So now that we are officially in the 12th month of 2016, HO!HO!HO! 🎄

I did have an eventful November with the Sephora VIB Sale, Goa Trip and Alapuzha house boat trip all jammed packed into 30 days. Presenting to you, my favorites for November:

Too Faced Dark Chocolate Soleil Bronzer l $30

I got the Too Faced bronzers as samples and instantly fell in love with the matte bronzy/contoury (makeup experts, pardon me for using the terminologies interchangeably) effect it gave. I had my heart set on the Medium Chocolate Soleil for a subtle effect, but in turn ended up purchasing the darker deeper one. The Chocolate Soleil is cool toned as compared to the Dark Chocolate Soleil that pulls warmer. The powder comes in a whimsical and retro classy packaging with a good sized mirror like every other Too Faced packaging. The bronzer is finely milled and infused with the goodness of cocoa, and added bonus - smells like cocoa too.  

Too Faced Hangover Replenishing Face Primer l $32

Too Faced much? This again was a sample I received during one of my purchases from the Too Faced website and I absolutely loved the feel of the product on my skin. It has a clear, balmy consistency and goes smoothly on my skin. The product instantly rehydrates the skin and lets the foundation glide on smoothly. The ingredient list is also impressive - Coconut Water, Probiotics, and Skin Revivers. It has a faint coconut smell that might be a problem if you have a sensitive nose. 

I don't plan on using this as a primer as I have quite oily skin, instead, on days when I don’t want the hassle of a full face makeup, I would apply this face primer as a moisturizer by itself. I love it so much so that I ended up buying the full-size product during the VIB Sale.

Sephora Contour 2hr Wear Waterproof Eye Pencil l $10

The blackest eye pencil I have ever tried, even blacker than my soul; this one is a major threat to my favorite Lakme Eyeconic Kajal. Though creamy, it stays put on my very watery-waterline like a needy and clingy girlfriend. You have to sharpen the pencil and hence carrying a sharpener in your vanity bag is a must.

ABH Liquid Lipstick Kathryn l $20

The shade Kathryn is such an amazing warm-pinky brown color that instantly brightens my face. This stays on for 9++ hours. This liquid lipstick would have been perfect if not for the dryness. When I first apply the liquid lipstick, it clings on to all the dry patches on my lips and after few minutes starts to dry out the lips. If you can apply a transparent lip balm in frequent intervals, this shit won’t go anywhere. 

PAC Solid Brush Cleanser l INR 595

An Indianized version of the Beauty Blender solid cleanser, this affordable dupe cleans the brushes quickly and effectively. I used to use Johnson's baby shampoo, and with this, the cleaning time is significantly reduced. Not a big fan of the smell, though. The product comes in a black box and is effective in removing all the dirt and grime from the brushes. I rinse my brush under running water once and then swirl it over the cleanser bar, finally rinsing it again to ensure there is no residue. I air dry the product along with my brushes. 

So what products are you loving lately?

Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly Palette Review

How can an eyeshadow single snowball into a fan favorite palette? Too Faced Peanut Butter And Jelly palette was inspired by the shade Peanut Butter from the Too Faced Semi-Sweet Palette. When the little palette was launched, it became INSTA-FAMOUS and was sold out everywhere. Keeping up with the popularity, Too Faced relaunched this palette a month back.

It was a struggle to get this palette shipped to India as Too Faced emailed me saying my order was canceled, but my credit card was charged. Thankfully, by that time, the item was already shipped from the warehouse!

Vital Stats

Size: 0.39 Oz
Cost: $36
This palette is exclusive to Ulta and Too Faced website.

Ingredients

Packaging

• Comes in a cardboard covering with details imprinted on one side.
• The actual packaging that house the shadows is tin packaging with magnetic closure, much like every other Too Faced eyeshadow palettes.
• The packaging is very sturdy and travel-friendly.
• When you open the tin, on the lid you have a good-sized mirror that is very helpful for beauties on the go!
• The lid will stand erect, without any support.
• The palette comes with a lookbook, with 3 easy to achieve eye looks that would be a quick makeup manual for makeup beginners.
• And the best part, this palette smells like peanut butter 😛!

