Venomous Cosmetics Eyeshadows~ Review and Swatches

A little while ago in a fit of retail therapy I made my first order from Venomous Cosmetics. This little company is so neat because it gets it's name and many of it's inspirations from the poisonous creepy crawlies that live around the world. As a zoology student I just love that idea! So I ordered a bunch of lippies, named Lip Poisons (which will be reviewed in a second post) as well as a multitude of eyeshadows. The awesome thing about V.C. is that they not only sell loose eyeshadows but pressed ones too! How cool is that? They even sell pressed samples! Itty bitty little pans of goodness. Here have a look:

Clockwise from left: The Last Unicorn, Distant Planet, Under a Spell, Home By Midnight, Magic Wand.

Or comparatively...

Above is the little sample pans (the 5 small pans) beside two pressed shadows in pans the same size as Mac shadows and a Stila shadow (top right corner). So cute, and just the right size for a brush to still work in them!

I also got 2 anywhere palettes which you can also see above. These are awesome! Not only are they well made and fit any metal pan you place inside (there is a large magnet that makes up the bottom of the pan) but they magnet closed as well and the clear plastic top allows you to see which palette you've got. In addition these only cost $5.50 USD. They hold 25 sample pans or 9 full sized (Mac sized) pans. Yay!

Anyways here's the shadows that I ordered, everything is swatched over Pixie Epoxy. All full sized shadows cost $6.50 USD. Pressed samples cost $2 USD and Loose powder samples cost $1 USD.

T-B: Magic Wand, Home By Midnight, Under a Spell, Distant Planet, The Last Unicorn

T-B: Magic Wand, Home by Midnight, Under a Spell, Distant Planet, The Last Unicorn

These are the pressed samples I received. A couple of these were Limited Edition (Tracy the owner of VC has said that Limited Edition collection items may show up in the Sale section of the site soonish, she should be announcing this over face book). Magic Wand, Home by Midnight, and Under a Spell are all from the Limited Edition "My Fairytale" collection.

Magic Wand is a denim blue with silver sheen (reminds me of Urban Decay's Mary Jane). 

Home By Midnight is a dark royal purple with a turquoise shimmer (reminds me a bit of Fyrinnae's Wicked but less reflect and a darker richer purple). 

Under a Spell is a bright shimmery grass green (reminds me of Urban Decay's Homegrown- one of my favourites!)

I've never seen anything even remotely like Distant Planet before. It's a medium slate blue with a subtle violet reflect to it. At times it looks grey-green too, very shifty. I really like it!

The Last Unicorn is everything I wanted it to be and MORE! I was in the market for a frosty white with gold but this surpasses that. Yes it's a frosty white with gold reflect but it sparkles like crazy in the sun and seems to become a prism of colours. So pretty I can't wait to use this as a highlighter or in a soft all over the lid look.

All the pressed shades took more than one layer to become fully opaque but it didn't take long and the colours are lovely.

T-B: Spell Breaking Kiss, Enchanted Forest, Monster Under Your Bed, Lochness Monster, Sea Anemone, Sun Spot, Fire Ant

T-B: Spell Breaking Kiss, Enchanted Forest, Monster Under Your Bed, Lochness Monster, Sea Anemone, Sun Spot, Fire Ant

T-B: Lochness Monster, Sea Anemone, Sun Spot, Fire Ant

In comparison to the pressed shadows, the loose ones are super intensely pigmented. I was often left over with way more than I needed on my brush when I swatched the loose shades. I'm not pleased with really any of these pictures to show the full glory of these (click the images to see them larger) but they'll have to do.

Spell Breaking Kiss is a red-plum shimmer.
Enchanted Forest (which looks way way nicer in real life) is a blackened blue-based green that's super shimmery and lovely.
Monster Under Your Bed is also a blackened shimmery green but this green is yellow-based instead.
Lochness Monster is a shimmery medium sky-blue.
Sea Anemone is a rich blue-based purple with red-based purple and pink shimmer (Again way better in real life). Sea Anemone was a free sample with my order.
Sun Spot was the most surprising shade that I received. It is a bright yellow but it has the most gorgeous coral-pink sheen to it. Plus the yellow isn't so bright that it's unusable.
Fire Ant was the other free sample I received with my order. In the bag I thought it looked like every other bold red out there but when swatched I noticed the slightly darker red glitter throughout. In the sunlight this is spectacular. It looks like the blood of a mythical creature! So awesome.

Pressed Shadow Sprite Rating: 8/10, these colours are wonderful and they're priced well. My only limitation is that they about average pigmentation, especially compared with their loose counterparts. I do however LOVE that they're in pans! (Because normally I have to press them all myself and that's time consuming and messy.)

Loose Shadow Sprite Rating: 9.5/10. These colours are fantastic! So unique and pretty and shiny! *Guh* I don't really like baggies though and kinda want them to be pressed too (she's spoiled me with having pressed available!). Really though I'm just gripping by this point aren't I?

Anywhere Palette Rating: 10/10. These are wonderful! Sturdy, really functional, sleek looking and cheap! A way better deal than all the other palettes I've bought for myself in the past. I'll totally be purchasing more of these from Venomous Cosmetics.

Would I buy these again? Yes! In fact I'm trying to convince myself that I really do need to stick to my no buy and not purchase these as my wallet is hurting at the moment. I reallllllllly want more of these though. Especially the full sizes of Sun Spot, Distant Planet, Enchanted Forest, and Home By Midnight.