so refreshing after what I find to be a relatively monotonous pattern of 'basics' in the YouTube world. (i.e. It's assumed that you use liquid foundation, or that you use powder blush, have a lid/crease/outer corner colour for your eyes etc., obviously influenced by the guru's personal taste)

Another way that I felt the book was incredibly unbiased and showed one aspect of beauty through different perspectives, was the fact that I never felt forced to use Jemma's products. You'll find that at the back, she gives you a list of products from skincare, make-up to organic variations of the two that she recommends. A lot of them aren't her stuff :)

My favourite part has to be the little sections where depending on your skintone, Jemma suggests colours for eyes, cheeks and lips. I am so glad I got this before I started my MAC palette, or else I would've filled it all with neutrals! Since I got this book, I've started to use greens and purples on nights out and it's been such a refreshing change :)

This is an example of the event-specific looks that Jemma provides you with. Not only this one, but various looks for parties depending on skintone, for brides, for drinks after work, for the beach, every possible situation imaginable!

As you can see the photography is absolutely phenomenal (not mine, the book's, lol)! The models are all so realistic, the looks are so wearable and do-able and I find I have to remind myself to actually read as well! :)

Overall, I give this book a 9/10 - only missing 1, because there are a lot of basic stuff that I had already known.. that being said, I've spent hours and hours watching YouTube to learn stuff :P The price is also very reasonable - I got this from Amazon fro £12.48 here.

I would recommend this book to anyone because even if you feel like you know a lot of techniques via YouTube it really does give you lots of great ideas to expand your practice with, through new techniques, products, consistencies (like creme, liquid, powder etc.,) and looks :)

<3yu

Queer Questions Straight Talk by Abby Dees

Provocation -- a fickle state, indeed. I was exploring the recent additions to the suburban library's queer books section when this title popped up. How on Earth could a queer person such as myself resist the absolute dread induced from the book's title/subtitle?:

Queer Questions Straight Talk: 108 Frank & Provocative Questions it's OK to Ask Your Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual Loved One.

…Ooh.

Such potential to go horribly awry.

As the subtitle suggests, the book targets the trembling, fear-ridden straight masses who cannot fathom where to start discussing queer issues with real, live queer people. Questions range across delightful Sunday tea topics including identity, coming out, stereotypes, marriage and relationships, homophobia and politics, religion, and sex. Readers will revel in the awkward, often ill-informed questions listed within, and will also adopt the strange identifier, LesBiGay, to refer to their now-aliented loved one.

… Alright, a touch harsh. I will retract the claws. Despite the writhing discomfort I felt while trying to picture friends and family asking these questions, I admit that Abby Dees had some excellent write-ups between those prompts. Dees is a civil rights attorney with twenty-five years of experience protecting queer rights in America. Queer Questions Straight Talk came from an honourable place, one where straight allies (or parents struggling to accept their out children) could empower themselves enough to launch meaningful conversations with the queer kids around town. Teens would likely benefit the most from this book, though the text implies parents of queer teens might want to give this a once-over.

Now, that being said, if a loved one were to have asked me these questions when I was a young'un, I'd have been mortified clean through to my 40s.

For example:

• "Could I have done anything to keep you from being LesBiGay? Is there anything I can do about it now?" (11)
• "Do you have to tell everyone? Do I have to tell everyone too?" (21)
• "Are there any real lesbians like the ones on the L Word?" (33)
• "Are lesbians angry at men? Are gay men angry at women? Are bi people angry at anyone?" (34)
• "How can I make sure LesBiGay people don't hit on me?" (38)
• "Do you believe you can be LesBiGay and go to Heaven?" (70)

I'll have to save these gems for our next family gathering, methinks. Imagine it: the grandparents all gathered around with their dainty teacups asking, "Honestly, don't you miss the 'equipment' of the opposite sex? Is that why some people are bi?" (88).

*Initiate the violins from Psycho*

Again, on the other hand, there are some valuable questions buried in here if you can suppress the initial "make-it-stop-oh-god-make-it-all-stop" reaction.

Some insightful additions include:

• "What kinds of things go through your mind when you consider coming out to someone? Are you ever nervous, excited, afraid?" (20)
• "Is there anyone you haven't told yet but would like to? What's stopping you?" (23)
• "Are there different issues that come up in LesBiGay relationships than in straight relationships?" (46)
• "What's one thing I could do to support you – to be an ally?" (60)

In particular, I think that last question is brilliant. I would have loved to have someone ask me that as a kid just figuring herself out. Rather than catering to shock-and-awe prompts or political brawls, why not frame questions in a positive, re-affirming light?

Overall, the book often felt like a permission slip for invasive questioning, and I wonder how much benefit a queer person could derive from it. I agree, ice breakers can be excellent in the coming out process, but respect for a loved one (whether queer or straight) trumps the questions written here.

