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@@Kelly Silva Man, what I would give for more hours! I've got a note up saying I'll take ANY unwanted shifts with my number. Hopefully that will get me some more, but I have to watch my phone like a hawk which drives me a little bonkers. Haha. Thanks for the advice. I'll get some numbers from people I'm cool with and say if they ever feel like taking a day off, I'll cover for them as long as they give me at least an hour's notice. 

Oooh, bring on the swatches! I want to see some pretties!

 
Glad to know I don't need a specific base. Maybe I'll hold off for now. I have nars and UD primers, UD glitter glue, and fix+ so maybe I'll try those first with pigments and glitter and see how they work, then just adjust if I need to.

And yay swatches thank you!

 
You girls have totally given me some new companies to check out! Thank you. I can't wait for my pretties to show up! Ive recently gotten interested in pressing loose shadows. Does anyone here press their own shadows? Id love to see them. I'm intimidated to try it but It seems like a fun new hobby :) Here are all my incoming pretties from Geek Chic and Shiro!
IMG_05821.JPG

 
@ Is there a pressing medium you're planning on using? There are some people who pressed with glycerin and/or jojoba oil who have had issues with mold growing in the shadow pans. I originally wanted to press shadows (specifically The Painted Flowers collection by Hello Waffle so I could decorate a customized palette), but the molding and shelf-life after pressing turned me from it.

I think TKB Trading has a pressing medium and they also sell a preservative which can extend the life of pressed shadows (which is 2 years? I think).

Also, I also own The Hobbit Collection (Shiro) and The Fellowship Collection (Geek Chic) - I approve.

 
chibimorph said:
@ Is there a pressing medium you're planning on using? There are some people who pressed with glycerin and/or jojoba oil who have had issues with mold growing in the shadow pans. I originally wanted to press shadows (specifically The Painted Flowers collection by Hello Waffle so I could decorate a customized palette), but the molding and shelf-life after pressing turned me from it.

I think TKB Trading has a pressing medium and they also sell a preservative which can extend the life of pressed shadows (which is 2 years? I think).

Also, I also own The Hobbit Collection (Shiro) and The Fellowship Collection (Geek Chic) - I approve.
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I was thinking about going the TKB route as I can get a complete kit and the supplies there as well as playing around with mixing my own shades. I am only beginning to research and haven't heard much about the mold issue so thank you for bringing that up!

And thanks! I'm a total Tolkien elfy chick.<3 (the other half is on the edgy goth side so I cover all my bases haha)

 
@ Cool! Also, certain ingredients don't press well (things high in oxides (this is difficult to assess), ferric ferrocyanide, and ultramarines) - so you may want to look for blog posts of people who have pressed the specific shades you have to see if it works out well.

Yeah, the molding is something to be careful about - the issue is mostly with water retention. For example, pressing with glycerin can be an issue because it's a humectant (the purpose is to attract water). Also make sure to let the alcohol/ethanol you use evaporate completely - although 70% is the best ethanol percentage to clean/sanitize surfaces, 90% is good for pressing because it evaporates fast and completely (which is one of the reasons why it's not a good sanitizer). So before you press, sanitize the surface you're working on and make sure the pans are completely clean (you can use 70% ethanol or isopropyl alcohol), but if you can - press with 90% alcohol (although 70% should be fine as well as long as you stay patient and let it evaporate completely).

 
Neat! Thank you for the info, it is very valued. I found a few people online who have pressed the Shiro There and Back Again collection but Ill keep doing my research for sure. I enjoy the chemistry aspect of makeup composition and do prefer pressed shadows over loose. Finding a way to keep the indie quality without excess chemicals is super up my ally! I don't mind being patient, if I can wait for monthly beauty subs I can wait for pressed shadows! haha

 
I believe essential oils can be used for pressing. As well as high proof vodka. Might want to look up some specifics on that one, but these would be mold preventative pressing mediums so I thought I'd mention them.

 
Sorry to disagree :blush:   (I hate doing this...)

But essential oils probably won't work as a good pressing medium/binder because they lack humectant properties (which is what allows the powder of a loose eyeshadow to stick together) - hence, people use glycerin and jojoba oil as binders (both of which are natural humectants) (that being said, I don't believe just because something is "natural" is better...). Also, depending on the essential oil, I don't think it's recommended they be used around the eyes.

Vodka's anti-mold properties are the exact same as that of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol (since the alcohol property of vodka is ethanol...) - all of these kill mold; it's not so much the mold that is the issue but the spores (none of these are effective at inactivating spores (think of spores as fungus seeds)). Also, vodka has more stuff in it than the ethanol you can buy at a drugstore.

 
@@chibimorph I don't really know if they work or not because I've personally never tried to press makeup.I read it on one of my favorite wellness and beauty blogs back when I started making my own foundation and she does it regularly. I like powder just fine, so I never did it. They aren't the nice, perfect, commercial presses, but they make the product hold together a bit from what it looks like. Here's the link if you want to check it out.

You could be totally right. I have seen people use essential oils and vodka to repair broken compacts before, so I just thought it would be good to mention. And you are totally right about essential oils being used around the eyes, but a drop for a whole pressed piece would probably not be too bad. Or if you diluted it with carrier oil. It would still bear the properties of the essential oil; here meaning it would be antifungal, antimicrobal, and antibacterial. But, as I just said I really have no clue about pressing makeup. This was just some stuff I'd read a few places. I'll look up some more info.

 
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Ok ladies here is the first group of swatches from my Impulse collection. These are all of my more "wearable" red and pink tones.

