Dress Destiny: How the Westside dress waited for me

Guys! Do you believe in destiny? Do you believe that everything happens for a reason? That "there is no such thing as co-incidence, it's all Providence" as uttered by Morpheus in The Matrix?
 Well, I had my moment of revelation recently. I've become a believer too. Yes dear comrades. The clouds parted and the sun shone down illuminating the "truth". So here's the story of how it all happened. How a dress waited for me. For me.

Leopard print dress from Westside

Elasticized waistband with ruffles on top, button opening

The dress

The first time I laid eyes on it was when my sister was trying out some stuff at Westside and she pointed out this dress to me. Then I just dismissed it coz I had just bought another animal print dress from Asos. We came back home and that night I dreamt about this dress. Seriously, you guys! I dreamt I was wearing sashaying in this dress. And I spent the subsequent week obsessing over it. I couldn't go get it on a weekday coz I'm home alone with the baby and I can't leave him alone at home (obviously) and can't take him coz it's just too much hassle. So I waited patiently..ok maybe not so patiently. The next weekend we went to Westside and I ran to the rack where I had seen this dress hang. BUT...*queue dramatic music* they only had sizes XL and XS left!!!! Nooooooo! This couldn't be happening to me! I felt the atmosphere darken and a gloom surround me. So I did what any heart broken person does-shop for some make up at the Inglot store to cheer myself up. Yup it worked! :)
But, the story's not over yet folks. A couple of weeks later we again went to the mall and I just popped into Westside not really expecting to see this dress but there it was. Still. Waiting. But it was the XS one. It looked small, I normally wear a size M (post pregnancy anyway) but I decided to try it on just to see how it looked, even if I couldn't button it. And ta-da!!! It fit like a glove! I'm not sure if the sizing was off or the label was wrong but I was soo ecstatic! I skipped to the billing counter and bought it immediately. And that dear friends is the story of how I was united with this dress.

Me wearing it

I like this dress coz it's the perfect length-hits the knee and is in an animal print without being over bearing coz it's in shades of grey and has ruffles on top which makes it girly. It also has an elasticized waist which manages to hide my post-partum lower stomach flab coz the skirt portion isn't fitted. Best part-the top is button down so it's easy to nurse the baby. Yay! And only cost me Rs.1700. Double yay!

I wore it for shopping once and then again when I went to a pub this weekend. It's so easy to dress it up or down. Had gone with the husband and some friends to 10 downing (the pub, of course) and I wore this with black cage heels, grey smokey eyes, a nude lip and a high pony tail. And you can dress this down with softer make up and a pair of flats. Easy peasy. 

You can buy this dress from Westside for Rs.1700. (if you manage to find it! Bwhahahahahaha) 

Zoya polishes: adina and angella- review and NOTD

Zoya polishes really need no introduction. They're quite simply fabulous ok. I spotted these at blab.co.in and immediately ordered a couple. I got 2 shades- Adina and Angella. Both are duo chromes and very very pretty. These retail for Rs.405 each for 15mL.

Zoya Adina

Zoya Angella

Adina: this is a brilliant purple and green duo chrome. Very pretty and surprisingly easy to photograph. Goes opaque in 3 coats

Angella: This is a pearly white shade which flashes hot pink. Again very pretty. Can also be used in a French manicure or by itself. Pretty sheer.

Adina - 2 coats

Adina - 2 coats

Angella- one coat

Angella- 2 coats

Angella - 3 coats

I don't think I really need to review these polishes since they're from Zoya but anyway here's my 2 cents

Yay for:

• Very good formula, doesn't streak or get blotchy
• Quick drying
• Stays on my nails for a good one week without chipping. With top coat may last even longer.
• Brush is of a very good quality and is quite dense so you don't have to dip twice for a single nail.
• Very unusual and pretty shades
• Bottle is very sturdy. I dropped it once but nothing happened. :)

Boo for:

• Slightly expensive
• These shades don't get hard that fast and if you happen to accidentally press your nails against fabric or any other surface you get that indentation on your nails. Annoying!
• Not easily available in India.

I would highly recommend this brand and especially these 2 shades. They're mesmerizing. I can stare at my nails all day long! I recommend the duo chromes from this brand, they have quite a wide selection.
You can buy this here.

My rating:***1/2

UrbanTouch Haul

Ordered a few essentials and some err.. not so essentials. Hehe. UrbanTouch is fast becoming my favourite online store. Have bought from them about 6 times so far and have been very satisfied with my experience every single time.

The goodies

Freebies!

