OOTD: 21 Weeks Pregnant + Baby Gender Predictions

Firstly, this is an old dress that I don't like and never wear. It's made of those thin t-shirt fabrics that reveal what type of chaddi (underwear) you're wearing. Why did I buy it then? Well, it was on sale at this store in Kuala Lumpur called Nichii. I think 50-70% off, so we don't think twice in those situations - no, we don't. I wore it here coz it's clingy enough to show the bump properly, but it's not too tight & suffocating like my bodycon dresses.

And before people get started on the high heels, *rolls eyes*, I don't walk in them. They're just for pictures. Actually, heels that aren't too high are said to be better for your back and spine. I myself feel more comfy in kitten heels than ballet flats. Of course when your tummy gets bigger, heels may not be able to keep your body in balance. That's just common sense.

So on to baby gender talk! I'm no Ross Gellar, I would definitely want to know the gender of my baby beforehand. I had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago, and it took all my willpower to not ask the Radiologist (You can't ask, you'd have signed a legal document beforehand). Tell me, tell me, woman! I gots to know! Ooh....look, I'll give you this lipstick!

*For Non-Indian readers: Pre-natal sex determination is illegal in India, because.....oh, you can google the details. I don't want to talk about backward people.

 Below are some of the Old Wives' Tales on how to tell if you're carrying a Boy or a Girl. Some I've heard of before, some that I dug up online:

May Favorites ~ Beauty, Etc

It feels like just yesterday I was making my 'Birthday Wishlist', now the month is coming to an end, and that wishlist half-fulfilled. Still grateful & I'm looking forward to the rest of the year....and making new & modified wishlists! ;)

Here are my beauty & other favorites from this May ......

MAC Maleficent Collection India Launch Date

Mysterious, magnificent and much misunderstood – Disney’s most iconic villain, brought to life this  summer in the epic new film, “Maleficent,” inspires a limited-edition colour collection in specially designed packaging to delight the most demanding of dark sorceresses. Intensely admired for her evil elegance, despite her efforts to instill fear in the hearts of generations, this icon casts a spell of absolute adoration with sensuous shades for eyes, face, lips and nails  so wickedly gorgeous, who needs beauty sleep?

“Maleficent,” the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from “Sleeping Beauty,” reveals the events  that hardened Maleficent’s heart and drove her to curse the baby, Aurora. The film stars Angelina Jolie and  opens in theaters this summer.

LIPSTICK

TRUE LOVE’S KISS clean bright red (amplified)

INR: 1,350

WIN it! Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm 'Unapologetic' [CLOSED]

Hello! It's Giveaway month/time here on IVC, and here's the 1st one. 

I have 2 Revlon Colorburst Matte Balms in the most sought-after shade - Unapologetic, and I'm sending one of them to 1 lucky reader of my blog. I have swatched & worn this shade HERE

About this Giveaway:

- This Giveaway is open to Indian Residents ONLY.  

*To those outside India: Don't worry, another giveaway will be open worldwide.

- Ends a week from today.

- Winner will be announced shortly after that & will be contacted via email.

- Lipstick is brand new, sealed & unopened.

Birthday Pics & Haul

Hi everyone, Happy Sunday! I don't usually blog on Sundays, but this post was supposed to be up on Friday! I don't know what happened. Thursday the 22nd was my birthday, and this is the outfit I did not wear....haha....only because it was a lil' too formal for shopping. In addition to that, it felt too tight around the waist part! You may not see the baby bump here, but boy I couldn't breathe! I wasn't feeling that great to be clicking a OOTD, but I wanted to click some pics with Mr.CZ, so I decided to quickly click a few singles.

Dress:Forever New

Belt: Jane Norman

Shoes: ZARA (shown properly here)

Bag: Floozie

Watch: Fossil

Nails: The Face Shop Lovely ME:EX Nails PK109 (shown here)

I didn't have time to click pics of my final outfit, but below is an Instagram pic in the car....

Skirt: Topshop (worn here) I wore it with a Lipsy top. After dinner, they also felt too tight! I had to unzip my skirt while sitting in the car =D

Bag: Warehouse

Shoes: Vincci slip-ons with kitten heels (shown in video below)

My birthday cake. I was dying to have pineapple cake. People say you're not supposed to have pineapple when you're pregnant, but my Doc said it's fine to eat after the 1st Trimester.

