An Indian's Makeup Blog

I need a fashion intervention. I am one of the lousiest dressers ...
I don't really do super bad but I don't do fabulous. Just regular in-between stuff. My sister on the other hand is great with clothes and accessories. I have a lot to learn in terms of clothes...

I have professed my love for long metal necklaces before and I bought one from Express soon after. This is the latest summer collection from Express. Totally loving the turquoise and the chunky pieces. I thought I'd share it with y'all especially those of you who are into clothes and jewelery ! Plus it gives us more girly things to talk about...

Do you have a favorite piece of jewelery ?

Love,
Indian Girl

Yeah...don't ask me why I inserted a hair before the braid. I mean what else is braided ?

I don't know.

But I thought it would be a safe idea to make it clear what we are dealing with here.

If you had anything else on your mind shooo away, we ain't talking about it here.

And now I have no idea what I am talking about.
But I know its not that.
Whatever that is.

The Sun Lord has shoneth the heatth upon usth. That means summer is here in full force and nobody, absolutely nobody cares if I want it here or not. And I am learning to come to terms with it.

The easiest thing to do to my long (again) hair is to braid em. In India, braiding is one of the most popular hairstyles. Almost all women from my mom's generation / generation before that braided their hair. So for folks in my generation braids are decidedly passé.

I don't belong to my generation.
That doesn't make sense. But nothing does anymore....

Braids are my thing. Yesterday I pinned my hair into a fish bone braid. Its almost been a year since my shoulder length hair cut and the hair has grown back. You'll see...Last time I got a few layers done - bad idea if you love braids. The hair keeps poking out from the braid making it loose and results in a messy braid unraveling from all sides.

To keep my braid intact I followed the braiding session with a good amount of hair spray. I used L' Oreal Studio Perfect Fix Ultra Fine Finishing Hair Spray. Though I've had it for a while I hardly ever do anything elaborate with my hair that requires setting with a hair spray. I simply sprayed it all along the length of my braid. This spray is excellent at keeping my hair intact. There were still a few mischief mongers who escaped the braid but over all it looked good. And after I loosened my hair it wasn't crunchy or stiff. Things got back to normal fast !

If you are looking for a spray to hold your hair braid in place this summer, check this one out. I have a lot of hair on my head and if it managed to keep mine intact it should do well in general.


Love,
Indian Girl

Say Whaaaaaaaaaaat ? I love both the brands and I am excited about this union. But I am also very curious to know what this means to Smashbox. It is one of my most favorite makeup brands out there and well...really really curious to see what changes this brings...

A few excerpts from the press release

"The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Smashbox Beauty Cosmetics, Inc., a privately held, photo studio-inspired prestige cosmetics company based in Los Angeles, California. The acquisition is expected to close in July 2010, subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approval. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, the Company said that the transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings in fiscal year 2011, before transaction and integration costs.

Smashbox Beauty Cosmetics was founded in 1996 by brothers Dean and Davis Factor, great-grandsons of the makeup legend Max Factor, who were inspired by photo studio celebrities to create a unique makeup brand that met the highly demanding needs of a professional photo shoot. Since that time, Smashbox has established itself as a highly successful prestige cosmetics brand and a top performer in specialty channels. Currently, the majority of Smashbox’s sales are based in North America.

William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies, said, “One of the enduring strengths of The Estée Lauder Companies is our ability to identify brands with unique positioning and nurture those brands to accelerate their momentum and realize their full growth potential. The addition of Smashbox to our portfolio continues this 64-year legacy. We expect that with our strong cultural synergies and shared appreciation for family heritage, this will be a wonderful union.”

The Estée Lauder Companies will collaborate with the Smashbox organization to develop a comprehensive integration plan to transition Smashbox into The Estee Lauder Companies’ family after closing. Dean Factor, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Davis Factor, co-founder, Chief Creative Office and celebrity photographer, and Budd Taylor, President, will each play key roles with respect to these activities and the continued success of Smashbox. Smashbox will continue operating out of its Los Angeles, California office."

Love,
Indian Girl

How are you doing this Sunday ? Any major plans ?

I've got more pink lippies coming your way !

The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line is hands down one of the best line of products at the drugstore. Excellent formulas, shades and fairly good packaging !

I've been wearing this lipstick - Perfect Pink a lot in the past week. I love how warm it is and looks very soft ! From the swatch you'll see that it is very moisturizing but this one has much more pigmentation and longer stay time than most moisturizing lipsticks. I've been wearing it with soft kohl rimmed eyes. Absolutely adore this one !

Have you tried the Natural Beauty lipsticks ? Do you have a favorite shade that you think I must try ?

