Swatches of some TKB pigments

Some of these pigments were acquired in July 2011 and still not swatched (bowing my head in shame - I have so much material to cover now, it's insane - coming up are The Conservatorie lipsticks and blushes, loads of e.l.f. stuff and some miscellaneous talk mainly about mascaras and stuff that seriously disappointed me).

I think by now I have quite an extensive TKB piggie collection, the one I still crave is the new Moonlight from the Metalites duo. Unfortunately it was out of stock during my last shopping spree.
The new Firestarter Collection did not spark my fancy, I only got the lightest and the darkest of the three: the medium copper tone seemed something I already have in at least 2 versions.
The Cafe Collection was the same: swatch on the homepage did not tempt me, a nice trio but I already have multiples of lookalikes,  perhaps one day I'll think of sampling Cinnamon Sugar, it seemed more unique then the rest.

Ordering from TKB is not as easy as from other places: they do not have a minimum order any more but the cheapest shipping to Estonia is now 24 USD (used to be 14 when I first started ordering, then 17).  Basically if you want to order something, you better fill your flat rate envelope to the brim - otherwise the price of shipping will really jack up the cost per piggie. This of course means there's no chance in escaping the customs fee (parcel priced higher then 21,98 eur /ˇ27 USD gets VAT-taxed at customs in Estonia and you get to deal with those nice folks at the post office as well).

Without further ado here are the swatches of the last two TKB hauls:

The Chameleons

foiled swatches

Nosy Be Chameleon - youngest of the three, has plenty of purple glitter - magnificent;
Chameleon Glitter - most difficult to apply, blue glitter flies all over - once successfully applied, looks stunning;
Chameleon Fine - silky texture and wonderful turquoise-blue sheen, easiest to apply; an elegant color when used sensibly (Simply Naturals sells this color under the name of Mocha).

Chameleon family has two things in common: same brick orange smearing base-color and acute hydrophobia - these puppies do not mix well with water. No foiling!  To get a truly magnificent result use some sort of mixing medium or base cream straight on the lid and then dab the pigment on with a dry brush.

Now to the metallics... I wonder what made me buy yet another gold and bronze.

foiled swatches

Off-spec satin white - a nice white shade with quite a strong silvery metallic sheen;
Silken Gold  - related to Satin Orange gold (discontinued) but much lighter, this one provides a nice golden sheen and not much coverage;
Sparkle Gold  - a pale gold with a strong metallic sheen, a lovely accent color (I was actually ready for more glitter since it is a "Sparkle" color, same with Sparkle Bronze);
Sparkle Bronze - soft bronze with a strong metallic sheen, especially when applied wet (as is the case here);
Blush Beige - softer pinkish bronze, an everyday color (makes a lovely peachy blush for pale folks when mixed with some matte base).

Browns - I always seem to be getting more and more browns...

dry swatches, no base

Aurora - a pink highlight (for me a suitable blush color) and
Ember - reddish dark brown accent color are both from the Firestarter Collection
Aladdin's Lamp - warm reddish brown with lots of blue-silvery glitter (which is somehow missing from this picture);
Honey - wonderful neutral light brown/dark beige glitter, beautiful neutral, would really look awesome over base;
Blackstar Gold  - warm brown, perfect for blue eyes
Foxy - cool brown with metallic sheen
Chamoisee - related to Antique Silver bit has a brownish undertone - hence placed with the rest of the browns; however seems to have lost all the "brownness" during photoshoot - it's a very dark taupe color with metallic sheen;
Reflection - the warmer half of the Metallics Duo, reminds me of Winter Rose but the latter has a blue sheen; nice highlight.

Reds and pinks - why do I buy them? I do not make lippies and they are far too shiny to be used as blushes...

dry swatches, no base

Pink Coral - irresistible sparkly soft pink;
Sparkle Rose - insane gold and pink flecks on a relatively strong pink base;
Cotton Candy - soft and girly beige pink, very glittery;
Gemtone Ruby - dark pink, almost red, can be used as blush but has strong metallic sheen;
Tibetan Ochre - a more down to earth color; a nice neutral blush when blended down with base;
Red Basics - meant by TKB to be used as base to all sorts of blushes and lippies, an intense red color.

