1 Indie Makeup Loss, But Still Many Loves

I'm sorry for the lack of posts, but I I do have several in the works. I had gotten an email from a young lady who had read my previous FDA-and-cosmetics post, asking me specifically about UV-reactive AKA 'neons', and where on the face, some of them are, or are not, approved for safe use. So I am working on a follow-up that will be a bit long and detailed, but, in short, there are NO UV-reactive color additives/pigments approved by the FDA as safe for use on the eye area. I also plan to cover the need for proper labeling of glitter in cosmetics, including both the base material composition, and the color additives.

I am very slowly working my way through swatching my many indie lip product samples, and I do still need to get a daylight bulb, because sunlight gives me migraines and singes my pink skin, even with sunblock powder (still looking for a cream sunscreen/sunblock that does not have liquid silicones), & I think a DL bulb will reflect the colors more accurately. Hopefully I will soon be able to finish my pictures of things like Morgana Cryptoria's 1920s Lipstick Collection and some of her new pigmented lip balms; Dark Heart Designs Lip Slicks; and some more [redacted]. I'm also way behind in my swatching of glosses and pigmented balm from Darling Girl Cosmetics (if you are not allergic to nuts, Susan's pistachio-butter-based, un-tinted, vegan, flavored/sweetened Luscious Lip Balm is a-ma-zing!), as well as some Venomous Cosmetics Lip Poisons and Shiro Cosmetics Intertubes.

To help hold you over a little bit until I can do some full lip swatch posts, here are a just a few:

Miss Jupiter may have been discriminated against in the 1957 Miss Universe Pageant, but she's still got a product endorsement! Morgana Cryptoria's "Miss Jupiter" Lip Balm, taken with a flash:

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Someone in one of my online makeup groups mentioned that it was Miss Pluto who got shafted by having her planet downgraded, so if Stan Freberg or June Foray happen to come across this post, PLEASE consider making another sequel to Miss Jupiter with Miss Pluto!

[Edit, section redacted.]

At some point in the future, after I'm a bit more caught up with lip colors swatches, I'd also like to start posting semi-custom lip colors that I have made using lip-safe eyeshadow from places like Black Rose Minerals and Linnaeus Cosmetics, who both very clearly label which of their eyeshadows are lip-safe. This is Black Rose Minerals in "Bruised" mixed with New York Colors Lip Sliders Tinted Lip Balm in "Sugar Baby" (discontinued; I got mine at a local dollar store); taken with a flash:

If you haven't checked it out yet, Detrivore Cosmetics is having a sale until September 2nd, which includes: 10-for-$20 eyeshadows, 3-for-$10 blushes and face powders, as well as a set of 5 new gorgeous eyeshadow colors for $10. Distorria also has 2 new [liquid silicone-free] eye primers in white, and in black, for $5 each. Now, honestly, I've never had many issues with creasing with much of anything other than straight cream eyeshadow, so I've never had that problem with Detrivore Primer myself, but I have heard a couple people report creasing with the original. It does not have the 'slip' of most other primers, because it doesn't have liquid silicones, but that is a huge plus for me, because it's the one primer that does not give me cystic acne, and it is actually more 'sticky' like a base, so it holds the eyeshadow bits out of my allergy eyes. If you don't have issues with liquid silicones, and want something less sticky and with more slip, [suggestion redacted].

Last week there was a MonsterQuest marathon on the History Channel, and having an affinity for cryptozoology, in honor of it, I made this new eyeshadow swatch set and emoticon:

~ƪⱱ~ᴖ~ⱱ~~   <--------Quasi-Nessie

On a sad note, I will no longer feature any swatches from High Voltage Cosmetics. While I have not done reviews per se, the featuring of swatches infers a de facto condonation, which I can no longer support. There are many reasons for this, but some of the issues for me included; discovering the absence of some colorant ingredients that are obviously in some of the products, but were not printed in the ingredients lists (which I have been trying to kick myself for not noticing sooner, but my wheels make that kind of hard); product inconsistencies and shade misrepresentations; the inability to access most of my Ace High Club "perks"; possible contamination issues that caused mold to grow on a previously unopened HVC eye primer that belonged to another customer (and nothing in the ingredients list points towards anything that would promote the growth of mold in the unopened primer); as well as being misled as to the nature of some of the ingredients in HVC products. Here are posts from some other bloggers who have also withdrawn their support of HVC for a variety of reasons: 
Portrait of Mai: "Places I Won't Shop at Again: High Voltage Cosmetics" 
toxid-lotus: "I withdraw my support of High Voltage Cosmetics" 
karmicdreaming: "Why I will no longer support High Voltage Cosmetics" 
Ki and Makeup: "I no longer support High Voltage Cosmetics" 
kimmiekarmalove: "High Voltage Cosmetics F***ery" 
shatteredshards: "Glitter Hitting the Fan"

One resource that I have found very helpful in learning some of the red flags that may indicate that seller may be untrustworthy, is the GlitterSniffer Complaints blog. If you ever want to know how not to run a makeup company, read that blog from the beginning. They have also done excellent reporting on some indie companies who have been the victims of suppliers' ingredient mislabeling, and how they proactively dealt with the issues, in order to protect their customers, and are examples of how to run a MU company.

As frustrating and scary as it is to discover that I can no longer trust one indie company whose products I had put on my face, I am certainly not going to let that frighten me away from indie cosmetics in general. Heck, in this one post alone, I've listed 9 other indie companies who I feel do deserve my business. For any readers who might also have mild OCD ^ᴗᴥⱷ^, let me round it out to an even 10, by throwing in my favorite indie perfumery, and the creator of Black Magic Soap (which I have ordered 3 times already, but have still not yet gotten to try, due to two young male BMS addicts stalking my orders; each of whom had acne issues until the first time they used it, when their skin began to clear up almost overnight); One Hand Washes The Other

Jedi Anastasia's Mega Super Fun OHWTO review:

Lipsticks and Lightsabers: "Cleanliness Is Next To Godmoddiness" 08/15/2011 

Here are some YouTube video reviews of OHWTO:

kragey (aka @ReneesAnatomy):

"Review: 1 Hand Washes the Other"  08/06/2010

"OHWTO holiday perfumes + FOTD"  12/11/2010

ThePinkLadyJ:

"A Perfume Review of One Hand Washes The Other - Part 1"  03/03/2011

"A Perfume Review of One Hand Washes The Other - Part 2"  03/31/2011

"A Perfume Review of One Hand Washes The Other - Part 3"  04/27/2011

"Review: Black Magic Soap from One Hand Washes The Other"  05/06/2011

FTC: All products were bought by me with my own money, other than free samples made available in general to all customers. I have not received any compensation to mention any company, positively or negatively.

~Miss Jupiter, ^☼ᴥ☼^ Mascara Kitteh, and ~ƪⱱ~ᴖ~ⱱ~~ Quasi-Nessie

ETA: Swatch of  Venomous Cosmetics Lip Poison in "Hysteria"; taken with a flash:

ETA: All blog posts & videos were linked with permission. The indie companies were not; free PR, whether they want it, or not. <;-P