Shiro Cosmetics Review & Swatches

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Each order comes with a handwritten snippet, a red pouch
and a few samples!

When I saw Sirvanya's video review on Shiro Cosmetics and she mentioned that one of the collections was Pokémon themed, I freaked out a little on the inside. "Mimi," I thought to myself, "why didn't you know about this sooner?" Most of my 3rd grade after school hours were spent cramming in as many Pokemon episodes as possible, I had so many Pokemon cards too! Not to mention how near and dear to my heart the Pokemon Silver game for Gameboy was (good times, I should find my Gameboy and see if it still works). Anways, I hopped right over to the Shiro site (which is kind of a work in progress at the moment) and ordered a few samples and a mini sized shadow.

Sir Nigel, culprit.

It was pretty much the greatest moment of my life when I got my first order, followed shortly by the worst moment when I accidentally left it within reach of Sir Nigel and he chomped up the padded envelope my package was in (don't worry, he didn't ingest anything, just managed to destroy it). Luckily, I was able to salvage a mini sized S.S. Anne. Does anyone else see the irony of the dog, that I cut into my makeup budget to adopt, eating my makeup? I do. Well, he does have great taste in cosmetics!

Back to the makeup- I made a second order, this time five mini jars. To clarify, Shiro Cosmetics has loose shadows that come in three sizes, 1/4 teaspoon in baggies ($1), 3gram jars packed full of product ($3) and full 5gram jars ($5). These five Pokemon shadows were so great, that I ordered another five from the Legends collection!

Here's some swatches, all taken out doors with no flash:

Pokemon Collection

SS Anne is a very soft golden beige shimmer packed with sparkles
Charmander is a high shimmer yellow orange
Sudowoodo is a woody brown shimmer with a hint of... olive?
Weepinbell is a yellow high shimmer with a tinge of lime
Poliwrath is navy blue packed with dimensional multicolored sparkles
Rattata is a striking purple with sparkles

Legend Collection

Moosh is a cerulean blue with multicolored sparkles
Ocarina is an icy light blue high shimmer
Farore's Wind is a minty high shimmer
Link is a leafy rich green with sparkles (my favorite!)
Rupee is a yellow green shimmer
Kokiri Forest is an olive shimmer

Legend Collection

Subrosia is a satin brick shade with a touch of sparkle
Hearts is a vibrant red with shimmer
Majora's Mask is a medium indigo with multicolored sparkles

The colors I like the most are the bright POW! ones, like Hearts, Moosh, Rattata and Link.
The thing that I like about Shiro shadows is the vibrancy of the pigments, the smoothness (both of the shadow texture itself and the blending quality) and their lasting power on my lids. They lasted all day long on me, over Urban Decay Primer Potion. One thing that I did notice was that they liked to be first chair, not second fiddle. Meaning, if I applied any of the shadows on top of another shadow (for instance, I tried using Rattata over Rock & Republic Paranoid shadow), it would fade really quickly. Stick it directly over the primer though, and you should have no problems.
Should you buy these? Heck yes! I high recommend getting either a whole bunch of mini sized or sample sized (if you don't mind baggies) to try a whole array of colors. The mini sized were generously portioned (actually, packed with so much product that it was hard to get out! Had to remove the sifter), shipping was very reasonable ($2.50, if I remember correctly)so you really can't go wrong. I absolutely can't wait to order more and for future geeky themed collections. If there ever was a World of Warcraft set, I'd probably wet myself!
Edit: Forgot to mention, the shadows are vegan!
Go check out the Etsy page here! There's also very helpful swatches that should make ordering a snap.

All products were purchased by me, for my own use.