Bokeh Face Cosmetics Swatches

No review today.  Instead, I've decided to swatch a bunch of Bokeh Face Cosmetics colors.  Hope you don't mind!  I have unfortunately lost some of my colors, but in this post I've swatched 18 colors for your viewing pleasure.  I'll do another post tonight to finish this up, but my bathroom was invaded about halfway through.

Top row, left to right: 001 Dark Chocolate, 002 Melted Chocolate, 003 Alps, 004 Army Knife, 005 Amethyst Cocoa

Bottom row, left to right: 006 Swiss Vanilla, 007 Metallic Khaki, 401 French Vanilla

Without Flash

With Flash

Top row, left to right: 103 The Brain, 105 Feathery, 106 Cadillac, 107 Tom Cruise, 108 Shannon

Bottom row, left to right: 110 Fur Coat, 112 Candy Mountain, 114 Freakin' Kidney, 116 Grass, 117 Lumpy Space Princess

Without Flash

With Flash

These swatches were done on bare skin with a foiled stripe down the center.  No primer today.  There are definitely some great colors in the Bokeh Face collection, and they all apply and wear well.   A good variety of sparkly colors and more subtle shimmer.  Lumpy Space Princess doesn't look nearly as awesome  in the pictures as it does in person; it has kind of an iridescent gold-ish shimmer to it, and it foils an excellent pale pink.  And I don't normally care for pinks...  I definitely suggest you check out Bokeh Face if you haven't already!

Woo Hoo!

Got my order from Linnaeus Cosmetics today!  Woo!  Swatches to come...

Scaredy Cat Cosmetics Review

The Shop: Scaredy Cat Cosmetics
My Order: Sample vials with no specified colors.  I left a note to "Surprise me!"

Packaging: My shadows came mailed in a box in TWO DAYS, with a copy of my invoice and a large baggie with each vial individually labeled with color and ingredients (love when sellers label ingredients individually) inside their own smaller baggie.

Today's Swatches:

Left to right: Cirrina, Robin the Cradle, Nouveau, Metamorphosis, Hedgerow

With Flash

Without Flash

These swatches were applied to bare skin, and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy primer from My Beauty Addiction, with a foiled stripe down the center.  On bare skin, they are fairly subtle; I think the line where the primer was applied is pretty apparent in the swatches.  Some of that may just be due to the paler shades I received, but I can't really tell for sure.  Nouveau and Metamorphosis both have an awesome iridescent shimmer to them that I have yet to see in my (albeit limited) experience with mineral shadows.  The others are a fairly standard shimmery powder.  There is one thing that sticks out to me about these powders: the application is super-smooth and almost creamy.  I accidentally spilled some in the sink, and when it rinsed down, it looked like oil in a rain puddle; I did a little research and found that this is probably due to the magnesium myristate used in the powders, a fatty acid which is used in mineral makeup to aid in adhesion.  When I splashed water over my swatches, it beaded up and rolled off, leaving the shadows completely unscathed, even where primer had not been applied beforehand.  Pretty sweet!

Overall:  I was not wowed by the communication, as I didn't get a convo or personal E-mail from the seller or a hand-written note in my package.  I did get a shipping confirmation E-mail from PayPal saying my package was shipped same-day and it arrived in  just two days.  So the customer service was okay; crazy-fast shipping, but no real communication.  Part of what I like so much about Etsy is the one-on-one transactions: a buyer purchasing something from an artisan.  Without communication, part of that luster just wasn't there.  The colors all look really nice over primer, but I wasn't thrilled with the saturation when applied to bare skin.  What I was impressed with was the consistency and application of the powders and the iridescence of Nouveau and Metamorphosis.  So I got what I ordered and I got it really fast, and the ingredients used to improve adhesion are clearly working. I'll definitely order again because of the awesome composition of the prouct, but my overall impression is kind of 'meh.'

New Stuff!

Yesterday I ordered samples from Scaredy Cat Cosmetics and a full-size trio from Linnaeus Cosmetics, so look to see a Scaredy Cat review and more Linnaeus swatches soon.  If I get the Scaredy Cat samples before the end of the week, I'll do that review, and if I don't I'll be doing a swatch-mania for Bokeh Face!

Linnaeus Cosmetics Swatches + Review

Sorry for the delay; here it is!

The Shop: Linnaeus Cosmetics
My Order: Samples of Kitsch, Matriarch, Mondo, Hold Fast, Flutter, and Show Off
Customer service: The samples in this shop normally only include five colors, so I sent a convo to Marin asking about a custom order.  Less than six hours later, she had created a custom listing for me and sent me a link.  After I made my purchase, she sent me a convo letting me know my order as packaged and shipping the next day.

Packaging: My shadows came in a standard mailer with a copy of my invoice and a handwritten note.  The sample baggies were large, each was labeled with the color name and ingredients, and they contained generous portions of powder.  I received each color I requested, plus an extra sample of Kalahari for any trouble that the larger bags may cause in application.  Also included was a smaller piece of paper with mineral makeup tips & tricks.

Today's Swatches:

Left to right: Show Off, Flutter, Hold Fast, Mondo, Matriarch, and Kitsch

Without Flash

 With Flash

These swatches were applied to bare skin, and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy primer from My Beauty Addiction, with a foiled stripe down the center.  They are all fairly saturated even on bare skin, but they look amazing over primer.  Show Off has a little bit of a reddish glitter (which I loved) that doesn't really show in the pictures, but the rest of them have a pearly shimmer; no glitter, nothing in-your-face sparkly.  Show Off, Hold Fast, and Flutter are eye safe but not lip safe, indicated on the ingredient labels.

Get The Look:

I primed my eyes with Shadow Poxy first.  Then I applied a cream-colored highlighter to the inner corner of my eyes, and a lght brown shadow under my brows, both from the same Savvy palette.  Next, I applied a sweep of Mondo to the crease, and extended it toward the outside of my brow.  I applied Matriarch to the remainder of my lid, lined using Kitsch, and applied black mascara.

Overall:  Ordering from Linnaeus Cosmetics was quick and painless, my shadows arrived quickly, and they look awesome.  They go on smoothly, have a nice shimmer, and look lovely.  I have nothing but good to say, and I'll go ahead and say that if you've been considering purchasing from Marin, it's good stuff.