A Rockeresque Holiday

Today I bring you all a nice little look at Rockeresque's Holiday Items. I myself will be ordering all of these items on friday once I am paid, but I wanted to give you all an idea of what they are! (If you like what you see, the prices are all links to the item in Rockeresque's shop :D)

Final Thoughts: Glittersniffer Cosmetics

I recently announced I would no longer support, endorse, or use Glittersniffer Cosmetics. Now that I have had enough time to let emotions die down, I feel that I can talk about it here with a fresh and and unclouded perspective. I wanted to be truthful about my reasons for leaving, as well as provide information This might be long, so please bear with me
DISCLAIMER: ALL OF THE FOLLOWING IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. TAKE THIS INFORMATION AS YOU SEE FIT, AND PLEASE MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS.

When I became an admin on the Glittersniffer Private group page on Facebook, I felt awesome. For the first time, I was a part of something. I have had issues fitting in since I was little, so this was a new experience to me. I followed orders, from Lela, about deleting and blocking users who were on the Glittersniffer Complaints page. I also removed any and all negative posts on the private page as well, and monitoring the main fan page for negativity to tell Lela about so it could be removed. It felt wrong, but my mind, I saw it as the role I was to play in order to stay apart of this group.

Not too long into my admin duties did I start to hear the rumors, from the other admins. They spoke of her lack of proper work sanitation procedures, such as, not washing her hands after smoking or eating. Another matter brought into question was her working environment. For example, her cat being aloud to walk in and out of her work area. I am deathly allergic to cats so the idea of fur in my cosmetics is not a settling thought.

An accusation was also made that Lela has an addiction to a substance called Kratom. Though it is legal in small doses, Lela made references to using it multiple times a day, in high doses. This was also witnessed by another admin that had gone to stay with her for roughly a week back in February. Though this is a more personal aspect of her and not the company, it made me stop to think what it was I was trying to be a part of? Was this type of person, someone I should be so worried of getting approval from. I was wanted to be a part of something, but not something like this.

These rumors have proved true with photos, eye witnesses, and even from Lela herself. I find myself now concerned for Lela Warren. She is only human, and I do not wish to harm her. I can only hope she will seek the help she needs to become a better business owner, but also a better person.

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Now, before I left GS, I helped Lela create the Video game collection. After waiting  a month for my package, since I was promised a full collection because it was my idea originally, I contacted Lela and she was happy to send me one. I would like to share with you what I had received.

How it was packaged inside a regular manila envelope.

Inside the bag

The package pulled out of the pac-man bag. I already knew I was up for disappointment when I saw the broken soap.

The other side. The "Yoshi" green pigment was spilled everywhere.

The set of pigments as I received them. This is unaltered. I pulled this for the bag as is.

The perfume. The listing stated it was in a twist up tube, but was actually sent to me in a 5g Pot. Still cute though

It looks as though it was in a tube at one point, and just plopped into the pot.

The Mountain Dew Soap. Broken in 4 pieces, and was not wrapped. Everything was covered in a soap residue because of it not being wrapped.

The "full" vials of cosmetic glitter. In different vials, and barely full.

The Bath bomb. There was red glitter, and rock salt on the top. Some of which was scraped off as I pulled it from the package.

Side view of the bath bomb. It was cracked, had these white chunks everywhere, and was very inconsistent.

This is all I received. I was very disappointed. The soap was very thin, so it broke in transit. If it had been packaged and wrapped as most companies do with their soap I believe that it would have arrived in one piece. The pigments were everywhere. Most of the green was dumped out because there was no sifter stickers on any sifters, and the stacker wasn't sealed in anyway. Scotch tape would have been enough in my mind to prevent this. The perfume not being in the twist up tube doesn't bug me as much as you can tell it was at some point.  The glitter vials were no where near full, not even half full. 

I really do hope that maybe this was just my package, not everyone's. It is also my hope that Glittersniffer does turn over a new leaf and corrects its mistakes of the past as they promised. Sadly though, as you can see above, it doesn't appear that it has happened yet. Personally, I will not purchase for GS ever again. After was I saw with the Video Game collection, my heart broke because that was something I helped create, and it was no where near what it could have been.

I hope this has been informative to whoever reads this. I sincerely hope that possibly, Lela Warren will read this and see what has happened and know that I wish her the best. I used to be devoted to GS, I used to be an admin, and I loved it. Then it went south, I left, but I still feel like things can improve. For her current customers, I hope things improve and you enjoy what you get from GS.

If you received the Video Game collection, comment below and tell me, was mine just like this, or was yours broken/open/spilled when you received it? I want to know if I just got unlucky.

Review: Virus Insanity Eyeshadow

I have wanted to do a review of Virus Insanity for awhile, but wanted to have time to play with everything for awhile before giving y'all a final verdict. They offer Super bright to super dark colors, mattes, shimmers, and glitter. They've got unique names, funny names, to down right dirty names... in the good kind of dirty I promise! What more could a girl ask for! So here's my 2.5 cents!

Packaging

Everything that I have purchased from VIE has always been packaged very nicely. my last order was a larger one, which is usually where companies have had issues with packaging, in my opinion. So here's what I recieved yesterday:

 This was the box, fresh off the mail truck. It was sealed up tight, and there was no damage to the box at all. I could shake it and there was little to no movement of the items inside.

 The top of the box upon opening it was packed with tissue paper to pad the top which was very nice. It helped protect things from shifting in shipment to me. I love this because that leaves less chance for things to break or open!

And finally, my order there are 55 shadows, 6 samples, and 6 of the shadows were one of a kind "experiments". I know how some of you feel about receiving experiemnts but let me tell you something that sets this company apart from the rest of those that I have used...

Every single one of the experiments has an ingredients list on the back. Even though they were experimental, VIE made sure you still knew what was going on your face. Not a "May Contain" list that most experiments have, an ACTUAL list. Did VIE earn brownie points for this in my mind? Heck yes! I have NEVER seen a company do this far with experiments if they weren't to become real colors.

VIE Packaging grade: A+


The Products 

So, we all differ in opinion of color choices and such. So the first ones I am showing you are the above experimental ones as swatches. Other companies I had gotten "experiments" from were not anywhere as good as their usual products. I was a little worried when I saw experiments written on the bag, but hey, everything deserves a chance.

They do not have names, and I haven't had the creativity in the past 24 hours to name them yet. These colors are all beautiful, and I love them. This picture doesn't do some of them justice, trust me. They were just as good as all of VIE's other products. They went on smoothly, they were easy to apply, and took little to actually get this type of pigmentation. These were done over just a NYX eyeshadow pencil in milk, and applied with a clean q-tip, so I was impressed that they came out this bright without use of primer and such.

This is the best thing ever. Sifted Stickers. Prevents spillage in shipment, which makes me happy because that means I get more product to play with. These are the experiments, so they do not have colors names on them but behold:

All of VIE's None experimental colors have these little top stickers on them. These 3 colors are from the Goddesses Collection in case anyone falls in love at first sight with them. <3

When I applied the product to my face, there was little to no fallout on my cheeks. Loved that. Less clean up makes me happy. The colors themselves, even from different color groups blend together nicely. For example, this is my EOTD today:

These two colors are on my list of faves right now. The green is "Blow Me" and the purple is from my custom collection and is called "Heavens Mirror". They went on nicely and have lasted all day so far. I only used an NYX pencil to put them to the test so this is, again, without primer. I am again Impressed.

VIE's Product Rating: A


Customer Service

Here's the biggy. We all want to see stellar customer service out of Indie companies. I will be honest, my order was incorrect when I got it yesterday. I had ordered a custom collection with 6 colors: Noble Team, L'cie, Albion, Heavens Mirror, Assassin, and Subject Delta. Noble team was missing, but I had 2 jars of Subject Delta. I contact Jennifer Sherrodd right away about the mix up. She apologized right away and asked that I please check the rest of my order to make sure it was correct. I did, and told her this was the only error. She assured me that she would send out a replacement tomorrow, which would be today. I found this on my facebook moments ago:

So not only did she keep her promise of sending it today, she sent me a confirmation number to track it and informed me that she sent it priority. She went the extra mile to make sure I was happy. This speaks volumes to me about how dedicated she is as a business owner. Other companies where I received incorrect products I got the runaround, then was sent something I didn't want, was never sent anything, or was sent something sub-par.


VIE's Customer service grade: A

Overall: A- for AMAZINGLY AWESOME! <3 I will order again, and I will recommend VIE to anyone and everyone. Link to their FB fan page/shop is in the sidebar!


To finish this off, I sent Jennifer and asked her a few questions about her company, so here's what she said:

Q: What made you decide to make MMU?
A: This is a pretty generic answer, but honestly I was sick of spending so much money on eyeshadows so I decided to start making my own. I did a lot of research first and ended up buying the TKB Pop Color's kit to start making myself eyeshadows because I tend to go for really bright colors. I slowly started buying more ingredients and my friends caught onto what I was doing and wanted to try them too! So eventually I made a Facebook fan page and figured out how to go about selling my eyeshadows.

Q: Is there any meaning behind your company name?
A: Virus Insanity is a name I thought of when I was a teenager. I was full of angst and thought it sounded cool ;) It kind of stuck with me for a long time, and I wanted something kind of edgy for my eyeshadow line so I decided to use it.

Q: What is your goal as a company?
A: When I first started out, my goals were to make incredible colors that no one had ever seen before. Much more recently I've been concentrating on making sure I have great customer service because I honestly consider my customers to be friends. Eventually I would love for this to get big, I want VIE to be successful.

