Blossom Blush Tint

Dear Glammys!

Today I decided to review my one of the most loved products. No. 7 Blush Tint in Blossom.

To me, its almost like a cream blush in a stick. Convenient and very easy to use. I have the shade in Blossom which is number 15. They've got some amazing shade selection but this is the one I like the most. 

You can see that the color looks really dark but it comes on actually quite sheer on the skin. And its build-able but I like to use it just as a subtle hint to give that glowing blushed look. As its a cream product so it doesn't turn out to be cakey on the face. And you basically cant go wrong with it. Best part is, I don't have to hassle to find the right brush. I just take two fingers, tap lightly on it and blend onto cheeks. For heavier color pay off I directly apply it on the cheeks and then blend it . It gives that perfect rosy-dewy finish which I am a fan of specially for spring and winter.

With Flash

Without flash

 

  

The staying power is pretty reasonable. I prefer to apply it directly above my foundation (if I am using any that day) or just simply over my moisturizer, and to make it last longer I apply light dusting of normal powder blush in some pinkish color to set it completely so it doesn't wear off to quickly. If you don't wish to apply the powder blush on top of this, then you can simply lightly dust it with loose powder which will set it completely (this is what I do for everyday casual look).

It doesn't has huge shimmer in it, and it has that slight satin-ish dewy finish. So you would love it if you like dewy finished glow-y products.

The left one is builded swatch and the right one is blended swatch. You can see how it just beautifully blends giving your skin a very natural blush :)

Blended swatch with flash

This is my favorite product to use. The only downside for me is the price. Even though its a Boots/No. 7 product which is considered as a drugstore brand, still it is sold with a price tag of £10 for just 3.5g of product. I got mine from amazon.co.uk.

Apart from the price, I absolutely love this blush tint and it lasts pretty long time. I have been using mine for around 5-6 months now and its still going good :) If you can splurge, I'd recommend buying it. You won't regret it =)

  Love, Hadiya

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L'Oreal Cheek to Cheek Sculpting Blush Duet

Dear Glammys!

Lets talk about some cheeky stuff today (LOL cheesy much!). Couple of months ago I was in search for some cheap sculpting/bronzing and highlighting stuff for my face. And lucky me, because I found something really pocket friendly, yet giving me the absolute results I wanted. The product is called L'Oreal Cheek to Cheek Sculpting Blush Duet. Yes, it has word Blush in its name even though it works as sculpting and bronzing product, a little research told me that it is a blush, comes in various shades like peach and pinks and is used for sculpting and adding dimension. Hence, its name is not restricted to bronzer. It came with a price tag of PKR 275 from my local drugstore; see I told you its pocket friendly :D and you get 3.5g of product. Which is totally worth it :)

The shade I bought is called Infinite Sands and it is gorgeous on the skin.

You can see that half side is like a highlighting shade with touch of peach-ness to it and is perfect for drawing light to the face. I like to use it above my cheek bones, on the cupid's bow above lips, down the bridge of the nose and also as everyday highlight for my eyes in the inner corner and below the brow bone. It is really easy to blend, is not overpowering or chunky, has very slightest shimmer just the way I like it.  

The other side is very muted brown. Not at all shimmery which is something we want in a bronzer or any product we want to use to sculpt our face. After all, no one wants to end up looking like a disco ball. Its perfect for defining the face and sculpting those chiseled cheek bones we all want (HAHA). Anyway, its very blendable and buildable as well. A little goes a long way for this. Not only I use it for contouring my face and cheek bones but I also use it in my eye socket for very subtle definition and adding depth to my eyes for my everyday look.

The unblended swatch for you people to see some of goodness I am talking about. It's very subtle and beautifully sculpts the face. I've been using this for last couple of months (maybe a bit more than that) and it has been my goto product for contouring and bronzing. And even after all this rigorous use, I have hardly made a dent in the pan. The lasting power on the face is also okay and wears off very nicely on the skin. 

Also this product is very comparable to Sleek Contour Kit (which was the basic motivation behind buying this as well). The brown part of this L'Oreal product is not as fine as Sleek's, but nevertheless it gave the same marvelous results. It being the cheaper alternative is much more feasible to use for everyday or for carrying around in the bag. Here I must mention, although I'm very satisfied with the packaging overall, its pretty sturdy, but I would have preferred it more if it came with a brush and mirror too (because that makes it easy for touch-ups on the go). 

Overall I would suggest you try grabbing some of it from your local drugstore as its really worth the money you pay for it. The product is nice and can be used in various ways other than sculpting as the colors are so universal and pretty much it would suit every skin tone. Give it a go! 

Love, Hadiya

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Super Liner (maybe)!

Dear Glammys!

Guess who is back in action? Oh yeah, it's me. Been a while. Anyhow... Today the point in focus is L'oreal 24Hour Super Liner Gel EyeLiner waterproof. That's a mouthful name. And as I am too lazy to click away or edit today, I'll just insert the piccy from our beloved Google Images. 

It's the Japanese/Asian version specifically as you can see some Japanese language (if i'm not wrong) on the box. I got it for like PKR 350 which is hell cheap considering the claims it makes and also considering that it's a gel eyeliner. Well let me tell you, its exactly the price you would pay for what it actually does. Anyway the price got me guessing that it might be a fake L'oreal product. Turns out, its not. I got some good reviews on makeupalley.com. Further searching the internet told me that its sold for like 12$-20$ depending on the online stores you buy it from like yesstyle.com or sasa.com (though I don't know if they deliver to Pakistan so you can check that out yourself :P) That's a lot of over charging as you know now that in Pakistan you can get it for like PKR 300-350.

Anyway lets get to the point of how good is it and is it worth it? First of all, I got to say packaging is adorable. Almost like packaging of Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner. It has that same classy touch to it. Glass container, good twisty cap and a very own soft bristle brush (which gives a very good line both thick and thin, however you like and prefer. Also is really easy to use for flicking the line. I could even tightline my eyes  with it and could use it in waterline too. Ah-mazing brush in short)  

Now, it claiming it to be waterproof, well not so much waterproof and it rubs off like crazy. I've got oily eyelids and I found it to be transferring onto my lids in a very short time. It doesn't last for 24hours either. Well, remove the 2 from 24 and that's how long it lasts - hardly 4 hours is the lasting time. You can increase it by an hour or so if you be a good girl and apply eye primer before applying it. But on me it hardly lasted for 3-5 hrs. After that you need to re-apply it to freshen up and look perfect again. 

The product to me looked and felt more like a cream eyeliner instead of being gel eyeliner, which is ok by me if it lasted on my eyes a bit more. I'm definitely in love with brush though, no denying that. It's super easy to use and gives the perfect line. The product itself is pigmented enough that it works just fine. 

Considering the price I payed for it, the quality is fairly satisfactory. Nothing too extra-ordinary just like I expected and suspected (whoa, that rhymes :D).

It's definitely worth the money if you are on the look out for something extremely cheap, yet still workable. Also if you want to get the feel of gel eyeliners and using eyeliner brushes, this can be your goto product for perfecting your technique and getting hang of the idea before you invest in something more expensive. I'd say it's not as much of a "super liner" as it claims on the packaging, but its worth it. 

Love, Hadiya

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Delectable but NOT Edible!

Dear Glammys!

Today I thought to share my recent delectable with you all. Interested much =] I got this "Fresh! Milking it Jug" from Boots recently.

"The Fresh! way to get a moove on each morning with this traditional ceramic jug that's literally overflowing with some of our creamiest, most indulgent products"

And it comes packaged like a JUG too... Though it was flimsy so I thought to throw it away and not show it.

Let me tell you, the warning is a MUST "Delectable but not edible" because it totally smells AH-MAZING and I so totally wanted to eat it. As soon as I took the product out of its flimsy packaging, I could smell the awesome fragrance. Not to mention I like the color combination (purple being my favorite color). It adds to the glam of my vanity. The jug comes with four products and each one of them is worth it! And particularly good with what they claim to do. Highly moisturizing with a lovely lovely fragrance. What more does a girl want to feel extra special. :P

• BANANARAMA HAIR MASK

• LAND OF MILK & HONEY BODYWASH

• WICKEDLY GOOD BODY CUSTARD (believe me it is good, I have been using this one non-stop and am almost out of it)

• BEST BEFORE BEDTIME BATH MILK

I have thoroughly enjoyed using each and every one of these and am almost out of them.

Love, Hadiya

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Mauve is the New Nude!!

Dear Glammys!
Its been ages since I last posted. Hope you all good out there. Anyways...

I recently bought couple of nail polishes. So thought to share them with you all. (above picture is with the flash on, so you can see the colors better. And the piccy below is without flash so be the judge yourself of the colors...HAHA they almost look insanely same).

Anyhow.. I have been using all of these colors non-stop. Especially the white because frankly we all know what a necessity french manicure is. The two browns are my favorite by Sweet Touch Cosmetics and are a second and third time repurchase respectively. The transparent top coat is basic as we know. The only new color in all these for me to try was Mauve. 

Alright now comes the honest review. These nail polishes are not at all expensive. Expensive than Medora maybe and cheaper than Etude. The reason I'm not comparing it to OPI is because very frankly OPI is not readily available in Pakistan still and also because I'm certainly not the person who'll splurge Rs. 650 on a single nail varnish specially considering the nail color addict I am. I'll go bankrupt and I really don't want that in my limited allowances to happen. So we are clear here that this is just a drugstore brand. And very frankly there staying on power is not as amazing as I want it to be but you can make it last a couple of days by applying base coat and top coat and maybe two-three coats of the color itself. Also depends on how careful you are with your nail polish application and maintenance. But I love these anyway because they dry super-fast like really you don't have to sit for ages. 5 Minutes and you'll be good to go. Secondly the applicator is really long which I like and brush is of the right thickness, making it super easy to apply the varnish. Here's the piccy of the brush so you can see.

I really love wearing Choco Cream because its such a lovely nude color and really compliments every thing. Hard Cafe is a darker version of Choco Cream and is just as adorable. (I'll put up the pic of me wearing that color on fb. So be sure to check out my fb page http://facebook.com/glamagem and don't forget to like it if you haven't already).

And Mauve is the perfect elegant color. Its also very sheer unlike the other two which are opaque even with a single coat. So recently i read in ELLE magazine (in there November issue I guess) that Mauve is the new Nude. Yeah. You heard me. Mauve is the color of the season in terms of nail. And I totally agree because I have been having so much fun with this color. 

So that's pretty much it. Super fun and super affordable. You might want to buy these colors or even other colors from Sweet Touch Cosmetics if you are a nail color addict and don't want to be bankrupt hehe (:

Have fun! 

Love, Hadiya <3

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French With a Twist!!

Dear Glammys!

French manicure has always been the "in-fashion" thing. No matter what season, what occasion, what fashion trends; you can always pull off a french manicured hand. It omits the need to color match your nail polishes with your dresses (which I must say is fun part of dressing up and being a girl (: but nevertheless its a time consuming errand quite often ). 

So today, I thought I'll share my idea of French manicure with a twist. 

Sometimes I just put on any pink shade or slight purple shade (even works with nudes and beige) and after a couple of days, when the color starts boring me or if I want to glam-acize (is that even a word lol well now it is) my polish I just add a very simple french tip.

You can see that smile lines of the french tip aren't too perfect, just a straight swipe of white on the tips. But this is what adds to the look. It is effortless and easy and takes not more than 10 minutes to do. Don't forget to put on your favorite top coat to make it all shiny and fabulous.

And to dress it up and make it even more eye-catching and fit for a princess, I like to add a very elegant ring!

Now, you are all glammed up and ready to go to party or even sit home and feel pretty precious :)

Love, Hadiya

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Lets Go Body Shopping!

Dear Glammys!

Sometime back (just like once upon a time...) I went to The Body Shop. OMG I love that place. Even if I have to buy nothing from there, I still love to go there and I'm so glad they are finally available all over Pakistan. Well done Body Shop people :)

Anyway, I picked up a couple of things from there (remaining well inside my budget and buying only what I needed or atleast that's what I like to tell myself :P ); I thought I'd share my shopping with you. (ignore the book in the background- that is not from bodyshop!!)

So lets dig deep!

• Soft Hands Kind Heart Hand Cream (Suitable for ALL Skin Types)

Well, as the winter is here, we definitely need to keep our hands moisturized. We don't want cracky dry skin. And definitely moisture helps against premature wrinkling which we definitely want to avoid.

The product claims to soften and moisturize and is infused with angelica extract (angelica is a herb which Chinese are really fond of and have been enjoying for last 2500 years. Also this herb contains loads of difficult to pronounce benefits along with Vitamin A, E and B12. This herb has many medicinal benefits and is good for health from what I found on internet) and community trade organic olive oil.  

Definitely as all Body Shop products, it has amazing fragrance and I have been using this religiously after every hand wash and especially at night partially because it really moisturizes my hand and softens them just as it claims and partially because it has amazing amazing fragrance like I said before. You only need pea-sized amount to thoroughly moisturize your hands. It contains less than 100 ml which makes it ideal to carry if you plan to travel. 

Also, they have a good cause which you can read about on their website http://thebodyshop.com/stop.

• Nail Polishing Block

While we are at taking care of our hands, how can we ignore our precious nails. Hence the Nail Polishing Block comes in action which claims to buff and polish nails! And I'l agree it works great! 

This block has four sides:

1. File nail edge
2. Remove ridges
3. Smooth nail
4. Shine nail

All the sides are mentioned on the block making it easier to go step by step and knowing what to do next. Specially good for at home manicures :)

• Vitamin E Lip Care SPF 15 (Protects and Moisturizes All Skin Types)

Now that our hands our set, we need to focus on lips. During winter lips get particularly chapped and they lack moisture. So we definitely need some Lip Care. 

"This moisturising lip balm soothes and protects lips from the drying effects of the sun, wind and cold weather."

 This lip balm contains Vitamin E, Community Fair Trade organic Olive Oil, Community fair Trade Organic Virgin Coconut, Community fair Trade Beeswax as key ingredients. It definitely hydrates and moisturizes your lips and leaves them feeling soft. It is colorless I must mention, which I don't mind. I have it on my bedside and use it after every short while specially in morning and in night before sleeping. Its like the last thing i do before sleeping! Also it has added benefit of SPF 15.

• Lemongrass Deodorising Foot Polish (Suitable for ALL Skin types)

This is random favorite. I got it in a foot care set a couple of months ago as a gift. and I love to use it when my feet are tired or when I want to pamper myself. It has that grainy-scrubby touch to it but is much more gentle than a scrub. Its purpose is to exfoliate the skin of your feet leaving them soft, polished and deodorised. I can not agree less that it really is deodorizing (has that lemongrass fresh scent) and leaves feet feeling soft. Definitely soothes the tired feet! the jar is really small; 15 ml, but you only need a tiny bit. I've used it twice already and can still get couple of more uses out of it.

• Detangling Comb

Lets not ignore a very important beauty asset; HAIR. We all know that "brushing" wet hair causes damage. So instead we should use Wide Toothed Comb like this one from The Body Shop. It easily de-tangles hair and can be used to distribute treatments and/or conditioner in hair. It is made of 100% wood (which gives me Cleopetra-ish feel when using it lol) and can be cleaned using warm soapy water. Avoid it from direct heat though!

That's all the Body Shop-ping for now.  I really enjoy using all the stuff mentioned and would recommend each one of them to you too!

Love, Hadiya 

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