Inglot matte eyeshadows swatches and review

Not going to lie - all the messages about how you miss my blog make me feel both equal parts loved and guilty! I've been travelling solidly for the past 6 weeks (spending no longer than 5 days in any one country) which was obviously not conducive to either makeup or blogging.

As an inadequate apology here are a few holiday snaps:

In one of these photos I've filled my eyebrows in so this collage is vaguely relevant to makeup!

Now, without further adu here're my swatches and review of Inglot's matte eyeshadows:

Inglot package each eyeshadow, blush and I assume concealer, lipstick etc pan individually as I've shown below. Although this large amount of packaging wastage makes my environmentally conscious cricket cringe I can't argue it's extremely effective, hygienic and aesthetically pleasing.

I purchased eleven Inglot eyeshadows - nine metallic and two matte - around Christmas last year and while I adore them all I found myself reaching for the two matte taupes for almost every look I created as they were the perfect crease colours, blended effortlessly and flawlessly, and wore impeccably through all of the sweaty club dancing I am so fond of.

I'd been looking for a matte cool-toned neutral palette for a couple of months now; the Tarte Be Mattenificent palette was a strong contender and although the purple agate packaging won my heart instantly the eyeshadow quality was pretty meh. The Saucebox Etude palette was another option I liked - but they're been out of stock for about six months now (which is frankly ridiculous), and have absolutely awful customer service so I'd rather not support them.

Photo credit:
http://www.temptalia.com/
http://sauceboxcosmetics.com/

Thus, with the help of the amazing Beautylish Inglot palette builder I began building my own neutral palette which was equal parts fun and frustrating. I obviously highly recommend actually swatching the shadows yourself at an Inglot store, but if that's not possible Temptalia and other google source's swatches are actually very accurate. I ordered my palette from the UK Inglot website (as Beautylish only accepts US credit cards and ships to US addresses) and although postage was £5 regardless of how much you spend (free shipping is a weakness of mine) my package arrived less than a week later all bubble wrapped and lovely.

Top row: 360 / 363 (not new)
Second row: 391 / 329 / 326 / 378 / 358
Blush: AMC 55
Third row: 344 / 390 / 353 / 375 / 325/ 338 / 317 / 385

Aside from their phenomenal product quality and unparalleled colour and texture range my favourite thing about Inglot is the ability to mix and match their palettes as the mood strikes you - all their pans are magnetic and they offer multiple sizes of empty palettes so you can arrange and re-arrange all your eyeshadows (and brow powders/concealers/lip sticks etc) endlessly.

Since I don't know how to overlay text on my photos (sorry) I'm going to list the shade colours and names here (obviously all of them are matte):

Top Row:

• Neutral Taupe - 360
• Cool Taupe - 363

Middle Row:

• Black - 391
• Neutral dark brown - 329
• Cool burgundy tinged dark brown - 326
• Cool dark brown taupe - 378
• Mid grey mauve taupe - 358

Blush:

• Mid plummy beige pink - AMC 55

Third row:

• Mid beige pink mauve - 344
• Light beige pink - 390
• Very light neutral cream - 353
• Mid purple - 375
• Dark purple - 325
• Mid bright blue teal - 338
• Mid bright green teal - 317
• Bright mid green - 385

Top row: 360 / 363 (not new)
Second row: 391 / 329 / 326 / 378 / 358
Blush: AMC 55
Third row: 344 / 390 / 353 / 375 / 325/ 338 / 317 / 385

I cannot reinforce how amazing the quality of these mattes are - most of these took literally one swipe (with a clean finger over bare skin) to show full opacity, and all of them were incredibly soft and oh so buttery. All photos were taken with a flash.

I then pulled out some other mattes in my collection to compare the colours and texture - needless to say Inglot made it into no competition, my previous favourite mattes (Suagarpill, Laura Mercier, Urban Decay) were left biting Inglot's dust.

