Eyeliner!

I need to find the cord to upload pics from my camera, but I decided I'd swatch all my eyeliners and take a webcam pic of them to give everyone a general idea.

At the bottom (the larger swatches), I have the Physicians Formula gel liners. The bottom row is the green eyes collection, and the second-to-bottom row is the blue eyes collection. These are great for getting close to the lashline, and they stay put when I use them on my upper lashline, but they smudge on the lower lashline.

Above the black PF liners, I have Milani Liquifeyes in Silver, Korres Soft Liner in White, and Milani Minerals liners in Black and Brown. Except for the Silver, which is more like Urban Decay 24/7 liners, they're good for a good, sharp line, and the white is good for waterlining (which I almost never do). The silver liner is also nice for the waterline, and it's super shiny!

On the upper right, the three liners there are all Milini Infinite liquid liners. They're the only thing that will stay on my lower lashline, but they definitely need an oil-based remover to get off.

Below the liquid liners are my two UD heavy metal glitter liners - Stagedive and Distortion. I have fun with these, but don't feel the need for more. Distortion seems to lighten whatever I have under it, which is kind of fun.

Most of pencils swatched in the middle column are UD 24/7 liners. From top to bottom: Covet, Mildew, Flipside, Golden Korres liner, Electric, and Lucky. I love these for a quick liner-plus-mascara look. I have zero, too, but I'm hoping to swap it away because the thicker pencil goes on too thick for my taste.

Eyeliner is so much fun! What's your favorite?

Aromaleigh is gone. :(

I'm a loyal person. If I like you and you treat me well, I hold on to you and defend you with everything I have. If I like a business, I keep shopping there. If they treat me well if there's a problem, I spread the word and love them even more.

That kind of thinking kept me in the thrall of Everyday Minerals for far too long, buying more of a substandard product than I could humanly use and ignoring all the warning signs that they were starting to fail their customers. That loyalty prevented me from really reaching out and trying other companies for far too long - until December, when I started this blog and sampling from lots of places in order to find my new favorites.

Aromaleigh has been consistently among the top four (along with Silk Naturals, Fyrinnae, and adorned with Grace Minerals), and I have ordered from them many times and thoroughly enjoyed each order. When I had my one and only customer service problem with them, they more than made it up to me (I still really enjoy the extra goodies!).

To see a company hacked to pieces by vicious bitches on the Internet who stoop to personal attacks against a company's owner for no particularly good reason makes me doubt the good in people. Maybe if I weren't hoping to start my own company someday, I wouldn't be taking this news with such a heavy heart - I can't imagine putting myself out there, as Kristen did, only to be torn to shreds later by some of the most vindictive people I've seen on the Internet.

I am very sad today, trying to figure how the best combination of stuff to buy from her on my soon-to-be-stopping paycheck so that I don't end up without some things I'd wanted forever.

Hopefully Miss K can take some time to regroup and grace us with her sparkle again in the future.

Foundation Review! Wet 'n Wild Mineral Foundation

How does cheap drugstore "mineral makeup" stack up to the stuff you buy online? I recently bought some Wet 'n Wild Naturals mineral foundation in Fair to try out.

A. Color matching.
3. Sort of matches. Even the fair color is too dark. My face looked darker than I'm used to. Maybe this would be useful as a contour powder...

B. Coverage.
2. Barely covers blemishes. For how opaquely dark my face looked, zits and stuff were pretty visible, still.

C. Adhesion/durability.
2. Lasts most of the day, but becomes patchy or rubs off easily. Streaks on my forehead! Ew!

D. Combination skin friendliness factor.
2. Does not control oil. I got shiny. I think this is due to the fact that this product is mostly mica, filler, and colorants. There's no zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide is listed as a "may contain." Also, there are parabens and other ickies. I'm not sure why a dry powder needs a preservative, much less two.

E. Irritancy.
3. No problems at all.

F. Presentation
3. Beautiful presentation. So this is where I got suckered into buying this. There's a jar that screws onto a compartment that holds a mini buki brush. I instantly hated the brush and gave it away, but my EDM baby buki fits in the spot well. This makes it very travel-friendly.

G. Value
2. Costs about what you'd expect. It was about five bucks. It's also only a 10g jar, as opposed to the more standard 25 or 30 you get with online companies. So the unit price is comparable.

H. Company is nice to work with, good customer service - not applicable. No point.

Total: 17 out of 30. If you buy this, know that you are getting a pretty jar full of ugly powder you'll want to throw away.

Reviews of other companies with pics coming soon.

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.

Review - Sassy Minerals foundation.

I've been testing out some samples I got of Sassy Minerals foundation recently. Warm Light seems to be my best match with them. Let 's see how it held up!

A. Color matching.
5. I can't even tell where the line is! Very happy with that aspect.

B. Coverage.
3. Covers blemishes and makes scar less noticeable. Sheerer than I'd hoped.

C. Adhesion/durability.
3. Gets me through an eight-hour day - after that, my face looked patchy and cakey. Not good.

D. Combination skin friendliness factor.
3. Does ok until lunch. After lunch, there was some dryness around my mouth and my forehead was oily to the touch.

E. Irritancy.
3. No problems at all.

F. Presentation
3. Beautiful presentation. Sample jar came with a seal, so no spilling!

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

H. Company is nice to work with, good customer service. 1 point. Haven't tested it out yet, but they were very gracious about my two sample jar order.

Total: 23/30. Good product, but wasn't the best for me - I didn't like how it wore later in the day. Would be nice for an evening out or an afternoon event, but not great for full-day wear.