SURVIVE: "A lush orange with a metallic olivine gold undertone and teal/aqua sparkles." I have a whole meta post here explaining the concerns we had and the thought process that went into this--ideas of strength and vulnerability and endurance, and also "survive him," omfg you can sit the hell down, I am pretty sure Margot Verger's got this whole surviving thing down by now, thank you. Also, my own swatches are at the end. (In fact, I've updated the last four or five color posts with swatches, on this tag.)
Onward!
There are more of the new-style swatch grids over on the Brilliant Deductions page, but you can see the full collection in the old style up there. (Wait, how do I not have Recreational Scolding? Did I lose it somewhere? I swear to...) Obviously, given my connection to Aromaleigh, this is not meant to be an unbiased review of any kind. Suffice it to say, these are samples I got for myself last winter, and I've just taken pictures of them applied both dry and wet so that you can see what they look like with Real Person Amateur Photography. There are 21 colors and I have 15 of the samples (plus three unrelated LEs at the end); the descriptions are from the site.
NOTE: ALL SMUDGES ON SAMPLE PACKETS ARE FROM ME PLAYING WITH MAKEUP LIKE A FIVE-YEAR-OLD.
PASSWORD PROTECTED: A muted warm mauve with coppery iridescence and bright golden sparks.
FLEETING IMPRESSION: A soft, atmospheric twilight mauve with overall iridescence of gold, green and blue.
BRAINY IS THE NEW SEXY: A very smooth English rose frost with golden highlights and tiny copper shimmers. (*contains carmine)
LUCKY CAT EMPORIUM: A smooth cinnabar frost with bright shades of jade green.
EXPERIMENTAL DRUG: A rich warm reddish brown with cool silvery iridescence of green, blue and violet.
DAMAGED & DELUSIONAL: A smooth plush burgundy wine frost with a striking gold highlight.
Applied dry:
(A little bit blurry for the sparkle:)
Applied damp:
There is a definite flash of green in Lucky Cat Emporium that I can't get to show up; as you can see, Experimental Drug's duochrome comes out a lot more with a wet brush; Password Protected is probably my favorite color in the whole set.
FRAILTY OF GENIUS: A smokey cocoa frost with shimmering highlights of fuchsia and violet (*contains carmine)
HIGH-FUNCTIONING SOCIOPATH: A lush smoked navy blue with bright and saturated sparks of sapphire blue.
SURVEILLANCE STATUS: A smooth saturated dark purple with lush rose and violet iridescence, and smoke tones. (*contains carmine)
HOW QUAINT: A soft dove grey with violet-blue tones, and tiny shimmers of cobalt blue and copper.
GLITTERING CAREER: A deep smokey grey with russet/violet tones and overall fine pink highlight shimmer.
SOOO CHANGEABLE: A smooth taupe frost with golden highlights and interference shimmer of green and blue.
Applied dry (it was hard to get everything to sparkle all in the same shot, so my hand is a bit contorted):
Applied damp:
(Blurry, for science:)
As you can see, the green on Changeable really comes out when foiled.
PSYCHOSOMATIC LIMP: A smooth liquid metallic bronze with rose tones and bright sparks of green.
#SHERLOCKLIVES: It is a beautifully wearable, yet complex soft warm chestnut brown, with duochrome effects of green to rose.
NICOTINE PATCH: A warm brown frost with iridescent gold and rose effects, and brilliant sparks of teal and blue.
Having run out of Sherlock-themed samples, I threw in Island of Misfit Toys, Concrete Jungle, and Betelgeuse as the bottom row so I'd have a full hand, so to speak. Concrete Jungle and Betelgeuse are both on clearance, and Island of Misfit Toys and Sherlock Lives are on the monthly limited editions page.
ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS: It's a soft buff with a slight metallic cast, and soft duochrome effects. Make it more dramatic by foiling it, or wearing it over a black or colored primer!
CONCRETE JUNGLE: It is a tauped soft brown with aqua sparks and a soft warm green duochrome effect. This color appears drastically different depending on where you view it. [NO KIDDING.]
BETELGEUSE: This shade is a warm brown frost sheen with very strong duochrome that goes from green to chartreuse to gold, with a cool green highlight sparkle.
Applied dry:
Applied damp:
I was really, really surprised that Concrete Jungle showed up as an almost peachy brown on camera--there is a very strong, pale green duochrome, particularly when it's foiled. But I could not get it to show up. For that matter, Betelgeuse also looked unexpectedly warm on camera when I applied it dry, but looks like more of a yellow-gold-brown in the sample. The struggle is real:
(Afternoon light, but in the shade:)
And there you have it. There are other blues and greens in the collection as well, but as this was before my Consulting Recapper time when I started trying new, cannibal-themed things, I dared not attempt those colors. I also took pictures of a handful of Serpens dragon colors and the Ever in Your Favor samples that I have, while I was out swatching cannibal colors anyway, so you may get a flood of those soon. Plus some of the new Okeanides colors, I have some of those now. Basically I'm awash in tiny bags and covered in glitter, is what I'm saying. HOWEVER. My current makeup-related priority, if I can manage it, is to do the This Is My Design colors six at a time like I did these swatches--because I'm going to try to post all five sets of six, one each day, until THE DAY OF RECKONING. I mean, in addition to the graphics like the one up top; I'll post those anyway, because I want to look at them all together and GLOAT OVER HAVING FINISHED SOMETHING FOR ONCE.
