A hitherto symbol of married status of Indian women, Bindis have undergone a major transformation in terms of their designs and significance. Today, bindis carry a unique fashion statement of their own. Hip and fashion conscious youngsters are not just sporting bindis with traditional Indian wear but also wearing them with western outfits. Eye catching, as they are, bindis are gradually but surely sweeping the West too as one can see young performers sporting them on music channels. As a fashion accessory bindis are available in mind-boggling variety of shapes, colors and designs. Besides being used on the forehead, innovative and designer bindis are finding place in belly button, nails, arms and even toes.

Latest Trends in Bindis:

In present times, the traditional kumkum tikas has largely been replaced with modern sticker bindis. The sticker bindis are made of felt and have glue on the other side. These makes these bindis smudge free and extremely convenient to use. Today, sticker bindis too have undergone a significant revolution. They are present in end number of designs, shapes and patterns. With Bindis turning into a fashion statement designer's imagination in terms of bindi patterns have run wild. Today, you may find bindis in the shape of serpent, skull, crab, butterfly etc. Credit for such unique shapes of bindis goes to the vamps in the popular Hindi soap operas.

• Multi-Layered Bindis: Another popular trend in Bindis is the use of multi-layered bindis where bindis with more than one color or shape are stuck together to form new design. Creative women use their own imagination to form beautiful layered bindis out of their bindi collection. Huge variety of layered bindis is also available in the market.
  
  
• Materials Used to Adorn Bindis: These days Bindi designers are also being innovative in terms of things they use to decorate a bindi. Sequin bindis, bindis adorn with pearls, colorful and glittering stones and even gold and diamond are available in the market today. Exotic and intricate Bindis dusted with gold powder and studded with beads are also quite popular.
  
  

Contemporary Forms of Bindis:

In present times, Bindis can be categorized into following forms:

• Bridal and Formal Wear: Traditional bridal bindis makes use of "bindi sets" where the large or main bindi is placed in between the eyebrows on the forehead while smaller bindis are placed along the brows. Bridal bindis can be prepackaged sets, which are designed to be worn together, or a combination of a large bindi with several smaller "diamond" accents.
  
  
• Eye Bindi: Another immensely popular method of bindi wear is the eye bindi. These are usually placed in the corner of eyes. Some place them in both corners while others only place them on the outside corner.
  
  
• Eyelash Bindi: In the past few years it has become fashionable to also wear bindis along the eyelashes. This, of course, requires proper selection of bindis.
  
  
• Nail Bindi: Trend of wearing nail bindis is gradually catching on. One can try wearing them along the edge of nails or placing flat ones on the nail itself. Experts say that one must use especially created nail bindis for adorning nails.
  
  
• Nose Bindi: Nose Bindi is also a very popular form of bindi wear. Using a small bindi works best on the nose. Often the small "diamond" accents are used but at times several smaller bindis in different styles work well too. Nose bindis have emerged as the convenient alternative to magnetic backing of fake nose rings.
  
  
• Belly Button Bindi: The trend of belly button exposure has lead to the creation of belly button bindis in trendy avatars. Fashionistas are finding belly button bindis a stylish way to sparkle up the navel. There are no rules for this one and one either purchase special belly button bindi or get creative and make her own using a collection of bindis.
  
  
• Face Bindi: Beauty experts are looking for more interesting places of wearing bindis apart from the centre of the eyebrows. Get imaginative and make your own style statement.

Bindis Price Range:

Price of Bindis varies tremendously depending on the intricacy of the design, finish and the materials used to decorate it. The price of ordinary sticker bindis range from Rs2 to Rs15 for a pack while pearl studded, stone and diamond embedded, enamel encrusted bindis are priced anywhere between Rs50 and Rs75 for about 8 to 10 bindis that come in one packet. Semi-precious kundan and meenakari gold plated bindi have found way into jewelry shops and are priced between Rs500 and Rs2000. Bottles of special glue are sold along with these bindis to allow re-use, as the sticking capacity wears off after a couple of uses.

Buying Bindis Online:

Traditionally, women have been shopping from bindi from cosmetic shops, or shops that specialize in selling only bindis or from the kiosks in local markets but in the present technologically advanced age, one can shop for bindis online. Various bindi manufacturers and designers have set up their own bindi shopping sites where one can select bindis by browsing through the catalogue.