©BlackandWhiteandWise Literally taken in my bedroom. Spur of the moment decision when I realized the lighting in my room became kind of dramatic (monsoon season yas)

©BlackandWhiteandWise Took this picture at my dad's office's opening ceremony. Everyone was dressed up in Indian Attire. The chief guest cut the ribbon and was given a bouquet of flowers as a gift.

©BlackandWhiteandWise Taken of my brother as he waited to be hit by the tides of Miami Beach last year.

©BlackandWhiteandWise Self Portrait by that same window because dramatic af

©BlackandWhiteandWise This candid picture was taken of my friend on New Years Eve 2016. We (friends) were dressed up to do a photoshoot and I clicked this actual candid (it wasn't faked, I swear). Quality is not as good as the other pictures due to some unknown reasons and maybe because the artificial lighting was not good enough to trick the camera into thinking it was daytime.

Like a lot of people, I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and the Internet in general. I read on a couple of occasions that people were using Petroleum Jelly on their eyelids to make their eyelashes grow and I was intrigued.

Faces Cosmetics is a Canadian Makeup Brand which (as far as I know) sells mainly in Canada, Mexico, Quebec, India and I think even Honduras.

Faces is pretty famous in India too, maybe not as much as Revlon, Loreal, and Maybelline, but you still see the Faces stall with the others in the mall and there are quite a lot of proper stores in malls too. Faces is a bit more affordable than Revlon (there might be products that are an exception) for the most part and the brand has a decent price range.

Though I don't own all Faces products that are available in India, I do own a lot. I'm only going to review products that I believe are worth the bucks. (But as a heads up, some products that I'm not a fan of are their loose powder eyeshadow pigments and their nail polishes).

One thing that I love about the brand is that the products are hypoallergenic! If you don't know what that means, it basically means that if you have oily/acne-prone/combination skin type, the face products are great for you and won't cause you to break out! The brand also doesn't test on animals, which is great if you are vegan or simply love animals (like me) and don't want to buy products from brands that test on animals.

1. Ultimate Pro Illuminating Powder (a.k.a Highlighter)

This one is definitely on the top of my list. It might even be my favorite makeup product I own right now (partially because I'm in love with highlighters in general). In fact, I will go as far as saying that I like this more than the MAC Mineralize Skinfinish highlighter. Yes, there is the powder flying off if you use a big brush but it isn't a big deal. If you apply it using ur finger (even a light dab on the powder and on to your face is more than enough to make your cheeks pop!) or a small fluffy brush you'll get less powder flying. And it lasts all day long!

2.  Makeup brushes

It may be my lack of experience in the "makeup brush" sector of makeup, but Faces brushes are pretty good. My favorite one is the small fluffy brush for applying eyeshadow (not shown in the picture above because I couldn't find it in time) and the blush brush (which I use for everything but blush. #TeamNoBrushKnowledge). The quality is pretty good and there's no hair fall out.

3. Matte Lip crayons and Lip Pencils

I hate when lipsticks say they are "matte" but have a very visible/noticeable gloss to them. ???. This is one is completely matte and the texture is creamy so you don't feel like you are dragging your lips every time you put it on. There's great pigmentation and it lasts for a decent amount of time. If you eat a lot there will be transfer and you may have to reapply, but otherwise, it should last the whole day! The formula could be a bit drying but if you make sure to moisturize your lips a few minutes/sometime before applying your makeup then you should be fine. (If you have unmanageable dry lips then maybe matte lipsticks just aren't for you in general). The lip pencils are also smooth and easy to apply. They are the right amount of soft if that makes any sense; not too hard but not so soft that it breaks every time you try to line/contour/fill in your lips.

4. Eyebrow pencil 

I have sparse eyebrows, and when I say that, I mean S P A R S E. Many would even say non-existent (I like to believe they're a bit more visible now than they used to be a few years ago - I'm getting there). So filling in my eyebrows is something I like to do frequently. Most eyebrow pencils out there are either way too dark or way too brown (I have black hair) so I'd always just use black eyeshadow to fill in my brows. I've heard beauty gurus say all the time to use dark brown if you have black hair and I didn't realize how much of a difference that made (even though it may not seem so) until I used this product. It's a great waxy formula and the spoolie that it comes with on the other end is a plus point. One problem is that it will spread if you rub your eyebrows (e.g. if you're itchy or whatever, I don't know what you deal with, eh) so it isn't smudge-proof but for the most part, it does the job well. It's really easy to blend out if you put on too much so there's a lot of control as far as the intensity goes, but again I just wish it would become a bit smudge proof after a few minutes of application.