Q: To you, what is amazing customer service?
A: I would consider amazing customer service to be admitting your mistakes and making it right. Everyone messes up once in awhile. Occasionally I will forget a color or send the wrong color, I'm only human. Once I marked an international package as goods instead of a gift and the girl ended up having to spend nearly $23 to get her package. I immediately sent her the money through Paypal, no questions asked. If I forget a color or send the wrong color, I send out a package the next day (or as soon as possible) and include extras. I think that as a seller you have to live up to your mistakes, admit that you messed up, and fix it. The customer is always right, because as a small business owner my customers are EVERYTHING.

Q: Out of your product line, what are your favorite colors?
A: My all time favorite color is Becca-ecca! It's named after my best friend so it definitely has a soft spot in my heart! Becca's favorite color is suuuper bright green so I had to make a crazy lime color for her. Some other favorites of mine are Smoked Lilac, Mohawk, and Ocean Mystery. And another color I really love is Ferris Wheel, it's a hot pink with green iridescence and lime green glitter. For some reason it reminds me of pink puke, but in a really GOOD way!

______________________

Love ya!

EDIT: A little disclaimer. I have become an Admin on the VIE page. Jennifer did not pay me for this interview, she didn't give me free product or any compensation at all besides a thank you after reading it. I bought from her before becoming admin in order to do a review, not imagining that she would ask me to be an admin on her fan page to help her out. I spent roughly $130 on all that you saw in the photos, and that was all I got. Jennifer also did not ask me to write this review, and did not know about it until I asked her to answer the above questions for my blog.

Primer, Primer.. Who's got the Primer!?

Why use eye primer? What's the point of adding another step to (for the most part) our already long makeup application project? Lets take a look at 2 options for eye primer!

First off, what is eye primer used for? Well it helps with making your eye shadows/pigments stay on all day, helps prevent creasing, and because more color will adhere to it, helps make a brighter look. There are people that swear by primer, and there are those that don't. The following is all in my own opinion, and this is my first time EVER using primers. Enjoy my fail y'all.

The Contenders:

Sephoras Basic Eye Primer

Urban Decay Primer Potion
(In the original sheer)

The question is, which one works  better? Which one holds up to show the true colors of eyeshadows/pigments? That's what I have set out to find out for you guys! 

Observation #1: Application

The above picture is my eyes with both primers applied.  SEP is on my Left eye, UDPP on the right (Hey look! I figured out how to label my photos without them looking like crap! <3) Both applied well. SEP has a built in brush, and UDPP has a wand. I do have to say I much prefer the wand to the brush because it doesn't clog up like the brush does. SEP dispenses by a twist bottom that pushes product up into the brush, which means that you can have to much, or the brush will cause clogs later on if not sealed properly. They both set themselves and were ready for base in about 1-2 minutes.

Observation #2: Adding a Base

 So, a side by side comparison. the SEP just kinda absorbed the NYX pencil into it. The UDPP held only the NYX Pencil like it was glue!

 Close up for the SEP eye. You can see where the primer changed colors where the NYX was applied originally.

Close up of the UDPP eye. The UDPP held onto the pencil, and allowed me to spread it fairly easily across my eye.

I really did not like the appearance of the SEP. It looked kinda gray-orange on my skin after the base was applied, and it felt strange. It really felt like I had poured straight foundation on my eye lids and just left it there. Not a great feelings. UDPP is nearly invisible, which means that if you don't take your makeup to the base of your brow, it won't show as much as the SEP would. It's also easier to apply a base onto, and it still maintains the bases color. I would be afraid to use colored bases with SEP since it would discolor them.

Observation #3: With Eyeshadow/pigment added on

SEP with Irish springs and Supernova: Irish springs took an orange undertone thanks to the coloration of the SEP primer. Not happy.When you apply a color, you want that specific color, not a variation of it. So, I'd say that SEP would be a better primer for looks with all oranges, or browns. That way, the colors are less affected by the coloration of the primer itself.

UDPP with Irish Springs and Supernova: Very true to color. The green popped and remained that way until I took off my makeup this evening. The Orange looked amazing as well, and wasn't made too bright or darkened by the primer. UDPP seems to be the better choice so far because it doesn't add more color to your eye shadow, it just helps it remain in one piece

Also, a short side note: Facebomb Cosmetics is a brand new indie company run by my friend Shayna Toole. Just got my first order from her today, and I love these two colors. Check out her facebook page to see all currently available colors!

The Verdict:

After trying both, and wearing both for a few hours, I have to say that Urban Decay Primer Potion is the clear winner this round! It does it's job, doesn't color the pigments because of the shade of it, and dries slightly faster than Sephoras Eye Primer. I really suggest it, and have to say it is well worth the money you have to pay for it. Wanna try it out? Sephora has their sample size bottle for $9 and they go a LONG way! I highly suggest giving them a try at least once. Urban Decay is my official eye primer of choice for now. Do you ladies have another suggestion?  Let me know in the comments below!!