How to Get A Winter Fresh & Glowy Face !!!!

Hey Everybody,

In this cold cold weather we often get dry patches using foundations or BB creams. Also luminous foundations can turn up too shiny or they tend to crease on our skin. So I wanted to bring in something which might help you a bit.

Today I am going to share a few tips and tricks to get a glowing (not oily, dry or cakey) skin with full coverage and even texture. So without blabbing more, let me start with it.

1. Clean and moisture
Always make sure to clean your face well with any cleanser of your choice and then slap on some moisturizer on your face before you apply any makeup. This is not just a winter tip. You must follow it every time.
I have cleaned my face with a face wash already and then I used this moisturizer from Clinique dramatically different lotion. This is a great face lotion for extreme cold months without getting too greasy. You can totally go for any product which suits you.

Below I have inserted a close-up of face with absolutely no makeup (which looks so scary :| ) so that you can compare it with our results in the end.

My clean face with just moisturizer

2. Prime

This is a crucial layout step. After applying moisturizer I usually wait for 2-3 minutes and then prime my face very well using a primer according to my need. I would suggest to go for a mattifying or pore minimizing primer as we have already hydrated the skin well and we need a smooth canvas to work over. For this look I have used Too Faced Primed & Poreless Pure all over my face with my fingers concentrating more towards cheeks and around nose to keep the area matt and pore-free.

3. The Foundation Trick

Now comes the best part. For a simply glowing skin, I am going to mix my foundation with a few drops of facial oil or beauty oil. This trick works wonders for all skin types normal, combination or even oily.

 Just make sure not to use a very thick or creamy foundation or use any other oil like olive, coconut or hair oil. I specifically recommend using only a facial oil. It will not get your skin look oily,break you out and will blend beautifully into your skin. 

I have used one pump of Makeup Forever HD and one pump of Clinique Anti-blemish Solutions Foundation with two drops of NUDE rescue face oil. You can totally mix in one foundation. I just wanted to go fancy with two ;). I will prefer using a liquid foundation with this trick as its easier to mix in the oil. If you want to get a facial oil, body shop has some amazing ones.

I usually make this cocktail on back of my hand and mix it with my finger until the oil disappears into the foundation. Using a drop or two of facial oil especially in winters will make your skin look more awake and glowing from within without getting the skin look greasy (as sometimes it happens with mixing creams and foundations)

Now, I will dot it using my fingers all over my face. Then I take a damp Real Techniques Complexion Sponge and tap and blend the product all over my face. This gives a very blended and even look and I prefer it over using a brush. In case you wanna use a brush I would suggest you to use a flat top synthetic or a Kabuki brush and again tap and blend it rather than moving the foundation.

4. Conceal & Highlight

Now after I have blended my foundation well into the skin, I am going to put on some Maybelline Age Rewind Eraser concealer. I use 2-3 shades lighter than my skin tone as I want to combat the dark circles, highlight the area and look very glowing. I highly recommend picking up a lighter shade. I usually don't do this but for this look I am going to apply the concealer under my eyes in a triangle, bridge of my nose and a tiny bit on the forehead. Again I will take the same damp sponge and tap and blend it well. You can see me doing that below.

5. Set It With Powder

It is very essential to set everything especially the under eyes with a powder to avoid creasing. I used Mac Prep+Prime CC powder with a Morphe G2 brush under my eyes my tapping in. For the face I used a light coverage BH Studio Pro (dupe for Mac's Studio Fix) with a Large fluffy brush dusting it very gently. 

The reason I do this is to lock in the foundation and concealer and making it look even , creaseless and fresh all day. Do not over powder your face it will totally defeat the purpose and look cakey instead. If you are dry skin just use the powder on the T-zone or only set your undereyes.

And that is it guys!! Follow these simple steps and look flawless and glowing all day. I have completed this look by adding some mascara, very light bronzer and a lip linner. And you can see the difference as now the skin looks fresh, even and very glowing. 

Final Look :)

And that is it. I hope you learned something new. If you try this trick please let me know or tag me.

Thankyou for reading, I really hope you enjoyed. Loads of Love!

Sharoon :)

My Eyebrow Routine!!

Hey Everybody,
                       Today I am going to demonstrate how I do my eyebrows. It is something I started doing 2-3 years back. Ever since then I always groom my brows. Even on the days I don't wear makeup I would still do my brows & lashes. I have noticed this little makeup add-on gives me a fine look & on point brows produces more definition to your face & features.

The technique I use to do this is best suitable for me.It may vary for you. There are a few things you must keep in mind when you do your brows.

