To shave or not to shave... thats the question!- Gillette venus razor shave gel review.

Body Hair! Always been a woe for us women, specially us Indians. We are hairy beings by default... :D. Today we have many treatments that can help us get rid of body hair pretty much on permanent basis but seriously lets face it not everyone can afford that. So we fall back on things like waxing epilating and well shaving. Waxing and epilating are both sort of painful and also time consuming to say the least. Yet most of us pick waxing and epilating over your regular shaving as we have seriously grown up with so many negative aspects of shaving. I was the same until June. I used to wax or epilate every 15-20 days. Shaving was for me strict no no to be done only under very dire circumstances. Then along came Gillette Venus razors and the shave gel. I picked this up from Amazon on a whim as I needed a new razor. So while I was browsing for my regular razor also of Gillette that I used ever since I first got into shaving I came across this set of razor with interchangeable head , a shave gel and some extra heads. the entire set cost Rs.540/- only,delivery charges extra. I did not expect too much from this because like I mentioned before I was too prejudiced with regards to shaving and honestly up until then I had not seen that great wonders every time I shaved which was very very rare. 

Its been almost 2 and a half months now and boy have things changed. I'm a total shaving convert now. Period!. This is by far the best hair removal experience ever! If I may say so myself this is hands down even better than waxing. My skin feels so heavenly soft its unimaginable. I do this every Sunday and trust me the hair does not grow back until minimum late Friday. I shave my hands, legs, armpits and bikini line as well. And best part  its pain free and takes minimal amount of time. The growth is not itchy. For me the game changer is the Shave Gel. It comes in different variants and I have got the Sensitive Skin one although I do not have sensitive skin still it works wonderfully for me. You just need first wet your skin with warm water so as to open the pores after which you take a single pump of the the shave gel and lather it all over you the area you want to shave. Its a bit foamy too despite being a gel and lathers really well. After spreading evenly use you razor and get rid of all those pesky hair and wash it off upon which you will get skin smooth as a baby's bottom. It also helps prevent nicks and cuts during shave.I got the 195 gram bottle and its going to last me a long long time that I can vouch for.

The razor too is super easy to use since it has a nice broad handle giving you firm grip whilst your hands are full of foam and the razor heads come with an aloe strip which further help your skin become smooth and soft. It has a blue indicator strip which helps determine how good your razor is. When this strip fades you need to change the head. Its been a little over two months and I'm still on my first head despite using it every Sunday. So thats saying something about its staying power.One thing I have noticed that the shaving will be optimally smoother and your skin softer only if you use it along with the shave gel. I have tried it with my regular sandal soap as well as my most moisturizing body wash. The best results I have are with the shave gel. The head changing is very easy and you just need to click on the button below and replace the head. The head is a little flexible to give superior glide to fit the curves of you body. I cannot reiterate enough the smoothness of skin its honestly just irresistible to touch. 

Lets breakdown some myths of shaving which I have personally overcome in the past two months:

Shaving Darkens skin:
Pretty much every girls fear specially us Indian skin girls who have a general tendency to prefer lighter colored skin, not that it matters these days and I'm glad to see many girls today embrace their color.Coming back to the myth this is completely baseless as darkening is only related to the amount of melanin in your skin. Shaving will never change your skin colour. 

Hair grows back darker and harder:
Another myth. When you see the initial growth of hair its always going to be a bit dark and hard but as it grows out it will become the same as it grows out after waxing. 

Shaving causes hair to grow back faster:
When you epilate or wax you remove your hair from the root whereas when you shave you just remove it till the root. Ergo you find the growth faster in comparison to waxing or epilating.

Shaving delicate areas can cause in-growth of hair:
It isn't the hair removal process that causes nasty in-grown hairs, it's the condition of the surface of your skin. In-grown hairs are trapped hairs, so you need to exfoliate the areas you're removing hair from so the hair can pop back through easily.

Shaving causes dry and itchy skin:
Not true if you use your razor the right way. You see it is always better for your skin as well as for the longevity of your blade to use it with a shave gel or soap or some oil. That way it wont dry out your skin and also will stop the itch that accompanies dry skin. If you want to dry shave just use a powder and a good moisturizer once done. 

Having debunked few of the myths related to shaving I would like to add that I did not add Shaving creams such as Veet and its likes in this blogpost as I effing hate that ish! I dont know maybe its just my opinion or maybe that when I used it once it broke me out into such horrible red rash that I gave up on the first try. Honestly I hate those things not because it does not suit me but the entire process removing hair with removal creams isn't my cup of tea. Plus that blasphemous smell of chemicals!!! UGHHH!!! 

With that I would like to end this blog here hoping I have in my way cleared some of your qualms about shaving. Do let me know what are your thoughts on this whole hair removal process which is both a boon and a bane of a woman's existence. Dont forget to like and leave your comments.. :)

Love Makeup Love Life!!

Sayonara!!!
Yours Truly
Sayuri.:~)

April Fabbag 2016 "It's a spring thing" review

I know this review is coming a little too later than I'd expected it to be up since I got my April Fabbag in the first week of April and here we are already in the third weekend. Well in my defense I wanted to try all products out before so I could give you a brief on what exactly I think about them, and honestly I just did not get time to try out my last product that was my O3+ whitening mask given my horribly tight schedule at work...:(

Well without further ado lets begin my April Fabbag 2016 "It's a spring thing" review. I got this bag rather earlier than I expected, not that Fabbag have ever disappointed me with their deliveries still it was earlier than before. Anywho this was the last bag I received from my half yearly subscription and If you want to know if I shall be renewing my subscription for a third time carry on reading...:D

April theme was "It's a spring thing" and the bag a nice and colorful. The Bag and its contents look something like this:

I received a total of 4 beauty and skin care products out of which 2 were full sized and two sample size (Win Win!!!) plus one extra earring as bonus. I have this habit of changing up the makeup bag which I keep in my handbag every month with the fabbag I receive in that month. So this months bag was nice and roomy and of a cute pink colour and super soft to touch. This is what it looks like up-close:

Coming to its contents the first thing I got was this Vantiv Moisturizing Shampoo. I got the full sized bottle of 250ml  and its specially for dry and brittle hair. I had never before heard of this brand so initially was a bit skeptical to try this one out. This is locally manufactured by MG Shahani and company in Dehradun exclusively for Vanmatics  located in Delhi. After reading that this shampoo has Vitamin E and Aloe Vera I decided to give it a go thinking if I did not like it I would give it to my husband cause honestly he can just use any shampoo and his hair will not be majorly affected...like seriously wtf!!!...(*Jealous). The smell is also partly the reason I wanted to use it in the first place, as it has a nice soft fragrance. Personally I love it although I've heard people finding it too powdery. It's a nice mild shampoo and the smell lingers for a day minimum even after using my Argan oil and Garnier oil in cream as leave in conditioner. It leaves my hair soft and supple giving it nice volume too. Would I repurchase this shampoo?, Maybe as frankly I have a Two huge bottles of my regular shampoo yet to finish....Yikes!!!. Apart from that the bottle is nice and travel friendly and overall its a good shampoo to use specially in summers and specifically for dry haired people like me. This bottle retails for Rs.187-250/- ish depending on where you buy it from.At that price its a steal frankly

The bottle looks something like this:

The second product I received was this Soultree Cleansing milk:

I got the 30 ml sample sized bottle. I have used Soultree products before although I have never tried their cleansing milk before. Its a nice product does the job of taking of most of my makeup though not so that great to take of clingy mascara but then again I have my trusty johnsons baby oil for that and till date no other product has beat that (My sula grapseed oil does remove eye make up amazingly but stings my eyes real bad) You can read my full review on the below given link:

http://sayuri2323.blogspot.com/2016/03/review-sula-pure-grapeseed-oil-extra.html

Coming back to soultree cleansing milk it breaks down face makeup well although I'm yet to try it on my liquid lipstick, will let you know when I do so.Will I repurchase this product?... Meh! No actually simply because I have ton of cleansing milk to go through (Yep I hoard makeup like the apocalypse is comin!!) The size I got is good to travel with as the bottle is nice and sturdy and will not leak in your bag. The smell is a little off putting and strong in my opinion but I can deal with it.The full size product(ie 200ml) retails for Rs.350/-

The third product I got was actually one of my own choice, you see Fabbag sometimes let you choose one product of your choice from a range of options. It could be anything beauty or skin care related. So this time I got the option of Lip pencil and Kohl of Catrice. Being the hoarder I am I obviously already have too many kohl pencils (Duhhh!!! Hoarder 101). But yeah I was looking for a nice nude toned lip pencil as I'm trying to get into wearing lippies on regular basis and well loud bright colours are a big no no for me for work. I selected the Catrice lip pencil in Upper brown side which is a nude beige color perfect for using with almost all my nude and pink toned lippies.

I was tad bit disappointed with the size of the actual pencil as the image made it seem bigger than it actually is. It applies very smoothly and last a long time too so that's a big plus from my side. It retails for Rs.300/- and is available online on most websites. I have not seen it in any stores before this but then again I have not been makeup shopping in looong time (Blame online shopping for that!!!) 

The fourth product I got was this O3+ whitening mask which was again sample sized(10 ml). This one honestly took the longest for me to try hence delaying this review but anyways today I was finally able to try it and you know what I like it. At first I did not find a stark difference after I put it but after having that Sunday afternoon mandatory nap I woke up to glowy skin so yes this product is the bomb in my opinion. It gave my skin a nice glow  although I can't really vouch for the whitening part as I do not issues with tanned skin nor uneven skin tone. The full sized product (around 50 gm)retails for anywhere between Rs.600-900/- depending on where you buy it from. All in all its a good one to use prior to any function you may have to go although make sure you use it couple of hours before you do makeup so you can reap its effect.

Lastly I got these earrings which honestly aren't my style as I'm into studs than long earrings but well I'll maybe try them out for some kind of event or so. They are a little heavy though and having sensitive ears will not exactly help in that situation... anyone else have that issue you know where your ear hole goes all watery and painful so much that you can only wear earring once and after that you have to wait until that wound is healed . Honestly no one believes me when I say that as they feel I'm just making excuses to not wear earrings!!!( Indian women and their jewelry addiction Sigh!)...:( Please let me know in the comments below if you also face that issue and how do you combat it.Here what the earring looks like:

To sum it up my most like product is definitely the Vantiv Shampoo, Catrice lip-liner in Upper brown side and the O3+ plus mask in that order. I would definitely repurchase the shampoo when I'm done with my stock of shampoo and the same goes for the liner and the mask. Least like product has to be the earring but no sweat I can always give it away.

Would I renew my subscription? Hell to yeah!!! I love Fabbag! Period!.Definitely go and check them out in the link below:

http://www.fabbag.com/

As always thanks for reading and do let me know what you received in you April Fabbag if you are also a subscriber like me and let me know what you like and what you did not like! Dont forget to like and comment...until next time then..:D

Love Makeup Love Life

Sayonara!!!
Yours Truly
Sayuri.:~)

Review- Just Herbs Rejuvenating Beauty Elixir facial serum

For the longest ever time I have been curious about Face Serums. I was hesitant to shell out alot of money for the high end ones available in the market as I was skeptical if it will suit me or not,(looking back now this was a foolish thought..:`)). So the first facial serum I picked up was by VLCC ,it was their Snigdha Skin Whitening Serum which costs around Rs.500-800 ish if I'm not wrong. Frankly speaking I did not like it, it did absolutely nothing for me. This put me off serums for a while until I received the Just Herbs Rejuvenating Beauty Elixir facial serum in one of my Fabbags last year, I cannot remember when was the first time I received it seeing as I fell in luurrve with this product instantly on first use after which I kept picking it out again and again when they sent us a product of your choice questionnaire every month. I picked this minimum 3 times I guess one of which I gave to my mom to use and she loves it too. :~). So thanks again Fabbag for introducing my skin to the love of its life!!! Teeehee!!!

So yeah I was intrigued when I first received it and honestly it did wonders for my skin in the first use itself. For the first time I had used just on its own as I was a little scared it would break me out if I used it under my night cream. But the next day you will not believe my skin was so soft and glowy. Since the there was no looking back. Now its a very important part of nightly skin care routine and I use it just after spritzing some rose water on my face mixing a 3-4 drops in my Sula Grapeseed oil, full review of which you can check on this link below:

http://sayuri2323.blogspot.in/2016/03/review-sula-pure-grapeseed-oil-extra.html

Below is what the bottle and packaging look like:

This comes in a mint green box packing with a dark yellow brown hued glass bottle with a dropper on top. The bottle needs to be shaken a little before you dispense it as all the good stuffs tends to settle at the bottom due to the weight. Its net weight is 15ml or 0.53 oz. It will last you for a good 1-1.5 months as you need only 3-4 drops when you use. The color is yellowish and is sort of thick but is easy to blend into skin and does not feel oily or heavy on the skin, it absorbs super quick into your skin. The smell is little funny on the other hand, it honestly smells like bread to me which is sort of tolerable as I dont mind it that much. But thankfully it doesn't linger for long.

You can use it on its own or you can mix it it with your night cream and or any other product you might put on your face. I normally use it with my grapseed oil like I said earlier after which I put my night cream and eye cream (Yes, I have long and sometimes tiring nightly routine but well it works in the long run!) You can use it all over your face and that includes your eye contour area. It can also be used to treat spots on your skin, all you have to do is use it directly on the spot by putting 1-2 drops on the affected area.

It highlight ingredient is Gotukula extract which is supposedly the Indian Ginseng of sorts which frankly I'd never heard of until now but having done some internet research its apparently very beneficial for your skin as it has anti ageing properties amongst it various other benefits. Please click on the link below for more details on Gotukula:

http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-gotu-kola.html

Other ingredients are as given in the images below:

This serum needs to be stored in a cool dark place. You can purchase it online on various websites like Nyyka, Fabbag, Amazon etc, I'm not sure where you can find it locally in Mumbai as I have not seen it anywhere till date. If anyone knows do let me know too..:). It retails for Rs.985/- on Fabbag. The other sites should also be having a similar price range. Its pretty economical if you ask me since many other serums retails between Rs.2000-5000 INR. I think 15ml is the biggest size available.

Rating I would give it would be 5/5 since I absolutely love this product. Do check this out if you are looking for a change in your facial serum or you're just curious about facial serums just like me. Do also let me know if you know any other goods brands that do good facial serums.

Like always thanks for reading and don't forget to leave your comments and like the post.


Love Makeup Love life <3

Sayonara!!!
Your's truly
Sayuri... :~)

Review- Sula pure grapeseed oil (extra virgin) 100% Natural

Bless those days when the boss does not come into work!! Times like these you can actually get some work done all the while having fun at it with your office friends. I love to catch up on office gossip on such days whilst having tea.What is your favorite thing to do when your boss is out for the day? Do let me know...:)

Well today as I'm relatively free at work I shall be telling you about an oil I picked up when I visited Sula Vineyards on Christmas last year.(Hope the boss doesn't see this..:P)

Sula vineyards is truly an amazing place to visit, apart from the obvious drinking there's a lot more to do there like visiting the facility to see how wines are made and bottled, plus the view of the grape fields is gorgeous and a real treat to look at. Its a very refreshing place away from all the hustle bustle of the city. A quiet getaway you can enjoy with your significant other or even your family. They have staying arrangements also there if anyone's interested ranging from Rs.5500/- to 27,000/- but if that doesn't fit your pocket you can look for options in the city as its not too far away from the city (approx 20kms or so from Nasik). For more info click on the link below:
http://www.sulawines.com/

So moving on I have been to Sula about twice now once for my birthday and the other on Christmas day. I got the Sula Pure Grapeseed Oil Extra Virgin 100% natural from their in-house souvenir shop. on my first trip I picked up a bottle only for my mum  not entirely sure if I'd actually use it. But one fine day I ended up trying it out and finally gave in on my second trip. This oil is cold pressed and extracted from the white grapes seed and is bottled and sold in the facility. It has zero trans-fat, sodium,cholestrol and is very rich in anti-oxidants.

I do not think you can find it locally in Mumbai although its available online on may sites such as Natures Basket, Amazon, Alibaba to name a few. So this oil is multi-purpose and can be used for cooking, bathing,massages,on your hair and you can also put it directly on your face. Yes! I kid you not its actually really good for your skin. I was initially very apprehensive of putting any kind of oil on my face like most of us normally are but using this oil was life changing. I do not have an oily skin per say neither is it too dry, its just normal which mostly means I'm not very prone to breakouts apart form the hormonal ones here and there and I also have a little liberty in trying out different skin care products.  From what I've read and researched (internet research) is that facial oils are actually really good for your skin and it helps balance out the your dry and oily areas of your skin. Its also way more easier than using 2-3 different products

You can use this oil directly on your face or add a little to your serums or moisturizers to enhance its effectiveness. I use it underneath my serum and night cream. It contains linenoleic acid which is really effective against pimples and spots. I use it at night along with my other products or sometimes just on its own when I'm feeling a little lazy. Next day my skin is plump soft and glowing <3.Good part it also help lighten any scarring or acne marks. For more info on Lineoleic acid check out the link below:
http://www.dermascope.com/ingredients/vitamin-f-linoleic-acid#.Vumc8dJ97IU

The bottle I purchased cost me Rs.495/- and it is a 500ml bottle. This is the biggest bottle available there although there are other size option there available at a lower cost if you do not want to go for such a big bottle. For me I was sold onto this oil ergo I picked the biggest one.

The oil is of an olive hue with a rather nutty smell. Its not off-putting though. You only need a very little amount hence little goes a long long way. Its very light and non-sticky which makes it perfect to be used anytime. This also works as an excellent leave- in conditioner for your hair if you apply a little to the mid-lengths and ends. It helps protect your hair from heat styling damage and also damage caused by the Sun.Its also a great product if you want to bring back some strength to your nails, just apply once a week and massage it nicely into your nails. This oil can also be used to remove face and eye makeup and honestly it takes off even the clingiest of Mascara, although it could sting your eyes a little. All these have been tried by your's truly hence do not hesitate to try them too..:)

To sum it up I would definitely recommend you to try this oil as it's multifaceted you can use it in a number of ways. People suffering dry skin and spot marks issues should definitely give this a try. This oil has become a part of my daily skin care routine and I absolutely enjoy using it.

Rating: 5/5..:D

As always thanks for reading and dont forget to like and comment.Do let me know if you know any other oils which you think I should try out. I'm curious about rosehip oil, has anyone tried that,if yes do leave me a comment about it!!!

Love Makeup Love life <3

Sayonara!!!
Your's truly
Sayuri... :~)