For anyone following me, or anyone who has happened to stumble upon this blog, I have permanently moved to this new address! Please stop by, and let me know what you think.
Thanks!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
More Fyrninnae swatches
shipping was fast, and the package was nicely packed, as always, and included a free sample (immortality).
All swatches were patted over my usual primer with a synthetic brush. Wet was done with Pixie Epoxy, not water.
All swatches were patted over my usual primer with a synthetic brush. Wet was done with Pixie Epoxy, not water.
I totally failed at capturing immortality and dinosaur plushie, even though I took a million pictures. They're both super sparkly, with multi-coloured sparkles. Also, the wet swatch of bite me is slightly black because I accidentally used the wrong brush, not because it's gets darker when it's wet.
Same thing with nijiro, it's packed full of rainbow sparkles, but my camera refused to pick them up. Calvera cupcakes has a really subtle red and gold sparkle to it. Chrome reminds me a lot of the City Glam Lights of Quebec, which is great news since I didn't get a chance to buy a full sized one before they were discontinued. Here's a close up of chrome:
I also bought a full sized jar of pumpkinfire, but didn't swatch it, since I already have.
This is pumpkinfire over a black base, with bite me in the crease and more pumpkinfire over pixie epoxy to bring out the sparkles.
This is pumpkinfire over a black base, with bite me in the crease and more pumpkinfire over pixie epoxy to bring out the sparkles.
Monday, August 22, 2011
More TKB!
I'll have more to say when I've played around with the liquid lip colours I got for mixing with the versagel base I talked about last time, but for now this is just the eyeshadow pigments.
This time, I bought a whole bunch of containers from them, and the ones I chose all stack together, so I can keep my eyeshadows in neat little stacks of different coordinating colours. This made things way easier for me, and keeps my make-up bag a little more organized, too. The only thing I forgot about was some way of labeling all the jars, and since I didn't feel like going out in the rain in search of little white labels, I made do with packing tape. What I ended up with looked like this:
All swatches are on the back of my hand, over my usual primer. Wet was just done with water. Left side dry, right side wet.
1. Chamoisee
I think anyone who is ordering from them should get a free sample of Chamoisee, it's totally worth it. They're giving away free samples, since it was an off-spec batch of Antique Silver, but it's really quite lovely. Antique Silver is much darker than I was expecting, sort of a pewter tone. It's not quite right for my skin tone, but I think for anyone with cooler colouring it would be lovely. I can imagine it would look good blended with blue, too. 24 Karat Gold and Sparkle Gold are fabulous foiled, but useless dry. Also, they get EVERYWHERE when you open the bags. I mixed equal parts 24 Karat Gold, Sparkle Gold and Gold Sparks! to get the perfect gold for foiling, but forgot to take pictures.
3.Honey
I think Blackstar Gold was one of my biggest disappointments in the order. It's almost identical to Australian Amber, but doesn't foil as well. Honey and Moon Stone are absolutely gorgeous. The dry swatches didn't show up very well in the pictures, but I got great colour pay-off from both of them.
1.Apricot
Chameleon is so cool! It changes colour with the light, but in a really wearable way. Shifts from magenta to deep marroon to green with flashes of pink. It changes quite a bit depending on what you put it over, too:
Left side- Chameleon Glitter over Pixie Epoxy
Right side- Chameleon Glitter over a base of black gel liner
I plan on getting the non-glitter version of this with my next order.
2.Umber
3.Burning Leaves Reflecks with no C-Smax. Far left swatch is dry, middle is wet (water), far right is over PE
4. Burning Leaves Reflecks with 1:4 ratio of C-Smax:Glitter. Far left swatch is dry, middle is wet (water), far right is over PE
I plan to get more of the Reflecks series. They're similar to the Sparks! (which I'll be swatching in a sec) but the colours are much more obvious, and although the particles are slightly bigger in size, Burning Leaves didn't have any grittiness to it, and they're safe for use on eyes. Umber makes me think of Steam Punk. It's one of my favourite colours in the whole order, and Crucible Red is powdered sex. I can't wait to make it into a nail polish.
