I could hear the pillars of desi-hood crumbling and roaring in anger as I wrote the title for this post. Loving kohl is one of the commandments for being desi, and I promise I'm not trying to single-handedly destroy the culture wherein girls are named Kajal. Furthermore, nothing really compares to the blackness and sultriness of desi kajal. I find it infinitely more intense than anything available on the market. However, there is some reason to be careful when buying desi kajal.

The New York City Department of Health and Hygiene and the FDA have both raised concerned over desi kajal and surma. In an FDA testing of kajal and surma coming from the Middle East and from South Asia, they all tested positive for lead. In fact, some samples were found to contain more than half their weight in lead. There have also been reports of people suffering from lead poisoning because of the lead in kajal and surma.

The lead in kajal and surma was also a direct cause of increased levels of lead in children and adults. Some companies brand their kajal and surma as lead free, but they often contain antimony (sometimes in very high levels). This is a substance that causes symptoms similar to arsenic poisoning.

One very frustrating thing is that companies also don't list their entire list of ingredients. They list things such as 'base q.s.' or 'kohl stone.' In an attempt to sidestep the FDA, some companies have branded their own stamp of approval on behalf of the FDA stating that their products are FDA approved. The FDA has emphasized that this is not the case and that these kajals and surmas are still suspect and might contain high levels of lead and antimony. Finally, keep in mind that Middle Eastern and South Asian surmas and kajals have actually been banned by the FDA even though they are imported.

Just in case you were wondering, the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene and the FDA have identified even these popular desi kajals as containing lead:

• Hashmi Surma Special
• Hashmi Kajal
• Hashmi Kohl Aswad

I will try to get my hands on the comprehensive list of kajals and surmas that contain lead.

information sources: www.cfsan.fda.gov, www.nyc.gov

I have been hearing a lot of good things about Shalini Vadhera's book Passport to Beauty and I was very curious. Growing up in my family meant that you learned your abc's, 123's, and herbs beneficial to maintaining a glow simultaneously. At school I was quizzed about the alphabets, at home I would be drenched in cod liver oil to make sure my skin would glow (This is a long and horrendously stinky but true story. Eventually the stench convinced people to take action and they used sticks to keep me and my fish-avatar self at bay). Suffice it to say I know a thing or two about ayurvedic beauty rituals and that this has made me a tough critic on the subject.


Shalini Vadhera's book provides wonderful little excerpts from her travels and encounters. I think this is what makes the book such a fun read. You get some very nice recipes for skin care with a charming back story. It provides a broad range of skin care recipes. Some, such as the yoghurt and honey mask I already knew of. Others, such as the Careyes Body Smoothie or White Tea Anti-Aging Mask I did not know about and found it a delight to read. What I really appreciated about the book was the range of things she talks about. You get a lot of recipes and information on natural remedies for a wide range of skin and body areas.

I spent one afternoon trying out a bunch of recipes and it was a fun and very girly experience. One good thing about the book that I didn't have to go hunting down ingredients such as unicorn tear drops that women in other countries had readily available to them but I would have to use witchcraft to magically obtain. Most of the ingredients Shalini talks about were pretty much in the kitchen and if not they're readily available. One thing to remember is that like with face creams, remember your skin type when concocting anything in the kitchen. If you're looking for a fun read that gives you a lot of recipes you can make in your kitchen, I'd really give Shalini's book a try.

image source: www.barnesandnoble.com

Before enlightening you with my wisdom let me just tell you how much I'm enjoying being on vacation after just recently finishing my exams. It's been a while since I've been able to blog or even do my daily beauty rounds. And while writing this post I decided to see if Beth had any reviews for the movie (Tashan) I will be seeing soon with a friend. Not only did she have a review, but her post has me laughing hysterically.

Back to beauty it is. I used to get suckered into advertising where companies used to promise extracts of exotic items. Companies pretty promise some magic extract that was taken from an almost extinct species of tree that produces a pearl-like (but it's not a pearl, that's why it's so special) substances only one a year and that too only according to an ancient Maya calendar. With their magical promises companies might as well be advertising this. So here's the first post in a series on how to interpret the marketing and understanding the ingredients.

Order of Ingredients:
When you read the ingredients of a product, look at the ingredients at the beginning of the list. The ingredients are listed in the order of their percentage. Take for example the ingredients in Cosmedicine Health Cleanse:

• Water/Eau, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Cyclomethicone, Sodium Trideceth Sulfate, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Water, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Isopropylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Butylparaben.

As you can see, water has the highest percentage in the formulation, followed by sodium lauroamphoacetate.

