NYX Eyeshadow Base in 03 Natural: Review, swatches

So I'm a big fan of eyeshadows and almost always like to play up my eyes and just go with a neutral gloss or lipstick to keep the focus on my eyes alone. But some eyeshadows tend to crease or fade and I've been looking for an eyeshadow base to hold em in place. I tried MAC's paint pots but I found them too heavy. I know *gasp* how can anyone diss the paint pots! But they really feel like something's sitting on your eyes. Me no likeey. So when I saw some reviews of this NYX eyeshadow base online and saw how cheap it was I decided to try this. I bought this from urbantouch for Rs.500 for 7g of this product. They only had this in the other two shades-White and Pearl and I wanted the Skin Tone one so I mailed the UrbanTouch people asking if they could source this for me and yay they did! In about a week's time they mailed me saying this item was in stock with the link. And of course I lost no time in buying it. Opted for COD and got it in 2 days' time.
These are the pics. Click for a closer look.

NYX Eyeshadow base in 03-natural

NYX Eyeshadow base in 03-natural

NYX Eyeshadow base in 03 natural

Swatch-left:unblended, right:blended

Swatch of Eyeshadow without base on left and with base on right

After smudging the eyeshadows a little- without base on left and with base on right

Naked eye

Base dabbed on

With base-after blending

After setting base with powder

My lids arent very oily but I wanted something to hold my shadow in place and prevent fading. So does this hold up? Umm.. yes and no. See this is only an Eyeshadow base, not a primer so it wont solve your creasing problems but as you can see from the above pics where I've swatched the eyeshadow it does intensify the colour and prevent/resist fading. But, you will need a primer beneath to prevent creasing coz it creased on me in 3 hours. Cant use by itself.


Yay for:

• Matches my skin tone perfectly (I'm NC40)
• Quite pigmented, provides medium coverage. Can be layered for full coverage
• Can also be used as a concealer
• Easy to blend
• Quite creamy and sets in about 2 mins
• Holds shadows very well
• Intensifies the colours, makes em pop
• Prevents/Resists fading
• Has yellow undertones so cuts out any pigmentation very effectively
• Feels lightweight on the lids, doesn't weigh them down
• Lasts a good 6 hours
• Not very expensive
• Cruelty free, not tested on animals

Boo for:

• Creases, cannot be used without a primer underneath
• Availability is an issue since NYX isn't available that easily in India
• May not work too well for people with oily lids coz it contains mineral oils and is quite creamy
• Has a weird smell (why do eye products need to be scented?!)

So I'm not too thrilled about this product coz it needs to be layered over a primer and I like to use tinted primers so I dont really need a base over it. I wouldn't recommend this. I would rather recommend the HD eyeshadow base from NXY instead which I'll review soon. :)

Oh btw in case you're curious to know what eyeshadow it is that I've swached on my arm, its the blue from the Peacock quarter from Lakme. This is a very pretty shade but fades like its going out of style so picked this to test. :)

You can buy the NYX eyeshadow base online here. Also available for cheaper if you buy from BeautyJoint or PorkDaisy. I recommend BeautyJoint though, has the cheapest rates.

My rating: **

Edit: I was trying to make this work on it own and hit upon the right combination recently. The trick is to blend this well over the lid area. I generally do this with my finger. And then dust some neutral colour eyeshadow immediately over it and again blend with a pencil brush. I use a slightly shimmery pale champagne colored shadow. Viola! It works! It holds the shadow in place and didn't crease on me even after 5 hours. Slight fading was noticed though, but that's ok. After dusting with the neutral colored eyeshadow you could layer more colours over it to create any look you want. So I wear this for my neutral make up looks as this product feels very light on the eyelids. I'm so proud o myself that I could make it work! :)

Faces magic liner in Blue: Review, EOTD

I lurve Blue eyeliners. I find that they really complement my medium brown eyes well. I've been on the lookout for the ideal blue liner- one that has a satin finish, is cobalt blue in colour, without any shimmer, just solid colour and of course ticks all the right boxes- non smudging, doesn't feather, doesn't irritate, long staying and (important for me) washable. But I haven't found it yet. :( The upside is that I have acquired many pretty blue liners in the process. The latest to feature in my collection is the Faces magic liner in "blue". It's a liquid liner that's a shimmery navy blue. Its a very pretty colour and looks great on brown eyes. I bought it from Cosmetix.in for Rs.245. The MRP is 300 though. This has 6ml of product.

