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!

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.

Help me find a dupe!

When Aromaleigh announced they were closing, and then shortly after that announced they were no longer shipping internationally, I was left with a couple of samples I would have liked to buy the full-sized version of.

Serenade I was actually able to mix my own dupe of, and Dulcinea I discovered was not actually as uncommon a colour as I'd thought.

Now the only sample I have left of that I'm loathe to hit 'pan' on is Champagne Toast (see it in action here and here). I haven't been able to find anybody swapping or selling this, and as it was a colour from an older collection, the 'new' Aromaleigh didn't have any left-over stock of it. So I'm hunting down dupes! I ordered three samples from Sassy Minerals (now sadly closed and amalgamated into the Lauress website, which I find ridiculous to navigate [the way they categorise their eyeshadows does my head in] plus the Sassy colours aren't available from them yet) to start off with. HOLY BRACKETS BATMAN. Sorry about that.

The official description for Champagne toast was "A nude pinkish fawn/champagne tone with bright aqua shimmer sparkles dancing in the light."

The three shades I got from Sassy were:
Gaining Ground "Pale rosy beige with flashes of green and pink shimmer "

Salt & Sand "Sandy beige with aqua and gold sparkle "

Pixie Sprinkles "Neutral peachy beige with copper, green and purple sparkles"

You can see from the jar shots that they're all fairly similar, but none of them look like real dupes for each other. Time for the swatch test! All done over PE since that's pretty much the only way I'd wear them.

This is Champagne Toast:

Eye-brightening, peachy-champagne, lovely sheen without being over the top. The aqua sparkles I sadly couldn't get to show up, but rest assured they are there.

Gaining Ground:

Pearly, pale pink. Slight green flash from certain angles.

Very different to Champagne Toast. NEXT!

Salt & Sand:

Peachy pink with a scattering of aqua sparkles. Promising!

But it doesn't quite have that champagne quality. Close though! I can definitely see myself reaching for this if I can't find a proper dupe. Let's go on to the last contender.

Pixie Sprinkles:

Rose gold with superfine pink and green glitters. Quite a bit more pink in real life, it kept wanting to blend into my skintone in these photos. It's the exact colour of rose gold, not nearly as yellow-toned as it is here. I tried lots of different settings and light sources and could not get it to photograph well!

A beautiful, flattering colour, but again, very different to Champagne Toast. This photo is a much better indication of its pinky-ness.

On the list as possible contenders:
Alyk's Twinkle from Persephone Minerals
Deco and Vapor from Silk Naturals
Taupiary, Tickled Pink and Vanilla Skies from Sobe Botanicals
Sexy in Suspenders from Geek Chic
Selene from Morgana Cryptoria

Any suggestions? Or better yet, if you have any of these shades, would you be able to swatch them for me?