Yes, I made a special wish ;)

I got some pink carnations & coral roses (I asked for 6 roses, but seller mistakenly packed 5). They dried up in 2 days, because of this hot weather (or maybe I didn't cut the stems right?), and now I don't feel like buying fresh flowers anymore! =\

Had dinner at Nandos in Cyber Hub. I had 1/4 Chicken (Extra Hot) with Spicy Rice, Portuguese Salad & Tea (yup, no wonder I had to unzip my skirt!) Mr.CZ had a burger.

After that, we went to Hard Rock Cafe. Loved the music there & I had one big glass of Virgin Bloody Mary. Here's an Instagram video I posted that day....

Haul:

 Clockwise:

Forever New Kyla Ponte & Lace Yoke Dress

Zara Dress With Slit Shoulders Yellow

Forever New Joselyn Lace Yoke Applique Shirt

Zara Draped Skirt

Forever New Corrine Chain Jewelled Belt

Forever New Pure Bow Hair Clip

 

♥

So...ya, my clothes are too tight, and high heels aren't comfortable for long anymore.

It is going to be a magical time! =D

Thank You for reading all, talk again soon!

L♥ve,

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Aishwarya Rai's Cannes 2014 Red Lipstick ~ It is.....

She is the talk of the town after her first appearance at the Cannes Film Festival 2014. Forget the Roberto Cavalli gown! My eyes didn't even travel down when I first saw her. Even now I don't really know what the cut is like. Her face, hair & makeup were what made her look....especially the red lips!

When the lipstick isn't blotted, it looks a little bit balmy like here & in the pic below.....

A Day At INGLOT

I have a vivid memory of one shopping trip I had at Debenhams in Dundee (Scotland). I was at the YSL counter- lost in lipstick swatching, and then I heard 2 women chatting with the (my) YSL SA about 3 feet from where I was standing: "........from INGLOT.......yes......for my engagement......so good.....hehe....." Suddenly my mind was *alert* and I looked up. The 2 women were of Indian or Middle Eastern origin, I wasn't sure. From what I understood, one of them just got engaged & the wedding date was approaching. I struggled with a thought- Should I? Interrupt them like a nosy person? Nah, I shouldn't. I'll just google. Ahh....I gots to know!

I walked towards them & pretended to ask the YSL SA something about the lipstick I was holding, and then I casually added: "Inglot is here in Dundee?" Luckily, I didn't get weird/annoyed looks. They told me it's only in Aberdeen, another small city about 1 hour away from Dundee.

The point of my story is, not many cities are lucky enough to have Inglot. In India, it is available in about 8 cities! It's not a store you can live without once you've had a taste (bite?) of it.

I had gone to the store in Select City Walk Mall (New Delhi) last Friday, and had such a fun time customizing palettes and oggling at all the nail polishes (My God, I want them ALL!!!) Just wanted to share the pics I took inside the store.....

Inglot Berry Collection

Now Reading (Without Jimmy Choo).....

The book that inspired my Lipstick Ban (no more lipstick shopping all year) I talked about on my beauty blog HERE. Need I say more about it's efficacy? ;)

Shoo, Jimmy Choo! The Modern Girl's Guide to Spending Less and Saving More.

By: Catey Hill

Money Editor of nydailynews.com and Recovering Shoe Addict.

Bargain Pretty Summer Nail Polishes

I'd been wearing only one pink nail polish for months (Bourjois So Laque Rose Imaginaire), because I still don't have my small stash of nail polishes with me. They were in a box we left at the in-laws. As I was painting my nails with now-tacky Rose Imaginaire on Thursday night, I felt very angry! I can't live like this! Apply sticky nail polish that should've been chucked already.... Oh no! I shouldn't have brushed the center again!

So on Friday, I went home with 6 new nail polishes. 3 of them are from The Face Shop Lovely ME:EX Nails collection: Shades I'm so into these days, cute bottles, even cuter price......

PK102, GR501, PK109

I Transform Into A Pop Star | I Transform Series Look #1

*** AMETHYST'S New Album, eccentric, is out now! Hope you'll go out and BUY it! ;) ***

Welcome to the first post of a new series I'm doing! Been planning to start this for over 2 months. This one wasn't supposed to be the 1st look, but it just happened, since I did the glittery purple eyes, so I went with it. More about the series at the end of this post. For now, I'm a purple-haired Pop + R&B Star named AMETHYST (real name, not just stage name)........

Purple Glitter Eye Makeup Tutorial

Pink Glitter 'Vs' Purple Glitter = Purple got the most votes (here). So here is the tutorial....finally!

