Review & swatch: Apple Kid from Rainbow Honey

*Disclaimer: this product was sent to me for review, this fact has not impacted my opinion in any way*

"Apple Kid from the Summer of 199X Collection by Rainbow Honey. A bright and rosy fuchsia creme with shimmer."

Swatch & Review: Bejewelled by Cirque Colours

Disclaimer: this product was sent to me for review. It has not affected my opinion in any way.

More holo goodness! Cirque Colours are a US-based brand that is carried in the Femme Fatale Cosmetics store. They have a range of absolutely amazing holos and glitter toppers and I was really excited to get my hands on this bottle.

Swatch & Review: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Gravity Lapse (holo!)

Disclaimer: this product was sent to me for review. It has not affected my opinion in any way.

A triumphant bloggy return with a gorgeous lacquer from the new collection of holographic shades from Femme Fatale Cosmetics!

Life: 1, Me: 0

Using public wi-fi to tell you I currently have no internet at home! Not sure when the situation is going to change, but in the meantime posts and comments will be sporadic. I still have access to Twitter and Facebook on my phone, but visiting blogs uses a lot of data :( I miss the pretty pictures!

Swatch and review: Gloss n Sparkle Goblins Grave

Considering how badly I wanted this when I saw it and how long ago I bought it, this poor polish has sat untried for a long time.

Review & swatches: Sayuri Nail Lacquer #116 (Horsea!)

Finally onto the Sayuri portion of the Pokemon collection! Only two from this side.

Horsea is a baby blue crelly with tiny aqua and matte yellow glitter, larger round aqua glitter, medium matte yellow and white glitter, and large matte white hex glitter. A very glittery one!

Swatches: Detrivore eyeshadows, green and grey

Detrivore Cosmetics had a customer appreciation sale a while ago, a very generous 50% off! I got some colours I'd been eyeing, as well as a jar of their Translucent Powder, primer and Embalming tubes (lip balm). I'll be reviewing everything, but thought I should start with some eyeshadow swatches.

Swatches: Shiro Nestyr and Butts

These colours are not available any more, but Caitlin has done clear-outs of leftover Colour of the Month stock before, so I thought I'd swatch them anyway. FOR SCIENCE.

Review and swatch: Arcane Lacquer Vast & Vague

All the Australian indies bursting onto the scenes with nail polish certainly make ME happy. My wallet not so much. Sometimes it's hard to keep up! I ummed and ahhed for ages when it came to ordering from Arcane Lacquer - this brand is extra special because it's made by Nail Gun XS, a blogger whose stunning swatches are used by many other indie brands. In the end I went with Vast & Vague for my first purchase, as tiny neon squares in a dusty pastel base wasn't something I had in my collection.

Review and swatches: Geek Chic Cosmetics eyeshadows!

For my birthday (several months ago now, haha) a friend gave me a ThinkGeek voucher. Sadly for us Australians, a ThinkGeek purchase is a special occasion only deal, or a group purchase, because the only shipping options they do are expedited international. It's stupidly fast and also stupidly expensive. On a whim at the end of May, I visited their website and wishfully filled my cart with Geek Chic eyeshadows - they had a small range, but they had two of the colours I REALLY wanted. Imagine my surprise and delight when I checked the shipping options and saw they'd added economy for international shipping! Instead of paying $40+ to get my order within the week, I could pay $9 and wait a bit longer! So I got 3 Geek Chic eyeshadows and a little heart hand warmer for stupidly cheap, since my gift certificate covered nearly everything.

Excuse the glitter on the bottom jar!

Review & swatches: Mckfresh #32 (Nidoran!)

Described as "purple shimmery creme base with white, pink, purple, green glitters of different sizes."
My take: shimmery lilac base with purple glitter squares, tiny aqua squares and hexes, tiny round coppery-pink glitter, and white glitter in several sizes and shapes.

Swatch: Femme Fatale Cosmetics Noble Garden

Noble Garden is absolutely packed with glitter. Grass green in small round, small and large matte hexes are the predominant thing. There's also tiny round purple glitters, larger round pink glitters and large orange hexes. At certain angles, some of the small green hexes flash blue!

Review & swatches: Mckfresh #41 (Zubat!)

Mckfresh Nail Attire is a new Australian indie polish company that I've had my eye on for a while. They started out with a Labrynth-inspired collection, but it was their limited edition Pokemon polishes that really caught my eye (pun intended).

Left to right, top to bottom: 001 - Bulbasaur, 004 - Charmander, 039 - Jigglypuff, 032 - Nidoran, 054 - Psyduck, 041 - Zubat.

Soft and simple nail art for piCture pOlish Blogfest!

I am super duper excited to have been chosen to take part in the piCture pOlish blogfest for 2013! We were asked to create a nail art tutorial using 3 different shades. I decided to go with some simple skittle nail art that doesn't require a lot of tools, time or skills.

Striping tape and dotting tool from Born Pretty

Review and swatches: Zoya Harlow

This was gifted to me, which is excellent because I never would have bought it myself and I LOVE it! The Zoya matte velvet range come in a frosted version of their regular bottles.

Review: Picture Polish Revolution glitter base coat

Alright! I feel like I'm finally ready to review this, after testing it under a few different types of glitter.

NoTD: Femme Fatale Incendius

Femme Fatale Cosmetics have recently discontinued and sold out of the following shades:
Incendius
Glinting Lodestone
Sweet Surprise
Quivering Heart
Crimson Acolyte

Click here to check and see what's left of several other discontinued shades! A lot of them are from the original collection and are seriously gorgeous.

Shiny blue hexes!

I'm showing you Incendius today. I got one of the last bottles from Femme Fatale a few weeks ago. Usually I layer glitters over a base colour that matches it. One of the things I liked about Incendius was that it had a few metallic blue hexes scattered among the gold, orange and red that are the base of this incredible polish. I decided to try layering it over Mode Runway, a dark teal. I liked the result so much, my plan to glitter-fy just my ring fingers and thumbs turned into a full glitter mani.

Swatches: Mode Cosmetics Glitzy Glam

Polishes like this are why I adore Mode Cosmetics. Stunning, intensely pigmented polish for stupidly cheap.

Review and swatches: Femme Fatale Cosmetics blush part 1

*DISCLAIMER: some of these products have been provided for review, and some I purchased myself.*

To swatch the blushes, I put some BB cream on my arm (to give the product something to hold onto) and then buffed on a fair amount of product with a blush brush. This gives you a good idea of the base colour. Face swatches are patted on over BB cream - I dip the brush into the product, tap off excess, and then stipple with the same blush brush so that the duochrome/shimmers aren't blended away. Hopefully this will also showcase the ways that application can make these products even more versatile :)

Cosplay make-up: Bronwyn Banner [genderbent Bruce Banner]

For Supanova this year, some friends talked me into cosplaying. The idea was to do gender-bent Avengers, but it didn't quite work out. Originally we were going to have a Thor, Lady Loki, Toni Stark and Bronwyn Banner (me!) however as the event grew closer our numbers dwindled. I had Toni for 3 hours on Sunday and did the rest of the day solo. Nobody asked for my picture. Oh well! I based my look off this promo image:

Dupe battle: Eyeko Fat Balm vs Silk Naturals & Sobe Botanicals!

This is gonna be a long one! I purchased Eyeko Fat Balm in Frosting, which is a multi-purpose lip and cheek product, from a blog sale quite a while ago. I used it several times before I got around to doing a review - and while doing research for said review, discovered that the FatBalms had been discontinued. OOPS.

So instead of just reviewing a blush that nobody will be able to buy (I'm not Pink Sith, come on!) I decided to review the Fat Balm AND purchase a similar product from two indie companies to see if I could find a dupe for it!

Review and swatches: Models Prefer Moisture Lust Lipsticks

The shades I have to show you today are Cupcake and Salted Caramel. I was interested in a few other shades as well, but these were the only two left at the Priceline I visited!

Swatches: Smitten Polish Bluebird II

I don't remember where I first saw this polish. It may have been in a blog or it may have been on Etsy. I DO remember that it was lust at first sight. I didn't look at it and think, "Oh, pretty!" or even "How unusual!" My eyes widened and my brain screeched "WANT!" Capitalism at its finest :P

I don't normally like brown polishes, but the contrast between the dark chocolatey base and the green and blue hex glitter had me wiping drool off my chin.

NotD: Smoke and flakies

Revlon Perplex. I've no idea how long I've had this polish for - months, definitely - and not touched it. I know it's a gorgeous polish but I never bothered swatching it because it's one of those polishes nearly everybody owns or knows about. Even if you don't own Perplex itself, you probably own a dupe from another brand.

Review and swatches: Mode Cosmetics Beat the Blah

I apologise in advance - what I thought was going to be a straightforward swatching session of a neutral, work-safe polish turned into one of those colour-accuracy nightmares.

Review: Sukin Hand & Nail Cream

Sukin is an all-natural, vegan, paraben-free Aussie brand that has been garnering a lot of attention in the blogosphere lately, due to its amazingly affordable products. Lured in by a spate of positive reviews and by a large display in a local chemist, I ended up purchasing two products to try.

Swatches: Mode Cosmetics Face Gone Purple

Don't ask me what's up with this name because I don't bloody know. I thought it was a weird typo when I saw it, but then I checked a few other bottles and they were all the same! What I do know is that when I saw this, I was reminded of Illamasqua's Velocity. I don't have it to compare them, but it's similar enough to squash my lemming for a polish that has been discontinued.

Review and haul: Candy Envy Alternative Accessories

This is a bit out of my normal purview, but I've had a really good experience with this company and she's local, so I thought a review would only be proper :)

Swatches: Mode Cosmetics Vicious Venom

Because Mode is such a small, budget brand, it's hard to keep up with the new releases unless you're a regular visitor of one of their stockists - and I'm not! As such, getting ahold of their glitters was a bit of a quest for me. I saw this colour twice before I actually purchased it, and it sat in my bathroom cupboard for several weeks before trying it. I knew it was going to be a bitch to remove, so I waited until I got Picture Polish revolution in the mail before I used it.

Review: Essence Maximum Definition Volume Mascara

This is the second Essence mascara I've tried. The first one was OK upon application, but by the end of the day my curled lashes had drooped to the point where you couldn't even tell I was wearing mascara. However, Essence products are so cheap, I decided there was no harm in trying out a different one.

Review and swatches: Femme Fatale Cosmetics eyeshadows!

I have four eyeshadows and four blushes/illuminators from Femme Fatale Cosmetics to show you! This post will be eyeshadows only, I'll do a separate one with the blushes :)

*DISCLAIMER - these products have been provided for review. This has not influenced my opinion in any way.*

Review and swatches: Pretty Serious Colour Glosses

I reviewed two of the original glosses here and wasn't altogether in love with them, especially since they were so sheer. Well, Kaz reformulated them and added two more colourful glosses to the collection, and since cosmetics are currently discounted across the whole range, I decided to try them both!

Review and swatches: Arbonne Cosmetics Lipstick in Jam

I have mixed feelings about this lipstick.

FotD: Coral Safari

Products:
Dark shimmery green from Sleek Safari Palette
Frankened brow powder
Shiro Cosmetics Rickrolled Intertube
Lanolips Sunshine lip ointment
Sugarpill Flamepoint as blush (with stippling brush)
Essence Maximum Definition mascara
Nude by Nature Natural Mineral Cover (medium skin tone)

Review: Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat

I bought this primarily to use as a top coat for glitters, since it's used by a lot of big-name nail bloggers.

stock photo taken from Sally's

 

Swatches: Pretty Serious Daphne's Birthday Party

Pretty Serious turned a year old, and to celebrate, released a multi-coloured glitter polish!

Lust List #1

Concept stolen borrowed from Suzanne, these are some things I would like to throw my wallet at.

FotD: pink lips and Damn Paladins

I'm quite sad that Fyrinnae have renamed Damn Paladins to Work Safe Blue. I mean, it's an apt description, but Damn Paladins is such a fun name!

One of the best things about this eyeshadow is that with a bit of blending, it can look like you've applied two eyeshadows instead of one. Pat it on and the blue highlight comes to the forefront. Blend it and you're left with a lovely taupe-y colour.

Review: ZOMG Smells soaps

I don't really do perfume reviews because I find scents to be so subjective... but Zomg Smells, one of my favourite indie perfumery companies, has started making soaps!

I purchased Nuee Ardente, one of my favourite perfumes from Zomg, as a soap. I loved it so much when I used it up, I re-ordered it, along with two other scents. Holly and Ariel sent two soap samples with my order :)

NotD: Sunset Butterfly

I asked my partner what colour I should paint my nails and got a ridiculously specific nail art request instead! "Orange with a yellow stripe and red butterflies!"

Way to make it easy, babe...

Manicure/nail care tips (hurr hurr pun)

DISCLAIMER
This is an amalgamation of tips, tricks and techniques I have learned from a wide variety of other bloggers. Don't take it as gospel, this is the stuff that works for my nails, budget and lifestyle. It's a good starting point if you don't know much about nail care. I will provide some links to more experienced and thorough posts at the bottom - so if you're already a nail junkie just skip to the end!

Swatches: Silk Naturals GWP eyeshadows

Every order over $10 at Silk Naturals gets a free 3g eyeshadow with their order! Sometimes these eyeshadows become a part of the permanent range. Today I'm going to swatch five GWP shades for you.

 
The black labels are the new jar/label configuration, replacing the old white ones. They come with little three hole sifters which are quite easy to remove, if you dislike sifters like I do.

