Travel Shop Live

Biggest sale of the year + awesome friend located abroad = drastic reduction in savings. Considering the byproduct is heaps of skincare that lasts at least an year, I have absolutely no complaints😉. I was going to wait until I receive the items, but couldn't resist. My friend had to shuffle the products to accommodate the space and she is kind enough to take some pictures in original packaging to be added in this post😍. Constellation box : Back in September I order a beauty box from Mac which was lost in the post ( that seems to happen often😏). It's even more annoying because my online banking got locked out and I couldn't check if the refund went through😣. So when this constellation box was released with almost similar products, my lovely friend ordered it for me😍. We forgot to take the picture of the contents - I might write another post once I received them. The price of this box is £39. Mac Shiny pretty things : We got more than a little stuck on Mac this time...

And I thought October one is the longest 😅. This might be the longest list empties I had in a month, so long that I wrote this post in parts through the month - hence 2 pics 😄. 1. TBS Argan oil Soap: I probably got this one for free. After a streak of Shea range from TBS, I started with argon oil. I did not find it as moisturizing as Shea, however, the fragrance is quite great. Also, I don't have a very dry skin, so this range suits me very well. I started using Bottega Veneta body wash now and am quite excited about it. 2. Lush Vanishing cream: My friend got this one from Brussels. I didn't notice much of difference while using it, however, after it got over, I didn't start using Caudalie moisturizer as I wanted to start it along with serum and face wash in the kit. Immediately after stopped using Vanishing cream, dry patches around my nose started re-surfacing😒. Thankfully, they are contained with Caudalie, though not completely gone. 3. Rexona roll-on deo: I am...

Few years ago, on the way to Ooty, we passed through Bandipur forest (I didn't know the name at that time) in the early hours, after a long drive, from Bangalore. The route from Bangalore to Ooty made us pass through the forest across 2 states. We are not allowed honk, use camera flashes or get down the vehicle across the forest, however Karnataka part of the forest allows vehicles to stop for a bit and take pics, while in Tamil Nadu part, we can only slow down without stopping (I think taking pics is also not allowed in this part). With sleepy eyes💤, I couldn't fully appreciate the wild elephants with tusks almost touching the ground, dancing peacocks deer herds in the early rays of sun. Since then, my plans to go to Bandipur kept getting postponed. Finally, couple of weeks ago on a Friday evening, when everyone in my family desperately wanted to go on a trip but don't have more than one day to spare, we decided to go to Bandipur. After a quick check on safari timings i...

Before leaving London, in a team farewell party, we talked about what we miss the most about the city - some said security, some said transport and I said food, to everyone's surprise. When I search for strawberries in online grocery sites to find them out of stock or get raw avocados and let them ripe in room temperature for few days only to find them ruined, I think about markets next to our office/home filled with ripe avocados and juicy berries and weep a little😢. So, I felt like writing about the foods I had during my stay in London and wish I could still eat them. Pistachio eclairs:  I used to stop by this tiny patisserie in Canary Wharf, conveniently located in the same building as our office - a tiny counter tucked under an escalator 😊. I liked all their confectioneries, but its the eclairs that I absolutely loved - pistachio cream ones especially. They are fluffy and the cream is just heavenly😇. I don't think any of my future trips to London will end without payi...

There are quite a few things which got emptied last month. In fact, I finished up more products half way through the month than I normally do in an entire month. On the bright side, my friend asked me to make a list of things I want during Christmas sale and I thought I wont have many things to ask but now I do. 1. The body shop drops of youth eye cream: I bought this one during sale from TBS site - they have offers almost as good as in UK. The eye cream is of very thin consistency in a cylindrical bottle with a steel roll on. The cream comes out,with pushing the button next to the outlet, around the steel ball thingy looking like a smiley. The feel of steel is quite soothing while applying. It don't absorb into the skin immediately and takes about 2-3 minutes. I got another one of these and a sample of Kiehls eye cream. I could still add eye cream to list of things I could ask my friend to bring from London. 2. Engage pocket spray: I buy these mostly for its compact ...

Few years ago, I used to have only one lipstick at a given time(simpler times☺️). Even when I started using more than one at a time, they usually are of completely different colors. Then I got across to more brands while I was travelling and I bought what I liked. As a result I ended up with similar colors - 4 out of 6 lipsticks I bought in a span of 6 months are pink (in darker plummy shades😯). So I am back to planning which lipstick to buy next and I am going to categorize by color👩🏻‍🏫. 1. Red: I usually like neutral colors and avoid bright ones, so I don't have any red lipsticks. The closest to red I got is Oh Oh from Sephora which looks muted red sometimes, but sometimes looks like orange. I tried red lipstick from Tom Ford in the Sephora store in Champs Elysee's. I quite liked it but it's too expensive and I already decided on Chanel lipstick which is plummy pink shade🤷🏻‍♀️. I am thinking of getting little Mac in Ruby woo for a while now. I don't know if...

