Reviews and Swatches: Faces Canada cosmetics Mineral Lip color in shade Cafe Date 05

This is a lip color which I have never used once before chucking it out after expiry date. The reason is simple - the color washed me out completely. I couldn't even get it to work even with blot-apply-blot-apply-blot-lipgloss technique which usually works with most unflattering shades of lippies.



This is from Faces Canada cosmetics mineral line, which is discontinued now. I forgot what was the original price, guess it was around INR 300 and I got it on sale, doesn't matter now that you can buy it any more.

It is not bad formula wise but I failed to see any difference between other creamy lipsticks from Faces line and this one. This was a tad bit matte-er and creamier than Moisture rich lippy but not as creamy as Satin Matte, some where in between. This applies straight matte, no shimmer no shine. It is a peachy nude color; I find pinky and peachy nudes the hardest colors to work especially for warm uneven skin tones.

Nothing much to add as it is no longer available; however if you have this color and couldn't get it to work for you, here are 2 ways to use it:
1. Use it as a creamy blush
2. In a mixing plate, cut a small piece of the lip color. Add any shade of matte or creamy lip color at least 2-3 tones brighter. Use a spatula to blend and mix well. Warm it in microwave oven for 15secs. Mix again and keep it for 2-3mins to set. Apply with a brush.
For a herbal tint, instead of lip color add 3-4 drops of filtered beet juice or pomegranate juice.

Review: Ipsy Glam Bag Decemeber 2013 'Celebration'

I am so excited about my new Ipsy bag. This is a really good beauty box and I am soooo sad I missed the November one. This is my 1st beauty box subscription and the 1st one I got as well.

The package looks very festive in a hot pink shiny plastic cover. Inside there was a note from Ipsy and a lovely black purse that can very useful in stashing travel makeup. I wont be using it as a regular purse though as it looks like a makeup bag.

Look at that bright pink!!!

There were 5 full size products inside and I was so happy to get this for $10 plus shipping!!! Such a joy for my makeup-loving heart!

 The one I loved best was this J Cat Beauty Big Lip Pencil in shade Red Rose. This is a chubby lip pencil that Ipsy says can be used as a lipstick and lip liner. I feel that I would be using it more for lip color than lip lining. I will post a detailed review later but I just swatched it around 4hours back and went for some washing & cooking and it is still there! I have not used a makeup remover but I used dish-washing liquid, hand soap and it just faded very slightly but retains the full color. Very impressed and if it performs as well on my lips, I have a winner in my Red Lippy category cos this is a very bright and beautiful Xmas Red shade.

The other product I am excited about is the Be A Bombshell The One Stick in shade SunSet. This looks like something I would buy as I like blushes in stick form better than the powder or creamy pan version; I find it easier to apply and blend. I like the shade as well as it looks like a color that would suit my warm skin tones better. So keeping my fingers crossed.

The ones I am okay about are the Nicka K New York Nail Color in Classic Taupe and Ardell Natural Lashes. I like a good nail polish and I love the design & packaging but the color is a bit bland for me; I would have so preferred the Red Apple one as it looks gorgeous. This one could be a nice office wear though. Also I am not much of a false eyelash person as I am very nervous around makeup over my eyes. But I may give this a try soon though.

The one I am least excited about is the POP Beauty Bright Up Your Life Eye Shadow Trio in Naturally Bare. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the brand or the product per Se as I have never used it but I have so many nude eye shadows that I am overstocked in that dept. I would have preferred some nice jewel tones for the festive season like some good cranberry shades but then I can understand why they would wanna play safe with colors that suits the most the best. Cant complain for just $10, but still Meh!!!

Overall I am very excited about the January Edition :) I will be posting some reviews and some new hauls soon so watch out!

Review and Swatches: Avon Anew Retroactive Eye Repair Serum

Avon is a company for which I have very mixed feelings. I like some of their products, some are Meh, and then there are some that make you think, 'What the heck were you thinking?".
Overall, considering I have to go and find a consultant and then get it from them after a waiting period, I am not sure about the attractiveness of the brand.

Anyways this is not a brand review; I am very careful when it comes to skin care product review cos things are so different for me and you. I would prefer to review products I absolutely hate rather than something I love cos with hate you get reasons that may be much more common than for a 'loved' product.

Avon Anew Retroactive Repair Serum - INR 500 approx[Discontinued]

And as you may have guessed this is a hate! I don't want to waste time retelling my hard journey with this product for last many months, so adding the reasons below; I have normal-oily skin and I am in my early thirties:

• This does nothing, no brightening, no De-puffing, no moisturizing - absolutely no effect on my eyes.
• On application it gives a slightly soothing feel but after a min, it just sits there like I have put some heavy paste on my eyes and that is something none wants I am sure. It takes around 3-4 min and some massaging in for this to be absorbed into skin and I want my eye products to seep in faster

Notice the weird shimmer in the liquid?