5. Gel Eyeliner

The eyeliner isn't that special (nothing really stands out when compared to other brands) but it does the job and it doesn't break the bank just like the other products from the brand (note that the foundations can be a little higher priced compared to Maybelline's, etc). I do love the fact that the brush comes with the liner and is in the cap (I just realized it would've helped to take a picture of that but basically half of the long extension of the cap snaps off to magically reveal a tiny, cute brush) which makes it more hygienic in a way since the brush isn't lying around in a dirty pouch. It has a very dark, opaque pigment which I like but it does smudge a little (or that just could be because I scratch my eyes every few minutes when I forget I have eyeliner on). It's a good eyeliner if you're not looking for anything super special. I recommend it if you prefer gel eyeliners over felt-tip/liquid eyeliners. I personally prefer gel because the brush gives a more precise and sharp wing.


Is it the best brand? No. Does it fall under my Top 10 favorite drugstore brands? Yes. Overall, I love the brand and will probably try out a few more of their products soon. Out of the above list, I would definitely say that my favorites are the highlighter and the eyebrow pencil.

Here's an easy and quick tutorial to make DIY Polaroid Pictures that don't require great art skills and looks exactly the same as real ones for much cheaper. My personal favorite DIY!



Okay, let me tell you straight up. This DIY has to be my most favorite one yet! It is super easy, requires very little computer knowledge (if you aren't technology savvy), only requires a document-editing software, is wayyy cheaper than buying a polaroid camera + the films every time, and looks literally the same from the front! 5 amazing pros with the only con being...nothing!

P.S. Go to the bottom of this post if you wanna skip the reading and just watch the video!



Without further ado, here's an easy and detailed tutorial to create perfect polaroid picture dupes in about only four (yes, 4!) cents each! (for a mini polaroid. for a larger polaroid, 8 cents only!). For my Indian viewers, that's around 2.5 rupees per mini polaroid (and 5 rupees for a bigger polaroid)!

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means that I get a commission if you choose to purchase after clicking a link. This doesn’t cost you anything, and I only recommend products I love! Thank you for supporting the work I put into this site!

How to edit your photos:
To give the polaroid-like effect to the pictures, I use one of my favorite photo editing apps - VSCO.
Literally all you have to do is add the T1 filter (I like to keep it around +6 only not the entire effect, but that's up to you) and then increase the contrast. Again, it depends from picture to picture how much editing is required to give it the polaroid effect but I usually stick to +1 contrast only. The settings I use give it only a slight polaroid effect so you can adjust them according to what you want.


 


Also, the colors do look slightly different when it is printed so if you're lucky, your printer will help you achieve the polaroid effect! 

Let's get to the physical stuff now:

The first thing you will need is some glossy photo paper. Preferably, use the same brand as your printer but it doesn't really matter that much. I used the HP glossy photo paper in my Epson printer and it turned out fine. The Epson glossy photo paper, I believe, is cheaper than the HP one in case you want to go for the cheaper option. I used the HP one because it was already lying around, probably from ages ago.


Next, you will obviously need a laptop and any document editing software (Microsoft Word or the apple document editing software. I clearly have no clue what it is called).

Start by first adjusting the paper size and margins. Here are the settings I kept for my specific type of photo paper:

If your photo paper has tabs and you would like to avoid those tabs, make sure to select the size option "with tab" while printing. I did not do this even though my paper had tabs. This is what I did instead: After my first print, I understood which side has an excess margin and made sure the tab came on that side when inserting the paper into the printer. By doing this, I could just break off the tab after printing and the white space in the polaroids would be uniform instead of two having longer white spaces than the other two (you will understand this better when you see how I added the pictures below).

Next, use the ruler feature to create two perpendicular lines going exactly through the middle of the page. Make the lines a light gray color so that if you cut incorrectly, the lines won't be as visible.


If the rulers are not visible, then go to the "view" tab and click on the ruler box as shown below:

TIP: To ensure uniformity, use one picture and size the other 3 pictures to the same dimensions as the first one. You can crop the picture if needed. Use one picture as a guide so that the placement is exact for the next picture and so that the white space is the same for each "polaroid".