Review & Swatches: Blackbird Cosmetics' Matte Neutrals V1 Collection (10 Colours)

I've been really awesome at procrastinating on swatching lately. >.<

So I bought a sample set of all the Matte Neutrals V1 colours from Blackbird Cosmetics a few months ago and I really should've started swatching immediately, but I just got around to doing it a few days ago.

And there's a handwritten note too! I feel even more guilty...

Customer Service Review

My order was shipped 2 days after I paid, so that was awesome. Also, what really impressed me is that Maleah, the owner of Blackbird Cosmetics, paid attention to her customers' feedback and actually announced she's reformulating her eyeshadows after taking into account all the issues her customers found with them:

Screenshot taken on Nov 18, 2014

I find it very impressive when brand owners actually listen to their customers, so A+ for customer service here.

Eyeshadows Review

First of all, I did a random check of ingredients and everything's in order. This brand is legit. If you want to learn how to identify the ingredients in eyeshadows to avoid buying bad formulas, here's a guide I wrote previously.

I found them pretty hard to blend, but as mentioned before, they're being reformulated to make them easier to blend. If you have the old formula though, don't trash them. I found out the trick to blend them out is using the right brush.

What I normally do to blend my other eyeshadows, is to use a fluffy brush to slowly add in colour while swirling it around to fluff it out. Unfortunately, with these eyeshadows, the colour kinda sticks the spot I applied the colour to, and refuses to budge.

I found out the method that does work is to draw a line with the eyeshadow first with a small, stiff brush, then using the brush to smoke out the eyeshadow with lots of small movements (the kind of movements you'll make while etching out small details). So here's an example of the blending with both methods:

Top Swatch: blended with a fluffy brush
Bottom Swatch: blended with a stiff brush

As you can see, the top swatch  that's blended with a fluffy brush can't achieve an even gradient. The bottom swatch that's blended out with the stiff brush looks more smoked out with a more even gradient.

Anyway, enough with the talk, here's the swatches below. I unfortunately cannot find my UDPP while doing these swatches, so I had to use NYX's HD Primer -which I hate since it doesn't seem to agree with a lot of indie shadows and tend to darken colours. Since there's no shine to these colours, I did all the swatches under natural light, and didn't swatch them foiled or over glitter glue.

Close up of the shadows over primer!

As you can see, these eyeshadows look amazing on their own against bare skin, so I had to try wearing them out without any form of primer whatsoever. I don't really recommend this method since the shadows cling to your pores and holy crap, I never knew how porous my eyelids are. But despite my ugly pores, check out how long these last WITHOUT any primer:

Gross, gross, gross pores.
Immortals on inner corner, Imogen all over lid, Fiction on the outer corner

I'm pretty sure they could last longer, but I didn't get the chance to take more pictures after this.

Anyway, these eyeshadows are now my go-to eyeshadows for my no-make-up make up look for my eyes. Here's the a look I love to do with them: 

Eyes:

• Blackbird Cosmetics: Dim Tradition, Beau, Dog Days, Fiction
• Fiberwig Mascara
• Maybeline Falsies Mascara
• NYX HD Primer

Lips:

• Little Sparrow: Oh My Papaya

Nothing on my face since my dermatologist banned me from putting anything on for 2 months, so excuse the spots!

Eye close ups (cropped because I'm growing out my eyebrows and just realized how hairy they were zoomed in):

Dim Tradition on inner corner, Dog Days all over lid, Beau on the outer corner, Fiction on lower lashline

Side view to show how I line my monolids