Shades

Row 1: Soft & Sweet

• Spread the Love: Peachy highlight shade with micro shimmers
• Peanut Butter: Mid-tone matte brown
• Peanut Butter Cup: Antique gold in satin finish

Row 2: Rich & Creamy

• Bananas: Champagne gold in satin finish
• Peanut Butter: Copper shade with metallic finish
• Jammin: Deep plum with gold sparkles

Row 3: PB & J

• Extra Creamy:  Matte white highlight shade
• Jelly: Bright violet in satin finish
• Nuts About U: Burnt orange brown

Performance

• The shadows stay put on my oily lids for more than 6 hours without creasing.
• The mattes are highly pigmented and blendable (not chalky).
• Expect some fallout as the shadows are soft.

Swatches

*Vega Flat Shader brush is used to create the following swatches.

Verdict

Perfect warm palette, that can double up as your perfect travel companion. You can create 4-5 varied looks with this palette. Definitely, a must buy item !

Anti-Haul: Holiday Edition

Sephora VIB Sale is less than a week away. Hold your purses tight, fill up your cart, and shop to your heart's content or until your bank balance shows "Min Balance Available". As much as I love makeup, there are times, I paste a deep frown on my face when a see a particular release. This festive season, I am not going to spend my hard earned quid on the following products:

Too Faced Grande Hotel Cafe l $49

This adorable set comes with 18 eyeshadows, two blushes, a bronzer, and a mascara. It comes as three separate mini palettes that smell like peppermint mocha, eggnog latte, and gingerbread coffee. I love the concept, the presentation is to die for; you open up the Grande Hotel Cafe door to reveal the three mini palettes stacked inside. The issue here is the colors in the individual palettes. These are colors that won't work on a tan skin girl like me. I can see white pigments and not enough depth for each of the shadows to work. The blushes, again the same issue, it may work beautifully well on fair to medium skin, but on me, even a 100 layer challenge won't do the job! If you are  a makeup collector, by all means, go ahead and purchase the product for the cute packaging, I for one, don't see a point in spending 50 dollars just on the packaging.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit l $45

ABH Website

The Ultimate Glow Kit contains 6 warm highlighters housed inside a cardboard packaging. Fascination with "kits" continue; As a regular makeup consumer, how fast do you go through your highlighters? and does all the shades in a "kit" work for you? My answer is a big fat NO! I already own ABH That Glow kit that I will be handing over to my grandkids. I don't think that I should invest in another "kit" that I will never go through. If you are a makeup artist, you would be able to put good use while working on clients with  different skin tones. Also, two major pain points that I have heard while obsessively watching YouTube reviews on this are:

1. The kit is very warm and suitable for medium to dark skin tone only.
2. The kit is not like the That Glow kit, which has more subtle, wet sheen-like finish, this kit here is more sparkly and glittery, not a cute highlighted look if you have textured skin.

Urban Decay Junkie Vice Lipstick Palette l $35

Sephora

This palette contains 12 lipstick shades housed in a gorgeous rose gold packaging. Lipsticks in a palette form? again the same reasoning as the "kits", I am no makeup artist, and I love my lipsticks in a tube, easy to just throw in the purse. Out of the 12 colors, I can see myself wearing just 6 colors. Crazy green, neon, sparkly lips, well, my family would disown me if I ever attempt a green lip! Adding to the woes is the packaging, cream products in a palette format is never a good idea, there are chances on intermixing and hassle of using a lip brush (comes with the palette). I believe some of the shades in here can be purchased individually in a bullet form.

HudaBeauty Eyeshadow Palette in Rose Gold l $65

When the palette was first revealed on Instagram, I wanted it so badly. The "Textured" eyeshadow shades were calling out to me. The launch coincided with ABH Mario Platte and on a second thought, I purchased the later owing to the colors and the quality of ABH shadows. Stephanie Nicoles's review solidified my decision, she didn't have many great things to talk about the palette. The cost, 65 dollars for a palette was also a major turn off.

