I spent this past weekend completely nerding out at Emerald City Comic Con up in Seattle. I had a blast, and it was great to see so many familiar faces! Something new that I ran into was Espionage Cosmetics, a nerdy makeup line run by some awesome people out of Tacoma, WA.
They had a bunch of eyeshadows, lip serums, and nail wraps available, so I spent a while looking around at everything. I ended up getting one of the ECCC 2015 Exclusive sets, four sets of nail wraps, and two loose eyeshadow pigments. Though I could have easily gotten much, much more. Seriously, all of their stuff was amazing. They even had little stations with testers of the nail wraps & were teaching people how to apply them.
The eyeshadow packaging reminds me a lot of the Bare Minerals loose pigments, and are super easy to use. Both of the shades I got are from the Firefly collection, a reddish-brown one called Reaver Red, and a chocolatey-brown called Sudden But Inevitable. It just so happens that Sudden But Inevitable was my favorite color out of the bunch anyway, but I probably would have bought it based on the name alone because Wash is my absolute favorite.
I swatched the pigments both dry, and with a shadow brush dipped in water for a more foiled look. Both ways of application wear really nicely, and I didn’t experience too much fallout from the brush (using the general swirl and tap method before leaving the pot). These will definitely see a lot of use in the upcoming weeks.
Boy was I excited to open up the ECCC Exclusive set. Inside were 2 sets of Nail Wraps with glow-in-the-dark ECCC pride element (GLOW IN THE DARK YOU GUYS, THEY GLOW IN THE DARK!), a lip serum in Bagged & Bearded, and an eyeshadow in Crusaderette (which totally reminds me of Tinkerbell).
I did the same application method with Crusaderette, as the other eyeshadows. The dry swatch doesn’t deposit too much color or glitter, but the foiled version is a little cakey. However, I’d say that definitely has more to do with that it’s glitter, that being said it’s probably the best glitter based formula I’ve worked with. The lip serum is pretty awesome too! The formula feels super moisturizing and doesn’t have that sticky feeling most glosses have. It reminds me a lot of the newer lip oil based colors other brands have been coming out with.
As a mostly reformed nail biter, occasionally falling off the wagon during times of stress, I always have to have some kind of manicure going on. That being said, nail polish doesn’t usually last that long on my nails and starts chipping within 2 or 3 days. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Enter nail wraps, which seem to have two effects on me:
1. They fall off within hours, like the Jamberry ones or the Kiss ones,
2. They last until the grow out is shameful, like the ones from Essie and sometimes Sally Hansen.
So when I got to see the Nailed It! testers at the booth and saw that they were easier to apply than other brands I’d used before, I got as many as I could justify getting.
The wraps come with 7 different sizes so that you can find the best respective fit for your nail shapes. You don’t have to heat the nail wraps at all, just take off the protective film from the front and the back, apply the strip to the base of nail and wrap/stretch over the edge, filing off the excess. They suggest sealing it with a top coat, which I did. Super quick manicure complete in less than 5 minutes.
I’ll keep you guys updated on the wear and tear of these babies via twitter, but so far they are holding up really well. The comicbook theme makes me pretty happy, and as noted earlier I love that these ones glow in the dark.
Unfortunately the ECCC set was only available if you actually were at ECCC, so you won’t be able to order that online. However you can find the eyeshadows in Reaver Red here, Sudden But Inevitable here, and all available shades here, Nailed It! nail wraps here, and lip serums here!
Do you have any favorite indie makeup brands?
♡Em
