Laura Mercier Holiday Caviar stick Eye Colour Collection. Review and Swatches

I had been drooling over the Laura Mercier Caviar sticks for some time at Debenhams, but couldn't justify a purchase of AED 138 for just one colour of eye shadow. Well...I would have given in if I hadn't come across the holiday caviar stick collection at Sephora.
Laura Mercier releases a holiday Caviar stick collection every year. The Caviar sticks are cream eye shadows in pencil form. This set contains four  caviar sticks, two metallic and two mattes. Rose gold, Amethyst, Aubergine and Tuxedo.
This year they are packaged in a festive, metallic leopard print box.

The Caviar stick formula is smooth and pigmented. The formula easily blends out before it sets and is long wearing, with most shades giving a wear time of 6 o 8 hours.

The set is of pretty good value as it gives 4 minis for AED 138. The caviar sticks are easy to wear especially if you are in a hurry or travelling. They're easy to fit into your makeup bag finish your eyes on the run. Plus the formula is easily blended out with your fingers so no brushes required.

 Rose gold: The Laura Mercier Rose Gold Caviar stick is a medium gold with warm undertones and a soft sheen. This was a colour which I thought wouldn't show up easily on me,as it is too close to y skin tone, but it gives a beautiful highlight on the eyes. It is buildable and the light gold colour compliments all skin tones.

Amethyst: A medium bronze-taupe with a red undertone and a  metallic sheen. It was highly pigmented in one swipe, with a creamy texture that wore well upto 8 hours. 

Aubergine: Aubergine caviar stick is a dark plum  with a matte finish, and highly pigmented in one swipe.

Tuxedo: Matte black with a cooler undertone and a creamy texture.

The Laura Mercier Caviar stick collection is easy to use and very handy when you're in a hurry or have whining kids twisting around your ankles!
Have you tried the Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks? What's your favourite shade?

Pinterest hacks tested. What worked? What didn't?

If you're like me, you probably have a zillion pins saved on your Pinterest hoping that one day, you will get around to doing them. From household hacks and recipes to edible playdoh and paintings, I have a million Pins, but barely time to try them out, a million other ones that I just plain forget when I do have the time. 
Why not read a nice book when you do have some peace and quiet?
Then there are Pinterest dupes for make up, especially the incredibly hard to get dupes for the Kylie Jenner lipsticks and there are beauty hacks which can save you a lot of money. Why not make a home made mask with all natural ingredients instead of wasting money at salon products?
Problem is, most of them don't work the way you want them to. At the end of the day it becomes a waste of time, and even worse , a waste of food, which might just end up irritating your skin.
So I wasted my time, so you don,t have to and tested out some Pinterest hacks for you.

Read on to find out what worked!

Strawberry face masks for acne:
So after the baby, my hormones decided to take their revenge on my skin. I started getting huge, painful pimples which would refuse to go away! and when they did, there was another painful bump already starting. My skin was dry and scaly with zits errupting everywhere. Nothing was working. No ointments, not toothpaste, nothing! The acne treatments started to irritate my skin making it worse, to the point that it was reacting with big angry bumps even if I applied moisturizers.
In desperation, I turned to google, hoping that natural ingredients would work where store bought, or dermatologist recommended medicines weren't working.
I came across this strawberry mask which worked wonderfully! It soothed my irritated skin, calmed down the angry zits, and within a week my face started looking like mine, instead of a spotty red sponge which was my face at that particular time.

This mask is quick and easy to make, and the best part about it is that it gives instantaneous results.

 Ingredients:

1) Strawberries
2) Raw Honey
3) Lemon juice

Method:
1) Mash the strawberries up with a fork.
2) Add 1/2 tsp raw honey.
3) Add the lemon juice.
4) Apply this on a clean dry face, and leave for a minimum of 30 minutes. Rinse off and follow with your favourite moisturizer.

This mask works best when prepared freshly. I have frozen it up to 3 days, but the efficacy decreases when frozen. Make sure you use natural raw honey as the antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties of honey are rendered ineffective during processing.

This is one of the best natural masks for skin.
Strawberries are extensively used to manufacture beauty prodeucts, but in the commercial industry, only a small percentage of strawberries are used. Strawberries are rich in Alpha Hydroxyl acids, Vitamin C, Salicylic acid and folate.

Alpha hydroxyl acids: Also known as AHA. AHAs are great exfoliators, which increase blood flow to the skin, resulting in a decrease of fine lines and wrinkles. They also lighten dark spots and decrease acne and black heads production.
They are found in apples, citrus fruits and sour milk.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C contains L-Ascorbic Acid, which acts as an anti aging agent, helping to create younger looking, firmer skin as well as decreasing the effects of the environment on the skin and helps to even out the skin tone.

Salicylic acid: Fights acne. Helps fades acne scars and blemishes.

Folate: Helps in cell regeneration.

Lemon juice is a natural astringent and helps absorb the excess oil on the skin surface. It also helps to kill acne causing bacteria and lightens blemishes and acne spot. Talk about miracle ingredients in one!

Honey is a great moisturizer and skin brightener with antiseptic properties.

Do leave a comment if you tried this. This mask works wonderfully for me, but I'd love to know your comments on this. 
The only drawback for this mask is that it drips! So you need to lie down and can not go about doing your work, but I believe we can sacrifice 30 minutes from our busy lives to ourselves?

This is one Pinterest hack I give 5 stars!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Baking soda for dark circles:

Have you seen how many baking soda hacks are making rounds on every single social media page? From Pinterest to Facebook, we have baking soda being used for cleaning floors and unclogging drains (That one didn't work, by the way. There's an entire can of baking soda and vinegar down my drain...humph!) Then come the baking soda beauty hacks, for teeth whitening, blackheads removing and the one that intrigued me the most, dark circles! After weeks of entertaining guests, severe bouts of flu and a year of sleepless nights, thanks to the baby who still doesn't want to sleep in his bed, I have giant dark circles and look like a raccoon. So this was one hack that I just had to try out.

So, the lady said that all I had to do was soak a couple of cotton balls in a mixture of warm water and baking soda, and leave them on my eyes for 15 minutes every day for a week.
I carried this out every single day for 7 days. 
The first day I left it on for 15 minutes, but since that didn't make much of a difference, I started doing this for 30 minutes.
After a couple of days I did notice a difference in the dark circles as soon as I removed the cotton balls. My under eyes were definitely brighter and the dark circles had definitely lessened. However, after a few hours the eyes would return to their original condition, and the dark circles were still there after 7 days.

So, I believe this remedy does work temporarily. If you need to look your best, this 15 minute remedy does work and brightens the under eyes for a few hours, but the effects faded on me after a few hours. So this would be a good temporary option for a party . Baking soda is quite drying on the skin so, do remember to use a good eye moisturizer after this treatment.

Maybe it will work on  you if you get more sleep than I do. Please do let me know if it works for you. So, though this didnt work perfectly, it wasn't a complete bust. I would give this hack 3 stars. ⭐⭐⭐


Home made sugar lip scrub!

My lips are always incredibly dry and flaky. I go through lip balms, like people go through hand washes. But, the miser in me, (who normally is hibernating shamelessly, but pops up now and then.) refuses to buy lipscrubs. So when I saw this hack on Huda Beauty I couldn't resist. It's so easy to make, with ingredients you already have in your kitchen, plus it's cheap and lasts for ages!

What you need is

1)1 tsp Vaseline
2) 1/2 tsp Olive oil
3)Lip balm (optional)
4) 1/2 tsp sugar
5)1/2 tsp salt.

Take an empty container and mix all the ingredients together. I used a saved baby food jar. You can omit the lip balm if you don't have it. It only gives the scrub a nice bright colour.

The first time I made this, I picked up Almond oil by mistake instead of Olive oil, and it worked perfectly.
Salt and sugar act as fine exfoliants while, the vaseline, lip balm and olive oil nourishes and moisturizes the lips.
This can be stored upto 6 to 8 months, though you'll probably run out of it sooner.
Why waste money on an expensive lip scrub, when a perfectly high quality one can be made at home in approximately 5 minutes???

And that is the end of my Pinterest hacks, though I do have a Volume 2 coming up. I have been using the lip scrub and strawberry mask for a year now. So these have been my favourite Pins.
Do let me know if there are more Pins you want me to try out?

#Pinterest #makeupdupes #hacks #skincare #acne