Road Trip Across India - Beauty Musings..

Hey Girls!

I hope all has been well with you over the last 3 weeks.

I'm back from my quasi - road trip. I travelled across from Mumbai - Pachmari - Jabalpur - Manali - Delhi - Jaipur - Mumbai route.

Manali - River Beas

As usual I had packed a lot of makeup (10 colored eyeliners, 6 lipsticks, 15 eyeshadows (Inglot, NYX, Jordana Palettes), Mascara, cream blush, brushes, TM, compact, concealer, primer, 5 lip glosses; basically the works) in the hope of using it all as I don't get to indulge in it much during the work days.

• Instead all I ended up using was my dark brown Faces eyeliner, Mac Hot Tahiti lipstick (I love this one, I bought it for KC, and have been using only this ever since) & the L'oreal primer on a daily basis. The rest of the makeup just sat in my case and travelled all the way from Mumbai & back. :-P

I was pretty sure I'd be sun burnt at the end of this trip,
but much to my delight I don't even have a tan to talk about. The secret: Sudocreme. Yup, that same weird nappy rash cream I reviewed here.

Market in Manali

• I generally use Neutrogena Sunblock spf 55, but if I use it on a daily basis it tends to dry out my skin. I was wondering what to carry with me on my trip, when a light - bulb light up over my head. I know that Zinc Oxide is used in a number of sunblocks as a physical sunscreen, Sudocreme has 12% ZnO.That was enough for me to start my weird experiment - I hulked the tub with me in the trip & I am glad I did. It has worked perfectly for me. I would be out all day in the sun walking around with Sudocrem as my only sun protection - I didn't get burnt nor did I tan even a bit. The only issue is that it has to blended in well or else it can leave a whitish cast on the face.
• I also carried some skincare products with me that worked quite well like Neutrogena wipes, Biotique Quinceseed cream, Ponds Cold cream etc. 

The girls in Manali have the most pink, rosy cheeks I have seen! (well, actually even the guys have pink rosy cheeks). I don't know if it is the cold, the water, the food, the altitude, but they have really nice skin & naturally pink cheeks.

• Luckily enough, within 2 days of staying at Manali, I had my own natural blush getting its act together on my cheeks. I loved it, no need for artificial blush! It lasted till Jaipur. Now it is gone..

Rohtang Pass - our car missed getting hit by a huge boulder in landslide by seconds!!

The Body Shop Hemp Face Cream really proved its mettle while I was up at Rohtang Pass (the temp was in minus over there & it was snowing!!) & in Manali - Not a hint of dry skin. Even the Cocoa Body butter passed with flying colors.

While I was up there, I washed my face with the hot sulphur spring water up at Vaishist. I started my journey with 3 huge acne zits (thanks to the new Lakme Strawberry Night Creme I was using just before leaving), which were refusing to subside. One wash with the natural sulfur water & they retreated overnight. I just have to deal with the marks now. I really should have got some of that water back in a bottle. Damn!

Delhi was a treat, thanks to some strings pulled by my uncle, I got to go & see the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's House) from inside!! I'm not sure if I can share too many details on the layout here on a public forum, but if you get the chance, you must see the gift gallery ;)

But there was a lot of fog in Delhi and my lunch date at Parikrama (the revolving 24th floor restaurant) was rather clouded, so say the least. I also was unable to go to F1 despite having tickets as I reached Delhi rather late from Manali. (long story, don't ask)

Hawa Mahal

From  there on I went to Jaipur - which was my favourite part of the entire trip. I've never been to the city before, but I just loved it! They have preserved their forts rather well and along with audio guides they are a pleasure to visit. The audio guides are extremely well made & transport you back to the time of Rajputs. I particularly enjoyed Hawa Mahal.

Of course, I also visited Choki Dani & Johari Bazaar as well. I bought a ton of accessories from here, from thread bangles, to kundan work to semi precious stones. I managed to find pretty good deals, and am now the proud owner of a blue sapphire necklace as well as garnet & lapis lazuli one :-)

The one thing I noticed about the women in Jaipur (other than the fact that no one there was dressed in brightly colored clothes, I was very disappointed. I had been fed the myth that women there sport beautiful & colorful dupattas & dresses - not true, the village women do though, and they look beautiful in those clothes) is that they all use makeup!! A lot more than I observed in Delhi! They all were put together even early in the morning with eyeshadows & face powders - esp at LMB. I like :-)

In all, it was a good trip. I do see myself going back to Jaipur as I really loved it there.

Business shall resume on this blog soon, posts will start going up in a few days.

How have you girls been? All well with you?