Here are some quick tips to make this Holi a beautiful one!

Do's

• It's best to use colors that are derived from dried flowers. Inorganic colors can cause skin allergies and if they do then it is advisable to wash off the color immediately and apply an ice pack on the affected areas.

• Oil your hair and tie it in a neat pony tail. Use olive oil if possible.

• Moisturize your lips well

• Wear the darkest shade of nail color to avoid multiple colors on your nails

• Apply Morroccan, castor or olive oil on your skin. Make sure you apply sunscreen before you step out. This helps in rinsing off the colors easily. 

• Use a mild cleanser, avoid using soap as it dries out the skin. 

• Wear a pair of shorts and a loose T-shirt or Kurta. You can also choose to wear full sleeves tops and jeans if you have a sensitive skin. 

• Sport a funky hairdo. If you love your bangs or fringes then put them on the side by tying the rest of your hair in a French braid or ponytail.

• Condition your hair before you play Holi. 

• After bath use a good moisturizing cream all over the body to help skin heel

Don'ts

• Wear lenses. Try to wear glasses or shades to protect your eyes. 

• Keep your hair open

• Wear sheer tops

Latest Indian Fashion News - Who wore what?

 Actresses in their traditional Attires

Shailee presents to you it's favorites this season - 

After a long time we saw Aishwarya Rai at the 16th Mumbai Film Festival. She looked beautiful wearing a simple navy blue Sabyasachi saree that had an orange and gold border with a matching orange and gold long sleeve blouse.

She kept the styling minimal by accessorizing with gold jewelry and looked simple yet elegant.

Deepika Padukone looked stunning in  a red and gold Sabyasachi saree with gold bangles from Amrapali, jhumkas Kishandas & Co and braided hair do at a recent  promotion of her new film 'Happy New Year'.She was styled by Shaleena Nathani. Shailee gives a thumbs up to this look.

Karisma Kapoor chose to wear a festive Ritika Mirchandani lehenga for a pre-diwali  event at Macau. The ensemble also had a stunning gold jacket, beautiful Vasundhara Mantry earrings, a glitter clutch by Nivedita Saboo, smokey eyes and an updo. She looked gorgeous! The look was styled by Esha Amin.

Helen was conferred the Lifetime achievement award at the recent  Mumbai Film festival. She looked timeless in that classic black and golden saree. She teamed it up with golden pearl jewelry and looked quite fashionable.

Nargis kept it traditional and elegant in a SVA by Sonam and Paras Modi saree. Her monochrome  print saree was styled with big Curio Cottage chand baalis and an updo.She looked  oh so traditional yet modern!

Which look did you like?

Image courtesy : Pinkvilla

Festive Trend - Ear Cuffs

This festive season, stand out of the crowd by sporting this versatile ear jewelry!

Ear cuffs have been the latest trend in movie and fashion industry. From International stars can to  B'wood hotties, everyone seem to  flaunt this piece of jewelry. From Rihanna and Emma Watson to Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone — ear cuffs seem to be a rage among fashionistas now. Choose from modern to traditional designs and add spunk to your personality — anytime, anywhere! You can go online and pick the perfect ear piece for each occasion! Shailee tells you how to sport these cuffs for different looks:

Parties: Show your wild side by pairing a feathered ear cuff with a cocktail dress.

Casual: Fun single ear cuffs can add zing to your drab jeans and tee combo.
Night-outs: Try stone- encrusted cuffs to shine through the night.
Ethnic: Egyptian motifs can dramatize your traditional look like no other!

Keep it stylish!

FESTIVE EDITION

SAREE DRAPING STYLES

Shailee would like to share few most popular ways of draping a sari in this festive season.

Gujarati way of wearing saree: This way of draping the saree is not only adopted in Gujarat but many northern states like UP, MP Rajasthan and Bihar also adopt this style. In this way of wearing the saree, the pleats face right instead of left. The pallu also comes from the back to the front from the right side. The edge of the pallu is tucked at the back securing it properly. This style of draping works very well when you want to display an elaborate border. Sometimes a plane silk or tussar saree with full sleeve blouse and rustic accessories can give a modern look to this traditional style of draping.

