Palladium Foodhall - A Gourmet Destination :)

Mumbai Lower Parel is my haunt, that is where I work, that is where my office is and thus,on any given day,you can find me roaming around High Street Phoenix, usually after office, chilling with some colleagues or even during office hours, chilling with my colleagues.. err..my boss is not on the net,right? *Checking around* :D

So anyway, one of my favorite places in High Street Phoenix is -Foodhall at Palladium :) It is a premium gourmet destination with a variety of offerings-cheese, wines, cold pressed juices, bakery, ice-cream, health drinks, dips, nachos and so much more. More importantly,I love the samples that are always on offer-a variety of dips, sauces, snack items AND the amazing chef classes, food festivals that keep happening intermittently keep the scene fresh & vibrant. Suffice to say, this is THE place to be if you are a foodie :D

So it was natural that one day I would also try out the gorgeous pasta that they serve. And I DID!

Look at it :D

                        

Beautiful white sauce penne pasta with corn, mushroom, broccoli and zucchini served with warm toasted garlic bread. YUMMMMMMM is the word!

                           

Loads of veggies just the way I like it, creamy sauce that is lip-smacking, quantity enough for lunch for a hungry hippo like me, this is PERFECT! I must admit, I did not think that I would get such great pasta not in a gourmet restaurant but in Foodhall but oh boy, now this is where I wanna be all the time! And all this,for less than 300 bucks :D 

I will be back :D ♥

Vaseline Healthy White Lightening Visible Fairness Lotion Review

Okay, don't judge me harshly just because I am reviewing a 'whitening' product here :P I am Indian :P AND I am tanned :P AND in India,almost every second product is termed 'whitening' even if it is just to prevent tanning or reduce tanning or..you get the drift! So yes,I use a lot of products with this label of 'whitening' but that does not mean I believe that they will turn me into someone as fair as Katrina Kaif or Kareena Kapoor :P

Now Vaseline has this whole bunch of Skin Lightening lotions! There is something called 'Triple Lightening', something called 'Complete 10 Lightening' & so on. Why can't there be 1 lotion at the end of the day? I do not get this! I have used almost all of them and cannot discern any difference between them, the ingredients list is also the same and they are all about preventing tanning and removing the tan that is already present! Aaaaargh!

Anyway, so I bought the first one I saw :D From Flipkart where it is available for Rs. 230 for 300 ml which is veryyyyyy affordable and quantity is enough to last nearly 1 & 1/2 to 2 months for a normal skinned person.

                       

Packaging is very sturdy and very travel friendly too. Claims is basically generic i.e. it lightens skin tone by removing tine, fine lines, gives smooth soft skin. Ingredients list is again what you would expect from Vaseline-full of chemicals that I cannot pronounce :P And somewhere in there, Glycerin & Yoghurt are also mentioned though what is the percentage of their existence within this mesh of chemicals? Who knows? :D I am just gonna assume it is a big pile of chemicals and nothing else :P

                       

It looks a little pinkish in color which would make a lot of women happy,I know my mom is very happy with the color and the Fragrance which is pleasant and reminds us of Pond's Talc :D It is fresh and nice.

                   

                  My hand is not actually this fat :P The camera adds 10 pounds :D

                 

                     Okay,I guess my hand IS this fat :P Fine, get over it :D

I applied it regularly for a month and so did my mom. On applying,it gives an instant cool feel and gets absorbed in the skin within 10 seconds and gives a little glow. Now,my skin is extremely dry and parched for moisture while my mom's skin is very normal. On most days.she does not even need a moisturizer while I need it like someone in desert needs water! So this lotion made my skin feel dry within 4 hours and I needed to reapply it. But my mom loved it and actually felt that this made her skin feel plump and healthy for a good 7-8 hours. It also protects us like a sunscreen effectively and I could see no more new tanning on my hands. In terms of reduction of tan,it wasn't that effective for me but as I said, my mom was happy. So I ended up giving this lotion to her only for daily use :)

YES-

• Non-greasy, absorbs quickly and gives instant glow 
• Pinkish lotion looks cute, fragrance is fresh
• Reduces tanning to little extent and prevents new tanning
• Lasts for a long time, very affordable
• Did not lead to any allergic reaction on my super-sensitive skin in any way
• Easily available everywhere, offline as well as on Flipkart, Amazon etc. :)

