Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Venomous Cosmetics review pt. 1

Venomous Cosmetics is pretty new to the indie scene. With so many new indie companies popping up left and right, you have to have something special. Venomous offers not only loose shadow, but also pressed shadows! They also have glosses called Lip Poisons. I was interested in trying this company out, so it was really exciting for me when Tracy, the owner, asked if I was interested in trying out some products (free of charge, this is my disclaimer, blah blah). As always, my review won't be affected by this. First up is the pressed shadows. A full size is $6.50, which I find reasonable. I think the price reflects the time it probably takes to do the pressing. They have SAMPLE pressed shadows, which is really cool! Those are $2. Here's what the sizes look like (next to a full-sized loose shadow for comparison): The pressed samples are so tiny! I had to run my shadow brush over the sample size a few times to get the brush covered, since they're so small, but that's not really an issue. The pressed samples are too small to have the name written on the back, so here's what Tracy does: Is it the most convenient thing in the world? No, but it works. I really can't think of a better way to do it, the text would be too small to read if you put the whole name on there. Here are my swatches of the pressed shadows: Top 4: Yellowjacket, Amazon Rainforest Expedition, Mermaid, Gaboon Viper Bottom 4: The Last Unicorn, Tazelwurm, Can't Give You Paris, Phoenix You guys, these are gorgeous. I didn't take them in direct sunlight so they look a little flatter than they actually are. I could not believe how especially pigmented Gaboon Viper and Phoenix were, they apply like a dream. I love using The Last Unicorn as a highlighter. Tazelwurm is probably my favorite, it has a gorgeous blue shift to it. Here's a quick look I did with Tazelwurm, Can't Give You Paris, and The Last Unicorn. On my lips is VC's "Genie" Lip Poison (formerly called "Cupid's Arrow"). As far as packaging, Tracy sealed everything very well, and as you can see, none of them broke. She put them in little baggies and bubble-wrapped the hell out of everything (pink bubble-wrap)! You definitely don't have to worry about any of them arriving broken or crushed. My final verdict: I love these. There are so many absolutely gorgeous colors to choose from, and I think it's great that you can get samples. Now I need to make my own palette to keep them in... In the next part of the review I'll talk about the loose shadows and lip poisons! I'll try to get it posted by tomorrow or the next day.