A group of high school girls in the US are trying to make it easier for people to protect themselves from having their drinks spiked with date-rape drugs. They want to make Smart Straws that will test the drinks on the spot.
Susana Cappello, Carolina Baigorri and Victoria Roca of Gulliver Preparatory High School in Miami won the Miami Herald 's Business Plan Challenge with their invention last month. The straws would test for GBH and ketamine, two of the most commonly used drugs used to intoxicate victims.
"Rapes assisted by drugs or alcohol are all too common," Cappello told A Plus. "We just want to give any gender a simple tool to protect themselves."
As part of their project, the students conducted a survey at Northwestern University and found that half of the respondents said they knew someone who had been drugged at a party and 85% said they would use the product. They are in touch with a testing kit manufacturer to figure out how to make the straw, which they want to be recyclable. They plan to begin a crowd-funding campaign to kickstart the process.
"We might have to change the name to Safety Straw sinceMcDonald's came out with a 'smart straw' last month that is good for drinking shakes," Cappello said to A Plus.
The concept sounds so good, you may wonder why it hasn't been made before. In fact, in 2013 a company called DrinkSavvy made headlines when it announced attempts to make straws and cups that would test for date rape drugs. The company's website says that "we are still developing our product for commercial release and will have them available ASAP!" Then there was the brilliant idea to make a drug-testing nail polish, which Animal New York pointed out might have some problems.
The biggest drawback of this product? That it only tests for two drugs, when there are many others that can be used in a drink to alter a woman's consciousness or judgment. The Smart Straw team understands they haven't invented the perfect product.
"We know it’s not a solution because it can’t end rape," Baigorri told Inside Edition, "but we were hoping to lower the amount of rape and dangerous situations you might be in through drugs."
Clearly, these budding entrepreneurs have their work cut out for them!
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Many of us have been brought up to believe that we should have a finite number of best friends. Think about it: Those "best friends" necklaces only have two parts, and Taylor Swift's growing squad is seen as disingenuous (to say the least). But can you really have too many people in your life with the "best friend" title?
In truth, you might have hundreds, or even thousands, of friends on Facebook, so it is possible to have more than 150 relationships. And researchers also acknowledge that social media and technology make it increasingly harder to deduce how many friends someone really has. But this number just represents how many connections your brain can theoretically handle, based on its size. And in this research, the connections aren't specifically "friends," so your family members could also be included in that group.
Those 150 contacts are also broken down into layers or tiers, based on the "strength of emotional ties," according to Dunbar. The closest layer, and perhaps the most elite one, can actually hold five people, not just one, Dunbar discovered. Dunbar tested this original theory in the 1990s, and then again in 2016, and amazingly, the same patterns held up. So, statistically speaking, it's possible to have multiple strong relationships at once. But still, is it harmful or disingenuous to give multiple people the same label? That depends on your personality.
"I feel strongly that people have different needs in terms of the amount of close friends that they have," says says Andrea Bonior, PhD, a clinical psychologist who specializes in friendships and relationships, and author of The Friendship Fix. "Most people have one person that edges out the others, yet they do have a handful of people close to them," she says.
If you have multiple best friends, it can actually be more fulfilling, because it ensures that you have your emotional needs met on different levels, Dr. Bonior says. The idea is that different people can provide you with different kinds of emotional support. "It's important that you really think about ways each person fills a role for you," she says. Plus, focusing on having one "end-all-be-all best friend" could ultimately be a disservice, she says, because it could lead you to cut out people who aren't perfect.
That said, multiple BFFs don't work for everyone, and that's okay, too. According to Dr. Bonior, having too many best friends can spread some people too thin. "It's awesome if you do have five best friends, but are your needs getting met in terms of being understood, confiding in somebody, counting on someone if you need them, and vice versa?" she says. Everyone is different, so some people might find that their needs are met by one person — or 20 people, and that's fine, too. As Haley Nahman wrote for Man Repeller (paraphrasing Mindy Kaling), "Best friend is a tier, not a person."
Ultimately, you just need to find a happy medium. The exact number of best friends you have depends on your personality, and whether you're introverted or extroverted, Dr. Bonior says. What makes a BFF is definitely subjective, but according to Dr. Bonior, a best friendship is about feeling that your friend knows and understands you, and they're someone you can count on. "
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"It's a little bit bigger, and the horror factor goes up," Ross Duffer said of the show's second season, during an event at Netflix's FYSee Space, according to Variety.
Executive producer Shawn Levy also said at the event that Stranger Things season 2 will be "darker" than the first set of episodes. Still, the producers stressed that the show focuses first and foremost on its characters and their relationships, something they've said in other interviews, too.
"There is a lot of talk — and I've contributed to it — about the move to darker threats and a larger cinematic scale, but here is the thing: Stranger Things works because we root for these kids, and we root for these damaged characters who live on the margins,” Levy said at the Netflix event on Tuesday. "Everyone is struggling with that feeling of being a bit on the outside looking in. But we know that what really brought us here are the characters that people connect to and that feel authentic… so season 2 is every bit as loyal to characters first, and spooky second."
The Duffers also said they were surprised at the series' breakout success.
"Last year when we were making the show, we were just worried that we weren't going to get anyone to watch it at all,” Matt Duffer said at the event. "There was this concern that the show was going to be this little blip in pop culture, so we were just thrilled that people were watching it. And it just snowballed from there."
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Aside from exercising our democratic right to choose who represents us in government and runs the country, the best thing about a general election is undoubtedly cooing over #DogsAtPollingStations.
Because only guide dogs are allowed inside polling stations, voters' four-legged friends must wait patiently outside, which explains the deluge of photos of dogs posing by polling station signs on social media during recent elections.
The Dog's Trust is even trying to encourage polling stations to become "Paw-ing Stations" by considering the dogs' wellbeing as they wait patiently outside, and Twitter itself has fully got behind the craze this year by making the hashtag its very own dog emoji.
You may be experiencing election fatigue, but we're pretty confident you won't tire of scrolling through this most adorable of hashtags.
The more political pooches even showed support for their favourite pawties. Some got dressed up in their fanciest garb or accessorised with red to back Labour.
“I don’t know what the fuck we talk about!” Paltrow exclaimed, after Kimmel pressed her a little too hard on the subject of Goop’s recent article on Earthing. “Earthing,” according to Goop, is the practice of walking around barefoot to better absorb the energy of our planet, which is there, “if only we would take off our shoes and access [it].” The article claims Paltrow swears by it — but she tells a different story.
You mean not even Paltrow knows what in the world Goop is praising as the second coming of Christ most of the time? That makes two of us, sister. Despite the ever-growing shoppable list of high-quality, toxin-free beauty products we'll never stop wanting to buy, there are still plenty of times Goop has had us all saying a collective "WTF." Here, five of the most noteworthy:
1) If your regular hair salon doesn’t incorporate spiritual psychology into your appointments, then clearly you don’t go to the Santa Monica-based hairstylist whose use of body and energy work, essential oils, crystals, and attention to the chakras has been “seriously transformative” to Goop staffers. “Could this hair treatment change your life?” the website asks.
2) Gwyneth herself espoused the “incredible” effects of apitherapy, or being voluntarily stung by bees in the name of better skin, in an interview with the New York Times. “People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring,” she said. “It’s actually pretty incredible if you research it. But, man, it’s painful.”
3) In an article titled “The Summer-Weekend Beauty Bag ”, in which Goop breaks down all the beauty essentials one might need for a summer weekend getaway, a bottle of nail polish is one of the suggested necessities, for a “by-the-pool polish change.” Who? What?
4) “Just as the chemicals in conventional sunscreens can kill coral in the ocean, they also cause problems in your skin by increasing inflammation — the root cause of most aging,” one article on the site reads, implying that your run-of-the-mill, non-Goop-approved drugstore sunscreen is actually making you age faster than you would by not wearing sunscreen at all.
5) According to a Goop post about body scrubs, there’s a high-end gym in Manhattan that is “notorious” for the number of members who’ve gotten MRSA infections from its facilities. But which high-end gym? That's for Goop to know, and you to find out.
Science never seems to be able to agree about how much alcohol is actually bad for you, but new research found that it might be even less than you think.
That sounds pretty serious, so let's break down what it actually means. All the participants of the study — which was published in The BMJ last month — were enrolled in the UK's Whitehall II study, which looks at health and stress. None of the participants were deemed alcohol dependent.
What researchers found was that the people who drank the most had the highest risk of hippocampal atrophy, which is a form of brain damage often associated with memory-loss conditions like Alzheimer's and dementia. The heavier drinkers also had a faster decline in language skills and poorer white matter integrity, which is what helps us to process thoughts in a prompt manner. That part was not necessarily surprising, and seems to back up other research which has also shown that heavier drinkers are more at-risk for changes to their brain over long periods of time.
What was surprising to researchers, however, was that moderate drinkers appeared to change, too, and they had higher risk of hippocampal atrophy than non-drinkers. "We were surprised that the light to moderate drinkers didn't seem to have that protective effect," study co-author Dr. Anya Topiwala, a clinical lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, told CNN. "These are people who are drinking at levels that many consider social drinkers, so they are not consuming a lot."
