The Indian Make-up Diva

Make-up Look: The Bronzer Made Me Do It!

I know I'm probably jinxing the warm weather (here in D.C. anyway) by getting all summery in my make-up but I can't help it! It's been so gorgeous outside I start going all loopy. For example, I busted out the camera again and since I didn't have an appropriate victim, I took a self-portrait. One of my friends actually recommended that I put it up because she loved the make-up. I have more of my victims to put up this weekend.

And just as an additional note, dear imposter please also don't try to claim my self-portraits or my photography as your own. It's annoying.

Make-up Used:

Revlon Photoready foundation in Golden Beige
Revlon Photoready powder in Translucent
MAC Fix + spray
MUFE Full Cover Concealor
Physician's Formula Bronze Booster in Medium to Dark
Chanel Rose Bronze blush
Estee Lauder High Gloss in Bronze (I do NOT recommend this. Worst gloss ever. skip if you want, you'll still get a gorgeous colour from the other one)
Chanel Sunset Gold glossimer
MAC Ricepaper
NARS Casino bronzer used as eyeshadow
Guerlain loose kohl in Black
NYS Doll Eyes lengthening mascara

Tools Used:

Sonia Kashuk Blending Sponge (Still loving this like no other. I really recommend it)
MAC 129 brush (I have so many blush and bronzer brushes, but really this is so versatile I use it so much)
MAC 182 brush
Bobbi Brown eye shader brush
MAC 217 brush for concealor and highlight

Step 1:
I prepped my face with moisturizer, and then applied Revlon Photoready with the damp Sonia Kashuk blending brush. I made sure to keep the foundation light because this look is summery and bronzey and therefore relegates all heavy looking make-up to our distant memories.

Step 2:
I applied MUFE Full Cover concealor near my tearducts and my under-eyes. I then blended it out with the MAC 217 brush into the foundation.

Step 3:
I set the foundation with powder.

Step 4:
I didn't want anything dramatic on the eyes so I dusted some NARS Casino bronzer on my eyelids to just above the crease with the Bobbi brown eye shader brush.

Step 5:
To add a subtle highlight, I brushed some MAC Ricepaper lightly on my browbone and into the crease with the MAC 217 brush (clean of course).

Step 6:
I lined my waterline with the Guerlain Kohl. I can do a tutorial on how to use this if you'd like.

Step 7:
I applied NYX Doll Eyes mascara to my top and bottom lashes as if people would otherwise take away my hidden stash of chocolate (just apply a lot of it and make sure it's not clumpy, I am battling a cupcake craving here).

Step 8:
With the MAC 129 brush, I applied the Physician's Formula Bronze Booster right under my cheekbone all the way to my temple. Iplaced the bronzer a bit lower because I wanted to give some definition to my cheekbones.

Step 9:
I applied Chanel Rose Bronze blush on the apples of my cheek with the MAC 129 brush and then blended it into the bronzer with the MAC 182 brush.

Step 10:
I mixed Estee Lauder High Gloss in Bronze and Chanel Sunset Gold glossimer on the back of my hand and applied it to my lips.

Great Make-up: Salma Hayek

First off, was there ever any doubt that Salma Hayek has great make-up? Second, I got a request for a breakdown on her gorgeous look. So without any witticisms, as I have none, here it is!

Recommended Products:

Chanel Teinte Innocence
Maybelline Dream Matte Powder
Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat (optional)
Make-up Forever Full Cover concealor
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX Doll Eyes mascara
MAC Girlie eyeshadow
MAC Wedge eyeshadow
MAC Carbon eyeshadow
MAC Brule eyeshadow
Anastasia brow pencil
Physician's Formula Bronze Booster in Medium to Dark
MAC Hug Me (If you can get your hands on Estee Lauder Vanilla Truffle lipstick, you should grasp it with all your strength. It is the a very accurate replica of Salma's lipstick)
Chanel Sunset Gold glossimer

Recommended Tools:

Sonia Kashuk Blending Sponge/Mac 187 brush
MAC 242 brush for concealor
MAC 239 brush
MAC 219 brush
MAC 129 brush

Face:

After prepping your skin with moisturizer and under eyes with eye cream, stipple on Chanel Teinte Innocence and blend in to your skin. Apply in as sheer layers as possible so that you have more control.

Concealor:

Apply Make-up Forever Full Cover Concealor on problem areas such as your under eyes, sides of the nose, etc and blend using the MAC 242 brush.

