Here's my make-up of the day. I'm a bit lazy to do a complete step by step but i'll post more in the weekend.



Products Used:

• Le Blanc de Chanel. The world's most amazing primer for oily skin.
• Maybelline Dream Matte Powder
• YSL Touche Eclat in no 3
• Too Faced Shadow insurance as an eyeshadow primer
  
• Chanel Le Bronze eyeshadow
• Smashbox Bliss eyeshadow to highlight
• Black Radiance Continuous Creme Eyeliner in black
• CoverGirl Lash Blast Waterproof Mascara in black
  
• Chanel Mocha blush
• MAC Prep 'n' Prime Lip
• Chanel Orientale lipstick
• Lancome Sunray lipgloss
  

I hope you're wearing waterproof mascara because Estee Lauder has announced that it will cease wholesale distribution of Prescriptives. Reuters reports that:

U.S. cosmetic and fragrance seller Estee Lauder Cos Inc (EL.N) said it would close the global wholesale distribution of its 30-year-old Prescriptives skin-care products brand by Jan. 31, 2010, as the brand's value was no longer viable in the current market environment.

I can't think of anything witty to say as I am a blubbering mess. I get very emotional about make-up. May Prescriptives beautify people in the next world, as it has done to so many in ours.

Here's another quick suggestion for Asin's shadows which she had on at a recent event.


Try patting MAC Honey Lust all over the lid. Follow with MAC Saddle applied very lightly on the outer half of the crease. Finish with MAC Deep Truth blended on the outer 'v' of the lid (this should be no more than 1/4 of the lid). Depending on your skintone, use MAC Shroom (for lighter skintones) or Smashbox Bliss (for darker skintones) as highlight.

image source: www.bollyone.com

This little new feature is when I am too lazy to do a full-blown breakdown but can give you a great (in my opinion anyway) recommendation for one of the products. Here is the first, that I thought was a lovely look on Priyanka Chopra with what seems to be her go-to lipstick.


A great match would be MAC Brave. If you're around her skin tone, this would be a great lipstick if you're emulating that particular shade.

image source: www.rediff.com

I mean it (the title that is). It was a long time coming, but this post deserves a throne, a crown, and a scepter too. Not because of any particular writing ability on my part, but because I have found the blackest, most wear-friendly eyeliner that makes a sharpie look like gunmetal gray.


I used to pray fervently to God to grant me: A) the ability to eat unlimited chocolate and not gain weight (God and I tiptoe around this sensitive subject. He laughed at me when I prayed for it, I got mad, and lots of awkwardness later I very generously told him I'd settle for a cornucopia of blush); B) the ability to resist chocolate (see point A); C) unlimited wealth (F.Y.I. God, I'm still waiting on this one); and D) the blackest of all eyeliners that will never smudge and look perfect all day long.

Today, I am writing this because my wish for the perfect eyeliner has finally been answered. I bought the Black Radiance Continuous Creme Eyeliner without any expectations. Gel eyeliners always seem to crumble and flake on me (except maybe the L'Oreal HiP one, but the Black Radiance beats it by far) so I usually stick to my trusted liquid liners. However, this Creme Eyeliner has replaced all of my eyeliners.

The Black Radiance Continuous Creme Eyeliner is a lot more 'gooey' than any other creme or gel liner I've tried. In fact, if you store the bottle at an angle the liner shifts accordingly. To me, however, this is just a minor inconvenience. The liner applies so smoothly and so richly black without tugging the skin on my eyelids. I can get a deep black line, thin or thick, in very few swipes. I don't usually heap this much praise on one product, but this is amongst the smoothest-applying liners I've ever come across.

Like all gel liners you do need to wait for the Continuous Creme Liner to dry, but once it does it wears incredibly. No flaking, no crumbling, and no smudging even on the waterline. Yes, that's right, the waterline. I can line the lower waterline without it budging. It doesn't irritate my eyes while it stays on for deal life. Beyond doubt, this beats out every other eyeliner I've tried so far. And for less than $5, it's pretty tough competition for any upcoming eyeliners.

I know I can be snarky when looking at horrid make-up/styling so I tried to be nice and skip this one. It's not just the outfit, it's the make-up too that's awful (will get into that in a bit). However, the stunt catapulted her into lowlight-infamy and Mallika Sherawat earned herself a full-length post on Huffington Post. And here I was trying to avoid this post for a while.


Let me start off with a confession: I'm a snob about using proper words. People who write me emails that use lingo along the lines of 'c u tonite at da tbl fr dinner' are dead to me. Enter Mallika Sherawat, who foreshadowed her dress with this heinous violation of grammar on Twitter by saying "What shud I wear 2 the Tarantino premiere 2nite? Wud sssomething ssscandalous B appropriate?" At this point I'm willing to settle on 'scandalous' with just one 's' as serpentine drawls just feed my phobia.