NO-

• Works good only on normal skinned people like my mom or oily skinned beauties, Dry Skin please stay away!
• Full of chemicals, but I guess most people do not care about that,we have chemicals in everything anyway :D
• Nothing lightening or healthy about it, there is no 'instant fair' or 'illumination' or anything like this :P They should have named it a simple sunscreen lotion :)

Recommended- Umm, MAYBE! I am giving it a rating of 2.5/ 5 for my extremely dry skin but my mom's normal skin gives it a 3.5/5 rating. So you can try it for yourself and see how it fares :)

Puro Body & Soul Hair Masque Review

Like every other person on this planet, I am plagued with stress, pollution on a daily basis the effects of which show up on my skin & hair. Add to that a year of battle with Jaundice that left my hair dry and damaged beyond recognition and led to massive hair-fall too :( In past 2 months,I finally tried to get back on track with a renewed hair & skin care regime. Tried a lot of conditioners and hair masks in this quest and this Puro Hair Masque is one of them :)

Never heard of this brand before,but on searching and asking from friends, came to know that it is a natural beauty brand coming up quite nicely on the radar of many beauty bloggers. They were raving about some of its products so I decided to give this a try :) Bought it from Flipkart for Rs. 600 for 200 ml which is surely expensive but then again, all organic/ayurvedic/natural brands nowadays are quite expensive. It is the price of purity we pay which is so difficult to find nowadays and we always have the option of going for the chemical laden cheap products too :D

                                                

Packaging is good but I don't think it is travel friendly because of the pump dispenser.I am sure it will spill some product over if we went on a long journey and it got smushed in the bag. Claims include protecting and nourishing hair,especially dry & damaged & also colored ones. Ingredients list,I feel is incomplete as it does not indicate percentages or weight of different ingredients. However,it is impressive and includes Aloe Vera, Rosemary oil, Lavender oil, Vitamin E etc. It is 100% vegetarian AND cruelty free + chemical free product. Also, proceeds from the sale goes to this organization Sa'Ni'Sa which is devoted to economic empowerment of women. Nice!

                

Fragrance is different and strong. I have a sensitive nose and anything too chemical-y (Like Clarins' products) annoys me. But the fragrance here is not chemical-y. It is strong but I guess it is because of the presence of essential oils of Rosemary & Lavender. It lingers for quite some time but is not unpleasant. I like it. The texture is not completely watery but it is not thick like a lot of conditioners. Look above, it is just a bit thicker than water which might make you think, hey, how effective can this be in taming dry hair, since we are accustomed to thinking that we need creamy conditioners for dry hair :)

It says to apply from roots to tips. But since I have such an itchy scalp,I do not apply any kind of conditioner or mask on my scalp at all. I simply apply it on my hair and leave it for 20 minutes or so. Then I simply rinse it off completely and let my hair air dry. The thing is,it does not have silicones like normal mass conditioners, so while rinsing it off,it does not give that slippery feel. Earlier, I used conditioners like Garnier, Sunsilk etc. that always gave this slippery feel and a very soft touch while rinsing only. But now I realize that it harms our hair in the long run. On rinsing this off,I felt nothing like that but after my hair dried,it became smooth and got de-tangled very easily :) My hair was soft to touch and easy to comb through for next 2 days. What more could I ask for!

YES-

• Natural Ingredients
• Claims are correct. It does smoothen dry and damaged hair
• Also adds a little shine,that too without presence of silicones :D
• Results last for 2 days on my ultra-dry and little damaged hair,so I am impressed :)
• No hair-fall or itchiness after using it,my hair & skin are very sensitive to bad chemicals so I am sure this does not contain them :)
• Strong but pleasant fragrance

NO-

• Price of course :D It lasted me for 6-7 washes. I wish we had little more quantity in that bottle
• The bottle is not very travel friendly,I feel
• Ingredients list is not complete,again I just feel this, but I have no issues believing that it has natural ingredients only :)
• Availability! Not seen this brand anywhere other than Flipkart & Amazon :)

Recommended- YES! I am giving it a rating of 4/5 and would come back to use it after my current haul of conditioners and masks get over :)

