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Thursday, January 29

About jars and containers

These babies deserve a separate post...


I implore you - when looking for containers to store your piggies - visit your local medical supplies and lab equipment wholesaler and check out their merchandise: one of these babies cost me approximately 20 cents (8 USD for 40 jars which is an amazing deal).

I put one of my Conservatorie samples in the jar, looks like this:
(the sample filled up approx 1/6 of the jar)

I got these containers for my soon to arrive TKB samples which are 1 tablespoon (1 tbsp) in size (not 1 teaspoon (1 tsp) like the Conservatorie's samples). I expect those samples to fill these jars up to 1/2 or even 2/3.


This is an airtight lid: it has a special thingy in the center of the lid that keeps the powder from getting into the "screws" (sorry, dunno the right word). As you screw the lid on you can tell that you are squeezing the jar into the lid.
Note how the powder is visible only in the center of the lid - I gave the jar quite a shake, mind you. The usual problem with the jars is that even if you have sifters, some of the powder gets between the lid and the jar and you might have a messy accident when opening the container.

And here's a comparison photo of all the different sized jars I have come across.

There are some downsides too: no sifters and the lid looks pretty ugly up close. I can forgive the ugliness - the lids are made so that they are easy to handle, not slippery in any way. It's also slightly vexing that the lids are not see-through - must storage the jars on their sides to see whats in them. They do not look pretty in my makeup box and are a bit difficult to stash, because the lid is, well, like a mushroom top - slightly wider then the jar itself.


Laborilingos on sellise purgi nimeks katsuti.

(Peaks vist kõik 5ml asjad ka neisse ümber tõstma - 5ml tavatopsid on ikka uskumatud pudisejad - pigmendid lähevad kogu aeg kaante keerdude vahele.)

Saturday, January 24

Making the Conservatorie Caramel Light Deluxe suitable for my skin

The 4 ounces I ordered from The Conservatorie are yellow. Yellow and too dark.
Mixed some Caramel Light Deluxe powder with Conservatorie's foundation base, boron glow and pearl powder - the mixture does not excel in coverage but it is indeed lighter then the pure version. Apparently I cannot tone down the yellowness until the TKB haul arrives - ordered some blue and purple pigments too - since purple is the opposite of yellow on the color wheel - that should take down the yellowness a bit.

I make a promise never to purchase any foundation mixtures without ultramarine blue ever again.

PS!

My skin has gotten terribly dry... I do not know if it's the Conservatorie's foundies or just winter. By midday I have to moisturize my face by adding a thin layer of moisturizer on top of my makeup, otherwise risking to look like a dried plum.

If it's indeed the foundi then what ingredient could possibly be to blame here?


(Contains: Sericite Mica - Magnesium Myristate, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Silk Powder, Allantoin, Iron Oxide.)
And the coverage - I am not happy with that either.

Thursday, January 15

TKB Trading, LLC : planning another haul

Since I got so many pigments from The Conservatorie I started looking for containers - the plastic baggies are anything but comfortable. Seems TKB (MMU wholesaler) offers the cheapest solution: their 20 gr stackable jars.
Ordered 7 sets of 3 with plastic inserts (dunno exactly what those are, hope they are those little plastic covers between jars that keep the powder from spilling; IMHO the sifters alone are not as effective preventing that).
Also ordered an ounce of Silica microspheres (a great primer), a sample of Boron glow and 2 micas: Moon Stone and Ivory Lace (by description this one should be usable as finishing powder). TKB has minimum order of USD 19,50 (my order 19,86 sans shipping) and their international shipping is a little confusing, apparently I can cancel my order and expect a full refund if the shipping cost that is sent to me via e-mail is not to my liking...

HOT DAMN! the shipping for this small lot is 12 USD - now this does not sound good at all. If I do not find people who would join in on this order, the deal is off.

The following blogs have TKB mica swatches:
Mademoisellec
Nemux
Poudres-et-pinceaux
Le Blog du Maquillage Mineral
ShimmerKisser
MakeUpMyLack
Poudres et galipettes
msfrenchfries

A lot of swatches on YouTube, mostly reviewing the pop! collection. On those reviews the samples look really huge.

Lisandus:
tellimusega liitus veel inimesi
- tellimuse saadan välja esmaspäeva õhtul, niikaua saab valida ja veel ka ümber mõelda.

