Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 ------> 2011

Just wanted to say that 2010 has been an interesting year. Things I have "accomplished" include:


  • Studying for and successfully finishing my Master's degree.
  • Travelling and spending time with lots of family members.
  • An unexpected trip to the USA - where I got to spend time with my dear Dadi and with lots of old friends!
  • Lots of shopping and makeup hauls!
Happy new year everyone! I hope everyone stays safe and has a good night whatever it is they are doing!  I hope the next year is peaceful and fun at the same time! 

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Brushes better than MAC ones?!?!

Hello!

I have been really wanting to share my feelings on makeup brushes for a while now. The first time I ever bought eye makeup, the makeup artist convinced me to buy brushes as well. I ended up with 3 brushes which I still have to date. It has been 9 years!

As we all know, makeup brushes are crucial to the art of applying makeup. Makeup brushes tend to be very loyal. That is if you take care of your brushes by regularly washing and cleaning them, and they will remain eternally grateful to you and give you the best possible results when you do your makeup. I'm talking about good quality brushes. But this we all know! So why this post? Well, here's why:

My first brushes were MAC ones and I fell in love with them. This compounded with the fact that they were of amazing quality, made me a die hard fan of MAC brushes. However, over the years I started looking at other brands and other brushes and discovered - to my surprise - GASP - there are better brushes out there!!

Now please don't take this as a hater post. I am a fan of MAC and think that they have some absolutely brilliant products. But that does not mean that everything I own is MAC, and neither does it mean that all their products are equally brilliant. But let's not go into that. I just want to share with you the non-MAC brushes that I have found and I think are worth looking at if MAC is too expensive for you, not working out for you or not your cup of tea!

1. ECOTOOLS brushes: 
These brushes claim to be 100% cruelty free, with recycled aluminium ferrules and handles made of bamboo. Hey, who does not love eco-friendly brushes! But that is not all!

  • The brushes are really good quality and incredibly soft.
  • I find myself reaching for their blush brush more often than my MAC one!!
  • They are cheaper when compared to high-end brands. 
  • I would recommend this brand to EVERYONE who does makeup! 
Brushes to check out:
-> Blush brush (part of 6 pc brush set): Absolutely brilliant to use, great blending capacity and very soft on the face!
-> Retractable Kabuki: Easy to store and use, great for overall face.
-> Concealer brush (part of 6 pc brush set): Interesting brush that doubles up as concealer & eyeshadow   brush. Its shape makes it easy to blend eye shadows as well.
Click to enlarge! 


2. Sonia Kashuk brushes: 
Sonia Kashuk brushes are produced exclusively for Target  (USA) and are very affordable. They are again, worth buying as they are really good brushes which work really well for me. My favorite has to be the dome shaped blending brush. This brush is a fatter and fuller version of the MAC 217! I just love the brush and the way it can work my crease.
Other brushes that I use: Medium eye-shadow brush and the smudge brush. The former is great for applying eye shadow and blending them at the same time. The latter is a bit stiff and I use it for my lower lash line. 

3. MUG brushes:
I have two brushes from the makeupgeek(MUG) website and they are def. my favorite brushes. The flat shader brush is comparable to MAC 239 and the outer V brush is comparable to MAC's 219. The outer V brush is small but very potent in picking up a lot of product so be careful with it while using!

They both have very precise application, are completely affordable and work really well for me. 

4. Vega eyeliner brush: This small brush, available at Health & Glow is a really good one for applying gel eyeliners. I feel that it does an adequate job and I have not found a reason to invest in an international brand. It is not more than Rs. 30-40 and I think work just fine. For the price - this brush is a steal!

So these are some brands other than MAC that have worked for me. In all honesty, I must admit that now that I have these, I don't really use my MAC ones as much. 
The best part is that they are much cheaper than high-end brushes. In India we only have very high end brushes or really cheap ones.So if you have a restricted budget, have all the the  MAC ones already, want to try something new or whatever reason, these other brands are definitely worth checking out! 

Check out some pics of the above brushes when compared to MAC ones:
Ps: click to enlarge!
L-R: MAC 217, MAC 224, Sonia Kashuk Blending brush, MUG outer V brush.

L-R: MUG e/s brush, MAC 252, Ecotools concealer & e/s brush, Sonia Kashuk medium e/s brush.

L-R: Ecotools angled brush, MAC 266, Vega eyeliner brush, Sonia Kashuk smudge brush


So yes this post is very long, but I hope I have given a small insight into the huge world of makeup brushes! Do let me know if this was helpful!

Happy new year!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Wrong Spell Lip Glass!

Hello All!

One of the most deliciously wicked Lipglasses from 'Venomous Villains' collection by MAC is the Wrong Spell Lip Glass lip gloss. This was gifted to me more than a month ago but since the collection is out just about now in India, I wanted to review it for you.