I usually look for where ingredients are placed after the basic formulation of whatever it is I'm trying to buy. In the Cosmedicine cleanser, the witch hazel extract is placed right after the foaming agents. This means that I have a decent chance of the witch hazel having an effect on the way the cleanser works. If the cleanser had a lot of different ingredients and witch hazel was placed towards the end of the list, chances are the witch hazel extract wouldn't have made a skin altering difference.

So when companies promise special extracts, look at where they are placed in the list of ingredients. Since companies often advertise these ingredients, the common term for them is usually listed in parentheses next to its Latin name. If not, I like checking up on ingredients here.

Terminology:
Knowing the complex terminologies is very hard but there are a few basic patterns I look for. For example, ingredients that end in '-cone' usually indicate some type of silicone product. A good idea is to check a cosmetic ingredients database if you have any doubts (I will compile a list of common and recurring patterns of ingredients used in skin care soon and post it).

Isolating Irritants:
The best thing about reading ingredients is the potential power (yes it is power to not have cystic acne because of a new cream) in identifying and avoiding ingredients that might irritate your skin. When I am trying out new products and can feel those suckers rising from under my skin (I'm talking about zits in case I wasn't clear), I first eliminate products that I know I do not break out from. After this, I compare the ingredients of the potential products and look for a recurring ingredient. I then check with my skin-friendly products to see if I could tolerate the ingredients or not. If the ingredients are not listed in any of my skin-friendly products, I check them out here. I now have a basic idea of what is causing the irritation.

You're not going to believe this but the surprise is that it features LRP's sunscreen. Also, don't ever think I will ever be able to stop preaching about castor oil. I've been using it for so long it's absorbed into my bloodstream. I need to preach about it. Since Indian Girl requested my summer skin care routine, here it is.

AM

• Garnier Detoxifying Gel Cleanser. For some reason my skin loves this.
• Clinique All About Eyes. See the castor oil part for explanation. You didn't think I was going to stop preaching about it, now did you?
• La Roche Posay Dermo Pediatrics SPF 50+ sunscreen. This is my staple sunscreen that I've been using for about 2 years without break.
• Carmex. If i don't have this my lips are a bleeding mess.

PM

• La Roche Posay Dermo Nettoyant and/or Jojoba Oil as make-up removers.
• Garnier Detoxifying Gel Cleanser.
• Castor Oil. I pat this on my under eyes, lashes, and brows. It makes my brows grow in so fast, my lashes much thicker and stronger, and my under-eyes moisturized. In fact, this moisturizes my under-eyes so well that I can get away with using pretty much any eye cream during the day. I had a sample jar of the Clinique eye cream which I loved anyway so I've been using it. I have been preaching the benefits of castor oil since I was 14. There has literally not been a single night that I haven't used it.
• Alpha Hydrox AHA Souffle. I was mistaken, this has 12% glycolic acid. That just makes it all the more amazing. I use it once every two days or every other day depending on the clog-level of my pores.
• Cetaphil Lotion. It's my holy grail. I will never not use this.

Spot Treatments

• Bio Oil. I will have a review of this out soon. It is a surprisingly good spot treatment.
• Fresh Umbrian Clay Mask. A staple for me.
• DDF Sulfur Mask. Pimple-killing, rotten egg-smelling goodness. On a side note, I used to put raw eggs in my hair and shampoo it. The water used to be so hot that I could have sworn it cooked some of the egg in my hair. Why am I indulging in this charming little tit-bit? Because the egg smell could always be worse. The mask is awesome.
  

My face currently resembles a pepperoni pizza only I'm brown but the zits on my cheek look very pepperoni-like. Angry and red. Why am I sharing this bit of charming information with you? Well, because I am reaching yet again for my trusted Fresh Umbrian Clay mask.


Something in this mask does an amazing job of cleaning my clogged pores and it's a must as a spot treatment for blemishes. I'm not sure what it is about the ingredients in the mask, but it doesn't dry out my skin like most clay masks. True it is drying as all clay masks are, but my skin isn't parched and about to crack when I wash it off.

The instructions say to put it on over a damp face and leave it on for 5-10 minutes and then wash it off. I sometimes leave it on for a good half hour and I use it ovenight as a spot treatment on blemishes. Blemishes usually stay very long for me. To speed healing time means in my life to reduce the length of a zit's lifespan from 6 weeks to 4. If your zits are as persistent on face-domintion as mine, then this clay mask is a wonderful weapon in your arsenal. The gigantors that now grace my cheek have been getting regular attacks from this face mask and I can already tell the difference. It does a good job of reducing inflammation. Of course, you're going to have to wait for the zit to die but the Fresh Umbrian Clay mask does a good job of reducing the time a zit is alive and thriving.

I've also noticed that with regular use I can curb many blemishes from really rising to becoming a full-on zit. The bump just dies out without becoming a zit. Of course, those persistent bumps are going to get through my mask-attack but for the most part this mask seems to stop bumps from becoming bad problems.