Moderate drinking was defined by the study as consuming the equivalent of a medium glass of wine each night, with a little extra on the weekends. By way of comparison, the heaviest drinkers in the study were consuming a bit more than two medium glasses of wine or two beers every night of the week.
For context, the average man has around 13 drinks per week at his peak, around age 25; women peak at around four drinks per week. As people get older, they binge drink less so their overall consumption is lower, but they drink more frequently, having small amounts on more days per week.
But you shouldn't fret about having to give up your booze just yet. There's no real evidence to show how clinically significant this change to the brain is in moderate drinkers. Plus, Eric Rimm, a professor of medicine and director for the program in cardiovascular epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CNN, "There are so many other lifestyle factors that are not taken into account in this study, like nutrition. Eating whole grains and fruits and vegetables have been linked with slower cognitive decline." He also cautioned that attributing mental decline to alcohol is too limited.
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After 12 years of hard work, M Barclay achieved their goal of becoming a deacon on Sunday.
Barclay didn't lack the skills or the work ethic but the process was stalled for years because they're a transgender person who identifies as neither male nor female. Now, Barclay has become a deacon in the United Methodist Church and it's a major step forward for both the church and the LGBTQ community.
In the Northern Illinois Conference where Barclay was commissioned, Bishop Sally Dyck told the United Methodist News Service that she hopes the church will continue on a path to inclusion: “I hope the church will find itself at a new place in the near future when it comes to full inclusion. That said, M and the other candidates for commissioning and ordination are all a part of the church’s witness and outreach to people who need the good news of Jesus Christ.”
Barclay was raised in a conservative Pensacola, Florida community and identified as a straight woman at the time they entered the ministry. After studying feminist theology and queer theory, Barclay realised they weren't straight and initially came out as a lesbian woman.
They initially struggled with whether or not they wanted to stay in the church at all due to its views on LGBTQ people. But after much thought, Barclay decided to continue on their path.
“My faith was still there," they explain. "It was just really hard to imagine the church living out what I think God is trying to do in the world right now.”
Barclay first pursued ordination in Texas but was ultimately rejected due to their sexuality. They moved to Chicago to work for Reconciling Ministries Network, an organisation dedicated to the inclusion of transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the United Methodist Church.
During their time at Reconciling Ministries Network, Barclay felt ready to come out as transgender. Their candidacy for the clergy was approved, and Barclay was officially commissioned as a deacon in Sunday's ceremony. All new deacons go through a two-year provisional period, so Barclay will be ordained in 2019.
Barclay's appointment as deacon was accompanied by some controversy. Reverend Thomas Lambrecht, who manages the United Methodist group Good News (an organisation that's against same-sex marriage and gay clergy) said transgender people should be "welcome" in churches, but shouldn't be given leadership roles.
“We would probably draw the line at leadership, seeing transgender persons as not qualified for leadership,” Lambrecht said. “It is premature for the Northern Illinois Annual Conference to move ahead to commission M Barclay, given the present state of knowledge and the questions her commissioning will raise in the minds of many faithful United Methodists.”
Although Barclay has received their share of negative comments like the ones made by Lambrecht, they've also received an outpouring of support from members and allies of the LGBTQ community.
“How do I theologically and scripturally advocate for trans people? I’m invited a lot to preach on that question,” Barclay said.
Barclay will continue their work at Reconciling Ministries Network and give sermons and workshops at Methodist churches. Although most Methodist clergy don't wear their collar every day, Barclay plans to do so.
“I feel very called to do that,” they explained. “A visibly trans person who is an extension of the church — queer and trans people need to see that. They need to see themselves reflected in the life of faith.”
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Look, here at Refinery29, we’re beauty fanatics. It’s a bit obvious – we’re surrounded by products all day, every day, and we chat about new releases, collaborations and our favourite brands and looks a fair amount.
Beauty is playful and restorative, it helps you outwardly present your inner self, and taking your time applying it can be an act of self-care. Choosing a lipstick, cleanser or perfume is as fun as choosing which meal you’re going to cook, and finding the right product for you can be downright confidence-boosting.
How do we cut through the noise, though? How do we separate the bland from the brilliant, the sticky from the slick, the cheap from the cut above? Well, we’ve trialled a significant number of products in our time and we’re here to let you in on our eternal favourites – from the classics we’ve been loyal to since youth and the new releases living up to the hype, to the picks that just do the job well.
Click through for a peek into the minds of 10 Refinery29 women, all with their eyes firmly on the beauty landscape, and get the lowdown on the products we’re shouting about right now.
Sheloa Nichols, Director of Content Production
"This scrub is a wondrously heavenly mix of vitamin E and non-abrasive sugar particles that keeps your skin feeling moisturised and smooth long after you've used it. If you love scrubs but have been buying 'whatever' until now try it - the difference is like lying between polyester sheets vs Egyptian cotton - suffice to say you'll notice a difference. Hero product."
Jo Malone Vitamin E Body Treatment Scrub, £22, available at Jo Malone.
"If you have curly or wavy hair that tends to get dry on the ends then use this stuff once or twice a week (depending on your 'wash' cycle) and see miracles occur! It actually restores moisture. Some people LOVE the smell (I've gotten a lot of compliments from men actually) and some people just tolerate it because of the effects. I personally think it smells really nice - regardless it is one of my must have products all year round but especially in the summer. It's particularly great for when you are wearing an up-do or braids as it can hold a style and work moisture magic at the same time!"
“I have tried every curl product on the shelf and always come back to this – why don't I just stay loyal? I waste a small fortune on the rest that are never as good. I'm a bad curlfriend.”
Boots Essentials Curl Creme, £1.99, available at Boots
“Fresh, gently exfoliating, pore-minimising, smells great and never dries out my skin. The perfect face wash.”
L'Oréal Paris Skin Perfection Gentle Exfoliator, £4.49, available at Amazon
“I have a lot of hair on my head – and not much any place else, including my eyebrows. However, I am honestly addicted to my brows being seen and this provides one of everything you need. Can someone please tell them to make a refillable Swiss Army Knife version that has all four elements? It would be SO rad.”
Benefit Defined & Refined Brow Kit, £31.50, available at Debenhams
“Best mascara EVER for long lashes that aren't super-thick. Provides excellent separating infrastructure to get those bad boys into their own lanes and fanning out like falsies.”
L'Oréal Volume Million Lashes Mascara, £9.99, available at Boots
“Reminds me of the old version my great aunt used to buy down the lane, it was green in the tube but went on pink and STAYED on. This is the millennial woman's version (and so a little pricer than 69p) but I love it. I'm a big fan of going natural on my lips so I can be more adventurous with my eyeshadow.”
“I am obsessed with Charlotte Tilbury's makeup line. I'd go so far as to say I have the biggest collection of Charlotte Tilbury products bar the makeup artist herself. I've gone through three Dolce Vita palettes over the past few years as I wear it pretty much all the time. The brown shade is perfect for everyday eyes, while the red and glitter gold work beautifully for an evening beauty look. The light pearly tone is a great highlight and pigment/ payoff of the glittery gold is unparalleled.”
Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette in The Dolce Vita, £39, available at Charlotte Tilbury
“I like scaring the living daylights out of my boyfriend every Sunday night and slathering this on when he's not expecting it. Frightening face aside, this mask draws out all the impurities thanks to the activated charcoal, and is the perfect way to wind down on a Sunday and ensure my skin is tip-top for the week ahead.”
Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask, £24, available at Origins
“This was a recent discovery that Cult Beauty founder, Alexia Inge, actually recommended me a couple of months ago. Alexia told me that it would transform my skin and when a beauty pro tells me something, I listen. Now I spray it on liberally, morning and night. It has evened out my complexion and reduced any breakouts. I'm hooked.”
Allies of Skin Molecular Saviour Toner Mist, £48, available at Cult Beauty
“I've used this Kiehl's concentrate for a number of years and no matter how many late nights, early mornings and boozy evenings I have, this little blue bottle saves my skin. I always wake up with brighter, smoother, plumper skin if I've massaged this in the night before and always have a spare bottle in my bathroom cabinet.”
Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate, £38, available at Kiehl's
Jess Commons, Health & Living Editor
"As someone with thin hair, powders like this are legit the only volumising product I've ever found to have tangible results. Just a few sprinkles on your roots under the top layer of hair and you're good to go. Check out Batiste's version too."
Schwarzkopf got2b Powder'ful Volumizing Styling Powder, £4.19, available at Superdrug.
“It doesn’t cost the earth, and it’s legit the only serum I’ve ever used that’s made a marked difference – my skin less blotchy and smoother overall.”
The Ordinary Buffet Serum, £12.70, available at Victoria Health
"Again, one of the few things I’ve used on my skin where I’ve noticed a difference. Plus, it smells delightful. It is spenny but it does take ages to get through.”
Aromatherapy Associates Anti-Ageing Overnight Repair Mask, £62, available at Aromatherapy Associates
“If you’ve got oily skin, this is your dream. It doesn’t slide off, makes your skin matte, and goes on super-smoothly.”
