On Wednesday, in what advocates are saying is a significant step in the ongoing attempt to decriminalise sex work nationwide, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced that it would no longer prosecute prostitution or unlicensed massage. Cyrus R. Vance. Jr., the district attorney, asked a judge to dismiss 914 open cases, as well as 5,080 cases charging people with loitering for the purpose of prostitution — many dating back to the 1970s and ’80s when “New York waged a war against prostitution in an effort to clean up its image as a center of iniquity and vice,” as reported by The New York Times. The request highlights a significant shift in how New York City law enforcement is approaching sex work. Last month, Chirlane McCray and her husband, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, demanded the end of state penalties for sex work “The communities hit hardest by the continued criminalisation of sex work and human trafficking are overwhelmingly LGBTQ, they are people of color, and they are undocumented immigrants,” McCray said. “Sex work is a means of survival for many in these marginalised groups.” But other advocates say that the request is lip service and that more must be done to fully decriminalise sex work and make sex and body work safer. While the district attorney will no longer prosecute prostitution cases, law enforcement can and will still “prosecute other crimes related to prostitution, including patronising sex workers, promoting prostitution and sex trafficking, and said that its policy would not stop it from bringing other charges that stem from prostitution-related arrests,” as reported by The Times. “This is a good first step as DA Vance is looking to dismiss 5,944 cases involving sex work,” Udi Ofer, the Deputy National Political Director of the ACLU and Director of the ACLU’s Justice Division, tweeted. “Now on to full decriminalisation. The police should not be arresting people in the first place. Sex work is work and must be decriminalised.” Currently, prostitution is illegal in all 50 states, except 10 counties in Nevada. Nine states have harsher penalties for those seeking sex work services, while two — Delaware and Minnesota — actually have harsher penalties for those who offer sex work. Until all states follow suit, and more is done in even the most progressive cities to decriminalise sex work, those who engage in consensual body work still face high rates of police abuse, harassment, and unsafe work conditions. By continuing to prosecute those who patronise sex workers, as well as those who promote sex work, those in positions of power lift up and perpetuate the narrative that those engaged in sex work do not choose it but are rather coerced or trafficked. That is hardly the case. A look into often regurgitated child sex trafficking statistics shows the numbers and information to be incredibly skewed or entirely false. It’s often reported that there are 100,000 to 300,000 children “locked in sex slavery in the US.” But in truth, that number comes from a 2001 study which actually refers to youths up to age 21 at risk of sexual exploitation — not trafficking. While trafficking is considered in that figure, it’s the least prevalent form of exploitation, according to The Washington Post. The person who conducted the study also said in 2011 that the number of minors trafficked was closer to “a few hundred.” Also, the majority of sex workers do not have pimps, nor do they “work the streets” as is often depicted in media. And if a sex worker does work with a pimp, that pimp often works as the sex worker’s employee — not the other way around. To truly make it safer for body workers to engage in consensual sex and massage work, advocates say complete decriminalisation is the only true path forward. Not only would decriminalising sex work make it that much harder for people to engage in sex trafficking — one 2008 study found that after New Zealand legalised sex work in 2003, there were “no incidents of trafficking” — it also protects sex workers from police officer harassment and abuse. A reported 30% of sex workers say they have been violently threatened by police officers, according to a report from the Sex Workers Project. A reported 27% actually experienced violence at the hands of law enforcement. “If our goal is to make it safer for all people in general, victims of trafficking an adult consensual sex workers, then prosecuting people who are seeking sex workers still makes it less safe,” Jill McCracken, co-direct of SWOP Behind Bars, told Rolling Stone. “It pushes sex work into the shadows, it discourages people from coming forward. It basically says this is an illegal act that should be criminalised and maintains all the stigma.” Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Students Are Turning To Sex Work To Pay RentThe New York Post Doxxed A Paramedic On OnlyFans<em>Godless </em>Makes An Excellent Point About Sex Work
For its latest star-studded campaign, Gucci gathered the likes of Diane Keaton, Dakota Johnson, Serena Williams, and, yes, frequent collaborator Harry Styles for a Guccified version of James Corden’s The Late Late Show. On this fictional television segment, though, the guests didn’t promote their latest films, athletic wins, or music accomplishments. Rather, the hot seat was occupied by Gucci’s most beloved handbag styles, from the Marmont to the Dionysus. Of course, Styles had our favourite one. For his appearance, the “Watermelon Sugar” singer wore a fluffy fur coat with an untied pussy-bow blouse, ‘70s-style wide-leg jeans, and an impressive lineup of cocktail rings. Strewn across his shoulder was his go-to black Jackie bag, a style that was first introduced by the brand in the ‘60s before being reissued by Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele in his fall ‘20 collection. The bag, named after First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, has, of late, become a staple in Styles’ wardrobe. Styles first took a liking to the Jackie bag in February 2020, when he was spotted outside of BBC Studios in London with one worn over his shoulder. With it, he wore a teal, embroidered jacket from Bode, black Vans, chestnut-colored corduroy pants, and his signature pearls. Later that year, in October, he was spotted in Los Angeles in that same jacket again, but this time, he took the look a step further, pairing the lightweight outerwear with a matching teal Jackie bag. This latest look only proves what we already knew: Styles is a bag man. It’s too bad that the Jackie bag is already named after a style icon, or, like his Éliou necklace, we’d be calling it the Harry bag in no time. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Harry Styles Got Cher Horowitz's Stamp Of ApprovalHarry Styles Wore Three Boas To The GrammysHarry Styles Is Behind All Of Today's Top Trends
Hailey Bieber, who’s never been shy about doling out beauty tips, just shared an in-depth list of the skincare products she’s currently using every night before going to bed. In the video posted on her new YouTube channel, the model tells us the most effective skin-care step she picked up during quarantine, what she does when she’s breaking out, and why looking like a glazed donut is the ultimate aspiration for hydrated skin. Bieber has relatable skin concerns: sensitivity and dryness with the occasional pimple or two. Her entire routine focuses on gentle products, intense hydration, and the pursuit of that elusive glow. As far as celebrity skincare routines go, Bieber’s sits in the decently affordable column, though not without its splurge picks. In total, if you decided to go out and purchase every product she used — which she conveniently listed in her video description — all eight would run you about £340. Before calling it a night, the first thing Bieber does is wash her face — in fact, she double cleanses, a practice she picked up during lockdown. “I’m going to start with an oil cleanser, because I have a lot of makeup on and I don’t use makeup wipes,” she says, removing her makeup with Mara Beauty Algae Enzyme Cleansing Oil, which retails for about £41. “It’s honestly made the biggest difference in my skin.” Bieber follows up the initial cleanse with HoliFrog Tashmoo Water Lily Nourishing Milky Wash (£27), revealing that she tends to avoid overly foaming cleansers in favour of more milky ones to avoid drying out her skin. Next, Bieber followed up with one of the more expensive items in her routine, the Biba Los Angeles Plant Stem Cell Peptide Serum. “I think it’s one of the best things you can put on your skin,” she said, massaging and patting the serum into her face. Bieber followed up with the brand’s Cream Barrier moisturiser while her skin was still a bit damp. “Find yourself a moisturizer that helps you look like a glazed donut at the end of the day,” she said. (The Biba products retail for £61 and £68, respectively.) Then, because the model has drier skin, she tops the moisturizer with Furtuna Skin Due Alberi Biphase Moisturizing Oil, the priciest product in her arsenal at £92. Bieber’s nightly routine focuses on catering to skin in need of some extra moisture, but the doesn’t mean that she doesn’t spot treat her pimples. Using a prescription treatment from her dermatologist, Bieber dabs the tiniest amount on a couple of spots before covering them with Star Face Pimple Stickers. “They totally help heal a pimple… and they look cute,” she said of the bright-yellow star acne patches, which are £11.99 per pack. Last but not least, the model finishes off her evening routine with the relatively affordable bareMinerals Ageless Phyto-Retinol Eye Cream, dabbing it both under her eye and on her lids. The last product is hands-down the most budget-friendly at right around five dollars: the Aquaphor Healing Ointment, which she “legitimately cannot go to bed without” using as a lip balm. In the end, Bieber achieves her glazed-donut goals — and we have eight product recommendations to seriously consider. Refinery29’s selection is purely editorial and independently chosen – we only feature items we love! As part of our business model we do work with affiliates; if you directly purchase something from a link on this article, we may earn a small amount of commission. Transparency is important to us questions please reach out to us. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?TikTok's Experts Want You To Stop Using Eye CreamIs Toner Necessary In Skincare? We Asked The ProsThe Big Mistake You're Making In Your Skin Routine
It was taken by the Duchess of Cambridge herself too 😍
Two summers ago, I sat in the basement of my house writing “East Coast Demerara” in Sharpie on barrels waiting to be shipped. I’d only been to my parents’ birthplace twice (once as an infant and again as a teenager), but despite the physical distance from Guyana, my Guyanese ancestry has been a close and powerful force throughout my life. Family conversations are peppered with vocal inflections and, between mouthfuls of peas and rice, puri, and chicken foot, we speak slanted English, patwa. My relationship with Guyana mirrors Guyana’s relationship with the Caribbean; though the country is technically a part of South America, culturally, it has more in common with Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago. Even from afar, we remain close. Without making annual trips to Guyana, I still have a constant connection with the country through an unexpected channel: hand-me-down clothing. Over the years, tall brown or blue cylinders with plastic covers have taken up space in my basement. We pack them to the brim with new and worn clothes, as well as toys, school supplies, and household items. Even my Grandma Ruby, at 82 years