Dawn Eyes Cosmetics Review

Since I'm always looking for new indie makeup companies to love, I came across Dawn Eyes Cosmetics.

Here's a little more about the company from the website:

"Dawn Eyes Cosmetics is a very small mineral makeup start-up located in mid-Missouri, USA. The inspiration for Dawn Eyes Cosmetics was the closing of a mineral makeup company from which I used to purchase all of my eye shadows. An investment in raw ingredients from the closing company brought more than I could possibly use in a lifetime, and so I started making eye shadows for friends and family. Once I had started I couldn't get enough of creating gorgeous shades: simple day-to-day shades, pearly and soft shimmering shades, and all-out glittery creations that I love to wear day or night."

I'm not exactly sure how many colors there are in her company, but if I had to guess it would be over a hundred. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but it is definitely worth looking through each section and at each color. Once I saw that there were so many choices of eyeshadow, I quickly made a purchase. Samples are $1 and full sizes are $6 (unless noted). Clearance shades are $2.75 and shipping is free if your order is over $10.

I purchased a Reviewer pack, samples of the Winnie the Pooh collection and a clearanced full size. Once I ordered I never expected my products to be packed up all nice and pretty within a day! That's truly amazing! I believe the shipping was 2 days (excluding the weekend). I received everything in a padded envelop enclosed in a sachet bag. All of my samples were neatly tucked away in little ziplock baggies. No spills what-so-ever. I also received 5 free samples with my order!

I loved absolutely EVERYTHING I received. I know I will be ordering again soon!

I'll have swatches of everything up very soon. The first collection that will be up is the Winnie the Pooh collection! Keep your eyes open for it!

~Emily

Your Eyeshadow Base/Primer Matters!

I was recently thinking about all the bases and primers I had for eyeshadow and this led me to think; how important is your base/primer? I know some people don't use anything and just apply eyeshadow dry while others have a whole routine for their eyeshadow. Well, I brought out all my current bases/primers and realized how great other things were. I recently got a tube of LA Splash Eyeshadow sealer/bases and wanted to test it out and compare. Here's my photos (Click pictures to read what each base is):

Femme Fatale Cosmetics- Spark of Life

Kiss My Sass Cosmetics- Tattoo Shop

My thoughts on each:

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil- Milk- I'm not exactly sure how to feel about this. I like that it is a bit sticky and holds the color and glitter pretty well. I don't like how "heavy" it can be even though I made a thin layer and you have to "dab" on eyeshadow instead of brushing it on since it's so thick/sticky. Also, it's a bit of a pain to remove completely if you're just using soap and water although it does stay put through just water.

Dry- This really isn't the best method (in my opinion). It easily brushes off, doesn't stick, lots of "fallout", will possibly crease and doesn't show off the color to its full potential.

Wet- I've been swatching wet for a while and I did like it although it doesn't look the greatest. It can become a bit clumpy if too wet and will smear. 

Urban Decay Primer Potion- I've always loved UDPP. It will not let eyeshadow crease (I recommend this if you are having a problem with eyeshadow creasing). It holds glitter fairly well also. 

LA Splash Eyeshadow Sealer/Base- This is my newest favorite product. Overall this is the best for all the eyeshadow I've tried. It holds glitter very well, doesn't crease and I had no trouble with "fallout". You will need to let it dry completely before applying eyeshadow or it will drag and turn into a mess. Drying takes ~15 seconds, so it's not too big of a deal. You only need a tiny amount when using this. Also easy to remove.

Overall I find myself loving the LA Splash sealer more than the others. I do like UDPP, it is a very close second. I'll also be doing swatches with LA Splash sealer as a base from now on! :)

I hope this was helpful for anyone with questions about great bases.

~Emily

Facebomb Cosmetics Review and Swatches

***UPDATE- (12/6) My blog post about this situation can be found HERE.

(11/26) My first order has been marked as shipped and should be going out today. I believe others who requested a refund have gotten them quickly. Owners bank denied their refunds last time I saw on the Facebook page. I do like Facebomb and the products, the only issue was little to no communication (from what I dealt with). I will have another post up once I receive my first order of the two.*

*(11/22) Apparently (I was only made aware of this recently) that some people were waiting months and never receiving their orders from this company. I currently have 2 orders that are waiting to ship and my multiple attempts to contact her are seemingly being ignored. They were placed recently, so I'm not too concerned yet, I just basically contacted her asking for any sort of time frame about when they would ship. I will continue to update this as things go along. ***


*This is a pretty long post that is picture heavy*


I have recently been on the hunt for new indie cosmetic brands that I could try and I came across Facebomb Cosmetics while on my search. Facebomb Cosmetics offers eyeshadow, loose glitter and cute makeup bags.

I ordered a bunch of samples since it was hard to choose what I'd like since everything looked so pretty. Samples come in baggies that are $1.00 each while full sizes are $5.75. I hate baggies in general so I put them all in my own 3 gram jars.

Let me just put this out there that you get A LOT of product from the samples. I'd say it's in the range of 1/2 to 3/4 of a 3 gram jar. I'm so used to just getting a few uses from a sample, so this was a pleasant surprise! I also received a full size eyeshadow and a little hand written note apologizing for going over TAT (current TAT as I was told on the Facebook page was 5-7 days). That's such wonderful service! To be completely honest I didn't even think TAT had even gone over when excluding the weekend.

The eyeshadow feels very silky and is extremely easy to apply. I love the range of colors in the store and I love the names! I would suggest wearing the glittery shades over glitter glue or primer, just like any other sparkly/glittery shadows.

I do have two little issues though, more-so me being nit-picky. With the online shop I'd love to see swatches of the eyeshadow along with the product to get a better idea of the color out of the jar. Maybe that's just me. The product photos are nice looking, I'd just like to see the color on skin. :) I tried looking all over the internet to find swatches of the current colors in the shop and only found a few, but that is not Facebomb's fault. The other thing is that it seems you have to follow the Facebomb Cosmetics page to get updates and see swatch photos. This isn't so much of an issue since I follow the page, but I guess it could be a pain for some other people. 

Now on to the swatches!

Cuppycake- "A bold, grape-purple that has a green duochrome!"

Io-"A fresh minty green with a violet shift."

Night-O-Sphere- "A graphite color with aqua and violet sparks!"

 *When swatched wet, this turns into a grey/olive color.*

I Am Your Father- "is from the Empire Sparkles Back collection and is a flat black with gold, blue, and silver glitter."

Diamond Eyes- "a dreamy white with a purple and turquoise shift and sparks of violet and aqua!"

*I love the name of this color. I relate it to the Deftones song/CD. I know there's also a Shinedown song by that name, so possibly that's where the name came from. Not sure if it was meant for any of the songs but I love it anyway.*

Danse Macabre- "is from The Coffin Collection and is a bright, acid green!"

*This color has a golden shift as well as a bit of aqua, gold, and green glitter.*

Lollipop Chainsaw- "a color shifting white pigment that vividly morphs from white, turquoise, green, violet, and gold!"

*I could not find any color shifting at all within this color. Maybe mine was a dud? Not sure but I'm not too worried about it. I like the color by itself.*

Witches Brew- "is from the Coffin Collection and is a bright, luxurious purple with sparks of violet and aqua!"

Pumpkin Guts- "is from the Coffin Collection and is a bright, near neon orange with sparks of gold."

Asphyxia- "a bright and shimmery lagoon blue with a green shift and sparks of aqua and violet!"

*This shade was the full size I received.*

Emerald Isle- "a bright kelly green with gold and green sparkle."

Kotake & Koume- "is from the Legend of Zelda Vol. 2 collection and is a medium fuschia with turquoise sparks!"

*I caught a lot of silver sparks in this color too*

The Golden Age- "a light and shimmery gold with aqua and violet sparks!"

La Mer- "a shimmery blue/aqua color with rainbow sparks!"

Dark Link- "from the Legend of Zelda Vol. 2 collection and is a deep, dark black with a navy/green undertone and rainbow and red glitter."

Diabolique-"a smoky mocha brown with a teal undertone and sparks of aqua, green, and violet!"

*I get a bit more of a medium grey with brown and a bit of burgundy undertones.*

I really loved all of the colors I picked out.

So the question is, would I purchase from Facebomb Cosmetics again? Certainly!!! I love the colors, the eyeshadow is very easy to apply, the price is right and I can already tell the customer service is great. I'd really love to see Facebomb Cosmetics become popular. It certainly deserves it.

~Emily

Ulta Secret Garden Collection Palette

Hi everyone!

Today I have the Ulta Secret Garden Collection Palette. This palette contains 9 Ulta eyeshadow colors, 1 blush, 1 lip color, 1 eyeliner pencil and applicators. All of the eyeshadow colors in this palette have a pearl/shimmery finish. The lip color is a pink/coral color that is very bright and bold while the blush is a bit of a dull medium pink. The eyeliner is just a dark brown color.

All eyeshadow was swatched over Urban Decay Primer Potion.

