This review is looooong over due seeing how I purchased these at the beginning of summer,but better late than never.
I purchased these eye shadow samples when ARC was having a sale,they were 60cents each.
I purchased 8 sample sizes of her colors. They come in little zip baggies normally, but she offers the option of buying 3g pots which were 30cents each for the samples and she will pot them for you if you'd like. I didn't see the 3g pots until after I had placed my order of samples. After I went back and purchased the pots I emailed the owner of ARC and asked if I could please get them potted and she said it would be a problem. She was very nice about it!
A little about Antoinette's Revolution Cosmetics:
I'm a 24 year old nerd who started off in costume design. The costuming led to my introduction to the indie makeup scene. After being disappointed in the quality of some companies and drama involved with others I was left with pigments I couldn't use and a want to do something about it.This is where ARC was born. The idea started in about December of 2010. After two months and hundreds of hours researching I decided to create ARC using my favorite woman in history as our theme.I'm crazy insane about our cleaning/sterilization process and quality control. All of our pigments are mixed by hand in a mortar and pestle and we don't use Lake Dyes unless they already come in our mica supplies. Costuming has sadly taken a back burner but I think when we do photo-shoots I'll be able to merge my two loves.
How my package arrived
My pigments came in the standard mailer, I don't remember if it was a bubble one or not. Of course I totally spaced on taking pictures of the packaging, but I still have the tissue paper and ribbon that the pigments were in. I hate throwing stuff like that away =)
The pigments came in a zip top baggie, which was carefully wrapped in black tissue paper with a light blue ribbon tied around it. Also included was a cute little button/pin and two free samples. All descriptions of colors are descriptions from the ARC artfire shop.
The two extra samples I received were:
- Bordeaux is a delicious burgundy with a little bit of a wine tone.
- Marie is a beautiful soft blue, with tons of turquoise shimmer that makes this color electric! Topped off with hot pink glitter, it's sure to please your inner Queen!
Now for the samples I ordered in their 3g jars:
Velvet Rose is a wonderfully matte dark red. Reminiscent of the soft, rich petals of a red rose
Louis is a beautiful violet, packed with aqua and violet glitter.
Le Dauphin is a very pigmented yellow/gold, and when applied lightly it has a soft golden shimmer to it.
Duchesse! An ultraviolet matte with lime green glitter
Pomp is a glorious light pumpkin orange, dusted with orange and soft yellow glitter.
Patina will give you a rusty good time in this burnt orange-red color!
Guillotine is our deliciously evil crimson red with a splatter of crimson glitter.
Versailles is a sprawling bronze based gold, perfect for any eye color.
Swatches
left side over NYX Shadow Base in White - right side bare skin.
This is 8 layer of build up
Velvet Rose - Patina - Le Dauphin - Duchesse - Louis
Versailles - Guillotine - Pomp
A quick look I did using Versailles - Velvet Rose & Pomp
Left eye with NYX Shadow Base in White / Right bare skin
this is 3 layers of build up
PROS
- The colors are very beautiful.
- The packaging is very cute & thoughtful.
- Fast shipping.
- Very reasonable prices.
- Excellent customer service.
- Wide range of colors.
CONS- While the colors are very vibrant and beautiful, they do not seem to be very pigmented.
- It takes A LOT of product to build up to the colors that are showed on the site.
- They are difficult to blend.
- Some of the more matte colors are "muddy."
- The red and orange colors stained my skin slightly. I'm not sure if is a problem that just I experienced or if it has happen to others.
In conclusion
ARC is still a growing company and I think some reformulation is in order.
They provide wonderful customer service with in my book is one of the most important thing for a business to provide beside quality products.
Would I recommend ARC?
Honestly at this point in time no, I would not.
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<3Tarra<3
I am not affiliated with these companies.