Top row: 360 / 363 (LM Plum Smoke / UD Tease)
Second row: 391 / 329 / 326 / 378 / 358
Blush: AMC 55
Third row: 344 / 390 / 353 / 375 / 325/ 338 / 317 / 385
(Fourth row: LM Morning Dew / Sugarpill Poison Plum / Midori)

The third and fourth shadows on the top row are Laura Mercier's Plum Smoke and Urban Deacy's Tease (from the Naked2 palette). The three swatches added as a fourth row are Laura Mercier's Morning Dew, Sugarpill's Poison Plum and Midori.

Top row: 360 / 363 (LM Plum Smoke / UD Tease)
Second row: 391 / 329 / 326 / 378 / 358
Blush: AMC 55
Third row: 344 / 390 / 353 / 375 / 325/ 338 / 317 / 385
(Fourth row: LM Morning Dew / Sugarpill Poison Plum / Midori)

Here you can see Laura Merier's Morning Dew (light neutral) is significantly less pigmented than Inglot's 353, as is Sugarpill's Poison Plum (purple) and Midori (green). Honestly I wasn't too surprised Inglot's mattes were more pigmented than Laura Mercier's as LM's are so incredibly soft they're hard to pack pigment on, and while this does make them slightly quicker to blend it's at the cost of seriously sheering out the eyeshadow.

However, Inglot out performing Sugarpill's matte brights was definitely a shock to me - I used to swear that Sugarpill's were the most pigmented, soft and blend-able mattes out there, obviously I was wrong. In comparison to Inglot's shades Sugarpill's felt grainy and applied sheer! Also, Sugarpill's mattes are not 100% matte like Inglot's are.

Top row: 360 / 363 (LM Plum Smoke / UD Tease)
Second row: 391 / 329 / 326 / 378 / 358
Blush: AMC 55
Third row: 344 / 390 / 353 / 375 / 325/ 338 / 317 / 385
(Fourth row: LM Morning Dew / Sugarpill Poison Plum / Midori)

Here you can see Laura Mercier's Plum Smoke (third shade on the top row) is a close match to Inglot's 358, but as with Morning Dew Laura Mericer's shadows were soft to their own detriment and thus required much more building than Inglot's. The last shade on the top row is Urban Decay's Tease from their Naked2 palette, when I first swatched it I couldn't believe how hard and unpigmented it was!

The Naked2 was my first ever pressed eyeshadow and palette so maybe I still think of it the way I did when I bought it a year ago ("Look at all these colours! They're so pretty and pigmented! Think of all the makeup I can do with these! Oh I'm so overwhelmed and have no idea what I'm doing..."). Tease applied patchy and I couldn't even build the swatch to full opacity, honestly I was beyond underwhelmed. Urban Decay's shadows are being notorious for under performing without a primer and being pretty awesome with one though, so that could be the issue - but it doesn't detract from the fact Inglot whipped them in making a exponentially better matte. 

Metallic colours top row: 409 / 43 / 404 / 07
Metallic colours bottom row: 452 / 446 / 445 / 399 / 154
AMC gel eyeliner: 77 (black)

This is everything I own by Inglot (with the mattes laid out in the same shape as the swatches above) in a Muji clear acrylic drawer, as the astute reader may notice I am not a smart girl and forgot to pick up an empty 20 pan palette to store my new shadows in. I'll hopefully get around to reviewing my metallic Inglot shadows at some point but just in case I don't here are some spoilers: they are the same quality as the Inglot mattes and outstrip Laura Mercier, Sugarpill and Urban Decay metallic shadows in every category I'd care to name.

Inglot's blush is also very nice, incredibly soft (softer than the shadows), creamy, pigmented and blends better than any pressed blush I've ever tried. I haven't opened the eyeliner yet but based on the reviews (and previous personal experience with Inglot products) it'll leave my current gel eyeliner (MAC's Blacktrack) wallowing in an inky pool of self pity.

391 / 329 / 326 / 378 / 358
363 / 360 / 344 / 390 / 353

Finally, here's my complete matte neutral palette - I played around with the order to find the most aesthetically pleasing and practical arrangement and honestly couldn't be happier with it! I'm somewhat skeptical about how the neural dark brown 329 will look when applied as even cool browns tend to look carroty on me, but if that's the case it couldn't be easier to swap it out for a pop of colour, or even a new matte neutral (I'm thinking slate grey).

