BEAUTY IN A NUTSHELL // MEGA EDITION- 18 BEAUTY PRODUCTS REVIEWED!

Ah, a mega-edition of beauty product reviews! If you've ever read half a dozen reviews in one post this is the mother of them all and they are especially helpful to those like combination skin like mine.While scanning my earlier blog posts I've noticed how I haven't done a product review in ages which is mental because I think I'm in love with all the great deal of things I've gotten recently either as part of a haul or some awesome people in my life gifting them with reckless abandon, haha. You'll be delighted to know that none of these products are sponsored and my honest head-over-heels in love reviews. So let's start darling, shall we? ;)

Here's an overview of the products (in order of how they appear in the post) reviewed:

1.Makeup
   1.1 Base Makeup
       -Mac Studio Fix Powder Foundation
       -Maybelline Dream Satin Skin Powder Foundation
       -Lakme CC Cream
       -Mac Studio Finish Cream Concealer

   1.2 Lip products
      -Forever 21 Love&Beauty Lipstick

   1.3 Eye Products
      -Dior 5 Colors Eye Palette in 566 Versailles
      -Barry M Eye Pencils in Bronze and Green
      -Bourjois Contour Clubbing Eye Pencil

   1.4  Makeup Palettes and Tools
       -Forever 21 Makeup Brush Set
       -Lancome Absolu Voyage Travel Palette

2.Skincare
   2.1 Bath and Body Works Moroccan orchid and Twilight Woods body mist
   2.2 The Face Shop Real Nature Face Masks
   2.3 The Face Shop Aloe Gel
   2.4 Beesline Face Masks and Scrubs

BEAUTY IN A NUTSHELL // 3 INGREDIENT MAKEUP SETTING SPRAY!

Break has finally ended and I'm back to college again! Add to that nil wi-fi in India plus a few chronic cold + fever days, meaning no new post here for a month. So my apologies to all you loves. :*
Meanwhile,if you've ever been to India's wedding season you're bound to face the terrible humidity that comes along with it. June- August are India's unofficial wedding marathons. Makeup meltdowns become mandatory, buuuuuut that doesn't have to be the case anymore.

BEAUTY IN A NUTSHELL // THE TRICK I USE WITH FACE CREAMS

Facials creams pass on a riot of claims, yeah?

So let's begin with a little story of how this happened. I have combination skin, meaning a super oily nose and a moderately oily T-Zone. And the rest of my face? Well, barren like a dessert. I typically use de-pigmentation face creams and the ones that claim to add a glow and hydration because dry skin does tend to flake plus lose luster quickly and the sunny weather here makes you get tanned crazy fast. A very horrible sorta tan. 

So right now, my whole jaw's perimeter is a lot darker than my face and so is most of my forehead. And now onto slathering my night cream which returned back to my skin much needed hydration but that's where it stopped. Ta-dum. No glow per se. No real brightening or dark patch reduction happening here. So one fine night I stumbled upon the secret that worked for me.

I'd just put on a thin layer of cream and smoothed it on to absorb in a hurry to wrap up some urgent work.

I came back about five minutes later remembering how scarce the amount I'd put on and just added another thin layer to massaged it in to absorb.


The next morning I woke up with an absolutely flawless face compared to how it was earlier.

And it got me wondering, what on earth is wrong with my face (of course everything in the world was right with it, a leeeetle bit too right which made it look wrong, haha, that make sense?)

And then I recollected how I'd applied the cream in two thin even layers waiting for each to dry in between.

I wanted to see if this was some whimsical coincidental mumbo-jumbo, so I skipped this magic technique that night.

The next morning, the glow had definitely subsided. Something was off. So I repeated the thin layering method again and voila, fresh-faced next morning.

MORE: DIY FACE PRIMER

MORE: DIY CONCEALER


So here's the theory:

-Slathering on one, albeit moderate layer may still be clogging up your pores; you never know which is why half the product may not be even sinking in and must settle on the topmost layer on your face degrading the cream's benefits..

-Applying two pea-sized thin layers (that's cool for the consistency of my cream, you may have to vary the amount according the the consistency of yours) with gaps (around a couple of minutes or more, again this time may vary depending on how heavy your creams is) in between to thoroughly let it absorb seems to give the skin more room to breathe and just plain soak in much better and easily.