1.Burning Leaves Reflecks with no C-Smax. Far left swatch is dry, middle is wet (water), far right is over PE
2. Burning Leaves Reflecks with 1:4 ratio of C-Smax:Glitter. Far left swatch is dry, middle is wet (water), far right is over PE
1.Bolera
These two were the only other disappointments for me in the order. Bolera was described as bright orange when patted on, and hot pink when rubbed down. In reality it was just kind of a dark coral/apricot colour, that didn't change at all. It's very pretty, just not as exciting as I was expecting. True Red/Orange is actually hot pink, and hard to work with wet or dry. I think it might go well in a lip colour, but as an eyeshadow it sucks. I guess that was my mistake, though. I think it's mostly sold for use in soaps and lip colours. I was hoping to be able to make a matte red eyeshadow, but no amount of mixing and blending has been able to make it happen.
I was initially a little disappointed in these; I was hoping they would be similar to Fyrinnae's City Glam line, but when they arrived the whole collection just looked like a bunch of white glitter. I could barely see any difference in colour between any of them. Once I swatched them, the colours showed a little clearer, and I started to see how cool they were. You definitely have to use something like Pixie Epoxy or a Glitter Fix with them, or you'll just get them everywhere, and the colours won't show up. It was hard to photograph them, but the little flashes of colour you get when they catch the light are almost holographic.
Over a black base, the colours show up incredibly well, and they're super bright and sparkly. These were swatched with PE over some black gel liner (I think a Maybelline one, I'm not sure). Left side over PE, right side dry. I only did the blue and the copper this way, since the liner takes forever to scrub off, but if anybody wants swatches of the rest of them, let me know. I really like them, but I think it will take some playing around to figure out how to use them.
This is the look I played around with the other day. Umber, with one of my own mixes in the crease, and Burning Leaves over Pixie Epoxy to finish. The pictures don't really show how incredibly glitter it was.
p.s. Sara Hasson has an awesome give-away going on ever at her blog, you should check it out! Here's the link!
Friday, August 12, 2011
TKB Trading Review and Swatches
If you haven't heard, TKB is a wholesale supplier of make up supplies, and a lot of companies buy their products in bulk, repackage them into cute looking containers, and sell them at a ridiculous mark up.
Their website. They sell over 200 coloured micas, which you can use on their own, or mix with one of their base powders to create a more blendable shade.
Le Gothique, a truly awesome make up blog, gives a great little tutorial on where to start with them, as well as reviews of make up companies in which she compares them to TKB minerals, and states whether or not she thinks they have been repackaged. I highly recommend you check her out.
I ordered a few samples from TKB a few months ago, as well as a few different bases to experiment with, and here is my review.
POP! Sampler:
I think this was a good place for me to start, since I was finding all the choices a little overwhelming, and I didn't have much money to waste on a whole lot of things I wasn't sure I would like. They're all very shimmery, and very very bright. The texture is smooth and fine, with no grit or heavy feeling when it's applied. It's worth knowing the strawberry and raspberry pop colours are both quite pink. There are no reds in this collection. The strawberry pop is a very bright peachy pink, and the raspberry is a bright Barbie pink with a hint of blue when it hits the light. I've used the strawberry very sparingly (with no base) as a blush, and it worked nicely. Sort of a pinker version of NARS Orgasm. I think on the right skin tone the raspberry would work well, but it's a bit too blue toned for me. The other shades are true to their descriptions on the site, and true to their pictures, although the green apple is slightly blue to my eyes, kind of a very bright cool mint. I'm really upset that I lost the blueberry pop, since it was one of my favourites in the collection, and it blended beautifully without a base. It looked awesome over a creamy black base (something like a paint pot, although I always just smudged a whole lot of creamy eyeliner all over my lids). Overall they apply quite nicely, and blend well with or without adding a base to them, and you can't possibly get more pigmentation then pure pigment. I'm really excited to try more colours next time I order.
C-Smax: I would definitely recommend this as an eyeshadow base. It didn't effect the intensity of the colours unless I used a lot of it, but made the shadows much easier to apply and blend.
Versagel I am in love with this stuff. It feels VERY similar to MAC lipglass, or a less sticky version of Elizabeth Arden's Shine Pops. It doesn't feel gooey or sticky, but it stays put for ages, and leaves your lips feeling soft afterwards. You can use it clear, or add your own pigment, and just a tiny bit of colour goes a loooong way. The downside to making your own lipgloss is that unless you feel like buying some empty tubes with doefoot applicators, and a syringe for filling them, you're stuck carrying around a tiny pot and a lipstick brush in your bag. That doesn't particularly bother me, since I usually have a small make-up bag with me for touch ups anyway, but if you're a little more low maintenance, you might want to stick to store bought stuff. It is an amazingly good quality lipgloss for very little money, which you can make in just about any colour, though.
Silica Microspheres Oh my God, this stuff has changed my face. I bought it because someone on Le Gothique said it was almost exactly the same as Make Up Forever's HD Microfinish Powder. The sample they gave me was HUGE, enough to fill a standard sized loose powder pot (I had an old empty one that I cleaned out, I think it was .030oz) as well as a little sample pot that I keep in my touch-ups bag. It's crazy to think I got more in that $1.50 sample bag than I probably would have if I bought a full-sized pot of HD Microfinish powder! I've never tried the MUFE stuff, so I can't compare, but I do really love this product as a finishing powder. It's super lightweight, sets foundation well, keeps me from getting too oily, and best of all gives a really polished, poreless look to my make-up. It's got a slightly light reflecting quality, but not in a glittery way. Just gives the skin a luminous finish. You only need the tiniest little bit, too much and you'll look white and patchy.
I also ordered the matte texture base, although I can't seem to find the link to it at the moment. On the whole I was pretty underwhelmed by it. It seemed like it took a lot to actually make the micas matte, which ended up dulling down the colours quite a bit. I also found it made them hard to wetline. When I started blending my own colours, I found the ones that used a lot of the matte texture base would look beautiful in the pot, but once I put them on my skin they showed up quite white.
Swatches! They were taken in my living room, where the lighting isn't the best, so I apologize. All of them were done over Makeup and Glow Primer, and the wet-lining was just done with water. Left side wet, right side dry.
C-Smax base in a 1:3 ratio, sorry I didn't mix the two pinks with this base, but I will happily mix and swatch them if anyone wants me to. Also, the green apple came out really yellow in this picture, but it's not at all. Much cooler.
Matte Texture Base in a 1:3 ratio
No base, just pure mica.
Black and White micas, no base. The white photographed very silver, but it's not. Just a lovely pearl. I'm tempted to try mixing a little bit with moisturizer to make a nice illuminator. The black is verrry hard to work with, no matter what you mix it with, and it's really hard to apply wet.
You can see there isn't much difference in the colour between the bases, although the matte texture base made the purple a tiny bit lighter. It mostly changes the way they blend. I feel like I get a better colour payoff from the C-Smax than either the matte base or just the micas on their own, and it makes things easier to apply and blend, and a little nicer to apply wet.
Some of the lip glosses I've made:
What happens when you tip half a teaspoon of mica into a cheap bottle of top-coat?
Overall, I'm really pleased I bought from them. I definitely think a little more carefully before I buy cosmetics, and I'll probably never buy eyeshadows again, since I know I can make them myself for much cheaper. It's made me really skeptical of companies like Lime Crime and GlamorDoll, and I find myself constantly reading the ingredients on products I like to see if I can replicate them. There is something to be said for buying a nice, pressed shadow in a cute package though. If you're on a budget, or are motivated enough to test and blend, this is a great way to get some expensive looking eyeshadows.
