My Winnings from Canadian Nail Fanatic

Hi Ya!

Do you remember when you were really young and not feeling well?? How your parents or elders would try to cheer you up by getting some gifts? Thats what I felt when I received this. 

I seem to be in a bit of a lucky roll lately. This is the 2nd giveaway I have won recently...(actually I won this last Nov, but the prize just reached me this year). I was feeling a bit sick and was down with cold, cough and fever when I received this. And believe me not, I felt 10 times better in the next 5 mins :)

I won this from the lovely Canadian Nail Fanatic that was a part of her birthday giveaway.

Do check out her blog, she makes these really fab and cute manis.

Another pleasant surprise: I had won only 3 Icing polishes, but Mrsrexy generously gave me a stamping plate and a perfume sample too with a sweet note!!! Enjoy the pics!

See why Epic winning is sooo gorgeous!! Cant wait to use them!

Naked Palette dupe from Inglot

Hi Ya, 

If you've read my latest haul post you'd know by now how much trouble I went through to lay my hands on "The" Naked palette. I also know quite a few of my friends and fellow bloggers who would wanna get their hands on "it".

Unfortunately it is not easily available in India and a lot of other countries as well. (Hhmmph...are you listening Urban Decay/Sephora?)

Fortunately we now have Inglot at our hands. The first time I walked in this store I was pretty impressed by the sheer number of shades in each colour that they have. If you want a brown e/s I could see atleast 20+ shades of brown e/s which differ by finish, colour, tone and size. I was super amazed. And of course they have some of the prettiest nail polishes. I soo wanted to just sit there and swatch them all. (drroolll..have you seen their flakies!). I have also heard rave reviews of their eye shadows and blushes and concealors and ohh I could go on and on.

Anywho, I was still rejoicing my naked palette and I thought: Why cant I dupe the Naked Palette in Inglot?

So armed with my own palette I went to Inglot's store in Mumbai and requested if they would be kind enough to help me search the closest dupes and let me swatch and picture them. I explained to them what I was looking to do.

They agreed. Deepa- a make up artist at the store agreed to help me with my quest. Thank you Deepa!!

She enthusiastically set out by picking up the visibily closest pans from the freedom system. Once done, she agreed to swatch both the UD palette and the Inglot picks on my arm. We did encounter a few setbacks. Some shades that visibly seemed a match were not. We went back to the board and tried to figure out a few other options. 

Disclaimer:

Before you start looking: these opinions are my own. If you don't like them please don't respond negatively. I am by no means an acclaimed MUA to be 100% accurate on eye shadow shades. I am just doing this up enthusiastically to help out people who do not have access to UD's naked palette but would like to put together something similar. And oh..please don't copy the pics. Feel free to link this post. I really put in a good 2-3 hours to reach the store to swatch and another 4 hours to edit pics and write this out. 

Be considerate.

Without further ado:

The first four shades:

1) Virgin: Pale shimmery nude/ 395P: pretty close match. Slightly less pigmented. I would say 95% close.

2) Sin: Light pink with hint of peach, frosty/397P: warm peachy-beige. 95% close.

3) Naked: Matt beige-brown/390M: matt beige-brown..Slightly lighter than Naked. 85% close.

4) A had slight issue finding a good match for Sidecar: Shimmer beige bronze with slight pink undertone/ AMC S46: more beige less shimmer; 85% close/ DS 463: Had slightly more pink undertone but similar shimmer; 90% close/

Eventually Pure pigment 14: turned out a better match than other two; 95% close.

The second four shades

5) Buck: Chocolate brown matte/ 357M: Medium brown Matte. Pretty close. 98%

6) Half Baked: Gold with red undertone/ AMC S34: Gold with copper undertone. 98% close

7) Smog: Dark browny bronze with slight hint of gold at certain angles/409P: Browny bronze, cooler undertone, similar finish. 95% close

8) Darkhorse: Dark brown with bronze shimmer/422P: Dark brown/bronze pearl finish, slight red undertone. 90% close.

Last 4 shades:

9) Toasted: Pink-brown shimmery. This one gave me trouble too/ AMC S12: Looks visibly similar but swatches more beige than pink/ 399P: Swatches more pink with frosty look. Swatched 399P on AMC S12 and it comes really close. 95% I'd say. But if I had to pick one, I'd go for 399P.

10) Hustle: Brown with burgundy undertones/423P: Medium Brown with slightly more burgundy. 90% close.

11) Creep: Dull black with flecked silver and teal shimmer/AMC65: Dark black, more pigmented with flecks of silver and teal shimmer; 90% close

12) Gunmetal: Grey blue metallic flecks of teal shimmer/ AMC S47: grey blue metallic, lesser flecks of shimmer. 95% close

See more swatches. 

Same order of shades as per UD palette, starting from bottom to top

Economics: Price Vs Quantity:

The UD palette costs: $ 48 (approx Rs. 2500); each e/s 1.3gm*12= 15.6gms

Inglot refills: $ 5each (Price in India Rs 300; (current sale price Rs.240/-); each e/s 2.7gm*12= 32.4gm

Inglot 12 e/s: $ 60 ( Rs.2880/- in discounted price)

For approx $12 more (Rs.380), you'd get double the quantity of e/s with an 90% match of shades with good finish and quality. Downside no UD primer. (but if you had access to UD primer then you'd have bought UD palette also and wouldn't be reading this :P )

I hope you enjoyed this.