Faces Magic Liner in Blue

The applicator

Swatch

Faces Magic Liner in blue-EOTD

Faces Magic Liner in Blue-EOTD

Yay for:

• Vibrant colour
• Stiff applicator, easy to control and to draw extended cat eye liner
• Minimal feathering, long lasting
• Doesnt smudge once dry, even if you rub your eyes lightly
• Nice glossy black packaging
• Washes easily with water. For me this is a plus point because I dont like waterproof liners as they are difficult to remove. This I can wear on a daily basis and not have to bother with makeup remover and tugging and pulling. All I need to do is wash my face with soap and water and its gone.
• Doesnt sting or burn

Boo for:

• Slightly thin consistency which means after drawing the line I have to keep dabbing over and over to pack the colour on.
• Takes a while to dry so if your eyelids are small or folded you need to keep them closed till it completely dries, else it'll transfer.
• Bottle is opaque so you wont know how much of product is left
• Cant use on waterline as this is not waterproof

Overall, this is a decent liner for the price and I really like the colour which is not in your face kinda bright blue. This has slight shimmer and not glitter particles which means I can easily wear this to office as well. Works well with bright or nude lips.

You can buy this online here or here. Also available in green, brown and plum shades.

Rating:***

Shopping at DroppedPin.net: A review + haul

I'd been on the lookout for an Indian site that sold clothes and shoes and bags that are non-designer but trendy and relatively cheaper and imagine my joy when I discovered Droppedpin.net. I was quite impressed with their inventory and it all seemed to be carefully handpicked. The prices were not that cheap but I figured the quality must match. And they had lovely bags and shoes and accessories and some clothes too. I'd been looking for a nice satchel in neutral shades and another in a bright colour (a la Cambridge satchel bag) and guess what..yup these ppl had them. Not the originals of course, but very nice copies.

So after browsing through the entire store and adding and deleting stuff from my shopping cart I finally decided to go with a beige colored satchel for Rs.2200, a pair of patent pink pumps with cute bow straps for Rs.2500 and a very pretty bumblebee ring for Rs.600. There were many many other things that I liked, stuff that you can't find in chennai and wanted to buy but first I wanted to check if they delivered and can be trusted. So I placed my order on the 4th of August and pestered the hub for his credit card and paid with that.

Patent PU pumps in blush pink with bow straps

Bumblebee Ring

Beige Satchel Bag

I received a confirmation email saying my order would be delivered in 14-21 days. And I was relaxed coz this was a chennai based company and if anything went wrong I could just go there in person and sort it out.
So I waited ...and waited.. And waited some more. 14 days up, no package. 21 days up- still no package. So I sent them an email enquiring about the stuff and they replied saying one item hadn't yet come and they were waiting for that to arrive so they could dispatch my order and that it would be done over the next couple of days. So I waited some more...

The mystery of the missing package
After another week I received an email saying my package was delivered and asking for feedback. Whaaa? I immediately sent a reply that my package was NOT delivered. I was now a little worried if i was being ripped off. But the lady who runs this site-Pooja replied saying she had sent it via DTDC and that they maintain it's been delivered. I checked with everyone at home again but no one had accepted any parcel. So I sent her an email saying I was positive it's not been delivered at my address and maybe its gone to the wrong house? And after a week of emails back and forth it was clear that the courier guys had messed up. At this point I was fairly certain I wouldn't see my money nor the stuff I'd ordered. Pooja, though trying to help was not willing to refund my money. And then a miracle happened. The DTDC guys admitted they might have delivered to the wrong address.
And it turned out they'd delivered it to a house on the wrong street itself. But how anyone can accept a package that's NOT addressed to them is beyond me! But thankfully the guys were able to get it back and drop it off at my place. I'm just glad it wasn't opened! This was after another week.

