Colossal Contemplations

I just sensed quite a few female subconscious minds flash yellow & black upon reading the post title this time. Well…the subconscious somehow always senses it right. Read on... The word ‘colossal’ used to draw images of the Colosseum in Rome or the Colossus of Barletta until a few years ago for the female population in the country, and that was precisely until the day Colossal Kajal from Maybelline New York hit the shelves, creating a furore in the beauty markets of India in 2011. Like the millions of ‘colossal’ fans all over the country I too lost no time in going loco over this yellow magic pen that gave your eyes the bold & beautiful look. How much ever bankrupt I became towards the end of the month I would always keep aside an emergency Colossal kajal fund just in case I ran out of this piece of 'sheer necessity' ;)

In fact my husband thinks

that all this is a tad too much for a lady who had never even bothered to use any form of make-up including kajal before marriage. Well…Sometimes I myself feel that my extreme love for this kajal and the associated smoky-eye experiments which arise from this ‘love’ often leave me looking like an unsuspecting raccoon hit by an apple. But sometimes that can be fun too... when the kid loves it and derives innocent amusement from it! 

After dominating the Indian kohl scene for a considerable period of time Colossal kajal witnessed tough competition from other global as well as local make-up brands, but nothing amounts to the competition it has been facing from the deluge of fake ‘colossal kajal’ that now occupies the shelves of small and big stores alike all over the country. I did end up with a fake one a few weeks back which I had purchased at the exact same market MRP from a health & beauty store in Bangalore. I was aware of fake kajal being sold in the market, but was least expecting to purchase one from a not-so-bad looking store in one of the best shopping locales of the city. It was only after using the kajal for over a period of days that it struck me that there appeared to be something different in the overall appearance of the packaging. It only took me a few minutes of googling to realize the difference. The fact that shocked me was that the quality was apparently not much different from the original thing either. (Or….was it fake ones that I've been using all along?) The risk lies in the fact that you never know the ingredients that go into the making of the bogus piece, especially when the product is used to line the eyes, the most crucially delicate component of our sensory system.

Here I am sharing with all of you a few links I came across while googling that did help me out:   

http://www.redalicerao.com/2013/07/maybelline-colossal-kajal-fake-vs-real.html
http://www.myfashionvilla.com/2013/09/28/new-colossal-kajal-maybelline-new-york-india-review/
http://www.feminiya.com/alert-ladies-dont-buy-fake-cosmetics-here-is-how/

So ladies.. better to be safe than sorry. It’s always prudent to train your eyes to differentiate between an original and a fake, be it Colossal kajal or any other brand of make-up that you use in your day to day lives. 

Pic Courtesy:  Google