Let's Check Out Two Different Shiro Alpaca Picnic Glosses!

Hey there, party people! Today's my birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to write a blog post? (No, seriously, I'm a dork and I'm really enjoying this.)

I made a custom gloss purchase from Shiro last month, and something went awry. I ordered a custom Alpaca Picnic gloss in moderate opacity, and I was sent one that was sheer (something something sheer-o joke). I emailed Caitlin with a few swatch pictures to show what was up, and she quickly replied with an apology and a few solutions to pick from. I decided to reorder another gloss in moderate opacity, because I love Animal Crossing, so I gotta slather this all over my lips. Well.. I was sent a gloss that's opaque, but when life gives you an insane metallic gloss, sometimes you just learn to rock it. I know if I emailed Caitlin again, she would be just as awesome as she was the first time and offer me a refund, store credit, or a new gloss.. but lately, I've been working on stepping out of my comfort zone, so moderate schmoderate! Plus, having an Alpaca Picnic gloss of every opacity would be a little crazy.

Since I have the lovely opportunity to showcase both sheer and opaque opacities, why not? So today I did swatches of both to show the differences. The sheer gloss was purchased in full by me, and the opaque gloss was sent as a replacement, free of charge, from Shiro. All opinions are my own, and all swatches are taken over moisturized and exfoliated lips.

Alright, here's the packing for both! I noticed the top of the sheer gloss is black and the opaque gloss is a metallic-y brown. Not sure if that means anything. Normally custom glosses come with a handwritten label, but since I'm such an Animal Crossing fan, I requested the Alpaca Picnic label art to replace the usual label. The sheer gloss looks fairly thin in the tube, and appears a little darker than the opaque gloss. Shown on the doefoot applicators, the opaque gloss is darker, far more metallic, and has the consistency of a liquid lipstick. Product sticks to the wand, whereas with the sheer gloss, the product slides right off.

For the arm swatches, I scraped any excess product off the doefoot before swatching the top row. For the bottom row, I slathered it on to give a better idea of how the gloss could be built up if desired.

Alright, let's start with the sheer! I think it's easy to see why I emailed Caitlin. It doesn't really add much color at all. It may as well be a clear gloss with a bit of pink glitter. I don't think the metallic nature of this shadow lends well to a sheer gloss.

The opaque gloss is ALL UP IN YOUR FACE with its brightness, and I love it. It's a Barbie hot pink with a strong metallic sheen. It's a liquid lipstick consistency, and I noticed that it had a tendency to ball up a bit around the edges. It's easy to fix, but I didn't see it until I was editing my pictures. Whoops! It was impossible to capture with my camera, but it looks like molten pink metal. It's fabulous, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're wanting something for every day wear. This is a gloss for those days where you don't give a friggity frack what anyone thinks. You do you, babe. You do you.

Welp, that wraps up my post! I'm not sure what I'd do next, but I'm thinking I might do an eye look tutorial. I've been working on my blending and I'm feeling really confident in my skillz lately. Stay tuned!

The Great Battle of Shadow Over Primer!

I saw a lot of discussion today on IMAM about how shadows should perform decently on bare skin and over regular primer, but some don't. I thought it'd be interesting to see how the brands I own fare over bare skin, UDPP, and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, and how much I'm paying for each shadow. Five hours and six episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion later, I present to you: The Great Battle of Shadow Over Primer! Don't critique the name, man. It's four in the morning and I'm a little loopy from being tired. Just roll with it.

Swatches are taken, from left to right, over bare skin, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. Dollar amounts are in USD, and by teaspoon unless the brand measures product by gram. There won't be much commentary in this post, because the pictures pretty much say it all.

So the cheapest shadow by tsp is Brija Cosmetics, and the most expensive by tsp is Daily Lovelies. I thought that was interesting because I prefer Brija over Daily Lovelies any day. A lot of these shadows were pretty sheer over bare skin, regardless of price. Corvus shadows totally dominated over bare skin. Noel's always been pretty proud of the way her shadows look over bare skin, and she has every right to be. It's also interesting to note that her shadows are one of the cheapest of the bunch.

Well, I hope this was informative for you guys! I definitely got a kick out of swatching all these, and it'll lead to smarter purchases in the future. My next post will either be a tutorial on how to use Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy or how to apply pigmented blushes.. or maybe I'll combine both into one post! Stay tuned!