Maybelline Diamond Glow Eye Shadow Quads

Craving to do try the Smokey eye look, I was in search of the perfect eye shadow and that's when i ended up buying this eye shadow(though it is nowhere related to the smokey eye look.).

I think I was drawn in by the pretty pattern and beautiful colors of the kit. The most striking feature for me was that it was provided with written instructions at the back on how to wear the different shades in order to get the finished look.

Now let me get to the pros and cons of the product.

Pros: It's easy to apply with the provided sponge brushes and all you have to do is follow the instructions properly. Definitely a stunner for the night time look. It isn't too loud but still one would know a difference in the eyes.

Cons:It is a little powdery and does't blend that well. A total NO NO for a daytime look as it is glittery. Finally I think its a little too pricey.

Price: Rs 475

Shades:Lilac Mauve, Ocean Blue, Wine Pink, Gray Pink, Copper Brown.

Outside India the product name varies and is known as Maybelline EyeStudio Color Plush and is available in a larger variety of colors than what Maybelline offers in India.

Final Verdict: Those who aren't going for the exact smokey eye look but with a bit more pink and glitter  should definitely go for it. I mean, after-all which girl doesn't like a combination of pink and glitter???

Shade used in the picture:Gray pink

Photo Courtesy: Neethu Liz (to check up more on her, visit her page at Neethu Liz Photography)

My rating: 2.5/5

Book Review: Dongri To Dubai

This book is like India's version of The Godfather except all the stuff happened for real.

Growing up in Dubai, I have always heard of Dawood Ibrahim to the point when I came to India to study, my classmates used to make fun of me and say 'She's from the land of Dawood. We need to be careful with this one!'

This book talks about the Mumbai mafia, the rise of Dawood who incidentally was the son of a police officer in Mumbai  and becoming the kingpin of Indian mafia.

This book is brilliantly written by Hussain Zaidi. He makes it sound like he was present as each and every event that was taking place.

This book gives an insight on how mafia ruled over Bollywood and how some of the famous stars were literally peeing in their pants. Being a Bollywood starlet is not just looking pretty and dancing around trees. I mean there are serious threats to their lives.

 Bollywood had made couple of movies based on the mafia such as

Image courtesy of http://www.join4film.com

and the latest flick with John Abraham and a whole bunch of heroines doing 'item' numbers

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

I have never been a fan of these kind of movies because Bollywood being Bollywood would make the movie so far fetched that its quite impossible to believe such things happen in real life. After reading this book, I take back my words. I mean some of the stuff that these guys have pulled off in broad daylight is just unbelievable.

This book is not just about Bollywood. It talks about how the mafia has a hand in everything that's happened in India in the 80's & 90's. Its just crazy and a huge eyeopener.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. This is a must read.

My rating: 4.5/5

Movie Review: ABCD (American-Born Confused Desi)

Image Courtesy of http://dulquarsalman.in

This movie is definitely for those Dulqar Salman fans!!!And hence me totally in love with it!
An absolute entertainer and nothing more especially with its pointless story-line and poor climax.For the guys out there who don't go drooling over every stupid thing Dulqar does,they'll just find it to be an okay movie.But for those who do drool over him....Girls...you are in for a ride!!!It's Dulqar everywhere!!!Hotter than ever!!

The story (though there really isn't anything..) is where the American-born Malayalee teenager (the amazingly hot Dulqar) gets send to Kerala after he puts himself into a lot of trouble back in America(you can blame it all on the messed up hormones).He's fooled into coming to India by his dad (played by Lalu Alex) saying it's a one month vacation but his dad has other plans for him.His father gets him into a college in Kerala.Johns(played by Dulqar) is accompanied by his best pal Korah (played by Jacob Gregory) are stuck in Kerala with no money or ticket to get back to America.His dad provides them a measly amount of 5000 Rs to survive a month which would become even less if they fell short of attendance in college.The movie then goes on about how they try to get money to get back and all the trouble they get into.

Another prominent role is taken up by Aparna Gopinath (playing the role of Madhumitha) though she doesn't play the heroine look.She is their friend from college and helps get the Johns-Korah duo out of trouble most of the time.She plays a strong activist role and it's really fun to watch her especially her ears that had about a million piercings on it.

The songs in the movie are also fun especially the pointless song Jhonny Mone Jhonny which is sung by Dulqar himself.The video of the song is pretty good too.

Overall the movie is really fun to watch especially with friends.You could watch it more than once to get a good laugh or if you just go on ogling on Dulqar..:)..It's a must watch for those who love entertainment movies and also for those Dulqar fans.

