Like every other beauty blogger, I too, have my personal favorites that keep on changing from time to time. So,in today's post, I'm going to list out my favorites, not only in Beauty products, but also in Food and Books.. This is a December Favorites post actually, but since it has got real chilly in Mumbai why not make it Winter Favorites? And I'm going to such 'Favorites' posts monthly. Be sure to read the complete post, because there is just a little something at the end..

Beauty- Starting with Beauty, my favorites when it comes to Beauty products this month, are as follows-
1) Maybelline Color Show's 'Blackcurrant Pop' and 'Porcelain White'- Maybelline has been my favorite brand for quite a while, and it never fails to impress me. The Blackcurrant shade is a pastel purple which suits calm and cool climate like the one that is now. The Porcelain White is, as the name says a White, and even plain White is lovely. Like all Maybelline Color Show Nail polishes, even these ones are lovely and smooth as ever. For some reason, I feel they have a sort of charm and elegance.

2) Maybelline's Baby Lips Electro Pop- I know that I mention Maybelline products too much(way too much!), but I can't help it! And I recently got this one home. The flavor that I have is 'Oh! Orange'. At first, I wasn't impressed by it, but now I'm addicted! I love how the look isn't all orange-ey on me, and suits well.

They should make me Maybelline's brand ambassador. Haha. 

Books- Reading is more than just a hobby to me. It's a drug, that I can't live without. I cannot go a day without reading. Be it the hard-copy books, or the eBooks, I am willing to read them. So here go my favorites for December-
1) I Too Had A Love Story- This book by Ravinder Singh, touches your heart so well, I'd like to say, it's one of those books, which, when you finish them, you are left questioning your existence on the planet. That is how good this was. I'd recommend it to one and all. Go read it!

2) My Wattpad Love- This book, is one I read on an online reading and writing community,'Wattpad'. I'm totally in love with this book. The characters are so relatable, the author, Ariana Godoy's writing so enjoyable, you don't feel like putting the book aside for a minute. Definitely one of those books, which one can go back and read over and over again.

Food- I don't hesitate to say, that I'm a huge foodie! I love food, and I'm proud to say, I'm one of those people who live to eat and not the other way round! Here's what I liked in food in December!-
1) Pizza Dosa- Pizza Dosa that you get right in front of NM(Narsee Monjee) College of Commerce and Economics(Where I study!) tastes divine. You are left licking your fingers in the end! And I mean it literally..

2) Paneer Tikka Pizza- Paneer Tikka Pizza from Pizza Box, in Vile Parle East, Hanuman Road, right beside Panshikar Sweet shop, is amazing. No words to describe how good it was. A bit costly yes, but you only live once!

Congratulations! You came this far! Now, there's a reward for you!

GIVEAWAY! 
So,I'm giving away a Maybelline Color Show(not disclosing the shade) to a lucky one ! To win it, all you have to do is:
1) +1 this post. 
2) Add me to your circles
3) Follow me on twitter @SrushtiBeauty
4) Drop in a Comment/Tweet/Twitlonger telling me about any of your Winter Favorites, and who knows you might just be lucky! ;) 
Contest open till 10th January, 2015. Winner will be declared on my twitter soon after that! Open to Indian citizens only!

I won't be posting next week, since I'm flying out to Malaysia and Singapore! :D
So, take care and I'll see you after quite a while. ;)
-Srushti

So, winter has officially hit Mumbai! I feel the weather is really pleasant, except for the fact that no matter what, I have to get out of bed every morning. Who doesn't want to stay bundled up in their blanket on chilling winter mornings? But with this climate change, a lot of us get chapped lips. Chapped lips happen because our lips are really thin layered compared to the rest of our skin, and that is why it tends to dry easily in winter. But with today's DOs and DON'Ts list you'll manage having perfect lips even in Winter.

DO's-
1) Apply Petroleum Jelly- You get these in the local drug stores and sometimes, at genereal stores too, very easily. Vaseline, Imami Vasocare, etc. are some of the available brands. Petroleum Jelly or some sort of lip balm(not those flavored ones) can be used. These are very effective in helping heal dry and chapped lips.

2) Use Ghee- Yes, the Ghee we use for cooking at home, can be used to cure chappped lips. This is an effective home remedy, and used in quite a lot of households in the country. Just be sure not to lick it off!

DON'Ts-
1) Licking your lips- Licking of lips is strictly prohibited. It does make you feel relieved for a while, but it takes away the moisture that is left in your lips, drying them further. Licking of lips equals to extreme chapped lips. So, DO NOT lick your lips.

