Pigment-palooza!

Etsy.com is one of my favorite sites because I can find tons of homemade products, from handcrafted jewelry to blended mica mineral pigments. Sellers have their own online boutiques where you can browse all of their products and goodies. On a hunt for duochrome eye shadows recently, I discovered two great cosmetic lines on Etsy: Caustic Cadets Cosmetics and Spectrum Cosmetics.

I decided to purchase 5 duotone pigments from each line:

Spectrum Cosmetics charges $3.25 per 3 gram jar or choose any 5 for $15
EOS: Looks like burnt copper with tons of white glitter in the pot but shifts to a gorgeous, sparkly mix of light green and blue with a deep reddish-brown base
EOS-2: (A less glittery version of the original EOS but still shimmery) It looks like a dark reddish-brown in the pot but shifts to a turquoise blue with a reddish-brown base
Mystic: Looks like a medium reddish-brown with moss green iridescence but shifts to a metallic teal-green with a reddish-brown base
Briar: Looks like an almost completely matte light rose-violet in the pot but shifts to a light blue shimmer with violet flecks
Sassy: Looks like an almost completely matte light peach but shifts to a light violet shimmer with light blue flecks

Caustic Cadets charges $3.99 for each jar of 2 grams of powder
Volatile: Looks fuchsia in the pot but shifts to electric violet with flecks of blue
Dreamweaver: Looks peach with green glitter in the pot but shifts to reddish brown with flecks of olive green
Pillow Talk: Looks like rose in the pot but shifts to medium rose gold
Black Magic: (my FAVORITE duochrome!)  Looks deep periwinkle blue with gold and blue glitter in the pot but shifts to electric teal, blue, and gold with a matte black base
Siren: Looks pale pink with blue shimmer in the pot but shifts to a dusty lavender with flecks of light blue

I tried my best to describe the colors accurately and display the right shades in the pictures, but the pictures don’t really do these pigments justice. They are absolutely stunning and so affordable that you’ll definitely want to check out several colors at a time. Happy shopping!

*All of the swatches were brushed on top of Clean & Clear Finishes Pore Perfecting Moisturizer to help the loose pigment powders stick.

***UPDATE: Caustic Cadets Cosmetics are now sold on Facebook here.

If you try any of these pigments, let me know what you think!

Caustic Cadets Cosmetics Swatches

I received some sample packets from Caustic Cadets Cosmetics, which are now sold on Facebook instead of Etsy. (The owner of the company told me that she made the switch because Etsy charged her about $20/month to sell her products.) I hope her Facebook store is a success!

Here are some swatches from the samples:

Caustic Cadets Cosmetics: (L to R) Beer Before Liquor, Walk of Shame, Comera, Cheeky, Speed Ballin', Galactic, and Wendy

I absolutely love Beer Before Liquor, Walk of Shame, and Galactic. Cheeky would be a gorgeous highlighter for special occasions. It's so glowy and the perfect shade to make my NC40 skin look dewy (not disco).

Beer Before Liquor (eye shadow): Bronze brown with moderate amounts of multi-colored glitter, highly pigmented
Walk of Shame (eye shadow): Electric violet with flecks of periwinkle shimmer, great pigmentation
Comera (creme paint): Matte black cream shadow, buttery soft but not as pigmented as I would like. It would probably make a great e/s base, though.
Cheeky (blusher/highlighter): Gorgeous metallic golden peach
Speed Ballin' (eye base): Sheer pearl shimmer loose powder
Galactic (glitter dust): Very pretty caviar black glitter with flecks of silver
Wendy (mineral lipstick): Tomato red, with more of a sheer lip balm consistency than lipstick

Bottom line: I love the colors and pigmentation of Caustic Cadets' loose eye shadows and glitter powders but I'd pass on the cream-based stuff, since they don't seem to be as pigmented.

Trick-or-Treat Yourself to Homemade Halloween Goodies on Etsy

I love summer...but when it's 103 degrees out in October, I'm gonna get a little antsy about when I can finally start using my Fall bath and body stuff. Every year, when the seasonal Autumn bath and body products start popping up on store shelves everywhere, I get so excited for all the pumpkin and cinnamon scented goodies. Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite foods in the whole world and nothing makes me feel cozier in cooler weather than sweet, spiced, food-y lotions, shower gels, and bubble bath.

This year, I found a ton of bath and beauty confection perfection on Etsy.com:

Poison Apple Apothecary Pumpkin Marshmallow Embalming Cream, $12

More yummy products after the jump!