Shiro Cosmetics Seven Kingdoms Collection Swatches

Ever since someone tipped me off to the delightful randomness of Shiro Cosmetic's Nic Cage Raking Leaves on a Brisk October Afternoon eyeshadow, I've been something of a Shiro fangirl. Not only does the owner have a delightful sense of humour, their shadows are deliciously rich and pigmented. I've even started using them to colour resin for my jewellery, because a tiny tiny amount makes it just GLOW. Because I haven't shut up about this brand since I stumbled across them, and we all know how much I love Game of Thrones, my lovely Mr. Reluctant Femme got me a sample pack of the ENTIRE Shiro Cosmetics Seven Kingdom collection!

My face when I opened up the package

Now, I know a lot of you look at the bolder colours of eyeshadow that I tend to prefer and get all shy, so you lot in particular will be delighted with how overall worksafe this collection is. There's a lot of earthy, mellow browns, tans, and peaches, as well as some brighter shades, and I'd be pretty shocked if there wasn't at least something here for everyone.

Don't Be Afraid of The Blues

When I was a little teenage proto Cassie, I already believed that the realm of makeup was full of unbreakable, inarguable rules, before I ever picked up my first lipstick. You must wear this, but only if X, in which case you must wear Y. You must NEVER wear Z, especially not with W, and on and on and on. I got the impression from my purloined copies of Cosmo and what I could glean from wiser friends that all makeup other than totally neutral, bland looks was "tacky", and obviously I didn't want to be tacky. But these looks were...well, kind of dull. It didn't really seem worth learning all these rules just so I could play with like, four colours of eyeshadow, and two lipsticks. The only payoff I was promised for all this effort, maybe, if I did everything JUST right, was a slightly prettier face. Well, bugger that, I thought. I'd rather read another book than bother with this.

Ironically, I am actually wearing some makeup in this picture.

The Balancing Act of Ethical Choices

You might have noticed from reading this blog that I have some pretty strong opinions about a lot of things. I have things I am very much For, and things I am Against, and I like to uphold my opinions in the form of action through ethical choices wherever possible. I'm very much For independent small businesses, and so I like to buy from them wherever possible. I'm very against fur for fashion, so I avoid buying clothes that involve fur. But these are very simple, straight forward examples. When it comes to buying cosmetics the idea of ethical choices can become an almost impossible quagmire.

Choosing cosmetics is a complex proposition at the best of times. Before I buy something, I will always consider quite a few different factors - does it REALLY work the way it says it will? Will I actually use it? Do I REALLY like it? Can I afford it? This last question in particular can be a real make or break one for a lot of people, and honestly, I think that if you're in that sort of financial situation you can go ahead and have a pass on fussing about whether your choices are as ethical as they could be. If you have to wear lipstick to your minimum wage job or you'll get fired, and the only one you can afford it tested on animals? Then you just go ahead and buy whatever you have to, you'll get no shade or shame from me. Ethical considerations are essentially a middle class issue, something that only becomes relevant when you have some sort of disposable income that you can spend as you please. Luckily, I'm in a situation where I can afford (most of) what I want, so the other two points are the main factors for me.

Antipodean Beauties - No Makeup Makeup

 Good lord, two AB posts in a row! What IS the world coming to? It's actually because my last one was extremely late, and this one is more or less on time, so there isn't likely to be another until next Monday.

This week's theme was "No Makeup Makeup", and I considered being a smarty pants and putting up a photo with no makeup on at all, and try and convince you that I was wearing some complex "au naturale" regime. But for ONCE, I decided not to be sarcastic and actually do the theme as intended, mostly because I have a really lovely lipstick I want to show you that totally suits the theme.

Antipodean Beauties All About Eyes - Venomous Cosmetics Review

I have to admit, I've been putting this post off for a little while. You know when everyone else is super excited about something, and so you get it too, and then you wonder what the fuss was all about? Yeah, I finally ran into one of those situations. ANYWAY, I realised this post would fit perfectly with the Antipodean Beauties theme for this week, All About Eyes, so I finally got my crap together and got it done.

After attempting to pack up all my eyeshadows for a recent cross country trip, and failing to fit them all in the bag, I've realised I might have a bit of a problem with acquiring new eyeshadows.I just love them so, SO much. Discovering indie eyeshadows changed my whole attitude towards eyeshadow - I was used to years and years of grinding away at cheap palettes trying to get some sort of shadow of colour, and then I come across these rich, beautiful, opaque powders that could transform my eyes in the swipe of a brush. I've always wanted to be a bit more daring with my makeup, but I'm too self conscious about my teeth to go in for bright lipstick. Bright eyeshadow was the answer I'd been looking for, and indie eyeshadow is as bright as it gets!

I'd heard excellent things about Venomous Cosmetics, an American indie outfit, and checking out their colours it seemed they had some very bright colours indeed to offer me. They also had quite a large Alice in Wonderland themed collection, and lord knows I love any excuse to talk about Alice In Wonderland. So I ordered a bunch of samples, as I do when buying from a new company, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I tried to contact Venomous by email, and received no reply.

I waited some more.

Eventually by stalking their Facebook page, I realised the email address they had listed on their site was actually out of commission, and so I emailed again to a different address. Finally I got a response, and to be fair, an absolute torrent of apologies. The owner offered to resend my parcel as it was quite likely the first one had gotten lost, and stuffed it FULL of so much extra stuff I was a bit shocked with it arrived. Not a great first impression, but the owner was just SO NICE and SO GENEROUS I was willing to get over the long wait time. I mean, international postage can be a right bitch, and there's nothing anyone can do about that.

But anyway, at long last the package arrived, and out tumbled my pretty little pans of colour! Unfortunately in the meantime, most of these colours have been discontinued, but you will still get an idea of the sort of thing that Venomous tend to do.

Antipodean Beauties - Glitter!

I've put my hand up to join a new makeup challenge blog hop, the brainchild of the lovely Omega from Fashion Adjacent. After my appallingly inadequate attempts to keep up with Aussie Nails Monday, I wondered if maybe this was such a good idea, but I'm really keen to stretch my boundaries with makeup as often as possible, and this seems like a good way.

I used to always wear the same makeup simply because it was all I knew how to do - but since I've started blogging and researching and really diving into this whole femme thing, I've gotten a lot more knowledge about how to make cosmetics work for me. But I still find myself wearing the same things the same way over and over, out of complacency. BORING. Enough of that, let's brush the dust off the stuff I keep in the "Maybe Later" drawer and get this challenge started!

Eccentric Cosmetics presents The Fall - Indie Loose Eyeshadow Review

Browsing Etsy the other day looking for new (to me) Australian indie cosmetics makers, as I am won't to do, I came across Eccentric Cosmetics in Victoria. The gorgeous array of loose eyeshadows on offer was enough to convince me to make a purchase. But then I noticed that the maker behind Eccentric Cosmetics happened to be one of a very small group of people other than me that have seen the criminally overlooked 2006 film The Fall. Tarsem made his name (and money) doing projects like The Cell and a slew of TV ads for companies like Coke, but The Fall was his pet project, his labour of love, and I think it's magnificent. If there's something I love just as much as giving exposure to overlooked indie cosmetics creators, it's babbling to people about films they haven't seen but they should!

Firstly, let's look at the wonderful products that Eccentric Cosmetics have created in tribute to this fantastic film. The formula of all the shadows I received were just perfect - really pigmented, great staying power, and stunning colours. None of them were dusty OR clumpy, and because they're slightly less sparkly than some of the others I've been playing with recently they were really easy to blend smoothly and perfectly.

Red Bandit is named for the lead character in the story within a story in The Fall, played by Lee Pace.

This character is way hotter than a man in this much gold braid has any right to be.

Let's Talk Geek Chic Cosmetics

Welcome to the second installment of my Week of Geek!

Today I've got some exciting stuff for you from Geek Chic Cosmetics, who are an indie cosmetics company based in the US. Their cosmetics are all inspired by geektacular sources like Farscape. Star Trek, and Mass Effect, which is enough of a hook to get me on board. However, their products are also entirely cruelty free, and a large selection are vegan as well. Did I mention they're also really pretty? Because they are SUPER pretty. I've done a little review of the products I ordered from them for you, but first I thought you might like to get to know the people behind the products.

Geek Chic Cosmetics is run by a talented trio of geeks, Chantal, Deb, and Phil, and after being interviewed by sites like Kotaku and WoW.com they've been kind enough to give me a few minutes of their time.

Look into my eyes - Femme Fatale loose eyeshadow review

I hope you've all been enjoying your Easter holidays - I know I have! This is, of course, why there hasn't been a lot of thinky content here for the last couple of days. I'm taking a break from braining as well as work, so in keeping with the theme, here is another picture heavy post of pretty!

Femme Fatale is an Australian indie cosmetics brand, and I've showed you some of their amazing glitterbomb nail polishes here before. In an uncharacteristic show of spontaneity, I decided to get some of their loose eyeshadows - while I wasn't 100 per cent I could actually use them properly, the colours they offer are just so rich and delicious I figured it was worth a shot, and I'm so very glad I did. Femme Fatale's sale options for their eyeshadows support just this kind of dabbling, which I think is a brilliant idea. Loose eyeshadow can be challenging in and of itself, and all the swatch photos in the world won't guarantee it will actually look good on your particular eyes, so offering options like sample sachets and mini sizes is a great way to encourage people to give it a bash. For reference, the sample sachets I've gotten have been enough for two, maybe three light applications. All the other shadows I have from Femme Fatale are the mini size, and even though I've been wearing it every day the only one I've really made a dint is one that unfortunately got dropped on the floor because I'm a clumsy oaf. This is my collections as it currently stands.

I may also have five more on the way, because I have a problem.