2) Use Gloss- Gloss may hide away your chapped lips from the world,but it does not have any effect in helping cure them. Even those, which claim to protect your lips and stuff, are redundant. All they do, is give your lips a shiny look and hide away the dry chapped lips. Never trust these to cure your dried lips.

So, I hope these DO's and DON'Ts help you out! :)
Have a Happy Winter and Wait for my next post. I may post something interesting ;)
Next post will be on Saturday. :P
Please drop in a comment or so if you want me to review any product. And I value some constructive feedback too :)
Connect to me on twitter @SrushtiBeauty
Take Care! I'll see you next time :
-Srushti

Me, being the crazy Nail Polish/Nail Art lover that I am, always go on purchasing new Nail Polishes. From the cheap ones costing INR 20, to the costly ones costing upto INR 150 or 200. And Maybelline, has been one of my favorite brands for quite some time, so I thought why not try out their Color Show polishes?

I have a total of 6 normal Color Show shades, and 2 Glitter Mania ones. So, in today's post, I'm going to be telling you how these really were, and whether or not you should go for it.

The 6 normal shades that I have are- Porcelain White, Velvety Wine, Shocking Seas, Blackcurrant Pop,Kiss me Pink and Keep-up-the-Flame. The 2 Glitter Mania ones that I have are Starry Nights and Matinee Mauve.

Talking about the shades of the normal ones, I really feel that Maybelline should also introduce a bit brighter shades. These are really nice ones, but somehow they feel a bit dull. Perfect with all the Imperfections, I'd like to call these. Or maybe, they wanted to introduce the brighter ones separately, which is why they introduced the 'Bright Sparks' range recently. I need to get my hands on those too, but they aren't available as yet.

The Glitter Mania are amazing though. At first, I was a bit skeptic whether to buy them or not, because they looked like all those normal ones, with a tinge of glitter in it, which when applied, look like you have applied normal polish with an uneven glittery top coat. But then, I ended up buying and trying them out. And Lo and Behold! Amazingly glittery nails, here they go! The glitter is perfectly blended with the polish, and gives an amazing smokey look. All my doubts vanished when I used it, and it gave me perfect effects. The glitter does not look uneven at all and it is as smooth as ever. Perfect!

Maybelline never fails to deliver smoothness in it's Nail Polishes. I realized this when I first started using the Color Show polishes. All of these polishes, will be smooth as butter. They are long-lasting as well, which might just prove to be the icing on your cake!

These polishes come in a cylindrical shaped polish bottle, and look really appealing to me at least. Of course, every kind of nail polish bottle, looks appealing to me.. And that is how I end up buying them!(I have 48 nail polishes!)

The normal ones cost you INR 75 and the Glitter Mania ones cost INR 125. I find these quite reasonable seeing the quality and quantity. If you keep them right, they'll last at least 6 months according to my what I estimate.

So, that's it for Maybelline Color Show. I hope this post helps you(rather go buy it!).
Once I get the Bright Sparks, I'll post about it too :)
I may be doing #TheRedDare. Excited about it.
Will post next on Thursday ;)
Please comment, if you want me to review any products/write about something specific. I'd also like some constructive feedback, so please comment :)
Follow me on my twitter @SrushtiBeauty ;)
Bye lovelies. Ciao. Take care.
-Srushti

A lot of people(like me) probably love nail art out there! But, I remember as a newbie, I did not know a lot of things. So today's post is dedicated to give out some tips on Nail Art.

First thing, the Base Coat. The reason you apply a base coat, before actually starting with your manicure/nail art creation is to protect your natural nails. I, never actually bothered to apply a base coat, until I heard about a person who had to take treatment because of overuse of different nail polishes on her nails. Apparently, the chemicals in a nail polish can harm your nails, if you overuse nail polishes. And, it's always better to be late than sorry. So, I started applying Base Coat.

Next, is the Top Coat. The Top Coat is basically applied to seal in your Nail Art(especially if you have created a fuzzy or beady kind of nail art) and also to give it a shiny effect. I, personally, never forget to apply  Top Coat because I love the shiny effect and also the smoothness that comes along with it.
(Tip: Apply the Top Coat 30 minutes after finishing your Nail Art/Manicure to avoid smudging)

Dotting Tools are also something that a lot of Nail Arts require. In here in India, I didn't find these nearby or at a local beauty store. More than a year after I developed this interest in Nail Art, I finally found a set of dotting tools today. And of course I bought it, but the point is it's not necessary to have dotting tools to do the dot effect. I always used a toothpick(the point for small dots, the end for a bit bigger ones) to do my Nails.