The views expressed are my own and I am not associated nor compensated by any brand whatsoever.

If you feel any other shades come closer than what I have found, please feel free to share in the comments and I will check them and edit accordingly. 

Blue Zebra

Do you like animals?? I for one am certainly fond of animals..and I soo wanna get my own dog! But that doesnt seem like a possibility in the near future.. Nope :(

So while I scheme around trying to get hubby to agree..I would like to present you my own 

Fashionable Zebra.

The base is a new polish brand called Miss Claire. Its a Korean Brand..and these bottles look pretty similar to OPI. However they claim its a one stroke polish. That is why I bought 3 of these in the first place...thinking they'd stamp well. I did try this one..and it didnt seem to stamp well. It was a bit sheer..so maybe it'll work of darker colours. I am yet to experiment with them. 

Base: Miss Claire C11

Stamp: Konad M57

Stamping Colour: Konad black

I highlighted the ring finger with a few quick gold stripes using a striping brush. It really brought some attention to my nails that day.

Also a few friends had come over and offered their hands for a quick mani. These are their NOTDs:

Hope you enjoyed them. 

BTW: I am still open to suggestions for my next giveaway. Leave them in comments below.

I am still verifying the entries from my previous giveaway. Around 450 people with an average of 4 entries per person. I appreciate the patience. 

Pink Love and Bart Simpson

Hey, 

I am back from my beach vacation and mumbai never felt so better. It was actually cold for Mumbai standards (10°C..yeaah thats cold for Mumbai). Anyways I was loving the weather till it decided I was having too much fun and gave me the Flu (Aaaaarrgghh!!!!!)

I have been completely down and out most of this week, so please excuse me. I was meant to collate and announce the winners of my giveaway. It'll take me some more time to do that. Though what I dont understand is, why have some people filled in more forms and done each entry separately??!!!

So I have five rows of one person but with a different entry in each line!! Ughh!!

Anywho..coming back to this post..this is what I wore on my anniversary last month. It was my 3rd wedding anniversary. If you are probably wondering why I am posting this so late is: 

I got very excited making the festive/christmassy manis post the 2nd week of december and kinda left this behind.

Base: Its one of my Faux OPIs (looks like a dupe of Mod About You)

Stamping polish: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pronto Purple

Stamping plate: M65, for the ring: M59 

This the tee I hand painted for Mr.Hubs for my anniversary gift. He loves BART..so do I.

Another thing: I crossed 500 followers. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!

Thats calls for a giveaway!! But I am a bit stumped this time. I was soo excited about my first giveaway that I went shopping for it on my trip when I went abroad even before I crossed 100. And I bought everything that I thought would excite me. So this time I wanna see what excites you! I am truly excited to have so many of you follow me. And I really appreciate that!! Thank you all! 

Please leave me some suggestions in your comments as to what you'd like to see in my next giveaway. I still have a lot of things from my previous trip if you want some of that and some new. For international followers: I could put in indian nail polish, a bit of indian make-upy things. And for indian followers I could up things not easily available here: magnetic polish anyone? 

Wat say??!!!

Again Thank you!!

Guest Model!

While you are reading this I am on a beach in Goa sipping wine and enjoying a small little holiday!!
Today we have a new guest model. Thats what I am going to call other people's hands who willingly offer them to paint their nails! hehe!

Anywho today we have colleague of mine who is also a credit risk analyst (like me).

Now moving on to her mani. She wanted something that would go on everything...(huh?..girls!!!) 

I used Colorbar's Mulberry its a frosty light peachy-pink. 

Base: Colorbar Mulberry

Stamping plate: Konad M82

Stamping polish: Konad black

Those are all the pics I cud click outside my office. She's a good model ain't she?

Let me know how you like it.

My Christmas Haul!!

Ok I know I am a bit late (ok! quite late) in posting this up..but I hope you will understand when I say that for days I could do nothing but stare at how beautiful this thing is.

I am going on a rant here..coz it caused me so much trouble to get this!!

Urban Decay if you are reading this please take heed!!! Ship to India or better still come down here! Others please proceed to the pics.

I finally laid my hands on the ever so elusive "Naked Palette". It was an operation of sorts to mange to get this across from US. First I had a cousin's friend's relative pick this for me and the book of shadows for her (my cousin that is). However they didn't think this was soooo important since they left it back when they came to India. (eventually they returned it to the shop). Next my cousin (same one) went over to singapore, so we decided she'd pick it from Sephora there. However the markets plunged, US dollar went up, singapore dollar went further up..and the same thing that costs $48 in US costs became $65. (whoooaaa). So we chucked that plan.

Next on our agenda was Dubai. My bro-in-law stays there! If that failed I had Japan in my mind.

Before we explored a few other countries, an office colleague went to UK and got it from there. (whew!!!)

Enough has been said about "the palette". I am not going to describe each color with its undertone/texture/shimmer/glitter. Just enjoy the pics!!

I also received my NYX cherry culture haul!

Blushes: Cream blush in Natural, Powder blush in Desert rose, HD grinding blush in terra cotta

HD face primer and eye shadow base, Blotting paper, Jumbo pencils in black bean and rust,

Soft matte lip cream in: Stockholm, San paulo!

After this I have decided to go on a No-Buy and a strict one at that!

Well I had a good year!! What about you?

P.S: If you still haven't entered my giveaway do so now. COZ its closing on 5th Jan. Click here.