Safe Brands to Purchase From (Pt. 1: Indie Brands)

For my own use, and anyone who wishes to take part. Part 2 here.

edit: Here is an even better list!



I have compiled this list based on what I currently know. Of course, my research isn't quite as infallible as my charm. If I am wrong about any of these--if they are, in fact, associated with Woefully Wiley Wankers--please to inform. Molto grazie.

Regarding this boycott, I considered purging my current W.W.W.-owned items, for a sec. But tis more sensible to use em up, and refrain from purchasing anything from them in future.
----
These are some quality/dependable independent cosmetic brands, along with some items that they are especially known for.
There is a veritable online treasury of reviews/swatches/information, so I have only random reviews linked, that you can peruse for each brand, as you won't be able to swatch them in a shop.
--
Generally a good resource for overview and pictures of products from most indie brands, is Phyrra.net.
---
Advantages of choosing these, over mainstream brands:
Many of these brands specialize in unique duochromes/colour shifting products, which are hard to find in mainstream brands. Usually their cosmetics are more pigmented and concentrated, it is better value for money as it takes ages to use up.
Another advantage is that customer service is more personable. 
Many of these brands also work to keep their products vegan or cruelty-free, or free of known allergens/irritants/parabens. Some even send free products with each order.
And of course, you're not supporting a bloodthirsty regime and its lovely Zionist agenda :)
---
A list of mainstream (more easily procured in some cases) brands will follow iA.
----

• Aaddixt'n (colourful gel liners, lipsticks, gloss) Review (1)
• Aromaleigh (finishing powders, face/body powders, lip balms, lipsticks) Review (1) (2).
• Artist of Makeup (calligraphy pen style liquid liner, pressed eyeshadows, professional makeup supplies, full coverage foundation, blushes, contouring products). Review (1) (2).
• Besame Cosmetics (known for gift-worthy packaging/nostalgia items, vintage lipsticks, pressed powders, cake eyeliner). Review (1) (2).
• Darling Girl Cosmetics (loose eyeshadows, specialize in duochromes, glitter glue for making eyeshadows stick and the colours pop, blushes). Review (1) (2)
• Femme Fatale (eyeshadows, blushes, nailpolish, illuminators). Review (1) (2)
• Fyrinnae (loose eyeshadows,  Pixie Epoxy, liquid lipsticks, finishing powders/highlighters). Review (1) (2)
• Geisha Ink (pressed mineral foundation, eyebrow liner, waterproof liquid eyeliners, waterproof tubing mascara). Review (1) (2) (3)
• Lucy Minerals (mineral foundation and powders). Review (1) (2)
• Makeup Geek (pressed eyeshadows, many dupes for MAC/NARS, blushes). Review (1) (2)
• Meow Cosmetics (loose mineral foundation, concealer, ). Review (1) (2)
• Portland Black Lipstick Co (unconventional lipstick shades). Review (1) (2) (3)
• Shiro Cosmetics (loose eyeshadows, lipglosses). Review (1) (2)
• Silk Naturals (dupes of cult makeup products like NARS O, etc., concealer, cream and loose eyeshadows, blushes, highlighters, skincare, eyebrow products). Review (1) (2)
• Sugarpill (pressed and loose eyeshadows, specialize in bright colours, palette pans). Review (1) (2)

-
As I write this, 4 Palestinian children just died. They were targeted and shot down by Israeli state-of-the-art missile technology. First one shell hit, missed, and they ran. The next one got them.

According to bystanders 'it looked like the shells were chasing them'. They were playing football on the beach when it happened. Ismael, Mohamed, Zakaria, and Ahed Baker. Ages 9-11. Bodies strewn on the beach. One of them looked just like Perfection Personified when asleep (on his stomach, a mop of curly hair), except that this kid's limbs were mangled, and the sand around him was covered in blood. CNN and FOX news may not report it, may call them 'human shields' like they have every other Palestinian fatality...these kids were playing on an otherwise empty beach.
I refuse to post pictures of slain people here, but it just solidifies my resolve to distance myself as much as I know/can from Zionist corporations. Video in case you don't mind crying your eyes out.
-
nb: the first response Zionist hides behind when it comes to boycotts, is the anti-semitism card. (as my previous posts will show, i am not anti-Jew). 2nd is denial and deflection and justification of I's war crimes. (they were killing Palestinians long before Hamas, fyi). Have you ever read about what rapists say to justify themselves? It is a very similar surreal experience.
3rd is to say it will make no difference. i say it WILL make a difference if enough people are informed of the Zionist/genocide connection, and informed of alternatives.

2013 Beauty Favourites

Trumpets! Unfurl the flags! Confetti! Parading horses! It's time...

Following are some beauty favourites from the past year. Not necessarily the most used items, just ones that make my heart flutter.

Hopefully, it is useful. In any case I had fun compiling it.

 L-R: Elizabeth Arden Poppy Cream Color Intrigue lipstick, Anna Sui 701, Elizabeth Arden Cassis Ceramide lipstick, Anna Sui 303, Elizabeth Arden Neoclassical Coral - Center: Cargo 'South Beach' lipgloss quad/wheel/thingamajigger

Poppy Cream: The red to surpass all reds. The formula was creamy, superb.
It has been replaced with "Power Red" in the Beautiful Colour line. Out of sheer obstinacy, I will not be purchasing that one, although I have swatched it to compare, it has NOTHING on Poppy Cream.

Anna Sui 701: My perfect nude lips. More on the honey side of nudes, than pinky/beige. Formula: feels sheer, but opaque. I use Lizzy Arden's Sugared Kiss lipliner beneath it, if I can be arsed.

Cassis: I love berries, I love plums, and this is the best one of my collection. The ceramide lipsticks have an amazing formula, smooth, not too creamy, it actually imparts a lot of moisture and colour to dry lips. Fine shimmer, nothing frosty. Understated compared to other berries/plums that I have, but not in a boring way. Luxurious, slightly weighty, golden packaging.

Anna Sui 303: A fun pink, the closest to "bubblegum pink" I can pull off on my skintone.

Cargo South beach lipgloss quad: I can't stand gloopy gloss, this is an extremely soft, like, softer than butter, formula. It is also quite moisturizing, like a soft, creamy balm. Doesn't feel heavy/sticky/gloopy andn gloppy.
Pigmented enough to be stand-alone lip colours.

Lypsyl, Dior Rose balm

Lypsyl: Cherry flavour reeks, plan to get the basic, unscented one, once this is fini. Dunno what's so special about it. The ingredients seem straightforward enough. Still, it's a little miracle. Weightless feeling on the lips, sinks in well, just need to apply a couple of times a day. It isn't one of those "addictive" balms which do more harm than good, and dry out lips over time so that you have to constantly reapply.

Dior balm: Feels very thick and "protective." Imparts the slightest bit of pale pink colour. Need very little, but still, as you can see, I've hit pan.

TOP L-R: Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, MAC Typographic, Annabelle Smudgepot gel liner, LUSH Sophisticated cream shadow, Pupa Luminys Silk 701
MIDDLE: Revlon Naturally Glamourous palette, Fyrinnae Snow Leopard, Electric Stardust (discontinued), Immortality, Estee Lauder Cream Shadow Mochachino, Benefit Strut cream shadow.
LAST: Lise Watier Eye Shine in Fauve, Anna Sui pen eyeliner in 500, Elizabeth Arden Smoky Eyes Powder pencil, Artist of Makeup 9-pan eyeshadow palette, Benefit Big Beautiful eyes palette.

Fyrinnae Stuffffs: Pixie Epoxy-great little base to help glittery eyeshadows stay on instead of scattering onto your cheek (the cheek!). I use it as an eyeshadow primer, too. It works well with loose e/s. Snow leopard eyeshadow is a gleaming taupe. Electric Stardust is a colour-changing mint-green. Immortality is a basic black with multi-coloured glitter.

