Review: Portland Black Lipstick Company + GIVEAWAY WINNER

I'm a lipstick woman. All colors, formulas, brands... I'm not too picky. I see a shade I like, I buy it... it's very simple. That being said, I stumbled across some bee-yoo-ti-ful lipstick swatches a few weeks ago on Portrait of Mai, and fell in instant lust with all things Portland Black Lipstick Company. The swatches were so unique, so creamy, and soooooo pigmented that I HAD to head on over to their website to cop a few of my own. After much back and forth about what colors I wanted, I ended up placing an order for 8 lipstick samples, in an attempt to try out the brand for myself and narrow down what shades would suit me best before I made a full size purchase.

Now, there are 22 lipstick shades currently offered in the line, that run for only $10 a pop! That's certainly affordable. And honestly, the color payoff you get from these bad boys are better than a lot of the "popluar/it" brands that are on the tongues of the masses nowadays. And being an indie company, the customer service you get is great. I was very pleased with the ease of ordering, and the personable communication that was provided. I even received an email from the owner Kim letting me know my order had shipped (got it in 2 days!!!), apologizing for an overlooked inquiry AND giving me a very helpful and unexpected tip regarding carmine allergies. You can tell that she, and the staff of Portland Black really have a passion for their craft... and the extra samples that were included in my order were great!

Now more about the actual products I ordered. I found that they were all very creamy, absolutely non-drying, and had excellent slip and adhesion. All of the shades I ordered, with the exception of Lux et Voluptas, offered full coverage in one swipe. Some of the samples had small bits of unmixed pigment in them, but it wasn't a biggie, and they blended into the lipstick easily with the help of the lip brush I was using. While I truly LOVE all the colors I picked up (so much for the narrowing down lol), I have to say I was more partial to the application and wear of the flatter shades (the ones without any/much shimmer or metallics). My favorites in the bunch were This Corrosion, Blood Red and Artificial Amethyst.

Overall, I have nothing but good things to say about my first purchase from Portland Black Lipstick Co. and am looking forward to trying out the rest of their shades and their various glitters/powders. If you're into full coverage and unique  yet wearable shades, then I'd strongly suggest you head over to Portland Black Lipstick Company and check out all they have to offer.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

And last but not least, the winner of the 30 Eyeshadow Rainbow Palette Giveway is...  ANN RAYE! Congratulations, I'll be emailing your shortly. 

Where've you been????

I know it's been a little bit since I've done a post, but life has been running me ragged! But I did want to take some time and talk about a few items I've been testing recently that I may or may not do in depth posts on.

FIRST! I've been experimenting with mixing and pressing my own pigments/micas from TKB Trading. I have to say I am VERY impressed with their selection and quality. I've researched and watched videos for  months prior to placing and order just to get a feel for the whole process, and I'm in love! The ability to custom make your shadows is so appealing to me, and I also have gotten pretty good at pressing them.  I purchased the sample sizes (which are HUGE!!!) and have not yet run out. I decided to go the TKB way, rather than CS because they have the tin pans (which fit into MAC and ELF pans AND require NO MAGNET) which take less time and provide less bulk when preparing your shadows. I ended up with about 20 colors to start and will be going back for more in the future.

Now, being the foundation junkie that I am, I  recently went back to an old trusty (BOOTS No. 7 Anti Aging foundation in Walnut 45)... and I now remember WHY I love this foundation so much. You get great coverage & a good color selection for reasonable prices! I also tried one of their plumping lipsticks, and they're ok. Color took some building, but it's not drying at all. You get quite a bit for the $9 price tag.

SIDE NOTE: Rimmel Match Perfection in Natural Caramel- Me likey! (even though I need a little CS color corrector to make it perfect!) It's a good stand in for now.

I also was able to try a few items by Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, but I'll have to do a full post on that later.

Just wanted to do a quick "I'm not dead" post  LOL  and see what's been new with you all?

TTYL,
Miss Brina

Aromaleigh haul + swatches pt.1

OH DANG!!! My Aromaleigh vault order came in the mail today & I just about lost my damn mind when I got my hands on these beautiful pigments that I ordered LOL As most of you know by now, Aromaleigh has closed down shop, but before they did.... one helluva sale ensued!!! Now, I'd purchased samples from the company before, and LOVED them, but I'm more of a collector than a user... I'm trying to be better about it. So in all honesty, I've never bought a full sized pigment from ANY company regardless of how much I liked them because I didn't really know what to do with them, but they were selling their full sized pigments for $3.50 and $2.75 A PIECE!!!! WTF! I'd have to be a dummy to not get in there and do a little bit of damage.

Now, this is titled pt.1 for a reason, as I have another order with the company coming within the next few weeks containing pigments from their reg. line/collections... swatches and reviews to come ASAP. In this shipment, I got 8 pigments from the WONDERSTRUCK, SPELLS, & MYTHOS collections... and after receiving my order, I'm pretty pissed that I didn't order more and duplicates.

The colors I picked up were (in order of appearance on the pics):

1st pic:Pass the Tarts, Mimsy, Curious and Curiouser, ...but this is my dream, Curious Dream (all from the WONDERSTRUCK collection)

2nd pic: Selene (from the MYTHOS collection), Orchidious, Rictusempra (both from the SPELLS collection)

I absolutely fell in LOVE, LOVE I tell you, with Selene from the MYTHOS collection. I even rushed and did a quick EOTD using it on the lid & my Sleek Bohemian palette because I was so smitten. And BE KIND, I literally started practicing my eyeshadow/pigment application a few months ago... like I said, I was always more of a buyer/collector than a "user". 

Did any of you get a chance to grab up any Aromaleigh during their farewell sale?