TOOLS REVIEW: Faces Blending Brush 106

Smoky eyes as you all know is my favorite form of eye makeup, so much so that I can actually commit the cardinal sin of pairing it with Red Lips as well. LOL!  In order to achieve smoky eyes of any shade one tool that comes real handy and that cannot be compromised with is a BLENDING BRUSH. Like the name suggests, a blending brush is a brush that is used to blend in or out your eye shadows. I personally use and am in love with Faces Blending Brush no 106. I have been planning and thinking of reviewing this brush since a long time now but I finally gave in when Makeup Chic asked me to review it :)

This brush has been my constant companion for doing smoky eyes and it has never failed me :) The brush consists of fluffy natural bristles that do not shed and retain their shape.

Image of the Product

Faces Blending Brush No 106

LOTD with the brush:

Purple Smoky Eyes with Faces Blending Brush 106

Purple Smoky Eyes with Faces Blending Brush 106

 

Oooohhss And Aaaahhhhss!!
1. Soft yet sturdy bristles.
2. Retains shape even after multiple washes
3. Does not shed hair.
4. Very pocket friendly as compared to blending brushes from other brands.
5. Performs blending to the Tee!
6. It's really long and I find that very easy to work with.
7. Doesn't scratch my skin.


Ouches!!
I cannot really think of any except for maybe availability. This brush from Faces doesn't seem to available easily.


Price:
It costs INR 295/-


Repurchase?
I already own three of them. That I am sure says something ;)


Would I Recommend?
Oh yes! Anyone who wants to master the art of smoky eyes needs a blending brush and this one with its quality at such a reasonable price is a steal! :)


Overall Rating:
9.5/10

LOTD: New Years Eve 2012

You know, while writing this post, I realised how important make-up is and how insignificant my outfit is to me. I did not click a single NYE outfit pic, well ok just one and that too sooo blurry that it makes no sense to put it but I had clicked like about 1027 pics of my makeup before going out!!! LOL...

So anyways, like I told you all, I did the smoky purple eyes yesterday with a little twist to yesterday EOTD and well wore a satin dress? Why satin u ask especially when I told you guys that I'd be wearing a silver shimmery top. Well thats because I knew that the NYE party will be filled with girls in shimmery outfits and we would all look like clones of each other... And true enough 98% of the women were in shimmery blues and goldens and silvers and even red!!! :D So anyways, I wore a satin black and white patterned dress with a plunging neckline :P and covered up with a black shrug for modesty :P

Here's my look...

Tutorial Coming Up Soon! :)

And a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who voted for this look and helped me decide what to do for NYE :)

LOTD: Welcome New Year 2012, Look2

Ladies, after you guys were so supportive and appreciative of my previous NYE look, I am back with another... People I am on a smokey eye roll here and I am enjoying every bit of it. You know what, I think I should start a smoky eyes section on my blog as well, I am soo obsessed with it! :P

So anyways, I used my Sleek iDivine "Bad Girl" palette to create the purple smoky eyes and like always you guys will have to be judge of how it has turned out to be :)

oh and btw, u guys will also have to tell me as to which look I must go with tomorrow night :) Look1 or Look2 (this one)

Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in Bare + Maybelline Lip Gloss in Hooked On Pink

Purple Smokey Eyes

Products Used:
Face
1. Colorbar Blush in Plum Brown
2. Lakme Absolute MoonLit Highlighter


Lips
1. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in Bare
2. Maybelline Comorsensational Lipgloss in Hooked On Pink


Eyes
1. MAC Paint Pot in Painterly
2. Sleek iDivine "Bad Girl" Palette
3. Maybelline Gel Eye Liner
4. Maxfactor False Lash Effect Mascara
5. Lakme Absolute MoonLit Highlighter

LOTD: Welcome New Year 2012, Look1

I am yet to finalize my plans for the new years eve party this year and like every year for the past 5 years, I am sure we'll be hanging out with old friends at one of our apartments for drinks and then head to a restaurant for dinner, which is why I have decided to wear a pair of black skinny jeans with a blingey-glittery silver top and a pair of killer black heels :)


Now comes the makeup part... I am thinking of two kinds of looks... One would be with Red lips as many of you would have expected :P and the other would be a smokey eye look, which again isn't really a surprise for you guys ;)


So anyways, I did a silver smokey eye look today for you guys to tell me if it looks good enough for the new years eve party :) Let me know of your honest opinions girls :) I am counting on you all!

