BFTE Cosmetics Emerald Bliss and Poodle Pandemonium: Eyeshadow Swatches, Photos, and an EOTD

At IMATS LA, I had the lovely privilege of meeting the owners of BFTE Cosmetics; Crystal and Matthew and their niece Kristy. With the chaos of the show, I completely forgot to get some eyeshadows on Friday and Saturday. I elected Alyson to get me two, Emerald Bliss and Poodle Pandemonium, pro colors that were created with none other than Phyrra. Emerald Bliss was created in response to Pantone's Color of the Year being Emerald.

These are their Pro Eyeshadows, different from their mineral eyeshadows as these have some extra dyes, carnauba wax, and a few other ingredients in the formula. I quite like the addition of the carnauba wax as I feel like the shadows have great adhesion and the other ingredients seem to have given the eyeshadows quite a bit of depth. Emerald Bliss and Poodle Pandemonoium aren't available yet but I do believe they will be soon.

Where to purchase: BFTE Cosmetics

Price: Samples are .5 grams for $2.00 and full size is 1-3 grams for $6.50. 

Cruelty Free? They are cruelty-free.

Packaging: Samples are packaged in 3 gram jars and full sizes are packaged in a silver rimmed 5 gram jar with a sifter.

Emerald Bliss on the left, Poodle Pandemonium on the right.

Swatches:

These were done dry over UD Primer Potion Original and pictures were taken in natural daylight.

Emerald Bliss is a true emerald with tons of sparkle. 

Poodle Pandemonium is a deep magenta with a blue sheen and lots of gold sparkle. To ensure the gold sparkle adheres, I'd probably apply this over a glitter fixative (I'm partial to Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy and Darling Girl's Glitter Glue)

I own Emerald City from the limited edition Wizard of Oz-Some Collection so I figured I'd compare it against Emerald Bliss. Compared to Emerald Bliss, Emerald City is much lighter, spring green and is more shimmery than sparkly. Emerald Bliss is more of a truer emerald. I know they make a color called Emerald but I don't own it so I can't compare them.

Oh and here's a quick EOTD I did using both Emerald Bliss and Poodle Pandemonium. I swept Poodle Pandemonium on as opposed as patting it on as I wanted the deeper base color with less of the sparkles. I used the flash for the photos so unfortunately it ate up the brilliant sparkle in Emerald Bliss. (I posted this look on my Facebook page first so you might have seen it there too!)

Do you like the looks of either Emerald Bliss or Poodle Pandemonium?

Disclaimer: I purchased these products myself. I am not being compensated for writing this post. All opinions are honest and mine.

Hogwarts Mini Series: Gryffindor

This was heavily inspired by this tutorial by the amazing MakeupbyRisa. This took some time and there are some mistakes because I wasn't as steady with it as I wanted to be but I'm pretty happy with it. I originally envisioned trying to do a lion's mane but then I went more towards Fawkes' phoenix feathers. Gryffindor colors are gold and scarlet.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Sugarpill Goldilux on the lid and for some of the streaks
Sugarpill Love+ mainly for the streaks
BFTE Ruby Slippers for some of the highlighting streaks and on the lower lashline
Wet n Wild eye liner in Mink Brown for the eye brows
Maybelline Great Lash Clear mascara

Couragely Goldilux Look

I'm sad, I spilled my Meow Cosmetics foundation sample but at least I managed to salvage some of it. I only wish they offered a size between the sample and the munchkin jar because I really like it.

On a good note I didn't have class today so I saw The King's Speech. It was such a great movie, balancing the dramatic moments with hilarious bits of comedy. Colin Firth swearing is one of the best parts of the movie. I was also interested in the movie because it is all about speech disorders which is a huge part of my major/future career.

I'm trying to find more colors that work well with Goldilux but orange is just my good ol' standby. I specifically love Courage by BFTE because it has microbits of glitter like Goldilux so they work extremely well with each other.

Sparkly sparkly
I'm rather disappointed in Stila's Kitten Silk Shimmer Gloss. For something so gorgeous in the tube it shows up poorly on my lips. Here's a better closeup.

Face:

Meow Cosmetics Foundation in Fierce Abyssinian
Tarte Amazonian Clay blush in Blissful

Eyes:
Urban Decay Eden Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Sugarpill Goldilux
BFTE Courage
Inglot Double Sparkle 493
L'oreal Voluminous WP Mascara

Lips:

Stila Silk Shimmer Gloss in Kitten

Disclosure: I won the Stila Silk Shimmer Gloss in a contest held by BeautyTicket.com They're not paying me to use it and I'm not affiliated with them!

Bright Teal-y Blues

I feel like this isn't as color accurate as it should be but I thought I would post it anyway.

When I have time to be in the sun I'll do a better swatch of Marina! My undereye is looking a bit odd so ignore that.

