I'm not ashamed to admit I was THRILLED when Dead Set Babes contacted me to review their budding polish collection. They are the very first company to approach me as a proper Beauty Blogger who's Opinion They Would Like, and I ended up bouncing around for a good ten minutes until it something dreadful occured to me - what if I didn't like them? I would have to say something mean! And then no-one would ever ask me to do reviews again! And I would be back to pretending I'm a Real Beauty Blogger and suddenly I wasn't 100 per cent I should have said yes in the first place.
I know, I know, my brain can ruin ANYTHING.
As it turns out though, thank goodness, I DO like the little bundle that Dead Set Babes were kind enough to send me! Not only are they very pretty, all their polishes are 3-Free, Vegan, and they give a portion of all sales to the RSPCA, which is rather decent of them.
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| From left to right, we have Midnight at Tiffany's, Teenage Crime, and Rocket Man |
These are all matte glitter creations in a clear base, quite similar in formula to Emily de Molly's Bright Young Things. The clear base means you do have to put another colour under it, but it also means you can pick whatever colour you think will look best with the glitters, making it really quite versatile.
First up is Midnight at Tiffany's - I'm a sucker for both teal and clever names, so I was pretty much guaranteed to like this one. This is two coats of black and teal goodness over Pretty Serious Nightopia.
Next up is Rocket Man, which I sincerely hope is named after Elton John, because it seems like the sort of thing he'd dig.I don't know if it really shows up in these pictures, but there is a bunch of holo sparkle in the clear base, along with green and yellow small glitters and big black dot glitters. These pictures show two and a bit coats over Ulta 3 Mojito.
And last, but definitely not least, is Teenage Crime, a pretty purple potion of white, magenta, and purple glitters in various sizes. This is two and a half coats over Ilamasqua Baptise.
As you can see from the last photo, this is actually the one I have on today, and three different people commented on how pretty it was. Considering the vast majority of my co-workers wouldn't notice if I walked in ON FIRE, this is a hell of an endorsement.
So you can see, they all look great. My only issue with this brand is the formula - unfortunately it is a little tricky to get as much glitter out of the bottle as I would like. I did find myself fishing around quite a bit to get the "good ones". However, I am, as you might have noticed, a glitter FIEND. I've had a couple of people say they'd like to see some polishes with less glitter, or smaller glitter, which frankly boggles me - HOWEVER, if that's what you're looking for, Dead Set Babes will be perfect. The looser distribution of glitter means it's much easier to get them smooth than say, Femme Fatale polishes, and if you put them on in thin coats you can get a lot of control over where the glitter goes exactly. You can also use them over a bunch of different base colours, unlike polishes with coloured bases, which means you can wear the one polish a bunch of different ways - if you're looking to get the most from every bottle you can afford, this is a big plus.
While I'm not 100 per cent on the formula as it stands this is easily tweaked. I've noticed with indie polish you also have to have an eye for what does and and doesn't go together, otherwise you're just tossing glitter in a bottle and hoping for the best - and often getting the worst. When it comes to an eye for colours, Dead Set Babes are totally set. They can obviously pull together beautiful combinations in their sleep, so with a tiny bit more glitter in the formula to satisfy the glitter fiends like me, this will definitely be a brand to watch.
In celebration of my very first Proper Beauty Blogger Review, I have decided to run a little competition. Since receiving my bundle for review, I've added to my little Dead Set Babes collection, and would like to share the fun with you guys. For my very first competition I have a bottle of Teenage Crime to give away - and yes, I will happily send it internationally. All you have to do is confess to your best/funniest/most daring teenage crime, right here in the comments. Remember, you can comment anonymously here, but if you will you''ll have to contact me by email so I can send you your prize!
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Teenage crime, Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteThere was this one time when me and a few friends got out of class on a half day, and I was in the back of friends suv when we went off roading around other schools campuses, and did the same at a local park. I was in the back with no working seatbelt, which was also against the law.
