Looook at that beauty! Whew, it's enough to bring a girl to tears~ Caitlin was so kind to provide this palette to me as payment for the swatches I did of her Halloween lip products. These palette's were extremely limited so I consider myself very lucky in that regard! Though this palette is no longer available, the eyeshadows still are so I figured I'd stop by with some swatches. I've never tried Shiro's pressed formula or anything from the Halloween collection so, all around, this was pretty exciting!
The palette itself is nice and sturdy, surviving the trip to me in a bubble mailer. I'm in love with the design on the cover - though I miss the top sticker art, the palette's so well put together that I'm not too torn up about it. I hope we see more items like this in the future! The eyeshadows in the palette are the seven from the Halloween Collection and five supplemental shades from a few of Shiro's other collections to round everything out. But enough blabbin'! Swatch time!
*All swatches are done over Elf Glitter Glue (unless stated otherwise) in slightly overcast, natural light.*
Subtle greyish white with a spectral red glow. Lip-safe!
Zero! The pink/red shift is extremely strong - overpowering the base shade almost completely. The bottom picture is truest to how deep the shift is. Definitely not red but not so pastel of a pink either. People have been ordering this shade in a custom gloss and I'm super tempted to jump on board.
Faded yellow-toned orange with blue and purple sparkle. Lip-safe!
Ragdoll is a deep, brickish orange. I was expecting it to be less rich with a bit more sparkle but I'm really liking it this way. The blue and purple (though I'd say more pinkish) sparkle is quite subtle which leaves Ragdoll with a bit more versatility. I'm actually wearing it today with The Last Homely House in the outer corner/crease, Zero lightly on my brow bone and Finkelstein patted over the center of my lid - oh, it's brilliant~
Steve O'Lantern from the Randomly Generated Collection
Medium pumpkin-orange with metallic gold highlights. Lip-safe!
I haven't given Shiro's Randomly Generated much of a try and honestly Steve O'Lantern wasn't on my radar at all. In the pan it just seems like a regular, ol' orange but swatched it has the most lovely golden sheen! It's extremely similar to Girl on Fire (swatched here) but without all the golden sparkle making it a good option for those who liked Girl on Fire but were put off by all the glitter. I wore this with Pumpkin King and Dwarf in the Flask the other day for a dramatic, spoopy Halloween-esque look.
The Last Homely House from the Hobbit Collection
A rustic cabin tucked deep in the woods: reddened brown with strong forest green shimmer. Not lip-safe.
The Last Homely House, though not a part of the actual Halloween collection, may be one of my favorite shades from this palette. It pairs so nicely with everything! I wore this shade the other day on the bottom half of my lid and blended up into Oogie Boogie in my crease. A bit of Salt and Stone in my outer corner and I was feelin' preeety foxy. I actually have a sample set of the Hobbit Collection that doesn't get nearly enough love and I should probably swatch one of these days!
Skull Kid from the Legends Collection
Medium brown with strong green shimmer and orange and purple sparks. Not lip-safe.
This is a very, very cool toned brown. I'd have thought it was purple if not for the description! The purple and orange sparks stand out really well. The green shimmer is lovely but very faint. Perhaps it's this Elf base. (Luckily, I've since restocked on my beloved Too Faced Glitter Glue in preparation for something of a swatch marathon I did this last weekend, wink wink.) Though it's not a part of the Halloween collection, it has a super fun, Halloween Party sort of vibe which makes it a perfect fit for this palette.
Blackened smokey bronze loaded with bright golden sparks. Lip-safe!
Warm, smoky and all together spoopy. I can't go without glitter glue with this shade because I have to get as much of that sparkle as possible. The sparkle is mostly golden but there seems to be some copper/red sparks in there that spice things up a bit. This is the perfect shade for a autumnal smoky eye.
Pale, ghostly yellow-green highlight. Not lip-safe.
Ahhh, Finkelstein! 'Ghostly' is the perfect adjective for this highlight. It's sheer which makes it great to use on the brow bone but also over other shadows/bases to give them an unearthly glow. If I was only allowed one eyeshadow from this Halloween collection this would be my pick for sure.
Swampy beige green with a satin finish. Not lip-safe.
Oogie Boogie has a warm, khaki base with a cool green sheen over the top. Another shade with a perfect description - swampy. I especially love this color blended and blown out of the crease. Plus, I'm pretty sure it's soul mates with The Last Homely House. There's romance in this palette, fools~
Salt and Stone from the Seven Kingdoms Collection
Blackened green of House Baratheon, shining with the red light of R’hllor. Not lip-safe.
Salt and Stone! My ol' buddy! I reviewed the loose version of this eyeshadow here. The red sheen is super strong in the loose form but it may be even stronger in this pressed formula - you can barely see the base shade! But it's just as stunning here as it was then and fits perfectly within the palette.
Desaturated mauve toned purple with a green shift. Not lip-safe.
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| Over Too Faced Shadow Insurance |
The new Halloween shade! And sadly, my least favorite - at least performance-wise. Lock Shock and Barrel did not play nicely with my glitter glue at all. I had to switch to regular primer and then when I did swatch it, it was a bit patchy. And though I'm liking the smoky, plum base, it's definitely darker than I imagined it would be. Perhaps my pressed pan was a dud - at first I got almost no color payoff from it but after a while I must have broken through a hard layer to something a bit more manageable underneath. I'm happy enough with the results but I'm quite curious to see how the loose formulation behaves.
