Guest post! Lip Poison review by Elimy

As mentioned in the last post, I ordered a Lip Poison for my dear friend Elimy and passed one of the free mini ones onto her as well. She kindly volunteered to do a guest review of those two colours :) check out her blog for her thoughts on writing and reading!

Now, I’m a newcomer to the Indie Makeup Scene, so please bear with me if I am somewhat naive. Jade introduced me to this wonderful world, and to be honest, I am only in it for the lip colours. I’m a fairly girly girl, I like vintage and floral prints, but I also don’t like to draw attention to myself. That means, no blue lippie. It’s a simple rule, and it keeps me from looking like a Smurf. Some people, i.e. Jade, can pull it off, but I have accepted that I cannot, and moved on. (Weird colours, for me, are for nail polish... the bright green paint incident of Christmas ’07...)

Alright, so let’s do this thing.

ROCKET TO THE MOON
I’ve taken to affectionately referring to this lip poison as Rocket. I’ve been looking for a nice red colour for quite a while, and on the homepage of Venomous Cosmetics, this actually looks quite red, and you can see the blue undertones that are supposedly there. Forgive me if I am wrong, but this is orange, no?

This picture was taken this morning, but I actually wore the colour out last night.  Even though it’s not the colour I thought I was getting (and really, that’s on me, I should have looked at some reviews and stuff), I have to say, I love it.  This simple ordering mistake has found me a new favourite.  And I think it looks kind of good on me. 

One problem is that it is difficult to put on without darker, clumpier bits appearing at the edges.  I found I could get around that by gently swabbing with a q-tip.  Like Jade said, these feel fantastic on your lips; I don’t even have to put PawPaw on after taking them off.  At the movies last night I was all prepared for a stealthy duck to the ladies’ to wipe the orange stains away from around my mouth but... nothing!  Amazing.  I would rather walk out of the cinema with little to no colour left than look like a clown, wouldn’t you??  Thumbs up, Venomous!

AUSTIN BOY

So you know how when you’re younger, and just starting to feel fascinated by make up, you experiment by putting highlighter on your lips?  (No?  Just me?!)  This kind of looks like it’s going to turn out like that.  It’s more fluoro than the most fluoro lippie I owned previously, which was Face It Extreme Rouge Gloss in PK102.  And I thought I was being daring when I wore THAT!  This colour would do Barbie proud.  But don’t misunderstand me, that’s a GOOD thing.  This colour is fantastic.  My hair has red undertones but it doesn’t make me look like I am permanently sunburnt.  It took a while to get a good photo though...

It even made my teeth look whiter!  Wow!

I’m going to wear this one all day, even though I’m not really going anywhere.  Just being it makes me feel pretty.  J

All in all, I give both these Lip Poisons two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Elimy 

Thanks Em! 

Swatch and review: Venemous Cosmetics Lip Poisons

I placed a second order with Venomous Cosmetics which included a mini lip poison for myself and a full-sized for my dear friend Elimy. Tracy, being the super generous soul that she is, wrote me a note thanking me for my review and including TWO free purse sized Lip Poisons! I passed one onto Elimy, and kept the other. I thought I'd swatch them all for you. I'll definitely be getting more of these, I adore the formula.

Hallucinate 

(purchased from blogsale)

I wore this at work, layered over Morgana Cryptoria's Roses and Violets lipstick, and received a compliment from a customer on my "really pretty pink lipstick" :) it's a milky fuchsia-pink with an incredible blue-violet iridescence which is incredibly hard to capture on camera. 

Flamingo 

(free)

Quite a sheer one, this tints my lips a pretty, soft pink. A swipe-and-go colour suitable for absolutely anything. My bottle was a bit streaky but this didn't translate to the lips, it came out quite even.

Northern Lights 

(purchased by me)

This was by far the most opaque of the Lip Poisons I purchased, which was a shame because it's FAR too light for me to wear! I did a lip swatch but honestly, it looked so awful, here's a hand swatch instead.

What I DID do was layer it lightly over Morgana Cryptoria's lipstick in Cocoa, a soft nude beige. I think this is definitely more of a layering Poison for those of us who aren't ghostly white anyway ;) if you're the right colouring for this, or just a fan of pale lips, apply it thin and slow, it tends to streak.

Comparison swatches: Northern Lights alone, Cocoa alone, Cocoa with Northern Lights on top.

A note on the formula: this is an amazing gloss. It contains Jojoba and Almond oil, so after you wipe it off your lips are oh-so-smooth. Layered over lipstick the results aren't as moisturising, BUT they're not at all drying either. It's the perfect consistency and weight for me - I can tell that what's on my lips isn't a balm, but it's not oh-god-my-hair sticky either. It's tacky enough to have staying power, doesn't feel greasy, and has great slip. They wear pretty well, fading after 3-4 hours and retaining a fair bit of colour after eating or drinking. None of these three stained, but Hallucinate does leave a little hint of blue/violet sheen behind.

The price? $3.50 for a mini tube and $5 for a full-sized one! Like I said, I foresee a lot more of these in my future. The mix of conservative and unusual shades have you covered no matter what your taste, colouring and needs.

