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.

Aromaleigh Sonic Rocks Swatches

So as you may have seen from my last post featuring my first Aromaleigh haul i bought a lot of the Sonic Rocks eyeshadows. These differ from Aromaleigh's other eyeshadows as they are not entirely mineral based, as a result you can get some really bright, neon colours in mattes, shimmers and glitters.
The Rocks shadow formula is being reformulated so currently you can get 35% off, also Aromaleigh are having a 20% off everything sale to celebrate the owner, Kristen, finally getting to have her honeymoon (http://blog.aromaleigh.com/blog/2010/02/aromaleigh-is-closing-shop-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MissKsAromaleighBlog+(Miss+K%27s+Aromaleigh+Blog)) , so in total you can get 55% off Rocks shadows right now :)
Here are swatches of all the colours i currently have. They are all named after songs which meant that as i swatched i kept irritating Claire by singing the namesakes :P Come on everyone! I'm an alligator! I'm a mumma-papa coming for yoooouuuu...


Big Neon Glitter, Atomic, Livewire, Velvet Goldmine, Agent Orange.


Heart of Glass, Helter Skelter, Peekaboo, Suspect Device, Pretty Vacant, Coral Fang


Lady Stardust, Blue Orchid, Boiling Point, Hit Or Miss, Spellbound, Funky Town, Body Electric, Purple Rain


Vive Le Rock, Raspberry Beret, Pretty in Pink, New Rose, Personality Crisis, Teenage Kicks, Psychocandy, Fanclub, I Want Candy, Lookin for a Kiss


Jigsaw Feeling, Lazy Sod, Poison Ivy, Venom, Just like Heaven, Strychnine, Googoomuck, Greenhell, Estranged


Destination Unknown, Planet Earth, Bluespark, Moonage Daydream, Ozone, Ocean Rain, Endless Sea.

A week of Indie Makeup Day 6 - Aromaleigh

http://www.aromaleigh.com/

Ok, here we are, the review of the Big Daddy of the indie mineral makeup world! Aromaleigh have been selling natural beauty products on the internet for over 12 years now! They were founded by Kristen Leigh Bell who remains the company president and creative director. Kristen was also the founder of the Mineral Makeup Mutiny (http://mineralmakeupmutiny.wordpress.com) a group which celebrates small cosmetics companies who create authentic handmade cosmetics. I find this a real hint towards the brands personality, that they are happy to advertise other mineral makeup companies who would be competition. She also only awarded Aromaleigh the Mutiny badge after she had sorted through all the requests from other companies.

Aromaleigh make basically every sort of makeup you could wish for: lip balms, lip sticks (both sheer and opaque), concealers, face lip and eye primers, foundations, finishing powders, blushes, bronzers, cream and powder eyeshadows and eyeliners, glitters, brushes, perfumes and various other bits and bobs. Samples are available on any powder product. Ingredients are included on each product as well as swatches and descriptions to give you a really good idea of the colours. It is easy to get in contact and they also have a forum.

Their prices are fair, they depend on the collection the products are from as well as the products itself. You can expect to pay less than $16 for a full 8g jar of foundation, $15 for a 7g blush, $8 for a 5 gram jar of eyeshadow and $7 for a lip product. These prices might be a bit pricier than some of the other companies i've reviews, but you get more product and a lot of the products are cheaper than what i've cited as well as them having costant sales on various items. International shipping is very fair, you pay a set price, sample orders up to $75 or all orders up to $40 pay $7.40 for insured mail anywhere and $14.40 if your order is over $75 (you can choose to buy non-insured mail and that would be cheaper).
All orders come with 3 free samples which you can choose yourself! With my order i also recieved a free sample of lip balm.

I ordered so many colours i can't swatch everything now, and i only tried eyeshadows but i have another haul coming with some other face products. I didn't try the lip balm either as i didn't like the scent (it was sugar plum fairy which smelled like cinnamon and spices which i don't like. I gave it to Claire who likes the smell but i don't know if she's used it yet) some of the other scents sound delicious. The order came prettily wrapped in tissue with an Aromaleigh sticker and invoice all within a bubble mailer.



I bought tonnes of Sonic Rocks eyeshadows, some samples and some full jars and then a lot of samples of other collections.

The samples are all 1/16 of a teaspoon, which doesn't sound like much but will certainly be enough for several applications no matter how heavilly you apply. The full jars come absolutely packed up to the sifter in fact i had to take the sifter out first because there was so much product it had compacted down and would not come through the holes. The quality of the shadows are absolutely amazing with amazing colours and finishes, great blendability and are really long lasting.
I did have one small problem though, as i said i took the sifters out of a lot of the jars and doing this i discovered that two of the colours were not fully blended. There were some little lumps of unblended pigment.





It was practically impossible to photograph this problem. I haven't actually used either of the colours yet so i'm not sure if they will look so streaky it will be a problem. The blue colour did streak when i swatched them but the coral didn't. However this was 2 colours out of the 30-40 i bought so really not a big problem at all :)

Would i purchase again? Well i already have :) And i really really want to try their foundations and get some more of the Rocks makeup which i love. They have a mind bogglingly large selection of products and colours of great quality and they seem like they really know their stuff. Kristen is a friendly, fun woman, who is fair and friendly to her competition (unlike some people who shall remain nameless), their prices are fair and i was overall really happy with my experience purchasing from them.

Swatches to come soon :)

Morganas Minerals lip swatches

So i managed to try on every one of my new samples of lip sticks to show you what they look like on my lips. The consistency of a few made it difficult to get a clean application, i think usually this had to do with my having difficulty using the samples (applied them with a lip brush this time around) but a couple had a slightly 'grainy' texture. The majority of them were creamy and absolutely gorgeous. There are so many i want/NEED full tubes of!

Watermelon

This one is beautiful, but the description said it has green sparkles and i could not see any myself.

Violets Kiss

I found this one the hardest to apply evenly, it was just a bit grainy.

Very Cherry

Amazing ever so slightly sparkling true red. Smells delicious.

Valentine

Gorgeous sparkling hot pink.

Spellbound

Another slightly grainy one.

Slime

AMAZING shimmery lime green! So opaque and so creamy!

Silverwitch

Nice metallic silver with a hint of blue.

Serpent

This one i also found difficult to apply, but not as bad as some of the others.

Serenity

One of my favourites, a gorgeous cyan blue.

Rustic

Amazing colour, brown with a green duochrome.

Red Licorice

Beautiful creamy opaque red. Discontinued now.

Raspberry

Lovely slightly muted dark piny red colour. Smells absolutely edible. Discontinued sadly.

Pumpkin

Slightly coppery reddy orange.

Mistress

Dark vampy red.

Medusa

This one is a stunning green with gold, but was a bit dry and not as easy to apply as the rest.

Margerita

This colour is replacing raspberry, it's similar but a bit more muted. I prefer raspberry personally.

Lillian

Lovely bluey lilac shimmer.

Gunmetal Blue

darkish greyish blue.

Glittering Poinsettia

Blood red with gold glitter.

Devilish

An odd greyish/purplish dark red.

Coralines Kiss

Beautiful bright, light coraly orange shimmer.

Blueberry

Deep, rich blue. Beautiful.

Blood

Blood red. I think it's the same as Glittering Poinsettia but without the glitter.

Azalea

Beautiful bright fuschia pink.

So the colours i definately have to get soon are:
Azalea, Coralines Kiss, Glittering Poinsettia, Pumpkin, Lillian (naturally :P), Serenity, Slime, Valentine and Very Cherry.
Ones i love but am not sure i need include Rustic (so gorgeous but i'm not sure brown lipstick suits me, have never worn one before), Blueberry (again it's beautiful but i have a lot of blue lipsticks already) and Watermelon. I also want Raspberry and Metallic Maiden which have been discontinued, but maybe Melissa has some lying around the stock room :P
I absolutely adore these lipsticks and can't wait until i have the money to buy some!

EDIT:
I've recieved comments from a couple of people who have recieved samples and full tubes of colours i found grainy and they've been the same creamy quality as the others (and recieved some samples of ones i found great quality grainy too), so the reason it was hard to apply because they had dried up a little in the baggies, not because of the formula. So if you really like one of the colours but were worried because of my finding it grainy don't worry, the full tubes are apparently all wonderful and not at all dry and grainy :)

A week of Indie Makeup Day 5 - Morgana Minerals

www.morganaminerals.com

Some lip swatches swatches and a mini review of my first haul is here:
http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2009/12/morgana-minerals-haul.html

Morgana Minerals is a company run by a lovely lady named Melissa who started making mineral makeup so she could custom match her own foundation and then just grew passionate about creating her own cosmetics.

Morgana sell handmade mineral lipsticks, eyeshadows, foundations, hand-blends of glitters, as well as some other brands of makeup, hair dye, brushes and various other bits. She also has some makeup items made by a private label company, such as the current cream shadows. Melissa has some new products due to be released soon including lip glosses, pressed shadows, her own formulations of cream shadows and liquid liners, can't wait to see them!

Her website is really easy to navigate and has a cute, gothy look to it (your shopping basket is renamed a shopping casket :D). The ingredient information is a little irratic, for instance the ingredients for the lipsticks are on the main lipstick page, some eyeshadows have individual ingredients for each shade and some don't have any ingredients listed. All of her lipsticks are vegan (no beeswax here!) and Morgana never tests on animals. Some of her own eyeshadows and some of the private label products do contain carmine. If you're unsure about whether or not a certain colour contains a certain ingredient getting in contact with Melissa is dead easy, there is a 'contact me' page on the site for you to input your question or request. I had a query for this review and she got back to me in less than an hour! There is also a forum with places to request new colours, photo swatches and so on.

Morgana has a minimum spend of $15 for your first order, but if you have already purchased from her you can request to order less. shipping is free anywhere in the world with orders of samples or about $7 for international shipping of full size products (though this may vary depending on how much you order). Their prices are great! $10 for a full tube of their amazing lipsticks, $5 for a 5g jar of eyeshadow or glitter or $8 for a 10g jar and $4.25 for 4 grams of glitter.

I went for a massive haul of samples including basically all of Morgana's new lipstick shades, some glitters and some eyeshadows.

There was a little delay in sending my order (though in the end it only arrived about a week and a half after some other orders i made the same day) but Melissa kept me really well informed and gave me a discount code for 15% off my next order. Not only this, but apparantly my package cost less to pay than usual or something so Melissa gave me a code for $4 credit off my next order and remember i got free shipping because i only bought samples!

My order came tightly packed in a bubble mailer (completely forgotten if it was wrapped in tissue or anything) with an invoice and thank you note.

Firstly i got a few samples of glitter. Morgana's glitter samples are incredibly generous at $1 for a whole gram. I'm not sure if all of them are colours created by Melissa (i dont understand how a plain colour like the orange or pink could have been mixed) but lots of them are clearly hand blended, beautiful mixes of colours. There's not much else i can say about these, they're just regular glitters. Some of the colours have smaller sized particles than others, and these are described on the website. I don't think i'll be buying full sizes of these, not because i dislike them in any way, but simply because the sample size is so generous i doubt i'll use them enough to need a full 4 grams!





shifty eyed, twinkling teal, mysterious, rainbow sea serpent, twinkling red

As you can see i picked a lot of similar green/blue colours :P

Next i tried a lot of eyeshadow samples, some from each collection currently available. These were all really lovely deeply pigmented shadows that blended easily and had variable shimmer and glitter. The samples come in baggies and are 1/8th of a teaspoon for $1, which is quite a nice amount, though in this case I will be buying some full sizes of my favourite colours :) Haven't worn any yet so i can't comment on the longevity.

Regular collection:



Zaria, Drusillas sister, coraline, fantasy, mischievious, warped

pirate collection:

tavern wench, buried treasure, arrr matey, jolly roger, marooned

halloween collection:

ectoplasm, sinister, shallow grave, uninvited presence

christmas collection:


twinkling cherrine, harken, north pole, snowballs chance

Then i got a heck of a lot of lipstick samples!
A sample of lipstick is 50c and you get a little slither in a baggie. The slither is probably enough for 3 or 4 lip applications. I really find these lipsticks amazing and some of the new colours absolutely make me drool! The formula is just unbeatable, creamy and incredibly opaque. Again i haven't worn these properly so i can't tell you how long-lasting they are.


valentine, coralines kiss, slime, silverwitch, devilish, lillian


glittering poinsettia, pumpkin eater, blood, serenity, rustic, margarita


spellbound, watermelon, gunmetal blue, violets kiss, serpent


azalea, medusa, raspberry, red licorice, blueberry, mistress


Very cherry

Would I purchase again? Absolutely, i love love love so many of the lipsticks and i need full tubes as soon as possible! There's also quite a few eyeshadows i would like full sizes of, and more samples i want to try. I really love this company, there were the first mineral makeup i ever bought from and i have been more than happy with all the products i've tried. The lipsticks are just absolutely amazing, the quality, variety of colour and price are just perfect.

Lip swatches of all of the swatches to come soon (going to take me an age! D:)

A week of Indie Makeup Day 4 - Hi Fi Cosmetics.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hificosmetics

Hi Fi Cosmetics is run by Veronica, a certified makeup artist who states about her company: 'I specialize in unique, handmade, and highly pigmented mineral cosmetics with lots of sparkle and huge color payoff. I blend all of the colors myself, taking special care to only offer a product that I would use myself. I use these products on my clients, as well as on my own face!!'.

Hi Fi make an incredible amount of products,including powder eyeshadows, powder and gel blushers and bronzers, fine handblended glitters, shimmer gels, glitter gels and, a product that wasn't around when i ordered, lip glazes. Her prices are excellent at $4.99 for a 5 gram jar (filled to the brim with sifters) of eye shadow, paparazzi flash powder (and Veronica states clearly in these product listings that the amount is 3/4 of a teaspoon) and glam rock eye glitzes, $3.99 for a full 10 gram jar of Star glimmer gel, $6.99 for a 10 gram jar of gel blush or bronzer, $6.99 for a 5.9ml tube of lip glaze and $5.99 for a ten gram jar (with sifter) of shimmer dust or blush. She also sells little 3 piece sets for £9.99, including 3 eyeshadows and a 'look card' to help you recreate a look, so that's amazing value.
She also often has other sales, when i ordered she was offering BOGOF on all eyeshadows, paparazzi flash powders and glam rock eye glitzes.

Hi Fi currently sells on Etsy which makes ordering nice and easy. They don't list their ingredients on the website, but they are listed on the actual products and Veronica says you can contact her anytime before purchase for a full ingredient list. I couldn't find anywhere on the site that states whether or not the products are vegan or tested on animals (i must start asking this before i buy, i'm an awful vegetarian!) but have contacted Veronica to ask.

I picked up 4 eye shadows, 1 paparazzi flash powder, 3 glam rock eye glitzes and 1 gel blush. As i said at the time Hi Fi were having an amazing BOGOF sale so i only paid for the 4 shadows and gel blush. My total came to $29.70 including shipping to the UK and took about 3 weeks to arrive.



My order came really well wrapped with all the products bundled tightly together in catergories in zip lock baggies that were then sellotaped shut and then popped in a bubble mailer. Included with my order was my invoice with a short 'thank you' written, 2 business cards and a magnet, 4 eyeshadow samples and a code worth 25% off my next order over $20! :O So incredibly generous! (and no you cannot share my code :P)



So firstly the eyeshadows. The colours i bought are Grinch, (a beautiful glittering green the exact colour of the grinch in the cartoon), Raid the King (a practically neon red coral), Live Large (a bright violet purple with blue shimmers) and In Bloom (a hot pink). The samples i recieved were Champagne toast (a very shimmery gold-champagne colour), Brandy (a shimmery light pink), Chicago (a shimmery bright denimy blue) and Crash around me (a slightly dulled greenish teal).


no flash


flash

Grinch, Raid the King, Live Large, In Bloom, Brandy, Crash Around me, Chicago, Champagne Toast

I think you can probably see for yourself, but these colours are all amazingly bright and vibrant and incredibly true to their colour descriptions. I have not yet tried a look with them so i cannot comment on their blendability or longevity yet, but will tell you soon :) I really like all the colours i recieved free!

The Grinch shadow was from their holiday collection and look how cute the label is! It's really kitsch and reminds me of a cheesey old christmas card, love it!



Next i got a Paparazzi Flash powder, which is basically a beautiful fine glittle dust. I chose the colour was Conspiracy which is a yellowy/greeny chartreuse colour with different coloured shimmers.

I got a gel blush in Amore, which is a beautiful shimmering orangey coral with golden sparks. This stuff is amazing! You only need a tiny bit to get a lovely sheer flush of colour or if you want it more pigmented you can just layer it. It was really flattering on my skin tone and amazingly this stuff acts as a sort of 'stain'. When i washed my hand to get the swatches off the coral flush stayed on but without the gold and a bit less vibrant. The pot came absolutely full to the brim. If anything i'd say it was a bit too full as when i closed the lid a tiny bit of the gel would squidge out from under the rim, but hey i'm not about to complain about getting too much product for my money!

And finally i picked up 3 Glam Rock Eye Glitzes, with are amazing glitter gels. The gel is absolutely saturated with glitter A thin layer gives you a lovely sparkle, or you can put it on thickly for a real jewel encrusted eyelid, though if you do put it on thick it takes a good while to dry so might smudge above your eyes. I picked the colours Pyrotechnic (a holographic orangey bronzey colour), New Age (bluey/greeney glitter) and Elecric (fuschia pink with green and blue glitter)


no flash


flash

New Age, Pyrotechnic, Electric Glam Rock Eye Glitzes, Amore Blush, Conspiracy flash powder.

So would i buy again? Ohhooo yes. I absolutely loved all the products i bought. Honestly i cannot think of a single fault with them! I want to try the new Lip glazes, at least one other gel brush, all of the remaining eye glitzes, a shimmer gel or two and more paparazzi flash powders and eyeshadows. I think these products are amazing and even better considering how inexpensive they were. Veronica was incredibly generous and besides i've got a 25% off coupon :P