Aromaleigh June 2015 Ephemera - Swatches and Review!

Your eyes do not deceive you, I'm actually posting something on the day I received it!  I have Aromaleigh's June Ephemera today and the theme is Melusine.  As usual, it was wrapped colorful ribbons that fit the theme and came with iridescent packaging worms and candy.  It came with three eyeshadows, one blush, one contour sample, and a lip gloss from Dreamworld Hermetica.

Beautiful artwork drawn by Linda from Innocent + Twisted Alchemy!

Pictures taken under daylight bulb and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Bain Enchantee

Bain Enchantee:  shimmery lavender with silver sparkles and pink shimmer

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy February 2015 - Swatches and Review

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  I hope you're having fun whether you're spending time with your partner, friends, or family :)  I'm home alone so I figured I might as well get my February subscription reviews out.  I have Innocent+Twisted Alchemy's Feb box for you guys and I actually really liked it!  It came in an adorable heart envelope with some lipstick tape.  For this month, we had three beautiful eyeshadows from I+T and several other indie samples.

Pictures taken in daylight and swatched over Notoriously Morbid Shadow Bind (top half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom half)

Pearls Before Wine

Pearls Before Wine:  ballet slipper pink with gold shimmers.  This is a very pretty and very feminine color.  I didn't expect to like it because I don't usually go for pinks, but this changed my mind.  It's very subtle and glowy.

Notoriously Morbid Shadow Bind - Review and Comparisons

I have some exciting news, everyone!  Notoriously Morbid released their version of a glitter adhesive this morning.  It's called "Shadow Bind" and is supposed to make glittery/sparkly eyeshadows adhere to your lids better, instead of having a bunch of fallout on your face.  Shadow Bind is not a primer, so you will need to prime your lids with regular primer beforehand.  I was sent a tester sample a few months ago and I have been using it this whole time.  The site advises you to primer your lids, apply a bit of Shadow Bind to your lids and wait 15-20 seconds to dry.  However, I find that I don't really have to wait that long, I end up dabbing it on my lids, smoothing it over and then applying my shadows immediately.  It also has a watery texture, as opposed to fan favorite's Pixie Epoxy by Fyrinnae.  Pixie Epoxy (PE) is said to have a very steep learning curve as you have to wait for the appropriate amount of time to try and it tends to be hard to blend afterward.  

As soon as I received this product, I got straight to work with tests and comparisons.  I've put it through several different tests, so there will be a lot of pictures!  For all the swatches I'll be showing, I applied a layer of ELF Essential Primer (non-sticky) and then applied NM's Shadow Bind on the top half - everything is shot under a daylight bulb.

Dreamworld Hermetica Haul - Swatches and Review

Today I have a review on an indie company called Dreamworld Hermetica.  This review is a little special because it'll also be appearing on Toxid Lotus' blog on 7/31/14.  Luna is an awesome indie blogger (one of the first blogs I read which got me into indies) and she's starting to do Thursday Guest Posts to showcase other indie blogs!  I think it's so amazing that she's featuring other blogs and getting them out there.  She takes amazing pictures and does very in depth reviews.  Please check her out!

Anyway, this isn't my first time trying Dreamworld's shadows, I actually have an older first impressions review I did when the owner, Ellie, sent some samples of her new formula to me to test out here.  I enjoyed their semi-loose eyeshadow formula immensely because they're pigmented and long lasting.  Dreamworlds was having a pretty big sale so I decided to finally use that opportunity to pick up a shade that I had been eyeing for awhile (Black Flamed Candle).  Mini-jars normally sell for $2.75 for 1/4 tsp, and full-size jars range from $6 to $8 depending on the collection and formula.  I was also interested in one of their CotMs (Color of the Months) called Plummy Penny.  However, I completely forgot it when I was making my order because it wasn't in the "Eyes" section of the website.  I only found out afterwards on the indie subreddit and was pretty disappointed that I missed it.

My order came in pretty quickly, I forget the exact time because I've decided to stop obsessively checking tracking information (which used to stress me out a lot).  When I opened my package, I noticed this Thank You post-it from Ellie.  I was wondering what surprise she meant...

It turns out this sweet woman saw my post on the sub and decided to throw in a full-sized Plummy Penny in for free!  I was blown away and really shocked that she actually connected my Reddit account to my order.  This was amazing and I'm extremely grateful.  It really is a beautiful color (thank you /u/daisyismydog / Rebecca for suggesting it!) and you'll see how pretty it is in the swatch below.

Jars are all individually shrink wrapped

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy April 2014 Subscription - Review and Swatches

Okay, I think I deserve a huge round of applause this time.  I received my package TODAY and I'm already blogging about it (woot woot!).  I'm pretty sure this is the fastest I've ever gotten a blog post up..  

Anyway, this is a review on my April subscription box from Innocent + Twisted Alchemy.  After reading her product and company list, I was super stoked to see that Little Sparrow Cosmetics was one of them.  I had read rave reviews on their Lip Jellies and have wanted to try for so long.  I eagerly tore open the goodies and found that there was a mini Lip Jelly included - YAY!

Dreamworld Hermetica Review and Swatches

A few weeks ago, the owner from indie company Dreamworld Hermetica, Ellie, asked if there were any testers willing to test some of her new formulas.  Obviously I jumped at the chance, I emailed her back immediately and made the cut :)  She was reformulating a few things and wanted testers to try them out before releasing them.  They were sent out really quickly, but due to Thanksgiving break, my post office was extremely delayed in sending my package.  They gave me a delivery date of Nov. 25th, but it actually got to me on the 30th.

Anyway, she sent me four Eye Pigments (jars), two Eye Colors (baggies), and a full-size Eye Dew (not pictured).  I actually asked her the difference between Eye Pigments and Eye Color, and she said there was actually no difference haha.  From what I see, Eye Pigments are shimmery and Colors are mattes?  The Eye Dew is an eyelid primer that can act as a glitter glue; I'm glad I received this because there are a few indie shadows that are complete glitterbombs haha.

Pictures taken under daylight bulb and swatched over ELF Essential Primer (click to enlarge)

Mistletoe

Mistletoe:  looks gold in the jar, but applies as a shimmery silver