Order Update #2: Stars Makeup Haven & All Cosmetics Wholesale - ACW arrived!

My package from ACW arrived today. It's a cute 12 pan SMH palette (magnatised). It took 6 hours for the palette to be shipped, & 9 days to arrive on basic postage. So, all up from order to goods in my hand (USA to Australia) - 10 days (inc Weekend). EXCELLENT!

The palette is not exactly what I thought it would be (more on that later) but I've put my MAC & Urban Decay pans in & filled it.


All Cosmetics Wholesale

Ordered: 20th October, 2010

Shipped: 21st October, 2010

Received: 30th October, 2010

Stars Makeup Haven
Ordered: 13th October, 2010
Shipped: 26th October, 2010
Received: ?

Order Update: Stars Makeup Haven & All Cosmetics Wholesale

So, here's an update for my orders - they've both been shipped & (hopefully) are on their way to Australia!

Stars Makeup Haven
Ordered: 13th October, 2010
Shipped: 26th October, 2010
Received: ?

All Cosmetics Wholesale

Ordered: 20th October, 2010

Shipped: 21st October, 2010

Received: ?

SAVVY by DB - Loose Mineral Eyeshadow Haul

A few months ago I happened across a brand called SAVVY by DB in Priceline., I saw a particular eyeshadow in Steel. What caught my eye is that

SAVVY by DB Loose Mineral Eyeshadow

1. It was on sale (for $4)
2. It was a loose eyeshadow (pigment)
3. It said it was Mineral eyeshadow

I've always wanted to try Mineral makeup to see what the hype is so I picked this up. It's not a high end brand. I guess you would say it's in the NYX or ELF league.

As well as being my first mineral, Steel was one of my first pigment eyeshadows too.

I loved the colour which is a sparkly dark metallic grey. It applied really well, blended with my other eyeshadow easily & felt light on the lid.

Yesterday I visited Priceline & found that they were having a 20% off sale on all cosmetics (ends today!).

I saw the SAVVY by DB bin & the familiar little jar with a sign saying $2.99.

I picked up 4 more pigments. So, on special PLUS the 20% discount they ended up being about $2.60 each, so my haul ended up being about $10.40 all up!

SAVVY by DB -> Latte / Plum / Aquamarine / Opal / Steel

The colours I bought were (from left to right):

Latte (light beige/brown)
Plum (mauve/purple)
Aquamarine (silver with multicoloured shimmer)
Opal (light silver)

Steel (shimmery grey) my original SAVVY by DB loose eyeshadow

I look forward to using these. If you're wondering ALL of these pigments are shimmery.

In the future when I have time I'll do some swatches if anyone is interested.

Has anyone else tried these? What do you think?

Depotting Eyeshadow Continued

Well I'm continuing to depot my eyeshadows in anticipation of my Stars Makeup Haven magnetised palettes arriving.

Depotting is quite relaxing I have to say! You need to be very patient, which I was not in the beginning... however the more patient you are, the less breakages you have. Learnt the hard way!

Casualties

I've found that some brands of eyeshadow are rather fragile - MAC & Clarins in my case.

A top layer of my MAC Orange lifted off, MAC rule broke in about 3 pieces so I broke it up a little more before putting it into a sample jar.

The Clarins Eye Colour Trio lived up to it's name & broke in a trio. Unfortunately I threw out the packaging so I've forgotten the name. I hope to remember it one day! Hopefully I'll come a cross it online.

These were some of the first depots so it was probably a mixture of the fragility plus my impatience.

The chance of breakage depends on.

• How fragile the eyeshadow is
• How you treat it (ie, forcing it out)
• The amount & quality of glue used
  
  

The Methods I Tried

The Candle Method: I found this method quite easy however the fumes that came off the melting plastic really noxious. It gave me a headache as well as making me light headed!

The Alcohol Method: I found that this did not work for me, the pans did not lift out. Perhaps the alcohol did not penetrate below the pan or I didn't use enough?

The Hairdryer Method: This was by far the easiest & fastest way for me & it's the method I stuck to. The hairdryer melted the glue really well & let me lift out the pan easily.

So, the Hairdryer Method was the most successful way for me, but that did not stop the casualties. :(

A few things you need to watch out for:

• Digging your nails or your depotting tool into the eyeshadow (so easy!)
• Dropping the eyeshadow
• Having the eyeshadow "fling" out
• Don't forget the name of the shadow! Write it on the back of the pan (or keep the product sticker on it).

So, all in all it's going well! I've taken off the labels & put them on the back of the eyeshadows. In the case of the MAC pans I haven't stuck them down all the way as I know I'll need to get magnets for these.

I think I might stop depotting for the moment as I don't want to depot all my shadows to have them not fit in the new palettes or put them back into their original packaging.

Brush Cleaning - The Miracle that is Olive Oil!

I can't remember where I read this (sorry!) but somewhere I found a great tip on cleaning makeup brushes that have been used to apply Gel Eyeliners, Mixing Mediums & other hard to get off makeup! All with things you should have in your home!

In the last few months I've discovered the joy of Gel Eyeliner & mixing medium.

The products I've used are:

• Stila Smudge Pots
• Inglot Matte Gel Eyeliners
• Inglot Duraline (with Pure Pigments & Pressed Eyeshadows)
  

Love these products as they last on the eye FOREVER & are waterproof. However, because they are waterproof - they don't wash off easily with handwash or baby shampoo. SO you have to (or should) clean the brush before you can use them again.

