Lately, I’ve been feeling really inspired by fun, bright colors, but when I was looking through my collection, I realized that’s precisely what I was lacking. Many varieties of neutrals, check. But color? Hmmm.
After looking around online and talking to a few friends, I decided to give a smaller, Canadian-based indie brand called Igneous Cosmetics a chance. I had been following its page on Instagram and seen my friend use some of the shadows in quite a few looks, so I picked out the Rainbow Dreams Vol. 2 palette.
I placed the order on Friday, March 2, and about a week later (March 12), they were here! Which isn’t too bad considering I was ordering from a different country! (Also, I want to note that the shop’s owner did say that if I’d like to swap out one color for another, I could, but I chose not to!)
After shipping the total equaled $32.21 USD.
The Packaging
First of all, it was packed really securely, and it came with a handwritten note. I love when brands add in the extra touches, and Igneous Cosmetics definitely does!
The Palette
The palette itself is also really cute.
The Colors
When I opened it and saw the colors for the first time, I was very happy to see the how pretty the colors truly are.
As you can see, the palette comes with six different (26mm pan size) shades, which are described as:
- Heliodor – a rich highly pigmented metallic yellow-gold
- Precious Coral – a true bright orangey/pink coral
- Rhodocrosite – bright bubblegum pink with a slight silvery pink shift in the light and tiny holographic sparkles
- Periwinkle Sapphire – a beautiful blue-purple with a slight icy shift
- Grandidierite – a beautiful very pigmented blue-green with slight gold shift and tiny holographic sparkles
- Adamite – a bright, light yellow-green
The Swatches
As soon as I saw these, I couldn’t wait to play with them.
First, I did light finger swatches on completely bare skin (mostly because I was too excited and didn’t even think to add a primer, oops). Even then, I was still impressed with the color pay off.
After thinking about it, I realized I should try them over a base, which is how I’d normally be using these shadows. For this, I primed my arm using the Smashbox 24 Hour Photo Finish Shadow Primer, and once again used my finger to swatch the colors. I figured this was the way to go, as these are all shimmer shadows and that is how I typically apply my shimmers anyway.
Final Thoughts
As you can tell, these shadows are gorgeous. They have a nice smooth texture and are very pigmented! I really like that they aren’t crumbly to the touch and don’t come out of the pan chunky, which is something I was noticing about other colorful shimmers I swatched recently.
Another thing to note, these shadows are also all: handcrafted, vegan, cruelty free, talc free, paraben free and fragrance free.
While, I haven’t had a chance to play with these on the eyes, yet, so far, I’m pretty impressed with the packaging, the colors and the color pay-off. I really can’t wait to use these.
Stay tuned for part two of the review after I’ve had a chance to really test these all out! (Or maybe it will be a tutorial? We shall see!)
Also, let me know if you have any other indie makeup brands you like, I’m definitely interested in trying out more!