And the colors I'd hardly ever wear myself:

foiled swatches

Emerald - (this color is apparently the hight of fashion at the moment - everything is Emerald now) dark green with a strong sheen, would recommend wet as liner;
Amethyst - seems a lot like Aster Hue, I have to compare those some day - an ordinary bluish purple, the bruise kind;
Deep Blue - looks like a bag of dark nothing but when applied gives off an intense dark blue sheen; a word of warning - do not rub this color, the blue mica will subside and dirty gray oxides will emerge; I'd recommend as liner.

TKB's MyMix series was on sale when I got it. Some of the colors are sold out and Peach is discontinued by now. All of them contain bismuth oxychloride (used to better blend the oxides). Some of them contain lake dyes: Cranberry (Red#33), Bitten (Red#7), Coral (Red#40), Rose (Red#33) and Pink (Red#30). These are finished blushes, they do not need any additional mixing and since they already contain plenty of zinc stearate they are ready for pressing as well, just add the pressing mixture.

dry swatches, no base

Cranberry  - dark red, almost wine-red;
Earth - still dark but more toned down, yet not brick-red;
Heat - lighter version of Earth;
Bitten - mild, toned down Coral;
Mulberry - purplish yet fair, a winter color for a pale person when used carefully;
Coral - bright coral, only one that's not completely matte - has some golden glitter in it ;
Rose - toned down dark pink;
Pink - beautiful girly pink;
Peach - a very fair pink, my winter blush - a barely there tone, camera did not catch it properly;
Almond - light brown, suitable as a light matte contouring color;
Champagne - a very light color for brow-bones and undereye-areas, personally I use it for highlighting.

Once I'm feeling up to it, I might consider doing a color group-wise swatcharama of all the TKB piggies but at the moment I really do not have the energy :).

e.l.f. Mineral lipsticks in Royal Red, Beautiful Berry and Prime Plum

I like e.l.f.'s mineral lipsticks, especially Rosy Raisin, the "my lips but better" tone. Now these here are much, much darker (warning - they look lighter on this photo).  Ingredients list is very nice to look at.

Prime Plum - Plum should be purple, no? Well, this one is dark brick-brown.

Royal Red - elegant deep cool-toned red but far too dark for me

Beautiful Berry - dark red, could also be described as a cross between Prime Plum and Royal Red - again not for me.

The Conservatorie shimmer eyeshadow trio in Mocha Splash

Am using The Conservatorie's pic as well because mine does not look so good (one small edge remained intact). I specifically asked The Conservatorie not to send a flawless product because I do not need the packaging to be flawless in order to review the content. I quite liked the shade I got when all 3 were mixed together.

The Conservatorie has other surprises for us who have not visited for a while: now they also have pressed eyeshadows and I picked Mocha Splash for reviewing. The trio has one light color and two darker brown ones,  to me the two browns seem quite similar: one has a stronger silvery sheen and the other's a bit darker. It looks a bit different on Conservatorie's homepage.  

sry, lousy swatches - blame the light

Ingredients are skin friendly, product is pressed using coconut oil:

Mica, Zinc Stearate, Boron Nitride, Hydrated Silica, Caprylic Capric Triglycerides, Allantoin. May Contain ( /-): Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide, Ultramarines, Manganese Violet, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Carmine, Chromium Oxide Greens and Tin Oxide.

Colors are wearable and perfect for someone who likes sparkle and sheen but cannot leave the house all guns blazing: brown is a nice safe color. The middle one is a bit too pinkish yellow to be worn as a highlighter (better for someone with darker skin, I'd look weird) but it's very good when one's blending the crease color upwards. The staying power is excellent (keep in mind, this is a glittery product) and pigmentation leaves nothing to be wished for. The shadows are very soft and adhere well, one should be careful when dipping the brush into the pan - it's really very very soft.