Previously I used just Isocol to get the Gel Eyeliner off but it didn't always work well.

However, if you use Olive Oil, you can EASILY clean the product off your brush. I haven't used this method with other similar products from other brands, but I'm guessing it would for others too!

HOW I CURRENTLY CLEAN MY BRUSHES
(That have used Gel Eyeliner or Duraline)

1. Collect your used makeup brush(es)
2. Pour some Light Olive Oil into a small bowl (just a couple of millimetres will do)
3. Pour some Baby Shampoo or Hand Wash in another small bowl, I also add a little Isocol (rubbing alcohol) if the handwash does not contain anti-bacterial properties (or using baby oil).
4. Dip used makeup brush in bowl & draw small circles in the oil - you will see the pigment/colour just fall off the brush! I use the one area so the next brush doesn't accidently pick up the previous brushes pigment.
5. Continue your little circles until you don't see any pigment.
6. Dip oily makeup brush into Baby Shampoo or Handwash. Do the small circles again, this should get rid of the oil.
7. Rinse throughly under a tap.
8. If you find the brush is still oily get more Shampoo or Handwash on it. Continue until non-oily.
9. Set out to dry.

The Olive Oil seems to condition the brushes. I've tried Vegetable oil too (it works as well) but I like the olive oil. It may be my imagination but I think it conditions better. I have not encountered any shredding with this method.

I have found that sometimes the Shampoo bowl gets an oily sheen if you're doing a lot of brushes at the same time. To counter this I'm thinking of putting the Baby Shampoo into an clean, empty handwash dispenser so I don't have to dip all my oily brushes into the same bowl - I'll just dispense what I need per brush. Will see if that makes it easier to get the oil off & wastes less product!

How do I clean my brushes only used with eyeshadow? I go straight to step 6 with the addition of having a separate bowl of hot water. I used to have a separate bowl of hot water in the olive oil method but I found it got an oily sheen on the top.

One day I'll buy a store made brush cleaner to try, but I think this method is great & will continue to use it at home.

Do you have any other methods that are similar or perhaps easier?

UNII Palette

Yes, I know..... I have palettes on order but on my travels I found a cute travel palette by a company called UNII.

It seems to have been created by a makeup consumer who was looking for a way to keep her makeup together without having to have everything in separate packages.

Photo from www.uniicosmetics.com

It has a cute little square "thumb grip" (moveable) which looks weird at first, but makes complete sense as you can hold the palette steady whilst using it, as well as a rubber gasket which would stop spillage in your handbag if any shadows decide to break. This sounds perfect for travel. Love the different colours too. Hmmm I wish I found this site last week before I bought the 3 other palettes.

One thing is, these palettes do seem to be great quality, but even so they're a little pricey at $29US each plus International postage. This means it would probably make it too expensive for me in Australia. :( However, for those of you in North America & Canada (lucky peeps!) for a limited time UNII are offering free postage!

Their website is good, with de-potting tips, links to reviews & a video on the "history" of the palette. There's also a page showing photos that people have sent in of their own palettes. I love seeing how other people arrange their makeup inside a freestyle palette.

The website address is www.uniicosmetics.com

Do you have this palette? What do you think about it?

Stars Makeup Haven Update

Received an email yesterday advising that my order has been shipped!

Do you think 9 days is a long time to be waiting for a product just to leave a store? I guess I should be happy as some accounts I've read have been much longer (2 or more weeks).

I will update when I receive further info & of course, the package... fingers crossed it will make it safely from USA to Australia.

Depotting Eyeshadow

Well I've spent the last couple of days slowly de-potting my makeup.

There've been some casualties on the way - 3 x MAC shadows shattered. :( I also shattered a Clarins eyeshadow this afternoon. I kept the eyeshadow in separate small Inglot sample jars so I can still use them with Duraline (or even just a brush). Just realised that I probably should have kept the pans in case I wanted to try re-panning them. Oh well. One had a hole (which I made whilst trying to depot) in it anyway.

The Chi Chi eyeshadow pans are huge & I'm not sure if all will fit in the palettes I have on the way. Each pan is about 3 times a MAC or Urban Decay one. They're so easy to depot - much easier than the other eyeshadows I have. I stopped at 3 just in case. We will see how much room I have when the palettes get here.

I'm looking forward to having my makeup together so I can see what colours I have & hopefully stop buying more!

Depotting continues!

Stars Makeup Haven Processing & Experiment

I know I'm starting in the middle of a story here, but the long & short of it is that I ordered 2 x 28 magnetic palettes + 2 single eyeshadow pans from Stars Makeup Haven last week (14th Oct 2010). I've been patiently looking at my order online & it's been stuck on "processing" since then.  I read some similar reviews but of course, thought I would be the lucky exception to the rule.

Well, I'm usually patient & I tried really hard not to check it every day but you would think it wouldn't take 6 days to pick 2 palettes & 2 single eyeshadow pans that are in stock?

Anyway, I saw the smaller 12 palette on All Cosmetics Wholesale & knowing that they sell SMH products (& having regretted not ordering a smaller portable pallette for travel) I ordered the smaller 12 shadow palette. I got an email saying it was picked & (put aside to be) shipped less than 6 hours later! Really happy with that!

I don't mind waiting, but unnecessary delays aren't faith building. The order remains in "processing".

I sent Stars Makeup Haven an email just asking for an ETA. Hope I get a reply soon.