Eyeliners:
Annabelle smudgepot gel liner: I find it better than Bobbi Brown, etc. Also better than the more inexpensive Maybelline/Essence/WetnWild gel liners. It is very creamy, but a tiny bit spreads out across the whole eye, so it's not as cakey as some others can be, esp if they are built up. Easy to manouvre or build up, dries perfectly opaque, crisp blackest of blacks, and doesn't hurt when used in the waterline.
Lise Watier Fauve: Lavender taupe. Smooth, no tugging necessary. Je use it for the lower lashline, it gives the perfect amount of defining shadow, but the subtle shine/shimmer also makes the eyes look a bit bigger and shinier than if it were an opaque colour. Stays on all day, but you have a little window to smudge it out across the lid if you please.
Anna Sui pen eyeliner in 500: This is amazingggggg. It's a rich brown with a golden sheen running through it, soooo pretty. It is a great liquid eyeliner formula, in a felt tip pen form. The felt tip is fine, precise, but flexible, and can be turned on its side, so you can get a thinner line inwards, and thicken it outwards in ONE FELL SWOOP! You turn the end once, and you get enough 'liquid' for both eyes (unlike other twisty-pen liners where you have to turn again and again).
Elizabeth Arden Smoky Eyes powder pencil in black: You get a hazy line, so it looks instantly smokey. It is a sophisticated, smudged-out sort of look, and it lasts all day for me. It is pigmented, but not overly so (not like those overly-creamy, newfangled 'gel liners' which I don't like).

Eyeshadows:
MAC Typographic: Tis the divine Matte2 formula, smooth, rich pigment, blends well. A basic almost-black. You can build it up to black. Very versatile. It gives that powder kohl look, without hassle of fallout. I love it for outer V or to soften the edge of eyeliner... Everyone should have this.
LUSH Sophisticated: Gleaming lavender taupe, exact match for Lise Watier's Fauve. Cream shadow that you apply with a sponge applicator, great formula. it works well as a base for any taupe looks, or alone blended at the crease.
Pupa Luminys Silk 401: MY VERY FIRST TAUPE. Baked eyeshadow, it is actually more massive than in the pic (I have used it so much that the round dome shape has flattened, and I've hit pan). Shimmery pale brownish taupe. Lasts allllll day without primer.
Estee Lauder Mochachino: A cream shadow which never creases, yet not too thick and annoyingly paint-like. My fave cream shadow formula, better than Shiseido, etc, imo. Colour is a taupe with a bluish shimmer, builds up to a darkish cool brown.
Benefit Strut: Stands alone (although I have used it with other colours) as an all-over lid colour, with black liner (in waterline too).. A bluish-greyish, shimmery, Young Hollywood, smokey eye look for the masses! ( Caveat: needs some sort of eye primer.

Palettes:
Revlon Naturally Glamourous: Inexpensive, assortment of brown eyeshadows with a taupe thrown in for good measure. Good quality, except for the white-ish shadow (comes out as a dirty muddy pale...something. Not pigmented).
Artist of Makeup palette: Good formula! Addictively beautiful colours! The 9-palette is very useful! Magnetized! Have used it nonstop since acquisition! A closer look:

L-R: St Tropez, Hush, Espresso, Hollywood, Marrakech, Bare Canvas, Cocoa, Brazen, Nutmeg

Benefit Big Beautiful Eyes: A no-brainer, basic neutral look, the concealer isn't bad (I use it to clean up edges or define the eyebrow half the time). Comes with useful little brushes.

Skincare:
Neostrata Toning Solution Level 2: Keeps my skin smooth, clear (not this week though as I've been too lazy to use it), and seems to brighten it a bit. AHA, BHA? Am covered.
Saeed Ghani Rosewater mist: I use it every day, under moisturizer, over makeup, last thing at night... Was misting it in Little Love's face yesterday, to his delight... Here is his testimonial: "gah goo ba ba da mmm mmm." I like it very much, it's a hoot and a half!
Bioderma Hydrabio Riche moisturizer: Perfect for sensitive, dry skin. Superbly moisturizing, yet light texture, sinks in. Gives a nice boing to the skin, or maybe I imagine it. Has niacinamide not too far down the ingredients list, so here's hoping it's contributing some brightening effect.
Burt's Bees Radiance Night Cream: Just a good night cream, that, of the many ones I've tried, doesn't irritate or break out my skin. Rich and moisturizing, absorbs well on top of freshly misted skin, so long as I am cognizant of using only the teensiest amount. Downside: scent isn't the best,, but JE NE GIVE A DAMN PAS!

Didn't photograph: my fave body skincare, perfume, bronzer, blush, foundation. You need something to anticipate, don't you?

Canadian Problems

It's not like I buy nothing in between, but ordering from the internet is always a hassle because:
1. Customs take their time, processing and checking and making sure there's no anthrax embedded in the eyeshadows.
2. Canada Post delivery people have the endearing habit of  "attempting delivery" (but never ringing on the doorbell, knocking, or even risking a trip to this charming ghetto). They then leave a notice in the mailbox, dropping the item off at local post office, at their convenience.

I am so excited because my second Artist of Makeup parcel has arrived. Albeit, the whole "attempted delivery" shenanigans were pulled. Yet again.
 Trudging in the 15 cm of snow, I tried to unlock the mailbox. Uh uh. It was frozen and jammed shut due to the cold.

So now I'll have to go out tomorrow, with a portable hairdryer (don't own one, note to self: buy one first) and try to defrost it a bit. Or perhaps the sun will kindly pay us a visit.

THEN I'll have the notice card, THEN trudge to the post office in my boots (no boots, note to self: purchase those too), and THEN...FINALLY...the banality of the situation will dissolve as I unpack NEW SHINY EYESHADOWS!  Hurrah for glamour! Hurrah for global warming!

Salute to a Great Lipstick

Perfection in a red lipstick--this is how it shall be remembered.

I sent an email a couple of days ago.

Hello,

I can no longer find the Color Intrigue lipsticks at my local EA stockist, the sales assistants don't know about what happened, and I adore that line. Particularly Poppy Cream, the best red lipstick, which, thankfully, is still showing up on the website.

My question is, is this line getting discontinued? Will Poppy Cream and the two other colours that are still showing on the website, still be around?

Sincerely,

Wonderful Perfection

Today, my friends, was the day I received their reply. Indeed, they informed me, my beloved Poppy Cream was no more.... Among the fallen... Discontinued, forevermore.

Poppy Cream and I, we had our times. It was well-balanced in hue, and intensely glowing (a fire within!), yet elegant, all at once.

 It never emphasized the evil written all over my face, as so many other red lipsticks do, with my dark brows and grim eyes riddled with the horrors of crimes I have comm--blah...excuse me.

It was a glorious formula: mightily pigmented, creamy (but not in a way that feels heavy/smears), moisturizing, making the lips look juicy but not glossy.

Never needed a lip balm. Never required a lipliner.
If it wore off, it did so with discretion, generously leaving behind a pretty, healthy rose tint. No uneven fading.

 It was a lavish, luscious red that no other line, high end or low end, has even come close to replicating. A woman once told me that, although she doesn't normally like red lipstick, "this one I love, it looks like flower petals."

In honour of dearest Poppy, I decided to try and replicate the following look.

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Poppy Alexander McQueen....

 

...Cream. I meant Cream.

This was taken after a light breakfast, without requiring touchups. Impressed? I hope so.
The rest of the face is coated in the following:
Eyes: Fyrinnae Pixie epoxy. Artist of Makeup Bare Canvas, Nutmeg, Espresso, St Tropez and Hush eyeshadows.
I used Bare Canvas in my waterline as well, instead of a nude eyeliner. Anna Sui liquid eyeliner pen in 500. My magic mascara combo .
Skin:
GOSH CC cream in Sand (good but greasy-looking)
Chanel Poudre Universelle in Peche
Benefit Boing concealer (bleh) used around lips as well
Guerlain Spicy Coral Terracotta cream blush mixed with dabs of NYC Retro Red lipstick (as blusher) to get the red tinge the inspiration pic has around hairline and cheeks
Fyrinnae Enrapture blusher



Goodbye, Poppy Cream. Goodbye.

