Review: Lanolips Lip Ointment with Colour

I accrued enough Priceline points to get a $9 voucher. Woo! I decided I’d spend it on something fun rather than something boring like band-aids or an eyelash curler. So when I walked past the Lanolips stand for the zillionth time, I actually stopped and had a closer look.

Lanolips comes in a few different varieties: the original formula ointment, in a big white tube, and then coloured gloss versions. The only ones on the stand were Dark Honey and Apple, though I knew that there were at least two other, pinkier colours around. I selected Dark Honey, since it looked like a nice soft mauve-y shade. With my coupon it came to about $4.

The texture of these takes a bit of getting used to. It really is an ointment, but it does have a more lip-gloss formula, and when it wears off, the effect is like lip balm. It’s like your favourite lip gloss mixed with Pawpaw ointment, which is what I use on my lips at night. Horribly greasy, with no staying power but BOY do my lips feel good come morning! One of the main ingredients in the product is sweet almond oil, which gives it this lovely sweet, vaguely nutty scent. It also has coconut in there, but I can’t smell it (which is great for me because I dislike coconut intensely).

Lanolips aren’t sticky like traditional gloss but it has much more staying power than Vasoline or Pawpaw. It’s extremely glossy. I was disappointed at the colour payoff of Dark Honey, but when I swatched it on my hand, I realised it’s just because it was so close to my natural lip colour. Wear time is pretty good – I can get almost 5 hours wear if I don’t drink too much. You’ll feel a soft, not unpleasant residue on your lips after you’ve eaten, but if you want more gloss and colour you’ll need to reapply. I did actually wear Dark Honey to bed and woke up 7 hours later with a moisturising residue just like a balm, and my lips were as soft as they usually are after wearing Paw paw ointment overnight.

My tube had a little “$5 off your next Lanolips purchase” sticker on it, which ended in a few days. I wasn’t initially going to get another tube, but I happened to be working the last day of the promotion, and I have to walk past a Priceline to get to work, so… I accidentally bought Apple as well :P it’s a red gloss, and I really wasn’t expecting much from it, pigment-wise.

So I was pleasantly surprised! You do have to be a bit more careful applying Apple. If you end up with an uneven application of gloss, you’ll have patches of thicker colour on your lips. Dark Honey I can sort of just slather on because it blends with my lips so well. For the swatch I applied a very light coat, so it's showing a bit more pink in this photo than it is in person; when I wear it you can really see it's a RED gloss. I am glad to report that although Apple doesn't stain, it wears off evenly.

Ahh, application, where these beauties falter a little bit! The tubes are taller than a few I’ve seen, but fit in your pocket. If you’re used to the big MAC glosses with wands, these are a bit smaller. The plastic is pliable yet sturdy, the little sheep logo is SO CUTE and the gold caps are a lovely touch. However, when you unscrew the tap, you’re NOT getting a slanted plastic applicator like I had expected.

Yeah. The ointment-style aperture means that you’re pretty much going to have to use your fingers, at least to neaten your application, if not to apply. I’m not one to carry around a lip brush all the time, and isn’t the point of gloss to be low-fuss? Not something you have to fuss with a lip brush and mirror to apply? As much as I love the product itself, the application is a real drawback for me, especially when I reach for Apple.

The gloss can be a little hard to work with when it’s cold, as well. I keep the tube in my pocket so my body heat keeps it a bit more fluid. I expect it won’t be a problem in summer, and it’s never gotten TOO runny for me to comfortably apply.

The product these are most like in terms of texture, performance and colour payoff would be Sleek Pout Polishes, but I absolutely prefer these, for three main reasons:

1. The tubes are less messy than the Polish pots.
2. I hated the smell/taste of the Polishes, whereas these are much, much lighter and more pleasant.
3. The moisturising affect of the Lanolips is much more long-lasting and effective.

Obviously they aren’t vegan since the main ingredient is lanolin, which is derived from sheep. Lanolin is obtained by shearing sheep, which is done in summer and doesn't harm the sheep, so they ARE a cruelty-free product. There’s a bit of beeswax in there as well, and then lots of lip goodness like shea butter, sweet almond and coconut oils. They have an SPF rating of 15, which is the same as the Pout Polishes.

