Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Stardust Cosmetics Review

A few weeks ago I placed my very first order with Stardust Cosmetics, an independent Canadian company. I had been waiting to order from them for a while, but for some reason kept putting it off. I think this is mainly because I didn't like how the swatches on the website look. I don't know why, I just don't. The rest of the website I love- it's very nice, clean, cute, and has that sort of personal touch I like. It has the bestsellers at the bottom of the homepage, and then all the categories on the side, so it's nice and easy. Stardust has primer powders, concealers, foundations, luminizers, mineral kohl powder, finish/setting powders, eye pigments, and blush. I don't think I even looked at the blush page when I ordered, which is too bad, because they have some beautiful colors I'd like to try. I'll have to next time ;] I of course ordered eyeshadow samples- they have a page for samples, and you can pick one of their amounts to order (5, 10, 15, or 20 for eye pigments). I chose 15. Their pigment page is organized so you can shop by color, texture, or finish, which is cool. I ordered a lot of their bright colors, and also quite a few colors from their new Facettes de la Femme collection. The FDLF collection colors include swatches on skin, which is nice. Their normal line of colors do not. My 15 samples pack is listed as $13.50 on the website, which is a really nice price at less than $1 per sample. I actually paid less than that, as the 15 set was on sale for $12 when I ordered. The sample shipping price was $2, so I'd say paying $14 total for $15 samples is not too shabby at all! However, on the policies page it does say for every $10 you spend, you will receive a free sample, and I didn't get one. It's not a big deal to me but I thought I should point it out. Shipping to the USA says it will take 6-14 days, added to the 3 days it takes them to fill/process the orders. I got mine in 16 or so days, so that was spot on. This is the most in depth review I think I've written. I hope it's not boring for you! Here is the fun part anyway: swatches! Don't look at messy floor -_- From left to right: Sea Glass, Envy, Lush, Total Package, Electro, Citrus, Mystery, Pink Ruffle, Oh My! The swatches don't look as good as I'd like. Yesterday it was really cloudy but I decided to do swatches anyway, since the weather wasn't supposed to change anytime soon. So of course it's 70 and sunny today (not that I'm complaining!) You can click for bigger images. I've started doing swatches with the same color groups all together, so you can see if 2 are really close. For Lush and Total Package, there isn't much of a difference. If you have one you don't need the other. Mystery is really a mystery of why the photo is so inaccurate off their website... I don't see the pretty blue shimmers like they show. It's just brown. I do LOVE Electro, Citrus, Pink Ruffle, and Oh My! From left to right: Royal Kiss, Magick, Neon Femme, Pure Femme, Superwoman, Krista's Blue The first picture for this set is far more color accurate. Royal Kiss is a purple with brown in it, but certainly not as much as the bottom picture shows. I love Superwoman. When I saw it in the baggie, I didn't even realize it had little red sparkles in it. How cool is that? The baggies are a complaint I have. I kept ripping them like the Incredible Hulk, so I had a little bit of spillage. Oh yeah, and there are little labels on all the baggies with the color name- I thought the names were typed, but when I compared some baggies I realized they are hand written! I am sooo impressed with the handwriting, lol. As for the staying power of the shadows, these (and High Voltage) shadows stayed about the best and most vibrant throughout the day more than any other companies I've tried. I do use UDPP every day, so maybe these just adhere better to that. Can't be sure, but I'm still impressed. So there you go! Overall, there were a few minor things, but generally I really liked the products I received. I do plan on ordering again, maybe trying out a couple more samples, and definitely some blush.

7 comments:

  1. cuute! Perhaps you should depot all the little sample baggies into pill boxes? That's what I do with all my samples becuase then I can keep them all organized and I don't forget about them!

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  2. I have little jars somewhere but they are so annoying and hard to get open... I have never thought about pill boxes before! That is such a great idea! Thank you, that's seriously so awesome! It will make my samples so much easier!

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  3. Oooh now I've heard Y's pillbox suggestion, I am tempted by samples in baggies! They've always seemed like far too much of a faff to be honest...
    I just went and looked at their site and I love how you've bought quite a few of the colours I'm drawn to! Great minds and that. Really want Oh My.
    Their blushes look lovely, I'm in the market for more blushes. And more lipsticks, even though I've recently realised how many I own, I don't seem to have variation across these, or the colours I really desire. So I'll look out for lippies when their released too...

    (or just buy more Fyrinnae lip lustres....)

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  4. @RaeRae: You don't buy samples if they're in baggies? *shock* I used to find baggies super annoying, but I actually like them a lot now. I tend to spill things that come in jars, whether by my own clumsiness or by stuff that just comes off when I unscrew them. Oh My is my favorite color of theirs :) I'm obsessed with blush right now which is silly, since I constantly buy very similar ones (supposed dupes of NARS Orgasm and Super Orgasm). I'm not big on lipsticks as I can never find any good colors... have you ever thought of Morgana Minerals? The owner Melissa sent me a sample of Coraline's Kiss, and it's amazing. I want every pink shaded lip lustre from Fyrinnae ^_^

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  5. LOLOLOL got the BEST visual of you ripping apart sample baggies like the Hulk with a manic look on your face XD

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  6. Great review! It certainly wasn't boring at all :)
    Some of the colours do look lovely, i shall have to add them to my ever growing indie makeup wishlist!

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  7. @SilhouetteScreams: hahahaha glad you enjoyed. :D

    @Lillian: Thanks! I really tried to make it as thorough as other bloggers do, I feel like mine are normally really short...you should totally try them :)

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