1.Know your brow shape & density and fill in accordingly. If you have very sparse and thin brows then investing in brow wax or brow pomade would be good. If you just wanna fill in the sparse areas, buy a brow pencil, spoolie or use a dark brown eye-shadow to fill in.

2. Always color match with your hair. Most of us have dark brownish-black hair. So go for dark browns or brownish black instead of jet black. You might go overboard and make it look make as well.

3. Always blend the work you do with a spoolie for a natural finish. We don't want any pencil strokes on our brows, so blend in & merge the product into your natural hair.

4. If your wanna set your brows then use a brow gel, transparent mascara or rub a thin layer of Vaseline or lip balm over them. You can totally avoid this step if you feel your brows remain put for longer.

5. Use a matte or shimmer highlighter on the high point (brow bone) of your brows. This will make the shape of your brows stand out.


Let me show you in the video below on how I do my brows with product details.

I took Dark brown shadow (extreme right) from my Estee Lauder palette on an angled brush. I also take the second light champagne shade to highlight my brow bone with a pencil brush. To shape my brows and comb them I use the Anastasia Brow Wiz in Dark Brown.

Products I used in the video

This is the difference between the two brows after filling in.

For a clearer before and after I have inserted this picture below, with the top one with nothing on the brows and eyes and second one is with done brows and neutral eyes.
Clearly, it makes a hugeeeee difference!!

And that is it!!

Similar Product Recommendations:

1. Body Shop Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown

This is by far the best brow pencil I found available easily in India. It works well and blends well. Just make sure not to go overboard with it.

2. Benefit Browzing

If you want a product which stays all day benefit browzing is a great product. It comes with a wax like product, dark brown powder, 2 mini brushes and tweezers. If you want to fill heavily with a natural looking finish go for this. Available at Sephora India.

Thankyou for reading, I really hope you enjoyed. Loads of Love!

Sharoon :)

Product Regrets of 2015

Hey Everybody,
                          Happy 2016 to everyone!!! May you have a great year ahead and achieve whatever your little heart may desire. I wanted to begin this year's post by reviewing a few products which I bought and didn't quite like in 2015. Basically these a few products which either didn't suit me or were a total fail and I would not like to repurchase them. Also it might give you guys a fair idea about a few things in the list if you wanted to try and needed an opinion. It might save you some cash !! :o

Please Note that this is totally my opinion on these products. It can be totally suitable for anybody else so don't get too serious with it. I am doing this by putting these products in a category. So that it is easier to understand and narrow down. Having said all that, lets get started!!


1.  Skincare Products
Last year I tried out loads of new skincare items. A lot of them were great and I continue using them. A few were okay kind of products which work decently but these three down here were like not-so-good. So the first one is a cleanser from FORMULA SKINCARE (targets fine lines) available at Marks & Spencer. This is a lotion-based cleanser which does not remove my makeup, hurts my eyes and just is too greasy. I prefer my Johnson's Baby oil any day over this.
The next one is VICHY NORMADERM ANTI-IMPERFECTION HYDRATING CARE. This is a light lotion, which claims to perfect and repair sensitive and acne-prone skin a.k.a meee!!! Now this was my second buy from the Normaderm range (1st was the toner) and again I was disappointed. I love the packaging but just don't like the product. It has a weird smell, doesn't hydrate and also doesn't live up to the claims. So no, no more Normaderm!!
Sephora's DARK SPOT MINIMISING SERUM is just another fail and I actually do like other Sephora's skincare products. But this was just not for me. I did not see any change in the dark spots after using this for 2 months (and I cant wait longer)!!

2. Eye Creams
 2015 was the year of eye creams for me!!(Seriously I tried 7). As I realized I am growing up and my under eye skin is just getting mature I kinda tried a bunch this year. Most of them were high-end or luxury products as I wanna treat my eyes right as much as I can. So I picked this one from BENEFIT IT'S POTENT EYE CREAM which was so so so popular and raved on Youtube. But hell no! I used this for a week every night and every time my eyes would get watery and itchy. So I just stopped. Hence, I don't know if it is really potent or not.
Same was the case with this LANCOME BLANC EXPERT NEURO WHITE X3. It claims to be an ultimate whitening bla bla cream and it burns!! I dont know if I have just over sensitive eyes or what! But these two are like not again!!!

4. Hair Products

I just have one to mention as I was so excited to buy this one after reading a thousand great reviews. It is MACADAMIA NATURAL OIL DEEP REPAIR MASQUE which claims to deep condition and nourish hair like a dream. I bought it online as it is not available in India with so many high hopes and used it for several days. I did not like it. It is not conditioning or repairing at all. There are better and cheaper products in the market than this one.