One final word on Inglot - they're incredibly cheap! I'll do the calculations both in GB pounds and US dollars:

• A single Inglot eyeshadow is £4.50 for 2.7g = £1.67 per gram
• A single Laura Mercier eyeshadow is £19 for 2.6g = £7.31 per gram
• A single Sugarpill eyeshadow is £8.50 (prices vary) for 3.5g = £2.43 per gram
• A single Urban Decay eyeshadow is £14 for 1g = £14 per gram (or £9.33 per gram or £7.12 per gram depending on where you get your information)

I found a price discrepancy between Sugarpill eyeshadows being sold in the UK as they are being sold by licensed third party online retailers, however the fluctuation was only by about £1 per eyeshadow.

However, Urban Decay are only officially sold in the UK by Debenhams and House of Fraiser (department stores), on the Debenhams website they are priced £14 stating that it is £140.00 per 10g, whereas on the House of Fraiser website they're priced at £14 stating that it's £93.33 per 10g, and neither websites state how much eyeshadow a single pan contains. On the official Urban Decay US page the shadows are listed as $18 per 1.5g, so I guess I could go by that (£10.67 per 1.5g or £7.12 per gram by today's exchange rate) but I'm really not liking the lack of info for British UD stock lists.


And now in USD because google blogger tells me my main audience is stateside:

• A single Inglot eyeshadow is $7 for 2.7g = $2.59 per gram
• A single Laura Mercier eyeshadow is $23 for 2.6g = $8.85 per gram
• A single Sugarpill eyeshadow is $12 for 3.5g = $3.43 per gram
• A single Urban Decay eyeshadow is $18 for 1.5g = $10.67 per gram

Thus, irregardless of where you buy your makeup Inglot are by far the cheapest option, which is amazing considering they're also the best quality!

However it is worth mentioning that you need to buy a palette for your Inglot pans which will bump up your overall cost - the larger the palette the less this cost will be per pan or per gram. Alternatively you could just not buy a palette like I've accidentally done, or store your Inglot pans in a Z-palette type thing.

Needed to break up the block of text and calculations so here's a look I did with Inglot 363 and Sugarpill Bulletproof

Another caveat I'd like to add is Inglot eyeshadows are also cheaper than most indie eyeshadows:

• A single Inglot eyeshadow is $7 for 2.7g = $2.59 per gram
• Shiro's full size eyeshadow is $6 for 2g = $3 per gram
• Fyrinnae's full size eyeshadow is $7.50 for 2g = $3.75 per gram
• Notoriously Morbid's full size eyeshadow is $5.50 for "about 3g" = $1.83 per gram

All of these eyeshadows are loose except for Fyrinnae as they offer pan only pressed eyeshadows (which I thought would make a great comparison). I wanted to include more indies but a lot of them (Darling Girl, Femme Fatal etc) list their quantities by volume.

As always, love,

Saskia X

PS Don't expect another post for about a month as that's when I finish all my university exams! Sorry :(

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

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

Sleek Garden of Eden review, and a Laura Mercier African Violet 'dupe'

As soon as I saw this palette I knew it had to be mine - it contained both green, purple(ish) and gold eyeshadows from my favourite highstreet brand - Sleek. Luckily, it was both inexpensive (£7.99) and easily accessible (at my local Superdrug) - instant gratification is excellent isn't it?

I obviously forgot to take a picture before I stuck my fingers in it

I googled swatches of this palette online and found perfectly even, neat, pigmented swatches that made it look like Garden of Eden could compete with Inglot in terms of quality. However when I swatched this palette myself I found quite a few dud colours: essentially all the non-metallic shades, to some extent, were chalky and unpigmented. This is obviously rather frustrating as all the beautifully perfect swatches I saw online are somewhat misleading for the sake of aesthetics.

All of my swatches are done with a clean finger over bare skin, and the photos were taken in indirect sunlight.

Technically all of the shadows have individual names that came printed on a loose transparent card in the palette, but I threw it away because it cluttered the palette and would get so dusty and grubby after a week. So I'm just going to refer to the shadows by their colours and/or position in the palette.