For Aussie girls, these are available in a bunch of pharmacies, including Priceline. International beauties, never fear! You CAN get Lanolips outside of Australia! Find out more about the product, the company and where to get it at their website. I’m sure I’ll end up picking up a few more colours, and I’m curious to see if the original formula will be able to help my cuticles. As I’m writing this, one of them is scabbed over from a mysterious injury :(

Swatches: Fyrinnae at work

Fyrinnae are best known for their beautiful, unusual colours, especially the colour-changing Arcane Magic range. Oh, and Pixie Epoxy. BUT, they make some gorgeous neutrals too!

Njiro

"Ivory with rainbow sparkles."

 Over P.E.

 On bare skin

Beholder

"Sparkling, somewhat silvery deep taupe." 

 Over P.E (the bumpy bit in the middle is a hair)

On bare skin 

This shade is an amazing crease colour, and because I'm somewhat darker-skinned, I find I can get away with this as a lid shade, too.

Damn Paladins

"Soft, satiny taupe with a gentle light blue highlight" 

 Over P.E

 On bare skin

Obviously I used a lot of P.E in my first swatch! With the correct amount of P.E/over primer, the taupe base is more visible, and the blue highlight is more of a subtle duochrome. I love this shade so much.

Koala

"A medium rosy taupe, this shade has a satin finish, but gives off a little more shine when applied wet. " 

 Over P.E

 On bare skin

This looks ashy and matte in the jar but has this amazing silvery-white sheen to it when applied.

These four shadows definitely help spice up my work make-up routune. I also have three Arcane Magic neutrals, but obviously these are a lot harder to photograph. Expect those after I've finished my Lost in Makeupland series (palette write-up next!)

Review: Lost in Makeupland Finishing Powder for Oily Skin

Review of pressed shadows here and loose ones here.

*disclaimer: I did receive this as a free product, but it has not influenced my review in any way. If I didn't like it, I'd say so!*

Pixie Epoxy was the first foiling medium I ever used, so I'd never experienced finding a HG beauty item that blew the previous ones out of the water... until now.

I have skin that I classify as "SWAMPTHING" oily. Even if I'm going barefaced for the day I need some sort of powder to keep my face from becoming shinier than a disco ball. I gave up on liquid foundation for the longest time, because I couldn't find a good match or anything that wouldn't slide off my face! I started using powdered foundation, which helped, and tried a few different oil control powders. These various combinations would usually look ok for 3-4 hours, but then I'd find my make-up had become blotchy and my face was grossly shiny.

After testing the LiM powder for a few days, over:

• Primer and foundation
• Just foundation
• Bare, moisurised skin
• And oh, the horror - unwashed skin!

I can safely conclude that this is my HG finishing powder. It is white in the jar but applies truly translucent for me; it doesn't make my olive-tan skin look ashy, whether its applied over foundation or not. Darker skintones may find a bit of ashiness, I'm not sure. I seriously do not have to apply a second round of powder for the whole day, even with sweating, rain and SWAMPTHING skin!

This powder isn't an official part of the LiM line yet, but I can't imagine any reason why it wouldn't be available soon. I ran out of blotting sheets last week, and I don't forsee myself buying any more, ever. Also my mum's requested a jar of this - her exact words were, "What do you have on your face now? Does it come in my colour, can I have some?" If you don't have oily skin, Belen does have other finishing powders for Dry and Normal/Combination skin which I would absolutely encourage you to sample. Samples are $2 US and the full-size powders $8 for 10g, which I think is extremely reasonable! Unfortunately they're not vegan, so keep that in mind.

Blush and palette posts will be delayed for a week or so, I have to fly to Sydney for work training and unfortunately I don't have time to do the posts before then :(

Review: Lost in Makeupland (part 1)

If you haven't read Ana's post over at Lipsticks and Lightsabers about this company yet, go do so now. And then read the follow-up which has more swatches.

Done? Ok. We all know Ana's the queen of lemming creation, so of course I started looking at the selection and planning a wishlist. My big thing at that time was the lack of neutrals in my life, and also of pressed shadows. So when Belen started offering pressed palettes, and released the Alice's Chains collection, I finally got off my butt and (mostly) decided what to get.

I got myself a palette with two 15mm pans and two 26mm pans (since discontinued, now only the 26mm pans are available). I wanted to grab some more fun colours in sample form as well, so I picked 5 samples and asked Belen to pick some more for me. Since I spent over $15AU I got a free gift - actually, Belen was ridiculously generous! She split my order in half so the postage was less, and threw in lots of goodies for me.

My actual order:

My freebies:

Also my order was a bit late getting out, as Belen had trouble getting to the post office, so she gave me a coupon for a whole 20% off my next order. It was only a few days past the TAT!

I'm going to swatch all the pressed eyeshadows and highlights for this post. Part 2 will be all the loose eyeshadow swatches. In part 3, I'll talk about blushes and the palette, and by then I'll have had time to test the Finishing Powder for oily skin that I was gifted, and I'll do a Part 4! I've heard great things about it though :) and in Part 4, fingers crossed I'll have been able to do some EoTD photos.

Since I purchased, Belen has come out with new product  photography which is really beautiful and much more accurate than her older stuff. Anyway, onto the eyeshadow swatches! Left-hand swatch is over Pixie Epoxy, and the right is dry, over primer.

Bruised (pressed)

"It's not purple, it's not burgundy, not brown, full of golden and purple sparkle"
Beautiful plummy brown colour. I have the pressed version so the sparkle doesn't come through much - which is GOOD because it means I can use it as a crease colour for work, which is the entire reason I got the 15mm pressed version of this. The right-hand swatch is blended out a little and you can see it doesn't get dusty and still retains its pretty plummy tones.

Glow (pressed, highlighter)

 "sheer golden"
This one is like Fyrinnae's Nijiro without the pastel rainbow sparkle, and not as shiny. It gives my skin this lovely luminescent glow - obviously hard to capture on camera! It's definitely a highlight shade and not a full-on eye 'shadow'. It would probably show up a bit more on paler and darker skintones, it really melds with my olive-toned skin.

Them Bones (pressed)

"light yellowy peach/salmon with a subtle golden shine"
The original swatches of this featured a soft beige-white matte that I thought would make a great work-safe lid shade. Unfortunately now that the official description and new product photos are up, I know that's not the case! This is a nice, unassuming peachy yellow. Not what I was after but pretty nonetheless. Don't be fooled by the swatch on the right either, my skin tends to do weird things to most yellows and oranges and make them sort of blend in, when really they're beautifully pigmented. Seriously, I can make bright orange lipstick look as neutral as pink!

Would (pressed)

"tangerine with a bit of a yellowy/golden shift"
Another 'pretty but not really me' shade. Would look more vibrant on a different skintone. I need richer, deeper oranges so they actually stand out on my weird skin - you can see how pigmented this is, there's almost no difference between the PE and the primer swatches.

Faerie (highlighter)

"sheer pinkish shade"
I thought this would look ridiculous on me since it's for cool/pink-toned skin, but... it's really soft and pretty! Right-hand swatch is over a Nyx pencil which makes it look much more opaque. I've actually swept it all around the primer and PE as well, and you can see it gives bare skin a soft glow. Since I have a giant jar of this I can absolutely see myself using it to give matte blushes a bit of glisten. It's not sparkly, or really even shimmery, it just... glows! I can see why Ana loved these highlighters so much, the formula is absolutely amazing. It definitely has a pinkish cast though, so if you're going for something a bit more versatile, Glow might be more your thing.

Phew! Those were all the pressed and highlight shadows. Keep in mind that the formula for the pressed shadows is a little different from the loose; for this reason, Belen won't press any of the Rock My Look shadows, because they don't take to pressing well. I think it's great when a seller recognises that there's an issue with a product and does something productive about it. Not to mention I attempted swatching one of the Rock My Look shadows tonight... freaking gorgeous colour, so hard to photograph, and it does become dark and dusky if it's blended out too much or applied over bare skin. Over a sticky base... well, you'll just have to wait and see ;)

Part 2 will be up hopefully tomorrow-ish, 11 loose shadow swatches!