PS! Deem, those "plastic inserts" in the stackable jars are not the plastic covers I thought them to be - instead they are little pans in which to put liquid stuff like lipglosses, pressed powders etc. Must change the order.

PPS! TKB informed me that the 20mg jars can only hold 1,5 teaspoons of pigment comfortably and that they are out of tall profile jars (those would be big enough to hold the entire sample)... Well - samples of the pigments are supposedly 1 tablespoon each - that's gonna be fun...

PPPS! Surfing the TKB micas made me wonder - is Simply Naturals packaging and reselling TKB micas? Because the names of the colors are too similar to be a coincidence...

PPPPS! Someone should put me out of my misery before I spend ALL my money on makeup.

PPPPPS! Now they inform me, that the containers will not fit into the envelope - if I want all the containers, I should pay like 40 $ shipping. Ouch.

PPPPPPS! No need to buy containers from TKB - I have the ugly alternative right here (Sarstedt 60.9922.113, one jar can hold 25 ml): will pick them up at the local medical supplies wholesaler's. The lids of those look eee... extremely functional. God knows what these jars are actually meant for :D.

Last addition:

Got the invoice on February 2nd, paid it and apparently the entire haul (I think out of 43 smth piggies 21 are mine :O) will be shipped out tomorrow. Shipping is 14 USD and they managed to squeese 7 TripleDips into the envelope (the first picture). Now suffering from a bad case of buyers remorse...
Do I really need ANY MORE eyeshadows???
Hmmm - actually, I think perhaps I do...

Wednesday, January 14

The Conservatorie haul has arrived

The Conservatorie haul is here - in good time too. They shipped January 2 and on January 15th I had a notice in my mailbox.

Well, those guys sure love to send big parcels, I must say... A large envelope perhaps would have indeed been a little too small for the 4 ounce mineral foundation packet - it was bigger then I expected but I got a box half filled with polystyrene again.

It is a working day, lunchtime and I sit in the office, the door locked, swatching samples - I'm in deep.

Lets start with the cheap eye shadow brushes: they're too soft, lacking bounce. The lip brush is a lot better and seems to be perfect for micromanaging around the eye area: bristles are thin and soft but the shape of the brush does not disappear if pressure is applied.

Synthetic Oval Smudger Brush flimsy, soft, not enough bristles in it - lacks firmness, no good for foiling; how can it be called smudger with bristles so weak? I'd like to characterize this brush using the word that's opposite to the word "dense"; there are so few bristles that the ferrule scratches my eyelid! The size of the brush would have been perfect for I have small eyes. Would buy again: no.


Synthetic Oval Shadow Brush flimsy, too soft, thin, not suitable for foiling, the bristles are a mess when the brush is used wet; bristles sticking out in all directions; Applies dry metallic powders well but I needed a brush for foiling. Would buy again: no.
Synthetic Oval Taklon Lip Brush bristles are soft yet the shape of the brush can handle pressure; does not loose shape even if made wet. Downside: very small. Would buy again: yes.

The 40 gr jars are big and pretty, with sifters. I would have preferred transparent lids but silver is ok too. Check out the first photo to get some idea how big these actually are.





The micas:

The Conservatorie mica sample is enough to fill up a small 5gr jar (a teaspoon of product).
18 K Gold Foil Mica light golden sheen, not much pigment, can be used as highlighter or as metallic sheen on some darker pigment; picture pale gold;
Antique Gold Mica similar to previous but more yellow pigment, can be easily worn alone;
Brown Coco Mica almost matte dark cool brown, good as liner or as dark base, I presume;
Chameleon Glitter Mica sparsely pigmented dark red with silver glitter/sparkle - I do not particularily like red on my eyes, takes some getting used too - reminds me of a hare; the glitter does not stick well;

Dark Bronze Mica (reddish?) brown with golden sheen, seems a little too orange-ish to my liking; strong metallic;
Gold Earth Mica amazing, beautiful golden sheen on pink-beige base, very heavy golden sheen;
Salmon Interference Mica like previous but less golden, more transparent; seems a perfect highlighter; the base is perfect nude beige-pink;
Shimmering Nude Mica shimmering pink, the pink sheen is actually quite aggressive when applied wet; perhaps I should try this on the cheeks as well...
Silver Black Mica dark grey with silver sheen, reminds me of the silvery color MAD Minerals has, it's just a little darker and more blue;
Super Brilliant Mocha Mica like Chameleon glitter but without the green sheen and more silver sparkle, or like Dark Bronze with silver sparkle; has less red in it too; love :)
Xian Vistas Mica yellow with green iridescence, amazing but is it wearable? we'll see...