A couple of things I want to mention: I think I have said it before, but in my experience the lighter/more wearable colors tend to be creamier and easier to apply than the darker/more unique colors. You will definitely see what I mean in the swatches.

Also Dahlia and Run Away were applied with my finger, since I have them as part of a lip palette. They other three were applied straight from the tube, with no emulsifying. (Again, you'll see what I mean in later swatches.) On me, Dahlia and Run Away are very true to what you see here (Run Away is slightly darker, more berry than pink), and although Storque and Metro look very similar, Storque is much more on the orchid side (again, a dupe for LC's Airborne Unicorn) and Metro is very similar to MAC's Saint Germain, but I think Metro may be a tad lighter. Ever After is one of my faves, in my collection I don't have anything similar. It is pretty versatile and can pull to the peach or pink side depending on your skin tone. For me it pulls pinky-nude.

reds.png


 
@@pokeballssohard I think using essential oil and alcohol would probably compact the powder a little, but it'll probably loosen up quickly with use and time. Otherwise, I really don't know if essential oils can work as an anti-fungal in eyeshadow. I did a very brief search through PubMed, and there are some vague articles about efficacy against specific fungal species but I really don't know.

Commercial loose shadows/pigments actually already have binder in them - so that's why when people press MAC pigments they only need alcohol - the binder is already in the product (same with fixing mainstream pressed products that shatter - there's already a binder in the product).

As an FYI, this may be a good time to point out - there are a lot of indie companies that sell repackaged micas as eyeshadows. Most (if not all) indie companies make their shadows by mixing various micas together (for the color) and other things (?), including a binder (not the same kind for pressing; this kind is what allows the shadows to adhere to skin) like carnauba wax or kaolin clay. If you see an eyeshadow listing with ingredients that are only mineral (as what you would see in a mica), then it's time to be suspicious (or if ingredient listings across different eyeshadows within a brand are inconsistent - specifically in the binder they use).

 
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@@chibimorph Yeah, that sounds about right on the binding issue. In the Wellness Mama pic it just gave her compact a general shape, not so much of a clean press. Also makes sense for the non-indie powders being pressed with just alcohol. I do still think essential oils could help with fighting mold and bacteria. They are often used to help preserve handmade beauty products, and have been used as a disinfectant in natural salves and topical medicines for hundreds of years. The only issue is, I'm not sure how long the antifungal/antibacterial effects would last in a pressed compact. Could be forever, could have a shelf life. I'd have to research that.

And thanks for the heads up on the skin-binding ingredients. I would have never guessed that purely mineral ingredients could be a bad sign. :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

@@Shalott Uggh, so pretty! I picked Space Cadet over Storque because I want a truly lilac lip color, but that one is still gorgeous. I love them all!

 
Shalott said:
Ok ladies here is the first group of swatches from my Impulse collection. These are all of my more "wearable" red and pink tones.

A couple of things I want to mention: I think I have said it before, but in my experience the lighter/more wearable colors tend to be creamier and easier to apply than the darker/more unique colors. You will definitely see what I mean in the swatches.

Also Dahlia and Run Away were applied with my finger, since I have them as part of a lip palette. They other three were applied straight from the tube, with no emulsifying. (Again, you'll see what I mean in later swatches.) On me, Dahlia and Run Away are very true to what you see here (Run Away is slightly darker, more berry than pink), and although Storque and Metro look very similar, Storque is much more on the orchid side (again, a dupe for LC's Airborne Unicorn) and Metro is very similar to MAC's Saint Germain, but I think Metro may be a tad lighter. Ever After is one of my faves, in my collection I don't have anything similar. It is pretty versatile and can pull to the peach or pink side depending on your skin tone. For me it pulls pinky-nude.

reds.png
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Am I the only one who can't see this image?  :( /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I tried it on three different browsers. 

I want to see the pretties!

 
@ Tell me if you see this one, please? If so I will edit the previous post!

Okay, so these are all of my more nude/brown/orange toned "wearable" colors. Again, a couple of notes. The two Metaluxe colors are also in my palette, and so were applied with my finger. If it seems like Infatuation is very sheer - you're right. It is the most sheer of all the Impulse lipsticks I own, barely more than gold shift over a sheer pinky base. Texas Tea is a true copper, very nice for layering or wearing on it's own in the fall. Both of the Metaluxe colors are very creamy, more so than the majority of the Opaque Matte colors. Since I only have the two, I don't know if this is the case for all of that particular formulation.

The other three look a bit messy because of the way Impulse lipsticks are packaged. They are tube-style, not bullets, so they don't wear evenly on me. I couldn't get a 100% even application and so I had to go over them a bit with my finger. This is the case with most of the more patchy colors, hence the emulsifying I mentioned earlier. You'll see it most clearly in my last set of swatches.

As for the colors, Semi-Sweet is entirely too pale for me. I am an extremely fair-skinned person to begin with, and Semi-Sweet makes me look dead when it is on. Depending on your monitor color settings you may not be able to distinguish it from my arm. :/ Like I mentioned, Impulse's swatches tend to look darker than they are in real life. Moon Rocks is a nice, warm-toned nude and Electric City is my favorite of all the colors I own. The lighting isn't doing it justice - it is a very bright orange.



 
@@Shalott Must be something weird going on with my computer..pulled it up on my phone & I can see it! :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />  [thank you so much for reposting for me though!]

I need to add Storque to my wish list! 

 
Not sure if they're really considered Indie or not, but Sweetpea & Fay is another favorite of mine. Obsessed with their liquid lipsticks!  :wub:

They have lots of fun colors & they're crazy pigmented. You only need a teeny tiny bit of product!

http://www.sweetpeaandfay.com/#!j'adores

 

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