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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Brazen Swatches!

Some time ago, I entered a contest being held by Brazen Cosmetics. I can't recall if I posted it here or not, but here's what I entered:


And I won! Yesterday a lovely prize package arrived in the mail.









I didn't swatch the Make Out Lipglaze since I've posted about the potted version multiple times (here and here). The tube formula is still fantastic, although a little more difficult to build up to opacity. I love how much more convenient the tube is!

Now for the shadows, all swatched over Too Faced Shadow Insurance, in natural light unless otherwise noted.

Walk of Shame




Flash:


Tree Hugger




Flash:


Scorching (mine is mislabeled as 'Scortching')
This shadow is INCREDIBLE and thus, incredibly difficult to photograph adequately. It's like a shadow comprising nothing but a ton of gold sheen.








Flash:


Beach Babe




Flash:


And a few bonus shots!







Saturday, September 17, 2011

Concrete Minerals

I placed my first Concrete Minerals order at the end of June, and finally got a chance to to swatch my order for you! I purchased their Blogger Love Special (four 5-gram sample jars with 1/4 tsp. of product each) and a full size of Rocked (10 gram jar for $7). I also received a free 5 gram sample of Brat. The samples I chose for the blogger set were Lolita, Hustle, Troublemaker and Sabotage. The package also came with a card explaining how to apply the shadows, which seems like a great thing to include, especially for people who are not familiar with mineral shadows.





Now for the products themselves! Shade descriptions from concreteminerals.com

Rocked (soft, neutral peach w/violet sheen)


Lolita (shimmery taupe w/pink undertones)

Hustle (mauve-pink w/orange undertones)

Troublemaker (medium-brown w/gold sparkle)

Sabotage (black w/ pink sparkle & sheen)


Brat (shocking, hot pink



The shadows wear well over a good primer, such as my beloved Too Faced Shadow Insurance.  Sabotage has a tendency to go chalky if it's swiped on- it really needs to be patted on instead.

Swatches over TFSI:

Rocked: 
I love this shade. It's a great shade for when you want a simple shade to brighten your eyes. It's pretty and the slight sparkle and the pinky/purple sheen keep it from being boring.



Lolita:
This shade is a nice taupe that leans purple. The purple was extremely hard to capture in photos, however.



Hustle:
While a nice shade, I was expecting this to be more pink and less cranberry. I LOVE the golden sheen to it.



Troublemaker:
Glittery brown, not much else to say about it. Nothing groundbreaking, but a great brown shadow. And in all honesty, it's not like any browns really wow me. This one is nice, though.


Sabotage:
FAVORITE shade of the bunch. I adore the sparkles. The sparkles are mostly purple as far as I can tell.



Brat:
This shade has a great blue shift to it!


 And now with flash!


You can see a bit of Brat's blue/purple sheen here. (with flash)


Sparklezz! (With flash)


And Hustle's gold sheen! (natural light)

Rocked, Lolita, Hustle


 Troublemaker and Sabotage


Sabotage and Brat


Rocked and Sabotage are definitely my favorites out of the shades I have from Concrete Minerals. I don't have any EOTD photos using Concrete Minerals yet, so I'll have to work on those. Any shades you would like to see together in a look?