A few of my indie purchases arrived in the mail today and made a shitty few days instantly better.

I ordered three lipsticks from Insomnia Cosmetics, who I’d never tried before (one full size, two slimline tubes) and another five lipsticks (slimline) from Fierce Magenta, one of my absolute favourite places for lipstick.

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Here’s the loot! Yes, they are in the fridge in this photo - it’s been pretty hot here in Aus and these are from the US and so I’m letting them firm up in the fridge for a little while.

Here are swatches! And below the cut, I’ll have hasty lip swatches of each and little colour impressions.

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L-r: Insomnia Cosmetics Cult Insomnia, Abyss, Witch Hunt, Prowl; Fierce Magenta Sevilya, Marina, Gravity, Midnight Sky, Medusa

And on.

So, let’s start with the entirely unfamiliar: Insomnia Cosmetics. Their colour Cult Insomnia drew me in (I’m in a grey lipstick kick), and reviews and wide variety of shades, plus their new matte lipstick launch…well, I had to give it a go.

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Cult Insomnia, Abyss, Witch Hunt, Prowl

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Cult Insomnia

Got to be a favourite shade. It’s lovely and creamy and slightly blue but a definite grey.Super pretty. Almost the same colour as my eyes, really. Warning: this is the best quality lip swatch in this post. Oy.

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Abyss

Excuse the shoddy application! Abyss is one of their newly launched matte colours and how could I resist a matte navy blue.

it was the hardest to apply as the product shape in the slimline tube was the most jagged, but it would be way better if you actually applied it in the mirror. It’s a very pretty inky colour, unique in my collection,as it’s navy but matte. Lovely.

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Witch Hunt

Witch Hunt reads much more berry on me than it does on the Etsy site, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less beautiful. Its a stunning satiny deep berry red, which you might have noticed, is kind of perfectly in line with the lipsticks I choose. Couldn’t resist it.

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Prowl

Prowl was provided to me as a bonus very, very generously and it’s just the perfect red. Demi matte, blue based cherry red that applies smoothly and looks lovely. Not a unique shade, but definitely a beautifully formulated one.

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I can already tell you that I see another Insomnia Cosmetics order in my future. I may or may not be toying with the idea of placing it now.

Oops.

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Fierce Magenta is a brand I know and love. I am not a gloss person, but the lipsticks are wonderful. Definitely on the creamier side, by no means matte shades, but they’re all satiny creams and they come in the most amazing array of colours and just…ahhh. My last order was a resounding success, but I learnt that I don’t love their full size packaging (as the lipsticks are a creamy formula, they’re more prone to melting, and that’s more obvious in the tube format). One of my lipstick purchases here isn’t swatched - Medusa - because I own it already and it’s way too creamy in the full size, so I wanted a little one. You can find my swatch of that one in this post.

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Sevilya, Marina, Gravity, Midnight Sky, Medusa



clearly I was in a cool-toned mood when I placed this order. These are all one swipe swatches, consistent with Fierce Magenta’s other lipsticks. The only slightly different one is Midnight Sky, and we’ll talk about that below.

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Sevilya

Not the best photo of this, but basically a perfect lavender shade. Less blue toned that Pretty Zombie Cosmetics’ Potion #9 or Kat Von D’s Coven, a bit more of a white base. Because it’s so creamy and opaque, it doesn’t need a base beneath it to make it pop, and it’s just lovely.

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Marina



This colour is GORGEOUS. It’s sort of between, say, Fierce Magenta’s Permafrost (a pastel blue) and Pretty Zombie Cosmetics’ Blue Moon. A bright light blue. So so wonderfully opaque and lovely. It used to be named Nautica but is now called Marina, but they are the same colour.

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Gravity

Give me every grey lipstick ever. It’s got less sheen than Cult Insomnia, and it’s a tad darker, but it’s so beautiful and I love it and I want it all over me.

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Midnight Sky

Midnight Sky has a slightly different formula - it’s shimmery colour. As such, it took about three swipes to get this level of opacity. But still - this colour? IN THREE SWIPES? That’s pretty wonderful. It reads differently in different light - this light picks up the lighter blue shift, but it can teeter between blue and black. Which is exactly what I wanted. So pretty. If you have seen my love for My Beauty Addiction’s Breathless, you’ll know this lipstick was almost made for me.

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So those are my new indie purchases! I’m still waiting on some Fyrinnae Liquid Matte lipsticks and an Illamasqua lipstick - Mia made me do it - and it’s just making me happy.