Femme Fetale Haul & Swatches

Femme Fatale are a mineral based cosmetics company based in Australia. You can find their website here. 

I recently came across the company and was amazed at their range of duochrome eyeshadows. I'm a huge huge sucker for indie products and loose eyeshadows, add a duochrome into that list and I'm sold!

They offer free international shipping (which is amazing!) for all sample orders. Samples come in baggies with 1/8tsp of product - enough to get a good feel for the shadow. They do two sampler packs - 5 shadows for $5.50 or 10 shadows for $11.

I ordered 10 samples on 19th March and they arrived with me on the 28th - a great turn-around time for a indie brand! Included in the package was a freebie sample (mine was Deepmoss) and a sticker.

Femme Fatale samples & freebie

Each sample has a sticker with the name and ingredients list, and whether or not the shadow is vegan and/or lip safe.

The quality of these shadows are fantastic and I will definitely be ordering more over the coming weeks. Application is smooth, they're pigmented and there is a fantastic array of colours available on their website. The free shipping on samples is a huge huge pro too! The only shade I feel slightly lets the side down is Nexus which doesn't quite adhere as much as the others do - these could be solved by using a sticky base or using the shade wet.

And now, on to the swatches! All swatches are done over bare skin. The captions are descriptions from Femme Fatale's website of each shade.

Moonglow - 'pale columbia blue with a prominent golden duochrome and subtle pink shimmer'

The Masquerade - 'soft, silvery grey with very subtle pink shimmer, yet when applied the base comes out more purple/blue and the pink shift is also more noticeable'

Desecration - 'a striking bright green shimmer over a base mixed of cool grey, subtle brown and pearly purple tones'

Illusions - 'a brown based shade with a hint of auburn undertones, and teal duochrome finish'

Nexus - 'a deep navy with teal tones and brilliant red shimmers and sparks'

Deepmoss - 'a deep navy blue base with a satin smooth green>blue colour shifting shimmer'

Demon Soul - 'a black based shade with a colour-shifting finish, going from green through to red/pink depending on the angle of the light'

Phantasm - 'a pale purple with violet tones and copper orange shimmer'

Velvet Fog - 'a taupe purple base that is hard to describe – it also looks grey/blue because of the aqua shimmer over the top'

The Nightmare - 'an eggplant purple base with intense golden green glimmers and sparkles'

Impsy - 'a rich mulberry purple with strong red tones and golden shimmer'

Overall, I am very impressed with the Femme Fatale eyeshadows that I've tried and I'll definitely be adding some more to my collection. Faves are: Impsy, The Masquerade and Desecration.

NYX Lip Liners: Cabaret, Hot Red, Pinky, Bloom, Purple Rain & Nude Pink

NYX's Slim Lip Pencils retail for around $3.50 in the US and £3.50 on the UK website. NYX is a relatively hard to come by brand in the UK so I was very excited to be able to get hold of 6 of their Slim Lip Pencils.

I am not a huge lip liner person so these liners are perfect for me; they are cheap, great quality and available in a huge range of shades. Wear time for me is typically around 3 hours but I find I use a lip liner with a bold lip which in itself needs touching up quite regularly. I managed to get a broad spectrum of shades within the 6 that I bought so that I can pair them up with most of the lip shades within my collection.

The shades that I have are: 804 Cabaret, 817 Hot Red, 835 Pinky, 836 Bloom, 338 Purple Rain and 858 Pink Nude.

L-R Cabaret, Hot Red, Pinky, Bloom, Purple Rain, Nude Pink

Seventeen Solo Eyeshadow Swatches

Seventeen Solo eyeshadows are available online at Boots for only £3.89. I have 9 of them and think they are a fantastic, good quality, cheap find! The texture is lovely (save for one glittery shade that I own), they are pigmented and apply well, lasting a good 6-8 hours over primer.

There are 16 shades in the range I believe, and they have a great selection when it comes to the colour spectrum- they have everything from neutrals to brights!

These are bigger than the size of MAC shadows so contain a lot of product - I can't see me needing to repurchase any of these any time soon.

I really like the packaging - the eyeshadows are contained within black screw top jars. The packaging does not feel cheap considering the price. My only issue is that it is a little bulky.

Regal is the only shade of the 9 that I have that I find to be sub-par texture and application wise. It is a glittery shade and so has a rather gritty texture and can create a lot of fallout. I find Regal best when applied wet or over a sticky base such as Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy.

Pros:
Great shade range, pigmented, long lasting over primer, huge product for a very cheap price, good packaging.

Cons:
The glittery shades can be duds when not used over a sticky base/primer, packaging could be less bulky.

Overall, I highly recommend these eyeshadows, you really can't go wrong for under £4! My favourites are Ivory Coast, Statuesque, Rose Quartz and Gold Emerald.

Empties: February 2014

Left: Etude House Gold Veil Highlighter, Maybelline Dream Smooth Primer, Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Concealer, MAC Loose Powder
Middle: MUA Pro Eye Primer, Estee Lauder Double Wear Light
Right: Schwarzkopf Gliss Liquid Silk Express Repair Conditioner, No7 Beautiful Skin Eye Makeup Remover

I always shy away from using products up (aside from staples) for fear of them being gone forever. I'm trying hard to get myself out of this thought process though, and it's working- kind of.

Definite repurchases:
Estee Lauder Double Wear Light - amazing formula and great for my combi/oily skin.
Schwarzkopf Gliss Liquid Silk Express Repair Conditioner - best leave in conditioner I have ever had, I feel like I will forever repurchase this. It makes my hair feel so good!

Maybe repurchases:
MUA Pro Eye Primer - it worked, it was okay, but my eyeshadow still creased after 6+ hours.
Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Concealer - I really liked this concealer, but with so many other concealers to use up at the moment I don't think this is an absolute repurchase.
Etude House Gold Veil Highlighter - beautiful highlighter but it wasn't love. It worked, it highlighted well but it didn't quite have the 'omg this is amazing' factor.
Maybelline Dream Smooth Primer - it worked, a great primer but I have others that I'm working my way through that are just as good.

Won't be repurchasing:
MAC Loose Powder - lovely powder, nothing wrong with the product per se, just the price tag. I can get the same finish with a lot of cheaper loose powders.
No7 Beautiful Skin Eye Makeup Remover - removed eye makeup well but left my skin feeling a little too oily for my liking.

Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof Eyeliners

I love love LOVE Holika Holika's Jewel Light Waterproof eyeliners. The eyeliners are creamy, pigmented and very long lasting; they really do live up to their 'waterproof' name- they wear like iron!

They have 20 shades to choose from and I have a fair few of those swatched for you below.

Priced at around $5-$6 (£3.50-£4), these eyeliners are also very affordable. The packaging is great quality and feels a lot more expensive than it is. The packaging is very similar to Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliners and NYX Glide On, Slide On eyeliners with the upside of being completely co-ordinated to the colour within which makes it super easy to find the shade that you're looking for in a hurry! (The new eyeliners brought out late 2013 have white packaging with the colours on the tips/lids).

I can only praise these eyeliners and I will definitely be adding more to my collection! And now on to the swatches...

*After three swipes with a wet wipe

EOTD: 28 Feb 2014 - Naked 3

Please excuse the messy brows- trying to grow them out!

Products:
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Pomegranate Punk
UD Burnout - inner half of lid
UD Buzz - outer half of lid
UD Limit - crease
UD Trick - center
UD Liar - outer v
Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof eyeliner in 01 Black
UD Blackheart - lash line over e/l and outer lower lash line
UD Strange - highlight
Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara