Intercontinental Beauty | Muslimah Beauty

Intercontinental Beauty | Latin America

I have the biggest fascination with the Latina culture; studying Spanish for many years, I’ve loved the language, the culture and Spanish speaking countries. My favourite Spanish speaking country is Cuba, the cars and architecture take you back to the 50′s and Havana is just absolutely gorgeous. Rather than to go into each Latin American country, I thought that I may as well do something on them all as they’re just that amazing!

Latina women are just far too breathtaking to even describe; the photo above is of Puerto Rican, Oscar winning Rita Moreno. Isn’t she stunning?. They all come in a multitude of hues, shades, hair textures, sizes and shapes which is beautiful in itself. I just watch telenovas (soap operas) and movies and just sit there in awe of these women!

I got into contact with my Colombian friend Estefania and asked her to give me the scoop on how Colombian ladies get so gorgeous. There’s a big beauty culture across Latina countries and from a young age, girls are expected to be pretty, feminine and girly. From a young age, Estefania’s mother would mash an avocado and leave it in her hair whilst her mum would apply it onto her own face and they’d sit on the sofa and just catch up and talk and do each others nails. I’d love to do something like that with my daughter!

Moving from Colombia, Brazil may not be a Spanish speaking country but their women are amazingly hot so I don’t care! The beauty industry in Brazil is craaazzy with it being third largest in the world. It’s the norm to pop over to the salon every week for a beauty ritual consisting of a wax, manicure, pedicure and treating your hair to a nourishing mask. These women take care of themselves!

Brazil is full of natural beauty so Brazilian women use what grows in their own country to get beautiful. Both Babassu and Hazelnut oil are popular in Brazilian skincare, so much so that The Body Shop use Babassu oil in their Brazil Nut Body Scrub. Babassu oil is perfect for both oily and dry skin and finding an oil for both skin types is incredibly hard to find so it’s perfect for all you combination skinned Muslimah Beauties! Hazelnut oil works so well on acne and oily skin and I’m not even just saying it. I’ve got a bottle of it and I’ve used it for plenty of things but, it’s a fantastic make-up remover and moisturiser. Another great use I found for the oil is that I mixed it with both almond and walnut butter and almond oil along with ground walnuts and almonds to make my own nutty scrub. Worked sooooooo well!

Here are some other beauty secrets from Latina’s:

My Spanish teacher told me that chicken brains give you plenty of nutrients and a lovely glow to your skin too! Don’t know if I’ll be trying it any time soon though..
Massage Maracuja (passion flower) oil into your skin regularly to boost collagen renewal. The oil is rich in Vitamin C will do the job.
Brazilian beauties use Phebo Soap to leave their skin smelling sweet and feeling smooth.
Dominicano’s strengthen their nails by leaving the tiniest bit of garlic in clear nail polish for a few days. Must smell terrible but, garlic is known to be strengthening.
With all the flowers around in Cuba, the ladies are known to wear them in their hair. It looks so pretty!
Many Latina countries are by the sea so the women keep fit by running and swimming around in the sea and enjoy a good scrub by using sand and salt water.
Chilean women attribute their looks to grapes, mash a few grapes and leave them on your skin for around 15 minutes and the antioxidants will work their magic!

Click on these photos of some serious Latina beauty!

Intercontinental Beauty | Morocco

Oh my, it’s been so long since I’ve done an Intercontinental Beauty post! I put them to the back of my mind and forgot about writing. Sooner or later, I was bound to write something about Morocco. Their women are just beautiful mashallah so there’s clearly something that’s making these women gorgeous!

The most obvious beauty secret from Morocco is the Moroccan hammam’s, though they’re not a secret now as people worldwide are getting in on the action. I went to one in Egypt and I was blown away. You’re in a steam room for a while then a lady comes in and scrubs you while you’re in amazement at the dead skin that just rolls off. Going to the hammam has since left me more aware at how much I should exfoliate. One of my best friends who is Moroccan, swears by sitting in the bath for around 20 minutes then using your hands to scrub yourself until you can see that the dirt is coming off before using soap. Clearly, exfoliation is a big thing for Moroccans. I myself made a Moroccan inspired body scrub made from brown sugar, Argan Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil and Olive Oil with Ylang Ylang, Jasmine and Rose. The smell alone whisks you off to Morocco!

There’s a multitude of products from Morocco that I’m absolute love with. One that’ll I’ll never fall out of is Argan Oil. If you read Muslimah Beauty, then Argan Oil needs no introduction but, check out my post on the oil. Something else I love is Moroccan black soap; it’s a smooth brown/black paste made from mainly black olives and salt. There’s other varieties I’ve come across that contain ingredients like Eucalyptus. I came across it through my mum who always uses the stuff. What I do is soak in a warm bath full of plain water for about 20 minutes then rub the soap in and leave it for roughly 5 minutes. After that, use the soap again only with a body glove this time. It leaves your skin soooo smooth! To top off the Moroccan-ness, use Argan Oil on damp skin.

When my Moroccan friend likes to treat herself, she’ll steam her face by boiling some water with a few mint leaves, then slather on a face mask made from Rhassoul clay which is an amazing Moroccan clay containing magnesium, calcium and potassium which cleans out dirt and grime making it an ideal mask for acne prone and oily skin. She’ll either mix the clay with just water or, yoghurt and honey. Then she finishes off by mixing together Olive and Argan Oil as a face moisturiser. It leaves her skin glistening, acne free and moisturised.