So how was the package? Was everything ok?
At first I was worried when I saw the size of the package! It was so small- about 30"x30" and about 4" deep. How could this possibly contain my shoes and a bag!? I anxiously ripped it open and out came the bag first- it was folded in half and stuffed in the least space possible. Then came the shoes- they were simply in their soft covers and the ring was inside the bag. No bubble wrapping, no box, nothing. I was a little put off but at least everything was in there. So I mailed Pooja saying the package had finally been delivered and that all items were intact. She responded saying she was glad and that it was a one-off and as a token of goodwill she'd give me 10% off on my next purchase.

The Goodies

So would you buy from them again?
No freaking way!
I know it wasn't her fault that the courier guys messed up and she was quite co-operative and sweet but to be absolutely objective what ticked me off were these:

• It's more like a middleman agency, they don't have a warehouse. They probably place orders with a drop ship wholesaler and pass it on to he customers
• The quality of the stuff is very mediocre for the price you pay. It looks like cheap Bangkok stuff. It probably is. Or Chinese. In fact, after a coupla days I discovered these Chinese sites that had the very same bag and shoes for a fraction of the cost. Oh btw these Chinese sites are great, stuff is really really cheap but they charge for shipping and also I don't know whether to trust them. But you can check out these sites- Lightinthebox.com, wholesale-dress.net
• The whole reason I prefer Indian sites are coz they deliver within a week's time and I don't have to worry about my package getting lost or getting stuck with customs. But this site defeats that purpose since it obviously comes from china or someplace!

So unless I see something I really really like and I'm certain I won't find it elsewhere and it's on sale and I'm totally fixated on it, I won't get it. It's a pity really, coz they have such gorgeous, trendy stuff. Sigh~~~ almost had it all.

Rating: ***


Edit:
Pooja from DroppedPin read this review and pointed out a couple of things that I'd like to clarify.

1. I seem to have misunderstood their delivery schedule. Its not 14-21 days. Its 20-27 days.
2. Not all stuff on their site is from China and they source from all round the world but it so happened that the items I'd ordered were from China, hence the "bangkok feel". This really tempts me to try out some more stuff from their site which I've been eyeing for sometime. Yes, I'm looking at you Mr.Cambridge satchel co bag lookalike.
3. All said and done the fact remains that despite being based in India, they source stuff from outside and hence the 27 day wait. Also, you pay a little extra as opposed to buying from Chinese sites directly since you don't have to worry about customs and whether or not your package would reach you. Fair enough. Plus you cant be travelling to Bangkok everytime you need an inexpensive pair of pumps. :)

Faces nail enamel in shade 15 "Shimmer Puce": Review, swatches, NOTD

I have ugly boy feet. Really. My feet are wide and flat. I've always admired women with pretty, dainty feet. Women who don't need a pedicure to make their feet feel pretty, unlike me. I cannot not paint my toenails. I have to keep em neat and painted colourful to make them look quirky atleast, if not pretty. Sigh. Which is why I always look out for funky, unconventional colours. But sometimes I find a pretty, girly shade that makes me go weak in the err..toes and tricks me into thinking that if I wear such shades my feet would also look delicate and pretty (gosh, I really must find a synonym for pretty. That adjective is over used and abused in this post. Dayum)

Ugly boy foot

Annywaaayyy, one such beyoootiful, delicate yet unconventional shade is the Faces "Shimmer Puce". it's a Mauvish grey shade which is shot with coppery red shimmer. The final effect is really nice. It's a little like the onion peel colour but more lavender. The photos don't really do proper justice to it. The colour is much in real life. I got this from Cosmetix.in for Rs.155. It's MRP is 199 though.

With flash

Indoors-in natural light

Indoors-in natural light

Outdoors-in bright sunlight

It comes in a square bottle and has 12ml of the nail paint. The brush is soft and applies well. The consistency of the paint itself is quite easy to work with and goes on opaque in just 2 coats. It dries pretty fast too after application. I would suggest applying the first coat very thin and then layering the next one after it has dried completely. This started chipping after 3 days on my fingers but would probably last a couple of days longer with a top coat. Also I find my paints last longer on my toes than on my fingers so it would probably last about a week to 10 days on my toes. This has a shelf life of 2 years. It looks subtle yet attractive and works with formal wear as well. Love it!

You can buy this online here. You can also check out other Faces nail polishes here and here.

