Shiro Cosmetics Tributes Collection Swatches

I totally forgot that I had taken these pictures until I went to compose tomorrow's post...  Whoops! O_o  But here it is: The Tributes Collection from Shiro Cosmetics!

Swatch Dump!

Hey, everybody!  Sorry about the late post today.  I lazed around in the morning and only got about half of my photos done before going out and about for the remainder of the day.

The Shop: Brazen Cosmetics

What I Ordered: Full-size jars of Scorching, Millennium (which I misspelled on the swatches -- oops,) and Free Love

Best and Worst Products of 2011

Today, my lovelies, I'm going to write a post about a few of my favorite (and least favorite) products.  Some of them I've already mentioned here, some of them I haven't really touched on before.  And no, they aren't in any particular order.  It would be kind of unfair to compare and rank  products that serve completely different purposes.  So let's get this show on the road, shall we?

Linnaeus Cosmetics is Coming Back!

If you follow Linnaeus Cosmetics already, then you probably saw this yesterday.  If not, allow me to fill you in.  Marin of Linnaeus Cosmetics announced yesterday that she will be reopening from November 25th through November 28th for a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale.  Limited quantities of individual shadows and shadow collections will be available at discounted prices.  Marin will be moving in December, so this is only going to be a small window to snag some LC goodies for a great price.  Marin has projected that LC will relaunch full-time in late January.

Crush Cosmetics Swatches + Review

The Shop: Crush Cosmetics (On Etsy)

What I Ordered: A sampler pack of 5 shadows in Honey, Vixen, XXX, Poison, and Crush and a Lip Tint in Blood Orange

Packaging: Crush Cosmetics is based out of Canada (not the open resale company based out of Australia,) so I expected some extra shipping time.  I placed my order on 10/26/11, and it arrived on 11/4/11.  It arrived in a plain orange mailer, with the samples together in a plastic baggie in their own individually labeled plastic baggies, and the lip tint in a separate organza bag with a piece of chocolate.  I also received a business card.

My Beauty Addiction Swatches + Review

The Shop: My Beauty Addiction

What I Ordered: A Starburst Collection Color Stack in Summer Fun

Packaging: My order arrived in a bubble mailer just four days after I made my purchase, so shipping was super-fast.  My full-size colors came in cute stacking jars that were wrapped in additional bubble wrap, and I got a sample of Crushed Diamonds in a separate baggie.  My package also included a printed invoice with a handwritten note from Sherrie, the owner.  The stacker has a sticker on the top, and and each individual color has a sticker on the bottom with the color name, ingredients, company name, and address.

Moi Minerals Swatches + Review

The Shop: Moi Minerals

What I ordered: A set of the new MOI Minerals Dazzlers

Packaging: I placed this order 9/12/11, and I believe it took a little over two weeks to arrive.  Not bad considering that MOI is based out of Canada.  It came via air mail wrapped in paper and some sort of sticky stuff keeping it all tightly bound together, sealed with a custom MOI sticker.  I've never encountered shipping materials quite like this, but it wasn't off-putting at all.  Inside the package was a business card with a handwritten note, and a baggie containing all of my sparkly pigments.  I received a complimentary shade because of a printer malfunction that resulted in a shipping delay.

Update: Fantastic Faces Cosmetics

Hi, readers! So it's been awhile since we all heard about the antics going on over at Fantastic Faces Cosmetics. Ms. Stephanie said she was discontinuing the neon pigments, and then said she was shutting down completely to take a short break. However, as anybody who has been following this company knows, Ms. Stephanie is about as trustworthy as you can expect somebody to be when they continue to sell harmful dyes as eyeshadow after repeated warnings that they are not intended for cosmetic use.  So she's still selling and she still has the soap dyes listed in her store as eyeshadows. No surprise there, but there have been a few new developments.

Since our last encounter with FFC, Ms. Stephanie appears to have purchased a domain name, and has posted an ingredient list which you can find here.  She has, once again, listed mica as an ingredient and we all know that's not an ingredient according to INCI standards.  The only other additives she lists are titanium dioxide, iron oxide, ferric ferrocyanide, and tin oxide.  Titanium dioxide is a white colorant approved for eyes, lips, nails, and face.  Iron oxide can be red, orange, yellow or black in color (although the only color I saw when I searched for it on TKB was red,) and it is approved for eyes, lips, nails, and face.  Ferric Ferrocyanide is a blue pigment that is approved for eyes, nails, and face, but not lips.  Nothing came up when I searched for tin oxide on TKB, and from a quick Google search, I found out that it is an abrasive that can be absorbed through the skin.  Sounds totally safe to me.  So all in all, Ms. Stephanie's ingredient list includes a white colorant approved for all areas, a red/orange/yellow/black colorant that is safe for all areas, an eye-safe blue colorant that is not lip-safe, and an opacifying skin irritant.  No carmine, which is found in many brighter red-toned pigments, and no chromium oxide green, which is found in many green-toned pigments.  Nothing that would act as a base for a lip product, and certainly nothing that would be a UV-reactive, so we know she's still not disclosing all of her ingredients.  Wonderful.  Now I'm not saying a skilled formulator couldn't mix a yellow pigment with a blue pigment and make a green pigment; that's plausible.  It's already been established, though, that her supplier purchases from TKB, where the only iron oxide available is red.  As most children in preschool would be happy to point out to you, having only a red pigment and a blue pigment limits the colors she is able to produce to reds, blues, and purples.

On a slightly related note, remember up there how I said ferric ferrocyanide is approved for eye use but not for lip use?  Do you also remember the green pigment I mentioned up there, chromium oxide green?  That colorant is also considered safe for eye use but not for lips (it is not considered eye OR lip safe in the state of California.)  Ms. Stephanie has formulated several lip glosses that happen to be blue and green in hue.  If her disclosed ingredients are correct, the blue lip jellies contain an unsafe blue pigment, and the greens contain the same blue mixed with a safe yellow pigment.   So either way they aren't safe, but I speculate that the blues were formulated with ferric ferrocyanide and the greens were actually formulated with chromium oxide green.  If evidence is provided that these are not the colorants used in these lip glosses, I will happily retract that statement (although that would still mean her ingredients list is incomplete.)  There ARE lip-safe blue and green colorants out there, but you do have to look for them; TKB has conveniently placed lip-safe items in a lipstick section, and there are no green or blue micas in that section that match the jelly colors.  I'm certain that reputable companies producing green and blue lippies are doing their homework and using safe colorants, but since Ms. Stephanie has been caught selling soap dyes as eyeshadow and falsifying ingredient lists, I wouldn't put it past her.

Lastly, for those who haven't seen the "micas" being used in the neon set, which is now conveniently being referred to as the bright set, I want to provide links for the neons available from TKB, (all of which have a clear disclaimer stating that they are soap dyes and not approved for cosmetic use,) and cite which FFC colors they match.

http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=67 - color match to Elektrik
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=68 - color match to Flashy

http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=69 - color match to the sold out FFC yellow, which I believe was called Sunnyshine
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=70 - color match to Phizzle
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=71 - color match to Baybee
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=72 - color match to Outrageous

http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=73 - color match to Flame

I sent Ms. Stephanie an E-mail on 10/3/11 with the above links to the neon pigments and also informed her of the possibility that she may unwittingly be using unsafe pigments in her lip glosses.  I think it's safe to assume that she has nothing to say to me, given that her website states that all E-mails will be answered "with in 24 to 48 hours " [sic].  She has threatened and harassed both bloggers and potential customers just for asking about her ingredients, she posted a horrendously incomplete ingredients list, and is claiming her "bright" pigments are "100% safe" with the disclaimers "if you do not feel comfortable with these products please do not purchase them." and "if you feel you may have an allergies to any of the listed ingredients use at your own risk" [sic].  If you are claiming a product is safe, while at the same time telling your customers to use at their own risk, chances are that said product is not safe.  The moral of the story is: do your homework and go with your gut.  If a company seems suspicious, it's very likely there is a reason you feel uneasy with them.

Hi-Fi Cosmetics Swatches + Review

The Shop: Hi-Fi Cosmetics

My Order: I ordered a full-size Shimmer Dust in Famous, and Paparazzi Flash Powder in RIOT

Packaging:  I placed my order on August 5th, and received shipping information via PayPal on September 21st, but the package does not show as accepted at the Post Office until the following day.  More on that later.  My order arrived in a bubble mailer, with the two full-size products in a ziploc baggie and a business card and two bagged samples in another ziploc baggie.

Today's Swatches:

Look at the size of some of those particles... Eye-safe?

So the shadows are nice enough (although I did expect more sparkle from Famous.) but the size of the particles in RIOT is dubious...  Some of them are very fine, but the larger particles are about four times the size of the small ones.  It's not the huge chunky glitter you'd find in a grade school craft closet,  but it looks very comparable to the glitter I used to make locker signs for cheerleading in High School.  I don't really want to put that on my eyes...  Swatched on bare skin with a foiled stripe down the center (top row) and skin prepped with My Beauty Addiction's Shadow Poxy (bottom row.)

Overall: I understand (after making my order and doing some research as to what might be taking so long) that Hi-Fi did a Heartsy deal in early July, just two days shy of a month before I placed my order.  Normally, I wouldn't mind a long turnaround time.  I understand that things get crazy sometimes and it's really hard to stay on top of things.  I have no problem with having to wait if I know what's going on.  However, if Veronica was still in the wake of her Heartsy madness, there should have been some sort of announcement in her shop.  I do not recall seeing any such announcement for an extended TAT, because if it had been prominently posted somewhere I probably would have held off on ordering.  So I placed my order and sort of forgot about it until I was looking through my Etsy purchases and noticed that over a month later this one hadn't been marked as "shipped."  I tried to send her a convo through Etsy, but that didn't work and the link to her shop brought up a 404 error.  So then I tried to E-mail her, and received a form letter about her extended TAT, the first I had heard about the Heartsy deal.  In this E-mail, Veronica states that "My 12-15 business day TAT has been extended.  I'm doing everything in my power to get orders out the door and emails answered as quickly as possible" and also that "Hi-Fi Cosmetics will be temporarily closed for ordering starting on Monday, August 1."  These pieces of information would have come in handy when I was perusing her totally-not-closed Etsy shop filled with products on August 5th.  Having gotten no response through E-mail, I looked up Hi-Fi on Facebook and noticed many others were missing orders.  I made a post on the Facebook page on September 12th that went completely ignored.  Six days later, Veronica started posting on the Facebook page again, but had still not acknowledged either of my contact attempts.  She posted that the remaining orders would be going out that week, and listed the order numbers.  My order number was not on the list, so I responded asking why and included my order number.  No response, but I did receive shipping information from PayPal three days later and my package was accepted at the Post Office the next day.  Honestly, I don't know what her usual turnaround time is; I assume based on the information in the automatic reply message that it's 12-15 days, and that's fine.  However, given that I had no idea there was an extension, or how long the extension was (the E-mail did not give an estimate on a timeframe) I would expect some sort of response.  It's also noteworthy that the Facebook post I responded to first, dated August 31st, she said she was waiting on lip gloss tubes to get the remaining orders out.  Several people commented on that post, myself included, who were waiting on orders with only eyeshadows, and our questions elicited no public response from Veronica.  My reply was almost two weeks after the original post.  My second post was six days later, once she reappeared and was actively posting about re-opening, price changes, and selectively answering any questions that didn't have to do with missing or incorrect orders.  It took three more days to receive my shipping information, and another day to actually get my package in the mail.  The original, already-pretty-long TAT of 12-15 days was nearly tripled, and I had no idea there was an extension in the first place.  And not a word from Veronica, even after my package arrived.  No apology or personal note of any kind was included.  Aaaaand as icing on this disaster cake, one of my jars wasn't closed properly and leaked considerably.  I know others have had wonderful experiences with Hi-Fi, and I hope for her other customers that this is an isolated incident, but this is a business I will not support in the future.

Fyrinnae Swatches + Review

The Shop: Fyrinnae
My Order: A tube of pixie epoxy and mini jars of the following: Herbivore, 1.22 Gigawatts, Dragon's Wing, Bifrost, Electro-Koi, and Kamikaze
Packaging: Everything arrived in a bubble mailer, with the shadows wrapped inside of some tissue paper, individually labeled.  I also received a printed copy of my invoice and a free sample of Nevermore.

Today's Swatches:

 Left to Right: Nevermore, Herbivore, and 1.22 Gigawatts

Without flash

 With flash

Left to right: Dragon's Wing, Bifrost, Electro-Koi, and Kamikaze

Without flash

With Flash

As usual, swatches were applied to bare skin on the top row, and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy from My Beauty Addiction on the bottom row.  Feel free to click any image for a closer look!  The Pixie Epoxy swatches below were done on skin prepped with only Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden on the bottom row, and Primer Potion with an overcoat of Pixie Epoxy on the top row.

Pixie Epoxy - Left to right: Caged Canary (Scaredy Cat Cosmetics,) Lucky Star (The Starshine Company,) and Bifrost

Overall: As many of you know, Fyrinnae is widely loved in the beauty blogger community.  I was lucky enough to get a few things ordered but it is my understanding that they are only open sporadically.  The reason being that when they are open, they get flooded with orders and have to take a break to get everything sent out.  And while I think it is super-noble of them to insure they don't get overloaded with orders they can't fulfill, I can also see how it could be very frustrating for fans.  Now I may take a lot of flack for not giving them a shiny gold star, but the colors kind of let me down.  They recommend that you pat the shadows on, which I did, but the application was patchy unless I really layered it up.  I think that comes through in the swatch photos.  Even over primer I really had to apply and apply and apply to get a nice, even color.  I was really happy with the Pixie Epoxy, though.  It gives the colors a more intense, foiled look,which is exactly what it's supposed to do.  So I have mixed feelings about this experience.  The shadows are really nice when built up over a primer, but they are inconsistent in light coats. The Pixie Epoxy lived up to the hype, and the package was in my mailbox in significantly less than their slated TAT, so I guess I just don't know what to think.  I appreciate the quick turnaround, the thoughtful packaging, the handwritten thank you on my invoice, and the free sample, but the Pixie Epoxy was to only thing that really struck me as extraordinary.

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!

 Without Flash

With Flash

Without Flash

With Flash

Without Flash

With Flash

Without Flash

With Flash

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!

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:

 Without Flash

With Flash

Without Flash

With Flash

Without Flash

With Flash

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.

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

 With Flash

Without Flash

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

 

With Flash

Without Flash

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

With Flash

Without Flash

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

With Flash

Without Flash

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

 With Flash

Without Flash

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.

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

 Without flash

With Flash

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

Without flash

With flash

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

Without flash

With flash

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.

Rock A Betty Beauty Swatches + Review

The Shop: Rock A Betty Beauty

My Order: A mini Lid Luster jar in Kink, one in Pandora, and The Wet Spot Eye Lining and Foiling Serum

Packaging: Everything was neatly packaged inside of a bubble mailer, with  a handwritten note from Ber, the owner, and the actual products inside of a cute retro popcorn bag.  Ber also included a business card, a sticker, and a small double-sided brush.  The shadows were in sweet little 3g jars, as described, and they had plastic seals around the outside to prevent leakage.  The products did not have ingredients lists on the them, but they can be found online.

 Today's Swatches: Left to right: Pandora, Kink

Without Flash

 With Flash

These swatches were applied to bare skin (top row,) and skin prepped with Shadow Poxy from My Beauty Addiction (bottom row.)  The foiled stripes next to the swatches are done with The Wet Spot foiling medium and the foiled stripes in the center of the swatches are just done with water.  Pandora was darker and smokier than I expected, but still gorgeous.  Kink is a bright, vivid pinkish purple, just as I had hoped.  These shadows apply exceptionally well without primer; almost as well without as with!  They are both very pigmented and have a nice shimmer, but not overboard and crazy-glittery.

Overall: I was very impressed with the packaging, the little personal touches and extras, and the pigmentation and application of the colors.  I really have nothing bad to say about Rock A Betty Beauty, and I'm definitely pleased with my products and the overall experience.  She's recently started selling  grab bags of five random 3g lid lusters for $10, and I have to say I'm already looking forward to snagging one of those!  I suggest you do the same.

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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.