Meow Cosmetics Friday the 13th

Ok so obviously this post is a long time coming since the last Friday the 13th was in May. This special LE collection is only available on...well you guessed it Friday the 13th. According to the Meow website the next time this collection will be available is January 13th, 2012.

This collection was probably one of the most difficult collection to describe and photograph. The colors of this set are so incredibly complex and multi-dimensional that quite honestly you have to see them for yourself to really see the true colors.

Trepidation - Metallic coppery orange

Unlucky - Metallic burgundy with pink shift

Broken Mirror - Medium gray with aqua sparkle

Spell - Medium cornflower blue with aqua shift. This one is super pretty!

Cursed - Light sage green with pink shift

Fate - Deep ocean blue with aqua shift

Misfortune - Metallic green/blue with gold shift. I think this one is my favorite of this collection. Really a gorgeous color.

Skeptic - Periwinkle blue with pink/copper shift. This one has a very pretty coppery pink shift that the camera actually picked up quite well.

Bad Luck - Reddish bronze with coppery shift


Supernatural - Metallic antique gold


Paranormal - Black based dark green with gold shift. I am loving this black based color!

13 - Light shimmery brown


Accident - Metallic deep wine red with copper shift


Parakeviakatriaphobia - Pastel iridescent aqua with green shift. This was an extremely difficult shade to photograph and unfortunately it never shows up quite right.

This really is a gorgeous collection and definitely worth picking up next time they are available. =)

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HUGE blog sale!

Hello to all my lovely readers! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm having a huge blog sale going on right now through...well whenever all of it is sold. Check out the tabs above labeled Makeup Blog Sale and Bath and Body Blog Sale. If you have any questions at all please feel free to leave a comment or email me. Happy shopping!

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Brazen Cosmetics Blame it on Rio LE Collection

Oh Brazen Cosmetics, how I love you! I was running out of my Yummy Gummy Sugar Lips Sugar Scrub and ended up purchasing two other items along with the sugar scrub. By the way, if you have not tried their sugar scrubs you are totally missing out. Sandi makes the most amazing sugar scrub and she has tons of awesome flavors. Along with the lip scrub, I purchased her extremely limited edition Blame it on Rio collection as well as the Razzle Dazzle passion pot lip gloss.

Razzle Dazzle

The Razzle Dazzle lip gloss is a vanilla flavored clear gloss chock full of holographic rainbow glitter! I thought I loved her Gummie Glaze collection before, but I love this one even better. It's completely wearable on it's own or over another gloss to add sparkle. Pictures don't really do this gloss justice since it's way more sparkley in real life than it is in pictures.

Ooo sparkley!

Brazen's LE Blame it on Rio Collection was originally only available as a free gift with purchases over $80. She eventually made it available to purchase separately but I believe they are now completely sold out. I would have loved to see this made a permanent collection as the colors are absolutely gorgeous and wearable! The collection came in an adorable red organza bag with a cute custom tag.

I love the custom tag!

Blame it on Rio Collection

Go Bare - Gorgeous champagne with gold shimmer. I really love this shade it's the perfect go-to highlighter!

Rio - Medium coppery brown with gold shimmer.

Copacabana - Milk chocolate brown shimmer

Samba - Rich wine red shimmer.

So what do you think of this collection? Love it or Leave it? Maybe if you beg Sandi she'll bring it back permanently. ;)

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StellaStarish Cosmetics

Love the hand-stamped box!

StellaStarish Cosmetics is a fairly new company but the owner is no newbie to the MMU world. Stella has had her YouTube channel and Facebook page for quite awhile and has recently realized her dream of having her own cosmetic line!

I placed my order on August 17 and received it on August 22 so the TAT was a freaking fabulous 3 business days! Stella I don't know how you can handle being a mommy to 3 boys, run your own business and have a TAT like that but you go girl! I absolutely LOVE the attention to detail that Stella puts in to her packages. My package was mailed to me in a plain manila envelope and inside the envelope was this beautiful hand stamped box containing my goodies as well as a PayPal invoice. I ordered her Take TEN (which is choose 10 pigments for $40) and 2 additional pigments for $4.50 each. I did not receive any free samples but instead I actually received a full 5g jar of Scorpio for free!

List of ingredients and the adorable star charm bracelet!

Cute quote and website information

All my pretty piggies!

Super cute individual custom labels

All of the eye shadow jars are labeled on the top and the bottom with printed paper labels. The labels on top have the logo and the labels on the bottom have custom labels for each shade. I would eventually like to see the labels laminated as the paper is easily smudged when it gets wet or dirty (I accidentally got one of mine wet with a makeup removing towelette). Now for the part everyone likes best...the swatches! I swatched all of these shadows over Hi-Fi Cosmetics High Impact Shadow Fix because I knew these would be pretty glittery.

Pegasus - Light bubble gum pink with holographic glitter. I love how pretty this pink is and perfectly suited to it's name.

Lila's Light Year - Bright white with every color imaginable glitter! I can see iridescent, holographic, blue, red and pink glitter. I'm pretty sure there's more colors of glitter than that in it though because Stella said there's 10 different glitters in it!

Gemini - Really gorgeous shimmery purple with aqua glitter. I am a big fan of purples and this one is awesome!

Aquarius - Almost-matte aquamarine with holographic glitter. I'm liking this almost-matte piggie and think it'd make an awesome lid color.

Sagittarius - Medium red-based shimmery purple

Mercury - Silvery gunmetal grey. This is going to make a killer smokey eye!

Leo - Sheer golden yellow. Awesome as a highlight.

Charlie's Comet -  Very pretty brick red with a hint of aqua shimmer.

Venus - Medium bubble gum pink with a gold shift. Pink lovers this one is for you!

Rocket - Deep black with red and purple sparkle. If this were a matte color, MAC's Carbon would be jealous! This is about as black as you can get and Carbon looks grey-ish compared to it.

Pavo - Ultraviolet blue with a gold shift. Quite the unique color as I don't have anything else like it in my collection.

Savannah's Storm - Silvery grey/lilac shimmer. Another of those that lives up to it's name as it reminds me of one of the colors of the sky during a storm.


Scorpio - Bright orange-based red with gold glitter.

Her website is fairly simple and easy to navigate and she uses a PayPal shopping cart which I assume most people are generally familiar with using. Stella has very good customer service and is always on her Facebook answering questions and what not. Overall shopping with StellaStarish Cosmetics was great and I'll definitely be back for more!

So now that you've read my review, go check StellaStarish Cosmetics out! Starting this Friday August 26 5pm EST through Saturday August 27 5pm EST Stella is having a sale on her Take TEN! deal. Instead of the usual 10 eye shadows for $40 she's making it a Take TWELVE! and dropping the price to $35 with free shipping!! Seriously this is an amazing deal so go take advantage of it if you can this weekend!

5 out of 5 Glittery Bubbles


**All products were purchased by me with my own money. I was not compensated in any way, shape or form for this review. All opinions are my own.

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Simply Kendra

*EDIT 8/23/11 Added a photo with re-swatched shadows. See last photo.

I don't remember exactly when or where I heard about Simply Kendra Cosmetics but I took a look at their website and was very interested in quite a few shades. I ended up ordering a full set of her Summer Warpaints Collection in 3g jars as well as a 6 miscellaneous shades from her permanent line also in 3g jars.

I placed my order on August 17 and received it on August 22 so the TAT was an amazing 3 business days! My order was packaged very neatly with the Summer Warpaints Collection in one small plastic bag and the shades from the permanent line in another. A third bag contained 3 free samples, a business card and a sheet listing ingredients for the eyeshadows.  The last bag with the heart sticker on it contained a piece of Jolly Rancher hard candy! I seriously love her attention to detail and can honestly say this is one of the best packages I've ever received!

