Daling Girl (Ghoul) Halloween swatches!

Since I previously told you how awesome Darling Girl Cosmetics is, I will primarily just be posting swatches today of the Halloween collection, and of course my 3 extra pigments that came in my package. In case you missed it, here's a sum up: Shadows are awesome, pigmented, and complex (so much so that I'm disappointed in my camera and myself for not being able to capture the true beauty in most...) and the lip products are amazing both in color and they way they feel on your lips. I highly recommend this company. I have been thrilled with everything I have received from them.

The last 3 swatches were my freebies with purchase/not a part of the Halloween goodies. Ughhh these are all just so gorgeous it hurts me...and there is so much complexity and sparkle that I failed to catch on camera. See the Darling Girl site for fantastic product photos.

Here are the glosses I nabbed. I love them so hard. All 3 are incredibly more wearable (color wise) than I thought they would be. The formula feels great on my lips.

I think I will be getting full sizes of Crypt Keeper and Jack's Lantern (which photographed more purple than I think it should have, as it looked more burgundy to me), but I wish I could get full sizes of everything! I would definitely recommend you get this Halloween collection, or anything from Darling Girl if you haven't already.

Disclaimer: All products, aside from the standard gifts with purchase, were purchased by me and all opinions are my honest own. 

Are you a good witch? Or a bad witch? Dark Heart Designs Halloween collection review & swatches!

I'm sort of in love with Halloween, and when I saw the Good Witch/Bad Witch collection from Dark Heart Designs, it was a must have. I ordered the sample set of that and 5 gel eyeliners. This was also my first ever order from Dark Heart, so I will be reviewing them from different aspects, and not just on the Halloween collection. The swatches in this post will be from the Halloween collection only, however. I will tackle gel liners and the other 3 shades I own in a different post. Let's get started!

SHIPPING: Was fast. I paid on a Monday (late at night, so basically Tuesday) and received my order that Saturday. Dark Heart has a couple new listing/shipping procedures in place, and from my experience, it's working famously.

PACKAGING: The items arrived to me in perfect condition. The liners are shrink wrapped, which is very nice. Along with the items I ordered, I received a brochure, cosmetics care guide, business card, coupon for my next purchase, individual ingredient cards for the liners, and a nice personal "thank you" note.

ON TO THE SWATCHES!

BAD WITCHES!

GOOD WITCHES!

MAN I hate it when my swatches suck. Some days I just can't get it right! Top 1/3 of swatch was done over TFSI, middle over NYX in Milk, and bottom over NYX in Black Bean. I also foiled these (not pictured) so I could truly see these in all aspects and get a good description/opinion going. Below are some descriptions, so hopefully that helps. 

 Descriptions (white print is the description from Dark Heart, and RED is my take on the color)

Jadis - The Chronicles of Narnia - Silvery white w/ blue sheen & aqua sparkle. It's a pretty glittery white. I don't really see a blue sheen, but I do see tons of aqua sparklies, making it very pretty shade!

Elphaba - Wizard of Oz/Wicked - Green w/red sheen & sparkle. This sparkly green does have a very subtle red sheen. I was hoping the sheen would be a lot more noticeable, but it is still a beautiful sparkly green.

Eva - The Witches - Black w/ purple sheen & sparkle. Deep purple with tons of purple (maybe pink?) sparklies. Fantastic color foiled or over a sticky base. However, it would not adhere to bare skin or skin with just primer. Make sure to use this one with a tacky base!

Anna - Season of the Witch - Brown w/ blue sheen & copper sparkle. This one is MY FAVORITE. I love it SO. HARD. It looks purplish to me at some angles, blue at others, but keeps a neutral tone as it's backbone. It's like purplebrownblueEXPLOSION. I would say this is the most complex shade in the gang, so of course it's my favorite. I put it on my face immediately <3

Glinda - Good witch of the North - Pastel Pink w/ red sheen & silver sparkle. Pretty pastel sparkly pink! Another one where I wish the sheen was more pronounced, but I think I can sort of see it.

Samantha - Bewitched - Peach w/ purple shift & sparkle. Okay, this one I see the shift! Quite a gorgeous shade, one of my favorites!

Sabrina - The Teenage Witch - Plum w/ blue sheen & sparkle. Not quite as deep a purple as Eva. I can see a subtle blue shift.

Kiki - Kiki's Delivery Service - Blue w/ red sheen & sparkles. Meet my other favorite in this collection! Beautiful slate blue with a visible red shift. Ahhhh!!

Here is a very quick eye look I did with Anna and Glinda: 

Anna looks blue in the photo. Like I said, it's quite the little changer!

OVERALL THOUGHTS (COMPANY): My experience with Dark Heart was fantastic. The owner was very communicative and a pleasure to work with. My shipping was fast, my order was packed well, lots of extras in the package shows the care and thought that goes into every order. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS (COLLECTION): I really like the BW/GW Halloween collection. #1, the collection idea is really unique; #2, the shadows are all very pretty, and some of them right up my alley with their complexity! I do wish a few had more INYOFACE shifts/sheen.

I will be ordering again...and again...and again :) 

You can purchase from Dark Heart Designs HERE

You can also find them: 

On Facebook

On Twitter

On Wordpress

Disclaimer: All products were purchased by me, aside from standard freebie samples included in the order. All opinions are my own, and I am not compensated for my reviews.

Mae Minerals swatches + mini review

So a while back, I won a giveaway for 10 sample pigments from Mae Minerals. I won them on 8/8/11. On 9/14/11, I e-mailed the company because I had not heard anything or received anything. They e-mailed back within 2 days (acceptable!) and my response was that they had a ton of giveaways at once and were waiting to get everyone's choices, but they put my sample pack together right away and were mailing it out. They also offered their apologies. Kudos for the quick response, apology, and getting the correct samples quickly afterwards. I will say I sorta felt forgotten about, though. On with the swatches! (I swatched 8/10 colors, because I gave 2 away)

 The samples came in baggies, labeled with company information, pigment name, ingredients, net weight (.5g), and if it is not for use on lips they put that on there in red print. Nice size samples, and great labeling! Like it!

The samples came with a cute little blush brush as a freebie. I think it is actually somewhat useable (most freebie brushes I have come to acquire are not).

The colors are very pretty. Almost Aquamarine is a freakin' glitter bomb and you definitely should use some sort of sticky base.

Would I order from Mae? Surprisingly, as much as I liked what I received, I'm not going to place an order. While I am incredibly grateful for my giveaway winnings (yay pretty free sparklies!), I have read enough reviews to believe that Mae Minerals does repack TKB micas and at least some of their eyeshadow shades are probably not custom blended colors. I don't know this for a fact, I have never purchased from TKB to compare products, but it has gone around the beauty blogging community, and I have seen the info on a couple blogs that I would trust with my life. Well, maybe not my life, but I would totally trust them with my makeup bag. I just prefer to spend money on complex and custom blended colors that I couldn't get anywhere else.

Have you tried Mae Minerals? What do you think?

EDIT: I received a response both on this post and on my Facebook page from the owner(?) of Mae Minerals. Part of it went like this:

"We do not repack any minerals. While some of our shades may be similar to another MMU line, that does not mean we are a repacker. Most mineral makeup formulators can duplicate a shade (and I receive quite a few requests to do so), the difference will be in how it feels, how long it lasts, etc."

If I didn't mention before, the shades do wear fantastically. My only concern was for straight up repacking, not for the quality of products.

To be fair, and because as I stated I don't personally know all the facts, I wanted to edit this in. I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the company's kind and professional response.

Mini disclaimer: I was NOT asked to remove the review, change anything, or put in an edit with this information. I did so of my own accord because I think both sides should be heard.

I think I probably would order from Mae Minerals at this point, regardless of what I have read from other sources.

Cinnamon Cosmetics Review!

Back in August I was contacted by Cinnamon Cosmetics offering to sponsor my Facebook contest and also offering to send me some products to review. I am always excited to review a company for the first time, so I gladly accepted!

SHIPPING: On the last day of August, CC let me know what they would be sending me. There were some delays, a package was lost in the mail. The owner of CC kept in good and friendly communication throughout the whole thing, so that was a huge plus. I was notified of a 2nd package being mailed on 9/20. I received the goods on 10/3. Admittedly, there were some shipping difficulties. The company was very apologetic and asked if I had suffered any "financial loss" they could compensate me for. (There was not, but the thought was nice). It was addressed to me that they are making changes to eliminate any future shipping problems. They seem very sincere and were a pleasure to work with.

PRODUCT: I like! I received 5 shadows in 10 gram jars, 2 shadows in 5 gram jars, and 3 samples. 4 of the large jars were sent as giveaway prizes. I kept a 10 gram jar, 2 5 gram jars, and 3 samples for this review.

And some swatches over UDPP:

Halcyon: I think this is my favorite in the bunch! It is such a super-sparkly copper color! It is very smooth, not gritty, and shiny as hell. I LOVE it.

Dusk: A light shimmery gray. The shimmers appear to be light pink and aqua. I think it almost gives off a pinky sheen in certain lights/angles. This shade is gorgeous!

Harvest Moon: A lovely medium yellow with shimmer.

Lorien: While described on the website as a light, pearly, golden shade, I find it to be more of a baby yellow with a subtle pink sheen. I REALLY like this one. I think it would make a great highlight color, but would also be a gorgeous lid color.

Celestial: This one is soooooOOOO pretty. On the site, it is described as: "Celestial appears to be a very light bronze color. When applied over a white or black base, it shifts to a brilliant turquoise in the light." I definitely don't see the bronze, in the baggie nor on my skin. I see it as a baby pink with pink and blue sparkle shimmers. Another that I think would be either an amazing highlighter or lid color. AGAIN, SO PRETTY.

Beledi: Shimmery brown! I normally do not like browns, and I would totally wear this.



OVERALL THOUGHTS: Even though the shipping was rocky, the company was a pleasure to work with, and I believe that they are taking steps to remedy the shipping problems. Product wise, I love them, if you couldn't already tell! The shadows are pigmented, smooth, and I think they make gorgeous shades. Would I order from Cinnamon Cosmetics? I would, and I plan on ordering in the future. They definitely have a lot of shades I want in my shadow collection. I think their product swatches on the website are an accurate representation of the shadows themselves, based on the shades I received which is a huge selling point for me. They seem to have a good selection of bold, bright, and neutral shades, so everyone should be happy here! Prices on the website are reasonable. They offer several different sizes of their products. I LOVE it when a company does that. LOVE. IT. (Based on information found on the website, a full size jar is 5gm, mini is 3gm, and I believe you can request a pro size in the 10gm. Samples and "refills" are also available).

Find Cinnamon Cosmetics:

At their shop
On Facebook
On Twitter

All products were sent to me for free to review.

Opinions are my own, and review was not influenced by that fact.