Taupe of the Day EOTD: First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey!

I'm a shameless taupe hoor, but it's been awhile since I did a Taupe of the Day post. (In fact, I think there's only ever been one. LOL. I keep intending to do more but I kind of suck. :X ) So to atone for my oversight, here is a recently discovered taupe I'm currently having a love affair with.

The taupe in question is First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey. I know I've talked about First Light Cosmetics before, but I just can't get enough of this taupe! I've swatched Storm Grey before, so here is the swatch picture again for anyone who can't be bothered to look for the previous post:



Storm Grey is to the right. It's gorgeous, isn't it? I've been using it a lot to do a simple EOTD (eye of the day) look with just Storm Grey alone, and I really love the simplicity of this look. It's a light taupe, not a dark taupe, so it's awesome for girls who feel sdarker taupes can sometimes overwhelm their eyes. The look I get with this is simple, clean, and very elegant. I think if you foiled the colour, it would be more metallic and vibrant. I totally need to try Storm Grey wet one day.



It does have a bit of fallout, but that's fortunately rather minimal. Lasting power was pretty good even without a base. It lasted for half a day on me without any base at all. I think if you used a base, it would probably last longer.

Anyway, if you want it, the First Light Cosmetics website has it for sale. But if you're a taupe hoor like me, you know there isn't really question about whether you need another taupe - every taupe deserves to be loved!

First Light Cosmetics: Sundowner and Kohilo Blush Swatches and Review

I love it when smaller makeup companies make products that are just as good, if not better than, makeup from bigger brand names. Discovering these brands is just like finding a gem before anyone else has found it - sometimes, they're way cheaper, better value for money, and provide much better and more personalized customer service too! I don't know about you, but I really get a kick out of discovering these diamonds in the rough.

The latest one that I really love is First Light Cosmetics. They have a wide range of products - foundations, blush, eyeshadows, lip products - but I'm really loving their powder products, in particular the blushes!

Everything First Light does is really well done, even the packaging. The jars come with sifter tops, the seal on the sifters are stuck on (so no messy powder everywhere when you open your product), and the lid is secure enough so that powder doesn't leak out, and the containers are sturdy, and of really good quality. I really like that, because one of my fears of ordering mineral makeup online is that by the time it gets to me in the mail, the lids of the jars have come loose and the powder ends up everywhere (it has happened before!). But the packaging is really secure here. And to top it off, they come in this absolutely adorable little bag:



Isn't that cute? One of the things I love about niche companies is that they're often pretty creative when it comes to differentiating their companies or packaging. In the case of First Light Cosmetics, their little pouches bearing the company logo are not only cute, they're also made by disadvantaged women in Tanzania too!

But of course, you know packaging doesn't count for much if the product sucks. I'm glad to say it doesn't - in fact, I'm really impressed. Both Sundowner and Kohlio have both made it into heavy rotation in my blush stash. First of all, the quality is excellent. These blushes are very finely milled. I don't know how they do it - maybe they send them to Mars for milling or something (LOL), but the formulation is excellent. It's smooth, it's finely milled, and it goes on beautifully. Even the high end brands could learn from this!

Here's a close-up of Sundowner blush, so you can see that finely-milled goodness:



Here are swatches of both Sundowner and Kohilo:



Sundowner is a gorgeous plummy-pink blush, reminiscent of NARS Sin and other such colours. It also has a slight shimmer that isn't OTT at all. I normally prefer my blushes matte, but the shimmer in this is very glowy on.

Kohilo is a gorgeous bright neutral pink with shimmer. This is one of the more popular shades from their line, and I can definitely see why! This one will be universally flattering for most girls out there - I mean, everyone can use a bright neutral pink blush, right?

With wearable colours, good packaging, and an excellent formula, I don't think I have any complaints. If you're interested the the First Light Cosmetics website takes orders and offers free shipping on purchases more than 50GBP.

(These products were sent to me for review. I am not affiliated with or compensated by the company. This review is my honest and complete opinion.)

Fall/Winter 2010-2011 Dark Lip Trend on the Cheap: Evil Shades Deadly Wicked Gloss

Unsurprisingly, the dark lip is back for fall. This has been seen on the runways of Proenza Schouler, Missoni, Dior, blah blah other-boring-brands-I-never-look-at-because-I'd-rather-save-the-money-for-yet-more-makeup-and-polish. Okay, I honestly don't really care which brands featured it on the runways, but I'm glad that it's finally fashionable to wear some colour on your lips - I was starting to wonder if I was the only red-lip girl in a sea of nudes!

