Review: Scaredy Cat Cosmetics

• Company name: Scaredy Cat Cosmetics
• Presence: online storefront only (Etsy)
• Products: eyeshadows
• High points: good quality for the price; multiple product sizes; multi-item discounts; -=really=- cool jars
• Low points: small inventory; currently only sells one type of product
• Would I buy from them again: yes

I got interested in this company because of a review that Sirvinya did. She posted some lovely colors, but what lead me to investigate further was...wait for it...the packaging.

Anyone who's been reading this blog for a while knows how absolutely skewball that sounds. Not only do I traditionally not care about packaging, I repot all of my loose powder products so I don't even ever keep any packaging! Still...this intrigued me. Each full-size jar is a triangular jar with a label on two sides, and the third left free so that you can easily see the color. All of the labels are different for each color. Not just different color palettes, but different images. The art style, coupled with the unique jar shape, hit all the right buttons in my brain...and I had to go check this Etsy store out. (I'm still working on a good way to display the empty jars. They're that visually interesting.)

read more

Review: Lost in Makeupland

• Company name: Lost in Makeupland
• Presence: online storefront only (Etsy)
• Products: eyeshadows, blushes, highlighters, glow and finishing powders
• High points: decent quality for a good price; multiple product sizes; clearly marked ingredients and usage restrictions
• Low points: still has a smallish inventory
• Would I buy from them again: yes

As of late September 2011, I've made nearly a dozen purchases from Lost in Makeupland over the past - starting with a "sample pack", moving to some full-size eyeshadows, then eyeshadows, blushes, and some of her highlighters.

read more

First Look: Rockeresque Beauty

This company is officially opening tomorrow, and while I've received a sampler pack and my membership card and letter, it's kind of hard to call this a full "review" - at least, of the company itself. I think that I'll be comfortable doing a full review after the company's been operating at least a year, so that they've gone through opening, they've found their legs, hit their stride, possibly discarded a few ideas that weren't working, refined many more, possibly added a few new ones.

But I can at least share what I've observed, and show off what I've gotten so far!

read more

Review: Morgana Cryptoria

• Company name: Morgana Cryptoria (formerly Morgana Minerals)
• Presence: online storefront only
• Products: eyeshadows, blush, face powders, foundation, brushes, lip colors
• High points: good communication, good product range, wide range of lipstick colors (almost all vegan)
• Low points: no "permanent" eyeshadows; currently reducing their eyeshadow product line
• Would I buy from them again: yes

read more

Beauty Trials: Wet n Wild Megalash Clinical Lash Serum, week 1

Beauty Trials: Wet n Wild Lash Serum, Wk 1

Wet n Wild’s Megalash Clinical Lash Serum claims: “In just 4 weeks, get longer, thicker, fuller-looking lashes!” Lashes have a growth cycle: individual lashes grow to a maximum length (pretty much dictated by one’s genetics, as it turns out), the lashes fall out, new lashes begin in their place, and the cycle starts over. This cycle lasts 30-45 days…in other words, four to six weeks.

I’ve been using Wet n Wild’s Megalash Clinical Lash Serum on my upper lashes nightly for one week. Since I’ve never tracked my lash growth cycle before, I figure that if I track my lashes’ appearance over seven weeks while using this product as directed, I might get an idea if these claims are just tied to the natural lash cycle, or if there’s really something to this product. (Remember: Latisse, the best-known eyelash growth product, works in mysterious ways. Literally. They don’t know how or why it works. So any other lash growth serums may be just so much marketing-and-a-prayer; but at least with this I didn’t have to get a prescription, and I spent less than $5.)

read more

Review: Fyrinnae

• Company name: Fyrinnae
• Presence: online storefront only
• Products: eyeshadows, blush, face powders, foundation, brushes, lip colors, sealants
• High points: amazing, multifaceted colors; great value; larger samples
• Low points: site is often closed for a day or a week, seemingly at random
• Would I buy from them again: as of April 2011, unknown, because of unpredictable site closures and the chemist leaving the company in late February 2011.

read more

Beauty Trials: Wet n Wild Megalash Clinical Lash Serum

Beauty Trials: Wet n Wild Lash Serum

Walgreen’s is having several beauty sales. Some inexpensive nail polishes I like were first priced at 2 for $4, then reduced again on top of that; another beauty brand that I don’t use quite as often is having a monstrous 69-cent sale on lots of their “staple” products, and for whatever reason, Walgreen’s has decided to mark down a whole bunch of other products.

I decided to try Wet n Wild Clinical Lash Serum, to see if it actually does anything…and because I don’t need a prescription to buy it, and it’s under $6 normally. It was on sale for $4, so I happily added a tube to my basket of nail polishes (and a couple of Wet n Wild 8-pan palettes for a friend).

read more

4/5, based on 1 review

Review: Sassy Minerals

• Company name: Sassy Minerals
• Presence: online storefront only
• Products: eyeshadows, blush, face powders, foundation, brushes, lip colors
• High points: site is very easy to use; good product labelling; good value; responsive customer service
• Low points: a few perennially-empty product categories, which looks odd; stated discounts that don't always get applied
• Would I buy from them again: as of April 2011, yes

read more

4/5, based on 1 review

Review: Meow Cosmetics

• Company name: Meow Cosmetics
• Presence: online storefront only
• Products: eyeshadows, blush, face powders, foundation, brushes, lip colors
• High points: wide range of foundations, with matching concealers (81 shades, 3 coverage levels) they even have a BE / MAC equivalency chart
• Low points:
• Would I buy from them again: as of March 2011, yes

read more

Review: Shiro Cosmetics

• Company name: Shiro Cosmetics
• Presence: online storefront only (Etsy)
• Products: eyeshadows, blushes (pressed and loose), lip colors
• High points: good color payoff; wide range of eye colors; excellent value
• Low points: April 2011: still a small product line
• Would I buy from them again: as of April 2011, definitely yes. I'm looking forward to new eyeshadow collections, and hoping to see a general expansion of the line.

read more