L'Oréal Paris Infallible Matte Foundation, £7.99, available at Boots
“I always wear nail varnish to stop me biting my nails. This is the only one I’ve ever found that can go more than a few days without a chip.”
Nails Inc Gel Effect Nail Polish, £15, available at Nails Inc
“It’s not expensive or fancy, but it does a really good job of going on and staying on until you need it to come off. Which it does really easily with an oil-based makeup remover.”
Seventeen Tattoo Me Semi Permanent Liquid Eyeliner, £3.99, available at Boots
Anna Jay, Art Director
“This is my go-to everyday face moisturiser. It lets the skin breathe, helping to keep breakouts at bay and isn't too heavy, but keeps the skin really well quenched.”
Clarins Multi-Active Day Cream All Skin Types, £42, available at Clarins
“I'm only on my first bottle of this foundation but I know I've found The One. As someone who doesn't wear much makeup, I love how the formula is really light and gives a radiant glow – while still giving great coverage and protecting the skin with SPF.”
Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder Foundation, £32, available at Charlotte Tilbury
“If you like your products to sit pretty on your bathroom shelf, & Other Stories has a great range. I love their body wash, with unusual, seasonal scents and a handy pump top for the shower.”
& Other Stories Moroccan Tea Body Wash, £7, available at & Other Stories
“This perfume has been my absolute favourite since I asked a stranger on the tube what it was – and since then I've converted three colleagues. The crisp cucumber and citrus bergamot of Earl Grey makes for the most refreshing of scents. Runner-up to this (one I keep at home and one on my desk) is Miller Harris' Tea Tonique.”
Jo MaloneLondon Earl Grey & Cucumber Cologne, £44, available at John Lewis
“This brow product is my favourite for a lot of reasons. It comes in a variety of shades, so you’re not stuck to ‘dark or light’, and the amount of product the brush holds is really scant, so you can go over your brows a number of times without getting too heavy on the first stroke. Because of this it also lasts longer, and the shape of the brush doesn’t just define but also grooms brows really well.”
Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper & Hair Touch Up, £18.50, available at Bobbi Brown
Natasha Slee, Social Media Manager
"I'm loving Konjac sponges at the moment! After I've removed my makeup at night, I give my face a good massage with just warm water. In the morning, I use it after cleansing with Avène Extremely Gentle Cleanser."
The Konjac Sponge Company Pure Konjac Puff Sponge With Bamboo Charcoal, £8.99, available at Cult Beauty.
“I was resigned to tight, sensitive and flaky skin until I tried these Avène products. They’re so soothing and my skin feels insanely soft. I hated wearing any kind of foundation before, because it clung to dry patches, but now I can step out with confidence in my coverage. I keep it pretty simple: cleanse, a spritz of thermal water, moisturise, and use the mask on weekends.”
Avène Extremely Gentle Cleanser, £10.50, available at Boots
“I occasionally get dry patches on my cheeks during my period. I find that applying this thickly on the area and letting it set while I get ready for work does the trick.”
E45 Dermatological Cream, £2.35, available at Boots
“I use these every few days when I feel like my skin needs a deeper clean. They’re one of those 'glycolic acid' wonder products people can't stop talking about: exfoliating your skin by removing the outer layer of dead cells. I use it only where it's needed: my chin, around the creases of my nose, and forehead. I don't break out very often, but it's always here when I do. It makes my skin feel super-fresh and clean. Make sure to incorporate an SPF afterwards though, as it makes the skin more susceptible to sunburn.”
“I go through a lot of this. It makes my natural curls super-soft and defined with minimal effort. Then I smooth them with whatever serum is available at home!”
John Frieda Frizz-Ease Dream Curls Shampoo, £3.99, available at Boots
Sarah Raphael, Editor
"I was recommended this face wash at my first facial last year and it’s transformed my face. It’s not cheap, but the bottle lasts for ages (over three months when used twice a day) and it’s by far the best product I’ve ever used on my skin which is sensitive, uneven and sometimes gets little dry patches. The cleanser is soft, gentle, easy to apply and easy to wash off, and feels so lovely on my skin that I actually really enjoy washing my face every morning and night.
Another SkinCeuticals product – Phyto Corrective Serum – is really pricey at £52 a pop, which was manageable until I introduced my boyfriend to it. Now he douses himself in it and I don’t say anything because I don’t want to discourage his newfound interest in skincare. The product has been particularly good at evening out my complexion.
I’ve fallen out with a lot of moisturisers over the years. Every one I tried (from budget Simple Boots moisturiser to Crème de la Mer) made my face sting for the first few seconds after applying and usually irritated the dry patches I get. And then I found this SkinCeuticals Daily Moisturiser (also recommended by that dreamy facialist, I must send her flowers). It’s not too light or too thick and it never irritates my skin. I don’t bother with night cream as it just gets so expensive so I slap this on morning and night.”
SkinCeuticals Gentle Cleanser, £27, available at SkinCeuticals
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I’ve been using this product since I was 13 and it’s never let me down. The nib is the perfect size and it’s really easy to apply – it’s very forgiving, as liquid liners go. I’ll usually use pencil first, then sort of seal the pencil in with liquid liner, otherwise my pencil smudges.”
“I have black hair and black eyes which often produces heavy, full eyebrows but unfortunately mine are very sparse – you can see my skin underneath. I don’t want to pencil them in as I don’t like to look too made-up, so I just put some of this gel on to make them a bit darker and more defined. Countless makeup artists I’ve interviewed over the years have reaffirmed my view that eyebrows are a game-changer.”
Benefit Gimmie Brow Volumizing Eyebrow Gel, £20, available at Benefit
"At £3.33, this is where I save on skincare, and the bottles are so big they seem to last forever. Micellar water is a miracle worker that takes off my eyeliner and mascara in like, four seconds. I used to scrub my eyes with makeup wipes – until I got told off by every woman, ever – and I tried all the high street makeup removers and they just felt like paint strip and made my eyes hurt. Micellar water has no perfumes and is so gentle it’s basically an eye bath, which is perfect for my sensitive skin. It’s also suitable for contact lens wearers.”
Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, £3.33, available at Boots
“I wasn’t blessed with Bambi eyelashes so the “faux cils” effect appeals to me. I’ve tried so many mascaras over the years and I still can’t beat this one. It doesn’t even last very long – it dries out pretty quickly, which is really annoying and expensive but despite that, it’s the best I’ve found.”
Yves Saint Laurent Volume Effet Faux Cils, £25.50, available at YSL Beauty
“ I’ve worn the same makeup for 10 years: pencil eyeliner, liquid eyeliner, mascara, and a stain of lipstick. I never bother with foundation or bronzer or anything because of aforementioned sensitive skin and because I have freckles which I really like and I don’t want to cover them up! So I keep it simple with a pencil eyeliner – lately I’ve got into Tom Ford eyeliners as they have a lovely array of colours and this one is a shimmery brown that I just can’t find anywhere else. I used to wear heavy black eyeliner every day but as I get older, I prefer a softer shade. I do have to trek to Selfridges to get it, though, as they’re not stocked in that many places.”
Tom Ford Eye Defining Pencil, £27, available at Selfridges
Meg O’Donnell, Picture Assistant
"This is legit Unicorn Eyeshadow and as much as it pains me to admit, this will be on my eyelids for the majority of summer."
Topshop Eyeshadow Mono in Milky Way, £7.50, available at Topshop.
"My absolute favourite pastime is a bath and this wonderful creation from The Body Shop is my go-to addition. I love how soft it makes my skin, both during and post-bath! It smells quite similar to how I imagine heaven smelling, and lasts for ages as you only need a small amount. The Almond Milk and Honey collection includes plenty of lovely smellies like body butter, a cleansing bar, hand cream."
The Body Shop Almond Milk & Honey Calming & Caring Bath Milk, available at The Body Shop
“This smells, again, how I imagine heaven to smell. It's a really nice consistency and it absorbs quickly (win). It then leaves you smelling like a goddess for the rest of the day (win win).”
Rituals The Ritual of Sakura Body Cream, £19.50, available at Rituals
“I got given this as a tester by a friend and now I'm hooked! I would never usually buy products like this (I am quite lazy with my appearance) but will be using this one forevermore. It's almost primer-like and gives a lovely glow when applied. I usually focus on my under-eyes.”
Estée Lauder Revitalizing Supreme + Global Anti-Aging Wake Up Balm, £46, available at Estée Lauder
“My mum added this little beauty to my Christmas stocking and unfortunately I'm already very nearly out. I'm really lazy when it comes to my hair as well, so this dry oil is perfect for making it seem like I've actually brushed my mane after washing! Plus, anything left over I can use on my body. Brill!”
NUXE Dry Oil Huile Prodigieuse Splash Bottle, £17, available at John Lewis
Georgia Murray, Fashion & Beauty Writer
"This one is pricey, there's no two ways about it. It's also a cult hit, and for good reason. My skin has never felt so pillowy soft, bright and youthful. Plus, it now has added SPF, which is an essential on a day-to-day basis."
Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream SPF 30, £82, available at Elemis.