Silver Smoky eyes and Gossy Nude Lips

Silver Smoky eyes and Gossy Nude Lips

Let me know how you all find it :)

REVIEW, SWATCHES & LOTD: Sleek iDivine Eye Shadow Palette in "Original"

A latest addition to my makeup stash is the loot I ordered from Sleek Makeup and well I am loving it :) Yes I am starting with the series of Sleek reviews from this post on and I promise to make you jealous fall in love with Sleek if you are not already! :P

So anyways, I am starting with reviewing the Sleek iDivine Palette in "Original". The review and swatches for "Bad Girl" will follow next. I chose "Original" over others is because of the variety of colors this palette offers. It has blues, greens, peaches, a purple, a black and a highlighter shade. The shadows are extremely well pigmented and have a "wet" effect to them. Not that they are the best quality shadows I have used, but for the price of $10.00, they are utterly awesome!

The shadows have a very soft and smooth texture and the pigmentation is the best that I have seen. The colors in this palette are bold and are mostly of Satin, Velvety finish. Except for the Black which is a matte shade, all others have a shimmer in them. And NO! the shimmery effect of the shadows isn't subtle. They flaunt it as if they are truly proud of their shimmer ;)

Image of the Product

Sleek iDivine Eye Shadow Palette in "Original" 

Sleek iDivine Eye Shadow Palette in "Original" 

Swatches

Top Row of Sleek Eye Shadow Palette "Original"

Bottom Row of Sleek Eye Shadow Palette "Original"

LOTD

Being in love with smoky eyes (yes it does have a bit to do with my guy's preference for smoky eyes), I couldn't help but do a smokey EOTD with this palette as well...

Coppery Smoky Eyes With Sleek Eye Shadow Palette "Original"

Smokey Eye Look

Copper Smoky Eyes

Oooohhhsss And Aaaahhhhss!!

1. The smooth velvety texture is just heavenly.

2. Truly the most pigmented shadows I have ever come across

3. They are very comfortably priced.

4. Odorless

5. Do not cause any reactions or allergies

6. Comes with a very good quality rubbery sponge applicator.

7. Has a rectangular mirror in the palette.

8. The palette is extremely Sleek (namesake) and very comfortable to carry around.

9. Almost NIL fallout.

10. The palette looks ultra pretty especially because of the font of the word "Sleek" on the palette :) 

Ouches!

1. Creases on me after about 5-6 hours

2. Non availability in India

Price

It costs about $10.00 on the sleek makeup website.

Repurchase?

I would love to purchase ALL the palettes Sleek has to offer! Love love love their shadows :)

Would I Recommend?

Are you kidding? Yes I recommend Sleek eye shadow palettes with all my heart. They are the best in this price range and well much better than many others that are more expensive than these. Ladies, please go and buy them. I even sold off one brand new sealed Original palette for 0 profit cause I wanted to share it with Indian beauty bloggers :)

Overall Rating

9/10


Ordered them online from www.sleekmakeup.com 

REVIEW & EOTD: Lakme Absolute Baked Eye Shadow in Day Queen

I have always been an eye makeup person and so it was imminent that if I was to purchase stuff from the Lakme Absolute Range, one of the purchases had to be an eye-shadow. This perhaps is the first time that baked shadows have been launched in India and well it is a sign that cosmetic giants in the world are slowly recognizing us as a potentially big market :) Do you know what this means? It means we can now hope for loads of new product launches :) So, anyways coming back to baked eye shadows, I already own one from Maybelline called the Navy Narcissist. So this is my second baked eye shadow and well I am not really impressed :(

Lakme Absolute Baked Eye Shadow in Day Queen is an eye shadow duo in two tones of shimmery green shadow. As you can see, one shade is a pale green while the other is a shimmery Olive Green. As expected the Olive Green shade is more pigmented while the light green is hopeless. Yes I know baked shadows perform better when wet but trust me that didn't really help much either :( All in all this is one product that kinda disappointed me :(

Image of the Product

Lakme Absolute Baked Shadow in Day Queen

Swatches

Light Shade Dry and Wet; Dark Shade Dry and Wet

LOTD

The pigmentation could be better :(

Oooohhhsss and Aaaahhhhss!!