Love,
Indian Girl

I've had Thalia for a long long time but never wore it much. Mostly coz I didn't like how it looked on me. But today I gave it a try again and didn't mind it at all ! I thought it looked pretty good with almost nothing else but foundation and mascara. So, I snapped up a picture for y'all !


Thalia is a neutral / a little more on the cool side, mauve. Its a shade that will change a lot depending on your natural lip color. The formula is a satin matte. I wear it over a thin layer of clear gloss. Some shades look too weird if worn matte. On me this is one of those shades. A little gloss makes it so much more wearable !

Have a you tried Thalia ? If you have do send in some pictures / swatches of it. I'd love to show how the color looks different on everybody !


Love,
Indian Girl

Its New For Summer

The Hard Candy Powder Keg ($6) is part of their new summer collection. Other items in the collection include, matte powders, glitter / metal eyeliners, makeup train cases/ bags and cream eyeliners. Of all the products I was most curious about the powder kegs and the metal eyeliners.

The Kegs are loose eyeshadow pigments made from pearlized powder. The have a wand inside which has a small bulbous sponge at the end of it. I love the design - its not big and messy. Plus when you pull the wand out the funnel inside takes care of all the excess pigment giving us just how much we need at one time.

Stays Put Well, Some Fallout

Given that its a powder I never expected it to stay on my waterline for more than 30 minutes. But four hours later there was still a huge portion of it sitting happy on my waterline. I applied it along my upper / lower lash line and waterline - doubles as both eyeliner and shadow. After application I used my finger to smudge it a bit. The powder is very silky so it blends easily but still is very pigmented. There is some fall out during application but that comes with all kohl kinda products. Remember to apply concealer after or use a shadow shield or simple a sticky tape under your eye prior application.

Light As A Feather

One thing I must mention is that I had absolutely no discomfort with having this on my waterline. Most other powder kohl's I've tried like Tricia Sawyer Smoke & Mirrors give me this uncomfortable heavy feeling in my eye - like I most definitely have something in it. But this one was super light weight and zero discomfort. That being said if I was a beginner I might be a little overwhelmed with the fall out and technique to apply powder kohls...

Overall for $6 its one heck of a product that I highly recommend. I am very curious to try out other shades. There are 11 other shades but I am gravitating more towards the darker ones like olive green, brown and purple. This gunpowder shade is something every brown girl should consider getting. I wore it during day and it still looked great. I'll have pics up soon. And girls with lighter skin tone could rock it at night !


News For New Mommies

Lavanila recently introduced their Healthy baby Collection. To celebrate the launch, Lavanila and Sephora are hosting the “Happy, Healthy Baby Search.” Beginning today, you can enter your baby into the nationwide search online via www.Sephora.com/win/healthybaby

Or if you live in NY, visit the Sephora 5th Avenue store on Friday, May 14th to meet the judges, have your babies’ photo taken and receive samples of the new collection ! The first 50 parents to enter the contest in-store on May 14th will receive a Sephora gift card worth up to $100.

Nobody wants to pass up on that !

Love,
Indian Girl

Lip stains are great for summer for a number of reasons ! They are light, give lots of color, no sticky mess, no feathering, not too shiny or sparkly ...no doubt they are becoming exceedingly popular !

The latest in lip stains are from Josie Maran - The Josie Maran Magic Marker Lip & Cheek Stain ($19).

What is better than a regular lip stain ? One that is made with natural products and is free of parabens, sulfates & artificial fragrances. The Josie Maran lip stain is one of these better ones. It has no taste or smell. The formula didnot dry out my lips the next day like most other lip stains do.

The shade I tried Flamenco is a bright cherry red. Oh its red alright ! The stain almost sticks to your lips the moment you lay it on. So its not the best idea for cheeks. No point having two red dots that you cant blend out.

These lip stains have an amazing stay time. The color lasted without fading like this for almost five to six hours ! And that includes a lunch of some delicious pho. After about five hours it slowly began fading.

The stage after this is not so sexy. That's the deal with lip stains - they don't fade evenly. Cant blame em - we don't eat or drink with the food touching out entire lips. When it reaches this stage , I take a couple of drops of water and try to even out the stain. It works very well. Or you could use some lip balm.



The best part though is the next day when you still have a faint red tinge on your lips. I love that red tinge ! Just add some light clear gloss and you're set !

Overall I love lip stains. But its not like I can whip them out eveyday. In this dry TX summer, it is hard to find a day when my lips are soft and not broken. I still like the idea of them. This one especially is very long lasting and the formula is amazing. I need to look out for more summer friendly, less red colors though. I am all over pinks...so may be I'll go for it !

Love,
Indian Girl

This article contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR. For more details on the disclosure policy please refer to it at the bottom of the page.