Product Review

Swatches and Review: Hello Waffle shadows and lip balms (Seedless, Ginger Kitties, Rose)

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I LOVE mythology and fairy tales. Always have, always will. Oh the hours I have spent pouring over Pantheon.org and my mother’s old Grimms Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Anderson books… sigh. It was no surprise to me that I fell in love with Hello Waffle’s branding right away, then. I should count myself fortunate that Christine, Hello Waffle’s owner, has an amazing eye for color, because I would have bought her stuff either way! (We can discuss self control later). I bought her Blogger Pack, which is a generous compilation of two full sized shadows, a full sized lip balm, two lip balm samples, and 10 sample shadows (and now includes one full sized blush and one sample blush, all for $30, a generous deal!).

Let’s take a peek!

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Swatches and Review: Fyrinnae neutrals (and Debonair!), Hollywood Sorcery finishing powder, and Meloncholy lip lustre

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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’!

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Swatches and Review: Comparing Pumpkin and Poppy Oak Bark to NYX Taupe, and NARS Altai, a pale girl contour tale

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NARS Altai matte multiple, Pumpkin and Poppy Oak Bark, and NYX Taupe blush

As I understand it, ‘contour’ is a type of wizardry in which one takes their cheekbone-less cheeks (such as I have) and transmogrifies them into chiseled envelope openers of super model reknown. I consider myself to be an attempted student of this school of magic, and perhaps one day I might graduate into a real contour wizard, but until then I am a mere acolyte searching for cheekbone enlightenment. Step one, though, certainly is finding the correct product to use for contouring, and because I am also pale and quite cool toned (a double-whammy if you are looking for contour products that don’t make you look like an oompa loompa), this search is pretty much always ongoing.

I’ve recently added to my pile of contouring products Pumpkin and Poppy’s Oak Bark contouring powder, let’s take a closer look!

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Swatches and Review: Daisy Bird Cosmetics shadows and blush

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Let’s be honest, there are a lot of indie products out there in the ether to choose from. So far, I have loved every company I have tried. Maybe I am easy to please? I prefer to believe that the love and care a passionate person put into their indie lip balm or shadow adds a little somethin’ somethin’ to their products, though, and that I have been the recipient of some great suggestions to try. I’m already a strong proponent of slow food, urban homesteading, DIY gifts, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I jumped onto the indie cosmetic bandwagon… but what happens when the aesthetic of my little (well loved but poorly cared for) garden out back meets this new love of indie makeup?

You get Daisy Bird Cosmetics! I have to be up front, I LOVE its aesthetic. Not only because I like birds and it has the word ‘bird’ in its title, but the color schemes of the shadows that Alice, the owner, has created are right freaking up my alley. Natural. A bit whimsical. A very organic approach to the design of her labels and the themes of her shadows. Alice is also quite nice, and I have really enjoyed my first purchase from her store.

Let’s take a closer look!

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Swatches and Review: Shiro Anniversary Sale Haul!

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OK, with those stupid gifs now out of my system, I  can now move onto more important things. Like smearing eyeshadow all over my arms for a few hours. This is a joy I would never have anticipated before I got into indies, and swatching my entire Shiro order was a pleasure that was a bit difficult to explain to my husband (who thankfully is understanding of the whole insanity in the first place, but fears a bit for our scotch tape supply). You are now forewarned that I went a little hog wild with photos of the shadows and blushes, because damnit, they are just so pretty! See for yourself!

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