Our Gerard Cosmetics Collection

The one brand that was most difficult for us yet to photograph and work on was none other than Gerard Cosmetics. You want to know why? Because it is in GOLDEN color.We were so obsessed with its golden packaging that we wanted to lay hands on it as soon as possible. Our first purchase was few of its lipsticks from a reasonable deal they offered, and second was again from their deal on shopping above some specific amount which assured us free delivery. So now finally as I have taken the pictures, without further ado I will start my post.

About Brand:

Gerard cosmetics is a UK based brand created by its CEO Jennifer Gerard.

"Gerard Cosmetics was created with a pure passion and clear vision to offer every woman products that were the solution to everyday makeup blunders."

About the product:

Star Powders:

Whether you're going to a breakfast at Tiffany's or taking a Roman Holiday this will be the highlight for you. Inspired by one of the world's most celebrated Hollywood icons, this Star Powder will make you feel your prettiest. Audrey is a warm champagne gold that is reflective and high shine. Build it up for an intense glow or dust it lightly on your cheekbones for a subtle sheen. Pure pigment and an ultra smooth and blend able formula will make this your go-to highlight.  Click here

We bought three shades
1) Marilyn: (A subtle highlighter with pale golden hues)
2) Grace: (A opalescent, frosted white gold with a beautiful sheen)
3) Audrey: (Warm champagne gold with yellow undertones) 

Packaging:
It comes in black matte card board packaging. The highlighter comes in square shaped golden compact with a soft button click to open it. the product is secured with a plastic lid which is really impressive as I haven't seen any other brand using a extra lid to secure the product. It has a large mirror in it too which makes it ideal to keep in bag all the time, I mean who doesn't like a handy mirror? On the back of the compact the shade and ingredients of the highlighter are mentioned,

Left to Right: Marilyn, Grace, Audery

Left to Right: Marilyn, Grace, Audery

My thoughts:
The product is really soft milled powder compressed tightly in the compact, which is smooth to apply. I am however in a love-hate relationship with the highlighters. The shades Marilyn and Audrey are really subtle highlighter shades which are ideal for someone who doesn't like SO much prominent highlighter, it really blends well in the skin. Specially the shade Marilyn is a great soft substitute for The Balm Mary Luminizer. Audrey has yellowish undertones which I am confused that how I really feel about it. Shade Grace however was such a disappointment because it was powdery and had so much fall out. Also I didn't like the formula on Grace which was different than other two. I applied all of them with fan brush, but when I touched pan on Grace, it was all over the place. On applying it too it just looked out of space. So I didn't like "Grace" from my purchase, the other twos are not bad.

Lipsticks:

Lipstick shades that we will be talking about today are:

1) 1995 (The most sought after shade of Gerard, with the grudge revival matte nude shade of 90's)

2) Tequila Sunrise (A creamy fresh and peachy coral matte lipstick)

3) Sangria (A creamy beautiful berry shade which reminds us of freshness all year along)

4) Merlot (Notes of Red and Berry combined together to create this matte vampy hue)

Packaging:
On our first order they didn't have any package for lipsticks but we got our lipsticks in second order within card board packaging. The lipsticks which are shaped as bullets define class and elegance. The packaging is fancy and the lipsticks caps are not lose.

Left to Right: 1995, Tequila Sunrise, Sangria, Merlot

My thoughts: 
You guys have absolutely NO IDEA about how much I wanted to get 1995 and after I got it how many friends asked me to let them apply it as they wanted to see what all that rave was about. The shades 1995 and Merlot are matte while the other two have kinda creamy consistency. Well again I have love-hate relationship with these lipstick. The shade 1995 is a beautiful shade but not really pigmented. I have to swipe it 3-4 times to get the required shade, and the shade Merlot has inconsistent application. It gets streaky and uneven on lips after second swipe, the shade however is really gorgeous. Tequila sunrise also need 2-3 swipes to get the color on the lips but the shade is beautiful and really soft which makes it perfect for everyday use. Sangria has to be my favorite one from all of these not because of its vibrant berry shade but also the formula. It is really creamy and pigmented. It appears darker in tube lipstick but applies lighter in a really beautiful shade, on lips. The staying power of matte shades is 4-5 hrs without eating and Sangria stays for 3-4 hours but its worth it.

Final thoughts:
I don't know if I will get any more of Gerard's products, may be their SLAY Setting sprays because I have seen many You tubers using it. We got it from their website and they keep on having many reasonable deals, if you want to see it, you can check their Instagram.

I will rate it 2.75 / 5

What do you think about our picks and do you own any of Gerard Cosmetics product? Do tell us in comments below.

With Love,
Maria & Sana.

THE BALM MARY-LOU MANIZER. Swatches and Review

Hello Ladies sorry for being MIA from blog from last couple a month.

I hope Ramadan is treating you all well too.We are living in the world of highlighters, I mean SERIOUSLY look around and you will see every brand, drug store or expensive is launching their innovative highlighters in different forms and shades. The one brand that is been IN in this current chaos from the very start is THE BALM. Yep we all have heard of it, drooled over it and have many of its products in our wishlist. Today I will be reviewing the most talked about highlighter from its series of "THE MANIZER SISTERS" highlighters i.e The Mary Lou Manizer aka The Luminizer.

:).

As on their website:

"Meet Mary-Lou Manizer, a seemingly innocent honey-hued luminizer that catches everybody’s eye. This highlighter, shadow and shimmer diffuses light so your skin looks softer and younger while adding a subtle glow."

INGREDIENTS/NET WEIGHT: Net Weight: 8.5G/0.3OZ.

INGREDIENTS:MICA, ISOEICOSANE, POLYETHYLENE, BORON NITRIDE, POLYISOBUTENE, PTFE, SILICA, SYNTHETIC WAX, DIMETHICONE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE (CI 77891), IRON OXIDE (CI 77491).

Pacakaging:

It comes in a beautiful card board packaging which has a pretty lady imprinted on with golden hued hair, which also depicts the shade of the highlighter itself. It appears like they are taking a criminal's mug shot as the little board the lady is handling says charge with being too pretty, too popular. Well I do like this creativity, I wont lie. Inside the highlighter is in a metallic round container with a tight lid that closes with a click and a mirror. It contains 8.5gm of product, which is quite much as compared to what other brands are offering in this price.

Front

Back Side

Back side of container

Arm Swatches

Hand Swatch

Arm Swatch

My views:

I have been using this highlighter from last year and I love it every time I use it. The shade can be described as soft champagne. Its consistency is really finely milled, soft and glides very smoothly on skin too. One of the thing I love the most is it doesn't heighten pores and gives almost air brush finish. Pigmentation is super intense, one swipe is enough to give to goddess like glow, or if you like extra glow (I know Sana does), you can definitely apply more and I am telling you it still would not look too bright or too out of the place if blended properly. I heard some girls saying it looks patchy but I haven't observed anything like this and I believe if you apply it properly, you will be pleased to see the results. It stays 6-8 hours on me during day, thought I really love to apply it on night functions due to radiant glow it gives me. I also enjoy applying it in inner corners of my eyes, cupid bow and brow bone.The packaging is travel friendly and you can toss it in bag without any fear of opening. I will certainly recommend it to everyone as it really compliments Asian skin tones.

Pros:

• Universal shade which really compliments skin tones.
• Easily available through Facebook pages.
• Large pan and travel friendly.
• Minimum to zero fall out.
• Intense pigmentation.

Cons:

• Not locally available.
• A little pricey.

Availability and price: It is available on almost every makeup selling Facebook page now. Its retail price is $24, as on their site

Rating: 4.5/5

With Love, Maria.

Holidays Gift Guide 2015!!

Hey guys :)

  

 Sorry for being MIA lately on our blog. I hope you all are enjoying the change in weather with your teas and dry fruits on your side (tissues too :p ).

  So dolls it's officially the holidays now everywhere in the world and many Brands are showcasing their Holidays collection with different new products and repackaged stuff. Due to this new holiday spirited air in the makeup world, I bundled my passion and came forward with an overview of some of our picks. We are super excited to present you our Holiday Gift Guide, 2015.

 Shopping online or going out to the mall, its always about your own choices and decisions, as everyone has different style and fashion sense. When there are so many new tempting products infront of you to pick, it is always a battle deciding what you should buy.We hope that this overview acts as a guide for you guys if you are flustered by holidays products and want something for yourself. Without further ado lets get started with our picks and guide for you guys:

Mac Extra Dimension Skin Finish:

Mac recently launched their Magic of night collection which I'm sure all of you highlight freaks must know. Lucky I got my hands on both the shades.

Oh Darling: Metallic gold.

Shaft of Gold: Deep bronze.

It was a limited collection so, sold out everywhere. Both the shades retails for $33 each.

Sold out everywhere.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit palette:

I was second most excited for this palette. It includes six shades with one brand new shade called Iridescent Strobe Light, which is a soft pink. Rest of the shades are permanent. This palette retails for $80 and you get to try six shades which is not a bad deal in my opinion. But I wasn't satisfied with the quantity in each pan. Currently not available at sephora.

Becca x Jaclyn hill Champagne glow Palette: 

This palette is exclusive to Sephora and contains three limited Edition shades;

Pearl: (New) Pure white sheen

Champagne pop: Peachy champagne 

Blushed Copper: Warm copper with rosey undertones.

Pearl and Champagne pop will be their permanent shades . 

Palette retails for $34 which is a steal:)

Tarte bling it on blush palette:

I am a huge collector of tarte blushes but buying them separately is not very pocket friendly. So i opted for this palette in addition to their tarte holidaze blush set;) Tarte Amazonian clay 12-hour blush formula is supposed to last for twelve hours.

This decent to good palette retails for $44. And contains five blushes of which three are new.

Fetching: Rose- New

Smashing: Coral pink- New

Beaming: Apricot pink- New

Dollface: Cool pink 

Prim: Plum nude

Tarte At first HOLIDAZE Amazonian clay blush set:

I knew i had to buy this because of their portability plus it tarte:D This set comes with four limited edition shades. 

Ectatic: Nude melon

Epic: Poppy pink

Embellish: Plum rose 

Entertain: Rosy pink.

This set is for $35 but the retail value is $60.

Becca Afterglow cheek Palette:

This palette contains five pans, three of the Becca 's famous highlighters and two of their blushes from their permanent line. 

This is a great way to try out their cheek products. 

Moonstone

Rose gold

Topaz

Wild honey

Flowerchild

Retail value of the palette is $39.50.

Too faced Melted kisses and Sweet cheeks:

Too faced always nails it down with their packaging. But not only their packaging their pigmentation is always on point.

This set from too faced features three of their deluxe melted lipsticks and three co-ordinating deluxe love flush blush.

All three pairs are individually packed in one cute package. Give as one present or spread the love. 

Deluxe melted nude and love hangover.

Deluxe melted peony and justify mu love. 

Deluxe melted fig and your love is king. 

You can buy this set for $36 at sephora.com

Becca glow on the go set:

This set features Beccas famous shimmering skin perfector and shimmering skin perfector in pressed opal. Both deluxe sizes. If you haven't tried opal by Becca. You must give this set a go. 

It retails for $20. Which doesn't hurt your pocket much.

Ladies this is all for now, kindly do let me know in the comment section about which detailed post you are looking forward the most.

Take care. 

Becca x Jaclyn Hill Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed - Champagne Pop - Review and Swatches

   Playing with brands i came across Becca Cosmetics, known famously for their hyped-up products. Recently they launched this baby called " Champagne Pop".This limited edition skin perfector was in collaboration with the YouTube beauty celebrity and makeup artist Jaclyn Hill.
   Champagne Pop did its debut on the 2nd of July at Sephora.com and 16th of July in Sephora Stores.

What it is:

A limited Edition,  Creamy Luminizing Powder to illuminate the face with a soft-pearlized glow.

Read more »