30 Days Makeup Challenge: Day 8: Blush

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Meow Wildcats in Puma and Snow Leopard Mini Review and Swatches

Wildcats are loose mineral powders intended to be used all over your body to add shimmer and shine.  I'm not really one to wear glitter anywhere beyond my eyes (and perhaps my cheeks for a special occasion), but I got these as free samples with past orders and thought I should at least share them with you!  They're very glittery and shimmery and festive, and seem like an amped-up Glow powder (which also comes in tinted forms, which I definitely need to check out), similar to Bobbi Brown Shimmerbricks.  Definitely not low-key or natural, but it's not intended to be!

Wildcats in Snow Leopard (left) and Puma (right); applied wet (top) and dry (bottom), in sunlight

Meow Cosmetics Eye Shadow Swatches, Part II

I've gotten a few more samples of Meow eyeshadow (and some Wildcats, review and swatches to come!) since my first swatch post, so I should share them as well.  It was actually sunny yesterday, so I was able to take real pictures!  Wow!

In sunlight, top to bottom, wet (top) and dry (bottom): Claws and Effect, Chaos, Fannie F.

Meow Cosmetics Premier Puss Primer for Oily Skin Review

More Meow products, whee!  I just love that company.  I ordered several more samples during their anniversary sale (who can argue with 25% off and free shipping?), including this one, since I was running low on my Mattify! ULTRA and figured Meow's would be worth a shot.  It has only three ingredients: kaolin clay (great for absorbing oil), boron nitride (very low-friction and sticks well to skin, giving an airbrushed feel), and silk powder (also oil-absorbent, has some SPF properties, and is good for balancing skin), and, like all Meow products, is very finely milled.  Someday I might want to try formulating my own powder, but for now, the convenience and price of the Meow keep me happy.

It doesn't take much to cover my face with a fluffy brush, and even just wearing the primer powder helps soften my pores and even out my skin.  It's not quite as effective as my Mattify! at controlling oil, but it still lasts a good 6 hours before I get too shiny (an eternity in my world!), and it helps provide a nice surface for my Meow foundation.  In short: another Meow success!  They also make a primer for combination skin that has mica instead of kaolin, so if you have combo skin, it might be worth a try.
$1.00 for sample baggie, $14.25 for 4 g, available from Meow

Have you tried Meow's primer powders?  What did you think?

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Spark (from the Firefly Collection) Review and Swatches

Hark!  It's the sound of the last of my Meow blushes!  Described by Meow as a "peach-pink", I would say it's a sheer, golden peach.  Here, my thoughts and some swatches.

Applied with q-tip in sunlight

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Saucy (from the Taboo Collection) Review and Swatches

Over the past couple months, I've learned more about how to use my camera (and its many lighting and flash settings), though Lord knows there's still a shit ton more that I'm not even aware I don't know.  The reason I say this is because I've gradually come to realize how freaking hard it is to accurately photograph these freaking Meow blush samples.  For one thing, what does "accurate" mean?  Accurate in sunlight?  Accurate indoors?  In the shade?  Applied heavily?  Lightly?  Blended?  With a brush?  So many variables!

In past posts, I've tried to choose the pictures that I felt best captured the sense I had of the blush.  But those days are over, folks.  This post is going to be ridiculously pic-heavy, because I have swatches of Saucy in several kinds of light, and applied in several different ways.  So buckle up, and hope that by the end of this swatchfest we'll both have a better idea of what Saucy has to offer.

Meow Cosmetics Eye Shadow Swatches

I don't really do loose eyeshadows, because they're messy and challenging and have to be used wet for maximum color payoff.  However, I have received a few free shadow samples from Meow with my orders, and I've finally decided to get around to swatching them for y'all.  I can't speak to their longevity or ease of use, but I think they're lovely, and if you're the loose shadow wearing type, you should check out Meow's enormous selection!

Meow Cosmetics Skinny Dipper in Light Siamese Review and Swatches

I placed an order during Meow's founder's sale, and thanks to the 25% off and the fact that I'd stocked up on foundation samples on a previous order, I was able to convince myself to branch out and try some of their other products.  One I've been getting particular use out of is the Skinny Dipper in Light Siamese (neutral, my foundation shade of choice).  Skinny Dippers are intended to be used for contouring; they emphasize the cheekbones and slim the face when applied below the cheekbones (suck your cheeks in, and contour in the indentation made).  Since they're color-matched to foundation families, they're guaranteed (assuming you know your foundation shade, of course) to offer a contouring effect that looks completely natural.  While I've been using my Benefit Hoola as a contouring product off-and-on over the past months, I wanted to try out something that would be subtler and more natural.  So how do the Skinny Dippers perform?

Skinny Dipper outside under clouds

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Glisten (from the Firefly Collection) Review and Swatches

I think there's only 3 more Meow blushes for me to review!  Then I'll do a big comparison post, and hopefully never buy blush from them again (okay, not for a few months, at least!).  Today's installment: Glisten.