•  On the rare occasion that it got into my eye, it hurt like hell for a long time. I cant understand why anyone would make an eye product that hurts it so much. I don't have any allergies or very sensitive skin, so cant even imagine how it will affect a person with sensitive skin.

• This has a weird shimmer in it that doesn't show up on skin. Wonder what that is!

Note:
I noticed so many positive reviews in Avon website and was wondering if mine may be an isolated case when I noticed that the bottle looks different and there is some Chinese wording on it, so it may be that the product formulation may have been different in the ones that we got in India.

Review and Swatches: The Body Shop Tinted Glow Enhancer in Shade 01

Have you ever bought a product thinking it works in one way and then later found out that it works in a completely different way?

That was my experience with The Body Shop’s Tinted Glow Enhancer in shade 01.

For anyone wondering why an Indian lady with seriously warm yellow skin tones, would go and buy Shade 01 of a face product, that too from a foreign brand, read the story below.

For those who are here to know if the product is good or bad, skip straight to the review section.

Story behind this –

Let this be a moral to all those ladies who get charmed by the SA at a beauty counter and buy products thinking,  ‘hey I wanna get her look so may be if I buy what she says ill glow like her’. SAs are not beauty goddesses, let’s keep in that in mind and may god grant me the strength to say No to the ladies at MAC and Sephora.

Here it is –Shopaholic Lady[SL] goes into beauty store - Gets blinded by the 1000W smile of the SA - Looks around to see what she can grab to make her look as good- SA demos anything that she feels didn’t sell much that month - SL gets dazzled by the promises of radiant beauty awaiting her with one touch of the product – SL buys it and the happy glow of a new purchase surrounds her till she goes home and tries it………….

Try and believe – I went in to buy a foundation for a daily wear and got bamboozled into buying a highlighter that is around 5 shades light for my skin tone…That's the wicked power of SAs!!! BEWARE!

And I actually liked it when I tried it in store… I remember thinking Wow, that will make me glow…

To my credit, I did ask the SA if there was a darker shade but the Delilah assured me it suits me best..grrrr…

After finally accepting defeat that I cannot use this as a foundation [ unless I get a job as a disco dancer] I checked some reviews and found that this was actually a highlighter!!!!!!!

This was in 2011 and I was still not yet attuned to reading reviews before buying. 

Review of the product-

This is a very light colored pearl shine cream that doesn’t have any tint, though it says tinted [unless white is a tint!] On blending it starts as a pearly whitish cream and then blends into skin leaving some glitter [I think it is] and some shine.As I found out after a painful journey, this is actually a highlighter and not a tinted moisturizer that can be mixed with a foundation.

The SA told me to mix it with my foundation to make it ‘glow’ and I tried using this with my regular foundation [I think it was Lotus Herbals].I can’t explain how weird it looked, it didn’t look like I rubbed some glitter but neither did it look like glowing.The best I can say is I looked like I tried to dress up as Galadriel from LOTR and failed miserably.

My next plan was to use this as a highlighter and again, to be very honest I didn’t like it.

It didn’t do anything much. It is very light colored for Indian skin tones, I don’t know why they stocked this shade here.I have read good reviews of the tinted versions. This one leaves a very very subtle shimmer if used as a highlighter. And it doesn’t last long enough. I tried layering it with another matte blush, it didn’t work well.

That is the problem I face. If I use it over a foundation it looks too subtle unless I lay it very heavily.

If I use it with foundation, it made me dressed for a Halloween LOTR party.

If I use it on bare skin it just made it look very nice for 30mins or max 1 hour and then nothing- no tint, no glow, no moisture, nothing!

Blended into skin directly - it left a whitish cast over the skin for around 30-45mins and then faded

I can’t find this product anymore in Body Shop website, so I assume they finally got the message and took it off.May be I am doing it wrong, if this product worked for anyone, let me know, I am keeping it till it expires Mar 2014.

Review and Swatches: FACES Canada Satin Matte Lipstick in shade Jazz Berry Jam

Faces is supposed to be a brand from Canada, and I saw that they have a store in Dufferin Mall [planning to check it out]. Their products are cruelty free and not tested on animals. I think they are more of a hit in India than in Canada. I have tried their Go chic lippies[ not a fav], Satin Matte [Luv Luv] and their moisture rich range [Luv luv] and on the whole I think the range is good. But I have not tried any of their newer products, so may be if I visit Dufferin Mall, I will get something.

About the lipstick – this is a very creamy lippie…    

This is a berry pink shade and to be very honest not very flattering for my skin tone, so I don’t use this much.

However if you have non-pigmented lips or if you have a fairer skin tone, this would be a very lovely lip shade. If you are darker skin toned, I would not suggest this for your pink lippy collection.

Don’t get me wrong – I love berry pinks, but only if they are in glossy format.

When in matte or creamy matte as in this case, they present a very demure muted look which doesn’t exactly brighten an uneven skin tone.

