MUSLIMS don’t want to go around and pray five times a day having pork residues on their body.
That’s the view of Layla Mandi, a Canadian makeup artist who, after opting to join the Magic Carpet folk, decided that Muslim women should be offered cosmetics free of pork or alcohol products.
Layla Mandi, with her halal cosmetics
Mandi, who now lives in Dubai, added:
I came to the Middle East to learn more about people?s needs. Most were pretty shocked when I told them there were pork products in their skin care items so they were very interested.
According to Mandi, fatty acids and gelatine used in moisturisers, shampoos, face masks and lipsticks as well as other items are often extracted from pigs.
Determined to create a halal product, she brought together a dermatologist and a chemist. The result: OnePure, according to this report.
And to get a foothold in the highly competitive business, Mandi is offering products that come in spangly wrappings.
I wanted the packaging to be really luxurious, to speak to young people and old people, to everyone. I didn’t want people to say ‘I’d really like to buy a halal product but the packaging doesn’t look cool’.
Touted as the first halal cosmetics brand in the Middle East, OnePure products are certified in Malaysia by an Islamic body that also certifies meats and other consumer goods for Muslims.
So far Mandi has been selling them online, on Saudi Airlines – her first customer since July – and a small boutique in the upscale Souk al-Bahar in the Burj Dubai complex that houses the world’s tallest tower.
I plan to launch a line for men but for now, it’s just women.
But some in the make-up industry have expressed skepticism about halal cosmetics, dismissing ideas such as Mandi’s as marketing ploys that feed on the need of some for religiously-correct products.
Said Noura Hamdi, marketing manager at a Body Shop boutique in Dubai:
I feel it’s more about marketing.We are not using any animal products in our products anyway.
She addied that the alcohol contained in the cosmetics and skin-care products sold in her shop
Is not pure alcohol. The customer is not going to drink it. It’s something to apply on your body or clothes so it’s not related to halal or haram or religion.
But a senior cleric at the United Arab Emirates’ Dar al-Iftaa, which issues fatwas, or religious edicts, disagreed. The cleric, who is not authorised to identify himself in his task in answering Muslims’ queries by telephone, declared:
If any of the cosmetic products contained pig derivatives or alcohol they should not be used because this is contaminated and one does not want to apply contaminated (products) on one’s body.
The wearing of makeup remains a source of considerable confusion to Muslim women, who are forever visiting “Ask the Imam” sites to get clarification. Here’s one answer provided on Sunnipath by “academy teacher” Ustadha Zaynab Ansari.
In Islam, kohl is apparently permissable - even for fellas. Nowadays some refer to it as 'guy-liner'
Citing a verse from the the Koran(24:31), the “expert” said:
Scholars have interpreted the directive to not display beauty and ornaments except what ordinarily appears in terms of ordinary adornment and extra adornment. Ordinary adornments like kohl, henna, or a ring are permissible to wear in public. Extra adornment, like perfume, lipstick, dazzling eye colours, and the like are not permissible to wear in public. In short, any type of adornment which makes a woman look “made-up” and attracts amorous attention is not permissible, as this would defeat the whole purpose of hijab.
On another site, one commenter points out:
Makeup is fake. It’s just for women who have low self estee, (sic) or want to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Don’t wear makeup or perfume outside, as it only attracts attention which is haraam.
And on a third there is this observation:
Make-up is not Haram specifically but technically is like a waste of money because you will have to remove it every hour of the five daily Salat [prayers] before you do your wudhu [ablution]. The same rulings goes for nails painting.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 15th, 2009 at 9:11 am
When I read all these stupid and petty restrictions I laughed until I nearly cried! As another commenter might have said – "Christ on a bike"!! Are they all mad?
September 15th, 2009 at 9:16 am
PS How on earth could applying alcohol to your body be considered haraam? It's a naturally occuring substance, for Christ's sake! And plenty of animals get intoxicated eating fermented fruit all the time. These people inhabit a world of pure fantasy!!
September 15th, 2009 at 9:47 am
'Are they all mad?'
Um, let me see. The choice of make-up they can wear was determined by a moon-worshipping paedophile on a flying horse about 1400 years ago.
It certainly isn't sane. In fact I would put money on every single one of them being totally mental in the head.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Good point about animal intoxication. I wonder how a muslim would cope with a drunken pig!
September 15th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Hahaha!!!
September 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am
It must be a bugger if you're a Muslim clown, having to reapply all that make-up five times a day! Oh, wait a minute – they're ALL clowns!!
September 15th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Hence the Darth Vader outfit. After having to scrub the muck off 5 times a day there is bound to come a point where they think "Oh fuck it, I'll just do the eyes!"
September 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
PIG FAT AND DENAT IN SLAP SETBACK!
(I think I'd better get some work done!!)
September 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Wasn't that flying horse called Peggy Sue? I believe there was a song about it.
September 15th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Bah! The only cosmetic a Muslim woman needs is a veil.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Isn't there a bit of 'pot, kettle, black' about one purveyor of vaguely labelled new age slap grumbling about the marketing strategy of another opportunist who spots a 'niche market'?
Mind you, didn't the Great Satan himself (Billy Graham) learn his trade flogging life insurance, so godbothering and snakeoil sales go back a long way.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Christ on a bike indeed!
What I dont understand is why Christians eat pork. It clearly states in the bible "and the swine, as he divideth the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you." (Leviticus chapter 11 verse 7 and 8).
I guess bacon sarnies are just to yummy!
Bloody hypocrites, either do it properly or not at all.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I think its obvious don't you? Allah never said anything about not shagging them! And lets not forget, sexual repression is all the rage in mad muslims countries. ( cue squealing jokes )
September 15th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
You're not wrong there wurble. Bestiality is actually allowed in Islam…as long as you don't eat the animal afterwards!
September 15th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
You're not wrong there wurble. Bestiality is actually allowed in Islam…so long as you don't eat the animal afterwards!
September 15th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Layla Mandi = I'm Any Lad, Al.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Animal lady!
September 15th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Dim anal lay!
September 15th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Dim anal lay, i.e Thick bugger!
September 15th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Ayatollah Khomeini's Little Green Book authorized animal-humping on the condition that the animal was female. The animal then had to be killed, and the meat could only be sold to a neighbouring village. If the humping was arse-wise, the animal had to be burned. http://ethnikoi.org/iran.html
September 15th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
See: http://www.answering-islam.org.....ity…
This site is NOT unbiased, by any means, but I had to laugh at the instruction to wash the penile head if it had penetrated an animal's anus "absentmindedly"! Happens to me all the time!!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
"Happens to me all the time!!"
Oh I so want to believe that!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
It was Fuller Brushes*, Stuart H! I used to sell Betterware products myself as a young man (the best brushes money could buy in those days), so I hope you don't equate THAT occupation with "snake-oil salesmen"!! (PS I don't have quite the same view as many others about Billy Graham. He may be misguided, but I think he is 100% sincere. I wouldn't put him in the same class as Benny Hinn, Morris Cerullo, or Reinhardt Bonnke, for instance. They are pure evil!)
* See their Wikipedia entry.
September 15th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
As I keep telling everyone, on NO occasion was it intentional!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Sorry to snitch barriejohn but I felt compelled to pass on your details to the RSPCA, Social Services, and the Poultry Association.
September 15th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
The utter pointlessness of religious rules is highlighted here by the fact that no one would notice the slightest difference if you followed the rules or ignored them. That is the problem with religious morality, the rules are totally disconnected from their consequences.
September 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Consider yourself banned from every zoo, pet shop and abattoir in Dorset!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Oh yeah, and you can forget about visiting Monkey World too!
