Sorely disappointed with FaceFront

You know how I've been raving about FaceFront's products? Well, I won't be extending those raves to their customer service. In fact, I have decided not to post any swatches or looks displaying FaceFront's products.

Why?

Well, my order went missing. I e-mailed them about it about two weeks ago. I got a reply some days later stating that "they were worried that my order was missing" and I was asked to confirm which order was missing (although I had already provided them with the transaction ID). I didn't get a reply and I e-mailed them again. I sent them another message. No response. Yesterday they finally managed to reply to me and asked me if I wanted my order re-sent. I almost sent them a reply saying "No, I'm just e-mailing you because I have no friends". I mean, if you complain about a missing order, doesn't it mean you want it? I e-mailed them saying "yes, I want my order re-sent". Today I got a reply saying that the Buenos Aires blush I ordered is sold out. Great.

Had they answered me earlier, I would have gotten what I ordered. Now, they seem to be quite content to offer another product but no apologies. I'm bloody furious.

So no FaceFront for you from me. I will not promote a company that thinks ignoring their customers is the way to run a business.

Love,

Saila, the Adventurous Purple Koala

SwatchOut: Facefront vol. 1

Okay, I got some of the products I ordered from Facefront Cosmetics. I'm still waiting for two (my first order was splitted in two). I grew tired of waiting so I'm doing some swatches now and rest of them later.

From left to right: Ice Melt, Blushing, Weekend Warrior

I used UDPP on the back of my hand to really show off the shades.

Ice Melt is looks peachy in the container but it has this blue sheen that changes according to light. Actually, when I used it on my eyes for the first time, sometimes it looked like I wasn't wearing any eyeshadow at all and then I tilted my head or the light came from a different angle, BOOM. Blue shine. It has some pink in it, too.

Blushing is a very delicate colour, perfect for sparkly nude makeup. Works as a highlighter, too. It's sort of peachy pink with gold sparkle.

Weekend Warrior is Purple with a capital p. It's almost the same colour as Empress but this has a slight cool grape vibe going on. For such a strong colour it's very buildable and wearable. What can I say, it's perfect. This is what purple is about.

I like Facefront's colours. I can't say for sure if I love the company since I really hate the website (when you say that eyeshadow finishes vary "from sheer or opaque", it would be nice if it was mentioned that which shades are sheer and which opaque) but the actual products are great. Of course, the lack of proper shade descriptions can mean that you'll learn to hate their products when you don't get what you thought you ordered. But if you're ready for makeup lottery and feeling lucky, I can guarantee that at least the product consistency is great. The colour's are vibrant and they don't fade (at least not with a primer).

Facefront doesn't offer samples so the risk of getting a wrong kind of colour is rather big. However, they do offer 20 day return if you're not happy with the colour.

Love,

Saila, the Adventurous Purple Koala

Going Dame Edna

Yesterday I wandered into MAC's counter at Stockmann's and what was waiting for me? The Dame Edna collection. Of course, most people have already sampled the collection and seen it a thousand times so I decided to approach it differently.


I bought Vericose Violet nail polish and Possum Nose Pink lipglass (no spelling mistake here, MAC's signature gloss is called lipGLASS because it's so shiny) from the collection. The eyshadow trios were nice but nothing out of the ordinary (except for the kooky packaging). MAC website describes Varicose Violet as "frosty mid-tone pinkish purple" and Possum Nose Pink as "sheer bright coral with multidimensional pearl". The packaging of the lipglass is funky!


This is how the Varicose Violet looks on nails. There is a definite pink sheen but I think the colour is not purple, it's mauve. I love the colour. There's a funny story to this nail polish. I don't speak English as my first language and though my vocabulary is quite broad, there are words that I can't even guess what they mean. I studied the shade name and realized that I had no idea what a 'varicose' is. I was thinking a tropical flower because the colour was so gorgeous. So I bought the nail polish, went home and reached for my dictionary. Varicose is not a tropical flower, I get that now. Those of you who speak Finnish, varicose means 'suonikohju'. Lovely.

I took these pictures again on our balcony. The balcony glasses were frozen (yes, it's that cold) so I had to play with it in this pic. I think the ice looks cool (pun intended) with my Varicose Violet.

So I decided to do a Dame Edna inspired look for today. I had less than an hour to dress up, eat breakfast and do my makeup before heading to town to meet my parents for a shopping spree. So, I decided to use purple and my new lipglass.

