Colour Pop : Review & Swatches

So, have you guys heard of Colour Pop? If you follow any beauty folks on Instagram/are active on Reddit, I feel like you probably have. They seem to be taking over the world of social media and with good reason; they're an LA based company offering lipsticks, lip pencils, and eye shadows for a whopping price of $5/each. They also offer free shipping on orders over $30, which is pretty easy to hit, so they've got that going for them, too. I can't remember where I first found out about Colour Pop, but I think it was on Reddit and the first colour (haha, get it?) I saw was the shade "Creature". It was this glorious dark burgundy shade and after that, I knew I had to order some things.

The Colour Pop website is incredibly easy to navigate and really well built which is awesome considering how new they are. You can search, there are categories, and the photos are great... which I'm usually highly critical of since I'm a product photographer. They also swatch their lip colors on light, medium, and dark skin tones. Now, they don't swatch each shade on all three, but it looks like they're working on that. I placed an order on November 14th, it shipped November 19th (two weekend days in there), and it arrived on November 22nd. Not bad for a company that is still fairly small (I assume).

I don't have a picture of it, because I forgot, but I did receive a little personalized note from them that said "Hi Allison, We're going to call you dandelion. Love, Colour Pop" The order was packed well in an interior box, stuffed with paper (thank god, I can recycle this!), and then in a larger box. Each lipstick, lip pencil, and eye shadow comes in its own little box. I am not going to talk about the eye shadows in this post, I'm going to do a separate post for those, so today will be all about the Lippie Stix and Lip Pencils.

a little dirty... it's been used.

I got the following lip items:

• Creature Lippie Stix
• Creature Lip Pencil
• Brink Lippie Stix
• Brink Lip Pencil
• Fetch Lippie Stix

Creature is "A deepened blackened burgundy red in a matte finish aka 'a sultry, fierce red for the world dominator' ". For these swatches, I used the lip pencil and the lippie stix together. I need to sharpen the lip pencil... which is why it looks a bit soft on the outlining. Whoops.

The pencil and the lippie stix in Creature apply amazingly and are opaque immediately. I am love with this color and this texture. My lips were slightly chapped when I applied this product for the photo, but you can barely see it! It doesn't cling to the dry patches badly, at all, and it looks lovely on the lips. 

A+

Brink is "a warm dusty taupe in a matte finish. Curated by @brittanysuleiman. Inspired by the insta-famous Kylie lip". I won't lie, I bought this specifically for that last line "Kylie lip". I cannot stand the Kardashian clan, but fuck, does Kylie Jenner has great lip colors! This shade turns a little too warm on me to make it a true dusty taupe, but it's still a fantastic color. This was obviously swatched the same day as Creature (all of these swatches were done the same day), so my lips were still slightly chapped when taking these photos. Can you see any flaky skin in these photos? I can't. Amazing. Brink is creamier to apply than Creature, but dries down to a true matte. This shade is also completely opaque upon first swipe, which is fantastic. The only thing that I noticed that miiiight annoy some people is that the lip pencil is slightly darker than the lippie stix; to me this is no big deal for a nude shade and is actually what I prefer, but I realize that some people might not be into that.

A+

Fetch is a "perfect mid- tone warm true pink in a satin finish. Cuz this shade is like so like o.m.g, totally fetch". Ok, I'm going to be completely honest and say that I bought this is because it is called Fetch and I am a HUGE Mean Girls fan. Case in point:

yeah... this happened

I don't own a lot of true pink lipsticks because I don't feel like they look amazing on me. I bought this mostly because of the name, but also because it was a $5 investment into something that I wasn't sure about. This is a satin shade, which is different than Brink and Creature, which are both mattes. This color definitely has a slip to it when applying and it isn't nearly as opaque as the other two. It can easily be built to be opaque, but it takes a bit more effort. This shade, which is a tiny bit milky (meaning that the base is somewhat white), can be a bit patchy. Rubbing your lips together takes care of this issue, but it can still be a pain. I actually do like the color quite a bit, so yay! However... this shade broke when I opened it. Not in a major way, the tip of the stick broke off and not wanting to have to return it and replace it, I just picked it up off the counter and stuck it back on. 

B+

So there you go! If I'm being 100% honest with you, I not only will be ordering from Colour Pop again, I already have. I placed another order this morning and got Lumière, their newest shade, along with a few gifts. If you guys are interested, check out their website and scroll around, see if you find anything you like.

Questions, comments? Let me know down below!

My Pretty Zombie : Swatches and Review

You guys, as soon as I wrote that the sun wasn't out, it came out and stayed out for an entire day! Of course, it's gone back into hiding today, but I got some swatch pictures done, finally. On the blog today I am going to be talking to you about My Pretty Zombie! My Pretty Zombie was started by the owner, Andrea, in 2008 as an Etsy shop where she sold her handpainted zombie Barbies. In 2010, she started selling cosmetics and in 2013, started her own website (which is linked above). I heard about her earlier this year when I started to explore indie cosmetics, but I didn't place an order until June.