I know this is a fairly expensive clay mask but for me it is completely worth it (sadly the Queen Helene Mint Julep mask did nothing for me so I was forced to get this) but it is such a staple that I cannot be without it.

image source: www.sephora.com

I have very, very sensitive skin as you might remember from my rather frequent complaints about it. The winter especially is hard and my skin really gets dry and takes a beating. I am also a little reluctant to slather on a very heavy moisturizer as I am also prone to break outs. Enter La Roche Posay’s Toleriance Riche. I know I praise a lot of things by this line, but I promise I only praise things that truly work for me and don’t irritate the hell out of my skin.

Toleriance Riche comes in a ridiculously tiny squeeze tube and in my opinion the company really could afford to give customers a bigger size. That is my main pet peeve with this moisturizer. Other than that, it is a truly amazing thing. It doesn’t contain any preservatives and is quite no-frills. It doesn’t have an anti-aging or free radical killing properties. It’s basically a rich moisturizer that has a very minimum amount of ingredients. And that is precisely why it has turned out to be such a life saver for me.

This moisturizer sinks in quickly but it’s quite rich and leaves my skin dewy. It doesn’t irritate the skin and helps so wonderfully to calm the redness I get from harsh wind (told you my skin was sensitive). Redness and peeling are diminished greatly if not gone when I remember to use this moisturizer every night.

The moisturizer is also great as a spot treatment for very dry skin during the day time. I alternate between this and Neosporin if I am in danger (or am already perilously close) of my skin getting onion-like and peeling in layers. I can’t rave enough about this miracle in a tube. If you’re looking for a good (night time) moisturizer that essentially is meant to hydrate your skin, look not further.

I got the Teamine eye-cream last year after asking my derm for something against my dark circles. A lot of people had told me how good it was for under-eye circles. I forked over the cash, and let me tell you the price hurt (especially after I found out skincarerx.com has it at little more than half the price), and I went home expecting the answer to my dark circles to be magically contained in the jar. First off, let me say I've been using the eye-cream every single day for more than a year so I think I'm giving you a pretty balanced idea of what it does.Of all the eye creams I've tried, I feel as if this did the best job in moisturizing my under-eyes. It was light, sunk in very quickly, did not feel heavy or greasy, did not sit on top of my skin, and moisturized my skin very well. I often stay up late studying and it does a fabulous job of destressing my under-eyes the next day. It keeps my under-eyes looking as happy as they can under the circumstances. Now here's the million dollar question: was the hype true and does it really get rid of dark circles?

I have no noticed my under-eyes getting any lighter. They are not noticeably lighter, and they haven't disappeared magically. However, I will say it's one heck of an eye-cream and in doing its job, my under-eyes look brighter simply because they are well moisturized. I didn't expect my dark circles to disappear and I don't think the hype is true. It doesn't make them go away so don't fall for that one (I fell for it again, I really ought to know not to hope by now). But if you need an eye cream that will moisturize your under-eyes, get rid of ashiness, brighten the region as much as possible, then this could be a worthy investment.

I have very sensitive skin and either the wrong skincare or not thoroughly cleansing my face breaks me out and irritates my skin easily. I do not kid when I say it was easier for me to take an epilady to my underarms (I won't go into this too much, but the epilady was at its highest setting, my hair wasn't trimmed, and I didn't keep the area taut. It hurt. A lot.) than it is to keep my skin clear. There are a very few skin care items that actually work for me, but La Roche Posay's Toleriane Dermo-Nettoyant is an amazing find.
This milky cleanser is fragrance free and very gentle. For me, I can't use a strong cleanser because, I'm going to let you guess this one, my skin gets irritated. Takes taking of make-up and sunscreen just that much more difficult. I find that normal cleansers don't really get rid of sunscreens completely and I need an extra step to have completely gotten rid of all the stuff I put on my face.

The best thing about La Roche Posay's Toleriane Dermo-Nettoyant is that I don't need to use a lot of product, and it dissolves my make-up and sunscreens. I don't usually wear foundation, but I do occasionally wear mineral make-up. This cleansing milk gets rid of all the layers of mineral make-up as well. On top of that, it doesn't break me out at all. I can use this all over my face and I know that my skin won't be irritated at all. When I finally do wash the Toleriane Dermo-Nettoyant, my skin is soft, hydrated, and clean. No make-up residue and no tight feeling where you skin is so dry that it feels like old wallpaper peeling off from the wall.

I cannot be without this product and I love how I can find it online and at CVS. Also, one bottle lasts and lasts as you don't need to pile on the product. One bottle has lasts me roughly a little longer than 6 months with almost daily use.

