☆Nivea Sensitive After Shave Balm☆

Nivea Sensitive After Shave Balm: My Experience and Why I stopped using it!

I’m usually not a trend follower. Whenever a new beauty trend starts on Instagram or YouTube I’ll be like, okay We’ll see if we want to do that, and then I never do that.

But when well known beauty guru started raving about the use of Nivea After Shave Balm as Primer I was like………… wooooaaaa!!!! I need that in life, suddenly there was flood of beauty gurus using Nivea After Shave Balm as primer. I mean why would someone not use it

1. It’s cheap
2. Easily available
3. Your Idols trust it and use it.

Finally after a few months (yes …months..I’m a lazy person) I ordered Nivea Men After Shave Balm. I was so so so excited about it, I had planned to ditch all my other primers and use this one till eternity. For the first trial, I applied it under my regular makeup, first day first shot everything was fine. After the first successful trial I started wearing it under makeup as primer on regular basis, everything was fine, my makeup stayed on or almost 9-10hours, no breakouts no reactions nothing. After a month there was acne breakout(I have a clear skin, combination of dry and oily, but I swear I never had acne or pimples in my life),as I’m on medication because of PCOS, I thought it’s because of some allergic reaction due to medicines 😦  In the course of next two months I changed my dearest foundations, concealers, changed my medicines etc etc thinking that one of them was causing allergic reaction ( I was like HELL!! Why everyone ditching me, what’s wrong??)

Finally came the day of realization, I and hubby baby were to attend a party out of town, I packed my bags (which included my makeup) but….but I forgot my Shave Balm at home, since I was carrying another primer that time I didn’t think of my Balm much. Surprisingly next day my skin was all normal, no rashes no acne no pimple nothing, clean and clear..That’s when brain started running and did it’s calculations. Next day when we came back I applied after shave balm topped it with foundation roamed around the house, at night I took off my makeup and went to bed, everything regular, next morning, the dreaded morning I woke up with ashes all over my face…..it was burning and turned red!!! *horrified cried for half hour*

So, finally I relised where and what was wrong, it was Nivea men after shave balm!

The product does what it is meant to do i.e heal skin post shave. It has ingredients like Isopropyl Palmitate, Cyclohexasiloxane which are absorbed by the skin, and these ingredients going in the skin means ingredients on top of them too sinking in skin, and this exactly we don’t want. So basically when you apply this balm as primer, it opens all your pores so that your skin can absorb all the balm, and that balm will heal your post shave injuries, but unfortunately with it the makeup too gets absorbed which clogs all our pores and cause breakouts and other allergic reactions.

Now I’m not saying that after shave balm is a bad product or something. It does what it’s meant to do, and it does it very well, but it is definitely not a base for your makeup. Primers are meant to act as a shield or layer or wall on your skin which will make your makeup stay and not sink in. I and hubby both use it post shave (my hands and legs feel awesome thanks to this product) but I definitely do not use it as makeup primer any more, and touch-wood my skin is back to normal! If it works for you as a prime then go ahead and use it, but it’s a big no no for me! Also, I learnt my leasson, not all beauty trends or hacks should be followed blindly ! 😦

 

 

My Foundation Oxidizes (Help)

Problem:

Now, I am using this foundation, say XYZ, from sometime now. Lately I am noticing that it is oxidizing on me, which is really sad because I really love this foundation

Me, with my oxidized foundation. 

. I don’t understand, why? I mean it was just perfect from past two months and now suddenly it makes me look orange. 

I searched a lot about it, and no one exactly knows why foundation despite
being perfect oxidizes on face and makes you look dark or an orange ninja. :X What did find out was that it could happen because of the following factors.

• Acidity,oiliness, or present pH value of the skin
• Humidity and outside weather

So these are the few basic things which effect foundation oxidation, and most of these factors are beyond our control.

What’s the solution, how can we stop that from happening?

“Stop using foundation” No, that is not the solution, because foundation doesn’t oxidize on your face immediately it takes a little time, it will start oxidizing after 10 min to half hour  or may be 2-3 hours of application, and you cannot wait for that long period at makeup counter while buying it (buying right foundation is so tricky), as I told you my foundation was perfect for few months so, you don’t know exactly when it will oxidize on your face. But you can definitely prevent it from happening by following these things:

• Use a primer, primer not only hides your blemishes and prepare your face for foundation application, but also creates a barrier between you and foundation. After applying primer you will apply foundation on that layer of primer and not directly on your face. So Primer is like a little Wall of China between you and your Face Skin.
• When Your foundation oxidizes it looks a shade darker, so mix your foundation with 1 or 2 shades lighter foundation, so that when it oxidizes it still matches your skin-tone. If you do not have lighter tone foundation you can mix your highlighter or concealer with foundation, that will do.
• And the best you can do is stop using the foundation that oxidizes on you. Change it if you want to.

So go ahead people, and don’t forget to tell me if these tricks worked for you or not. And if you have any better solution then do let me know, because I would love to try it.

 

Love :*

 

 

 

Kiss Beauty Highlighter and Contour Palette

Okay! Continuing my “Budget Shopping Carnival” I bought and contour and highlight palette by Kiss Beauty, Professional 3 in 1 Brightener, Concealer, and Highlighter.

I am honestly not a contour person, reason, I don’t know contouring, I can make and find contours on Maps only :P. Jokes apart, YouTube is nowadays flooded with all these highlighting and contouring videos, and these videos are pretty tempting. After watching like 5 -6 tutorial videos I was determined and high enough to learn contouring, for which I needed a contour. Next day I went to nearest shopping store, but disappointed to find no such palette available in my town (one of the side effects of marrying a defence officer, you go to remote places  ..huh!). I started looking for product online and realized two things:

1. These palettes are not easily available in my country, India.
2. If they are, then they are expensive, and new practitioners like me cannot afford to burn hole in our pockets just for learning process. *sob sob*

Finally, I saw a product, and it’s ratings were good enough. Though I had never herd of the company before but a good rating and cheap price were win win for me and finally bought the product.

Price:

Rs.435/- for 8 shades, I bought it on sale for 325/- 🙂 (but box says 599/- fishy!)

Product: 

New Kiss Beauty (I swear I never heard that name before) Highlight and Contour Concealer Palette (8 Shades), since the product is fulfilled by Amazon itself I received it within 4 working days.

Appearance is ok-ok, it comes in a low quality plastic box, you drop it once it’s gone. Palette smells good though.

Ingredients and other details

Moving on to the texture  and shades. There are 8 shades, but two of them look like other two, and when I swatched them on arm….ugh! I was highly disappointed. 4 Shades are almost alike, and that’s not the only problem with the palette. Minus those 4 shades, browns of the set have pinkish undertone, now that’s worse, it looks so funny after blending, as if I mixed my brown eyeshadow with pink blush and used it and contour. The texture too is not at flattering, these creamy colours are so difficult to blend. Wait! that’s not the end, I have visible line under my eyes, rather than concealing my lines, it makes them more visible, no matter how you blend it or how you settle it nothing helps. Further, this product dries your skin.

 

I have no idea how people have rated it so well. Coverage, let’s not talk about it.

No pro and con for this product.

For those who want to learn and play can buy this, for rest I wouldn’t recommend this product.

Lesson Learnt:

1. Budget shopping is not always happy happy
2. Don’t buy products just on the basis of online rating, research and talk to people and spend a little extra if you have to.

No rating for this one 🙂

Colorbar – Perfect Match Primer

Colorbar Perfect Match Primer ! Is it really Perfect?

I started my blog saying that I am on budget shopping these days, and here I am with another such drug store product, ” Colobar Perfect Match Primer.

Why we use Primers?

Use of Primer in makeup is same as use of Primer in painting 😀 (no laughs, that’s the plain truth). We all have blemishes like fine lines, uneven skin tone, pores and so so so so.

Primer preps your skin for the perfect foundation application by filling in fine lines and smoothing pores, and it also keeps your makeup looking fresh all day. Consider it the key to making your skin makeup-ready. Just imagine putting foundation without a primer and all your foundation sinking in your fine line after a few hours, that’s a big NO! No one apparently wants that, primer is the solution of this problem, in simple terms.

Product:

I bought mine from Amazon(for makeup I prefer to shop online and Amazon is my God 🙂 ).

Price :

Rs. 756/-   for 30ml

Ingredients :

Cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone crosspolymer, tocopheryl acetate, isododecane, neopentyl glycol diheptanoate, propyl paraben

(This formula is similar to many primers available)

Appearance:

Handsome 😀

This colorless gel primer comes in a beautiful and sleek inverted bottle. The bottle is itself translucent with silver cap, the bottle is further packed in nice silver box, I kinda like the packing.

Gel, despite being thick is easy to spread, it is actually satiny in touch ( something like lakme mousse foundation).

Application Direction:

Dab on a little all over face for smooth surface or use
before foundation for
perfectcomplexion and lasting effect.

My Say:

I did as mentioned in Directions. Honestly I did find it to be Satiny and Oil free.

Since I sweat a lot, I applied a little on my oily T-zones to and all sweat was gone, and so were fine lines…woooofff…magic! Then I applied a little on my left hand and compared it with my bare right hand, difference was visible. My right hand looked old in front of left one. But for scars, freckles( I have on my hands) and acne, it doesn’t hide them completely, just tones them down, it also tones down redness of any kind.

I was also satisfied by the fact that just a little, like tiny miny little, is enough for the face. (I think my 30ml is going to last long).

P.S. I tried it liquid and powder foundation both, and for both results were same.

This colorless gel works wonder!

Pros:

• Satiny in touch
• Lasts Long ( and that is one the primary requirements for all makeup products)
• Thick consistency
• Easy to spread
• Evens uneven texture
• Tones down redness
• Hides fine lines
• Decreases oiliness without breaking (Blessing Blessing)
• Gives you a very smooth skin
• Can be used under heavy moisturizers and body lotions

Cons: 

Wish it could even out freckles too :l

But if primer would do everything, then what would concealer do. 🙂

Rating :

:* :* :* :* (4/5)

I am definitely buying a second bottle! You should try it too, won’t disappoint you.

Well, a perfect match for me. 🙂