Bi and the Man Booker Prize

The Book Awards Reading List progresses onward -- as of tonight, I can cross another title off the ever-expanding collection of Canadian and Commonwealth titles on the docket. Quite the all-consuming project, not gonna lie. Of course, as with most major literary book awards, readers are bound to stumble across portrayals of queer people. We appear in both main roles and supporting appearances in the novels of both straight and queer writers alike. In this instance, the latest book scratched from the list dredges up some disconcerting depictions of bi-identified people, and the nature of their sexual preferences.

The reason I mention this tonight stems from the fact the novel in question appeared on the shortlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, the most prestigious Commonwealth fiction award in the literary world. Its purse totals a staggering £50,000 (or approximately $100,000 Canadian), and guaranteed inflation for sales throughout Commonwealth countries. So, um, its kind of important.

And here we are with troublesome portrayals of both bi men and women in a text to make the final round of judging.

The Book:

Damon Galgut's In A Strange Room

(Emblem; McClelland & Stewart)

If ever a reader needed a reason to never travel again, this book provides three. One young man (who shares the same name as the author) embarks on three journeys across the globe, sharing his Spartan traveling arrangements with a host of different characters. Galgut establishes a dark tone to the open road, one structured around transience, the overwhelming reliance on strangers, and the constant oppression of death in unfamiliar surroundings.

Mmm, cheery content, I know. We are in the territory of book awards, now. The writer with the most scars wins.

Each of the three journeys do not always end in enlightenment as most other travel narratives do. We are treated to a surreal, often disturbing odyssey spanning the whole of Africa, and parts of Greece and India over the course of the three novellas. In fact, the young man often finds himself further alienated from reality after spending months in the hot distance from his home in South Africa. However, the road draws him into numerous entanglements with bi characters I found problematic for a number of reasons.

One: The Follower

Our Narrator meets a brooding, long-haired German (named Reiner) in Greece which leads to a later trip through Africa on foot. Sexual tension abounds. Through a side comment, the reader discovers the Narrator is having gent problems, though sexual politics are never discussed. The German increases his overbearing, self-masochistic road behaviours as their trek progresses, causing both men to fall out with one another (as in, the Narrator leaves our German companion stranded in the mountains somewhere).

Reiner, for all intensive purposes, is a bi man. His motivation to explore Greece is based on his decaying relationship with a woman back in Germany. Funny enough, our Narrator is there because of boy troubles. On more than one occasion, Reiner attempts to seduce the Narrator (which the Narrator is receptive to, though scared as hell of). When the passes fail, Reiner sleeps with a female escort in a tepid sauna.... and then tries to seduce the Narrator again. Wait, what? Reiner explains his indiscriminate sexual appetites as a necessary release form for his, um, stress release.

Did I also mention this dude brushes his long, flowing hair for half an hour each morning, and possesses all financial power over the Narrator?

Reiner is a strange combination of oppressive meets preening narcissist, and the Narrator's abandonment of this dude feels oh-so-right in the end. Hmm, troubled representation, indeed. Reiner is often presented as an over-sexed, self-absorbed man who desires at all costs to subjugate all that is the Narrator. When evidence of his bisexuality surfaces, the tale begins to spin against Reiner, and Galgut takes great patience tallying the increasing number of injustices imposed on the Narrator once the two men leave the comforts of city life for the rigours of the road. And his status as a bi-leaning man is a central part of this new depiction.

Three: The Guardian

The Narrator returns to India with a close friend, Anna, who ends up being a whole bucketful of horrible. In fact, the disgust coaxed out of the reader would cause that bucket to overflow in crashing waves at times.

To take stock:

• Anna is in a relationship with a woman back home in South Africa.
• After a couple days on the road, Anna admits she wants to be in a relationship with a man.
• Anna and her partner have been together for eight years.
• Anna offers to sleep with the Narrator. He declines, disgusted.
• Anna meets a Frenchman named Jean, who she obsesses over and wants to run away with and have lots of babies with.
• We discover Anna is bipolar with a generous helping of psychosis to balance things out.
• Anna swallows 200 tranquilizers and 50 sleeping pills when the Narrator is out of their hotel room. In a suicide note, she breaks up with her partner.
• The Narrator, with the help of three strangers at their hotel, pulls Anna back from the grave.
• The Narrator discovers the motivation behind Anna's vacation was her bid for an unmonitored suicide. She was fine with her friend incurring the blame for her death.
• Anna rants at them and belittles the group from her hospital beds for their efforts to help her.
• The Narrator calls Anna's partner and has to admit to all that's transpired, including Anna's affair with the Frenchman. Anna's partner knew an affair with a man was coming, and decides to stick with the delirious, suicidal Anna anyway.

....... *Sigh* When the novella ended, I had no remorse for this woman. None. She was horrible from start to finish. Her sexuality is framed as a conscious, superficial choice, especially when the Narrator addresses Anna's initial motivation to date a woman. Odd, I never thought of an eight-year relationship counting as a fling. Oh, I guess that's what it's called when it's same-sex. Silly me.

**

Oh, literature. Oh, Man Booker Prize. Oh, Damon Galgut. I think the bi kids out there deserve a whole lot better than monstrous stereotypes in award-nominated, literary fiction.