Wet'N'Wild swatches for your viewing pleasure

Nothing you haven't already seen, probably, but I wanted to play with my cheapie shadow collection. If you're trying to decide whether to buy these, I'd probably only wholeheartedly recommend the 8-pan palettes. Also, I tried something a little different with some of the swatches - faking the "look" the company recommends for their shadows.

All UDPP and all TFSI - comparison!

I have a full size TFSI, a mini size UDPP Greed, sample decants from Sephora of UDPP Sin and Eden and TFSI candlelight, and I had a sample card of UDPP. So, I did some swatches. On top is Silk Naturals Lime, a matte shade, and on the bottom is Hi-Fi The Hydra, a shimmery blue.

Left to right:
1. Bare skin
2. UDPP
3. UDPP Eden
4. UDPP Sin
5. UDPP Greed
6. TFSI Candlelight
7. TFSI

Out of the "clear" primers, I like TFSI better - I think it does a better job enhancing the shimmer shade.

I do not like Eden too much - it leaves a much too yellowish cast for my taste. I'd like it better if it were a very pale peach.

Out of the "gold" primers, I like UD Greed better. Candlelight seems to wash out the shimmer shade too much, and even if it does make mattes a little sparklier, it also makes them paler.

Sin is a unique shade, and I like it. It washes out the colors more than Greed, but I like it on its own as a quick and easy work cream shadow. I have the shadow pencil in the same color, but that creases on me a little - but if I had the primer for my lids and the pencil for the lower lashline, I'd look a lot more awake in not a lot of time.

Out of the six of them, TFSI, Greed, and Sin are the ones I think are worth having.

So there's my thoughts on the eye primer leaders.

Much promised HiFi swatches!

I ordered a blogger review kit from Veronica over at Hi-Fi Cosmetics, told her I liked bright colors and neutrals, and let her surprise me. She sent me these five samples! The sample bags have some heft - they feel more like the amount some companies put in foundation or finishing powder samples.



Initial impressions from looking at the baggies:
Psycho Mind - darkish liner color.
California Girl - gold.
Queen of Disaster - Dark blue liner color.
The Hydra - Pretty turquoise!
Crazy Little Thing - sky blue? Neat!

Then I swatched them.




I was surprised at how close Crazy Little Thing looked to The Hydra because they looked more different in the baggies. The Hydra is sheerer and more shimmery, whereas Crazy Little Thing is a rich pearl. I have to play with these some more, because I think they could be more interesting if I try different things with them.

Queen of Disaster looks like it'll be a good liner color. The iridescence, and the fact that is can apply fairly sheerly, mean it might be more versatile than I think.

California Girl was kind of an outlier - all the other shadows are more creamy, and this one is more flyaway.

Psycho Mind is my surprise favorite. Do you see that? It's not gray at all, like I originally thought (I really look like death in gray). It's a shimmery plum with teal duochrome!!! Disenchanted EDM fans will be pleased to know that this is a lot like Shopping Spree, but better. I am so thrilled to own this.


I haven't had a chance to actually use any of these yet, but I will as soon as I'm done plowing through some more baggie samples from other companies. I think I'll really like them.

Disclosure: I paid for the shipping and etsy fees on these. The shadows themselves were pretty much free for review purposes. FCC, you can stop reading now.

Sephora Pure palette

I've been doing a lot of swapping lately, on Makeup Alley and on the smaller, mineral-focused forums I also frequent. It's a good way to pass things I don't like so much on to someone else who might use them more and also to try new things without spending a lot of money, which is good because substitute teaching does not really pay so well.

One of the best things I've gotten is the Sephora Pure palette in Wanderlust. It has six eye shadows and a blush. The colors are pretty much perfect for me - neutral browns with a pearly, but not too shimmery, finish, a bright blue, a bright green, and a dark blue. The blush is also nice, but I'm going to have to use it with a duo fiber brush because my EcoTools blush brush applied way too much. The blush is matte, which I like.

Hope you are all enjoying life! Things have been looking up around here.

Makeup craft: pressing your own eyeshadow!

I've been interested in pressing my own makeup since the summer, but didn't try it until early November, when I made the first palette. I made the second palette a month later.

One of the things that put me off originally was the high cost - a 15-well palette with tins is about 8 bucks at Coastal Scents, and I wanted to press more than that.

So, I decided to improvise. I bought two 12-shadow palettes at the dollar store, scooped out the product, cleaned them with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs, and had palettes for cheap! Since I was pressing directly into the palette, they didn't turn out as pretty as they might have had I had the pans out of the palette.

I used Fyrinnae's Powder Modifier and rubbing alcohol for this project. Each tin holds half a 5g jar worth of product - I mixed directly in the jar with a toothpick, or the little plastic scoops from TKB trading. Each jar took about 8 drops of Powder Modifier and 10+ of alcohol. I find it easier to make a soupy mess the consistency of Oobleck than to press crumbles. I pour the eyeshadow Oobleck into the tin, smooth out, come back a couple hours later, press with a piece of cardboard cut to the size of the tin and wrapped in plastic wrap, then press with a cotton pad to absorb some of the extra alcohol and leave the pattern. No pics of the process, my hands were all dirty! You might want to wear gloves.

Note: this works well for shimmer and pearl shadows, not so hot for mattes.
Also note: I pressed some micas from TKB trading into a sample jar (green and blue jar in one of the pics from my collection post), and got a crumbly semi-solid mess. Pressing a Pure Luxe shadow gave me similar results. Pressing a bit and seeing how it acts is a good way to find out if your product is a finished shadow or straight mica.

Here's the palette as purchased from the store - I would never wear this stuff, it was too stinky! (I hate synthetic fragrance in my makeup)


Here's the first palette I did - names of colors written on plastic cover sheet.


Here are the swatches, over ELF mineral primer:


Here's the second palette: Top row - EDM Samba Lessons, mix of TKB trading Libra Blues mica and EDM Aussie, lighter mix of the same, mix of EDM Flannel PJs and TKB trading Libra Blues. Middle row: EDM Volcano Blossom, darker mix of Volcano Blossom and Aussie, lighter mix of Volcano Blossom and Aussie, mix of Aussie and EDM Champagne. Bottom row: Mix of Volcano Blossom and Libra Blues, Mix of Pure Luxe Chocolate Grapes and Chocolate Blueberries (note crumbliness), mix of Flannel PJs, EDM Walkee Talkee, and EDM Movie Night, mix of Walkee Talkee and Movie Night.


Swatches! (over ELF mineral primer, as always)


And for size comparison purposes, a pic of one of the palettes next to a 25 g jar from EDM.