A day like any other

Besides the lack of mail and courrier deliveries/pickups. One big advantage to us not being into holidays and such is that we're always working on those days. I'm getting shipment labels done for tomorrow morning, and the others are in the studio, remixing several of the darker shades.

Hoping to get a few more swatch shots of the new shadows Saturday. The really sparkley shades glow on dark skin.

Ingredients update

Good __(whatever time of day it is where you are)__ . Today we've made an update to the eye shadow ingredients, excluding the Arcane series. Two minor substances have been incorporated into some shades, but the amount is very minor, and it does not affect the performance, feel, or durability of the shadow. Silica, Styrene/PVP Copolymer, was added to various sparkley/shimmery shades. Myristyl Myristate is being worked into the production of several, and it helps with adhesion and blendablility without dilluting the color. I think we updated all the pages that have the ingredients listed but I'll check again.

As a sidenote, there are a few things we never have, nor ever will, use in our shadows, and one is: Glitter. We do not use Polyethylene Terephthalate (a type of plastic) glitter in our products. The big sparkles we use are Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate or Calcium Sodium Borosilicate. The reason for this is simple: while microfine poly glitter is FDA-approved for use around the eye area, we don't feel it's safe to get in eyes. The Borosilicates have smoother edges and flake and break apart into tinier particles under pressure. Poly glitter bends and has sharper edges, but also sticks to skin and eye surfaces by static. The little difference can be very noticable for some people, where a tiny particle may feel like a large shard.
Sometimes I question my sanity at having a partner who could spend hours over a microscope and heating mantle "proving" things to me. ;)  

Forgot to mention in the last post: some of you will like the theme (and I said I loathe themes. Whoops) for the newest, especially if you're a gamer or enjoy sci-fi/fantasy. Then again, many others may roll your eyes. These should be up within a week--there's still a bit of tweaking to be done on a couple.

No, there's no Orc Green. 

Upcoming

(click to enlarge of course)

Shade on the left is an Arcane, and the gold-with-turquoise-sparkle and taupe-with-red-glimmer are requested /custom shades.
Personal favorite out of the bunch is the bright aqua sparkle: it looks like turquoise chrome when applied.

Amazing, attention-grabbing post title

Not really, just a boring update. Quite sorry I haven't touched this in weeks, but there really wasn't anything noteworthy going on.

First up, we'll be putting the Pixie Epoxy in larger (same style) containers in the coming weeks. There will also be several new shadows and a blush or two. Something else too, that may make you want to hold off buying until then.

Second, I'd like to address the subject of holiday sales. To be blunt, we won't have one. No Christmas specials, limited editions (we never do those anyway), or red & green packaging. Here's my reasoning on this: For at least a month spanning late November through December, you are bombarded by the commercialism. You cannot escape seasonal sales, too much decor, blaring Jingle Bell Rock, pushing & shoving, and far more stress than you really need in a "joyous" season.

Onward to the Inks:  Yes, we did eliminate the mini size over a month ago due to cost and container quality. This particular size and style is unique to one manufacturer, and by the time they arrive here, including freight we actually paid more for the tiny vials than the large ones. The brushes on these weren't as well-made as the brushes on the full size containers, many of them having to be thrown away. Another problem was the amount of Inks we have replaced upon customer complaint. Many, many, including sample sizes. If told the received one was too runny, leaked, or the shade was wrong, we usually replaced it. Although often in cases of them seeming really "thin", you need to swipe as much product off onto the inside edge of the tube before application.

That reminds me--our last couple cases of sample jars' lids aren't as tight-sealing as the previous ones, so the powder products may get up into the top of the lid a little bit, but should not leak out of the jar. I'll be getting some of the same style and size from a new manufacturer soon.

Nearing one year with the "new" cart system

That's not really relevant to anything, just thought to mention it. No I take that back, I just pulled up our product sales-rankings, so here are the top 20 products, in order, in the past year. Though some are newer than that. These are the full-size products, samples aren't included here:

1 Velvet-Gel Silica Primer  (avail. since spring 2009)
2 Powder Primer
3 Mineral Finish: Oil Control
4 Immortality Loose Eye Shadow
5 Fyre & Ice Loose Eye Shadow
6 Monarch Butterfly Loose Eye Shadow
7 Equality Loose Eye Shadow
8 Biker Chic Loose Eye Shadow
9 Fluff
10 Polar Bear Loose Eye Shadow
11 Atomic Afterglow Loose Eye Shadow
12 Snow Leopard Loose Eye Shadow
13 Pixie Epoxy  (wow, this is only a few months old)
14 Rapunzel Had Extensions Loose Eye Shadow
15 Powder Modifier
16 Digital Faerie Loose Eye Shadow (from 2005 I think, and always one of the top shades)
17 1.22 Gigawatts Loose Eye Shadow
18 Newcastle Loose Eye Shadow (also an old favorite like DF)
19 Android Angel Loose Eye Shadow
20 Dragonskin Loose Eye Shadow

This is taking me quite a while to type because Xin just brought in spring rolls, which have my full attention.

I keep intending to mention this: we often get inquries about more swatches and the colors in-use. There are many, many bloggers who sport our cosmetics quite beautifully (and others: there are quite a few good companies that produce quality unique cosmetics) like  Fresco Phyrra, Padmita, Shake Your Makeup, Unlaced Beauty, Slams-The Fashion Side, The Adventurous Purple Koala, Fashioned In Finland, and for more check out the Followers, besides these. Yes, we do indeed peek at blogs and fotd photos often. I might get a list on the site like that above, but only by request. If you show Fyrinnae products in-use and want your blog/youtube/whatnot mentioned, let us know here. There are also plenty of you who do reviews like Sasquatch Swatch and Pink Sith. There are many more, but it's getting late and my mind tends to be sharper when I'm awake.

That's all I have for now, so thanks again to our delightful clientelle, and hope you all have a good week!

Couple of things

Sub-Total: $19.75. Shipping: $2.50. Total: .75 more than if you'd added another sample giving the order free shipping.
We see this several times a week: orders that are just barely under $20, which of course adds on a postage cost. Free shipping vs. postage fee (usually $1.75 within the US) never changes the shipping method. I know some companies, usually large ones, will offer free shipping only if you buy $500 worth, then send it the most "economical" way possible (ew, SmartPost, ew). Fyrinnae orders are always sent First Class or Priority domestic, depending on value, or First Class International (airmail) for, you guessed it, International packages. Also a lot of bounced receipts and shipping notices the past few weeks, nearly all with "unknown recipient", "invalid host" or "mailbox full" notes.

Wanted to also thank everyone for the, as usual, wonderful respose to our Halloween Collection. I'm truly not fond of themes, and we usually just randomly name the new releases, but being a spooky old warlock, I figured it was time we finally did one for Samhain.


A note from the Prince (this week: Robin Goodfellow, a few may know what I'm referring to)  I overuse parentheses because of him, you know. Bad habit I picked up. That and talking like a pissed off, drunk Irish sailor.
 Anyway, he says if you're having difficulty with the Pixie Epoxy, try using the tiniest little dab, and smoothing that on with a fingertip. You can mix a miniscule "drop" of water with that at application to thin. The shadow should be brushed on dry, not wet. Wet shadows or a damp brush with the Epoxy can cause it to clump. Most shades, especially dark ones, require more shadow on the brush since this product holds it like a security blanket. You can also add a bit more Epoxy over the shadow to apply more sparkle, or to hold a disco-ball's worth of sparkle in place and give more of a wet-look.

Pixied

Everyone getting weary of that word yet?

Here are the shades shown in the last post over Pixie Epoxy (which was just smeared on, hence the shiny areas of skin). The pink-on-black on the left is by request and will be added with the others. It photos it looks like Incubus, but looks really cool and different when applied dry. We'll have the dry/wet dark skin swatches up soon. Click on image to enlarge.

As requested, here's Princess of Darkness over Pixie:

Mattes do work with it, but some get a little clumpy and may considerably darken the shade. Many are fine, though, and that does depend on how thick of a layer of P.E. you apply first. I'd suggest very thin for matte or low-shimmer shadows, more for the very sparkley ones. Damn, I meant to have him do a couple of the City Glams, including Quebec City, since over P.E. it turns into a very "aluminum foil" metallic silver.

Before I forget, the two winners were selected for the Lustre contest today, so thanks to all who entered, and we'll do this again sometime. Congratulations to Susanne of Germany and Ellie of Australia!