Tuesday 22 May 2012
A while ago I had the lovely chance to try a blogger sample set for Darling Girl Cosmetics and finally got around to swatching them. Each set comes with 5 samples of your choice which is really nice - you can pick the shades you really like as opposed to a pre-set pack where some of the colors just dont work for your skin tone and leaves you with a slightly tainted view of the company. Now, there are some companies that have pre-made packs that actually have very good colors in them so I'm by no means making an assumption, just a generalized observation.
I chose the following in my set: Eyeshadows in Butterfly Flutterby, Garden of Weedin, Rainbow Brite, and Lucky; and for my last one I requested the owner to select a lip sample of her choice and she chose one of her most popular holo-glosses Miami.
DGC -
Me -
Once again I found the color different than the description. I find it's more forest green than tealy with more silver sparkle than pink. Still a very lovely color though.
Rainbow Brite:
DGC -
Rainbow Brite is a pale, baby pink with red shift and a rainbow of star sprinkles
Me -
DGC says on their site that the Rainbow Brite collection is a set of duochrome highlighters so the colors are very pale when used by themselves but change and darken dramatically when swatched over a black base. I have shown this effect with Lucky but not Rainbow Brite (which goes more magenta over a black base).
Right on the money here. Pale pale pink with rainbow sparkles :)
Lucky:
DGC -
Lucky is the only sprite in the collection. It is a pale white with turquoise iridescence in the jar, but when swatched, a beautiful green flash is seen along with blue, green, and red/pink sparkles
Me -
I have to say I love this collection (I have a few of them) and the light color shift in the highlight is wonderful. When swatched over a black base however I feel it looses it's pink sparkles but everything else is still there and the base color is enchanting.
I have a bunch of other DGC products which I will review later on but I have to say I am very pleased with this company and their makes. The shadows are velvety smooth, blend like a dream, and are generally true to color. I have had some problems with a few of the other shades I have just because of my weird skin tone changing the color slightly but that is literally just me. Do yourself a favor and check them out :) They have some very good collections and one offs that are hilariously named (I myself need to get "The Phantom of the Taupra" just cause of the name :)).
Darling Girl Cosmetics: http://www.darlinggirlcosmetics.com/
DGC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/dgcosmetics
Wednesday 16 May 2012
Or should I say always??
As I said in an earlier post I am currently going through and swatching the rest of my collection. Some of which is new, some has been given to me, some were prizes I won, and some were just in the collection and didn't get swatched last time round.
Anywhoo, Geek Chic Cosmetics (GCC) is a superb company with wonderful staff and even better products. You may actually hear my"NOOOOO!" when I run out of foundation. I have never had a bad color or product from them as of yet, but I have had some that just didn't work with my skintone - which you will see here.
Middle column top to bottom: Kingslayer, Princess in Distress, Blood Wine, The Imp
Right column top to bottom: Eyes of the Werewolf, Sexy in Suspenders, Glass Cannon
As I have stated before very few (and I mean only 2 of the shades I've tried) oranges work with my skintone so unfortunately Prepare to Die, while a beautiful creamsicle color, looks terrible on me. I also noticed that my particular skin tone made Sexy in Suspenders very dark taupe. I got that one specifically because of the gorgeous fawn shade featured on the website and in other swatches I looked at but it was very dark taupe on me which makes me sad face. Princess in Distress was a very nice suprise - it looked a bit orange on the site but I thought what the heck I'll try it and it is gorgeous on :). Other than those ones GCC's descriptions of the colors are pretty much spot on. As with all my GCC products they are very velvety smooth and blend wonderfully. Blood Wine is especially lovely paired with a smokey eye or as a liner. The burgundy shimmer is a very nice change to regular black :) I don;t know if it comes across on here but Glass Cannon is very icy blue, not white. I have a few colors similar to this already but this one has more of a pearly white sheen than my others so it is a nice addition.
Right: Kissing Stuff (lipgloss)
Rotten Miracles is very very orange. This is quite a lot to make it show up on my skin but it is extremely pigmented. Which don't get me wrong, is awesome, but it is soooo not for me. I ended up giving this one to my mom who has deep olive skin and it will look very nice on her.
