My face base habit has a got a little bit out of control. It wasn’t until I was explaining my makeup collection to my friends and heard myself say the phrase, “Well the top drawer is for heavy-coverage foundations, the next one is for lighter ones, then I’ve got one full of tinted moisturisers….’ saw their jaws drop and tailed off. Yes I’m Gauri, and I have a foundation problem. Surprisingly it’s the step that I shrug off the most, but bottles of the stuff dominate my stash, so I’ve had a bit of a clear out – my friend’s faces are now positively beaming (and looking pretty flawless) – and I think if push came to shove I could live out the rest of my days with just four key cover-ups in my possession to mix, match and buff on. Let’s christen this the ‘Face Base Wardrobe’…
MAC and I have a bit of an on/off relationship. Back in the day when I discovered there was more to explore in the beauty world than the aisles of Health & Glow I went a little cray cray, stowed away MAC eyeshadows in double-digit numbers and possessed quite the penchant for their lipsticks. But in recent times, though their lippies will always hold a special place in my heart – D for Danger and Dangerous are my current colour crushes – things have been looking a little bleak on the MAC front. That was until I was bullied into a purchase of their Fluidline in Blacktrack and the MAC ball was placed back into rolling motion. A quick trip into their Phoenix Market City store each time I’ve popped into the mall and before you know it, I’ve acquired some mini MAC haulage.
Who doesn’t love a good ol’ scrub? I for one enjoy nothing more a good slough away in soak; face, body, hands, hair, feet – no surface is left unsanded. There’s something rather satisfying about shedding a layer of skin in a snake-like fashion, so here’s my favourites for when the pamper routine gets a little grainy…
I’m not sure what sort of nail polish sorcery has been going on recently, but it seems that I’m unable to be within a two mile radius of a Health & Glow or Lifestyle without entering and exiting with a lacquer in hand. The bottles of the tipped-off stuff are just calling to me. And not just my usual nudes either (although I’m currently sporting the ol’ classic Colorbar Baby Peach), but purple, greens, yellows – they’ve all been added to the basket. And they’re all under 500 and there’s not a Chambor in sight. Say what? The polish push is well and truly on…
The peeps in the skincare know, squabble over all kinds of issues, but there’s one point that they can all come to some agreement on – the importance of SPF; the biggest culprit of ageing and a factor we’re exposed to every bloody day. For the full sun protection lecture I’ll leave it to the professionals, but the long and short of it is slap it on daily, be overzealous in application and stick to ones that offer broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection; heads up: both my picks do. After my recent pact to slather on the good stuff each morning I’ve been on a mission to find formulas that didn’t bring back memories of my Mum greasing me up on seaside resort holidays with thick, white sunscreens that transformed me into a sand magnet and in my debut round of testing I’ve found two which pass the tacky-texture-free test:
When it comes to blusher I don’t sit on the fence. I’m either in full blown love with the stuff desperately memorising the name of the entire Revlon Blush collection and happily dabbing it on each morning or it’s a product I shun completely for a duo slick of bronzer and highlight. Sometimes I just find my complexion so naturally ruddy that I don’t wish to add to my flushed-up face, but when my skin’s cooperating and looking a little bit calmer I’m happy for my apples to get a dusting of colour. And seeing as it’s a step that I flit in and out of whenever I do go back to blush I mark my makeup as just looking a little more ‘done’. So I thought I’d drop in to announce that the blusher switch is turned firmly to ‘ON’ at the moment, so here’s what has made it onto my chops in recent weeks…
When it comes to trains, I’m well travelled. My commuting days stand me in good stead and I can recite the timetable home from work, along with never needing to peek at a map. It’s all up here. But one thing I never really mastered on my daily journeys was gauging the right levels of beauty stuff to bring along; too much and I began to resemble a cosmetics camel, too little and I sat there (if I was lucky enough to get a seat) looking a little sad and dull like the chips that hawkers sell. But after some contemplation and a revision last weekend to test my theory I think I’ve got the balance just right, so here’s my en route edit for beauty movers and shakers:
