frozen spring

cruelty free & sustainable living

Melt Cosmetics She’s In Parties Eyeshadow Palette – Photos & Swatches

Melt Cosmetics She's In Parties Eyeshadow Palette

Last month I finally got my hands on this wonderful eyeshadow palette! I actually had on my wishlist the She’s In Parties eyeshadow stack, but by the time I was ready to order it, it was discontinued. Luckily, they came out with this palette that has all shades from the old stack and then some. The original shades are Skeleton Kiss, Last Caress, She’s In Parties and Meanstreak. Christine from Temptalia reviewed the eyeshadow stack when it came out, and there were some inconsistencies in the formula so it got “only” a B from her. On the other hand, She’s In Parties eyeshadow palette got an A- (Christine’s review) which means Melt Cosmetics did improve the formula. Anyway, that was an additional reason I decided to buy this palette.

The reason I purchased this palette is because it has a really nice color story: a beautiful combination of purple, burgundy and plum shades, with the exception of the first shade, Skeleton Kiss, which is more of a golden-peachy shade. I do think this palette has a nice ratio of matte and shimmery shades and I do feel like it will suit you, no matter your complexion. Darker shades are indeed deep and rich, I was admiring them for a while once I swatched them! I don’t remember the last time I was this impressed with an eyeshadow palette! All shades are very pigmented and feel so smooth when swatched and applied. The only shade that felt a bit dry when swatched was the shade Meanstreak (next to last). However, it is amazingly pigmented and that really isn’t a serious issue.

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Marc Jacobs Beauty Eye-Conic Eyeshadow Palette in Steel(etto) – Photos & Swatches

Recently Marc Jacobs Beauty came out with a new Eye-Conic eyeshadow palette called Steel(etto) which is part of their spring 2019 release. This palette is limited edition and that is one of two reasons why I purchased it. The other reason is that I was really thrilled to see one cool toned eyeshadow palette and I really didn’t want to miss on it. Of course, I like the quality of Marc Jacobs eyeshadows, I obviously wouldn’t purchase it if I thought it wasn’t any good.

Anyway, I still haven’t tested it properly, but I did take some quick pictures and I swatched ti. Besides being cool toned, it also has purple-ish undertones which is really interesting. It contains 7 shades, most of them being matte shades (5 shades), 1 shimmery shade and one almost like a top coat eyeshadow, with a bit more pigment when compared to some other similar products. Each shade contains 0.76 grams of product, which is slightly less when compared to permanent palettes which contain 0.8 grams per eyeshadow.

One thing that bothers me about this product (and which isn’t related to the brand) is the fact that this palette is more expensive than other Eye-Conic palettes. I know this has something to do with Sephora in Scandinavia because the price of limited edition Eye-Conic palettes is always different when compared to the permanent ones (they cost 495 SEK and this one is 645 SEK), and that is not the case in other stores (for example, Sephora.com or net-a-porter.com). I think I might actually send an e-mail to sephora.se and see what’s that about…

Here are my swatches, I haven’t used any primer, I simply swatched it with my fingers. Photos were taken in natural daylight.

Details

Cruelty free? Yes.
Where to buy? Sephora (Sweden); net-a-porter.com (ships worldwide)
Price: 645 SEK / $69 / €61 (I always convert the price from SEK to $ or €; it’s actually much cheaper on net-a-porter – $49 – wish I saw that!)

Vesna ♥

Make Up Store Microshadow Eyeshadows – Savannah, Misty, Beetle, Brown Sugar, Maroon, Spirit, Future

l-r: Savannah, Brown Sugar, Beetle, Misty

This is my current Make Up Store eyeshadow collection – Savannah*, Misty, Beetle, Brown Sugar, Maroon, Spirit, Future*. The last shade, Future, was purchased last year and the rest of the shades were purchased recently, in the last 2 weeks. Make Up Store has a big selection of shades, the Microshadow range comes in 80 different shades and on top of that they have other types of eyeshadows as well. Another great thing about Make Up Store is that they have many vegan options and their plan is to have 100% vegan products in the future (I think by the end of this year or something like that, I know they’ve been reformulating their products for a while now and there is a ‘vegan’ search under each section, so be sure to use that if you want only vegan products).

One downside is that Make Up Store doesn’t have descriptions of each shade on their website and some images might be misleading / color area is too small to see what color it is (for example, lip pencils). Or at least should they offer some swatches, that’s something that is basically a standard today when you have an online store. Anyway, I’ll do my best to describe these shades as accurate as possible + I have swatches at the end of this post (in natural daylight).

Brown Sugar – light beige/champagne with fine shimmer. If you look at the shade on their website, it looks nothing like the shade IRL. I managed to find a good color chart where Satin Souffle is the color MUS has on the website, but in reality it looks more like Washed Sand. It’s the closest thing I could find that matches MAC’s pigment in shade Naked (not cruelty free!).

Beetle – this is a beautiful, deep moss green shade. This shade, along with Maroon and Future, has a specific almost powder-to-cream formula with a metallic finish – the more you blend it, the creamier it feels. I’d say this looks best when applied with fingers because you can work with it in the way that you can’t if you’re using a brush.