DIY Magnetic Palette (petite)

This post is being hastily written, with Dora the Explorer playing in the background.

Do make allowances if I accidentally drop in phrases like "Mommy Bugga Bugga," or it reads as a bit distracted. I will likely dawdle over editing and hit the publish button, regardless.

I haven't even had breakfast yet, having serendipitously caught a moment when El Bambino has (temporarily) availed of my services. This is magic, people.

Et bien! ONWARDS!

After trying out AOM's matte eyeshadow (nutmeg) as a bronzer yesterday, I realized it is, in fact, perfectly suited for the purpose. Which meant my current go-to matte bronzer was no longer...how to put this...necessary? *eyebrow raise and devious grin*

(You can't tell, but it had an imprinted design of female silhouettes, coolly slouching. I have used it so much, it has faded)

Essence Bronzer in Blondes (avoid the Brunettes shade, no matter thy colouring! It is quite, quite orange).

This brand make good staples, an excellent go-to for cheap thrills that deliver. However, there was always something lacking about this guy, for me. The powder is finely milled and almost buttery. Softly sun-soaked effet.

Yet! It wore off patchily over the course of the day (as my FOTD from the other day demonstrates). Made me look old! Washed up! Hag-y! Haggis!

Even initial application wasn't quite foolproof, blending was a bugger.

And remember: my AOM goodies were homeless.

Two and two together...je made them a home. Un MAISON.

*music plays: ghar pyara ghar*

Instructions:

1. Walk, bike, or hitch-hike to the dollar store. (2 Riyal store, for those of you living in Devonshire Riyadh.) If this requires roping in an innocent bystander your significant other to mind L'Enfante and possibly wash the dishes, if you want, here's a sponge--so be it! Stiff upper lip and all that.

2. Acquire an adhesive magnetic sheet. Mine came in sets of two.

3. Acquire other, irrelevant goods. After all, what is a dollar store, if not a veritable treasure trove, spilling with the most interesting doohickies that can be TURNED INTO SOMETHING NEW!?!

4. Make your purchase. Ooh, they sell Nivea at the counter? Have that too.

Now...go home, you're drunk. On dollar store excitement.

5. Whatever container you plan to use for your palette, take out whatever's filling it. Heartlessly, I scraped out the bronzer into the bin. 'Twas also cleaned off with rubbing alcohol just in case.

6. Trace an outline of the container onto the adhesive magnet sheet, and cut it. You are making a magnetic insert. This may need fine-tuning. Trim and trim till it fits inside. If you possess a compass (I don't), make use of it NOW. It'll save you a lot of fiddling around. 

7. Peel off and stick inside.

8. Done. So simple. Just insert your depotted or individual eyeshadows. I scraped off the writing, and decorated with some paint pens I had lying around. They are nearly dried out, so it didn't show up too well.

As you can see, only four could fit in. Bare Canvas had to be left out! The AOM shades are rather large compared to, say, MAC. By the by, je repressed Hush (the soft rose shade) aussi.

This container is strong, sturdy, and the end result is a palette that will keep my pretties safe!

~~~

Time spent: less than 30 minutes, including the time it took to repress the broken eyeshadow (for which I followed this brilliant/amazing tutorial by my fave beauty blogger. No glycerin for repressing, btw...just the Isopropyl Alc.).

 It would have taken less, but Littlest demanded attention & applause during his meal of chicken and peas. And of course, I am not factoring in the time squandered at my beloved Dollarama.

Total cost: $5.50, not counting the lapsing paint pens, of course. There is also 1 1/2 magnetic sheet left so I can make another, bigger palette in future.

If you try this out, do leave a comment to the effect of: "I did it! I did it! I did it! Yay! Lo Hicimos! I did it!"*


*Obligatory Dora reference

Artist of Makeup DOES sell palettes, but the smallest size is for 9 shades.. I wanted something even smaller.