“I can’t hype this concealer enough. It comes in a huge range of shades, has a gorgeous soft and easily spreadable texture, and doesn’t sit on top of your face or make blemishes more obvious (unlike a lot of other concealers). It hides under-eye darkness, the reddest of spots (a saviour for my fair skin, on which hormonal blemishes appear 1000x angrier), and can be subbed for a lick of foundation come 3pm when you need a top-up. Also, its narrow wand and shade variety mean people use it to contour. As soon as I found this gem I haven’t looked elsewhere, and I have one at home and one for on-the-go.”
Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer, £23, available at Nars
“This is a recent discovery. I’d used scrubs for years but always felt like they were aggravating my sensitive skin rather than buffing the face and shedding dead skin. But with this beauty, you rub over a dry face for about 20 seconds and wait for...stuff...to ball in your hands. Yeah, pretty weird, it’s all dead skin cells. Wash off thoroughly and once you’ve patted your face dry, you look like a newborn baby. It’s that good. I like that it doesn’t feel like dragging rough scrub across my skin, but you still get the super-fresh, bright peel feeling. Only use up to 3 times a week, though, not every day.”
The Body Shop Drops of Light Pure Resurfacing Peel, £18, available at The Body Shop
"Masks aren’t just a beauty treatment for me. They signal a bath, an evening alone, a glass of wine, a book, a treat, self-care, indulgence. So as you’d expect, I’ve tried hundreds. I think I currently have nine Lush masks in my fridge, so I’ll shout out to Mask of Magnaminty, Ayesha, BB Seaweed, Oatfix and this guy. I first heard of this thanks to Drag Queen Detox on RuPaul’s podcast What’s the Tee? If it works for a drag queen... It’s a super-fun colour (Smurf blue), smells like lemon heaven and washes off into a scrub, revealing a super-bright complexion.”
Lush Don't Look At Me Fresh Face Mask, £7.25, available at Lush
“I’ve always been terrified by super-bright colours in makeup. I also never thought that anything beyond mascara was for me, eye-wise, because I have small, hooded eyelids (come at me, boys). But thanks to the wonder of YouTube tutorials, I learned to work colour just above the socket contour, and voilà! You can see colour on my lids. Since then, inspired by Instagram’s makeup pros, I’ve gone wild with brights, and this palette from Sleek is one I return to time and again. Super-pigmented, staying power that lasts 'til a sweaty 3am, and they make my blue eyes pop.”
Sleek I-Divine Eyeshadow Palette in Snapshots, £8.99, available at Sleek
“If you’ve ever been lucky enough to see me without makeup on, you’ll know that my eyelashes and eyebrows are nonexistent. It’s not that they’re not there, it’s just that they’re see-through. Transparent, clear, non-ex-is-tent. So you can understand that the thick brow aesthetic hasn’t looked favourably upon me. I get them shaped and tinted every month but when the colour has faded, I look a bit like a newborn mole. Enter Laura Mercier. I could wax lyrical about all of her products but I’ll stick with this: simply use the pomade to set your brows, and pat the powdered colour on with an angled brush, and bam – look alive, people.”
Laura Mercier Sketch & Intensify Pomade & Powder Brow Duo, £20, available at Space.NK
Natalie Gil, News Writer
"Luckily my teenage problem-skin years are behind me, but I still get the odd spot or patch of redness every so often. I apply this moisturiser most evenings (mornings, too, if I’m having a skin crisis) after cleansing, and it magics away most of my problems overnight. If only its reach extended beyond my face!"
La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo+ Anti-Blemish Cream, £15.50, available at Boots
"My skin is a bit of an attention-seeker and likes to shine bright like a diamond, so on the rare occasions I wear foundation, it must be mattifying. This one by Nars offers full coverage while still letting you show off your natural complexion. I only need one pump to cover my whole face and, unlike all the other foundations I’ve tried, it doesn’t slide off after two hours!"
Nars All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation, £34, available at Space.NK
"Bored of having to reapply lipstick every five minutes, I hopped on the lip pencil train a few years ago and bought many of the shades touted by beauty bloggers (MAC’s Soar is still a favourite). But it was aSunday Times article by India Knigh t that got me hooked on this Nars pencil. Its universally flattering colour, non-drying consistency and sheer staying power make it pretty much perfect."
Nars Dolce Vita Velvet Matte Lip Pencil, £20, available at John Lewis
"An unoriginal skincare pick, I know, but Pixi Glow Tonic has a cult following for a reason. The glycolic acid gently exfoliates and gets rid of dry patches but doesn’t dry out my skin. After just a few weeks of using it, my skin was transformed – teenage spot scars had faded and my skin’s texture was much more even. Now I won’t go a day without using it."
"I only really wear powdered eyeshadow for evenings out, and when I do, it’s usually MAC’s Woodwinked. It’s a warm, browny gold that makes greeny-blue eyes (like mine) pop, but beauty bloggers say it complements most eye colours. Being relatively low-maintenance when it comes to makeup, I usually wear it alone, but apparently it looks great blended with MAC’s Cranberry. Apply them both with a MAC 217 brush and you’re (browny) golden."
MAC Eyeshadow in Woodwinked, £13, available at MAC
Sadhbh O’Sullivan, Social Media Assistant
"Sodium Laurel Sulphate is sensitive/acne-prone skin's foamy nemesis, so I recently branched out into gel cleansers. This is a big investment but it is worth every penny, from how clean it makes my skin to the smell which is heavenly. A little goes a long way too, so this isn't going to run out any time soon."
Tata Harper Purifying Cleanser, £55, available at Cult Beauty.
“I used to use the whole kit until recently, when I got prescribed a new cleanser for my acne, but I still use this moisturiser. It's perfect for my oily and acne-populated skin because it's very moisturising (good to reduce redness), non-greasy, mattifying and non-comedogenic (no ingredients that can cause spots). You only need a small amount, luckily, so it goes far.”
Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions All-Over Clearing Treatment, £21, available at Clinique
“This is my lifesaver! I use this on my overly oily T-zone and it makes me matte without being cakey. Again, only a tiny amount needed. I use the Instant Bright one because the coloured ones are too dark for my pale skin.”
Clinique Pore Refining Solutions Instant Perfector, £21, available at Clinique
“This helps soothe areas with lots of acne, redness, and hyperpigmentation. It really reduces the redness (so I don't make it worse by putting on makeup), is non-comedogenic AND is SPF 25, preventing any more pigmentation.”
Eucerin Anti Redness Concealing Day Cream, £20.50, available at Boots
“The greatest liquid lipsticks known to man. I basically rotate Lolita II and Exorcism depending on my outfit, but I also highly rate Double Dare and Nosferatu. There are more coming out this year and they look incredible, too.”
Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick, £17, available at Debenhams
“A little bit of this on my cheekbones brings me to life. The colour is really flattering and because I don't wear any other skin makeup, I'm a fan of cream highlighters.”
"If you don't have a Hyaluronic Acid (HA) product in your skincare routine, you need to revaluate. HA is key for keeping skin hydrated and this version is low-molecular meaning it's far more easily absorbed by the skin, helping to retain moisture skin more efficiently and effectively. I wouldn't be without it."
Hylamide Low Molecular HA Booster, £18, available at Hylamide.
"I usually start my skincare routine with this toner. It contains zinc so it helps to reduce the redness and inflammation of my hormonal break-outs, plus the cooling sensation of a spray is ideal when it's warmer."
La-Roche Posay Serozinc, £8.50, available at Boots.
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I am lying in a foetal position on the floor of a public toilet, cocooned among the bleach and the paper. My hair is wet from the bath my partner scooped me from in panic, and my socks aren’t matching. The ambulance didn’t come, and when I arrive the receptionist warns that if I keep screaming it will take longer to be seen. This is my third visit to A&E in as many weeks, my fifth year of feeling like there is something fundamental and poisonous growing quietly inside me. I am exhausted and desperate, so I keep screaming. Claw at the cubicle door. Bite my own hands. Retch.
Just hours before, I was shuffling around the kitchen with dancing feet, chopping onions in time with the radio, laughing obliviously with my head thrown back. I’ve grown tolerant of daily pain, but this is different. The intensity is so removed from any semblance of reality, the loss of control so absurd, I feel it in my bones: the unshakeable feeling that this is the night I will die, perhaps here, on a toilet floor miles from home. Frantic thoughts circle my head like a drain, and the perfectionist inside cannot help but laugh at the irony of them finding me like this – all chipped nails and panda eyes, a broken thing in sick-stained pyjamas. I do not recognise the person in the mirror, but I know she is not ready, that it is not time.
It turns out that it isn’t time. It’s just that an ovarian cyst has ruptured, sending agony tap-dancing along every synapse, tricking the brain into thinking that the end is imminent. The signs were there, of course. In the weeks preceding The Worst Night, I had cried at a public bus stop, taken several nauseating Ubers to hospital, reassuring concerned drivers that I wouldn’t chuck up on the seat. Each trip was fruitless and I remember little, except blurred ceilings, perplexing blood tests that denied anything was wrong, the comfort of hunching into dark stairways, sinking into baths.
The intensity is so removed from reality, the loss of control so absurd, I feel it in my bones: the unshakeable feeling that this is the night I will die, here, on a toilet floor miles from home.
It’s not that I was being reckless in ignoring the signs. It’s more that I’d been told I was fine so many times I’d started to believe it. For years now, I had shared my body with a phantom, lost one week out of four, spent nights curled up in the tub almost as often as the bed, clutching myself quiet while my partner slept alone. I was told I had irritable bowel syndrome, urinary tract infections, cystitis, food allergies, coeliac disease. One doctor was convinced it was anxiety manifesting in physical pain, as if hypochondria were compelling me to bend myself in half. And so I swallowed my pain, pretended it wasn’t there, splashed water on my face, breathed deeper. In and out, until I couldn’t.
This is what endometriosis looks like, some of the time. Most of the time, it looks like nothing at all. An invisible burden shared by 176 million women, it manifests as a succession of small robberies and lost things – an accumulation of cancelled plans, sick days, spare heat pads stashed in office drawers, elephants in rooms. It is insidious, and always seems to strike when you least expect it – forcing you to look ahead before you’re ready, taunting you with codeine dreams of the children you didn’t know you wanted until the prospect of them grew slippery and unsure.
The problem is simple in theory, but difficult to manage in practice. The best analogy, perhaps, would be to say it’s the result of tissue growing in the wrong places, like weeds in a garden. Endometrial tissue is supposed to be confined to the womb, to be shed each month during the healthy menstrual cycle. In endometriosis sufferers, the tissue sticks around for far longer than it’s welcome, and invades other areas of the body for reasons we do not yet understand. Attaching to organs like gum, it continues to inflame as if preparing to exit the body, but there is nowhere for the blood to go. The resulting effect is a maelstrom of inflammation, pain, digestive problems, an increased risk of infertility, and the kind of chronic fatigue that can bleed into depression if you let it. Thankfully, it’s not a fatal condition, but the searing pain it causes is often described as being comparable to childbirth – a final twist of the knife for women who want children, but are often rendered unable to carry them.
As I have grown alongside this, grown despite it, tectonic plates have smashed at my feet. I am not the same person I was a year ago, and I’ve stopped seeing endometriosis as a personal cross to bear and started tackling it like the societal disease it is – digging for roots beneath the mud, reading medical papers by torchlight, unearthing the forces that keep many quiet, outstretching my hands towards other women who share the burden.
An epidemic that affects 1 in 10 women of reproductive age – and most of us do not even know how to pronounce its name.
After all, this is not some rare, exotic disease. It is staggeringly common, and even more staggeringly under-researched. Here is an epidemic that affects 1 in 10 women of reproductive age. Here is an epidemic that is comparable, statistically, to diabetes – and yet, most of us do not even know how to pronounce its name. Complex, unpredictable, stubborn – we still haven’t managed to develop a cure beyond basic Band-Aids and cover-ups, and few specialists are equipped to deal with the relentlessness of returning symptoms. How did we get here?
Much of the problem lies in the path to initial diagnosis. Endometriosis can only be officially detected by laparoscopy – an invasive and costly procedure involving anaesthetic and deep wounds and long periods of recovery. When our NHS is tightly squeezed, it’s unsurprising that the thorniest and most frustrating conditions are taking a back seat over those that are either immediately life-threatening or simpler to treat – though this provides little consolation to women who are struggling. Another issue is the deeply ingrained notion that painful periods are the norm, as well as the subjective nature of chronic pain as a whole. How do you prove your pain? How do you argue against “normal” test results and scans? How do you push for a procedure rarely performed, knowing that it’s a mere diagnostic tool rather than a solution? These are just some of the problems that keep the condition shrouded in darkness.
I am not alone, and my journey towards diagnosis is far from the most traumatic or frustrating I’ve come across. When I was admitted to hospital, I was reborn in 48 hours. High on morphine and disbelief, I sat cross-legged, whispering late into the night with women 20 years my senior, bearing witness to the injustice they suffered. I met one woman who worked as a senior financial executive, before the disease snatched all she had worked for from her grasp. Her own Worst Night was unspeakably terrible. Standing in line at Pret with a bunch of male colleagues, she felt an agonising, pulling sensation, and passed a clot the size of a golf ball, right there among the sandwiches and the juice. She was referred for an emergency hysterectomy, to be performed the day after I was discharged. I felt my stomach drop as she told me she felt wicked for not being sorry or sure, felt rushed, felt scared the finality would haunt her. She blossomed from acquaintance to ally overnight and I think of her often, see her manifest in supermarket queues and crowded carriages. I don’t remember her name, but I hope she knows that she is strong and brilliant, and that none of this is her fault.
If this were a disease that solely affected men, I do not believe we’d be facing such uncertainty and delay. Not for one minute. And no matter how understanding some individual doctors have been, and no matter how much I adore and appreciate the NHS with every fibre of my being, the fact remains that my condition is part of a tapestry woven with centuries of oppression, a crisis thriving in silence and denial. Realising this has been a bitter pill to swallow, but it has also helped me understand the systemic poison at the root.
Despite the pain and suffering, this illness has made me a better feminist, a better ally, a better human. It has been a gift as well as a burden.
Because this is not just about tissue misbehaving, this is about shame. And because the more I have learnt about the long and sad history of this invisible illness, the more my heart has burst into flames, fuelled by the lineage of women who have been before, all of them battling with a legitimate, fire-dampening pain that was never validated – perhaps never even spoken out loud. Sometimes, late at night, I live out their lives in my head. I dream of unsanitary hospitals and non-consensual experiments conducted on black bodies – of the silent sufferers rarely credited for their contribution to modern gynaecology. I dream of asylums, unnecessary hysterectomies, hysteria and shock treatments. I dream of the women who continue to soldier on today without any access to safe healthcare, watch them spiral one by one, a never-ending string of paper warriors. Many of them were no doubt broken by their infertility in a time and place where childbearing was one’s only currency. Many of them may be enduring painful sex as I type this, or quietly questioning their own sanity in the face of disbelieving physicians, or developing a dangerous reliance on opiates in the absence of a sustainable, longer-term solution.
Once I’ve dried my eyes, I see them rise from the ashes, see how far we have come, and how far we have to go. Then I get up. Because despite the pain and suffering, this illness has certainly made me a better feminist, a better ally, a better human. The clichés about gratitude and misfortune are true, and this illness has been a gift as well as a burden. It has broken down barriers, illuminated the important things, rid me of menial worries, created bonds that cannot be broken, forced me to acknowledge my privilege as well as my disadvantage. It has taught me who I am, and made me fall in love with my own strength.
If you think you may be suffering, or if you feel ignored, or if you feel angry on behalf of others – now is the time. Kick and scream, demand answers, fight like it is someone else’s battle. Because we owe it to ourselves, to those who came before, to those who are yet to run.
Signs to watch out for
Pain Painful periods Pain on ovulation Pain during internal examinations Pain during or after sex Pelvic/abdominal pain
Bleeding Heavy periods, with or without clots Prolonged bleeding “Spotting” or bleeding between periods Irregular periods Loss of “old” or dark blood at the start of a period
Bowel and bladder symptoms Painful bowel movements Bleeding from the bowel Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (diarrhoea, constipation, bloating – particularly during your period) Pain when passing urine Pain before or after passing urine or opening your bowel
Other symptoms Fatigue Depression Back pain Leg pain
Things that have helped me deal with my own symptoms The support of other women The support of Endometriosis UK The Mirena IUD Beautiful, soulful nurses The hospital tea-trolley lady Patient junior doctors CBT Knowing Thy Enemy Hot water bottles and scorching baths Being persistent and sure Keeping a gratitude journal Ru Paul reruns Audre Lorde quotes Hypnosis videos Calling home more Creating more Moving more Loving more
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The film industry has, traditionally, always been the preserve of the young and the beautiful – that is, unless you’re male. Actors such as Richard Gere, Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson and George Clooney have headlined films well into their 50s and 60s, often opposite much younger actresses. Indeed, it’s still common practice, with this week’s The Mummy seeing Tom Cruise paired up with Annabelle Wallis, over 20 years his junior.
Annabelle Wallis & Tom Cruise in The Mummy, 2017Photo: Photo by REX/Shutterstock.
However, the same hasn’t always been true for women in film. With a few rare exceptions, actresses tend to find work offers become less frequent after they reach 40. Even some of the most dynamic, popular stars of the time find themselves with nothing other than broadly written support roles, usually playing an underdeveloped mother or wife character. Stars like Geena Davis, Rene Russo, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore and Goldie Hawn were all top of the Tinseltown tree until disappearing quite dramatically from studio films as they got older, either popping up again in minor roles or leaving the industry altogether.
Thankfully, times are changing. Studios are waking up to the realisation that, yes, women go to the cinema too; and that audiences of all backgrounds will appreciate a well-crafted story, regardless of the gender of the person telling it.
Rachel Weisz stars in this week’s new drama My Cousin Rachel, playing a woman suspected by her cousin (Sam Claflin) of murdering his guardian. It’s the latest in a career that hasn’t really dipped since her emergence in the late '90s, with the 47-year-old mixing arthouse fare ( The Lobster) with gripping dramas ( Denial) and blockbuster franchises ( The Bourne Legacy, Oz the Great and Powerful). The former star of The Mummy trilogy is not alone, with a number of today’s female stars bucking past trends – to the delight of movie fans.