I apologize for the delay. This is the 2nd time I did this pictorial - because I didn't like the first one too much & also, I kept searching for my Inglot Duraline to use with the glitter, hoping I'd find it, only to realize I'd sold it off in a Blog Sale! So I had to go old school, so as not to delay it any further.

STEP 1: After priming lids with an eyeshadow primer, apply purple eyeshadow on lids up to your crease line.

STEP 2: Also apply purple e/s on outer half of lower lash line.

STEP 3: Take some pink e/s on a blending brush, and sweep it along the edges of the purple e/s in a window wiper motion. Run the brush along the purple line on lower lash line as well. Blending tutorial here.

STEP 4: With a pointy pencil brush, apply a brown e/s on the outer V of upper lid.

STEP 5: Shade inside the V. Take more brown e/s to intensify the color.

STEP 6: With the same pencil brush, take a lilttle bit of matte black e/s, and make a V along the inner edges of the previous brown e/s. Just a little to define the crease line a little bit more (especially if you don't have a deep crease line), coz we don't black to overpower the other colors.

STEP 7: It should look something like that.

Lipstick BAN!

Phew. 

I feel like I'd been running. 

My heart - it's beating a mile a minute. 

I can do this. 

It's not like I'm doing something scary.

Like, bungee jumping....

or giving a Walking Dead walker a makeover!

It's a good thing. 

I have a good feeling about it.

I feel rich already!  

Maybe I'll buy an IPL team one day.

I know nothing about Cricket, but still.

I'll sit near the field... wearing a white hat with black sunglasses & MAC Ruby Woo.

Very Jacqueline Kennedy - with a modern touch.

Virat Kohli, Nita Ambani, Preity Zinta & Shahrukh Khan will cordially wave hello.

Maybe Forbes will.....

Oh, stop it!

Hello, my fellow lipstick lovers! I'll just rip the band-aid off real quick and say it. I'M BANNING LIPSTICK SHOPPING. Meaning: I will not be buying lipsticks & lip glosses anymore....this year.

Reason for Lipstick Ban: Because I'm looking at bigger things (not IPL team), and I want to start saving. I have a fairly addictive personality, and I hoard quite a lot of things - not just makeup & shoes. Right now, it's furniture & home stuff. So, I feel I need to cut back somewhere. After a lot of pondering and making a number of wretched faces, it's lipsticks that didn't get cancelled out from the list of options. Oh, I'm also reading a book about spending less...taking a good look at where your money goes....how little things add up....blah blah blah. I've only read a few pages, but it has made me feel guilty already.

Just to give an idea of the how things add up part, let's take a look at how much have already gone to lipsticks this year - from the month of January to April only:

 MAC Lipstick- Rs.990
MAC Lipstick - Rs.990
Lancome Lipstick- Rs.1750
Revlon Lipstick - Rs.800

Revlon Lipstick - Rs.800
Revlon Lipstick - Rs.800

Bourjois Lipstick - Rs.995
Maybelline Lip Gloss - Rs.350

Total = Rs.7475.

8 lipsticks in 4 months, which makes it 2 lipsticks per month. If I go at the same rate (possibly more, judging by my MAC & YSL lipstick wishlist), I'll be saving roughly over.....Okay, I'll stop now. We don't really talk about money here. And honestly, we don't really know how to calculate.

Ban Duration:  Till Christmas, or sometime next year. Yes, I'm that serious.

When does it start? Already started. BUT I will - I should - allow myself to buy one to tw---three lipsticks that have long been on my wishlist for my birthday this month. This was a sudden decision, and I never had that last drink! So, it'll officially start from June.

Update: When it's over, I will write a post on how this ban changed my life - if it did.

If you would like to join me in this, then every week we'll take out 3-5 lipsticks that we'll use that week. This way, we show some love to all those lipsticks that we shove to the corner of the drawer because we keep buying new ones.

I'll be picking 5 lipsticks from my stash every week and post pics on my Instagram. I'll try not to cheat & stick to the ones I've picked.

I hope this BAN will inspire you in some way. If not to stop buying stuff and saving, then maybe to make that small change in your life that you have been thinking about.

Good Luck to us all! =D

Latest post on my 2nd blog, CZloves:

To read, click on pic or HERE

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Unboxing Mail....

Like A Boss.

Have you met my Nici Lion? Mr.CZ gifted him to me years ago, and now he lives in my room. He looks so relaxed & lazy with his wobbly legs when I lay him on the rug, that he reminds me of myself these days =D

Today, I sat with him & we unboxed some goodies that came in the mail.

