Swatch: Shiro Cosmetics custom gloss in Heart Piece (moderate)

How many days can I swatch a Shiro custom gloss a day? Too many days.

Bare lips for reference

Heart Piece

This looks fine in real life but in pictures it seems like I haven't quite filled in my whole upper lip line. Huh. Also, sorry--didn't balm up last night, so my lips are a dry, sad place. Luckily for me, the Shiro gloss formula is always kind to my crappy lip texture.

Heart Piece is a warm, light red with some very subtle sparkle, which I think would be gorgeous on many people who aren't me. I hold out hope I will find a way to make it work, as it's a lovely colour, but warm reds are not my friend.

Heart Piece the eyeshadow is hot pink with more prominent golden sparkle, but another thing I've learned from picking up too many Shiro custom glosses is that some pigments darken quite a bit in gloss.

Swatches: Hello Waffle Fey, Debussy, Envy, Galaxy Dust eyeshadows + Malva blush

In honour of Hello Waffle's sale tomorrow (check out Facebook for details) and because it's one of my favourite indies, here are some quick and slightly dirty swatches of a few Hello Waffle Eyeshadows I Like.

Before I even get into it, let's make it clear that the shadows I like most from HW so far are colour-shifting and/or sparklebombs so it's hard to represent them accurately. Observe the sparkle-blur:

Bottom left to top right: Fey, Debussy, Envy, Galaxy Dust

That said, I'll give it the old college try. (Or at least two-thirds of a try. I have work to do today!)

Top to bottom: Galaxy Dust, Envy, Debussy, Fey

The left half of these swatches are over Darling Girl Glitter Glue; the right are over UDPP. As you can see, these aren't at their best over a regular primer, but they still show up to the party. Also: Fey is made of glorious magic. Fey is one of my favourites ever.

Fey and Debussy

Envy and Galaxy Dust

How I'd describe these:
Fey is a peach with a prominent gold sheen (hard to show in photos);
Debussy is an almost sheer golden green glow;
Envy is a dark pine green full of (mostly blue) sparkle (see the first picture re: sparkle);
Galaxy Dust is a very curious blue with purple sheen that changes in various lights.

And bonus:

Malva, in sunlight

Malva, indirect sunlight

I received Malva in error in an order a little while ago (I went for Moon Princess and they're stocked next to each other; it's all sorted out with the owner, because her customer service is very awesome!) but anyway, I was surprised at how nice this turned out to be on my skin. I picked up way too much with my brush but I found this blush soft and blendable so it worked out. (Obviously I applied it before peeling off tape, hence the harsh lines.) If her new blush release has any other satin finish blushes that might suit my skintone, I'm going to give them a go. This one feels and looks lovely!

(I'll probably swatch this again in comparison to other HW blushes and add the more concentrated swatch beside--but hopefully this gives an idea!)

Do check out Hello Waffle's sale tomorrow and their new Fringe collection!

Swatch: Shiro Cosmetics custom gloss in Ever in Your Favor (moderate, dupe)

Hey folks!

Might as well get done swatching all of my Shiro glosses since I have...a few too many. Here are a quick couple of swatches of a Shiro custom gloss that dupes their eyeshadow Ever in Your Favor. It turned out much more purple than I imagined it would--I was hoping more of the magenta would come through. It's still quite pretty, though, and might suit other skin tones more than mine.



Sorry, I forgot to take a bare lip picture for reference today--but here it is in a couple of different lightings. It doesn't look as patchy in real life. It's a little thick-feeling in texture but still needs to be built up more than my other moderates to get good coverage, so it's not one of my go-tos, but it's still nice. (My favourites from my collection, for the record, are moderate Master of Whispers, opaque Women's Weapons, Nic Cage Churning Butter, and Red Wedding.)

Swatch: Shiro Cosmetics custom gloss in Wildflowers (moderate)

I want to update here more frequently, so--less reviewing, more swatching.

Bare lips (my bare lips hate autofocus)

Wildflowers (moderate opacity)

Wildflowers is a soft, semi-sheer pink with sparkles in eyeshadow form, but comes off as a frosty neutralish pink as a moderate gloss. This was one of my first custom gloss orders aaaages ago so I was initially surprised and a little disappointed at how frosty it turned out, since I don't find the shadow comes off that way at all--I've later come to understand that anything with sparkle/shimmer tends to turn turn frosty/metallic, unless it has a strong base to overwhelm it (Women's Weapons in opaque, for example, barely shows its sparkle). I am much braver about my lip products now, so I will totally use this in cool, wintery looks.

Some people remark that Shiro's unflavoured glosses can smell very metallic, and I think this is a prime example of that--because Wildflowers is fairly sheer, they probably had to use a lot of shadow to get it even moderately opaque, which I imagine is why it smells this way. It only smells strong to me at first and it doesn't bother me that much, but if you're sensitive to metallic-y scents, I'd probably get it flavoured. (Alternately, this might be less frosty and less metallic-smelling in sheer.)

Swatch + review: Notoriously Morbid Serannian Dreams Lipcraft lipgloss

Before I start in on swatching my whole eyeshadow collection (an intimidating task, but at least I've made a spreadsheet) I figured I would start with finishing up with my latest Notoriously Morbid haul.

So: a quick look at one of Notoriously Morbid's new lip glosses. (Apparently lip gloss is a term that is correct either as a compound or two words, but not hyphenated. It nags at my brain--I'm an editor in real life. Anyway.)

Bare lips for great justice

Serannian Dreams, indirect sunlight

Serannian Dreams, "white balance"

Serannian Dreams is a hot pink that didn't translate perfectly on my camera, so I tried using a white balance. However, my camera is usually pretty accurate in terms of how it picks up my (ghostly) skin tone, so I ended up looking orange with white balance, eep. In any case, I'm hoping that between the two, you can get a sense of the colour. It's much as it looks on the website swatch and in the tube.

This gloss was non-sticky and not too slippery, but did do the stringy thing a bit when I opened my mouth. It's vanilla scented along the same lines as the NYX Butter Glosses.

It was tricky to build up and didn't like sticking to the inner part of my lips; it also doesn't do my lip texture any favours, which was sad since they're much nicer lately. I kind of had to build it up because it looked odd and settled into lip lines a lot sheered out, but over lipstick it'd be fine. It is a really fun, vivid colour once I got it to work, and it wasn't nearly as much of a pain as Shiro's Red in My Ledger. (Beautiful heartbreak in lip gloss form. Woe.)

I like this lip gloss okay, but I don't love it. That's okay with me since I spent a very reasonable $4.50 to give it a go--I can use this to top lipstick. If I get anything else from the Lipcraft line, I'll probably get something in a different opacity--I imagine the formula might work better with something more sheer (this is medium to full).

An honourable mention to this little guy, though. I already had a Coffin Kisser in Vanilla Veil, but found I didn't really like something about the flavouring, so I threw a different one into this order so I'd feel more compelled to give it a real try (plus: Supernatural reference). I am digging it! Not as much as my St. John's Soap Works Balm Diggity, but it's coming in a solid second lately. 

Thanks for tuning in--and many, many things that sparkle are (eventually) on the way!

First impressions: St. John's Soap Works

I feel like reviewing soap has to be a process, since you really can't know how good it'll be for your skin until you've used it for a while. However, I wanted to write up a few initial thoughts on St. John's Soap Works since (spoiler alert) I've had a great experience so far.

Not-so-obligatory rave about customer service: Ordered August 11th, shipped out August 15th, and received my package August 21st. Everything went smoothly and quickly, so I didn't need to contact anyone. I ordered using the soap special, which is an $18 package that includes two soaps of your choice, a mystery gift, and free shipping. Since shipping to me would normally be a flat $10 and most of their soaps are $5, this deal saves me $2 and nets me a free thing. No brainer.

The soaps came wrapped up tightly in a very padded envelope and wrapped additionally in red tissue paper and their individual packaging. A lot of cute and consistent branding going on. The Bee Pollen soap smells heavenly. I didn't think I was that into sweet orange and lavender, but somehow together, they are divine. True Grit radiates a minty aura. I am not about minty scents (minty flavours, more like!) but it's for my partner, so. He likes it.

This unassuming lip balm was my mystery gift. When I first opened it, I was skeptical since it was a bit melty and extremely soft (perhaps from transit--I live in a warmer part of the country). I'm also pretty picky about lip balms, since I need them like I need to eat. But thus far, I've worn this lip balm for two days straight since I put it on, so. Yeah. Also, it smells like fresh oranges. (It contains lanolin and a natural flavouring, so maybe that contributes to its awesomeness.)

There was no business card/etc. included, but instead, I got a thank you card. Which is pretty awesome?

On the inside was this slip with some information about the company.

I'll have to come back and let you know how the soap does, but if it's anywhere as nice as it smells, I'm definitely going back for gifts!

Blush Blogging: Notoriously Morbid Divination Blushes in Astrology & Numerology

Hello everyone!

Notoriously Morbid recently released a new line of blushes and the new Lipcraft lip glosses, and given that I have been enjoying everything I own from the shop so far, I had to try both.

(Also,  I was once upon a time very into astrology and numerology, which coincidentally were the blush colours that most appealed to me, so obviously I had to buy them.)

The little Notoriously Morbid haul that could.

I've ordered from Notoriously Morbid before, but partial obligatory note: my order shipped within the turnaround time and everything was as it should be. It seems worth noting, though, that I also got a message encouraging me to be in touch if I'm displeased in any way, which I thought was a nice touch. The note also offers a coupon code for my next order, which I find is becoming more common with shops right now--another nice touch, but my NM orders have always been during one of their Free Day Friday promotions.

On to the blushes!

Numerology left, Astrology right

These come in a 20g jar. It's a very easy to use size--the lid gives me plenty of room to swirl my brush. 

If you purchase these, be careful removing the sifter sticker. These were pretty packed and I made a mess of Numerology.

The prettiest mess, though.

Swatches? Swatches. I've done these on bare skin, no primer. I used an eyeshadow brush with two swipes to give a sense of the colour, then did a blended-out swatch. As with most indie blushes, these are quite pigmented and a little goes a long way.

Astrology is the easier of the two to capture. The website describes this as "vibrant hot pink with purple sheen," and it looks that way in the jar, but it comes out much cooler on my skin. 

Astrology: Direct sunlight

Astrology: Indirect sunlight

(Sorry for the couple of unblended flecks hanging on the end there. Did not pat it all properly in my haste to sparklify my arm!)

This blends out nicely and I imagine it'll make for a beautiful glow.

Numerology is nearly impossible to capture, so you have to take my word for it: it's amazing. The website describes the colour of this blush as "warm coral/orange with sparkle and a mystically purple shift." This blush looks pinker in the website pictures than it is for me. To my eyes, the coral looks brown-leaning and this glows alternately gold and a cool purple-pink as I turn my arm.

Numerology: Direct sunlight

Numerology: Indirect sunlight

Yeeah, neither of these swatches really gets it. Astrology has a sheen, but Numerology is basically all glow. This colour seems complex and buildable/blendable enough to be gorgeous on a variety of skintones, so I can see why it's the bestselling blush so far!

Overall, I really like these blushes, though they came out a bit differently than I expected. They're not mattes nor glitterbombs, but they both blend out to a beautiful glow, so if that's the kind of finish you're into, they're worth checking out!