Powder:

Lightly dust Maybelline Dream Matte Powder to set your foundation and concealor.

Eyes:

Prep eyes for make-up with Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

Eyebrows:

Brush your brows and enhance them with Anastasia Brow Pencil. Salma's eyebrows are lush, so to emulate start by gently enhancing the section of your brows nearest to the nose. As you get to the arch, put less pressure and colour on the brows.

Shadow:

Pat MAC Girlie to your lid with the MAC 239, stop when you reach the crease. With the MAC 217, blend the shadow to slightly above the crease.

Crease:

Blend in MAC Wedge to the outer 'v' of your eyes. Don't pack on too much shadow as the shadow in the outer 'v' isn't very severe and is on the subtle side. Remember to blend it out slightly but don't blend it out too high into the brow bone.

Highlighter:
Apply MAC Brule eyeshadow onto the brow bone and blend into the crease.

Eyeliner:
Rim the top lid with eyeliner by making a thin line and following the contours of your lid. Then, take the MAC 219 brush, dip it in MAC Carbon, and go over the liner on your top lid. Gently make the edges of your liner smudgey. Line your bottom lid as close to the lash line as possible.

Mascara:
Curl lashes and apply two coats of mascara to your top and bottom lashes.

Cheeks:
Apply Physician's Formula Bronze Booster on the cheekbone.

Lips:Apply MAC Hug Me to the lips and top it off with Chanel Sunset Gold glossimer.

Make-up on Others: Smokey Green Eyes and Peach Lips

I've never really disclosed this much, but I'm also an amateur photographer and I love to find victims on whom I can apply make-up and then photograph. I'm fascinated by faces and love to capture them. So I decided to add a section where I do make-up on other brown women and post them here. So the first one in this section is on my friend who is around an nc30. I hope you like this look.

Make-up Used:

MAC Fix +
Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in medium 2
MAC Studio fix xonxealor
MAC Carbon eyeshadow
MAC Shroom eyeshadow
NARS Night Clubbing
MAC Lingering brow pencil
MAC Blacktrack gel liner
L'Oreal Voluminous
NARS Deep Throat
NARS Niagara
Carmex
Urban Decay Primer Potion

Tools Used:

MAC 192 brush
MAC 242 brush
MAC 129 brush
MAC 222 brush
MAC 219 brush
MAC 217 brush
Bobbi Brown eyeliner brush
Shiseido eyelash curler

Step 1:
After prepping her skin with moisturizer and under-eyes with eye cream, I applied Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse foundation in on her skin with a make-up sponge.

Step 2:
I primed her lids with Urban Decay Primer Potion.

Step 3:
I picked up Nars Night Clubbing shadow with my MAC 242 brush and sprayed some MAC Fix + on it. This brings out the green glitters in it and allows you to foil the shadow. I then pressed the shadow onto her lids, stopping at the crease. With the MAC 219 brush, I applied NARS Night Clubbing on the lower lash line after moistening it with MAC Fix +.

Step 4:
With the MAC 219 brush, I blended out the shadow at the crease slightly, and towards the browbone.

Step 5:
I dipped the Bobbi Brown eyeliner brush in MAC Blacktrack and made a medium-thin line across the entire top lid. I then made the outer edge slightly thicker. After this, I applied Blacktrack to her lower waterline.

Step 6:
I dipped my MAC 219 brush into MAC Carbon and lightly blended this over the liner on the top lid and rimmed my lower lash line as close to the lashes as possible.

Step 7:
For the brows, I brushed them with a spoolie brush and then enhanced them slightly with MAC Lingering

Step 8:
I enhanced the brow bone with MAC Shroom, and blended it out towards the crease.

Step 9:
To make the lashes stand out, I curled them with the Shiseido eyelash curler and applied two coats of L'Oreal Voluminous to top and bottom lashes.

Step 10:
Now comes concealor, as I wanted to make sure I could get rid of any fall out. I applied MAC Studio Finish concealor NW 25 and blended it in with the MAC 217 (it's amazing for this).

Step 11:
I applied the blush slightly above the cheekbone, from the apply of the cheek to the temple.

Step 12:
No lipliner was used and I applied NARS Niagara on the lips and topped it off with Carmex to soften it without adding too much drama to the lips.

