Alexeter Mineral Makeup Princess Collection review

I was really excited when the Alexeter Mineral Makeup Princess collection was released because I knew I'd love every single color it included. I was not wrong- and honestly the collection even exceeded my expectations if you can believe that. The Princess collection consists of the 4 AMM shades: Princess Buttercup, Princess Lala, Princess Cupcake, and Princess Toad. In my photos you are also seeing an awesome little lime green with a golden shift called Romp. Romp is not part of this collection, but I received it free during a sale event so it snuck into this review too.

Pretty labels!

L-R- Romp, Princess Buttercup, Princess Lala, Princess Cupcake, and Princess Toad. All jars came sealed with shrinkwrap, and contain a sifter.

Top right is AMM shade Romp-not part of the collection. L-R: Princess Buttercup, Princess Lala, Princess Toad, and Princess Cupcake. Used dry, no primer, natural light

Used over white base. Natural light

Oooo shimmery!

When worn dry these colors are shimmery, bright and nicely pigmented. When used wet or over a white base they are extremely vibrant. They all also look excellent over NYX black bean or a similar black base or pencil. Use these wet to bring out their crazy shimmery shine, or dry over eye primer for a sparkly soft look. They are high quality, vegan, and safe for eyes, face, lips, and nails.

I like to occasionally use Princess Lala as a browbone highlight and in the inner corners of my eyes. It's hard to photograph but it is a soft shimmer-packed pink with a very beautiful iridescent sheen to it. Princess cupcake seems to be an AMM fan favorite, and it isn't hard to see why. It's a rosey medium shimmer pink shade. Princess Buttercup is a gorgeous bright buttery yellow. When I ordered the collection I assumed it would be more of a gold shade and was pleasantly surprised by just how bright it applies. I love yellow eyeshadow in general and this one is definitely one that you have got to try for yourself. My absolute favorite color in the Princess collection would have to be Princess Toad. It is an amazing bright minty seafoam green filled with sparkles and shimmer. It looks great any way you apply it and compliments many other colors. It is particularly stunning over a black base or used wet as eyeliner.

Princess Buttercup, Princess Toad, and Romp

You can't see it that well in these pictures but I am wearing Princess Lala, and Princess Cupcake.

Other than having some great colors Alexeter Mineral Makeup has excellent customer service. She packs everything up neatly into a cute hand-stamped green bag filled with confetti, and instructions on how to get the most out of your makeup. Receiving your package from AMM is more like getting something from a friend rather than just another company. You can see the meticulous care that is put into packing every single order. It is evident by all the little details & finishing touches that this business really strives to provide you with a wonderful products as well as a good shopping experience with them.

In addition to those good qualities I also found their shipping to be fast, prices are great, website easy to use, and of course who doesn't love things like frequent facebook promotions and sales? . 

Overall my opinion of this collection is very high. It may be called the Princess collection, but it is totally fit for a queen ;)

Abigail's Boutique Designs review & swatches

As you may have read in my last post, I am now a promoter for Abigail's Boutique Designs. What that means to you is that I will be featuring these wonderful pigments from time to time and keeping you up to date on her specials, sales, new collections, and an occasional fun contest or two!

Obviously I wouldn't promote something I didn't actually like and use myself.

I actually spent the summer trying out a lot of different indie makeup brands. I like these small shops because I feel their owners put a lot of themselves into their products, and thus you end up with makeup that is completely unique. As with any makeup companies some are better than others. I've had the pleasure of purchasing things from several lovely people whose customer service just blew me away, and also from others I felt were just okay. Buying handmade products is a process of trial and error really, so it helps to try out a lot of things and figure out who the shops who best suit your needs are. Abigail's Boutique Designs is definitely one of those shops that meet my needs.

Here are just some of the positive attributes that helped me to come up with that decision:

• Unique shade range
• Good quality- compares to high-end makeup brands
• Highly pigmented 
• Easy to blend
• Many complimentary shades and collections
• Friendly, easy to work with customer service 
• Fast shipping/Good packaging
• Website is easy to use & navigate 
• Good prices

L-R: Big Bird, Aurora, Unicorns & Glitter, Hidden Truth, Blaze in sample clamshells

Look how shimmery it is!

 

 

 

Bird Bird is such a fun shade

I know this picture is blurry and crappy, but I wanted to show how sparkly Hidden Truth and Blaze are

Wouldn't these 3 together make a great Halloween look?

 There isn't a color i've tried that I don't like really lol. Hidden Truth is so hard to photograph because it's this weird charcoal grey with a gold-green shift and lots of microglitter. It is a MUST HAVE. I really like it wet, or over a black base to show off it's sheen and glittery goodness. Another favorite is Blaze because of it's versatility. It looks amazing dry for bright, but wearable fiery orange. It looks even better wet, over black or white base. Like all mineral pigments, all of these colors can be worn several different ways to make many different types of makeup looks. There quality and pigmentation rivals that of most of the high-end store brands I have used. Their silky formula makes blending super easy and they do not ever apply "patchy" for me. They also are really long lasting with eye primer (they last pretty long when you forget the primer too...oopes lol).

