Review and Swatches: Persephone Minerals

I ordered from Persephone Minerals after seeing Annamax's review and swatches. I had previously been a bit hesitant to order from Persephone as the product photos are... well, quite bad, to be blunt! I was really excited about two things: duochrome shadows and a SAILOR MOON collection! I used to love Sailor Moon when I was little. I'm seriously considering buying a DVD box set so I can indulge in some nostalgia :P

Victoria put together a custom order for me. I wanted to get all of the Sailor Senshi Crystal Power eyeshadows and a few other things too. I ordered sample jars as I find it hard to work with baggies. Victoria's response was prompt, the listing was up right away, my order was posted quickly and I got my package within about 14 days - super fast for international shipping!

HOW CUTE ARE THESE JARS?!

They're slightly smaller in circumference than your usual 5g eyeshadow jars (that's a Fyrinnae mini on the left and a Persephone sample on the right) so they just made me AWWW when I opened the package. They're very clearly labelled on the bottom. Stickers are NOT waterproof and may get smeary if you're not careful with them.

Victoria very generously included a free sample jar of a new colour, Rampid. It's a bright fuschia, I didn't swatch it here because I gave it to a friend. I hardly ever wear pink, I actually doubled  my pink shadow collection just with this order!

The shadows are smooth, a little translucent (though they can be patted/layered on for complete opacity) and the Crystal Powers are amazingly duochrome. I didn't have a lot of pinks or golds in my collection before now. I would reccommend using Pixie Epoxy or a similar sticky base with these to get lasting power and the full effect of the colour shift. If you want the gold to stay a little more subtle, these work just fine without PE. I've done my swatches over Concrete Minerals primer.

Mercury Crystal Power: "amazing duochrome shift from gold to bright blue. It is chock full of sparkles of gold and pink."

This is ridiculously duochrome - the gold does tend to show a bit more than the blue, though. The pink sparkles are very subtle, which I like because I'm not a big fan of pink, and I think this colour is lovely just as a duochrome..

Jupiter Crystal Power: "a duochrome shift from bright green to gold complete with sparkles of gold and pink."

 
Goldy-lime green and gold duochrome. The pink sparkles do show up in this one, but it's a nice touch. I'd definitely reccommend PE for this, so the pink glitter stays the whole day.

Jupiter Oak Evolution: bold green overtaken by green and gold sparkle.

Not so sure I'd call this a 'bold' green. It's more of a deep foresty green, and has a slightly lighter sheen. I really love this one - I admit I was a lot more excited for the duochromes, but this is seriously beautiful - you could easily use it as a liner with PE. The glitter is very present in this one.

Mars Crystal Power: "this is one hell of a duochrome shift from bright red to gold, chock full of pink and gold sparkle! It looks like a pinkish color in the jar, but do not let that fool you!"
The disclaimer here is GOOD, because here's the jar:

The swatch:

I don't know if it was a disagreement with the primer, or if I rubbed it with the brush too much, but I ended up with a red streak that had a gold halo, rather than a proper duochrome like the other Crystal Power shades. I guess I'll need to experiment with this a bit more. I don't wear a lot of red shadow anyway, it's one of the colours I'm not really confident with unless it's on my lips/fingernails.

Mars Flame Sniper: "nice deep red, overloaded with red, orange, and gold microfine glitters." 

This is such a nice deep, almost maroon red and seems to have a slight pinkish sheen in some lights. I can actually see myself wearing this! The glitter is fabulous. Again, you'd probably want to use PE to get it to stay on your lids. I love this so much, I had to make myself put it away and keep swatching! I wanted to put it on and play with it.

Moon Prism Power: "A striking duochrome of blue and pink with the palest possible touch of blue so that the pink dominates. Topped off with lavish gold shimmer!"

Well, this is embarassing... the shadow is white in the jar, and then as soon as it is applied becomes a sparkly, iridescent fuschia sheen with a hint of gold glitter. I don't get any blue out of it. Could I get it to show up on camera? NO. I tried every light setting I could think of, tried flash, tried artificial lighting, tried natural lighting... no matter WHAT I did, the pics showed the shadow as a soft, shimmery white. I did a swatch over PE. I broke out my Nyx Jumbo pencils and swatched over Milk and Black Bean (it goes almost purple over Black Bean). More settings, lighting... and nada. Every picture it shows up plain white. I stuck my SD card in my computer and stared in disbelief at the sea of white swatches. Then suddenly...

It's a bit brighter and glowier in person, but it's NOT WHITE!

This is not the Pixie Epoxy shot. Or Nyx pencil, or flash or tungsten. It's the first shot I took, dry, in natural light with the macro setting. I just couldn't see it was pinkish til I looked at it on the computer. /facepalm.


Moon Crystal Power: "A shift from pink to gold, leaning more on the pink side when foiled."

Pretty, soft, girly. I will probably do a super-soft wash of this as a work look.

Venus Crystal Power: "this is a slight shift from orange to gold, chock full of pink and gold sparkle!"

This isn't really a duochrome to me, more like a slightly orangey gold. The pink glitter shows up really nicely in this swatch, but from a distance it's barely visible.

After all the crap that's been happening in the MMU world recently, it's refreshing to find a new company that makes quality products, has good customer service and takes criticism well. There are lots of positive reviews of Persephone Minerals just a Google search away, if you're wanting more opinions and swatches. Her prices are very fair as well, she does full-sized sets, sample sets both in bags and in jars.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put the pretties away and do some studying. SIGH.