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.

Orly haul post

These were in a clearance bin at my local Priceline. I didn't recognise any of the shades and thought they were stunning, so I over-indulged a bit. They look pretty sheer so I'll probably do layered swatches with them.

Most of them have a lovely duochrome which is hard to capture in bottle shots, and which I reeeeeally hope shows up on the nail!

Lotions and Potions and Serums, oh my!

I've never had "great" skin - sure, I haven't had acne or battled a constant surge of giant pimples. However I do have enlarged pores, the occasional horror pimple, and my oily skin is black-head-ridden. Add to that the fact I'm officially 'an adult' and the cosmetic industry tells me I should start looking at preventative ageing skincare. EEP!

Not wanting to spend hundreds on expensive stuff like Clinique, Lancome, SK-II and also not being really sure what exactly my skin needs, I turned to Silk Naturals.

I already use a daily moisuriser with a sunscreen (Olay Complete UV Protection Moisture Lotion in Sensitive), cleanse with either OHWTO's Black Magic or Dream Tree Soapworks Magic Mirror Facial Cleansing Bar. I exfoliate a few times a week with St. Ives' Apricot Invigorating Scrub and at night I use Roses Are Red Face and Eye Cream from Sobe Botanicals.

I decided to focus mostly on getting rid of my blackheads and combatting the sun damage under my eyes. These are the products I got from Silk Naturals:

Microdermabrasion Cream
Apricot Cleansing Oil
Facelift Serum (sample)
Hemp Moisturiser

Then of course, not skin-care related I purchased a Kisser Slicker Lipstick in Nectar (which is a dupe of Joeybunny's much-beloved Black Honey) and got not one, but TWO full-sized GWP eyeshadows and a blush sample (which I transferred into a jar).

I already know I'm going to be purchasing a full-size of the Vitamin C Peptide Serum rather than the Facelift that I sampled. I also wouldn't mind trying some of the other moisturisers. I will review the make-up when I'm back from Sydney, but I've never really reviewed skincare, and it's something you have to try consistently to see if it lives up to its claims. I've never used anything microderma...braising? or a serum before.

One thing I am impressed with is how affordable Silk Naturals products are - and the generous GWP system! They don't sell samples of their make-up which is, for me, one of the things I like most about indie make-up. They do sample skincare though, and honestly, their makeup is so well-priced and there are so many places you can find swatches online, I'm not really fussed about that so much any more.

Any skin-care reviewing tips you'd like to share? Have you tried anything from Silk Naturals?

Op shop mini-haul

I am a total op shop junkie. That's 'thrift store' for my American readers. So when my mum offered to take my Auntie and I on an op-shop spree, I couldn't say no.

I SCORED.

Adorably, ridiculously tacky shoes:

I don't understand why somebody would throw these out! Usually anything with rhinestones or diamantes is missing a few... not these babies. The soles are marked so you can tell they've been worn a bit, but from the top and front they are perfect. I never wear tan/beige but I couldn't say no to these, especially since they fit my teeny feet!

A dress to go with said shoes:

Funky pinstripe vest:

I'm slowly building up a vest collection, so far I have a denim one, a black leather one, a brown-y steampunk-ish one and now this cute pinstriped thing.

Awesome fancy lacy gothy dress:

LOVELOVELOVE. I probably won't be able to wear this for a while, since I don't go out much and it's rather cold at the moment.

Ridiculously cute denim crop jacket with oversized buttons:

Not pictured: long-sleeved shirts in purple, red and orange for layering.

There are a whole bunch of op-shops near our new house which I plan on checking out in a few weeks. If you'd like to see more op-shop hauls in the future, let me know! :) we have a cream fitted sheet on the bed that is PERFECT for photographing larger items like clothes, and we also have a little white side table which is the best backdrop for smaller things like makeup. It was totally unintentional, getting both of those things, but they're both very handy.

Born Pretty haul

I pretty much covered all the details in my NoTD post, but here's pics of what I got from Born Pretty.

Set of dotting tools

Double-ended stamper, and scraper

Five (!) stamping plates. Lots of simple, cutesy designs like flowers,

butterflies, bows, hearts etc. and a few of the full-nail designs like

fishnets and swirls, which I will need to learn how to apply properly.

Stamping polishes (god I hope these work well) and nail glue.

Fimo wheel (SO CUTE ZOMG I WANT MOAR)

I'm definitely going to be getting more plates and Fimo. I've gotten the hang of Konad-ing now (mostly) and Fimo is dead easy, if you don't mind having weird protrusions on your nails for a while. Born Pretty have free shipping internationally and there's usually a 10-15% off coupon floating around cyberspace somewhere. If you're interested in nail art at all, they're a great resource.