A few days back L'oreal Paris India was having a contest on Facebook, and I entered it. Little did I know that I would win! It came as such a surprise (I hardly ever win at any contest you see... horrible luck). But for the first time I did! Yaaaaay! L'oreal sent over my gift really soon and there was more joy when I saw that they had sent Infallible Le Rouge Lipstick in Tender Berry. There were so many good things I had heard about L'oreal lipsticks that i really wanted to try one for myself.Thank you L'oreal! You made my day!  :)
Here's a quick review and a few swatches :

I am sure you know how much we love the Maybelline Color Tattoos and as mentioned in an earlier post I had picked up three shades for Smriti.
Smriti reviewed Pomogranate Punk here which is a lovely wine burgundy colour and I am telling you about BOLD GOLD today! (I know, this post was loooong overdue, sorry).

Here comes another quick recipe for those hunger pangs! Bombay sandwich/toast. Now I have not been to Mumbai yet, but I have seen that it usually has the sandwich a spicy tempered potato filling.

But I tweaked the traditional recipe to suit me.  Here's Bombay Sandwich my way!

Have you ever bought anything which you like at that moment and then after sometime you go like"What was I thinking when I picked this up?!" I guess it has happened to all of us sometime right? Or maybe more than sometimes. :P
This is how I feel about Colorbar Exclusive Nail Lacquer 06. Now do not get me wrong.Colorbar Nail Lacquers are generally quite nice and have a good range of shades. The quality is also great for what they are priced at. I just do not understand why I picked up this particular shade when I had so many other choices! *sigh*

Hello!
We are sharing another inspiration in a quick post today. This one looks really pretty and barely takes 5 minutes. Sure you can spare that much, yes? And a bit of recycling is always good!

Birthdays.. they are amazing in so many ways! You get to do whatever you want to for 24 hours, thats a lot of time! Plus the decorations, the cake and the non stop phone calls from everyone...did I mention the gifts? They just make your day don't they?

Hello everyone!

It was dad's birthday last week. We did not get down to celebrating it fabulously, but I did bake him a chocolate cake! :) :) And you know it was yummy cake when it vanishes in just 2 days!
Missed Smriti a lot... and I think she missed the cake more after I sent her pics.. :P
Sharing some quick snaps of it :



This particular way of decoration is called bunting...and I think it is just so different than those regular icing decorations. Found the inspiration on Pinterest. Of course, mine is not that great as the ones there, but it is ok for a first try yes? What do you think?

Here's a nail paint we have absolutely been loving since a long time now.. Colorama Astral! I do not know why, but we mostly love the colorama nail polishes here. They are affordable, have a good shade range and are decent quality wise.
Astral is a shade I would love to apply most of the days. When in doubt and you cannot decide which shade your nails should be wearing... pick Astral!

Hello all!
Its the weekend finally, and what better time than this to do some craft projects? Since I had a free lazy afternoon and some left over cardboard boxes (I have sooo many now because of the shifting from hostel back home!), I put the two to some use.
I have seen these adorable yarn covered letters on the internet and well, it was time to make my own... the room can always do with a little prettying up! :) :)


This monogram letter is very simple to make and it makes a room corner so lovely.
Don't ask me why I picked S (Smriti and Swati...Thankfully our names start with the same letter). You can pick whichever letter you want.

I was tagged by Arshi of World of Makeup and Fashion to do a post of my top 5 current favourite lipsticks. Now somehow I am more of a gloss person, but yes I have been slowly building my lipstick collection.
At first I thought this would be an easy post to do.. but boy oh boy! it is such a tough task to choose 5! I spent quite a lot of time to narrow it down to just 5. Anyway, here is my list :

So, Lotus Whiteglow Skin Whitening and Brightening Micro-Emulsion. This was bought because the required amount for COD from a particular site was not enough :P And we thought why not put in this for mom? Let us make her try a micro emulsion (no idea what it is though). We didn't have a lot of hopes from this one...but it so did surprise us!! (Next time, never judge a product without trying).

Lakme is surprising us all with a whole bunch of new launches. I was at the counter two weeks back and finally saw the new 9 to 5 lipstick range. The metallic rose gold packaging is perfect to fall in love with. They look absolutely beautiful and classy!

Last week we travelled all the way to Bhubaneswar (Orissa/Odisha). Its about a 10 hour drive from home. Setting out early around 7 a.m. we finally reached our hotel around 4.
Don't you just love road trips?! There is something about them. The funny chatter, munching on your favourite snacks (a lot), playing your favourite songs in the background, navigating your way....not to mention the dozing off in between sometimes. It's SO MUCH FUN! This trip was mainly to drop off Smriti at her new hostel... yes, she is finally pursuing her dream to become a doctor! Majorly excited!! :)
Since this was our first road trip to Bhubaneswar city none of us knew the way through and through. Thank God for smart phones with maps and navigation apps! Such a life saver they are!
Here are some pics we clicked along the way :

Roads through beautiful forests.. and the hazy mist. So magical!



The Paddy fields were just getting ready and being planted. And however the weather is, the farmers don't stop working.





I kept wondering, how can they plant in such neat rows?!


Wild grass flowers. Doesn't it look amazing?


Found beautiful mountain ranges almost all the way.


These fellows joined us when we stopped for lunch. and yes, we didn't forget to give them something to nibble on :)  Later they called their friends... we weren't prepared for that :P



Isn't this fellow giving a "Back off! Don't you dare take my photo" look? :D


Our hotel. The Kalinga Ashok. They made our stay so comfortable. (Psst.. I loved their breakfast!)



 I clicked these from framed paintings in the hotel lobby. Traditional Orissa handicrafts. Patta Chitra paintings (they mainly have religious themes as their subject matter) and stone carvings.




A bird I had never spotted before.. I have no idea which one it is.


Yes, there is something about the sky. I can't get enough of it ever :)




Because this road looked particularly photogenic ;)


Palmyra trees. Loved how they were looking!



We did cross the Simlipal forest range and Tiger reserve briefly on our way back home, but yeah it was only the monkeys who paid us a visit..  :P
I could not click the whole pack ( I am not very fond of them, shall tell you why someday), but the young ones were really cute. :)






The number of cow packs we had to cross! Gosh! I have no idea why cows take their own sweet time to get off the road even when you are honking the most you can. And if you are lucky they would not budge at all and the car has to get off the road :P
This particular pack had almost 50 plus cows and lots of goats and sheep in front too!


  Speaking of goats : I love their brown white combination.