Hello Waffle January 2017 Visage - King Arthur Swatches and Review

Welcome back, everyone!  I have swatches of Hello Waffle's first Visage box of the year!  It was inspired by Arthurian legends (one of my favorites!) and contains three full sized eyeshadows, one slimline lipstick, and one full sized blush from Glamour Doll Eyes.  Hello Waffle's current TAT is 10 - 15 business days, though the Visage runs on a different schedule.

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

Cast in Stone

Cast in Stone:  pale pink with green shimmers

Of Equal Status

Of Equal Status:  matte taupe

Lady of the Lake

Lady of the Lake:  green with gold and green shimmers

Age of Chivalry

Age of Chivalry:  extremely pigmented warm pink blush with gold and red shimmers.  This was an exclusive blush created by Glamour Doll Eyes for this subscription box.  I found it to be too pigmented for my tastes and a bit hard to blend away.  I dipped my stipple brush in once, tapped off the excess, and it was still too much product and resulted in clown cheeks :/  I recommend using an extremely light hand with this one.

Bare lips

Holy Grail

Holy Grail on face

Holy Grail:  nude lipstick with gold shimmers.  This is a beautiful color, unfortunately it was too creamy and slippery.  It would apply patchily and "erase" over itself if I tried to layer it for more opacity.  Rubbing my lips together would also push the product into the outer edges of my lips.  The owner, Christine, had been notified about the problem and has offered everyone a refund or replacement lipstick.

Cast in Stone, Of Equal Status, Lady of the Lake, Age of Chivalry, The Holy Grail

- Jolie ♥

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy August 2015 Subscription Swatches

I know this is a bit late, but here's Innocent + Twisted Alchemy's August subscription box!  I was particularly happy for this one because of the theme.  It was originally inspired after my favorite podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, which I listen to before bed because Cecil's voice is soothing and I pre ordered the book as well (I also saw the cast at a live reading!).  However, due to the creators of the show asking people not to sell fan made products, I+T's owner, Linda, changed the names.  Several guest indies who created products exclusively for that box didn't get to change their names in time so it's still Night Vale themed.  I asked Linda what the original names were, mainly because I love WtNV and will be putting them next to the new names.

Most of the colors are also purple themed, as that is WtNV's color palette.  I don't usually care for purples, but I'm such a sucker for packaging and themes that I absolutely love this box ♥

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

Moon Dreams

Moon Dreams/A Color for You:  pigmented silvery lavender

Dark Moon Rising

Dark Moon Rising/Eternal:  beautiful royal purple with blue sparkles and red shimmers, perfect Night Vale color

Aromaleigh April 2015 Ephemera - Swatches and Review

Woooo, I've gotta say, I really do look forward to Aromaleigh's Ephemera box every single month.  Their packaging and presentation is always impeccable.  For the month of April, the inspiration comes from Floralia, and all of the shades are very light and springy.  We got two eyeshadows, two face products, and a cream eyeshadow from Glamour Doll Eyes.  

Information on this month's box

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

Locus of Desire

Locus of Desire:  shimmery warm pink with gold sheen

Notoriously Morbid November 2014 Vanishing Cabinet - Dead Love Swatches and Review

Hi everyone!  As I'm eagerly waiting for the clock to count down to midnight, I'll share my Notoriously Morbid November Vanishing Cabinet with you.  This month's theme is called "DEAD love", based off the Sookie Stackhouse novels and True Blood.  Instead of the regular four mini shadows that are included in each month, NM gave us five this time!  There's one shadow inspired by the main girl, Sookie, and the other four are her various suitors.  The packaging was also super cute this month, featuring a small black coffin and two shadows inside.  It's worth mentioning that the two shadows inside are Sookie and probably her most famous love interest, Eric.  I thought that was an adorable touch and shows how much NM cares about packaging.

The special guest this month is Glamour Doll Eyes and they made a shadow just for this collection.  Another free NM sample was included as a sneak peek for next month's VC.  I have no idea what it is yet, so I'm excited for the reveal.

If you guys haven't noticed, my product pictures might look a bit different and that's because I finally got a DSLR!  My product pictures will be taken with the DSLR now and I tried doing the same with swatch photos but it wouldn't focus for some reason.  Therefore, swatch pictures are still taken with my regular (still really great) point-and-shoot until I figure out how to focus on my DSLR.  Another change is that I've started doing half my swatches over ELF Glitter Primer because I have started using that in my almost-daily routine, so here's how these shadows look like over a sticky base!

Pictures taken under daylight bulb and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (upper half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom half)

Mittens for Michael

Mittens for Michael:  beautiful purple with gold sparkles.  The gold sparkles are very obvious and that's what's giving off the sheen you see in the swatch photo.  I'll be looking forward to receiving this next month because it's absolutely wonderful!

Glamour Doll Eyes Eyeshadows - Swatches and Review

I'm still trying to catch up with the plethora of reviews I have lined up.  Today I have six shadows from Glamour Doll Eyes.  Their owner, Vee, called out to bloggers asking if we were interested in reviewing their shadows.  I was definitely interested, but I had reviewed their shadows before and asked if it was okay to do another.  Vee responded and said it was fine, so we sent a few emails back and forth with my color choices.  GDE has a lot of color choices and it's a bit overwhelming to pick just six, luckily Vee sent me a link to the Bestsellers section and that was very helpful.  I chose six out of the Bestsellers and she had it packed and ready to go soon after.

I have a good amount of GDE shadows from past purchases, press samples, and samples from subscription boxes so I was aware of how nice the shadows were.  I also like the fact that they each come individually shrink wrapped to prevent leakage.  They also have no sifters and I find that it's much easier to work without since I find that product tends to collect at the rims and spill out.  Anywho, onto the swatches!

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

Flawless

Flawless:  shimmery light peachy pink

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy August 2014 Subscription - Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, today I'm reviewing my August subscription package from Innocent + Twisted Alchemy!  Let me tell you, Linda has been shipping these out so early; it's really amazing.  I received my shipping notice on August 4th and received it two days later!  This month is also quite special because it's another themed package.  If you couldn't tell from the envelope already, the theme of August is Nana.  It's a manga that's quite popular; sadly, I couldn't get into it.  I've actually read the other work from the same author called Paradise Kiss.  Either way, I'm sure the colors of this month will call out to fans of Nana!

Also, look how cute the packaging is!  I absolutely swooned over the pretty decorations and swooned more when it actually opened up to be a mini paper bag; ughhh.  Anyway..onto the swatches (before I swoon more).

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

7 & 8

7 & 8:  shimmery pale pink with silver sheen

Glamour Doll Eyes Swatches and Review

Hi everyone, I have a review of Glamour Doll Eyes today!  The owner, Vanessa, had put up a status on Facebook asking if there were any bloggers interested in reviewing her products.  Obviously I jumped at the chance; I've purchased from GDE before and enjoyed it.  I shot her an email and she responded really quickly asking which shadows I already had so she wouldn't send me duplicates.  I received my goodies soon after and was pretty stoked that she sent me something from her Super Shadows! collection (I love comics).

She wrote me a cute thank you on my baggie :D

The jars all come individually shrink wrapped to prevent leakage.

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy - February Subscription

I was super excited to receive my February subscription from Innocent + Twisted Alchemy.  Their January subscription impressed me so much that I promptly resubscribed and awaited the beautiful shades for the month of love.

the package it came in

How cute is this candy hearts bag??

Instead of the normal 3 clamshells in the subscriptions, Linda included a bonus fourth that was made for Black Violet which she had extras of (yay!).  There were also five extra samples from other companies which were great.

Glamour Doll Eyes - First Impression and Swatches

This is my first time ordering from Glamour Doll Eyes; I believe they were having a Black Friday sale and I heard many good things about this indie company.  I perused their site and finally decided on ten sample jars.  My order came promptly and included a bunch of business cards and two samples.  One of the things that really impressed me was a card stating that if you purchased a sample and decided to buy a full-size jar, they will refund you the money from the sample.  That's the first time I've seen an indie company offer that and I thought it was really nice.

Each jar comes individually shrink-wrapped.

My ten jars and two free samples