OMG, girls it's snowing here!!!

Okay, it was snowing a few hours ago when I started writing this post, but by the time I wrapped myself up and got outside it had already stopped. We still have a thin white layer of frozen snow covering the park in front of our house though so that'll keep me happy for a good while. :-)

It's been a long time since I showed you new swatches, but I got my first ever Silk Naturals haul last week and have been using their products since then, so I think I can tell you about them now.

It was my first oder from them so I didn't want to get a lot of stuff, just enough to sample the things I was really interested in.


What I was curious about:

1. SN's solid lip-gloss: you know I can't bear to leave any company's glosses untested so of course I had to buy one of these.
   
   
2. Blushes: I used to disregard this particular kind of make-up item in the past, but Bourjois and EDM have both made me see the reason behind using just a little bit every morning to combat the pallor caused by a not-so-well-performing blood circulation.
   
   
3. Eye-shadow: while it's still not my fav make-up product, I really enjoy being able to try a huge variety of colors for a relatively low price thanks to mineral makeup companies and their sample programs.
   

What I skipped:

1. Foundation (+ other face stuff): my skin and I still shudder at the mere mention of EDM's foundations and it's still on its way to recover from a year-long temper tantrum most likely caused by hormonal imbalances, so I'd rather not risk it just yet... (Or ever, for that matter.)
   
   
2. Mascara: still being head over heels with Clinique's Naturally Glossy Mascara in Jet Brown I don't feel the need to experiment here either.
   
   
3. Brushes: I am interested, but I really have to think about what I spend my money on, what with the current financial turmoil and the weak Forint. Maybe next time...
   
   

All in all, I didn't buy many things, but I love each and every one of them. :-) Take a look:

GOLD BLUSH
(organic lip-gloss)

If you take a look at the swatch itself and the lip-gloss in the tube you'll immediately notice a glaring discrepancy between the two. How could something so dark leave such a colorless, transparent mark on my skin, you ask? Well, I have no idea really. I know that when I pulled off
the cap I was immediately overcome with annoyance thinking: "Oh wonderful, here's the second wrong item this month..." I gave it a try anyway, and to my surprise I found that it is indeed Gold Blush as it left a glossy, very slightly pink and very strongly golden trail on my hand. Go figure...

Anyway, onto the really important stuff: just like Grayburn (whose excellent post inspired me to order from SN), I too adore my SN lippie as it makes the delicate skin on my lips really soft and shiny. I like SN's much better than EDM's lip-glosses, as those tend to feel powdery and thick sometimes (not to mention the way they taste and smell...), whereas this one is smooth and light with relatively no taste and a pleasant vanilla-rose fragrance.

I think this was the perfect first lip-gloss from this brand: it's quite inconspicuous, can be worn alone or over some other lip color, it's perfect with a smoky eye look when I don't want to emphasize my lips, but it's still not just an average colorless lip-gloss, as it has a very sheer rosy tint and gorgeous golden shimmer.

Perhaps the only thing I don't like about this gloss is how thin it is. I have pretty small lips and even I experience some slight discomfort when I try to apply it in a hurry: I need much more swipes to cover my lips than with any other lip product. I can only imagine what others with fuller lips have to endure...

That, however, will not stop me from ordering more. I'd really like to own: Berry Crush, Darling, Foreplay, Rare Berry, Sweet Nothing, Tender, and Toffee. For a start. :-D

By the way, I immediately got rid of the white sticker on the tube, and now I have a sleek, black tube instead. This will, however, become a problem the minute my other SN glosses arrive. :-)

Izar © 2008

BASALT
(eye-shadow)

I've had many brown eye-shadows in my life (more than I should have actually), but can you believe it when I say I hadn't had a proper dark brown, matte eye-shadow (perfect for creating a warm smoky eye) until I got Basalt? I know, it's ridiculous. I had stuff with all kinds of shimmer in them, pearly ones, and of course the ones that gave me buyer's remorse the minute I put them on at home as they were never dark enough for my liking.

Now, however, I have a 5 g jar of the perfect dark eye-shadow for me: the SN website describes this as a very warm black shade, a clone of Bobbi Brown's Espresso (part of her Stonewashed Nudes palette), and essentially that's just what it is. The site also compares it to ground coffee but I beg to disagree: for me, coffee beans and ground coffee have a slightly yellow undertone, which this eye-shadow does not have, thank heavens. It's more like chocolate really: warm, very dark, and very versatile too. It's easy to take just a small amount and use it to shade your lids, or use more to line your eyes, or you can even wet it and give your eyes a stunning contour.

For me, the 5 g jar packed almost to the brim is perfectly enough as I tend to use a bit of eye-shadow every now and then, but I don't go though them like candy.

Izar © 2008

Hmm, I'm afraid I don't have much to say about this shade other than it's a very curious one with a white base and pink-blue (sort of holographic) shimmer. It does remind me of the stone opal with its ever changing colors, but it's not something I usually go for, and even a free sample couldn't convince me of its usefulness. I don't even consider it a proper highlight shade as it's too colorful for that purpose and just a bit too flashy. It's lovely to look at, I admit, but I cannot see myself wearing this anytime soon. Sorry! If you have it and like it, do let me know: I don't want to be the only one with an opinion here.

***

FLIRT
(blush)

What can I say? A lovely dusty-rose color and as such, a perfect everyday blush. Very silky and smooth and as far as I can tell it has much better staying power that those of EDM, meaning I can still see it at the end of a long working day.

(Okay, it may seem that I'm on a roll against EDM, but that's not the case really, nor is it the novelty of the Silk Naturals stuff which makes me like their stuff more than that of EDM. I still say EDM makes very good make-up, but they're really not the only brand of MMU out there and also, I've never really been known for my fidelity. :-P I like to experiment. A lot.)

Silk Naturals describes this as a matte neutral plum blush, and although I do detect a small amount of shimmer when looking into the lid of the jar, it's not visible on my cheeks at all. About its "plumness": nope, sorry, for me "plum" means a certain kind of warmth, whereas this one is more pale and neutral (almost on the cool side of the scale). Nonetheless, it's a lovely shade, even though it's not what you'd call "exciting".

WISH YOU WERE HERE
(blush)

The first ever blush to remind me of everyone's (now-) favorite blush from EDM, Chit Chat. WYWH, of course, is no exact match for Chit Chat, but something about it just reminds me of EDM's poor discontinued blush. I think it's that it gives your cheeks the same scintillation and that same unrivalled glow, making you look alive and healthy the minute you put it on.

Some differences though:

1. Chit Chat has tons of silver sparkle, WYWH has less and they're pink.
   
   
2. Chit Chat has this raspberry-ish undertone compared to WYWH which is more sort of strawberry.
   
   
3. WYWG is much more sheer and you need to use more to achieve the same effect than with Chit Chat.
   

All in all, if you had problems with EDM's strong, heavily pigmented blushes, you might want to give Silk Naturals' blushes a try as they're much easier to work with due to their sheerness and the lower dosage of sparkle they contain.

What I'm looking forward to now is to have my Pure Luxe samples delivered to me. (Any time now..)
I mostly ordered eye-shadows, so my post on them should be a colorful one. :-)

EDIT (2009/12/30): Meanwhile, here are all my subsequent Silk Naturals reviews (with swatches in each).