Rachel Weisz in My Cousin Rachel, 2017Photo: Nicola Dove/Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock.
For some actors, it’s simply that they will never cease in their pursuit of a strong role. 42-year-old Amy Adams may only just have passed that threshold, but it would take a very pessimistic view to argue that her career is about to downturn. The five-time Oscar nominee follows up the critically acclaimed Nocturnal Animals and Arrival with the small matter of playing Lois Lane in superhero team-up Justice League in December. Similarly, Jessica Chastain is just getting started at 40, having recently been cast as Ingrid Bergman and making headlines at Cannes for speaking out on the “disturbing” way women are represented on screen.
One star who certainly can’t be accused of being pigeonholed is Cate Blanchett. A bright light of the film industry for over 20 years, the 48-year-old has played a criminal, a journalist, a queen, a movie icon, an elf, Bob Dylan… she’s had the type of career anyone of any age would kill for, and still maintains that success. She’s soon to be part of the all-female Ocean’s Eight (four of whom, incidentally, are actors over 40), and has already won fans’ hearts in the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok as villain Hela. Blanchett and others like her form a group of actresses pushing past what studios are expected of them, maintaining the glamour of young stardom and mixing it with nuanced performances which are the result of years of experience.
In addition to this group, there are the performers whose talents have only been fully realised since they’ve gotten older. At 51, Viola Davis won her first Academy Award this year for her supporting role in Fences. Having just appeared in Wonder Woman and the new series of House of Cards, Robin Wright seems to be eclipsing her breakthrough years in the late '80s and early '90s with more interesting, complex characters. There’s also Hidden Figures star Taraji P. Henson, for years an under-appreciated actress, whose most successful roles didn’t arrive until her 40s. And while she started off strong in Jurassic Park in her 20s, Laura Dern’s most interesting work has come in her late 40s, with films like Wild, Certain Women and Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. Hollywood took notice (again), making her part of the forthcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
While a pattern is emerging, these stars remain exceptions in an industry still struggling in terms of gender equality. Film is a business of repetition, however, and just as younger names like Jennifer Lawrence, Daisy Ridley and Gal Gadot are showing the potential of women starring in traditionally male-dominated genres, Rachel Weisz and others can set a precedent for the vast array of interesting characters that are possible if women over a certain age are drawn towards the camera, and not pushed away from it.
My Cousin Rachel is in UK cinemas from 9th June.
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If you're considering a beauty overhaul for the summer months but bored of neon face paint, bold lids and rainbow glitter, why not let your lips make a statement instead? For festivals and long summer nights, we're saying goodbye to matte products and making space in our makeup bags for metallic, shiny tones.
Unlike glitter lip products, these high-impact lipsticks don’t have any fallout, making them easy to apply and comfortable to wear, with colour lasting all day and night. For maximum results, exfoliate lips and apply a balm before gliding on your futuristic shade.
Follow the call of the disco ball and click through for our pick of the best metallic lipsticks out there. See you on the dance floor.
With its warm finish, this subtle lipstick is perfect for those dipping their toe into the trend. Infused with avocado oil, jojoba oil, avocado and illipe butter, this lipstick will leave lips smooth and moisturised.
Urban Decay Vice Metallized Lipstick in Bobby Dazzle, £15.50, available at Selfridges
One of three colours in the Molten Metallics Collection, this Topshop offering is a twist on your average pink nude.
Topshop Lipstick in Mercurial, £8, available at Topshop
The perfect holographic shade is arriving this July, thanks to Winky Lux. The lip balm is designed to react with your skin's PH levels to create the perfect shimmer effect tailored to your skin tone. To top it all off, the mineral-based glitter in this out-of-this-world glimmer balm is edible – just don’t go licking it all off.
Winky Lux Holographic Glimmer Balm, £13, launching this July at Winky Lux
Gerard Cosmetics’ super-pigmented and non-drying metallics are the perfect formula. Fuzzy Navels’ peach undertone is super-flattering, too.
Gerard Cosmetics Hydra Matte Metallic Liquid Lipstick in Fuzzy Navel, £11, available at Beauty Bay
One of the bolder shades in the range, Meteoric Violet is a warm purple with a high-shine 3D finish. In one swipe, lips are given long-wearing colour, ready to take on the night.
Lancôme Le Metallique in Meteoric Violet, £22, available at Selfridges
Berried is a traffic-stopping shimmer to replace your classic red.
Beauty Bakerie Metallic Lip Whip in Berried, £16, available at Cult Beauty
Lime Crime’s liquid metallic lipsticks, inspired by roses, dry down to a luxurious velvet-like finish.
Lime Crime Metallic Velvetine Lipstick in Posh, £15.53, available at Lime Crime
This super-pigmented metallic purple is the perfect shade for those a little frightened of navy and black lipstick.
Kevyn Aucoin The Molten Lip Colour Molten Metals in Carbon, £24, available at Space.NK
This aqua colour is festival-ready.
NYX Professional Makeup Cosmic Metals Lip Cream in Electromagnetic, £7, available at Selfridges
Explore a galaxy of unique colours with OCC’s dynamic range. An intense dose of liquid lip colour enriched with hemp oil to nourish and peppermint oil to revitalise.
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Technopagan, £11.50, available at SkinStore
Come to the dark side with this dark granite shade.
NYX Professional Makeup Wicked Lippies in Cold Hearted, £6, available at Boots
This one is sheer, so easy to wear alone or layered over dark shades for a metallic ombre look.
L'Oréal Paris Color Riche Gold Obsession in Pure Gold, £6.99, available at FeelUnique
Raise a glass to this dazzling champagne-toned lip topper. The coconut oil-based gloss instantly refreshes, too.
Jouer Cosmetics Long-Wear Lip Topper in Tan Lines, £13.50, available at Cult Beauty
This copper number brings out the warmth in deeper skin tones.
ColourPop Ultra Metallic Lip in DM, £4.70, available at ColourPop
This luscious brown has a touch of reflective aqua green shining through.
Lime Crime Perlees Lipstick in Beetle, £13.97, available at Lime Crime
3INA teamed up with the renowned celebrity embroider Marie-Sophie Lockhart to create Art Freedom, a collection inspired by '80s club kids. This metallic shade is sweat-proof, meaning you can go until 3am without applying another lick.
3INA x Marie-Sophie Lockhart The Longwear Lipstick 511, £6.95, available at 3INA
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On the whole, celebrities aren't known for making political endorsements. Most of them seem too afraid of what their fans, management and PR people might think of their beliefs, so they just don't bother saying anything. In the run-up to this general election, however, something seems to have switched, with many laying their cards on the virtual table that is social media.
So, whose box will the stars be placing their 'x' in this year? Well, one party has a pretty clear lead when it comes to celebrity endorsements.
Clean Bandit – Labour
The band have been outspoken Corbyn supporters throughout the campaign, playing at a rally in Birmingham and Grace Chatto even took over Labour's Instagram.
Stormzy – Labour
Stormzy, along with other grime artists including JME (who famously interviewed the Labour leader), and AJ Tracey, have championed Corbyn through their Grime4Corbyn movement.
Alexa Chung – Labour
Chung revealed she was voting Labour on Instagram. "For the NHS hospital I was born in and the comprehensive school I attended. For the many, not the few," she wrote.
Florence Welch – Labour
The musician shared an Instagram post encouraging people to vote and captioned it with an oh-so-subtle Labour rose.
Lily Allen – Labour
The singer is a strident Labour supporter. She's a strong opponent of Theresa May and has retweeted Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign many times.
Russell Brand – Labour
The comedian recently backed Corbyn in an article for the Huffington Post, saying he has the "qualities I want from a strong and stable leader".
Steve Coogan – Labour
The actor and comedian opened for Corbyn at a party rally in Birmingham and attacked the prime minister, Theresa May.
Stephen Hawking – Labour
That's right, one of the cleverest men in the world recently announced he was backing Labour, despite having previously expressed doubts about Corbyn's leadership.
Photo: Niklas Halle'n/AFP/Getty Images
Liam Gallagher – Labour
The former Oasis frontman recently said: “I was brought up in a Labour Party kinda house and that, so I’ll be voting Labour," but admitted he doesn't "really know what [Corbyn] is about".
Charlotte Church – Labour
The singer has tweeted her support for Corbyn too many times to count.
Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Ricky Gervais – Labour
The forthright comedian tweeted recently: "The only vote that will keep Theresa May out is a vote for @jeremycorbyn."
Eddie Izzard – Labour
Unsurprisingly, the comedian and longtime Labour activist is backing Corbyn for PM this year.
Kate Nash – Labour
The singer is a big Corbyn fan and has even appeared in a Labour party video endorsing him.
Katie Hopkins – Conservatives
No surprises there.
Lord Sugar – Conservatives
The business magnate and Apprentice star recently tweeted his support for Theresa May. He used to be a Labour supporter but left the party in 2015 over its shift to the left.
Richard Dawkins – Liberal Democrats
The evolutionary biologist and atheist has tweeted his support for the Lib Dems and their pro-EU stance.
Vivienne Westwood – Green Party
The fashion designer and environmental campaigner said she backs the Greens as the "only opposition" in the general election.
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Former FBI Director James Comey will say in his congressional hearing opening statement that President Trump told him, "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty," during a January dinner, according to documents released a day ahead of his planned testimony.
Comey is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, and his prepared statement was released Wednesday afternoon. The former FBI director is expected to discuss the agency's investigation into the possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. He is also expected to describe his interactions with Trump from right before the president was inaugurated in January to the weeks leading up to Trump firing him in early May.
In the opening statement, Comey said he and Trump dined together privately in January. During the meal, he said Trump asked him if he wanted to remain on as FBI director, and he replied that he wanted to serve out his 10-year term and "was not on anybody's side politically."
Comey said Trump then made his statement about loyalty. Comey replied that he could offer his honesty, and that when Trump said he wanted "honest loyalty," Comey paused and said, "You will get that from me."
He also said it was "very concerning" when Trump asked him to back off an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey described the exchange in dramatic detail, saying Trump asked him to stay behind in the Oval Office after a meeting with a larger group, and as they stood near a grandfather clock, the president described Flynn as a good guy who'd been through a lot.
Then the president said to Comey, "I hope you can let this go." This corroborates a The New York Times report from May.
Comey also said in his statement that he immediately prepared a memo documenting the February exchange and that the FBI investigation continued.
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Illegal drugs don’t suddenly become lawful and 100% safe the moment you set foot on the grounds of a music festival, regardless of how normalised they are at many events. While it’s generally pretty easy to get your hands on drugs if you know where to look, it’s much more difficult to ascertain what’s actually in them.
There has been an increase in drug-related deaths at music festivals in recent years, from 10 in 2010 to 57 in 2015, which has been attributed to a rise in the strength of ecstasy. Drug-testing services were piloted at Secret Garden Party and Kendal Calling last year, and now health experts are calling on all festivals to introduce similar initiatives.
All festival-goers should be able to test their drugs on site to ensure they’re safe, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said, and some festival organisers have backed the call. Secret Garden Party, Kendall Calling and Boomtown festivals have confirmed they’ll offer drug testing this year, and more look set to follow their lead, including Reading and Leeds, NME reported.
The founder of Secret Garden Party, Freddie Fellowes, supports the idea, telling BBC Newsbeat that last year’s trial was a big success. “If it's a good idea in one place it's a good idea everywhere," he said, adding that “a remarkable percentage” of the people who had their drugs tested chose to bin them. "Otherwise they would have gone on to take something that's clearly not what they were expecting,” he said.
“There was a case of some anti-malaria drugs being powdered up and sold as cocaine. We also came across someone who was selling ecstasy tablets that turned out to be 100% concrete."
Melvin Benn, head of Live Nation subsidiary Festival Republic, which organises Reading, Leeds, Latitude, V Festival, Wireless and more, said last month he wanted to introduce drug-testing services with support from the police. “We’ll see it this year for definite… at Leeds I’m pretty certain,” he said. “It’s taken a long time and it won’t be at every festival, but where we think there is a need to do it we will be doing it.”
According to the RSPH, nearly a fifth (18%) of people who tested their drugs threw them away afterwards. Shirley Cramer, the chief executive of RSPH, called drug-related deaths at music festivals “a growing problem for policy makers, health authorities and events companies alike."
"While the use of stimulant 'club drugs' such as ecstasy can never be safe, and RSPH supports ongoing efforts to prevent them entering entertainment venues, we accept that a certain level of use remains inevitable in such settings. We therefore believe that a pragmatic, harm reduction response is necessary."
However, authorities say there are no plans for a national scheme. Simon Bray, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for drugs, said: "Any proposal would need to be considered at a local level by the police force, local authority and health services with a view on its legal, scientific and possible health implications," BBC Newsbeat reported.
He added that police forces would need "a strong understanding of the implications on policing" before any drug testing could be supported locally. "Police could not support initiatives that do not comply with the law or that have unintended negative consequences."
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I used to treat my dating apps the same way I’d treat trips to the gym — as a means to an end. I wanted my ass to be an inch higher than it is, so I’d drag it to the gym and squat it into submission until I wanted to die. (I’ve thankfully since given into my love of yoga — and stopped obsessing over my ass.) When it came to the apps, I wanted a boyfriend, so I considered swiping a second career. I’d pore over the profiles of men, attempting to figure out whether or not they wanted a relationship. Men who I found attractive and who were up front about their desire to couple up almost always got a swipe right. The guys who listed things like, “just looking to have fun,” or, “not interested in anything serious right now,” got a swipe left. Mama didn’t have any time to fuck around. In the words of every contestant on America’s Next Top Model, I’m not here to make friends.
That was until I came across Julio* on Bumble. Julio was up front from the beginning: He’d just gotten out of a long relationship, and he was taking the year to just have a good time. In the past, I’d toss him into the digital “reject” bin and move on with my day. But, for whatever reason, that day I decided to swipe right. Julio and I matched, and we starting talking on the app, where he once again reiterated that he wasn’t looking for anything serious. But I soldiered on, and we eventually moved on to text.
Julio and I got in the habit of texting each other just to check in and say hi. A friendship began to form, and our banter was so easy that I didn’t have any of the “what should I text him?!” dilemmas I’d had with men in the past. Around this same time, I started seeing a guy named Jude*, and then referenced him ever-so-subtly in this column. Julio read it, I came clean, and we decided to continue talking and being friends — even though I’d effectively taken romance off the table.
And Julio actually turned out to be a great confidant when it came to my love life. I’d ask for his insight, and he’d give me advice through the lens of the types of people I was actually dating — namely, straight men. In the past, I’d bounce cryptic text messages and shady behaviour off of my younger brothers, which was just as awkward as it sounds. But Julio gave me unfiltered responses from a dude’s perspective, sans the awkwardness. There was a point when Jude and I were going through some shit involving his ex-girlfriend, and Julio told me the thing none of my friends or either of my brothers would say to my face: You’re his second choice. When Jude and I finally ended things, those words were part of my breakup monologue — and then I repeated them back to all of my friends.
The strangest part about this entire situation was that my friendship with Julio grew completely over text messages for the first two months. We didn’t officially meet until the night after I ended things with Jude. I was sad, and Julio offered to take me out to dinner. We instead wound up at a bar, drinking margaritas, and then moved onto a pig roast my friends were hosting, where we proceeded to get completely drunk off of rum cocktails and red wine. That night, I knew I’d made a good friend.
I (and so many other people, I’m sure) have started taking this online dating thing way too seriously.
Now, the story of how we met has become our little hat trick that we like to pull out whenever we meet people in the other’s circle. “We met on Bumble,” one of us will say. “Yeah, but we have never hooked up,” the other will clarify. And when this conversation inevitably comes up, I think back to the hard-and-fast rules I used to have when it came to online dating. Had I stuck to my rigid outlook on the apps, I would have never swiped right on Julio, he would have never given me advice on navigating the Jude situation, and we would have never become friends.
It makes me realise that I (and so many other people, I’m sure) have started taking this online dating thing way too seriously. When I first started using apps and websites, I’d see dates as opportunities to meet interesting people who I’d never come across otherwise. But the older I got, and the more societal pressure had me considering marriage, the more I started skipping over people I thought were interesting, but whom I didn’t see a future with.
So now, along with mindfully swiping, I’m attempting to look at the men on my apps as actual people with interests, instead of humans who could potentially fill the role of “boyfriend.” You never know who you might meet on these apps, so you might as well have a little fun with it while you’re also looking for love. As for Julio, he and I are still just friends — and I’m happy to keep it that way. I successfully met a boy friend on Bumble, and I consider that as fortuitous an outcome as any.
* Name has been changed.
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Most, if not all, of us have had the supremely annoying experience of having our personal space invaded by a man spreading his legs on public transport. And if you’re anything like us, you may regularly find yourself pushing back against the entitled culprits in retaliation, because, feminism.
So, we’re pretty envious of women in Madrid, whose city will be installing signs on trains and buses prohibiting manspreading, as the phenomenon is known. The signs feature an illustration of a man with his legs spread wide on a Metro seat beneath a red “X”, to show it’s prohibited, and text urging travellers to “respect the space of others”, the Independent reported. It's not yet clear whether wrongdoers will be fined for their boorish behaviour, however.
The Spanish capital’s Municipal Transportation Company (EMT) will be putting up the posters in all its carriages and vehicles, along with others warning against different inconsiderate behaviours, including littering, smoking, eating and putting feet on the seats.
EMT said on Wednesday: “The new information icon indicates the prohibition of taking a seating position that bothers other people,” reported the Independent. “It’s to remind transport users to maintain civic responsibility and respect the personal space of everyone on board.“
Manspreading has been a talking point among Madrid's feminists for a while, with the group Mujeres en Lucha (Women in Struggle) heading the movement against it. They started a petition earlier this year and the accompanying hashtag, #MadridSinManspreading (#MadridWithoutManspreading), went viral on social media.
"It’s not difficult to see women with their legs shut and very uncomfortable because there is a man next to them who is invading their space with his legs,” the petition read.
