April 11, 2012
Shea Terra Organics
On my never-ending quest for the best “healthy” beauty products, I came across some great brands that I continue to repurchase, and others that were just eh. I will list some of the brands that I love and are considered “natural” or free of harsh chemicals at the end of the post, but before I do that I want to talk about, what I believe is my holy grail of natural beauty products! I recently discovered this brand, although Shea Terra Organics have been in the market since 1998 I believe, and apparently Angelina Jolie is a fan too!
What makes this brand better than anything else I have tried? First of, they use natural products found in Africa, and most, as a Middle Eastern woman, I am familiar with and love. Most products contain Shea butter, Moroccan roses, orange blossoms, and all the yummy good stuff that I oh so love! The woman behind the brand, Tammie Umbel, is remarkable herself, she is a mother of 12 kids as well as the founder of this amazing brand! Wow and I thought I had my hands full hehe
Even though I have never tried this brand prior to this order, I knew it would be good and ended up purchasing 9 items at one go! I noticed that amazon.com sells them as well, and I read in one of the reviews that ordering them from amazon.com would be better, because of the slow customer service from the actual website. I did, however, order from their website because of the 30% coupon code I had, as well as free shipping! I decided its worth the risk hehe my order total was $170 but with the coupon it came down to $119 which I thought was great, and I was surprised that the products shipped on the same day I placed the order, and two days later they were outside my doorstep!
The quality of the product is amazing, although I still did not try them enough to give a full review, but the texture of most of the products I purchase is rich and smells luxuriant and heavenly. Here is a list of what I purchased:
Ghassool L’Eau De Rose Purifying Paste: “100% Natural. Purify your skin for an incredibly healthy glow using ancient lava clay from Morocco’s Atlas Mountains.”
Ghassool L’eau De Fleur D’Oranger Purifying Paste: “100% Natural. Purify your skin for an incredibly healthy glow using ancient lava clay from Morocco’s Atlas Mountains.”
Rose Hips Black Soap Deep Pore Face Wash and Mask: “100% Natural. Discover why YouTube and Facebook fans RAVE about this face wash. The world’s most effective, amazing face wash! Based on an ancient African formula, using REAL African Black Soap, this wash works like microdermabrasion to get rid of dead skin, even skin tone, firm skin and fight acne. Look younger in just minutes of use. South African Rose Hips Oil makes calms skin and works wonders on maturing skin.”
Orange Blossom Pure Distillate Water: “100% Natural. Delicate orange blossom water to tone oily to normal and acne prone skin. Excellent addition to face masks.”
Moroccan Rose Water: “100% Natural. Leave your skin silky soft as you tone and hydrate with true rose-water. Add to your favorite masks for added anti-aging benefits.” (note: i got two of these, one for my mom and one for myself I’m sure she’d appreciate it too. We love anything and everything that is floral and this is very gentle you can even use it on your eyes!)
BANANAS & BAOBABS Organic Shea Butter & Fair Trade Sugar Scrub: “Description 99.7% Natural. Say good-bye to dull skin as you buff away dead cells to reveal the younger, fresher looking you. Rare shea nilotica shea butter combines with Fair Trade Malawi cane sugar and skin softening Somalian qasil for a one of a kind treat. Bananas and baobabs, oh my! Naturally fragrant, sweet banana extract combines with skin softening baobab oil.”
Rose Water Shea Butter Hand Scrub: “Description 99.7% Natural. Volcanic stone creates super smooth hands. Morocco’s silky rose-water and organic shea butter soften them for hours of protection, leaving hands looking younger than ever.“
Rose Water Shea Butter Hand Creme: “Description 99.7% Natural. It’s time for hand renewal with time-tested, ancient ingredients. Hydrate hands to make them look younger and silky as rose petals with Moroccan rose-water. Soften and heal hands with 30% organic shea butter.”
I also received three samples in my package, which are:March 27, 2012
New Orleans, LA
Hello, Spring Break is over, and we are back to school. Even though it was a short break, it was fun nonetheless. My cousin and I went to New Orleans, LA for the weekend and it was the first time for the both of us. If you grew up reading Virginia Andrews (fess up, no shame in it 
) then you’ll understand my fascination with New Orleans. The Landry series took place in New Orleans, a place thriving with culture, history and mystery (ooh I rhyme ). We were not disappointed at all, I am madly in love with New Orleans and look forward to my next visit and hope the next one will be longer, there is so much to do there. We pretty much managed to do it all though, from museums; psychic readings (just for fun, they just make things up and you go along with them ); voodoo shops; ghost tours; and just roaming the beautiful streets! I’ll leave you with the pictures 
Bands playing music outside hotel, NOLA
Streets of New Orleans, LA
A band with a mini parade for a bride and groom on a horse carriage
The beautiful St. Louis Cathedral overlooking Jackson Square
Inside the Saint Louis Cathedral ...erm ur not supposed to take pics
Fats Domino's piano after hurricane Katrina (at the Presbytere museum)
One of the locals, thinking he won't survive the hurricane wrote down his name, blood type etc on his jeans so that people can identify him. Fortunately he made it (Presbytere Museum)
The boat that saved lives during the hurricane that hit New Orleans in 2005
The French Quarters, New Orleans
I believe this is the statue of Jesus casting a shadow on St. Louis Cathedral and overlooking Bourbon St.
