Darling Girl Eyeshadow Review and swatches

Continuing my ongoing huge Darling Girl review  I've got a bunch of eyeshadows for you today!

 Darling Girl eyeshadows come in three sizes, samples (1/8 tsp in bags), petites (1/4 tsp in jars) and full size (3/4 tsp in jars) 

As I've never actually finished a shadow I only buy samples and petites, so I can't show you the full sized packaging:

    

Eyeshadow packaging is again simple and clear. Sample bags are labelled with the ingredients, name and whether or not they're lip safe. The jars do not have room for the ingredients, but they are on the website. Darling Girl is well known for making awesome taupe colours with a twist but they also have some great bright and dark colours!

In the following photos I am wearing Dasher on my bow bone, Jewelled Taupe on my lid and a touch of Rudolph in my crease. This was applied on a bare lid (no primer) 

Freshly applied: 

10 hours later

 

So as I hope you can see the shadows stayed amazingly well! There's a tiny bit of fading in the crease but other than that it looks the same as when it was first applied! The slight change in colour is due to the different lighting.

Swatches below the cut!

Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless Collection

Yes, I'm stupidly late with this post once again. The collection has been out for quite some time now, but because Illamasqua is awesome with it's collections, the products are all still available and will be for a long time :) 

This collection was inspired by the dark and decadent nightlife of Berlin in the 1920s, the images really reminded me of expressionist cinema. The colours are vampy and rich, but with hints of sparkle and iridescence. While the collection of darker, vampier hues seems perfect for autumn/winter, as usual Illamasqua has not gone down a 'safe' route. The dark cerises, smoked purples, forresty greens and rusty reds are also joined by flashes of bright magenta, light peaches and greyed pinks. There's new textures too - shimmery blushes and rubberised nails. 

To be honest while I absolutely loved the collection imagery that came out before the products, I didn't imagine I'd end up wanting to buy much. To me while the pictures were absolutely breathtaking, I didn't imagine that too many exciting products were involved. For instance I adore this picture: 

But the only product really featured is a black liner (and whatever created the flawless skin)

But then when I actually saw the products, there were loads I wanted! 

And the lovely people at Illamasqua were kind enough to send me a few items, including two that I was absolutely craving, so that was a bit of good luck for me! 

The products came with a catalogue, featuring more gorgeous artwork.

And in the normal, sleek Illamasqua packaging. This is the one thing I would change about Illamasqua's collections, special packaging would be nice to distinguish them from the main line of products.

 

The three products I recieved were Sheer Lipgloss in Violate, Lipstick in Kontrol and Pure Pigment in Berber.

Firstly the product I was the most excited about, the Sheer Lipgloss in Violate. I won't do a proper review of the formula because it's the same as one's I've talked about extensively before here

 

However you can see from my picture that while this is called a 'sheer' gloss it really isn't very sheer (though you can make it look sheerer by applying it very sparingly). It's a fantastic colour. A sort of red-ish brown with tonnes of green shimmer. You can see the brown colour a lot here because of the angle of my lips, from straight on they look much more green.  I really love it, such a cool colour, I can honestly say I've never seen a metallic, forrest green lipgloss before and this is a wonderful one. However what I would say is that the  pigmentation is a little odd, it's not opaque like their Intense Lipglosses but it certainly isn't sheer. I think it would look better over a base, perhaps black. You can also apply a tiny bit of this over another colour to darken it and add a hint of the green sparkle. It's good over red! 

Next the other product I loved the look of, the lipstick in Kontrol.

 

This is an amazing and unique colour. It's a real, true purple (not an aubergine or plum just called a purple) but with a hint of grey which makes it look really sophisticated and special. Berry lips are usually big for winter and I think this is a more interesting alternative. I've had problems with Illamasqua's lipsticks before, a lot of the shades I've tried have been very dry or drying or just not that great. I don't know if they've made any changes to the formula or if it's just this shade but this is just a fantastic lipstick! It's super pigmented, opaque in a single stroke and has a matte finish, however it is not in the slightest bit drying. It's creamy and smooth and glides on like a dream. It's just an amazing lipstick, I don't have anything bad to say about it!

Finally I was sent Berber, a  pure pigment. 

 

Pure Pigments can be used all over, as eyeshadow, blush, highlighter or you can apply it wet to make an eyeliner. Berber is a great metallic red colour with gold and green sparkles. It's beautifully pigmented and the different colours of the glimmer really shine through. I've not used this as an eye shade yet but I have other Pure Pigments which I have and they make fine eyeshadows, they last ages and don't tend to crease or fade. If you apply this lightly it makes a fantastic blush! It doesn't say anywhere if this is safe for use on the lips, which is a shame, I imagine it would look beautiful dusted over a red lipstick.

All the products I tried are really wonderful, I'm so so impressed with the lipstick formula and I love the lipgloss. So I really love this new collection, I want basically everything else from it! If the items I recieved seem a bit too 'out-there' and strange there is a lot more in the collection which is more conventional, there are blushes in rosy magentas and peachy nudes and pure pigments in black and white for a great smokey look. 

One last thing, I thought one item I really didn't need was the eyeliner in Havoc, an aubergine shade. Then I saw this:

From http://solomag.se/killercolours/2011/10/havoc/

Bloody heck it looks nice!

Thank you so much to the lovely people at Illamasqua for the products. I can't wait until I have the money to buy more!

Venomous Cosmetics review

A short while ago I was contacted by Tracy from Venomous cosmetics. She said that she'd seen that some of Venomous' lip poisons are on my wishlist and offered to send me a few of my choice for review. I of course leapt upon the offer greedily but as often happens I couldn't decide what colours to try so asked her to pick some for me. Originally I was supposed to get 4 mini glosses but instead Tracy astounded me with her genorousity by sending me 6 mini glosses, 3 pressed eyeshadow samples and 8 loose eyeshadow samples.   

As I was sent these I can't review how long it takes from shipping to recieving the order, or the actual ordering process but I can say that the communication was great, my enquiries were answered really quickly and there was a slight accident with the email containing my address going missing, even though I was being sent the products free of charge Tracy was extremely apologetic about the delay in shipping. My package arrived a bit after a week after it was sent, which is pretty good from the US!

There's a LOT of photos under the cut :) 

Sugarpill reformulated Chromalusts

Claire is a huuuge Sugarpill fan (as am I) and basically as soon as Amy releases anything new she will buy it. So when Sugarpill brought out some new Chromalust colours late last year (I believe, it's been a while...) Claire instantly grabbed them. Then a while later 2 of the colours were reformulated because Amy wasn't quite happy with them and because she is great and wondrous she offered to send Claire replacements with the new formula. So when they arrived I nicked them so I could compare the new formula to the old one. And then of course I procrastinated for months and months until finally this week I decided to get off my big lazy bum and do it!

Firstly Paperdoll.

Paperdoll is a gorgeous light lilacy purple colour with tonnes of silver sparkle. In each of the 3 photos below the new formula is on the left hand side.

 

Brazen Cosmetics Haul, swatches and review

...Finally. God I suck :P

Brazen were on my 'to try' list for a while, and while they did not win my little indie brand poll, I decided to ignore your wishes and order from them first because they had a sale on :P

I ordered:

4 3gram Lip gloss pots in La Femme, Make Out, Pixie and Burlesque

Good glitter gone bad in Naughty Gold

Yummy Gummies lip scrub

The beauty guru sample set

Brazen is available on both Etsy and Artfire, but I found out a special sale through their facebook page (4 3 gram pots for $10 ) so I made my order by just emailing my list of wants to them. There was a little delay because they didn't have the ingredients for something I ordered, but it was only a few days and communication was great, I was kept well informed throughout. Sandi, who I spoke with, was really friendly and very helpful. One of the colours of lipgloss I wanted was sold out (it was the limited edition Blaze, which is now back for a small time) but she suggested La Femme, which is in a similar colour family and she had seen from my wishlist on my blog, the fact that she'd taken the time to look seemed really great to me, it showed she really cared about giving me what I would like best. The package was sent on the 4th of march (I got a shipping confirmation email, which I appreciated) and arrived on the 11th of march which is really quick for a parcel from the US (and yes, this should have been written 2 months ago, I know, I suck).

So here's everything I recieved:

Review and swatches under the cut :)

Eccentric Cosmetics swatches and review

Disclaimer: I was sent these products to review. However all thoughts are my own, this is a completely honest review.

I was sent these samples to review way back in the summer last year I feel absolutely terrible for not being able to write this sooner. Basically it's just been one thing after another! First of all I was trying out the products for a while. Then when I went to make swatches I discovered that the bag of samples had gone missing. When i eventually found it weeks later I took my photos, put them on the computer and in theory could write the post, it was the late autumn and, if anyone remembers, I sort of disappeared in then, only posting a few times a month (if that), not commenting on others blogs and so on. Then when I finally got my act together and was up to posting, the computer died.
Excuses, excuses, I know. I genuinely feel terrible. But anyway, there's nothing I can do now, so let's get on with the review!

Honestly when Anna contacted me and asked if I would review her shadows I wasn't sure I wanted to. The colours on the listings looked, quite frankly, dull. The colours all seemed to have a slightly dusty look about them. But I realised that i didn't actually have any of these neutral,  dusky colours, so i decided to give them a shot.
And again when my samples arrived (packaged nicely in a bubble mailer with handwritten note, candies and a lovely lipgloss as a present) they didn't really excite me. They all do just look a little drab in their baggies. But bizarrely when you swatch them something magical happens! The colours look much, much prettier on the skin! More complex, brighter, less grungy. For instance the colour 'Autumnal Crush' looks like a quite boring, matteish pale brown in the bag. In fact it looks like a flat brown oxide. But when you wear it it becomes a lovely dark, orangey gold colour with shimmer.
Now don't get any ideas, these aren't eye-searing bright colours, they are definately (for the most part) neutrals, but they're all really pretty and a lot less 'dusty' looking that the Etsy pictures or baggies appear.

Anyway here's swatches:

  

Dry and Dusty, Ted, Humanitarianism, Dawn Night, Hard Sun

  

Paradise Circus,  Rain Song, Heart Beats, Marble House, Love Generation

  

Wrecked Metal, Acid Drops, Tar Heart, Wolf

 

Heroine, Autumnal Crush, Weathered Stone, Geology, Magic of Metals

Here are the samples in their baggies:

 

Can anyone see what I mean about them looking 'flatter' in their bags than in the swatches.

As you can see, these shadows are not super complex, no multichromes for instance, but they're still lovely. I love complex colours of course, but that doesn't mean more 'simple colours' are bad in any way. Having said that, it would be nice to see some different finishes to the shadows. All of them had the same lightly shimmering finish, so it would have been nice to see some matte for instance.
These colours are most definately not repackaged.

My favourites are Wrecked Metal - a lovely aqua,  Hard Sun - a shimmery peachy, coraly, goldy colour and Dry and Dusty, Weathered Stone and Autumnal Crush - all goldish, sandy colours that make a fantastic Pin-up look when worn with black winged eyeliner.

I tested these for a while and found that I really liked the formula. They're smooth as butter to apply, blend beautifully and last for a really long time! I wore these all day once, without primer (I never remember to wear primer even though I own a few and know how much difference they can make!) and they lasted about 5 hours without fading, creasing etc. After 8 hours (when I went to take off my makeup) they had creased where my eyelid crease is, and faded a little, but it still looked alright. Very impressive. When I came to take them off the removed easily with makeup wipes.
Each sample is a 1/4 of a teaspoon (which is quite a lot, will last for many applications), in a small zip-lock bag with the name and ingredients.

So in conclusion I really liked these eyeshadows. While generally I prefer brightly coloured shadows, these are really lovely and make a lovely wash of colour, they're easy to apply and blend well. The only negatives I can think of are that they all have the same finish and it would be nice to have some brighter colours in with the neutrals.

You might have noticed that I'm using the word 'neutrals' very widely in this review. I can't think of a proper term for it. I mean they are not brights, but all the words that are antonyms have negative connotations like 'dull'. They're not dull, they're just... not bright!

I have just checked and I don't know what is happening but Eccentric Cosmetics has no items for sale in their etsy shop. I really hope this is just a temporary thing as they were really good products and she really didn't deserve to fail. And more selfishly, because I want full sizes of some of the products!
Because of this I can't tell you prices/sizes or information like that. Hopefully the shop will reopen and I'll keep you informed if possible.

BFTE Cosmetics

I was contacted by the lovely Crystal from Beauty From the Earth cosmetics to see if i wanted to try any of their products. Did i Ever! 

Again please believe that any reviews of these products will be entirely truthful and not sugarcoated in any way because i recieved the items for free. 

I have had a soft spot for BFTE since I first heard about them which was when the scandal about Lime Crime's repackaging was found out. It turned out that BFTE had been repackaging but didn't realise how it would upset people. When they found out they instantly apologised for any upset they caused anybody, reduced the amount of plain micas they sold and relabeled them all as 'primary pigments' so people would be aware of the fact. This seemed such a good, sensible way to deal with the problem, admit it and apologise and learn from your mistake. It made them seem quite trustworthy.

BFTE sells hundreds of multi use minerals (mainly used as loose eyeshadows) the vast majority of which are unique, original blends, as well as foundations, veils and blushes, lip glosses, primers and some false eyelashes and brushes and other supplies. Their website is really professional looking iwith tutorials, before and after looks and more. Their prices are competitive for an indie, mineral makeup company (for instance $6.50 for a full jar of shadow, $2 for a sample jar, £9.99 for a lipgloss etc). 

Anyway Crystal asked me to send her a long list of products i'd like to try and she would choose some to send to me. So, assuming i would be sent just a few samples, i went to town creating a long list of choices. Really long! My parcel arrived a week or so after i sent my email and was shocked to see that they had sent me basically everything i had said i was interested in! Of my ludicrously long list only a few items were missing. I couldn't, and still can't, believe the genorosity!

Here is what i was sent:

 

See, so generous!

I was sent 3 full multi-use minerals, 13 samples of multi-use minerals (12 pictured here and also a small baggie which i have forgotten to swatch), 4 blush samples, 3 foundation samples and 1 veil sample.

:O

Please see below the cut for swatches.

Sugarpill Cosmetics Review

I've been a fan of Shrinkle's for a long time, i own several items from her clothing line, and have always enjoyed reading her blog posts because she seems like a genuine, fun loving, sweet girl. She introduced me to Kryolan makeup and I always giggle at her blog posts detailing her love for Ron Perlman and grow lustful at the photos of amazing food she often posts (and yet remains so trim, damn you Amy!) and i've really liked her bright, colourful style and tranny/clubkid/80s rainbow brite girl makeup. So when i heard she was working on her own makeup line i was obviously really excited. I was sure that Amy would be taking the Kryolan she sells as her inspiration and creating something even more bright and beautiful.
And i was not disappointed.