Last week I introduced this product to you all along with my experiment. And as promised I'm here to post the results of my week 1 of regular application. Though it is technically too soon to notice visible results and I admit I cant see any new growth on the sparse areas. However I did find that my existing eyebrows appeared darker after 3 applications. By just looking at them I could not make out if it was due to them becoming thicker or  if there was new growth there. But by comparing the before and after pics it seems that they have thickened from before. I'm really keen to see how the end result would be and personally am happy with my 1st week results. But my main objective is to see some growth/coverage in the sparse areas coz that is what is really noticeable. 

     So what do you guys think? Can you see any difference between the two pics? Do let me know what is your opinion on the progress so far. Till next time - Take Care!

     I came across these in the Allure magazine beauty awards. They are strips made of real nail polish which can be applied easily to your nails for an instant nail makeover. Unfortunately they are not available in our country and till now I have not found a site from where I could purchase em online. They are offered in various ranges from animal prints to metallic to neon to glitter, etc. One box is good for one application and costs about $10. Some people even suggest that you use half a strip on your nail (provided you don't have extra long nails) and make the pack last longer. 

     The box includes 16 strips, a cuticle stick, a buffer and a mini file. I have included some links below from where you can check out some more pics of this product as well as videos to see how to apply them. In the main company link given below scroll towards the bottom and on the left hand side you will see a tutorial video link. Do check that out.  For someone like me who is nail-art challenge this is an instant fix which is just too awesome!

Youtube link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlf-cBTxCu0

     A while back Body Shop had launched their Honey Bronze collection which was limited edition. I was interested in it given its name. I saw some of the products that they had in their range and decided to pick up the brilliance powder. It had 2 shades on offer but I liked this on much better than the other coz I felt that it had more of a shimmer to it (I picked Shade 02 which is Copper Shimmer). Price is Rs. 1095/- for 5 gm of product. It comes with a decent brush which is kinda soft but can feel a little pokey at times. It gives one a nice dusting of copper colored shimmer which is ideal for highlighting. A small pat can impart a decent amount of shimmer to your skin once you get the product flowing. 

     Apart from the copper color I did not see anything which would kinda justify the name of the range for me for this product. What I liked what the beautiful shaded packaging and a retractable plastic piece which helps you to cover the bristles of the brush and make it more compact so that it can slip into the narrow lid easily. Once you slide on the cap you can click it into place so that it stays put. 

     I'm on a quest to find the best eyeshadow base the makeup world has to offer. I know that Urban Decay and Too Faced are considered hands down THE best but I want to continue my search and hope to unearth a treasure or two. A lot of times brand myopia causes us to miss out on some awesome products out there. So lets begin with everyone's favorite brand - MAC.

     I got this eye base from their Prep+Prime range (I think its the only one that they have but I'm not a 100% on that). It comes in this nice plastic jar which is quite thin and the signature speckled lid (same as the box shown below). The SA gave me a medium shade. It is creamy but sets to powder on the lid. Price - Rs  1000/- for 5gm of product. It is odor-free. I personally would say that it is ok. It is better than having no base at all but nothing to write home about.

     I'm sure a lot of you must have heard about this site before. It is a site till very recently featured only NYX products on discount and have just added L.A. Colors to their brand mix. Since I had heard so much about this site from so many blogs I wanted to give it a shot myself. I searched their site and came the NYX Grow Brow Serum and was really interested in the product. I did a quick search and found that a lot of people claimed that it worked. I grabbed that and picked out the NYX HD Studio Photographic Primer as well (I didn't want to just pick one product and pay the shipping charges and stuff).

     The serum costed $22.95 and the primer was for $12.95. The shipping option I chose was USPS First Class Mail International Package which was the cheapest at $7.90. The total cost of my package came upto $43.80 which I paid through my Paypal account and it came to about Rs 2,207.27/-. I placed my order on the 29th October and got a confirmation email stating that they had shipped my order the same day. I received my package on the 15th November which is a fairly decent period of delivery considering the fact that the package was sent from the US. I liked the site and have seen that usually they offer NYX for a better discount than some of the other sites. Plus they even offer reward points with every purchase. I racked up about 35 points for this purchase with a value of  $0.35 :p. Definitely my Go-To site for NYX products for now.

Would you purchase from this site again? - Yes!

Would you recommend it to your friend? - Yup!

Shikha Says:

     Ok I was going through porkdaisy.com as I wanted to pick something up from the site to try out their services and I came across this product. I was intrigued as my eyebrows got messed up like 6 years ago due to someone's horrible treading and have not been the same since. Plus over the years they have become kinda sparse too. I have tried some stints where I would try to grow them out but it just didn't pan out for me mainly due to my laziness. This time around I have just left my eyebrows to grow on their own and even after 3 months I don't have enough growth to get a decent shape (gross I know but mismatched ones are worse so whatever :p).

     I searched for some reviews and found that a lot of people did experience a difference on using this product so I decided to try it out for myself. It is a clear gel without any odor and comes with a mascara like tube with a lip liner kinda soft brush. You are supposed to apply it every night and are supposed to see results in 4-8 weeks. Price - $22.95 for 7ml of product (the price is actually $25 but it is discounted on this site). 

     So I applied it for the first time on 15th Nov and have given below the before application pics. Now I'm going to apply it every night and will post pics of my progress every week. So my next post for this is due on the 23rd. I applied it in the middle, upper and lower areas of my eyebrows for a proper growth which I can get a decent shape out off. So fingers crossed and I hope that it works out for me. I'm really excited about this and cant wait to see the results!

  

     Welcome to the first of our Holler! series. I come across a lot of interesting products while surfing online which I have not heard off or seen before. Some of them have not been talked about in the blog-sphere and as a result remain widely unknown. Needless to say a lot of these are not available in India. I would like to introduce these brands and products to you as a lot of them a quite unique in their own way and a lot have been raved about in the niche group that has heard of it. So let us begin this series with introducing a brand known as Violent Lips. 

     They are a company that manufactures Lip appliques (tattoos) ranging from animal prints to flags, words, etc. From the tutorial video you can see that the applique is really easy to apply and can look really neat! I had seen a vid on youtube where a vlogger had used the pink polka dot one and it looked so cute. Granted it is a little OTT for here (hey she was going to a costume party with Hello Kitty theme :p) but they have recently launched the Glitterati collection which looks wearable. Since they ship internationally, needless to say I have already ordered my set (always the adventurous one). And will be posting review for that as soon as I get my pack. Meanwhile browse and enjoy the site! And don't forget to check out their tutorial vid.

What the company says:

     "The ultimate form of self-expression, the Violent Lips Collection offers a statement-making line of Lip patterns that range from bold animal prints and fun polka dots, to sexy fishnets and picture-perfect Glitteratti sparkle.

     Let me introduce to you guys a truly unique site. What makes it so unique you make ask? Well gather around divas and listen up - this site is unique coz of the brands it offers - MAC, Lush, Fudge, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, China Glaze, ColorOn - to name a few! I have seen a lot of Indian sites for cosmetics but this was the first one that I came across that is offering these brands! I stumbled upon this site by chance and have not seen any banner for it anywhere which is such a shame! They have Cash on Delivery system and Free Shipping for orders above Rs. 1500/-. Plus if you sign up for the site you can earn reward points for each purchase that you make. How neat is that!

     Well I was really interested in trying out ColorOn which is an instant eye makeup that you kinda apply like a tattoo over your lids. I found the concept really intriguing. I placed an order for a kit which was discounted priced at Rs. 1425/- and since I was a little short of the free shipping mark I added a Body Shop Pink Grapefruit soap which was discounted priced at Rs. 145/- bringing my total order to Rs. 1570/-. I placed the order on 26th October.  I got a call from their customer care on the 27-28th. They wanted to inform me that the soap I ordered was very near to its expiration date and that was the last piece they had in stock. They then gave me a few choices from the same brand with which I could swap my current selection. I made my choice (Body Shop Olive Oil soap) and they told me that were going to immediately dispatch my order. I really liked the initiative that they took to check the expiration date and all. That was really cool on their part. Well I got my order on the 31st which was a Monday. 

     I did not take any pics of the packing nor my complete order. But here is a pic of the ColorOn kit:


     So about the product - I got the Eye Envy collection (they have loads of different designs and patterns under the brand) which contained 3 different eye appliques. What I found interesting about this was that it contained a liner line along with the eyeshadow pattern.

Shade name - Aruba

Shade name - Bermuda

Shade name - Barbados

     The applique was easy to apply and you can control the amount/intensity of color by either tapping it on (light application) or rubbing it on (darker/intense application). Ok so those were the good points. What was really disappointing was the color that comes off. The lighter color came out as whitish and along with the combo did not look good at all. Rather none of the colors came out well from this kit. The actual product on your eye is oil based and slightly sticky and you are required to kinda blend with your fingers for your desired effect. Once that is done you need to set it with the powder they have provided in the kit. This helps to set the makeup and remove the sticky feeling giving it a powder look. I tried a few times but was not really to get the liner line to show up properly and what little did manage to show up disappears when you are blending the colors. It is not possible to avoid the line while blending.

I've used the Barbados applique and tapped it on. Captured the effect in 2 different lights. In the strip the color looks yellow and a greenish black but has translated very differently on my lid as you can see.

Blended the colors out using my fingers.

Put the setting powder.

Finished the look off with some liner and mascara. Again captured the effect in 2 different lights. Please excuse my eyebrows.

     Though I didn't like the colors of the kit I ordered I'm still willing to give the product another shot because I found it interesting and think that it might have potential. But this time around I will order a dark color kit and/or dig around the web for some people who have bought some kits and have put up pics of it and then base my selection on that. So do keep an eye out for that in the future.

Would you purchase from this site again? - Yes!
Would you recommend the site to your friend? - Definitely!

Would you purchase the product again? - Yes I would like to try another kit before writing this off.
Would you recommend it to your friend? -  Not for now and especially not the set I got.   

     This was a huge collection launched recently by MAC. They launched it within a month a of launching Surf Baby which was kinda surprising as they usually keep some gap before launching a collection but I guess it was long overdue. This collection has some really beautiful pieces in it especially the eyeshadows. So if you still haven't grabbed anything yet I would strongly recommend that you do so asap as they are just flying off the shelves. Well I got almost all the things that I wanted from the collection so let me show you what I got.

Eyeshadows:

     These are simply gorgeous and definitely that highlight of the collection. I got 7 out of the 12 shades that were launched. Price - Rs. 1100/- for 2 gm of product. They are all in the Mineralize finish and can be used both wet and dry.  The ones that I bought had mainly a very smooth texture with the exception of one which has a slightly granular feeling to it in comparison to the others as it has more of a glitter to it. But on its own if you swatch it you will find that it was quite smooth too. All the colors that I picked out are highly pigmented and show up beautifully even on bare skin. 

Dark Indulgence - this a dark green color with black veining in it. On swatching it, it gives a nice rich green color with a hint of black in it which becomes visible in the play of light (sorta like dhoop-chaoon effect). This reminds me of MAC Humid. 

Blue Sheen - a gorgeous deep blue with predominant veins of black and mine had some pink veins too. The swatch reminds me of a purplish blue color with hint of black similar in effect to the one described above.

Smoked Ruby - I would describe this color as a brownish red with black veining to it. The swatch looks like a reddish rust color with hint of black to it. 

Golden Gaze - this is an antique gold color with black veining to it. In the swatch the color comes out as deep antique gold color.

Faux Gold - this is a bronze color with some orange and purple veining to it. In the swatch it comes out as orange-y bronze color with gold shimmer.

Mineral Mode - this was the only multiple veined sort of mixed kinda color that I got from this collection. There were others like it but I didnt pick those up. This is a silvery white color with pink and grey veining to it. In the swatch it come out as a pinkish slivery white color.

Quartz Fusion - this is the one with the slightly different texture than the rest. It looks like a chunky glittery pink color. In swatch it comes out as a shiny pink color with pink and silvery shimmer.

Lipsticks:

     I got 2 lipsticks from this collection - Gem of Roses and One of a Kind. Price - Rs. 990/-. Both are in Lustre finish. I personally feel that they belong to the same color family. Gem of Roses is a lighter pink color while One of a Kind is a deeper pink with slight red tome to it. 

Gem of Roses

One of a Kind

Blush:

     I got one blush from the collection - Feeling Flush. It is a light pink color with veining of a deeper pink in it. This color has a bluish tone to it so I would recommend that you swatch it first on your skin before considering to pick it up. Price - Rs. 1350/- for 3.2 gm of product. The texture is really smooth.

Mineralize Skinfinish:

      I got the Semi Precious Pearl one. I wanted the Rose Quartz as well but that was sold out. This is a champagne color with a multicolored heart of bronze, plum and silvery white. Price - Rs. 1450/- for 6.5 gm of product. 

From left to right - The outer ring, Inner heart and the two mixed together. Colors shown in 2 different lights.

     Phew! That was huge. But this is a really fab collection and a lot of it is suited for evening wear. MAC launched a few collections between Surf Baby and this which didn't really make it to India and has launched some more after this. But personally for me this is definitely a must have collection and I have not found anything really exceptional in the collections which have already been launched abroad. This is the reason that I have completely splurged on this one and am not going to be picking up something from this brand anytime soon :p. I would strongly recommend that you consider picking up some of the eyeshadows at least as the pigmentation comes out awesome and without using any primer.