Shop Your Stash #2

Hiya pickles,

Welcome to the Shop Your Stash challenge. This is all about finding a gem in what you already own and creating a blog post on it. This is to let go a little of the stress that comes with being a blogger - even if it is just once a month. Rummage through your beauty products and climb through those clothes drawers. You might surprise yourself!

It's time to shop our stashes again and this month I wanted to talk about my collection of lovely indie eyeshadows. I have stuff by Darling Girl (my fave indie seller by far), Detrivore, Starcrushed Minerals, Aromaleigh, Carina Dolci, Little Mouse Ears and other companies who sell loose make up pigments.

A couple of years ago my blog was more focused towards make up so I used my indie stuff a lot more. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I became less comfortable with showing close ups of my face (possibly due to the condition my skin was in back then, and/or being wary of showing my ageing face) and I deleted most of those posts and don't really do them any more. Now I'm a lot busier with my blog (and need to sleep more because my CFS is worse) I don't have ages to spend in front of a mirror doing my make up each day. I'm a strictly 5 minute face girl most of the time, and as most indie products are loose they need a little more time to work with, and that's not me right now.

Hopefully at some point in the future I can give these pretties some love. I'm still waiting for our curtain situation to improve so I have enough light to sit in my bedroom and do my make up. Oh yeah, and I still need a desk, too! ;) Hahaha.

Have you got loads of something which is unloved?

Here are the other ladies shopping their own stashes.

Darling Girl swatches pt 3

Hello you!

Here are some more Darling Girl swatches for you. Here we have Cut Me Deeper from the Not an 80's Band collection, Bioexorcist from the Ghost With The Most collection, Black Day and Scarab.

Darling Girl colour descriptions:
Cut Me Deeper - Deep blood red and wine with golden shimmer.
Bio-exorcist - Black base loaded with gold and blue shimmer.
Black Day - A stunning, dark, coal black with blue duochrome.
Scarab - Deep cool greyish brown with strong green shift.

L-R Cut Me Deeper, Bio-Exorcist, Black Day, Scarab

You get 2 free sample sizes per order and also a gift with purchase (GWP) if you spend over $10. The GWP is a freebie in a little screw lid jar with a sifter. Delivery is $5 international.

Each sample bag you get - even though it has a tiny amount of product - will give you enough for 2-3 uses, certainly enough to tell if you want to buy a bigger size. You can buy 5 sample bags on the website for $4, which is a steal.

Full sizes have 3/4 tea spoon of product in a sifter jar and cost $5.90 (about £3.65.) Petit sizes have 1/4 tea spoon of product in a sifter jar and cost $2.50 (about £1.55.) It doesn't sound like a lot of product but it goes so, so far, especially if you use a sticky base to make your shadows pop. I did swatches today using Darling Girl Glitter Glue. It makes such a difference to the vibrancy.

All of these colours are stunning and I couldn't possibly pick a favourite among them.

You can see Part 1 of my Darling Girl Swatches HERE and part 2 HERE.

Did anything take your fancy?

Thanks for reading.

Darling Girl order/How to avoid customs charges

Hello loves!

It may come as no surprise to anyone that I am a little obsessed with make up. I'm addicted to sparkles. Someone who does sparkles very well is Susan from Darling Girl Cosmetics. DGC are based in America. There is every colour you could possibly imagine on the website and then some. Furthermore, her products are phenomenal value for money, as her eyeshadows are so finely milled that you only need the tiniest amount to strike the wow factor. You literally need product smaller than a match head to cover both whole eyes. You get 2 free sample sizes per order and a gift with purchase if you spend over $10, which is a larger freebie in a little screw lid jar with a sifter. Delivery is $5 international.

Here is my latest order. Susan was kind enough to include some Halloween bits and bobs, including some candy corn, which I scoffed!

Every order gets 2 samples and a small gift with purchase, which varies weekly.

5 samples are $4 to buy, about £2.50.

I bought a glitter fixative, a mini lip gloss and 2 shadows.

Each sample bag - even though it has a tiny amount of product - will give you enough for 2-3 uses or more, certainly enough to tell if you want to buy a bigger size. Full sizes have 3/4 tea spoon of product in a sifter jar and cost $5.90 (about £3.65.) Petit sizes have 1/4 tea spoon of product in a sifter jar and cost $2.50 (about £1.55.) It doesn't sound like a lot of product but it goes so, so far, especially if you use a sticky base to make your shadows pop. I did some swatches today using the Glitter Glue from this order and OH MY DAYS does it make a difference! I have some swatches coming up in my next post so you can see what I mean.

How to avoid paying customs fees on purchases from the US.

All my orders from Darling Girl (including this one) cost below $18 INCLUDING POSTAGE (which is about £11.20), because $18 is the threshold for not being charged import duty. Anything costing over $18 stands the risk of being opened by UK customs, and then you get charged. For example, once I ordered from America and spent about $19 by accident, and customs charged me £11! That's doubling the amount I'd spent. Bollocks to that. Don't fall prey to the customs man, be crafty like me :) Lots of little orders rather than one big one will save you lots of money.

My next post has some swatches for you.

Do you ever buy things from abroad?

Darling Girl is cruelty free.

A few Darling Girl swatches

Hi all!

I'm mostly over the migraine from hell and am ready to rock again...so to speak!

I love Darling Girl Cosmetics and can't enthuse enough about the quality of the products. I've dipped my toe into quite a few indie make up companies thus far, and Darling Girl are by far my favourite. The complexity and vibrancy of shades has to be seen to be believed. Here are three colours swatched for you.

LONDON CALLING.

DGC says "It's an indigo base with heavy red shift."

It's very rock chick - right up my alley.

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PERSUASION

DGC says "Persuasion is a gorgeous, medium lavender base with gold shift and turquoise sparkles."

It's like fairy puke! I love it so much. It makes me think of My Little Pony and mermaids, and all kinds of other girly things.

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On-X (pronounced Onyx, I believe.)

DGC says "ON-X is a sheer black base with loads of rainbow star sprinkles."

Pretty!

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Darling Girl Cosmetics are based in the US. They're sold in full sized jars (with 3/4 teaspoon of product approx.) at $5.90, and petit sizes (with 1/4 teaspoon of product approx.) at $2.50 (at the time of writing.)

You only need a TINY amount of product to cover a huge area. Every order over $10 gets a generous sample of product, which has varied every time I've ordered. I find DGC to be the company with the quickest turnaround time (out of the companies I've tried so far), usually about 2 weeks from order to arrival. If you're in the UK and keep your order under $18 (before postage), it won't be opened by customs and you will save yourself the trouble of having your parcel opened AND being charged for it. To give you an idea, once I forgot and went a couple of dollars over $18 and got charged over £11 to have my parcel opened by Royal Mail. Bum.

The only trouble with these eyeshadows is they're so gorgeous I can hardly bear to use them.

Have you tried anything by Darling Girl?

Thanks for reading!