NotD: Zoya Shay

This is such a weird colour. It's like a golden peach-y muted coral? I dunno. All I know is that sometimes I look down and it's goldy-orange and other times it's a yellowy-pink. It looks okay but I definitely prefer the other two polishes from the Zoya Touch collection.

You can sort of see the colour 'change' in these photos, the sunshine was coming and going in a very annoying way when I was trying to take photos!

So there you have it, all 3 Zoya Touch polishes swatched by yours truly. I still can't believe I got the full-sized versions for SO CHEAP. Ebay FTW. I've just placed a moderate order from Born Pretty, so you might see these polishes swanked up with some stamping and some Fimo (!) in a month or so as I try to find ways to spice up my nails on my days off without having to bother about changing my polish.

HELLO and Zoya Minka NoTD

MOVE COMPLETE!...

More or less. All of our belongings are in the new house, we have bought the necessities like bed, fridge, washing machine, dryer, microwave, bean bags (yes they're necessary!) and we've been food shopping. I haven't unpacked anything except my makeup (hehehe) but it's feeling more and more like home everyday.

Because I'm studying externally this semester, I actually NEED internet for my uni work, so the boyfie went out while I was at work and got us some pre-paid wireless to get us through until we can clear the getting of "real" internet with the house owners <3 it's a really low cap but hey, IT'S INTERNET!

I tossed Zoya Minka in my handbag to put on after the move. Four days later it's a bit beat up and there's some tipwear and nicks but it actually still looks passable!

Ignore the dent on my middle finger. You should see my right hand! I've broken my thumbnail pretty badly. I thought this was going to be far too yellow for me, but I actually don't mind it. The formula was much thicker than Pandora, I actually did two thin coats of this rather than one thick one since it probably would've taken ages to dry.

Next to try is Shay! I have a ton of housework, uni work, unpacking and work homework (personal evaluation stuff, blah) to do today, but I'm going to take some "me time" this evening to do my nails and play some games. Boyfie bought us a new xbox game, Dungeon Siege III. I'm finding it a bit tricky to adjust to the viewpoint and controls, but I'm looooving playing Anjali with her super cool fire form! After I've finished that game, I have Dragon Age Origins for PC waiting for me :)

NoTD: Zoya Pandora aka OHGODYES

My work decided to get even more strict on grooming standards. The 'neutral' and 'understated' make-up rules have been replaced by "clear, light pink or French" for nails and "natural, subtle colours" for all make-up. I will also be spending the next few months learning how to do new hairstyles to comply with the new requirements. I swear, if this job didn't pay so well and I didn't work with such kick-ass people I'd be OUTTA there. I went to private school! I've already done the Barbie-clone-automaton thing! GRRR.

So basically all the lovely pastels, beiges and greys I've added to my stash are totally out. Which pisses me off a little bit since I spent a fair chunk of change expanding my polish and eyeshadow collection for colours which are now not going to get used very much.

The only pink-y shades I have are either sheer or have such horrible formulas that I don't even want to open the bottles lest I 'accidentally' throw them in the bin. Unfortunately most nudes and nude-y pinks are sheer, and I really DON'T like sheer polishes (on their own. Layering is a-ok with me, especially the CND effects which I now own 3 of!) and I especially don't like spending fucking ages putting on tons of boring polish for work. I don't even like having to do more than 2 coats for fun, sparkly and/or bright polish! I'm lazy like that.

When I hear about the Zoya Touch polishes I was over the moon. OPAQUE NUDES?! Of course Zoyas are prohibitively expensive over here in Australia and rather hard to get. Being nudes, I wasn't sure what would work on my skintone either, and I wasn't keen on buying all three to add to my already over-stuffed 'work polish' collection.

I finally bit the bullet a few weeks ago and ordered what I thought was the mini set of all three polishes. It ended up being the full-sized set!

I grabbed Pandora first. On me it's this amazing creamy, rosey mauve which is so subtle and lady-like. The formula was a bit thick and went on with lots of brush-stroke-y mess, but it levelled itself out quickly and by the time I applied topcoat, it was smooth and shiny and most importantly OPAQUE. This is one coat (over basecoat and a coat of CND effects because I was too lazy to take it off first). If the other two apply like this as well I'm going to be over the goddamm moon. I would have to describe the finish as "pearl", it has the smooth, glossy appearance of a creme but with this super soft, glowy shimmer that doesn't make it look frosty or even really shimmery, it just adds this lovely soft glow that prevents it looking dull or drab.

The best part? I have a white mark on my middle fingernail from hitting my hand (which happens a lot) and you absolutely can't see it under the polish! ONE COAT!

I have nubbins at the moment because I broke a nail setting up a fridge and a bed yesterday (I'm moving in with my boyfie <3) and I'm moving all my shit on Friday, so I figured I may as well trim them down to prevent more mishaps then.

Expect more swatches in a few weeks, and some reviews! We do not yet have internet at the new house, so I'm not sure how long it will be until I can start blogging regularly. Which is a shame, since I have a Linnaeus order, more Venomous Cosmetics, two Ozotic Pros and a long overdue Furless Brush review...