Tubes of WIN

I finally got off my butt and ordered from Shiro Cosmetics! I was mostly interested in the Intertubes, since I already have zillions of eyeshadows (not really). I ordered 4 eyeshadow samples, some stickers for depotting them, and all the Intertube samples.

I won't bother talking about the shadows since there are swatches and reviews everywhere about them, and they totally live up to the hype! Also the samples are ridiculously generous, they very nearly overflowed the 3g jars I keep arouund for samples. Since the Intertubes are going to look quite different on different skintones and sized/shaped lips however, I thought it'd be a bit useful to swatch those. Since I did get ALL of them :)

I don't have a great lip brush at the moment, so these are all done with my finger.

Three Wolf Moon

Gorgeous muted red with cinnamon scent/flavor. This did sting my lips a bit but died down after a minute. I'm getting a full-size of this for sure. I love it!

Longcat

 Barely visible on my lips (applied over a lip stain here) but it's really zingy and minty. Gives a hint of silvery sparkle without becoming frosty. I don't usually like minty anything, but... I think I'll be getting this in a full-size! Gives a lovely intense cooling sensation.

Over 9000

 Really pretty soft bubblegum pink. Bright but still really flattering. I don't own a lot of pink-y lip colours, and this can be built up or sheered down, so... I think I'll have to get a full-size of this too.

Rickrolled

 Love the meme, gorgeous colour... EW. I had to photograph this quickly and take it off. The smell of ginger doesn't agree with me. I might see how Caitlin feels about doing unscented tubes.

Numa Numa

Sheer, frosty gold with an orangey base. Wish it looked better on me, it's very pretty and smells like creme caramels! They're one of my favourite desserts. The frostiness just settled into my liplines and accentuated all my dry bits :(

Leeroy Jenkins

 Smells like... toothpaste?! I wanted to love this colour but it's pinker on me than I'd hoped. Also it's quite streaky. Maybe a full-sized version would be a bit more even, but overall, I think I'll pass on this one.

Yo Dawg

Smells a bit like Ribena. Muted, purplish-fuschia colour. A bit meh for me since I don't really like pinky-berry-fuschia type colours.

Chocolate Rain

 This smells like Chicos... heh. Probably one that could have benefitted from lip brush application. It was quite patchy. Brown is probably the ONLY colour I don't like on my lips, so for that reason I won't be purchasing this in full-size. That and I'm not a huge fan of Chicos either. I mean, if they're there, I'll eat some, but I'd rather have real chocolate/real jelly babies.

Sad Keanu

 Deep violet. Another one that just wouldn't even out on me! I think applying this from the tube, to exfoliated lips, would have produced a much nicer result. I already have lots of purple lip products though, so I'll probably give this a miss anyway.

Robe and Wizard Hat

 I thought I'd have the same application problems with this as with the other more pigmented shades, but as you can see, I actually managed to get it quite smooth and opaque. Love this one, but if I wanted dark blue lips I've got my beloved Blueberry lipstick from Morgana :) if you missed out on that, however, this is a seriously gorgeous alternative. It's also a much lighter texture, given that Blueberry is a lipstick and this is an Intertube.

Phew!

Do you have any Intertubes? Are you planning on getting some? I reccommend samples, they're $1.80US each and good for several applications.

An open letter to all indie sellers who aren't GlitterSniffer Cosmetics

I was visiting the Glittersniffer Complaints Facebook page today when an exchange unfolded that had me almost literally headdesking. I'm posting it in sections, because my laptop monitor is teeny weeny and the relevant comments were a bit lower down.

It went on, and is probably still going, but I honestly didn't want to read any more. It has become infinitely clear to me that a lot of people don't actually care what goes into the things that they buy, use or even eat. Apparently, customer service is also a negligible part of buying, too!