1. Baked shadow for the first time in India :)

2. The darker shade of the due is actually beautiful and could be used very innovatively for smokey eye looks

3. Doesn't cause allergies of reactions

4. Odorless

5. They look cute on the dresser!

Ouches!

1. Huge fallout problem

2. Doesn't stay on for long

3. Creases easily

4. Expensive for a duo

Price

It costs INR 595.00

Repurchase

Sighhhh.. My mind tell me no but I am greedy for eye shadows and I might just check out another shade ;)

Would I Recommend?

As you can see that this product has failed to impress me at all. It's very rare that I give negative reviews to any product but this one really was not worth the amount I spent on it... So no I do not recommend thsi product.

Overall Rating

6/10

LOTD & Tutorial: Eye Make-up to Match a Grey Dress

A few days back I did a post about matching or rather complementing our makeup with our outfit. Well in continuation to that post today I plan on doing an EOTD to match a grey dress. Of course if it would have been a look for a night out, I would have gone for a heavy smoky look but as I was interested in doing a look for a daytime event, I settled for a shimmery green look with a slight smoky effect to it. It looks something like this:

Soft Green-Grey Smoky Eye

The products I have used for this look are as follows:
1. NYX Eye shadow base
2. MAC Peacocky Collection Eye shadow in EGO
3. Coastal Scents 88 Original Eye shadow palette
4. Maybelline Gel Eyeliner
5. Maxfactor False Lash Effect Mascara
6. Maybelline Colorsensational Lipstick in "Coral Crush"

The way to do it:
1. I first primed my eyes with the NYX eye shadow base.
2. Then I dabbed MAC eye shadow in EGO in a dab dab motion with a flat eye shadow brush

MAC Peacocky Collection: Eye shadow called EGO

3. Next, I took the matte taupe eye shadow from my coastal scents palette and using a Faces blending brush applied it to my crease area and blended well.

Coastal Scents Original 88 Palette

Using the matte Taupe eye shadow in the crease area

4. Finally, I lined my eyes with Maybelline Gel Eyeliner and applied mascara and lipstick...

The final look was this:

Hope you guys liked the makeup here :)

For the complete look including the dress and the footwear, visit isimplylovedressup.blogspot.com 

LOTD & Tutorial: Golden Smokey Eyes

This is one of my favorite kind of smokey eyes as these look classy and is extremely easy to achieve :) Oh yes you got it right people... I am a sucker for simple and easy to do looks and here is a tutorial for one of them...

Golden Smokey Eyes Look

The products I have used to achieve this look are as follows:

Eyes

1. Faces Cosmetics Kajal

2. Faces Sparkle Dust in Gold

3. Oriflame Mono Eye Shadow in Midnight Black

4. Colorbar Waterproof Liquid Liner

5. MAC False Lashes #36

6. Maxfactor False Lash Effect Mascara

7. Coastal Scents Light Beige Shadow as highlighter

8. NYX Eye Shadow Base in Skintone

9. Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner

Cheeks

1. Maxfactor Creamy Blush in Soft Copper

2. Maybelline Blush in Apricot Flush

Face

1. Maxfactor Second Skin Foundation in Golden

Lips

1. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in Bare

2. MAC Lustre Lipstick in Touch

Products used for the look

The tutorial...

1. First off, I primed my eyes with NYX's eye shadow base in Skintone.

2. Then, taking the Faces kajal, I applied it generously all over my eyelids and smudged it 
    with a sponge tipped brush. Do not worry about it looking dirty.

3. Now, taking some Faces Gold Sparkle Dust with a flat eye shadow brush I dabbed in all 
    over my lids.

4. Then took some Oriflame's Black Eye shadow with my Faces blending brush I blended in 
    my outer "V" and the crease area.

