Back With a Bang (Hopefully) :D

Asalaam O Alaikum people,

Hope you all been good.

It has been ages since I posted anything.The purpose for this blog was to focus on various aspects of beauty in our lives. It may be make-up, skin-care, nature, art or books. Beauty is not fixed in just one thing hence the name of my blog. I started off focusing just on the physical beauty aspect and began losing interest soon enough. Taking pictures etc.. is not really my strong point and neither do I use these things often enough to give a precise review on their lasting, finish etc.. since I rarely stick to the norm (not that I am successful in pulling that off either). Plus life happened. 

Anyways... Now I am back with my primary passion which is the beauty of books, the storytelling, the passion, the world-building, the magnificent characters and how they speak to us. There is something for everyone, hopefully. I will try to be regular, considering how lazy I am (yea yea.. I know), I will also try adding some beauty, nature and art bits too. 

The reviews will be mine and mine only. Entirely honest (I will be pulling my punches though... It is much easier to criticize badly when we are not the ones writing or making something and since I am trying my hand at writing, I know how tough and heartbreaking it can be when someone is harsh regardless of your feelings...)

If you like my style, you are welcome to stay, read and comment to tell me. I would love to hear from all of you.

p.s. Crazy that I am, I got two blogs by the same name and content.

https://unlikelybeautyblogger.blogspot.com

https://unlikelybeautyblogger.wordpress.com

Many reasons for that but the main is; for the time being Goodreads is only supporting Wordpress for auto review publishing and I got more followers here. On the other hand I love love love my template and interface on the blogspot and totally do not want to give it away. So up to you to follow whichever one you like or are comfortable with. I will be doing both for the time being and pulling my hair out at the same time (*facepalm*)

Neutrogena Healthy Defense Daily Moisturizer

As-salaam O Alaikum girls!

How are you all doing today? How was the long weekend and Eid? Had loads of meaty food or just mingling with friends and family?

My first day was very tiring and next two days I was just sleeping. Wanted to do an EOTD but I forgot to take the pics when I got ready. I did take a couple when we were back at night but not as good as freshly done make-up. I just might post it. Lets see.

For today I would like to continue the review on Neutrogena Healthy Defense daily moisturizer which as I mentioned in my previous post, got it as a freebie with Neutrogena Wave during its promotion sales.

Have you guys ever used Neutrogena moisturizers? I had used one before and it was a huge disappointment. This was Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisture which came in a bottle. I am posting the picture of the bottle and a swatch of the moisturizer.

Nope I did take this swatch on my hand. The reason being, all Neutrogena moisturizers have a strong smell. I do not know how to describe it. Something like baby powderish I guess. It stays all day long. The smell I get used to when it is one the face but hands is another matter. Anyways, this particular moisturizer did not suit me at all. It left me greasy everytime I put it on whether my skin is oily or dry (I have combination, extremely oily and greasy in summers while very dry in winters, same areas.) It felt heavy and honestly my face looked dirty whenever I put it on making blackheads visible etc. Due to this I was not very keen on trying the new moisturizer but then I thought why not give it a try. I am sooo glad I did. First take a look at the box, ingredients etc and then I will tell you my opinion (sorry about the picture quality.. usually I find time at night to do this stuff soo pictures are accordingly and I do not have a really good camera.)

Like the previous one, this moisturizer also has a strong smell to it but am willing to put up with it because it is really nice. I used it in summers and it hardly felt greasy. In fact it easily blended in leaving a satiny look. I usually just apply setting powder on my face to minimize sweaty oily look when in a hurry. It works great under foundations too. Making the foundation application easy. In winters it made my dry patches a little more patchy so I put on more then regular amount to moisturize them. It has spf 30 using Helioplex protection which is a plus especially for the summers. I found the following description of Helioplex on wikipedia:

Helioplex is a formulation of broad-spectrum ultraviolet (UVA and UVB) skin protection containing avobenzone and oxybenzone made by Neutrogena.

Avobenzone-containing products have decreasing efficiency after a few hours of sun exposure, but the addition of oxybenzone reduces the amount of degradation that occurs.^[1]

Aveeno advertises its products using this formulation under a different name of "Active Photobarrier Complex."

Interesting huh? To read more about what it says on the box itself, try enlarging the picture. I tried my best to make it readable. A very small amount is enough for the whole face. If you put on a lot, yes it will make the face look greasy after a while.

Would I recommend it? Yes except for girls with very dry skin. Will I buy it again? Since I rarely go out in the sun so my tube is still half full but when I run out, yep I will definately buy it again unless something better comes along. ;) It is also non-comodogenic so it will be suitable for acne prone skin. Suited me at least. I think this is easily available in stores which carry Neutrogena brand.

If you have already used it or heard about it do let me know. I would love to hear from you all. It is getting a bit boring talking to myself. Don't you think? *winks*

Till my next post..

Take care!

Neutrogena Wave

As-salaam O Alaikum all you lovely girls out there,

How was your day? Busy doing last minute chand raat shopping or already celebrated Eid in your country?

I was planning on doing this post last night but for some reason my internet went nuts and stopped working so I gave up. And today I was so busy with house-work and needing to get the groceries in for Eid that I did not get time. In fact I wanted to put on mehndi right now but feel too tired to do it. :(

Anyway today's post is on Neutrogena Wave. It is an original vibrating power cleanser. I got it last year when there was a Neutrogena deal going on. They were giving Neutrogena Wave with a new launch at that time, Neutrogena Healthy Defense daily moisturizer with helioplex.

I will be reviewing Neutrogena Healthy Defense in a separate post. Now about the wave. They say, "Wave hello to softer skin!". According to the cover, this cleanser is clinically proven to be superior to regular cleansing in 2 ways:

• Gentle vibrations clean your skin about 10 times deeper to remove oil, dirt and make-up.
• It also smoothes away dead skin cells, leaving your skin softer and smoother.

Further more they also claim this cleanser to be so gentle, you can use it daily. Does it do all that? Well first check the pictures and all that the box has to say before I move on to my opinion.

Removable lid on which the foaming pad is attached.

Close-up of the lid

The first time I used it, my skin felt smoother but very tight and stretchy. I have combination skin which get very dry in winters and those same areas are greasy and oily in summers. Since I was trying this in winters, I thought it might be because of my skin. I did not use it daily but occasionally. Then came the humid weather and I tried it again. Pretty much same effect but slightly less stretchy feeling. Did it help with dead skin, black & white heads? Not exactly. May be if I used daily for a month but I doubt it. I did use daily for several days then I switched to alternate days. Another reason might be that in the stores here, I could only find Deep Cleansing Foaming Pads and not the other two specified in the brochure: Gentle Exfoliating Pads and Shine-free Blemish-free Pads, which I feel would have been more suitable for the problem I was facing at that time. I did find them on Just4Girls.pk but the price was a tab bit more then I wanted to spend on them.

Now I have the machine, I sometimes deep cleanse and keep an eye out for the other types of pads being available here in Pakistan. Till then I make do with this. It does help clean up a bit when the skin feels too dirty and greasy. It also does make the skin feel smoother and a tad bit softer. Do try it out. It might be more effective on your skin then mine but I would not recommend this to girls with too dry skin. I got it for around 1300 PKR last year. It might be a bit cheaper now.. or may be not. This is available in Hyperstar in Dolmen City Mall. I got it from Forum. Not sure about other places but am pretty sure it will be available. It is a long term investment. *winks*

If you already have used it, let me know what you think of this product.

Till next time.. Have a very nice meaty Eid..

Take care..