Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream '34 Bronze' Review - Foundation or Tinted Moisturizer ?

I never thought I’d spend so much on a tinted moisturizer, but I did! It was on my mind, haunting me for so long that I just gave in one day. It all started when I ventured into Parcos at Infinity-2 one day(that day I talked about HERE). I actually wanted to try out the newly launched cream-to-powder shadows by Bourjois, but they weren't stocked (I doubt if they are available even now). Then, I saw the CC cream and decided to try it out. ‘I won’t really buy it anyways’, I thought to myself, ‘too expensive’. After finding a shade close to my skin tone, I patted the tester on to my skin and I just fell in love with the texture and coverage. The store had my shade only in testers so I couldn't buy it then and I thought ‘this is a sign, I shouldn't buy it now, or ever’. But then, the pangs began. I started to dream about it, in the different ways it could be of use to me, how it would be perfect for this season and that occasion, and blah blah. When you really like something, your subconscious conspires to fixate on it, and clouds all your thoughts with images of it. So I gave in, and brought it home with me. ^_^

Price; Rs.710 / $11.4

Qty: 30ml / 1 US oz
Shades : 31 Ivory , 32 Light Beige , 33 Rose Beige, 34 Bronze

Huge Haul : Real Techniques, E.L.F, TheFaceShop etc + iHerb and SingPost review

Its been such a long time since I showed a haul on my blog. I have been buying products left, right and center (thank you online discounts!), but I never got the chance to put them together and take pics. Last week, my sister came home from Singapore. With her, she brought a list of things I had demanded and Real Techniques & E.L.F brushes which I had ordered from iHerb and gotten delivered to  Singapore because I was afraid of my losing package in the Indian mail system.

Here’s what I ordered from iHerb (mostly brushes)

Inglot Freedom System Blush AMC #58: Review, Swatch, Price in India

For the longest time, I ignored my powder blushes. When I was in college (well technically, I still am), they seemed a bit much: washing the brushes every week, making sure that they blush is applied exactly at the right spot, blending it out so that it would look natural etc. is too much work for someone who wakes up three-fourths of an hour before class starts. I relied on the liquid-mousse blushes from Rimmel, so convenient for all those times I didn’t have the time. Now that I’ve begun work (technically, its an internship) I tend to take it more seriously than I did college and actually wakeup couple of hours before I have to leave. Since I’m not bound by any household duties, I can spend all time I want on prepping myself up, and that’s why I pulled out a much neglected and lovely blush from the Inglot Freedom System :  AMC #58.

Price: Rs.450 (may have increased)

Qty: 6g

Availability: Majorbrands (AMC not stocked yet) | Nykaa

Can be stored in palettes, see mine here.

My take on Inglot Blush Refill AMC #58

Color: 58 is a warm toned everyday pink on my cheeks. In the pan it looks like a dusky pink meets mauve color and when photographed, it looks reddish. But the swatches are true to what it appears on me. It will suit all skin tones, I feel it will appear brighter on fairer skin tones and more mauve on deeper skin tones. It does brighten up the face a little bit. I have included pictures of how it looks indoors and how it looks in daylight because my camera wasn’t picking up the color properly :( It’s a great color to wear to work, or even to college if you want. Its one of those colors that you can put anytime you’re confused about what color to wear with a smokey eye look or when you just want a little color to your face.

Simple Pleasures: Revlon Touch and Glow Moisturizing Powder Compact in Ivory Matte

Revlon Touch & Glow compact has been my go to compact since many months. I purchased it to temporarily replace the Rimmel Stay Matte which completely shattered when I dropped. I was in urgent need of a compact and I thought this would be perfect till I found something better. However, I slowly started loving this one. Now, you can’t replace  something you love, can you?

Price: Rs.415/~$6.8

Qty: 12g

Shades: Gold Matte, Ivory Matte, Natural Matte, Rose Matte

Availability: Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong

(Available on discount now)

Maybelline Electro Pop Pink Shock VS Maybelline Lip Smooth Pink Blossom

Hi my lovely readers, how has your day been?

I’ve been seeing a lot of reviews on the new Maybelline Baby Lips Electro Pop range & I decided to add my thoughts to the pool. For us Indians, the most exciting thing about this launch is the packaging of the range. Finally we get Baby Lips with the adorable US packaging that actually puts the “baby” in the lip balm!! When I was swatching this new launch at the Maybelline counter, I felt that Pink Shock was the most pigmented so I picked it up. Funnily, there’s a yellow one that comes out as clear, why it is in the “electro pop” range baffles me! When I started using Pink Shock, I realized that it is very similar to a cult favorite that Maybelline released in India a long time ago – Pink Blossom from the Lip Smooth range. I felt that the lip smooth range is discontinued but I still see it at Health& Glow, not anywhere else. I purchased the Lip Smooth lip balm last year after hearing so many rave reviews about it. I’ll review Pink Shock in detail first & then compare it to Pink Blossom.

Electro Pop Range:

Price: Rs.165 / ~$2.7

Qty: 3.5g

Shades: Pink Shock, Fierce & Tangy, Berry Bomb, Oh Orange
(Availalble in more shades in US! =[ )

Availability: Nykaa, Flipkart

Liebster Award (My 100th Post)

I was nominated for the Liebster award in August-14 by Allison of Scattered Sun. When Allison notified me, I told her that the award meant a lot to me and I wanted it to be my 100th post. It is actually the first award I have got for  my little blog. For those of you who don’t know, the Liebster award is an informal award for bloggers from other bloggers. Its a way for bloggers to connect and readers to get to know the blogger. 

Rules:

1.      Answer all questions that are given to you

2.      Link back to the person that nominated you

3.      Nominate 11 blogers who have less than 200 followers

4.      Provide nominees with 11 questions of your choice

5.      You cannot nominate the person who nominated you

6.      You must inform nominees of your nomination

7.      Provide nominees with a link to you post for more info

8.      Save the Liebster Award and you can post it on your blog

Luxola India Review - Shipping, Tracking, Customs, COD information

I have heard of Luxola long before entered India. How? Well, I have relatives in Singapore and when they decide to visit India, they ask me if I want something from their city. Like any other relative on the receiving end, I jump 10 miles at the chance and make a list, but for that I need to know what’s available in Singapore, and what’s a better place than online stores? Luxola is based in Singapore, all products shipped from there. I’m very happy about Luxola’s presence in India, however, a lot of the products are quite expensive and I get why it’s so. In Asia, especially Singapore, western brands are pricier than they are in their native places. So, couple of months back when Luxola started promoting themselves through Indian bloggers, I decided to place an order with them. Here is the link to their site - Luxola India Website

I’ve heard of Zoeva brushes from youtubers and I was elated to see them at affordable prices on Luxola, but the ones I wanted were out of stock. Now this is something that happens quite often at Luxola, there is a chance that by the time you wait for one thing to come back in stock, the other thing(s) you want will go out of stock. This happened with me anyways; I wanted Zoeva 227, 228, 230 brushes and the Sleek Makeup Contour Kit. 227,228 were OOS & when they came back, the contour kit was OOS. I decided to order the Sleek Faceform instead. I could have avoided that, but firstly, Luxola(as of now) offers free shipping only on orders above Rs.2300 & I wanted to try the famous Sleek contouring products. When I placed an order with them, Luxola India was just two weeks old so I wasn’t sure if it would reach me since my hostel is in a pretty remote place and the products are shipped from outside India, so I opted for the COD option. Yes, yes, yes…there is a COD option(with no extra charges), so all of you who are afraid of international shipping can opt for it.

I received my order in -wait for it- SIX days!! I’ve never experienced faster free shipping than this. The package was shipped from Singapore. I did not have to pay any custom tax and I was able to track my order through their website. All the items arrived in top condition, all items were bubble wrapped together & placed in a envelope padded with bubble wrap, nothing was broken. I feel they should individually wrap palettes because they are prone to break.

The Body Shop Vanilla Brulee Shower Gel (Limited Edition)

The Body Shop Vanilla Brulee Shower Gel is actually a thick shower cream. Its not as thick as the Cocoa Butter Shower Cream, but its thicker than the Brazil Nut Shower cream, both of which I had tried last year. I love creamy shower gels during winter time but I would never spend as much on one. My sister however, had no qualms splurging on this bottle as its “limited edition” & “Christmas special”, although we both know that TBS offers almost the same flavors every Christmas – no innovation here ladies!

I have been using it for a month and I must say, The Body Shop Vanilla Brulee Shower Gel smells delicious when you smell it from the bottle or take it out on your palm. However, when its in use, the smell is quite faint. Needless to say, after bath the scent is not detectable. It feels moisturizing but doesn’t actually hydrate my body, although that maybe because my skin is too dry. It has SLS, right there, as the second ingredient but there’s barely any lather when its in use. For something that’s limited edition and 1.5 times the price of the normal shower gels, I expected the ingredient list to be littered with less chemicals…oh well, wishful thinking! They also mention that its soap free on the bottle, but clearly its not detergent free..haha.

Carmex Ultra Hydrating Lip Balm in Pomegranate

About Carmex:

Originally created in 1937 by Alfred Woelbing in his family kitchen, Carmex lip balm is now essential to our beauty kits. With its iconic canary yellow packaging and retro feel, the classic Carmex healing lip balm pot now sits alongside a host of fruity, squeezable lip salves in cherry, strawberry and orange flavours.

Carmex Ultra Moisturising Lip Balm SPF 15 – Pomegranate

- Ultra moisturising formula with shea butter and lanolin
- Vitamin E to prevent drying and chapping
- Sweet pomegranate scent
- SPF15 protection

Like every other girl, I’m a lip balm hoarder. I gots to have them all! Which explains why I paid 1.5 pounds + Rs.400 taxes for this lil baby(I had ordered many other things along with it). To be honest, the custom tax hurts, but I freaking love this lip balm! It’s the Carmex Ultra Moisturizing Lip Balm in Pomegranate.  Its smooth, non-sticky and gives that barely-there feeling on my lips as long as I don’t put on too much of it. Its very cooling (much more than the Carmex tube balm & has a superior formula than it) so it gives that stinging/tingly feeling on the lips. Carmex Ultra Moisturizing lip balm is similar to my favourite EOS egg lip balm, texture wise, EOS is little more balmy, but both feel weightless on the lips. Also, its slightly heavier than the L’Occitane lipbalm.

How To Sanitize Your Makeup !

Hi pretty ladies! 

You know how we can get a little crazy shopping makeup? I don’t think I’m a hoarder, but I definitely have a lot of makeup. The thing is, once some of my makeup crossed a year or so, I started feeling little icky about using it! I do keep my makeup in the best condition and I’m sure anyone would, after all, that stuff goes on your face. But I still felt like it’s gotten pretty old to continue using and throwing out just a year old makeup was out of the question. Then one day, one of my favourite youtubers aka Sineadycady, did a video about sanitizing makeup and voila! It was exactly what looking for. I immediately started collecting all the stuff I would need (that’s why I ordered those spray bottles from eBay) and sanitized my entire makeup collection. I also looked through some blogposts for further help and now I finally have a guide that I follow every time I sanitize my makeup. Actually, this post was supposed to go up in August but better late than never. So here I am, sharing all that I’ve learnt with you!

What you’ll need:

1. Rubbing alcohol: Just ask any medical store. The pharmacist I went to said that its used to sanitize a body part before injection.

2. One spray bottle (I bought mine HERE)

3. Q-Tips/Ear buds

4. Cotton pads

5. One bowl/glass

Why rubbing alcohol?  It is used for disinfection or to soothe, cool, or warm the skin. It is a type of denatured alcohol and is unfit for human consumption. Rubbing alcohol is most often used to disinfect medical instruments and human skin, especially in the case of minor injury or to prepare the skin for an injection. If left on the skin for two minutes, 70% ethyl alcohol will reduce the bacterial count by 5%. People should be careful when applying rubbing alcohol to the skin, as it can be toxic if used over large parts of the body. It can be poisonous if inhaled, so it should be used only in well ventilated areas. It evaporates quickly.

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