(Missoni Fall/Winter 2010, Image from Style.com)

This season's vampy lip colour of choice is a very blackened berry colour, almost a blackened purple. It looks cool on the runways, but obviously most of us will have to adapt it for real life, given the intensity of the colour. I'm not sure if I want to look like this if I wasn't on stage, performing, or strutting down a runway for obscene amounts of money (hah!):

(Proenza Schouler Fall/Winter 2010, Image from Style.com)

So I love the dark vampy lip, and I celebrate it's return. Question is - how is a poor student with a shoestring budget supposed to get her wearable vampy lip shade fix? Well, fortunately for us, we don't have to plunk down too much cash to actually get a vampy yet wearable shade!

Just look at this beauty I recently bought. Oh yes. Just admire it's beauty. It's vampy and dark, but still wearable, and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a lipgloss from indie makeup brand Evil Shades. I saw this online and I just HAD to have it. You understand, don't you? :P



Evil Shades is the creation of fellow blogger and twitterer Evil Angel, and her blog is awesome. It's a regular read on my RSS feed. And in addition to being a great blogger and a great person in general, she also makes killer cosmetics!

The beautiful thing about her Wicked Glosses (that's what she calls her lipgloss range) is that they're buildable and can be layered sheerly or applied more heavily for greater opacity. That's what I love best about Deadly, the drop-dead gorgeous shade I bought. If you want to wear it as it appears in the pot, you can layer it on for that runway effect, but if you don't want to wear it as an all-out vampy shade, you only need a little bit.

Let me stress - you only need a little bit:



You see that little swipe I made in the lid of the pot? Yes, that's how much you need. You really need that little if you want to wear it more sheerly. Don't make the mistake I made which was to goop it on, because you don't need that much! These Wicked Glosses are massively pigmented, so don't be fooled by the small size of the lipgloss pot. It is indeed small (it's the same size as their eyeshadow pots), but that tiny pot will last you a long time.

Here's a picture of my bare lips so that you have something to compare the lip swatches to. (I hope no one's getting sick of seeing the same picture of my bare lips everytime I do lip swatches!)



So, using that tiny blob of lipgloss, this was the look I got:



Applied sparingly and lightly, Deadly doesn't look deadly in any way. In fact, it's a very pretty deep rose shade. For sure, it's still a dark shade, but it's very wearable. If you're afraid of wearing a dark lip, this is a great way to ease into the colour family. Also, although you can see some fine glitter in the pot, it doesn't show up on the lip, because the glitter is very sparse and small, and because I only used a tiny amount. I actually like it better this way.

But what if you want to imitate that runway look a little more? You know, if this ain't vampy enough? That can be easily solved by using a greater amount of lipgloss. In fact, given the huge amount of pigmentation in this lipgloss, you're much more likely to end up applying too much colour instead of too little!

Layering the lipgloss, I was able to get this. I don't think the photo really did it justice though, it's richer and deeper in real life:



Here you get a really beautiful deep, dark berry shade. As you can see, the gold glitter is slightly more apparent on the lip now that I've used more gloss, but even so the amount of glitter in this is very small. I don't like glitter in my lipgloss as a general rule, but the amount of glitter in this isn't enough to bother me. I really love this shade. It's dark and vampy for sure, but it's not blackened like on the runways, so it's still wearable if you're looking for a shade like this.

Wear time on these was pretty good. They pretty much stayed on for as long as I wasn't eating or drinking. So I'm quite impressed. The quality is also excellent for the price - this wasn't sticky, and the scent is a fruity scent that's not cloying or overly artificial, and dissipates upon application. And they're just $3 at the Evil Shades Online Store! That's really cheap, even by etailer makeup pricing standards. And if you're lucky, she occasionally does free shipping deals, so you can even save on shipping.

So if you're looking for your wearable vampy lip, you can end your search and buy this now, and thank me later. Just don't buy up all the stock and remember to leave some for me. On second thoughts, I'd better tell you this sucks so you won't buy it, and they'll be more for me. Yup, that's right. This seriously sucks. If you hate pigmented lipglosses, if you hate non-sticky lipglosses, and if you don't want a versatile lip colour that can be layered, then this isn't for you. Yeah, it really sucks, you don't want it. Now excuse me while I sneak off to the Evil Shades website to stock up on these...um, I meant, buy them all up so you wouldn't have to suffer the pain of using such pigmented products.