old, makes sure to send barrels back home to the Nabaclis village where she raised my uncles. In 1970, when she was 32 years old, Ruby left her children in Guyana to come to America to find work so she could earn enough money to send for her entire family, a labour trend that has contributed to the influx of Caribbean immigrants in New York City that now makes up at least two-fifths of the City’s population, according to a study referenced in Nancy Foner’s Islands In The City. My family, like many other immigrants, grew up in a country where the opportunities were scarce but the talent abundant. That ecosystem equipped them with frugality mindsets. They turn off lights behind their American-born children because, back home, they were lucky if they had a flambo, a kerosene lamp. They fret over their children’s needs to own more than two pairs of shoes because they remember what it was like to share shoes with their siblings. Sustainability is not a cute word used to describe the plastic bags balled up under sinks or the tomato sauce jars used to store green seasoning and achar. They are simply the patterns of necessity many families have grown up with, a flex of their creativity and ability to preserve. “Caribbean immigrant families are being sustainable without even knowing,” explained 20-year-old Kaliyah Bennett, whose family is from Jamaica. Bennett remembers her grandmother helping her and her cousins step on top of their barrel to shut it. Clever marketing and slick fashion campaigns can lead us to believe that sustainable fashion is new, luxurious, and justifiably overpriced. But Caribbean families and other immigrant groups in the States have been practicing it for generations. This “new age” of fashion sustainability is unfashionably late to the party. For many Caribbean families, practicing sustainability “the American way” has become a trap. Wear the “right” sustainable clothes and receive praise; wear the “wrong” ones, and be seen as pitiable. When we treat sustainability as a luxury commodity, instead of a cultural practice, we make it less accessible. Visible displays of sustainability — and the moralistic high horse that comes with them — has become yet a status symbol. Compounded with the increasingly cheap prices of fast-fashion, sustainability becomes a practice that only the privileged can engage with. The message the industry sends is cynical: If you can’t afford to be sustainable, you are inconsiderate, even immoral. For many Caribbean families, practicing sustainability “the American way” has become a trap. Wear the “right” sustainable clothes and receive praise; wear the “wrong” ones, and be seen as pitiable. For Imani A Islam whose family is originally from Trinidad, secondhand clothes came to represent an otherness to non-Caribbeans she couldn’t shake. Even though thrifting has become a fad for many who can afford to shop elsewhere, Islam still associated pre-worn clothes with being un-American. Being the child of immigrants is a balancing act: We teeter between embracing our parents’ cultural quirks and disavowing them for trends that obscure our otherness. Like many, she was more impressed with new clothes over “knock-offs” but her thoughts changed when she realised secondhand clothes came with a responsibility to treasure the memories woven into them. “Now, hand-me-down clothes make me feel that I’m receiving something that could potentially have been lost. I’m [not only] excited about how I’ll be able to add it to my wardrobe to enhance an outfit I plan on wearing, [but also about] passing it on later on when I have my own children,” she explained. To the diaspora, secondhand clothes are much more than an act of goodwill. They’re a tether to culture. “I always marvelled at the urgency at home when we knew the ‘Barrel Man’ was coming to tape and pick up our barrel to send off to the DR,” said Delanisse Valdez, a 22-year-old Dominican who grew up in Brooklyn, who learned about sustainability from her family. “It felt like we were teleporting emotional parts of ourselves to another country.” Her grandmother, with her seamstress skills, reimagined old clothes into new styles. Her consciousness regarding sustainability wasn’t just tied to ecological and economic reasons, but also cultural ones. Used clothes were an opportunity to sustain a connection with her family in the Dominican Republic. “Growing up in Brooklyn was basically like growing up in a mini Caribbean. All of my friends at school were from St. Lucia, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Dominican Republic, and other islands. We’d always talk amongst each other about the intersection of our family experiences regardless of being from different islands in the Caribbean. I’d later come to understand what the Black Diaspora was and how these small interpersonal interactions like shipping barrels out to family, are happening on such a grand scale as well,” said Valdez. When 27-year-old Mani Claxton, whose family is from St. Kitts, moved in with her boyfriend in 2016, whose family is from Haiti, she wanted to ingratiate herself to this new family. In Caribbean culture, it’s damn near sacrilegious to show up to someone’s house for the first time without a gift of some kind; you grow up knowing not to show up with your two long hands, and Claxton’s grandmother made sure her granddaughter didn’t arrive empty-handed. But when Claxton showed up with a trash bag full of clothes, it turned out that her boyfriend’s grandma already had four barrels to send back to Haiti. Claxton knew she was home. [Secondhand clothes] is about knowing you are provided for; that there is always someone in your corner looking out for you to make sure that, at the bare minimum, you look your best — because, if nothing else, you’ll go out in the world looking like your people. For some, receiving secondhand clothes and wearing