Ok so here's what all I ordered:

1. Kara makeup removing wipes-25 wipes: MRP Rs.95, UT price: 90 
2. Garnier Pure Blackhead Scrub: MRP, UT price Rs150
3. Lotus 3 in 1 matte effect sun screen SPF40- MRP 175, UT-155
4. Nivea Pearl roll on deo Rs165
5. Colorbar lip pot in Totally Toffee MRP, UT Rs.495
6. Colorbar lip pot in Warm me up MRP, UT Rs.495

And I got these things free:

1. VedicLine Honey and Fig moisturiser
2. Footbutter
3. Vit E Hand and Cuticle cream
4. Lotus matte suncreen gel sample

Yay! Cant wait to try these out. Reviews will be done soon. :)

Aztec sandals from ShopatMajorBrands

A girl can never have too many shoes right? Err... and bags, and makeup. Ok? Ok. You know what they say about shoes being the perfect "lift-me-up" for any girl coz no matter how fat or thin she is, her shoe size doesnt change. And its precisely for this reason that you can shop for shoes online without any hesitation whether or not it'll fit you. Yayie!
Sooo, I can never resist a good sale. Buying things on sale = saving money right? Yup. So ShopatMajorBrands.com has a mega footwear sale going on and I had my eye on this pair from QueueUp for a while and when this went on sale I clicked buy immediately! Marked down from Rs.2499 to Rs.700 you guys!!

I had ordered it on Sunday night and received it on Wednesday afternoon. But the sad thing is their free shipping offer is now over and they charge Rs.50 for shipping. Bummer! But since i saved so much on the shoes I didnt mind. I opted for COD, which is most convinient for me, coz I dont have a credit card and I dont wanna keep asking the husband for his.

Anyhoo, isnt the shoe a beauty? Yeah I know. Such a steal at 750! And its quite comfortable to wear too coz it wraps around the ankle snugly and provides adequate support. But I was hoping it was more orange. It turned out a copper-brown colour but this looks pretty too. I see myself wearing this with western dresses (LBDs?) and Indian outfits alike. :)
You can buy this here. Green colour also available.
Theres also a QueueUp store at Express Avenue in Chennai.

I'm eyeing this sexy thing from ALDO next. Its been marked down from Rs.5200 to Rs.4600 but its still expensive no? So Delish though. Sigh~~~

NYX studio liquid liner in extreme plum purple: swatches and review

Ok gonna keep this review simple coz the product deserves just that. This is a no frills decent performing liquid liner. This is from NYX's range of studio liners and is in the shade extreme plum purple. This range has metallic shades that have a sheen to them even after drying.

This shade is a dark metallic purple and shows up beautifully on the eyes. I bought this from Cosmetix.in for Rs.351. The tube is quite small though and has 5.5mL of the product.

This comes in a regular tube with a wand applicator with an extremely thin brush tip.

NYX Studio liquid liner in Extreme Plum Purple

Brush tip applicator

Swatches-immediately after application

Swatches-after drying

EOTD

EOTD

Yay for:

• Good pigmentation
• Great colour that retains sheen even on drying
• Feels comfortable after applying. In fact feels like you've applied nothing. No stretchy dryness.
• Comes off easily with plain water. In fact what I like about the removal part is that this sort of peels/flakes off when it rub over it with water and doesn't really smudge and stain the area around the eyes like some other liners do. No mess, no dark circles.
• Stays long without fading or feathering as long as you don't rub your eyes
• Inexpensive
• Cruelty free. Not tested on animals.
• Applicator tip is very very thin so you can easily draw thin lines or thick ones.

Boo for:

• Takes about 3-5mins to fully dry during which you'll have to keep your eyes shut especially if you have droopy or folded eyelids else it may transfer over the eyelid area.
• The consistency is slightly runny so you may have to dab over the line to make the colour shine.
• Can't use on waterline.

I like this liner. It's easy to apply and remove and feels comfortable. Would probably explore other shades too from this range

You can buy this here or here.

Rating: ***1/2

NYX liquid liner in electric blue: swatches and review

Like I've mentioned before I love blue liners and keep trying new ones and this one caught my eye. It's supposed to be a liquid liner that dries to a matte finish and is a brilliant cobalt blue. I saw this at UrbanTouch and twice I put this in my cart and both times it got sold out before I could add other items and checkout. Damn! I thought maybe it wasn't meant to be. But I got lucky the third time round. This time when I saw it was in stock, I immediately added this to my cart and checked out. Yay! I win!
This cost me Rs.360 from  UrbanTouch.

NYX liquid liner in Electric Blue

Ingredients

Applicator wand

Swatches-immediately after application

Swatches- after drying

EOTD

EOTD

After an hour-see how it cracks. Ugh!

Yay for:

• Good pigmentation. Awesome blue colour. Quite bright. Will suit Indian brown-black eyes very well
• You can draw thin as well as thick lines with the applicator
• Doesn't irritate the eye
• Easily removed with water (I don't like waterproof eyeliners coz they're a pain to remove and I don't like tugging my eye area so washable is a plus in my book). In fact this gets washed too easily. Hold it under running water and it sort of flakes away! But it doesn't smudge with water.
• Decently priced
• Cruelty free. Not tested on animals.
• Lead free

Boo for:

• The tube is opaque so you can't see how much product is left
• The consistency is quite thin and runny so you have to dab over and over the lines to make the colour show properly
• When it dries, it turns to a matte finish but it feels stretchy, like when you have really dry skin.
• Starts cracking and flaking in about an hour. Ugly!
• Takes long to dry- about 3-5minutes. So people who have droopy or folded lids may find that it transfers over the lid if they don't keep it closed till fully dry.
• Can't use on waterline.
• Applicator end is not stiff so drawing shake-free straight lines is very tough, at least for me.

Overall, I think this is a dud. Buy it only if you love this colour and can't find it anywhere else coz the quality mostly sucks.
If you must, you can buy this here or here. Other shades also available.

My rating: *

Edit: I decided to give this another chance recently and wore it to a dinner do. I wore this over the NYX eyeshadow base in skin tone and after this semi-dried I pressed some matte powder eyeshadow of the same blue colour over it and found the cracks weren't visible then and it remained neat till I came back home, 3 hours later. Yay! Found a way to make it work! Coz I just love the colour. :)

Inglot crackle nail polish: NOTD and review

I know I'm extremely late to the party but at least I'm here now. Got a crackle nail polish finally. Was at inglot store recently when the MUA there told me they had just launched their Cracked polishes and that there was a promotional offer on it. What! Offer? Discounts? Yes yes show me. They have some 6 basic shades- black, red, blue, white, green and yellow I think and the MRP on these is 750 but I got it for 490. Picked up the black.

Pics below are clickable.

Inglot Crackle Nailpolish

Base colour-Lakme Orange Color Crush

So this dries very quickly and to a matte finish and as it dries it separates and cracks. In fact it dries so fast that the minute you take the brush out of the bottle it begins to dry- on the brush itself. So you have to be really quick in application. One good thing is you don't have to worry about a neat uniform finish coz it's gonna crack anyway. It's like watching a film develop. Not that I've seen a film develop in person but kinda know what it's like. :p
You could put a top coat over this if you like an all glossy finish.
Oh and I've been wondering- what happens if this dries a little? You know how you add acetone to other nail paints if they dry a little.. I wonder if the same could be done here or if it'll alter the composition or something. There's 15mL in the bottle and it would take a looong time to finish it up, since you can't wear more than one coat at a time anyway.
I've layered it over the orange polish from lakme's colour crush range.

Overall, this is fun to try and gives you an interesting manicure without much effort. But I don't think I'd buy this again coz the novelty wears off pretty soon. There's so much other stuff that's tempting me now like hex glitters, duo chromes and holographic nail paints.

Rating: ****

NYX hd eyeshadow base: swatches and review

Ok can I just first confess my love for this? No, mere confession won't do.. I wanna scream from rooftops how much I love this. The product says eyeshadow base but it's really a primer and also brilliant. The previous eyeshadow base from NYX was a total fail so I was sceptic about buying this but I'm glad I did! I don't have very oily lids but I like wearing a neutral smokey eye to work and when I visit sites or start sweating the eyeshadows crease on me and look like I've drawn some fancy zig zag lines on my lids! Terrible! So I was on the lookout for a nice inexpensive primer that I could wear daily. And I found it, you guys! My holy grail eyeshadow primer if you please.
This comes in a lip gloss like black package with a doe foot applicator. There's only one shade available so you don't have to worry about matching your skin tone to it. This looks buff on application but dries nearly transparent. Quite cheap too, at $5.25 (Rs.265 approx) from BeautyJoint.com for 8g of product.

NYX HD Eyeshadow Base

Ingredients

Doe foot applicator

Dabbed on

Blended out

Eyeshadow without base (on top), with base (below)

After rubbing vigourously with a tissue

Naked eye

Primer dabbed on the eyelid

With base- see how it brightens the eyelid area

So why do I love it so much? Read on..
Yay for:

• Ease of application. Just dab a few drops on each lid and pat gently to cover eyelid area uptil the brow.
• Dries and sets quickly but allows enough time to spread. In fact, it dries as you spread it
• Forms a sort of a thin layer over the eyelid, which smoothes it out
• Makes eyelids appear brighter
• Will suit all skin tones
• Feels very very light. Actually doesn't feel like you have anything at all.
• Holds colours well
• Intensifies colours
• Prevents creasing and fading, even for cream eyeshadows!
• Sweat and heat proof. Water proof too.
• Lasts long, really long. I wore this at 6 in the morning one day and it was going strong till I removed it at 5 in the evening. The eyeshadows hadn't even faded a little bit. And that day I had attended a wedding and was basically sweating and running around without A/C.
• Can be removed easily with any make up remover.
• Cruelty free. Not tested on animals.
• Pretty inexpensive. Fantastic value for money.

Boo for:

• Dries transparent so doesn't really hide any pigmentation. But not a con really coz you can always apply a base over it
• Packaging isn't efficient as you may not be able to get all the product out since it's a lipgloss type tube and wand may not reach the walls of the container.

Overall, I think this is a must have in every eyeshadow lover's make up kit. It's probably a cheaper dupe for the illustrious Urban Decay Primer Potion but does the job just as well. Cannot recommend enough. Buy it! Now!

You can buy it here. Also available here and here.

Rating: *****