This post will have to begin the same way that all other "first-Fyrinnae-haul" posts do:

I knew I was going to love their products, and I ended up being right. Some of you probably know by now that I'm a huge lipgloss junkie, but Fyrinnae are doing everything they can to turn me into an eyeshadow aficionado. Also, they've convinced me to expand Binary Star's technical potential and use my camera's video recording feature to show you how insanely sparkly one of their eyeshadows, Dokkálfar, is.

I can only show you one of them though, because as soon as I finished recording, the sun decided to take a well-deserved rest and hid behind the approaching stormclouds. More eyeshadow swatches to come in Part II.

Please excuse the quality of the video, but I was too excited to care about things like a script, angle or artistic vision. :) It is blurry on purpose though: the lack of proper focus allows me to show you the sparkles better.




Dokkálfar was, by the way, a free sample the guys at Fyrinnae threw in with my order. I was actually thinking of ordering it, but eventually decided to hold off and get it next time. (See? Even back then I knew there'd be a next time.) Anyway, it's a gorgeous, dark moss-green with lime, grass-green and turquoise sparkles, which, despite the crazy amount of sparkle, I can actually see wearing during the daytime as a liner to spice up my otherwise laid-back makeup. It's kind of like powdered hematite and pirite mixed together. :-)




I did get some other things too. In fact, here's my haul:



What I got from Fyrinnae:

• Lip Lustres in Visual Kei, Lollipop Pop, Romantique and Lickable
• Pixie Epoxy sample
• Velvel-Gel Silica Primer
• Blushes in Enchant and Mesmerize
• Eyeshadows in Changeling, Herbivore, Envy Me, Equality, Immortality, Bastet and Beholder
• Arcane Magic Eyeshadow in Dark Fantasy

It's been a long time since I was so happy with a make-up haul. It makes me wonder why I stuck to EDM for such a long time when it came to eyeshadows and blushes. Sure, blushes are not Fyrinnae's primary products, but those 12 Glow Blushes that Fyrianne has will beat those of EDM (and other companies) anytime. I'm especially fond of Enchant: it looks scary in the jar, and even more scary in the picture as it somehow came out all orange-looking, but trust me that when you apply it with a skunk brush, it'll give your cheeks a beautiful coral glow just like its name suggests.

Fyrinnae's eyeshadows... I don't even know where to begin. One thing's sure: they are unique and are of exceptional quality. I was a bit skeptical about them first, but now that I've seen them with my own eyes, I probably won't be shopping for new eyeshadows anywhere else. The colors are very pigmented, intense, and look as if they'd magically been extracted from a peacock's feathers. :-) You have to try them to see what I mean, and I promise you, you won't be disappointed if you do.

They come in two sizes:

• sample size (a very generous 1/3 teaspoonful that'll last you for ages) for 2 USD
• full size for 5.9 USD

Their Velvet-Gel Silica Primer is another thing that made me jump with joy the moment I tried it: first off, it doesn't contain silicones. If that's not something to be happy about then I don't know what is. My skin hates silicones, and while I have found a very decent priming product sans silicones in Alverde's Tagesfluid Perle, I could very well do without all the oils in it. Fyrinnae's primer contains Aloe Vera juice, silica (totally not the same as silicone) and some gel-forming agent. It'll probably also last me ages, as it's possible to apply on wet skin, and even when applied to dry skin, you need the smallest amount. It creates a perfect, smooth canvas for my foundation and keeps the oilies at bay for a much longer time than anything I've ever tried before. I'll have to perfect its use though as it also tends to dry out my skin a bit, but I'll probably be able to solve that by applying it over a thin layer of moisturizer.




Of course, having read so many raves about Pixie Epoxy, I just had to get a sample. I was hesitating between a sample and a full size, but I'm glad I ended up buying the smaller size: you need so little of the product to cover an eyelid (think smaller that a poppy-seed) that the sample will last me very long.




Pixie Epoxy is not an eyeshadow primer. I can attest to that, as I tried using it as one and it's obviously not in the same league with my beloved Artdeco Eyeshadow Base. What it does, however, is make all that fooling around with water and mixing medium when foiling your eyeshadows a thing of the past. Just apply a tiny amount of the gel to your eyelid, smear it, let it dry a bit until it's sticky and brush on your eyeshadow (brushing is better than patting in PE's case). It makes a world of difference:




Being the self-professed lippie junkie that I am, I just have to share Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres with you. They are, indeed, not lipglosses in the traditional sense of the word. They really are more like lip tints, but very yummy and moisturizing ones. You can apply a tiny amount and top it with lipbalm or gloss if you only want a slight tint, or you can apply them as you normally would a gloss and they'll cover your lips in bright colors in no time as they're very opaque and will look the same on your lips as they do in the tube. The texture is nice and I guess I could say that these are to regular lipglosses what mineral foundation is to liquid foundation: sort of velvety and barely-there, they feel almost as if I didn't have anything on my lips.

Some of my color choices turned out to be a bit unfortunate, but I'll never blame Fyrinnae for that. I mean what the h*ll was I thinking getting a bright pink lippie??? (Visual Kei anyone?) Especially knowing that it'd be opaque... Okay, so I was in the mood for something bright and cheerful, but I really should have known better... :-)))



Visual Kei: The brightest of them all, sort of fuchsia with slight bluish shimmer. Not my thing, but I'll probably be using it as a tint under lipbalm.

Romantique: Again, not the best choice for my skintone. It's too light and washes me out, but will probably look nice over something else.

Lollipop-Pop: It looks sort of like a toned-down Visual Kei. Medium pink with blue shimmer and looks a lot cooler in real life than on Fyrinnae's website. I'll be able to wear this on its own.

Lickable: Okay, this is my favorite. :-) A pinkish golden-brown, quite complex although it looks unassuming in the tube. It makes my lips lighter than they are, gives them a subtle golden sheen and is perfect combined with a brown smoky eye or any sort of green eye makeup.
Also, what the heck??? Lickable is nowhere to be found on Fyrinnae's website anymore! What gives? *scratches head*

Oh, and another thing: Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres smell and taste delicious. I like the scent of Romantique the best (I mean I could sniff it all day), but all the others are equally mouth-watering.

Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres come in two sizes:

• 3 ml for 2.5 USD
• 5.8 ml for 4.5 USD

Both sizes come with doefoot applicators, and while I'm not fond of those, I understand why they would be picked for this product. Brushes just wouldn't work with this texture.




All in all, I'm ridiculously happy with my Fyrinnae haul and will definitely order from them again. As the Hungarian Forint has plummeted thanks to the financial crisis in Greece, that order will have to wait a bit, but I already have my wishlist full and can hardly wait to try some more of Fyrinnae's eyeshadows, Lip Lustres and blushes. I will also order a full size from their Velvet-Gel Silica Primer. ;-)

Have you ever tried Fyrinnae? What's your opinion? Have their products managed to bewitch you just as much?

Finally, here are some more swatches of the Lip Lustres.




 

Now here's the big question: If your skin doesn't tolerate silicones in any form and amount, what should you prime your skin with before putting on mineral foundation? (What you should do if your skin doesn't tolerate mineral foundation at all is a different question altogether, one I still can't answer...)

There were days when I wanted to put on some of my EDM Light Almond foundation to make my skin look a bit smoother and more even. I used to have 2 options:

1. apply the powder foundation on skin that had been primed already with some moisturizer containing silicone, and my skin would look great for a while, but by the end of the day it'd be full of small zits that were only small glipses into what havoc aforementioned silicone would later wreck on my face (=cystic acne, anyone...?)
   
   
2. put on some silicone-free moisturizer, apply foundation and witness the great, big splotches of makeup on my face

Recently, however, I picked up Alverde's Tagesfluid Perle and my problems were immediately solved. Before buying it, I read some German reviews, and one of the bloggers said about Alverde's Tagescreme Seide how she thinks it's very much like a primer, sinking in instantly and leaving behind no sticky residue, only silky soft skin ready to be made up. In a fairly comprehensive post about Alverde moisturizers I found some of them downright sticky and film-forming, others not so much, but even when there was no sticky residue, there was always something that just sat on my skin, no matter how inconspicuous it may have been. Not so with Tagesfluid Perle: it's the first Alverde face-cream that leaves absolutely no residue whatsoever, but sinks in almost instantly (especially if applied onto wet skin), and creates a perfect and even canvas for any kind of makeup to follow. There are absolutely no splotches of foundation, and it's actually a dream to put make-up on it. :-D

Now, about the name: Alverde is not very bright when it comes to naming their products, now is it? Their Feuchtigkeitsfluid Aloe Vera is supposed to be, as the name suggests, a "fluid". Let me tell you, however, that it's anything but. The same is true of Tagesfluid Perle.

Is this reeeeeally what a fluid is supposed to look like...?




I don't think so... :-S

Before you get disappointed and throw your newly-updated shopping list out the window, bear with me a little longer. This stuff may not be anywhere near liquid form, but it is a gel-cream of sorts, very light, absorbing into the skin with ease and staying quite matte throughout the day.

The scent is light, sort of aquatic and fresh (smells kinda like salt-water, actually), and thank heavens it disappears pretty fast too. (Aquatic scents and me just don't get on too well I'm afraid... ^_^ )

I wouldn't have bought it normally, seeing its ridiculously high alcohol content, but because I don't put on foundation very often either, I'm willing to make an exception and use it on those rare occasions after all. At some point along the way Alverde changed the formula of all their products, and now "alcohol" is sitting at 2nd and 3rd places on their INCI list, looking smug and bugging me to no end... Why the heck did they have to ruin something that used to be so good, I ask??? Their talk about all that alcohol having been derived from natural sources does not impress me much either... Alcohol is a severely drying and sometimes downright irritating ingredient, and where it comes from does not make any difference at all. Therefore, I can't really talk about its moisturizing properties, though I must admit it's not as bad as it may seem upon first glance at the INCI list. Still, I probably wouldn't even consider it if my skin were dry or sensitive, but as it is, my skin's oily and pretty tough, so I'm willing to risk it on occasion in exchange for its other benefits. :)

Where to get it: Drogerie Markt stores
Price: ~ 845 HUF
Amount: 50 ml (since it's Alverde's 20th anniversary, they gave an extra 20 ml)
My rating: 4 out of 5 (ditch the alcohol and I'll be willing to give it 5 ;-)

Ingredients:

Aqua, Glycerin, Alcohol (?!?!?!), Elaeis Guineensis (Kernel Oil), Olea Europaea (Oil), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cellulose, Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Butter), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Oil), Maris Sal, Hydrolyzed Pearl (Extract), Xanthan Gum, Helianthus Annuus (Seed Oil), Tocopheryl Acetate, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Parfum, Linalool, Limonene, Geraniol, Citronellol, Citral, Coumarin


 

Back in the summer of 2008 Bagaela sent me a sample of ArtDeco's Eyeshadow Base after she found out that I had not tried it yet despite the fact that by that time I had heard enough people rave about it on different beauty forums and MUA. The reason for that was simple though: 1.) I was not particularly inclined to spend thousands of Forints on something that might still turn out to be a miss, especially considering how oily my lids can get during the day, and 2.) I was not yet acquainted with the wonderful girls on the Krémmárka thread and was a solitary little beauty addict with highly restricted access to the true gems of the cosmetic industry.


Now, almost a year later, here I am, sitting at my desk with a little black jar resting on it right next to me, meant to provide inspiration for this post, though that is hardly necessary anymore: I'm a convert.

Look, oh just look!


Pure Luxe's "Dream on..." is a beautiful and intensive color (somehow the picture doesn't do it justice though), but just look at what it becomes once it's applied on a properly primed surface. Glamorous, isn't it?

Just to illustrate how much your eyeshadow will want to stick to you and your lids, here's a picture I took after having scrubbed my arm with soap twice.




The above picture might, of course, provoke different reactions in different people. Depending on whether you're a slightly crazed makeup junkie or a devotee of all things natural, you'll either go "Holy Makeup Palette! Bring it on!!!" or say "There's no way in hell I'll put that vile concoction anywhere near my eyes!". You'd both be right, I guess: I often wonder what the long term effects of putting something like that on my eyes might be, but then I'm overcome with this desire to have my eyeshadow last an entire day, and I give in to the lure of this amazing primer.

Here's the list of ingredients:




By the way, yes, you heard it right: lasts an entire day. For me, that means at least 12 hours, but more often it's 15, as I usually put makeup on at about 5:30 AM and wipe it all off at around 8 or 9 PM, when class with my private student ends or when I get home from the company I teach at in the afternoons. Now then, believe it or not, no eyeshadow I apply onto this base will ever smudge, sit into the creases or simply disappear into nothingness during the course of the day. It will stay where I put it and will be just as bold and bright as when I carefully painted it on in the morning. It doesn't matter if it's a high-end brand or just a cheap 1 buck product: come rain or scorcher, it just won't move. How's that? ;-)

I was told that the 5 ml of miracle cream in the jar is enough for a lifetime, and since I purchased my own, I've been more and more inclined to believe that. You only need the smallest amount for an eyelid: something like running your index finder over the surface and using what it had picked up will do the trick. Like this:




Don't use more than that though: it won't make your makeup last longer (the thin layer above will cover you for 15 hours at least) and will only serve to make it really difficult to put on your eyeshadow.

Just to help you imagine how big your jar will be, here's a life size image of the jar (give or take a few millimeters). Its size is minuscule, but it'll go dry long before you finish it all up, so sharing with some friends is always a good idea. I already have and am still planning to. :-D



What I've noticed though while using this product is that it quickly grabs onto the e/s you put onto it, reducing its smoothness and making it more difficult to spread on your lid. You will thus need more powder to cover the same area if you use this, meaning that a pot of eyeshadow will probably last you a little less than it would otherwise, but I still wouldn't give up my Base for anything in the world: having eye makeup that remains untouched during the entire day is too big of an asset to just throw away for the sake of making my shadows last a few weeks longer. I have too many of those for my own good anyway. ;-)

As far as I know, Bagaela also sometimes uses this to make concealer stick to her skin and blend in better, an unorthodox method I have tested and found perfectly effective, though I can't use it in the long run as silicones of any kind really aggravate my skin. (Not on my eyelids, thank heavens...) Otherwise I recommend you to try it: it works!

So, let's hear it from you dear readers! Have you tried this product yet? What were your impressions? Have you tried something else? Share your experiences!


Oh, here's another swatch from a previous post of mine, just to further illustrate what a huge difference ArtDeco's Eyeshadow Base can make.

 

In the last few months I've been busy receiving packages. I love the thrill of hearing the doorbell ring, jumping up from my seat and welcoming the postman with a grin bordering on insane. :-D (I swear, it's only those few bucks I give him every once in a while that convince him to still approach our door. He would have fled ages ago otherwise...) And then, I like to dance around my pretty little package before opening it and dancing a bit more.

Today I got my Moleskine 18 month weekly planner, so that was reason enough for me to be cheerful all day. (Will review this one too. Until then, read about my Moleskine Plain Notebook here.)

Another package, namely my Pure Luxe sample package, arrived about a month ago, and since Grayburn was interested in reading about Pure Luxe's Eraser, I decided to review that and their Silk Dust first. (The latter one because I've been planning to hiss at Everyday Minerals for their stinky version of silk dust for a while now.)




Let me start my saying that I have pretty oily skin. Let me also tell you that ever since I started using Everyday Minerals' eye-shadows, I haven't been able to make them stay on longer than a few hours. I must admit, finding that my carefully applied make-up had once again sat into my creases and was reading a good book on how to annoy human beings made me pretty surly towards Everyday Minerals for a while.

Enter Pure Luxe's Eraser, and I soon found every single micronized particle of my eye-shadow stand at attention, laziness forgotten and ready to rock. :-)

If you look at the picture of the Eraser on Pure Luxe's website, you will get a pretty good, but unfortunately inaccurate idea of what it is like. Instead of being opaque, pigmented and beige, it's a thick, orange, unscented, semi-transparent gel which, when applied to one's face sparingly, becomes completely transparent and practically glides onto the skin. (See my pictures above for reference!)