When I buy from them again, I'll still get sample sizes of all the pigments, but I'll buy a larger amount of the C-Smax to mix them all with. I'm also just going to go ahead and get a massive amount of containers from them. I thought I could get them cheaper from somewhere else, and it seemed silly to pay shipping on a whole lot of empty plastic containers, but they're really inexpensive, and I couldn't find any where I live that were as practical as the few I got from TKB.
If anyone has any other questions, or if you want swatches of anything else, just let me know.
Their website. They sell over 200 coloured micas, which you can use on their own, or mix with one of their base powders to create a more blendable shade.
Le Gothique, a truly awesome make up blog, gives a great little tutorial on where to start with them, as well as reviews of make up companies in which she compares them to TKB minerals, and states whether or not she thinks they have been repackaged. I highly recommend you check her out.
I ordered a few samples from TKB a few months ago, as well as a few different bases to experiment with, and here is my review.
POP! Sampler:
I think this was a good place for me to start, since I was finding all the choices a little overwhelming, and I didn't have much money to waste on a whole lot of things I wasn't sure I would like. They're all very shimmery, and very very bright. The texture is smooth and fine, with no grit or heavy feeling when it's applied. It's worth knowing the strawberry and raspberry pop colours are both quite pink. There are no reds in this collection. The strawberry pop is a very bright peachy pink, and the raspberry is a bright Barbie pink with a hint of blue when it hits the light. I've used the strawberry very sparingly (with no base) as a blush, and it worked nicely. Sort of a pinker version of NARS Orgasm. I think on the right skin tone the raspberry would work well, but it's a bit too blue toned for me. The other shades are true to their descriptions on the site, and true to their pictures, although the green apple is slightly blue to my eyes, kind of a very bright cool mint. I'm really upset that I lost the blueberry pop, since it was one of my favourites in the collection, and it blended beautifully without a base. It looked awesome over a creamy black base (something like a paint pot, although I always just smudged a whole lot of creamy eyeliner all over my lids). Overall they apply quite nicely, and blend well with or without adding a base to them, and you can't possibly get more pigmentation then pure pigment. I'm really excited to try more colours next time I order.
C-Smax: I would definitely recommend this as an eyeshadow base. It didn't effect the intensity of the colours unless I used a lot of it, but made the shadows much easier to apply and blend.
Versagel I am in love with this stuff. It feels VERY similar to MAC lipglass, or a less sticky version of Elizabeth Arden's Shine Pops. It doesn't feel gooey or sticky, but it stays put for ages, and leaves your lips feeling soft afterwards. You can use it clear, or add your own pigment, and just a tiny bit of colour goes a loooong way. The downside to making your own lipgloss is that unless you feel like buying some empty tubes with doefoot applicators, and a syringe for filling them, you're stuck carrying around a tiny pot and a lipstick brush in your bag. That doesn't particularly bother me, since I usually have a small make-up bag with me for touch ups anyway, but if you're a little more low maintenance, you might want to stick to store bought stuff. It is an amazingly good quality lipgloss for very little money, which you can make in just about any colour, though.
Silica Microspheres Oh my God, this stuff has changed my face. I bought it because someone on Le Gothique said it was almost exactly the same as Make Up Forever's HD Microfinish Powder. The sample they gave me was HUGE, enough to fill a standard sized loose powder pot (I had an old empty one that I cleaned out, I think it was .030oz) as well as a little sample pot that I keep in my touch-ups bag. It's crazy to think I got more in that $1.50 sample bag than I probably would have if I bought a full-sized pot of HD Microfinish powder! I've never tried the MUFE stuff, so I can't compare, but I do really love this product as a finishing powder. It's super lightweight, sets foundation well, keeps me from getting too oily, and best of all gives a really polished, poreless look to my make-up. It's got a slightly light reflecting quality, but not in a glittery way. Just gives the skin a luminous finish. You only need the tiniest little bit, too much and you'll look white and patchy.