I wish I had remembered to write down how fast the TAT was, but I didn't do that, but it definitely arrived within the stated TAT if not before. I only ordered samples, so I didn't get the typical wrapping that Andrea sends the orders in... which includes a plastic severed finger. I don't know about you guys, but I love horror and gore, so this is right up my alley. I actually received my order in a card and Andrea refunded me for the difference in shipping, which is insanely cool and nice of her.

Now that you have a little info on the company and shipping, let's dive into the swatches!

I ordered two sets of eyeshadow 3 sample packs. All swatches are done over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. The colors that I got were:

This applies very well and is opaque very quickly. It's described on the My Pretty Zombie site as "peachy pink with a golden green shift" and I would agree with that, but sadly the green shift didn't show up in my photos! In real life, there is definitely a green shift to this, but it is subtle and very pretty.

Oh dear god, the beauty that is Dissolution... I'm always drawn to blue shadows even though I think that they look absolutely horrible on me. Dissolution is described on the site as purple over a blue base (it's part of the Blue Period Collection, which you can find by going to "Sets and Samples") and that description is spot on. The base of the blue is super pigmented and actually stained under my fingernail when I did the swatch, but it doesn't stain my skin.

Maybe when I review indie shadows, the reviews are a bit boring because I generally only have awesome things to say about the colors and application, but Violet Bites falls into the awesome category. A dream to apply and not patchy at all; described on the site as a red based purple with a golden sheen... spot on.

TaraYvonne is another shadow that is insanely hard to photograph. It's a navy base with red glitter in it and it's just really hard to get the red glitter to show up. This applied very easily, but I will say that the glitter in it does make it a little bit... gritty feeling. It's really on;y noticeable if you stick your finger in the shadow and feel it that way and the feeling doesn't really translate to the eyes.

Rash.. oh Rash. My favorite colors to wear on my eyes are red based purples, reds, and burgundies and Rash falls right into that category. Andrea describes it as a "light pinkish burgundy with lots of shimmer" and again, her description is spot on. It is extremely shimmery and is so beautiful as an all over the lid color. This shade probably applied the best out of all the shadows and was insanely opaque and pigmented.

Again, the intense love affair with a color that I won't wear too often. Infirmity is easily the prettiest shade out of all the ones that I received; a teal blue base with an insane golden green shift/glitter to it. However, this is a shadow that has to be worked with and is not a "I only have 15 minutes to do my makeup" kind of shade. Blues can be notoriously finicky to work with and this is definitely a shadow that you have to press on slowly and carefully. However, look at it, it's worth it. Hell, this is probably one of the most gorgeous shades of eye shadow that I own. Absolutely stunning and worth the work to make it look its best.

And a GIF!

I also ordered her Drugs Like Me blush sample collection which includes 5 blushes (and I think that I got an extra one in my order, squeeeee), but I subbed out THC for Morphine. These were swatched heavily over bare skin.

And I can honestly write the same review for every single one of these blushes and I'm going to, rather than make you read the same review six times in a row. All of the blushes have amazing pigment to them, some more than others (which I'll notate below), but all great pigmentation. They all applied like a fucking dream on the skin and blend very nicely. Amazing quality on every single one of these.

The natural light photo makes this look about ten times more pink that it actually does, but that's the glory of lighting, right? PCP is peachy orange blush with golden glitter. I actually prefer orange-y blushes, so this is perfect for me.

MDMA is your quintessential peachy pink blush with golden glitter in it. Like an indie version of NARS Orgasm, but more pink and less peach.

Alright, so... I am fairly well versed in drug names because I really like watching drug documentaries. I have heard the term "benzo" about a million times, but never really gave any thought as to what they actually are, so I had to look it up. I'm now educated. Anyhow, Benzodiazephine looks really red in the package, but since my skin is fairly yellow, it shows up more orangey red on me. It has only the slightest shimmer to it and unless you were in the sun, it would likely look matte.

Morphine is actually the entire reason that I placed this order. I saw someone post about this color and I knew that I had to have it. Morphine is not a blush color for the faint of heart (haha, I wrote this and then looked up the description on her site and Andrea wrote the same thing; it's fate!); it's a grey base with what looks like lavender glitter in it. So gorgeous and so amazing. I actually kept this one a little bit more sheer, but with a heavier hand, you can make this really dark.

6 mam is a plummy base with some subtle lavender shimmer to it, but basically, a perfect color for autumn! 6 mam actually applied a bit more sheer than the other colors, but it still equally gorgeous.

And the other crown jewel from this blush sampler (and yes, I love this almost as much as Morphine). LSD is definitely the sheerest of all the blushes, but if you wanted, could still be built up to be fairly opaque. The base is a lovely grayish plum and it has an amazing reddish gold shift to it. I'm not sure if this can be used on the eyes, but it would also make a stunning eye shadow color.

And lets GIF up the blushes as well!

And there you have it! I am seriously impressed with the beauty of the colors and the ease of application with all of the products from My Pretty Zombie. Now, if you are interested in Andrea's products, please click the link the I have just above (it's not an affiliate link) or type the full name into your Google search. There is another company, that is not at all related to My Pretty Zombie called Pretty Zombie and they make lipsticks. These two companies are not at all affiliated, so please keep that in mind if you're looking Andrea's My Pretty Zombie cosmetics!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below!