Stripers. Having used Stripers, I can say that nothing can replace stripers. You can have makeshift dotting tools but not stripers. I have done stripe effects with toothpick again, but they cannot ever be as good and smooth as the ones that you get using a striper. Moreover, a striper is also easier to use compared to a toothpick. The only backdrop is that you have to buy different stripers for each color you want to use. But there is a solution. You can clean your striper brush, once you have used up an entire bottle of it, and keep it dry and clean, and dip it in your normal nail polish and use it!

Well, that's it for today!  I hope these tips help you :)
Do comment as I appreciate feedback :)
I'll post next on Saturday. And guess who celebrated sweet sixteen recently? ;)
Do connect to me on twitter @SrushtiBeauty and drop a comment if you want me to review any product :)
Bye. Ciao. Take care.
-Srushti

Elle 18, as a brand didn't make it much big out there, but their products are quite good. I have tried their gloss, and now their nail polish, and I'd like to say I'm quite impressed with them. Me, being obsessed with Nail Polish and Nail Art, could not resist it when I saw them at a local store.

I had seen advertisements of Elle 18's Nail Pops on Television and that is how I came to know about it. Though, it wasn't appealing enough, I thought that there was no harm in giving it a try. So, I went ahead and bought it.

Nail Pops is amazingly smooth and easy to apply. Unlike quite a few other nail polishes, Nail Pops works effectively in one layer. No need for two layers of the Nail Polish. It is very smooth, and seems long-lasting as well.

The packaging. Well, Nail Pops Nail polish comes in a small circular bottle, like the shape of a small ball, with a flat base and opening for the polish brush on the upper side. I found their packaging quite cute and attractive(any nail polish stands attractive for me). It is small in size, so you can even put it in your pocket, while going somewhere.

Coming to the price, it cost me INR 60 per bottle of polish(I bought 2 of these). The quantity is a bit less, but you can't actually ask for much when it comes for just 60 bucks. And moreover, unless you are using the same polish over and over again, it will suffice for quite a long time.

Personally, I'd prefer Maybelline over Elle 18 anytime, but when it comes to managing your money over cosmetics, you have to take alternatives into consideration. Maybelline's Color Show cost INR 75, which is costlier, and I already have 6 of them. And trying something new out does no damage to me, only adds to my Nail Polish collection(which is now a family of 45)!

So, that's it for Elle 18's Nail Pops! If you want me to review any product, please drop in a comment :)
I would love some constructive feedback. :) I will next post on Thursday.
Connect to me on twitter @SrushtiBeauty. I would love talking to you.

P.S. - It's my Sweet Sixteenth birthday on 9th December! :D

-Srushti

When it comes to face wash, one thing I can definitely say, is that their advertisement is so attractive, that anyone would feel like buying them all. That happens to me all the time. I have like 3 or 4 bottles of face wash at home, which are unused ! But, not all of these face washes are effective enough. Some are a total waste of money. And sometimes, it seems home remedies work better than these face washes. And I bet there are many like me, who just buy face wash packs, because they seem attractive.

So here's listing a few face washes, I didn't like and some which I loved. Starting with those which I did NOT like-
1) Clean & Clear Morning Energy Face Wash- I'm currently using this face wash, but I'm not at all pleased with it. Me being me, had bought it because it looked attractive.. But it is not even that much of foamy and tends to be a lot on the liquid-like part rather than the jelly like ones. Moreover, it is not even as flavored or  with those added beads as they claim it to be, and I'm quite disappointed.

2) Lakme Fruit Blast- Again, attractive looks lured me into getting this. This was more on the jelly-like base that I wanted, but the one I had bought(Berry Crush or something), had this weird smell which was nauseating for me. I was trying to finish it, but that scent got too much for me, and I ended up throwing it away.

The Clean & Clear one, comparatively is effective in reducing acne and pimples and stuff, but the Lakme one was displeasing like anything. But overall, I'd say I won't recommend these to anyone, because you may find a better one out there, if you look for it.

=> Face wash I loved-
1) Himalayan Neem Facewash- This face wash was absolutely amazing. It works on acne, pimples, etc. It has a jelly-like base too! And,it is cheap too! Plus it consists of some natural ingredients, which is why it is suitable for all skin types. It does not have any irritating or nauseating scents, is effective and cheap and maybe that is the reason it is the only face wash to make it to my favorites ! It comes in a small size, which you can even pocket, if going somewhere!

So that is it for face washes. Hopefully, you like it :)
If you want me to review any product/write about something specific, please comment :) I would love some feedback.
Connect to me on my twitter @SrushtiBeauty ;)
Next post on Saturday. Till then, Byeee and take care ;)
-Srushti