My rating:3/5

Camera buyers guide – DSLR Vs Bridge Camera

A lot has been said about the benefits of a DSLR to the point that many people consider themselves

professional photographers just because they own one. The truth is if you don’t know the fundamentals of photography then you are better off with a point and shoot camera. But what if you know the basics, what if you want to shoot in full manual, what if you know what shutter speed, ISO and aperture work for different scenes and what if you want prefer manual focus. Can you now go in for a DSLR? Hmmm … no!

Knowing how to use a full-manual camera is one thing, but what about the end result of your snaps? Are you the type to print your photographs into posters? Will you be cropping into small sections of your photograph? Will you be doing some heavy post processing on your photographs? OR will you simply upload your snaps to a Facebook album and wait for people to comment on them?

If you fall into that last group then I’d say a DSLR is overkill and you may get better results with a good bridge camera. Let’s do a quick comparison of the two:-

First the advantages of the Bridge camera over the DSLR:-

Bridge Camera (e.g. Fuji HS50 EXR)	Digital SLR
Cheaper (good ones start at Rs. 18K / $310)	More expensive especially when factoring the costs of additional lenses
Smaller and Lighter	Bigger, bulkier and with the added burden of carrying extra lenses
Significantly longer zoom lens (24mm – 1000mm) 42x optical zoom lens	Much shorter zoom range (18mm-55mm) Telephoto lenses are available but at a much higher cost and even then don’t come near the range of the Bridge (superzoom) cameras.
Macro to moon shots on a single lens. No hassles of changing lenses in the middle of a shoot	Changing lenses may not be difficult but it needs to be done carefully and not in dusty environments plus takes time away from the shoot
More feature rich than most DSLRs
Features include- Optical image stabilization, Digital Zoom, faster burst mode, more scene modes, panorama mode, high speed video mode, ultra high ISO (12,800)	Don’t usually pack in as many features
Look and feel of a DSLR	Is a DSLR so yea, looks and feels like one too

Now the advantages of a DSLR over a Bridge camera:-

Digital SLR	Bridge Camera (e.g. Fuji HS50 EXR)
Much better low light performance thanks to the larger sensor allowing for great night shots with no flash	While the low-light performance may have it trumped the flash does compensate to a large extent. Also in daylight shots there is little difference between the two when viewed on a web album
Shallow depth of field – especially with additional lenses – giving you much better portrait snaps	The fixed lenses of bridge cameras have a lower aperture range so you won’t usually get the same effect however you can ‘fake’ the effect through simple software solutions – Photoshop, picasa and apps like After Focus on Android
Usually faster autofocus	While this is true for many bridge cameras it’s not the case for mine (Fuji HS50) which matches and is often faster than your average DSLR at locking focus
RAW mode photography available should you need it (which in many amateur cases you won’t)	RAW mode is available in some bridge cameras as well like the Fuji HS50 though I admit I’ve never used it
The placebo effect – makes one feel that by owning it, you automatically take great photographs	The Fuji HS series looks every bit as much as a DSLR and has all the bells and whistles. They even have full manual zoom and focus rings.

I’ve given the Fuji HS 50 as an example as it’s one of the best bridge cameras on the market today (and since I own one I can attest to it's greatness). Also most of my photographs are limited to Facebook albums (yes I’m one of those) and with that massive 24mm to 1000mm lens I don’t ever need to crop into a photo so there’s never any perceptible noise in my photographs (a common issue with all small sensor non-DSLR cameras). For me a good bridge camera is the clear choice and I know that most of you out there are like me. You should know I love experimenting with challenging photography situations and this camera is a perfect tool to give me that freedom (fast shutter, amazing lens, wide ISO range, good screen, tones of useful presets, very good EXR mode (especially the pixel-binning 8MP mode), complete manual zoom and focus plus a great battery life.

A demonstration of the massive zoom capability of today's bridge cameras

I’ve owned a couple of bridge cameras and have no plans of making a switch to a DSLR yet. My bridge camera is ideally suited for long range wildlife shots, landscape panorama shots and macro shots of insects or flowers. For portrait shots I’d use software to blur the background and for night shots I’d use a tripod so in essence I don’t think I’ll need a DSLR. Do you think otherwise?

Check out this video that compares the older HS20 with a Nokon D700 -

Guest post by Prithvi Raj

Movie Review: After Earth

With all the hype around the much awaited return of the famous father-son duo plus a sci-fi movie filled me with

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

anticipation on whether the film would leave me astounded just like The Pursuit of Happyness. It let me down sourly.The story was really good(considering Will Smith himself wrote it), an amazing star cast (though it mainly consists of the Smiths..but who does't love them) but the direction was poor which was a major letdown to the audience.The movie starts abruptly, ends abruptly and the middle is really slow and hence leaving the viewers really frustrated.

The plot runs around the lines where the humans are living on another planet called the Nova Prime as Earth becomes inhabitable due to environmental cataclysm.The father-son duo accidentally crash land their ship on earth after being hit by an asteroid shower.The crash leaves Will Smith with two broken legs.So, he sends his son,Jaden Smith (boy, that must be a tough role to enact!!) in search of the beacon in order to send a signal back to Nova Prime. The flora and fauna of Earth are evolved to an extent where they pose a threat to human life. The movie then goes on to show how he has to fight these monstrous creatures and blah blah blah...These full on action scenes leaves me asking one simple yet important question :WHERE ARE THE GUNS???Throughout the movie ,I'm expecting laser guns and other powerful armory to pop out any moment.Sadly, I'm left disappointed with nothing other than good old hand to hand combat.

The movie has a few "over science-fictionalized" scenes which makes it really hard to take the movie seriously. All in all, the below-par direction was the major setback for this movie which otherwise would have been huge with the impressive cast, story line and a couple of special effects.

It's a one time watch unless you are a die-hard Will Smith or sci-fi fan.One thing that did leave me astounded after watching the movie was how young Will Smith still looked. The movie reminded me of his Men in Black days and leaves me in awe.I see a lot of potential in Jaden Smith who is definitely a promising actor and we can definitely hope to see him carve a career similar to his dad's.

My rating: 2/5

One of the best thing related to this movie was when Will & Jaden came on Graham Norton's show.

This video is hilarious and a must watch for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air fans.

This was a post written with inputs from John Cherumala. 

Movie Review: Man of Steel

Man of Steel … Is it the best superhero movie of all time? Well, no… but it is by far the

best superman movie of all time. Why is it so hard to make a good superman movie? Well that’s because of superman’s near god-like powers (thanks to his ability to absorb solar radiation from yellow or blue sunlight) which are:-

1. By absorbing enough solar radiation superman can ‘effortlessly’ move planets
2. He has X-ray vision – can see through all objects except lead
3. Telescopic vision – can see far out into space
4. Microscopic vision – can see at the subatomic level
5. Supervision – can see objects moving faster than light
6. Multispectral vision – can see in the electromagnetic spectrum
7. Super hearing - He can hear sounds ‘millions’ of miles away and through the vacuum of space (huh)
8. Super flight  - can fly at 8 times the speed of light
9. Super strength – can punch with the force of a supernova (10 octillion megatons if you must know)
10. Super healing – practically invincible, can take being hit by 15 planets and keep on walking
11. Super breath – can simple blow away the bay guys
12. Freeze breath – can freeze everything around him
13. Heat vision – able to incinerate entire planets
14. Can vibrate his body to phase through objects and turn invisible
15. Super brain – can process information thousands of times faster than a human brain; has photographic memory; is a technological genius
16. Invincible – well this has not been stated explicitly but in the comics when he was apparently killed his body went into a healing coma and he soon recovered and was back to kicking ass

His only weakness is kryptonite which takes away all his superpowers and could eventually kill him after prolonged exposure. This why most superman movies involve kryptonite and it’s always the same old wine in a new bottle.  Man of Steel - however is different. It’s about superman, the person. It adds realism and personality to his character. For the first time we can almost relate to him. His struggle with his powers, his dilemma to help people yet remain hidden, his search to find out about his past. 

This movie shows a very human side of him and does it well. Then there’s the villain element. Here superman is up against multiple characters that equal him in strength. The fighting is truly epic with entire city blocks being leveled. The collateral damage adds to the realism. I did find the ending fight to be a bit too Neo Vs Agent Smith (from the matrix) but I guess that’s to be expected and is not necessarily a bad thing.

In summary Man of Steel does a great job in introducing the character. The detailed back story covered very effectively. The action is well paced and all the actors did an excellent job. However I did feel the ending could have been more dramatic. My biggest gripe with the movie though is the frequent use of a shaky cam effect which gets annoying to watch especially in the less action scenes. While it does add some documentary-like feel it’s clearly overused.

I recommend watching the movie. My rating:3.5/5.

Note: do check out DEATH BATTLE! - Goku VS Superman 

It’s a well researched and fun video to watch. I took the list of superman’s powers and abilities from that video and the guys at ScrewAttack put a lot of work into it. 