Kissing Stuff is super super pale. I can't wear it alone as it makes me look kinda... dead. But, when applied sheer overtop of a deeper color it adds a very nice pearlescenty-shimmer. I haven't tried it over any reds (only pinks and berry tones). I also noticed GCC's current model used it as a cheek shimmer in the promo shot for the collection. I have yet to try this but as we have similar skin tones it may work for the summer if I can get the hang of it.
Geek Chic Cosmetics: http://www.geekchiccosmetics.com/
Monday 14 May 2012
I've decided that I need to expand my Chinese Brocade stash. I've used it many many times before, have a few really nice yardages, and it's just really pretty. I busted my stash out last night while picking fabrics for a birthday present I'm planning to make this week and had lovely visions of some of the yardages as finished pieces. Of course there were a few corsets and as it sits I will not be able to wear any corsetry until November and even then I will not be able to make any till then as I do not know what my post-partum measurements will be. I could potentially make one now based on my measurements from my first son but I don't want to take any chances with it. I really could just make some now with it and sell them this summer but there is no guarantee that they will sell and I dislike having multiple rubbermaid bins full of stock that is made and not selling. It's actually kind of irritating. I do get a lot of people saying "Ooh this is really pretty", "I wish I had something like this!", "I would love to order something from you"; and then no follow through. I know that this is most consumers and I myself am guilty of it too but as a producer of things like that it is very defeating. Almost like, yes I know the stuff I make is pretty and I wear it all the time myself but if nobody is going to purchase it then why bother?
On that note, I will try to take a positive action and give my etsy shop a go again this summer. I am re-opening it in mid June with most of the same products, new bags, handmade paper, silkscreens, and maybe some fabric de-stashes of pieces I have accumulated and never used. I'm also thinking of having a re-opening promo sale and hopefully that will bring some more sales in. With monster number 2 coming in the fall the extra income would be very helpful.
As an aside, I tried using a commercial pattern for some maternity shorts yesterday. Now you all need to understand how much I hate commercial patterns. They don't fit properly, you have to alter the crap out of them, generally they're very boring unless you use the perfect fabric, and sometimes even as an experienced seamstress they just simply dont make sense. Like the one I was using yesterday, it took them a whole page of random nonsense to explain how to insert a zipper. Seriously I read the page probably 6 times and it still didnt make sense to me, and zippers are generally quite simple. Luckilly I was altering the pattern to make maternity shorts (it was for actual shorts) and didn't need a zipper so I was able to omit that page completely :). Anywhoo, long story short, my hatred of commercial patterns was heavilly reaffirmed. I went by the size for my exact measurements, followed the instructions to the tee, finally tried them on after getting them together and bam. They were a freaking horribly fitting tent on my ass. The crotch seam was leaning to one side, the butt darts were inches too short, the butt itself looked like it was drafted for someone who had a big badonkadonk in their youth but had let it sag for a good 30 years, the waist was even huge on my preggo belly, and the nice trim leg portion (or as it was supposed to be) sat like gauchos. I tried for a number of hours to fix it doing everything aside from taking the whole thing apart, re-drafting the pattern, and putting it back together. And they still sucked. So needless to say I will be going through my bermudas and capris that actually fit me and simply replacing the waistband with a maternity panel. I didn't want to do this originally because I really like these shorts and didn't want to have maternity panels in them when I wanted to wear them again next summer. But really, for the amount of trouble that horrible pattern was, my only options are alter my existing ones, draft a new pattern based on the existing ones and try to make them in the next 2 weeks, or purchase maternity bermudas. Now being as I have to alter my bridesmaid dress (it was made for people much much taller than me) and make some more things for the re-opening when I get back from vacation I don't think I'll have much time to draft test and perfect a new pattern. And bought maternity bermudas where I am could easilly run me up to $60 a pair and being as my regular ones only cost me approx $15 a piece (I had my staff discount when I bought them :)) it really makes the most sense to alter the existing ones. I can always shell out the $34 per pair next summer for new ones. I really have to get over my attachment to material items.
I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Tuesday 8 May 2012
I'm finally going back through all my cosmetics and swatching everything I didn't swatch during my last run. First up is the Invader Zim Collection by Moi Minerals.
Middle Column: Professor Membrane, Gir, Waffle
Last Column: Mrs. Bitters, My Tallest, My Tallest Special (I'll explain that later)
Stripe: Piggy Lip Gloss
Moi Says:
