Beyond Skin Blog
Day 12
Our final day at the school! We started off with another make-up demo this morning, then had the girls do up a face chart of how they would like their make-up done for today’s graduation! After doing each other’s make-up, and having our final spicy lunch at the centre, we had some goodies for the children in the centre – they were delighted, and sang us ‘In the Jungle, the mighty Jungle’! How cute! After this, our graduation ceremony began!
All of the girls were so proud to receive their certificates, and we had even done up a mock certificate for our male interpreter – ‘male with the most knowledge of beauty therapy and make-up’! We had organised a surprise party to finish off an successful two weeks.
After the ceremony, the girls surprised us too, with some gorgeous gifts of home-made bags, flowers, authentic vases and ornaments, and lots of home made jewellery.
We then said our goodbyes to the girls – it was very emotional, as we have built up a strong bond with them all. Along with Sabuj Sangha, LA are committed to ensuring that support for these women doesn’t just end here. We left a full LA make-up kit at the centre, so that the girls can return weekly for practice, until they feel fully confident to work with clients. Their own personal kit has much of the basics they need to practice, including a full set of our amazing LA brushes.
We can’t believe that our journey here has come to an end. India has changed us forever, and we will never forget our experience. It has been a huge mix of emotions, since the moment we landed in India, and as much as we’re looking forward to seeing you all at home, we are very sad to leave.
So for now……..so long India!!!!
Julie and Leanne x
Day 11
Day 3 of Make-Up today. Leanne demonstrated full face of Bridal make-up for the girls today, and they all had a practice. The standard was very good, and everyone looked amazing afterwards! Liner in particular was of high standard. We also covered bridal hair, and were delighted that some of the girls shared some Indian styles with us too!
It’s our second last day at the school, and it’s so rewarding to see how the girls have progressed, and how their confidence has grown.
We into the markets tonight, to pick up the last few bits for the graduation party tomorrow. This is the main shopping area, stalls upon stalls of everything, from spices to food to silks. It’s where people do their weekly shopping, and is certainly an experience.
We can’t believe tomorrow is our last day with the girls. We’ve got to know them all so well!
Julie and Leanne x
Day 10
What an amazing day at the training centre today. We demo’d some different styles of shadow – wash of colour and contouring. This, along with the liner, made it a real fun day for the students. The standard was high among the girls, with some being very adventurous!
Leanne also demo’d hair straightening and GHD curls. Some of the girls have really long hair, so the results were amazing! Later she demo’d plaiting and buns!
We were invited to dinner this evening, by the mother of our interpreter! Having seen Indian life on the city streets, towns and even remote villages, we were delighted to have the opportunity to experience life on the inside of an Indian home. Robert (our interpreter, lives with his brother, Mother and Father. It’s a small family unit, in comparison with many Indian households. We had spoken to Soma previously (she is married to president of Sabuj Sangha), and when she got married, she moved into her husband’s family home, along with his 4 brothers, their wives and all the children. It’s where they still live now, with their own child! It sounds bizarre to us in Ireland, but there is great family support, and all the family help each other out with everything.
The food was amazing, with many courses before the mains!
Day 9
First day of Make-Up at last! We spent today ensuring the girls get the perfect base for make-up, focusing on foundations, correcting, and shade and highlight. The girls were amazed at what could be achieved by using a couple of different foundation colours on one face!
Two of the students had brought us in some photos of bridal make-up, and we could see that because of the amount of shimmer they use all over, there is no definition to the face. Bridal Make-Up is very popular, and this is an area of training, that will benefit the girls immensely.
In the afternoon, we demonstrated the perfect liner – this is a big part of Indian make-up, so all our students were delighted to learn the correct application technique.
We can’t believe how quickly the time is going! There is so much for us to take in here every day, that we don’t notice the time ticking away. Seems to be another festival on in Kolkata – we hadn’t heard about it, but the marching band passing by our accommodation at midnight last night suggested it! What a wonderful city!
Julie and Leanne x
Day 8
Today we did our third day of facials with everyone doing a full run through. We introduced some new massage movements, as the girls really liked the massage! The standard is very high, with big interest in ingredients and cosmetic science. The language is not much of a barrier, as we have our wonderful interpreter Robert with us! With the knowledge they now have, they will excel in retailing their products to ensure their customers always look amazing.
Skin lightening is very desirable here in India, and almost all products are marketed this way. The girls were amazed that in Ireland, we all want to have the sunkissed look, so we brought it some fake tan to show them. We always want what we haven’t got!
We went shopping this evening, to get some things for the girls graduation on Friday. We are going to make it really special – we’re very excited!
India has really grown on us, especially after the weekend we had at the Sunderbans. We love it here!
Day 6 & 7 – Our First Weekend
One week finished already! The girls have learned so much in the last week, and are so excited about next week, especially when we start the make-up!
We spent the weekend in a beautiful untouched part of the world – The Sunderbans. The president of Sabuj Sangha is from here, and the reason he started the charity, is because of the high mortality rate for mothers and infants in childbirth (including his own mother) and complete lack of facilities.. The Sabuj Sangha campus is a central part of the village, producing electricity by solar power, that they hope eventually can be put into houses in the village.
As there was a potential charity sponsor being shown around, we decided to tag along. We were privileged to visit some of the most remote villages in the Sunderbans – a couple of hours by boat around the delta region, to one of the smaller islands. Many of the people here had never seen any white people, so needless to say we attracted a crowd! The lives they lead are so simple, and self-sufficient.
