Impulse Cosmetics

I got some shadows and lipstick samples from Impulse in my SS gift, and I thought I'd start a thread for them here. I took some quick swatches of the shadows I got as requested by .

The swatches do not do these justice! They are so gorgeous and sparkly and the duochromes are gorgeous.

IT ROTATED MY PICTURES AGAIN. GAH. No matter how I take them, it rotates them in random directions. So infuriating. (AND EVEN ON THE ONES I TOOK LANDSCAPE...IT FLIPPED THEM UPSIDE DOWN. WHY?)



There they are dry, no primer. They are (not in order since it rotated my picture): Vendetta (pink and gold duochrome with gold sparkle), Damsel (pink with green duochrome), Sugarplum (pink and gold duochrome). 2nd row: Dragon Scales (green duochrome with red sparkle), Scramble(purple and teal duochrome), Ghouls Night Out (purple and red/pink duochrome with multi colored sparkles), Bottom: Valkyrie (black and green duochrome). 



Applied over primer with a slightly damp brush:  From right to left: Sugarplum, Damsel, Vendetta, Ghouls Night Out. 



Primer with a damp brush: From right to left: Scramble, Dragon Scales, Valkyrie (the last one is Valkyrie applied dry, I was trying to pick up the pretty.)

My phone will not pick up the awesome duochome in these, unfortunately. But they are SO gorgeous and I really want to wear them foiled!

Whoa, Dragon Scales is gorgeous!

sefkhet said:

Whoa, Dragon Scales is gorgeous!

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It really is...I wish I could get a picture to do it justice because it is stunning, and so is Valkyrie (they are similar in some ways but the greens are different!)

I think most people know Impulse for their lip products, but their shadows are gorgeous - I have yet to purchase one that has not been stunning. I will say it here, because this thread is specific for them, but I think Impulse does better duochromes than any other indie company I've tried. They are phenomenal.

They also do the amazing Transforma-Chrome glosses which basically make you lips, or any lipstick underneath, a duochrome. I am obsessed with mine.

I know a lot of people find the lipstick formulas difficult, but I have so many and a lot of tips and tricks to make application easier. I'd be happy to share!

Shalott said:

I think most people know Impulse for their lip products, but their shadows are gorgeous - I have yet to purchase one that has not been stunning. I will say it here, because this thread is specific for them, but I think Impulse does better duochromes than any other indie company I've tried. They are phenomenal.

They also do the amazing Transforma-Chrome glosses which basically make you lips, or any lipstick underneath, a duochrome. I am obsessed with mine.

I know a lot of people find the lipstick formulas difficult, but I have so many and a lot of tips and tricks to make application easier. I'd be happy to share!

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Yeah, the duochromes are really different than anything else I own! I'd seen/lusted over the lipsticks and never really even realized they did shadows, too, but these are amazing! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

And  @Shalott please share your tips and tricks (and swatches if you want??) of your lipsticks and anything here! I haven't played with mine yet. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Ooh, now these are fun. I admit I'm a little embarrassed -- Impulse is new to me too, and I mostly went with them so I could get you lipsticks as well as eyeshadows, and I was trying to pick out things that would be light/dark so that you could combine them together, so I thought Dragon Scales would be much lighter based on the swatches they provided. I know there was a little controversy based on their swatching, which I found on reddit only after I made the purchase but then again, it's reddit... (as I saw we were discussing in the Amoraleigh thread >_&gt

Shalott said:

I think most people know Impulse for their lip products, but their shadows are gorgeous - I have yet to purchase one that has not been stunning. I will say it here, because this thread is specific for them, but I think Impulse does better duochromes than any other indie company I've tried. They are phenomenal.

They also do the amazing Transforma-Chrome glosses which basically make you lips, or any lipstick underneath, a duochrome. I am obsessed with mine.

I know a lot of people find the lipstick formulas difficult, but I have so many and a lot of tips and tricks to make application easier. I'd be happy to share!

Click to expand...

See, now this is interesting to me. I didn't know that even though I spent so much time looking through their lipsticks. I actually was thinking about getting you (@yousoldtheworld) these lip glosses which I think are very similar: http://biohazardousbeauty.blogspot.com/2013/07/product-review-jesses-girl-glowstix.html (only $5 a pop at Rite Aid!) But you seemed a little lukewarm on lipgloss and also they didn't have safety seals so I was a little concerned

Also, the TAT is definitely amazing. They said 3-5 business days, and kept that promise even with a massive influx of BF orders. So I'm very impressed! I definitely want to pick out a few things for myself...

Dragon Scales looks darker in photos than it does in real life! It's definitely darker than it looks in the container, though! And it's a lot prettier than it looks in my crappy swatches!

These shades actually transform a lot as you blend them out, they look different patted on vs. blended out, it's really cool!

yousoldtheworld said:

And  @Shalott please share your tips and tricks (and swatches if you want??) of your lipsticks and anything here! I haven't played with mine yet. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

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I have a huge master list of swatches with all of my Impulse Lipsticks, and I've gotten more since then that I can swatch and post as well.

The biggest problem I hear is that the formula is too dry - since they make the lipsticks in batches sometimes one might be drier than the next, so if something is specifically difficult I can get into my stash and see what I do with the color that matches that problem, if that makes sense? On average though, I have found the easiest way to combat dryness is to apply with the fingers, and then clean up with a lip brush. It really helps with the darker colors, which are the ones that I have issues with the most.

Regarding the Impulse lip swatches - I have never found that any of my light to deep colors vary from the swatches any more than any other company's lipstick swatch online. The very dark colors, however, are a bit patchy and don't apply smooth. I do think that they swatches for the darkest colors can lead to disappointment when you try to reproduce those colors - but if you accept the color for what it is, you can get some really impressive shades.

None of the shadows I have purchased have ever been misrepresented in the swatches/descriptions on the site. I would venture to say this is because different people do the lip swatches and the shadow swatches, and the woman who does the lip swatches is a real pro at making them look flawless, which just isn't real life.

Anyways, hope that helped and I will get the est of the lipsticks swatched and I will put those swatches on here. I have like... 75% of their lip catalog so hopefully it will make choosing colors easier!

ETA: Whew that post is messy. Hope it all makes sense!

I hate to be the Debbie Downer here, but I think it's worth it to have some of this information to make more educated buying decisions. Impulse Cosmetics stole some photos from Fyrinnae for their product images as seen here: http://www.portraitofmai.com/2013/11/cosmetic-companies-and-problem-with.html There are a few more customer testimonials here: http://indiemakeupandmore.forumotion.com/t67-impulse-cosmetics

I have heard many people received lipsticks that looked nothing like the website photos, and some who have had to bug them to get their products with less than stellar customer service responses, or no response. After all this, I just refuse to buy from them. Just wanted to give a heads up, since there are so many great indie companies, and it can be hard to find out which ones are the ones that have done questionable things in the past.

Kelly Silva said:

I hate to be the Debbie Downer here, but I think it's worth it to have some of this information to make more educated buying decisions. Impulse Cosmetics stole some photos from Fyrinnae for their product images as seen here: http://www.portraitofmai.com/2013/11/cosmetic-companies-and-problem-with.html There are a few more customer testimonials here: http://indiemakeupandmore.forumotion.com/t67-impulse-cosmetics

I have heard many people received lipsticks that looked nothing like the website photos, and some who have had to bug them to get their products with less than stellar customer service responses, or no response. After all this, I just refuse to buy from them. Just wanted to give a heads up, since there are so many great indie companies, and it can be hard to find out which ones are the ones that have done questionable things in the past.

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I only learned about this after, and I agree it's a terrible thing to do. I come from 15 years of webdesign so I have particularly strong feelings about proprietary content and not stealing web content. I do think they should've issued an apology to fyrinnae, but otoh, what do you expect them to do to proceed? The owner already replaced the stolen swatch images with (hopefully) her own. Should she shut down her business?

Between her and Lime Crime, two makers of interesting non-traditional lipsticks (and Lime Crime being the non-apologist of racism and also person who puts beeswax in 'vegan' lipsticks) I'd rather still support Impulse.

I think you're right to highlight what they've done so people can make their own decisions about a company and if they should buy from them, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of this knee-jerk "no one should buy from them again" attitude. If LC gets to stay in business, I think can sleep at night that Impulse gets to stay in business too.

There is nothing wrong with having both sides of the issue, and I definitely agree that everyone needs to make their own purchasing decisions based on what information is available, but I feel like on this forum there is a lot of negativity towards Impulse that makes me uncomfortable to post the positive things about a company I like.

I too learned about the Fyrinnae thing after purchasing, but AFAIK, Impulse has removed the images (though whether there was an apology issued, I don't know) and like I mentioned before there ARE variations from swatch pictures and the real thing, just like there are anytime you buy lipstick based on swatches online. It is a gamble, and that disclaimer is given right on Impulse's website..

I know people dislike the brand, which is why I haven't talked about them much in the past but I feel badly that posting a positive opinion in a thread dedicated towards the company could be mistaken as misleading other members. I am not trying to gloss over the problems, I am simply discussing my personal experience, and to date that experience has been positive. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Nothing more.

And not to beat a dead horse, @@Kelly Silva, but actually if we're going to talk about indie companies (well, I feel like they're too large to really be indie at this point, but that's what THEY want to brand themselves as) that meet all the criteria you mentioned above, Julep does, actually. Though i'm not sure if you're still subscribed to them.

1) stealing swatches (and also removing the bloggers' watermarks): yeP It's gotten buried at this point, but there was some really nasty PR nightmare stuff for them at the beginning, plus messing up bloggers' referrals

http://www.thepolishaholic.com/2011/09/i-am-no-longer-julep-maven-this-is-why.html

Btw, they never apologized for that either.

2) colors not even be true to life from computer: we complain about this every month, I don't even need to cite it

3) having poor customer service/responses: especially to people who want to cancel

http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/Nail-polish-retailer-Julep-vows-to-polish-up-customer-service-275851891.html

4) and if we want to add racism to the mix!: photoshopping skin colors from the polishes.

They gave a reasonable explanation that it would take too long to do all of them, so fine, but I'm pretty sure the only reason no one really used the "R" word is because Jane Park is also a somewhat dark WOC

I mean, I'm not really bothered by this considering. I'm just sayin' --  I still subscribe to and buy Julep, but I complain about Julep too. Nor do I think it invalidates people's concerns about Julep, current and past. Sometimes there are shades of grey, and Impulse has not done anything so egregious, to me, that I would not do business with them ever again

(FWIW I did email them, and it took 4 days to get a response, then I never got a second response. But I got my order shipped in 3 days and everything was safely packaged. so IDK)

Mistakes happen. Definitely doesn't seem as egregious as the crap Limecrime pulls. I'd definitely give them a try, because Dragon Scales just looks absolutely gorgeous. :wub:   

All your points are valid. I just wanted to let people know so they could make the decision for themselves. I do subscribe to Julep, but I haven't taken a box in months. There's nothing wrong with liking the company. I just want people to have as much information as possible before deciding if they would like to buy from a company. I personally will not though.

Kelly Silva said:

All your points are valid. I just wanted to let people know so they could make the decision for themselves. I do subscribe to Julep, but I haven't taken a box in months. There's nothing wrong with liking the company. I just want people to have as much information as possible before deciding if they would like to buy from a company. I personally will not though.

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I agree with this. I think we should be sharing the good AND the bad, even if everyone doesn't agree if a company is a good company to support or not.

Oh heck. I think everyone complains about some brand that they still shop from. I've been complaining about MAC (not indie but the first example that came to mind) since I was in high school yet I still buy from them, like some kind of addict. <_<

I think the sticking point is that despite the fact that Impulse has rectified their appropriation of the images, and that there are clear disclaimers that product swatches are not always going to be identical to the colors that you receive (heck, if this were the case they'd have to re-swatch with every batch!) these sticking points are brought up over and over again as to why a person shouldn't shop from the company.

Now, like I said, I avoid Reddit like the plague so I can't speak for what goes on there, but from what I see here, no other indie company is treated that way. Yes, I complained about my problems with Debaucherous, and everyone knows Victorian Disco was a whole hot mess, but I've never seen anyone say "so that's why you shouldn't shop with them". But that is what is indirectly being said about Impulse Cosmetics, and as someone who likes the company and the products it sucks, because I want to share my enjoyment with others who have liked what they received.

If I can't do that because no one else likes them, that is fine. Everyone has to make up their own mind and there is nothing wrong with offering a different side of the story.

My point is, I feel like coming into the company's thread and making a point to post the negative is a little discouraging for me, at least, especially when I didn't see that in any other brand-specific thread. Even Aromaleigh is full of people defending her, and although I don't know the whole story I have gathered that she had some problems as well. And now I've rambled, and I apologize if anything was hurtful - I just want to state my honest feelings.

I like hearing the good and the bad. I have no experience with impulse's actual product (I made an order, they cancelled it due to an error on my side with my paypal email not matching my email I put in the site, I questioned it, they refunded me promptly. No complaints about customer service) but I do think it's beneficial for people to post their opinions, good or bad. Then people can make an informed decision on whether or not they want to order. I like hearing it all!