The festive season is just around the corner, making right now the perfect time to start preparing our skin for the glitz and glamour of all those Diwali parties. There’s much more to skincare than just the products we use – everything from our diets to our stress levels can trigger skin sensitivity, which is why I’ve put together this handy checklist. Take a look at my top tips and say hello to gorgeously healthy, glowing skin!
When the general question of ‘What beauty bits should one pick up when in the US?’ is thrown out there, there’s a high chance that a large percentage of the replies will contain ‘Kiko’. To us on the other side of the world it’s a brand that’s sorta come from nowhere. Being just launched in India, it seems they produce a kick-ass blush line (the Smart Colour Blush, just incase you’ve been sleeping under a rock- the shade Biscuit goes down as my favourite blush shade, ever) and have been on the up since. Their foundations, concealers, bronzers and the rest always seem to crop up in a positive light and I’ve been itching to get my hands on some more bits. So today I’ve rustled up 3 speed reviews on my newest Kiko discoveries…
To follow on from last week’s ode to the little bundles of lashline oomph-ing joy, individual lashes, in the second part of my two-part lash loving special I’m talking curled lashes. Now there’s not really any new ground to cover here; my tips, tricks and crimping favourites have all in some way or another leaked into posts, but I thought I’d group them together in a conglomerate of all things curled: a definitive guide to a full-on flutter.
I do love lashes. So I thought I’d put together lash loving two-parter; today an ode to the faux ones, tomorrow it’s all about an au naturale curl. A few years back I was all for the mantra of ‘the bigger the better’, but now I struggle to apply then without a vast gap between my lashline and the band creating a very interesting, though not so desirable effect. But, that’s not to say I’ve completely given up on faux flutters. Individual lashes that can be put on in a matter minutes to pump up your lashline have become my new weapon of choice. A five minute fix for a feline eye, that can be wiped away with one soaked sweep of Bioderma. Simples. Plus when applied well no one will be able to spot them. It can be our little secret. 😉
I’ll be the first to admit it; I rarely switch off from beauty-based thoughts. My YouTube sub box is crammed with ammunition, a quick tour of my flat serves as a visual reminder that I never need to buy another bathing-related product ever again and my reading material? Yep, you’ve guessed it – on the whole concerns the beauty world once again. And my latest Amazon order only adds fuel to the (mentioned above) fire…
If you’re new round these parts you may not have heard me talk about Cosmopolitan magazine before; the US-based Hearst Communications’ fashion-centric publication, a.k.a ‘The Best Damn Magazine Ever’. If you’re a G&M old-timer then you’ve probably just sighed a ‘not again Gauri’ groan. It’s OK. I’ll make this one quick. It dawned on me the other day while having a flick through their latest issue that this mag is one great learning tool. For someone who’s loved beauty for donkeys years and has slowly chipped away at practically every beauty tutorial on YouTube ever made over the years, discovering something brand-spanking new isn’t always easy. So here’s my top five tips and tricks that I’ve absorbed from the pages of Cosmopolitan that may be fresh fodder for you too:
I was thinking the other day during one of my makeup musing moments that usually occur on the bus mid-Candy Crush, how back in the day when I was a student at college no one really wore red lipstick. I was really trying to rack my brains, but I seem to remember we were all in the grips of a slick of nude gloss on the lips, if that. Now bold lips are a bit of a daily norm. I even sported Shiseido Lipstick in RS 452 the other day with not much else in a last ditch attempt to channel some Parisian chic into my look, though it probably ended up looking like ‘sweaty girl who’s gone a bit too crazy in Big Bazaar and now can’t carry it all home’ chic. In fact one of my favourite parts of getting ready to go out is seeing what my lipstick adventurous best friend, is going to put on her pout. Hint: it’s usually a MAC Lipstick. But equally I still love a nude, albeit not the porno lips we all were pulling out a few years back – hello MAC Myth – but a ‘my lips but better’ shade equally balanced in the brown, pink and beige departments. But the question is, what one rules supreme in the lipstick charts now: bold or nude? There used to be a clear winner, but now the game has changed.