The thing that jumped at me when I saw this picture was not the fact that she got invited at all, but that, of all places to sober up an outfit that can only be described as the result of mating between overstretched tentoles and a fishing net, she chose to wear gloves. It dawned to me that while she doesn't want to dress conservatively, even nuns leave their hands bare. Therefore, I can only conclude that it was not an attempt to cover up her hands out of a mistaken sense of modesty but an endeavor to make the outfit more elegant. To which I must congratulat the poor actress, who is truly the pioneer of recession chic among Indian celebrities. I certainly wouldn't have had the guts to wear my formerly goth friend's gloves from her dark period. This period was much like Picasso's blue period, only inifitely less glamorous as the gloves were borrowed from one of her niece's Disney princess outfits and dyed black (true story I swear). Bravo Mallika, bravo. You are an inspiration to us all.

And now for the make-up. First take a good look at the brows.


Our wallet-friendly muse Mallika (OWFMM for short. It's a title. She deserves it) is so trailblazing that I couldn't seem to bring myself to criticize her brows. Their severity is yet another recession-friendly ruse of OWFMM's clever use of sharpies as brow pencils has opened up a while new world of beauty savings for us all.

image sources: www.bandgalorefashionpolice.com, www.bollyadda.com

I'm not one for pricey cleansers. La Roche Posay's Effaklar Gel Cleanser makes me bleeds silent blots of crimson blood every time I buy it (but it's so completely worth it). The Cosmedicine line at Sephora always intrigued me because it was developed by a panel of experts who promise "Cosmedicine won't BS you." I'm not sure if their marketing team is that diabolically good or I'm just that susceptible to beauty-speak, but I fell for it. Here's my review of Cosmedicine's Healthy Cleanse cleanser.


I have mixed feelings about the Healthy Cleanse cleanser. Cosmedicine advertises this cleanser as a cleanser, make-up remover, and toner all in one. It retails for $30 and I got mine at Sephora during a promotional event where they sold the full-size for $8. Deal right? Apparently not.

It's not that it's a bad cleanser, but the Healthy Cleanse isn't that great either. Sephora and Cosmedicine list a great number of benefits from this product that I'm not sure the cleanser develops because it's on my face for around a nanosecond. After which it's in the drain. Maybe my sink has been "smoothed, purified, and refined" but my skin hasn't been any different since I started using it.

The cleanser itself is in a pump bottle that dispenses a foam. I work it into my moistened face and try to get a deep clean. Unfortunately, I don't seem to get a real clean feeling from this cleanser and usually have to to wash my face one more time to get my face compeltely clean.

To be fair though, the cleanser hasn't irritated my skin at all and doesn't inflame any angry parts of my skin. This makes it an expensive option for something that I can find for much less. Would I pay $8 for the full-size bottle? I did, and I don't regret it (although I much prefer Olay's gentle cleanser for sensitive skin which retails for around $4). Would I pay $30? Not if there are any more CVS stores left in the world.

image source: www.cosmedicine.com

You might not have figured this out about me, but I suck at fiddling around with website templates. The grand unveiling of my new website is now in the hands of others. Til then, I am not going to hold off posting anymore. Please forgive my absence and I will post all my saved posts daily.

It's like the make-up gods came to personally make sure my experience with Chanel Vitalumiere foundation would not be repeated. Also, I don't think it's possible to find a match in Laura Mercier's Silk Creme foundation unless you have a whole arsenal of divine beings holding four-leafed clovers. Here's my love-hate relationship with this glorious but exclusive-to-so-few-skintones.


Laura Mercier's Silk Creme foundation is a glorious medium-coverage foundation which can be sheered out or built up very easily depending on the desired coverage. The foundation itself feels so light and it spreads and blends in smoothly.

The finish is the most perfect dewy look I have ever come across (along with Aveda's Inner Light tinted moisturizer) and I can easily add some highlighter and look like I swallowed a soft-focus light and therefore am glowing from within, or I can mat it down with some powder for a sophisticated velvet finish.

The foundation wears really well throughout the day and does't settle into pores thereby avoiding the 'moon craters on earth' look, which is never a favourable light to show oneself in.

By this point, I'm sure you're sick of me waxing poetically enough to make Romeo serenading Juliet look like a mundane text message. However, the foundation has a serious drawback: the colour choices suck to the nth degree. I was lucky enough to find a colour match but if you're darker than me, you are pretty much out of luck.

I think this foundation caters to so few desi skintones that it makes me really disappointed. However, it photographs amazingly and looks flawless. Just make sure you ask a few of those elusive make-up gods to hold a bouquet of four-leafed clovers in trying to find a colour match.

image source: macys.com

Yes, my updates have been even worse than usual and I bet you're wondering what in God's name I'm up to. Well, I'm completely revamping my site. I bought a new template and everything and the revamped site should be up by wednesday. PLEASE wish me well as I am on the brink of various nefarious things as technology is far far far too complex for my addled brain to handle.