Dawn Eyes Cosmetics "Blurple"

I normally don't enter many giveaways these days, but this one is too awesome to pass up. Check it out :)

http://themoonmaiden-blix.blogspot.com/2012/05/morgana-cryptoria-moon-maiden-jewelry.html

Morgana Cryptoria Troll Repellent

In the next several posts, I'm going to be showing you guys my Morgana Cryptoria lipsticks. This one is called Troll Repellent, and it is fairly new. It is absolutely gorgeous and unlike anything I own. It is described on the Morgana website as "Bold violet with sparkles changing blue to purple." It was an absolute bitch to try and get a true-to-color swatch of this one, but I did my very best :) I would say that this lipstick is just a tad darker in real life and a pinch more purple than pink.

It's a really neat purpley-fuschia with tons of blue sparkles (my description). I haven't experienced any fallout with the sparkles at all, and I've been wearing it now for about 8 hours. The sparkles are not grainy or big. They are just there and amazing. It looks like a freaking galaxy when the sun hits it. One thing I love about Morgana lipsticks is their staying power. I can eat stuff and drink stuff, and yet they stay pretty damn well. The formula is on the dry side (at least for this color, I'll speak individually for each color I post) but it doesn't dry out my lips. It's just...there. As if it's simply changing the color of my lips instead of sitting on top of them. It's just perfect. I hate having a wet, messy lipstick that just slides off when I take a sip of water. I am by no means a girly-girl, and I need that shit to stick with me through some nonsense. Anyways, I love it. The end.

My new custom chaos pendant from Phloxy Lee!

I'm completely smitten with a new jewelry shop called Phloxy Lee! I thought I would do a quick post and just show you the necklace I snagged :) 

Custom chaos pendant!

My makeup has done melted off by this point in the day. Also, I'm still working on this whole "smile without looking creepy/like you just farted" phenomenon. My deepest and most sincere apologies for my face.

Basically I just love this jewelry company. The owner/creator is extremely talented, and although fairly new to online sales, I understand she has been creating jewelry for quite a while. It shows. 

My necklace was custom, and within a matter of a few days it was shipped out to me! Customer service is fantastic. I asked for a custom piece, spent a few e-mails back-and-forth working out what I wanted with the owner, she crafted it for me and sent it out posthaste. She also stayed in touch to make sure it got to me okay (it had delivery confirmation, but USPS being the fickle bitch it is never updated the status, however that wizardy works). The price was great. I paid $10 for this one and a few bucks in shipping. It's a great feeling to be completely satisfied with everything from a shop from price, service, and quality. Everything is there, seriously. 

Will I buy more? Hell yes. If you want to check out some of Phloxy Lee's awesome pieces, you can find them on Facebook (link below). For the time being, pieces are viewed on Facebook, and through e-mailing the owner, you can get an Paypal invoice. So, go lurk on the page and bask in the awesomeness of all the pretties. 

Phloxy Lee Facebook page

Prepare your eyeballs for awesome. A couple gems from Persephone Minerals.

Ugh I am SO excited. I ordered these 2 shadows from Persephone Minerals a while ago. Both of them are from the Halloween 2011 collection, and were made permanent by popular demand (lucky you!) Then, I lost them. Somewhere in my house, I lost them. I tried blaming the cat, but that didn't seem to bring them back. I had a HUGE sad :( Then, today, I decided I was going to do some swatching. I went into my "to swatch" drawer, and was deciding what to play with today, when I discovered my 2 Persephone shadows tucked in with another company's stuffs! YAHOOO! I had to rub them all over myself immediately, of course.

Dead Ringer, Spirit Realm

Dead Ringer, Spirit Realm

Dead Ringer, Spirit Realm, swatched over Pixie Epoxy outdoors, no flash. 

Dead Ringer, Spirit Realm, swatched over Pixie Epoxy outdoors, no flash.

Dead Ringer, Spirit Realm, swatched over Pixie Epoxy, indoors w/flash

"Deadringer- A cremains ash grey duochrome with a firey orange shift & coppery orange reflecks. Very volcanic!"
"Spirit Realm- a zombie-ish green duochrome with a violet-pinkish shift. Leaning toward teal at some angles & complete with gold, green and purple sparks."
(Descriptions taken from the Persephone Minerals Facebook page)

As usual, thanks for kicking ass, Persephone.

