Evil Shades Haul, Swatches and mini review

Just after christmas Evil Shades had a sale (I have completely forgotten how much, 20% perhaps?) so I decided to get some bits I hadn't tried before, and some I had tried before and liked :) Now I haven't worn the majority of these long enough to do a proper review, so this is just my initial thoughts.

Ok so i ordered on the first of january and I recieved my order in just over 2 weeks, which is pretty much the standard for shipping from America. It came in a standard bubble mailer, then wrapped in a pink plastic bag and sealed with the cute sticker :)

 

  

Here is everything I bought! :) 

2 Hardcore Lips in Just Like Candy and Doom

2 Deviant Lipsticks in Stiletto and Bane

Foiling/Wetlining Liquid

Eyeshadow primer in Noir

Bewitching Cuticle Balm sample and Indulge Cuticle Creme sample

4 lipstick samples in Cursed Beauty, Devoted, Hell Froze Over and Obscurity

3 Blush samples in Back Talk, Burlesque and Love Bites

And I got a free sample of Lucia eye shadow :)

All of this, including international shipping cost $40.91 (£25.15) which is fantastic. In fact the shipping only cost me $4.25 (£2.61) which is less than most UK sellers charge! 

More photos, swatches and thoughts under the cut.

 

Samples now come in small clamshells instead of sample bags, which I really love. I find using samples in bags pretty annoying and tricky and here it's basically like applying from a jar. Opening can be a little scary though, but I just went slowly and carefully and I've only lost a few tiny drops of product. As you can see the blush and shadow samples are pretty much packed to the brim, I can imagine they'll last a long time and lot's of uses! Samples are $1.25 (77p) for eyeshadow and lipstick and $1.50 (92p) for blush. 

 

Swatches from left to right: Lucia, Love Bites, Backtalk, Burlesque. 

 

Left - Lucia dry right - Lucia applied with the foiling serum. I haven't used this enough to review yet, but as you can see it immediately adds a tonne of vibrance. The foiling liquid costs $5.75 (£3.54) for a 1.2 ounce bottle with dropper. 

 

Left - Lucia dry, middle - Lucia over Noir Eye Primer, right - Noir Eye Primer 

Again I haven't worn the primer properly yet so I can't give a real review. You get a 3 gram jar full of product for $6 (£3.69). The primer has a very jelly like texture, which is intriguing. It's a great opaque black colour and as you can see really adds punch to the shadow. However I did find it took a long time to dry, and wasn't sure if i was meant to apply my shadow over it while it was still wet. 

  

Swatches left to right

Top Row: Just Like Candy, Doom, Stiletto, Bane

Bottom Row: Obscurity, Devoted, Cursed Beauty, Hell Froze Over

 

samples. 

Three of these colours just weren't for me. Devoted is a nice colour a slightly apricoty nude but because it's rather yellow based it looked very odd on my very pink skin.Cursed Beauty is a very slightly metallic yellow based pink. Again it's a lovely colour (quite similar to Viva Glam Gaga I think, I'll swatch and compare) but I have a couple of colours like it and rarely wear them, I prefer brighter or blue based pinks. Hell Froze Over is sheer (it's advertised as such) and would probably be great for mixing and layering (haven't tried it like that yet) but on it's own it's odd, I can't really layer it up enough to be opaque so my pink lips shine through the white and make it a weird colour. But I LOVE Obscurity. It's a fantastic slightly metallic dark (almost navy blue). It's fantastically pigmented and looks beautiful on me. It's also a pretty good dupe for Illamasqua's Disciple! However it's supposed to have a pink sheen, which could have made it one of the most amazing lipsticks ever, but I can't see it at all. The lipstick samples contain a generous dollop, I've swatched them on my lips once and I guess there's at least another 4 applications worth of product left.

 

The lipsticks come in a pretty basic black lip balm tube with a small label. Now I have no problem with the look of the packaging, it's simple and a bit generic but I understand that's to keep costs low which I do appreciate. However I do find it quite difficult to apply my lipstick from the tube because there's no angle to it, just a flat top like a lip balm. It's very tricky to properly follow the contours of my cupids bow for example. It can of course be fixed by using a lip brush and then filling in the line.

Now the formula.... Ok I don't really know how to review this because something of really odd. This is the first time I've ordered full sizes of the lipsticks but I've ordered samples before. Every sample I've tried (this order included) has had an absolutely fantastic formula. They're creamy and smooth to go apply, fantastically pigmented (except the ones that are sold as sheer) and genuinely feel like they're moisturising my lips. Now the full sizes are completely different. They're not horrible by any means, but they're very dry. Not drying, but dry. You have to drag the lipstick quite hard across your lips to get the colour. After they're on they're good though, they stay put through a lot, I've worn Stiletto for about 4 hours before I needed touching up. Stiletto, which is a punchy raspberryish bright pink colour with a subtle blue shift, came out brilliantly pigmented in just a layer or two and I love it. However I was pretty disappointed with Bane. It's really different from the sample I got. The colour is the same but the full size is incredibly sheer.

 

This is the sample I bought

 

And this is the full size. 

I don't know the reason why the samples seem to be a different formula but I assume its something to do with the temperature differences between a blob in a baggie/clamshell and a solid tube. Full size lippies cost $4.75 (£2.90)

 

Finally the Hardcore Lips. These are described as an insanely pigmented, opaque lip gloss. And for Doom that is correct. For Just Like Candy... Not so much :( Doom is gorgeous, similar to (but not a dupe of) Illamasqua's Hermetic Intense Gloss, to me it's a sort of very deep brownish red with a purple sheen and it's fully opaque if you apply a couple of layers. It's extremely glossy and just looks great. Just Like Candy is a stunning colour, a very pale shimmering lavender with a large amount multicoloured shimmer however it's very sheer, I couldn't get it opaque no matter how many layers I applied. I imagine it would be gorgeous over a pastel purple lip pencil. But again I was a little disappointed as I thought it would be opaue on it's own. The formula of these is quite liquid, it's not at all sticky but feels a tiny bit greasy. Not particularly badly, just like most liquidy glosses feel. I haven't tested these for longevity yet. They come in a 0.20 fl ounce clear plastic tube with a doe foot applicator, which is pretty much the standard and is fine with me. Costs $5 (£3.08)

All in all I' happy with my order. Of course I'm not certain yet about certain products as I haven't tested them properly, but the colours are just gorgeous. I love the cuticle creams and my Stiletto lipstick, the blushes look very pretty swatched but I am rather disappointed with Bane and I just wish Just Like Candy was a bit less sheer. The prices are incredibly fair and I think generally the quality is high.

Lip swatches of all lip colours coming right up :) I'll be doing fuller reviews on the products when I can.