The Mumtaz style: Old is gold, if you believe in this saying then who can forget Mumtaz Style of drapping.Popularized by the charming film star Mumtaz, this way of wearing your saree involves draping it tightly around your lower body several times, to give it a narrow look and dramatically fling the remaining fabric over your shoulder. This style bares your midriff and makes for a very slow walk.

Anamika Khanna’s Sari with Pants: If restraint is not your strong suit, this unique sari is for you, which, to quote the cliché, looks as vintage as it does modern. It’s been teamed with strong shoulder pads, chic embroidered blouses, long jackets and waistcoats.This new look is the flavor of the season.

Bengali/Devdas style: Originally from Bengal, but popularized by the film “Devadas” this drape is done with two large pleats in front and the pallu wrapped twice around the top. Traditionally the pallu end was weighed down with a house key – usually of the heavy skeleton variety. Nowadays, however, there are many variations to this style. What’s more, it has less folds and tucks that matter and it all crushes down as you go about your day so you don’t really look as balloon-like as you may think you do. This style of saree is highly recommended in this coming festive season.

Deepika Padukone’s Sari draping in Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani: This simple way of draping sari can give you an extra oomph by just altering here and there. Double Fold the pallu , where the border should be seen from the outside and secure it with a pin near the waist and taper it towards the front. It gives you an illusion of a slim waist line.

Festive Edition - Blouses

Give a new look to your blouses

Hello everyone, Shailee is back with a new festive edition just for you. In this edition we will try to cover all the latest trends and styles that you can carry this festive season.

September marks the starting month for all the beautiful festivals of India. Be it Navratri, Durga Puja or Diwali, every occasion holds a special place in our hearts. Along with all the celebrations, we also ensure that we look our best on these occasions. Shailee will try it’s best to bring you the latest trends in makeup, sarees, blouses and hair styles in this festive edition. In today’s article we will cover the latest trends in blouses.

Saree is one of the oldest and traditional dresses all over the world. The concept of Saree was foremost derived from the Indian culture. A woman looks exceptionally elegant and graceful in this costume. Gone are the days when ladies restricted themselves to traditional Sarees with blouses. This Indian wear has taken a leap into the modern world and Sarees have become a fashion statement even in the western world. Designers from across the world have made this traditional Indian wear stylish and trendy. But however, it is a fact that a Saree is imperfect without a perfect blouse. For selecting a blouse the initial thing is to consider the texture and pattern of the Saree so that it matches well with the Saree.

This festive season, bid farewell to all the old blouse patterns and look stylish by giving a twist to your saree blouses. Off late some Bollywood celebrities and the fashionistas were spotted sporting some stylish blouse styles and designs which indeed caught our eyes and they are as follows:

1. Boat Neck Blouses: Boat neck blouses have become the latest trend. They give a different look to the entire get up. This type of blouses goes well with mod graphics sarees as well as traditional silk sarees. This neck line looks the best with full sleeves and sleeves till above the elbow.
   
2. Long Sleeve Blouses: This type of blouses is best suited for the weather conditions in US during the festive monthsJ. Ace fashion designer, Sabyashachi made this blouse pattern a fashion statement in Cannes film festival. Since then most of the celebrities are seen carrying this blouse gracefully at many occasion. It is very important that the blouse is fitted well as a little loose fitting can make this style look clumsy.
   
3. Collar Blouses: Gone are the days where collars were restricted to just shirts, these days collars are making a style statement for the traditional Indian blouses and I must say if carried off well these blouses make a big fashion statement. Aishwarya Rai was seen sporting a collared blouse at the Cannes film festival. Sonam looked gorgeous with a collared blouse with a Masaba Saree,This style adds a mod and different look to the traditional saree.
   
4. Lace Blouses: Lace sarees and blouses are the latest trend these days. Try experimenting a lace blouse with a lace, silk, georgette  or a cotton saree. It adds a vintage touch to your look and looks fab with a simple saree.
   
5. Jackets: A latest trend is to wear an additional jacket matching with your blouse. This is again perfect for the cold weather conditions in these months in the western part of the World. This trend was started by Sonam Kapoor in Cannes film festival and we thought she looked like an absolute diva in a blouse cum jacket attire.
   

Style is all about experimenting with new looks and styles which suits you, so go ahead and experiment with these new blouse trends and share if you find some more interesting trends.

Timeless Elegance

Phulkari Work

Phulkari is an ancient embroidery technique, practiced on a large scale in the state 

of Punjab. Phulkari or flower work, was also the synonym for embroidery in the ancient period. Traditional weavers excelled this art and made beautiful flower carvings on the piece of fabric.

Manish Malhotra’s latest collection for Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week, titled ‘Threads of Emotions’, featured this beautiful artwork called, Phulkari. Like his previous collection, where he displayed chikankari and kashmiri work, this time too he did a fantastic job in embezzling the stylish apparels with this beautiful embroidery work. What we liked the most was that he used the phulkari work in geometric prints which made it stand out.

Among the models who worked on the ramp, we thought Esha Gupta stood out in a gorgeous black and red Phulkari saree. We also liked the stylish jacket which was adorned by Jacqueline Fernandez . The jackets with an Indian flavor are a hot favorite this season. We feel it gives a classy feel to the Indian wear. We also loved the “ anarkali over the cigarette pants” look .

The men’s collection was also captivating. We felt Siddharth Malhotra looked the best amongst all the male models. The dhoti and the bandh gala look is a hot favorite amongst men these days.

Sonam Kapoor also looked charming in  Payal Pratap designed phulkari outfits which she wore for promoting her latest block buster, “Bhaag Milkha Singh”. However we totally loved Kareena’s black phulkari outfit designed by Payal Pratap. We felt she looked sleek and classy with a minimal accessory look. We really like the  creativity  that Payal Pratap adds to the  Indian outfits.

This multicolored motif is surely here to stick around for some time. Which outfit you think looked the best?

Style Check : Skin Care

HOW TO REMOVE TANS

Summer is all about vacation, sleepovers, beaches, water fights, tank tops, flip flops, lemonade, sunglasses, taking pictures, bikinis, Ice-cream, summer breeze, camps. shorts, summer breeze, belly tops, Sand castles. short hair, mud fights,  pool parties, sun kissed hair, palm trees, Barbeques, clear blue skies, concerts.. Make it count!

And while we are out enjoying all these there is one thing which really bothers us and that is how to get rid of the summer tan. It amazes us to see how some of our American friends spend hours lying on the beach getting themselves tanned while how much ever we (Indians) try to keep the sun tan away from us by using several sun block sprays, lotions etc it still leaves its mark on us. Over the years we have tried several sun blocks and sunscreen lotions but we haven’t come across any lotions which actually manage to keep our skin color intact. Hence we thought anyways now that we have the tan let’s find out some solutions on how we can get rid of it.

So we researched and also tried some of the following tricks and it did work on us, so go ahead and try these magical tricks in case you too want to get rid of that ugly tan.

Here are few tips to treat sun tanned skin :

Grate potato and mix it well with cold milk and apply to the sun tanned area and leave it for 20 minutes to dry and then wash it well with cold water.

Mix cucumber juice and turmeric powder and leave it on the skin for 20 minutes or till it dries and then wash it with ice water or cold water.

Mix lemon juice and rosewater (5tbsp each) and apply it to the sun damaged area and leave it overnight and wash it next day morning with cold water.

Mix saffron or turmeric powder with 2tbsp of lemon juice and make a paste of it and the apply it to the tanned area and leave it for 20 minutes and then wash it with ice water or cold water.

Mix gram flour(besan), lemon juice and 1 drop of olive oil/coconut oil make a paste of it and apply it to the sun tanned area and keep it for 15 minutes and then wash it the cold  water.

Tomato juice and lemon juice both in equal quantity mix it together and leave it on the sun tanned area for 20 minutes or till it dries and then wash it with cold water.

Mix yogurt and orange juice well and keep it on the affected area for 20 minutes and then wash it with cold water.

Mix multani mitti, cahndan powder and rosewater, make a paste of it and then apply to the sun kissed area for 20 minutes and then wash it with cold water.

Refrigerate cabbage or lettuce leaves soaked in water and then put those cold water soaked leaves on the sun tanned area as long as you can keep.

Coconut water is a good remedy for sun tanned skin.

Aloe Vera Gel removes sun tan without any irritation from the skin.

Butter milk also helps in removal of tan from the skin.

Ice and cold water also remove sun tan.

Repeat the above mentioned remedies for alternate days for two weeks and soon you will notice that your skin color has regained its original tone.

Do share if you know more of such remedies.