Entries for Saturday October 17

Aromaleigh v1’s Thalia Returns

• Manufacturer: Aromaleigh v1
• Availability: available as part of the Les Papillons collection
• Color Range: warm metallic medium orange brown shimmer
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$8 for 1.2 grams
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

Entries for Thursday October 15

The SheSpace’s Hope Quest III: Know Your Strength kit

• Manufacturer: The She Space / About Face Cosmetics
• Availability: beginning June 2009 through TSS' online storefront
• Contains: 4 mineral eyeshadow colors, plus two "pay-it-forward" colors
• Cost/Amount: USD$15 for the four jars (3-gram jar, no sifter); "pay-it-forward" jars available singly for $4.50 each
• Would you purchase again: no

This third Hope Quest quad was released during October (Breast Cancer Awareness month) and so was colored thematically: two pinks, two browns. Not thrilling as far as colors go, but widely saleable. The color I liked most out of this kit was the “giveaway” color. The others had good pigmentation and longevity, but are not among the most exciting or interesting in my collection. For someone who’s just starting their collection, or who really likes pinks and browns, this is a good starting kit.

The SheSpace’s Pretty Pretty She kit

• Manufacturer: The She Space / About Face Cosmetics
• Availability: beginning October 2009 through TSS' online storefront
• Contains: 12 eyeshadow colors
• Cost/Amount: USD$43 for all colors (3-gram jar, no sifter); three other purchase options available, but colors were not available individually
• Would you purchase again: no

Purchase options were: all colors for $43; the four core colors for $17; the four core colors plus the three warm colors for $30, or the four core colors plus the three cool colors for $30.

I was fortunate enough to buy some individual colors as part of Heather's "break kits apart" 40th-birthday sale, so didn't have to buy all of the colors in this kit. I wanted the cool and all but one of the warm colors, and none of the core colors at all - and that purchase option wasn't available.

Entries for Tuesday October 13

The SheSpace’s Astrology - Libra collection

• Manufacturer: The She Space / About Face Cosmetics
• Availability: beginning September 2009 through TSS' online storefront
• Contains: 12 mineral eyeshadow colors
• Cost/Amount: USD$4.50 for the four jars (3-gram jar, no sifter), $.50 for a sample baggie
• Would you purchase again: yes

Libra’s birthstone and associated color is sapphire. Since sapphires come in any color (except red - red corundum is a ruby) I half-expected this collection to play on that. Instead it covered the varied colors of blue sapphires, from lighter periwinkle to deeper blues. I was thrilled to see some periwinkle included, and also happy to see that unlike the Aquarius collection, these weren’t ocean-blue colors…which aren’t my favorites, even though they can be gorgeous.

The SheSpace’s Balenciaga Glitz kit

• Manufacturer: The She Space / About Face Cosmetics
• Availability: beginning October 2009 through TSS' online storefront
• Contains: 5 mineral eyeshadow colors
• Cost/Amount: USD$21 for the five colors (3-gram jar, no sifter)
• Would you purchase again: no

Five colors inspired by a Balenciaga dress. The colors were not available individually, nor were there samples available.

I was fortunate enough to buy a few individual colors as part of Heather’s “break kits apart” 40th-birthday sale, so didn’t have to buy all of the colors in this kit (I didn’t want the pink or the purple.)

BareMinerals’ Classic Rock kit

• Manufacturer: bareMinerals/Bare Escentuals
• Availability: October 2006 to summer 2007 through the webstore
• Contains: two eyecolors, two face colors, one lip color, two brushes, and a bag
• Cost/Amount: USD$54
• Would you purchase again: yes

This was the first “mineral-infused” kit I was a BE user for - the diamond-infused Classic Rock kit, a Sephora exclusive. The eye colors were fairly staid, the blush was a decent color, the buxom was a nice difference from the rest of the line (more sparkle), and the eye and face colors were all diamond-infused. (I didn’t really care about that as much as the sparkle-factor.)

Entries for Monday October 12

The SheSpace’s Armani Glitz kit

• Manufacturer: The She Space / About Face Cosmetics
• Availability: beginning October 2009 through TSS' online storefront
• Contains: 5 mineral eyeshadow colors
• Cost/Amount: USD$21 for the five colors (3-gram jar, no sifter)
• Would you purchase again: yes

Another kit inspired by a dress on the fashion runways. I bought this kit during the big “break kits apart” 40th-birthday sale, but I got all five colors…and paid $12.50 for the kit instead of $21.

Entries for Saturday October 10

Urban Decay’s Foreshadow Palette

• Manufacturer: Urban Decay
• Availability: beginning summer 2009 through "a few select locations throughout the United States", according to their website...but "my local Ulta store", according to me
• Contains: four eyecolors and a miniature brush, all in a magnetic-close mirrored travel case
• Cost/Amount: regular $24, on sale for $13.99
• Would you purchase again: possibly

I’d had a hectic month, so went on a wee spending spree: got a few shadow colors, got one nail polish, picked up some shampoo…and saw this at the checkstand. Normally I don’t buy pressed shadows any more; but the outside of the case caught my eye. If you’re a female and were older than 10 by 1983, chances are high that you had at least a pair of earrings out of this metal-mesh stuff (and odds are 50/50 that you still have those earrings somewhere even if you haven’t worn them in over 20 years.) The colors in the tester also looked interesting, especially the gorgeous Flipside and the much-talked-about Midnight Cowboy. I added that to my splurge and headed home, thinking that I might use this perhaps a dozen times in the next year.

Entries for Thursday October 08

BareMinerals’ Buxom Babes About Town kit

• Vendor: Bare Escentuals
• Availability: through Sephora; beginning October 2009
• Contains: four sheer buxom lip polish colors (mini size) and four buxom lip sticks (mini size)
• Cost/Amount: USD$40
• Would you purchase again: yes

four sheer buxom lip polish colors (mini size) and four buxom lip sticks (mini size)

The recent decision to spin the buxom products off to their own line, and make it Sephora-exclusive, hasn’t been universally popular…but it does mean that we get new goodies, like the buxom lip sticks (replacements for the old quicksticks, with the buxom tingle). This kit has either two new items (if you’ve obsessively bought every kit-with-buxom you could, or trolled Ebay picking them up) or four new items (if you’re a BE newbie or you haven’t bought any cosmetics off of Ebay.)

BareMinerals’ 2005 Summer Grand kit

• Manufacturer: bareMinerals/Bare Escentuals
• Availability: beginning April 2005 through QVC (exclusive)
• Contains: two eyeshadows, one blush
• Cost/Amount: USD$105
• Would you purchase again: yes

There must have been more in this kit - for that price, it can’t have only included the three items. But I can’t find other information, so I’ll go with what I do have. All of these colors were available at the boutiques as of late 2007, so acquiring these items shouldn’t be that difficult. (I’ve also found lots of people who are pretty vocal about disliking Peaceful, so lots of those were floating around Ebay.)