Category: Review


Greenlivingsoap Etsy Review

Filed Under: Review by Emybloom — Leave a comment
August 20, 2010

Before I get on to the review I have to tell you – I bought an epilator today!  The selling point… it had nail varnishes with it.  Hmmm does that make me a sad person?

I decided to order from Green Living Soap for some things for me and for a friends birthday.  I was drawn to the shop as the location was near to me, and I do like the idea of shopping locally.  I recieved my items within 3 working days which is pretty good.

The link to the shop:- http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenLivingSoap

I ordered:-

Delicious chocolate lip balm   $3.95

Spicy vegetable soap  $3.50

Lemon scented hand balm for rough dry hands $3.95

Cold sore relief lip balm  $5.50

Lemon grass lip balm      $3.95

Rose soaps with lemon verbena scent   $2.50

I recieved an extra soap with my order, and also some discounts for the other shops.

All laid out :)

The lip balms

Hand Balm.

I kinda wish I had something to keep this handbalm in other than the plasticy bag (I might try make something for it), it’s a lovely texture to it, and I’ll certainly be using it this coming winter.

The spicy vegetable soap is quite tiny, but that’s a benefit as I like to change soaps quite regularly.  I’m not 100% convinced by the smell/flavour, but the slightly rough texture and unusual shape is certainly awesome.

I’ve been using the lemon grass lip balm for a few weeks now – I adore lemongrass, so it was an immediate hit! It’s vegan, and I think that makes it a little less… creamy, but it applies well, and seems to last a good while. The ‘flavour’ is nice and not overpowering.

The tea tree oil lip salve will certainly be seeing use this winter when my cold sores come out!

I haven’t tried the other things as they were for a friend’s birthday.

Overall I liked the items I’ve bought and I will buy again in the future, I’d really love to try the gingery soap I think was in stock last xmas.

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Isadora Graffiti – Black and Pink!

Filed Under: Nail of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 6 Comments
August 6, 2010

So here’s a little bit of early morning graffiti for you to look at!

Lite mer Isadora Graffiti för att titta på :)

I had some luck really the day before yesterday – I went to my local shopping centre and first off I spotted the pink Graffiti in the random nail olish box in H&M – so of course I didn’t waste a second in loading up with them :)  Then in åhlens I saw the rest of the display (not actually put out, but shush) so managed to get the rest.  The only one of the collection I don’t have is the yellow (white is in my PHD challenge piece so you’ll see that on sunday :) )  Anyways here are the pink and the black for you to look at.

Jag hade tur i för igår - först jag hittade den rosa i H&M, sedan den andra i Åhelns (inte precis ute, men men!) Jag bara missa gula men jag tycker inte så mycket om den.  Vit är i PHD challenge, så här finns rosa och vitt, varsågod ;)

The first thing I need to note here is see my ring finger?  Should have had more base coat, because it’s peeking through *hello nail!* These were applied over fresh polish that while had been dried 5min or so was still kinda wet.  I *think* this makes the crackle chunkier (check with the last pictures – the polish there was a day old), but if the base isn’t dry enough then it drags the base with it.

No top coat in this first pic.

Hoppas du kan förstå på engelska vad jag menar, men det faktiskt går bra att vänta lite mellan först lager och graffiti. ;)

With top coat – and see what I mean?

Closeie

Black! No draggy problem here – see ring and little finger- muuch drier polish.

Svärt! Inget problem här – lite fingerna är mycket torkade.

Close up. before top coat, innan top coat

With top coat.

Shinnnnyyyyyyy

So what do you think? Personally I really really can’t wait to play around with these a little more – I see some really random idea’s coming to fruition, from texturing, to ruffians to well…. you’ll see some of my playing so far on sunday!

Såååå vad tänker du? Jag tycker väldigt mycket om den här range, och har ett tusen ide-er!

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H&M Holo the second – Mad about you

Filed Under: Nail of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 2 Comments
August 3, 2010

Don’t you just love how I posted these out of synch? *gigglesnort*

Anyhows this is Mad about You, the blue holo from H&M.  Like the others, the holo effect is more discrete than say OPI DS holos or Nfu.Oh, but the gentle nature of them is still very nice indeed.  This colour took 3 coats to reach a nice even opacity.

3:e innan 2:e… oops. Den här är Mad about You från H&M. Samma som de andra – holo effeckt är mindre än till exempel OPI DS holo eller Nfu.Oh, men jag komma (kommer?) att tycker mycket om effekten i alla fall. Det tog 3 lager för att hitta ett bra opacitet.

Again rubbish weather when these were taken…. yey dåligt väder,,,

Bit of a close up.

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Crackle/Graffiti I’m in love! NoTD Isa Dora Graffiti

Filed Under: Nail of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 21 Comments
August 2, 2010

So this is a quickie, and I will add next to it, but I’m super excited to have found these in the shops today.  Sadly the two colours I really wanted (black and pink) were already gone – but I have no-doubt they will restock and I will have them.  Equally I’ll keep a close eye out for online stores for anyone who might want them.  There are in white, yellow, pink, green, blue and black.  Today I got my hands on the green and blue but I *need* the pink and black bad!

Snabb nyhet – Jag hittade Isadora graffiti top coat i Kicks idag :D De hade redan sålt svärt och rosa – men jag måste har den!  Jag tror de ska komma att här flera- eftersom jag åkte till en annat Kicks och de hade ingen precis nu.  Jag vil också titta online, kanske e-butiker ska komma att här de också? Det finns i vitt, ljus gula, rosa, gröna, blåa och svärt.

The application is pretty good though they dry superfast.  You don’t have to use the Isadora basecoats, and they can be used on day old polish and crackle just fine – so don’t worry about following the instructions prescisely.  The only annoying thing is the wide ass brush, which annoyed the hell out of me!  Guess I’m just not used to it.  It’s also good to know that they dry matte, and once they are dry it’s no problem to add a topcoat – they don’t smear or smudge.

De törka super-snabbt, du behöver inte att anvanda Isadora färg lack innan, och de funkar med dagen alt nagellack.  Brush är lite svårt – so thick!

Isa Dora Graffiti nail tops – these are in 805 .Spraycan Blue and 806 Subway green. Over Sinful colors Tapping Nails and China Glaze 5 Golden Rings.

Sorry for the shitty lack of clean up on the middle nail, I’m too excited!

Close up

Update:- With the addition of topcoat:-

So what do you think?

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H&M Holo the Third – Sinful Senorita

Filed Under: Nail of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 2 Comments
July 31, 2010

It’s no secret that I love pink, so it’s no surprise that I’m quite in love with this colour. Sinful Senorita is another of the H&M Holo’s (and the second that the lovely Felzine acquired for me).  I wore this the other day when the weather was really rubbish, and even though it meant that the holo wasn’t as shiny as I’d like, the bright pink really made up for it.

The colour is pretty pigmented, and would work well as a stamping colour in my novice opinion.  I used two coats as there is a slight erm shimmer that took a little even-ing out.  I do really like this colour though.  :)

Det är ingen hemlighet att jag älskar rosa, så inget nytt att jag älskar den har färg. Sinful Senorita är en till H&M holo (från Felzine, tusen tack igen!) Jag hade den har lack igår när vädret var hemskt skit, men även om det var inte så ljus – den har rosa var faktiskt perfeckt.  Den har lack tar bara ett lager för att bli ogenomskinlig – så ska kanske funkar bra med konad. Jag tog två lager eftersom det finns skimmer i lack att tog två.  Jag älskar den har färg i alla fall :)

What do you think?

Vad tycker du?

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China Glaze – Thunderbird and Lubu Heels

Filed Under: Nail of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 2 Comments
July 30, 2010

The first of the swatches from my Magic Maid haul.

It’s no secret that I love China Glaze, and these are no exception, though Lubu Heels was a little bit disappointing, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Thunderbird was pretty richly pigmented, opaque in one coat, but two helped to even out it’s frosting somewhat.

Det är ingen hemlighhet att jag älskar China Glaze, och den har nägellack är ingenting annorlunda, men Lubu Heels var lite nedslånde (google översätt ord – är det rätt?) – jag vill berätta snart ;)

Thunderbird behövde bara ett… uhm lager, men två hjälpte det ser ute bättre.

Both with flash, crappy lighting. Både med flash? Dålig vädret idag!

So here we come to the Lubu Heels.  After asking for it in the sale, I was a little sad when I realised it was not so different to Eyeko Vampira Polish.

The first coat was really wishy washy – it took three coats to hit opacity.  I compared a little with Eyeko- in the rubbish light we had today it was hard to see the difference, but looking at the photos there is *phew*

Här har vi Lubu Heels. Efter jag köpte den jag tittade på nätet och var lite ledsen – det är liknar Eyeko Vampira Polish.

Den första lager var tungt – det tog tre lager innan opacitet.  Har du kan titta på både Eyeko och ChG – i mörka ljuset idag de såg ute inte så annorlunda, men på bilderna man kan ser de är inte detsamma, YEY!

Same way around here.

I think that the base black is much more jelly in the China Glaze which accounts for the slow reach of opacity – but it does mean it has a greater depth (which shows up a little in the pictures).  I will however play with these again when the weather is a little more conductive to comparisions!

Samma sak i den har bilderna.

Jag tror att den svärt i China Glaze är mycket mer gele så det tar mer lager innan det är ogenomskinlig (? google översätt igen!), men det ser ut bättre tycker jag (i bild till exempel). Jag ska prova mer när vader är bättre.

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H&M You Rock my world NoTD

Filed Under: Nail of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 1 Comment
July 28, 2010

Yesh, I got impatient waiting for my Nfu.Oh Nail mail, so I took Night party off.  The wear after 3 days was minimal (just tip wear) So if I ever see another that looks funky (and ideally in a sale) I may very well give it a go!  Anyways Today I decided to give You rock my world a go, the silver holo from H&M (which I got thanks to a certain wonderful person who you should check out if you don’t already)

Application wise, it was a little easier in terms of not smearing between layers than Nfu.Oh’s holos over the same (Depend Hydrating) base, however it dried a lot slower and was victim to me being impatient (hence my thumb obscuring my finger in these shots).  The effect is more shimmery and less holo than Nfu.Oh which I like in some respects, though at the same time it was a little streaky which I wasn’t *as* chuffed about.

Unfortunatly I utterly ragged my left hand taking pictures (as I said… impatient girl here!), so I can’t really talk about wear.  It’s a keeper for sure though – as the overall silver colour is *love*

Onto the pictures – all are flash as I was a little late this evening!

See slightly streaky looking.

And a close up for the final shot – hololicious!

Now I have a little question for anyone who may speak swedish and reads this – basically I’m considering (as part of trying to write better swedish) of dual languaging some of my posts – would you read the swedish or just not bother? Would it give you a good giggle when I fail?  If so I’m totally up for it, haha!

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Aromaleigh Samples – Victoria’s Revenge Collection 2010

Filed Under: Eye of the Day, Review by Emybloom — 4 Comments
May 26, 2010

So I was lucky enough to be sent these lovely samples from Aromaleigh to swatch, look at and drool at from her Victoria’s Revenge Collection 2010

The collection is inspired by Victoriana/Steampunk and some more recent inspirations from fashion collections – you can check out it in more detail from the link above.  The collection is available to purchase now!

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So pretty, I can’t believe that these are just samples to be honest, such lovely thoughtful packaging.

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My samples all out for me to look at

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And their arses – Decided to try put them together in matching swatches.  To clarify the bottom half is swatched over pixie epoxy, the top is over bare skin – I’m not very good working with wet minerals, so please excuse me!

The Swatches

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Frigid Gloo…. lol, I clearly meant to write Gloom, but the typo is too funny!

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Miss K is running a Description contest as well, so here are my descriptions for each of the colours.

Skeleton Key – Nigh on holographic silver shimmering shadow, which is bound to unlock your heart! (One of my favourites since it is holographic almost!)

Frigid Gloo(m) – Shallow oceanic blue with purple sparkle-shimmer, nothing frigid apart from the temperature!

Scratched Scruples - A deeper, darker ocean with co-ordinating sparkle, jump in!

Gaslight Tears – Dusty purple shimmering with pinks and blues, shimmer in the flickering light.

Mallia’s Focus - Almost magical dusky colour with multi-sheen, hard to focus on these colours!

Mournings Whimsy – Vibrant purple, with a blue shimmery effect.

Poison Eutopia - Don’t drink from the fountain! Dark base with glorious purple glitter/sheen, drown in the depths.

Ruthless Indulgence - Dark base lifted from the depths with pink glittery highs, indulgent and sneaky colour. (this is one of my favourites)

Apocalypse Pansy – Dark dusky pink, with shimering highs.

Airy Ethos – Golden yellow, shimmering in the sunlight – perhaps parts of a steampunk outfit.

Private Lunacy - Olive green brought up to sparkly heights, the lunatics are in the asylum.

Tarnished Strychnine – Dark forest green, with shimmering co-ordinating hues.

Mayhems Trilogy – Vibrant grass green with hues of blues in it’s glittery depths.

Obscura – Blues greens and blacks combined into depthy obscurity. Dark colour with a lot of depth.

Splinterd - Darker than Tarnished Strychnine, with more to the blue-green hues – deeper in the forest less light seeps through the folliage.

Nightshade - Dangerously sparkly, almost black base with highlights of blue,  dark and sparkly – use with caution!

Freakshow – Burnt gold with matching highlights, the colour of worn carnivale-ride metal, Metallic

Perpetual Motion - Coppery-goodness, metallic goggles polished to perfection.  A metallic copper colour with beautiful depths and hues, Metallic.

Brazen and Bitter - Volcanic orange, strong hues unafraid to stand out from the others, and to disrupt all with its ash (bad Icelandic reflections I know, but yeah I think that Volcano is brazen and bitter, haha!)

Infernal Chaos - The shimmer of the beautiful carnivale gymnast’s tights! Okay that sounds wierd, but this shimmer is light pink and reminds me of the tights I used to dance in.  Excellent as a highlight I think.

Cyanide Sorrow - Dusky roses by the window,  bitter almond scent in the room, it can only have been cyanide.  Dusky dark pink with silvery sparkly highlights.

Oleander Vapor – Middling  pink, slightly shimmering in the sunlight.

Bleeding Poppy - Rich magenta with higlighting sheen.

Phantasm - Grey/brown base onto highlights that are sparkly with sheen, but so much more – almost ghost-like.

Magik Metal - A rich dark red brown, rusty contraptions never looked so inviting, semi metallic.

EoTD – The Skely key

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For this look I used my favourite shades from flrst glance

Base is MAC Paint pot in Painterly and Fyrinnae – Pixie Epoxy

- Ruthless Indulgence – used for next to the eye, like an eyeliner.

- Skeletonkey – all over the lid

-Infernal haos – Highlight above Skeleton key

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Fyrinnae <3 post (Another Review!)

Filed Under: Review by Emybloom — Leave a comment
May 2, 2010

So after lusting after Pixy Epoxy for quite some time, I finally placed an order for Fyrinnae on my birthday (9th April), it made it to Sweden last week while I was in the UK (30th April) so a very reasonable 21 days, not taking into account weekends (and pretty much bang on their current estimates).

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(geek girlie plays with swatches while on ventrillo)

The site is at times a little bulky to use, and was hellish slow to load when I was making my order (but that could have been my better half on Heroes of Newarth or other such).  I decided to go for 8 samples of their loose eyeshadow along with the fabled pixie epoxy, the samples were of:-

  • Arcane Magic – Electric Stardust
  • Arcane Magic – Glitter Boi
  • We’re all mad here
  • Curiouser and Curiouser
  • Biker Chic
  • Aztec Gold
  • 1.22 Gigawatts
  • Meercat

The package arrived very very well packaged, and in lovely zebra print tissue paper, I also recieved a free sample of Shinigami which was very nicely co-ordinated with my colours.

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(Last nights excited iphone shot!)

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(and looking at the colours briefly)

Swatches!

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I’m actually impressed at the colours I ordered going together and looking so shiny!

Arcane Magic – Electric Stardust

‘Electric Stardust is a bright, cheery, shimmery green. Darker than mint, light but yet full of vibrance. Brought closer to light, it changes to a lighter aqua then to a pale silvery blue.’

Absolutely lovely, went on swatchwise a little sheer looking, but on my eyelid today really came into its own.  I’m not totally sure on it looking *that* blue on my eyelids, though in this picture I can definitely see it.

We’re all mad here

‘Luscious, sparkling chartreuse! Similar to our ever-so-popular “Omgwtf” (though a bit more green), but with green and gold sparkles and shimmer, it’s twinkling like a teatray in the sky.’

Reminds me of another green I’ve seen recently, I need to use this in an EoTD soon, but I love  how the swatch really sparkled.

Curiouser and Curiouser

‘The sparkly, bouncier cousin of Digital Faerie, this blue-aqua shade is filled with blue and turquoise sparkles and shimmer. ‘

Reminds me of the sea in Turkey last summer, deep colour yet beautifully sparkly.

1.22 Gigawatts

‘Brilliant shimmery electric blue with flashes of gold sparkle’

Having seen this on quite a few of my favourite blogs it was kind of obvious that I had to get it, really intense colour, yet again – can’t wait to play with it!

Meerkat

‘…? no idea why. ;)  Vibrant pink-purple with gold shimmer and sparkle highlight. Part of the 2008 Endangered Collection’

Quite a dusky colour on, the gold sheen reminds me of victoriana and my mum’s lounge… of all things.

Shinigami (free sample)

‘Deep, smoldering royal purple entwinted with a scattering of blue and crimson sparkle. Darker than it appears in swatch photos. Made to be worn over Pixie Epoxy for ultimate shimmer and minimal fallout, but is fine over other bases/primers.Halloween 2009 (pronounced: “shin-ee-ga-me”, 死神, it is the fairly modern term for a Death deity in Japan)’

Very excited to have recieved this as my free sample, the glitter really adds another level to the shade.

Aztec Gold

‘Stunning metallic coppery gold over a green base.’

This was my wildcard that I ordered not really knowing if I would like it.  I don’t… I love it! The golden hue again reminds me of victoriana, and of tarnished metal objects – I can’t wait to use it.

Arcane Magic – Glitter Boi

‘Glitterboi is a deep blend of midnight blue, violet, and a hint of pink sparkle, and as the angle changes or light-distance decreases, changes to a light, gleaming grape, then to vibrant metallic pink.’

Both glitter boi and biker chic are for my aim of making some seriously sexy smoldering eyes – and looking at the swatches, they will smoulder!

Biker Chic

‘Turquoise-blue sparkles on a black base can create a fun glittery look, or apply wet for foil-like glam.’

As written for glitter boi – can’t wait to take these two on a smoldery adventure.

My thoughts on Fyrinnae

Firstly I adore their pixy epoxy – the staying power is wonderful and really adds another dimension to loose eyeshadows – it’s like an absolute must for my continued eyeshadow antics!  Secondly their loose eyeshadows may very well convert me to the loose side (Up untill this point I must admit I was more fond of pressed for ease).

The packaging is simple, but effective. Each sample jar has the sample name printed on a sticker which lives undernearth, the pixy epoxy has a clear sticker with the ingredients listed.  The samples are something I really cannot be impressed enough about – to be able to build up an order of samples that will give me many applications and chances to try out colours without spending 100′s on cosmetics is great – and for sure if there’s a colour that I’m in love with I can just buy fullsize.

Top marks from this girlie – I will be buying again!




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Sugarpill, yet another review ;)

Filed Under: Review by Emybloom — 2 Comments
March 28, 2010

Right, this is my first ever review so apologies if it reads badly, or anything else! I’m trying if nothing else.  The views and thoughts are nothing but my own, and the review itself might not be much whack, but I’ll be as objective as possible okay ;) I’ve got a few more things I got recently that I intend to review, so if you like it feel free to keep saying hi!

Sugarpill March 2010

The launch of Sugarpill actually went pretty un-noticed to me dispite being on LJ and guilty of nosying on Shrinkles blog relatively often.  Up until recently I’ve not even bothered wearing eyeshadows on a day to day basis (though once upon a time I *adored* bright eyeshadow). A trip to England, and a friends wedding changed that with me deciding to buy some new eyeshadows and try to put some more effort in how I looked from day to day.

Ordering and Shipping

I ordered from Shrinkle for delivery to my UK address.  I ordered the Cold Heart quad, Love+ (for my sister), Dollipop pressed eyeshadow and loose eyeshadows in Tiara and Hysteric (and got the free shipping as it was over $75). I got an e-mail to let me know it had been shipped the next day, and it took under a week to get to the UK.  The packaging as everyone else has said on the web was great – plain white box with the sugarpill stamp, and lovely pink tissue paper inside with a handwritten thankyou note on the invoice.  

Obligatory makeup porn (I have pictures of everything, but there’s loads of reviews on the net so I’ll hold off posting them all ;) ), it just looks so beautiful – there’s a lot of effort gone in there thats for sure! 

The Makeup Itself

Since getting the makeup I’ve played around with it for 3 weeks now, doing some silly things before bathtime to evening looks and daytime wear.  I may not be the most experienced user of eyeshadow, but the eyeshadow didnt take that out on me, and I think I’ve had a variety of good looks from it.

Some of my playing, bit hard to really see the goods, but don’t panic!

The thing that really impresses me is that I can get both something dramatic and something more day to day from the same shadow.

It was something that I was worried about, but it’s been no problem.

Swatches!

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Top Swatches are on bare skin, lower are on Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion.

(L-R Hysteric, Tiara, Dollipop, Taku, Afterparty, Bulletproof, Poison plum)

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On eye swatches – I figured perhaps some people would like to see this! Though I realise I forgot Poison Plum, seems I cleverly deleted it…… I promise to post it up soon okay ;)

My thoughts and feelings on Sugarpill

I love how the quad colours go together.  I do regret that I got Cold heart, as I intend to buy another quad when I have money and there’s no quad that I can get now without doubling up on colours. This however is my own short-sightedness.  Sugarpill eyeshadows are very nice to use even for beginners like myself. They blend easily and can create a myriad of looks.  Used with a primer or base underneath the pressed eyeshadows will not shift (and this was tested at a teary wedding, haha!) without primer they are still pretty long lasting.  The loose eyeshadows don’t last as well with tears (but I so far have unly used them wet with water, I suspect that using something like Pixy Epoxy would be tear-proof!).  As I mentioned earlier though I am pretty new to playing with eyeshadows and I’m pretty convinced that my use with the loose eyeshadows has a long way to go.

The packaging is well designed, and while the quad is heavy and cardboard based, it is pretty hardwearing – I dropped mine the other week, and although I’ve now got badluck for the next x years for breaking the mirror, the rest of the quad is 100% intact, whereas my cheap-ass pressed eyeshadow passed on into the realm of no-longer pressed :/.

Pricing seems pretty reasonable at $12 for an eyeshadow (pressed or loose) and $32 for a quad, from ordering to shipping was fast and it got to the UK rapidly.

Overall I really like the brand, I find Shrinkle/Amy approachable and friendly for the amount of stuff she must be doing at any one time (she’s replied to pretty much every eyeshadow look I posted on twitter for example, or giving me base advice.

I can’t really recommend it enough - 5/5

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