5. Foundation/BB creams

This BB cream from COLORBAR PERFECT MATCH was just not for me. The reason I got this was the Paraben Free claim. But no it sits on my dry patches, does not blend well and just looks weird. I have used it 2-3 times and did not like it ever. I would happily continue using my Estee Lauder Double Wear BB which is a million times better than this one!

Also I tried the LANCOME TEINT MIRACLE foundation this year (sorry,could not find the bottle) and did not like it again. It made me look cakey and started falling apart in a few hours! So yeah these two are not happening in 2016! 

6. Blush/Highlighters

2015 was the year of strobing and glow. I tried a few products too add into my collection. The one in the left is a Blush duo from BH COSMETICS in IRIS. I loved the packaging & the concept. I absolutely adore the professional blush palette from BH. But this one was just not good enough. The blush was hard to blend and the highlighter had just no pigmentation whatsoever. So Nah!!! 

NYX BORN TO GLOW LIQUID ILLUMINATOR in bronze is again very popular and is a gorgeous shade. The problem is its too thick and takes ages to blend. If so I am able to blend it, it would sit funny on top of my foundation. Like really I cant waste time if I gotta glow!

HIGH BEAM from BENEFIT is again a liquid highlighter. Again, takes ages to blend or maybe I am not a liquid highlighter kinda person. So I don't reach for it just as much and wont buy this again.

7. Eyeliners

When it comes to eye liners I am very choosy. I wont just like something if its good. It needs more than good for an eye liner or kohl kind of a product to make me buy again. Sadly, these didn't wow me! LIQUID EYELINER from INGLOT is a very popular product and many love it. However, I like tip and intensity of the color I just didn't like the fact it would budge and fade away in a few hours of wear. My liner would just come off from the inner eye each time I wore this. Huh!! No, we can't live with this.

BENEFIT they're Real PUSH UP LINER is again much raved and hyped gel liner in a tube form. I loved this baby. It is black, smooth, long-wearing until one day I realized it drying out and getting flaky. This happened in just a few weeks after I got it and because it is a tube I cant add any medium and revive the formula. Maybe it was my piece or whatever, it is too expensive to live for a few weeks!

SHOCKING by YVES SAINT LAURENT has the same issue. Too expensive to live for a few weeks. I don't feel like spending 3000 bucks on a black liner which would dry out so damn fast.

8. More Eye Products

RIMMEL's SOFT KOHL PENCILS in shade JET BLACK & STORMY GREY are not much pigmented , just smudgy and not right for me. I picked them to have a variety and also because I love the EXAGGERATE WATERPROOF range from Rimmel, I thought this would work well too.

I also tried RIMMEL's EYEBROW PENCIL in BLACK BROWN. Oh God! it was a nightmare. This eyebrow pencil looks too fake and starts to smudge in few hours making your brows look trashy and messy. The grooming brush with it is also such a fail! Not again.

SUMPTUOUS LIFTING MASCARA from ESTEE LAUDER was another pick this year as I forgot my Mascara somewhere while travelling. It is a decently good mascara, but nothing so lifting and great about it (as I said I expect alot!!) I would still stick to my Too Faced Better Than Sex.

9. Lippies

2015 was also the year of liquid lipsticks. There were like a zillion launches last year from so many brands in the lippie section. I have so many I love, kind of like and just God No's! These three are Oh! God No's. MAYBELLINE 14 hr lipstick in shade STAY WITH ME CORAL is one lipstick I tried to fall in love with but just couldn't. I have other colors from this range and they all wear well on my lips. Something about this shade is so off. The texture is flaky, uneven and dry. I bought it twice and found the same issue in just this particular shade. However other shades work great.

Similarly, LA SPLASH LIP COUTURE in shade INNOCENT VIXEN is the worst liquid lipstick I have tried. It smells funny, wears uneven, flakes like so bad and just annoying! I like the other shade Till Midnight in the same range I have. But no way this one is a huge fail!

STILA LIP & CHEEK STAIN in RASPBERRY CRUSH, another hyped product but so not worth it. I actually wanted to buy the liquid formula lipstick from Stila but ended up with this. Maybe it is the color or the silver sparkles in it, I don't like it either on my lips or cheeks! 

So that is it. I hope you learned something from this post. I am sure there will be a few more products I skipped in this post (LOL!!). Lemme know your product regrets and also favorites of 2015. I would really love to know. I will even try to update my Favorites of 2015 too.

Thankyou for reading, I really hope you enjoyed. Loads of Love!
Sharoon :)