I came up with the idea of buying from companies in my area a few weeks ago. Since most of my orders have been delivered, I thought I should do my first review. Addictive Cosmetics is located in San Diego, CA and has had an Etsy shop for about two years. I ordered on September 1st and it shipped on the 9th to be received on the 10th (I told you it was local!).I ordered a sample pack of three eyeshadows for $4.99. I ordered Seaweed, Ursula, and Emerald City.

Emerald City, Ursula, Seaweed

Now, the sample page says that they are useful for a few applications but I didn’t know how literal that would be. Worried that I might be just be used to baggies and that it wasn’t THAT small, I decided to depot one of them and compare to a Shiro sample. Here is what I came up with. 

As you can see, Shiro is significantly more full. I’d say about 2-3x more. However, Shiro is one of the more generous in the sample department. Going ahead, here are the swatches I made.

Emerald City, Ursula, Seaweed swatched over Darling Girl’s Glitter Glue

Emerald City is described as “the perfect color for green and blue lovers” and although the green isn’t very visable on me, it is a beautiful blue with darker blue sparkles. It applied easily and well.

Ursula is called a matte dark purple on the description page, though there is some shimmer. It seems like a beautiful color for a purple smokey eye.

Seaweed is my absolute favorite of the bunch. It is a rich, bright green–it reminds of Shiro’s Maiden Queen but matte. It applied well for a matte. A bit chalky, but I usually have that problem with these types of shadows. 

Here is a quick look I did with Emerald City and Seaweed.

Pardon my face, my son and I have been throwing up for the past couple of days. 

Face:

Clinique Even Better Foundation in Deep Neutral

Nars blush in Seduction

Eyes:

Versailes (Baroque Cosmetics) on inner eye

Blush Bronze (My Beauty Addiction) on lid

Emerald City (Addictive Cosmetics) Crease

Seaweed (Addictive Cosmetics) Outer V

Lips:

Teatime by Alog Cosmetics

Just as I was trying to get the energy to make a blog post, my mail came and with it came my first order from Alog Cosmetics. I placed my order on August 21 and it was marked as shipped by the next morning. I recieved it today, on Septemeber 2nd. Seeing as how Alog Cosmetics is based in Iceland, I must say I am pretty impressed with the shipping speed. 

I ordered three lipstick samples: Teatime, Sea Sorbet, and Nebula. Here are are my reviews for each.

Bare lips for reference:

Teatime: Teatime is a peachy nude color on me with a golden shimmer and a hint of violet. Its warm and shimmery and absoultely stunning. I imagine this entering my lipstick rotation very easily. The formula was creamy with no staining. 

Teatime

My next color to try was Sea Sorbet, a metallic light and bright blue. I also want to note that this color is extremely hard to capture in photo. After running all over my house checking out natural sunlight, artificial sunlight, white balance, doing handstands, etc. this is the closest I came up with. The picture on Alog Cosmetic’s etsy page is very true to color. I did have minor staining afterwards.

Sea Sorbet

Last up was Nebula. Nebula was described as a violet lipstick with a golden sheen. However, I found that it really is a violet-gold lipstick. As someone who loves purple and gold lipsticks, this was pretty much heaven for me. This is a very frosted lipstick. It does leave a stain. 

Nebula

Overall, I was very impressed with Alog Cosmetics. The fast delivery time, the hydrating formula of each lipstick, and the colors were all a hit with me. However, the staining may be a problem with some people. 

You can find Alog Cosmetics here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlogCosmetics