Virus Insanity - Swatches & Review

Today I'm reviewing another indie company - Virus Insanity. They were running a special a while ago on Facebook in which 3 customers got a free gift valued at $10 so I ordered two full-size eyeshadows - one duochrome and one of the regular line.

Virus Insanity Eyeshadows in (clockwise from top) Black Cat,
Outrageous Orange, Ferris Wheel, Obscene, Witchy.

The two I chose were Witchy and Ferris Wheel, and I received Obscene, Outrageous Orange and Black Cat for free. Ignore the damaged label on Obscene - my 1 year old attacked it! :P

I ordered on July 27th, I didn't receive any order confirmation or contact, so I emailed the owner on August 10th. I received an email back on August 14th apologising for the delay and informing me she would send the order out immediately and include some extra freebies. I received my package about a week and a half later, so it took about a month from when I ordered to receive my parcel. The stated turn-around time is 3-10 days - I don't mind waiting longer if I'm informed of the delay and know whats happening but I hadn't received any contact whatsoever until I chased them up. 

Anyway, the swatches! (Descriptions taken from Virus Insanity's website)

Black Cat: "a black toned blue with iridescence that shifts from red to copper to gold."

Outrageous Orange: "a bright orange with iridescence that shifts from lilac to red to silver to a greenish blue."

Ferris Wheel: "a warm strawberry pink with green iridescence and lime glitter."

Witchy: "a grayish purple with duochrome iridescence. The iridescence shifts from a light golden green to a medium green to a rose color."

I didn't swatch Obscene, as its a standard matte black - slightly chalky in texture but seems to apply well.

I really love the shades I purchased, Ferris Wheel is amazing and the color shift in Witchy is stunning. The quality seems good.

I do have one complaint though. The full size eyeshadows are advertised as being 2.5 grams. I don't have a digital scale, but I do have an extensive collection of eyeshadows to compare sizes with, and comparing this to other brands I estimate that this jar contains approx 1 gram (approx the same amount as a Geek Chic shadow). 

I was a bit disappointed by this because like I said, I love the shadows and can see myself using this up pretty quickly. The shadow in the pic cost $6.50 - I would have hoped for more product (especially since I thought I was getting 2.5g). I wrote to Jennifer (the owner) about this and received a response pretty quickly saying "the sizes are clearly stated on our website ... The jars we sell our eyeshadows in are 5 gram jars so 2.5 grams would be approximately half full." First of all I feel like this is a really unreliable way to measure product, and secondly - the jars are full about halfway to the sifter, not halfway to the top of the jar. Yes the website does clearly say 2.5g, and if I had received 2.5g I would be happy! But I'll leave you to make up your own mind, I just wanted to present my honest review.

Overall I'm left with very mixed feelings about this company. I don't think I would order again because I'm not very happy with the customer service, and also the amount of product for the price is very low. I was quite impressed with the shadows themselves, but I don't feel I can justify spending that much on them when I can go to somewhere like Shiro and spend less to get double the product. Also having to hassle the owner to get my order sent in the first place is definitely quite off-putting. I hate writing negative things about any company but I feel like customers deserve to know what they're getting before they spend their hard-earned $!

Virus Insanity products can be purchased through their website.

Thanks for viewing my post :)xx