The first four metallic colours on the top row are all excellent quality - pigmented, soft and blend-able, don't let my messy swatches throw you off: these colours are great. The last two matte-ish colours were awful quality - they were so hard and un-pigmented I actually had to scrape a layer of them off into a powder just to get them to show up on my arm for these swatches. The penultimate shade was a particular shame as it is a rather unique colour - mauve-grey with gold glitter.

The same was true for the first and last colours (again, both matte-ish) of the bottom row - the last colour, a matte dark green, was particularly surprising as I have a similar colour in my Sleek Dark Mattes palette which had great pigmentation and texture. The second colour, a lime green, was smack bang on average quality in terms of texture and pigmentation.

Below I've shown the vertical Garden of Eden swatches with similar colours from my collection in horizontal swatches. The dark green is from the Sleek Dark Mattes palette - proof that Sleek is capable of making excellent quality matte shades.

The second similar colour is Laura Mercier's African Violet - a shade that is particularly in vogue right now - although I personally would not call this a dupe as it is not identical in colour or texture (let alone ease of application and wear time which I haven't even tested) but it is certainly a very, very similar alternative.

Above you can see African Violet is violet in direct sunlight whereas Sleek is significantly browner. Below African Violet almost looks like a mix between the two Sleek shades however is is pinker than both and most importantly has golden shimmer rather than just having a simple overall metallic sheen.

Below is another photo which shows the main differences: the Sleek shade is darker and browner and African Violet has a distinct gold shimmer.

Considering that this whole Sleek palette is only £7.99 while a Laura Mercier single is £18.50 this is a great alternative for someone who isn't sure if African Violet is their favourite colour, or is on a budget. Especially if that person is based in the UK as the only other close alternatives or 'dupes'  for African Violet are from US indie companies which, while lovely, take a while to ship and require international postage (plus 20% VAT and handling charges for any order over £15).

Note the scraping I had to do on the matte shades to get them to swatch

Overall I think the palette is well worth it's price as it contains 7 great quality metallic shadows in an interesting and unique colour scheme. Also, it's perfect colour scheme to transition into Spring!

The obvious downside of this palette are the dud matte shades, but maybe with some scraping, a primer, sticky base and a stiff brush a patient and could make them work - I am just not that person. The only other thing I dislike about this palette is the tacky and altogether useless sponge applicator - it's a waste of space and lowers the aesthetics of the palette, but then again even high end luxury brands like Guerlain and Lancome insist on including them so I can't judge Sleek too harshly for this.

The Sleek Dark Mattes paltte for comparison

The Dark Mattes palette was a much more consistent palette in terms of quality with no obvious duds, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes matte colours or is looking to branch out into somewhat muted colours.

The newer one is the less grubby looking one obviously.

A far as application goes the metallic shades in Garden of Eden were easy to apply and blend - they didn't give opaque coverage when just patted on over a regular eyeshadow primer (Urban Decay Primer Potion) but if applied over a sticky base (like Pixie Epoxy) or wet they would probably give opaque coverage with a foiled effect.

I applied the green metallics to one eye; the colours were vivid and true to pan, while being clearly distinguishable individual shades on the eye even when blended together. The other pink and gold eye was obviously less bright and gave a sheerer wash of colour - this lent itself well to a relatively subtle neutral eye. Again the colours applied and blended together well, however I found that the two pinks when blended together were extremely similar. These colours could all also be built up to full opacity or foiled over a sticky base or used wet.

Overall, if we disclude the D-F quality mattes I'd rate this palette at a solid B - overall good, in some ways excellent but let down by a few average qualities. Not bad for £7.99!

Saskia X

Essential Eyeshadow Brushes 2: The Collection

If you read my last post you'll have some background about the products I'm about to recommend and why, but if not don't worry!

So you want to do fabulous eyeshadow looks right? Well here're the tools I'd recommend based on what you want:

I want one eyeshadow brush that I can do it all (almost) with!

On a budget?

Get the Real Techniques eye shading brush:

Pros:
Inexpensive
Great quality (soft, no shedding)
Great for both packing on shadow and blending
Synthetic bristles (for you vegans)
Smaller head for precision/smaller lid space
Can handle some abuse without the bristles deforming (perfect for on-the-go)

Cons:
Too small for a quick 'all over lid' sweep coverage
Not great for use with cream eyeshadow

Overall verdict:
The superman of the brush world, better suited for getting your crease perfect than giving a smooth wash of all over colour. Great for a no-frills intermediate look, I love that I don't feel the need to baby it so it gets a lot more use. I often do full looks with just this brush. Buy it, you'll love it, and if you don't send it to me and I'll send some love right back.

Want a treat or are you building the below collection?

Get a Mac 239

Pros:
Baby soft
Amazing quality - sources say these babies can last 10+ years
Packs on colour like nobody's business
Great for a simple sweep of all over colour
Looks classy as F
You're one brush into the perfect 3 brush set!

Cons:
Natural bristles (sorry goat advocates/vegans)
A tad pricey
Doesn't handle precision particularly well as the head is rather large
White bristles stain easily (although this could be a pro for telling you when it needs a wash)

Mac runner up: 217

I know a lot of people would choose this as their 'one' brush but I find it far to imprecise for anything other than a general colour wash or blending.


I want a core collection I can conquer the eyeshadow world with!

Mac 239, 217 and 219 (purchased in that order if you're on a budget)

• Use the 239 to pack or sweep colour onto your lid
• Use 217 to blend the edges into a soft gradient
• Use 219 for precision detailing like lining and crease

These brushes all have the same overall pros and cons:

Pros:
Baby soft
Fantastic quality
Looks classy as F
Amazing technical ability

Cons:
Natural bristles (sorry goat advocates/vegans)
A tad pricey
White bristles stain easily (although this could be a pro for telling you when it needs a wash)
Bristle deformation (217 in particular has a tendency to splay out)

Minimal splaying, but this brush is only two weeks old and treated like a princess

And remember: wash your brushes often!

I wash powder product brushes once a week with a wipe down on tissue paper after every use (hence why my brushes are a little colourful - I do a weekend wash). Cream and liquid brushes get a wet wipe down after every use and a shampoo every other day. When I had acne I washed my foundation brush after every use to keep the inflammatory bacteria count down.

I recommend Johnson's baby shampoo as an effective but gentle cleanser (important for natural fibre brushes).


Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com

Essential Eye Makeup Brushes 1: Quality and Brands

Let's talk about eyeshadow brushes shall we? I used to think the result was 90% in the product (eyeshadow) but have since learned that tools can actually take about 50% of the credit! So let's get our tools basics down:

Yup, it looks like I'm picking my nose; nope, my camera refused to not focus on my face

I love good quality products and will nearly always advocate quality over quantity, but sometimes you have to weigh quality vs cost - this is normally my largest internal debate "is it worth it?". Here's a brief overview of different 'levels' of brushes going by price using the market dominating brands as an example:

A cheap brush (ELF/store brand) is about £3-4, an inexpensive ('low end' doesn't seem fitting somehow) brush (EcoTools/Real Techniques) is double that at £6-8, a mid end (MAC/Sigma) brush is again about double its previous counter part at £16-18 and a high end brush (Hakuhodo) is double that again at £32++. The regularity of this pattern pleases me!

Elf < Ecotools < Real Techniques < Sigma < Mac < Hakuhodo

Anyway, disclaimer: I know nothing about super high end brushes - I have literally never touched a Hakuuhodo brush, so I'm just going to skip those. I do however have some experience in Bobbi Brown brushes which are in the awkward price range of between mid and high end, so I'm going to use those as my bench mark 'high' end brushes: they're awful. Bobbi Brown make awful overpriced brushes, I dislike them so much I can't even be bothered to go into more depth than: I have a full eye set (as a gift) that I've touched exactly once and a foundation brush that is put to shame in every way by its EcoTools counterpart. For shame Bobbi, for shame.

Crap quality AND overpriced

So where do I draw the line between quality and cost? It's a toss between 'low' and mid end - it's not hard to justify the small price jump between a cheap brush and an inexpensive one (just a single Starbucks coffee) and because cheap brushes are well, cheap and tacky quality I tend to skip those entirely. And then the jump between mid and high end brushes is frankly absurd to me - maybe I could justify it for one brush one time, but to build a collection at that price point is so far out of a budget I would consider reasonable at any point in my life.

