Femme Fatale Cosmetics: mini jars!

Femme Fatale Cosmetics announced their new mini jars a few weeks ago, and I decided that was the perfect excuse to place another order! I ordered 5 mini jars and a sample of the Christmas LE shade Merrymaker. My order came with a business card and two extra samples. Merrymaker is in the old sample bags and the two freebies were in the new size, so here's a comparison for you:

I don't keep my samples in bags for very long, so I can't tell you if these are exactly the same size as Shiro's new sample baggies, but I think they're pretty close.

Mini jars!

Aren't they adorable?! The only criticism I have of these is that the label on the bottom is paper, so if it gets wet I'd imagine it would smudge. I'll just have to be careful with them. Onto the swatches! Patted over Pixie Epoxy.

Poison

"vivid chartreuse green eye shadow with a scattering of golden shimmer"
Hominah hominah, how gorgeous is this?! It's the perfect chartreuse without being too yellow or puke-green, excuse my French. The gold shimmer is very finely milled and gives the shadow a lovely glow. I think I need a nail polish this colour...

Dreamstate

 

"Egyptian blue with dazzling blue sparks and colour-shifting shimmer which alternates between purple and blue depending on the angle of the light"

In the jar this reminded me a little bit of Fyrinnae Glitterboi. It's quite different once applied. If you haven't yet ordered from FFC I would definitely say get this shadow. It's ridiculously gorgeous - brilliant aqua shimmer on a deep blue base with a tiny glint of violet every now and again. This swatch absolutely does not do it justice - the aqua shimmer is very bright and eye-catching.

Dispersion

"deep mulberry with bold teal blue shimmer"
Wooooow. I would probably call this plum with aqua shimmer, but other than that, it's a sultry, intense new version of all those purple and blue duochromes out there.

Crusader

"vivid saffron yellow eye shadow complimented by a scattering of gold and copper sparkles"

This is almost too golden to be a true yellow for me. It's smooth and pretty, but these kinds of shades don't show up very well on my skin. 

Rampage 

"vivid copper red shimmer over a burnt umber base"
A very steampunk-esque shade. I did a dry, blended-out swatch next to the PE one to show that it can be worn a little less metallic.

Merrymaker

(Christmas Limited Edition)

"A vibrant mix of greens and golds, shimmering with golden copper sparkles"
(This is a sample decanted into a jar, which is why it looks 'empty' compared to the others!)
Pretty and sparkly! Shimmery grass green base with gold and copper glitter.

I also got some samples of her illuminators/blush, which I will have to swatch later on. Sophie has also started doing NAIL POLISH!!! I cannot wait to get my hands on the new glitter ones. WANT.

More Lanolips Swatches!

I walked into Myer to buy new stockings, and I walked out of Myer with new stockings, two new Lanolips glosses and three Revlon polishes (they were on sale, okay!) Read my review of Lanolips here, when I first purchased Apple and Honey. The Revlons I have already swatched.

I still haven't managed to get ahold of the elusive Rose Lanolips, but I loooove the look of Sunshine (right):

The bright coral-orange colour is pinkened by my natural lip pigment, but it's such a beautiful end result.

And though I'm not a huge fan of lemon, the smell of the Lemonaid balm/gloss is seriously yummy. The shimmer is extremely subtle - it actually shows up more strongly in the photos than it does in real life. In person the shimmer just makes it look extra glossy. Sunshine has the same sweet, honey-ish smell of my other two.

If you look closely, the little sheep on the Lemonaid tube actually has a lemon slice for a mouth. It's a bit weird, but appropriate.

Lemonaid was $11 down from $16, and Sunshine was $9 down from $14. Now the only Lanolips colours I don't own are Rhubarb, Mulberry and Rose - none of which I've actually seen anywhere, except for Rose, and I only ever see grungy gross testers of that floating around. I have a feeling Rhubarb would look a lot better on me than Rose would, though.

Review: Australis Manic Panic

If you've been reading my blog for a while, or if you know me personally, it's no secret that I love purple. I have a purple diary, a purple water bottle, and a ton of purple make-up. During the move I lost my favourite bright purple Mode polish, and I haven't been able to find a replacement.

That is waaay blue-toned, silly camera!

Enter Australis Manic Panic, a bright, red-toned purple creme.The original Mode polish I had was blue-toned, in fact remarkably like that inaccurate bottle shot above. This lacquer is similarly bright, if not the right tone, and opaque in two coats, as opposed to the Mode's one. It hasn't entirely filled the hole left by my favourite purple, but it's a good stop-gap for now. It dries quite glossy too. Excuse the weird bump on my ring finger, I accidentally knocked it with my camera while the polish was still wet.

