Simply Kendra

I found Simply Kendra through another blogger, who posted some lovely swatches of Simply Kendra's eyeshadows. When I visited their website {found HERE} I loved the names of the products as well as a few colors that {up to that point} I hadn't seen before. From what I could gather in a quick Google search, Simply Kendra was a quality indie MMU company, so I went ahead and placed an order.

:::  THE SPECS  :::

Simply Kendra sells a few different products, including eyeshadow, Glitter-Rama glitter, Glitter Affixer, Lip Gloss, Soy Balms and Blush. Prices seem average compared to other companies I've purchased from. Since I only purchased eyeshadows, that's all I can really speak to; however, I'd like to try their blush and a soy balm in the near future. As far as eyeshadows go, you can order $1.00 sample baggies, $3.00 3-gram jars or $5.00 5-gram jars. I opted for all sample baggies, which came with a decent amount of product in each one. I don't see anything mentioned about how much product comes in sample baggies, but it seems to be comparable to most other companies I've purchased from. The selection of colors is pretty interesting, with some color combinations that I thought were unique and some that were quirky. I didn't have any problem picking out products, and after swatching them, I found them all to be very true to their images on the site.

:::  THE PICTURES  :::

*Click pictures to enlarge. All swatches done over NYX Jumbo Pencil in Cottage Cheese.*

{Love the pink zebra tape!}

{Ingredients list enclosed with sample baggies, plus a note and candy}

{All of the samples, plus two freebies}

{First half of the order}

{Ballerina Betty, Aztec Maiden and Ice Storm - Photographed with a Flash}

{Goddess, Glitterbot, Heavy Metal Kitten, My French Boyfriend - Photographed with a Flash}

{The first half again - Photographed with a Flash}

{The second half of the order}

{Yeti, Jealous Jill, Krista and Senorita - Photographed with a Flash}

{Senorita, Naughty Librarian, E=Mc and Poisoned Candy Apple - Photographed with a Flash}

{The second half of the order again - Photographed with a Flash}

:::  THE OPINIONS  :::

My favorites from the bunch were E=Mc, Glitterbot and Senorita. E=Mc is a gorgeous bright pink that really pops against neutrals. Glitterbot may not be a unique color, but it applies very nicely, blends well and feels silky to the touch {though all of the shadows feel the same way}. Senorita was a surprise favorite for me, considering it's more of a neutral. It has a metallic look to it, almost like bronze mixed with pewter, but it looks really great against my fair skin and blue eyes. I plan on ordering a full-size version of Senorita soon, as the sample is almost gone already. :}

I haven't seen much talk about Simply Kendra on the usual blogs I frequent, so I'd love to hear others' experiences with this company, as well as your favorite Simply Kendra colors {if you have any}! Based on my first purchase, I'd definitely recommend this company.

Stay Fabulous!

Hi-Fi Cosmetics: A Review/Swatches

I purchased twice from Hi-Fi Cosmetics; once was through a Heartsy deal, and the other time was just a normal order. I can {obviously} only speak to my own experiences with Hi-Fi, which were without incident — even during their Heartsy timeframe. What follows is my review and swatches of both orders combined, as an attempt to streamline the posts a bit more.

:::  THE SPECS  :::

Hi-Fi Cosmetics has an e-commerce presence on Artfire, where the owner {Veronica} gives you the option to shop by collection, by color or see everything at once. There are quite a few collections to look through {they're listed/linked on the right side of the page, just in case you're not familiar with Artfire} and many, many eyeshadow colors to choose from. Hi-Fi also has their base/primer product called High Impact Shadow Fix, cosmetic-grade glitters called Paparazzi Flash Powders, mineral blush and lip glaze, along with their "More the Merrier" deals and gift certificates. I only purchased eyeshadows so far, but may try their mineral blushes the next time I place an order.

Eyeshadows are $6 for a 5-gram jar with sifter. Each shadow listing includes ingredients, a color description and a note as to whether it's lip safe or not and whether or not it's vegan. Shipping is $1.00 for the first item and $0.50 for each additional item. Both times I ordered I chose their 5 for $25 deal, plus a few extra single shadows. They arrived in bubble mailers with the jars wrapped together in a baggie so they didn't move around in transit, which I appreciated.

:::  THE PICTURES  :::

{All of the jars, bottoms up.}

{L to R: Punk Rocker, Lost and Lonely, Fallen Angels, Low Light, Silver Bells, Eat Me Drink Me, Clean Version - Photographed in Natural Light}

{Closer look at Punk Rocker, Lost and Lonely, Fallen Angels - Natural Light}

{Closer look at Low Light, Silver Bells, Eat Me Drink Me - Natural Light}

{Closer look at Silver Bells, Eat Me Drink Me, Clean Version - Natural Light}

{Same as above but photographed with a flash}

{Closer look - photographed with a flash - Lost and Lonely is really a stand-out color here}

{Closer look - photographed with a flash - Low Light is lovely}

{L to R: Adrenaline, Grinch, Love All the Poison, Morals in a Hole, Adagio, Beach Baby, Champagne Toast - Natural Light}

{Closer look at Adrenaline, Grinch, Love All the Poison - Natural Light}

{Closer look at Love All the Poison, Morals in a Hole, Adagio - Natural Light}

{Closer look at Adagio, Beach Baby, Champagne Toast - Natural Light}

{Same as above but photographed with a flash}

{Closer look - photographed with a flash - Love All the Poison is a great green}

{Closer look - photographed with a flash - Beach Baby is full of great sparkle and shimmer}

 :::  THE OPINIONS  :::

I *love* almost every color I purchased. I say "almost" because I wasn't completely in love with Grinch or Fallen Angels {just a matter of personal preference though — the shadows themselves are great, I just don't love the particular colors on me}. But two out of fourteen shadows isn't a bad number for indie products, when purchases are made not knowing how they'll work with your particular skin tone/type or not knowing how intense the color will be with the base/primer you use. And I don't *hate* Grinch and Fallen Angels. I just don't prefer them to the other twelve colors I bought. On a less subjective note, all of the shadows adhered well to UDPP and NYX Jumbo Pencil, blended nicely and stayed put for hours. I don't doubt that I'll order more from Hi-Fi in the future, though lately I've been picking up most products during sales, so I'm eager to see if Hi-Fi offers a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale this coming week.

If anyone else has favorites from Hi-Fi that I should add to my list to try, let me know!

Stay Fabulous!

Fortune Cookie Soap

Fortune Cookie Soap is a company I found while perusing another blogger's product reviews, and immediately noticed the relatively inexpensive prices. I've purchased a limited amount of soap outside of retail-chain body washes and such, so I went into this without much prior knowledge of how to identify "good" products versus stock products or good ingredients versus bad ingredients. I'm learning these things as I go along and take mental notes as I read through discussions on blogs and Facebook. Having said that, I had a good experience with Fortune Cookie Soap, and I'll get more into that right now.

:::  THE SPECS  :::

Fortune Cookie Soap {linked above and HERE} has a user-friendly website with easy navigation, as well as an email contact, customer service phone line and even a place to enter your email address for an instant 10% off coupon {which of course I utilized for my order}. They also have a nice little program that allows customers to submit ideas for products, fragrances, etc, and if the idea is used, the customer gets that product for free.

In regards to the product selection, it's quite extensive and very thorough with content and descriptions. Besides the fortune cookie soap itself, they also sell regular bar soap, lip butter, body butters and scrubs, shampoo bars, bath bombs and more. I didn't question anything when choosing which scents to order, as ingredients are clearly listed for each product, along with a scent description and a very helpful ratings/review section for customer feedback. Fortune Cookie Soap ships domestically (US) and internationally, and for the order I placed I paid $8.35 for priority {domestic} shipping. My order was processed within an hour of submitting it, and it shipped the same afternoon... very quick and efficient. I received it in three days. Here are some more specifics for the actual products I ordered:

:::  Fortune Cookie Soap: Prices range from $2.75 to $3.49 for a single soap, complete with fortune tucked inside. A multitude of different scents to choose from, so there's something for almost everyone. Each soap comes packaged in a wax bag and labeled with the name and ingredients, but for an additional $0.35 you can have the soap packaged in a favor box in your choice of color. The boxes are made of paper, so I would advise against taking it in the shower with you. However, there is a clear favor box option that's made of plastic, which can be used in the shower and costs $0.75. I really like that you have the option of adding on the favor box, especially if you plan to gift anything. I ordered all of mine without favor boxes {so they all came in wax bags}, except for one that I opted to have packaged in the clear plastic box, just so I have one on-hand and can swap out whichever soap I want to use as I use them in the shower. The price seems reasonable for the amount of soap you get and how long it lasts. I'm still working through one that I've been using for two weeks now. The scent lingers on your skin in a subtle way, and so far it hasn't interfered with my perfume {which changes daily}.

:::  Bar Soap: Prices range from $6.75 to $7.95 per product, but they also have sample packages available that include 11 different soap samples that last 4-5 uses each. The full-size soaps come in a variety of shapes and colors, all of which are pretty cute. Just like with the fortune cookie soaps, each product listing includes scent descriptions and ingredient lists. Because I couldn't narrow down which scent I wanted to try, I opted for the sample package. Price-wise, the full-size soaps are a bit on the expensive side compared to similar soap I've seen on sites like Etsy or Artfire, and even some stand-alone soap sites. But price can be somewhat subjective depending on your financial situation.

:::  THE PICTURES  :::

{Everything inside the box.}

 

{Everything out of the box}

{The 11 bar soap samples in individual baggies with labels}

{The free sample of "Unicorn Farts" whipped cream}

{Pink Power: Raspberries and strawberries - packaged in the clear favor box}

{Lemon Zing: Real lemon essential oils}

{Pink Lemonade: Smells as named, plus pink grapefruit}

{Honeymoon in Paradise: Guava, papaya, pineapple and coconut scents}

{Nature's Chill Pill: the scent of lavender}

{Keep It Clean: only described as a fresh and fruity scent}

 :::  THE OPINIONS  :::

Out of all the fortune cookie soaps, I liked the scent of Nature's Chill Pill and Keep It Clean the most. Lemon Zing and Pink Power were also good scents. I didn't really like Honeymoon in Paradise or Pink Lemonade, though I know others liked Honeymoon in Paradise a lot. In regards to the bar soap samples, you can click to enlarge the image above to see all of the scents I received. Out of the 11 scents, my favorite is Baby Doll, which is scented with lavender and packed with calendula and shea butter. Most of the other samples were decent, but I'm not sure they appealed to my particular taste in fragrances. The one that I didn't like at all was Opium Lemonade, which just didn't mix well as a scent combination for me.

My recommendation would be to order the sample pack for the bar soaps before ordering full sizes, but the fortune cookie soaps are inexpensive enough to take a chance and order whichever scents you're interested in. I'm a big fan of their wide assortment of products, and even though not all of the scents were great, I would order again just to try some new scents and products.

Stay Fabulous!

Fyrinnae Review

This Fyrinnae post has been long overdue. I've had these products for a few months now, but only recently got them swatched in a way that I was happy with.

:::  THE SPECS  :::

Fyrinnae has been somewhat of a "cult favorite" in the indie makeup community for a while, offering a wide variety of makeup in unique colors and very useable formulas. At the moment, the Fyrinnae website is down, noting a return date of 11/20, so I'm unable to pull up details about the company itself or the prices. From what I remember, they offer sample sizes, mini jars and full-size jars of the shadows.  Normally I'd go into more detail about prices, shipping and selection, but between the site being down and having ordered such a long time ago, I don't have as much information at this point. But keep checking their website — it's relatively easy to navigate and place an order.

:::  THE PICTURES  :::

*All swatches done over NYX Jumbo Pencil in Cottage Cheese, and all pics are clickable to enlarge*

{All mini jars, between $2 and $2.25 each}

{L to R: Meerkat, Warrior-Mage, Griffonrider, Sacred, Newcastle, Evocation. Photographed in natural light.}

{Meerkat, Warrior-Mage and Griffonrider. Natural light.}

{Sacred, Newcastle, Evocation. Natural Light.}

{Same as above, photographed with a flash.}

{Photographed with a flash.}

{Photographed with a flash.}

{L to R: Rapunzel Had Extensions, Sakura, Sleepy Hollow, Moon Child, Electric Stardust, Shinkirou. Natural Light.}

{Rapunzel Had Extensions, Sakura, Sleepy Hollow. Natural Light.}

{Moon Child, Electric Stardust, Shinkirou. Natural Light.}

{Same as above, photographed with a flash.}

{Photographed with a flash.}

{Photographed with a flash.}

:::  THE OPINIONS  ::: 

I had to post a lot of pictures to show off the great multifaceted elements to these colors — in some cases, no two pictures look the same for certain colors. They all wear very nicely, and I've used Sleepy Hollow as a liner with pretty fantastic results. My favorites out of the bunch are Shinkirou, Moon Child, Rapunzel Had Extensions and Warrior-Mage. All of the colors were very pigmented, and most of them would even work over no base. However, I find the best payoff by layering over UDPP and NYX Jumbo Pencil, which seems to bring out all of the different dimensions in each color while blending nicely.

What are some of your favorites from Fyrinnae?

Stay Fabulous!

Update Time!

My apologies for dropping off the face of the blogosphere for a bit there! I'm ready to dive back in, with somewhat of a revised/renewed blog focus. Because my life involves a plethora of different interests and experiences outside of what I've written about in the past, I want to open up my range of topics to anything and everything. I'll still have plenty of beauty-focused posts {right now I have fifteen different companies/shops to review, all of which have been swatched and just need the narratives/details completed}, but I don't want to be limited in what I'm writing about either. After joining a pretty cool Facebook group recently, it's become clear that, for lack of a better phrase, “anything goes" in the blogging world. I can jump erratically from a post about products I love to the places I visit, to my animals, style/fashion, movies, books... and that's okay! I'm really excited to get the ball rolling. Again. So, I hope you'll stick around and continue to read my blog, and by all means, leave me comments with links to your own blogs so I can get to know you as well!

With that out of the way, there are a few random things to mention before diving right into the fun stuff in upcoming posts.

:::  BIRCHBOX  :::

I decided to end my relationship with Birchbox. Super-cool concept and definitely affordable, but after trying it for four months, I just wasn’t getting what I wanted to out of it. I thought the products would be tailored more to my particular needs and preferences, but most of the products I received I wasn’t able to use for one reason or another {didn’t work for my skin type, hair type, didn’t like the color}. So, even though it was only $10/month, I wasn’t even getting that much out of each box. So, sorry Birchbox, we're through.

:::  ABOUT ME  :::

In an attempt to provide some additional “personal” information about myself so that I can make a better connection with other bloggers and readers, I’ll be adding an “About Me” tab to the top of my blog, along with a tab that lists brands/shops/websites that I frequent and other favorite things.

:::  SWATCHES/REVIEWS  :::

Boy, do I have a crazy amount of swatch/review posts coming up! Just to build up some love, here are the companies to look for in the next couple of weeks: Persephone Minerals, Black Rose Minerals, Unique Pigments, My Pretty Zombie, Fyrinnae, Altered Ego, Hi-Fi, The Bathing Garden, Fortune Cookie Soap and a few others that I just ordered but haven’t received yet, like Darling Girl Cosmetics, Julep Maven, Zoya, Love Hues, OHWTO and some CLEAN-brand fragrances that I ordered from Beyond the Rack.
Yep, I’m going to keep myself busy between full-time work, full-time school and all of the fun things in between.

So I hope everyone is wonderfully happy, getting ready for the holidays and enjoying life in general! Stay tuned for some more specific posts later on.

Stay Fabulous!