In April, Spain's left-wing CUP party called for a national campaign against manspreading, hailing it an equality issue and describing the behaviour as an “exhibition of machismo and a micro-aggression that can make the person suffering it uncomfortable,” the Independent reported.
Madrid isn’t the only city to have a strong position on manspreading. New York was one of the first to confront the issue in 2014, with its "Dude…Stop the Spread, Please," poster campaign on its Metro system. Its police even arrested people but eventually dropped the charges. Tokyo's public transport system ran a campaign against it decades ago, in 1976, and more recently again in 2012, and Vancouver also threw weight behind the issue in 2011.
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Everyone may be freaking out over the imminent return of Orange Is The New Black, but there’s an entirely different Netflix series you’re going to be obsessed with this month. That show is Naomi Watts’ Gypsy and it’s basically the sexiest thing to hit the streaming site in history. The upcoming psychological thriller follows a cunning Manhattan therapist named Jean Halloway (Watts), who descends into illicit relationships with the people in her patients’ lives. The original teaser for Gypsy hinted just how crazy the drama would be, and now we’re here to debut the full-length trailer, which takes things so much further.
The nearly two-minute video proves we are in for a wild, wild ride as Jean’s seemingly perfect reality is ripped apart by her most forbidden desires. And we shouldn't be surprised, as Gypsy is directed by the woman who first bought sexy bad boy Christian Grey to the big screen, 50 Shades Of Grey helmer Sam Taylor-Johnson.
Within the first few seconds of the trailer, it’s clear the therapist is turned on by hearing about the individuals populating her patients’ world. Jean asks one man to talk to her like she's his apparent ex-girlfriend and seductively touches a pen to her lips as he speaks. But, she’s pulled back to her cookie cutter lifestyle by her husband Michael (Billy Crudup) and their adorable daughter Dolly (Maren Heary). Jean is the kind of woman who holds hands with her little girl, still eats family meals at the kitchen table, and has sex with her husband. She couldn’t have an entire secret life, right? Wrong.
The trailer shows Jean stalking her cute patient Sam (Karl Glusman), who’s kissing a mystery woman. Seconds later, the therapist has managed to track the beautiful brunette down and is also kissing her. Soon enough Jean is admitting she doesn't know which of her double lives is the real one. From there, things only spiral out of control with enough tears, sex scenes, and a yelling Billy Crudup to prepare fans to keep pressing “Next Episode” when Gypsy premieres on Friday, June 30. For a taste of all the Naomi Watts madness, watched the trailer now — and be happy your therapist isn't named Jean Halloway.
Diario Clarín reports that police found two suicide notes in his home, one to a woman named Claudia and another listing names of people for whom he had recorded tapes, claiming these people were the ones who caused him to commit suicide.
While neither of the notes directly referenced 13 Reasons Why, leaving behind tapes for people after suicide is the main plot point of the Netflix hit. Detractors of the show criticised this aspect specifically, as they believed it suggested that suicide is sometimes "justified."
"I can't get it out of my mind so I have to say, I think 13 Reasons Why discusses teen suicide & depression in an unhelpful & unhealthy way," tweeted Degrassi actress Aislinn Paul. "If you're struggling and this show helped you somehow, that's great and I would never want to take that away from you. But if it made you feel worse, misunderstood, isolated, or triggered in any way, please reach out for help! @KidsHelpPhone: 1(800) 668-6868"
This backlash is what caused Netflix to strengthen the trigger warnings before the episodes in an effort to stop vulnerable people from watching something that could be harmful to their mental health.
"There has been a tremendous amount of discussion about our series 13 Reasons Why," Netflix said in a statement to BuzzFeed. While many of our members find the show to be a valuable driver for starting important conversation with their families, we have also heard concern from those who feel the series should carry additional advisories. Currently the episodes that carry graphic content are identified as such and the series overall carries a TV-MA rating. Moving forward, we will add an additional viewer warning card before the first episode as an extra precaution for those about to start the series and have also strengthened the messaging and resource language in the existing cards for episodes that contain graphic subject matter, including the URL 13ReasonsWhy.info — a global resource centre that provides information about professional organisations that support help around the serious matters addressed in the show."
If you are thinking about suicide, please contactSamaritanson 116 123. All calls are free and will be answered in confidence.
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If you want to be cynical, every movie and TV show is just a collection of tropes, shaken like Yahtzee dice and thrown onto the board of whatever world we want to live in that day. And while Hollywood is slowly but surely giving women more opportunities to expand beyond a limited selection of roles, there are a few staples that we just can't seem to shake: horrible stepmother, nagging spouse, gold digger. All of these fall under the general umbrella of "evil wife" — and I love them.
While yes, Wonder Woman is ~badass~ and, yes, I rooted for Reese Witherspoon in Wild along with the rest of you, my favourite character to stand behind is the kind we're not supposed to love at all. She's corrupt, she's ill-intentioned, she's the villain — but she's also perhaps the most fiercely feminist role an actress can portray.
Take Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, the most notorious of these characters. I'd argue she has stood the test of time because there's something in her we can't quite hate. She stands behind Macbeth, secretly pulling the strings for her own selfish, power-hungry gain. But in the 1600s, what other choice did a woman have? If she desired something beyond a life of serving someone else, she could either reluctantly extinguish that flame, or do whatever she needed to do to get it.
The same goes for Game Of Thrones ' Cersei Lannister. The brilliance of that show is that there's no good side or bad side. Everyone has their own valid motivations for the Throne, but Cersei is the one painted as evil because she exerts whatever power she can to get it, whether that's at the brutal expense of one human life or an entire town that she sends up in flames. But picture this: You were forced to marry a man who abused you, all your children have been killed, and the person you actually love is the one person you can't be with — yeah, you're going to light some stuff on fire.
Then there's Serena Joy in The Handmaid's Tale, or Claire Underwood in House Of Cards. For women who are trapped in a patriarchal structure, turning quote-unquote evil is the ultimate feminist act. The next woman to join the club? Rachel Ashley.
My Cousin Rachel, based on the book by Daphne Du Maurier, stars Hunger Games ' Sam Claflin as Philip and Rachel Weisz as Rachel, the widowed wife of Philip's cousin and guardian who died under mysterious circumstances. Based on a letter he received before his cousin's death, Philip begins the film convinced that Rachel is responsible for his cousin's demise, but coincidentally warms to her the moment she arrives in his home and starts making him her special tea.
What makes the film so gripping is that for every instance it seems Rachel is manipulating and poisoning Philip, there's another equally plausible, innocuous explanation. Whether or not Rachel is evil is completely up to the viewer, and it didn't take long for me to start rooting for it to be true.
Living in the 19th century, Rachel doesn't have much choice in her life than to be shuffled from suitor to suitor. As a woman, her livelihood can only come from family money or from her husbands, but taking advantage of that system immediately gives her a reputation. To live your whole life under the confines of being expected to marry well, only to be admonished when reaping the rewards of doing just that, is some Grade A level bullshit and reason enough, in my opinion, to start poisoning every idiot dude who tries to get in your way.
For instance, there were rumours that Rachel spent her first husband's money extravagantly: hell yeah. That she had loud and raunchy sex: hell yeah. That she gleefully accepted a clause in her late husband's will meaning she could never marry again, lest she lose her inheritance: hell! Yeah! Why would she? As she explains to Philip, being a woman means she doesn't have the luxury of living the life she wants. Her choices have to be calculated and sometimes cruel in order to ensure that she has a shred of independence. As a wife, she couldn't be in control of her own finances, couldn't transfer money to family abroad, had to lie on her back and suffer through sex straight-faced, or fake her orgasms loudly so she's known as a voracious lover.
As far as I'm concerned, seducing powerful men into giving her a sliver of their privilege, killing a husband or two in order to escape from the confines of patriarchy, and poisoning a dopey 25-year-old until he hands over his fortune doesn't make Rachel a villain. Rachel Ashley is a goddamn hero.
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Today's James Comey hearing may not have the slick production value and binge-worthy intrigue as Netflix' House of Cards, but onlookers are drawing plenty of parallels. The suspense, the high-profile players, the White House looming in the background, and one 6-foot-8 FBI director sitting at the centre of it all. Well, the actual House of Cards is taking notice, too, because the show's official Twitter account posted the perfect GIF to sum up the entire situation, as Mashable noted.
The intention may be open to interpretation, but the fact that the show's social media account posted just one thing for the duration of the hearing did make a powerful statement. Early this morning, HoC 's social media gurus pulled the perfect GIF, with Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) breaking the fourth wall and offering up an enigmatic, knowing expression.
Fans of the Netflix series know that Underwood is privy to everything (and we mean everything) happening both in the storied halls and corrupt underbelly of our nation's capital, so this may be the show's way of saying that there's plenty bubbling under the surface of today's hearing.
Twitter users were quick to jump behind the GIF, adding their own Underwood images and drawing comparisons between the current administration and the slimy, cutthroat world of House of Cards ' fictional D.C. And because nobody knows exactly what's happening in the mind of Frank Underwood, it's safe to say that any speculation — regarding that GIF-able expression and the Comey trial itself — is fair game.
