I’ve been happily using my Fyrinnae Pygmy Hippo lip lustre since I received it mid-May, but of course the green-eyed makeup monster within me (in my mind’s eye it has razor sharp eyeliner wings and perfect brows) has driven me to covet that which I do not have… most specifically, I have been eyeing Meloncholy, because I can’t get enough of coral shades. Once I got that far, of course it only seemed practical to also pick up more pink-spectrum neutral-toned shadows, because I recently offloaded my Naked 3 palette after realizing that I love the conceptof it but just find that its shadows are too weak in their performance to validate a $54 palette purchase. This left a chasm! A gaping hole! Why not find other pink/taupe/bronze neutrals to help fill it? And, whelp… that’s how you place another Fyrinnae order. It just so happened that a BUNCH of my indie orders all arrived at once (Pumpkin and Poppy, Hello Waffle, and Darling Clandestine all showed up in my mailbox within 48 hours of each other), so I am in drunken indie product bliss at the moment, and I was so excited about these shades (especially Orangutan!) that I needed to swatch them right away.

Swatchy swatchy swatchin’!

Debonair

Debonair is SO vibrant! This was a free sample with my purchase, and it is an intense purple with warm, bronzy shimmer. This could be compared to Meerkat, but I see a lot more pink in Meerkat, and its shimmer is a much more intense gold, whereas Debonair certainly leans more copper/bronze in its shimmer. I also found Meerkat’s shimmer to be a bit more upfront/intense than Debonair’s.

Feisty Fennec Fox

Mmmmm, gray taupes… I’m excited to use this as an all-over lid color! This is a brown-gray color, more cool leaning. I’ve seen this described elsewhere as having gold shimmer, and I believe it does, but I also see a bit more green/khaki from this shadow, especially apparent in the sunlight.

Kurisumasu!

If I had to survive on two general shades of eyeshadow for the rest of my life, it would be taupes, and then rose golds. This is a rosey-beigey-gold-ish color that looks both feminine and refined. It has shimmer, but I like that it’s a bit more satin-y finish than some Fyrinnae shadows, for those days when I just don’t feel like my eyelids being disco balls (then again, when would you not want disco ball eyelids, really?).

Housework Pearls

Ok, if I had to cut myself down to THREE general colors of eyeshadows for the rest of my life… I would also include orange/coral/peach colors. This is a sweeter, more pink or red leaning peach, than a zestier orange or yellow peach, and though it is not fully matte it doesn’t have a TON of sparkle to it. I wish I had a lip color that was exactly this color, and maybe I would also just rub it unceremoniously all over the rest of my face because it is just… really pretty.

I did find this color to be similar to Orangutan, but Orangutan has significantly stronger burnt orange hues (as one would expect of something named after orangutans), and also has more shimmer/shine. Housework Pearls is Orangutan’s pinker, more feminine, less flashy cousin, but I like the two shadows enough independently that I don’t regret buying both shades. Actually, as you will see in the look, I found it handy for blending and transitioning the colors.

Crimson Ghost

So, it’s no news that I LOVE Jade Ghost (seen here and here), and Crimson Ghost is its pink-toned relative. Jade Ghost had this amazingly luminous quality, and Crimson ghost has it as well, it just glows pink/red instead. These colors are terrific inner-eye highlight colors.

Knickers in a Twist

Knickers in a Twist is a bronzey brown color, leaning just a bit gray (oh wait, that’s called taupe, isn’t it?). Fyrinnae’s website notes the bronze, but I also get just a LITTLE purple out of this shade when I see it in the sunlight.

Orangutan

My Orangutan shadow most clearly shows the ‘balling’ phenomenon of all of the shadows I received. This is explained in THIS Fyrinnae FAQ, and has to do with the reformulation of Fyrinnae shadows with binders to increase their quality. Honestly, I had no trouble working around the little shadow balls and didn’t feel that it negatively impacted my use of the shadows. When I need to, I’ll break them apart and use them up– I suppose I’ll see if this results in any issues when I get there!

Apart from Meloncholy, I placed this order for Orangutan. It’s a dark peach with a decent amount of shimmer, and dances somewhere in that world of bronze/orange/red/pink without being too overpowering in any realm.

Can’t you just see the little bitty orangutan dancing around in this shadow?

