REVIEW: June 2016 Fab Bag

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The Too Glam To Give A Damn Bag won me over right from the first look. Black base with a nice white font and grey silhouettes of some of our make-up essentials, finished with a pop of pink make the bag a winner.

The contents would fall in the mixed bag category. What I received was:

• Be a Bombshell Eye Shadow Crayon – The Boss (Full size)
• Skin Yoga Coffee Body Scrub (full size)
• Karite Buerre Pure Shea Butter (sample)
• Janseen RoC Serum (full size)

• Be a Bombshell Eye Shadow Crayon – The Boss (Full size); INR 1,200

  

I’d opted for this – The Boss shade from Be a Bombshell, in the pre-selection phase and while the product is handy and everyday-use variety, the shade turned out to be too light for my deep-set, dark circle-prone eyes. I surely wouldn’t write it off, as the light golden glow works very well for a natural work look. The shadow is light and certainly not long-lasting. It convenient to carry-along and apply on-the-go.

• Karite Buerre Pure Shea Butter (sample); INR 499 for 50 gm

  

Wild East-African Shea Butter sure sounds exotic. The print proudly suggests that it’s 100% natural and Pure comes with a sweet tolerable fragrance. While most Shea Butter-based products clearly indicate the exact purpose, this one requires a guessing game. We don’t know from the packaging whether this is suitable for a certain type of skin, is face-friendly or more of a body butter meets lip-balm meets I-can-be-anything-you-need applicator. My guess is that it’s all-purpose.

According to the information listed on Fab Bag, it covers a wide range of issues starting with dry skin treatment to swelling, arthritis, rashes, stretch marks, skin discolouration and hair care.

Now, I’m not sure if I’d like to use this as a lip balm, cuticle cream, dry-spot treatment for the knees, elbows, knuckles. Shea Butter is known for its healing and anti-aging properties but given the thick and therefore heavy texture, I don’t see it working for me in any other way, apart from the ones mentioned above.

This is yet another product from Fab Bag that has reached me without an expiry date. Expiry and manufacturing dates are sacrosanct for skincare. I’ve even written several times to the lovely folks there to highlight the issue.

• Janseen RoC Serum (Full size) INR 200 for 30 ML

  

This one was a bit of a shocker. No, not because of its look or fragrance or the feel; by all means, it fairs well on all three aforementioned counts. What I couldn’t fathom is why they would send me an ‘anti-wrinkle serum that irons out even deep-set wrinkles’. It’s common knowledge that products based on similar bases are for mature skin, say 36 years upwards. Yes, there are different schools of thought on how early a woman should start using anti-ageing creams, but a retinol-based cream surely is hard business.

Now with all the details filled out and submitted religiously to Fab Bag over several years (even back in the day, when Fab Bag was called Vellvette), they still go on and send me a product like a pre-mature ‘celebration of aging’.

• Skin Yoga Coffee Body Scrub (Full size)

  

The scrub works. This brand upholds its promise of flavour and finish each time.

#IMFO verdict: A mixed bag, with the bag itself as the sole highlight, 3 wins out of 5.

@MalvikaNanda