Noella Beauty Works - Giveaway!

Who doesn't like free stuff? I don't know of anyone - so... visit Jackie's blog to find out how YOU can win 7 full sized jars of her eyeshadows!

If you do win, check out my overview of the shades I have - swatches always help enable you :)

Etsy Find- Noella Beauty Works, an Overview Review

So, I'm a realist. I know I have an addiction to the shiney, the sparkly, and the pretty. Makeup can fall into all of these categories. Etsy happens to be one of my newest obsessions, and a great place to find excellent quality and variety for a little bit of cash. One of my first purchases was from Noella Beauty Works, which was reviewed here. I was so smitten, that I ordered several more colors, and have now, finally, swatched my collection for you!

Overall, I really love the colors I've picked up. There are some misses. Glisten needs to be packed on to get a rich, deepened green. Amazonite is a green-teal. Buttercup is a soft yellow with a bit of gold. Sugared Plum is a nice, straight up purple, but it lacks a bit of pigmentation. Velvet is, as you can see, my skin tone with a hint of shimmer; pigment wise- it's so-so. Dark Crystal is a great, deep, blue. Teal totally reminds me of MAC's Teal pigment. Pink Smoke (mislabeled on the picture) is a dirty pinky-neutral (and very nice in my green eyes!). Periwinkle is a blue-lavendar. Honey Taupe is a warmed up version of Milk Chocolate, both are "My lids but better" neutrals.

Wild Grape and Heather are also much weaker than I would've liked. I love Smokey Plum, though. It's a beautiful maroon (similar to MAC's Maroon pigment, but not identical). Golden Neutral, as previously noted, is a golden highlight shade. Dark Chocolate is gorgeous, but again, lacking a good color density for my taste.Sencha is the only green I have from this line, and it's a nice olivey-gold-green. Sleepy Blue is sheer, and probably my least favorite for that reason. Nutmeg is a bit more orange than I would like, an orangey-neutral. Silver Lily is an even-toned silver, not warm, not cool.

Since my first review, Jacki has raised her prices to $4.99 a jar. She's also changing her packaging, from solid black lids to those lids that have black "rims" with "windows" (sorry, I'm lacking word power today) on top, so you can see the shadow color. Her shipping prices have also risen a bit, as well.

I hope you found this helpful! If you would like to see comparison swatches of something, let me know!

Etsy Rant... ugh.

I hate it when I have a little cash to burn, and can't find anything to buy. Hate it! I've spent countless hours stalking Etsy, wanting to buy something pretty and sparkly, only to find the sellers I've haven't tried are doing all of the things that annoy me. So, to get it out of my system, I'll list them for you.

1) Charge WAY TOO MUCH for shipping. Seriously, $5.20 to ship a 10 gram jar of eyeshadow? What, you don't have a scale to weigh a bubble mailer (the CD sized ones, by the way, are usually about 1 oz, with label and tape) so you could get someone like ME to buy your colors? Sorry, I'll move on to the next seller, maybe...

2) Charge WAY TOO MUCH for their product. Time is valuable, and your time is just as valuable as mine is. I'd never ask that a seller price something so low they're losing money, but I would ask that they consider what the market will bear. If you want to sell a 5 gram jar of pigment, mica, and whatever for $10, knock yourself out. I don't know if you'll be extremely busy filling orders, though, when I can go to Shiro Cosmetics, Noella Beauty Works or any number of other sellers that price their products more competitively.

3) Not including a COLOR DESCRIPTION. I realize this one may be subjective, but honestly, how hard is it to say "warm brown," or "pale blue?" You don't have to get too artsy on me, just give me an indication of what the color is supposed to look like, so I know my monitor isn't fully of crap. Especially warm/cool leanings on colors because I need to know if I should even bother.

4) Not including swatches. This one I can kind of forgive, if the seller isn't also violating the others. Swatches are hard sometimes, and I don't always like eye swatches unless I can clearly see the color I'm supposed to buy. I saw a listing for a color that the person showed in the jar, then did a look with 2 other colors from the same color family. How, exactly, does that help me? 3 similar colored shades on an eyelid doesn't let me know what I'm buying. So, I'm NOT buying, and the seller is losing out!