Urban Decay Primer Potion
BFTE Marina in the inner lid and inner lower lashline over NYX Teal eyeliner
MAC Teal in the outer lid and corner and outer lower lashline over NYX Black eyeliner
NYX Sahara as a highlight

NYX Black eyeliner on the waterline
Wet n Wild Eyeliner in Taupe for brow
Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black
Wet n Wild Megalength in Black (I don't like this but I feel the need to use it up)

BFTE Cosmetics Praise

This isn't a full review but just an exuberant fawning over their customer service.

I recently purchased one of their "Try Me BFTE" sets where you would get one full size eyeshadow and four various kinds of sample products for ten dollars flat when it's normally worth eighteen dollars.

I got a full size of Caribbean and sample sizes of Marina, Walking on Water, Charm, and Spoiled. I really liked Marina however I noticed that there were some small chunks of unblended base within the shadow. I emailed them about it including some closeups and three hours later I got an email saying "we'll sending you a new one and we're definitely going to check out the rest of the batch". Very excellent thus far.

I got the package on today and instead of a sample size jar of Marina like I expected, I actually got a full size jar!

I'll get a swatch of it soon but I was just excited to get a not blurry picture of it.

So yeah if you haven't tried BFTE Cosmetics yet, you might as well just check out some of their samples and search around for some swatches!

Nutcracker Series: Mirliton/Dance of the Reed Flutes

So I kind of failed on finishing my Nutcracker series so I shall be playing catch up on that. There are many different variations on costumes for Mirlitons; sometimes they are called Danish Shepherdesses or they're considered the Marizpan candy.

I decided to draw my inspiration for colors from this video where the costumes are grey with a black stomacher and I rather loved the French theme (a Frenchie here!)

I used my BFTE cosmetics eyeshadows that used to only be available in the Wizard of Oz-Some kit. I read from the BFTE cosmetics facebook that they'll eventually be sold separately so be on the lookout for that :)

Yummy yummy the silver sheen is amazing because I did a sandwich of PE, eyeshadow, PE and another layer of eyeshadow.

Kat Von D eye primer in Skin
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
BFTE Have a Heart

BFTE Twister

NYX Sahara

NYX Black eyeliner

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Nutcracker Series: Nutcracker Prince/Toy Soldiers

Woo wooo an Inglot store opened up near me and on Wednesday I don't have class (I should be studying for finals...) so I'm making a trip to the Inglot store :D

For those who have easy access to Inglot, anything I should check out?

Anyway, I figured I'd combine the Nutcracker Prince and Toy Soldiers into one look because they essentially have the same costume.

I also rather like the slight orange color that came about due to blending

Urban Decay Primer Potion

MAC Blonde's Gold on the lid

Sugarpill Love+ in the crease and lower lash line

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy on top of Love+

BFTE Ruby Slippers on top of Love+

NYX Sahara as the highlight

NYX Black eyeliner

Maybelline Falsies Mascara WP

Nutcracker Series: Arabian Coffee

*One more day before my giveaway ends!*

Now there are a lot of variations on the costume for the Arabian (my old dance studio had Purple and Gold) but I saw this gorgeous costume from San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker and it so reminded me of Sugarpill's Darling eyeshadow.

So I didn't think Darling would work well with Pixie Epoxy because it is fairly matte but damn it worked fabulous! It made it so you could actually see the sparkles so I say use Pixie Epoxy in conjunction with it.

Darling is a lot greener in person than it is in the picture, it looks really blue-tinged for some reason.

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

Sugarpill Darling

BFTE If I Only Had a Brain

NYX Sahara

Wet n Wild Mega Liner in Black

Maybelline Falsies WP mascara

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder

Nutcracker Series: Sugar Plum Fairy

:') I just noticed that I went over 100 followers. I love you guys and I really hope that you keep reading and commenting!

I'm not sure if many of you know that I used to be a ballet dancer and as such during the Wintertime there is always a production of The Nutcracker. I wanted to try a new look series to do to get me through the month of December creatively so I decided to do looks based off of The Nutcracker characters and their costumes!

This is one of the more universal of costumes/colors associated with the Sugar Plum Fairy so thus the use of pink and silver.

I'm not sure if it's obvious but I put a bit of silver pigment on the lower lashes too!
Urban Decay Primer Potion

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

BFTE Good Witch

MAC Goldenaire

MAC Silver as a liner

NYX Sahara

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Brunette

Day 21: Gorgeous Golden Green

I'm rather fond of alliteration if you couldn't tell :)

One of my favorite green looks, I rather love Sugarpill's Midori in the crease!
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
MAC Golden Olive on the inner half
BFTE Emerald City
Sugarpill Midori in the crease
NYX Sahara as the highlight
Wet n Wild Megaliner in Black
NYX Black eyeliner
Maybelline Falsies WP
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette and NYX Carbon mixed for the eyebrows

Day 19: Elf inspired look

Blah so annoyed with Blogger, Picasa whatever it is because my pictures were uploading sideways so I had to fiddle around with trying to rotate them and finally resorted to using Photobucket.

Anyway, by Elf I mean the movie :) I'm in a Christmas-y mood and elves are Christmas-y :)

I used bright green from the costume, yellow for the tights, gold for the buckle and black for the belt.

I'm attempting to experiment as to whether this kind of crease looks better for my eye shape or whether not going all the way across is better.