NotD: Grey gradient and glitter!

Felt like doing something a bit more understated with my nails this time around. The weather is doing its usual weirdness - autumn in Australia is very much like spring, in one week you'll have a cold and drizzly day followed by a warm and sunny one! I decided to do something a bit wintry.

Polishes used:
Mode Cosmetics VIP
Zoya Harley
Revlon Steel-her Heart
Nubar White Polka Dots

NotD: Ablaze Skittles

I had a reeeeeally bad split in the side wall of my thumbnail. I patched it for about 3 weeks until it grew out, then decided on a whim to change my nails to an almond shape. I love the way it looks but the feel of it is taking some getting used to!

Anyway, I decided to do another skittle manicure, this time with Ablaze from Alanna Renee. Lots if pictures under the jump!

Review: Kit SPF 30+ Face Sunscreen

This was an impulse buy that I have NOT regretted!

NotD: Lodestone Skittles

I've been checking out a lot of nail blogs lately for inspiration, and decided to try a glitter gradient manicure - over skittles!

NotD: work safe blue for Autism awareness

Review: Alanna Renee Nail polish "Ablaze"

Alanna Renee is another new Australian indie polish company. They have an AMAZING range of glitter polishes, but there was a lot of stuff sold out when I found them, so I decided to be sensible and just get ONE bottle of polish. I chose Ablaze.

Review: Natio nail polish "Camel"

Seems like no matter how many nude and neutral polishes I own, I always end up buying more! To be fair, a lot of the stuff I buy is intended for Caucasian skintones, and being olive-toned, they're lighter on me than a true nude should be. Enter Camel!

Review: Vice and Velvet Body Mousse

Most of the great and popular indie B&B companies are located in the U.S, Canada or the U.K. Due to the long TAT associated with products like soap, perfume etc., for us Australian indie B&B fans, it means it can take anywhere from 3-8 weeks to receive our goodies from companies. So when I found Vice and Velvet, an Australian company, I was cautiously optimistic.

Swatch: BSOD from Pretty Serious!

Swatches: Revlon nail polish

I stopped by Gloss in the city a while ago and they had a bin of 3 for $12 Revlon polishes, so I decided to treat myself.

Swatch: Revlon Jaded Night

Gloss had a bin of Revlon polishes at 3 for $12, so I indulged - after spotting this colour in the pile!

Swatches: Sportsgirl 'Pout About It' lipsticks

Swatches and reviews!

Dupe battle! Shiro vs Sugarpill

Last but not least, There and Back again compared to Sugarpill's Midori.

Dupe battle! Shiro vs Femme Fatale

I accidentally ordered three green shadows from Shiro. No complaints! But when I was looking at Snake it reminded me of a shadow I'd bought from Femme Fatale Cosmetics.

Snake "bright, lightly shimmery chartreuse"

Poison "vivid chartreuse green with soft yellow tones and a scattering of golden shimmer"

 
In the jar, Poison already looks like it's going to be a more yellow-toned chartreuse. Levels of shimmer are about equal in both eyeshadows.

Swatches done on bare, dry skin.

I'm not sure if it's just my skin, but Poison's apparent yellow tones make it a much darker chartreuse than Snake, which becomes almost a pastel yellow. I decided that a base might help the colour differences pull truer, so I turned to Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk.

The addition of a white base proves it - whilst very similar applied, these shades aren't exact dupes. Poison is a bit darker and Snake is almost a pastel chartreuse. Eyeshadow junkies might want both, but you definitely don't need both in your collection - once on the eye, the differences would be negligible.

One more Shiro dupe battle to come!

Dupe battle! Shiro vs. Aromaleigh

You may have read about my love, and search for a dupe of Aromaleigh's Champagne Toast. Lucky for me, Aromaleigh brought back some of their Christmas colours in 2012, so I grabbed myself a full-size of Champagne Toast, and Twinkling Lights, which is a green with red glitter.

Not so long ago Shiro Cosmetics released the Hobbit-themed collection called "There and Back Again", which features and eyeshadow called Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees, also a green with red glitter. I got myself some Shiro goodies in an effort to compare the two shadows, for those people who may have missed out on Twinkling Lights, or those with extensive collections.

Sparkledex and swaps!

SPARKLEDEX
A couple years ago Tempestinatpot had the idea for a sort of review directory to help newbies to the indie cosmetic scene easily find a good company to make their first purchase from. I thought it sounded amazing and volunteered to help with the creation of the wikia.

