Van Heusen - and why I love it

There is this Van Heusen store at the mall near my office. Whenever I go there to kill some time and pass by the store, I cannot help but enter for two reasons.
1. The way they have laid out the store is eye catching - there are always pretty, bright coloured clothes right at the front
2. The store smells absolutely wonderful :) It sort of draws you inside to check products on display

Coming to their clothes : I initially never shopped from this brand as I felt it was unnecessarily expensive. I would only scout through Lifestyle or Shoppers Stop when there was a sale of some sort. Then came Amazon :P

But my first trysts with VH began when I was sent to Delhi (Tauro to be more precise) on work for 15 days ... I would leave for the warehouse at 715 am and reach home around 9pm. One evening I was like "enough is enough" and I left at 430pm (2 hours before the shift ended). Next to the hotel where I was staying there was a Shoppers Stop. I went to kill some time, and I fell in love with this dress (okay, something similar). I bought it off, even though it was not on sale :)

This is how it looks on me - pretty pretty, right ? Well, I bought this dress because it has an elastic around the waist and has sleeves (GOD, it is so difficult nowadays to find dresses that have sleeves! I mean, almost everything is sleeveless).
The reason I go for sleeved clothes (especially 3/4th) is because they cover my kinda-fat arms and do not look too informal to wear even to work. They are not too flashy and I feel, give me a slightly more sophisticated look :) (Plus, the elastic on the waist helps hide my tummy).

Now, coming back to the online shopping bit. Amazon was running a sale - some 60%+ discount, and naturally I wanted to check out the products and see if there were any nice clothes. I was browsing through some Van Heusen clothes and saw these 2 tops that I absolutely loved ! One was a pretty blue with a floral pattern, while the other one was black, again with some flower design. Unfortunately they are not available anymore on Amazon :( In the pic below (with the blue top), I'm wearing a skirt from VH - dark grey with slight pleats, but no pockets.

The last dress that I own from VH - well ... It is a beautiful colour (teal), but somehow the top portion of it lacks texture, is quite plain and I feel it draws attention you-know-where... When I wear it I accessorise the dress with chunky jewellery so that it looks good. Now, I know I have found flaws with it, but the reason I love it is because it has pockets ! POCKETS !! Can you believe that :) It is so damn convenient.

Anyway, this is my post on one of the brands I love - do let me know your thoughts and if there are any brands you would like me to cover.

Review of the lipsticks I ordered

So, I got the lipsticks I ordered. Wooohhooo !! Are they gorgeous or are they gorgeous ! :) I am in love with the colours.

Ok, so I will be taking a leaf out of all the blogs I have been reading which describe and give reviews about products - they talk about the texture, smell, longevity, taste etc about everything - I shall try to do justice.

I'll get straight into them. So I bought two colours from L'oreal Paris Mega Gloss right ? One of them is Fight for It 109 (pictures below). I liked the pink shade it seemed to have on the website.

Website image from Amazon.in

Looks pretty similar to the image, doesn't it ? Wow, it is actually a perfect match - this usually does not ever happen, which is why bring lipsticks online is such a pain in the you-know-where!
Anyway, this colour looks very pretty and pink, and has a nice smell - it is slightly fruity. The applicator is pretty funky - I think they have given it the shape it has so that it comes on your lips easily and the contours can be maintained. 

There is not much of a taste to the lipstick / gloss; it has a nice bright pink tinge to it and after a while there is a slight tingly sensation on your lips - kind of like when you eat mint or something. It doesn't bother me much, so I am ok with it.

Anyway this is how the colour looks on my skin. I like it, but think it is too pink ... :-/

Coming to the second shade : Protest Queen 103. It looks very purple kind of pale in the image and I was hesitant to buy it, am not sure how purple would look on my skin. Anyway I saw an image of Eva Longoria wearing it and I thought - well she has a similar skin tone, and it looks nude and gorgeous on her, might as well try it out :)

Now how the colour looks in real life is pasted below.

The colour looks vaguely similar but not as close the previous one.
Anyway, I applied the lipstick and I must be honest - it is GORGEOUS ! It  suits my skin tone. Below is a swatch and how it looks on my lips.

I have tried to compare the 2 colours on my hand to give you guys a comparative view of what they look like. Protest Queen looks super nude compared to Fight For It...

Anyway, this is how the colour looks on me - it is super nude and gives my lips a slight shine with a hint of a very pale pink, which I absolutely love.

Fight For It is up for grabs (as promised) :)

Even more lipsticks !

I am going mad. No, seriously! I have lost it I think. I went and purchased 2 lipsticks online from the Loreal Infallible Mega Gloss collection. Amazon.in is having this sale for the Infallible collection, and I am like "OMG ! I need to pick up something !".

Anyhoo, I liked the look of these lipsticks - they are kind of gloss and lipstick combo products. They come in 3 varieties - Neon, shimmer and matte - all are kind of glossy though. I wanted a nude shade (as usual) and started researching into what looks good. I saw several youtube videos on people trying out this brand and their inputs on it (texture, smell etc), and I finally decided to go for the shade that the Eva Longoria image is linked to - Protest Queen. Reviews online say that it is nude with a slight shade to it and does not make you look pale - something that I must absolutely have. I also liked the look of Fight For It and thus picked this one also.

Once I get these two, I will let you guys know what they look like on my skin and which ever one I do not want, I will give it to the first person who asks for it :)

AAAAAA !!! I'm so excited !

I love online shopping - it is like buying a gift for yourself and getting all psyched about having a parcel to open and unwrap with some exotic goodies inside it :) :)