The Starshine Company Swatch Dump

Sorry about the late post, guys!  I had a lot of errands to run before I went in to work at noon and I didn't get home until 9:30 or so.  By the time I had wound down a little and gotten the swatches done, it was already past midnight.  My apologies!

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My original Starshine review can be found here.  Kelly really makes a stellar lineup over at The Starshine Company, and I hope that these swatches will hep you decide if you're having trouble making up your mind about what to get in her closeout sale.  Seriously, you should pick up a few if you have the money to spare because her shadows are fantastic!

The Starshine Company is Closing!

I had originally intended to do a review for Monday...  However, in light of the fact that Kelly, owner of The Starshine Company, has decided to close her doors to spend more time with her family, I will instead be doing swatches of the 19 Starshine colors I received in the mail today.  You can find my original review for the Starshine Company here, and a look I did using Kelly's shadows here.  You can purchase from the closing sale on here or here.

Lost in Makeupland Swatches + Review

The Shop: Lost in Makeupland

My Order: Samples of Good Morning, Lazy Sunday, Go!, Dirt, Love Hate Love, Party, Smurf, Sugar-coated, Weed, and Goomer

Packaging: The samples were sent in a small bubble mailer, each with a sticker on the bag indicating the color, ingredients, whether or not each color is vegan, and whether or not each color is lip-safe.  For me, that's a huge plus.  The samples were all wrapped together in a little tissue paper packet, and the owner also included a business card.  I also got free samples of Would? and Expensive.

Today's Swatches:

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As usual, swatches were applied to bare skin with a foiled stripe down the center (top row,) and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy from My Beauty Addiction (bottom row).  Feel free to click any image for a closer look!  I noticed that these shadows didn't foil well with just water (first set,) so I foiled the second and third batches with The Wet Spot Eye Lining and Foiling Serum from Rock A Betty Beauty and it worked much better but it does take a little effort to get it mixed thoroughly.  Darker colors seemed to apply better to bare skin, but they all looked fabulous over primer.  The color swatches in her Etsy shop are surprisingly true-to-life!

Overall: I only specified six color in the note to seller at checkout originally, and Belén sent me a convo to ask which other colors I wanted; I thought that was really nice of her to send a convo instead of just adding four more at random.  So communication was nice, and obviously I was happy with the packaging.  The shipping time and cost was not bad considering it was an international order, although I honestly don't remember the exact day I received my order.  I did love the application over primer, but bare skin didn't get consistent results.  Overall, I'm really impressed with the array of colors, the communication, the packaging, the accuracy of the swatches in the shop, the look of the shadows when applied over primer, and my experience in general.  I would definitely recommend purchasing from Belén if you see a color you like.

I did a quick look with some of these colors the other day.  I primed with Shadow Poxy, then applied a white shadow crayon to my lids only.  I created a rainbow using Dirt, Would?, Lazy Sunday, Weed, Party, and Go!, and highlighted using Bouffant from Linnaeus Cosmetics.  I foil-lined with black pressed liner, and applied mascara to my upper and lower lashes.

New Layout

I just added The Urban Critique to Networkedblogs, and consequently messed with the layout a little to better fit the widget.  I also changed the background, color scheme, and made a header (please ignore my mediocre clipping skillz.)  We'll see how long it stays this way; I'm not sure how much I like it.

Random Swatches!

I ordered a few things from Palladio when I left my my toasted orange lippie in my car and it melted.  Still usable, but I thought I'd see if they had any other fun stuff...  I've been looking for a white eyeliner/shadow pencil, so I snapped one up right away.  I also ordered a replacement lipstick (of course,) clear plump gloss, and lip liner pencil in nutmeg.

 Hand Swatches - Left to right: Shadow & Liner Crayon in Icicle $6; Herbal Lipstick in Toasted Orange $6; Lip Liner Pencil in Nutmeg $3; and Plump 'n' Shine in Clear $6

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Plump 'n' Shine - Clear

Herbal Lipstick - Toasted Orange, Lip Liner - Nutmeg

La Coquette Cosmetics Swatches + Review

The Shop: La Coquette Cosmetics

My Order: A grand opening sampler special including every color in the lineup.

Packaging: The order was shipped quickly in a regular envelope, with a business card and each sample in a small plastic baggie.  The owner sent me a convo to let me know she felt two of the colors were too similar, and had replaced one shade with another that was not as close to some of the others.  The baggies are labeled numerically (the shades do not appear to have names) with small stickers.  I couldn't find the ingredients listed anywhere for these shadows, which makes me even more curious as to what's in them, what's lip-safe, what's eye-safe, and what's not.  The business card had a hand-written thank you note on the back with a coupon code for next time, but there was no invoice.  I don't personally mind if a package arrives without an invoice, but I know some people do so I thought it was noteworthy.

Today's Swatches:

Left to right - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6

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Left to right - 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12

 

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Left to right - 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18

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Left to right - 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25

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Left to right - 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, and 32

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These swatches were applied to bare skin with a foiled stripe down the center (top row,) and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy from My Beauty Addiction (bottom row).  For the most part, the application was surprisingly nice without primer, in adhesion and pigmentation.  They take on a smooth, creamy consistency when foiling.  A lot of the colors had a nice depth created with contrasting shimmer (for example, #6 is an olive green with a very distinctive gold shimmer), and they really pop over primer.

Overall:  I'm pretty impressed with the colors and the application, and it was nice of the owner to let me know she was adding a new color instead of just shipping it to me and letting me find out later.  She even convoed me after she found my blog in a Google search and was very excited to be reviewed.  The customer service and communication was great.  For some, it might be a turn-off that the shadows weren't mailed in a padded mailer and that there was no copy of my invoice, but to me that doesn't really matter since it was just sample baggies.  I would have minded if she was shipping jars that could get cracked, but that wasn't the case.  What does concern me is the lack of ingredients listings and names for the colors (I don't even know why the color thing bothers me; it just does.)  I hope she fixes this in the future, but the shadows ARE pretty and they apply well.  I liked them, but if you have sensitivities or allergies, you may not want to use a product without an ingredients list.   

CORRECTION 7/11/11 2:48 a.m. There is an ingredient list available at http://www.lacoquettecosmetics.com/Eyes.html, and you can find the color names there, as well.

Orglamix is at it Again!

The reason I started this blog was to make my readers aware of companies I think are awesome and comanies I think they should avoid.  If something isn't safe, I do my best to get the word out about it.  If something shady is going on with a company, I will do my best to warn you, my lovely readers.  One company in particular was enough to get me started.  Once I read about the terrible business practices and ethics of this company, I decided I had to do something.

Back in March, I saw a strange post in the Etsy forums that was quickly shut down by admin for "calling out."  At this point, I had never heard anything about Orglamix or Cheri Tracy, but I wanted to know more.  See the original forum post here.  I clicked on the links in the post, and one of them took me to a blog post over at The Eyes Have It with some pretty damning evidence against Orglamix.  I read that Cheri was claiming her products to be all-natural and handmade, but that they were not what she claimed them to be.  I looked further and found posts from many reputable bloggers that had questioned the contents and labeling of Orglamix and/or Urban Apothecary, Cheri's old company that is somehow defunct yet still has a website up and running.  Customers were getting curious after it came out that her Candy Glam line was private label, and sold as eyeshadows when they were not eye-safe.  Some customers decided to peel back the labels on their Orglamix jars and found strange labels underneath.  While Cheri's Orglamix labels were printed on a home ink jet printer with her logo and unscrupulous ingredients lists, the mystery labels were glossy, laser-printed, and had no trace of anything to do with Orglamix.  Some had strange numbers that were eventually traced back to a private label company (though these numbers did not always provide a color match), and the labels on her primer actually stated "Distributed by Quero Pro."  The more I read, the more Cheri seemed like not only a nut job, but also a total crook.  I found a blog that gave Orglamix an unfavorable review, and a follow-up to the post claiming that Cheri had sent the author a cease-and-desist letter.  A cease and desist letter for a bad review?  Are you serious?  I read everything I could find on the subject, and came to the conclusion that this woman is a complete con artist.  Many people, including myself, posted our concerns about the ingredients, double-labels, etc. on the Orglamix facebook fanpage and were promptly banned and their comments removed.  Thankfully, there are albums containing screenshots of the deleted comments on the fanpage, in addition to negative feedback left for Orglamix on Etsy, despite Cheri's claims to never have had a single complaint.  I got a lovely, professional response to my questions before they were deleted.  I was not able to screencap it, but I've copied it directly from the Facebook E-mail: "Jessica, I have a family-- and two kids to attend to for God's sake. I also have over 300 emails and 100+ Etsy convos that need to be addressed. I said I would make a statement and I will. I actually need to write it first-- and make sure I am addressing all legitimate concerns."  And if you were curious, her statement was written on a blog that is no longer available.  But she did gloss over important concerns, crafting her words carefully to make it seem as though she was actually answering questions.  When people continued asking questions, she kept claiming that her products are handmade and the double-labels were due to misprints or new names.  She had nothing to say about the laser-printed labels that had no Orglamix logo, or the ones that specifically said they were distributed by another company.  She even posted a video of her office and her "lab" to prove that she was making her products, but her "lab" lacked any sort of mixing equipment, sanitation equipment, or enough raw materials to make anywhere near the product she was supposedly making and shipping every day.  She also posted a video of her "mixing" a limited edition color, by putting some base, mica, and glitter in a tupperware container and shaking it.  Literally.  She claims she makes all of her products this way, and people still support her.  Her last post on the Orglamix Cosmetics facebook page is dated March 14th, at which point she had stated she would be going on vacation and that a friend of hers had a death in the family.  Her Etsy shop had actually been under investigation at this point according to admin, but she claimed that she had intentionally put it into vacation mode.  I believe that after the investigation was over and the shop was back up, she did in fact willingly put it into vacation mode, but she never once acknowledged that her shop was under investigation.  On April 17th, her shop was suspended due to non-delivery; any links to her shop, feedback, etc. now go to an error page.  Her twitter feed, which is run by a bot, is still up and running and posting broken links to her Etsy account.  Throughout everything, Cheri has been ignoring her customers, not sending orders, and being extremely curt and unprofessional toward any person who questions her.  Her PR representative, Kelly, has been contacting bloggers to do giveaways and reviews and acting as if everything is totally normal.  Some people had speculated Cheri had taken ill because of her having been quiet for so long, so it came as a shock to many when an article was posted about a new boutique opening up in Glencoe, Illinois as a joint venture by Amy Bishop and (surprise, surprise!) Cheri Tracy on July 6th.   Let me take a moment to make it clear that I do not wish any ill toward Cheri.  If she had said, 'No, I don't make my own products.  It's private label and I will now leave Etsy in respect of the fact that Etsy is for handmade items only.' and properly labeled her ingredients, this whole thing could have been avoided.  Saying your products may contain carmine essentially means that all of your products contain carmine if they are all made with the same equipment, just like the 'may contain peanuts' warnings on certain food items.  The peanut warning is there so that people with allergies know not to handle the product due to a potential reaction. In this case she was advertising her products as vegan, when in all likelyhood, they all contained carmine.  Saying your products are all-natural and paraben-free, but placing a label that says "pomegranate oil" over a label that says "liquapar oil" is straight deception.  Many people have serious reactions to ingredients that are in Orglamix products, and improper labeling knowing that it could cause a reaction  is absolutely deplorable. It's my belief that Cheri Tracy's business practices are horrendous, so I am sure that this post sounds quite biased, but I assure you this is not a jealous rant from a competitor.  This is fact.  This is research.  Take from it what you will, and form your own opinions.  As always, thanks for reading!

Random Look!

I've been saying I was going to put this up for awhile now, so let's get to it!  I bought a new shirt recently, and decided to wear it to a craft show on my birthday.  It's burnt orange, and I wanted to pull everything together with my makeup, so I did a fiery look and I think it turned out great.

The whole look... Yes, I normally wear glasses.

The eyes...  I started with Bouffant from Linnaeus Cosmetics as a highlighter on the inner corners and under my brows, followed by Feathery from Bokeh Face Cosmetics on the lids, then finished with applied Lanky from Linnaeus Cosmetics in the crease.  I love the way the orange intensified the green in my eyes.

 

The lips... I applied lip balm first (Gap stores usually have SPF 18 lip balms in a variety of scents, but they don't appear to be available online) then layered on a tiny bit of Palladio's herbal lipstick in Toasted Orange.  I love an orange lippie, but I've found it really hard to find another one I like this well.

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Shiro Cosmetics Swatches + Review

The Shop: Shiro Cosmetics

My Order: Samples of Thinking With Portals, Unsatisfactory Mark, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Gyarados, Lance The Dragon Trainer, Puzzle Cube, Midna, Master Sword, and Deku

Packaging: Everything arrived in a bubble mailer, with the shadows in a cute cellophane bag.  In addition to my original order, there was a copy of my invoice with a quick thank you written on it, a business card, two pieces of Japanese hard candy, and two free samples: There Will Be Cake and Temple of Time.  The sample baggies all had stickers with color names, ingredients, and a note of whether or not they are safe for lips.  I placed my order on 6/14, and received it on 6/20, so it shipped really quickly.

Today's Swatches: Batch 1 - left to right: Puzzle Cube, Master Sword, Deku, There Will Be Cake

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Batch 2 - left to right: Unsatisfactory Mark, Thinking With Portals, Pikachu, Temple of Time

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Batch 3 - left to right: Midna, Lance The Dragon Trainer, Gyarados, Bulbasaur

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These swatches were applied to bare skin with a foiled stripe down the center (top row,) and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy from My Beauty Addiction (bottom row).  The application was good without primer, especially with the richer colors.  Most of the shadows had a subtle shimmer without glitter, but Pikachu has red sparkles mixed in and Puzzle Cube has iridescent glitter.

Overall: The customer service is top-notch!  I definitely feel that Caitlin appreciates her customers and loves what she's doing.  I also think her branding is really interesting and cute; all of her eyeshadows are inspired by and named after elements of various video games, and her intertubes lip balms are named after internet memes (Google 'em up if you don't already know: Numa Numa, Rick Rolled, and Leroy Jenkins, to name a few.)  The shadow application was great with a primer, and fair without; some colors were definitely better without than others.  The colors themselves are awesome.  I thought that Puzzle Cube would be more opaque; it's not quite what I was expecting, but I LOVE it.  Unsatisfactory mark is the truest red in my current collection of mineral eyeshadows, and I like that the brights I ordered don't have a ton of shimmer.  I will definitely be keeping an eye on Shiro Cosmetics to see if Caitlin comes up with any pretty new colors I want to try.  Shiro Cosmetics has a wide selection of gorgeous colors and fabulous customer service; I would definitely recommend Shiro to anybody who hasn't tried them yet.

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Any statements made on this blog are my own opinion; my intent is to provide an honest and thorough review of my personal experiences for the benefit of my readers.  All products are purchased by me, with no monetary or other compensation provided.  Any product given to me as a gift will be accepted, but not  treated with favor over products I have purchased.