Himalaya Herbals Gentle Baby Shampoo Review

I have weird skin AND weird hair. Read all about it in the About Me section :D Occasional Dandruff,  Itchy Scalp, Dry Hair are just some of the gifts I possess :P So I keep trying to find THE Holy Grail for my hair. So far, haven't found it, but this shampoo comes pretty close, must say :)

I read a lot of reviews about Himalaya Herbals Gentle Baby Shampoo which said that since normal shampoos contain many chemicals,they actually increase our problems of dandruff/ dry hair etc. and we become trapped in buying these expensive shampoos again & again. It makes sense! Because in childhood, my hair used to be really good and my mother says it was only because she oiled it everyday and used only baby shampoo back then. As I grew up and started using these shampoos and conditioners based on these glitzy ads, more of my hair problems started. Sometimes, Simple is the Best Solution :)

So I got it from a friend who had got it from Flipkart where it is available for Rs. 77 for 100 ml which is very affordable, but it gets over quite quickly. It lasted me just 4 washes, so I need at least 3 of these bottles to last me a month which means around  Rs. 250 per month on shampoo. Hmm, reasonable enough :) I specifically went for Himalaya Herbals brand since I have used many products from them over the years and almost always been impressed.

Packaging is quite sturdy and even though I did no travel anywhere with it,I will say that it would be good for traveling too. Just make sure to keep it wrapped in a plastic pouch in case the cap gives you some ouch :D

Now, Claims of the product include gently cleansing hair making it soft and shiny with a no-tears guarantee. Ingredients include Bengal Gram or Besan, Hibiscus extracts, Khus Khus and some basic mild chemicals which are safe for baby's skin. No parabens or sulphates that I could see. 

There is no Fragrance in the product per se. On opening the bottle,there is that special baby's products smell for some time and it disappears soon after :) Also, the shampoo is as light as water and feels very light too. Really, it is the mildest shampoo ever!

Usually,I dilute all other shampoos before applying them on my hair and scalp but this one is already so mild,I directly applied a little bit on my scalp and messaged. It does lather though not as much as other commercial shampoos. It gives a little messy feeling and in the beginning,I did feel that my hair is not clean enough. It did not give any softness while I was shampooing and rinsing my hair. I decided to not condition my hair and let it dry. Voila! On drying, my hair was perfectly soft and smooth to touch without using a conditioner! The second time,I had applied oil before shampooing and I needed to use this twice to rinse all the oil out of my hair. Even then,I did not apply condition and again got really soft hair :) But this softness lasts only for 2 days. I think that is fair enough. This is a good shampoo for people with dry hair and itchy scalp. I did find reduction in itchiness and mild dandruff too on applying this. Overall I am really pleased and would use this shampoo quite often :)

YES-

• Mild shampoo,safe for baby's delicate skin
• Really no-tears :D It did get in my eyes and did not irritate it,I rinsed it out pretty fast too :D
• Has good ingredients like Hibiscus which are good for everyone's skin
• Leaves hair soft to touch,even without using a conditioner
• Reduction in itchiness and dandruff 
• A little reduction in hair-fall too :)
• Easily available offline in stores as well as online at Flipkart , Amazon etc. :)

NO-

• Since it does not lather a lot, one may be tempted to use a lot to give that 'clean feeling' which makes it get over fast :D
• If you want celeb like glitz and gloss from your shampoo, stay away! This is a mild cleanser for hair. It will also not work on hair that is extremely dry or dirty due to heavy pollution,I think.
• Results last only 2 days-which is fair enough I think :D

Recommended- YES! I am giving it a rating of 4/5. I would say,even if you are using normal shampoo, try and use this after every 1-2 months to give a break to your hair from all those nasty chemicals :)

Cream Centre, Lower Parel, Mumbai

So yeah,I am a vegetarian :D And No, it does not mean that I am missing out on anything OR that I make it difficult for my friends to find a place to eat :P It just means that sometimes when I am with my family, we want to go to a pure vegetarian place for a good meal and Cream Centre is a famous place for that,all right? :)