Future* – deep, warmer aubergine purple with the same powder-to-cream metallic finish as Beetle and Maroon. This is a perfect shade for purple smokey eye look, especially with a darker base. In the pan it looks more like a burgundy-purple shade, but on my skin it looks definitely like a deep, warm purple.

Maroon – light, rich maroon red with a warm, orange base (looks darker in the pan). Has the same formula and finish as Beetle and Future. These types of colors don’t necessarily suit me, but I really like Maroon and I’ll make it work! :D

Misty – deep, smokey shimmery grey with a hint of purple. The formula of this shade is quite dry and I don’t like to use it dry for this reason. Another reason is that it’s a much richer and deeper shade if used wet. Almost like gunmetal that’s purple on the surface.

Savannah* – gorgeous deep, matte and warm aubergine shade with a brown base. It looks fantastic in combination with Future. This is a must-have if you like dark purple smokey eye looks.

Spirit – warmer brown with bronze shimmer / reflection. Spirit has the same formula as Misty – dry and powdery, but it’s well pigmented.

All eyeshadows are really pigmented, but some have a dry and powdery formula – I’m not really a fan of that. The good thing is that all eyeshadows can be used both dry and wet, and I definitely prefer using them wet, not just because the formula is better, but because they look more intense and the colors look way deeper and richer.

Photos & Swatches

l-r: Beetle, Brown Sugar

l-r: Maroon, Spirit

Maroon

l-r: Savannah, Misty, Beetle, Brown Sugar

l-r: Savannah**, Misty**, Beetle, Brown Sugar, Maroon, Spirit, Future

Where To Buy | Price

You can order Make Up Store here, they ship worldwide. In Sweden they are available at Åhléns and Kicks (+ they have their own stores).

Microshadow eyeshadows are 155 SEK ($20 / €15); they contain 4 grams of product (quite a lot!). You can buy them cheaper as well because Make Up Store always offers some deals, so keep an eye on that if you’re interested in these shades.

Vesna ♥

* non-vegan shades
** the swatches were applied semi-wet because I just wiped clean mu arm and I think the eyeshadows got “stuck” on my skin because my arm wasn’t completely dry at the time, but rest of the shades were applied dry

Meow Cosmetics Order + Swatches (part I)

Meow Cosmetics samples

I’ve been a Meow Cosmetics fan for a LONG time (10 years or so), but I haven’t placed an order in a while. Not sure what the reason for that was, but last month I just felt like I really missed indie brands (plus I’m really tired of boring collections that so many brands keep launching) so I decided to order something. In case you’ve never heard of Meow Cosmetics, this is a privately owned mineral-based company. All their products are hand made. They are well known for their mineral foundation, eye shadows and blushes. They are cruelty free and many of their products are suitable for vegans, too.

I placed my order during their traditional Black Friday sale when they, not only offer a 30% off code, but they also offer free international shipping (for orders over $40 or something like that – not that it’s hard to spend that much, LOL). I placed my order on 24/11 and it was shipped on 3/12. I think it took a week (or 10 days max) for the order to arrive once it was shipped. I was seriously impressed with how fast it came considering it was Black Friday!

Price: $1 per sample

Here are my swatches (part I) and I will be swatching the rest of the shades I have on Sunday or Monday.

Please note: some collections are seasonal collections which means they are available only during a certain season like Christmas, Halloween, etc. These collections are marked with an asterisk (*).
Please note 2: all collections are vegan except for Winter Spirits collection (will be sending them an e-mail to ask which shades are vegan). Vegan collections are marked with a (V)**. Click HERE for all product information.

SWATCHES

Everything was swatched with a damp Linda Hallberg 304 blending brush, no eyeshadow primer on my skin. Photos were taken in natural daylight next to a window.

Winter Spirits Collection*

I think this is my favourite collection! Now I’m actually sorry I didn’t order all shades since they’re just so wonderful! My favourite shade is definitely Merlot – such a deep berry shade! It has 14 shades inspred by wine so if you’re a wine lover this collection is a must have! :D

*available only during winter/Christmas.

Winter Spirits Collection (l-r): Chianti, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Rose, Shiraz, Sirah

Pandora’s Box Collection (link) (V)**

Pandora’s Box is a permanent collection, available all year round. It consists of 16 shades and I have 8 of them. My favorite shades are the first two – depravity and malevolence. I’m obviously into deep purple/burgundy/red shades this season!

Pandora’s Box Collection (l-r): depravity, malevolence, mortal sin, plague, poison, scourge, sorrow, villainy

Shattered Equinox Collection (link) (V)**

Another permanent collection. It has 14 shades and I got 12 of them. This collection has many beautiful green shades and my favorite of the bunch is deranged. Other shades I really like are morose, purpuraceous and violaceous.

Shattered Equinox Collection (l-r): balderdash, bane, contagion, deranged, dour, melancholy

Shattered Equinox Collection (l-r): morose, perverse, purpuraceous, sardonic, tarnished, violaceous

Sugarplums Collection* (V)**

This is a quite small collections that consists of 3 eyeshadows and 2 blush shades. I have only eyeshadows. As you can see, these are gorgeous purple shades! I’m really impressed wih Meow’s purple shades, they really know how to make beautiful and good purples!