This was a guest post written by Prithvi Raj aka PR. 

Movie Review: Now You See Me

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

The trailer of this movie, when it came out last year was very inviting and promising.

It looked like it would be in the lines of  The Prestige and The Illusionist. If you haven't seen these movies, please watch them. They are highly recommended if you like magic and illusion.

It looks like a full action packed magic-adventure roller coaster ride with a phenomenally good cast.

Morgan Freeman & Michael Cane.. Do I need to say more??

And the Hulk aka Mark Ruffalo!!!

The movie starts off really good with a brief background of each magician's specialty. They have been called to a single location by a mysterious person to start their own show in Las Vegas.
They are known as The Four Horsemen!!

The first half of the movie is really fast paced, keeps you at the edge of the seat.

I wish I could say the same of the second half too. I really want to like this movie but the ending of the movie has left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I compare this movie to a three course meal where the starter and main course is out of the world. The dessert just falls flat on the ground. Its like a sunk cake. This is the side effect of watching too many cookery shows.  Must stop watching these shows..  :(

I mean just see this trailer. Its really really good!!

Michael Cane was wasted in this movie. A versatile actor and to be given a minuscule role, such a shame!!
Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg again, the socially awkward guy.

I would recommend this movie to everyone, just to watch the first half of the movie.

My rating: 3/5 (I would have given a 4 but the climax was really blah!!)

Movie Review: Gippi

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

This is an out-an-out girly movie.  Lots of fun, laughter, embarrassment, pains of growing up and how life is so over since the guy we had a crush on doesn't even know we existed.

I mean every woman/girl can relate to Gurpreet aka Gippi.

This movie reminded me of all the Hollywood movies that I watched as a kid in the 90's such as Matilda, Little Rascals, Casper,Rookie of the Year, Parent Trap.. Good clean kids movie.


All the actor have done a good job.

Starting with Gippi, she's the clumsy, fat and not so popular girl in school and has her set of friends who are geeky with the stereotypical glasses.

She has her younger annoying brother who provided the comic relief in the movie.

Then you have the popular girls aka the bitches who have straight hair, slim, sexy and hot. I hate those kinds!! :)

Then you have the guys, the chocolate boy and the bad ass. Every girl's kryptonite!!!!

A special mention goes to Divya Dutta for playing the coolest Punjabi mom superbly!

All in all a fun afternoon watch with your girlfriends!!

All the girls/women out there, give this movie a shot. To the guys, don't bother. I'm sure you all would have hated it from the title itself.

My rating: 3.5/5

Book Review: And The Mountains Echoed

Image courtesy of http://khaledhosseini.com/

Set across different continents and moving across timelines, this new tale from the master story teller -Khaled Hosseini does not fail to strum the chord of emotions like his previous attempts. Clearly, the writing has set new standards, and the art of narration has reached unclaimed heights for this Afghan-born American novelist and physician.( In your face Literary critics, our man has arrived ! ) To be not moved by this heart wrenching story , is to be devoid of any sort of humane emotions( Yes, you read it right ! ).The author who moved millions with his masterful insights on Afghanistan and his awe inspiring choice of words to convey human emotions and is back at what he does best- to write about human bonding and hope that shapes our otherwise rather mundane life.

And The Mountains Echoed tells a tale about siblings Abdullah and Pari , and the bonding they shared . Unlike his previous stories, this book moves across timelines and continents and traces the lives of several important and unimportant characters to give us insights into their lives and emotions. Khaled Hosseini is known to portray freedom in his women characters , which are unheard of in modern day Afghanistan . The narration travels to Greece, France, and California, apart from Afghanistan. He is not to be blamed if one romanticizes about Kabul in the yesteryear's through his flair.  His literary critics may be silenced for a while now , but sometimes the reader finds it a little too much of desperation by the author to take his writing to newer heights by moving across time zones. Yet, he manages to connect the loose ends with a common human bonding and lets the reader out of the dark as the pages turn. Well, this book is a must read for people who loved his previous 2 books and are looking forwards to be emotionally ransacked by yet another one from his stable. This saga of heartbreak and hope is sure to keep his fans closer, and to strike new bonds.

Verdict: Strongly recommended. Go grab the tissues, its another tearjerker.

My rating: 3.5/5


This is our first guest post and it was written by

Manu Mohanan 22.Narcissist.Engineer by education. Catch up with him on http://reviewrevelations.wordpress.com/


If you would like to do a guest post or tell us anything, please fill the contact form in the side bar. We would love to hear from you!!

Book Review: Inferno by Dan Brown

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

It took me ages to finish this book, with the exams and all in the way...
Now I ask myself...Was it worth it? Spending time during my exams to read this book??? A total Yes!!! A lot of people may not agree,but I truly loved the book even though the book does bend one's ear at certain chapters. Overall the book was truly enjoyable.
I must say, this is not one of Dan Brown's best but Brown's fans (like moi :) ) would like it anyways.
Starting on Inferno as your first Dan Brown book would definitely leave you astounded by his way of writing. For those, where Inferno isn't their first Dan Brown book,there isn't much of a difference from his previous books.
Introduced to Angels and Demons during high-school left me grasping for my breath after every page and hence it still remains my favorite book of the Robert Langdon series. So in short, if Inferno was your first book then it would definitely become your favorite book and the rest of the other books from the Langdon series would seem parallel in the plot where the world is going to end due to one reason or the other and only Langdon (the history professor),  who is like "totally awesome" with symbols and stuff like that, can save it. The world kinda depends on him and if he can't like decipher the symbols then the world would die!!(this is how the plot was described to me when I asked a high schooler...:P)

Coming back to Inferno,the plot as usual is where this mad scientist (aka Bertrand Zobrist) wants to kill half the population of the world by releasing a plague so that the future generations wont die out due to over population.So what Langdon has to do is prevent the plague from being spread by finding it  before it contaminates the world. Inferno had its twists and keeps you hanging but there are times where it gets a little boring where he describes a little too intricately about the places he travels to in order to find the plague.After reading the book, I don't think I'll ever need to visit Venice.He's already told me what I would see, feel,smell, hear and what not...So this one's out of the list for places to visit in future...hooray!!!! Thanks Dan Brown!! :)

My rating: 3/5

M.A.C Archie's Girls Eyeliner

I was window shopping in one of the numerous malls in Delhi and I was walking past the M.A.C store  and the below caught my eye.

image courtesy of maccosmetics.com

 My first thoughts were  Archie looks gay, Betty looks like a hooker and Veronica a vamp.

Keeping my feeling aside, I did go into the store. Don't judge me, I used to read tonnes of Archie comics as a kid and still do if I get my hands on one.

They had a lot of products in this range with the cute Archie's packaging. Thankfully the packaging had the comic characters and not the above models!!

I didn't know what to get and I had recently hoarded on quite a bit of make up products. I didn't have the heart to leave the store without buying anything. Then I remembered that I needed a blue eyeliner.

I picked up MAC Archie's Girls Pearlglide Eyeliners in petrol blue.

+ves: the blue color with the glitter, the fact that its long lasting, it doesn't smudge.
-ves: the exorbitant price and the fact that I need to sharpen after every use.

Would I purchase it again?: I'm on the fence on this one. I like it but not sure whether I love it that much to spend so much.

Movie Review: Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

pic courtesy of Wikipedia

This movie was A Awesome!!! The whole movie is as fun as this movie poster on the right.

There was a lot of hype around the movie because it was the first movie after the Ranbir-Deepika  break up and the promoters of the movie played on that line in the trailers to get people interested.

They didn't need to do that because the movie was bloody good.

This is a typical Karan Johar family entertainer with the whole emotional(rhona-dhona) twist being tuned 10 notches down. There was a bit of drama but then again what would a Karan Johar movie be without it.

Let me start of with the song and dance bit. The songs were catchy. My favorite is "Badtameez Dil". Benny Dayal has sung it beautifully and his voice suits Ranbir to the T. Coming to Ranbir, he was, like Russell Peter would say, "Mind Blasting" in this song.  He danced so well.

Next is "Ghagra" which featured Madhuri Dixit. It was money's worth just to see the goddess dance. She was so graceful and I loved her in this song.

Kalki Koechlin & Aditya Roy Kapoor, playing the friends, were not reduced to just a couple of scenes. They had equal footage in the movie which is commendable and they did full justice to their roles.

Deepika unfortunately didn't have much of a role. I mean she did, after all she's the heroine but I feel  they didn't use her to her full potential. She had a meatier role in Cocktail.

PR somehow got the idea that there was a lesbian angle to the movie and some sort of scene would be there, I'm guessing between Deepika & Kalki. Well sorry to disappoint PR & the rest of the guys - no lesbian scene and no lesbian angle.

This was an out-and-out Ranbir Kapoor movie and he has held the movie strongly on his shoulders. This could be the reason I loved the movie cuz he was just YUM in the movie.

My verdict: 4.5/5