 I believe the foundation used here is The Conservatorie's pressed mineral foundation in Porcelain.

Personally I'd recommend these but since the shimmer shadows seem a bit fragile, I'd also recommend to treat them with great care. Shimmery and glitter shadows are a pain to press - if anyone knows this it's me: put too much oil and you got oily gunk, put too little and the shadow will crumble at a fleajump.

I'd also like to recommend The Conservatorie's loose micas in the Mocha family - my personal favorite is Super Brilliant Mocha Mica. A sample for 1,35 $ you cannot go wrong. I have not had the time to go through my samples to see which micas the colors in these trios resemble the most but I'll add that information when I have a bit more time for dabbling. :)

If you have the cash and prefer your pigments pressed, get the pressed version - for more price-conscious people I'd warmly recommend the loose pigments. Trust me, they are nice. :)

The Conservatorie's pressed mineral foundations

I have been eyeing these for quite some time now - always wanted to swatch them and compare to the loose mineral powders The Conservatorie has in it's inventory.  But I'd never have the cash to buy them all at full price just for swatching. The problem with buying cosmetics online is the risk the color might not suite at all and at almost 10 USD a piece it would not be a cheap experiment. These five here were sent to me by The Conservatorie so I could swatch and play with them. They have quite a big range on their homepage, totaling 24 shades altogether. I carefully picked the 5 lightest, afraid they'd all be too dark for me as it has been the case with The Conservatorie's loose mineral powders. To my utter surprise all of them are wearable - Nude seems a bit dark but even that one looks ok on my summer skin. I am quite happy.

I have to compliment The Conservatorie on the ingredients list - not bad at all (as befitting a MMU wholesaler no synthetic dyes, fragrances, preservatives etc):

Mica, Zinc Stearate, Zinc Oxide, Squalane, Fractioned Coconut oil, Lauryl Lysine, Allantoin, DL-alpha -tocopherol acetate, Grapefruit (Citrus racemosa) Extract , Origanum vulgare leaf extract, thymus vulgaris (thyme) extract, cinnamomum zeylancum bark extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, lavandula angustifolia (lavender) flower extract, hydrastis canadensis (golden seal) root extract May Contain ( /-) Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Chromium Oxide Greens, Ultramarines.

The amount of all the extracts here explain why the powder has a noticeable herbal smell when the package is first opened. By now it has faded but I quite liked the original scent. I would recommend this to most people but would advise persons with allergy prone or extremely sensitive skin to be careful - there are many ingredients here and should there be a reaction, it will be quite difficult to pinpoint the culprit. I think for MMU-novices with sensitive skin the loose version would be the safer bet.

The colors chosen were Porcelain (neutral, lightest of them all), Fairly Light (slightly darker, tad orangey), Fair (pinkish fair tone), Ivory (seems quite strong yellow) and Nude (darkest of the five, neutral). In the lower left corner is another testeé - The Conservatorie eye primer but that one deserves a separate post. 

I  asked The Conservatorie for product samples (just the pressed pans) because I do not need the cases - usually these powders come in quite solid looking black compacts.

Product is pressed in a standard 58mm pan and most of them seem to be tin (only Ivory was pressed into an aluminium pan) - which is wonderful news to all Z-palette owners out there. I think The Conservatorie would do well if they'd offer the pans as refills: many of us would prefer to buy the product cheaper (without the compact) and travel with one palette rather then several tiny containers. One StarsMakeupHaven large Z-palette can take 8 pressed powder pans - I imagine many a makeup artist's eyes would probably light up seeing this option.

Now to the product itself. Pressed mineral powders do not agree with me - I have very oily skin, personally I prefer the loose version because it handles the greasiness much better. When pressing mineral foundation a binder is needed - usually some kind of an oil - here it's squalane and fractioned coconut oil. Since the product contains oil and my face also produces a lot of oil it's no wonder my makeup will start to run by mid-day (it was the same with Everyday Minerals pressed foundations). But on the other hand it's godsend for people with dry skin, for whom the loose versions might be much too drying. Coverage is medium but can be upped with some primer.