Each eye shadow has it's own custom label which I think is super cute! I would have preferred having the ingredients on the jars themselves rather than just a printed paper with the ingredients as I will probably end up losing this paper somewhere. Each jar has a sifter with seals to prevent leakage. Now for the best part..swatches! These were all swatched over MAC Painterly Paint Pot.

Summer War Paints Collection

Madd Krush - Orangey coral with iridescent sparkle.

Krista - Bright opaque jade green with a hint of gold shimmer. This seems to be a popular shade among MMUCs right now since I feel like I've swatched similar colors from a couple other MMUCs...or maybe it's just that I always end up picking the same color...lol.


E=MCPink - Medium bubble gum pink with a very slight blue shift. The nerd in me loves the name of this shadow!


Glitterbot - Shimmery medium purple with pink glitter. This is a very aptly named shadow which unfortunately my camera wasn't able to pick up the glitter. I might try reswatching over Hi-Fi Shadow Fix to see if I can get the pink glitter to show up.

Permanent line shadows

Aztec Maiden - Light sea green with silver shimmer. This color turned out a bit lighter than I expected but still pretty.


My French Boyfriend - Silvery light blue/gray. I really love this color, it's absolutely gorgeous!


Lisette - Pretty pastel lilac. Really liking this shade as well.

Jersey - Light chartreuse.

Naughty Librarian - Bright purple grape with holographic glitter. This shade is TO DIE FOR! I need to swatch this over a sticky base because of the glitter.

Free samples

Conspiracy Theory - Bright shimmery blue. I love blues and this one is no exception.

Razzatazz - Light fuschia with purple glitter. Another of those I need to swatch over a sticky base because of the glitter.


Summer Fling - Bright creamsicle orange with gold shimmer.

Re-swatched over Hi-Fi Cosmetics High Impact Shadow Fix.
You can see the glitter better in these swatches particularly around the edges.

The eye shadows were all very soft and easily blended with good pigmentation. I will definitely be ordering from Simply Kendra again and I already have my eye on a few shades. The website is fairly simple to navigate and the listings are clear and concise. The only thing I have a bit of a problem with is the chunky, elongated font found on the listings, About and FAQ pages. I find it to be quite difficult to read without going cross-eyed.

 Simply Kendra offers samples for $1.00, 3g jars for $3.00 and 5g jars for $5.00. She also offers pressed shadows for $6.50 which is unique since most MMUCs do not offer pressed shadows. Her pricing is very reasonable and on par with a lot of other companies. Overall I really enjoyed the eye shadows I received and the customer service is excellent! I would highly recommend checking Kendra out when you get the chance!

5 out of 5 Glittery Bubbles


**All products were purchased by me with my own money. I was not compensated in any way, 
shape or form for this review. All opinions are my own.

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Bokeh Face Cosmetics; A Follow-Up

After my initial review of Bokeh Face Cosmetics, the owner Natalie contacted me through my blog wanting to make up for the less than stellar product that I received. She offered me either a full refund or replacement products. I chose to have her send me replacement products and I also had her choose which eye shadows she would send me.

Ingredients List

I received my replacement products 9 business days from the day I let her know what I wanted. This approximately falls within her 4-5 business day TAT plus shipping time which was definitely a lot better than the first time I ordered from her. My replacement products came wrapped in purple tissue paper and sealed with a large Bokeh Face Cosmetics sticker. She also included a paper that had a list of ingredients as well as a small hand written note.

I received 4 5g jars of eye shadow in Hurricane, Octopus, Glass Slipper and Bird King. The stickers on the lids show the Bokeh Face logo as well as the color number and name. I swatched these colors over Lucky 107 Concrete primer.

Hurricane - Pretty medium blue with a slight green/gold shift. I was initially pleasantly surprised by this color as I wasn't expecting the gold/green shift. This is my favorite of the bunch. The shift doesn't show up that well in this picture but you can sort of see it around the top edges of the swatch.

Glass Slipper -  Very light champagne pink shimmer. This would be a beautiful highlight. Looks white in picture but it's definitely not white.

Octopus - Orange-y peach color with a slight gold shift.

Bird King - Blue based shimmery gray. This color is funny as it looks nearly matte indoors but outdoors it's definitely shimmery.

Honestly, I wasn't really all that impressed with these replacement products either. I can't really put my finger on it but these shadows seem...thin? Maybe it's because of the base? The adherence is ok but the pigmentation seems a bit lacking. These colors are definitely softer and less bold than I would usually purchase.

If you're new to experimenting with different colors than these would be a good place to start but if you're looking for really unique and bold colors I would look elsewhere. For me, they're pretty but they're nothing that really "wows" me and there are dozens of other companies that do have those "wow" shadows that I would rather purchase from. I do appreciate Natalie's excellent customer service in my case but I probably won't be purchasing from Bokeh Face again anytime soon.

3.5 out of 5 Glittery Bubbles


**These products were sent to me as a replacement for products I had previously purchased and was not satisfied with. I was not compensated in any way, shape or form for this review. All opinions are my own.

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Dawn Eyes Cosmetics

Awhile back, around mid June, I won a contest on Dawn Eyes Cosmetics's (DEC) blog and the prize was 5 samples of my choice. I was really excited to try Dawn's eye shadows because her company was started as a direct result of the closing of the beloved Aromaleigh (AL). She bought most of her raw ingredients from Kristen (former owner of AL) and I was hoping that Dawn's shadows would be similar in quality and uniqueness.

My samples were sent to me in a regular first class mail envelope along with a short hand-written note. I don't really know what her normal TAT for her regular orders are but I did receive the samples quite quickly. I think it took about 3-5 business days to reach me. The samples were sent in small 2x2 baggies and each had pretty generous amount of shadow (enough for several applications). There were no ingredients listed on the samples but they can be found quite easily on her website. On to the swatches...

Breathless - Gorgeous silvery white with subtle holographic sparkles. Sort of reminds me of MPZ Unicorn's Pee but this one is a little more refined.

Blurple - Deep blue based purple with shimmery purple and blue sparkle. This is a very unique color and I don't have anything like it in my collection. 

Merry Go Round - This is a beautiful turquoise with gold duochrome. Absolutely gorgeous!

Sparkling Tea Roses - Soft, feminine dusty rose with shimmer.

Feed Me Seymour - Bright, opaque aquamarine with silvery shimmer. This reminds me of Hi-Fi Cosmetics Kokomo but this one is definitely more opaque.

DEC definitely did not disappoint with her shadows! They are very soft and silky in their application and they're so easy to blend out. I just placed an order with her today because she's having a big sale in honor of reaching 500 fans on Facebook! So go check DEC out and take advantage of her amazing sale!


5 out of 5 Glittery Bubbles


**These products were sent to me as a contest prize. I was not compensated in any way, shape or form for this review. All opinions are my own.

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Guest Review!

Hi there! My name is Lisa Neff; my (non-makeup) blog is at http://wholenesswithoutsugar.blogspot.com; and this is my first-ever review, so please be gentle with me, LOL.


I met Amanda on the RAT Pack Facebook page, and she took me up on my offer to do a freelance guest blogger review. I love color, and cosmetics are my chosen medium. I buy, collect, and review cosmetics; I consider it my “hobby.” I’m a long-time member of Makeup Alley (screen name “hp11989”) and have been voted a Top Reviewer there.


I have short, warm-toned, medium brown hair; hazel green eyes; a pale, cool, pink-toned complexion; and pigmented lips. I prefer shimmery and sparkly eyeshadow colors from bright to neutral. I usually look best in colors with warm to neutral undertones, but I believe in my ability to detach from my preferences so that I can review any item fairly.


