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amatyultareETA I posted a better picture, so go look at the Super Effective Expansion pic again! :)
Holy crap, heat wave. I like warm weather, really I do, but I don't like feeling like I'm stepping into a sauna every time I go outside.
But that's not why I started this post. The point of this post is: makeup geekiness.
The other day, I referred to myself as "a bit of a makeup geek" to a friend. His half-incredulous response was, "makeup geek?". Which, okay, touché.
But...you know, I think we're getting to the point where 'geek' means pretty much what 'otaku' means in Japan, thought perhaps with less of a negative connotation; it simply refers to someone who isobsessed very interested in a particular topic. After all, one of the biggest websites for makeup aficionados is Makeup Geek. And in any case, there's a lot of crossover between makeup and more traditionally geeky things, like MAC's upcoming Disney villains collection (I also still have the mailer from MAC's Hello Kitty collection) and makeup artists who do looks based on Portal and Captain America (scroll down to the bottom on both pages to see the looks).
And then there's the Super Effective Collection, which I mentioned a while back. An eyeshadow collection based on Pokemon? I wavered for weeks and finally broke down and bought the sample set the weekend before PortCon.
You have to understand, it wasn't just that the collection was based on Pokemon. It was the fact that the owner says cheerfully that she was considering calling her company 'In Another Castle Cosmetics' before deciding the reference was a tad obscure and settling on Shiro Cosmetics (since Shiro is the Japanese word for castle). Also, I had heard great things about Caitlin's customer service, and the colors themselves looked lovely.
Let me say a word about the customer service. I ordered the sample set on Saturday, June 19th, at around 10:30 PM EDT. Less than six hours later, I got an email from Caitlin saying that she was waiting for Google to release my money (I purchased through Google Shop or whatever it's called) but would ship my order as soon as they did. Now granted, she's on the west coast, but that still means she sent me a personal, non-form email about my order at midnight on a Saturday night. She then emailed me at 12:30 AM Monday morning (about 9:30 Sunday night, her time) to let me know my order was packed and would ship out the next morning, and giving me the tracking number. The package went out on Monday and was delivered on Thursday...in time for me to pick it up and wear it for most of PortCon. :) If that's not awesome customer service, I don't know what is.
So, the eyeshadows. I randomly got the idea to do swatches for y'all, to show what pretty colors they all are. Unfortunately, I made a few minor miscalculations:
1. I decided this after the sun went down, therefore no natural light.
2. I was using the camera I borrowed from work for PCM (not that I ended up taking any pictures), which is an okay but not great camera.
3. I was using the 'scenery' setting instead of the 'close things' setting, which I didn't realize until I had started uploading the pictures and had already washed the swatches off my arm.
4. I'm actually not that great at taking clear photos. At all. The pictures are, in fact, super-blurry.
I almost posted my swatches anyway, because I'm stubborn, but then I looked at them and they were basically smears of color. Sadface. Go look at Phyrra's swatches instead, as she did a great job. Or even just check out Shiro Cosmetic's website; her pictures and descriptions are pretty accurate. I love pretty much all of the colors, and especially lust after Squirtle, Pikachu (yellow with red sparks, AMAZING), S.S. Anne, and all of the purple shades.
I am going to post the swatches of the two additional samples that Caitlin sent me, which Phyrra didn't seem to get - they're part of the Super Effective Expansion, which are being released on the company's Etsy site but not on the 'official' website yet. ETA After Julie told me flat out that my picture was horrible (and oh, it was) I re-swatched and took another set of pictures with the correct camera settings, which, who knew, makes a difference! So this picture is better than the first one, though still not great.
Still not a great picture, but certainly an improvement on the original. Anyway, Sudowoodo is not currently up on Etsy, which makes me sad; it's a gorgeous cool brown with grey undertones, like petrified wood, maybe? Which is entirely appropriate for Sudowoodo. Butterfree is a lovely shimmery lavender that I adore, because I've never met a purple eyeshadow that I didn't like. Also, going on the Etsy website was a bad idea as it reminded me of how much I want Shaymin and Rattata. (As Caitlin says, possibly the first Pokemon you ever caught, Rattata is... well, kind of boring, actually. Until it learns Super Fang. Then it's TOTALLY AWESOME, just like this color.)
I actually recommend you go to Shiro Cosmetics website and read all the product descriptions, but maybe that's because anything that combines makeup talk and Pokemon talk is awesome in my eyes. I particularly like her 'flavor text' for Zubat:
I hate Zubat. You're just trying to make your way through the crazy-long cave, and your Pokemon are at half-health and poisoned, and you still have a couple more trainers to go but the exit is almost in sight, and you know you can make it! But then a wild Zubat appears and uses Supersonic and you can't escape and AUGH I HATE YOU ZUBAT
(it's a pretty color though)
See? Makeup geekery and just plain geekery, all in one place! I love Shiro Cosmetics already.
That turned out much more tl;dr that I had intended. Short version? The Super Effective Collection is awesome and I <3 it, and I think this post qualifies me for makeup geekery automatically. And now, I should be getting to bed. Next time, a PortCon 2010 roundup! Maybe!
Holy crap, heat wave. I like warm weather, really I do, but I don't like feeling like I'm stepping into a sauna every time I go outside.
But that's not why I started this post. The point of this post is: makeup geekiness.
The other day, I referred to myself as "a bit of a makeup geek" to a friend. His half-incredulous response was, "makeup geek?". Which, okay, touché.
But...you know, I think we're getting to the point where 'geek' means pretty much what 'otaku' means in Japan, thought perhaps with less of a negative connotation; it simply refers to someone who is
And then there's the Super Effective Collection, which I mentioned a while back. An eyeshadow collection based on Pokemon? I wavered for weeks and finally broke down and bought the sample set the weekend before PortCon.
You have to understand, it wasn't just that the collection was based on Pokemon. It was the fact that the owner says cheerfully that she was considering calling her company 'In Another Castle Cosmetics' before deciding the reference was a tad obscure and settling on Shiro Cosmetics (since Shiro is the Japanese word for castle). Also, I had heard great things about Caitlin's customer service, and the colors themselves looked lovely.
Let me say a word about the customer service. I ordered the sample set on Saturday, June 19th, at around 10:30 PM EDT. Less than six hours later, I got an email from Caitlin saying that she was waiting for Google to release my money (I purchased through Google Shop or whatever it's called) but would ship my order as soon as they did. Now granted, she's on the west coast, but that still means she sent me a personal, non-form email about my order at midnight on a Saturday night. She then emailed me at 12:30 AM Monday morning (about 9:30 Sunday night, her time) to let me know my order was packed and would ship out the next morning, and giving me the tracking number. The package went out on Monday and was delivered on Thursday...in time for me to pick it up and wear it for most of PortCon. :) If that's not awesome customer service, I don't know what is.
So, the eyeshadows. I randomly got the idea to do swatches for y'all, to show what pretty colors they all are. Unfortunately, I made a few minor miscalculations:
1. I decided this after the sun went down, therefore no natural light.
2. I was using the camera I borrowed from work for PCM (not that I ended up taking any pictures), which is an okay but not great camera.
3. I was using the 'scenery' setting instead of the 'close things' setting, which I didn't realize until I had started uploading the pictures and had already washed the swatches off my arm.
4. I'm actually not that great at taking clear photos. At all. The pictures are, in fact, super-blurry.
I almost posted my swatches anyway, because I'm stubborn, but then I looked at them and they were basically smears of color. Sadface. Go look at Phyrra's swatches instead, as she did a great job. Or even just check out Shiro Cosmetic's website; her pictures and descriptions are pretty accurate. I love pretty much all of the colors, and especially lust after Squirtle, Pikachu (yellow with red sparks, AMAZING), S.S. Anne, and all of the purple shades.
I am going to post the swatches of the two additional samples that Caitlin sent me, which Phyrra didn't seem to get - they're part of the Super Effective Expansion, which are being released on the company's Etsy site but not on the 'official' website yet. ETA After Julie told me flat out that my picture was horrible (and oh, it was) I re-swatched and took another set of pictures with the correct camera settings, which, who knew, makes a difference! So this picture is better than the first one, though still not great.
Still not a great picture, but certainly an improvement on the original. Anyway, Sudowoodo is not currently up on Etsy, which makes me sad; it's a gorgeous cool brown with grey undertones, like petrified wood, maybe? Which is entirely appropriate for Sudowoodo. Butterfree is a lovely shimmery lavender that I adore, because I've never met a purple eyeshadow that I didn't like. Also, going on the Etsy website was a bad idea as it reminded me of how much I want Shaymin and Rattata. (As Caitlin says, possibly the first Pokemon you ever caught, Rattata is... well, kind of boring, actually. Until it learns Super Fang. Then it's TOTALLY AWESOME, just like this color.)
I actually recommend you go to Shiro Cosmetics website and read all the product descriptions, but maybe that's because anything that combines makeup talk and Pokemon talk is awesome in my eyes. I particularly like her 'flavor text' for Zubat:
I hate Zubat. You're just trying to make your way through the crazy-long cave, and your Pokemon are at half-health and poisoned, and you still have a couple more trainers to go but the exit is almost in sight, and you know you can make it! But then a wild Zubat appears and uses Supersonic and you can't escape and AUGH I HATE YOU ZUBAT
(it's a pretty color though)
See? Makeup geekery and just plain geekery, all in one place! I love Shiro Cosmetics already.
That turned out much more tl;dr that I had intended. Short version? The Super Effective Collection is awesome and I <3 it, and I think this post qualifies me for makeup geekery automatically. And now, I should be getting to bed. Next time, a PortCon 2010 roundup! Maybe!