Rating: ***

YAY! MY NYX GOODIES FROM BEAUTYJOINT ARE HERE.. *Happy dance*

OMG!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o excited. Can you tell? My BeautyJoint package- the one that i spoke about here is here. Already! I's placed the order on 12th and it was dispatched on 13th and today's just 20th. Wowza! Just a week! I wasn't expecting it until next month. Yay! Just in time for my anniversary and Diwali too! I'm already making my next list. :)
OK here's a sneak peek.. Reviews and swatches will be done soon!

The Package

Goodies from BeautyJoint

NYX Haul

Nail polishes

Round Lipsticks

Slim Lip pencils

Lip Cream, Round lip glosses and HD eyeshadow base

Oh and I tried on a coupla lippies and they glide on like butter..mmmm.. but this also probably means i'll have to store them in the fridge, given Chennai's climate and wont be able to carry em in my bag. Whatever! I'm too happy now to worry about that. Ok I'm gonna get back to playing with my goodies..*runs away*

Shopping experience at Cosmetix.in, Mini haul

This weekend was rather eventful. We did some shopping for Diwali. I got a silk cotton churidaar suit for 2500(if I buy another umbrella cut anarkali type net churidaar I swear I'd lose it). Btw how hard is it to find nice normal fitted suits nowadays, especially in chennai where everyone seems obsessed with the stupid anarkalis. Ugh! I can't wait for this trend to get over. Mr.Manish Malhotra please take note coz you're responsible for this!
I also picked up really cute printed tees from Jealous where they have a buy three for 599 offer so I got three tees for 599. But it sorta broke my heart when I had to buy size L where I only used to buy an S before the pregnancy. I guess now M would fit me too but I'd prefer the tees to be a little loose to hide my loose pouch. Sigh!

Weekend shopping

Good thing we went to City Centre coz Express Avenue mall is terribly crowded on weekends and I get totally claustrophobic there. Oh and I also picked up Bourjois lip creams in a couple of shades. (detailed review to follow)
This weekend we also had some friends down from Bombay so we went out for dinner and I got a chance to wear proper make up and get dressed nicely. Yay! (yeah yeah I know I'm a pathetic loser :p)

Okay so on Monday my Cosmetix.in package arrived. I'd placed the order on Friday and got a confirmation mail saying it's been shipped via Blue Dart with the tracking code the same evening and received it on Monday. Full marks for prompt delivery. I'd opted for Cash on Delivery and paid the amount when accepting the package. It was very neatly packed in a sturdy white cardboard box filled with shredded paper. Each item was individually wrapped in bubblewrap too and kept inside this. I was very impressed with the packaging too.

So what did I order?

• Faces matte lip cream in 01 "Puce"
• Faces nail enamel in "Shimmer Puce" (I swear I wasn't trying to create a Puce theme! :p)
• NYX long eyeliner pencils in Lagon and Argent- shimmery blue and silver
• Faces liquid eyeliner in "Blue"

My total bill was 1122 and most of the items were on discount plus I got an additional 5% discount with the Diwali voucher that was posted on their FB page.

The package

The Haul

Review of the Cosmetix.in experience

Yay for:

• Easy to navigate site, neat layout
• Stock cosmetics, skin care and personal care products
• Decent selection of brands- but mostly drugstore brands- from l'oreal and maybelline to Faces and NYX and Himalaya and Shahnaz Hussain. I'm only interested in Faces and NYX coz it's not available in my city
• Good discounts from anywhere between 5% to 25%
• New stuff regularly added
• Prompt service and good customer care available
• Quick delivery
• Cash on delivery available, at no extra cost
• Free shipping over Rs.100
• Neat packing of products

Boo for:

• Shade selection in each product type is very limited, full range not available
• Swatches of some products especially are very bad, hard to judge based on these

But my overall experience was quite pleasant and I'd be shopping from them again. Just wish they'd also include brands like colorbar which again isn't available easily n my city and also expand their NYX inventory.

Rating: ****

Currently Coveting: MAC Golden Gaze

Guys, I'm in lust with this Mineralize eyeshadow from the MAC semi-precious collection. It was love at first sight really. Today I got a text from the MAC store, Chennai saying the semi-precious collection is going to be launched this week and I looked up the swatches from this collection on Temptalia and a couple of other sites and they have such pretty mineralized eye shadows. But the one that truly stands out, which is the perfect shade of smokey-olivey-gold (is that a real colour?) is Golden Gaze. I was hooked the minute i laid eyes on it. Beeyoootiful. I want. I need. I crave. You can just wear this all over the lid and it'll give a nice smokey effect with depth. I know it looks plain in the pan but the swatches guys, the swatches. *swoon* The pics are from Temptalia.