The first Cream Centre I remember going to is at Girgaum Chowpatty, almost a decade ago! My college friends introduced me to this wonderful place which is super famous for its Chana Bhatura. I mean, you just need to go to Chowpatty on a Saturday or Sunday evening and see about 50 people standing outside this Cream Centre outlet, waiting to get it! It Is Legendary. So obviously, I have been to its various outlets about 50 times in past 1 decade alone :D Sometimes with friends, sometimes with sister, sometimes with whole family. (Even though I prefer Choley Bhaturey from Kailash Parbat over everything else in Mumbai and never order Chana Bhaturey here, I recommend others to try this once too :D)

The ambiance and quality of food + service is same at each outlet,no issues there. It is perfect for families with a lot of chatter, gossip, children running around et al. So please do not go here for a quiet, romantic date EVER :D Over the years,I have had Nachos, Sizzlers, Pasta, Roomali Roti, Chaats, Onion Rings, American Corn Cheese Balls, Paneer Tikka, Sizzling Brownie here and I recommend every single thing :) But a word of caution-This is NOT a place you want to be at if you are dieting :D Be ready to douse yourself in cheese, ghee, calories and then work out in gym for 4 hours extra. BUT if that is not an indication of a good life, then what is? :D A big burrp always awaits me whenever I visit here and I especially frequent its Lower Parel (High Street Phoenix) outlet because it is close to my office. They often have special food festivals going on when some innovative dishes are presented which are a delight to have.

This is a Moong Dal Chilla Chat that I absolutely adored. Not found on the menu otherwise, it was a part of some Indian food festival about a month ago :)

One of my most favorite dishes is the Paneer Tikka (Paneer ka Baap :D) Platter. Yummy in the Tummy,especially that mint chutney, O-M-G ♥ Yes,I am a Paneer Fanatic :P

Roomali Roti with some Paneer gravy dish (Ok,I am bad with names, stop with the 3rd degree already :P). Rich in calories, full of taste :D

Yummy Tutti Frutti Sundae. Calorie alert-you need to be an elephant to finish this on your own :P And yes, it is as delicious and sweet as it looks ♥

The BIG Nachos. This is a meal in itself. My sister and I love to scramble to finish it when we need a snack and are in the Lower Parel area :D It does not only have cheese but a big boat of veggies and beans that really fills us up.

Burrp! Nachos, Heaven, Nachos!

Aah, the joy of playing these fun games while waiting for food :) Also, the wait for food can be quite long on the busy weekends. Trust me, you need this!

Perfect family ambiance. I kid you not, I have seen marriages getting fixed by families in these adjoining tables on occasion :D

Damage to the Pocket? Say Rs. 700-800 for 2 people :) Not bad at all for the quality of food and not to forget,it is a trusted brand name in itself :)

Yeah, so all I am saying is, Cream Centre is a nice place and everyone ought to visit it :D 

Clarins HydraQuench Cream-Gel Review

I got a box full of Clarins beauty products as a gift from a friend,she had got it from some contest but she does not use any non-Ayurvedic product,so she gave it to me :D In reality, even I don't like using non-natural products a lot,but I am open to trying anything at least once. And I had heard so much about Clarins brand over the years that I was really excited to try something from them, so here goes. The first product I tried was Clarins HydraQuench Cream-Gel.

I got a small 15 ml tube,it lasted me 5 days since only a little was needed for each use. Since my skin is extremely sensitive,I can pick up a product's good + bad points within a day of use :D These 5 days taught me everything I needed to know about this product.

I started searching around for information and landed up at Amazon website,where it is available for Rs. 4288 for 50 ml! That is Too Expensive,me thinks! Anyway,I got it for free,so no regrets :D

                                        

                           

The tube I got it in is so cute and handy, the real full-sized product is available in a tub which is unhygienic in my opinion.It is meant for Normal to Combination skin. Now, as you know, My skin is sensitive and dry BUT I cannot use rich creams because then I get pimples. So usually,I end up using products meant for combination skin only! Yes, my skin is strange and I know it :( I am still looking forward to a product which will suit my weird skin perfectly. *sigh*

Claims of the Clarins HydraQuench Cream-Gel include cool, all-day moisture while eliminating shine brought on by blazing heat and humidity and ingredients include Hyaluronic acid, Katafray extract, Pomegranate extract, Alpine willow herb extract which are all apparently heavy-duty ingredients for anti-ageing, moisturizing, hydration and so on. It does feel cool on the skin and is pure white in color. What I hate is the FRAGRANCE! It is SO STRONG and purely chemical. Apparently,Clarins products have heavy fragrances and my nose is too sensitive. After a while, my nose did get used to it but in the beginning,I hated it completely. But my sister loved it :D So I guess,it depends on each individual if they like this perfume-y fragrance or not.

