Nabila

Nabila, firstly, congrats on making official hair and makeup partner with the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA), we can’t think of anyone who has worked harder than you have and hustled when the rest of us were busy adjusting our cowl-neck shirts and dhoti shalwars – you are the OG of makeup. Literally. How do you do it? Are you going to bounce the famous: “I can give you my kidney but not my time,” response our way? How about we walk and talk while you accomplish your tasks and we accomplish ours (having a conversation with you about how to be a fabulous woman forever)? You know where we are. Call us!

What we’re in love with here, apart from quite obviously, Nabila, her empire, and her legacy, is the Zero Makeup palette. There have been mixed reviews about the colour payoff, the blendability, durability, and its other abilities, but the palette is both made for brown skin (all tones, and if you’re a brown girl or boy, you know one brown face has at least seven different shades of brown going on anyway), and not tested on animals. Zero Makeup, along with N-Gents, Nabila’s signature salon for men, are going to be setting the IIFA stage alight with groomed good looks.

E.L.F.

We haven’t tried it yet, but the E.L.F. multipurpose stick looks awesome. It blends from cream to powder, the shades start with a shimmery deep pink and go to a darker bronze, with all the ‘natural’ shades in the middle.

Secondly the brand is pushing their putty primer pretty hard on our socials, and we checked it out because we aren’t sentient beings anymore, we just do what the algorithm tells us to do.

The putty primer comes in a couple of formulations, and we will assume that there are mattifying and illuminating versions for oily and dry skin types, and as always, we love how some makeup is all about paring your routine down.

Yes, go all out and contour to within an inch of your life, and bake, and strobe, but if you’re ready for this classic revelation: if you can maintain reasonably good skincare routines, and when making up, work more on making your skin look good; you will realize everything else is secondary. Making your skin look good involves moisturizer, primer, concealer, some highlight and some colour, which is where you can turn to E.L.F. The multipurpose stick goes over cheeks, eyes, and lips, while the primer will go some ways to making your skin appear smoother. Add on products as needed. But these two products plus a good mascara is all you need for every day.

And a consistent skincare routine. We can’t stress that enough. Splurge on the skin and save on the makeup, which, kids, is a lecture for another day.