Photo from meowcosmetics.com

Meow Cosmetics Cat Glow Highlighting Powder Review and Swatches

Before I got the Balmbini palette and experienced the joy of Mary-Lou Manizer, I'd ordered a sample of Meow's Cat Glow highlighting powder to experiment with the whole luminizer concept.  Keeping in mind that my skin is very oily/shiny on its own (I've got a whole series of posts devoted to my quest to end oiliness, under the tag "oil control"), and that my glasses obscure much of my upper cheekbone, where luminizer typically goes, it should be pretty clear that luminizer/highlighter isn't something I should wear on a regular basis.  In spite of this, I have still experimented some with this and hopefully my notes will prove useful to you.

Cat Glow highlighting powder heavily swatched

Meow Cosmetics Blush in A Lick and a Promise (from the Lush Blush Collection) Review and Swatches

Because I can never have too many blush samples (or so one would be led to believe), here's another Meow blush for your consideration.  This is from their Lush Blush collection, which they describe as being their "premium line of mineral blushes, featuring a creamy texture and dewy sheen".  I picked A Lick and a Promise to try, which is described as a "cherry/rose", but the lilac shimmer makes it look quite cool in the swatch.

A Lick and a Promise

Meow Cosmetics Concealers in Sleek Siamese Review and Swatches

Meow has three kinds of concealers: Purrrfect Cover concealer, which is intended for use on the face and which has matte, heavy coverage; Undereye Concealer, which (as the name would suggest) is supposed to minimize dark circles under the eyes; and C3: Color Correcting Concealers, which come in various tints (yellow, lavender, green, blue) and in both allover and undereye formulations, to cancel out color imperfections.  I've tried both the Purrrfect and the Undereye concealers, and I will elucidate my thoughts on them!

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Elephant (from the Pink Inc Collection) Review and Swatches

Elephant, a pale shimmery warm pink-peach, was a free sample that Meow sent with one of my orders.

image from meowcosmetics.com
I would never have chosen it for myself, since the swatch and description online ("like an orange dreamsicle dipped in cotton candy pink") do not call out to me, but I'm not sad to have gotten it from them.

Meow Cosmetics Blush Comparison Post

I've finally reviewed and swatched all of my Meow blushes!  Cue confetti!  I don't know about you, but I got confused about their differences about 5 blushes ago, so I figured I should do comparison swatches of all of them to try and clarify matters for us all.

Left to right: Saucy, A Lick and a Promise, Glisten, Spark, Elephant

Meow Cosmetics Founders Day Sale!

I've talked a fair bit about Meow Cosmetics (click on the "Meow Cosmetics" tag on the right to go to all my posts about them), and I'm happy to announce that their best sale of the year is going on for the next week+!  Use the code "WildRide" to get free shipping and 25% off your entire order.  I've loved pretty much everything I've tried from them, and I highly recommend taking this opportunity to order anything you're interested in!  Shipping will probably be pretty slow, but if you order soon (before they get too inundated) they should be able to process your order faster.  The longest it's ever taken for one of my orders to arrive is 10 business days to the west coast (after their 4th of July sale), but if you're on the east coast it will almost certainly arrive well before then.  Happy shopping!

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Centerfold (from the Taboo Collection) Review and Swatches

Another Meow blush!  This one, Centerfold, was mentioned in my post on Hot Mama as a comparison, but here's the full review.

Meow Cosmetics Top Cat Luxury Finishing/Setting Powder Review

There are so many good things about Top Cat finishing powder that I'm having trouble picking just one to serve as a hook for this review.  It's weightless, it controls oil, it provides a natural matte-ish finish, I only need a tiny bit to cover my face, it lasts all day, it's invisible...so much awesome!

Meow Cosmetics Foundation Review and Swatches

I'm sorry this review has taken me such an inordinately long time to post!  It's really, really exhaustively long, but I've tried to bold the important parts if you just want to skim.  On the upside, I've had the chance to review another shipment I got from them, so this includes more foundations than it would have originally.  It's quite pic heavy, and I am very verbose, but I hope you find it informative!

Meow Cosmetics is one of the better-known mineral makeup companies online, particularly for their foundations, which I'll be reviewing in this post.  Before I do that, though, I'd like to discuss the Meow shopping experience, because there are some MAJOR flaws.

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Risque (from the Taboo Collection) Review and Swatches

This is the second blush from Meow's Taboo collection that I ordered.  I was feeling very summery, so went with hot pinks and corals, and Risque is a great example of the former (for the latter, see my review of Racy).

Meow Cosmetics Blush in Racy (from the Taboo Collection) Review and Swatches

 The first Meow blush up for review: Racy!  It's also one of three blushes I ordered from the Taboo collection, characterized by intense pigment and a duochrome finish (I'm a sucker for duochrome, what can I say!).