A little bit of Darling Girl

I placed another smallish order from Darling Girl Cosmetics, because I really wanted to try out the Aqua Liners (out of stock at the moment), being the liner whore I am. Seriously, if I could only use one makeup product for the rest of my life, it would be eyeliner hands down. A good liner is like GOLD in my opinion. So, I picked up Mermaid Tails Aqua Liner, Mochi shadow, and received 2 free samples with my order, Garden of Weedin' shadow and Man Candy blush. 

L-R natural light: Mermaid Tails Aqua Liner, Garden of Weedin', Mochi

L-R indoors w/flash: Mermaid Tails Aqua Liner, Garden of Weedin', Mochi

Man Candy blush, heavy on left, blended out on right, outdoors in natural light

And indoors with flash

I've reviewed the eye shadows before, so I'll make it short and sweet and say again that they are gorgeous, pigmented, and of great quality. This is my first time trying DG blush, and I have to say that all the same applies! 

Now, I'd like to spotlight the liner since liquid liners in the indie world seem to be few and far between. I really like this liner.There are a few things I like about it. I love the color, of course, but most important for me is I really like the formula. It's liquid without being runny, and it dries relatively quickly. Once it's dry, it stays put. It's very pigmented and really gives me that POP of color I want when using a colored liner. You can really tell it's there. The applicator is a stiff, but bendable, felt tip applicator. I honestly expected the applicator to have more softness and "give" so to speak than it actually does, but then again I've never used a felt applicator so I don't know how they are really supposed to feel. I think I like the applicator, despite that. It just took a minute to get used to. It was really easy to apply and I could actually get a wing going, so that makes me happy as hell. I really hope these get put back in the DGC shop soon, because I would love to own more. 

I'm actually wearing the liner today, but no face pics for you, because my face is dumb right now. But be assured, my liner is bad ass. 

Sometimes I should blog just for the sake of blogging. A couple FOTDs that I consider WIN.

Two FOTDs in one post. I think we can agree this counts as 2 posts, and therefore I am totally on track with my blogging career. ON WITH IT THEN.

This past Saturday we went to a Christmas festival. It was absolutely lame, but at least I had an excuse to wear makeup? Worth it. We also got a family photo, which is always unexpected. I got to use my new Fyrinnae shadow, Bride of Frankenstein on the lid, with a random High Voltage lighter blue shadow blended out on top. The pink is Dollipop from Sugarpill. The awesome lip color is Evil Shades Bane, and it is my new favorite pink.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS

GUESS WHO'S GETTING COAL (^^^^^^^)

Really, after forcing a hat onto him, the rest of the photo session went quite smoothly. 

Then, later in the week, me and my fiance attended his company's Christmas dinner. Hell yeah, let's be social, un-awkward beautiful butterflies for just one night, babe! Here's a fun little recap of the night...

I....was not meant to be let out in public. Honestly, although I fully appreciate the sentiment of the dinner provided by his company, and the chance to try buffalo prime rib for the first time, it was incredibly awkward for me. Also, I had a killer headache after the whole thing from trying to turn my head to the side so I didn't make eye contact with anyone for like, an hour. TRUE STORY. Really, I am like this in every social situation, so it wasn't any different than anything else I've tried to bust out of my shell and do/attend. I just thought it would be. (Why?? No one knows.) At any rate, I think my makeup for the night turned out pretty nice, and I would like to share it with you :) 

HOWUDOIN? 

I used all Sugarpill for this look. Tiara on the lid, Royal Sugar on the outer lid, and a dusting of Goldilux on the inner lid. I think it was very holiday-ish, yes? Note to self: If you are going to plaster your face all up in the internet's biznass, have a freshly waxed stache, k? K. Let's just move past my epic facial hair, shall we? 

Anyways, thank you all for reading and staring at my face. 

Comic made by me using memebase.com comic builder

Metal Glam Cosmetics Review

Good evening, dear reader. I wasn't gone as long this time in between posts, and for that I am proud. However, I hope to get to the point where I am doing a couple posts a week....I'm not holding my breath, though.

I'm here to share with you my experience with another indie makeup company called Metal Glam Cosmetics. I happened upon them on Facebook, and I love trying different companies, and also their shadows looked very pretty, so I contacted the owner about purchasing a sample pack for review. I ended up purchasing a $5 "grab bag." Shipping was $7 from Canada. Man I hate shipping :( But, of course, no fault of the company, as the actual shipping ended up being pretty damn close to what I was charged. Ordering is done through Metal Glam's Facebook page/e-mail. I received my makeups in a reasonable amount of time, although I forget the actual ship/receive date, I know I didn't wait long. So, turn around time I would say is very acceptable. I received 5 sample baggies and 2 pigments in jars. The pigments in jars had different amounts in them. I assume one to be a sample jar and one to be a full size. Just so you have an idea of what I received :) Here are some product photos:

The little blue stars on top of the jars are a cute touch. Sample baggies appear to have approximately 1/8 tsp of product. I didn't measure it, I just used my acquired sample eyes ^_^ Labels are handwritten. Ingredient information is not included, and no sifters in jars (which I don't care about because I hate sifters, but just to note). Jars had a small piece of clear tape to help ensure they didn't come loose during shipping. SWATCH TIME!

