Review: Mai Couture - Blush Papier in 'Studio City'

If you are a Blush-fanatic, you will love this stuff! What can be more awesome than rubbing instant makeup on your face :)

I received the Mai Couture Blush Papier in the shade 'Studio City' in my February FASHbox a week ago. I did a detailed blogpost reviewing them in my previous post. If you wanna know what all was in the February FASHbox click HERE.

It looks like a mini booklet with 50 blush pages (which is a lot). The packaging is really elegant and 'Expensive' looking. The blush shade is light pink and a little shimmery, perfect for Spring!

How to Use:

1. Do your makeup normally the way you do it.
2. Tear a page from the booklet and divide the paper into halves.
3. Use the halves on either cheeks. Rub the paper against the cheek in Circular-upward motion. Rub till you get the desired colour on your cheeks.
4. And you're Done!

The blush (colour) on the paper activates by the heat from your fingers and cheeks, when they rub against each other. So don't get panicked when you touch the paper and you don't get anything on your hands!

The Mai Couture Blush Papier comes in the following range of shades:

PRETTYFUL

 

 SUNSET BLVD.

 

VENICE BEACH

 UPTOWN

 

SICILY

STUDIO CITY

MONTECITO

On the Mai Couture Website it retails for $17.5 You can checkout other products by them on www.maicouture.com

Over all I really liked the product, something new to try it out!

Will I be purchasing this?

Actually No, not because the stuff is not good or not worth buying. Just that I'm not a whole 'Blush Person' and don't need blush touch ups. If you like touching up your blush during the day, this is going to be really handy for you. I think this booklet is going to last me forever!

You can checkout many YouTube Gurus using this awesome stuff!

HOPE THIS WAS HELPFUL AND THANKS FOR PASSING BY!

Comment Below if you would like me to review anything for ya! or email me at gulsartistry@gmail.com

Also dont forget to check me out on my other social media :)

The February 2014 FASHbox - Monthly Beauty Subscription in Kuwait

You might have heard of the Birch Box, Glam Box, Ipsy, etc. beauty subscription services in the US and Canada? If not then let me explain what are these.

These are all monthly subscription to mysterious box of goodies you will receive each month with deluxe/ sample size (sometimes full size) beauty products at you door step with a minimum plan fee. If you liked the product you can go ahead and purchase the full size of that product later on. This is a very nice way of trying out new stuffs every month with not spending a lot of money on full sized stuffs.

An amazing and new concept in Kuwait, finally, that is worth spending your money on!

FASHbox is a similar concept of beauty subscription here in Kuwait! How awesome is that? I was thrilled to find them out on Instagram @fashiliciouskw and directly went ahead and took the 3 months subscription package. I was a month late because the January FASHbox was already out :(

So below is the Subscriptions FASHbox provides:

Subscription Type	Package Price	Monthly breakdown
3 Months Subscription	24 KD	8 KD per month
6 Months Subscription	45 KD	7.5 KD per month
12 Months Subscription	84 KD	7 KD per month

Now you just have to contact them and request for your subscription, then they will email you a profile questionnaire which you have to fill in and send it to them. This way they will make sure that your products are tailor made according to your preference. And you're done! The coming month you will receive your surprise box, it's like a gift from yourself to you ^^

They also have a referral program whereby every 3 friends that you sign up you will get a month free! How cool is that?

For further subscriptions or enquiries, please contact them!Call/ SMS/ Whatsapp: 99920769
Instagram: @fashiliciouskw
Facebook Page: Click HERE

Email: fashboxkw@gmail.com

What was in my February FASHbox?

Now lets dig into what I received, shall we?

So this is how your FASHbox will look like every month. Very basic and elegant Black Box with their logo on the upper right, tied up with care in a Black Ribbon. Like a Gift Wrap! 

The packaging itself will make you so excited and the Black will keep you guessing what goodness is going to be there inside! Oh and also they leave a small piece of paper on top with your subscription code (which I hid obviously), name and a little warning (if so).

Upon opening the box, this is the goodness my eyes came in contact with! There were also 2 description leaflets for the receiver with full details about the 'Theme of the Month' and Products details with 'How to Use' which I liked.

For the month of February of-course the theme was inspired by Valentines Day, 'Cupid's Red Bow'. Therefore all the Pink and Red and cuteness and Chocolates with a whole lot of Cheesy-ness!

So check below the images of the 5 Full Sized products I received in my February FASHbox clicked awesomely with my iPhone 5S :D

1. Neoteric Massage Oil - Relaxation with Lavender, Geranium and Sage

2. Mai Couture Studio City - Blush Papier (50 sheets)

3. Black Radiance Indelibly Sheer Lip Tint in 'Crimson Red'

Well I'm not a 'Red' Lipstick person, but this Lip Tint looked so flattering and Moisturising!

4. Essie Nail Polish in 'Scarlet O' Hara'

5. 'Palais Des Rois' Milk Chocolates

 Overall, I was really impressed by the care and dedication and the loving efforts put into creating this box. It can be seen in its presentation and the way every minute detail had been take care of. (And the Chocolates were amazingly delicious!)

I really can't wait to get my hands on the March FASHbox, let's guess the theme..Hala Watani (Kuwait National and Liberation Day) or Mother's Day? Can't really tell.

Wanna know what was in the January FASHbox? click HERE.

And a Good News for you Lovely People! Use my Coupon Code below to be Eligible to get an Instant 20% Off any subscription you choose from FASHbox!

If you need an in depth review of any of the products mentioned above, leave a comment! and I shall do it :)

xx Bushra xx

And again for subscriptions or enquiries, please contact them! Don't forget to say I sent you :)
Call/ SMS/ Whatsapp: 99920769
Instagram: @fashiliciouskw
Facebook Page: Click HERE

Email: fashboxkw@gmail.com

DISCLAIMER: I'M IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH FASHBOX NOR THEY ARE PAYING ME TO WRITE THIS POST. I HAVE PAID THEM FOR MY 3 MONTHS SUBSCRIPTION LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. AND I LOVE CHOCOLATES A LOT! THESE ARE MY HONEST OPINIONS AND REVIEWS.

Beauty Benefits: Honey for Face

Honey is something which everyone of us should make a habit in their life. There are so many uncountable benefits from it we can gain. Especially for your skin, it works wonders! The best Honey is obviously the Pure one, now that's a gamble to get!

Due to its many beneficial properties, it helps to heal almost every skin type in every skin problems/infections. Lets see some common ones:

1. Acne: Honey is naturally antibacterial, so it's great for acne treatment and prevention.
2. Ageing: Full of antioxidants, it is great for slowing down ageing.
3. Complexion boost: It is extremely moisturising and soothing, so it helps create a glow.
4. Pores: Honey is clarifying because it opens up pores making them easy to unclog.

Now lets see how you can use honey for the above skin problems.

Direct Honey Mask

The Easiest thing to get softer and more radiant looking skin, Just apply a thin layer of Honey directly on the skin. Massage it for a minute and leave it for 10 minutes as a mask. Rinse it off with warm water. You can do this weekly before bedtime and sleep with light moisturiser overnight.

Honey Sugar Exfoliator - 

Just 2 table spoons of honey + 1 table spoon fine granulated sugar + few drops of Lemon juice, and you have your own DIY Face and Body Scrub. The sugar will act as an exfoliant to get rid of dead skin and Honey act as a medium and sooth and cleanse out the exfoliated skin and the lime will act as a skin lightner. You can do this once or twice a week to get rid of all the dead skin and make your skin smooth and clear.

Honey Spot Treatment -

If a zit popped up and you want to reduce the redness and slow down its growth, just add a drop of Tea Tree oil or Lavender oil to a drop of honey and using a cotton swab mix and dab directly on the zit overnight. The next day the zit will reduce and the redness will minimize!

Honey Facial - 

For this you need 1 tbsp raw honey + 1 tbsp olive oil and Yolk of an egg. Mix it all together and apply on face like a mask. Leave it on for 20 minutes and Rinse! Instant Facial for a party :)

Multani Mitti Honey Mask - 

If you have aged skin or suffering from large pores, this is helpful in minimizing those signs. Multani Mitti (Fuller's Earth) is a very natural face mask used for ages in India. Just form a paste by adding Honey into the Multani mitti and apply on skin. Let it soak in your skin till the mask becomes hard and dry. This will help tightening your pores and reduce elasticity of ageing skin. rinse off with warm water and apply moisturiser.

Honey Almond Scrub - 

Grind 2-3 almonds finely, add a table spoon of honey and a little lemon juice. Use this paste to scrub your face gently to get rid of dead cells and brighten up your complexion!

Honey Face Wash - 

Yes! Due to its cleansing properties, honey can also be used as a daily cleanser. Well a lot of cleansers out there have honey in them. We can make our own cleanser by adding rose water/ milk, turmeric powder and sandalwood powder to honey. Mixing everything well and cleansing the face. Turmeric too has many anti-bacterial and healing properties, plus if you are suffering from facial hair use this cleanser daily to reduce the growth of facial hair.

Now lets see some Skin remedies using honey especially for Acne prone skin, a very battling topic among most of the teenagers and adults too.

Honey Lemon Pack - 

Just Add a few drops of Lemon juice to a little honey and apply on the entire face or just the acne affected area and leave it on for 20 minutes. Rinse with luke warm water. This will dry out the existing acne and also stop the bacteria to spread creating new acne.

Honey Sandalwood Pack -

Similar recipe; add sandalwood powder in honey and apply as pack. The sandalwood will help in reducing the blemishes and acne scars.

Honey Oats Pack -

Apply a mixture of ground oats and honey and let it dry. Before washing, damp the skin and exfoliate well without being harsh on your acne prone skin. This face pack doubles as a scrub too.

Cooling Honey Pack -

Mix honey with chilled milk and grated cucumber. Apply on face for ten minutes before rinsing it with warm water. This is excellent to use in summer and the cucumber will cool down the skin and acne making your skin feeling relaxed.

Glowing Tomato-Honey Pack -

Blend in ripe tomato and honey together to form a thick paste and leave it on for 20 minutes then rinse. Tomato also has bleaching properties, thus giving you clean glowing skin.

NOTE: Honey can clear your skin only if your acne has arisen from bacterial problems.  For those of you whose acne is a result of irritation, hormones, or any other cause, honey might not do much.  However, it helps to soothe your existing acne and heal your irritated skin.  Application of honey could assist in improving your complexion, but it will not cause your acne to disappear and not return.

There are many more possibilities you can do with honey like mixing it with anything that has skin benefits as it will act as a perfect medium for mixing along with its many other properties. You can choose Avocado, Banana, oatmeal, fennel, yoghurt, onion juice, papaya, chick-pea flour, etc. and try new things depending on your skin condition.

Honey is also used as a cure for many diseases in Ayurvedic treatment. Also substituting your daily sugars with Honey highly helps in burning Fat. Every morning a glass of warm water + Honey + few drops of Lemon! This will also help indigestion.

You can also use Honey as your eye cream! Just dissolve the honey in half the amount of hot water and let it cool down till both the mediums are mixed thoroughly. Apply like an eye-cream twice daily and wash it off in 30 minutes :)

THANKS FOR READING AND LET ME KNOW BELOW IF YOU TRY ANY OF IT!

When to Toss Off your Makeup?

If you are a person like me who is very conservative and possessive about their Makeup, then of-course you don't wish to toss it away any time! But...huhhh..the reality states that there is an expiration date (to everything) and you gotta throw them away when it arrives.

Well makeup doesn't come with an Expiration date (mostly) and hard to know when it has gone bad.

1. Look for any Chemical changes in them, like if its smelling foul, lost its oil (oil floating on the surface), colour change, or getting harder. If any of these changes has happened in any of your makeup, then its time to toss it off. Mainly you will see thease kind of changes in Foundations, Concealers and Mascaras.
2. No matter how pretty the packaging or the actual products looks, if you got that Ishh a reaaalllyyy long time ago, show its way to the trash can my dear.
3. Any Liquid Makeup with a pump lasts longer than the ones without,just because its untouched and bacteria-free. That doesn't mean its not gonna go bad. Throw it away if its been eating dirt for too long.
4. If your lipsticks have developed a mossy or foggy layer around them, then surely you gotta return them to the brand or toss it away.
5. If you see any skin irritations like acne, redness, infections, etc. Try to switch up the products daily one by one. By this you will know what is not working out for you and you can throw that away.
6. If your powders (eyeshadow, blushes, loose powders, bronzers, compacts, etc) have started to develop a thin layer of oil on the surface, its no need to worry as much. But if the oil formation is a lot and starting to smell, then its time to toss it away.
7. Try to avoid wearing makeup and using makeup tools when you are having any kind of infection or so. This will reduce the fungus to transfer on the product and contaminate your valuable makeup. Washing and cleaning your tools regularly (once a week) will help in keeping your makeup long lasting. This applies to Nail Polishes too.
8. Finally Just keep on changing your makeup every 8-12 months for safe reasons and to stay hygienic. If you are doubtful about a particular product or don't remember when you purchased it, just throw it away.

Below is a Art work I created with the maximum duration of a product:

And something that I discovered recently; A website which will tell you exactly when you need to toss the item, with Manufactured date. This was something really awesome! 

Please visit www.checkcosmetic.net and you just need to enter the item code in the space provided along with the brand name, and it will give you full details of your product. I literally sat in front of the computer and checked almost half of my stuffs and tossed so many! You will be surprised by what you discover my friends.

I hope this will help you guys in some way! As always, thanks for tuning in
* Wireless Hugs* :)

How to Choose / Match The Right Foundation

Foundation is a base for your everyday masterpiece, your makeup. If your foundation is not strong/accurate (to the way you like it), your makeup wont have a value against it (you wont be happy). There are so many choices and colors, it can be confusing how to find which foundations works best for your skin and how to find the right shade.

Not everyone has the same Foundation needs; such as full coverage, or oil control, lightweight for working out, or just something to even out skin tone. It is something based on your personal preference.

The below things you should keep in mind while choosing the 'one':

1. Undertone
2. Skin type
3. Finish
4. Coverage

Undertone: Warm / Cool / Neutral

Before you go ahead and pick out your foundation, you need to know what undertone category you fall in. Do you look pink, yellow or a mixture of both? Once you know your undertone, it will be easier to match your foundation falling the same undertone category. For full details on how to determine your undertone, checkout my previous post HERE.

Skin Type: Normal / Dry / Oily / Combination

Now that you know your undertone, you need to figure out what is your skin type. Is it dry, oily, normal or Combination. This is important as well because an oily skin type wouldn't require a dewy finish foundation, instead a matte or semi-matte finish foundation would work better. Similarly for dry skin a matte finish foundation would end up looking cakey, instead a dewy or semi dewy foundation would enhance the appearance of the skin.

Foundation Finish: Matte / Semi-matte / Satin(Dewy) / Natural

Now depending on your skin type, you can check what kind of a foundation finish you want to go for :

• Dry: semi-matte, dewy, or satin finish foundations. This will help put back some oils onto the skin and give a fresh finish.
• Oily: matte or semi-matte finish foundations that are oil free. Matte will help create an even canvas and minimize shine.
• Normal: matte, semi-matte, or slightly dewy foundations. If your skin is normal you can choose pretty much any Foundation and it will work with you.
• Combination: (both dry & oily)- usually those who are combination skin tend to be more on the oily side, but are dry in some areas. Look for matte or semi-matte finish foundations that are oil free. Matte will help create an even canvas and minimize shine.

Coverage: Sheer(Light) / Medium / Full

Image from www.painted-ladies.com

Your foundation coverage totally depends on what occasion you want it for; daily use, party, bridal, etc. Or maybe just your choice!

There are foundations available in different forms in the market with different coverage, holding, lasting, etc. powers. Foundation are available in Liquid, Mousse, powder, cream, spray, mineral, etc. Its you who has to decide what you're comfortable in working with on your skin.

• SHEER/TINTED: very subtle(barely there), illuminating, so natural features like freckles can still show through.
• MEDIUM: quite natural, but at the same time can cover up any blemishes, redness or imperfections that you want to cover up.
• FULL: will completely cover anything you want to cover and conceal.

Know your Skin Tone

Now that you are clear with all the steps before buying your foundation, you need to know what skin tone (remember, Skin tone is different from Undertone) you have. Every brand foundation ranges from Very Light to Very Dark. I'm a light-medium.

How and Where to match your Foundation?

You should always match your foundation in a natural light. Now you may ask, how can I get natural light in the store?! Well my ladies, I always recommend taking a sample of the foundation (or Foundations) home from the store, they always keep samples/containers for handling out few pumps. If they don't, then you can carry your own little container to ask for the same. This will be really helpful to check the foundation with a couple of applications and uses. You can see if is suiting your skin type/tone well, etc. and also you can check in natural lighting how its complimenting your skin.

If you are shy to ask for a sample (which you shouldn't be), then in the store itself find a spot with maximum lighting and hold a mirror in your hands. Make sure no shadow is formed on your face due to any object interference. Then choose a couple of foundation shades which match closely to your skin and apply it on the side of your face creating a straight line starting from your cheek till below your jaws. (As shown in picture). Blend away each line seamlessly, don't mix up the shades. Now you can check which shade looks more flattering on you and you're done with the 'one'!

I Hope this helped you understand how to choose the right foundation for yourself, if you have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment or contact me via any of my social media :)

DISCLAIMER - NONE OF THE PICS IN THIS POST IS MY PROPERTY, ALL TAKEN FROM GOOGLE. NO COPY RIGHTS INTENDED.

How to determine your Undertone? Cool / Warm / Neutral

The most battling topic with each and everyone of us, choosing the right Foundation and Concealer! It can get frustrating and out of the head if not understood the basics of it. Well I didn't get pro at it in 2 days, it takes some time of-course.

Types of Undertones (Warm/Cool/Neutral)

Warm, cool or Neutral? Its not Rocket Science guys, just as simple as ABC.

COOL:Skin Colour:  blue, pink skin undertones Eye Colour: blue, violet, grey Hair Colour: blonde, brunette

NEUTRAL:Skin Colour:  fair or light pink, olive, yellow skin undertones Eye Colour: all Hair Colour: all

WARM:Skin Colour:  yellow, orange skin undertones Eye Colour: brown, green, hazel Hair Colour: brunette, red, blonde

How to Determine your Undertone?

Vein test - in a natural light, look at the inside of your wrist; if the veins appear greenish this indicates you have yellow undertones and thus would have a warm skin tone. Veins that appear to be more bluish indicate a cool skin tone. And if its a mixture of both like turquoise/aqua then you're a Neutral my lady.

The white fabric test - You need to tie a ponytail, freshly wash your face and pat dry, stand in front of the mirror in good lighting ( Natural sun lighting recommended) and tie the white fabric around your neck. If your face appears to have red/pink tones, you have a cool undertone. If your face appears to have yellow/golden tones, you have a warm undertone. If your face appears to have both pink and yellow tones or it doesn't appear to have any tones, you have a neutral undertone.

Silver/Gold test - If you think you look better in gold than silver, this indicates a warm skin tone. People with cool skin tones usually look better in silver. Try the same with silver/gold fabric, what do you see?

Colours you can Rock with your Undertone

Some colours you can rock in your Make-up, Outfits, etc. to enhance your look

I hope you found this post helpful and I shall be doing a foundation and Concealer post very soon! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away!