Entry1 (Cotton Candy Eyes) For VanityNoApologies' Makeup Contest

Heylo people :) Here's me participating in an eye makeup contest organized by L'Oreal and VanityNoApologies :) The link for the contest is here

I have done a sparkly pastel eye makeup that is fun and fancy at the same time :) It reminds me of cotton candies :) I have used pastel pink, green and blue eye shadows to give it a cool yet ethereal feel to the whole look :)

Quoting Anshita: "Come up with an eye look that involves bright and colourful shades. Make sure the look is wearable so all the people here get some nice ideas to try out next time."
This look is wearable and I myself wore it yesterday! So here's the look :)

The products that I have used are as follows:
1. Eye shadows from Sleek iDivine "Original" palette.
2. Maybelline Gel Liner in my waterline.
3. Sleek Black eye shadow as a liquid liner using Inglot Duraline on my upper lashline.
4. MAC Zoom Fast Lash Mascara
5. MAC Ricepaper as highlighter.
6. MAC Paint Pot in Painterly as base


Hope you guys like this look :)

P.S. My digicam is not working properly, so had to use my phone for the pictures :( Apologies for the not so clear pics...

Do vote for me HERE 

Reader Request: Anushka Sharma's MakeUp in the Canon Ad

Basically, importantly, fundamentally many beauty bloggers have already done this tute like Sukanya and Bidisha but Pranali has been asking me to do this since two weeks now and she kinda gave me an ultimatum to do it on Sunday during our blogger's meet and well I had to oblige :)

Sukanya and Bids you did some awesome work on it and I totally "dig" both your tutes... I hope my doing this tute isn't gonna step on any toes :) I will be doing my interpretation of the look :)

Honestly? I have taken the picture quadrant from Sukanya's blog "A Few Unnecessary Stuff" :D

My Interpretation
Anushka's look is actually a very simple, everyday look with well defined eyes and peachy lips. The overall look is crisp and can be worn almost everyday. I am even wearing it to office today :)


1. Let us analyse the eyes first...
The eyes as you can see is well defined with kohl in the waterline and no fuss with any nude or white liner to make the eyes seem bigger and stuff. If you notice her eyes in the first three quadrants, you'll feel like she has applied a lot of black smudged liner on her upper lids but if you see her profile which is the fourth quadrant you'll notice that her upper lids are actually quite crisp and thinly lined. The kohl on the lower lashline on the other hand has been smudged with a brown eye shadow.
Also her crease has been defined using a nude shade of brown eye shadow.

2. Zero or negligible blush
I have applied quite a bit of blush as I dp not have a long face like Anushka. I have more of a round face and so to make it look longer I had to apply a blush :)

3. Warm Peach lips...
Since I have pigmented lips and a lot of "yellow" undertone,Peach lippies kinda look Pink on me. So I have a darker Orange gloss to create the "warm" effect.

Tutorial
1. Take a nude/neutral brown eye shadow and using a stiff blending brush apply it in the crease area to deepen your crease. I have used MAC Texture eye shadow with MAC 226 brush.

2. Next take a very natural looking highlighter shade and apply it on your browbone area. I have used MAC RicePaper.

3. Then apply kajal on your lower waterline. Re-apply to make it really dark. I have used my Maybelline Gel Liner.

4. Then taking the same neutral brown shadow used in step 1 using a flat smudger brush, smudge the kajal in the waterline with the shadow on the lower lashline. I am using COlorbar's brush number 122.

5. Finally apply a liquid liner (no a pencil liner or gel liner not allowed :P) on the upper lashline very thinly. Finish your look with a mascara :D

6. For the cheeks I have used a bronzer and Colorbar Star Metallics Lip Gloss in Astral for the lips :)

Hope you like the tutorial :)

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 

The Gel Liner Wars... MAC vs Inglot vs Maybelline... The culmination...

I am today finally ready to give my verdict on the Gel Liner wars and well it's been a tough week deciding on which was better and which could ve been better. You see what made it all the more difficult was the fact that I heart all three of them and well a mommy cannot really choose a fav out of her babies now can she? Ok weird analogy! Its the marriage thing... It's gotten into me and has been making me say all these crazy stuff and give all such lopsided analogies! LOL! I'll get over it soon I promise :P

Ok so coming back to what I was saying, I was saying all three products featured in this post are just simply awesome and well it would be totally unfair to pick out a winner out of them three... So I have decided to dedicate one section to each of the liners and then you guys pick yourself a winner according to your requirements and my experience with each one of them! Phew! You'll soon realize it's a tough job! :D

So here we go...


MAYBELLINE LASTING DRAMA EYE STUDIO GEL LINER (Black)

I have already done a review on this here.
ooohs and aaahhhs

1. Jet Black and I mean really jet black. FULL STOP

2. It is smudge proof after you've allowed it to set for like 2 seconds!

3. It does NOT dry in the tub like a lot of others that I know of :P

4. It comes with an applicator brush, which is GREAT! The brush is super soft and yet firm and is a dream to apply with.

5. It costs only INR 375/- and wow it goes on for like forever... I am a girl who needs her kajal and liner everyday, come what may and for me one tub goes on for like 5-6 months! Its actually magical!

6. It's great cause it doesn't cause any allergies or reactions. It does not burn my eyes and I apply it all over my eyes. LOL.. I mean the waterline, the tightline, lashline and you get the drift! :P

7. It id odorless!

ouches!

1. It fades just a little bit by the end of the day and accumulates at the outer corners of my eyes.

2. The glass tub it comes in is real cute but has a very cheap feeling aluminium cap

3. In India, only one shade i.e. black has been introduced.

INGLOT AMC LINER MATTE (83)

I had heard a lot about INGLOT Gel liners and I was itching to try one. And since I was more than satisfied with my Maybelline Black Gel Liner, I got myself a blue in Inglot. The shade that I own is a true Indigo Blue and looks like a really pretty shade in the pot it comes in. But on the eyes, it looks like a shade darker not that I am complaining ;)
ooohs and aaahhhs

1. Has a great range of shades and it gets really difficult to choose...

2. It dries real fast and so if u want to try out stuff like smudging and all then you have to be really QUICK!

3. It remains dry through out the day and does not fade or smudge!

4. Its ultra waterproof!

5. It does not get accumulated at the outer corners of my eyes and I s love it for that! :D <3 <3

6. Its great as a kajal as well as a liner on the upper lashline :)

7. You get a lot in the pot about 6.5 gms and costs a mere INR 650/-

ouches!

1. It dries up and when i say dries up, I mean dries up in the pot. They say you get an Inglot Duraline for "undrying" the gel. I haven't really needed it so far!

2. Like I said in my ooohs and aaahs section, it dries up fast but sometimes at the end of the day it feels tight on my waterline because of the dried liner and it does get itchy occassionally :(

3. It comes in a cute looking container but its all plastic and feels all tacky :( I mean after all Maybelline and MAC ones come in glass tubs and they really give an expensive feel to the product.

4. It's shades do not have names but only numbers and somehow I am not really a fan of that!

MAC FLUIDLINE (Macroviolet)

MAC doesn't really need any introductions and well it doesn't really need any reviews either but then I am still going ahead and listing out my experiences with it :)ooohs and aaahhhs

1. The shade is gorgeous!

2. It sets fast and can then not be budged at all. It stays on like forever!

3. It feels like "you're wearing nothing at all"... Nope not acuvue but the MAC fluidline :P

4. No reactions and no irritation at all! But then what else did you expect?

5. Is really smooth to apply and just simply glides on.

6. It Does NOT dry up in the pot :)

7. The pot it comes in is of heavy glass and feels really nice, sturdy and classy :)

ouches!

1. It's expensive! A really tiny pot of 3gms set me back by INR 950/-

2. This shade doesn't really show up on my waterline but then in all fairness I am comparing it to Maybelline's black liner! I'll need to get myself blacktrack from MAC to give u fair comparison of the color pay-off :)

So here it is and just for the record I think this has been my longest post so far ;)

Guys lemme know which one you think should be crowned the winner :D

LOTD: Spanish Flamenco Dancer Inspired

I have been planning to do this look i.e. a look inspired by Espaniol Bailarines De Flamenco since a long time now, but the final trigger was the song "Senorita" in the movie "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" :) After watching the movie, I just knoew I had to try it out and so here it is :)

Now a word of caution... You guys'll have to be really kind with your criticism here :P LOL

The aim behind doing this look was to look a bit OTT and yet depict the powerful sensuality that Spanish women are known to possess and that flamenco dancers liberally ooze out with their every tapping step... So here goes...

The look!

As you can see here, I have kept my face a bit shiny or rather glowy and have gone with red lips, which is signature to Spanish Flamenco dancers. I have also tied up my hair in a side roll and attached a flowery accessory to it. The eyes of course are heavily done up. I have gone with a golden smokey look here, in order to make my eyes look more slanted :) And yes as is obvious I have accentuated my eyes with false lashes :)

A sideview

The products that I used for this look are as follows:

Face

1. Streetwear Crystal Shine Face Brightener

Eyes

1. Faces Sparkle Dust in Gold (review here)

2. MAC eyeshadow in Beauty Marked

3. VOV false eye lashes'

4. MAC Paint Pot in Painterly (review here)

5. Maybelline Gel Liner (review here)

6. Colorbar Precision Waterproof Liquid Liner

7. Maxfactor False Lash Effect Mascara

Lips

1. Maybelline Lip Liner in Nude

2. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in hot hot hot (review here)