In the light of my ranting on fair and lovely, I thought I’d start my come-back to blogging about hydroquinone. This chemical is often found in fairness creams or any cream that can actually lighten skintone. I’m not trying to make you hyperventilate in panic and hysterical paranoia, but just to inform you on the effects hydroquinone can have.

What is Hydoquinone?
Hydroquinone is a type of phenol (if that means anything to you at all) that is found in many topical creams that bleaches skin discolouration gradually.

Where can it be found?
This is found at a strength of 2% in over the counter cream and at 3-4% in prescription creams that claim to lighten skin tone and discoloration.

What are the side effects?
Since you probably feel I’m being all preachy, let me get right to it. Hydroquinone has been known to cause blood cancers such as leukemia and kidney damage in animal studies. What happens when hydroquinone is applied to the skin is that it gets absorbed into the blood stream and excreted via the kidneys but at a slower rate. Essentially, this means that that hydroquinone accumulates in the body and is broken down in the bone marrow to p-benzoquinone. This is where long term damage may originate. Several countries, such as France, have banned the use of hydroquinone for fear of cancer risks.

What precautions should be taken?
If you are using a skin lightening cream containing hydroquinone, it is best to avoid exposure to sunlight or artificial UV rays. Also, always use a sunscreen with a minimum of SPF15.

If you feel strongly about this nformation, please let me know. I'm not trying to say that skin lightning creams are made of innocent puppies and kittens, but I just want to highlight the potential danger in using them.

sources: www.skinmed.co.uk, www.cdc.gov

Clinique All About Eyes, Clinique Advanced Stop Signs Eye SPF 15, Clarins Eye Contour Gel, L'Oreal Eye Defense

A long time ago I was but an idealistic child who imagined that fairies roamed the earth and cosmetic companies told the truth. I believed them when they said that their creams would work miracles on my under-eyes and would lighten and brighten them. Like many other south Asian women, i have dark under-eyes that tend to scream at the world how tired I am if I miss even an hour of sleep. As it is highly unlikely that I will get the exact amount of sleep every night and dream of rosy-cheeked cherubs dancing and laughing, I have long forayed into the world of eye creams.

Clinique All About Eyes
This was my standard eye cream for the past five years. It is very moisturizing, but beware it can easily be too much and your under-eyes will become too greasy and your eye make-up will blend to darken your under-eyes. It does the job of moisturizing well but its claims that it will brighten my under-eyes have yet to be witnessed. I find this to be one of the more moisturizing eye creams that I have tried so far. It doesn't feel like silicone coating my skin and temporarily lulling me into the false pretense I used to have about the highly accurate claims of cosmetics companies. It sinks in very quickly if you apply the right amount, and trust me using more of the product will only make the product go away, not the under-eye woes. It is a great eye cream to start off with if you have never used one before as it is gentle and did not irritate my eyes at all.

Clinique Advanced Stop Signs Eye SPF 15
This is a decent eye cream that contains SPF and a slight iridescence. This is an added plus as it brightens the eye area and stops it from getting darker because of the sun. The cream is also relatively moisturizing but on the whole I wasn't satisfied with the amount of moisture it supplied my under-eyes. It also burned slightly when I accidentally got some product in my eye. I have very sensitive eyes and for a good twenty minutes looked like I was a heroine in a desi soap-opera who was crying because her mother-in-law had just found out that my neighbour's son was blackmailing me with a note I had passed to my friend when I was 17. All in all, not a desirable effect an eye cream should have. I also found that the whitish shimmer didn't do much to optically brighten my under-eyes.

*Both images taken from clinique.com

Clarins Eye Contour Gel
This was one of the first eye creams I tried to lighten my under-eyes. I can still remember the feverish excitement when I tore up the cardboard packaging while exiting the store. It claims to minimize puffiness and dark circles but in the end I really didn't see much difference than before using the cream. It is a light-weight gel that glides on smoothly and sinks in relatively fast. Thankfully it doesn't have the tendency to get as greasy as other eye-creams, and I never felt like my under-eyes were lacking moisture. The gel is very gentle and did not irritate my eyes, even though my eyes are very sensitive. I do feel that any given eye cream could do the same job as this one as I didn't see any noticeable difference in the tone of my under-eyes.

*Image taken from clinique.com

L'oreal Eye Defense
This is a light eye cream that also claims to reduce puffiness and dark circles (do you see a pattern?). It does an adequate job of moisturizing but I would not recommend it if you need extra moisture or have particularly dry under-eyes. In its defense it is gentle enough that it didn't irritate my eyes and is a basic eye cream that will suffice if you are not looking for a miracle. The cream did not miraculously erase my dark circles but it is a good alternative to more expensive eye creams of the same calibre.

*Image taken from L'oreal.com

I would like to add a note here. Fear not! I will add my thoughts on the many, many other eye creams I have tried soon.