I don't know about you, but I like to know a bit about companies that I buy from, especially online. I want to make sure that not only am I getting quality product, but that I am supporting good business practices. I dislike the idea of A) throwing my money away, or B) enabling somebody to continue ripping people off, lying to and harming people. Even if I've never had a bad reaction to a seller's products, or had bad CS, or a 'missing' parcel... I want to know about it. I want to ensure I'm encouraging good business practising with my spending habits - the only really effective way to do so, in some cases. Ignoring other people's bad experiences is short-sighted, and in my opinion, incredibly selfish.

In light of this, I wanted to write an open letter of gratitude to all of the honest, genuine, hard-working indie companies out there - more than I could name in this post, as I haven't tried them all yet.

Dear companies:

Thankyou for observing FDA regulations, for always being upfront about your ingredients and giving options to those people who are allergic to common ingredients like talc and bismuth, or those who don't want to use beeswax and carmine.

Thankyou for knowing WHAT is in your products and WHY. Thankyou for all your research and experiments and hard work in making the best and most unique products you can.

Thankyou for wearing gloves, sterilising your instruments and packaging your products carefully.

Thankyou for shipping things on time, and for updating ALL your customers when you can't because of extenuating circumstances.

Thankyou for listening to your customers - combining orders, making new products, altering old ones, making custom listings, giving advice, changing the way you do samples.

Thankyou for taking criticism gracefully and using it to help improve your company, rather than taking it personally and reacting badly.

Thankyou for combining your creativity, vision and skill with sound business sense, ethical practises and a solid understanding of what makes good customer service.

Thankyou for replying to emails, convos, tweets and making us feel like we are important to you.

Thankyou, above all, for being trustworthy.

*    *    *

I'm also going to plug the Sparkledex again. Blogging  has become a vital part of the online community - no matter whether you're buying make-up, bath stuff, embroidered pencil cases or silicone phone cases. You're almost always stepping into the unknown, buying a product you've never seen in person from a complete stranger over the internet. Blogging helps take away that uncertainty, and give you a better idea of what you're getting yourself into. Unfortunately, most bloggers don't have unlimited income or time with which to blaze the trail constantly.

The Sparkledex will allow us to pool our resources when it comes to the indie MMU and B&B sphere. We can collect material, pointing the way to places where potential customers can get the information they need, to make a decision they are happy with. If you've recently reviewed a company, go add your review to their page! Or if they don't yet have a page, make one. Many hands make light work, and a full Sparkledex is a happy and useful Sparkledex (many thanks to VijiiS who edits like a boss and has made all the current Company pages look amazing).

Also I want to shout out to Frances, who runs the GlitterSniffer Complaints blog and Facebook. She is a patient, determined soul who really stood up for all of the GlitterSniffer casualties. It look like (I have my fingers very tightly crossed) that there's some real progress going on there, and that there might at least be some resolution for those who got caught in the mess, if not restitution for everyone who was affected. Please know that for every person still blindly following Lela and supporting GlitterSniffer, there are dozens more who support and sympathise with you.

Welcome to the Sparkledex!

In light of all the recent indie make-up dramas, scandals, and the ever-increasing pressure on bloggers to be able to identify repackagers and shady business practises, the lovely Tempest in a Teapot came up with the great idea to start an indie make-up wiki. She was kind enough to let me join her in starting this mammoth task, but now it's time for more people to get on board!

We've got a basic structure settled. The idea of the wiki is to de-mystify a lot of issues to do with ingredients and legislation. We would like to have a full ingredients breakdown to clear up the use of carmine, bismuth, vegan and non-vegan components and which bases and fillers do what. 


We do not want to stir up drama. We'd prefer to use positive re-inforcement and the power of information; instead of blacklisting companies (and let's face it, most of us know which websites not to set, er, mouse on anyway) we will be providing lots of links to useful information and reviews, so that you as a customer have full knowledge of what you're getting into. This means that we will be providing, we hope, a balanced mix of reviews, from a variety of bloggers.

We need more contributors! If you don't know what to add or don't have time to write stuff for the Wiki, that is no problemo. Links to reviews on blogs, like yours, and forums are totally welcome! We want to make it easy for indie make-up newbies to find you, and thus feel safer in placing their first order.