With the exception of Nude (which does not want to rub off for some reason, I've actually scratched it to get the powder out of the pan) all the pressed powders are very creamy and one should use light hand when loading the brush.They are not completely matte nor are they shiny - they have a slight sheen but it's not exactly noticeable. They were a devil to swatch so I finally gave up and used them over primer:

Horizontal stripes above are the loose mineral foundations in Barely Beige, Barely Beige matte, Barely Golden and Barely Golden matte - the lightest loose mineral powders The Conservatorie offers. Barely Beige is a bit too pink for my liking but of the loose ones it's the only one I can get away with during winter. I'd very much like The Conservatorie to offer a loose mineral foundation in fair neutral olive tone as well (hint, hint). Porcelain seems actually pretty close to the desired shade but since it's pressed I'll have to wait a decade or two for my skin to stop producing so much oil.

Sain testimiseks The Conservatorie pressitud mineraalpuudreid - siin nende kohta ka arvustus. Sobivad kuivemapoolsele nahale ning lõpuks ometi on olemas ka heledaid toone! Hind on minu meelest ok, 10 USD pole paha ja lisaks leidub teisigi asju, mida ostukorvi panna, et tellimise miinimummaksumus kokku saada - nagu alati, oleks sealt tellides mõistlik koopereeruda ja pakk maksude vältimiseks nt hoopis Soome tellida.

Simply Naturals - old flame, new haul

This was one of the first places I shopped when I first entered the MMU world - cheap piggies! Most of them I have given away by now, kept only a chosen few. A makeup beginner usually purchases "cool" and "interesting" colors but "cool"  and "interesting" do not always mean "suits the skin tone". ;)

Tina sells some piggies straight but also makes her own blends. One of those I absolutely adore - Cafe Satin. For me it's the perfect dark taupe ever. Since it's jar is becoming more and more empty I decided to get a refill and one more just in case. Lately I had been eyeing rest of Tina's brown colors as well and here they finally are:

Two of them are more in the purple category: Ladylike and Devine. Ladylike is a variation of TKB's Smokey XXX and Devine is silvery dark gray with a tiniest tint of pink. 

wet swatches

Umber and Raisin look utterly delicious to me - delicate neutral brown and matching beige. Plum Tree is based on TKB's Chameleon Glitter (I guess) - hard to make a wet swatch and extremely glittery - needs a sticky base. This one will probably look a lot better when applied on the eyelid. I'll try tomorrow :). Monarch - like a very expensive camel wool coat, beautiful light pinkish-beige taupe, lovely silvery sheen. Beachwood is your typical warm dark brown but it has some shimmer in it - this one should be tested on the eye as well. Hazelnut and Cafe Satin look like a perfect pair. Hazelnut somehow reminds me of TKB's Athena but it's not quite it. They could be sisters. Cafe Satin has no equal - no MMU wholesaler carries a mix like this, it's subtle, elegant everyday wear for a classy look - I LOVE it. 

The jars are packed to the brim as usual (no sifters) and pigments fall all over the place when one takes off the plastic wrapper and opens the jar... I usually depot them into larger jars but this time I'll press them - what a lovely neutral palette this will make! :)

tiny Simply Naturals eyeshadow haul

Odavad lauvärvipigmendid = Simply Naturals'i eBay pood. Kiire ja lihtne, soovitan väga soojalt. Infot selle kohta, kuidas tellida, tuleks vaadata mu jaanuarikuisest postitusest. See konkreetne 10-topsine posu läksmul maksma 19,99 dollarit  (saatmiskulu seal sees), mis teeb ühe värvi maksumuseks 1,53 eurot! (ca 24 kr 5 gr per volume tops).  Kohale tuli ühe nädalaga (tavaliselt tuleb USAst pakk kaks nädalat).