Cheeks

1. Maxfactor Creamy Blush in Soft Copper

2. Maybelline blush in Apricot Flush 

Let me know how you guys find the look :)

LOTD & Tutorial: Soft Peach and Pink Smokey Look

Yoohoo.. It's been so long since I did a tutorial and well to think about it, there was a time when I so enjoyed putting up my random LOTDs and titorials. But now being wrapped up with product reviews (well yes I have been a hoarder!) I totally forgot about doing some of my favorite tutes :) Just yesterday someone told me how she hated when beauty bloggers flaunted their superbly done makeups and EOTDs and LOTDs but not give an insight on how to chieve them. Ahem! Well needless to say I was left wondering if she was talking about me! No! I am not claiming that I do just "perfect" make-up but then you guys do get the drift! LOL!

So now I came up with this ridiculously easy LOTD and I am so hoping that you guys try it out and share your results with me. I will be deeply honored :) Honestly!

Here's a sneak peek at what we are gonna be achieving by the end of this tutorial. It's a soft peach and crimson smokey look:

The Look :)

I wanted to do a look with my Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette and well rest as they say is history :) The products that I have used for this look is:

The Products...

Face:

Garnier Body Cocoon Moisturizer

Eyes:

MAC Paint Pot in Painterly (as base) (review here)

Peach (Shade 1) from Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette

Crimson (Shade 2) from Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette

Black (Shade 3) from Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette

Maybelline Lasting Drama Eye Studio Gel Liner in Black (review here)

Maybelline Colossal Volume Mascara

Cheeks:

Colorbar Blush in Plum Brown

Lips:

Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in HOT HOT HOT (review here)

Now that we are done with listing of the products, here goes the tutorial:

1. First off, prep your eye lids with an eye-shadow base. I used MAC Paint Pot in Painterly

Used MAC Painterly Paint Pot as base...

2. This step is optional. You can buff your lids with loose powder. I haven't done so.

3. Next, I applied shade 1 (peach) all over my lids with a flat eye-shadow brush.

Shade 1: Peach

4. Then applied some shade 2 (crimson) on my crease area and blended with a good fluffy blending brush.

Shade 2: Crimson

5. You could line your eyes now and finish off but I needed it to be a bit more dramatic and so took some shade 3 (black) and blended it in my outer V of my eyes.

6. Next I lined my eyes with Maybelline's Lasting Drama Eye Studio Gel Liner in Black and applied some Maybelline Colossal Volume Mascara.

7. On my lips I applied Colorbar Velvet Matte lipstick in Hot Hot Hot and then kissed a tissue ;)

8. Finally applied some Colorbar Blush in Plum Brown and VOILA I was ready to go :)

You guys do try this out and I would love to receive your looks if you care to share them with me :)

xoxo

The Gel Eye Liner wars... MAC vs INGLOT vs MAYBELLINE

Well here I am with another review and this review ladies is not just another review... It is a review that attempts to bring Maybelline Inglot and MAC at par where there gel eye liners are concerned. Well you see, I haven't really been a gel liner girl... I started out with pencil kajals and liners and then graduated to liquid liners and have been really loyal to them ever since... But recently I ve been smitten with these gel eye liners thanks to all beauty blogs doing the rounds in the blogosphere and well I am HOOKED!!! You see when I say hooked I mean hook, line and sinker hooked, I mean not look at any other liquid liners and pencil liners hooked, I mean even scoff at non-gel users hooked!

Yes I am guilty of shifting my loyalties out of liquids and pencils to gels! I started out with Maybelline's Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eye Liner and was so impressed with gel liners that I actually continued using it for 5 straight months... Then I wanted to try out a blue and a plum but alas Maybelline is just trying out the gel liner market in India and so have introduced only black in India :(  I then had the good fortune of getting myself an Inglot Matte Gel Eye Liner in a shade numbered 83 which is actually an Indigo blue (logic behind shade numbers and no shade names is beyond me). This I used for a total of 4 days and was loving it so much that I wanted another shade in it... But then fortunately I live in Pune and the only INGLOT stores that I have access to are either in Mumbai where my parents live or in Delhi where my in-laws do... So I decided to wait till I make a trip to either of the cities... But my impatience got the better of me and I ended up buying a fluidline from MAC in Macroviolet (yes Pune has a MAC but no Inglot, Shocking!)...

Inglot Gel Liner Matte in 83; Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner;
MAC Fluidline in Macroviolet

MAC: Made in Canada; INGLOT: Made in Poland; Maybelline: Made in China

As evident, the fluidline is still unused and untested

I am yet to try out the fluidline and so you guys will need to wait for a couple of more days for me to try it out to my heart's content and then give you a comparative reviews of all three gel liners :) Well yes! my "expert knowledge" of cosmetics and brands does gimme a fair idea of the likely winner of the gel liner wars but then again one never knows!

So ladies... watch this space for more ;)

For the results click here

Indian Wedding Makeup

Hello fellow bloggers and readers! I have had so much fun over the past three weeks and I have been dying to get back to my blog and share all my experiences with you guys...
For those who don't know, I got married a couple of weeks back and then had crazy fun on my honeymoon in Maldives... Pictures of the honeymoon later! This post is solely dedicated to my bridal make-up and the make-up I did for the various functions that were a part of the wedding celebrations :D Oh and ladies, I did all of my make-up myself and I had a blast!

A lot of blogs and articles warned brides to be to hire a professional make-up artist so as to avoid adding more stress to your already strained out mind, but I say if you are confident then you go girl! Get yourself some good foundation, some excellent brushes, a few traditional wedding colored eye shadows and some really bright lipstick and you are ready to ROCK! ;)

You see, mine was a traditional Indian wedding resplendent with bright colors, lots of golds and silvers and numerous textures in fabrics and so my make-up had to be on the OTT side and yet I wanted to look myself. It took me loads of research to get things right and finally I can say that I am extremely happy with the outcome :)

The most important point that was constantly on my mind and that made me decide on the various looks I wanted to do was the fact that ours was an inter-community wedding. You see my parents belong to two different states (West Bengal and Manipur) and my guy is a Punjabi, so I needed to incorporate all the three communities in my wedding attire and hence my make-up.

For my engagement or ring ceremony, I wore a Kanjeevaram Silk Saree draped in a bengali way. This called for a bengali look where my make-up and hairstyle was concerned. And this is how it turned out to be :)

For this look, I used the following products:
1. MAC Prep+Prime
2. Maxfactor's Second Skin Foundation in Golden
3. MAC Paint Pot in Painterly
4. Faces Sparkle Dust in Gold
5. Faces Stackable Loose Dust in Brick
6. L'Oreal Azure Blonde Trio - Highlighter
7. Maybelline's Gel Liner
8. Colorbar Liquid Precision Eye Liner
9. MAC False lashes
10. Maybelline Collossal Volume Waterproof Mascara
11. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in HOT HOT HOT
12. Maybelline COlorsensational Lipstick
13. Lakme Fantasy Collection Bronzer

Engagement pic... Style: Bengali

Engagement Close-up

For my Jai Maala, we were following some punjabi customs here, so I went for a lehenga. As my lehenga wasn't really a traditional lehenga and since I was to wear it only for an hour I opted for a bronzed and a wearable look.

The products that I used for this look is as follows:
1. MAC Prep+Prime
2. Maxfactor's Second Skin Foundation in Golden
3. MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque
4. Faces Sparkle Dust in Gold
5. MAC Eye Shadow in Beauty Masked
6. L'Oreal Azure Blonde Trio - Highlighter
7. Maybelline's Gel Liner
8. Colorbar Liquid Precision Eye Liner
9. Maybelline Collossal Volume Waterproof Mascara
10. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in HOT HOT HOT
11. Lakme Fantasy Collection Bronzer

For the Jai Maala

Finally, the wedding was to happen in a typical Manipuri way with the proper Manipuri bridal dress called "poloi". For this, I patted some compact (Lakme White Radiance) on my existing make-up that I had done for the jaimaala and made the typical
Vaishnav Chandan Teeka on my forehead and nose and I was good to go... This is how I looked...

Lastly, for the Vidaai I changed into a saree given by my sweet mother-in-law. I am in love with this saree and since it is so modern and so classy, I went in for a modern and sophisticated look. My guy tells me that this was hid favorite look out of the lot! :D
The look was very minimal and all I used were the following:
1. MAC Prep+Prime
2. Maybelline's Gel Liner
3. Colorbar Liquid Precision Eye Liner
4. Maybelline Collossal Volume Waterproof Mascara
5. Colorbar Velvet Matte Lipstick in Addictive Magenta

With my daddy before the vidaai

Do let me know as to what you think of about my make-up... :D

EOTD: Aqua

I will not be lying when I say that I am obsessed with my new Coastal scents 88 eye shadow palette and that even though it does have its flaws like a few shades having less pigmentation or some shadows that aren't easily blendable, but I still love it... Just the way it is :)

Well in my previous post I did an EOTD that turned out be pretty sober, so today I wanted to do something that totally rocked and was extremely colorful and bright! And my roommate Manu suggested this :)

So here goes...

Ocean Inspired

Aquatic...

Products I used