Today I'm bringing you a [p]review - a preview/ review - of an indie mineral makeup company that has not yet officially opened!
(For the record: No, this is not turning into a beauty blog. I like makeup, but will continue to blog about all kinds of things, not just beauty-related.)
Some of you are also members of the super-top-secret (not really) mineral makeup lovers' group on Facebook, but for those of you who aren't, a quick word to explain: I am in a group of makeup-obsessed lovely ladies, where we can enable on another's addictions and share swatches, rants, and raves about different things ...
usually makeup-related.
In this group, I have been lucky enough to meet some of the awesome ladies behind the indie brands, like Sandi of
Brazen Cosmetics (
highly recommend), Jenni of
Virus Insanity Eyeshadow (
ditto), Rebecca of
Lucky 107 (
ditto again), and more. And from this group, a few new businesses were born.
Antoinette's Revolution Cosmetics is one such company. The name and themes refer to Marie Antoinette, of course! The entrepreneur in question, Racheal, asked our group if anyone wanted to take part in pre-launch testing once some colors were made. Naturally, many of us jumped at the chance!
Full disclosure: Clearly, I am friendly, if not actual friends, with the owner (we both participate in the group, but don't really interact outside of that). I also did receive these items for free, aside from the shipping fee. I am
not being compensated for this review, nor have I been coached on what to say. We were all asked to give her shadows a try and let her know our honest opinions, and encouraged to publish reviews with those opinions if we wanted to.
First up: packaging. I received my samples in a standard bubble mailer, and inside was a tissue-wrapped package sealed with three heart stickers that had the company's initials, ARC, on them. For convenience, that's how I'll refer to the company from here on out.The samples came in baggies inside a damask pillow box; also included was a personal thank-you note, which had the color names and descriptions written on the back. (The law does not require ingredient lists to be included with samples, but if you need to know what is in your samples, you can contact Racheal for the list.)
We were given the option to specify what colors we liked, or would like to try, but I left mine open for Racheal to pick. The colors I received are pictured below:
Here are their names (in the order pictured above, from left to right) and descriptions from ARC: La Fontaine, a shimmery silver with holographic glitter; Marie, a baby blue with a bright turquoise shimmer base and aqua and hot pink glitter; von Fersen, a rich military navy with an intense sparkle base; and Musket, a dark gunmetal grey.
The above swatch photo is the most true to color. Here are those same swatches again, with flash, and blurred to show the glitter:
My thoughts on the colors: I'm a big fan of deep blue and silver, so I adore von Fersen, Musket and La Fontaine, and in truth I probably would have ordered all four of the colors I received - except for one thing. I do not see the pink glitter in Marie. I swatched it, thought it was a nice Tiffany blue, but didn't notice any pink glitter until I went to do a wear test with this color. Then I saw the pink glitter - when I cleaned up the fallout. I'm no expert, but it seems like the pink is not adhering to the color very well; there is an obvious sheen to Marie, but the pink is not really noticeable at all. If I had ordered this color expecting to see hot pink glitter, I'd be disappointed. As it is, I do like it, since I didn't already own this sort of robins-egg blue.
La Fontaine is a pretty standard light silver, and the holographic glitter is not overwhelming at all. Von Fersen is so deep and luscious, a true sapphire blue. And Musket is a gorgeous pewter!
Here is a look I put together using all four colors (sorry, again, for horribly ungroomed brows):
Over my horrible, awful so-called "primer" (must get some TFSI or UDPP sometime soon!), I applied
Fyrinnae's
Pixie Epoxy (a must-have for anyone who owns loose eyeshadows). When it was tacky, I used an
e.l.f. blending brush to smudge Musket into a sort of semicircle in the crease and outer edge of each lid. Over this, I applied von Fersen with an e.l.f.
eyeshadow brush, patting it on and then softly dragging the color down to fade onto my lids. In the center of each lid, I used another e.l.f. eyeshadow brush to pat on Marie, blending it out onto von Fersen and fading it toward the inner corners. I then used my e.l.f.
lip defining brush's narrow point to apply La Fontaine to the tear duct, and blend into Marie, as well as a little bit on the lower lashline. I foiled Musket and used an angled brush to draw a line from the lower lashes and slightly winged outward. After curling my lashes, I applied
Urban Decay's
Lash Primer Potion, and then
CoverGirl's
Lash Blast mascara in Very Black.
The most accurate depiction of the brightness of this look is in the three-quarters/ side view of my eyes above - that little peek of the right eye shows how vivid the colors really are! I don't know why, whenever I take pictures of my EOTD, it looks like the colors are so patchy - it does not look like that in real life at all. Check out
my Mardi Gras EOTD to verify that it's not just ARC, but any eyeshadow, that looks this way in my pictures (ugh, it's annoying, any tips?)
As far as wear is concerned, I did attempt to test that, but did not do well. I just lack a good primer, so anything and everything I put on my lids will crease, fade, and smudge over time. I also tested Marie over NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk, and over bare skin, for 8 hours and found that, as with most shadows, the color pretty much disappeared into the creases. That's the norm for me, with my oily lids, and the main reason I don't wear eyeshadow unless I know it'll only be seen for a few hours at most.
Overall, I really like ARC so far! I think that all of the colors I have seen, both in person and online, look well-blended (no chunks of unblended pigment), and though not all of them are unique shades, they
are all gorgeous. Racheal is doing really well with customer service, and she makes everything safely (using sterile equipment, gloves, etc) - full-sized jars even come with shrink-wrapped seals, which not all companies do. The company is still being built, which is part of why it's not officially open yet, but so far I think the business model is sound and the company will become very popular!
Although the official launch will not be until June, Racheal is currently selling the colors she has made, and in stock, so far in order to help finance the launch. You can find more information about it on the ARC
Facebook fan page here. As far as I know, samples in baggies are $1 each, 5g jars are $5 each, and there is a permanent sale of 5 full-sized jars for $20. Once the company actually launches, you will be able to buy their items on
Etsy.
Personally, though ordering off people's Facebook pages always makes me nervous, I will be buying a full-sized jar of at least a few colors (including Gardens, which I did not get, but the swatches of it look incredible)!
Here are some of the other [p]reviews done so far, including photos of colors I didn't get: Shelby's
review and EOTD, mNg's
gorgeous haul, Dez with her
swatches and custom "Glitter Farts," Christina with
some beautiful brights, Mel with
stunning swatches, Rebecca with
the purples and a yellow, and Anna's
swatches and EOTD that are the reason I'm dying to own Gardens.
ETA more swatches!