I also ordered the matte texture base, although I can't seem to find the link to it at the moment. On the whole I was pretty underwhelmed by it. It seemed like it took a lot to actually make the micas matte, which ended up dulling down the colours quite a bit. I also found it made them hard to wetline. When I started blending my own colours, I found the ones that used a lot of the matte texture base would look beautiful in the pot, but once I put them on my skin they showed up quite white.
Swatches! They were taken in my living room, where the lighting isn't the best, so I apologize. All of them were done over Makeup and Glow Primer, and the wet-lining was just done with water. Left side wet, right side dry.
You can see there isn't much difference in the colour between the bases, although the matte texture base made the purple a tiny bit lighter. It mostly changes the way they blend. I feel like I get a better colour payoff from the C-Smax than either the matte base or just the micas on their own, and it makes things easier to apply and blend, and a little nicer to apply wet.
Some of the lip glosses I've made:
What happens when you tip half a teaspoon of mica into a cheap bottle of top-coat?
Overall, I'm really pleased I bought from them. I definitely think a little more carefully before I buy cosmetics, and I'll probably never buy eyeshadows again, since I know I can make them myself for much cheaper. It's made me really skeptical of companies like Lime Crime and GlamorDoll, and I find myself constantly reading the ingredients on products I like to see if I can replicate them. There is something to be said for buying a nice, pressed shadow in a cute package though. If you're on a budget, or are motivated enough to test and blend, this is a great way to get some expensive looking eyeshadows.
When I buy from them again, I'll still get sample sizes of all the pigments, but I'll buy a larger amount of the C-Smax to mix them all with. I'm also just going to go ahead and get a massive amount of containers from them. I thought I could get them cheaper from somewhere else, and it seemed silly to pay shipping on a whole lot of empty plastic containers, but they're really inexpensive, and I couldn't find any where I live that were as practical as the few I got from TKB.
If anyone has any other questions, or if you want swatches of anything else, just let me know.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Pink and Gold Fyrinnae Look
New look! Here's the video. Something went wrong, and the audio gets a little weird towards the end, and makes me sound like an alien.
Products used:
Face- OCC skin primer, Fyrinnae Velvet Gel Silica Primer, The Body Shop liquid foundation #5, Cinema Secrets Foundation Palette #3(I use this one as a concealer), RCMA No Colour Finishing Powder
Eyes- Makeup and Glow Eye and Lip Primer, Fyrinnae Arcane Magic Avian Shapeshifter, Fyrinnae STFU, Fyrinnae French Vanilla Shake, Fyrinnae Polar Bear, Pixie Epoxy
Cheeks- some random drug store bronzer/blush that is so old the label has peeled off... time to get a new one!
Lips- Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Meloncholy, Elizabeth Arden Shine Pops in Champagne
Alright, I'll admit it, I'm kind of making a duckface in the first photo. It shows off the lip colour, though! Sorry, these are the best pictures I could get. Arcane Magic shadows HATE being photographed. The video picks up the colours better.
Products used:
Face- OCC skin primer, Fyrinnae Velvet Gel Silica Primer, The Body Shop liquid foundation #5, Cinema Secrets Foundation Palette #3(I use this one as a concealer), RCMA No Colour Finishing Powder
Eyes- Makeup and Glow Eye and Lip Primer, Fyrinnae Arcane Magic Avian Shapeshifter, Fyrinnae STFU, Fyrinnae French Vanilla Shake, Fyrinnae Polar Bear, Pixie Epoxy
Cheeks- some random drug store bronzer/blush that is so old the label has peeled off... time to get a new one!
Lips- Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Meloncholy, Elizabeth Arden Shine Pops in Champagne
Monday, August 23, 2010
Fyrinnae Review
I placed an order with fyrinnae.com few months ago, and I thought it was about time I did a review.
youtube video review
My camera ran out of space before the video had finished, but I was basically just going to say that I'm looking forward to trying their "Fluff", since it's another silica based product, and that I was really happy with my order. I also forgot to say that Meloncholy is a lot darker and oranger than the picture on the site, but that it looks fabulous with a gold lip gloss over top.
Swatches:
1. Candy Coated
2. Chlorophyll
3. Electro Koi
4. Red Panda (free sample)
5. Pumpkin Fire
6.BBQ Sauce
7.Monarch Butterfly (free sample)
8. STFU
9. Fire Opal
Photos taken outside with no flash. Shadows were patted onto my usual primer using a synthetic brush.
1. Equality
2. Newcastle
3. Finnegan's Wake
4. French Vanilla Shake
5. Tyr
6. Jade Ghost
7. Polar Bear
8. Marshmallow Puff
The photo doesn't even begin to show all the multi-coloured sparkles in Equality. It's seriously beautiful.
1. Dokkelfar
2. Monarch Butterfly (again)
3. Biker Chic
4. Medieval Haunting
5. CG Lights of Quebec
6. CG Lights of Shanghai
These were patted onto a thin layer of pixie epoxy, over my usual primer.
I tried and tried and tried to take pictures of the Arcane Magic shadows, but they just wouldn't turn out. They are really beautiful, and the colour shifting is fun to play with, but they're hard to use. Because they change colour depending on the light source, it's hard to know whether whatever you're using in the crease or as a highlight will look good all the time. However, I did an awesome look with one of the AM shades yesterday, and I was thinkng of doing a tutorial tonight. I used Avian Shapeshifter (AM changes from a rosey taupe to orangey gold) all over the lid, with STFU (russet brown with reddish sparkle) in the crease, french vanilla shake on the brow bone, and a light wash of polar bear all over. It was really soft and warm, with lots of subtle shimmer. I wore Meloncholy on my lips, with some gold gloss over the top, and got compliments all night. I spent about ten minutes staring at myself, moving my lamp closer and further away from my face to see the colour change, though. I must have looked like such a freak!
youtube video review
My camera ran out of space before the video had finished, but I was basically just going to say that I'm looking forward to trying their "Fluff", since it's another silica based product, and that I was really happy with my order. I also forgot to say that Meloncholy is a lot darker and oranger than the picture on the site, but that it looks fabulous with a gold lip gloss over top.
Swatches:
1. Candy Coated
2. Chlorophyll
3. Electro Koi
4. Red Panda (free sample)
5. Pumpkin Fire
6.BBQ Sauce
7.Monarch Butterfly (free sample)
8. STFU
9. Fire Opal
Photos taken outside with no flash. Shadows were patted onto my usual primer using a synthetic brush.
1. Equality
2. Newcastle
3. Finnegan's Wake
4. French Vanilla Shake
5. Tyr
6. Jade Ghost
7. Polar Bear
8. Marshmallow Puff
The photo doesn't even begin to show all the multi-coloured sparkles in Equality. It's seriously beautiful.
1. Dokkelfar
2. Monarch Butterfly (again)
3. Biker Chic
4. Medieval Haunting
5. CG Lights of Quebec
6. CG Lights of Shanghai
These were patted onto a thin layer of pixie epoxy, over my usual primer.
I tried and tried and tried to take pictures of the Arcane Magic shadows, but they just wouldn't turn out. They are really beautiful, and the colour shifting is fun to play with, but they're hard to use. Because they change colour depending on the light source, it's hard to know whether whatever you're using in the crease or as a highlight will look good all the time. However, I did an awesome look with one of the AM shades yesterday, and I was thinkng of doing a tutorial tonight. I used Avian Shapeshifter (AM changes from a rosey taupe to orangey gold) all over the lid, with STFU (russet brown with reddish sparkle) in the crease, french vanilla shake on the brow bone, and a light wash of polar bear all over. It was really soft and warm, with lots of subtle shimmer. I wore Meloncholy on my lips, with some gold gloss over the top, and got compliments all night. I spent about ten minutes staring at myself, moving my lamp closer and further away from my face to see the colour change, though. I must have looked like such a freak!
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