Lipstick Masala

Ten years ago, when the countdown to the new Millennium began, I sat on the Washington Mall bundled up in three layers of clothes watching Bill Clinton and Ricky Martin ring in the New Year. I was so cold I could barely enjoy the huge fireworks display over the Potomac River. A decade later, I choose to avoid any outdoor festivities and instead stay inside with my friends, in the warmth of central heating and a comfy couch under my behind. This year, instead of picking out which down jacket will keep me the coziest, my biggest dilemma is whether or not to coordinate my sparkly shirt with dark lips or eyes.

For those of you contemplating a smokey eye look for New Year’s Eve but not comfortable with the technique, I’ve broken down a basic tutorial that’s both quick and easy. Don’t be afraid! What’s great about the smokey look is that you can adapt it to any color, and best of all, it doesn’t have to be perfectly tidy! The concept of “smokey” doesn’t apply to one specific look or color, rather, it is the blending technique used to “smoke out” an eye shadow. So, go ahead and use any combination you wish to!

This tutorial should take practiced hands about 5 minutes and beginners no more than 10-15. Don’t worry about perfecting each step – when it’s time to clean up and bring the look together, we will!

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What You’ll Need:

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As a woman of color, it takes a lot of effort to find products that complement my skin tone. Most often, shades look wondrous in the pan, but appear almost nonexistent when applied to my skin. When mineral makeup was introduced to the market, I jumped for joy – thinking the pure, intense pigments would solve my problem. But the deep colors came at a price – while mineral

Photo Credit: themineralista.com

makeup was said to be natural, most cosmetics lines used cheap fillers and chemicals to help adhere the products to the skin. I quickly backed away from the mineral products and continued to shell out $$$ for sub-par products.

It was then that I discovered a product line called, The Mineralista (www.themineralista.com), created by one of our very own, a South Asian woman with a vision and the solution to my makeup woes. The Mineralista currently focuses on mineral pigments that can be used as shadows, blush, and are even mixable with clear polish to create multiple fun and funky shades for your nails. The line began as a personal venture for the founder who, like me, was appalled when she learned most shadows had a 90% chemical content and so set out to create natural products for herself and her friends. The shadows quickly gained popularity in her community, and she soon decided to create a line for the public. Lucky for us! Read the rest of this entry »

For years, I spent every third Sunday evening melting wax I purchased from Boots pharmacy over the stove, running to the bathroom to apply it on my upper lip before it hardened again, and ripping it off with little to no visible results. I then attempted to learn how to thread my own eyebrows, which resulted in an uneven catastrophe – that year, I perfected the art of using an eyebrow pencil. Finally, I located a salon that dealt solely in threading, but the $$$ spent on beauty treatments burned a large sized hole in my wallet (those of you that live in the western world can probably empathize).

Over the course of a year, I’m sure I have spent upwards of $800 on waxing and threading. While I’m still waiting for a cheap, effortless and moderately painless at-home fix for my waxing needs, it appears my prayers may have been answered for my facial concerns. How many of you have wished you or a friend knew how to thread? Good news, you don’t need to learn how. Read the rest of this entry »

About a year ago, Estée Lauder became the first cosmetics company to release a vibrating mascara wand. A few months later, Lancôme followed suit with their own version that claimed speeds of 7000 oscillations a minute. For those not familiar with the product, this new mascara claimed to be a breakthrough in application. The vibrations allowed for lashes to be “ultimately extended, remarkably separated, and virtually multiplied in number.” In other words, it was the next hailed miracle product.

While the Estée Lauder and Lancôme products looked tempting, many ladies were not too pleased with the $34 price tag, and understandably so. After all, mascaras only last about three months before they dry out, especially so in the case of Lancôme. However, there seemed to be no other option, until now. In May, the drugstore brand Maybelline entered the market with their Pulse Perfection mascara, which, at $14.99, retails for less than half the price than department store brands. There are coupons available at Ulta and Walmart that lower the price even more. Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit, I’m one of those people who doesn’t care much about her eyebrows. I think it’s because I was born with really light ones so I don’t need to pluck very often. It’s been a blessing and a curse at the same time. Some days, I thank God I don’t have to regularly head to the salon to get them threaded like my sister and other days I longingly and jealously gaze at her brows and disastrously attempt to color them in. I mostly end up looking like Bert from Sesame Street or worse, like the Lux models on Lahori billboards from the early 90s.

The truth is, whether your eyebrows are pencil thin or caveman bushy, many of girls, myself included, tend to forget that it is just as important to take care of them as it is any other of your features. Have you ever noticed how much fresher you look once you’ve gotten rid of stray hairs? It’s because your eyebrows frame not only your eyes, but also your entire face. But, grooming your eyebrows is more than simple hair removal. If you don’t like to or don’t have time to pluck, snip, pencil or color in your brows like me, there are other things you and I can and should try to do when we make up the rest of our faces to go out. Read the rest of this entry »

Every week, I go to my local grocery store and buy the latest issue of In Touch magazine. And now that my sister is back in town, every week I will be fighting her over who gets to read it first. She updates herself on the latest Brangelina breakup rumor and I pore over the pages searching for the newest shades of lip gloss or nail polish. This was how I discovered the technique known as “foiling.” Oftentimes, I would find myself questioning why my eye shadow never had the same finish as celebrities at the Golden Globes. Sure my eyes looked nice enough, but it seemed I was missing the key ingredient or miracle product that would make my shadow gleam like JLO’s or last all night in the way Scarlett Johansson’s makeup did.

