For my annual girls trip, we decided to visit Spain and stop off in Morocco. While, i've been to Spain before (and Spain is ALWAYS a good time) I was UBER excited to visit Morocco. What some people don't know, is that I have a small obsession with the movie Aladdin and I took this opportunity to experience Arabian nights and Arabian days, where more often than not, are hotter than hot, in a lot of good waaaaaayyyyyssss!! :D I couldn’t wait to immerse myself in as much of the Moroccan culture that i possibly could in 6 days. My friends and I visited Casablanca, Marrakech and Essouira and i can officially say that I am in LOOOVE with Morocco <3
While in the souk in Marrakech, one of the Berber vendors offered my group a traditional Moroccan clay lipstick/lip tint. I. Was. Intrigued. The lipstick looked like the top of a clay pot, and when the vendor applied water to the base of the clay, the mixture of the clay and water produced lipstick. I thought this was fucking fascinating! So of course, the makeup nerd in me went ahead and researched Moroccan clay lipstick and heres what I found:
The red clay is made of red ochre terra-cotta mixed with a red vegetable dye. Some of the clay is blended with powdered poppy or rose petals mixed with a little wax, and can also contain henna. The Berber vendor called it “Aker" and it can be used as a lipstick, with the color varying between deep red and a dark fuchsia.
When touching the clay, the color does not bleed directly onto your hand, in order to release the color, you have to moisten the clay with Rose water or fix plus. The type of solution you use to release the color, correlates to the consistency of the lipstick. i tried vaseline for a lip tint and rose water for a lipstick. You can also use the clay pot as a blush, for a natural flush.
The one other beauty purchase I made was a Kohl Kajal eyeliner! Anyone who watched Sex and the City 2 the movie saw when Carri Bradshaw went to the souk and purchased shoes and a Kohl eyeliner. When i saw this i had to try it! This eyeliner is composed of Vegetable oil, beeswax, minerals and Ghee (all natural purified butter).
Although if i'm going to be honest, when i looked at the kohl eyeliner i thought 2 things:
1) How in the HECK do I apply this eyeliner without looking like i got into a fight with a bottle of charcoal?
2) Why does the product say "France" if its Moroccan?
Here are my answers:
1) After kicking it with my girl Google, i learned that you're supposed to swipe the liner flat on its side onto your eyelids, however i personally used the tip of the eyeliner and it worked fine. I imagine when the sharp tip rounds out, i can take an eyeliner brush and pull product directly from the Kohl.
2) Morocco was colonized by France in the early 1900's and explains why most Berber's speak French and Arabic. I relied heavily on Google translate to help me with my french during this trip :)
Overall, i am happy i purchased these products from the souk and i cant wait to continue putting these products to good use.