Bare Escentuals Buxom Big and Health Lip Balm

In the winter, I am something of a quiet person. Not because I'm particularly pensive or because I suffer from introspective introverted moods, but because it hurts so damn much to talk with my lips being as chapped as they are. Gruesomely enough, my lips bleed and peel at the same time (while this makes talking and eating anything with salt painful, it seems to have the opposite effect on my seriously obsessive love for chocolate). I'm an absolute vision in the winter. That was, until a week ago when I strolled into Sephora and was casually playing with the Buxom Big and Healthy Lip Balms. I tapped it onto my lips and made a mental note to rave about this.

The Buxom lip glosses tingle a lot and while I think it's fun for the first couple of seconds, I'm not much of a fan. The Buxom Lip Balm however tingles so lightly int he beginning and after a few seconds just feels 'fresh' on your lips. When I first tried it on, my lips were chapped, peeling, and bleeding. The balm did a wonderful job of softening my lips within minutes. Sometimes balms just sit on my lips and feel waxy, the Buxom Lip Balm sank deep into the desert-like layers of dehydrated skin and moisturized my lips beautifully.

The balm comes in five different shades and the one I really liked was Portofino. It's a lovely plum wine (as described accurately by BE) that brings a sheer tint to my lips. If you're like me and have pink and purple undertones to your lips, this will make your lip colour looks just bitten but without the chapping.

Revlon Photo Ready Foundation, Worth the Hype?

First off, thank you all for the support on the impersonator drama. Also, dear impersonator, you're still not me.

Secondly, I have been testing out Revlon Photo Ready for a while and I'm ambivalent on it. So here's my review after a long trial period.

When the rumour about the advent of this foundation spread I worked myself into a frenzy where I dreamt I could finally show the finger to Make-up Forever HD foundation. The latter is gorgeous on everyone and I've used it on so many women. The only thing is it makes me break out uncontrollably. So when Revlon came up with their dupe of the HD foundation, I was, I'm going to make an understatement here, interested.

After hunting down the foundation (it was the make-up equivalent of landing the role of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and deliberating much on the right shade, I took it home as one would take home a lottery ticket that could possibly win a $678 million dollar jackpot. The only thing I pretty much didn't do was stroke it and whisper "My precious..." like Smiegle did in Lord of the Rings (nerd alert).

The first thing that popped to mind in the store was that while it is supposed to be a great foundation, the range is fairly limited. I also found that the shade I got was not a perfect match as it was slightly darker and a tad more orange that I would have liked. I needed some form of powder to balance out the colour.

The packaging is actually very nice and it comes with a convenient pump. The consistency of the foundation is not as gel-like as Make-up Forever's HD foundation but it does apply very well. It blends in beautifully and it's easy to sheer out. The finish is a lovely, believable satin that screamed sophistication. It looked great initially.

The problem with the foundation is that as the day progressed, it emphasized dry spots. These dry spots were imaginary before I applied the foundation, mind you. Even with a good primer I was not able to get rid of flaky looking skin even if it was reduced.

The glitter that everyone seems to complain about doesn't really bother me. In the sunlight, I can see some of the particles sparkle. However, for the non-Twilight fans, I was able to tone this down with some powder.

This foundation, had it stayed the way it looked when I first applied it, would have been perfect. It blends beautifully, provides buildable coverage, gives a satin finish, and doesn't break me out. However, even with the sparkle toned down, my skin looks so incredibly dry at the end of the day.

image source: www.ulta.com

Dear Facebook Impersonator, You Are Not Me

Someone on facebook called Anu Artist has been impersonating me and taking my pics. PLEASE take down the profile. I am going to contact facebook etc if you do not do so immediately.

Everyone else, sorry for the drama :).

Home-Made Hand Scub

This is one of my all-time favourite hand scrubs. It keeps for about two weeks depending on the expiry date of the milk. This also makes a great body scrub in general.

Products Needed:

A bowl to mix everything in
2 Cups milk
4 Tsp honey
4 Tsp rosewater
2-4 Drops of your favourite essential oil (mine would be lavender). This is optional
Nature's Gate Vitamin E Oil. This has so many uses. It's incredible really.
Sugar

Step 1:
Mix the honey, milk, rosewater, vitamin e oil, and essential oil if you're using any in the bowl.

Step 2:
Add sugar and keep mixing the concoction int he bowl. Keep adding sugar until you get to a fairly thick consistency that's still spreadable.

Store in the container of your choice. This also makes a great body scrub in general.

Tutorial: DIY Manicure Part 2

So without further ado, let's continue to the next part: applying the polish.