The best way in which I use this is by blotting it twice to give a good color to lips and then adding a bright peachy or red lip gloss to enhance the color. A clear gloss would also do the trick. This is again one of those lipsticks that are creamy enough to be used as a blush.

On the whole, I would recommend this color if you are fair skinned.

Review: La Roche Posay Thermal Spring Water

I have not reviewed many skin products because honestly other than sunscreen and face packs, I believe I can find most of my skin care items in the Vegetable market.

However, there are few products that impress me and one of them is La Roche Posay’s Thermal Spring Water.

Courtesy: Chemistdirect.co.uk

I bought this from Medplusbeauty.com [I think, it was a long time back] along with Cicaplast – another popular product.

I’d heard a lot about Thermal water especially the Avene and Vichy ones.

Vichy I didn’t consider much because being a L’Oreal company, its on my blacklist for animal testing.  

And not being very familiar with this brand, which was not in stores then in India, I ordered this one, not knowing La Roche Posay was also under L’Oreal umbrella.

Courtesy: Amazon.com

Anyways this was one useful product for me in the hot summers of South India.

I used to use this as soon as I came in from sun exposure.

This soothes skin and it can be applied without hurting your makeup- just make sure you spray at arm length.

I also used this as a makeup setting spray and it worked wonderfully.

Once I learnt about the animal testing background of the brand, I discarded the product, which is why I don’t have pics of my own to show.

An alternative that I now use is the Avene one which I got as a gift; Avene is also reputed to do animal testing, so I won’t be buying it once it’s over.

However since I am doing the product review, this is an excellent product if you discount the cruelty story behind it.

Since I loved the use I got out of both products I was on the hunt for a good alternative.

Finally after much research [thank god for an IT job and a laptop that goes with it J], I have now a recipe that I use – check below.

DIY Facial Spray for soothing skin [sun damages]

1.       Boil water once. Cool it and filter it with a clean linen filter. Boil it again. After this, the quantity should be reduced by half.

2.       Once it’s stopped boiling but still hot, add all or a set of these ingredients: Rose Petals, small pieces of ginger, 1-2 leaves of mint, holy basil leaves, 1-2 slices of orange peels

3.       Keep it overnight.

4.       Next day, filter to get the water and warm it.

5.       Add any [not all] of the items mentioned for added effect: 2 drops of tea tree oil, 1-2 drops of sandalwood oil, 1-2 drops of carrot seed oil.

6.       Once it cools off, keep it in a fine spray bottle in refrigerator. 

Disclaimer: Images used in this post are not mine. I have used these pics for information purposes only. 

Review: Vega Large Powder Brush

I am not going to review this brush from Vega...
The pictures I hope are self explanatory...
The pics were taken after using it for 1st time and washing using a mild hand soap..
On washing the water turned greyish..
After using this brush on my face, I noticed some breakouts around 1hours later..
And finally, I got this brush in Oct 2012...

I thought of using this brush as a scrubber during pedicure, but it seems to give out a greyish color! So now, its in the waste basket.

If after seeing this pics, you want to still buy this brush, I would advise you - think! 225Rs is not a small sum!  Think of how many masala dosas or ice creams you can have! Or donate the money!At least you get a nice feeling inside!

Review: Diana of London Surprise lipstick in shade Wild Strawberry 73

Now that Spring has come, its time to bring out all those pinks and corals and bright  fuschias that was hidden under plum-berry shades during winter. And I am happy I got this beautiful color from Diana of London before I left India.

DoL scores really well on the bullet packaging, though I do wish they would add some info on expiry date.
But the beautiful lilac lipstick case is really use-in-mall-restroom worthy. Since I have already reviewed this range of lipstick here , I wont be repeating more on the product itself.

This is a bright fuschia-ish pinkish shade that has blue undertones which goes really well for fair complexions. The lipstick applies matte very beautifully and gives a great amount of color on the 1st swipe itself.

With this sort of strong bright color, I would suggest using a brush or fingers unless you want full-on bright color. Also make sure, you apply this very carefully as this color tends to leave a good amount of tint on the skin that doesnt come off easily.

The color lasted me easily for 4-5 hours without any feathering but it did dry up my lips so, I would suggest using a lip balm or gloss. When it fades, it leaves a strong tint, so it is almost like a lip tint. A good way to apply this lipstick from my experience is to convert it to a lip tint and apply a clear or pinkish gloss.

To convert this to liptint, apply one layer on lipstick, leave it for 1-2 mins while pressing lips together for even application and then blot off the excess color. Repeat this till you get the color you want and the color sits on your lips without any cream from the lipstick on top. For me it takes just 2 layer of color. Then apply
a lip gloss to complete the look. I use this lipstick as lip-blush combo as this lipstick applies great as a cream blusher [look at the swatch below of the color blended]

This is a great color that goes well with almost all complexions. Since this is a bright bold lip color, keep face flawless, keep cheek colors to minimum [dont go for coral blushes unless used bare minimum for a flushed look] and go for a neutral look on eyes.