Another thing is-it needs time to sink in. Look here,I took a little product on my sister's hands and it became so liquidy and shiny. On the face also,same thing happens :D It needs to be messaged in for 3-4 minutes and then only it starts to sink it. This is a time consuming process.

After 5 minutes,when it sinks in completely, there is no residue left behind which is a good thing. Complexion looks a little better, but nothing extraordinary. There is no brightening effect or long-lasting glow. It also leads to no pimple outbreak which is a great thing since it is not heavy like a cream nor is it oil-based. My skin would like more hydration though and this may be a good product for oily skin but not much for me. I don't think it would be a very good product for a normal skin also. Over the 5 days that I used it,I could not discern any difference in my skin at any level. 

YES- 

• Did not irritate my ultra-sensitive skin
• Did not lead to any red patches or pimples,thank GOD!
• Little glow can be seen post application

NO-

• NO Moisturization, which is okay since it is not meant for dry skin, BUT even for normal skin I do not think it would be properly hydrating
• Did not see any discernible difference in my skin. Usually,a good product starts showing results within 1-2 uses (at least on my skin,it does :D)
• I like natural products, this one is I think all about chemicals and more chemicals.
• FRAGRANCE-It is like applying an expensive perfume on skin! Too sensitive noses (like me) please stay away!
• EXPENSIVE like anything! Rs. 4000 for a 50 ml face cream? What is it made of? Unicorn tears and rainbows dust?! I guess,it is all about brand name :)
• Availability. If you want to buy it,I guess you will have to either go to a Clarins store or buy it at Amazon 

Recommended -NO. Rating is 2/5 And I am giving 2 purely on a guess that oily skinned people might like this :)

Five Fat Monks, Bandra, Mumbai

It was just another weekend. Instead of staying at home catching up on my sleep that I usually do, I was dragged out of home by my awesome sister to go on an impromptu shopping trip to Bandra :D Well, so there we were,the 3 of us, my mom, my sister and myself, at Bandra. Roaming around the Linking Road stretch, as always, getting smushed by the weekend shopping crowd in Bandra from all sides and half an hour of that mushy smushy left me starved :D As always :P

So my sister, who is every bit as much of a big foodie as I am, said, 'We are going to Five Fat Monks today'.

''What? We are going for some blessing thingy? She said shopping, why are we going to a Temple now???''

Yeah, sleep-deprived me comes up with stuff like that :P

Turns out Five Fat Monks is a temple of good food :D Me likey :) Situated just beside Subway on Linking Road, opposite National College-you cross the road and then there is a road on your left,yeah, walk 3 minutes on that and enter this temple of good food :D 

Sample the pictures of the vibrant indoors; Love the color scheme, all white and red and a bit of grey, dashing good looks, perfect for the youth-theme they are going for. It was 7 PM and we could see a couple in one corner and some college kids chatting on the other. Very nice. Not a large place, actually it is a small place with a very cafe-like feel but wait till you have the food, it is perfectly gourmet level. There is an open kitchen too :)

Food is Asian/Chinese. So you have Soups, Noodles, Rice and Thai Curries, Dim-sums, Spring Rolls and so on. The best thing to do is make your own wok :D Choose from rice or noodles, then some veggies, garnish, sauce and they mix it all up and serve it to you just the way you like it. Portions are great as we were 3 starving creatures who had ordered 3 main dishes and we were full to the brim. 

We had 2 make-our-own woks, 

1 was Noodles with Veggies in Kung Pao Sauce (Good) and other was Flat noodles with Veggies and Tofu in Hunan Sauce (YUM!) 

PLUS Veg Dim-Sums (SUPER YUM) for starters 

PLUS Steamed Rice with Thai Green Curry (Good) 

PLUS Honey Sesame Noodles with Ice Cream for dessert (Okay)

I wish there was more of Thai Curry, it seemed like we had more Rice than the Curry and also the dessert could have been better as we could hardly see any honey atop those crunchy sesame noodles. The dim-sums and noodles were simply outstanding. Not excessively oily, Had amazing amount of veggies and Sauces were great. It was Finger-Licking Good! And overall, very reasonably priced too. 2 people can stuff themselves here in just about Rs. 600 :)

I am definitely going back here and recommending this awesome place to every foodie out there :) Go to Five Fat Monks with friends/ family/ alone, you will thank me for sure :D ♥

Alba Botanica Revitalizing Sea Salt Scrub Review

Welcome the most amazing Body Scrub I have ever used :) Let me tell you why it is my favorite.