Must make a new photo: it's 14.45, the Sun is setting and there is no light. The swatches on skin must wait until weekend.

Just for my information: MT wants Antique Gold, Xian Vistas and Dark Bronze.


Boron glow has indeed a slight sheen and I'll be adding it to my foundation mix along with the base powder. Silica microspheres will take some getting used to - it's an extremely finely milled powder that makes skin ever so smooth to the touch. Must test it for a little longer but I think it is drying my skin.


And the missing swatches: Antique Gold & Xian Vistas:
The foundations:

I think I know now why Caramel Light is too dark for me... It was not so bad when I used the samples from the first patch - those were of Premium+ recipe... Since the Honey line seemed more suitable on the homepage, I ordered those in Deluxe instead and the Caramel series was tested in Premium+ formula. My 4 ounces of Caramel light from the second patch are in Deluxe recipe. Seems that by default the Deluxe's are darker and less luminous.



Mixed some of the boron glow, some pearl powder and the rest of the foundation base into 1 teaspoon of Caramel Light Deluxe and will be testing it tomorrow.

Saturday, January 10

Mineraalmeik ja teised meigiblogid/Cool Beauty Blogs

Rocketqueen was the one who turned my attention towards MMU, more precisely MAD Minerals, Archetype Cosmetics and Fyrinnae. She has white skin just like me. Writes in Swedish and English.

Mõnus blogi, prantsusekeelne, palju swatche: Nemux. A very elegant lady and her blog in French, lots of swatches. Adore her EOTDs.

Sellel on uhke meigikollektsioon MyBeautyImprint ja uskumatult ilusad EOTD-d.

Sirvinya's blog and Youtube tut's brought me to MMU. She's also one of the moderators on MakeUpTalk.

Memoires of a Shopping Addict has great ideas for eye makeup.

Cleodelinda
has wonderful swatches too.

Shades of You is a very diligent blogger and has great photos, lots of swatches and countless reviews. a MAC girl...

I just wish I'd come across Caucasian girls' beauty blogs more often... Need some good ideas as to what goes best with fair complexion and blue eyes.

Meigihulle leidub igas vanuses :) Marinamake

Siin tuleb ingoreerida küünelakiteemalisi postitusi ja silmameigist snitti võtta: Purity

Shimmerkisser writes in English, has some lovely swatches of TKB stuff.

Avastasin ka selle blogi Killer Colors : väga lahe ja tõeliselt cool kergelt gooti ilublogi :). Totally cool blog, in swedish, summaries in English. Uses a lot of MAD Minerals products.

Thursday, January 8

Sünteetiliste pintslite jahil (Hunting for synthetic brushes)

Vedas mul - kui keegi pakub "CP" võimalust millelegi, mida müüakse vaid US-s (custom purchase) ehk ese ostetakse su eest ja maksad pärast kinni. Nummi.
Loodetavasti õnnestub ja ma pole mingi netipetise otsa koperdanud.
Ma TAHAN neid pintsleid.

Sellel on MakeUpAlley's 94% buy again reiting.

Ainuke, mille edasi kingin, on ripsmekamm/kulmuhari. Review'de järgi pidavat see päris kenasti "imema".

Kopisin ühe hea resolutsiooniga pildi A Touch of Blusher blogist (temal on custom selection; vaadake vaid, kui täpselt need pintslid kujundatud on - mitte ühtegi väljaulatuvat karva!):

Walgreens'i kodulehel näeb see set välja sellisena (I HOPE their eye shadow brushes are good enough for foiling):
Iseenesest on neil kabukid ka - kuid mul EDM juba olemas ja ma nendega rahul.
Lisaks on MMU komplektis neil suhteliselt imelikud silmapintslid... ja NENDE reiting pole kuigi julgustav (umbes sarnane asi on EDM'i eye kabuki näol juba olemas ka).

Saturday, January 3

Archetype EOTDs vol 2

(Original thread is too picture-heavy, started a new one)

IHMO the Archetype's greenish-grayish tones are not very durable. The foundation alone is not firm enough base for them.
Ocean Mist's Bare as foundation, light to mid coverage and a tad too light... it has a pinkish undertone.
Colors used are Glass Coffin just under the brow line (invisible on the photos, imagine slightly turquoise sheen), The Gargoyle Trees all over lid, darker in the outer V, Little Grey Kitten in the inner corners, Wormwood (wet) as upper liner, Little Grey Kitten (wet) as lower liner.

