Primerlessness ceases!

Today was a glorious day! I received my new vegan primer from SoBe Botanicals!

A bit of back story: I have been traumatized by companies messing up my order/not sending my orders out. The result of this trauma is paranoia about every package I ever order not getting to me. I have to say, Lex (of SoBe Botanicals) was wonderfully communicative throughout my waiting period. I had originally emailed her when I didn't receive a shipping notice. I was informed that the website automatically generates an email notice, even though international customers are exempt from actually being sent a tracking number or shipping notice. This is normal, and I'm used to it--but because of the auto-email, I was concerned. The day after emailing I heard back from Lex and she reassured me that my package was shipped in the 5th of January. By Wednesday the 26th when I had still not received my package, I emailed Lex again (see?! paranoid much?!!). She once again replied and said that harsh weather may have been the issue and she asked me that I let her know when my package did get to me. A+ for customer service, for sure! And then today I excitedly emailed her to announce that my package did make its way to me!

And here's the proof:
And the excitement doesn't end there. Upon opening the package I was confronted by this adorable packaging:

Gah!! Cute, no?!

And the insides:

Left to right: Primed and Proper, business card, two seemingly unlabeled pigment samples.

The primer, the pièce de résistance, was sealed. A nice reassurance that the product hasn't been compromised in any way,shape,or form.


And the product itself:


My first impressions of the product were very positive. I think that had a lot to do with the packaging and the way the product arrived and the communication I had received from Lex. The texture of the primer is very light and what you see in this picture was what I used for both of my eyelids. The scent of the product was nice: there was a freshness to it. When I put it on my eyelids it was a bit cool, which wasn't unpleasant. It was very smooth to apply--though I wasn't exactly sure how much to use!

Later impressions: I applied some MSC pigments over top of NYX eyeshadow base in white (all over top of the primer, of course!). The immediate results were awesome. The primer seemed to help my base stay in place, and applying pigment over top didn't give me any issues.

This is MSC's Nirvana (on the lid) with Sub Zero in ducts and as a brow highlight. Time Warp as a liner.

Even later impressions of SoBe's Primed and Proper: About an hour after application, my eyeshadow still looked great. But after two hours I definitely have creasing (more on one eye than the other, it seems). I'm not entirely discouraged by this because I wasn't exactly sure how much product to use. I will experiment using less first and then more after that.

Knowing 100% that this primer is vegan makes me very willing to try to make it work!

Edit: 11:14pm

When I received my package and let Lex know, I also told her I would be writing up a blog about it. She asked me to forward her the link and I did--also saying that she might be able to help me out with my amount of product issue. Lex let me know that she uses about half the amount I pictured for both eyes. So tomorrow I will try it again with way less product! And hooray for that--cause that means the 1/2 oz bottle will last me a long while!!

Madd Style Win: Thoughts on Vegan Stance and Packaging

As stated in my last blog--so begins my foray into the world of reviewing/tutorial making for a most wonderful cosmetic company, Madd Style Cosmetics (hereafter referred to as MSC).

MSC's slogan: 100% Vegan. 100% Worth it. And goodness is it ever!! That Mo Love, the creator/owner of MSC, has made a commitment to keeping her cosmetics line vegan is of utmost importance to me and not only because I'm about to hit my 6 year veganversary!! The luxury of beauty items is just that, a luxury. Why (oh why?!) would I want to support a company that tests on animals or uses animal products in order to make my lips/eyelids/cheeks (you name it!) colourful? No animals should suffer for anyone's beauty or, as I like to think of it, artistic hobby and MSC guarantees that. MSC offers vibrant pigments (or as we on the fan page call them: piggies), lusciously scented lip balms (or "bombs" in MSC verbiage), and glossy to the max lip glosses. I have no doubt in my mind that new products will be coming out as MSC has only opened its doors for business as a full-fledged cosmetics company in October of 2010. The number of fans on the facebook page may trick you into thinking that they've been around for a while--but don't be deceived. The large number of fans is simply a testament to the superior product that is MSC. But before I delve into the product itself, I want to start at the start and give you a preview of what you will expect when you receive an MSC package.

MSC packages are always wrapped to perfection. I have ordered from other mineral companies where it's pretty much a gamble if you'll end up with more product all over the pots and inside the bag rather than inside the pot, as it should be! Rest assured that you won't be rolling the dice with MSC.

Notice how everything is all snug as a bug in a rug inside a plastic baggie? Not only that, but they're all comfy inside some bubble wrap too!!

You can also see that there is no spillage whatsoever inside the bag.


The happiness doesn't end there though!

The pots come with a nifty top label on them--MSC's logo is neat, but my camera didn't want to pick up the flashiness. The stickers are actually all shiny!

The products you see here are Awesome Sauce (on the left) and two pots of pigment. I'll put a tutorial up about how to best use Awesome Sauce, but for now I'll tell you that it's basically magic sauce that will help your piggies appear foiled and even MORE vibrant and wonderful. I know, I know, it's hard to imagine!




MSC will also never make you guess which piggies are which, everything comes labeled! You may think: "So what? Isn't labeling a no-brainer?!" You'd be surprised though--labeled things aren't always the norm!





Sifter stickers. Mo has thought of it all. When I received my first shipment of piggies I was THRILLED with what I found under my lids. These sifter stickers are sooooooooo easy to remove! No tweezers needed here!













Just for comparison's sake, this -----------------------------------------> is what some companies use as stickers (this is NOT an MSC pot/pigment). Do you see the sticker? Maybe, just barely? Yeah. Tell me about it. I squint too, just to try to make it out. But even WORSE than a clear, thin, flimsy sticker, is no sticker at all.

What could happen if there were no sticker, you ask?

Well let me show you....

The problem with no sifter sticker is twofold. 1) The safety of the pigment and whether it was properly packaged is in doubt. 2) The pigment floats up above the sifter and is one of the major causes of the spillage/messiness that I alluded to earlier. (This pigment is also not an MSC product.)

So while a clear, hard to get off sifter sticker is much more desired than no sticker at all, I think you can all see that MSC's sifter sticker is definitely what you'd want to find under your piggie lid, am I right?!!



I know that by now you're probably all way too excited to see what the MSC goods are actually like--but you'll just have to hold your horses. I wanted to highlight some of those little things that really help to make MSC the awesome company that it is--Mo thinks about those little things like labels and stickers and those little things don't go unnoticed.

Stay tuned--I'll get brushes dirty next time.