Blackened brownish-purple with an orangey sheen. Lip-safe!
I don't get much of an orangey sheen from Two Faced but perhaps that's due to the fact that it was a bit overcast the day I did these swatches. I see some red shimmer throughout but it's fairly subtle. This is a good dark color for someone who wants to do a spoopy, smoky eye without going full on black.
Dwarf in the Flask from the Fullmetal Collection
Velvety, intensely opaque matte black. Lip-safe!
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| Over Too Faced Shadow Insurance. |
Swatching can be pretty messy so I apologize for the bits of sparkle contaminating my swatch! Dwarf in the Flask is a pure, matte black - extremely useful and a staple of many. It's perfect for tightlining, regular ol' lining, setting gel/pencil liners and for black/smoky eyes. This is the first indie matte black I've ever tried and I'm really liking it. I normally use the black from my Urban Decay Naked 2 palette and I haven't compared them side by side but I'd say they perform somewhat similarly.
Overall, I'm pretty much in love with this palette. These were the only shadows I took with me while house-sitting for my grandma this last week and I was able to get a lot of well put together looks from it. The colors chosen from the permanent collections compliment the Halloween shades so well. (Seriously, The Last Homely House goes with everything.) And although this palette's no longer available, the Halloween singles still are but availability's only guaranteed through November 1st. This is their last year so jump on 'em if you want 'em!
xxx
Side note: To any other bloggers - Do you ever read and reread a post before you publish it and have an unshakably anxious feeling that you've missed something? Haha, maybe I'm just a nut.
Great swatches! I only snagged Zero and Oogie Boogie from this collection, but they're lovely. And you should totally try Zero as a gloss! I got it in sheer with the cream cheese frosting flavor and it's just magnificent. Dat pink sheen.
ReplyDeleteSide note- did you get any of the derps or either cotm? I'd love to see your swatches of those!
Oh snap, I think you've got me convinced. A Zero custom gloss is definitely in my near future!
DeleteSadly, I missed out on all the derps. But I do plan on picking up both COTMs. Sweater Weather, especially! All the swatches I've seen of it are absolutely gorgeous.
I wonder if my entire palette was a dud then. I'd be waiting for someone who bought the palette to do swatches to see if theirs look as good as everyone's swatches of the loose shadows. All of my colors swatch like you describe LSB and my LSB doesn't do anything at all, it is like trying to swatch makeup meant for children. I've tried them alone, over eyeshadow primer (both Kat Von D and Nyx), and over Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy. They are so patchy they don't even seem to make my brushes dirty, if that makes sense, the color just falls off. They flake up in their pans. I wore them one day, getting as much to stay on my eyes as possible by patting and layering them over Nyx Milk pencil, and they creased really bad which only ever happens to me with cream eyeshadow. I don't know what's up with them, I just can't get the color payoff you did in your swatches.
ReplyDeleteMy Finkelstein, LSB, and Dwarf in the Flask are the worst. Dwarf in the Flask is so patchy and light it really ends up being the lightest of the darker colors in the palette, pretty much unusable as a black, and Finkelstein is literally just a bunch of flakes. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/leeloo_minai_5/00C05381-A209-4B3D-BC75-E8228E6662F3_zpsqkcebzuu.jpg These swatches were over Nyx Milk and Pixie Epoxy. You can see the swatches on my skin are barely visible at all and how bad LSB and Finkelstein flaked (you can't even really see Finkelstein here and LSB is the one just after the green/Oogie Boogie).
DeleteOh no! Yeah, my LSB was pretty hard and it took a lot of working into it to get any payoff but I didn't seem to have problems with any of the others. I do think that Shiro's pressed formulation is much harder when comparing it to Hello Waffle's which is super soft. Whichever one's better boils down to preference but your Shiro shadows should definitely be getting at least some payoff. I've never pressed my own shadows so I don't know the ins and outs but amounts/ratio of ingredients used can affect the textures dramatically. There may have been a miscalculation at some point? I would contact Caitlin - she's super nice and, though I've never really had my own issues crop up, when it comes to these sorts of situations I've heard her customer service is superb. I hope you can get it all straightened out!
DeleteEntire off topic question here...but how do you get your pictures to turn out so well? My wife has been trying to get some good pictures for her facebook (trying to show off how good indie eyeshadows look to friends), but we've had no luck with it...
ReplyDeleteAny tips on getting that good detail out of the shots?
thanks!
I use a Canon PowerShot! It's a few years old and not terribly fancy but it does the job. I always use the macro setting when doing swatch shots. I'll also use something white and set a custom white balance - it takes some tinkering with but it's well worth it. And good lighting is always key! I like indirect sunlight, like in a bright room but without standing in a sun spot. (Though direct sunlight is great for showing off cool features/extra sparkle.) I'm no expert but I hope that can be of some use!
Deletethank you so much for your response!
Delete"Side note: To any other bloggers - Do you ever read and reread a post before you publish it and have an unshakably anxious feeling that you've missed something? Haha, maybe I'm just a nut."
ReplyDeleteYES. I do this all the time. And even then sometimes once it's posted I still notice something I missed. It's the worst!
AH. I'm not alone! When I'm writing up a draft I'll usually leave the title as just a vague description of what the post is supposed to be about but... Sometimes I forget to update it before I publish the post then I have to rush back and fix it. >_>
Delete