September 15th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Layla looks to be quite a looker there. I know a gorgeous white woman who was once married to a Kuwaiti. Somehow she was allowed to divorce him. I thought that was grounds for an honor killing with a full decapitation and sanctioned by the prophet (or is it profit???)? It looks like Layla, though, likes money entirely too much to ever think of leaving her oil prince….. So what gets me, though, is how is it that these Arabs somehow have good taste in white women, want to marry them and take them home, and then dress them in a bag? and also like to bugger one another and goats. Then they like to marry their eight year old cousins…. And they don't drink or eat bacon. And they kowtow to the magic man five times a day. And blow themselves up for virgins in the sky…… And here we thought that the "virgin birth" and dead man on a stick who rises up and flies up into the sky was strange….
September 15th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Er no bj. You're thinking of pig arses, as is wurble, and every muslim who looks at our porcine pals and thinks "Wouldn't wanna eat it – but wouldn't mind slippin' it one though"
Put it in a black bin-liner and I'll marry it tomorrow!
September 15th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
But what if you weren't absent-minded and quite intentionally stuck it all in? Would you have to wash your entire winky? I guess you would.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:22 am
WTF is the use of wearing makeup in the first place when you're covered head to toe in a body tent? Supposedly Muslim women are supposed to be "modest", which is why they're made to wear that crap in the first place, so why are they even concerned with makeup? I would think it would be forbidden as the domain of harlots or something.
I wanted the packaging to be really luxurious, to speak to young people and old people, to everyone. I didn’t want people to say ‘I’d really like to buy a halal product but the packaging doesn’t look cool’.
If your concern is the contents of the makeup who the heck cares about the packaging? The outer packaging, ostensibly, gets tossed. Even the container the makeup is in is only a vessel for the product and has nothing to do with the contents. As a vegetarian I'd certainly not choose a product with rennet or gelatin (both made by killing animals) over a humane product just because the former had "cool" packaging. But I guess some people are decidedly more shallow.
September 17th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Some of these religiots would win prizes for hypocrisy. Look at Carrie Prejean: she must know what the Bible teaches about female modesty in both Old and New Testaments (ever heard of Jezebel?), yet not only does she appear made-up to the nines, and wearing jewellery and haute couture, with perfectly coiffed hair, but she even resorts to plastic surgery in a quite brazen attempt to improve on the body which God has supposedly given her! How can you possibly square all that with Christian teaching?
September 18th, 2009 at 12:20 am
I've mentioned 1 Peter 3:3-4 more than once when dealing with the Carrie Prejean types who want to preach about the Evils of Homosexuality. But as you know hypocrisy is rife in the ranks of the uber-religious. They can do as they please while we must submit to whatever verses they toss our way.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
This is a long over due! Why hasn t any of the ‘beauty leader’ addressed the needs of a BILLION+ people?
October 25th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
It is more than ‘permissible’ for men to wear kohl. It is encouraged as a sunnah of the Prophet (sws).
Looking neat and having proper hygiene are a very important part of the Sunnah, wearing ‘itr’ (perfume oil), kohl (eyeliner) and trimming ones excess body hair (save the beard) are all good things to do. Also wearing smart, clean clothes is strongly encouraged. Liking that one looks good is not considered vanity or loving of worldliness.
A man asked the Prophet (sws) if dressing well was a type of arrogance, he replied ‘God him self is beautiful and He loves beauty. This has nothing to do with arrogance. A man is arrogant when he refuses to accept the truth and considers others to be inferior.’ (Hadeeth of Muslim on the authority of Abdullah Ibn Mas ‘Ud)
April 7th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
This chick is hot! I would convert for her!Save ME! And I will buy her and anything she wants to sell! One Pure Halal ME!
May 28th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
dude, you guys need to SHUT UP and respect the muslims and leave layla alone!!
May 31st, 2010 at 4:34 pm
I think Jesus also avoid pork, why? is he a muslim?
September 16th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Hi,
To all of you who find it necessary to insult customs,traditions and religion please stop. Some of these comments are rude and derogatory…as a woman who comes from an eastern culture and lives in a western country I have heard it all…insults,crude jokes etc…I have even been told that I should change the way I act and dress “since I live in America now”. Well to all of you…please try to be a little bit more open minded…