PS! Here are swatches of the free samples that also made it to my parcel: Lizard, Golden Poppy and Aqua Marine.

e.l.f mineral glow: bronzer and highlighter

These are a bit more expensive then the rest of the mineral line - those are some pretty big jars. I'd say 40 gr per volume, twice the size of a foundation jar.

e.l.f. mineral bronzer

Bronzer is a tad too dark for me - I tried to use it and my face just seemed dirty. Highlighter on the other hand seems very handy.

e.l.f. mineral highlighter

It's not sparkly enough to give you a discoball effect, it's just adds some luminescence to the skin. Comments on the e.l.f homepage also warn women of color for the white cast it leaves so people with a better tan should watch out when using this. I guess this problem will soon be mended and a more suitable product launched - something with a slight golden overcast perhaps. One simply shouldnt overlook such a big customer group :)

Kahjuks on päikesepuuder minu jaoks liiga tume - purgis näeb heledam välja, nahale kandes oli üllattavalt tume laik. Helendaja aga on minu puhul täiesti oma ülesannete kõrgusel - see ei sädele nagu diskopall vaid pigem annab kerge kuma. Tugevalt päevitunutele see kindlasti ei sobi.

e.l.f. mineral eyeshadows: goldens and miscellaneous

These shadows failed to make my heart beat faster - sure they're nice but apart from Earthy and perhaps Dreamy I can easily go without them. Wild? boring kaka brown with occasional shimmer, Beachy is exactly the blue I should avoid and Flirty looks just blah on me. Outdoorsy looks so different in the jar - sparkly dark green - and turns almost black when swatched wet. I think I should also make swatches dry over primer to see how they behave. Maybe they retain more shimmer using the dry method. Wild and Outdoorsy make good liner colors but otherwise I would not recommend. I guess Outdoorsy might also make a killer smoky eye but green is a bit of a tough color to pull off, just like blue.

Angelic has almost no coverage, it's more of a sheen. Same with Elegant - lovely highlight should one like shiny brow highlights. Golden is more covering and coppery. Celebrity on the other hand is muted, cool toned, a bit tarnished gold, beautiful in itself (f you do not have TKB's Forged Gold, get it). Buff is the one e.l.f. designed for under eye concealer - the eye brightener. For me it's too dark, too orange. 

My favorite e.l.f. mineral eyeshadows

e.l.f. has some colors that are MADE for me - all sorts of smokey browny purply grays. They look amazing with my skintone and I got me some more of them. First place belongs to Confident, runners up are Socialite and Royal - amazingly beautiful taupeish mixes.
They may look like nothing on the swatches here but on the eyes they really make my (blue) eyes pop! Third place belongs to golden green Earthy, currently not on the pic (btw ignore Seductive, it's rather boring dark color -  black (when dry) or grey (when wet); Smoldering is a dupe for TKB's Antique Silver).

On the other hand I'd also like to post this picture and ask e.l.f., wth? Why are some of the jars half empty? I guess they sell them by weight and some pigments are heavier then others but come on! This is ridiculous.

e.l.f'i mineraallauvärvid on ägedad. Kahjuks on nad vaid pigmendina ning pressitult ei pakuta - see annab tootele muidugi imelise sära kuid samas teeb algajal lauvärvide kasutamise väga keeruliseks (siin on väike nipp - tuleb võtta taskupeegel ja lauvärvide pelaekandmise ajal selle kohale kummarduda - põsed jäävad puhtaks). 

Soovitan soojalt - mõnusad värvid kuid hoiatan, et ilma meigi aluskreemita ei pea nad kuigi kaua vastu. 

Coastal Scents mica haul

I posted news of a CS sale recently - well, here are the goodies:

I think there's something wrong with me - I did not experience the usual excitement when ordering, receiving the parcel or even when swatching - it seemed so "same old, same old" to me.

Pigments look the same to me - now that I have Conservatorie, TKB and CS all lined up in my stash and ready to be compared. The excitement is gone. I miss that :s I think it's impossible for me to find something new and exciting from MMU wholesalers - it's time I'll really take initiative and start making more of my own mixtures.

