Glossier

AAAA !!! All the stuff I bought from Glossier has finally arrived !!! I am SO SO SOOOO excited .... Okay, a few deep breaths ... Let me explain my excitement and why I am hyper about this ...

Glossier is a make up brand that (as of today) tries to emphasise on how minimal is better, and that skin care comes before make up. Due to this, most of their products are aimed at "going out without make up, or a makeup free look is ok" and I think they are trying to get this back into vogue. 

Quite a few of their products are hits, and sell quite fast. The brand was started by Emily Weiss, who is with ITG (Into The Gloss). The brand was launched, I think, around a couple of years back and has quite a few good products on its shelves - which sell like hot cakes. After watching videos of Tamira Jarrel raving about how she loves their products, I was like, I need to try some of their stuff. Went online and realised that they do not sell anywhere except their online platform - not even at Sephora .. Hmmm, how was I to get my hands on their stuff ? Luckily my aunt was flying down to India a couple of months after I decided I wanted to get some other things and hence, I ordered. This idea was suggested to my by my cousin (thank you Arvind!!) :)

I spent a couple of hours online obsessing over everything that they had for sale and finally decided on getting their highlighter (which they call Haloscope) and a Generation G sheer matte lipstick.

I like the GIFs they have going on their site where women of different skin tones wear each shade of the products they have - so that you get a better idea of what it might look like on you. I got a 20% discount on my first purchase (everyone gets that - don't worry), and got it shipped to her home. She landed last evening and here I am, blogging about the stuff I got and the packaging it arrived in, and why I think it is super cool and spunky :)

The various things that came in the package (L-R cardboard for a flat surface, poster, stickers, products in the pouch)

The products were in a bubble wrap kinda bag which had a ZipLock top. They sent a poster and a few stickers along with their items.

Now, coming to the items and how they look and swatches :)

I purchased the "Cake" shade of Generation G, coz I wanted something nude and this one seemed to go well with the medium skin tone girl on their website. After trying on the colour, I wonder if I should have gone with a brighter shade - as I can get nude ones here in India ... But the colour is really pretty and I have ZERO regrets buying it.

bot-top : 4 swipes, 2 ,1

As you can see from the image of my arm, the colour is not too intense and builds really well on layers of application.

I'm trying to  make a GIF of me applying the shade and how it looks t the end -  will post that here once it is done :)

Some images of the packaging and ingredients are also here ... The product contains quite a bit of stuff, and they say that there is no animal testing during the process of creation.
There is quite a bit of product inside, and it is not a very thick or soft application which makes you feel as though a tonne of product is sitting on your lips.


I think with the amount in one stick it should last probably 2-3 months on daily application. Price tag is $18 ... :|















Now, to the next product - The Topaz shade haloscope. I got Topaz as I have something silvery from Benefit; and this colour (Tamira said) looks amazing on her skin - it gave her this sun tanned bronze look and hence I was like, let me try that.

It comes in a cute white-pink packaging (exactly like all Glossier products). I love the way the packages have little smiley on the inside of them (light pink on the white box :)).

The haloscope comes with a "solid oil core of vitamin-rich moisturisers for a hydrated, dewy finish" - as per the website. It does not have any particular smell, but has a slight oily ring to it. I o not mind it as the smell is not strong.

The colour is kind of a sun kissed light brown tone - at least that is what it looked like on my skin. I have warmish-neutral undertones on a medium colour skin... 
Here is what it looks like on my face.
One pic showing how much I applied  (or is it a video, I am not sure)

 There is a bit of a shine - don't mind the skin, I have not a single gram of anything on my face except face wash and cream :)

The packaging was quite cool. Here are a few snaps showing he ingredients and all that jazz.

All in all, a good haul :) And I am quite thrilled with the stuff I got :)

Foundation and the difficulty of finding your match

As I recently started watching a few videos on foundation and how women manage to transfer their pretty normal spotted face into absolutely gorgeous faces, I was like " I NEED TO TRY THAT". Then I started reading up on foundations and came to learn how hard it is to find your correct matching foundation colour.
What is a foundation ? A foundation is a make up product that is applied over your washed-moisturised skin so as to
1. Hold make up in its place
2. Make the skin seem smooth and blemish free
3. Give your skin an even tone and texture

Finding your perfect matching colour of foundation (as they come in SO SO SO many colours) can be tricky at times and it is best to go to a store to try out the colour, rather than reading reviews of a shade online. While figuring out what kinds of shades are there, and all the brands that are available in the market, I came across this term called "undertone" and how it is extremely important to find your undertone while choosing your foundation. I had no clue what that is and how it affects what colour  foundation you use on your face.

I watched a few videos on this topic and read up on this concept. I took some of these online "tests" which are to help you find your undertone colour. Now the funny thing is, most of them bucketize you as either warm, cool or neutral (and combinations of these 3). However, when I watched a video by Melissa Alatorre, I got super confused as she introduced an Olive undertone :D 

This being said, I was able to find that my skin tone is a warm neutral (as gold, peach shades look good on me and the veins on my inner arm are green in colour) and my skin colour looks to be medium beige.  Being the psycho that I am I went berserk on searching for the "best foundation brand that there is on the planet". Heard about this brand called Make Up For Ever, an their Ultra HD Foundation and the fact that they have 40 shades made me want to check them out and buy one - was pretty sure that one of those 40 is going to match. Was also debating between M.A.C and Benefit and Anastasia (and we do not get them in India, so chucked). Googled a lot, and I researched some more on which one is the best of all of them, and most blogs I read said that the MUFE HD foundation is among the best that they have worn.
Once this was done, I needed some expert's opinion. So, I again bugged Roomi (whom I bugged even for highlighters) to understand if MUFE is a good brand, and which one she used, and whether I should go for M.A.C instead, and nonsense like this. (sometimes I  feel she should be the one blogging). A lot of patient listening, and few hundred chat messages later I decided to go ahead with the MUFE HD foundation.... (yay).

Anyway, I now needed to buy this thing. How was I to get my hands on it ? Thankfully, Sephora has opened a couple of stores in Bangalore and they carry this brand (it is one of their in-house brands). I enjoy going to the outlets simply because of the sheer volume and diversity of products they have and brands to choose from. They sell Benefit, MUFE, NYX, Stilla etc etc. I will definitely write a post about the store :)

There is this Sephora at Orion Mall (next building to where I work - lucky me :P). So one day after work I went there to get The Foundation. People there helped and I was able to find a perfect match to my face - shade N128 (Almond; also called VC238). The chap there applied a primer (more about that later :)), and then applied this foundation to my face. I swear, I tell you, I could not see it once he finished applying, but my skin looked SOOO much smoother, and even, and 'nice' :).

The only pinching point is its price point - 4k :( :( :( But this foundation, I tel you, is ideal for those 'special' occasions and when you want to look your best and want to feel all good and pretty :)

Given that I cannot wear this f'ing expensive foundation on a daily basis, I researched some more for the best foundation that one can get in India that is in my budget, and I came across multiple reviews about Loreal Infallible's 24 hour foundation (amazon.in right now is having this super crazy sale, I recommend you go to a store, find your match and then buy it online). Even blogs and videos and "Top 10 foundation" pages for US and EU folks were like, Loreal Infallible foundation is a must have if you are looking for a budget friendly foundation that does it's job.

I went to Orion once again with a friend of mine and we went to Shoppers Stop. The Loreal lady there was super friendly and sat us down and tried on shades on our faces and helped us find stuff that suited us very well - in that light it looked flawless and perfect. I got the shade 220 (Sable Sand) and it looks good on my face ! Suited my skin tone, seemed as though I had much smoother skin, but was slightly lighter than my skin tone - which I felt was okay and not too much of an issue. The next shade was too dark.

Left side is Loreal and right is MUF

Left Loreal is more pinkish, Right MUFE one is spot on 

To give you guys a comparison of how they look on my skin, I will show you guys images of their consistency, colour, blending effect etc.

After blending, both colours look extremely similar, however the Loreal one has a slightly pinkish tone to it when blended against my skin. I let the foundation sit on my skin for some 5 minutes before taking the pic as it needs that much time to settle down.

Steps that are generally followed while applying foundation are mentioned below (all these fancy video people do so much more, I just carry out the basic steps).

Clean face after washing

Applied a bit of Colorer primer and Olay Moisturiser

1. Clean face after washing 

2. Applied a bit of primer on my skin.

Below I have applied the MUFE one on the right side of my face and the Loreal one on the left side. I think that the Loreal one is slightly pinkish on my face an shows up a bit - but it is not something that bothers me too much. But you can see how the foundations cover up all those visible spots (to some extent) on my face. A little heavier application will smoothen the skin out completely and will not show those blemishes.

MUFE on right, Loreal on left

 I have gotten slightly tanned recently and I know this will be all right when I wear it during winter (no sun :P)