Venomous Cosmetics swatches

I'm tackling Venomous Cosmetics first (from my long list of indie companies to review) because I only own one full-sized product and have just two eyeshadow samples ... so it's a bit less intimidating ^_^

Mini Lip Poison and two loose eyeshadow samples

I don't have any pictures of how it was packaged, but I think it was a standard bubble mailer with some more bubble wrap around the gloss. This was just one order: purse-sized "Lip Poison" in Dazed, free samples of loose eyeshadows "Bravest Astronaut" and "Surfing the Gold Coast."

Venomous Cosmetics (VC) has quickly become internet-famous for two things: the deadly creatures that inspire the item names (photos of which are on the website so watch out if you hate spiders), and their pressed eyeshadows which are available in adorable miniature pans for samples! I would love to own some of those tiny shadows someday, they look so cute (tiny things rule) and the colors all look beautiful!

But all I ordered was the mini Lip Poison in Dazed ($3.50 for the 3.7mL tube, or $5 for full-sized 5.9mL tube), because it looked like it might be a good dupe for the limited edition color Caqui from the MAC Blogger's Obsessions collection, and I didn't allow myself to splurge on that. I managed to convince myself that persimmon orange would not suit me. Well ... Dazed does look a lot like Caqui (just based on internet swatches I've seen), and I'm still not sure it looks good on me!

Swatched on bare skin, direct sunlight, no flash

It's very orange - not orangey-red, not coral, just straight-up orange that leans slightly reddish. It is pretty pigmented, very shiny, glitter-free and looks like a very expensive high-end gloss on the lips. There is no scent or taste that I can discern, and it doesn't burn, tingle, or dry out my lips, nor does it goop up in lip lines or slide around to make it look like I applied it without a mirror (hate glosses that do that).

Naked lips for reference, direct sunlight, no flash

One layer on otherwise bare lips, direct sunlight, no flash

Aside from the way the color frightens me (despite being very accurate from the website and the swatches I'd seen online so what exactly was I expecting? Lol), the only criticism I have of the gloss is that the label is oddly sticky and transfers ink onto my hands whenever I touch it. It's a great label otherwise, since it lists the company name, color name, and ingredients on a semi-transparent sticker that doesn't obscure the color of the gloss in the tube.

L: Surfing the Gold Coast; R: Bravest Astronaut; swatched over Pixie Epoxy, direct sunlight, no flash

These are the two loose eyeshadow samples that were sent for free, with 1/8 tsp per sample according to the webstore. I just swatched them over Pixie Epoxy since that's the only way I would use them, and they applied very easily with no patchiness, streaking, or lumps of unblended pigment. On bare skin, you probably wouldn't get this color payoff, and you'd lose some of the glitter.

• Surfing the Gold Coast is from the Well-Traveled collection, and is a baby blue with subtle gold shimmer. 
• Bravest Astronaut is from the Spaced Out collection and is described on the website as "strong red with magenta shifts," but I would say it's hot pink with blue-violet shift. Both colors are currently available to purchase ($1 for samples, $6.50 for 5g sifter jars).

Shipping was pretty reasonable, I think it was $2 for this order if I'm not mistaken, and although the current TAT is listed as a perfectly reasonable 2-8 business days my order was shipped within 2 days of being placed - always love when you get the lower end of the estimated TAT :)

Overall, I'm very impressed with VC so far! I love the formula of the Lip Poison, especially because it's hard to find good quality non-glittery lip glosses from indie brands for some reason. I also think the loose shadows are normal-to-good quality and fairly original. I definitely would order from them again if I could afford to, and snag some tiny pressed shadows to ooh and ahh over!