At the moment we only have a few company pages up, so if you've just reviewed or read a really helpful review of a company, feel free to create the page and whack it on there. I'm procrastinating by writing this post and after it's done I have to go do some reading for uni.

So, this weather, huh?

INCOMING!

This is mostly for my make-up oriented readers: just letting you know I've been staring at my stash lately and going "Ehh, I hardly use most of this."

So early April I will be having a blog sale. It will pretty much be eyeshadows and nail polish only. ALL of it has been used, or at least swatched. I will try and be really accurate with the descriptions and take good photos so you know what you're getting into.

Eyeshadow brands will include:
Aromaleigh (some full sizes)
Evil Shades (some glitters)
Sobe Botanicals (some OOAKs)
Concrete Minerals
Sassy Minerals
Morgana Cryptoria (these will mostly be large samples in unstickered jars, I'm going to share out some of my fullsizes)
Sassy Minerals
Meow Cosmetics

Nail polish brands will include:
BYS
Mode (lots of it, heh)
China Glaze
Orly (minis)
Rokk 96
The Face Shop
Bloom

I'm going to spend the rest of the month A) deciding what to get rid of, B) photographing stuff and C) trying to figure out some ballpark postage costs. All stuff WILL be available internationally, but I'll have to be careful with the nail polishes as international regs are a bit tricky, and they may be pretty pricey to ship because I'm totally paranoid about bottles breaking in transit.

Please comment to register your interest! If there's no interest, well... not much point in having it :P

Review and Swatches: Persephone Minerals

I ordered from Persephone Minerals after seeing Annamax's review and swatches. I had previously been a bit hesitant to order from Persephone as the product photos are... well, quite bad, to be blunt! I was really excited about two things: duochrome shadows and a SAILOR MOON collection! I used to love Sailor Moon when I was little. I'm seriously considering buying a DVD box set so I can indulge in some nostalgia :P

Victoria put together a custom order for me. I wanted to get all of the Sailor Senshi Crystal Power eyeshadows and a few other things too. I ordered sample jars as I find it hard to work with baggies. Victoria's response was prompt, the listing was up right away, my order was posted quickly and I got my package within about 14 days - super fast for international shipping!

HOW CUTE ARE THESE JARS?!

They're slightly smaller in circumference than your usual 5g eyeshadow jars (that's a Fyrinnae mini on the left and a Persephone sample on the right) so they just made me AWWW when I opened the package. They're very clearly labelled on the bottom. Stickers are NOT waterproof and may get smeary if you're not careful with them.

Victoria very generously included a free sample jar of a new colour, Rampid. It's a bright fuschia, I didn't swatch it here because I gave it to a friend. I hardly ever wear pink, I actually doubled  my pink shadow collection just with this order!

The shadows are smooth, a little translucent (though they can be patted/layered on for complete opacity) and the Crystal Powers are amazingly duochrome. I didn't have a lot of pinks or golds in my collection before now. I would reccommend using Pixie Epoxy or a similar sticky base with these to get lasting power and the full effect of the colour shift. If you want the gold to stay a little more subtle, these work just fine without PE. I've done my swatches over Concrete Minerals primer.

Mercury Crystal Power: "amazing duochrome shift from gold to bright blue. It is chock full of sparkles of gold and pink."

This is ridiculously duochrome - the gold does tend to show a bit more than the blue, though. The pink sparkles are very subtle, which I like because I'm not a big fan of pink, and I think this colour is lovely just as a duochrome..

Jupiter Crystal Power: "a duochrome shift from bright green to gold complete with sparkles of gold and pink."

 
Goldy-lime green and gold duochrome. The pink sparkles do show up in this one, but it's a nice touch. I'd definitely reccommend PE for this, so the pink glitter stays the whole day.

Jupiter Oak Evolution: bold green overtaken by green and gold sparkle.

Not so sure I'd call this a 'bold' green. It's more of a deep foresty green, and has a slightly lighter sheen. I really love this one - I admit I was a lot more excited for the duochromes, but this is seriously beautiful - you could easily use it as a liner with PE. The glitter is very present in this one.

Mars Crystal Power: "this is one hell of a duochrome shift from bright red to gold, chock full of pink and gold sparkle! It looks like a pinkish color in the jar, but do not let that fool you!"
The disclaimer here is GOOD, because here's the jar:

The swatch:

I don't know if it was a disagreement with the primer, or if I rubbed it with the brush too much, but I ended up with a red streak that had a gold halo, rather than a proper duochrome like the other Crystal Power shades. I guess I'll need to experiment with this a bit more. I don't wear a lot of red shadow anyway, it's one of the colours I'm not really confident with unless it's on my lips/fingernails.

Mars Flame Sniper: "nice deep red, overloaded with red, orange, and gold microfine glitters." 

This is such a nice deep, almost maroon red and seems to have a slight pinkish sheen in some lights. I can actually see myself wearing this! The glitter is fabulous. Again, you'd probably want to use PE to get it to stay on your lids. I love this so much, I had to make myself put it away and keep swatching! I wanted to put it on and play with it.

Moon Prism Power: "A striking duochrome of blue and pink with the palest possible touch of blue so that the pink dominates. Topped off with lavish gold shimmer!"

Well, this is embarassing... the shadow is white in the jar, and then as soon as it is applied becomes a sparkly, iridescent fuschia sheen with a hint of gold glitter. I don't get any blue out of it. Could I get it to show up on camera? NO. I tried every light setting I could think of, tried flash, tried artificial lighting, tried natural lighting... no matter WHAT I did, the pics showed the shadow as a soft, shimmery white. I did a swatch over PE. I broke out my Nyx Jumbo pencils and swatched over Milk and Black Bean (it goes almost purple over Black Bean). More settings, lighting... and nada. Every picture it shows up plain white. I stuck my SD card in my computer and stared in disbelief at the sea of white swatches. Then suddenly...

It's a bit brighter and glowier in person, but it's NOT WHITE!

This is not the Pixie Epoxy shot. Or Nyx pencil, or flash or tungsten. It's the first shot I took, dry, in natural light with the macro setting. I just couldn't see it was pinkish til I looked at it on the computer. /facepalm.


Moon Crystal Power: "A shift from pink to gold, leaning more on the pink side when foiled."

Pretty, soft, girly. I will probably do a super-soft wash of this as a work look.

Venus Crystal Power: "this is a slight shift from orange to gold, chock full of pink and gold sparkle!"

This isn't really a duochrome to me, more like a slightly orangey gold. The pink glitter shows up really nicely in this swatch, but from a distance it's barely visible.

After all the crap that's been happening in the MMU world recently, it's refreshing to find a new company that makes quality products, has good customer service and takes criticism well. There are lots of positive reviews of Persephone Minerals just a Google search away, if you're wanting more opinions and swatches. Her prices are very fair as well, she does full-sized sets, sample sets both in bags and in jars.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put the pretties away and do some studying. SIGH.

High Voltage Cosmetics: mystery colours on sale!

Just letting you all know the High Voltage Mystery Colours are on sale again for this weekend!

For $1.25 you can get a fairly generous sample of colours that are not available on the rest of the site. During the last mystery sale I picked up 21, 28 and 34. I decided to do some reeeeeally quick swatches, since there don't seem to be a lot floating around online yet. Swatched over Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk. It was the closest :P

21: leaf green with gold-green duochrome

Really pretty. The gold isn't overpowering in this, just makes it lighter and shimmery.

28: muted gold with a strong gold flash

Not anywhere near as metallic and intense as my beloved Ra from Meow Cosmetics, but still a beautiful soft, non-sparkly gold.

34: brass

This is more of a metallic brown - an antiqued, dirty brass. I can see this being an awesome crease colour. It's quite lovely and I don't have anything quite like it. It was quite hard to photograph, hence the larger swatch!

I'm working on a bunch of reviews for comics and books at the moment, but as I'm now a third year uni student (gulp) my workload has increased quite a bit... bear with me! Thankyou all for your comments and support. I have met some really awesome people thanks to this blog :)