New Orleans reminded me of Europe so much, especially the strong contrast between religion and worldly pleasures. You have the cathedral which is the center of everything and then right next to it are the bars, and clubs. It doesn’t make sense, but somehow works. Of course we tried the beignets at cafe du monde, as much as I loved the feel of dining alfresco, the beignets were over hyped, too doughy for my likening but I would still hang out at Cafe Du Monde just for their location and great vibe.Over all New Orleans was just as I expected and more! Highly recommend it
Luv,
Sara D.
February 24, 2012
Birthday and National/Liberation Day Weekend! :D
Now that’s a long title! hehe but pretty much sums up this time of year! We love it because we get to celebrate my mother’s birthday (tomorrow on Kuwait’s national day Feb 25) and then my husband’s birthday is on Feb 26 (Kuwait’s liberation day). For my husband’s birthday I knew exactly how I wanted to celebrate it, I had an idea in mind and contacted Bakerista_q8 for it. I mentioned her cakes before, she made the Angry Birds birthday cake for my nephew, and the Harajuku Lovers cake for my sister’s birthday. This time around, I asked her to make a cake shaped like a rice pot filled with rice and prawns (my husband’s duwaniya’s go-to dish apparently) and since I’ve seen her awesome work with the cake pops, I asked her to personalize the cake pops to look like my husband’s friends who usually get together at his “duwaniya”. The cake looked amazing, I can’t believe the ladle on the cake is edible! I’m not a big fan of inedible things on dessert, so its amazing what she did!
Birthday cake + personalized cakepops
Love her work, and the effort she put into it, I love how I can just send her an email with a picture of what I have in mind and she turns it into cake! haha
Customized birthday cake
Thank you so much for this wonderful creation, we loved it!
As for mama’s birthday, we celebrated it today (since its our family gathering) I was there in spirit and on skype! It was nice, the sugar and spice cake looked amazing! Happy birthday mama :** love you *hug* (since you have an ipad now, I’m assuming you’ll subscribe to my blog!!!)
Mama's bday cake from Sugar and Spice (thanks bro for the pics )
Mom's bday gift (iPad and Kate Spade iPad cover)
and to everyone else, happy national and liberation day (Feb 25-26) enjoy the rest of the weekend and please stay safe!
Luv,
Sara D.
Bakerista phone: 65155099
Email: bakeristaq8@gmail.com
Twitter: Bakerista_q8
February 12, 2012
Valentines @ Lenotre
Every season Lenotre creates a special cake to complete your celebrations, I have to admit their cakes are usually amazing (we got the gold one for mom’s birthday last year, which also happens to be Kuwait’s national day, and it was beautiful ). For this valentines their cake consists of soft chocolate cake flavor, and will be available from February 14th till 15th 2012 with the price of KD20.
Lenotre's Valentine chocolate cake
For more, call 1805050 Ext 28
MMC: http://mmckuwait.com/
Twitter
Facebook
Luv,
Sara D.
February 5, 2012
Valentine Treats by JenJen’s Cookies
JenJen’s Cookies is introducing the latest Valentine treats, the sugar cookies are amazing and I cannot get over how amazing they look! By far the best sugar cookies I have had, and they are handmade and hand decorated! To place an order, please contact them 3 days ahead.
One dozen heart shaped valentines vanilla cookies, 12 k.d place order 3 days in-advance.
Luv the strawberry dipped chocolate cookie!
One dozen heart shaped cookies = 12 k.d place order 3 days in-advance.
Order your Valentines Day cookies today on : 97676536
Facebook group: JenJen’s Cookies
Email: jenjenscookies@hotmail.com
Phone: 97676536
Luv,
Sara D.
February 4, 2012
Help Save Baby Fahad’s Life
Baby Fahad
I am posting this in hope that Fahad’s case will touch a generous person’s heart and help this little boy out. Here is his case, as received from danderma:
“His mother is a Kuwaiti and his father is a Syrian. He has lukemia,and needs bone marrow transplant to live but non of his family members are matches to donate to him so they found him a donor in India but they need a sponsor to donate 37 thousand KDs so he can have it.
January 7, 2012
Married Women’s Right to a Passport
My passport expires within the coming months and I had to renew it, my father explained to me that now that I am married my husband has to go and reissue one on my behalf?! Which I thought was absurd and insulting on so many levels, especially since I do most of my traveling without him to begin with!! I am 29 years old, a graduate student and a wife, and I still cannot issue my own passport to travel?! What kind of law is that? Are they afraid we might leave and never come back?! And what if we do?! Are we slaves to our husbands that we do not have the choice to travel, or leave? Oh wait, I forgot we do not have brains to think that is why a man has to make the decision for us.
I cannot believe that it is 2012 and I am writing this post, I thought women’s lib is something of the past, why are women in the Arab world still fighting for their basic RIGHTS!! The right to drive, the right to travel! Yes, not being able to travel is just as bad as not being able to drive, so Kuwaiti men stop pointing fingers at your Saudi brothers and look at your own laws that prevent your sisters and wives from issuing their own documents after they are married. The funny thing is, my husband had to go to work late that day and put up with his angry boss just so he can finish all that is required to issue the passport, while I slept through because I had nothing to do as a student on a break!
Ok, you are probably thinking but Sara…yes there is a but! Just as I was about to start a petition to call to change this law I did some google searching to find this link to an article that states that we, in fact, had won the rights to obtain our passports without our husband’s consent…get this dated 2009!!! Then why is that law not implemented yet?! What is wrong with us? Why issue all these laws and just forget about them! The next time I issue my passport, I will be doing it on my own, and if anyone says no I will have clear documents that says I have the right to do so!
huff!!
Sara D.
December 29, 2011
NYC Streets During Christmas 2011
5th Avenue 2011
henri bendel window display 2011
Inside henri bendel 2011
Tiffany & Co. NYC 2011
Bergdorf's Marchesa Display 2011
The Gaga Workshop at Barney's
The Gaga workshop
Inside the gaga workshop
Pearl cup with a fake diamond cup (the Gaga Workshop)
NYC streets with the huge snow flake 2011
Tiffany & co store front NYC 2011
The lit tree @ Rockefeller
The tree @ rockefeller 2011
Festive gigantic lights NYC 2011
Magnolia cupcakes with the Rockettes theme
Huge ornaments NYC 2011
Inside Radio City, crystal christmas tree 2011 the tree was designed by Thom Filicia
Spent one night in NYC, we managed to visit the Gaga Workshop at Barney’s it was ok, no long lines in case you plan on visiting. The place is not really that great, unless you are a huge Gaga fan. We then went to the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City, not before passing by Magnolia Bakery n having a Rockette’s theme cupcake! Love how stores support NYC monuments and shows!
Anyway, just want to wish everyone happy holidays and a happy new year! Hope 2012 is a great year for everyone :*
Luv,
Sara D.
November 18, 2011
Digumz Celebrates UN Universal Children’s Day!
Digumz Celebrates UN Children's Day with KACCH
I am very proud of Digumz, and not because my husband is behind it hehe I am proud because it has not been a year since its launch date and Digumz is already contributing to society and giving back, and I hope you would participate and make this day memorable for these kids.
Here is how, November 20this UN Universal Children’s day, and digumzstore.com will donate 10% of any item purchased by customers on November 20th 2011 to Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital (KACCH), digumzstore.com will also donate two xbox 360 and Kinect consoles to the hospital.
Digumz is also asking customers to donate used (but in good condition) video games for Ps3 and xbox 360 to be donated to KACCH. Digumz will be collecting these games starting from November 20th until November 26th 2011. You can drop off the games you would like to donate to the address below:
Digumz at Omniya Mall
Address to drop games:
Digumz
Salmiya, Omniya mall (ibis hotel)
Salem Mubarak St
Floor M2, tel:25733040
Underground parking is available.
Please make sure that the contents of the games donated are suitable for kids and do not contain any violent images. For more information you can follow this link
Digumz Facebook page
Follow Digumz on Twitter
Luv,
Sara D.
October 24, 2011
Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Awards
I was at Rodeo Drive yesterday and noticed that they had trucks and catering working all day for the “Walk of Style” event that would take place later that day, so of course we hung out until all the stars came to honor Iman the super model and Missoni, most members of the Missoni family were present, along with many celebs and people in the fashion industry.
There was a silent auction for the “save the children” foundation, I noticed that most stores on Rodeo Drive had donated items from their brands for the auction, including a Matinee Kimono from Agent Provocateur and a red bag from Bally etc.
The seats were all covered in Missoni’s colorful cushions and many of the celebs who attended the event were dressed in Missoni as well. I will leave you with the pictures I managed to take of the event:
Rodeo Drive
Catering for the "Walk of Style" event
The area where the celebs will lounge
The press waiting at the "pink" carpet
Mena Suvari, from "American Beauty" & "American Pie"
The press crowding the pink carpet
Iman sans David Bowie 
Iman at the Walk of Style event
Rachel Zoe, she's soo tiny!
Alessandra Ambrosio (Victoria's Secret "angels" model)
Rachel Zoe with husband
Rachel with Margherita Missoni
Nicky Hilton at the Walk of Style Awards
Sofia Vergara in Missoni (from Modern Family)
The Missoni family (Ottavio and Rosita Missoni and their kids)
Paris and Nicky Hilton's parents were present as well
Paris Hilton's mom at the Walk of Style Awards
Well, that is pretty much it, again sorry for the lack of details hope the pictures does the event some justice, it was a nice event for those interested in fashion it was nice to be present at such an event (even if standing on the sidelines lol) but was fun nonetheless.
Luv,
Sara D.