5. Next, I applied my MAC false lashes using Duo Lash Adhesive (Note to self: do a tutorial 
    on this), which I removed later...

6. Then, I lined my eyes with Maybelline's Gel liner, applied Colorbar liquid liner on my top 
    lashline and coated my "lashes" with Maxfactor mascara.

7. Finally, used the highlighter on my brow bone for the ooomph effect :)

The finished look :)

 Hope you liked this look of mine :)

If you want me to do a tutorial on any particular do mail me at isimplylovemakeup@gmail.com

I love to hear from you guys :)

How To: Match My Makeup With My Outfit...

Has it ever happened to you when you very excitedly decide on an outfit that you want to wear for an occasion but are at a complete loss of the kind of makeup palette to choose? Have you ever been left at the curb wondering if a blue eye-shadow with a blue dress would seriously be a good idea? Let me talk about how I prefer choosing my makeup palette with the color of my outfit... It is in no way the only way or may be the most correct way to go about but it sure helps me out of sticky makeup situations ;)

My mantra is COMPLEMENTING. I in no way ever go about matching the colors in my dress to the color of my eye-shadow or liner or lipstick. All I do is decide on the colors that complement the colors in my outfit. This is a rule that I follow in general but I do have some exceptions to this rule of mine. Also do note that the colors in my make-up do follow a certain rule where the occasion or the time of day is concerned. For example my color palette for work certainly revolves around neutrals, taupe, browns and subdued greys for the eyes and natural pinks, nude and light browns for the lips. But come a wedding or a night out in the club and I unleash the drama queen that I am through my makeup :P

So anyways, coming back to complementing colors, what I mean here is that rather than blindly going for a matching-matching contest between the outfit color and the eye-shadow color, it is preferable to choose your lip color or eye color that would complement your dress. For example, if you are wearing a red dress, I would refrain from going for a Red Lip... Rather I would go for a say smoky eye and a neutral lip look, or if I am wearing a Navy Blue outfit, I would go for golden eyes and red lips. Imagine it and I am sure you will get a hang of it ;)

Here is a little chart that would help you understand my thought process while deciding on my makeup according to occasion:
1. Indian Weddings and similar functions
    Your outfit be really bright and colorful with a lot of either golden, silver, bronze of copper... Would suggest you to go for dual eye shadows blended well out of which one should definitely be either golden, silver, bronze or copper matching your outfit and the other shadow should be of the color that is least present in your dress. Lips should either be pink or Orange or Red according to the family of colors present in your outfit.

Copper eyes with Red Lips

Golden and Cranberry Eyes with Fuschia Lips

2. Formal Evening Occasions
    Either go for nude shadows and bold matte lips that complement and not match the outfit, or go for bold eye makeup and nude lips.

3. Casual Occasions
    Nude lips with bright complementing eye shadow shades or a bright lippy with slightly defined eyes :)

4. Work Wear
    Accented eyes and nude lips :)

Defined eyes and nude lips

Let me know if you would like to me to write about any specific occasions, functions or outfits... I would love to suggest you on them too :)

 

CELEB LOOK RECREATION: Sonam Kapoor Inspired Contouring

I have been wanting to do a post on face contouring since a very long time but I was too lazy to do it because a tutorial of face contouring would take up too much effort is what I had been thinking (bad girl!). I was just happily shelving it. But just today I saw this wonderful pic of the judges of Kingfisher's Swimsuit Calender Girl Hunt 2012 and I was literally blown away by Sonam Kapoor's look. I was getting so bored seeing neutral and natural looks, I was craving for something dramatic and voila! enter Sonam Kapoor :)

The Panel of Judges

I am totally digging her contoured cheekbones, heavily smoked eyes and nude pink lips. The smokey eyes give her an air of mystery with sensuality whereas her nude pink lips bring about a certain vulnerability, which completely balance out the smoky eyes. And I just cannot get enough of the contouring!!! It's simply gorgeous! Lets take a closer look at her and discuss this masterpeice that her makeup artist has created!

