Adorned with grace grab bag, and post office rant

Something I got from Adorned with Grace last week- a $3 grab bag :) These are discontinued or 'oops' colors intended for warmer skin tones. I chose the one with colors suitable for use on the eyes, cheeks, and face. It contained loads of baggies! There's a lot of neutrals, and the colors which can be used as blush look much more shimmery than the regular shimmer blushes, but I think I can work with them. Will definitely be playing with these.



I also got a few samples of their 2009 Summer Limited Edition Eyecolors...I wish I'd gotten all colors! They are so pretty and wearable.



Left to right - Chivalrous, Classy, Sagacious, Confident, Clever. Swatches of the rest of the Summer collection can be found at their blog.

I'm also happy to say that I'm done color-matching with Adorned with Grace- I previously thought I found my match with Hope 4.2, but it is actually Hope 3.8, which is a shade lighter. Yay!

And here is something from another package that I collected along with the AwG one. It's from Makeup Masala.


Don't they look so sad and lonely? I suspect that the package was tampered with, as only 4 out of supposed to be 11 items were inside! What's missing are: 2 more bottles of nail polish, 2 L.A. Girl eye pencils, a NYX jumbo lip pencil, a bent eyeliner brush, and EctoTools bamboo 6 mini brushes (btw I already took the elf polish out of their packaging). Sigh. I know Toma would have informed me if the other items were out of stock.

This has never happened before, and I was always satisfied with my post office since they always delivered my packages quite fast, directly to my doorstep, and whenever I went there the post office ladies were very nice to me. When I received a post office notification card which turned out to be for the AwG package, I went to the PO and asked if there were any other packages that arrived for me. As usual, the lady at the counter was nice and motherly, and looked inside to check. She came out waving a package victoriously, calling out to happily tell me that yes, there was another one. It was the Makeup Masala package, and I was just happy that it wasn't lost, so I thanked her, and got out of there.

It was only much later that I opened it, and I was so surprised that those were the only contents. I examined the package and curiously it didn't have any dates marked on it, as all the others do. It was sent a month ago, btw. And I didn't notice earlier but the end of it was heavily taped. I wish they'd left me the brushes instead of the nail polish, I was really looking forward to using those!

And now still no other packages or anything, and I still have several in transit. Why'd they suddenly decide to mess with my stuff?

Adorned with Grace Fiber Duo brushes and mineral samples

I've been feeling rather strange lately but hopefully playing with the items from my Adorned with Grace haul will make me all good again! Wonderful customer service as usual. They ship out lightning fast! This is kind of a collective haul, as I ordered one brush a while back when it was still a blog brush. I have partial reviews of the 3 dual fiber brushes I ordered (click photos to enlarge).


The Ingenue Large Dual Fiber
This has a pretty long handle. Here's the Everyday Minerals Foptic, to compare:


Long, huh? It's not heavy at all though, it's quite light. And you can see that the bristles are not as long as EDM's, it's stubbier, and I like it much better. This is a supposed MAC 187 dupe, and I don't own a MAC 187 (yet), but judging from the pics in the AwG blog, they look similar. I purchased this when it was still a blog brush- meaning only a few pieces of it were being sold at that time, at a few bucks lower than its regular price today, $13.59.

Next brush,


The Ingenue Sleek Dual Fiber

The handle is nearly the exact length as that of the Ingenue Large Dual Fiber. This is the brush I ordered a few weeks back, since it was released as a blog brush before the Large Dual Fiber was. Current price is $7.99. Can I just mention that even though this was the only item I ordered then, Franchesca was still kind enough to include freebies (3 e/s samples, which I forgot to photograph).

And finally,


The Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber

Their seemingly most popular brush. Priced at $6.29 each, or two for $11.25, which I chose.

In general, here are what I like and dislike about the three brushes.

Likes:
-soft, retains the same softness after being washed
-the bristles are not floppy
-multi-purpose
-easy to use
-achieves that light, airbrushed effect
-they look sleek and not too cheap looking
-affordable

Dislikes:
-they shed, but seem to shed less after I washed them
-the first two are too big to take along during travel




(Large Dual Fiber; Sleek Dual Fiber- used this and haven't washed it yet; Petite Dual Fiber)

On the Ingenue Large Dual Fiber - It's easy to use, for a newbie like me, with either liquid or loose powder foundation, finishing powder, and even blush. I super like it. It makes application quicker too 'cause it's large. Wish I could bring it with me while traveling since I really like it. Good buy!

On the Ingenue Sleek Dual Fiber and Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber - both are meant for applying blushes, especially very pigmented blushes, and are described to have bristles of the same size and denseness. Supposedly only the length of the handles are different. The handle of the Sleek Dual Fiber is nearly as long as that of the Large Dual Fiber, while the Petite is much shorter, measuring only 5 inches long.

I prefer using the Sleek dual fiber. I guess it's a matter of preference, but I'm more comfortable with its long handle when applying my blushes. I feel like I'm able to blend and spread the color more thoroughly, whereas with the Petite, I feel like I'm concentrating too much color in just one certain area on my cheek. Probably because the Petite feels almost too small in my hand. It also feels like the the head of the Sleek is a bit bigger and denser than the Petite's, even though I've examined them side by side and their heads look the same. I would use the Sleek for my blushes and the Petite for glows or maybe highlighting, and definitely it's easier to bring during travel. Both can also be used for stippling foundie or finishing powder on hard-to-reach areas on the face, or for retouching.

It's my first time to try their minerals too:


Foundation samples. I'm a close match with Hope 4.2 but will experiment more with the other shades.


Lovin' these blushes. I'm partial to shades of pink.


More samples - Beloved eyeshadow and two Finishing powders.


Free e/s samples, got another 3 I forgot to take a picture of. Wonderful colors. Can upload and swatch later.

I think this might be my longest post ever! :) Have you tried these brushes? What do you think of them? I hope in the next few days I get more time and energy to blog and read blogs :)