Wednesday 27 April 2016

Essie: Passport to Happiness

Passport to Happiness by Essie Here are a couple of nail swatches of Essie's Passport to Happiness from the Bridal 2016 collection (Mrs. Always Right). This colour is a mint green with shimmer that's great for spring. The colour is reminiscent of a Tiffany Blue, but cooler-leaning and more green.

It takes two coats to reach full opacity and is pictured here with a basecoat, two coats of polish and a topcoat. The photos were taken on the third day of wear, and I'll update this post with wear time next week.


Natural light

 
Fluorescent light

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Mini Mint Palette Review

Over the past two years, I've accumulated a staggering number of loose-powder samples that I have trouble using. I decided that pressing them and having them organized in nice palettes would motivate me to start using them more. After considering the options (Mini Mint, Book of Shadows or Z-palettes), I ordered two palettes from Mini Mint on Dec 18. I contacted the shop owner via Etsy to ask if she could hold my order until she released more palettes, and she offered the option of a reserved listing (i.e. I pick the front cover design and size).

Here's a time line of the process:




The palettes arrived in a small cardboard box secured with protective cushioning. Each palette was individually wrapped with a plastic sleeve and a colour-coordinated paper with the shop's branding. The paper-phile in me was delighted at these details.

 

Also in the package were a sheet of stickers for labelling your pans, a pair of falsies and a reward card for a "buy ten get one free" deal. The big sheet of stickers came with the 4x6 palette.


I ordered three 4x4 everyday ($7 USD) and a 4x6 storage palettes ($10 USD) to kick start my personal project of pressing my loose indie make up. The top two of were purchased as is in the shop and bottom two were reserved listings.



Here some more photos individually:

4x4 leaves with gold foil - I really love the gold detailing on this one



4x6 watercolour flowers and bird


 
4x4 roses on wood

 
The palettes all have different designs on the interior of the lid and a magnetic closure.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the quality of these palettes. They feel professionally made and I appreciate the assortment of designs offered by Mini Mint. They are light but feel sturdy in the hand. The 4x4 holds nine 26mm pans with room left over to fit a mini brush. With these tin pans purchased from TheBodyNeeds, they stick on to the Mini Mint palettes (they're magnetized) with no sliding around whatsoever. The 4x6 holds fifteen 26mm pans and I plan to use that one to store my eye shadows.

I'm very happy with my purchases and will definitely be a repeat customer (given that first I fill up my current palettes). Now it does take some patience stalking the store for designs you like but I think it's well worth the wait. You can see previews of the palette designs on Facebook and announcements are made every time a new batch of palettes is released.

Overall, I had a wonderful experience with Mini Mint, which provided everything I ask for buying online and more: an excellent product, responsive CS, fast turnaround time to ship and good packaging. This has probably been my favourite indie purchase of 2015. If you're looking for cute, colourful palettes to store your pressed pigments I highly recommend Mini Mint.