Swatches-Dry and wet

This seems to have a smooth texture and awesome pigmentation. Looks great both when dry and wet. Last year I'd gotten the She Who Dares Mineralize EyeShadow Duo from the Venomous Villains collections and I loved it. This year's MAC buy shall be the GOLDEN GAZE. And I did what any cool-headed intelligent person would do- called up MAC and booked it.

Tring Tring
MAC MUA: Hi, this is MAC
Me: Hiineedtoknowifsemipreciouscollectionhasbeenlaunched *Pant* *pant* IwanttoorderforGoldenGaze
MAC MUA: Huh?
Me: Pant pant.. has it has it?
MAC MUA: I'm sorry you'll have to repeat that, I dont understand what you're saying
Me: Golden Gaze
MAC MUA: Are you talking about the semi-precious collection?
Me: *nods head frantically*
MAC MUA: Hello..
Me: yes yes the semi-precious collection
MAC MUA: Its being launched this Sunday, the box has just arrived and I need to open it and arrange it
Me: Ok can I pre-order the Golden Gaze MES?
MAC MUA: Sure, I'll hold a piece for you, just leave your name and ph no
Me: So you'll hold it right. You wont give it off if someone quotes a higher price right? I really really want this. You understand?
MAC MUA: Errrr.. yeah.. sure
Me: OK thanks so much, you're a sweetheart. bye
MAC MUA: errr.. yeah.. pleasure

See? Smooth! So very soon this shall me mine. All mine. Muhahahhahahahhaa.

To BB or not to BB

I'm quite a geek at heart and I love my gadgets as much as my lip glosses. And no, I don't mean vibrators! Right now the gadgets that occupy pride of place in my life are my Creative Portable media player, my iPad, my 8" touchscreen swivel screen laptop, my blackberry and err my epilator.

I've been quite a blackberry loyalist up until now but with so many tempting Androids flooding the market I'm seriously thinking of moving. So what would my ideal phone have?
Android gingerbread OS
Atleast a 1 gHz processor
8mp camera, HD video recording
Min 3.5" touchscreen
Slide out qwerty keypad
Min 1800mAh battery
Oh and it helps if the phone comes in pretty colours like White or pink.

Samsung Captivate Glide

Samsung Galaxy Note

Buuuut such a phone hasn't been made yet. Pity. Oh this awesome Samsung Captivate Glide seems perfect but hasnt been launched yet and I hope I don't have to sell my kidney to buy it when it hits the markets. Droid3 and the Xperia pro come close but the battery worries me. Samsung galaxy sII ticks all the boxes but lacks a physical qwerty. Le sigh. Samsung galaxy Note looks interesting, it's like a love child of the phone and a tablet but again lacks a physical keypad and seems too big to fit into my pockets or purses. And no other brand seems to even come close. Samsung is at the top of the game when it comes to Android phones.

Why do I need a physical keypad? Umm.. Coz I blog, tweet, text, email, makes notes and lists on my phone. So basically I type a lot and cannot make do with an onscreen keypad alone.

So my only other option is to continue with Blackberry. The only factor that makes me even consider BB despite the lousy battery is BBM. And I'm wondering whether to pick up a cheapie BB like the curve (in white of course) and use it till THE Samsung phone becomes a reality or if I should just stick to BB for a while longer and go for a fancier phone like the Torch or the Bold touch and type (is white available? What? Black looks so serious and un-fun)

BB Torch

BB Curve

BB Bold Touch

My current BB is the pearl flip, an ancient model which is a moody bitch and I need to wrestle with it to get it to switch on even. So I need to seriously ditch it and get a new one ASAP. Whattodo...whattodo... Gah!