The only caveats I add to my budding experience with beauty blogging are these:

• I lack camera skills in terms of photographing cosmetic products and swatches.
• I live a pretty simple life (read boring [plus I work from home]), so I don’t do crease colors or eye lining (just lid and brow bone highlight). This means you probably won’t ever see any funky looks or read any reviews of those products from me, LOL.
• I’m just as interested in marketing, presentation, and packaging as the actual cosmetics, so I will be covering those things, too.

I will almost always be writing eyeshadow reviews since that’s what I wear the most often. So, on with the review: Today’s topic is Tick:Tock Cosmetics.


Company name: Tick:Tock Cosmetics
Web site: http://ticktockcosmetics.storenvy.com/


The Web Site Itself: 5 of 5 Stars
I had high hopes for this small indie company just based on the Web site, which is gorgeous. Things I liked include:


• Great font for the company name and tag line
• Fun tag line (“For Colors That Are Rockin’ Around the Clock”)
• Great storefront layout
• Excellent (huge) product shots
• Color names tie in with the overall theme
• Ingredients listed on each separate product page
• Great clickable (enlargeable) labeled “collage” product photo for each shadow.

Example
of collage photo (reprinted with permission of Tick:Tock Cosmetics)

Things I didn’t like or that confused me:

• No mention of whether or not colors are vegan-friendly (although they do state approved for eye and/or lip use)

• At the top of each individual product page are the links “eye shadow pigment” “handmade,” “Makeup,” “make up,” and “cosmetics.” These clickable links take you to a Storenvy page that list many items from different shops, with her shadows scattered among them. IMHO, she’s giving free advertising to the other companies listed on those pages! Plus it’s just confusing.

Pricing: 5 of 5 Stars

Fair and actually better than average in terms of FS jars: $5.50 for a 5-g jar (“packed” into 5-g sifter-capped jars) and only $.70 for samples in the dreaded longer baggies (2” x 3”) (sample size not stated, but it looked like an 1/8-teaspoon to me). No minimum order is stated. No free samples were included in my package, just a bottle-cap necklace (see below). Maybe this “extra would appeal to a 14-year-old girl, but not to me. I would have preferred an extra sample, which would also have been a better marketing tool. She must be marketing to a younger set =)

Bottle-cap necklace

TAT and Shipping: 4 of 5 Stars

Ordered: 06/11/11

Shipped: 06/14/11

TAT: 3 days (good)

Shipping: $2.00

Actual shipping: $2.51 (plus the cost of DC, so she actually lost money on mailing)

Personal shipping email: Yes

DC/tracking: Yes

Invoice: No

Packaging/presentation: Small padded mailing envelope; sample baggies enclosed in slightly larger baggie

Sample packaging: The dreaded longer baggies (2” x 3”; they make it hard to get shadow on just the brush and not the ferrule, too)

Extras: Yes (bottle-cap necklace)

Product: 3 of 5 Stars

At present, Tick:Tock has only a small number of shadows and shadows only: 14 to be exact. However, they do show a preview of a new collection called “Tea Time,” which includes 6 new colors. They also state that an eyeshadow base is coming soon (see notice of their upcoming sale below). The product photographs are huge and beautiful; extremely nice presentation. The collage photos on each product page show how the shadows look with different applications; again, a very useful tool for choosing colors! All of the colors are fairly simple and contain shimmer or sparkles in approximately the same color family. I would like to them mix it up a bit with unexpected color pairings.

Colors Ordered (my take in italics)

Hourglass (far left in photos; also shown close-up): Orange with gold shimmer and orange glitter (TT description) This description was accurate. Hourglass is a pretty but fairly one-dimensional shadow despite the addition of shimmer and glitter. It’s close to a Creamsicle shade. A little bit of pink duochrome would have made it more wearable for me. UNFORTUNATELY NOT A REBUY =(

Tick:Tock under flash conditions

Hourglass close-up

High Noon (second from left in photo): Light brown with a hint of shimmer (TT
description) I liked this shade and was hoping it would be a dupe for Aromaleigh’s
discontinued Infernal Chaos (third from left in photos). It came pretty close but was
actually darker and more pigmented. It doesn’t have much shimmer, and I see it being
quite a good staple bare neutral for school, work, or church/synagogue. POSSIBLE
REBUY =)

