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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Swatches: Guess the Mystery Brand!

Guess who's this mystery indie brand? 

mica over glitter glue adhesive
Swatched over Darling Girl's Glitter Glue, photographed under natural light
 As you can see, they're gorgeous against glitter glue!

But so what? Any non-matte loose shadow looks good against glitter glue! How do they blend? Well, very well actually...


Eye Look #1: Over UDPP only


Since not everyone owns glitter glue, I tested out how the colours would look like over primer only. As you can see, the shifts still pop out.

The golden bit in the middle that's less vibrant than the gold colour is actually the gold shift in the blue! I didn't put primer on my lower lash line, so you can see that the blue is less vibrant there.

The things you can get away with when you have monolids...

Eye Look #2: Over UDPP only

Apologies for the gross brows..I'm growing them out
Check out the blue shift!
Ok...how long do they last? Here's a pic of the 2nd eye look after 14h...excuse the dead look in my eyes, I was exhausted.

Thanks to the yellow-toned lights in my room, the colours look different but IRL, they look the same.



Can you guess what this brand is? Here's a hint...these are the eyeshadow names & more detailed swatches:

Pisces Blue Pink Red Blue
Left: Under yellow-toned artificial light
Right: Under natural light

Swatches:
Top: Over Darling Girl's Glitter Glue
2nd: Foiled with water
3rd: Over Urban Decay's Primer Potion
Bottom: Bare skin
As you can see, it still stays on bare skin but looks slightly less impressive. I got a bit lazy and skipped bare skin swatches in the next few swatches.

Black Amethyst Chameleon Glitter
Left: Under yellow-toned artificial light
Right: Under natural light

Swatches:
Top: Over Darling Girl's Glitter Glue
Middle: Foiled with water
Bottom: Over Urban Decay's Primer Potion 
Forged Gold Scarlett O'Hara
Left: Under yellow-toned artificial light
Right: Under natural light

Swatches:
Top: Over Darling Girl's Glitter Glue
Middle: Foiled with water
Bottom: Over Urban Decay's Primer Potion


Can you guess the brand yet?












.......these are swatches of pure, unblended micas from TKB Trading:


As you can see from the links, TKB Trading sells them in sample sizes of 6g for $1.50 (with the exception of Forged Gold, which goes for $1.50 for 2.5g). Since full-sizes of eyeshadows contain 2-3g of product, that means you can get 2-3 tubs of "eyeshadows" for $1.50.

This is why I'm so against eyeshadows with 0 bases. The mark up I'm paying should go into the time & work it took into researching a good formula so the micas can look great on your skin without the help of glitter adhesives & primers. 

The reason I'm making this post is because I called out popular brands in my guide to identifying if your eyeshadow is legit or base-less micas, and I got attacked big time by the fans of one of the brands I called out.

Their defense summarized is (not linking/screenshotting since this happened recently enough for vote brigading and I don't want that):

  • The brand is a one woman show (I believe everyone knows about my staunch believe that indie businesses should not be given the leeway to behave in a way that would be shocking if a mainstream brand does it)
  • The brand's colours are very unique therefore they can't be repackaged
  • "But who here doesn't do their makeup without a primer / [Fyrinnae's] PE like thing?" so who cares if they don't adhere well to your bare skin?

I believe this post proves that: 

  • Straight up micas can look gorgeous and unique, even when unblended & unformulated. They have duochrome effects too!
  • They blend beautifully
  • They stay on and last long over primer (and stunning over a glitter adhesive)
  • You can wear them on their own, without any formula

9 comments:

  1. Really neat post, I had no idea you could get stuff like that from TKB. I definitely wouldn't want to buy from someone who was just repackaging. I hope the sellers you've called out decide to upgrade their products.

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    1. Thank you for this! And yes, I really recommend grabbing some TKB micas! Making your own eyeshadows can be a fun project. I'm writing a guide on making your own eyeshadows soon..just finishing up my research right now :)

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  2. What an interesting idea. You've definitely gotten me thinking about eyeshadow ingredients in a new way.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, I hope you have fun experimenting with making your own stuff..it's really fun :)

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  3. Thank you for writing such a unique piece and those shades are so pretty!

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  4. Very clever way to make a point, like your perspective, oh and the first look! Your eyes are so pretty! :)

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  5. Very clever way to make a point, like your perspective, oh and the first look! Your eyes are so pretty! :)

    ReplyDelete