5) Not offering samples. I'm a realist. I *know* I will never, ever, EVER run out of makeup. Unless I live to be 1,000 years old, but I'll have bigger problems if I live to be that old. I'd rather sample a color (especially if you're going to charge $8.00 for what others offer at half that price, on top of your bloated shipping costs), see if I like your product (the color, texture, presentation, etc), *then* buy the full size. Why? Simple logistics. I may love it in the picture, may simply like it on me, and if I lost only a dollar in the process, no big deal.

6) Rather than including # 3 and 4, including a diatribe about how GOOD "mineral makeup" is for you. Seriously? You can't be bothered to create a listing that adequately describes your colors, but you're going to tell me that my MAC eyeshadows will make my eyelids rot off? Yeah, I'll move on, thanks.

Whew. That feels a little better. I'm still bitter, but oh well. What annoys you about Etsy (or mineral makeup) sellers?

Etsy Find: Noella Beauty Works

One of my weaknesses is eyeshadow, as you'll probably find out. I love eyeshadow. Shadows probably total 90% of my stash. Recently, I've found myself trolling Etsy, to find the next big mineral makeup brand (or, to satisfy my needs for sparkly eyeshadows, which is far more likely). Over the last few weeks, I've taken the plunge, and ordered from several different sellers, both well-established, and the newer shops. Today we'll talk about another one of the latter.

One thing that will almost always encourage me to purchase is a sample or a listing or option to buy multiple items at some discount. Even small discounts will work on me (I guess I'm easy, lol). So when I found the "Blue Eyed Beauty" set from Noella Beauty Works, I immediately picture the prettiest blue eyeshadow look that I had to buy it. Never mind the fact that I have green/hazel eyes, or that I have more blue eyeshadow anyone could ever need (except Mimi from the Drew Carey Show).

So, I purchased the set at $11.49 + a reasonable $1.99 for shipping. My purchase was shipped quickly (within 2 days, if I recall correctly), and beautifully packaged. Jackie, the owner, included a lovely sample of Tidal along with the three colors included in the trio: Dark Crystal, Sleepy Blue, and Golden Neutral.

Full size shadows come in the standard 5 gram clear bottom/black top jars, with a sealed sifter (I remove sifters, to make the shadows easier to access in my opinion). The bottom of each jar has a paper label with the shop name, color name, and volume.

Dark Crystal is a shimmery deep blue (so pretty!), Sleepy Blue is a cool-toned grey blue with a sheen, and Golden Neutral is easily my favorite color, a soft highlight with a gold shimmer. Of the three, Dark Crystal is the most pigmented. Sleepy Blue and Golden Neutral are sheerer. I like that Golden Neutral is sheer, since it's a highlight color (and gorgeous), but Sleepy Blue was a bit of a disappointment. I applied it dry, over MAC's Bare Study paint put with a MAC 272 brush, patting the color on, and needed to apply 2 - 3 "layers" of color until I was satisfied. Also, Sleepy Blue seemed to be the only color that faded and creased a touch on me. I have very oily lids and tend to use both Urban Decay Primer Potion and a paint pot or other color base. For most shadows, this is enough of a foundation, but I guess for Sleepy Blue it wasn't enough.

All three colors blend perfectly. I used Dark Crystal as a liner and in the crease, Sleepy Blue on my lid and Golden Neutral on my brow bone and blended toward the inner portion of my lid. Sleepy Blue, perhaps due the amount of shadow I applied, blended maybe a touch too well. It almost seemed to be blended away when I was doing my final blending with my MAC 224. I also used MAC's Fly-by-Blue pearlglide to finish the look.

Her individual shadows are $3.99 (which is a lot better than those who are asking for $6.95+ for the same amount!), and as previously mentioned, her shipping charges are extremely reasonable. She has introduced foundations, blushes and a finishing powder. Her announcements on her Etsy shop mentions she's going to introduce lip balms and matte shadows (yay!) soon, as well.

I've already begun eyeing some other colors in her shop - and I'm dying get my grubby hands on the set for green eyes. I'd highly recommend checking out her products - especially Golden Neutral.