*available only during winter/Christmas

Sugarplums Collection (l-r): fairy, nutcracker, vision

Egyptian Treasures Collection (link) (V)**

This is another permanent collection that has some really impressive shades! I think I’ll end up ordering the rest of the collection because the more I played with them, the more I loved them! I have only 5 shades, but there are 22 shades available. This collections includes 3 blush and glow (highlighter?) shades, too.

All shades I got are really gorgeous and it’s hard to pick one favorite. I can tell you that my least favorite is nile just because I don’t really wear silvery shades, but it’s still gorgeous looking when swatched!

Egyptian Treasures Collection (l-r) anubis, miw, nile, royal, tutankhamun

Other collections

Here are some swatches of random collections. I have only 2 shades from each so I swatched them together.

l-r: Harvest Moon* (V)** (pegasus, twiligt) | Deck your Halls* (V)** (lit, rumcake) | Neptune’s Grotto (V)** (black crystal abyss, styx)

l-r: Mythos Mattes (V)** (enchantress, mystic) | End of Days* (V)** (armageddon, hopeless)

How do you like these swatches? Do you feel like you’d like to order some of them? :D Let me know in the comment section!

Vesna ♥

* seasonal collection
** suitable for vegans

Mini Review | Rouge Bunny Rouge Raw Garden Eye Shadow Palette – Caliche

photo rouge-bunny-rouge-caliche01_zpsrc4twib7.jpg

Last month I got my hands on a few products from Rouge Bunny Rouge, and one of them was this lovely eye shadow palette called Caliche. At the moment, Rouge Bunny Rouge has only two different palettes, but I do hope they will come out with more shades in the future. In the meantime, I’ll share my thoughts on Caliche which I’ve used a few times.

Let me start by saying how RBR eye shadows have one of the best formulas out there. Well, at least that’s my opinion. They are so silky and buttery. They basically blend without any additional effort – you don’t need to try hard to blend the shades because they do that for you. All you need is a brush. Caliche has the same formula, but I have the feeling like the formula is somehow even better. Not sure how is that even possible, but it really is – extremely soft and gentle formula with a bit of discreet shine that you don’t see until it’s applied on the eyelids. If I had to use an adjective to describe these eye shadows, for some reason fragile / delicate comes to my mind. Since the formula is a bit specific, the pigmentation is different as well – it’s much softer and not so much “in your face”. Caliche isn’t for those who prefer strong pigment, it’s rather for those who want certain colours in a softer form. I prefer to wear these colours on those days when I want to quickly define my eyes and get that soft, misted look. Another thing that I love about these shades is that they are cool toned, which makes me especially happy since lately I’ve been seeing mostly warm toned eye shadow palettes.

The packaging is definitely exquisite. Unfortunately, I have no photos of it, even though I tried to take some, but it’s impossible to show you how interesting it is. I think I’ll make a short video where you’ll be able to see how it looks like. When it comes to the packaging of the palette itself, I love how there is some sort of magnetic mechanism which makes it a lot easier to open the lid (hate it when I basically have to break my nails in order to open a product, LOL). Additionally, there is a mirror in the size of the lid which might be useful on the go. The only thing I don’t like, is the fact that eye shadows aren’t separated – they don’t come in their own pans. For now, that’s not an issue, but it might be in the future once I hit the pan and try to scoop the very last bit of a certain shade.

The price of this product is on the higher end – it costs €59 / $63 / 560 SEK. It contains 7 grams of product in total, which is 1,75 grams per eye shadow, and that’s €14.75 / $15,75 / 140 SEK per eye shadow. Personally, I am a fan of their eye shadows and I think they’re totally worth the price.

All in all, I’m satisfied with my purchase, but to be honest, I didn’t think it would be any different. I just know that I always get the best quality with Rouge Bunny Rouge products and I always know what to expect from them. So far, I’ve never been disappointed and I hope our mutual love will last…
As I mentioned above, the formula is one of the best out there, they apply like a dream and they last for many hours on my eyelids without any primer.

photo rouge-bunny-rouge-caliche02_zpsnibejjdc.jpg

photo rouge-bunny-rouge-caliche03_zpssuwumppi.jpg
swatches without primer, photo taken in natural daylight (unfortunately, they look so poorly pigmented on my photo, but I think it has to do with the formula which is, as I said, really delicate in a way; would be nice if you could try it for yourself)

Ingredients: TALC, NYLON-12, MICA, DIMETHICONE, HYDROGENATED POLYISOBUTENE, DIMETHICONEOL STEARATE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, PHENOXYETHANOL, HEXYLENE GLYCOL, ARGANIA SPINOSA KERNEL OIL, AQUA (WATER), BENZYL ALCOHOL, DEHYDROACETIC ACID, SODIUM HYALURONATE, [+/-]: CI 77891 (TITANIUM DIOXIDE), CI 77491 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77492 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77499 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77007 (ULTRAMARINES), CI 75470 (CARMINE)
Suitable for vegans? No (one or more eye shadows contain carmine)
Where to buy? online
Price? €59

Vesna ♥