I've been doing this for two weeks straight now and it's worked so well for me, I've been getting complements on how much brighter and glowy-ier I look! ^_^

PS: I can't say it will work for your skin. I'm just sharing what worked really, really well for me. I do wash my face with lukewarm water beforehand with a gentle face wash to open my pores up and receive any topical products better. Again the product I'd been using was from a reputed drugstore brand and had good reviews but I got rave results. This is the only routine that I ever use. Face wash. Skip toner. Cleanse with milk (and trust me, it's fab esp. for removing makeup residues) and then moisturizing. I exfoliate around three times in a week. Sometimes everyday with a very mild creamy/gel scrub.

Try and see if it works for you, with such a tiny change in routine, it's worth a try!

PS #2: I've been using this trick since a lot earlier and it has to do with clay based face masks. Whenever you put one on, they tend to dry quite quickly, so just wet them up again by gently patting on some water/milk to "reactivate" them and wash off when dry again. You'll see much better results.

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Hope you shine bright like a diamond too!
Love, Nash

BEAUTY IN A NUTSHELL//FOUNDATION MELTDOWN TRICK!

Sans primer, sans makeup setting sprays, sans milk of magnesia or whatever else you may use to get your foundation NOT to budge; this is the mother of them all.

I learnt this trick from gossmakeupartist on Youtube. If you haven't been visiting that channel to help solve some serious makeup doubts, then you aren't lookin' good enough. But here's the deal, you have oily skin, or maybe not. Maybe you're like me and maybe you just have a pesky oily nose which tends to be the only place where foundation slips within less than 30 minutes and then it shines like the next brightest chandelier in the room. You can thank me later because this right here is how to make your foundation last ALL day.

The trick sounded so outrageous, so utterly tempting for my poor nose which loves to sport humongously large pores and tremendous shine that I needed to put it to the test.

The secret ingredient is..loose powder. I know, I'm not kidding you. The whole fancy-shmancy deal lies with the timing of application: not after foundation, apply it before foundation.

According to the video, it has to be loose powder, not compact. So here's what I did, I'm more of a compact powder kinda girl, so loose powder isn't an available luxury in my crib. I used cornfour/cornstarch instead.

Guess what, it worked perfect.


Materials:
-A clean small jar (sample jam jars work perfect.So do travel-sized lotion jars. After you wash n' dry them, give them a clean with rubbing alchohol). This makes it great to pop in your purse.

-Cornflour/cornstarch or loose translucent powder (if cornflour looks ashy on your skintone, even though it's fairly translucent, mix it with a tad bit of cocoa or cinnamon powder)

Coupled with my DIY primer recipe and my DIY blotting tissues, this is a meltdown ninja combo.Even alone, it stands proud. :)

The Test:

I kept checking regularly throughout the day for the ultimate stay-on test. I tried this with two foundations. A totally crappy foundation (Maybelline Dream Liquid) which doesn't suit me at all - It has great finish but one hour later, it slides all off my face, leaves my face patchy, even my forehead shiny, you get the gist. With this? My nose was still a tad shiny, but there was NIL dragging around with the foundation. Even 8+ hours later, it looked like I had just put it on. Skin was even all round, it hadn't slid off places and disintegrated. None of that nonsense.

Also there was a reduction in oxidation. How-utterly-cool. (Normally, this foundation makes me look as dull as a muddy puddle.)

Next, I tried it with a friend's foundation. I'm not sure what company it is but it was a long-last foundation and I love it to bits (probably the one I'd purchase next). I already love the foundation because it stays on so long and applying the powder before the foundation and after moisturizer, sunscreen etc. just made it completely shine-free & truly gorgeous.

My friend and I wore the same foundation on that particular day and though hers faded a lil and still looked pretty with a teeeensy bit of oxidation, mine didn't budge or fade. Win!

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So if you have a favorite foundation, this trick is gonna make it your beyond favorite. If you're trying to make a nasty foundation work, this is gonna make it workable.

And don't worry about your face looking cakey. I promise it won't. In fact, the cornstarch acts like a filler (just like primer) post-moisturizer for the skin. I suppose the video specifically mentions loose powder because it is finely milled and won't make your foundation look cakey.

The best part? This is so ridiculously cheap.

Have any questions or comments? Ask below!

Don't forget to share and pin! Also subscribe to Craft A Doodle Doo or join me over at Pinterest & Facebook for simple, outrageously genius tips!

Love, Nash

Beauty In A Nutshell // Two-Minute Glow Scrub!

The other day I looked like I belonged to a zombie novel with my skin looking terribly tired and dull. Ever been there? I remembered seeing a lady commenting on a beauty blog once how this remedy works for her better than store-bought skin brighteners and needless to say, I got to the task to give my...well, verdict! And look what we have here, a successful beauty potion, tomato sugar scrub!

I think a lot of people use this technique with lemons for darkened knees and elbows and even for facial exfoliation. Lemons don't react well with my skin leaving it crimson and burning; so if you're lemon-sensitive, try tomatoes! They are amazing!

Tomatoes are especially epic for oily skin as they remove all excess oil due to their astringent properties. Their high vitamin C content ensures a sparkly radiance and they are also pro pore-shrinkers! Plus, tomatoes have high acidity levels making them great for drying out mild-severe acne! Don't they seem like your dream beauty all-rounders?

You'll need:
1. 1 tbsp white granulated sugar
2. One third tomato cut from the top

You only need to scrub this on your face for two minutes and can then relax while the juice soaks and beautifies your skin for another fifteen minutes!
How to use:
Having the tomato cut from the top makes it easier to hold while you massage it on your face. Use the cut tomato chunk to swirl into the sugar. You'll see that the granules get mushy enough on the surface of the tomato cuzza the juice so that it's not too harsh for your facial skin.

Can you see the sweet sugary mush above? That's how you want it to be. Now massage this little guy over your face for about two minutes making sure you have a firm hold on the tomato so that the juices released work in combination with the sugar to exfoliate your depressingly tired skin. If you find the sugar crystals dissolving, swirl the tomato in the remaining sugar and continue massaging until you've used most of the tomato juice. If you have any excess, rub it over your hands! Now let the tomato-sugar mix sit on your face for about fifteen minutes and then rinse with cool water.
When I did this, I could immediately see clear skin and NOT the glow but five minutes later when I checked in the mirror I had the most beautiful sparkle you could have on a bare face...and it lasted the whole night and the morning next! I plan to use this once in three-four days to get my skin renewal done!

If you have dry skin, make sure you follow up with a good moisturizer to get the pH level back! Let me know how this fared for you! (PS: I have combination skin)

Another quick beauty tip : Make sure you limit your time on your gadgets since harmful rays from the screens can really dull out your skin and make you look grey!
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Loadza Love
Nash

Beauty in A Nutshell // The Beauty Face Pack You've all been waitin' for (without even knowing it)

Hey, pretty.
Check this out.

I don't know about you, but if any face pack meets these three requirements in my check-list...
-Cheap
-Effective
-Time-saving

...I NEVER hesitate to give it a try!

Good news! This classifies! And tell me who doesn't wish for a radiant gleam every now and then, or ahem, forever? ;)

Beauty in A Nutshell- 7 Amazing Things you can do with your Foundation!

Hey there, gorgeous! 
Spring cannot be a more demanding season to look fresh-faced! Wait, what's that I hear? You're tight on cash? You want multi-tasking products? Mr. Time is going very fast?

Here are seven fabulous ways you can use your foundation or tricks you can play with your foundation to finally make it listen to you!

Enjoy (and pin!)!

Beauty In A Nutshell- DIY Concealer!

Hello there!

A simple trick I often used to do when I'm outta concealer or having trouble matching a newly bought one to my skin tone would be the one I show right here!

It was only recently that I thought of separating another jar for this purpose just like the store-bought ones!

Just follow the instructions below!

Beauty in a nutshell:review//Boots Mango and Papaya Body Scrrub!

Ladies, let me introduce you to my current skincare obsession..

Yep, there it is..riiiight up there!

This product is from their Boots Natural Collection line. I'm guilty of being taken in a lot of times by the fragrance of  products. I'm not sure but I think they had other versions too, and their scent drove me nuts, they all smelled so fresh, or fruity or citrusy!

After reading what the product claims, I finally settled for this one!

Price: I'm pretty sure it was SR 30

Product Claims:

Brighten up!The revitalizing power of mango and papaya is a fruit shake for your senses, while this gentle scrub leaves your skin softer, smoother and noticeably brighter.

Directions:

Massage gently into damp skin and rinse thorughly

Ingredients:

I am so sorry for that picture which blurs out towards the bottom but my camera decided not to listen to me at that moment.

This thing contains parabens #verybad but you can see mango and papaya up there #good!

Typing that list kind of felt agitating to me for now, but I promise to list all the ingredients of an upcoming product in its review!

Consistency and Texture:

That is when my cam COMPLETELY decided to give up on me. But you can figure out that it has a gel like consistency, a bit orangey in color with microbeads swimming happily inside.

And then the smell is a nice, refreshing, fruity but not overwhelming fragrance so sensitive noses would be fine with it too! #win!

It is packaged in a tube with a flip-open cap and does not leak, so its pretty travel friendly. A very little can get stuck in the lid IF you did not shut back the cap properly, which I confess I did a few times.

Now it says its a body scrub and at the same time it says its gentle..I don't know how many of you like non-gritty body scrubs, but I like one which is highly exfoliating so that it should be more abrasive and not "gentle". So what exactly did I do? I used it as a facial exfoliation.I got normal-combination skin (Normal in winters, combination in summers). I know the whole jazz about not using these things on your face but it when it said "gentle" on the packaging, hey, it really meant it. This thing is actually gentle enough to use on your face,at least on mine, AND everyday, its mild but perfect for exfoliating! Also, it doesn't dry skin out. Of course, it doesn't moisturize it as well, but it is smoother, softer and yes, BRIGHTER! LOVE THAT! Like, yeah, visibly!

This is my favorite face scrub..till...date it actually leaves you *that* bright!

Summin' it all up:

The Good:

-Price

-Invigorating, fresh fragrance

-Flip-top tube packaging

-Travel-friendly

-Gentle enough for everyday use on the face (for combo/oily skin)

-leaves skin smoother

-and softer

-and berrrighterrr!! :))

-doesn't dry skin out post exfoliation

The Bad:

-has parabens

-not really a worthwhile body scrub as abrasive property is poor for that

-lid might get a lil goopy if not shut properly

Rating: 4.7/5 (I don't regret getting this and it not working out as a body scrub, rest of the claims are all true!)

Recommendation:

Get this if

-You go out in the sun a lot and your skin has faced some sun damage and needs brightening up

-If you are a scrub hoarder

-if you already have a tan, I think it will help clear it up

-you are looking for a scrub with gel consistency and moderately abrasive microbeads

Hope that helped!

See you soon!

XOXO!

Beauty in a nutshell-DIY Skinglow Recipe!!!

What I'm gonna be sharing with you folks today is major nutrition to submerge your skin in a boost of radiance! And its so simple, natural and effective, you'll see dazzling results instantly!

I got this recipe from celeb spa facialist Joanna Vargas at Howcast and I knew I had to spread the word!
Here's how to go about this luxurious pampering skin potion..

You'll need:

1. A tablespoon of organic honey
2.Two tablespoons of olive oil
3.Two tablespoons of plain yogurt.

Instructions:
Just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until it has a nice creamy consistency and apply as a thin layer on your face and neck. Let it work its magic till you feel a thin dry film has formed on your face. Wash it off with a cold splash of water.

You'll love how refreshed your skin has become,its super supple texture and the visible sheen your skin has!
Don't worry too much if you skin initially feels a bit greasy, your skin will soak it right up in a few minutes!

Honey has anti inflammatory and anti-bacterial benefits. Some also use it to bleach facial hair and also use it as a remedy for light blemishes.
Olive Oil has tons of benefits. It drenches your skin in moisture and brings that amazing glow!
Yogurt helps in evening out your skin tone and makes it brighter because of the lactic acid it contains that peels off the dead cells!

This mask is great for sun-exposed skin, to fight off a bad tan and to to keep skin discoloration in check!

The best part is your could keep the excess refrigerated to use next time! Ultra-cooling,and you could use it everyday too!

Tell me if it worked as wonderfully for you as it did for me!

On standby till next time!
<3