makeup favorites

Sounds like an year end post, but let’s take it as a mid-year taking stock, shall we? I am going to dive right into it, please tell me your skin care & makeup hits in the comments! I would love to know yours.

Also, go till the end to see the star of this post!

Shesha Ayurveda Rose Water: Admittedly, I haven’t used a wide variety of rose waters, but this is a way purer upgrade than the widely popular Dabur Gulabari. Now, to be honest, I consider this also expensive for something as frivolous as rose water, but considering people are into buying rose water from way more expensive brands in India, I would consider this a sweet spot – pure as well as not super expensive. I wholeheartedly recommend.

Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia: I have already talked about it in my favorites here. Jo Malone fragrances are love. Nothing more to be said. As I am exploring more fragrances by them, its becoming increasingly difficult to choose just one as the most favorite.

Earth Rhythm Sunscreen: Its difficult to explain my love for this one. I basically started using this brand for supporting a cause. Have written about it here. I have lately started to feel that it doesn’t stand for that anymore. However, like I have mentioned in the post as well, I use some of their products for the feel good factor and that’s where this sunscreen comes in. I’ll stop using this the moment I find a better alternative but here’s why I love it – extremely comfortable on skin, no white cast, some people say it makes my face glow. As for helping with tanning, I don’t know. I have never felt with any sunscreen that they help me with strong sun rays.

Aroma Magic Sunscreen Cucumber: This was a fun product to use – what I mean is this brand has been in our lives since a long time, probably when our parents were kids but it has evolved over time to suit the customer demands, be it in terms of products or packaging. I admire them for it, their jazzy packaging is always appreciable and for this one, I loved both the fragrance and feel of the sunscreen on my face. Not to mention this product is extremely cheap!

Disguise Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette: This is one of those eco-conscious, new-age, hipster cosmetics brands in India and I just happened to try it randomly. To be honest, the eyeshadows are very basic, nothing amazing and nothing bad but they still feature on my favorites purely and purely for the packaging. I mean look at it!

indian makeup products — My holographic makeup box is pretty (and entirely the reason for buying it 😦 )

My holographic makeup box is pretty (and entirely the reason for buying it 😦 )

Fashion Color Makeup Spray: The star of this post. Here’s the story on how I ended up using and loving this completely local, unknown makeup spray that I seem to love more than the Benefit Super Setter. There, I said it. I basically was at a local cosmetics shop near my home a couple of days before my wedding to get a few jewelry pieces rented that we didn’t get made as part of my customized gold and diamond polki set (examples) (those were things like headpieces which don’t get used later on). In India, its pretty common for some local cosmetics shops to have these things as well. So, I was there for that and my mom and I just happened to discuss that I am going to buy a makeup setting spray. This woman at the counter overheard us and she literally forced me to buy this particular makeup setting spray. I was not keen as it was an unheard of brand but I went along since there was no reason why she would force as buying another brand would have meant more money for her. Its one of the best makeup products I have used over the years in terms of ‘getting the job done’. I don’t know if its available outside India, but I have linked it so that you can see how it looks and purchase it whenever you see it!

That’s it from my side, now its your turn! 🙂

A weird but true thing is that I continued loving so many new and old makeup products in 2021, just like I did in 2020. Why weird you ask? Because really there are so less occasions for using makeup in this Covid life. Additionally, if you know me in real life, I put the maximum effort in dressing up for work which is now from home. I usually am bare face on vacations, sometimes even in parties. So, I really didn’t have that many chances of using makeup in pandemic. Yet, here we are. Seems like I made the most of all chances of wearing makeup because I had a lot of favorites! Read on:

Sugar Ace of Face Foundation: It will sound like I am getting paid to say this but SUGAR Cosmetics is quickly becoming my favorite – its Indian, its cruelty free, have loved almost all the formulations I tried so far – what’s not to love? This foundation, though, was such a surprise discovery right before my wedding. I was looking for a foundation and I had never used a ‘proper’ one before. I wanted to be sure that I get the best base for my face as I wanted it to last me a while and be almost perfect so I can use it in special events. It will sound crazy but I roamed around malls with little swatches on my face to see how different brands’ foundations are reacting on my face – I tried soooo many – from basics like Maybelline to high end like Estee Lauder Double Duty – and in the end I liked only two for yellow toned Indian skins like me – Bobbi Brown & SUGAR. The texture was almost the same for both & this one was 1/4th the price! The brush attached is also pretty good for me, I mean makeup nerds may not like it but its good enough for basic users like me. The only word of caution (and a rather important one) – its full coverage & heavy, I have normal to dry skin so I like the heaviness and dewiness. Plus, I intended to buy a full coverage foundation only since I only use base makeup for special occasions.

2. Smashbox Driver’s Seat Liquid Lipstick: Truth be told, I prefer the regular lipsticks more over liquid lipsticks when it comes to ease of use. Reason? It looks more ‘natural’, I mean, go with the flow types and I also like reapplying. However, liquid lipsticks are way better for giving a polished look and the long staying helps in long functions etc. This one I particularly like because it suits my skin tone way too much while being a fairly neutral shade. If you have yellow, light wheatish, Indian skin tone like me, please try this and thank me later!

3. Swiss Beauty Liquid Pen Eyeliner: Do you love it when a local, cheap a*s makeup product turns out perfect? I tried their blue color and I don’t have words to tell just how good this is. First of all, the felt tip is absolutely convenient even for noobs. Secondly, the color pigmentation & payoff is super rich. Thirdly, it is not something that comes off quickly but also not stubborn to remove. Tell me, what’s not to love? I would have been sold on the first point itself.

4. Maybelline Caramel Collector Liquid Lipstick: I bought this only for the shade & its absolutely true to the name. It looks very caramel like. Its a little thicker formula than the Smashbox one and, therefore, I’ll not say that this is the best liquid lipstick formula out there. However, the shade is exactly what I wanted for which its easily one of my top favorite lipsticks. (I usually avoid brands that are not cruelty free but I just gave in due to the shade).

5. the balm Highlighter: During my wedding, I was pretty clear that I am not going to hoard makeup as it typically happens but I would only buy what I truly need and don’t have. Then came along the long due the balm purchase. Their cult highlighter – Mary Lou Manizer. Its fair to say that I am totally in its cult now and I am all there for its hype. The finely milled formula is too gorgeous and you need very little product to get your face all illuminated. Also, the end result is a very sophisticated illumination and you don’t end up looking like a glitter ball. A very non-important sort of con – if you are a beginner, go very easy on the product because too much of it can end up looking cakey and, well, too much.