All colors have been swatched over white eyeshadow base. That stunning blue you see is the shade Mabeline. The last two swatches are hidden truth over nyx black bean and unicorns and glitter over nyx pacific.

Natural light

with a flash

These colors do not need to be worn with a white base to be very vibrant, but I found this to be the easiest way to photograph them. Many shades are very pigmented simply used dry over eye primer. A white base will make your eyeshadow shades pop, and last longer though. My camera is not great so these pictures really don't do these colors any justice, but they are true to shade.

Hidden truth & Unicorns & Glitter over a white base.

Aurora, Blaze, and fusebox Coral Burst over eye primer.

I definitely love these colors shown, as well as all the other colors I have that are not shown. You'll be seeing a lot of looks using these colors and many more in the near future. If you have a request for a certain collection or color you would like me to review please let me know in the comments section!

Shimmery for Summer: E.l.f Mineral eyeshadows & studio shimmer pallet

In May, E.l.f. ran an amazing sale where if you spent $25 you could get 10 of their mineral eyeshadows for free. I couldn't pass it up. I have used many e.l.f. products in the past but hadn't tried any of their mineral products yet. I also picked up their mineral eyeshadow primer, and some of the new mineral brushes. I figured it was the perfect opportunity to just try it all out.

The 10 eyeshadow colors I went with were (in order of swatch): Angelic, Flirty, Glamorous, Golden, Beachy, Outdoorsy, Celebrity, Elegant, Trendy, and Sassy. 

Angelic is a sparkly ivory. It is a true ivory, and therefore isn't a bright white. It didn't photograph real well, but it does go on well and is decently pigmented. It is also super shimmery.

Flirty was one of the shades I am disappointed with. It looks a little brighter in the container than it actually applies. It's kind of a dull, dusty medium purple shade. It's not well pigmented and I felt that I really had to work at it to build decent color coverage. Your best bet is to use this one wet.

Glamorous is a pretty rusty wine color. For the most part it's pretty matte with just a hint of mica. I really liked this shade as it applies very well. It's decently pigmented whether you choose to use it wet or dry.

Golden is just your traditional molten gold color. It's sooo sparkly and pretty! I got really bold color without having to use this wet. This was one of my favorite shades out of the 10.

Beachy is the one I'm on the fence about. When applied dry it's totally dull and drab. Use it wet? It's a completely different color! In the swatch I made a line down the center where I moistened it to show the difference. When dry it's a dark navy....moist it's a shimmer filled electric blue.

Outdoorsy is a sparkly deep forest green. It looks straight up black when applied. I don't know why that is. I don't dislike the color, but it wasn't at all what I expected it to be. I think Outdoorsy is the most versatile of the whole bunch because the deepness of the shade depends on how well you blend it and what other colors you use in combination with it.

Celebrity is a shimmery pale bronze/taupe. I think this one works nice as a highlight, and I love it in combination with the similar shades (elegant & trendy).

Elegant was the one I thought sucked. It's a very pale shimmery nude shade that's similar to Celebrity and Trendy but just doesn't have the same color payoff at all. I had to apply twice as much Elegant to get it to even show up in the swatch. I don't think it's any better used wet either unfortunately.

Trendy is a champagne shimmer. It goes on much better than Elegant lol. I really liked this one actually.

Last but not least...Sassy, a sienna brown with lots of shimmer. I just love this one. It's super pigmented, but applies well and blends great. It's not the most exciting color by itself but it goes with so many other shades perfectly. I've probably been using this one the most out of all 10.

Would you ever guess that outdoorsy is supposed to be green?!

Sassy, Glamorous, Elegant, Angelic, Celebrity

Not a great shot but you get the point

Outdoorsy, Angelic, Trendy, Celebrity

Also wearing e.l.f. shimmering whip in Spotlight, color stick in Golden Peach, and lip color in Charming

I also picked up the E.l.f. studio shimmer pallet. I had been reading a lot of mixed reviews on it by beauty bloggers, but not enough to scare me away from buying it! LOL. I guess the main complaint was that when applied all the shades appear very similar. Some people said they couldn't even tell the difference between any of the 4 shades when they were actually on skin.

They are pretty close in color on skin, but I can tell the difference no problem. I think it really depends on how you use them. I like to use the 2nd & 3rd colors in combination with the e.l.f. Golden Peach all-over color stick. My only complaint about these shimmers is the silly little brush it comes with. This stuff is MUCH too soft to use with that sort of brush, and is really intended to be applied with the fingers.


All in all I was generally pleased with my little E.l.f haul. I do think some of their mineral eyeshadow shades are a hit or miss though. That's kinda how I feel about a lot of the makeup e.l.f. makes. Some things I just can't live without while others I can definitely live with skipping. I plan to pick up some of their mineral lipsticks next and take those for a test drive ;)

Until next time
~Kaitlyn