Why do I blog?

I've been one of those people who were bitten by the social media bug early on. From the days of Orkut (remember? Now even Google is suggesting I change it to Irkutsk!), I was hooked to tweeting and blogging. I've had a few blogs earlier, writing on anything that caught my fancy. A news article that enraged me, a post reminiscing the good old days, a crazy idea I came up with after a coked up night, they were all there. All there until last year. Last year I decided to clean up my act, deleted some age old blogs, wiped out URLs I was eating up and basically tried to improve my cyber presence. It was a little hard to give up a few of them, with encouraging followers and dedicated fans but I knew I had to. The randomness was doing me no good and I'd always put off writing to when I'd get my next big inspiration which would come, inspire and fizz out. It was unjust to the amazing people who egged me to write. I knew I had to have a dedicated motivation source to write regularly. To my credit, I still have the same twitter handle.

Well, if you know me, you'd know I am addicted to three things, the internet, cosmetics and books; and not in that particular order. And then it hit me, what if I combine my two greatest loves, makeup and writing? And thus the idea of beauty blogging was born. I buy a tonne of stuff, love half, throw away the other half. Why not catalog the experiences and share the joys of getting dressed up? As a girl and even today as the little girl at heart, every women loves to doll up, for herself and for someone special. While I wait for my knight in shining armor, I am playing dress up so that I am all pretty-ed up when he finally finds his way around. Well that's that. I love writing and I love wearing makeup. I combined the two and decided to write about makeup. Win win :)

Why this post, you may ask. Well, I was meaning to write something similar and  then I read Nisha's post on her blog Spusht. That's when I decided to write my own Why I Blog post. While you are here, do check out her blog too. She writes about a plethora of stuff and what really draws me to her blog is how innocently she writes and how warmly she welcomes us into her life. Do give a shout-out to her :)

Miss Enchanted's Giveaway

Valentine's day is looming lovelies and Divya from Miss Enchanted is spreading the love this season with an Etude House Lipstick giveaway. I loved the shades she's got and trust me, your Valentine will not be able to resist those puckered up and prettied lips this V-Day. So I'll offer you this caution before you enter her giveaway, be ready for some action from the 'special someone' ;)

Crazy Pop Lock's super cute Giveaway

It's raining Giveaways! No seriously! The Gods are definitely teaming up with our most loved beauty bloggers and turning them most benevolent. Just when I thought these deals couldn't get any sweeter, there came Bharti with her super cute giveaway.
Long have us girls been considered arm-candy. About time we got some of our own. Here's your chance to win a yummy bag from ASOS. How often have we sighed over stuff from ASOS and stuff with bows? Well this one combines the best of both. Yes, a bow bag from ASOS. Don't you love Bharti for this truly cute giveaway? Go, 'bag' it now, right here! *Pun Intended* ;)

Dr. Poison Ivy's International Giveaway

Another 'Doctor' in the beauty blogging circles is Dr. Poison Ivy or Dr. Philazaman. It was her birthday recently and she is celebrating it with her readers via an international giveaway. If you don't take my word for how massive it is, see it for yourself here!

Beauty Traveller's Gorgeous Giveaway

Hi Gorgeous ladies,

Here is something that will add to the joys of the season, a superb giveaway by Dr. Neeraj Navare on his blog Beauty Traveller.
He is well known in beauty blogging circles for his detailed posts and fantastic EOTDs. We all affectionately call him 'Doc' :) Although this giveaway celebrates the New year, he has dedicated it to his dad who passed away in Jan 2012 and Nirbhaya. What a truly heart warming gesture.
And mind you, this is no ordinary giveaway, the prizes are ah-may-zing!! There are goodies from Guerlain, Clarins, Elizabeth Arden, Laura Mercier and the works! What are you waiting for? Head over there now!

Corallista celebrates it's Second Anniversary

Corallista has been one of the best beauty blogs on the Indian scene. Ankita, the owner/writer is much adored for her fab and regular reviews and updates. Infact, Corallista.com is one of my most visited sites and hence a permanent fixture on my Chrome homepage :)
Corallista is turning TWO and Ankita is celebrating it with her loyal fans with a super duper giveaway. What are you waiting for? Go check it out here NOW!!

Review: Organic Surge Moisture Boost Shampoo and Conditioner

I always tell myself that I'm really going to write regularly. Not that I keep busy and all, just plain lazy. I mean who else has a 5 day week which comprises of at least 2 whole free days at work where I embarrass myself by Facebook-ing all day long and yet, not write a single para! Yes, that’s me. But *pretty please*, let bygones be bygones. So here’s my first review on the blog.

It’s the Organic Surge Moisture Boost Shampoo and Conditioner.

Organic Surge Moisture Boost Shampoo and Conditioner

 The thing is that I have terribly dry hair, like the monstrous frizz ball variety! So I have to be rather diligent about oiling them before every wash. But to add to my woes, my scalp is insanely oily! And the oiling causes dandruff and itching later L Do you see what I have to deal with every day? Phew!

Hence I’m always on the lookout for good moisturizing shampoos. On my regular and infamous online window shopping escapades, I've noticed this smart tube of shampoo from Organic Surge. I really wanted to try it out since it said moisturizing AND organic. It claims to be “your hair’s best friend”. What more could I ask? But the asking price was a little more than I wanted to shell out so it always remained on my wish-list.

It so happened that I had mentioned about Organic Surge and wanting their Moisture Boost range to my brother once and surprise surprise, he sent them to me (with some other pretty cool stuff) Now its weird getting toiletries from your bro but wasn't it sweet that he remembered? Thank you B J

The package arrived via Flipkart and since it was a gift, they had wrapped it in a pretty paper and since it’s raining here in Bangalore, they had covered it in a plastic wrap as well. Other than that it was the standard cardboard and bubble-wrap packaging.

The first surprise that I got was that Organic Surge is actually a brand from the house of Lord and Berry. I knew of Lord and Berry cosmetics but didn’t know that they have diversified into toiletries too. Organic Surge claims to be an ethical and conscious brand. That means no parabens or SLS or animal testing.

On to the product now.

Organic Surge Moisture Boost Shampoo 

The shampoo comes in a convenient tube packaging. The product itself is surprisingly thin in consistency considering that this is a shampoo.  Since I am the oil-before-shampoo kind of girl, I usually like my shampoo to lather well because otherwise I never know if the oil has been washed off. Although the text on the tube claimed that this is a light lathering shampoo, which I hadn't read before the first use, I had to pour out the shampoo some four times before I even got the semblance of foam. For a shampoo as expensive as this, this is not a desirable feature.

The smell is nothing to write home about. When I tried to whiff from the tube, it was just some very subtle fragrance. And even after the four applications of the product, when I undid my towel, my hair reeked of the Amla hair oil I had used.

 For full list of ingredients check below:

Organic Surge Moisture Boost Shampoo ingredients

The shampoo claims to boost moisture retention, restoring silkiness and manageability. Sadly none of this happened to me.

Organic Surge Moisture Boost Conditioner

The conditioner on the other hand has a more generous consistency. The standard white, slimy, thick texture. Thankfully, the conditioner seems to spread easily so I haven't had to use a lot of it.

But what I absolutely hate about the conditioner is its smell. It’s smell is way stronger than that of the shampoo and not in a good way. The first thing that came to mind when the smell hit my nostrils was whey protein! I don’t know why though. I doubt I've sniffed whey protein ever! But to put it more simply, remember the projects we did back in school, one which involved growing wheat. The conditioner smells exactly like how the wheat would smell when gone bad due to excessive watering. Get my drift? Yes, that bad. 

 For full list of ingredients check below:

I have used the shampoo and conditioner for a month now but haven’t noticed any significant ‘moisture boost’ in my hair. I still have to oil before shampooing to reduce the frizz. The ends of my hair which are the curliest/waviest do look pretty on day 1 but my second day hair have a lot of fly-away.

Rating: C

Price: Shampoo- INR 625 for 250 ml, Conditioner- INR 625 for 200 ml

You can get it on Flipkart or Urbantouch for INR 500 each.

Recommendations: All in all I am not very happy with the products. For the cost and promise, they aren't very good. My earlier Dove shampoo was no different than this one. This is of course, unless I see some drastic change with another month’s usage of the Organic Surge Moisture Boost shampoo and conditioner. If you have dry hair, it doesn't tame the frizz and if you have oily hair, it won't give you the squeaky clean feel.

So my hunt for a good shampoo for dry, frizzy hair continues. Best friends, like they claim to be, should behave better but then again, best friends don’t quit on each other. So I’m planning on at least going through these tubes for now, though I am also now looking at John Frieda’s Frizz-ease and TIGI. Next time lucky, maybe?

*Amla-Gooseberry