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

BFTE Yellow Brick Road on the lid

88 matte palette greens in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

blah blah blah I always use the same eyeliner and mascara

Day 11: Murky Bright Green

Woot woot I've been using my Wet n Wild palette a lot so I thought I'd switch it up and use another brand.

I are really like BFTE eyeshadows, I feel like 1 gram is a small amount but the ones that I do have are great quality. I highly highly recommend you check out this post that Phyrra made, compiling the prices of her favorite shops! I rather love Emerald City (the bright green) it's just so nice and springy :D! My Pretty (the other color) is rather blackish here but it does have a tinge of green
Urban Decay Primer Potion

BFTE Emerald City on the lid

BFTE My Pretty in the crease

NYX Sahara as a highlight

Wet n Wild Mega Liner

Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Brunette

Courage Under Fire

I just posted about getting the Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in #12 and so I wanted to post a look I did using it.

Concealer works magical wonders on silly weird bumps near my eye.

MUFE Aqua Cream #12 as a base and on the lower lash lash
BFTE Yellow Brick Road on the inner corner
BFTE Courage on the outer 2/3rds and on the outer lash line
Sugarpill Flamepoint( so much brighter in person! I used so little but it was BOLD) at the corner
NYX Sahara as a highlight
Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara

Stormy Grays

*I didn't realize how many international readers I had so for your convenience, I added a Google Translator at the top corner :) Hope this helps!!*

Now I live in California, specifically around Southern California and we don't get weather changes. Our definition of weather change are earthquakes and fires basically (that's what we get for living in a chaparral are)

Today Mother Nature decided we were overdue for some weather and dumped thunder, lightning and torrential rain on us. Thunder so hard and loud that car alarms in my neighborhood kept going off and rain that made me wonder when cats were going to start dropping.

Because of that I got inspired to do a dark smoky gray look using my new BFTE Wizard of Oz-Some eyeshadows. Next time I won't use Way Up High (my inner corner color) because it was way more golden toned than I had thought, using a more basic white would be better!

Also, use the tiniest bit of Twister if you get this set! I'm used to having a lot of black loose eyeshadow to get good pigmentation but you only need the tiniest bit. I had to clean up my look a bit because I had picked up more than I needed.


NYX Eyeshadow Base
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
BFTE Way Up High in the inner corner
BFTE Have a Heart in the outer two thirds and outer lower lash line
BFTE Twister in the crease
NYX Sahara as the highlight
Maybelline Falsies WP Mascara
NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette

BFTE Cosmetics The Wizard of Oz-Some Collection Swatches and Review

Here are swatches of the BFTE Wizard of Oz-Some collection. This retails for $60. You get 12 colors, some of which aren't available outside of the set. Normally each full size jar is $6.50 but you get a $1.50 discount by buying them in the set!

Swatches done over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Eye Primer and pictures were taken in daylight

Ruby Slippers, Courage, Yellow Brick Road, and Emerald City

Ruby Slippers- a glittery red that hints towards orange. It would be best over something like Pixie Epoxy

Courage- An almost coppery orange. It had an excellent texture with tons of shimmer.

Yellow Brick Road- It's a nearly matte banana yellow shadow with bits of tiny shimmer. I was rather surprised at how smoothly it blended.

Emerald City- It's a bright green with lots of sparkly bits. Very much similar in texture to Courage

My Pretty, No Place Like Home, Lollipop Kid, and Good Witch

This really shows off how much of a green sparkle My Pretty has.

My Pretty- A dark green mega glittery shadow, the sparkle is amazing but it would need to be used with a sticky base

No Place like Home- It's a medium sparkly blue, like the plaid that Dorothy wears.

Lollipop Kid- It's a nice magenta purple, I'm just eh about it. It certainly isn't a bad color but I personally don't like really purples of this tone.

Good Witch- I think this color is a bit too light for me but it would definitely work on others.

Have a Heart, If I Only Had a Brain, Way Up High, and Twister

If I Only Had a Brain- Hmm it's quite nice, definitely like hay. I'm kind of on the fence about it.

Have A Heart- An amazing gunmetal silver that has a slight blue tint to it.

Way Up High- Ahhh I love this, the nearly matteness lends itself to having excellent texture. I'm a bit surprised at how well it blended too! Although it looks stark white, it actually has a golden sheen to it.

Twister- This has a bit of a sticky texture which I noticed as I was swatching it, definitely not bad and makes me think it'll have a lot of staying power.

All in all, I think this would be great to invest in! The colors are nice and bright, I didn't have any texture issues with the mattes (in fact, I think they're one of the best matte shadows I've ever tried) and the glittery shades are gorgeous!

If I had to be nitpicky on something, it would have to be the amount given. It is specified to be between 1-3 grams and to me, that's a big number to vary between. I would rather know it's 2-3 versus 1-3.

The tin is of superior quality. The lid is on a hinge and there's a clear plastic window on the front so you can see all of your shadows. Sometimes it's a bit fiddly to get the shadows out but I really want to keep them in this tin.