I myself don’t know what happened to Shiro. I was also fortunate enough that my final orders placed with Shiro were delivered within stated TAT and with all items present. I could armchair-quarterback and point out ways that the closure could have been handled differently, using things that Shiro had done in the past (such as the order-fulfillment status tracker that was often deployed during the Black Friday sales.) But…why? This indie store is now closed. Moving on. Yes, I lost a much-loved indie vendor, but there are others (though the Age of Indie Loose Powder Eyeshadow seems to be on the wane.)

Other indie vendors I’ve loved who’ve closed their doors:

The SheSpace - my first foray into indie makeup. Her eyeshadows were mostly mica, and while she had several regular colors, when she would create a limited-edition collection, she apparently wouldn’t keep the recipe. (The first collection that she apparently did keep recipes for was Cinderella Dumped Her Fella, which she re-released close to the end of the shop’s tenure.) She eventually did close up, saying that her customer base had grown very large and that she wanted to get back to creating one-off colors for a smaller group of clients. Soon after The SheSpace closed, Hope Quest and Eye Couture Cosmetics opened. (The owner, Heather, apparently did this before - she ran Twisted Fayte, closed when its customer base got large, and then opened the website for The SheSpace.) I enjoyed - and still enjoy - many of my TSS eyeshadows and blushes; but didn’t buy from these new stores. They ended up closing after a year or so. If The SheSpace were to re-open today I would not rush to buy from them until I saw multiple reports of longevity, consistency, and quality.

Aromaleigh - they’d been selling mineral makeup since the very early aughts, but I didn’t start buying from them until 2008. Then in 2010…they announced the store closing. I stocked up as much as I could, and when Aromaleigh re-opened in 2011 under new management, I was cautiously optimistic. The quality didn’t quite hold up, so I backed off. In 2014, the original owner took back primary control, and the shadows were a little bit better…but the mattes in particular were not up to the quality of Aromaleigh v1. I also found that more and more of the shadows would come with caveats about how they should be applied. Um…I’m not a pro MUA. If I have to buy and use certain mixing mediums or applicators to get a satisfactory look from a product, I won’t buy the product! These days I buy from Aromaleigh occasionally, but their shadows just don’t hold the same place in my heart that they did.

Morgana Minerals / Morgana Cryptoria - they sold a fair number of eyeshadows, but their main draw was the ever-changing lineup of lip sticks and balms. They had green, purple, yellow, blue, and black lip colors quite regularly! On the downside, if you fell in love with a lipstick color, you probably wouldn’t be able to replace it since their lineup underwent constant renewals.

Sassy Minerals - was sold to LaurEss, which faithfully continued the whole Sassy inventory…until LaurEss closed as well. Their shimmer shades were more pigmented than TSS, but they weren’t as rich as many other companies’ shadows. Their mattes were mostly softer shades and neutrals, but they were similar in quality to Aromaleigh v1, so I stocked up before they finally closed. There were still about a dozen colors that were on my wishlist that I wasn’t able to buy before they shuttered operations.

What now-closed indie vendors do you miss?

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