I love when good people’s hard work pays off. This is one of those times, I’ve known Kaz from her blog Pretty Random online for years and she is so nice, her posts are hilarious and she does awesome nail polish swatches. Anyway fast forward to a while ago and she announced that she was going to be launching her own line of cosmetics. A cosmetics line which took her massive amount of knowledge from testing other people’s products into account. She and I have very similar taste when it comes to polish so it was at that point that the drool started forming on the side of my mouth.
Then she started posting swatches of her samples and I was so excited that I started throwing money at my computer screen and hoping some of that glittery goodness would magically appear on my desk. Funnily enough with her store not open yet that didn’t work XD However she did contact me a few weeks ago and offer to send some samples over for me to try so YAY that!
This is what arrived in my post box from Pretty Serious Cosmetics:
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Everything was packaged in cardboard boxes and bubble wrapped. Matching purple tissue paper in the box too. Nothing damaged in transit.Opening up the packaging, I received the matching CGU set of lipgloss, nail polish and loose eyeshadow. It’s a light purple base with blue shimmer. Did I mention that all of the names are nerdily inspired? The first collection is called “Hello World” mwahaha. As always promised I would be completely honest in the review regardless of being friends, luckily my expectations of awesomeness were not disappointed.
Everything is Vegan friendly, cruelty free and the polishes are also Big 3 free as well as formaldehyde resin free.
So let’s go one by one with these. The package of 3 is currently $26.85 or they can be bought individually on the site. Lipgloss- Packaging is plain and plastic, the lid is a little light but the overall weight is nice. The size is a tiny bit wider than most of my other glosses so I think it’s good value. Only complaint I have there is that it’s got one of those tops that wipes most of the gloss off the applicator. They are fairly standard though so can’t complain and I just popped the white part off the top so it comes out more smoothly. It was extremely difficult to get a decent swatch of the lipgloss, it’s very sheer in that it provides only a slight wash of light purple with slight blue shimmer. You can definitely tell it’s shimmery in the light but capturing it on film not so much >_< I prefer more opaque coverage so my favorite way to wear it is layered over a matte lipstick for extra shimmer. The formula is very different to a lot of other glosses, going on it actually feels like a creme lipstick. I don’t know how to describe it other than velvety… but liquid velvety… and not sticky so my hair just kind of slides off rather than getting stuck in it. The smell is something that one really has to experience as well. It is the EXACT smell of grape HubbaBubba. That could be a good or bad thing considering it made it really hard not to lick >_>
Loose Eyeshadow- The loose eyeshadow powder is beautiful, this close up will give you a better idea of the blue shimmer’s real colour.
The powder is smooth and the glitter isn’t scratchy which makes for a very nice application both wet and dry. Dry it gives a very subtle shimmer and is beautiful on every day looks. Wet is where this really stands out because it looks AMAZING. Very pigmented and shimmery but still easy to blend with other colours. I have added this to my “most used” drawer which is saying something because I find loose powder in general less convenient than pressed. It’s a very big jar for the price so I’m thinking of pressing some myself to add into my every day and travel palettes, that’s how much I like it XD I’ve got some nice FOTD photos coming up in an outfit post using it but until then you might like to see this live version of Morning Make Up that I did for a daily vlog where I apply it wet. Nail Polish- And lastly the polish! Seeing as Kaz is a renowned polish blogger I expected big things from this and I wasn’t disappointed. My swatch today will be modeled by the lovely James… because he was dumb enough to sit next to me and be engrossed in his game 😀 Poor James! The bottle is square which I prefer as they store more easily, the lid is matt black plastic and the brush is standard. Drying time was also standard. Anyway you can see that with two coats it dries to a pink based purple and again the blue shimmer isn’t over powering at all. The formula was flawless and smooth, opaque with one coat but I did two to get a real depth of the shimmer. Overall this is a winner too and I’d really like to bust out my brushes and Konad to see if this would work with it. I haven’t used the Konad in so many years >_<
So overall? I love the idea of matching collections like this. This probably isn’t a surprise considering how much I love matching everything. I found no major flaws in the collection and the quality is above what usually comes in this price range in Australia. Friendship aside I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this again or the rest of the collection. Mostly this collection really inspires me, it’s awesome to see good things come from nice people. It sounds soppy but I know how hard Kaz worked on this and it gives me hope that if I work just as hard that maybe my projects (like Bergamot) will turn out equally awesome. I can’t wait to buy some of the rest of the collection (hello Birthday Money!) and to see what she comes out with next. *cough*youshouldtotallymakeapinkglitter*cough* |