I was so absent minded that I ordered Goldstone again - what was I thinking! I wanted to try Gemtone Topaz! The only color that made me go "hmmmm" was Satin Rouge, nice subtle warmish red tone, no sparkle and minimum sheen. I do not know what came over me - so many bronzes and beiges in this haul... I also have to add: the Paradise series micas contain cetyl dimethicone and I think this is also the reason why they're hydrophobic - do not mix with water.

CS Antique Gold is very dirty - it has lots of dark oxides in it and if used dry, there's a great chance the outcome will not look golden but just dirty dark. No love. Remings me of TKB's Verdigris Gold.

Sparkle Blue is exactly as name describes although the glitter  is not very prominent. When Metallic Pixie Purple is more of a blueish purple Orchid Shimmer falls more to the reddish spectrum but is not as red as TKB's Grape.

Hot Side Pink is baby pink with  blueish sheen.
Satin Bronze is a pleasant dark golden color, similar to Paradise Tropic Bronze.
Metallic Pearl Honey Tan is similar to Aruban Coral though the latter seems to have more coverage.
Australian Amber is less sparkly then the same pigment in TKB's selection, more satiny.
Paradise Sand is slightly more pinkish then Aruban Coral, lovely pinkish beige.
Camel is either Conservatorie's Gold Earth or TKB's Apricot, more thorough swatching will show later.
Dark red with a bit of old lady pink in it - that's Satin Rouge.
Paradise Rose Sky has plenty of metallic sheen. Must compare it to Conservatorie´s dark reds.
Ruby has less coverage and seems to be darkish sort of pinkish red. Lots of sheen.
Misterioso Bronze is another metallic beige, looks very much like Goldstone but the latter has more "gold" in it.
Paradise Breeze - copper red-orange. Like TKB's Copper Penny.

Here's an EOTD using Metallic Pearl Honey Tan and Australian Amber:

And a picture of stuff used:

Ma vist olen vilkudest väsimas - vedru on maha käinud... pole enam uusi ja huvitavaid kohanud. Ei jää muud üle kui ise suurema hoolega segama hakata.

CS pigment comparison: Reds and Pinks

I only took three pink/red pigments from CS: Duochrome Red Orange, Foliage Flutter and Chrome Carmine.

Finish of Chrome Carmine reminded me of the golden sheen TKB's Apricot and Conservatorie's Gold Earth both have but while these have a beige base Chrome Carmine is distinctively pink in comparison. (I think e.l.f's blush in Candid Coral also carries a similar golden sheen.)

Gold Earth (Conservatorie), Apricot (TKB)
Chrome Carmine (CS), Peach Fuzz (Conservatorie)

Am thinking maybe I should have compared this color to the pinks too, like Conservatorie's Shimmering Nude. I'll make a comparison pic during weekend. 

Coastal Scents' Foliage Flutter was picked out because I wished to compare it to TKB's Foliage - the only thing connecting them is a orangeish-toned base, top colors are different, TKB's Foliage being more flesh colored and Foliage Flutter having a strong pink sheen.

Bolero (Conservatorie), Scorpio the Eighth (TKB)
Foliage (TKB), Foliage Flutter (CS)

Coastal Scents' Duochrome Red-Orange is marvelous, the sheen might be too much when used as blush, it's closest to TKB's Garnet. I guess if one loves showy high sheen lips, this would be the perfect golden pink lipstick.

Top to bottom: Garnet (TKB), Duochrome Red-Orange (CS), Strawberry (TKB),
Gemini aka Gemma (TKB)

PS! And here's the pic comparing Chrome Carmine with Shimmering Nude, the latter being much more on the pink side, Chrome Carmine has a strong golden sheen in comparison. It was a bright sunshiny day and swatch failed miserably - overlighting, sry :S.

