Femme Fatale Cosmetics - Eyeshadow Swatches (New July 2013 Shades)

I was so excited when Femme Fatale released 10 new eyeshadows that I immediately placed an order for the whole lot.  YUP I do have a bit of a problem, but I'm okay with that if it means I get tons of awesome makeup!  Heres what I got:

See I'm not sooo bad - managed to stick to samples for 5 of them and mini jars for the other 5. I received 3 free samples as well! :) Look how pretty they are in their little jars:

I expected my favourite to me Nethermancer without a doubt, but surprisingly its Impsy that I'm obsessed with (and not because Nethermancer isn't pretty too).  I think Impsy is a really unique shade and its SUPER pigmented. Seafire is another favourite, I love that shade of green!

And swatches of the five I received in sample bags:

You can easily see in these pics (particularly with Underlord) where I kind of missed the pixie epoxy, and it shows that you really do benefit from a sticky base with these - the pixie epoxy really brings out the full colour. I liked all of these too - I didn't expect to like Lightwell, its not really a 'me' shade but I dont think I'll have trouble using up the sample baggie, I actually think its really pretty. Deepmoss is another super pigmented shade and its gorgeous.  But my fave of this batch definitely has to be Oplaine Shoal - so delicate!

Femme Fatale cosmetics is closed at the moment but they are reopening on the 9th August with a big two day sale.  I'm really hoping that includes eyeshadows, because I plan to place an order for a full size of Opaline Shoal (as well as some others of course - its a sale... I dont have a choice!).  ALSO *cough* I may have yet another order already on the way *cough cough* so expect to see more Femme Fatale swatches up soon!  Remember if you want to try these shades out for yourself - Femme Fatale offers free shipping on all sample only orders worldwide.

Thanks so much for reading xx

Darling Girl Cosmetics - Haul & Swatches (Part 1)

I recently placed my first order with Darling Girl Cosmetics during their Memorial Day flash sale. I'd been eyeing up a lot of the shades for a while so it was a good excuse to try them out :) I like to take pics of how things arrive because I love the personal touches that indie sellers add.  This is what I received from Darling Girl:

I ordered 10 samples and 1 petit size.  I chose to receive the petit size in a baggie to keep postage costs down - I think its great that she offers this as international shipping can get quite expensive.  I received 2 more samples and a 'Gift with purchase' as freebies!

I was really excited to fing that my two bonus samples were 2 of the yet-to-be-released Halloween shades for this year!  I received 'Heads Will Roll' and 'Camp Blood', and the collection is called 'Oh The Horror'.

Darling Girl Cosmetics 'Heads Will Roll' and 'Camp Blood'

I was really frustrated trying to take pics of these!  They are so much prettier than they look in the swatches, especially when you get them out in the sun, I've tried to take pics in different lighting (below) but the sparkle freaks my camera out a bit.  I particularly love Heads will Roll - which isn't really surprising, purple shades are normally my favouriite - but its such a gorgeous shade of purple with a super pretty pink sparkle.  I really liked Camp Blood too, it is a bit more pink tinged than it looks here.  It definitely makes me excited to see what else Darling Girl has in store for Halloween!  

Darling Girl Swatches (Sun)

I've split this post into two parts due to the amount of pictures and the fact that I wanted to get the Halloween shades up asap, but above I've shown the first batch of swatches.  These are: Love in a Void, Impervious, My Little Pony, Camp Blood, Heads will Roll.  All swatches are over Pixie Epoxy. The shades are so sparkly!  I ended up with sparkles everywhere lol, however this was due to the way I was applying them, once they were on the pixie epoxy I didn't notice much fallout.

Darling Girl Swatches (Shade)

I was really impressed with the quality of these, they're really pigmented and go on smoothly. My faves of this lot are definitely My Little Pony and Heads Will Roll. My Little Pony is a color-shifter, the website describes it like this: 'At first glance it looks like a pale, pastel lavender with green shift and aqua and pink iridescence, but hold it close to a light source and it takes on a coppery rose color'. I absolutely adore the obvious green shift to it., I think I might have to get this in a full size - yup, I'm planning my next order already :x
The remaining swatches will be up asap.  Hope you enjoyed this post xx

Crows Toes & Elevation Polish Collaboration 'Too F*%#ing Hot & Too F*%#ing Cold' - Swatches and Review

Elevation Polish and Crows Toes are two of my favourite indie nail polish brands so I was excited to see they were working together to create this duo - Too F*%#ing Hot & Too F*%#ing Cold. Love the names too!

The following are the official descriptions, just because they describe them better than I could! 'Too F*%#ing Hot- is a deep red jelly-shimmer with both black and red medium/large flake shimmer; Too F*%#ing Cold- is a blue tinted glitter topper with a complex blend of holographic & iridescent glitters.'

I actually ended up liking this duo even more than I thought I would - I love how the iridescent glitters look against the red.  The formula was great, I used three coats of Too effin hot and two coats of Too effin cold, though you could get away with two and one.  

I think Too effin cold would look great over a variety of colours so I look forward to trying that out!  I purchased these from Llarowe and they're still in stock.  Pretty sure they aren't going to be around for long though, so if you do want them best to grab them sooner than later! :)

Thanks for reading xx

Arcane Lacquer 'Forget Me Not' - Swatches & Review

Hey guys :)  If you follow my blog, you might remember from my Femme Fatale post that I picked this polish up from the international clearance on Femme Fatale's website.  I was pretty lucky to snag this one, it sold out pretty fast - probably in part because its not available internationally normally, though I believe Llarowe will be stocking them very soon.

Arcane Lacquer is an Australian indie brand from Bec of NailGunXS.  The polishes are 12ml and come in the standard Aussie indie bottle (the same as Emily de Molly, Femme Fatale, Gloss n Sparkle).  'Forget Me Not' is a light grey crelly filled with lavender flakies and micro glitters.

I love how delicate this polish is, its got a gorgeous blue/pink shimmer. The formula was great too - it applied nice and smoothly, but is quite sheer so you do need to do 3 coats for full opacity.

I'll definitely be checking out Llarowe when she launches this brand, meanwhile Australians can purchase Arcane Lacquer at the Esty store. (lucky Australians - you guys have all the good indies! :P)

Thanks for viewing my post xx

Fyrinnae - Haul & Swatches

Not much can make me happier than opening the mailbox and seeing a parcel from these guys:

Seriously, it makes my day because I know that every single product inside is going to be amazing!  I'm yet to be disappointed by Fyrinnae (not gonna happen).  

Just look at how cutely they are packaged - love it!  Anyway, this time I ordered 2 Pressed shades, 2 Fullsize shades and 2 minis.  I also received 2 samples! 

The pressed shades I chose were Daemon's Tail and Unicorn.  I've wanted Daemon's Tail for a while and I read a post from one of the Fyrinnae boys on Twitter saying that it was 'on its way out' so I thought I better snap it up.  Unicorn is from the Pride 2013 collection that was released a few weeks ago.  These were $8.25 each.

Fyrinnae Daemon's Tail (Left) and Unicorn (Right)

The full sizes I chose were Sequined Master and Serendipity (formerly Te Amo).  Both of these shades are amazing.  I'm so happy I got sequined master in a fullsize, I love it just as much as I thought I would.  I've had a sample jar of Serendipity, and I adored it - I did my mother's makeup with it and she loved it, so I passed on the sample jar to her and bought a full size.

Fyrinnae Sequined Master (Left) and Serendipity (Right)

Look at how much they pack into the jars!  Love it, definitely good value.  The Arcane Magic shades (such as sequined master) are $6.80 for this size, and regular shades (like Serendipity) are $6.25.  Worth every cent in my opinion.  The sample jars I chose were Sultry Samhain and Parental Advisory and my freebies were Mauve-o-Matic and Dinosaur Plushie.

I did some quick swatches, sorry they're not the best - my kids were hurrying me, but we had the first sun I'd seen in a while so I really wanted to get them done.  Click the pics to make them bigger.

Fyrinnae Daemon's Tail, Unicorn, Serendipity, Sequined Master, Parental Advisory, Sultry Samhain.

Swatches were taken in natural light. and over pixie epoxy.

I love all of these shades - they're pigmented and easy to work with. Customer service at Fyrinnae is amazing too. I've emailed them twice now with questions and both times they've replied within an hour (!) and they're not even in the same time zone. This is my 4th order and I've received all of my parcels within 2-3 weeks, which is pretty amazing given that I'm in New Zealand. They've shipped out within a week every time.

I highly recommend Fyrinnae, if you haven't tried them yet you should give them a go, sample jars are available for only $2.25 each, and they ship worldwide. Sample jars are packed with 1/3 teaspoon for regular shades and 1/4 teaspoon for the arcane magic shades - thats enough to last for quite a while. The hardest part is choosing from all the amazing shades!

If you have tried Fyrinnae, what are your favourite shades?  Its possible I'm already filling up the cart for another order... :P

Thanks for reading xx

Femme Fatale 'Nightsong Grotto' - Swatches & Review

Here it is.. the polish that is on par with Emily de Molly's 'Cosmic Forces' on the difficulty-to-get-hold-of-on- Llarowe scale!  Was it worth all the constant refreshing and waiting?  MOST DEFINITELY!  I am in love... but we all know I'm a bit of a Femme Fatale fangirl so go ahead and have a look at the pics and see what u think :)

Incredible right? Definitely one of my all time faves - I normally gravitate towards purples but if awesome was a colour this would be it, so I think I'll make an exception. Application was good, a bit thick (as you would expect from a polish this jam-packed with glitter) but nothing unmanageable, just need to take a bit more care with application.

Nightsong Grotto is described as 'A lovely teal green base filled with various greens and teals, highlighted by a scattering of iridescence and pink holo. Reminiscent of lotus flowers floating along some forgotten stream in a shady forest.' Nice description, and seems pretty accurate.

A lot of Sophies polishes are based on the game World of Warcraft. The following is a picture she posted on Instagram showing the inspiration for the polish - I think its amazing how she can look at that and turn it into polish form the way she does!

I definitely recommend picking up this polish if you get the chance, its available from Femme Fatale (in Australia) or Llarowe. Harlow & Co is also about to restock Femme Fatale so it may be available there too.

Thanks for viewing my post! Have a great weekend :)

Happy Revolution 'Nightcrawlers' - Review & Swatches

Hi everyone, hope your week is going well!  I have a super pretty polish from Happy Revolution to show you today! Happy Revolution polishes are a collaborative effort between Happy Hands and Polish Revolution. They are inspired by the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - which I haven't watched yet, but fully intend to, I've heard good things!  I blame the kids, they seriously limit my adult tv time.  I have a huge list of things I need to watch, but my husband is currently working his way through Naruto so I may have to wait a while...
Anyway, here are the swatches!

Ahhh look how squishy it is - so awesome!  Nightcrawlers is described as 'a wine-colored jelly with matte gray, silver, gunmetal, and burgundy glitters and red micro glitter'. and I think thats a pretty accurate description.  I love the red micro glitter in this.  

Application was nice and easy, and no fishing was required for the glitter.  The swatch shows 3 coats, with 1 coat of Jordana Quick Shine top coat.  If you haven't tired Jordana Quick Shine by the way, I recommend it - especially for you kiwis!  I get it for $3 at '2 cheap' and I think its just as good as Seche Vite.  You do have to stalk the store a bit though, because I find  that they sell out of it quite quickly.  Last time I saw it in stock I bought about 5 bottles :).  

Hope you enjoyed this post, I have another shade from this collection waiting to be swatched - 'Kitten Mittens' so hopefully will have that up soon.  I dont see this polish listed at either Happy Hands store at the moment (Big Cartel or Etsy) but its currently availble on Polish Revolution's Etsy Store.

Thanks for reading! :)

Femme Fatale - Haul and Swatches

Look what I got in the mail!  A package full of awesome from Femme Fatale!  I decided to place an order while the international polish clearance was on because I'd been eyeing up some eyeshadows anyway and it made the postage cost more worthwile.  I just want to say that the customer service at Femme Fatale is amazing - I was really annoying and decided I wanted to add to my order after I'd already placed it and Sophie was really helpful, she replied to my emails straight away and made the process really easy!  The turn around time is really quick and my products were pacakged safely and securely.  Delivery to New Zealand only took about a week.  Here is what I received.

How cute is that?  Presentation definitely influences how I feel about a brand and I love it when companies take the time to make customers feel special and like a huge amount of care has been taken with every order.

My Femme Fatale super-haul

I ordered an Arcane Lacquer in 'Forget Me Not' (swatches and review to come), a full size blush in 'Fire Bloom', 1 full size eyeshadow in 'The Nightmare' and 7 mini jars in the shades Desecration, Shooting Stars, Nightlash, Haunt, Efflorescence, Polymorph and Dreamstate.  I also received 3 sample bags of 'Heart Blossom' Illuminator, 'Fizzy Fruit' Blush and 'Darkmist' eyeshadow.  I love how she gave me a sample of each different type of product to try and am particularly happy with Heart Blossom because I wanted to try one of her illuminators (they're great by the way!).

Samples in Darkmist, Fizzy Fruit, Heart Blossom

I'm really impressed with the amount of product in the mini jars, these are definitely going to last me a while.  I had to have a full size jar of The Nightmare though, its just such an amazing colour!

Swatches are taken in natural light - unfortunately they dont convey the sheer awesomeness of these shades, but it was the best I could do!  These were swatched over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (if you don't have this by the way, go and get it!!! Its amazing).  Left to Right is:  Darkmist, Haunt, The Nightmare, Desecration, Dreamstate, Nightlash, Efflorescence, Polymorph, Shooting Stars and at the top is the blush - Fire Bloom.

I love all of these.  A lot.  I'm definitely going back for more!  My favourites are The Nightmare, Dreamstate, Nightlash and Shooting Stars, but like I said, I adore them all.  The blush is really pretty too and needs to be seen in person to really appreciate.  Here is another pic just because I think it shows the sparkle well.

The prices of these are great too, in AUD: $5.85 for a full size jar, $3.10 for a mini jar ($3.20 if you want a sifter), and $1.10 for a sample bag.  Femme Fatale ships powder cosmetics internationally and shipping is free on sample only orders.  I strongly recommend giving this brand a go!  Her products are lovely, particularly the duochrome eyeshadows (of which she has a great selection!).

And now, just because I'm on a bit of a Femme Fatale kick, here is a pic of my current collection of Femme Fatale polishes - they're just as pretty and unique as the eyeshadows!  I think I might have to do a Femme Fatale swatch month so I can show you guys these!  (I may also have more of the way... :X  - yup, I'm addicted).

Femme Fatale Nail Lacquer: Top Row: The Other Side of the World, Nightsong Grotto, Librarian's Shush, Keeper of the Grove, Jadefire, Displaced Dreams.  Bottom Row: Wolfsbane, Scorchling, Planar Anomalies, Incendius, Lucent Ametrine, Edge of the Cosmos.

Have you tried Femme Fatale?  What are your favourite  shades?

Cadillacquer 'Dark Defender' - Swatches and Review

By now I'm sure you've all heard of the gorgeous Swiss indie brand - Cadillacquer.  They create absolutely amazing polishes, and their glitter combos always work pefectly together.  The following polish is from the Dexter Collection, and its called 'The Dark Defender'.

Dark Defender is described as 'a dark teal jelly base with light green and purple micro flakies' which is pretty much on the money.  This polish is pretty much a teal lovers dream!  The flakies work perfectly with the base and are nice and visible.

Make sure you enlarge the pics so you can see the full awesomeness of this polish, its definitely a new favourite of mine!

This bottle shot really shows how amazing the Dark Defender is, and (just in case you need a bit of enabling) just think, when the current and final Dexter season ends, you're going to need a pretty new polish to console yourself - and what better than one inspired by the man himself? :P 

I purchased this from Llarowe (where it is currently still in stock) but it is also available from Cadillacquer's Etsy Store.  Worldwide shipping is available from both sites.