Products Used:

Nail Tek Intensive Therapy II as base coat
Nail Tek Quicken Top Coat. I know a lot of people prefer Seche Vite, but this is my all-time holy grail of top coats
OPI Grand Central Carnation
An ear bud/q-tip with most of the cotton pulled off. This leaves you with very little cotton on the staff so you can get rid of stray polish during clean up. Alternatively, you can use a paintbrush made for acrylic paints for clean up.
Sephora by OPI Nail Colour Drying Drops
Cotton
Non-Acetone Polish Remover

Step 1:

Dip your cotton ball lightly with nail polish remover and clean your nails, even if you cleaned them already at the beginning of the manicure.

Step 2:

Apply Nail Tek Intensive Therapy II as the base coat. I always start by painting the nails with my non-dominant hand first. I find that this way, I don't have to be scared of smudging any nail polish when I need to concentrate on application.

Step 3:

Take enough polish on your brush to coat your nail in a thin layer. Then, place the brush in the middle as close to the middle of the cuticle rim as possible while leaving a small gap between the cuticle rim and the polish. Apply slight pressure to the brush; this will cause the brush to fan out a bit more. Pull the brush all the way forward. I like this technique because I get more control over the polish.

Step 4:

Place the brush back near the middle of the cuticle rim and this time follow the sides of your nail. Finish one coat of polish on all your nails. I find that I don't need to wait to recoat my nails because by the time I'm done with the first coat, I can start at the first finger I polished again.

Step 5:

Apply a second coat to your nails. This time I do wait around 30 seconds.

Step 6:

Apply the Nail Tek Quicken top coat to your nails.

Step 7:

Apply a drop or two of the Sephora by OPI Nail Drying Drops on each nail. Wait around 5 minutes before you touch it.

Step 8:

Dip the poor semi-bald q-tip in some nail polish remover and erase the extra polish or nail drying drops around your nails.

Tutorial: DIY Manicure Part 1

Here's something I haven't revealed to the world yet. I love nail polish. At one time, I would change the colour every day. After a tragic accident in September last year, I lost an entire nail (I have photos for all who have a strong stomach) and the bare nail bed on my left index finger (completely bare mind you; and might I remind you that I can post that pic if you'd like).

So now that my nail has almost healed, it still looks 'slightly vomitous' to quote my husband, here's a quick tutorial on a DIY manicure.

Tools Used:

Nail File according to the level of coarseness that you need
Lacrosse Cuticle Pusher. I like this infinitely more than cutting my cuticles
Finger Bowl. That's what I call it at least for soaking your fingers.
Cotton wads for removing nail polish

Products Used:

Sally Hanssen Gel Cuticle Remover
Softsoap hand soap
Non-Acetone Polish Remover from CVS. I prefer non-acetone but most people don't.
Yes to Carrots Feel the C Pampering Hand & Nail Spa
Essie Lemon-Guava Smoothie
Lavender essential oil (optional)
Nature's Gate Vitamin E oil

Pardon my horrific nail if you chance to see it.

Before Starting:

Squirt some hands soap into the finger bowl and fill with warm water. You can add a few drops of essential oils to this if you'd like.

Step 1:

Start off by drenching a cotton ball with nail polish remover and getting rid of all the old polish on your nails.

Step 2:

Soak your fingers in the finger bowl for five minutes or so.

Step 3:

Scrape some of the Yes to Carrots scrub out of the pot, mix with a little water, and exfoliate your hands.

Be sure to exfoliate around your nail as well. I like to do this as it keeps my cuticles soft and more pliable. This way I can just push them back and no need for cutting.

Step 4:

Dab your hands dry with a towlette or tissue.

Step 5:

Apply Sally Hanssen Gel Cuticle Remover to your cuticles and massage it in.

Step 6:

Push your cuticles back gently. I find that I get to 'shape' my cuticles a bit and they look neat and, well, manicured if I push along the sides and the cuticle rim.

Step 7:

Remove dirt from under the nail. I used the other side of the cuticle pusher as it has a blunt knife on the other side which can't even cut through butter. Feel free to use a nail brush or whatever you prefer for this task.

Step 8:

Shape your nails by filing them. If you need to cut them down a bit before filing them, you should do so and then proceed to shape them. I find that filing my nails doesn't work out as well if i use a left-to-right motion to shape them. Instead, I shape by filing in one direction.

Step 9: