Little Sparrow Cosmetics Mineral Blush Review

Little Sparrow Cosmetics is a new vegan focused indie brand on Etsy run by just one woman - Jessica! They're best know for their super moisturising Lip Jellies but last month came out with a new flower themed blush collection which you can view here. Although I would've loved to buy all seven of them because it's such a lovely and well rounded collection, I'm not made of money and would probably rarely wear the pink and orange ones anyway.

Quick disclaimer - I was given a blogger discount for this order which essentially just covered international shipping costs, I haven't been given free stuff, been paid to write this or even asked... although I think that's probably the point of a blogger discount!

Little Sparrow Cosmetics blushes in Lilac, Lavender and Bluebell

Little Sparrow Cosmetics' blushes are $8 each and contain 4-5g of product in a 20g jar with a sifter - the jars are study, don't leak, the shifter works very well to distribute useable amounts of product and, most importantly in my opinion, there is enough room in the pot and lid to swirl your brush so as to distribute product evenly amongst the bristles.

All the blushes have a matte finish and are incredibly finely milled with perfectly even pigment distribution so they apply quickly and easily as a smooth uniform wash of colour that can be built up in intensity.

Swatches in indirect sunlight in the same order as above: Lilac, Lavender and Bluebell

The strangest thing about these blushes is that when swatched Lilac looks lavender and Lavender looks lilac! I've swatched these blushes three times over the past few days double and triple checking that I've got them the right way around - they genuinely look exactly like the these swatch photos when applied with my finger over bare skin.

However, even more strangely when applied to my face the colours look exactly like they should based on their names and how they appear in the pot!

Lilac, Lavender, Bluebell

Below are lots of face swatches, and as well as the blushes I'm also wearing:

• NARS Sheer Glow in Siberia foundation
• Illamasqua Motto Brow Cake
• Covergirl Clump Crusher mascara

I cleaned my brush (Real Techniques Blush brush) before switching colours to prevent mixing or muddying the colours, and all photos were taken in indirect sunlight with a diffused flash.

Lilac lightly applied.

Lilac translated to a very wearable cool pink on my face, leaning more pink than purple - it's an undeniably beautiful colour and a great formula. I'd recommend this to anyone who just wants to dip their toe into purple blush!

Lilac (unlike Lavender and Bluebell) is also safe to use on your eyes and lips which is a bonus if you like matching your blush to your lip colour (just add vaseline/some sort of lip balm) or even either to your eyeshadow, plus who doesn't love a versatile product?

Lavender moderately applied

I applied Lavender a heavier than I normally would for natural daytime blush to emphasise its colour. I love this blush - it's definitely purple, but if applied slightly sheerer than I have here would be incredibly wearable. I would recommend this colour to anyone who wants a basic everyday purple blush!

Bluebell lightly applied over Lilac lightly applied

Since I highly doubt I'll be wearing a blue blush by itself regularly I decided to try layering Bluebell over other blushes. Here you can see Bluebell over Lilac from above - it's clearly significantly changed the blush's original cool pink to a really lovely purple lilac. I was incredibly impressed with how evenly these blushes layered - there was no patchiness or caking and it took no extra time, effort or blending to achieve this smooth finish.

Bluebell lightly applied over Lavender moderately applied

Obviously this is very purple and probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I really can't praise these blushes' formula enough!

Bluebell lightly applied
(My lips are stained from Shiro's Sad Keanu that I was photographing for my last post)

Here I applied Bluebell very lightly to see if it would pass for a purple blush by itself - it obviously doesn't here on me as I was wearing a medium coverage yellow based foundation so there was no pink/red on my skin for the blue to mix with. Again, A+ formula.

Bluebell moderately applied
(I was multitasking and photographing my Shiro custom blue gloss for my last post at the same time)

Moderate Bluebell blush - it's definitely very blue and not for the faint of heart! I was also multitasking and photographing Shiro's custom blue lipgloss aka The Saskia, so you can ignore/admire my blue lips too.

Bluebell very lightly applied as contour under very pale pink Shu Umera blush lightly applied
(Again, ignore the blue lipgloss)

This is my absolute favourite - it's Bluebell used very lightly as a contour over a very light pink blush (Shu Uemura's M Pink 33E). Instead of the usual 'three shades darker than my skin colour' type contour I - and everyone else - uses it's turned the very natural pink blush lightly purple under my cheek bones giving me both a sculpted and perfectly natural blush.

I adore the effect and the fact that I'm wearing blue contour and it looks both beautiful and natural.

I'd recommend Bluebell to anyone who already has a few pink/red/plum blushes and wants to experiment with purples - one blue blush and you can transform the rest of your blushes into various shades of purple! Also anyone who wants to take their contour game to the next level, or is fond of the haute Smurf look.

Overall I could not be more impressed with Little Sparrow Cosmetic's blushes - they fill a niche in the market (matte lavender and blue blushes), are reasonably priced, are excellently packaged and come with great customer service, but most importantly are exceptional quality! I'd recommend them to anyone and really wish now I'd bought Desert Rose as it looks like an amazing neutral colour.


Also smug moment: I am literally the first person to review and swatch these blushes - I feel like a pro blogger now!

Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com
@aiksasarual on Instagram

Shiro Eyeshadow Swatches and Review

Shiro's one of the main players on the indie cosmetics scene and it's easy to see why - their creator and owner Caitlin has hit all the indie (or really general company) bull's eyes:

• Amazing quality products
• Inexpensive
• Various sizing and pricing options (sample, mini, full)
• Inexpensive shipping around the world
• Relatively prompt turn around time
• A relatively easy to navigate website (though I'd love the option to view her eyeshadows by colour family)
• Wide variety of products
• Clear swatch pictures for every product
• Themed collections with adorable packaging
• An active presence on social media (Colour of the Month suggestions and voting on facebook)
• Custom products options (the lip glosses)
• Great customer service (responds promptly to emails and is incredibly helpful)
• Surprise complimentary eyeshadow samples with every order

Top: comparison of Shiro's sample, full and mini eyeshadow sizes; pound coin for scale
Botton: comparison of amount of eyeshadow in Shiro's mini and full size jars

I ordered:

• Sad Keanu Intertube (tinted lip balm) [swatched and reviewed here]
• A very unusual custom lip gloss [swatched and reviewed here]
• Five eyeshadow samples and three complimentary samples
• Three mini eyeshadows
• Four full sized eyeshadows

Reading left to right: lip products, greenish eyeshadows, gold/neutral eyeshadows, purplish eyeshadows

Swatches and colour reviews of the purple eyeshadows:

Little Bird, Day of Reckoning, Equivalent Exchange, Task Force, Alkahestry, Master of Whispers, Mother of Dragons

Swatches are all done over NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base and the top half are also over Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy.

Little Bird, Day of Reckoning, Equivalent Exchange, Task Force

Little Bird is matte pastel pink toned burnt orange, it's significantly less pink and much more orange than on Shiro's website ("mauve beige/pink") and I'm really not seeing any mauve in it. It had a really nice smooth texture and excellent pigmentation, it applied just as well over regular eye primer as over a sticky base (as mattes tend to do). Personally I really dislike anything orange so this was a flop for me.

Day of Reckoning, Equivalent Exchange, Task Force

Day of Reckoning is a dark metallic almost black based burgundy, pretty much exactly as described and pictured on the website. I requested this colour as one of my complimentary samples.

Equivalent Exchange is a metallic steel grey with cool lavender undertones and almost imperceptible pink shimmer. It's much more grey and much less purple than shown on the website.

Task Force is very similar to Day of Reckoning but is brighter (no black base), more purple and less red and is the same warmth/coolness. They look very different in their baggies but when swatched are hard to tell apart, Shiro describes both as a metallic burgundy which it accurate but not helpful for distinguishing between the two. Personally I prefer Task Force to Day of Reckoning, and would re-buy it.

Alkahestry, Little Bird, Mother of Dragons

Alkahestry is a glitter bomb in the best possible way! Pale violet base is covered with bright turquoise sparkles, a bit gritty because of the glitter but exceptionally beautiful - it reminds me of faeries and spring, another favourite. Shiro's colour description and pictures were spot on, it required a sticky base to keep all the pigment and sparkles on. I'd definitely re-buy!

Master of Whispers is one of my favourite colours of all time - it has a lilac base with a cool pink and light yellow-gold shift, it's absolutely stunning and I've never seen anything like it. If you want a cooler version of Fyriannae's Rapunzel Had Extensions this would bit it (but better). Shiro's website photos doesn't do it justice - if I hadn't seen swatches of this online I wouldn't have bought it as it looks a boring sheer white pink, however the description "soft golden shimmer shining through pale lilac silk" is spot on. Perfect in every way, I'd recommend it to everyone!

Mother of Dragons was an anticipated disappointment - Shiro's website swatches make it look like the magical greyed purple with an ethereal silver blue shimmer ("silvered royal purple over a blood red base") that my dreams are made of, however all the blog swatches I saw of it online helped keep my expectations in check. In reality it's a hard colour to describe - there's a browned wine base reminiscent of half dried blood under cold metallic steel - it reminds me of a beautifully tragic battlefield scene full of blood and armour. Along with Master of Whispers it's a perfect representation of the respective Game of Thrones characters, just not the colour I would have wanted - the artwork is spectacular though and I have no regrets!

Lingered in Twilight, Farore's Wind, Maiden Queen, Steve, You Know Nothing

Onto the green eyeshadows; remember all swatches are done over NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base, and also over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy in the top half of the swatches.

Lingered In Twilight - the colour shows up best in the below photo pre-tape removal, as because it's so dark in comparison to the other shadows (and my skin) has come out underexposed in all my other photos. It's a matte black base with intense metallic emerald shimmer, there may be a touch of blue in the shimmer as the green is very cool with no warm tones. Love it, but my photos don't do it justice unfortunately.

Farore's Wind isn't quite what I was expecting but is still very nice, Shiro describes it as "light blue-toned green with silvery shimmer". From that description and the photo on the website I was expecting an aqua leaning mint green but it's both less blue and less pastel than I was expecting, however does have a high silver shimmer content. I have no idea who 'Farore' is but the artwork shows some sort of faerie which I'd safely say is very appropriate for this colour.

Maiden Queen is the perfect bright mint green with equal green and blue tones, and a lot of shimmer which appears to be a mixture between aqua and gold giving an overall mint light reflection. Of all the green shadows it adhered and lasted best to the primer only section of my skin, as well as obviously doing faultlessly over Pixie Epoxy too. A truly lovely colour and I almost wish I'd gone for the full size as the character artwork was my favourite after Mother of Dragons, but to be honest this isn't a colour I can see myself wearing a lot.

Steve is a complimentary sample from Shiro that they picked out for me, this in itself impressed me as it ties so nicely into the shadows I've already ordered. It's a bright shimmery turquoise just as Shiro described it, less metallic than Farore's Wind but more so than Maiden Queen.

You Know Nothing is my third and final complimentary sample that Shiro also picked out for me, it's a matte white base with lots of aqua shimmer - I'm not seeing the "wintery grey-white" Shiro claims but there is definitely lots of "bright icy shimmer!" It's a nice twist on a pale highlighter shade and is almost like Little Bird's less exciting brother. Again, I'm impressed with Shiro's choice as it really suits the rest of the shadows and is from the Seven Kingdoms collection which is clearly my favourite.

Lingered in Twilight, Farore's Wind, Maiden Queen, Steve, You Know Nothing

And finally the gold and neutral shadows! Again, everything over NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base and the top half over Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy. I swatched No Men Like Me twice because the first time came out pretty meh, so I foiled a new swatch of it.

Climbing Chaos, I Loved A Maid, No Men Like Me, Hordor, No Men Like Me Part 2

Climbing Chaos is a lovely blackened bronze/gold, it has a high shimmer and it's sparkles at first seem colourless but upon closer inspection are almost holographic adding a wonderful but fairly subtle twist. It works fine without Pixie Epoxy but is less dark and sparkly. It's close to the photos on Shiro's website but is much less warm than described there.

Climbing Chaos rainbow sparkles, I Loved A Maid green sparkles

I Loved A Maid no where near as peachy as it appears on Shiro's website, but the description is pretty apt if you take "softened Lannister crimson" to mean burnt red-orange. It certainly has green sparkles but I'm honestly not seeing a lot of gold. It's interesting, but not what I expected nor a colour I personally like.

Hordor, No Men Like Me

No Men Like Me is both glorious and very annoying - as you can see from the first failed swatch above you can neither apply it just over eyeshadow primer or you'll end up with a flat, dull grey matte, nor can you just pat it on over Pixie Epoxy or it'll go as patchy as Elmer the Elephant.

However if you foil it over wet Pixie Epoxy (or I assume with water/sealant) it becomes an amazing almost matte gold. As gold is an inherently metallic colour a truly matte gold would just be a dull shade of yellow, No Men Like Me is not that - it's metallic without the shimmer or sparkles. It's definitely a very interesting and unique colour and is well work the extra effort. I'd love to know how Shiro got their swatches to look like they do on the website - a very pale matte ashy gold - though.

My favourite element of it though is a very, very subtle rainbow glow to it - it is neither a shimmer nor a sparkle, but a glow like like real gold would have at sunset. Or what I imagine a pregnant lady's glow would look like...

Hordor, No Men Like Me

Hordor is exactly as described: "medium near-matte taupe." It's a cooler taupe when swatched over Pixie Epoxy and a warmer taupe over primer alone, it's nice and soft and overall a lovely neutral colour. I discovered something slightly exciting about it when I was trying to capture No Men Like Me's pregnancy glow - a very light dusting of rainbow glimmer that you can see above, it's not obvious, but it's there like some naughty multicoloured secret in the otherwise sober taupe.

And finally the lip products Sad Keanu and the Custom Lipgloss aka The Saskia... You can check out tons of swatches and full reviews of them on my last blog post here!


Overall I absolutely love everything I've bought from Shiro, somethings were not exactly as I expected or quite to my taste but I can't fault the gorgeous colours, finishes and most of all astounding quality and customer service.

I would 100% recommend Shiro to anyone looking to try out indies for the first time, anyone who would appreciate the themed collections, anyone looking for something unique and a custom order, or really anyone looking to expand their collection with unusual colours - $1 samples are a great way to experiment!


Things I want for next time:

• Custom medium opacity gloss in Master of Whispers
• Full sized Task Force
• Full sized Alkahastry, maybe
• The entire full sized Seven Kingdoms collection because it's perfect in every way and I love the artwork (oh if only money was not limiting factor)
• A bunch more colours I'm sure I'll find browsing the website

Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com
@aiksasarual on Instagram

Shiro Intertube and Custom Lip Gloss Swatches and Review

It's pretty obvious why I ordered the Sad Keanu Intertube - and it's not to support my fellow Eurasian - it's because it's straight up purple and purple's where it's at. Seemingly strangely though I also ordered a custom lipgloss in blue or 'Pantone 286C' as I described it to Caitlin the owner of Shiro and creator of magical cosmetics.

Sad Keanu Intertube and Custom Lipgloss

Sad Keanu is what I'd call a very tinted lip balm stain (like the ones Revlon makes) and it can be worn sheer or somewhat opaque. It's a bright medium cool toned purple that strangely turns slightly pinker a few minutes after it's been applied, and has no smell or taste (despite supposedly being blackberry flavoured).

Although comfortable to wear the pigment doesn't apply perfectly smoothly and can end up to settling in lip lines and accentuating flakes, though it's easy to fix and prevent by rubbing you lips together and starting with smooth exfoliated and moisturised lips. You're not going to want to actually use this as a lip balm because you'll end up with an unevenly coloured mouth and although not drying this balm isn't actually moisturising either.

The wear time is better than expected for a satin lip product with no feathering and minimal transfer to drinking receptacles, and leaves behind a bright pink stain.

The photos below show Sad Keanu applied directly from the tube onto my bare mouth, I used my finger to define the edges better - it was very quick and easy to apply.

Overall I'd give it a B+ as it's a really lovely product that's just a bit let down by some uneven pigment issues.

Bare lips / Sheer Sad Keanu
Moderately opaque Sad Keanu / Stain left after 15 minutes wear

My Custom Lipgloss needs something of an introduction: I love purple - as anyone who reads this blog knows - but often find that purple lip products (and even blushes) tend to lean pink when applied due to the fact that they're applied over naturally pink skin. This fact coupled with my love for Lipstick Queen's Hello Sailor lipstick (a very sheer blue lipstick that when applied adds a subtle berry tint to your lips) gave me the idea to get a more tinted blue lip gloss that could either give me a brighter or darker berry lip than Hello Sailor when applied alone, or, when applied over pink and red lipsticks turn them slightly more purple.

I described this idea to Caitlin in an email specifying I wanted a "bright/royal/cornflower blue around Panetone 286C or OCC's Lip Tar in Rx" and also clarified that "I understand it may not come out exactly as I imagined (which is fine), and I'd be very happy with a blue lip gloss that doesn't look true purple on (or just looks outright blue) - but if in doubt I'd prefer to err on the side of more/brighter blue and more opaque coverage."

When I first opened my package I was somewhat disappointed - the lipgloss looked almost black in the tube and when applied was a dark navy blue rather than a bright/royal/cornflower blue. But, I tried it on anyway and... it looked like I was 12 years old again when my fountain pen had exploded in my mouth after I'd be chewing it throughout an exceptionally boring history class.

One swipe onto bare (but stained from above) lips / Blended out with my finger
Almost opaque / AFTER 4 SLICES OF PIZZA (while not even trying to eat tidily)

I mean, it's clearly dark blue even when applied sheerly right? However I'm not complaining because I clearly did specify that if in doubt to err on the side of blue! I also like it simply because it's a very unique custom product and given that it only cost me $8 I don't think I have anything to be upset about.

Colour issues aside the formula is absolutely incredible - a completely non-sticky gloss THAT LASTS THROUGH 4 SLICES OF PIZZA. Seriously, I know it's not perfect post-pizza but that's infinitely better than every gloss I've ever tried and almost all drugstore/high street lipsticks, especially since I'd just slapped it on for those photos and was too lazy/hungry to take it off before I ate lunch. I can't discern a scent even though Shiro states that it should smell lightly of chocolate, and it obviously stains your lips very blue.

Anyway, since I doubt I'll be wearing the gloss alone (unless it's for a costume) I decided to try it over Mac's Flat Out Fabulous - a 'Retro Matte' lipstick that's supposed to be a "bright plum" but is really just a very cool bright pink, or a fuchsia/magenta.

Mac Flat Out Fabulous + My custom lipgloss =
THE PRETTIEST PURPLE / I love it; look how white my teeth look!

SWEET BALLS OF FIRE look at it!!!! It's... perfect. Bear in mind these swatches were done hurriedly with the lipstick straight out of the bullet and the lipgloss patted on with my finger - you could get much crisper lines and a more even colour mix if you take the time to use a brush!

Mac Retro Matte formulas are exceptionally matte, which I personally love but a lot of people find them too drying to wear. When my custom gloss was applied over Flat Out Fabulous they fused beautifully together creating a creamy, completely opaque, satin finish and non-sticky lipstick-gloss hybrid.

I've previously tried 'mixing' lipsticks but always find them to be a bit meh... maybe it's because the formula's don't fuse together well or because applying one lipstick over another on your mouth isn't a particularly precise way to do it. Moreover although Lip Tars mix incredibly well with each other they don't play particularly well with other lip products - hence why I'm not singing Rx's praises at transforming any regular pink/red lipstick into a purple.

Anyway, I've been wearing this combo now for about 6 hours with no touch ups, and with no feathering, bleeding, transferring or fading despite having drunk multiple cups of tea and inhaled half a dozen biscuits. It's dried down a bit but is still very comfortable, and most importantly still just looks so incredibly beautiful.

With flash, I wish I'd taken more time to apply this neatly

This combo is almost a perfect colour match with Mac's Heroine lipstick (which I swatched here) and could probably be made into a perfect colour dupe using the correct ratios, moreover it has a far superior formula in coverage and wear, I really could not praise it enough!

If you love my custom gloss you simply select 'opaque' out of the coverage options on Shiro's custom lipgloss page and write 'Pantone 286C dupe' in the description box, or, as I have so narcissistically named it: The Saskia. Though you'll probably also want to write a quick note linking this post in the 'extra info' section at the checkout since I'm not sure Caitlin'll be able to remember my humble order over a month after I made it!

Overall 'The Saskia' Custom Lipgloss is an A+ - the formula's perfect, it applies well over bare lips even if the colour's a bit odd (and not what I originally expected), but most importantly it will (hopefully) turn any boring pink or red lipstick into gorgeous shade of purple and improve its formula overall!

I can't wait to try it out on more of my lipsticks!

If you do end up buying The Saskia (or just Saskia? Saskia's lip gloss? I don't know) please shoot me a message because I'd love to hear how you find it!


Saskia, The
X


PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com

Purple blush!

Purple blush isn't exactly common - especially if you're trying to find it in mainstream cosmetics - Illamasqua, MAC are the only brands that make almost purple blushes, but even those are really just variations of magenta, fuchsia and plum: cool toned pinks and berry reds.

There are also brands like Shu Umera and YSL that have recently come out with blushes that resembles the colour purple in the pan but when swatched sheer out to yet another boring cool pink.

Raspberry, plum, magenta, fuchsia, burgundy... NONE OF THESE COLOURS ARE PURPLE
[photo credit linked at the bottom of this post]

I mean, technically MUFE makes a purple eyeshadow that they advertise can also be used as a blush, and Illamasqua makes purple cream pigments that can again also be used a blush... but come on now, is it really hard to just produce a classic blush formula in the colour purple?!

This is the reason that I'm now a die-hard indie cosmetics fan:

Awww yissss

Reading left to right the blushes are as follows:

• My Pretty Zombie - Drugs Like Me Blush: 6-MAM
• My Pretty Zombie - Drugs Like Me Blush: THC
• My Pretty Zombie - Drugs Like Me Blush: LSD
• Little Sparrow Cosmetics - Bluebell
• Little Sparrow Cosmetics - Lavender
• Little Sparrow Cosmetics - Lilac
• Fyrinnae - Seduce
• Fyrinnae - Temptation

These blushes may look similar in tone and colour but their nature and finish varies strongly between brands:

My Pretty Zombie's blushes are duochromes, they have a matte base that provides their primary colour and a very fine sparkle colour shift which makes them truly unique and utterly gorgeous.

Little Sparrow Cosmetic's blushes are near matte, incredibly soft and finely milled - essentially a pure colour staple.

Fyrinnae's blushes are on the metallic side of satin - they have a strong light reflecting sheen like a highlighter would - they reflect back the same colour light as the base.

MPZ sample baggies, LSC full sized pots, Fyrinnae minis - one depotted

I originally wrote this as one huge long review of all the above blushes and their respective indie companies, but for the sake of neatness and organisation I've split the reviews into their respective brands:

Click here for My Pretty Zombie Drugs Like Me blush collection review

Click here for Little Sparrow Cosmetics blush review

Click here for Fyrinnae blush review

[Sorry to be a tease, obviously none of those links work now but I'll update them asap when I've published the respective separate complete reviews]

All I can see is joy and excitement in her eyes about being turned such a delicious shade of violet

Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com
@aiksasarual


Photo credit for the 'not purple' collage:
http://www.illamasqua.com/
http://www.maccosmetics.com/index.tmpl
http://www.temptalia.com/mac-give-me-liberty-of-london-blush-reviews-photos-swatches
http://www.sephora.com/blush-radiance-radiant-blush-P294816?skuId=1430438&om_mmc=oth-bt-richlinks-2013

Elemental Collaberation

A few ladies on reddit's MakeupAddiction and I decided to team up and create something awesome, a few ideas were thrown around (no one liked my Hunger Games 'Capitol Citizen' idea) and we settled on each picking an element and just going with it.

Earth, Water, Air/Wind and Fire

Obviously I'm Earth -

Josephine - junatoren on reddit or juntaoren2 on YouTube - is Water,

Ayannah - Checkmate1234 on reddit or @checkmate4321 on Instagram - is Air/Wind,

And the GIRL OF FIIIIIIRE (seriously couldn't resist that, sorry) who organised everything is Cat who you can find on her fab blog Style By Cat or @stylebycat on Instagram, or of course on reddit under CatGirl007.

If you want to see the full looks and product lists of all the other girls you can follow the original thread and link on reddit here, otherwise you're just stuck with me...

Honestly though, I'm really not that happy about how Earth turned out - all the other girls had finished theirs weeks ago and I just didn't have a single afternoon to spare between university work and various social events so I had to rush through this, making it up as I went along.

Plus halfway through the heating in my house decided to kick into overdrive, my bedroom window was jammed shut, I'd lost my camera remote and nothing on my face was cooperating. Essentially this lead to:

• Foundation in my hair
• Petals poorly placed and rubbing off my eyeshadow
• Nose contouring completely forgotten
• Overall poor lipstick application

All of which you can clearly see in the above photo. But, whatever - I'm wearing green lipstick, have purple petals around my eyes and not one, but two floral headdresses!

FACE

• NARS Oil Free Primer
• NARS Sheer Glow foundation in Siberia
• Illamasqua concealer in 105 and 115
• Illamasqua Cream Pigment in Hollow contour (very lightly)
• Illamasqua  Cream Pigment in Delirium blush (very lightly)

BROWS

• Illamasqua Brow Cake in Motto
• Sugarpill eyeshadow in Bulletproof
• Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack

EYES

• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• Sugarpill eye shadows in Buttercupcake, Love+, Poison Plum and Bulletproof
• UD pencil eyeliner in Perversion
• Red Cherry eyelashes in #43
• Duo eyelash glue
• Cut up fake flower petals

LIPS

• Illamasqua Apocalips

I'd love to do something like this again, maybe when I have more time!

As always, feel free to comment or email me any questions, comments or secrets...


Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com
@aiksasarual

Complete Sugarpill Pressed Eyeshadow Swatches and Mini Review

I love Sugarpill for the very simple reason that they make the best quality bright, matte, opaque and long lasting eye shadows out there. Here's an in depth review of the Burning Heart palette I wrote last year.

So without further ado here are swatches of every pressed eyeshadow Sugarpill currently sells:

Swatches were done with a clean finger over bare skin and the photos were taken in indirect sunlight

Matte shades: Love+, Flamepoint, Buttercupcake, Acidberry, Midori, Mochi, Afterparty, Velocity, Poison Plum, 2AM, Dollipop, Tako and Bulletproof.

Metallic shades: Subterranean, Elemental Chaos, Diamond Eyes and Soot & Stars.

The only shadow that didn't feel buttery smooth and apply perfectly evenly and opaque was 2AM - it was slightly more sheer and less smooth overall.

Here's how they look in my face: 

I couldn't decide which lipstick would go best with this look :( Here's

Sugarpill Elemental Chaos from the Cold Chemistry palette and Bulletproof, as well as Inglot 363 eyeshadow and Illamasqua Static pigment. I actually had trouble building Elemental Chaos up to full opacity so I packed it on over Fyrianne's Pixie Epoxy.

And here's a sneak peek of a project I've been working on which uses Buttercupcake, Love+ and Poison Plum from the Burning Heart palette.

Products are the same as they always are, with the obvious exception being the Sugarpill eyeshadow's I'm reviewing. Lashes are Red Cherry #43 in both photos and the flower petals are stuck on with Duo eyelash glue.

Obviously, I highly recommend Sugarpill to anyone who wants to get their colour on! And if you're considering buying from them it'd be awesome if you could use my affiliate link here, it'll just take you to their regular official website and if you buy anything I'll get credit!

Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com