Check out the 'About Me' section where I have explained in detail how my skin has a mind of its own :P My skin is so dry,even Sahara desert may seen moisturizing in comparison. Yet, if I use a too rich cream on my face-it leads to pimples :( and on my body-it leads to unbearable itching,apart from a gross sticky feeling that I hate :(

This is the reason I am constantly on the lookout for newest beauty products,in the hope that something may help me -and I am sharing it all here so others like me may also benefit.

Body scrubs are a particular favorite of mine, since they keep my skin soft and smooth,which is a consolation even if it always feels dry :P I read a lot of magazines in hopes of finding out about newest beauty products and also what beauty products celebrities use :D I think, I read about Alba Botanica brand in one such magazine, though I cannot recall which one.

Anyway, I searched for it and found it at Flipkart some months ago and it was on sale, so I got it for only about Rs. 600 for 411 grams, amazing value for money. Right now, it is retailing for around 1000-which I would still say,is NOT expensive considering its quality. Strangely,it is available at almost double the price on Amazon !

Anyway, Claims of Alba Botanica Revitalizing Sea Salt Scrub is that it is a purifying scrub that detoxes, exfoliates and renews. Its ingredients include Sea Salt with a long list of oils- sunflower seed oil, jojoba seed oil, sweet almond oil, avocado oil etc. All of these are extremely good for our skin and this product is also free from any parabens, plus it does not test on animals. Natural goodness for our skin!

The quantity is huge and lasts a month even after using every alternate day :) When I opened the container, I saw a huge block of sea salt literally floating in a bed of oils :) It is nice to see that the product actually has real ingredients and not just 'extracts', like it happens in so many other brands. It has no particular smell, just a pleasing waft of all the oils which does not even linger around for long.

The sea salt granules are huge and give a good scrubbing action which I love ♥ :) On my face,I do not like harsh granules since it immediately reddens my sensitive skin :( But I travel a lot and am exposed to a lot of pollution,so I like scrubbing my arms and legs vigorously with heavy,harsh granules to keep them clean and soft :D This sea salt is perfect in that respect. More importantly, while scrubbing the sea salt, my skin also gets the moisturization from all the oils and becomes as smooth as a newborn baby :)

See here,how my hand is glowing after simply scrubbing with a few granules :) 

I have used A LOT of scrubs over the years and liked a lot of them. But this is the ONLY scrub where I do not need to apply any moisturizing cream or lotion after bath! It not only exfoliates my body and scrubs away the dead skin, it also made me glow like anything. I could not stop touching my own hands again and again to see if this was true :D No gross sticky feeling, No itchiness, No dryness, my skin loves this! After all, it has all natural ingredients mixed together to give maximum benefit.

Advice- Sea salt when used on completely dry skin has this tendency to fall on the floor,so I wet my skin slightly before using it and that way,the salt sticks to the skin and does a great job of scrubbing :)

To be fair, we can make this scrub at home too. Just take a scoop of sea salt and mix it with 4-5 different oils. But the whole stress and mess of doing all that and storing it? :P I prefer to buy this and use it.

YES-

• Does what it claims-excellent scrub for body
• Maximum moisturization for my dry,sensitive skin, No need to use any lotion or cream afterwards
• Brightens the skin,gives amazing glow and baby-like softness :)
• All natural ingredients, no harmful chemicals
• No animal testing & 100% vegetarian ingredients :D YAY :)
• Works in hot,humid Indian summer as well as dry,parched winter (I used in both seasons!)
• Huge quantity,lasts a whole month at least,maybe more depending on usage. I used A LOT, normal people use a lot less quantity,so it may last 2-3 months :)
• Container can be reused :D 

NO-

• Expensive. A lot of people would say that paying Rs. 1000 or more for a scrub is not worth it. I think it is,because I have such a problem skin :)
• Leaves the bathroom floor slippery because of all the oils :P
• Availability-So far, I have only seen it at Flipkart and Amazon :)

Recommended - YES! THE BEST BODY SCRUB EVER :) Rating is 5/5 :)

Forest Essentials Tejasvi Facial Ubtan Review

Starting from one of my most favorite beauty products EVER :) Forest Essentials Tejasvi Facial Ubtan is one of the most luxurious (and expensive!) beauty products I have ever bought but it has fared exceptionally well and merits its position in my heart :) I bought it about 6 months ago after hearing rave reviews from many of my friends but only got around to using it in last 1 month.

