Reviews and hauls to come!

I've been going a little crazy with shopping lately, probably in reaction to the drought while I was unemployed. I got some new Urban Decay stuff, made a small Aromaleigh order with the sale they just had, a small Fyrinnae order because I was out of velvet gel primer, a Silk Naturals order (mostly for skincare and lip stuff), and today I took advantage of the adorned with Grace blog special to get some stuff I'd been wanting.

I'll probably take photos soon, then wait and do a review a week with them.

What would you like to know about what I ordered?

Earthen Glow Minerals Mineral Mousse, revisited

I need to revisit Earthen Glow's mineral mousse. Even thought it got really high marks the first time I reviewed it, my opinions have changed, and for the worse. The biggest changes are to the durability and packaging categories, and I'm pretty disappointed.

A. Color matching.
5. I can't even tell where the line is! I ordered Lora, which is "Light warm," after being warned that their fair shades were for the truly ghostlike, and on consultation with them via email. I also took a gamble and ordered a full size, so I could take advantage of the 30% off sale, and I'm glad I did because it does match very well.

B. Coverage.
4. Significantly reduces contrast between normal skin and blemishes/scar. Covers all but the worst of the red marks and the darkest part of my surgical scar.

C. Adhesion/durability.
2. This has been becoming much more patchy than it used to get, and with the increase in humidity has been sinking into the creases by my nose worse than it used to.

D. Combination skin friendliness factor.
3. This is not controlling oil as well as it used to.

E. Irritancy.
3. No problems at all.

F. Presentation
1. I used to be really enthused about the packaging, until I used up half the product and couldn't get any more out of the airless pump. At all. Today, I had to resort to cutting the base of the pump off and pushing up on the inner base with my fingers in order to get any out. Not surprisingly, a whole bunch squirted out, so now I have a messy bottle that can't stand up and that has jagged edges on the bottom. Not cool.

G. Value
2. Costs about what you'd expect.

H. Company is nice to work with, good customer service. 1 point.
Company does not have good customer service, or service is unrated - 0 points. Customer service at Earthen Glow is slow, unpredictable at best, and at times contradictory. I am not pleased with my experience and will not be shopping there again.

Total: 20/30. This stuff is ok. I don't love it or anything anymore, and at this point I'm only using it because I have it and I want it gone.

I'm still here!!! Some general thoughts.

Hi everyone! I'm not dead or anything, I've just taken on a job with the Census that is pretty time-and-energy consuming, and is also not the sort of job I can do with a computer on in the background. But I'm still around, still playing with and acquiring (and swapping away) tons of makeup.

Anyway, this is mostly some thoughts spurred by a discussion over at the forums about which company "won" most of Everyday Minerals business when they took several turns for the worse. A lot of us were super loyal to EDM and didn't buy really anything elsewhere (well, I tried Fyrinnae before I stopped buying EDM). Now, instead of being loyal to any one company, I'm spreading my makeup money out. I'm also finding different companies to be good for different stuff.

I've tried stuff from Silk Naturals, Meow, Aromaleigh, adorned with Grace, Earthen Glow, Morgana, Sassy, Lovely Android, Physicians Formula, and Urban Decay. I was already a Fyrinnae customer before I quit EDM. I've made more than one order from SN, Aromaleigh, awG, and Urban Decay. I've also acquired a bunch of PF in swaps and at the store. I plan to make another Morgana order because I need Watermelon lipstick in full size.

Places that get/will get lots of my business:
Fyrinnae - best value for eyeshadows, and I love Fluff and the velvet gel silica primer (which I use as mattifying lotion when I don't want to wear foundation).

SN is good for their vegan lip stuff and skin care (and I like some of their loose stuff, too. Sonic eyeshadow is a staple now.)

Aromaleigh has a lot of good eyeshadows, and I like the Gothic Lolita shimmers, too - but their foundation didn't work for me. Also, the owner is kind of nuts, but her husband is super sweet.

adorned with Grace has really nice foundation and blush, and free shipping in the US! I like their stuff, but don't feel compelled to collect it.

Morgana has fun vegan lipstick, and fun vegan lip stuff is super important to me.

Physicians Formula has a few really good things and a few really crappy ones. The stuff I like, I really like. The stuff I don't, I just want to to get rid of.

Urban Decay could get dangerous, but I'm trying to keep it in pencil territory.

I also like Gabriel Color for lip stuff and mascara.


Places I don't plan on buying from again (except maybe for one product I really like)
Meow, I wasn't overly impressed with their foundations, and it's more cost effective for me to order other stuff elsewhere.

Earthen Glow treated me pretty badly with CS, and one of the two products I ordered was unusable. I don't plan to order again.

Sassy - I will probably order Gasoline Rainbow in full size, but after that I am done. Too much bismuth makes me itchy, and I wish they had a way to search for only bismuth-free stuff. Also, I didn't like the foundation much.

Lovely Android's Pinkpocalyse blush is amazing. They have one other color I'd like to try, but they don't do samples yet, I don't think.

Places I haven't tried but would like to:
Sobe Botanicals - I'm intrigued by the lip stuff, mostly.
Sugarpill - a newish company with fun pressed stuff. More expensive than I usually go for, so I'll have to wait on this for a bit.