Meloncholy Lip Lustre

For some reason, Meloncholy reads quite pink on me, but this really is a quite ‘melon’-y coral shade. It has the same great formula that I really like from Pygmy Hippo (you know, since they are the same product and all). Lip lustres are more of a ‘cream lipstick’. In some ways, its formula reminds me a little bit of Sephora’s cream lip stains, except these don’t dry down quite as much (though they do dry down), and don’t leave the unpleasant ‘layer’ feeling I get sometimes from Sephora’s cream lip stains (like there is a very fine, dried layer of liquid on my lips… which I guess there is). This lip lustre has good opacity, but I think is understated just enough that I will feel comfortable wearing it to both work and family functions.

Hollywood Sorcery Finishing Powder

This was another sample that I received with my order! I thought providing two mini-jar samples with my order was really generous. Hollywood Sorcery was really hard to photograph in a meaningful way because it is a VERY finely milled powder and really seems to disappear into your skin (as it is supposed to). This finishing powder is a sort of dusty peach color, with a bit of gold, and is incredibly smooth when applied. It does give a bit of glow upon application, like Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders. I used a large fluffy brush and patted this onto my face when I was finished with my look below, and I think it gave an overall luminosity to my face. Even being a pale chick, I didn’t feel like it bronzed/darkened up my skin. I don’t have issues with oily skin, so I unfortunately can’t speak to oil control, but I was surprised that this powder didn’t end up accentuating the fine lines around my mouth several hours later, as I tend to experience this with most powders.

TAT

Every order I have had with Fyrinnae has had a terrific TAT. Don’t be frightened by their 28-30 day TAT on their page! Maybe some day it will actually happen, but I placed this order on May 29th, it shipped June 2nd, and showed up at my house June 5th. I also had no troubles with their website for this order, and really overall everything was really quick and smooth. The only down side to this is that it makes it SO EASY to throw my money at them

The Look

For this look I used Crimson Ghost in the inner corner, Kurisumasu! across most of the lid, then used Housework Pearls to blend back into Orangutan for in the outer V, and used Orangutan and Housework Pearls for the crease/slightly onto the brow bone. I went back in with a bit of Knickers in a Twist in the outer crease for some definition. I also used Housework Pearls across the lower lid. On my lips I used the Meloncholy lip lustre, I used the Hollywood Sorcery finishing powder across the entire face, and not from Fyrinnae, I used Pumpkin and Poppy’s Oak Bark as contour (review of which can be found HERE).

Products!

• MUFE HD Foundation in 110
• Palladio herbal foundation primer
• NARS smudge-proof eye primer
• Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
• UD 24/7 liner in Tornado (tightlined)
• Laura Mercier Secret Concealer in 01 and Secret Brightening Powder
• Fyrinnae Crimson Ghost, Kurisumasu, Housework Pearls, Orangutan, Knickers in a Twist
• Fyrinnae Hollywood Sorcery finishing powder
• L’oreal Voluminous Butterfly Lashes in black
• Pumpkin and Poppy Oak Bark contouring powder
• Detrivore Apocalyptic blush
• Shiro 1-Up blush
• Anastasia dip brow in Auburn
• Fyrinnae Meloncholy lip lustre

Final Thoughts

I have yet to try a Fyrinnae shadow that I don’t like. Now that I am broadening my experiences with indie shadows, I do think that Fyrinnae’s binders make a difference in their formulation, and I find myself attracted to this concept of a ‘semi-loose’ formula because of it. In the back of my mind, I’m realizing I’m slowly working toward the goal of trying all of their shadows… with time, my pet, with time. I also want to give another shout out to the lip lustres, and how much my desert-dry lips like them. Meloncholy’s quality and pigmentation was entirely consistent with what I experienced with Pygmy Hippo, and they are both really gorgeous colors. Since this was my first experience with one of their finishing powders as well, I felt that their formula worked really nicely for my skin. A lot of finishing powders make my skin feel a bit tight and dry, but I didn’t feel that with this one at all. I’m also once again impressed with their really efficient TAT, and the fact that they included not one but two really lovely samples within my order. This is more meaningful to me now that I know that most indies provide you with sample baggies, not sample mini jars– still very generous and nothing to sneeze at, but I think that Fyrinnae is generous with their product. I wish there was something more critical I could say at this point, but honestly, I really liked all of the shadows, including my samples, and once again Fyrinnae really hit the mark with their quick processing and lovely product.

Your Turn

What are your favorite pink/peachy/bronzey neutral eyeshadow shades? What are your favorite coral lip colors?