Back on the mainland, we were shown around the hospital, that Sabuj Sangha fund without any government support, even seeing theatre where surgery takes place. The facilities are great, but let’s just say, we hope we stay well, while we’re here! Just as well we hadn’t seen it before the huge fishing vessel crashed into our boat – yes really! It’s just another random everyday surprise we find here in India.
Back on the mainland, Chai with the locals in the town finished the evening off. As there is no electricity in the village, other than the town, it’s bustling even late at night. There is no social welfare support here, so people make a living whatever way they can. One shop in the town charges mobile phones for locals, and sells / does nothing else. Another shop sells bananas only!
We are looking forward to tomorrow, starting week 2 with our amazing students, and we’ll update you then.
Day 5
We are officially here a week! We had a few concerns about today’s class as it was waxing and although they all want to learn we weren’t sure how many would be up for actually getting waxed but all the girls were so up for legs ,arms, face and even underarms! Hair removal is huge here but is mostly done by threading, they do wax but not using the same kind of wax we would use at home so today was new even for the two experienced girls. All in all it was a really successful day and some of the girls even stayed back late to ensure they had it in the bag, which they definitely did!
We had another first today with a 40min trip home on the crazy train! There are women only carriages but we had Robert our translator with us so we decided to brave the normal carraiges. We got a lot of stares and seen a giant cockroach. It was definitely something we needed to do BUT its definitely ticked off the box now and probably not to be repeated!
Our plans for a trip to the Sunderbands was cancelled for today but we are thankfully still going tomorrow which means up at 7 bells for the 3 hour journey, let’s hope it’s as beautiful as we have been told and we can get some pictures up!
Leanne & Julie xx
Day 4
Once again full attendance which is great especially today as it is a government holiday day and we were unsure if the girls would come in ,very good sign that they are enjoying the course. Today we began with pedicure which as usual the girls were amazing at and in the afternoon we planned to show them tweezing brows, little bit silly considering almost every girl in the class could completely school us both when it comes to brows so we ended up taking a back seat and letting one of the more experienced girls show the class threading and the right methods to get the best results. I thought I had the hang of threading and I do but only in Dublin terms. Here its somewhat of an artform! Julie had never seen threading being done so she was even more amazed then me ! It was so nice for the girls to get involved and teach us something. We can definitely see more and more every day how proud these women are of their culture and how inspiring they are to us rather than the other way around!
This morning we brought fruit and a lego cars set to the little boy who was found yesterday. We intending on just giving it to him and leaving him to make it but he couldn’t even understand how to press two pieces together never mind follow the steps to put the car together, its so upsetting especially knowing his story to see a little boy who doesn’t know how to play with toys ! After lunch we were told that his father had come to collect him and signed to say he would bring the boy himself to the court tomorrow. It’s really hard to know if this is a good or bad sign as if he didn’t go home he would end up in a boy’s home somewhere with nobody.
Looking forward to tomorrow, we have planned a road trip 3 hours south to the sunder bands where the organisation we are here with Sabuj Sangha have a centre. The Sunderbands is a really rural area which eventually leads onto where the Ganges meets the sea. Looking forward to telling you all about it.
Julie + Leanne xxx
Day 3
We are beginning to get into a routine now and life here is seeming normal or as normal as it possibly could for India! It really is only starting to sink in that we are actually here. Class started today with some more theory and facial massage, again the girls have a real natural ability.In the afternoon we prepared and applied masks that we made from natural produce, locally grown and from a local supermarket.The girls had never seen kiwis before and when we offered them the left over strawberries they all dived in to get one, its amazing to think that at home a class wouldn’t be bothered but here it was such a treat that they actually hurried to make sure they got to taste one. They seem to really be getting excited about their prospects after this course which is such an amazing feeling to think that we can contriute to that.
Simple products and tools that we take for granted at home are not readily available here so we are really being challenged as to what they can use instead,Julie created some cotton buds from match sticks and cotton wool and they all are using that instead of the cotton buds we carried all the way from Ireland! The girls are really starting to feel comfortable with us and asking a lot of questions.They seem to be fascinated by fake tan and were amazed by photos of special effects make up ,the fact they are starting to get really involved and interested is so rewarding .
As we left the school after class we were informed that the police had just handed in a little boy aged 11,the boy had told them that he was being forced to work in a furniture factory by hes parents and so he ran away.They then informed us that they get around 50 kids like this every month ! some are just lost but many are being forced into child labour or very commonly with girls they have been married off as they are sometimes seen as a burden to their family and as there is over 14million people living in Kolkata it is extremely difficult to find where home is for these kids. We have all heard stories about these things that happen and seen movies but when there is a little boy standing in front of you looking up at you and your told hes story there are just no words,I don’t think we can even begin to understand and its difficult to get your head around not being able to help , We may land back at LA with some extra helpers if we had our way ! Its extremely difficult to walk away from that so we are really starting to grasp and understand why these people at sabuj sangha dedicate their life to this.
I think here you are forced to feel so many emotions every day that we can totally see why the women in our course are so strong and focused on making a better future and why they are so happy about the little things in life that really matter.
DAY 2
Day 1
We had our first training day today – it was very exciting! The nine women in attendance were quite nervous and shy this morning, but by the afternoon, they were full of chat, and delighted with their new skills. We covered theory this morning, stressing hygiene and professionalism, and manicure this afternoon. The standard was very high, and it is clear that these women are training to get themselves out of a life of poverty. The training facilities are in a school set up by Sabuj Sangha, a charity helping communities that have gathered and now live along the rail road to Kolkata. The impact of this training on the lives and families of these amazing women will be massive, as their is no other means of financial support for them. We are really looking forward to tomorrow! Julie and Leanne