What started as an exercise to improve literary skills and place to store my memoirs 2 years ago (coincidentally on the birthday of my dear friend), became a relaxing activity and a joyful task.  Lately I am only writing once or twice a month and most of those are about empties. While I like these posts, and writing in general, I would like to increase the frequency. Anyway, for last month empties, I got very few products which got finished. However, I have quite a few things to write about them. The Body Shop tea tree oil: My skin is very unpredictable (they say skin reflects health, apparently mine reflects my mind too). I have no idea what provokes a breakout - it stays perfectly fine when I travel to a place with a warm/humid or extremely colder climate from a moderate climate and a bunch of zits pops out when I stay at a same place with same lifestyle for very long time. There are very few products which would help me through breakouts and TBS tea tree oil is one of ...

Most of the products that I emptied last month are hair products. Now, they might seem very easy to finish, but most of them are the ones I don't use very regularly. So, with the exception of shampoo. other products are in use for a very long time. 1. Tressemme keratin smooth heat protection hair spray: I got this so long back when hair sprays were not very easily available in India. I used to avoid hair dryers, however, when the weather gets colder, I couldn't leave my hair wet for long. I remember when Tresemme first got launched in India, I was super excited but also slightly disappointed that their collection didn't include hair sprays. To my disappointment, that didn't happen. Needless to say, I was super happy when I saw this in Boots store and it became my first every hair spray. I still continued using hair dryer sparsely and this one came for almost 2 years. I bought a spray from Toni & Guy to replace this one. 2. Benetint: Another product I which isn...

I am never much of a birthday shopper - I always buy things I need or want whenever I get access to them and for my Birthday usually 1 or 2 dresses. However, this time, there are lots of sales going on and I didn't splurge in a while - i.e., after Brussels shopping through my friend (shopping buddy!!!). Online shopping from various sites and a trip to mall landed the below items to my already unorganized wardrobe. 1. Nykaa: In recent years, I am spending more on skincare/cosmetics than fashion and as a result of numerous purchases from Nykaa I became a Prive member too. Sadly I missed the Mac free lipstick offer by couple of hours 😢, but I still got few others things which I wanted for a while. NYX eye shadow base: this was in my cart on few occasions before but always discarded for some reason. Ironically, one of the reasons for postponing the purchase was the skin tone variant wasn't available and I still opted for white one when I picked it (even though both are avail...

I didn't have any empties in Apr and May. probably due to my hectic schedule. However, in June and July, I finished up quite a few products. 1. Bioderma Sensibo water: My all time favorite - i still remember how surprised I was when I heard that this is used more as a cleanser than a make-up remover. I used to clean my eyes with oil based remover and face with Bioderma and follow with a face wash. Recently I am using it for eyes as well, though for heavy eye make up and waterproof mascara, it might not be sufficient. I got different variants of this product, sebio and hydrobio and currently using Sebio as I am facing severe breakouts. 2. Bath and Body works cashmere glow body wash: I was quite exited to get the set of lotion, spray and wash with same fragrance for the enhanced effects of layering. However, the body wash always gets finished before others as the spray bottle is bigger than other two and I often skip body lotion. I liked Cashmere glow body wash better than Paris...

Recycling is one of the major contributions to help the environment. And when our favorite brands give us goodies in return for certain number of their used containers, its icing on the cake 😁. Here are few brands I came across which includes recycling as rewards program. Lush recycle pots : Lush gives a fresh face mask when 5 empty Lush containers with the recycle logo were returned. I usually go through 4 face masks in the duration of one face wash, which means I get to exchange the pots almost in 3 months - at least when I had access to lush stores 😡. Added bonus is that the free mask comes in a recyclable pot which means I am actually paying for 4 products after the first return. Back-to-Mac : With every 6 primary containers, Mac gives a free lipstick from their permanent range. Now, this is most difficult to avail as I seem to take years to go through a Mac product. Unless I change all my makeup products to Mac, I don't think I could get that free lippie anytime soo...

Past couple of months I have been extremely busy at work and my creativity is kept on hold as I ignored few other things like eating and sleeping. Irregular schedule and complete lack of care soon took a toll on my skin - acne, dullness etc., Then, one fine day, I started re-organizing my stuff and found lot of products which were lying ignored especially the ones I don't use daily and there are quite a few exfoliating products of various categories. They always played a major role in my skin care and I thought they'd be good subject for my come back post. So here's the list of my scrubs Face packs with scrub: I exfoliate my face twice a week i.e., before applying face mask. I prefer the face masks with exfoliation so I can skip a step 😉. I heard so many good things about Avene Cleanance mask which I am yet to start with as I am currently using L'oreal pure clay mask (not very regularly though as I want to complete my jelly mask from Lush which have lesser sh...

Most of the products I used up last month are skin care and I get to open the products my friend got for me from Brussels. Here’s the list with my thoughts: Roots hair treatment: I like this product so so much, I couldn't even think of a replacement. I was using it sparingly, but since my friend got 2 packs for me 😍, I am going full on. Clinique dramatically different moisturizer: I used it before once and didn't like it so much - found it too rich. So, when I got it in travel bag on an offer, I was kinda disappointed. However, either my skin got less oily or I used it differently, I liked it this time. 30 ml pack came almost an year. Now that it's over, I opened vanishing cream from Lush💃. Kiehls midnight recovery eye cream: eye cream is one product I can't review. I never notice any difference, probably that's what it is for 🤔. I am using Clinique eye cream, I was using during day, for night time as well. La rosche Posey BB cream: I was a bit disappoin...

My shopping buddy recently came from Brussels and got me few more products 😍, so thought of continuing my earlier post . Most of them are from Lush - because of their low shelf life, she got them just before her journey 😊. Europe isn’t exactly the best place to buy lush products as they are priced higher than in UK or Australia. However, since I don’t have options, I picked few things I badly wanted. 1. Fresh pharmacy: My favourites are herbalism and angels on bare skin, but I like this one too. Moreover it comes with higher shelf life and I finally got the lush tin. BTW the tin is not priced higher in Belgium 🤔. 2. Birth of Venus Jelly face mask: jelly face masks are new addition of Lush. Though  nothing comes close to fresh face masks of Lush, this is quite decent replacement and, of course, with higher shelf life. It’s bit tricky to apply and I didn’t get it right the first time. But after watching couple of videos, I could easily apply. It gives almost same squeaky ...

Recently, on a Sunday evening, I sat with my nail files, buff and the almond cuticle oil from TBS . After pampering my hands and nails a bit, I applied the nail polish from Essence. I don't know if it is because of the other products, but I noticed that the polish stayed quite almost for a week without chipping. I always kind of ignored Essence nail polish - even though I quite liked their collection of colors and the gel finish, my love for Essie overshadowed Essence. It's not a fair comparison, considering the huge price difference. However, the fact that I even thought of them together says something about the quality of Essence polishes🤓. As the number of bottles from Essence increased in my stash, I thought of writing about them. The gel polishes : 48 my love diary: This is my first nail polish from Essence (actually second, but I gave the first one to my teammate). I got it around the same time I bought my first Essie polish. The color is quite good and the gel ...

I thought of combining Feb and Mar empties as the products, I thought I would use up, still got enough content for few more uses. It would have been disappointing, considering that I finished up a lipstick and am super excited to write about it 😁. Then, in the last week of Feb, few other products got emptied unexpectedly 💃 and I get to write this post. 1. Bobbi Brown lipstick in soft rose: there are very few things which makes me feel excited and finishing up a lipstick is slowly but surely making it to the list. I'm extra glad because I am not super impressed with this lippy, which was sad as I waited like forever to get a lipstick from Bobbi Brown. When they finally launched in India, only one store was opened in Delhi - it only made me extra frustrated, so close yet far enough to be unreachable😥. So​ when my friend was visiting Delhi, this is the only thing I asked for. I normally don't buy lipsticks without trying them out, but I couldn't pass up on this opport...

I officially promoted my shopping buddy to soul sister!!!😘😋 My sweet friend did quite a bit of shopping for me during the sale season and few weeks ago, I received the huge bag sent from her😍. So I have to make a list of things I want from Europe and here it is with the reasons why they made it to the list. French pharmacy : Obviously, the first thing that I browsed for is french pharmacy🤓. Bioderma - micellar water : This cult favorite needs no introduction - they are used by many makeup artists and enjoy a huge following in the make-up world. I already bought a 250 ml bottle, so only asked for the minis and of different variants other than my regular sensibo. However, she got 500ml bottles of sensibo on sale and picked one for me too (that's why she is the best shopping buddy😁). Caudalie beauty elixir and vinosource : when I picked few products from Caudalie in Paris, I didn't know about that brand😮. But when I was making the list, their vinosource products a...