Every indie store in existence was having a sale during Valentine’s Day… or at least it certainly felt like it! I bought a lot of things in the latter half of last month, to the point where I am still playing catch-up now, getting some mileage out of these eyeshadows.

Case in point, my first order from Little Sparrow Cosmetics: all the eyeshadows in the BioShock Infinite-inspired Constants & Variables Collection (mini sizes) and two Lip Jellies in “Guava Smoothie” and “Oh My Papaya.” (I will be reviewing the Lip Jellies at a later time – preferably when the weather is better and my lips aren’t terribly chapped.)

About

Little Sparrow is a cute little store on Etsy that has been receiving (justifiably) rave reviews on her Lip Jelly lip balms. She has recently expanded her line with some more wilder-colored Lip Jellies and blushes (blue blush!), but the Constants & Variables Collection has been around for a while… and I needed to try them out. A sale was the perfect time!

Packaging

The bubble wrap envelope arrived with the goodies pictured above (not shown: color-printed invoice with a handwritten thank you!).

Yes, the tissue paper was torn a little when it got to me, but nothing seemed to be in any danger of falling out or spilling. Perhaps it would have been a bigger concern if I’d gotten the full sizes without sealed sifters, since the generic jars used by indies can unscrew pretty easily if unsealed, but with these I wasn’t particularly worried.

Inside the tissue paper were these beauties! As you can see, there are no ingredients labels on the jars, and the shadow names are on the top label along with the Little Sparrow logo. I actually prefer them this way, since I like being able to have a clear view of what colors I’ve got, and I store these upside down for better visibility.

Minor gripe: The downside of this is that you will need to consult the original Etsy product listing to check whether or not the shadow in question is safe for lips, and this might be an annoyance if the shop happens to be closed (for restocking, etc.).

The edges of the top label were also cut into octagonal shapes in order to fit the jar lids, although she has recently gotten a circle punch so the labels should be cut to circle shapes. I didn’t mind the octagons though, I thought it was a cheap, clever way to avoid getting the edges of the labels sticking to things/getting torn up.

Swatches

Here are each of the colors, one by one. They are swatched dry on the left, wet on the right without primer. Photos were taken in natural light without flash. I had a lot of trouble photographing these ones actually, so some of them have been tweaked slightly in PhotoShop to show up more true to life (but not exactly, sigh).

Note: The eyeshadow listings highly recommended the use of a primer or glitter glue for these shadows to be opaque, but I honestly found that even swatched dry without primer they showed up quite easily. In fact, I found it quite fascinating that the difference in color between wet and dry was minimal. Wet showed up with that shiny, “foiled” look, but weren’t much darker than when dry.

“Between Realities” is a coppery orange with golden sparkles. When applied wet, the gold sparkles definitely stood out more, but the base color remains largely the same.

A light metallic gold with super golden sparkle, this caught my eye immediately when I first wandered into the Little Sparrow Etsy store. It is very sparkly, and I suspect the foiled effect would be even more noticeable with primer or glitter glue. I may post supporting photos at a later time when I’ve experimented a little more!

“Tin Men” is a super frost mint/blue that is almost white with some subtle sparkles. This color needed a little tweaking in photos in order to show up like it it does on my skin, the photos tended to wash it into the same color as my skin. I think this could be a good highlighter color, and it is one of the few colors in the collection that actually showed up a little more opaque when applied wet.

“False Prophet” was another color that needed various retakes to try and get the shade right. It shows up like a cool taupe in photos, but it is actually a little on the warm side with golden sparkles. The color is actually darker when applied dry since you see more of the base color, and the gold sparkles create that foiled look at the expense of the darker color when wet.

“Dance on the Pier” is a pale, sparkly, warm pink. It appears much sheerer on the photographed swatches than it does in real life, where it definitely glows on my skin even without primer.

“CAGE” is a sparkly darker pink/brick red color and shows up quite easily on its own, although the pink shift comes out a little more clearer when applied wet.

“To Repay a Debt” is a soft seafoam mint color with silver sparkles. I expected this go on much sheerer than it actually did – it had pretty good coverage swatched dry on its own, and it was very buildable.

“Columbian Sky” is a bright shimmery blue that shows up a little duller and matte when swatched dry (but since it was closer to the bend in my elbow, it probably also smudged a little to get that look) but the color is still very close in shade to how it appears when wet.

“Baptism” is a dark gray with what looks like silver or iridescent sparkles, and is another color that showed up much darker when swatched dry. The sparkles tended to make the wet swatch shinier and reflective, losing some of the darker color.

“Miracle Child” is a darker, more navy colored blue with bright blue and gold sparkles. The sparkles show up a great deal more when applied wet, and it also shows up slightly darker as well.

Of this collection, my favorite is “Chapel of the Prophet” although I think “Miracle Child” is the most unique-looking and super stunning. I had a few issues with fallout, but that doesn’t bother me and a little primer will take care of that quite easily. The hardest thing to do was to take pictures of them! Here is one set that I took outside in direct sunlight (unfortunately the bottom three were a little smudged by this time).

Shipping & TAT

I placed my order on February 15, and she sent it out on February 19 with tracking number. It arrived on February 28. I live in Canada, so this was about the average wait time I expected, and a much shorter TAT than is usual for an indie company sale time.

~*~

I am quite happy with all of these shadows, they were pretty true to how they looked on the site although a lot less sheer when swatched dry which I think is fantastic. They went on smoothly with a powdery feel and finish (although there was some fallout), were easy to blend, and lasted throughout the day with minimal fading.

These were purchased during her Valentine’s Day sale for 20% off and this is an unsolicited review of my experiences. I had minimal contact with this seller – she sent me a message apologizing for the lack of samples but included a returning customer coupon for my next order which I thought was quite nice of her!

Thanks for reading! What do you think? How well do these shades and these eyeshadow names stack up to their BioShock Infinite inspiration?