I bought some Fyrinnae lip lustres ages ago, and Cheryl from Midsummer Dreams Apothecary sent me more as part of the IMAM gift exchange. Here's how my stuff arrived:
Bonus pic of Cheryl's gift exchange packet for me!
Lip lustre minis vs full-size:
Hand for scale:
Fyrinnae experienced some controversy last year, when an employee went nuts on Twitter and started being rude to customers. There's an entire reddit thread with screenshots of the tweets here. However, Fyrinnae has apologized for the mess, fired the employee behind the crazy tweets, and /u/Dorian_Gray_, the Fyrinnae owner has been a great IMAM contributor. Unlike a lot of brand owners who see the IMAM sub as a marketing/market survey platform, /u/Dorian_Gray_ doesn't push Fyrinnae products nonstop. I actually like having him around since he has given free cosmetic chemistry advice many, many times:
In my eyes, they've definitely redeemed themselves, and I went from wary of the brand to enthusiastically supporting it. With all the cosmetic chemistry knowledge /u/Dorian_Gray_ displays, I also feel reassured that Fyrinnae's products will be solid quality-wise.
Oh, and /u/Dorian_Gray_ is awesome too. He was destashing some Cult Nails nail polishes and I bought them from him. At that time, Fyrinnae's website was closed, so I asked him if I could put an order personally through him for just 1 tub of Pixie Epoxy, Fyrinnae's famous glitter adhesive. He didn't reply for a while so I thought he forgot about it....turns out, he gave me the tub for free. Yup.
Speaking of Fyrinnae's website being closed, some people complain about Fyrinnae often being closed with no news of when they'll reopen. I understand that it can be annoying, but they do it to keep their turnaround time (TAT) from going far too long, and I have a lot of respect for shop owners who prioritize taking care of existing customers instead of sacrificing existing customers for new customers. It's much better than my experience with Victorian Disco, where the owner continued hosting sales even though many people, myself included, were still waiting on orders placed as far back as a year before.
With regards to their TAT, I've purchased from them twice, and this was the TAT for my orders:
So it's 6 days & 7 days to ship out orders. Definitely way better than the "8-10 weeks queue time prior to shipment" stated on their website.
Anyway, today I'm only swatching the lip lustres. I got 12 of them (1952, Burrowing Owl, Chickadee, Ghost's Kiss, Ghostly Voice, Isis, Masala, Narwhal Nuzzles, Ominous, Saloon Girl & Sexy Nerd) so I ended up procrastinating a LOT on swatches.
Lip swatches:
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| Shiny... |
Bonus pic of Cheryl's gift exchange packet for me!
Lip lustre minis vs full-size:
Hand for scale:
Customer Service Review
Fyrinnae experienced some controversy last year, when an employee went nuts on Twitter and started being rude to customers. There's an entire reddit thread with screenshots of the tweets here. However, Fyrinnae has apologized for the mess, fired the employee behind the crazy tweets, and /u/Dorian_Gray_, the Fyrinnae owner has been a great IMAM contributor. Unlike a lot of brand owners who see the IMAM sub as a marketing/market survey platform, /u/Dorian_Gray_ doesn't push Fyrinnae products nonstop. I actually like having him around since he has given free cosmetic chemistry advice many, many times:
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/2shj2j/belated_rave_about_how_awesome_udorian_gray_is_a/
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/2bfqnw/a_thank_you_an_announcement_regarding_fullsized/cj4wn79
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/2s8swi/safety_question_for_the_scientists_and_chemists/cnnaa16
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/2uq5vy/cleaning_up_indie_shadow/coanvjk
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/2rgsgr/i_think_this_is_mold_on_my_morgana_cryptoria/cnfq45s
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/2otrd3/has_anyone_tried_anything_from_merchant_of/cmqfsjm
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/29wsd5/pressing_any_luck_with_ultramarines_or_ferric/cipcfr8
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Indiemakeupandmore/comments/29eu6i/i_have_sensitive_eyes_an_awful_nickel_allergy_and/cika4pn
In my eyes, they've definitely redeemed themselves, and I went from wary of the brand to enthusiastically supporting it. With all the cosmetic chemistry knowledge /u/Dorian_Gray_ displays, I also feel reassured that Fyrinnae's products will be solid quality-wise.
Oh, and /u/Dorian_Gray_ is awesome too. He was destashing some Cult Nails nail polishes and I bought them from him. At that time, Fyrinnae's website was closed, so I asked him if I could put an order personally through him for just 1 tub of Pixie Epoxy, Fyrinnae's famous glitter adhesive. He didn't reply for a while so I thought he forgot about it....turns out, he gave me the tub for free. Yup.
Speaking of Fyrinnae's website being closed, some people complain about Fyrinnae often being closed with no news of when they'll reopen. I understand that it can be annoying, but they do it to keep their turnaround time (TAT) from going far too long, and I have a lot of respect for shop owners who prioritize taking care of existing customers instead of sacrificing existing customers for new customers. It's much better than my experience with Victorian Disco, where the owner continued hosting sales even though many people, myself included, were still waiting on orders placed as far back as a year before.
With regards to their TAT, I've purchased from them twice, and this was the TAT for my orders:
- Purchased: June 27
- Shipped: July 3
- Purchased: Sep 28
- Shipped: Oct 5
So it's 6 days & 7 days to ship out orders. Definitely way better than the "8-10 weeks queue time prior to shipment" stated on their website.
Swatches
Anyway, today I'm only swatching the lip lustres. I got 12 of them (1952, Burrowing Owl, Chickadee, Ghost's Kiss, Ghostly Voice, Isis, Masala, Narwhal Nuzzles, Ominous, Saloon Girl & Sexy Nerd) so I ended up procrastinating a LOT on swatches.
Arm swatches:
Face swatches:
Formula Review
The texture of the lip lustres is more like a "creamed lipstick" sort of texture...like lipstick mushed up repeatedly until it has the consistency of creamy, but not runny, mashed potato that's still stiff enough for you to sculpt into potato landscapes (I get bored during dinner).
Like most non-sticky glosses, these are not built for longevity. I personally don't mind it, since it's what I expect from non-sticky glosses and would happily trade longevity for comfort. Oh and these are super comfortable. They're not drying at all, and stays non-sticky without going too slippery or feathering like crazy. I noticed I reach for these lip lustres more often than any other lip products because they're just so comfortable to wear.
I do notice some patchiness in the non-traditional colours (Ominous & Burrowing Owl most of all), but as you can see from the swatches, they're easily built up to a smooth & even texture.
I love Fyrinnae, the customer service is amazing, not to mention all their products too! I have Burrowing Owl and I love it so much! Now I want Ominous which looks like its non-shimmery twin. Loving how 1952 and Sexy Nerd look on you. Thanks for awesome swatches!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the huge compliment! Btw, not to sound like a huge stalker but you post on MUA too, right? I swear I've seen your profile pic FOTD on /r/MUA before!
DeleteNo problem! And yep, I browse MUA a lot and post occasionally! But recently I've been kind of hiding over at AB and IMAM instead, haha.
DeleteI've been staying away from MUA lately too! I just prefer indie make up more and a lot of the looks on MUA just doesn't fit my face T.T
DeleteI think I need Ghost's Kiss now!
ReplyDelete