It's very easy to work with, spreads really easily and dries down into a velvety finish after about 30 seconds or so. Once it's dry, it optically smoothes out your face and gets rid of fine wrinkles around eyes. (At least, it got rid of mine, but hey, I'm only 25 and should still be relatively wrinkle-free.) The Eraser is no miracle product, however, that will magically erase all your wrinkles: consider it's wrinkle-hiding properties a bonus, and don't expect to see... well, a miracle.

What Pure Luxe's Eraser does perfectly, however, is prime your skin so that make-up can stay put on it for much longer than on bare skin. For me, "much longer" means an entire day (at least 16 hours) without my make-up sliding off my face or my eye-shadow going on vacation, and as I said, my skin is very oily. (I wash my face in the morning, apply every mattifying product under the sun, and two hours later I look as if someone had pushed a slice of buttered bread into my face...) Unfortunately, it does all this without actually keeping my face oil-free (another high hope going to the drain...), so you might want to hold on to your mattifying products at least until you try it.

It is also capable of enhancing your make-up, like it did with my eye-shadows: they are much more vibrant, colorful and sparkly when applied on top of Pure Luxe's Eraser. By ordering a sample you get a fairly decent amount of product (perhaps not in the "Everyday Minerals sample" range, but close), so if you only use this on your lids like I do, it'll last you at least a month with using it every day. You really don't need much: for one eye-lid I use about the size of 1/6th of an average green-pea.

Prices:

Sample: 1/4 teaspoon in a sample jar = 2.5 $
5 ml airtight jar = 8 $
10 ml airtight jar = 16 $


Thank heavens I plucked up my courage and ordered Pure Luxe's Silk Dust! After a disastrous encounter with Everyday Minerals' Silk Dust (or more like Stink Dust...), I was afraid I'd never be able to try silk on my face.

You see, the first time I applied EDM's Silk Dust on my face, I did it with a wet brush. Almost seconds after application, I began to smell something very akin to the disgusting smell that lingers around public toilet facilities in the subways of Budapest. For a while I thought it was something seeping in through the open window, but after a while it dawned upon me that it was I who smelled this way. Pretty soon it also became obvious that the only new addition to my routine was EDM's Silk Dust, and after I washed it off, I put a tiny amount into the palm of my hand which immediately mixed with the natural moisture content of my skin and produced the same stinky smell.

Into the bin it went, along with all the paper tissues I used up while mourning something that could have been a great product otherwise and maybe a solution to my oily skin problem.

It seems I'm not the only one who had this experience with EDM's Silk Dust. I've found a few reviewers on Makeup Alley who were complaining about the same thing. Maybe it was just a bad batch, or maybe we have strange noses, but one thing is sure: I'll never buy silk dust from Everyday Minerals again, and I strongly encourage you to try that of Pure Luxe instead.




When it comes to the way these silk powders perform, I can only tell you about the one Pure Luxe makes, as that of EDM didn't stay on my face long enough for me to test it.

Because I have olive skin, it's very important for me that a product like this remain translucent and invisible on my skin, otherwise it'll turn my complexion beige, which is something I try to avoid at all cost. (Hey, I love my olive skintone and prefer not to look like a ghost!) Well, Pure Luxe's Silk Dust is easy to work into my skin and doesn't leave a whitish cast, provided I don't overload my brush and that I apply it layer-by-layer. Check out picture below!




When it comes to actually mattifying my skin and controlling oil... Well, I've already told you about my oily skin a bit earlier (I guess if my skin had a pet name, it would be "Buttercup"...), and my futile attempts at making it behave, and yes, this one's been a disappointment too. Maybe, just maybe, it does make my skin matte an hour longer, but that's it. Nothing special, nothing to rave about here.

Still, I like to put on a thin layer under my make-up, as silk has an antibacterial property, which is always welcome by me, but a little less so by my zits...

I haven't noticed any graininess with either of these products, but if I had to vote on which one is smoother, I'd say Pure Luxe's Silk Dust is more finely milled.

So. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make skin that likes to run amok chill out a bit and lay low? If you have, you're more than welcome to share the secret. ;-) Also, tell me if you've tried these products, and let us know how you liked them.

Cheers!
Izar