The perfect nude/smokey palette : Inglot

Ok, so it's no secret that I've been obsessing over nude palettes and the UD Naked2 actually comes pretty darn close but not quite. I'd like a matt dark brown too in it so I can use it to create soft brown smokey eyes for daytime office wear too.
So what's the solution? Create your own palette doll! I'm planning to get a 20 shade square palette from inglot and fill it up with all nude shades and complementary lip shades too. Maybe throw in a concealer and a brow powder and ta da! The best palette ever! All that you'll ever need. :)

So here's a list of shades that I personally think would make the perfect smokey eye palette and would also be very versatile in creating various daytime or more glam looks. I've put together some collages for quick reference. Again, the pics are from the www and if anyone objects, I can take them down.

Okay...so the basic shades that I think ought to be in a nude/smokey palette are:
matte black. : 391M
Matte beige. : 350M
Pearl white. : 453P
Gold. : 430P
Champagne highlighter. : 08S
Matte medium taupe brown. : 342M
Matte dark brown. : 378M
Medium copper. : 21S
Silver. : 454P
Matte grey. : 348M

Now onto some unusual, pretty shades to add a bit of colour and depth.
Matte beige with sparkles. : 463 DS
Gunmetal. : 434P
Olive blackened gold. : 419P
Lime-y gold. : 412P
Shimmery orange. : 15S
Shimmery dark plum purple. : 446P
Satin black with gold sparkles. : 64AMC
iridescent blue. : 428P
Iridescent green. : 418P
Iridescenct purple. : 439P
Sparkly teal. : 504 DS

I've also added some smokey eye looks that you can create with this palette.

Doesn't this seem great? Love inglot shadows! They're so buttery and super easy to blend, even the matte ones and great pigmentation too. You can buy these online at ShopAtMajorBrands.com

Current Obsession: Jewel Toned Shift Dresses

I love wearing dresses. Casual dresses, dressy dresses, little black dresses, colour blocked dresses..love em all. But the problem is you dont get such a wide variety of dresses here in Chennai and the ones that are available are either super expensive or not available in my fit or the way I like it or are just plain fugly. So what do I do?
Umm no shopping online for clothes isnt that convenient coz fabrics turn out to be different from the photo or the sizing isnt quite what you expected. So, no. Well, I love designing my own dresses and shopping for fabrics and getting it stitched.
Right now I'm loving these chiffon or crepe shift dresses in jewel colours. You can pair them with gold jewellery and killer gold heels and it'll look amazeballs. The best part- these are pretty easy to make so any tailor who makes kurtis would easily be able to stitch these.

These can have multiple variations- sleeveless shift, sheer long sleeves, one cape sleeve, one sleeve swing dress. Below are some options for *inspiration*

Split sleeve dresses from ASOS

One shoulder cape sleeve dresses from Lipsy

River Island long sleeve dress

Vero Moda One sleeve version

I plan to make this in Emerald green in a one sleeve swing dress pattern- will get synthetic crepe fabric for this, which has a nice sheen and drape. Will get this fully lined with cotton fabric so it doesnt go limp. Will make another one in orange synthetic crepe with matching sheer synthetic chiffon long sleeves. The body will again be lined with matching cotton fabric so it doesnt cling to the body.

My main inspirations-missmalini's Vero Moda dress and Maheep Kapoor's Jay Godfrey dress

In Chennai you can pick up these fabrics at Mangharams on Mount Road or at Nalli in T Nagar. Both synthetic crepe and chiffon cost around Rs70-100 a metre. You'd need about 1.5-2m of fabric for this dress. My tailor charges around Rs.200-400 for stitching a fully lined dress so my dress would be ready for a total of around Rs.500. Pretty neat huh? :)

Current Obsession: Digital print dresses

My experience with screen printed clothing has been so far limited to the T-shirts we put out at culturals or other events during college. I'd never get my size, as only some standard sizes were ordered (standard is a loose term as the T-shirts would have been "standard" only for sumo wrestlers). But in college looking sexy was the last thing on our minds so I'd wear mine tucked into my faded jeans with the sleeves rolled up. So I never associated screen printed clothing with anything other than dorkiness, until I saw these beauties.

Roberto Cavalli

Veronique Branquinho

Manoush-Labour of love

Moschino Cheap and Chic

Totally sexy and edgy at the same time right? And such a simple idea too. Makes you go "hmmmm, why didn't I think of that shiz". And these are pretty easy to replicate if you don't happen to have a $1000 that you need to dispose. Just get a nice white (or any other light coloured fabric) from your nearest fabric store and download/design the print that you want on your dress, take both to a screen printing shop and give it to yout tailor to make a shift dress. Zimple! The best part is that it doesn't have to be tailored for a perfect fit- it can be a little loose too since it's only a shift dress and people would be too blown away by the print to notice the fit anyway. Boo yah!

Mary Katrantzou Tromp l'oeil dresses

How I plan to make mine:
I stay in Chennai so I'm gonna get 2m of French crepe fabric from Mangharams at Rs.75/m. It'll need to be lined but will fall beautifully.
Put together the print I want-a mash up of surreal paintings by Dali.
Take it to my nearby Kodak colourlab, get it screen printed on the fabric.
Give it to my regular kurta-stitching tailor and ask him to make it like one, only without the side slits and with a back zip or an eyelet closure.

Dali-The persistence of memory

Dali- The Last Supper

Ta-da! Approx total cost: Rs.500. Admiration, envy, show off value: priceless
Will post the dress when I get it ready. Oh! I'm already so excited to make it. :)