Swatches and Review: Blackbird Cosmetics Loose Matte Shadows

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I’m a bit of a desert rat. I’ve grown up around red rock landscapes since I was a kid, and being a pretty huge nature nerd I like iron-y earth underneath my fingernails, ravens circling overhead, and miles of rusty slot canyons to climb through. No doubt, this probably informed my love earth tones. These are the colors, textures… hell, even smells of my childhood:

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It should come as no surprise , then, that I have been eyeing earth-toned mattes from Blackbird Cosmetics since it opened at the end of June. When Maleah recently asked if I would be willing to give her shadows a try, I was PSYCHED! I’ve been on a glitter-and-sparkle binge with all of my indies recently (Shh, shhh Alkahestry, it’s ok, I still love you!), but have been craving some good, grounded mattes in some fabulous colors. Full disclosure: She generously provided me a sample pack of her shadows for free, and I am very happy to provide a really honest review of them in return… and I have to be up front in saying that I think these shadows are totally fab!

Come with me, wee ones, let us get a closer look!

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Look of Today: Smokey Eye and a Life’s Entropy Lip Theory for a special house concert

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This past week and a half has been NUTS! Among several big things going on in Magpieland, my husband and I were fortunate enough to be a house tour stop for one of our favorite musicians, Jim Bianco (cue fangirlish screaming that I held back while trying to be cool… if you haven’t heard his music yet, STOP READING THIS and go listen to Never Again).

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Look of Today: Femme Fatale Opaline Shoal and Fyrinnae Meloncholy, and a No Mirror Challenge

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It’s no secret that I am in love with Femme Fatale duochromes. I haven’t really had a chance to give Opaline Shoal a good go yet, swatched here. With a No Mirror Challenge up in r/MUA on Reddit (that I inevitably didn’t post to, because I’m a chickenpants), I decided it was a great opportunity to whip Opaline Shoal out, and give Jade Ghost and Meloncholy some much needed exercise. Admittedly, the No Mirror challenge was a bit harder than I had thought it might be…so fool hardy! Haha 🙂 Let’s take a look.

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Swatches and Review: My Pretty Zombie PCP and MDMA Blush

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Whew, it’s been a long week! I’ve been recovering from tonsillitis (you know, being sick as an adult is TOTALLY different than being sick as a kid… you keep thinking you should be able to get up, drive around, go to work any moment, when in reality you’re a sad little feverish blob and in no way should be allowed to respond to your work e-mail… sorry co-workers!), so it felt SO good to be able to sit down and have a good play date with my makeup vanity! AND I received not one, but TWO My Pretty Zombie blushes from my amazing swap partner in the r/MakeupAddiction Summer Exchange, so what better reason to play around with some killer blush?

Let’s look at swatches!

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