Australis Brush-On Perfection Eyeshadow in Warhol

Bought from Reduced to Clear (I know, cringy name, but they sometimes have cheap cosmetics and they always have cheap chocolate!) for $2.

There were 3 colours in the shop, I chose this one as it looked like it could be a neutral OR a goldish toned shimmer from the colour circle on the base:

Why yes, yes I WAS feeling optimistic that day 🙂

The colour circle is on a button, that you click to deliver the eyeshadow to the brush…

Blurry brush shot – it’s a nice enough brush, I guess, soft but nylon-y.

and click and click and clickedy clickedy click click click.. .check… click clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.. etc. For purposes of review, I carefully counted my clicks so I could tell you how many it took. Well, it took 35 before I went mental and just clicked frantically.

[NB: Frantic clicking hurts the button. If it gets stuck down you can take it off, put it back on, and it still works fine.]

This was a cream, not a powder. THAT was a suprise. And because its a cream, not a powder, when it eventually came out onto the brush, it kept coming out, and out, and out, and getting curlier: quite like a stood-upon toothpaste tube.

Camera wouldn’t focus, I guess it didn’t want to look either.

But, here it is, swatched over bare skin.

Its orangey nude. And very greasy. It creased INSTANTLY, even over eyeshadow primer, and just didn’t look good at all. Maybe it was because there was so much on my brush (yes, I took most of it off, but.. it was pretty saturated). I don’t know if I’d bother trying this again. Brush on eyeshadow, yes. Perfection? Well, not for me!

The good news, it was cheap. The bad news, it was.. well, cheap. I’ll stick to my Dollface, Ro Vie, and Chromatic Cosmetic shadows, I think.

Ro Vie Eyeshadow: Strawberry Bonbon – swatches and review

This has to be one of the longest, most drawn out, blog attempts I’ve made. I bought this eyeshadow (and another, Sugared Almond and I’ll review that soon, it won’t take long!) a few months ago, and have been trying to get good photos of this pretty since then. What a hard colour to swatch!

Anyway – off the whinging, back on topic. This is Strawberry Bonbon from Ro Vie,

Ro Vie Strawberry Bonbon

Ro Vie describe it on it’s page as: “Ohh la la! A delectable gleam of chameleon color. Open the pot and you’ll see a neutral pearly pink. Sweep it on, however, and the subtlest iridescent lavender appears. This whitish powder- pearlyzed by a touch of purple- is a gorgeous way to light up eyes.  Beautiful everyday to make your peepers pop.”

Here it is in the container, its a lovely pale pinky loose powder, with an iridescent light purple sparkle.

You can see the lilac shimmer in the bottom of the photo, where the bulk of the powder isn’t 🙂

Heavily swatched on my wrist, over an eyeshadow primer – it is SO hard to get a good photo of this! It is sheer, but flashes lilac in the light.

One of the most interesting things about it is what it does to eyeliner: Here is eyeliners (different colours) swatched on my bare arm:

And with a light sweep of Strawberry bonbon on the top half of the liners:

Ro Vie Strawberry Bonbon on the tophalf of the eyeliners..

See? Blurple! For some reason, it turns every eyeliner I own into a blueish purple liner – even if I put the liner on top of the shadow. Interesting, huh? I have found that, as I don’t always want blurple eyeliner, that it’s best to use another shadow, wet, as an eyeliner, or – in these following swatches; a glitter liner. That stays true to colour.

 

Do you know how hard it is to take photo of your own EYE? 😀

 

This look is with Dollface Satin under the brow bone, Ro Vie Strawberry Bonbon all over eyelid, and a silver glitter gel with added Chromatic Cosmetics silver holo glitter in Rollin’ Face as eyeliner. I used Kleancolor eyeshadow primer as a base.

These photos are so frustrating – although the Strawberry Bonbon IS sheer, it’s not THAT sheer! It is highly shimmery and reflective, so you definitely see it as a bright wash of lilac in real life. I just couldn’t capture the true prettiness on camera, and believe me, I’ve tried – over many, many days.

But, there you have it, Strawberry Bonbon by Ro Vie as best as my camera and skills will allow. I can say that this colour lasts – at least 8 hours; longer with primer. It doesn’t crease – sometimes a tiny bit, but one quick smudge with a finger and thats that, no more creasing all day. It looks good with blue eyes, it looks FANTASTIC with Ro Vie Blackcurrent Cream (with wet brush) as the liner with blue eyes, and think it would love equally good with brown and green eyes.

It costs $20 from Ro Vie, for a 5gm loose powder pot, and that should last about.. ooh.. 20 years, probably at the rate I wear makeup, but a LLOOONNNNGGG time for anyone! It’s a very soft and silky powder, and doesn’t fall under your eye when you are applying it.

You can also contact, read about, and admire Ro Vie cosmetics via their Facebook page, here. They often have special and sales, ‘like’ their page and keep up with the news! 🙂

Testers from Ro Vie Cosmetics.. exciting!

Ro Vie (formerly Ethique), recently had a give-away of testers – where you could order some (up to 5) and they would send it to you absolutely free.

Now, being the cultured classy person that I am, I leapt all over that like a frog on E.  This is what I ordered! Eyeshadows: Silver Sugar, Surage Almond, Strawberry Bonbon. Blusher: Pinkebelle, and Finale – there finishing/setting translucent face powder.

What was sent was:

Eyeshadows: Chocolate Butterscotch, Sugared Almond, Blackcurrent Cream, Strawberry Bonbon, Loveheart, and Chocolate Lime, and blushers Pinkerbelle and Razzleberry.