  • It has a cute and fun packaging with Maleficent on the tube.
  • The gloss is by itself, a purply-brown colour.
  • It does have some pink micro-shimmer in it.
  • The colour is pretty and nothing spectacular by itself.
  • However, as recommended by Jangsara, I tried it with a dark plum base, the colour turned out to be a deliciously dark purple. I used Covergirl smoothers lip liner in "Plum Chiffon"
  • I feel that all skin tones may not be able to carry of this colour - I could be wrong though.
  • The downside is that it does not spread evenly.
  • Tends to morph into a more pink version of itself when applied with a lip pencil/liner.
  • Overall, the colour is great but this is not the most easy to use lip gloss!
Some pictures for you:


The packaging!

Packaging with flash!

Swatch!

Applied directly on lips!

With 'Plum Chiffon' lip liner!

Another one with lip liner!
 Notice how the colour looks a bit patchy - it does not have the smoothest application in the world. Also, see how the colour transforms to a dark purply-grape colour!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas look!!

Holo! (Just like in Megamind!!) 

This is my version of a fun christmas look! It was super easy to do and I really enjoyed doing it as well! 

Products used:

  • Benefit's Boing Concealer
  • NYX e/s in Redhead and Space
  • Unbranded white e/s
  • NYX Silver glitter liner
  • Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero
  • Maybelline Great lash mascara



The look!




Hope you guys like! Let me know what you think!

Thanks!


The Inglot Experience

Hello,

I just wanted to talk about my Inglot experience in Select City Walk mall in New Delhi. After reading and hearing much about Inglot, I decided to check out the place when I was visiting the capital in August.

To start off, the store was quite large and more welcoming than Colorbar (Wasn't happy with the service and the fact that it was so teeny.) The team of makeup artists did not go out of their way to make me and my two aunts comfortable. They only attended to us when we went up and asked them for help. Again, their service was not spectacular. However, I did end up picking out three eye shadows. 

Some interesting things about Inglot:
  • They have something called the freedom system wherein you can pick out single eye shadows and get them in palettes of 3,5 and 10 I think. 
  • They are cheaper than MAC when it comes to e/s. 
  • The palettes are magnetized and stackable. 
  • The eye shadows come in circular and square shaped pans.
  • They don't name their e/s, there is a numbering system.
So I picked up three colours that I was looking for. I wanted a matte white, matte yellow and an orange. I got the matte white but not matte yellow. Both the yellow and orange have shimmers in them. 

Check out some pictures:



The palette!

My colours!

Finger swatches!

Hand swatches!


So now my thoughts:


  • I am really sorry but  I do not remember the numbers of the eye shadows and hence I cannot tell you what I got! 
  • I palette + 3 eye shadows cost around Rs. 1200. I think each e/s was around Rs. 300 and the palette was another 300 bucks.
  • I love the white. It blends really well, is easy to use. I mostly use it as a highlight colour.
  • The orange I love as well. It has these really beautiful shimmers in them!
  • The yellow, I am not loving so much. It definitely needs some work. It needs some TLC! i.e a good strong yellow base, a flat shader brush and some serious packing onto the eye!
  • I wouldn't say that they are the most pigmented colours as you can see on the hand swatches.
  • The palette itself is sturdy, cute and snaps shut quite tight. It has a mirror included.
Overall, these colours work for me and I am happy with my palette but I am sure that there are people out there who may not like them. I like the freedom system concept and I did see some interesting colours. I would definitely keep myself open to getting more eye shadows from here in the future!

Let me know about your experiences at Inglot!

Thanks!



Saturday, December 18, 2010

Shimmery Yellow Look!

Hola!

I decided to try this shiny yellow look after watching a couple of Youtube tutorials, one of which was by pixiwoo. The tutorial can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9g_4HUWTTc

So now for the look: (The picture quality is not that great as I am still messing around with the camera settings!)



Products used:

  • Mac Painterly paint pot
  • NYX Jumbo eye pencil in Yellow
  • Mac Golden Lemon pigment
  • Inglot yellow eyeshadow (Don't know the number.)
  • Mac Blacktrack fluidline
  • Covergirl Lashblast mascara
Hope you enjoy and do let me know what you think!

Thanks

Inspired by Indyabeauty!

Hello everyone! 

This look was inspired by Rashmi from http://www.indyabeauty.com/ 
The look was done a while back and I don't quite remember the products used. I want to say that I used:

  • NYX Jumbo eye pencil in Slate
  • Mac Golden Lemon pigment
  • Silver-Gray eyeshadow from NYX - Jazz Nights Palette
  • Mac eyeshadow in Black tied
Check out the pictures. (The colours look washed out, but were brighter in reality.)




Do let me know what you think and leave me a comment! 
Thanks.