The flash photo is not labeled, but are in the same order as the outside, no flash photo, so refer to that! Swatches were done over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

The colors I received are very pretty, and very pigmented! I adore Lucid Dream and Primma Donna, but I love the others as well! Even over bare skin (not shown) they go on very pigmented and have good adherence. Formula-wise, I would say they are good. They applied fairly nicely to the lid. Here is a quick eye look I did!

Again, one with flash, one without. I used Primma Donna, Lucid Dream, and Heavy Load. I am surprised at how much I actually liked the look I created, and then the ultimate kick to the throat - One eye done and I had to be at an appointment in 5 MINUTES. Who has been there?? So, sadly, I had to immediately take it off and rush out the door :( Sad day, I wanted to show this look off to the world. I guess I kind of am right now, right? RIGHT?

~Metal Glam Cosmetics Overview~

Pros: Pigmented colors, I liked the colors, good formula, good adherence. Overall, a good product and pretty pretty sparkly colors >.< Prices are comparable to other indies.

Cons: I would like to see a little more put into the packaging. While some attention to detail is there (the cute stars, tape so they don't undo in shipping) I prefer to see a printed label and maybe shrink wrap instead of the scotch tape. I also would prefer a more user-friendly ordering system in place, such as a website, instead of the ordering via e-mail/Facebook thing. It's not a huge deal, just my preference.

Overall: I had a pleasant experience with Metal Glam Cosmetics. The owner was a pleasure to work with, TAT was decent, and I liked the products I received. I would purchase from this company again, based on my experience. Also I know they have some newer colors, and I'm definitely going to check out what they have and see if there is anything in particular that speaks to me =^.^=

You can find Metal Glam Cosmetics on their Facebook page to look at more colors, swatches, descriptions, pricing, ordering information, or just to say hi.

Disclaimer: All products were purchased by me. I was not compensated for review.

Dawn Eyes Cosmetics swatches and mini review

I've been a bad, bad blogger, I'm quite behind on my reviews, but I'm back with a mini review for you of Dawn Eyes Cosmetics! Let's get right down to it, shall we?

Ordering/Shipping: I ordered a 5-sample blogger review pack from Dawn Eyes on 10/3/11 for $2.50 w/free shipping. Good deal right? I ordered through their web store (linked at the bottom of this review). I'm not crazy about the look and navigation on the site, but it's not too bad, and everything has a swatch, and that is what is important to me. I received my product on 10/14/11, so shipping was average - not lightning quick, not unbearably long; good then.

My stuff came wrapped like a little psychedelic present in tissue paper, of course inside a mailer (I can't remember if it was bubble wrapped or not, because I'm a naughty blogger and fell  off the face of the earth for a bit since I received it).

Samples are packaged in little labeled baggies, inside of larger baggies. No ingredient information on labels, but that can be found on the Dawn Eyes website.

 

Swatches were done over Darling Girl Glitter Glue. 

I ordered 5 colors and received 2 freebie samples. I always love getting freebies, it just gives me a little more happy! I didn't have trouble working with any of the colors (even the matte, Nude) and found them smooth and easy to apply. Pretty pretty, right?

The standouts for me in this group are Super Sparkle Black Gold and Gold Gilded Blue. I also see myself wearing Plain Soft Rose and Spring Buds. I want to wear Nude but I can't figure out how to make it work on me (color placement wise) yet. Amazing Base and How Sweet the Sound, although very pretty, may just be too sheer sparkly for my tastes.

Overall Thoughts: I'm really glad I tried Dawn Eyes Cosmetics out. I think this company has some gems to be found in their shadows, and I am pleasantly surprised at the colors and quality of product. Pricing is standard, shipping price is fair, and shipping time is average. I would order again.

You can find Dawn Eyes Cosmetics on Facebook or you can go to their website to browse around or place an order.

Mini-Disclaimer: Products were purchased by me for review. Opinions are my own and I was not compensated for review.

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.