Foundation Primers Reviews and Comparisons: Urban Decay, Fyrinnae, Black Radiance, and Too Faced

I've been trying a few different face primers recently, and rather than doing individual posts on each of them, I figured I'd save myself some trouble and just do one bigger post. There's no real rhyme or reason to the order, except that I put my favorite at the end, so feel free to read only that, or all, or none. You know, the usual!

I discovered over the course of testing these primers that MAC Matchmaster does not play well with primer, so I ended up just wearing them all with Revlon ColorStay, which can benefit greatly from use of a primer (though, as you'll see, it doesn't always!). I haven't tried any of these with MMU, but if/when I do, I'll update this post.

Urban Decay Complexion Primer Potion – Pore Perfecting

$31 for 1 oz, available from Sephora and Urban Decay

I got a little sample tube of this from Sephora awhile ago, and have used it a few times. There's not a whole lot I can say about it; it doesn't really diminish my pores any, and it does absolutely nothing to control my oilies or make my foundation last longer––in fact, I think it makes my oiliness worse. The only good things about it for me is that you barely need any product to cover your face, since it's silicone-y and spreads really easily, but that hardly makes up for the fact that it sucks as a primer. Verdict: Be off with you!

Fyrinnae Swatches, Part II

And here's the second part of my Fyrinnae order! You can find part one here. These are all Arcane Magic shadows, which are duochrome, so naturally I had to get a few. I don't even want to talk about how long it took me to narrow down which ones to order...

The rightmost 3 are featured in this post: Evocation, Sorceress, and Raven's Prophecy.

Evocation was a natural pick, since hello, it's DUOCHROME TAUPE! *flails* It's a neutral taupe base that color shifts from rose to green. It is awesome. The duochrome shift isn't crazy dramatic, so it doesn't swamp the taupiness of the shadow, but it is still there, giving a bit of a kick. This is the one shade that I've actually tried to wear on my eyes; it's...still a work in progress (see below).

Evocation looking rosy and very similar to Koala (I had a dickens of a time figuring out which swatch was which!)...

30 Days Makeup Challenge: Day 7

For a summary of this series, see here!

What is your favorite eyeshadow color?
Well this is a no-brainer: TAUPE! I love how versatile and wide-ranging it is. Below are most of the taupes in my collection (all the ones that I wear or have recently acquired).

Left to right: Fyrinnae Arcane Magic Evocation, Fyrinnae Platinum, Fyrinnae Koala, L'Oreal Bronzed Taupe, Maybelline Bad to the Bronze, NYX Iced Mocha, theBalm Insane Jane

Platinum isn't really taupe at all, but let's just say I included it for comparison purposes, mk? Evocation and Koala are both the darkest and coolest, while Iced Mocha is the lightest and most gold and Bad to the Bronze the reddest. Bronzed Taupe is, in my opinion, the most versatile, flattering shade in my collection of taupes, and I love the texture, so if you don't have many taupes in your collection (and really, who ever has enough taupes?), I definitely recommend checking it out. I've got a couple of high end taupe shadows on my wish list (Le Métier de Beauté Corinthian and Chantecaille Sel), and I'm planning on picking up at least one of them when I'm in New York; I'd love to get both, but at $30 apiece, I really can't afford to!

Oh, taupe, you've ruined me for all other neutrals.

What's your favorite eyeshadow color? Do you share my fondness for taupe, or do you prefer brighter colors?

Fyrinnae Swatches, Part I

Welp, I finally got around to swatching all of the Fyrinnae samples from my order. I'm sorry it took so long! I had some issues figuring out how to best get Pixie Epoxy to work (more on that in a bit), and I had to get enough work done to feel like I had the time to slather my arm in pigments. But the long-awaited day has finally arrived! Confetti! Cheers! Alcohol!

Left to right: Nijiro, Rapunzel Had Extensions, Platinum, Koala, Arcane Magic Evocation, Arcane Magic Sorceress, Arcane Magic Raven's Prophecy

I've decided to break the shadows into at least two posts (considering a third on Pixie Epoxy), so this first batch is the non-Arcane Magic shadows, aka the first 4 from the left in the picture above.

My First Fyrinnae Order!

Okay, I really don't have time to be posting this, but I'm just so excited I can't help it. I ordered from Fyrinnae last week, and expected to get my order next month (their home page says to give them 35-45 days to ship your order), so imagine my surprise when it shipped a couple days after I placed it! If the USPS had been working properly, I would have had this Monday, but as it is it didn't arrive until today. But still: a week to get my (carefully wrapped) order? Certainly can't complain! That's faster than Sephora orders get here...

Anyways. I can't rationalize doing swatches or actually playing around with my new lovelies (waaah), but I did get some quick pictures of them in their little jars. My camera was on the verge of dying, so I tried to get them done as quickly as possible, so some of them aren't the greatest pictures. I apologize that I don't have more for you today, but I promise I will do a full review-swatch-picture fest next week and then we can forget this pathetic post ever existed. For now, enjoy! And let me know what shades of theirs are your favorites :-)

My haul; click to see better detail

 My free sample, Nijiro, "ivory with rainbow sparkle". Ignore the peach bits; I accidentally pfloofed a little Rapunzel Had Extensions into it (whoops).

Rapunzel Had Extensions, "pale pink with a stunning brilliant light gold highlight".