CS Goldstone comparison

Coastal Scents' Goldstone - a lovely muted tarnished gold is a marvelous neutral eyeshadow for both glam and toned down looks. It depends on the color you pick to wear underneath - with a dark base this one turns into a true glam dark golden smoky eye. It's texture is similar to TKB's Forged Gold but the latter is redder, warmer. It's almost the same as Conservatorie's Antique Gold but that one has silver sparkle added into it. I actually thought TKB's Verdigris Gold would be closer but it has a strong dark olive tone to it.

daylight, swatches dry over primer

Hea neutraalne tumedam pehme kuldne toon, peenike struktuur. Niiskel pealekandmisel intensiivne läige. Kuna mul juba sarnane olemas, jääb Goldstone tõenäoliselt kusagile sahtlipõhja seisma.

CS pigment comparison: Greens

TKB's Shamrock Green disappearing from the market is a blow - therefore it's nice to know that there indeed are some alternatives (I have several friends for whom Shamrock is their absolute favorite green). CS's Duochrome Iridicent Green Gold is a marvelous muted green with a strong golden sheen and makes a wonderful alternative. I think it's the gold it contains that makes all the difference - warm greens like this one do not make me look washed out and overly pink.

CS's Sage Blue and TKB's Breath of Spring are similar in their sheerness but not color, Breath of Spring is a tad more sheer and Sage Blue has a darker (muted greenish gray) base. Both of them are accent colors, used over others or perhaps for delicate blending. Sage Blue should not be rubbed, the darker base will come through and make the color muddy. :S 

Kristel rõõmustab - ma leidsin midagi, millega tema lemmikrohelist pigmenti (Shamrock) asendada :). Sage Blue aga on puhtalt tõepoolest rohkem läige kui värv - katvus on minimaalne. Tuleb base-seguga segada, ehk saab katvust juurde kuidagipidi. Mul läbipaistvad primerid ja ei viitsi ihutooni katvat meigialuskreemi vaid selle tühja pärast hankima hakata.

CS pigment comparison: Blues and Purples

Spent a weekend swatching - here are the results:

Left to right: Grape Parfait (TKB), Sagittaire (TKB), Blue-Red Chrome (CS), Pure Purple (TKB), Metallic Pixie Purple (CS), Lavender(Conservatorie), Bishops Violet (TKB), Grape (TKB)

Swatches are dry over Manhattan's eyeshadow primer.

New ones amongst the purples are Coastal Scents'  Blue-Red Chrome and Metallic Pixie Purple. Blue Red Chrome seems to be TKB's Ballad Blue but since do not have it, can't confirm. Description and swatches seem mighty alike though. Has a distinctive red sheen to it. Metallic Pixie Purple is just that -  purple.

It gets more interesting with the blues, I could have sworn the Duochrome Sparkle BY226Y is a dupe for Pisces Blue - alas no. The latter has darker blue base. The intensity of the base actually reminded me of Capricorn Sea.


Duochrome BG826C is pretty Close to Indian Blue but it's less "blue", less opaque. It seems a tad greener too - I'd say if you have one, do not bother with getting the other.  CS webpage suggests other wholesalers may sell the same color under the name of Coral Reef. M.K. commented on this post that it's not a dupe for TKB's Coral Reef but it could  be Conservatories's (Conservatorie has messed up the pic for their Coral Reef pigment - it's orange there).

Top row: Duochrome Sparkle BY226Y (CS) and Duochrome BG826C (CS)
Bottom row: Pisces Blue, Ocean Green, Capricorn Sea, Indian Blue,
Lucky Green (all TKB)

One thing I would like to know though - Why is it that these CS colors don't have names? They are so bloody difficult to remember this way...

Need kaks esimest, Metallic Pixie Purple ja Blue-Red Chrome on veidi õnnetud toonid: kumki pole mu jaoks eriti kantav. Esimene on suht igav tavaline lilla ning teine on veidi põnevam kuid siiski nagu sinikas.

Duochrome Sparkle sobiks mõnele diskotibile, efektne näki-meik, Duochrome BG meeldib neist neljast mulle endale kõige rohkem - kõige kantavam. Selle tooni muutumine kuldse, roheka ja sinaka vahel teeb ta kantavamaks kui seda oleks  puhas sinine.