them is a loud proclamation of what you lack, but for the Caribbean women who immigrate to the city, these clothes are a proclamation of all that they have — namely, their rich community. When Camryn Bruno, of Afro-Trinidadian descent, was growing up, she knew that before she went shopping at clothing stores like Rainbow and Dresses for Less on Merrick Boulevard and Jamaica Ave in Queens, her first destination for a new outfit would be her step-cousin’s closet. “It’s really a joy to repurpose clothes back into our communities so we can reduce waste. Thrifting is becoming the cool thing to do nowadays.” Barrel children like Bruno are also equipped to tap into the skill inherent in reusing clothes: “[It’s provided] youth with an option to create small businesses and get revenue,” she says. In her eyes, seeing Gen Z take an active part in this cultural experience is a big step in the direction of financial literacy and building community. And the beauty of passing down clothes flows in both directions. It’s common for my aunt to rush me into her room to pull out a shirt, skirt, or shorts that don’t fit her anymore. The excitement on her face as she envisions the piece on me makes it clear that this practice, at its core, is about love and selflessness. It is about thinking of someone outside yourself and wanting to enrich their lives. It is about knowing you are provided for; that there is always someone in your corner looking out for you to make sure that, at the bare minimum, you look your best — because, if nothing else, you’ll go out in the world looking like your people. While Caribbean immigrants have been finessing their fashion on a budget, fashion should take notes from afar. Sustainability is not a “trend” or exclusive product. It should be an expected, accessible, community-based practice that feels good to participate in. “People need to understand that everything you buy or eat is brought to you by centuries of colonisation,” explained the writer Aja Barber, whose work exposes the many interconnected faults within the fashion industry that keeps people — especially poor Black women — on the margins. “For so long, sustainable fashion has been incredibly white. It has highlighted people with the most amount of privilege and power for seemingly good deeds while ignoring that people of colour and those without funds are harmed the hardest by the system and not even doing the bulk of the damage.” Barber’s heritage also primed her for her work. “I have family in St. Thomas Virgin Islands, and [sending barrels home] was definitely a practice we engaged in. But it wasn’t just the Caribbean family, it was all of our family up and down the Eastern Seaboard. We grew up wearing so many hand-me-down from cousins and family friends as well. A friend recently posted a photo of herself on Facebook wearing pink shortalls and I remarked that I had the same ones — and they were hers! I generally think people with the least amount of privilege and power have always engaged in this practice, and nobody gave it a title. Unfortunately, throughout much of my life, secondhand clothing made you the butt of many jokes. I’m glad it’s becoming more of the norm, but we probably need to talk about how the world demonised so many marginalised people for this practice.” Sustainable fashion should not be overpriced or marketed as a new phenomenon. My family proves it works when it’s not. When your community is taken care of by its members, there is incentive to look out for those growing up after you. The pride I have in my culture is evident in my speech, my mannerisms, and every pre-worn garment I put on. Sustainability, in homes like mine and the people I spoke to, was born out of necessity, appreciated as a sign of success, and nurtured through generations as a symbol of unlimited care and inventiveness. Sustainability works and sticks when it’s tied to real communities, real families, and real cultures instead of just an expensive badge of moral superiority. For sustainability to succeed — and we need it to succeed — we have to be real about the spaces where it’s already flourishing and where it has not. After all, it’s my community, not the fashion establishment, who unequivocally sees a barrel of used clothing as a thing of beauty, because it truly is. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?"Pirates Of The Caribbean" Has A Brand New LeadExclusive: Winnie Harlow Gets Ready For The MetMale & Female Relationships In The Caribbean
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TW: This article talks openly and frankly about the death of loved ones Death doesn’t usually come up over an oat latte or a bottomless brunch. It doesn’t feel appropriate to ask your boss for a month off after a significant loss, despite the fact that your life has changed irreversibly. There’s an expectation that grief expires, that its grip on our heart relaxes and we can continue on with our lives once a certain amount of time has passed. But that’s simply not true. Grief is still a taboo subject. It is discussed straight after the death happens when there’s a wave of support but, a few weeks later, it begins to dwindle as life (and supposedly grief) moves on. In the UK, there’s no standardised bereavement leave so the only option is returning to work, and ‘normal’ life, a few days or weeks later. From then on, grief is swept under the carpet. It isn’t thrown into conversation over a coffee or slipped into a “How are you?” text from your friend. Those who are not going through it treat grief as if it is a burden; it weighs down a chat with an invisible black cloud that nobody knows how to deal with. There is a community on TikTok where this is not the case. The #grief hashtag on TikTok has over 436 million views, with thousands of stories of bereavement offering a much-needed dose of reality to those suffering in silence. On GriefTok, there’s no sugar-coating the loss of loved ones, no aesthetic filters to soften the blow. No one here is biting their bottom lip so as not to cry. Instead, users openly and honestly share the truth of unpredictable, lifelong grief. It is a nonjudgmental space where no one has to explain how grief feels as everyone else who is grieving already understands. According to Child Bereavement UK, one in 29 children between the age of 5 and 16 have been bereaved of a parent or a sibling — on average that’s one child in every class. In the UK alone, 111 children under the age of 18 lose a parent every day. I was one of those children. I was 16 when I lost my dad to a brain tumour. Having to explain to every single person that your parent has died is emotionally exhausting, especially when they respond with that look. It was refreshing, then, to find TikTok user @hiitsmisspetch making light of this experience in a video, listing the things people have asked her about her parents before responding, emotionless: “They’re dead.” @hiitsmisspetch Stuff people say whose parents have died #parents #grief #loss #griefandloss ♬ Oh No – Kreepa It is the honesty of @cayleighs_car_chats who records herself singing along to “Killing Me Softly” before bursting into tears as she remembers singing the song with her brother and sister who passed away. It is the raw display of emotion from @kristen_barness who records a video through floods of tears, sharing how her sister used to do her makeup when she felt insecure. Now that her sister’s gone, she struggles to do it herself. Videos from brave women like this remind us that even small, everyday tasks are filled with emotions and memories which make daily life so bittersweet after losing someone you loved. Users on GriefTok often choose to capture a very specific moment in their grief journey for their videos, from revisiting a parent’s grave after 20 years to letting go of their possessions and the empty chair at the dining table. Each video is a snapshot of living with loss which beautifully encapsulates the sadness and the joy in remembrance. Since bereavement isn’t discussed openly, we haven’t all developed the language to talk about grief. Out of fear of saying the wrong thing, friends stop mentioning the death at all. Yet according to a survey by Child Bereavement UK, 26% of adults who have lost a close family member wish their friends would mention by name the person who died, while a tenth of all adults say some of their friends actively avoided them after they lost a loved one. It’s never been more important for grievers to feel heard; the UK saw 70,000 excess deaths in the pandemic, bringing the total of bereaved individuals to an estimated 2.6 million in 2020 alone. @cayleighs_car_chats #grief is Killing Me Softly… #grieving #griefjourney #griefandloss #fypage #fyp #reality #normalizegrief ♬ original sound – Cayleigh Pina As anyone who has been bereaved will tell you, grief doesn’t have an expiration date. It’s not something you ‘get over’; you can feel the loss as fervently as ever, decades after it happened. As someone who is well acquainted with grief, I found the discussions about grief on TikTok heartbreakingly honest and relatable. When my dad died, I felt like a part of me died with him. He was 46, full of life and, until he was diagnosed, the healthiest person I knew. Death is always a shock, even if someone has a terminal illness. Nothing quite prepares you for their death nor anyone else to be able to support you. I felt so alone in my grief, even though my family and I were going through the same loss. I had to sit my GCSE exam several hours after he died, go to school every day, get my A-levels. I was forced to return to everyday life as though nothing had changed and, while I tried, sometimes I couldn’t get out of bed. I shut down because I didn’t know how to express how I felt. I certainly didn’t know that I’d have to learn to live with my grief – that it doesn’t go away. @kristen_barness ##imissyousissy ##llt ##grief ♬ Heal – Tom Odell The pain is in the small moments too, as TikTokers Cayleigh and Kristen highlighted. I’d go out for dinner with my family and the waiter would remove the fourth place at the table. I’d listen to my friends tell me what they were getting their dad for Father’s Day or how they’d argued with him over a party. Death fundamentally makes people very uncomfortable. But as @hiitsmisspetch’s video and the thousands of comments beneath it point out, sometimes the reality of a situation needs to be said directly, in order to just get through it. Initially I didn’t know how to talk about grief; I didn’t have the words as I hadn’t been taught them. GriefTok is a space for everyone to share the intimate and painful details of death in a very public, frank way. As a watcher, I don’t have to comment or engage if I don’t feel up to it. I can just listen to stories and feel less alone in my grief as I know the other users understand. Listening also helps you develop the language to talk about your own grief: sometimes people can describe how you’re feeling even when you can’t. The GriefTok community is changing the dialogue around grief for the better by offering more than a condolence after a death. It’s about sustaining a lifelong and compassionate conversation about grief. In the same way that you’ve probably tried the TikTok wrap hack or used the platform to learn a new dance, think of GriefTok as a reminder to check in with your grieving friends months and even years after the death; keep the dialogue honest and ongoing. Sadly, everyone will get to know the shorthand of grief eventually in their lifetime. Until that day, observe GriefTok, empathise and, most importantly, bring that dialogue into the real world. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?The Bucket Hat That Helped Me Grieve My FatherHow Bereavement Doulas Help Women After LossHow Activism Helped Heal My Grief
Dear Daniela,How important is it to drink water for your skin? I constantly hear beauty influencers and celebrities saying that water is their ultimate beauty secret, and I see people on TikTok challenging themselves to drink these massive bottles of it every day. I know water is good for you but will it really affect my skin? How much do I need to drink?Alannah, 29 As a cub reporter, I was sent backstage at more fashion shows than I can remember. I would have to sweet-talk stern women with clipboards and ear pieces to get in, then duck flying cans of hairspray and sidestep clothes rails speeding towards me. My goal? Approach the models and ask them for their ‘beauty secrets’ while they sat in hair and makeup, legs akimbo, in a folding chair, scrolling on their phones. Sometimes one of them would reveal a cool French pharmacy product I’d not heard of before, or maybe even tell me their favourite facialist. But for the most part they’d intone: “I drink a lot of water.”You’re absolutely right that water is non-negotiable in anyone’s daily regime, for health and beauty reasons, and like you I’ve seen the curious trend of the ‘two gallon’ challenge. If you were previously exclusively drinking juice, fizzy drinks or coffee, drinking more water will almost definitely make you feel better. I mean, humans are about 70% water. We’re cucumbers with imposter syndrome! But what is the tipping point in terms of it actually helping our skin? “Water is the main component of our cells and tissues, and represents the majority of our body’s composition,” confirmed Dr Costas Papageorgiou, a plastic surgeon and aesthetic doctor. “Some studies show an increase in what we call ‘deep’ skin hydration after additional water intake, as well as reductions of the clinical signs of dryness and roughness, plus an increase in the elasticity of the skin. However, a clear definition of our daily water requirements does not exist,” he added.There are a few guidelines bouncing around. Dr Papageorgiou pointed to an American recommendation of 2.7 litres and 3.7 litres a day for men and women respectively, and a more conservative recommendation from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of 2l and 2.5l of water per day for women and men. The British Dietetic Association suggests even less at 1.5 to 2 litres a day. The popular maxim that eight glasses a day is the magic number comes from a recommendation made all the way back in 1945 and even in that recommendation, the following sentence noted that most of that water is actually found in foods. Apples, spinach, tomatoes – lots of fruits and vegetables are high in water, and it’s advisable to eat your water as well as drink it. “Cutaneous water content, or the amount of water in the skin, is known to play an important role in different skin functions, such as the water ‘barrier‘ and water deficiency is associated with several dermatological dysfunctions,” explained Dr Papageorgiou. Not staying adequately hydrated could indeed make your skin feel tight, dry and itchy, especially if you’re already prone to eczema or dermatitis. Hydrated skin also reflects light better, which can give you a dewier, fresher face, but there’s no study which says a certain, exact amount will tip you over into ‘unlocking’ the benefits of skin hydration. No doubt anyone who has acne will have been told at some point to drink more water, which must be just as annoying as “just wash your face”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s nothing to say that chugging Evian will do much for breakouts. “More research is needed to confirm whether drinking more water can improve acne,” said Dr Papageorgiou. “Water is essential to proper detoxification, as it helps carry nutrients through your body, flush out toxins and keep your liver and kidneys working efficiently.” One really important thing to take away there: when Dr Papageorgiou says ‘detoxification’, he’s talking about your body’s own detoxification system of kidneys, liver and sweat, not green juices, herbal teas or ‘clean’ eating. The best way to think about water as part of your skincare routine is as a foundational layer that will almost undoubtedly support your skin’s health but probably won’t fundamentally change how it looks or feels in the same way skincare or even injectables might. If you know you don’t drink much – or really any – water and your skin is feeling dry and/or you’re bothered by breakouts, increasing your water consumption is probably advisable and hopefully it will help. Just like sleep and diet, you need to be at a point where what you’re aiming for is doable, sustainable and enjoyable for you. Some people need nine hours of shut-eye, others really are fine on five. Some people feel that dairy plays havoc with their complexion, others mainline cheese with little ill effect. Overhydration is absolutely a thing and it does happen. While I have no authority to comment on the safety of ‘water challenges’, some of the bottles I’ve seen people fight their way through are alarmingly large – even if it’s not dangerous, it’s almost certainly superfluous. One thing’s for sure: if someone tells you their only beauty secret is to drink water? Take it with a pinch of salt.Daniela Got a question for our resident beauty columnist Daniela Morosini? No problem, qualm or dilemma is too big, small or niche. Email deardaniela@vice.com, including your name and age for a chance to have your question answered. All letters to ‘Dear Daniela’ become the property of Refinery29 and will be edited for length, clarity, and grammatical correctness. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Will Drinking Chlorophyll Water Give Me Good Skin?Is Beauty Sleep Real? The Answer May Surprise YouDo Bottle Bags Make You Drink More Water?
The pandemic has been a big time for homeware. Since we can’t leave our spaces and aren’t moving if we can help it, people have sought decorative changes to keep the same four walls feeling fresh. That could be with new soft furnishings, rearranging corners or injecting some energy with organic, living or edible objects. A carefully iced cake adds decadence to a tablescape; a steadily stocked fruit bowl can bring colour to an otherwise bland kitchen countertop; flowers, whether dried or fresh, bring life and light to dull corners and rarely unoccupied workspaces. It has always been the case that in some form, organic objects are decorative touches to our living spaces. But in recent months, the homeware space has welcomed fakery. Fruit bowls overflow with crocheted bananas and grapes; inedible cakes hang suspended from walls; furry mushrooms sit on side tables; windowsills are dotted with knitted cacti; vases are filled with colourful paper flowers. The ‘living’ decorative object of today is fake. It knows it, and it wants us to know it too. DashDividers_1_500x100 Fake decorative objects, at first glance, are purely functional. The organic pieces we decorate our homes with are not cheap – fresh flowers need to be replenished and come at a significant cost, while fruit, vegetables and baked goods are destined to be consumed at some point or thrown out when they begin to decay. Instead of curating a space with something that will wilt or rot away, fake fruit, flowers and cakes can last forever. This desire to not be limited by an item’s shelf life is what drove Nadia, the creator of @wonky_picnic, to create her crocheted fruit. “Crochet has been a daily hobby of mine for the past 10 years so when the lockdown began I decided to challenge myself to see if I could create patterns that would as closely resemble the real deal! I’ve always been drawn to fruit aesthetically, but by their very nature they have a short shelf life, so I wanted to create a fake fruit bowl that was playful and tactile.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wonky Picnic (@wonky_picnic) Daisy runs A South London Makers Market on Instagram where she works with some of the platform’s most exciting small homeware and fashion brands. As part of that work she identifies ‘fake’ items as a key trend that’s been on the rise since 2020. “We’ve definitely seen a rise over the last year in small makers creating, and consumers buying, objects that are deliberately fake! It’s really exploded.” She likewise attributes this to wanting to decorate without the constant maintenance. “I think this whole concept plays into a couple of trends we’ve seen really take off at the market, the first of which is the desire to have beautiful things in our home that stay looking beautiful forever! Personally, I want every room to look lovely but I don’t necessarily want to put the effort into maintaining endless bowls of fruit, bunches of flowers and plants.” However, Daisy also places it as part of a larger impulse towards nature which has blossomed (pun not intended) in the last year. Trends like cottagecore, cottage hardcore and the rising popularity of mushrooms (as well as their glassy, sophisticated Murano lamp form) speak to a call towards nature. It seems logical that flowers and food would be swept up, too. Other trends like checkerboard, bold patterns, textured finishes and organic shapes are also at play here. Amy Gemmell of @amygemmelldesign was tufting rugs and wall flowers for much of 2020 but only turned to mushrooms in February of this year, based in part on her love of Murano mushroom lamps. Likewise Jasmine, the creator behind @prettyshittycakes, has iced fake cakes in cow print and checkerboard print, as well as a swathe of muted and pastel shades. View this post on Instagram A post shared by tufting my dreams ☁️ (@amygemmelldesign) By being fake, these items invite our touch and exploration. You never firmly hold onto a delicate sponge cake layered with buttercream but a fake cake allows you to explore the feel of the ridges or get up close and personal with the glacé cherries. The tufted surface of a mushroom practically begs you to touch it, while the softness and resilience of a crocheted piece of fruit which you can handle without fear of damage makes it as much a toy as it is a decoration piece. Even paper flowers, which are more delicate than the other objects, are sturdy enough to be held – there’s no need to worry that simply touching its petals could make a bloom collapse in on itself. Fake decorative objects are resistant to the destruction of time or sticky fingers. It’s a nostalgic way to embrace something organic without having to deal with nature’s messy, decaying reality. All this tactility speaks to a growing playfulness in the way people have approached their homes in lockdown; a desire for knick-knacks and trinkets with no function beyond bringing joy. As Nadia tells R29: “With lockdown, it feels like more people are curating their spaces to combat digital fatigue by adding fun, playful and tactile elements to their spaces.” It seems, in part, to be a way of evoking memories of childhood that feel particularly absent from our current lived experiences. Propped around a living room or a bedroom, these items are reminiscent of kids’ playrooms or even TV sets. The textures and patterns would fit perfectly into the sets of TV shows for younger audiences popular in the ’90s and 2000s: shows like That’s So Raven or Lizzie McGuire in the ’00s, or earlier renditions like Clarissa Explains It All and even Daria. Unlike items from the natural world, they are far more resistant to the destruction of time or sticky fingers. It’s a nostalgic way to embrace something organic without having to deal with nature’s messy, decaying reality. “I think it is so interesting that we can replicate organic, ephemeral items using man-made methods,” Nadia goes on. “It’s like we’ve suspended them at their perfect ripeness but also turned them into a cartoon character of themselves.” Deliberately cartoonish and surreal, there is no mistaking this homeware for an attempt at reality. Unlike the plastic fruit bowl of the ’90s, there’s no way to hide that this is not a piece of fruit. Its fakeness is acknowledged in the vivid colours, the visible stitching and the soft, playful textures. Jessie, the maker behind @leo__flowers, adds that the visible craftsmanship isn’t just a gloss over the ‘sin’ of being fake – it actually adds to the appeal. “I think people find a real charm in the craft and time that goes into making an imitation of a beautiful natural thing. Indicators of their pseudo-ness – a crease in the paper petal or unnatural shade of pink in a glass banana – are a reminder that the object has been painstakingly made.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Leo Flowers (@leo__flowers) She links this to the pandemic helping people reconsider how they want to spend their time and their money. “As well as being a total shitshow, I’ve seen the pandemic act as a real catalyst for people to reprioritise what they spend their time, effort and money on,” Jessie says. “So many people are making an effort to slow down, shop small and buy more sustainably. Products like paper flowers lose all meaning if they become mass-produced and so this push towards more conscious consumerism creates an environment where businesses like mine can really thrive.” DashDividers_1_500x100 View this post on Instagram A post shared by PRETTYSHITTYCAKES🎂💖😋🍒 (@prettyshittycakes) There is a decadence at the heart of fruit, flowers, cake. These days, even in a pandemic, your access to them depends only on budget, not availability. And their ephemeral nature only adds to this sense of indulgence. Historically, spending money on something that wilts and dies was a sign of wealth; now, when you buy fake, that symbol of decadence can last forever. You can always have your fake cake – even if you can’t eat it, too. The fake items contain this tension: they are suspended between true decadence and pure decoration, making them as surreal as they are playful. But what better addition to our homes than something as nostalgic as it is surreal? Just as these items echo TV sets, our homes have become a kind of set too. With social media our main means of communication and our homes the only space through which we can express ourselves, a permanent display is the only way to keep your actual home resembling the carefully curated shot you put online. It’s a way to live in the Instagram interiors our feeds are flooded with, rather than endlessly trying to close the gap between who we are online and who we are in real life. No wonder that we’d rather decorate with pieces where we can embrace the trend, embrace the desire to share our homes online but laugh to ourselves as we do it. As Daisy tells R29: “I think we’re all just looking for small pockets of joy and happiness in our homes, possessions and purchases. The fact these intricately crafted items are fake is like a little in-joke to yourself! They’re just fun and full of good vibes, aren’t they?” Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Every year, Oscar conversation quickly comes to revolve around the same perennially snubbed faces, from Glenn Close to Jake Gyllenhaal. To unpack it all, Adam White spoke to superfans and awards experts on a ceremony that’s more or less become ‘the gay Super Bowl’
The 74-year-old has won over the nation’s hearts several times through the years, for his performance as Baldrick, his various audiobooks and his presenting job on Time Team. Now, Robinson talks to Ed Cumming about whether there’ll be a Blackadder reunion and why he thinks Boris Johnson is the luckiest politician in the world
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If you've been enlisted to find the perfect venue for your bestie's pre-wedding celebrations, you've come to the right place as we've searched high and low for the very best hen party houses in the UK for a post-lockdown hen do. While there are currently rules for sticking with your household when it comes to self-catering stays in England and Wales (check the government websites for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for the latest advice), these hen party houses are worth checking out for future celebrations with the girls. Take a look at our ultimate guide to luxury hen party houses, gorgeous rentals with hot tubs, properties in popular hen destinations (from Liverpool to Brighton) and large hen party houses that cater to the biggest of groups - perfect for celebrating after restrictions are (hopefully) lifted completely on 21st June.
‘Seriously has no one else spotted this?’ one fan wrote
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