So, HEAPS more than I asked for, but missing a couple out that I did want. You can bet anything you like I won’t be complaining! I’ve only had a quick look so far, but I’m really super taken by Strawberry Bonbon – it has a duochrome flash! I’ll show swatches of the things I havent shown, later on. Watch this space …. 🙂

Ro Vie Cosmetics Eyeshadow: Blackcurrent Cream – Review and Swatch

Holy moly, talk about love at first sight.

Blurry - to show all the colours of the shimmer - and because I'm not too flash hot at taking photos.

I won this eyeshadow, as well as Loveheart which I have reviewed here, and man oh man I couldn’t be happier with it. Here it is, on my arm, no primer.

I was so happy with it that I even went out of my comfort zone to take some photos of it, on my actual eye! I know, brave!

This is my St Patricks Day eye makeup, I wanted something fairly bright and colourful, but not so much that the circus would roll up thinking I was a clown escapee.

This is Ro Vie Blackcurrent cream (as liner and in crease), Ro Vie Loveheart , and a $2 Shop eyepencil in green/teal colour in the corner of my eyelid. The underbrow colour is Dollface Satin, also acts as a base for the colours.

What do you think?

This is the only eyeshadow I have every had a out-of-the-blue compliment on… its very pretty, shimmery without being glittery or too ‘young’, can be strong OR soft, and really suits against the blue of my eyes. Goes so well with every colour I’ve used it with, green, khaki, gold, copper, and just on it’s own. It lasts really well, and doesn’t crease even a little bit. I really can’t recommend this highly enough, and think it would also look good for brown eyes, and exceptionally good on green!

Again, you can get it from the website here: http://shop.ethique.co.nz/, or talk to the lovely ladies on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/roviecosmetics. Price is $18 per eyeshadow – which will last a really, REALLY long time.

Ro Vie Cosmetics Eyeshadow: Loveheart – Review and Swatch

I won this eyeshadow as part of Ro Vie’s facebook page promotion – they run a Fan Of The Week where they pick a name at random, and you get an eyeshadow of your choice. Oh, yes, please! Yay! This one I won back in January, when they were still Ethique, but in the process of rebranding to Ro Vie and focusing on the mineral makeup line.

And here it is!

Click to enlarge to see the shimmer! 🙂

Their website describes it as “Pale berry fruit coloured shadow perfect for warming any look. Very feminine pink- totally romantic.”. And that’s pretty accurate, although I found it an almost coral based deep pink with tan tones, which sounds like it should be startlingly wrong but is just so right.

on bare skin - no primer 🙂

You can use it as a sheer wash of colour, and just head on out the door, or you can intensify it with water or repeated application to a gorgeous not-at-all neutral shade. It really beautifully sets off other colours, too – I’ll post a photo of that later if I get brave enough!

It lasts a long time, doesn’t crease, and would work with just about any skin tone and eye colour. You can see it on their website (http://shop.ethique.co.nz/the-eyes-have-it/) or check them out on Facebook. $18 per eyeshadow, a 5 gm loose pottle. Heaps, in other words! And as always, Ro Vie do not test on animals, use natural and neutral + safe products, and are based in Christchurch, NZ.

Ro Vie (formerly Ethique) eyeshadow review: Pop Rocks & Chocolate Butterscotch

I mentioned in my last post on the Ethique eyeshadow that Ethique are changing their name and product direction: here is the news!  Ethique Elements (the previous mineral makeup line name) are now Ro Vie Cosmetics – focused on the makeup range. Here are two of their eyeshadows – these ones are pressed powders, not loose.

 

Chocolate Butterscotch on left, Pop Rocks on right

 

*Pop Rocks – a highly shimmery blue/silver colour. Almost a slate crossed with periwinkle blue, if that makes any sense? Brie from Ethique sent this to me with another order – and it is stunning. By all laws of nature it shouldn’t suit me – I have blue eyes, and we all know that blue eyeshadow + blue eyes = horrifying psychedelic 70’s flashback, right? Wrong! Wahooo! The page for this shadow (http://shop.ethique.co.nz/products/Pop-Rocks.html )  mentions that pairing this with a warmer base is good for blue eyes. And she’s right. I use this with a subtle light pink or light brown/gold colour, and just touch this from the inner edge of my eyelid – to the center. And it really makes my eyes look bluer. Love it! It could be built up to a strong colour pretty easily, but I love the sheer wash of blue hue instead.

I also love the new containers – the mirror is a nice touch though I haven’t used it for fear I will shake my hand and turn into Glitter Smurf (yes, I’m likely to do that. My subconscious is EVIL.) I really like the way its not perfectly packed into the container too… gives it that lovely handcrafted appeal! Plus, this one is overfilled. MORE powder. I’m A-O.K with that.

 

Blurry photo, sorry, but you can see the shimmer!

The second shadow is Chocolate Butterscotch – and it’s as nice as it sounds. I won this through a facebook promotion, and it is gorgeous!  Basically, its a really glistening gold shade, with bronze tones to make it even more interesting. I can’t think of a skin tone this wouldn’t suit: it can be built up, used as a liner, I’ve used it as a highlight colour, add a touch to lip gloss, anything. Iwould absolutely recommend this shade!

While their website is undergoing upgrades, the best way to contact Brie and Elle at Ro Vie is through their Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/roviecosmetics. They have photos of all their makeup on there too.