The Body Shop Strawberry Range ~ Body Butter, Shower Gel & Body Mist.

Maybelline Colossal Box ~ A cute 3-tier box with some Colossal products.

Blonde Wig & Weaving Cap from Ebay ~ Waited weeks for this!

♥

Have A Good Day, Everyone! =)

Thank You for reading & talk again soon.

L♥ve,

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Lakmé Brown Eyeconic Kajal

After the success of the Black Eyeconic Kajal (I did a post on it here), Lakmé  launched 5 more shades - Brown, White, Green, Grey & Blue. Brown pencil liners are my ultimate must-haves, so I couldn't wait to try this one!

Claims: No Smudge, Waterproof, Lasts for 10 hours.

Lakmé Brown Eyeconic Kajal Swatch

The Good:
It is not soft like a kohl pencil, so it's quite matte. This makes it really smudge-proof & long-lasting. When you wear it on your top lash line, it won't transfer on to your lids (you ladies with hooded lids know what I'm talking about)

It could also work as an eyebrow pencil if dark brows suit you.

The Bad:

Because it is not soft, it doesn't glide on your waterline easily. I have to draw a few times for the brown to transfer.

The texture can feel a bit too stiff for the delicate eye areas, like the waterline. The other day, I had that uneasy feeling of 'something-is-in-my-eye', which lasted a while.

In Short: 

Good on lash line.

Not So Good on waterline & inner rims.

It's not a product I'd want to buy again, but it's a decent budget liner. In this price range, there's really not a lot of options when it comes to brown eye pencils here in India. So, if I ever have to suggest one that's under 300 bucks to a friend or a student on a budget, this will most probably be it.

Price ~ Rs.250.

My Rating:

3/5

Have you all tried this? Would love to know your favorite brown pencil liner!

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Great Discoveries From Deborah Milano ~ Haul & Swatches

Hi, everyone! Hope you're all doing well. I went to Lifestyle yesterday, and after rounding almost every makeup counter, I ended up in Deborah Milano and I didn't want to move on to another counter....or come back home, for that matter. I was so impressed with the unique products they have launched! In my fantasy land, I walked flew out of the store (glitter wings & tiara, of course!) with more than 10 products. But in my real land, I walked out (like a duck in my ballet flats) with 3.....

My 10 Summer Must-Haves

We've started turning on the air conditioners, which means summer is officially here. I used to complain about Delhi summers, until I lived in the UK. There, I would look at the gloomy weather, frequently accompanied by rain, and I'd think to myself 'I'll take the scorching heat, but with bright & cheery skies, in Delhi over this any day.'  I find gloomy weather very depressing! Once, in Newcastle, Mr.CZ called me up, and he told me that our one & only umbrella was attacked by the wind and it had turned inside-out. It wouldn't go back to it's normal shape, no matter how much he tried to fix it, so he threw it on the side of the road and walked back in the rain! =D

Like most of you ladies reading this, I have an endless list of summer must-haves, so I  picked just a few colorful pieces today:

Outfit ~ Red Lace Dress

Something happened today:

So I was alone in the bathroom brushing my teeth at around 7:30 in the evening. The water was running, I rinsed.....and just when I was turning off the tap.....I hear a sound....like a baby talking...."Uhh....." You know, like baby gibberish. I shut the tap off, and looked around the bathroom. Silence. Eerie silence. I tried hard not to feel panicky, coz I'm 16 weeks pregnant. I rushed out & called out to husband, who was in the living room.

{Story to be continued at the end of this post.}

If you're familiar with the brand Three Floor, you may have seen a dress exactly like this. But this costs much less. I just love the design & the fit. I didn't know this when I picked it, but there's actually a nude-colored lining under the lace parts - except the sleeves.

 

NEW! The Body Shop Blueberry Range

Made from cold-pressed blueberry seed oil, and Community Fair Trade Shea butter and cocoa butter from Ghana, the range is rich in vitamin E and essential fatty acids that nourish and hydrate your skin, while softening, protecting and smoothing it.

The fruity fragrance is the perfect icing on top that will leave your skin smelling like fresh blueberries!

 

Blueberry Body Butter, Price Rs.1195 : An intensive, creamy all-over body moisturizer with a fruity blueberry fragrance that absorbs easily into the skin, to condition, soften and help prevent dryness.

 Blueberry Body Lotion, Price Rs. 695 : A light lotion that leaves silky smooth.