EYE SHADOW: a start...

“Your eyes are the windows to your soul” is what someone great had said. If it is true then we have got to get our eye makeup right ;) Isn't it? So here we go discussing eye shadows in this blog. Before I start... Ladies please feel free to write your comments and give me some feedback as how we could together make this blog more and more helpful for make-up junkies like us ;)

Further, in order to structure the blog such that it is easy to absorb info, I have divided the section on eye shadows in three different posts. Each post shall deal with the nitty-gritties of achieving beautiful eyes using eye shadows.

Eye shadows can make or break a look and it is very important to strike the right balance between under-dramatic and over dramatic eyes. Eye shadows not only add color to the eyes or highlight them, but they also help in changing (virtually), the shape and size of your eyes.

Before we go ahead, let us go through some rules that I swear by and most beauty and make-up blogs and articles also stress on. The rules are as follows:
1. Thou shalt not highlight the eyes AND the mouth at the same time.
2. Thou shalt not extend the smokey-eye look up to the eyebrows.
3. Thou shalt always use shadow brush and not the spongy applicators that come with the
shadow.
4. Thou shalt apply eye shadow according to the type of eye thou has been gifted with.

Jai Kajal ki Jai Ho!

On Friday I ran out of my Revlon kajal :( Just to refresh your memory, it was the one that has the perfect "jetness" of black and is extremely smooth as described in my previous post at: http://confessionsofamakeupoholic.blogspot.com/2010/08/kajal-kohl-surma.html
So anyways, now that I had run out of it, the only logical solution seemed to be was to go in search for it. And since I was travelling to Mumbai the next day, I needed it really fast. But of course you don't always get what you want and Murphy's Law struck... My "blackness" personified Revlon was not available anywhere! They were all out of stock... (Hey! Is everyone out there buying it?). And it is 9:30 in the evening with all stores shutting down!

So, out of sheer desperation I go to "Hanuman Stores". It is you know a "kirane ki dukaan" as in a General store selling groceries, cosmetics and the like. I apprehensively go and ask "Bhaiya aap kajal rakhte hain kya" (Bhaiya do you keep kajal). He says yes. Wait! what? did he just say yes? YES? Really? Oh my! My hopes soar and I ask more confidently this time "Kaunse kaunse hai?" (Which ones do you have)? He gives a curt reply "Jai Kajal". WTF! JAI KAJAL. What the hell is that? My soaring hopes dash :( But I am making myself feel better by saying that I can always buy one later...

I leave the store and tell my sister about it and she asks "Jai Kajal?". I say yes, sensing that she has more to say. I am praying for some hope and then she says "You know didi, a friend of mine uses this local kajal, which comes for 7 bucks and it is the black-est kajal I have ever seen." What? Will you please repeat it? What did you just say? All i heard was the "blackest kajal". I want it now! I am a sucker for black kajals... The blacker the better. I rush into the store and say with a smile "Bhaiya, woh Jai Kajal hi de do" (Bhaiya, gimme the Jai Kajal that you have). I buy it for 10 bucks.

I can't wait to reach home and try it! I am praying to God to be kind and to please bless me so that the blackness of Jai (no racism here!) wins me over. Once home, I hog the mirror, scrub my face. You see I have this weird logic that if your face is scrubbed the kajal looks doubly black (yeah right! whatever!). I take a matchstick and smear it with the kajal and apply it on the inner rim of my lower eye (sorry for the details!). Ok... My first reaction- it smells like camphor! Second reaction- my eyes are feeling a cooling sensation and weird.. Is it the camphor reaction? Third reaction- Dude! It's black. It's the black that God created! It's the exact color that God wanted black to be. It's heavenly! and wait does it have a "wet look" effect? Oh God! Really? Thank you God... Thank You so much for making me find this.

But wait what about the smell of Camphor? I turn the container and sure enough they have listed Camphor as the first ingredient! I am thinking "If they have so confidently mentioned camphor in the list of ingredients, it couldn't be bad... or could it?" I google it... I type "Camphor Eyes" in the Google search bar and Voila! According to AYURVEDA, camphor cools the eye and relieves traces of stress and strains. I think incredulously "Is it really good for the eye?” I have found what I was looking for, for all these years and that too for 10 friggin bucks! THERE IS A GOD!