Kat Von D Metal Matte  Palette l $60

Sephora

The Matte-Metal palette houses 13 rich mattes and 9 metal crush shadows and is taking the beauty community by storm. The only reason why this palette made a cut here is that the colors are not my domain. I remember buying beautiful jewel toned colored shadows from Inglot back when my makeup obsession started. In a year, I realized that purples and greens are not my daily colors. It's easier to pull off a crazy neutral eye look than a simple colored look. The basic fun colors that I would require (if needed), I have as part of my existing neutral palettes and makeup geek eyeshadows. Also, I will never go through 75 gm of product in a lifetime.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Surreal Light l $80

This "limited edition" holiday palette houses 2 blushes, 2 bronzers, and a highlighter in a limited edition all marble packaging. The major con is the quids man, 80 dollars??? I would rather buy a travel size product of my favorite ambient powder $22 dollars that I would get good use of. The packaging looks bulky and not so travel-friendly. 

Perfect Palette Tag

I have my Gia Bath and Body Works Chocolate face mask on, hair up in a bun, relaxing in my favorite nook while writing up this post. How was your Sunday been so far? This is a tag I love watching YouTuber's do, so I decided to make a blogger version of the same:

Best Packaging : Too Faced Chocolate Bar 
The sleek packaging is a chocolate lover's dream, looks amazing, and smells even more amazing. I will have to give this to Too Faced.  The closest contender for this title was TheBalm Nude T'ude palette, but the hard casing of the Too Faced palette, that shuts tights thereby making it more travel friendly scored major brownie points for Too Faced in this category and is what ultimately gave away the title.

Best Color Payoff: Urban Decay Naked  1BAM BAM BAM intense, the color pay-off is amazing, so is the longevity. I usually wear my shadows as liner, and after even after 8 hours, they stay intact on my oily lids.

Most Versatile:  Inglot Custom palette 2
I have a crease, matte black, satin and shimmer shades in this custom palette. Having made this myself, I can quickly remove one shade to replace with another that I need based on the occasion, thereby making it versatile.

Best for Traveling: Urban Decay On The Run
Yes, the palette is bulky, but I mostly have some extra room in my luggage while traveling. I would definitely take this one with me as the palette has everything you can imagine to put up different looks together.
UD On The Run is perfect for travel as I can avoid traveling with multiple products. The palette  contains, 5 eye shadows, a blush, bronzer/contour, highlight, lip gloss, eye pencil, and mascara.

Biggest Regret: MAC BrownLuxe
Got it as a gift for my birthday, I hunted down this palette through 5 MAC stores in Bangalore. I had to make a long trip to 1MG Mall just to get my hands on this and sadly, I don't use them as my other palettes. One major factor being, the small strips are such inconvenience to pick color up from. The brush seems to touch two strips at a time. Also, the color fades unevenly. I will have to call this palette a regret solely on basis of cost per utilization. Cost around R. 2800 ( $44) but I haven't got any use out of it.

Best Color Names: TheBalm Nude'Tude
TheBalm knock it out of park when it comes to cute packaging, I had to chuck this palette out of best packaging category solely cause, they have cardboard packaging which is not very convenient. The names  are hilarious and naughty too ;)
Color Names: Sassy, Snoby, Stubborn, Stand-offish, Selfish, Sultry, Sophisticated, Seductive, Sexy, Silly, Serious, and Sleek

Least Used: Makeup Revolution Iconic 3
A dupe for UD Naked 3, sadly I don't reach upto the palette as I need to. I am not a big fan of  rose toned shades, also it's difficult for such colors to show up on my skin, unless it is pigmented like UD Naked 2. I don't want to pass it on, as I feel a palette with rose tone shades would be useful at some point in time :)

Most Used: NYX Love in Paris (Madeleines and Macaroons)
I have hit pan on one of the shades (dark chocolate), mainly cause the shade is my go-to eyebrow filler color. This is one of my first palettes which I bought from NYX US website. They have some really pretty neutral shades that I use on a regular basis.

Most Loved: Urban Decay Naked 2
I initially thought, UD Naked 1 was a better choice, as I am more of a neutral kinda girl, but turns out, I prefer UD Naked 2 as they show up on my lids as compared to UD Naked 1 shades. Though UD Naked 1 was my first Naked palette, I received UD Naked 2 as a gift from hubby, before UD Naked 1 could reach me from US.

Desert Island: Urban Decay Naked 2
For all the above reasons, I would choose Urban Decay Naked 2 as my Dessert Island Palette.