Pikachu Party with Barry M

I never usually do the "name the look with the products you used", but this one was so hilarious I couldn't not do it :)

Eyes: Sugarpill Afterparty and Shiro Cosmetics Pikachu. Tako and Frost from Concrete Minerals to highlight, Bulletproof to tightline, no mascara cos I need a new one.

Lips: Barry M gloss I got from a blogsale which smells AMAZING.

Colour combination inspired by this shirt.

Acci-drama EoTD

Day off super-fun-time make-up-ness! Except I was going to a house viewing so I wanted to look somewhat normal/responsible etc. "I want a bit of sparkle," I said to myself, "But kind of neutral-ish too. And then red lips, because I haven't done that in a while."

Much blending and cursing later...

My attempts to keep my crease sparkly resulted in a WAY more dramatic look than I was going for. It looks soft in the pictures but the overall result is really dark and smoky. I like it, but it's not what I was trying to do! Lid is Champagne Toast from Aromaleigh, crease is Crown Jewels by Sassy Minerals (probably the only drama-free MMU company left on the internet by now!) I used P.E and highlighted and waterlined (messily, because it needs sharpening and I can't find my sharpener) with a Nyx Jumbo Pencil. Eyeliner is Covergirl Liquiline Blast in black. No mascara. Random brow pencil.

Lips are Stargazer 127 with Lanolips Apple over the top. I was going to use Morgana's Twinkling Rubies, but it's more of a pinky red and didn't match my outfit.

I just don't GET it.

Some of the things I have read the last few days have been truly awful.

I'm still reeling from the fact that Jasmine of High Voltage Cosmetics, someone who I have spoken to and bought from several times and liked on a personal level, has revealed to have 1) had less than stellar customer service (I myself have received all my packages late, and in fact am still waiting on one), 2) has sold some extremely inconsistent products (none of my lip products from her were ever in 'great' condition), 3) has possibly fudged her ingredients lists, 4) has repeatedly told lies about her personal life to many, many people (myself included).

A group was formed on Facebook to discuss some of the issues and inconsistencies. From there, I have seen  so much ugliness come out of the make-up and blogging community. Far beyond snark, people have said some really horrible things - people that I respected and considered friends have insulted, harangued and belittled others. Some misunderstandings were blown way out of proportion. Apologies were made and completely ignored. People who I expected so much better from have stayed silent whilst more and more rude and snide comments are made and it just really, really upsets me.

All I can think is who's next? Who will the next unfortunate soul be to say the wrong thing and be attacked for it?

I no longer feel safe as a blogger. I don't want to take sides, name names or point the finger because I don't want to be next. I don't want to quit blogging, quit reviewing or even worse, start censoring myself, but at this stage I just don't know what the best course of action is.

I understand that people have been hurt by Jasmine - I was nearly late for work because I was in the Twitter chat where all the issues came to light. But why did people have to start turning on each other after that?

Review: Venomous Cosmetics

To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about ordering from Venomous… but only because I hadn’t read a lot of critical reviews about them. I know that doesn’t sound like a terrible thing, but I like to really know what I’m getting into.

My order was quite small – I got the everywhere palette and two pressed shadows. It ended up getting shipped a little later than anticipated, and so make up for it, Tracy gave me a bunch of loose shadows – some of which I definitely would have ordered later for myself. Some of them are from the new [edit: now discontinued] fairytales collection and are SO PRETTY. She also provided me with a 20% off code for my next order, which was just SO generous of her. My trepidations were absolutely dissolved and after swatching, felt absurd.

The two pressed shadows I ordered were Death Adder and Meteor. Both are pretty much for work.
My free samples: Faraway Galaxy, Spell-Breaking Kiss, L.A. Smog, Boomslang, In Orbit, and Enchanted Forest.

The pressed shadows are quite hard, I can see them standing up to a heckuvalot of abuse... but it also means they're a little tricky to use. You really have to work the brush into them to get any product.

Spell-breaking kiss

Violet-purple with red and blue glitter

Far-away galaxy

Lavender with aqua glitter

L.A. Smog

Medium grey with an icy blue sheen

In Orbit

Taupe with a silver sheen and a smattering of pink glitter

Boomslang

Bright, blue-based green

Enchanted forest

Blue-green shimmer on a black base

Meteor

Taupe with a stunning, metallic rose-gold sheen (almost duochrome!)

Death Adder

copper-gold shift

I haven't had much of an opportunity to play with the non-neutral shades but they're SO lovely, I have actually already placed another order for some more pressed shadows, the pressed blushes from the My Fairytale collection and one of the much-hyped Lip Poisons. Tracy's just put up a new collection with some really awesome speckled shadows. If you haven't ordered from Venomous yet, definitely go check out their site!

One more thing I have to mention is the Anywhere Palette.

It's slightly smaller than the Sugarpill palettes, but it's the same concept - sturdy, matte black cardboard, strong magnetised close, magnetised base and instead of a mirror, has a clear plastic top so you can see what you've got in there. I LOVE IT and I'm going to get another one, so I have one for neutrals and one for brights :) they're also incredibly affordable at $5.50 US.