I purchased some beautiful loose eye shadows from Scaredy Cat Cosmetics and I couldn’t wait to swatch them! Their initial allure for me was their unique packaging — samples come in little trial vials with a stopper, which are packed. At 1/4 teaspoon per sample (versus the standard 1/8 tsp of most indies) and at 5 for $5 or 10 for $10, Scaredy Cat offers some of the best value for sample sizes from indie companies. A full size eyeshadow has 3.5 g for $5 and sports really gorgeous label art.

USPS gave me a lot of trouble for this delivery: for some reason they claimed to be unable to deliver my package to my address, and returned it to the sender. I wrote to the owner, Kelly, and she was prompt to contact USPS to figure out what was going on. In the end, she sent me a replacement.

Ordered: March 18, 2015

Shipped: March 23, 2015 (undelivered); March 27, 2015

Received: March 30, 2015

Since this is the first time I’ve purchased from Scaredy Cat, I just went with my gut and picked based on swatch colors and shadow names (I’ll admit it — Don’t Be Koi was a huge hit with me because I love puns). I was pleased to find that the loose eyeshadow formula is smooth and vibrant, and every color applied beautifully. When buying samples, I’m usually ready for a couple of disappointments, whether it is in application or color, but I have to say I’m happy with everything I got today.

I’ve read that some people find the trial vial hard to use because they are so very tiny. I have a few small brushes, the small smudge brush and the small precision brush, both from e.l.f., that reach into the bottles just fine. The most annoying thing is probably finding a hygienic way to put the stopper down while you are using the vial (I do some fancy fingerwork and turn it upside down so that the part that goes inside the bottle doesn’t touch the counter). While I always depot my sample baggies into 3 g jars, I won’t be doing that this time because the vials are so unique.

EDIT: WordPress tells me that this is my 50th post — WOOHOO!!