We turn to indie to support handmade, local, to find something that suits our lifestye (vegan) or sensitive skin. The Sparkledex was intended to be a place where you can find important information at a glance, and if somebody wants to find more information, a list of reviews and swatches. Basically, we wanted to help take the legwork out of being an informed consumer in the sometimes murky world of indie cosmetics.

It's been ages since I touched the Sparkledex and so many new companies have sprung up since it's creation - especially when it comes to nail polish! I want this to be a community effort, so please - go visit the Sparkledex. Even if you only go and link your reviews to company pages, that will be one less thing I have to do. 

SWAPS
My blogsale didn't go so well and I still have a ton of stuff that needs re-homing. I've decided to offer things for swaps instead :) email me at the.jade.carver@gmail.com with what you'd like to swap for! Unless stated, everything is 90-100% full.


Polish (Aussies only):
China Glaze Peachy Keen
China Glaze Sunshine Pop
China Glaze Lubu Heels
NYC Cotton Candy
NYC Sprinkles
Rokk 96 Angel
Rokk 96 Cinderella
Jezy 43
Jezy 24
Jezy 20
Jezy 30
TBN Rich Red
TBN Frosty Red
Orly Golden Halo
Orly Opal Hope
Revlon Preview Pink
Essie Smooth Sailing Mini
Max Effect Mini Diva Coral
Max Effect Mini Red Carpet Glam
BYS French White
BYS Grey Crackle
Layla Magneffect Fuschia Sky

Cosmetics (international):
Full-sizes:
Silk Naturals lip stain Kiki
Morgana Cryptoria lipstick Mistress of Diamonds
Morgana Cryptoria lipstick Gilded Lime
Pretty Serious Gloss BSOD
Pretty Serious Gloss Tux
Pretty Serious Gloss Morning Java
Silk Naturals Wild Child
Silk Naturals Trophy (GWP, silver)
Silk Naturals Roam
Garnier Miracle Skin Perfecter BB Cream in Medium (half full)

Samples (all in jars):
Sugarpill Magicentric
Sugarpill Goldilux
Femme Fatale Crusader (e/s)
Femme Fatale Aspect (blush)
Fyrinnae Bifrost
Sassy Minerals Neverending
Shiro Cosmetics Boy or Girl
Aromaleigh Gridlock
Aromaleigh Sirius
Aromaleigh Snow
Aromaleigh Rhea
Aromaleigh Reverie
Aromaleigh Crescent
Lost in Makeupland Razorlight
Evil Shades Victorian Night

Review: Shiro Cosmetics Holiday gloss

The last of my Shiro haul. I haven't been using a lot of eyeshadow lately, so I decided to try one of the Holiday glosses released over Christmas. I got eyeshadow samples as well.

Review: Garnier BB Cream for Combination/Oily Skin

I purchased the original version of the Garnier BB Cream and liked it, however I found that I had to use setting powder a couple of times today because it oxidised, and also my face got pretty oily under the richness of the cream. When I saw an ad for a combo/oily skin version I was eager to try it.

Swatch: Lanolips lip ointment Rhubarb

My collection is almost complete! I had a heck of a time finding this. Rhubarb and Rose are either very unpopular or extremely popular colours, they're never there when I go looking for them. They only seem to be in certain Pricelines, and when I went to Myer to find them, I found out they haven't been in stock at Myer for about 6 months?!

Review: Barry M lip glosses

MOAR LIP GLOSS

Review and Swatches: Inglot 204

It finally happened, I finally went to Inglot! I didn't have a lot of money to throw around so I decided to limit myself to one flaky polish. Since I already have Nubar 2010, a green-orange-gold-red flaky, I decided to go with something bluish. I don't remember what I paid for this tiny bottle but it was around $14.

Here it is over black:

You can see a bit of the purple duochrome in the bottle here.

The only thing I would say about this flaky is that it doesn't show up over light colours very well. I actually wasn't that impressed with it until I tried it over black (and then I drooled a bit). It's a very decisive duochrome - it either looks blue or it looks purple, none of this intermediary, multi-coloured stuff. It's also PACKED WITH FLAKIES. After using the Australis Speck-tackular, which has a super-thick base and sparse glitter, I found this almost hard to use. The base is thin and the flakies almost want to overwhelm your nail (doesn't really help that I have nubbins right now). I thought it might even be bumpy due to the thin texture, but a coat of Revlon Speed Dry and it felt completely smooth.

I really wish Inlgot named their colours instead of numbering them, it would make searching for swatches SO much easier! I'm definitely interested in trying more Inglot, it will just have to wait until I have income again, and until I can get up to their location (there's only one shop in Perth and it's pretty hard for me to get to).