After countless primers and pigments, I finally discovered “foiling,” which is essentially applying your shadow wet to create a vibrant, metallic sheen (hence the reference to the metallic foil). Now, some of you may be thinking “ew, why would I want disco ball lids?”

Don’t worry, like all makeup, there are varying degrees of intensity to foiling. You can foil your whole lids or simply your liner, you can choose to look like a drag queen or keep it simple and elegant like Penelope Cruz. If you do wish to stick to a light look, a little wet application can still transform your dull shadow – it won’t exactly be a “foil” look, but it will emphasize the color and texture of the product and allow your shadow to last longer rather than melt down your face in the summer. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to eyeliner, I’ve always been a bit of a traditionalist, i.e. basic black on the upper and lower lash lines. Maybe I watch too many Rani Mukherjee movies and unwittingly try to model my look after hers, or it could be I’m simply too lazy to experiment most mornings (I think it’s more the lazy factor – as much as I love Rani and her enchanting kohl-rimmed eyes, she’s seriously got to change it up a little at times). So, in my quest to diversify, I have recently been observing friends and family members for different colors and techniques. I apologize to those of you that have found my nose pressed up against yours as I analyze your eyeliner from up close, but as you can tell, it was for a good cause!

Last month at Mother’s Day brunch, a very good family friend was sporting a look I absolutely fell in love with – she was wearing colored eyeliner only on her bottom lashes with her top lash line completely bare. It was so simple yet gorgeous, I’m actually surprised I don’t see more girls wearing their liner this way. Weeks later, I spotted

Drew Barrymore with a very similar style and was further intrigued, although I have to admit the color she chose and her method of application left her looking a little frightening. She had the right idea but the end result was too stark against her skin tone. After some research, it seems quite a few celebs seem to be adopting this style as a staple mostly in the teal color, including Kate Hudson and Blake Lively from Gossip Girl. I’m curious, why aren’t any of the brunette girls trying this out? If anything our darker coloring will make the shadow/liner pop even more.

How to wear the look:

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Photo Credit: shinygloss.tv

You’re off to a big party and you’ve been planning your outfit and makeup for weeks. As you walk out the door, you look more spectacular than you have in a while, your dress emphasizes all the right curves, your hair softly cascades down your back, and the eyeliner you’ve struggled with your whole life managed to go on in a straight line today. You start making your rounds at the party and after a little while excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. That’s when you look up into the mirror and realize your entire eyeliner has somehow migrated upward, causing you to have double, even triple lines of black on your lid.

Sound familiar? It’s happened to all of us, and from the questions I’ve been receiving from many of you, it’s a big problem that needs a solution – now! We’ve decided to add a new section to our site that answers the most popular question of the week. Not all our tips work on everyone, so we encourage you all to share your secrets with us.

Here are some of our recommendations for the problem above: Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Credit: www.thebostonbazaar.com

I used to spend $65 on my mascara. Yes, you read that right. Sixty-Five Dollars. You’re probably wondering what was in this product, was it made of gold? Did it spill ruby powder on my lashes? Did the world fall at my feet with every blink? Yes. Yes. And Yes. It was all that and more. But, then, like many other love affairs, this one came to an abrupt end. I finally realized that I was spending more on a mascara than my monthly cell phone bill. So, I set out on the search for the ultimate mascara. It was then that I realized that it’s not the mascara that really matters (unless you pay 65 bucks of course – then it BETTER matter), but it’s actually what goes on underneath. Just like foundations and eye shadows look better with a primer and lipsticks last longer with a liner base, eyelashes look 5x better with a protective coating underneath the mascara.

Now, I know that most of you out there have mascaras that you absolutely love and are faithful to, and over the course of time I hope to discuss all of them with you, YSL Faux Cils, Lancôme’s Ôscillation (with the vibrating wand), etc etc. But, with the eyelash primer, you can use any drugstore brand mascara and end up with similar or even better results. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Credit: milanmk.com

Desi girls love eyeliner. Whether it’s black, brown, turquoise, liquid, gel or pencil, it has found its way into all of our makeup bags. Some girls prefer to look traditional like Kareena, while others like a much lighter look similar to that of Angelina Jolie, who only uses it on her upper eyes. I find myself leaning towards the old “less is more” rule, but that’s my personal preference. Whichever way you prefer to wear your liner, remember that it doesn’t have to be a complicated process, especially with one of my favorite makeup tools of all time – the smudge brush.

Photo Credit: laura mercier .com

As you can tell from the name, the brush is used mainly to smudge liners and shadows, extremely useful when creating the smoky eye look. If you feel like your eyeliner is too dark, you can easily blend it out with this brush. However, the focus of this particular post is to share with you how to apply basic eyeliner quickly and efficiently in less than 5 minutes. Also, for girls who have shaky hands or just don’t know how to draw a straight line, this one’s for you. Read the rest of this entry »