Tick:Tock under natural lighting

Alarm Clock (far right in photos; also shown close-up): Light pink with red shimmer
and pink glitter (TT description) There wasn’t anything special enough about this color
to make me want more of it. It looks like a lot of the other pink shades I have. However,
if you’re looking for a pink, or if pinks scare you (LOL), this one is pretty neutral-
toned: not too cool and not too warm. Again, it was pretty but fairly one-dimensional.
UNFORUNATELY NOT A REBUY =(

Alarm Clock close-up

Would I Buy Again?

Yes, I would like to give this shop a second chance with some of the deeper colors: Salvador Dali (very cool “time/clock” reference, I’m assuming, to Dali’s melting timepieces), Times Square, and Grandfather Clock are colors I’d like to try. And I’ll probably get some more High Noon. Luckily they are having a big sale, with the release of the new primer and new eyeshadow colors, this weekend, August 13 and 14. This
time, however, I’ll pass on the bottle-cap necklace =)

OVERALL RATING: 4.25 OF 5 STARS!

I hope you enjoyed my review, and I’m looking forward to your comments! Look for
more reviews to come on my new beauty blog, http://fleurs-de-lisa.blogspot.com/.

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Swatching and Photography

One of my followers messaged me (awhile back...so sorry for the delay! It's been craziness for me!) and asked me to share how I create and photograph my swatches and how they always turn out so great. I am very flattered that you think so Anne! So here is my step-by-step on how I create and photograph my swatches. So sorry there aren't any pictures...I don't know where the camera is after our move so I need to look for it. I'll add pictures once I can find it.

First of course you'll need a primer. I use a combination of primers including TFSI, MAC Painterly Paint Pot, Lucky 107 Concrete, UDPP and Hi-Fi High Impact Shadow Fix. I honestly don't have a preference for the most part on which primer I use as they all work equally well for swatching and photography purposes. There is only one notable exception and that is when swatching shadows I know are particularly glittery such as Fyrinnae shadows. I will always use Hi-Fi High Impact Shadow Fix for all shadows that have a high glitter content. The Shadow Fix is a slightly tacky base which causes the glitter to adhere very well to my skin and really brings out the glittery shadows.

I will usually prime the middle section of my forearm. Lately I've been finding it easier to swatch 3-4 shadows at a time rather than try to swatch as many as I possibly can of whatever collection I'm doing on my entire arm. It just makes it easier to make the swatches more even and uniform.

I usually use my middle finger or a medium fluffy eye shadow brush to swatch the shadows, and since I'm right handed it's always the middle finger on my right hand. I begin my swatches from top to bottom and start with one long streak and build from there. I try to make my swatches slightly wider than the width of my middle finger. I will swipe on the shadow until the swatch is an even shape and then I will pat more shadow over it especially if the shadow is very glittery.

It really does not matter what kind of camera you use but what's really important is your camera settings. The camera I use is a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS which is just a basic point a shoot digital camera. The setting I use is the digital macro setting and adjust the lighting using either the auto white balance or the day light setting and that's pretty much it.

Really I think the most important part of making the colors look as true to life as possible is what kind of lighting you use when you're photographing your swatches. In the beginning, I didn't quite understand this concept and I would just take pictures of my swatches in my bathroom. While the lighting in my bathroom isn't bad, it does not compare to direct sunlight. Be prepared to take a lot of pictures. Usually for each set of swatches I'll take about 10-15 pictures and pick the best of the set.

Once I have chosen the picture I feel best represents the shadows' colors and textures I upload them and edit to add my blog name and shadow names. I will sometimes edit the photos further for sharpness, exposure and contrast but I DO NOT edit the photos' color. What you see is what you get.

So there you have it, a step by step of how I do my swatches and photography. If anyone has any questions feel free to comment and I'll be happy to answer them. Happy swatching!

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