While I like the the packaging and the colors that were picked for this palette, I did have a bit of trouble with some of the eyeshadows. Some of the colors like Gold Leaf and Sage I had to build up and I still didn't get the color I should have. The lip color was also a bit tricky since I had to build it up and it became an almost hot pink/coral color, which is great if that color is for you, but it doesn't look great on me. The blush was pretty easy to apply and looked nice and the eyeliner was great!

I've tried looking on the Ulta website, but I do not see this listed so I'm assuming it isn't available anymore. This was just purchased at my local Ulta store though on clearance for $4.99 so it wasn't that bad for the price. You could possibly still find this at your local store.

~Emily

*This product was given to me for review. These are my honest opinions about the product.

Femme Fatale Swatches

I believe this should now be ALL of my Femme Fatale eyeshadows at the moment. I'm still ranking this one of my top makeup shops/brands.

All are swatched wet unless noted.

Shooting Stars- "A soft wisteria violet eye shadow tinged with pink, Shooting Stars is highlighted by a heavy duochrome finish." 

This is one of my ALL time favorite shades. Duochrome goodness.

Desecration- "A striking bright green shimmer over a base mixed of cool grey, subtle brown and pearly purple tones."

 

Smokebomb- "A black based eye shadow with colour shifting shimmer and copper sparkles."

 Rebel swatched dry.

 Rebel- "A muted thulian pink duochrome blush with violet sparkles. Rebel is a soft and lightweight blush of which the colour can be built up to your liking."

Rebel is a blush. I received it in a grab bag with my last order. Since Rebel IS eye and lip safe, I will be wearing it as an eyeshadow since I don't use blush too much. It is a gorgeous metallic sort of shade when swatched wet.

 

I believe that's all of my eyeshadow right now from Femme Fatale. You can check out my older posts if you'd like to see the other colors. 

~Emily

 

Darling Girl Cosmetics Swatches (Part 2)

This is the second part of my Darling Girl Cosmetics Swatches, you can find the first one here.
Also, some shades that are noted are Spectral Shifts and they are described on the website as the following:

"Spectral Shifts are silky, sheer, iridescent, multipurpose shades that can be used as eye shadow, face highlighters, or depending on your complexion, blush.  Don't let the colors fool you -- the shift makes them very wearable."

All are swatched wet unless noted.

Scarecrow is a dark brown color with bit of purple undertones. It has a gold sheen with some copper and gold sparkles.

"Ghost Light (Spectral Shift) is a sheer teal with a touch of green iridescence and a golden shift."

"Tragic Romance is a gorgeous, warm reddish-purple with loads of gold interference."

"Phantom Of The Taupera - Sheer greyish brown with green shift and tiny baby blue sparkles."

Part 3 will be up soon! Keep an eye out for it!

~Emily

Femme Fatale Cosmetics (Swatches)

I recently came across a new indie makeup company called Femme Fatale Cosmetics. It's a shop located in Australia and sells eyeshadow, blush, illuminators, etc. The shop offers vegan and non-vegan cosmetics and are marked if they are or not and lets you know if they are lip safe or not. Each label also tells you the ingredients, color, and collection (if they happen to be part of one).

What caught my eye the most was the duochrome eyeshadows. They are AMAZING! I absolutely love ALL the colors and they apply like a dream. They are so extremely smooth and pigmented. I'm just going to go ahead and say I'm making another order in the near future.

In the mean time, I ordered a few eyeshadow samples (8 to be exact along with a freebie!). The shop is currently in the process of switching from bigger bags to smaller bags. This really isn't a problem for me since I end up putting them in my own jars anyway.  I have 4 swatches today and more to come later.

Photos on the top of the sets are swatched over Urban Decay Primer Potion and bottom photos of the set are swatched wet.

(Over UDPP)

 (Swatched wet)
 Merrymaker is a Winter's Veil (Dec '11) Limited Edition color. It's a medium green with a gold sheen and lots of gold and green sparkles. Vegan & not lip-safe.

 Holiday Spices is another color from the Winter's Veil (Dec '11) collection that's limited edition. It's a rusty orange color with gold shimmer and sparkles. Non-vegan but lip-safe.

Sunfire is coral/pink with a gold/copper sheen. Non-vegan but lip-safe.

Obliterate (freebie sample) is a medium pink with blue, green, and pink shimmer. Non-vegan & not lip-safe.

You can purchase these colors and many more in either full sizes or sample sizes. Samples ship for free! My samples got here in about a week and a half once shipped (Australia to US). Prices will slightly go up in the near future, but for now samples range from .50AUD- $1.10AUD.  Full sizes are $5 AUD. There's also a sale section that the L.E. colors are in. Go get some before they are gone!  Click HERE to visit the shop!