(artificial light)

Finding the MACRO button makes all the difference... Palette on these pics is the small cardboard Freestyle palette from TKB Trading, $4.5 a piece, fits 9 pans (26mm).

(daylight)

Pressing

Pressing pigments is fun. Loads of fun! I've been doing it last week, 4-6 colors at a time, too tired to make the entire batch at once. After all I have over 100 pigments to press - I do not even have enough pans for them all. And the palette can comfortably fit only 28 of them. It looks so neat with the partition, I do not have the heart to pull it out - without it the palette could fit 40 colors.

Pressing is easy, most pigments do your bidding without any fuss. Just remember to go easy on the pressing medium! Less is more... because more will just end up as oily goo.

Stuff you need for pressing:

• pigments
• pans
• pressing tile or suitable coin
• pressing medium
• hairpin or toothpick
• pipet 
• syringe
• high % alcochol
• kitchen paper
• if have weak hands, a pressing tool
• rubber gloves (it's a messy job)
• eventually: a palette would also be nice.

Lift some pigment onto the pan, drop 1-2 drops of pressing binder (I use TKB Trading's MyMix Clear Pressing Medium and a pipet) in the pan (get the pans with a pressing tile or two, do not bother with the press packs, those special handles are not comfortable), sprinkle some alcohol (80% vodka from a syringe, anyone?) until the pigment is wet (more wet then  the "liquid sand" consistency, make it into nice goo - easier to mix this way). Place kitchen paper over the pan, place the pressing tile nicely on top and press down. Excess liquid will be immediately sucked out by the paper tissue, repeat pressing with a fresh dry tissue and lay the fresh eyeshadow out to dry for 12-24 hrs. Done.

Now, the unpressable baddies are the sparkly colors. 24K Gold is unpressable, needs some mixing medium in a powder form too, liquid mixing medium alone will not work. All you are left with is some very greasy looking glitter... Other colors behaving this way are Storm and Limerick.

For some reason I cannot comprehend, WinterRose and Brown Coco are also acting up and seem to have difficulties staying pressed... as soon as I touch the pigment with my brush it tries to leave the pan, all of it. It just crumbles out of the pan. Blackest Black matte tone also dried up in a funny way, showing little cracks on the surface. Metallics on the other hand press like a dream... So do the MyMix colors I recently acquired. 

MyMix Clear Pressing Medium is mostly silicones, not good  for some people. You do not have to use it, it's also possible to use fractionated coconut oil or jojoba oil  or some other oil for pressing but the downside is - those might go rancid in a year or so, jojoba a little sooner... Solution would be adding a small amount of preservatives but then what's the point of the entire DIY business? Same stuff is available in any store, already pressed and nicely packaged.

PS! The Irish Eyes Collection had two colors that bled whilst pressing (colorant dissolved in alcohol): Dublin and Lucky Green. They bled blue. Next to them is the unpressable glimmering Limerick.

Picture supposedly says more then a thousand words...

Missing on the pic are blush TKB's Mulberry, mascara and lipstick ELF's Cool Coral.

Champagne is HG material, a flesh-toned highlighter, blends very well. Bronze Fine all over lid and Blackstar Red in the crease.

Lumene Natural Code liquid foundation in Vanilla

Finally tried out my sample of Lumene Natural Code liquid foundation in Vanilla a genereous saleslady provided me with. Pale people, rejoice! Not too yellow, not too orange - perfect light neutral beige. It's on the sheer side and does not appear mask-like - it's totally opposite, very natural looking. Used E.L.F's foundation brush for application, worked like a charm. Here's a nice before-after picture of the foundation:

The foundation was applied with no primer, just some jojoba oil as moisturizer and it started to wear off by afternoon. 

On the eyes I used Champagne on the brow-bone, Peach on the lid and Moon Stone on the crease today. Subtle, again.

And here's a pic of all the stuff used. Mulberry was used on the cheeks.

Lõpuks ometi on müügile tulnud piisavalt hele jumestustoode! Lumene Natural Code Vanilla ei ole oranž ega kollane vaid mõnusalt neutraalne helebeež. Võimalik, et see sobib nii suurepäraselt vaid seetõttu, et see suhteliselt vähekattev on, sulandub hästi loomulikku nahatooni. Koostis on suhteliselt vedel ja ei püsi eriti palju kauem peal kui mu mineraalpuudrid. Nahatooni ühtlustajana hea asi aga kindlasti vajab peitekreemi ning meigialuskreemi alla.
Mis puutub selle stuffi looduslikkusesse siis Lumene kodulehel koostisosadest juttu pole. On vaid väike nupuke selle kohta, kuidas toode looduslikku teeleheekstrakti sisaldab ja seetõttu eriti kasulik on.
Järgmisena püüan kätte saada Goshi heledaima, mida on ka väidetud "tõesti väga heleda" olevat.
PS! If one looks real hard, it's possible to see my first ever pressed pigment on the photo - Peach.

PPS! For Pale too: not so perfect, actually...

Tiny TKB haul arrived

Parcel from TKB Trading at last reached me. Since I took lots of different samples of serecites (EDM has made me angry enough for me to start learning how to mix my own from scratch), there's not much to show you about this haul. I'll introduce the golden jojoba oil, MyMix pressing binder and Freestyle palette later in a separate post dedicated to the art of pressing piggies.
But I did order 3 interesting new pigment mixes from TKB Trading's MyMix section (ready to press-mixtures). Very warmly recommend Champagne, a super natural highlighter with very, very tiny - almost invisible sparkle, and Peach, which is a perfect nude color for me (albeit a bit difficult to use - seems to have very low pigmentation). Mulberry is a very natural matte color for a blush but when applied on my crease I look as if have cried all night...