The Gargoyle Trees, Deadly Nightshade and Wormwood are quite similar actually. Gargoyle Trees is more grayish dark green, Deadly Nightshade is greener dark green, Wormwood has some golden sheen in it too.


This one came out a tad too dark:

Colors used are St. Elmo's Fire in the middle, Epiphany in inner and outer corner,
Deep Sunless Sea as liner (wet).
This is here one of the rare occasions I use more then 2 colors.


first picture: eyes with just the primer: EDM's Sandy Fair (in matte) this time

The colors used are:
Green Goddess
in the inner corners
Luna Sidhe in outer V
Weeping Willow (love) just under the browbone
no liner (simply slipped my mind)
all applied dry
also forgot to do the eyebrows...

on this one the colors seemed the most vivid:
and one large, blown up photo too:

Extremely sweet angelic look IMHO. Picked the colors by closing my eyes and taking 3 random baggies from the box. :)

How to find your foundation online? & How to choose foundation color?

The best place - beauty forums (Everyday Minerals forum, Makeuptalk Mineral Makeup forum). Just post a picture (preferably taken in daylight, with slight overcast and not in direct sunlight) of yourself and ask for advice. People are kind.

Because pictures are not always trustworthy and every computer screen is different from the other - to be quite sure just go to your nearest MAC counter and ask the consultant to match your skin tone. The MAC skin color codes are often useful when looking for the right foundation because it's such a big and well known international makeup company with substantially large assortment of colors. Some ppl have even gathered comparative information in excel datasheets and are kind enough share them with all (this MAC skin tone is this and that in EDM, Meow etc).

The smart thing to do is to order samples in colors that are suggested to you or if you trust the descriptions, you think that will match your skin tone.

Lighting is very important when choosing one's foundation. The sensible approach would be testing the foundation in daylight first. The stuff the salesgirl puts on you in store - boy have I been disappointed when I got home! Artificial lighting tunes down the orange color and as you arrive home with your new foundi - you discover you look like an orange.
One should always test the foundation in daylight before buying it.
But even this may be difficult. This is a picture taken this afternoon: one near a window facing south and the other facing north. The one taken near the northern window is considerably more bluish...

Differences in lighting play hell with the swatches I make... pictures taken during summer and pictures taken now - there's a world of difference.


It's important to choose the foundation to match your neck, not the face; test it on your neck or decolleté, not on your cheek or forehead. Even the jawline is not very trustworthy imho, because of the shadow. You have to use a smaller mirror in order to see properly - and mirrors reflect light.

Here's an "in your face!" to all of those obnoxious "know-it-all" ppl in Estonian forums, that think no one can possibly be whiter then MAC's fairest:


MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC15 and NW15 (always thought that NW means neutral warm or smth but it's actually the "cool" color group - how can it possibly be considered a cool tone - it's friggin' orange!)

So shut up about the MAC's fairest!
It's either yellow or orange and therefore totally unsuitable for us pale gurls.

The salesladies at The Body Shop were also very nice and provided me with samples of their lightest foundations: Moisture Foundation SPF15 in 02 and 03. Tried them on my neck and the result fully matched my expectations - too orange. The coverage is somewhat lesser then the one of MAC but this was to be expected - it's basically a moisturizer. I gave the swatches 10 minutes before taking these pictures:
The upper picture gives a good idea how horrible I look without foundation. Lots of hormonal blemishes and impurities.
And on the decolleté:

The funny thing is I went like aargh - my perfect match! when I saw the swatch of No 03 on my skin - it was like sooo perfect in the store. And as I got home and swatched in the daylight - all the magic was suddenly gone. I think the No 3 would be quite passable during the summer though.

Kui kurdad kusagil ilufoorumis, et emamaal ei müüda piisavalt heledaid toone, hüppab alati põõsast välja keegi, kes teatab, et loomulikult on: mine vaata vaid MACi letti. AGA mida pole seda pole. NW15 on oranž ja NC15 on kollane.

Kui aega leian, siis kontrollin ka väidet, et Max Factor Lasting Peformance 100 olevat ülivalgele nahale sobiv. Kui õieti mäletan siis see oli suhteliselt kollane...