It happened! My first indie order arrived! I was a little worried that my Fyrinnae order would arrive first, but after eight days on the road, these beauties fell on my doormat yesterday. As I told Maleah when I placed the order, my name is the Dutch word for 'blackbird' so I found it very fitting to order from her first. And damn, was it a great first step into the wonderful world of indies!
The order arrived in an envelope with a lovely (and rather long) handwritten note from Maleah on the invoice. There's no special story behind my name as far as I'm aware. I guess my parents just wanted something Dutch, as it's an extremely common name here. It's also a name you probably won't be able to pronounce if you're not Dutch, which is always interesting whenever I'm abroad.
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Okay, on to the shadows! I have to excuse myself for my poor swatching skills: there's definitely going to be a learning curve there. Photographing your own arm is surprisingly difficult, too, especially with an eight year old camera and little natural light. Today was exceptionally dark and misty, so my photo's were all taken outside to make the most of what little light there was. Despite the fact that I started swatching at 2pm, it looked like early evening. Better luck next time, I guess.
I ordered samples of both volume one and two, simply because they looked so promising and because they were so goddamn cheap. $10 for ten samples with free international shipping? You can't possibly go wrong with that - and I didn't!
As you can unfortunately see in this photo, these were swatched over Nyx Milk. These shadows probably don't need that white base, but since it was so dark, I wanted them to be as bright as possible. They are so impossibly pigmented and smooth!
Imogen: Medium muted mauvey pink.
My verdict: Quite bright, almost lavender. It's a lot more purple than I expected it to be, but it's very wearable.
Beau: Reddened dark brown.
My verdict: This is definitely one of my favourites, so warm and pigmented! This makes for a great eyebrow colour for me, together with Fire Pledge and Ruca.
Thirteen: Light to medium exactly neutral brown.
My verdict: It's a lighter, more brown/grey version of Gravity and it's seriously pretty. It does lean a little purple, but most of these shades do when swatched over Milk. I might just have to try this as a contour shade.
Immortals: Soft lightened pink.
My verdict: A very pretty, almost baby pink. It photographed a little brighter and pinker than it looked on my skin and it was definitely more wearable than it looks here. I have bright red hair, so I usually avoid shades like this, but combined with some of the other neutrals, I think I can totally get away with this colour.
Gravity: Dark muted complex plum.
My verdict: It's a darker, more purple version of Thirteen. I gotta admit that I'm a little wary of purples, but this is a great crease colour. It seems as if my skin makes all the purple tones more prominent, because it looked a lot browner in the baggie.
Fire Pledge: Vibrant orange, leaning a bit towards red.
My verdict: This shade is the perfect eyebrow shade for when I've dyed my hair with an orange-based red. It's a dark pumpkin orange and I love it. It'll probably work really as a liner, too.
Fiction: Dark perfect grey.
My verdict: Once again, it turned purple on my skin and I'm really glad it did. Cool greys look terrible on me, while this is definitely wearable.
Dog Days: Medium, mid toned exactly neutral brown.
My verdict: No purple! Whoo! It's a wonderful dark beige and I really like it. Very work-safe.
Dim Tradition: Light, whitened natural golden brown.
My verdict: Swatched on Milk, it turned a lot darker and more purple. On bare skin, it's a very pale light grey that doesn't quite show up on my skin. It's a lovely base colour, though.
Lucid: Black, but not quite opaque.
My verdict: It's supposed to be black, but as you can see, it turns a very dark blue on my skin. I'm glad it does, as I've never liked pure black eye shadows. Too many failed smokey eyes when I was young.
Smudge: Medium to dark taupe, leaning a bit towards dark.
My verdict: It's supposed to be black, but as you can see, it turns a very dark blue on my skin. I'm glad it does, as I've never liked pure black eye shadows. Too many failed smokey eyes when I was young.
Ruca: Blackened red.
My verdict: Just like the other two red shades, this makes for a perfect eyebrow shade for me. I love how warm it is, without being brick red like you usually see in red eyeshadows.
Modesty: Light neutral golden brown, resembles khaki.
My verdict: A rather cool light brown with some yellow tones. I prefer warmer colours, but I'll have to try it in a look to see how it pairs up with other shades.
Juliet: Dark muted pink.
My verdict: This colour is so gorgeous! It's a lovely brown pink that works really well with my hair and skintone. I adore it.
Half Full: Light whitened gold. A perfect highlight for any skin tone.
My verdict: A very light yellow that doesn't really show up too well on my pale skin. It might work very well as a highlighter or an all-over lid colour.
Everest: Cool toned dark brown, leans a little towards green.
My verdict: I love green when it comes to eye shadow and so I love Everest. It might be a little too grey for my liking, but I have a gorgeous Sephora shade that will look great with this one as a crease colour.
Figment: Light muted plum.
My verdict: It's purple. Really, really purple. The walls of my childhood bedroom are this purple. It's a pretty colour, don't get me wrong, but it's not really for me.
Vintage: Muted, but somehow still vibrant mid-toned violet.
My verdict: Another favourite. Such a lovely, warm colour! I prefer purples that lean on red rather than grey or blue, so this is right up my alley. I need a full size of this one.
Whisper: Light perfect grey.
My verdict: Purple again, though this time you can blame my skin. It's grey in the bag, but I prefer this colour on my skin. I might not like purples like this too much, but I prefer them over greys. Sorry for the patchiness of this one, I don't really know what happened.
Atlas: Dark slightly blackened brown.
My verdict: This blends out to a beautiful dark orange-ish brown that matches my eyes really well. I love it!
Turn around time: I placed my order on the 17th, it got shipped on the 20th and it arrived on the 28th. This is extremely reasonable for free international shipping, so I'm happy. It would have gotten here even sooner if they delivered mail on Sundays or Mondays, but alas, they don't.
Overall impression: Wow. Just wow. These shades are so gorgeous and so pigmented! My skin is weird and turns most of them more purple than they're supposed to be, but I can't even complain about it because the colours are still wonderful. I didn't remove my last batch of swatches and they're still on my arm hours later. I gotta admit that I was a little surprised by how small the sample baggies were, but in retrospect, this is totally reasonable. You might not get a lot, but you get extremely high quality shadows that are also very, very water resistant. Sample sets are supposed to include a coupon for your next order, but I think Maleah forgot mine because I haven't been able to find it. Unfortunate, because there's definitely some shades I want to buy a full size of. All in all, I couldn't have picked a better company to order from for my first indie order!
Blackbird Cosmetics' store can be found here here and if you make an Etsy account using this link, Etsy should be giving you a €5 credit to use.
Once again, excuse my rather poor swatches and photo's. I hope it'll get better when I've had some practice and when the weather isn't so incredibly gloomy. I should be able to try again, since I just got a notification that my Fyrinnae order is currently going through customs clearance here in the Netherlands. Let's hope those shades will be as great as Blackbird Cosmetics' mattes!
EDIT: Maleah read my review and sent me a message with the forgotten coupon via Facebook (which I didn't see until days later, oops). Amazing customer service, thank you so much!
