Am I working on the giant Shiro post? Yes, yes I am. But this is smaller, and easier, so yeah this comes first. I got my Innocent & Twisted Alchemy subscription right on time, just like always. I haven’t been a subscriber for very long, but I’m loving it so much! I especially like that it seems to be themed now, although I’ll admit, I don’t know a thing about this months theme. I guess its based on a game called Mirrors Edge, which I have neither heard from or played because I am lame and only have a Mac and a couple of extremely defunct Gameboys.

This is also the first time I’ve seen a subscription with multiple samples also matching the theme. Samples are half the reason I love indie subscriptions (how else can you find out about new brands?), but usually they’re just that- samples, not parts of the main subscription. Color me impressed!

On to the review! I highly recommend clicking on the pictures to expand them for a better view. My theme on this site doesn’t really support decent sized pictures.

As usual, the packaging is half the fun here. Look at this!

Is that gorgeous or what?

This is the first color, Critical Objective. Its a spectacularly pigmented golden yellow color, with a little bit of sparkly. And by pigmented, I mean like woah. Seriously, look at that. That is one swipe, that basically looks like paint. The only shortcoming is, I’m not sure how often I am going to use this color. I already have a ton of reds and oranges that are hard to use, and this might be the brightest of them all. That said, its so shiny and pretty I’m sure I’ll think of something!

This is Runner Vision, and as you can probably tell, this color is a little weird. On one hand, its seriously sheer. Like, barely pigmented at all, no matter what I did. It looks like its in the process of being washed off. But, there is a truly gorgeous set of sparkles in there. I wish this picture showed this, but the only way I could get the sparkles caused the camera to blur like crazy. This isn’t just a really ordinary, sheer blue. I don’t think I’m going to ever use this color on its own, since its so faded, but I’m looking forward to layering it over other colors, so I can use those pretty sparkles.

Meet Leap of Faith! Funny story, when I first opened this, I was a little put out because it looked like a dull, shiny teal, and I have like 4 of those already. After I swatched it, I have no idea where the teal came from. This is a seriously bright silver! Much like Critical Objective, above, its so bright I’m not sure when I’m going to use it. Potentially, this is the new victim for my ongoing mission to figure out a perfect way to make wet brush application eyeliner.

This is Adorned, the first of the themed samples! It’s from Darling Girl Cosmetics and the color itself I am a huge fan of (also love that their tagline is “Life is short. Wear more glitter.”). I mean, look at it! I love metallics, and this is a wonderful warm chocolate bronze sort of color. However, I live in a state of constant militant fury about clamshell containers. Like, I hate them. You lose so much product, you’re in constant danger of knocking it flying, half the shadow sticks to the inside and is impossible to remove, and you end up with glitter under your finger nails. I don’t buy stuff from Geek Chic Cosmetics anymore cause of their damn clamshell samples. That said, this is a really pretty color, and once I bite the bullet, grit my teeth, and get what I can out of this container and into a nice screw-top jar, then it will all be wonderful sunshine and roses.

This was the real standout from this order. This is a sample of The Boy Who Lived from Brija Cosmetics. Brija is one of those brands that people talk about all the time, and yet for some reason I have never even looked at before for some reason. Let me tell you, that is about to change. Just putting this stupid thing on my arm I was beyond impressed. The color is beautiful and multifaceted, the consistency is lovely and weirdly creamy, and the coverage! This is one swipe, with a brush that had been recently cleaned. Like, wow. Color me impressed! Also, they appear to have a lippie called Galaxy Muffin and I want it. Like, now.

This is Kraken, by Detrivore Cosmetics. Ah, Detrivore. To this day, whenever I make a Shiro order, I somehow end up with more Detrivore shades than Shiro ones! I’m not sure I use them more than my Shiro shadows, but they just look so pretty! All matte and bright and bold. Like seriously, so pigmented, and so sticky! It makes blending them a chore, and you really don’t need much to make a serious difference, but once you get the hang of it they are a real treasure to use. One of my personal favorites is Bruise, but it really lives up to it’s name and I always have to be careful so it looks pretty, and not like I got punched in the face. This color is everything I expect from a Detrivore shade: cleanly applied, brightly pigmented, and a color that weirdly resembles its name. Like, this is a color I would totally associate with the briny deeps, you know? It’s just this side of a forest green, but somehow looks more aqua than it should. Now, all I have to do is finally get my hands on Bog Body. I’ve been eying it for EVER.

This is Anthrax by My Pretty Zombie. I’ve never tried or even seen anything from MPZ before, so its nice to get something to try out, but I’m not massively overwhelmed. Its a nice sparkly puprle, relatively good application, pigmentation and all. That said, I wasn’t blown away, and I have a LOT of sparkly purples. So yes, I will wear this, but unless there’s something really remarkable about it on my actual eyes, I probably won’t be falling over myself to get more.

This was the other breakout of this order. Meet your second themed guest shade, The Shard by Corvus Cosmetics. I have been hearing some great stuff about Corvus considering how young they are, and it was really only a matter of time (and money!) before I bought something from them (Grimm Brothers themed collection, hello!), but this really sealed the deal. I took a dozen pictures, but none of them quite captured the depth of this color, and I do mean depth. It’s so dark, but so shiny, and it doesn’t just not feel matte, it feels like you could get sucked in or something. I think it reminds me most of the iridescence of certain bird wings, like when you find yourself (if you’re me anyway) starring at a crow and trying to figure out exactly what colors its wing feathers are reflecting in the sun. Seriously, excellent product. Really looking forward to trying more of their colors.

And that’s it! Just a really lovely, well presented collection of colors, no muss, no fuss. Totally worth the price of admission, I would really recommend picking up a subscription of you can. I’ve never had a bad month. Even when February showed up full of pinks (ugh, baby pink), I ended up using all the colors, weirdly frequently. This is just a really good subscription for trying new brands and getting a little outside your comfort zone. I haven’t tried any eyes with these yet (it’s been a long week), but when I do I’ll post pictures here so you can see the shades in action!

Have a great day!