I bought it from Flipkart  for Rs. 795 which is steep and it is mere 50 grams-or so I thought! Well, Forest Essentials IS known as THE 'Luxurious Ayurveda' brand and is famous for manufacturing 100% purely natural products without any addition of chemicals, thus making it a favorite of many celebrities not only in India but worldwide. So I took solace in that. And I Was Right! I used this little tin EVERY SINGLE DAY for 1 month. Very value for money I must say :)

Packaging is classy beyond belief. It gives a perfectly Royal look to the product and instantly makes one feel special. I am not kidding. The container is sturdy and I think, it could be travel friendly too, even though I did not carry it anywhere with me :D The container contains details of complete ingredients, method of use, best before and so on. Very detailed, very natural, very cool.

                        

Claims of the product include exfoliation, revitalizing, refreshing & refining actions, restoring the natural glow of the complexion, preventing occurrence of premature fine lines and keeping the skin hydrated and moist. The ingredients include Apricot Oil, Saffron, Fennel Seeds, Neem Leaves, Sandalwood Oil, Sweet Almond, Full Cream Milk, Fenugreek, Peepal Bark, Pista, and a whole boat of other wonderful ingredients. Absolutely no chemicals, artificial fragrances or anything that can harm the skin!

Fragrance of this product is simply magical, full of pure sandalwood's magic. I keep sniffing the container even when I am not using it. Here shown above is the quantity still left after using it everyday for 1 month straight! I will not consider this product as expensive at all.

I have extremely dry skin so I use it after mixing it with yoghurt (dahi :P) , making a creamy paste and keeping it on cleansed face for 15- 20 minutes. When it dries up, it does not give a stretchy feeling, rather I feel soothed and calm. There is a cooling sensation that I simply love. I carefully wash it with cool water, without exfoliating too harshly and voila, I get the softest, smoothest skin possible! Trust me, when I had bought this,I thought it is just another expensive product and would work like any other basic face pack, the ones we use with multani mitti as base. BUT I was soooooo wrong. This product is different from any other face pack. I don't think it is even supposed to be applied everyday. But I have such sensitive, dry skin that it immediately bursts into angry red pimples on using anything else. I have used more than 100 products on my face in past 5 years alone, trying to find that 1 product which will not irritate my sensitive skin, not dry out my already ultra-dry skin and bring some glow to my lifeless skin. Tejasvi Ubtan is THE FIRST product that has done all 3 for me :) I am NEVER going to stop using it. 

YES-

• 100% Natural
• Wonderfully effective ingredients
• Divine smell that takes away all stress
• Suits my ultra sensitive skin
• Hydrates my ultra- dry skin
• Brings immediate glow to dull,lifeless skin
• I can see little blemishes and marks fading a bit after using regularly for a month
• Results are not temporary,I can feel permanent softness and radiance on my face
• I can even see reduction in blackheads & whiteheads over past 1 month of usage
• It is like a small facial everyday,at home!
• Excellent value for money- 50 gms container is enough to last more than a month,depending on usage. It is advised to use it every alternate day or as a weekly mask + exfoliation, I found it so good that I used it as a mask for every single day :D

NO-

• I would just caution everyone with sensitive skin-do not apply it with much force, it is an exfoliator after all :) Wash it off softly. 
• It might be considered expensive. Other face masks are available for Rs. 200-300 while this is almost Rs. 800 for 50 grams! But trust me, no other face mask is as effective as this.
• Availability might be an issue. Go to Forest Essentials store or buy it online from Flipkart or Amazon  :)

Recommended- YES, YES, A 1000 TIMES YES :) I have stumbled upon the best product for my face :D Rating is 5/5 for sure.