Now these are a list ofpointers that I have learnt from this:

1. Keep the complete look clean, smokey eyes but no drama with winged liners and stuff.

2. Keep the hair sleek and up when doing a strong smokey eye look.

3. Any nudes even Pinks are fine with smokey eyes.

4. Contouring doesn't mean following every trick in the book, but doing only what suits you.

5. Strong brows are really IN this season

6. Since there is very obvious and strong contouring, the other parts of the face is kept clean.

7. Using a concealer is a must when doing a smokey eye.

I am so in love with this look that I have done a version of this look on myself too. Yes! I really loved it so much :D My version looks a bit different in the sense that I haven't used falsies and neither have I done an all black look... I added some color but I kept to the pink nude lips. As far as contouring is concerned I have contoured only my cheekbones just like Sonam. Now I think I could have contoured my nose as well ;)

Now just a few basics about contouring...

Contouring is actually the art of makeup that can magically give you those missing "high cheekbones", "slimmer nose", "prettier chin" and even "flattering temples". It's just a magic of highlighters, bronzers and the correct brushes ;)

In this post I have only contoured my cheekbones. If you guys need an intro to contouring other features and tutorials for contouring do let me know and I will surely put up a post of contouring tutorials :)

Hope you liked my look here!

EOTD & TUTORIAL: Yellow Brown Smoky Eyes Look

I don't know if it happens to you guys but it sure does to me. What? LOL... The time when I get used to a particular thing and I just cannot let go of it :) Well yes it happens to the best of us but I guess it happens to me a tad bit more than most of you can even imagine! Why does this happen to me I cannot fathom but then yes you will now say that I am blabbering away to glory :P ha ha! So before I get carried away a bit more, let me tell you guys that what I am talking about is the fact that I get stuck not only to particular products but also to specific EOTDs and LOTDs... Yes! I am a habitual EOTD repeater in real life! Ha! There I said it! :D

So anyways, today I am posting a tutorial on the summery smoky look that I am nowadays sporting with anything and everything :) It's a very pretty and versatile (you bet!) EOTD using golden yellow and brown and well it just makes my eyes look so bright and full of life :) So here goes...

But first here's a sneak peak at my EOTD :) Tell me guys how much you like it :)

Yellow Brown Smoky Eyes

STEPS

1. Primed lids with Faces Eye-shadow Base and then buffed with some loose 

    powder/compact.

2. Taking a bit of yellow eye shadow from my Faces Brilliants Palette using a flat fluffy 

    eye shadow brush again from Faces, I applied the shadow on my eye lids in a 

    "pat-pat" motion.

Yellow from Faces Brilliants Palette

Applying the yellow shadow using a Faces Flat Fluffy brush

3. Next using my Faces Blending Brush number 106, I picked up some Colorbar eye 

    shadow called Spicy Brown, which is a warm brown shade and applied it on my 

    crease, blending the yellow and brown shadows in a to and fro motion from the inner    

    corner of the eye to the outer.

Colorbar Eye-shadow in Spicy Brown

Applying the Colorbar Eye-shadow in the crease using Faces Brush 106

   

4. Taking a highlighter shade like MAC Nylon, I applied it on my brow bone in order to 

    bring focus to my eyes.

5. Now, I lined my eyes with Maybelline's Gel Liner (waterline+upper lashline) and 

    finished off with some mascara. I have used Maxfactor's False Lash Effect Mascara 

    here.

Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner

6. This look can generally be paired with either a nude lippy or a red lippy and 

    sometimes even a coral lippy :)

7. On my cheeks, I have used NYX cream blush in Golden on the cheekbone and 

    Colorbar powder blush in Plum Brown on the hollows of my cheeks.

All the products used

Final Look!

 

The products used for this look are as follows:

Face:

1. Colorbar Spot Correction Concealer

Eyes:

1. Faces Eye-shadow base

2. Faces Brilliants Eye-shadow Palette

3. Colorbar Eye shadow in Spicy Brown (review here)

4. Maybelline Gel Eye-liner (review here)

5. Maxfactor False Lash Effect Mascara

Lips:

1. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in Hot Hot Hot (review here)

Cheeks:

1. NYX Cream Blush in Golden

2. Colorbar blush in Plum Brown (review here)

Hope you guys like the look and find the tutorial helpful :) Do give me comments and share your opinions!