Products that Work: Nivea skin whitening roll on deo, a Review

Psst... Know what they say about shaving making your skin darker? It's not true! It's an urban beauty myth, if you please. ;) But you know what really makes skin darker? No, apart from UV rays guys. Alcohol based deodorant sprays. Who knew right? But, it's true! I've always avoided these deo sprays and always prefer roll ons but some months back I got this spray deo as a free gift with some puchase and as it happened I ran out of my roll on and decided to use the spray. And sure enough it made my underarms a couple of shades darker. And those look ugly ugh. So I kept my arms firmly at my side, held my head high and went scouting for something that would help lighten em. That's when I chanced upon this lil thing.

The Nivea skin whitening roll on deo. I saw the words whitening and alcohol free and immediately pounced on it and ran to the billing counter. Did it work? Umm.. Yeah, as is apparent from the post title. Duh. So this cost me Rs.165 and is easily available at pharmacies, cosmetics shops and departmental stores.
It comes in a glass bottle with a roller at the top and the liquid inside it is white in colour and thicker than usual roll on deos.

Yay for:

• Pleasant, mild fragrance, just like that of the Nivea skin cream.
• Actually works, reduces pigmentation on the underarm area, making it lighter
• Clear bottle so easy to see how much product is left
• Lasts quite long. One bottle sees me through 2 months with daily usage
• Doesn't cause any burning or stinging even if you've just waxed/shaved the area

Boo for:

• Thick liquid, which makes drying longer and so if you wear your clothes in a hurry it would rub off on them, thus reducing effectiveness
• Not really 24hrs lasting against BO as it claims. I guess it lasts about 6-8 hours at an office. If you're going to be sweating or doing physical stuff, this won't hold up

I could see a difference in the colour within a week of using this. So give it a shot if you're worried about your dark underarms but be warned, this won't protect you much against BO, so layer another one on top of this I guess.

My rating: ***

You can buy it online here.

Products that work: Clean and Clear Blackead Removing daily face scrub, A review

For someone as lazy as me cleansing, toning, scrubbing and moisturising twice a day is too much effort. But being "blessed" with oily skin white heads and black heads come with the territory and sit on the face like ugly gargoyles (no offence to Gargoyles). I guess the only upside to this whole deal is the immense satisfaction you get when you squeeze a whitehead or a blackhead and all the goo comes out, aaah- real stress buster, I tell you. But TMI, and disgusting to boot. Alright alright I'll get on to the good part.

This lil baby works like a charm-zaps em baddies. The Clean & Clear Blackhead Clearing Daily Scrub- this is white in colour with a cream facewash consistency with little white gritty particles. Cost me Rs.90 for a 80g tube. Also available in a 40g tube for Rs.50. I use it once a day instead of a facewash during my shower and it really does leave the nose smoother and better looking. This is not just a scrub, its like a scrub-cum-facewash coz it lathers up well. I would have posted pics of my nose before and after using this but then this blog is about all things pretty and I don't wanna mess with that. I rub well on my problem areas- the nose, chin, forehead and then rinse off with water. Well, its not a miracle product so don't expect your pores to disappear with one use but I can guarantee that with regular use the blackheads do reduce. Easily available at pharmacies or Health&Glow outlets, quite inexpensive and effective.
Or if you're super lazy to even go look for it at a store (thank you, you make me look like a bee on steroids), you can buy it online here.

Rating: ****

Latest Obsession: NYX , NYX lust list

This sitting at home business is getting a little boring. I keep buying all these yummy goods online but I don't have the opportunity to show them off and be admired by girls and chatted up by guys. Sigh! What I miss most about working is having to put on make up in the morning. Oh and also the free internet and A/C of course. Tee hee. I think I might go back to work once the baby hits 6th month. Don't think I'll be at home for a full year, like I initially intended.

Anyhoo, so what am I doing at home besides stuffing my face and looking at random blogs between baby-jobs? Right now I'm totally crushing on NYX cosmetics. They are perfect- great shade selection, very inexpensive and are of decent quality too. Whats not to love? If I did anymore research and looked at swatches and videos of these, I'd be arrested for stalking. I've put together some links of the sites with the best swatches and the videos with live swatches here.

This very cute site has all the swatches of the 144 shades of the round lipsticks and also some shades of lipglosses and lip liners and lip creams.

This awesome site has all swatches of NYX nail polishes.