Koala's Dame Edna Look

Meow Inquisitive Chausie Pampered Puss foundation (first layer)
Meow Inquisitive Sphynx Pampered Puss foundation (second layer)
Lime Crime Marie Antoinette blush
Meow Quartz Crystalline Glow (on cheekbones)
UDPP
Facefront Weekend Warrior eyeshadow (all over lid)
Coastal Scents Platinum gel liner
Dior Diorshow waterproof mascara
MAC Possum Nose Pink lipglass

The reason why I'm using two different shades of foundations is that I've found that Sphynx is too yellow on me. So I'm waiting for my order on Inquisitive Himalayan which is my actual match. Until I get it I have to use two shades.


As you can see, Weekend Warrior is a very vibrant purple. Oh I hate this picture so let's move on..

Okay, here you can see the silver gel liner from Coastal Scents. I think it pairs perfectly with Weekend Warrior and brightens the eye. I used a flash in this photo to bring out shiny finish of the liner. I really like how little product you need to build a good finish.

Well, I told you I didn't have much time with the waking up early and the shopping. But below is how I looked when I left the house after 20 minutes of beautification:

I did PRETTY good *lol* I love the lipglass though at first I thought it would be too orangey (yes, the name is confusing. It says pink but it looks orangey red in the container and sparkly reddish pink on your skin). I love how it glistens, there are obviously blueish or mauveish sparkles that plump up your lips, so to speak.

Oh, and if you live in Finland and you are thinking about getting Varicose Violet after reading this post, you're late. I bought the last one in Finland and they are not getting any more. Sowwy.

I may post some swatches soon...

Love,

Saila, the Adventurous Purple Koala

Coming up, hopefully sooner than later

I didn't get my Facefront haul yet but I did get one eyeshadow from that brand from Ilse as I had made my order before they released their winter collection. The eyeshadow I got was Ice Melt which looks like a peach colour but when you apply it, OH MY, it has an undescribable colour. It's sort of peachy but there's blueish sheen and some pink and the whole colour changes according the light. It's AWESOME. I'm wearing it today with Meow's Port (from their Winter Spirits collection) and MAC's black Technakohl. I decided not to wear lippie as I want to flaunt my eyes!



So, as I couldn't take pics because of the lack of light but I decided to write on choosing a colour on the webstores. Most webstores have pictures of their makeup colours, usually the picture is taken of a clump of makeup. Some have a verbal description as wll and some combine these two ways of depicting colour. Of course, there are differences in the quality of the pictures and how one's monitor displays them. So, I decided to review some of the places I've bought my makeup from by looking at their way of describing and depicting makeup colours.



Meow Cosmetics has both a picture of the product and an explanation of the colour. The picture of the colour is taken from a clump of the colour. I don't know if it's because of photography but some colours look exactly like they look in irl but some colours can be way off. For example, Abra-Cat-Abra! feliner looks almost bright fuchsia in the pic, the text says it's "Bright, true grape purple with gold and silver sparkle!" but what I got was light lavender liner. This is very rare with Meow as usually if I'm torn between taking or leaving a colour, I make my final decision on their verbal description. And Abra-Cat-Abra! is the first colour that has been off in both descriptions. And I have a lot of stuff from Meow. But I still recommend getting samples before buying full sizes since especially some of the more complex colours are a bit tricky. You can also do a search for Meow swatches on a search engine and my friend Decorative Diva does Meow swatches too (a link to her blog on the right side of my blog).



Lime Crime has a pic of the clump of colour, a pic of the colour on eyelid AND a verbal description of the colour. This is great since you can actually see what the colour looks like on you eyes (or someone's eyes, teehee) and you can read about the possible undertones. And the colours look exactly like in pictures! You can also try a search engine for finding swatches, though it's not necessary since the photographs and descriptions are very accurate.



Facefront is the most ambiguous about their colour description. The pics are very small and they are not taken of the actual products (at least it seems that way, correct me if I'm wrong). There's no verbal description of the colours and they don't offer samples. So basically you're ordering products by your gut instinct and hoping to get something you'll love. There are some swatches on xsparkage's blog (click Product Reviews on the upper corner of her blog and look for Facefront swatches) and again a search engine will solve some of this problem. But most of the swatches I found were taken of the same colours. I have only one Facefront's eyeshadow, Ice Melt, and the pic doesn't tell you anything about the colour. As I mentioned, I'm getting some goodies from Facefront soon, so I'll be posting some swatches.



I'll probably do another post like this when I order from a new company and get the products. These opinions present my own subjective view and my experiences on these companies.

Until then,

Saila, the Adventurous Purple Koala