Latest news with #Unseen
Daily Mirror
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'I found a way to get £40 Supergoop SPF for £11 in Boots offer'
Boots shoppers can save £48 on premium beauty products as part of their latest beauty edit with Supergoop! Boots has teamed up with a popular skincare brand to give shoppers the chance to save more than £48 on summer must haves. The health and beauty retailer has partnered with Supergoop! to deliver a money-saving beauty edit that is essential for anyone serious about SPF. The Boots X Supergoop! Beauty Bag Edit is priced at £44, saving £48.25 on its total worth of £92.25. The set offers a well-rounded introduction to Supergoop!'s bestsellers, neatly packaged in a sunny yellow zip-up makeup bag that's ideal for travelling. Containing everything shoppers need to be more protected, not just in the sunshine but year-round, the set features four Supergoop! products, two of them being full-size. The star of the show for me is hands-down the Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen SPF 30. This formula is totally transparent, lightweight, and virtually undetectable on the skin. Unlike many sunscreens, Unseen doesn't leave a chalky cast, doesn't feel greasy, and has zero scent. Its velvety, primer-like finish makes it a perfect base for makeup, gripping foundation beautifully while still offering up to 40 minutes of water and sweat resistance. It is genuinely the sunscreen for people who hate wearing sunscreen, and as someone who's tried dozens of SPF products, I can say Unseen really lives up to its name and reputation. Cult Beauty shoppers also adore the formula, but wish it was available in factor 50. One said: 'Hands down the best SPF I have ever owned, just praying for the day they release SPF50.' Another added: 'This is my ultimate favourite face SPF, it's honestly so good. It's kinda gel-like, really light and doesn't leave any filmy/white residue on your face. It glides on, feels great, and I can apply my makeup over the top of it no problem. Honestly 10/10.' 'Love love this sun cream, buttery gel consistency, goes on like a primer and no residue,' said another. 'Only complaint is that it isn't factor 50! But I have repurchased several times.' The Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen SPF 30 73.9ml usually costs £40 alone, so for an additional £4, shoppers also get to try out the Supergoop! Glow Stick SPF 50, Glowscreen SPF 30 and Play Everyday Lotion SPF 50. As part of the edit, each item works out at £11. Elsewhere, BYOMA's Ultralight Face Fluid SPF50 is £15 at SpaceNK and is loved for being an ultra-lightweight sunscreen that doesn't leave behind any greasiness or white cast. Another highly-regarded product is the Heliocare 360° Oil-Free Gel Sunscreen Protector Original SPF 50. Currently on offer at Look Fantastic for £23.25, down from £31, it provides broad-spectrum protection with a matte finish. In contrast to Unseen, Glowscreen SPF 30 is a glowy, lightly tinted sunscreen that adds a radiant sheen while protecting against UV rays. Its subtle, luminous finish can replace your primer for a glass-skin effect, though if you have oily or breakout-prone skin, you might find its dewy look a touch too shiny by the end of the day. Then there's the Glow Stick SPF 50, a solid stick sunscreen that's handy for mess-free top-ups throughout the day, especially on the high points of your face or even your shoulders for a glossy highlight. Finally, there's a travel-size Play Everyday Lotion SPF 50, which is a reliable, fresh-scented SPF lotion suitable for face and body, and perfect for throwing in a gym or beach bag. However, it is only a very small 10ml tube, which feels more like a tester than a practical travel size for a day out. Still, it does give skincare fans the opportunity to find their favourite. Here's everything inside the set: Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen SPF 30 73.9ml – FULL SIZE Supergoop! Glow Stick SPF 50 20g – FULL SIZE Supergoop! Glowscreen SPF 30 20ml Supergoop! Play Everyday Lotion SPF 50 10ml Elsewhere, Glossybox has released its highly anticipated Summer Bag Limited Edition, too. Packed with 10 premium, viral and essential beauty must-haves, it's worth over £142, but shoppers can buy it for £45. With standout brands including Sol de Janeiro, Morphe, ICONIC London, and Medik8. As part of the set, each item works out at £4.50. If that wasn't enough inspiration, ASOS is offering their Luxury Travel Essentials Beauty Box for £40. Coming in a handy travel pouch, the edit boasts £135 worth of products, saving £95 on the RRP. Inside, shoppers will find eight products from a range of top brands, including Elemis, Laneige, Sol de Janeiro and Elizabeth Arden. But for those looking to upgrade their SPF routine, the Boots X Supergoop! Beauty Bag Edit is a well-priced bundle that makes daily SPF easy, fun, and, crucially, effective.
The National
22-06-2025
- The National
Fears US-UK trade deal 'may open door to food made with slave labour'
Under terms reaffirmed by the UK and US governments on Tuesday, up to 13,000 metric tonnes of American beef can be imported into Britain tariff-free each year. Though the Labour Government has said this US beef will meet current UK food safety standards – so it will not be hormone-treated – it will not take an active hand in ensuring that goods produced with forced labour do not enter the UK, instead leaving it up to individual companies. However, Justine Carter, the director of strategy at the influential anti-slavery charity Unseen, said that although there were provisions in place to compel companies to comply with UK modern slavery regulations, punishments had 'never' been levied. READ MORE: Record high modern slavery referrals 'shows shocking scale' of issue in UK Last year in the US, AP published a two-year investigation which found that food produced with prison labour was "on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country' and had also been exported abroad – including to 'countries that have had products blocked from entering the US for using forced or prison labour'. According to conventions from the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO), forced labour is all work extracted under a threat of penalty and not undertaken voluntarily. While there is an exemption for labour imposed as a penalty following a court conviction, using that labour for economic benefit is prohibited. Prisoners at sites including Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary on the site of a former slave plantation, reported being beaten if they refused to work the fields, or being given toilet paper and menstrual pads in lieu of pay. AP further reported that forced-labour goods entered 'intricate, invisible webs' of supply chains which made it near-impossible to trace them back to their prison origin. The outlet had to resort to literally following trucks of cows from prisons in order to establish where their meat ended up. Beef produced with forced or prison labour was found to be widespread in the US supply chainThe lack of transparency in the US supply chain, and poor enforcement of anti-slavery regulations in the UK, raise fears that meat produced using forced labour could enter British supermarkets – as was recently found to have happened with China-produced tomatoes. Carter – who led the development of the Modern Slavery Act during her time working as a policy advisor in the Home Office – said that prison labour 'can tip into modern slavery, where inmates really have no choice around doing the work and there's no means for them to refuse to do the work without receiving some kind of penalty'. 'It's dependent on the context, on the conditions that they're working in, and really on the kind of legal framework,' she added, suggesting that such legal complexities mean it may be possible for prison-produced beef to enter the UK legally. Her charity Unseen notes that the 2015 UK Modern Slavery Act places 'obligations on companies with a turnover of £36 million or more to publish what they are doing to ensure their business and supply chains are free from slavery'. However, as of July 2022, some 5551 UK companies had failed to do so without any consequence. READ MORE: Labour set to bin anti-slavery policy in GB Energy Bill Carter said that while the exact figure 'goes up and down' and was likely now closer to 4000, that is 'the sad reality'. 'The penalty is a bit convoluted,' she went on. 'The Home Secretary has to take an injunction out on a business that's failed to comply, and if they then continue to fail to comply, the court could award a fine, an unlimited fine, but that process has never been gone through. 'So although we know there are all these cases – and we've raised these with the Home Office – no action has been taken.' Carter pointed to legislation developments abroad, including in Canada, Australia, France, and the EU's 2024 Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. She said these laws were 'very much looking at financial penalties as a percentage of global turnover etc', adding: 'There's a real push for the UK to follow suit.' The Home Office has never fined a company for failing its modern slavery obligations (Image: Alamy/PA) 'At the moment, [in the UK] we've got businesses who are ticking boxes, who are putting out statements – even if they do put out a statement – and it's just been tweaked from the year before. It's not a real effort to make sure that their supply chains are free from slavery.' Sian Lea, the head of UK and European advocacy at Anti-Slavery International, urged the UK Government to bring in more robust anti-slavery regulations. 'We must all be able to purchase food without fear that they have been sourced and produced with forced labour,' she told the Sunday National. 'While the UK Government expects UK companies to do everything in their power to remove forced labour from their supply chains, there are no laws that compel them to do that. 'Through this trade deal [with the US], the UK Government has the opportunity to drive better business practices and more adequately address forced labour risks. READ MORE: Commissioner: Modern slavery no longer Home Office priority 'With import controls, the UK could ensure that products being imported from anywhere are not reliant on forced labour. And this should be complemented by a due diligence law which requires UK companies to prevent harm in their supply chains.' Carter said that a drive to push down costs could lead to forced labour entering the supply chain, and urged companies to be diligent. 'If you're pressing down on cost, time, quality, to the extent that you know it's going to have some implication down the supply chain, then you can only expect to be called out on that when forced labour is found,' she said. 'I've always talked about legislation being a bit of a blunt instrument because it does provide the framework, but the framework has to be strong, it has to be resilient, it has to be robust – and then there has to be also an enforcement of that.' READ MORE: MP hits outs at supermarkets selling products linked to slave labour 'Unfortunately, when you're in these times of austerity when people are struggling, high interest rates, high costs of food, etc, you know people cut corners, consumers are less interested in where it's come from and how it's arrived on the shelf and more interested in the price. 'This is why maybe the onus is put on businesses a bit. There's almost an expectation that as a consumer, I'm expecting that business to have done its due diligence.' A UK Government spokesperson said: 'No company in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain and we expect UK businesses to do everything in their power to remove any instances of forced labour from their supply chains. Any evidence of businesses not doing so is highly concerning. "British farmers produce some of the best food in the world and this is a great deal as we have opened up access to a huge American market, but without any weakening of UK food standards on imports."
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
Brooding, fearsome views of a blackened earth: Jungjin Lee's epic Iceland photographs
There's a visual quiz circulating on social media at the moment that promises to reveal your unresolved childhood trauma. Do you see an elephant first or a forest? A butterfly or an apple? Jungjin Lee's exhibition, called Unseen, is in some ways an elevated version of that. The series of large, black-and-white landscape photographs – all made last year in Iceland – do not tell you anything about the times, or the place. Instead what you see depends on what is buried in you – threatening to open up that scary, unbidden 'unseen'. Lee, who lives in New York, is little known in the UK beyond her photobooks. This small show of 10 works is her first solo show in the UK in a 30-year career. Her background is important in deciphering these images. Her first artistic training was in the traditional calligraphic arts, as a child growing up in South Korea. Later she studied ceramics at Hongik University in Seoul, where artists such as Lee Bul were among her peers. In the late 1980s, her first photography project followed an old man living on a remote Korean island, documenting his search for wild ginseng. In a decade, he had never found a single plant. But by the time Lee had finished the project, she realised what she had made was more a reflection of her own state of mind, and that she would never be a documentary photographer. She turned her back on the genre for good. After moving to New York, she worked for a time as an assistant to Robert Frank. His attitude, rather than his style, influenced Lee, who was moved by the way he followed his instincts and interests. In the 1990s, she began to travel the US and make portraits of a decaying American landscape and its elements: the barren desert, the unforgiving wind, the endless debris. These clamouring landscapes were, and continue to be, portraits of the artist as rocks, trees, and thrashing waves. They come to be portraits of the viewer, too. This new body of work was all made last year, in Iceland. Many contemporaries of Lee have made work about or with the Icelandic elements: Roni Horn, Ragnar Axelsson, Olafur Eliasson. Lee also responds to this aspect of the place. The specific topographies there provided Lee with what she needed: dramatic vistas capable of carrying the epic literary qualities of her work, the full range of human emotion. They are brooding, fearsome and roar with the supremacy of nature. The landscape, to Lee, is an expression of existential angst and metaphorical musings. Out there is the only subject capable of holding everything that's in here, in us. We are placed on an empty road that plunges into a dark abyss on the horizon (#83), or at the frothy seam of the sea and land (#55). You can almost feel the salty air slap your face in a portrait of an imposing rock standing resolute against the choppy water that whips up around it (#76). Its coarse and craggy surface seems to contain the history of the world. A smoky cloud descends on a blackened earth, its symbolism striking. What you see, of course, is subjective. A mournful picture of two rocks (#49) shows them rising like tombstones from the sea, one large, jutting out, one tiny and intrepid, as if heading off into the distance. I make out the tender figures of a mother and child, the child forging ahead, falteringly, off into the unknown. I see Frank's influence surfacing: the 'humanity of the moment.' And the moment is uncertain. You have to be a decent artist – even more so, working with a camera – to make a landscape picture interesting. Part of the brilliance of Lee's work comes from her technical mastery, which reflects her journey as an artist, from the calligraphy of her childhood and the same raw approach to moulding the earth with her hands, adapted from ceramics. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion It starts with a medium format Panoramic camera. She then brushes the negative with processing emulsion soaked on to delicate hanji, or Korean mulberry paper, and bathes them at a slightly higher temperature than is conventional for fixing. This optimises the mottled, etched textures. These hand-emulsified images are then transformed again, into digital images, at which point she tinkers with the contrasts and prints them again. The brushstrokes to the surface are palpable and are as evocative Korean ink paintings – you can't help but trace the influence of a pictorialist tradition that seeps unmistakably into Lee's work. The knockout textures and the charcoal tones are aesthetically closer to drawings. At times the photograph seems to dissolve completely: in #10, a minimalist picture of a sloping mountain is stretched to abstraction, its suggestive black lines merely mimicking what was there. Jungjin Lee: Unseen is at Huxley-Parlour Gallery, London, until 5 July
News24
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News24
Dineo Langa on peeling back the layers in Unseen S2
When we're first introduced to Naledi, portrayed by Dineo Langa, in the first season of Unseen, she's portrayed as a dynamic woman, married to a doctor. She's fiery, driven and full of spirit. As the sister of the main character (Zenzi, played by Gail Mabalane), Dineo has described the experience of playing Naledi as deeply insightful. To fully embody the role, she often found herself immersing in Gail's world, constantly exploring the emotional depth of her character by asking, 'how would this make her feel?' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dineo Langa (@dineomoeketsi) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dineo Langa (@dineomoeketsi) A lot of the prepping came down to understanding how to plot the world and the emotional points. She would also find musical associations for her character before stepping into her scene. She says, 'As soon as I knew that my lady had run away at a very young age, I knew that my lady had worked very hard to suppress whatever trauma that she had gone through. I knew that my lady had locked away her past, in a 'stronger than most' kind of way.' Stepping into the characters The second season breaks away the peels from Dineo's character and pushes us into her traumatic past. She and Gail got to meet the actors who play the younger versions of their characters. It was an expressive moment of getting to see how they explained their worlds to each other. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dineo Langa (@dineomoeketsi) 'We've watched the Blood and Water, we've watched them do Unseen, we've watched them do so many other things and they really are amazing storytellers. So me having the chance to meet the younger versions but also now having the root of the trauma, the point at which Naledi runs away, how it affects her physically. The trauma is so deep that she is a girl who throws up at the sight of a roadside, you know? So it goes that far deep.' READ MORE | Gail Mabalane on her first lead role in Netflix's Unseen - 'It's something that I don't take for granted' The sisters confront the trauma of reconnecting with their abusive past in a way reflects the complex dynamics of sisterhood. The older sister shoulders the responsibility of picking up the pieces, while the younger one withdraws, avoiding the emotional weight of it all. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dineo Langa (@dineomoeketsi) 'In an abused environment, Naledi goes, 'I can't,' which is not understandable to a firstborn who needs their sister in the form of Naledi. It's not understandable that you're gonna dip when we've got a mother with a chronic illness and you're just gonna run away. That is not fathomable in Zenzi's world because, again, the level of responsibility and what she's been raised with.' Being unseen While the story centers on Zenzile and the often-invisible lives of domestic workers, Dineo highlights how it also mirrors the broader reality of women in South Africa today. 'So the dynamic of even being seen—people will say, 'Yeah, women are doing so much more today.' But there's a large percentage of women who are just being told, 'Hey, your part. Don't do more than that.' Yet, she adds, even when they shrink themselves or stay silent, they're still met with the same criticism and scrutiny.
Mail & Guardian
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mail & Guardian
Blood, tears and bodies: Season 2 of Unseen carries on the drama
Unseen returns for an explosive second season. Generally, I am apprehensive of adaptations of foreign stories for local audiences — as if we don't have pertinent stories of our own to tell. The crime thriller series Unseen on Netflix, however, is an exception due to its universal and contemporary themes. Adapted from the Turkish Netflix series Fatma , created by Özgür Önurme, Unseen returns for an explosive second season. This South African version follows domestic worker Zenzi as she continues her pursuit for justice and healing. Brilliantly portrayed by Gail Nkoane Mabalane, Zenzi is timid yet courageous, quiet but her trail of murders rings loudly in the underground world and in corporate corridors. In the first season, released in 2023 on the global streamer, we saw Zenzi losing loved ones due to being entangled in an intricate corruption scheme involving gangs in the Cape Town area, private bankers and the government. In this second season we not only see how deep corruption can go when private and public representatives collude, the story also goes deeper to explore Zenzi's relations with her estranged sister, Naledi (Dineo Langa) and their shared grief. As in the first season, dead bodies, blood and tears flow throughout the six episodes, with Zenzi at the centre in her trademark outfit of a coat and hoodie. Repurposed but relatable What is it about this story that has got local and global audiences excited and binging in their homes? For award-winning production company Gambit Films, it is about telling such stories in a thrilling, but relatable, way. Having produced successful shows like Blood and Water, Nommer 37 and Suidooster, this Cape Town-based company has learned how to capture viewers with electrifying drama. Travis Taute, who produced and directed both seasons of Unseen , says it was an exciting experience for them to work on a story that most South Africans would be able to identify with. 'The lead character is just a domestic lady, and I think that repurposing that, and telling that story through a South African perspective, just made all the sense in the world.' Taute adds that their aim at Gambit Films is to tell the most authentic story possible. 'That is always our focus — story first and whatever comes after that, hopefully, if we've done our job right, the audience will respond accordingly.' What makes Unseen particularly enchanting is the universality of the themes. As a global society, we are all struggling with similar issues such as grief, survival, justice, strained relationships and corporate corruption. Taute adds: 'I think just the entry point into the story, the perspective of the story being told from a domestic lady, was so interesting and refreshing. That's the kind of thing that we feel like people really resonate and identify with. 'So, hopefully, that's the case with this season, too.' Creative producer Darren Joshua shares Taute's sentiments on the growing popularity of the show with audiences. 'To see the thousands of people posting about the show on social media, and talking about Zenzi like she's someone that's a friend of theirs who's going through something, was brilliant.' Survival and black women standing up to power What further resonates with South African audiences is the theme of a black woman standing up for herself and her loved ones in a hostile, patriarchal society. In a country layered with toxic masculinity, from households to corporate skyscrapers, Zenzi's pursuits make her a national hero to the unseen and voiceless. Many black women are in survival mode, due to an antagonistic environment that treats them like second-class citizens. Those in lower economic positions, like domestic workers, often black women, are seen as insignificant figures — 'nobodies' in society. Joshua adds that the show's title is on the nose for those reasons. 'Zenzi is unseen and overlooked. And then she pulls into a world that you just haven't seen before. I think that is the most attractive thing about this local show. 'We wanted something that was just, suspenseful and propulsive.' However, viewers are challenged about whether Zenzi's actions are justified as self-defence; accidental or intentional. In one scene, a character tells Zenzi: 'Harden up lady, this place will eat you!' — a reminder of how ruthless the world can be for women. When a person is attacked without provocation, or in a dangerous situation, survival is a natural response, no matter what one's standing in society. These kinds of situations thus lead to the, 'We stay together. We fight. We survive,' mantras many women must use to get by in their daily lives. Stories about ordinary people seeking justice and healing will never get old in a violent country where many are silenced and rejected, particularly women and children. Though perhaps morally questionable, Zenzi does what some might have been driven to think of doing in the dark corners of their minds. Without healthy and safe spaces to offload anger, resentment and desperation can darken many hearts. The character of Zenzi speaks on behalf of those unfairly treated; she validates their ever-flowing tears and deep scars inflicted at the hands of the broken men in our society, be they in tailored suits or not. But Unseen does remind us that principled men do exist, such as Lufuno Ngezi (Mothusi Magano) and Detective Morkel (Waldemar Schultz), and even gangster Raymond Hendricks (Brendon Daniels) who eventually becomes Zenzi's unlikely ally. Simon Beasely, the show's executive producer, says starting out on any production one never knows where the story could end up. 'The idea is you always try to make local for local and sort of any additional eyeballs are always a bonus. 'It's incredibly exciting and it's hard to actually even predict where we're going next. You think you have seen it all and then, all of a sudden, a new concept comes about and it blows everyone away.' Unseen season two is a seamless continuation from the first, with a stellar cast, great cinematography and haunting themes relevant to our times, particularly in South Africa. It is the story of an ordinary woman standing up to power and patriarchy with the extraordinary resolve and grit which has resonated with many viewers, locally and globally.