Some live-swatch videos for reference:

NYX's best products IMHO are the round lipsticks, the round lip glosses, the slim lip pencils, matte finish lip creams and the nail paints. Erm.. I think I've covered most of the items anyway. Let's looks at the round lipsticks first- these are available in 144+24 new shades, if I'm not wrong and come in 3 major finishes: cream, frost and shimmer. I personally like only cream shades coz frost and glitter make me look beyond fugly. My favorite shades (from what I can tell from the swatches) are:
MLBB type shades: B52, Milan, Perfect, Cocoa, Heather
Nude shades: Frappuccino, Mars, Hermes, Taupe
Blue based reds: Snow white, Black cherry
Deep berry: Expresso, Decadent, Hestia, Very berry
Dark brown: Brown sweet, Walnut
Bright pink: Louisiana, Hot pink, Shiva
I also liked this shade called Mauve which is a deep mauve (surprise?) with brown and pink undertones but quite dark.

I can't seem to find a nice muted pink that'd suit me! Most seem frosty or too light or too dark. But that's ok coz I have many neutral pinks from other brands anyway and my lips are pigmented so mauve colours suit me better.

So I'm ordering my first NYX package from BeautyJoint.com, which seems to have the lowest rates for the products as well as shipping.

BeautyJoint- My cart

Some Indian sites that stock NYX are UrbanTouch.com and Cosmetix.in but they have very limited stuff and not the whole range and the stuff is priced at almost double of the international ones.
Other international sites are Cherryculture.com and Porkdaisy.com

Will upload pics of haul with swatches and reviews once I can get my paws on em.
Yay! Can't wait! But I'm gonna pretend to be cool coz the universe delays stuff if you appear over eager, didn't you know? :)

Shopping experience at Shopatmajorbrands.com, Inglot AMC Cream Blush #90 review

Around the same time that I discovered UrbanTouch.com I discovered another cool site called ShopatMajorBrands.com, again offering free shipping and cash on delivery within India. You see a pattern here don't you. This site has some cool shoes by Aldo and some other brands but I was more interested in the make up section. They only stock Inglot but their inventory is quite exhaustive. Yes, I do have an Iglot store in my city and no I'm not just being lazy and ordering online coz the stupid store here doesn't have the one thing I've wanted most- the AMC cream blushes. I'd been to the store and swatched all the shades and even decided which all to get but then the MUA tells me they're not in stock! Grrrr. But anyway its now easier to order online coz I already know which shade I want.

The package

So I wanted to get Inglot's cream blush coz I wanted to try cream blushes from different brands since I don't like powder blushes and want an alternative to check stains coz they aren't available in variety of colours..yada yada yada.. so here I was ordering for the AMC cream blush in #90 which is a peachish pink shade with slight brown undertones. The blush cost me Rs.750, same as the rate in the stores.

The photos below are clickable for a closer look.

The outer box

Inglot AMC Cream blush #90

In the pan

Inglot AMC cream blush#90

Inglot AMC Cream Blush#90 Swatch

Review of the Inglot AMC cream blush#90

Yay for:

• Cute, sturdy packaging, easy to carry in handbag
• Intense pigmentation
• Soft consistency- sort of like whipped cream so it's very easy to blend, this is much softer than the NYX cream blushes
• Easy to apply with fingers or q-tips
• Shade looks natural on me, can be used for contouring also
• Dries down to a semi-powder finish but still looks dewy, doesn't feel oily on cheeks
• This is much better than NYX cream blushes coz I like the consistency of these better and these look better. NYX blushes are thicker and tend to sit on top of your skin like a cream. These sort of settle into it, if that makes sense.

Boo for:

• Last only about 4 hours on my oily skin after which it begins to fade
• Not sweat or water proof
• It will move around/transfer if you rub your cheeks
• Can't use a blush brush with this coz the pan is too small and these are too soft to be used with a brush

Rating: ***

My shopping experience at ShopatMajorBrands.com?
Quite awesome. Their site is easy to navigate and service is good. I ordered on Monday night and received my package on Friday afternoon after the courier company had called and checked if they can deliver and also remind you to keep the payment ready since I had opted on the Cash on Delivery system. He package came in a large cover and was bubble wrapped neatly. Quite satisfied with my experience. Would definitely recommend this site to others and would be visiting again to shop some more. :)

Rating: ****