So let's focus on EcoTools/Real Techniques vs Mac/Sigma:

ET and RT both make nice synthetic bristled brushes that are soft, aesthetically pleasing and never shed. Overall, whatever (eyeshadow) brushes you get from either brand will be nice, soft, good quality brushes but without fantastic technical and specified abilities.

Unwashed RT eye shading brush from the front and side

M.A.C. is a brand created and targeted to makeup artists (Makeup Artists Cosmetics duh) thus their brushes are obviously better quality and are handmade in Japan - reports of brushes lasting 10+ years are common - and much more specified, thus this is where you want to go when you're itching to advance from that basic smokey eye. Mac brushes are a mix between natural (animal hair) and synthetic bristles, with the type of hair (horse, goat, badger etc) varying by type of brush.

Also unwashed Mac 239, 217 and 219 brushes

Sigma doesn't boast professional quality like Mac or as high a price tag. They also used to be rather shameless about creating Mac copies (even using the same number naming system), however their brushes are very highly reviewed particularly their 12 piece synthetic sets (which I have my eye on for Christmas), I can't personally recommend them but if you're looking for a one stop face and eye brush set that's better than drugstore but maybe not professional level check them out.

Mrs. Bunny Essential Kit - photo from SigmaBeauty.com

So what eyeshadow brushes do I use and love? These ones:

Their grubbiness is evidence of their recent use

I'll dissect what their different uses are and the various pros and ons of each in my next brush post.


Saskia X


PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com

Sugarpill Burning Heart palette review and faces

I've fallen in love...

Behold the Burning Heart palette by Sugarpill:

Honestly I'm not the biggest fan of the packaging, but the cardboard feels sturdy and classy

I impulse bought the Sugarpill Burning Heart palette at 3am - this was something I'd been um-ing and ah-ing for months after seeing gorgeous sunset eyeshadow looks around the internet, but for various reasons (see below) always talked myself out of buying. I'm so glad my sleep deprived self decided to take the plunge!

So what's so special about this palette?

Well for one it's gorgeous:

Orange: Flamepoint, Yellow: Buttercupcake, Red: Love+, Purple: Poison Plum

The second is the simple quality of the product - these eyeshadows are fantastic! They're incredibly pigmented and soft; bold true to pan colours that are very easy to work with (they blend great).

Left: one pat of colour with my finer, Right: two pats. No primer!
Flamepoint and Poison Plum are just a tad softer than Buttercupcake and Love+

And the trifecta? These shadows stay put - check out how immaculate this complex look is after a 30°C 80% humidity 12 hour day:

You can see some minor fading in the bottom outer corners where I rub my eyes when they get itchy

My foundation obviously did not hold up nearly as well

 And then after a shower where I literally stood with my face directly under the stream for a couple of minutes:

My sexy 'not bad' face plus shower cap - restrain yourselves men.
My mascara didn't hold up, but then again it wasn't advertised as waterproof.

Seriously - look at that! The colours are still freaking perfect in everyway!

And here for comparison is what it looked like 12 hours previously when I'd applied it in the morning:

Look how smug my face is about these insane shadows

Another look using only Poison Plum and Love+ (plus Urban Decay's Blackout):

Overall, this palette is the shining glory of my collection - I genuinely can't think of a single way it could possibly improve as even the price is great ($34 for 3.5g).


A final word on quality: as Sugarpill is a small online only indie company I had to set a lot of store in reviews, swatches and FOTDs (face of the day) - and while researching one thing gave me huge pause...

I'd read multiple times that Sugarpill had some inconsistent quality issues, i.e. some shadows worked great and were buttery soft while others (and these duds were seemingly random and different in each case) were chalky and difficult to work with. I emailed Sugarpill about this concern and they got back to me within a week explaining that those problems probably occurred while they were moving their lab and if I found a problem with my shadows they'd exchange them free of cost (not charging my triple shipping) which I thought was very generous.

Their "happiness guaranteed policy" sure paid off because I will definitely be purchasing again from them! And if you chose to purchase from them, and feel like doing me a favour, you can go through my affiliate link here which just means if you do buy anything through that link to their regular official website I'll get credit :)



Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com