Hi Cassie,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your blog for quite a few months but this is my first time commenting, because I had a teenage "crime" story that I thought was funny enough to be worth posting.
When I was about 14, I read on the internet that smoking catnip was supposed to be similar to smoking weed. I'd never smoked weed or anything like that but it seemed like a good idea to give catnip a try! Firstly I tried boiling it up in a "tea" that turned out to be truly DISGUSTING - like if someone boiled up lawn clippings. I felt very nauseous - from the taste more than anything - but not at all inebriated. Then, a friend and I tried drying it under a desk lamp with the idea of attempting to smoke it. Neither of us knew how to role a cigarette, and we had no rolly papers. The closest thing we had to cigarette papers was... the pages from a Gideons bible I was given at school!! So we ended making these poorly rolled catnip "joints" out of the pages of a bible, which we stuck together with a glue stick. They barely stayed alight, we coughed A LOT, and did not get high at all.
I realise this isn't technically a crime, as catnip is legal (probably because it actually dose nothing for humans), but at the time we felt like some pretty smooth criminals :-P
(Also, being adorable little goths at the time, burning pages of a bible for our "drug" cigarettes felt VERY transgressive, teehee)
This is a freaking FANTASTIC story. I myself have discovered how wildly impractical bible pages are for smoking anything, and I'm incredibly surprised you didn't puke from burning something held together with glu stick!!
DeleteAt 14 my mate and I tried to smoke tea-leaves rolled in bog roll, and drying out banana string-y bits to smoke (what got was a minor fruit fly infestation). Eventually at about 16 we just gave up on free highs and got some hash & booze like normal teenagers.
DeleteI have to say, I LOVE the huge black dots in Rocket Man. So different and funky!
ReplyDeleteI was a pretty tame teenager, honestly. I did begin smoking when I was 13, and ended up quitting just after my 18th birthday - right as it became legal.
LOL! That's kind of adorable. I took up smoking WAY after I should have been old enough to know better.
Delete...there was the time my mom threatened to have me arrested for "grand theft auto" because I borrowed her car without permission (mine was out of gas)...or the other time when I gave myself a homemade tattoo...or the time I actually got arrested for being a minor in possession.
ReplyDeleteI swear I wasn't ALL bad, just my 17th year. :)
See, the actually getting arrested part does make yours a better teenage crime story, but being arrested for being a minor in possession is...well, kind of tame :) also, your Mum needed to chill the hell out.
DeleteI overstayed at an internet cafe by 2 whole hours because I figured out how to reset the clock on my computer. Such Counter-Strike I played! That's like stealing, right?
ReplyDeleteThat is possibly the nerdiest confession I've ever heard. I think you deserve a prize just for that.
DeleteI was generally a pretty well behaved child/teen (aside from the underage binge drinking, weed smoking and criminal amounts of black eyeliner and black lipstick) but...
ReplyDeleteMy public high school made all of the Year Twelves sign 'Good Behaviour Contracts' which stated that because we didn't legally have to be at the school anymore (ie. being beyond Year 10), they were entitled to go straight to expulsion rather than suspension etc. In a fit of high spirits, a friend and I burnt ours in the Year 12 quad (although both of us intended to stay and finish our exams, the whole thing just rubbed us the wrong way, as did the fact that we weren't allowed to wear safety pins etc on our school uniforms - but the popular girls were allowed to wear denim skirts.)
Once the burning had been completed, we threw the remaining paper in the bin and went on our merry way to the canteen. And then came the smoke. And the teachers. And the bin with three foot flames shooting out of it. No-one had noticed our burning the papers in the quad so we never owned up and never got in trouble for it.
BWHAHAHAH! What were the contracts made out of that the bin exploded like that?
DeleteThey were just paper! I wish I knew what had happened, I think there was just a LOT of plastic and wrappers in the bin!
ReplyDeleteI had a similar conflagration in my bedroom as a teen with a not quite extinguished stick of incense and a bin full of acetone soaked tissues. Mum never found out.