That's still not quite as red-toned as it is in person, but you all know how much cameras LOVE to work with purple, heh. It's a fun, bright colour and if you're a purple fan like me, how can you resist a cheap lacquer?

Review: Ozotic Pro 1010

Why don't these things have names?! Ugh. Anyway, I've only ever been able to find Ozotic Pro polishes in one place - a small chemist in Perth, and they always have a really small collection. So when I saw this smoky, metallic purple I grabbed it straight away.

That pink flash isn't visible in person, I was actually really surprised seeing it in photos. It's a cool and frosty colour so it has to be applied carefully to avoid brushstrokes. This is two coats.

The second picture is much more colour-accurate. I really like this polish.

Review: Australis Aqua

I have a bright, in-your-face turquoise aqua from Mode Cosmetics I use all the time, but I wanted something a bit lighter and softer, more Tiffany blue-ish, now that I think about it. I saw Aqua on the Australis stand and it looked like just the thing.

Unfortunately, it not only has a lighter tone but also a worse formula. This was disappointingly sheer and streaky - there was huge VNL and bald spots after 2 coats. A third coat evened it out but I can still a bit of VNL. It's a really pretty colour, but I don't think I'll be wearing it much because I'm not patient enough to do more than two coats!

The first picture is more colour-accurate. Can you see VNL on my ring finger, or am I just weird?

Burnt Orange everywhere!

 
Suzanne gave me this lacquer, and I fell in love with it, not only because it matches my orange tights... but also because it was beautiful, pearly orange goodness in two coats.

All my orange lipsticks are a much brighter orange than this polish, but I applied Orange U Glad and blended some red lip gloss over the top, and voila!

I used a stippling brush with Sugarpill Flamepoint as blush, and did really simple eye make-up, so I didn't take any full-faced photos.

Attention, nerdlings!

Let's take a quick break from make-up and grab our X-box controllers! I spend a good part of the last fortnight playing THE SHIZ out of Skyrim: Dawnguard. If you haven't bought or played it yet, or you're just curious about it, I have posted a giant review over at my other internet home, Comicbooked.com. It would mean a lot to me if you would go take a looksie. You can also share it on Facebook if you have nerdy friends there.

If you're a fellow Skyrim fan, here are some awesome things I found on Etsy:

 

From  here

 From here

From here

Back to make-up, did you know there's a company with a Tamriel eyeshadow collection? They're only shipping to the U.S. and Canada at the moment, and there's not a lot of reviews for the company online, but I've already been offered a CP from Heather, so I maaaay indulge when I have cash to spare. Which will not be soon, alas, because I lost my day job and I need to find another one. BOO, HISS. I'm going to go play some more Dragon Age II now.

Revlon Nail swatches!

I'm on a total green kick at the moment. This colour is called Spanish Moss. I expected this to be pale, almost pastel-like grunge, but it dries to this amazing dark and moody colour. There's a hint of silver shimmer in the bottle, but on the nail it's a straight creme. Middle pic is the closest representation of the colour. Two coats was all I needed.

Bonsai is a beautiful bright, grassy green with yellow shimmer. Although I don't own Zoya Midori, this seems to be a less sparkly version. It's a little sheer, I needed three coats before I stopped seeing VNL.

Thank goodness that cut through my cuticle is almost healed!

The last colour I got was the infamous Revlon Perplex, which was released in Australia under the name "Naughty". Seriously, the names on the Revlon polishes here are so weird. I remember seeing those hex glitter ones everyone was raving about and shaking my head over 1) the inflated Aussie price, and 2) the weird-ass new names. I don't understand why Revlon has to rename products to be released in Australia. Sure, American and Australian English isn't exactly the same, but it's not all THAT different either! I didn't  bother swatching it because there are SO many swatches around already. It did look a lot darker in the bottle than I expected, though.

I can't tell you the prices of any of these lacquers because I did that thing you do, when stuff is on sale and you can't decide which one you like better, so after a minute of frenzied consideration you suddenly declare (not always out loud, but I actually did) "I'LL JUST GET BOTH". I had an enabler with me at the time, so I wasn't just talking to myself. Geez, I hardly ever do that in public any more! I also grabbed two Lanolips glosses that were on sale. I'll be swatching those shortly, though they're both fairly neutral colours.

Review: Rokk96 Bronzed Goddess

I wanted to get something brown/bronzey, and I was in Price Attack seeing if they had anything along those lines. I got sidetracked by some of the glitters and vampy winter shades they had, but I finally settled on Bronzed Goddess.

Boy am I glad I got this! It's a rich, glowing chocolatey bronze. It's metallic enough that it's on the frosty side, so you can get a bit of brushstroke-y-ness if you're not careful. It's insanely pigmented though - this is a one coat swatch.

So gorgeous! I can see myself wearing this a lot through winter.