All items mentioned in the review were purchased with my own funds.
Fyrinnae is one of the rare indie companies that offers both loose and pressed eyeshadows. The pressed shadows are a relatively new offering and don't have a lot of reviews out there, so I wanted to share my impressions and swatches with you for five shades: Rapunzel Had Extensions, Daemon’s Tail, Woolly Mammoth, Atomic Afterglow, and Work Safe Blue.
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| Top to bottom: Rapunzel Had Extensions, Daemon's Tail, Woolly Mammoth, Atomic Afterglow, and Work Safe Blue. Left side is on a base of Urban Decay Primer Potion; right side, UDPP + Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. |
Price:
$8.25 per pressed eyeshadow.
Samples:
According to the website, "Samples are not available, but the solid shades are close to their loose shadow counterparts, when such exists."
Samples:
According to the website, "Samples are not available, but the solid shades are close to their loose shadow counterparts, when such exists."
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| The bottoms of the pans. |
Ingredients:
Mica, Cyclopentasiloxane, Titanium Dioxide, Dimethicone, Zinc Stearate, Isododecane, Isopropyl Myristate. May contain: Iron Oxides, Manganese Violet, Tin Oxide, Ultramarines, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Silica, Nylon-12, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate,Blue #1, Red #40, Yellow #5, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Chromium Oxide, Sorbitan Olivate.
All Fyrinnae products are vegan and cruelty-free.
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| Alongside the pans for comparison. Top to bottom: Rapunzel Had Extensions, Daemon's Tail, Woolly Mammoth, Atomic Afterglow, and Work Safe Blue. Left side:Urban Decay Primer Potion; right side, UDPP + Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. |
Packaging:
Fyrinnae pressed eyeshadows come in a pleasing, lightweight round (26 mm) aluminum flip-top container with 2 grams of product. The top is clear and the bottom has a silver sticker with the color name and ingredients. All of the shades I swatched here have a soft shimmer or sheen, no glitter. I like the containers, and they open and close smoothly, but they’re very bulky compared to the actual contents. I haven’t tried depotting them.
General notes:
The texture of all the shadows was smooth and buttery, easy to pick up with a brush. They’re very pigmented, and I found it a little hard to blend them over primer; a skin-colored shadow as a base might help with blending.
In the swatches, the top half of each swatch was done on a base of Urban Decay Primer Potion; below the line, the swatch is on a combination of UDPP and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. All swatches were patted on with a flat eyeshadow brush. Photos were taken in natural light--I've included one brightly lit outdoor photo and one outdoor photo with indirect light for each color.
I was surprised at how little difference the Pixie Epoxy made with the colors, since typically it grabs and emphasizes sparkly colors and can make a distinct difference in the way a shimmery shadow looks. There was barely any difference for most of these shades, with Daemon’s Tail and Work Safe Blue having the most noticeable difference--not much of a difference in color, but they looked more dense and saturated over the Pixie Epoxy rather than the UDPP. However, the wear time was significantly increased by using Pixie Epoxy over UDPP.
Rapunzel Had Extensions (top: UDPP, bottom: UDPP + Pixie Epoxy):
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| I apologize for the pans looking so ratty--these were purchased and used well before starting this blog, so I unfortunately have no pictures of pristine eyeshadow pans. |
From the website: “Pale warm pink with a stunning brilliant light gold highlight. One of our most popular shadows since 2007. New pressed version released 9/2012.”
Personal Comments: Rapunzel Had Extensions is similar to MAC Expensive Pink or Urban Decay X--peachy pink with a distinct, strong golden duochrome effect. Because I finger-swatched it and got oils on the surface, the pan looks a bit hardened on the surface, but I can still pick up color with a brush without a problem. Although it’s the lightest shade out of all the Fyrinnae pressed shadows I own, it’s also the least subtle! The golden shimmer is flashy, bright, and metallic, catching the light as you move. The yellow tones in my skin tend to cancel out the peachy tones of the shadow so it comes across as a more rosy, almost bubblegum pink on my skin where it looks a bit peachier in the pan.
Here are Woolly Mammoth and Daemon’s Tail side by side for comparison:
Here are Woolly Mammoth and Daemon’s Tail side by side for comparison:
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| Woolly Mammoth on the left, Daemon's Tail on the right. |
From the website: “A rich combination of light purple and metallic gold. Not purple with gold shimmer, or vice-versa, but a velvety mix of different shades, which adds a soft burgundy hue in as well. Must be seen in person to appreciate. Finish is somewhere between slightly metallic satin and soft shimmer. Originally a loose shadow, and brought back as pressed-only in 9/2012. Not as dark as the original, but buildable. No dyes. (yes we are aware the picture looks like Berber carpet)
*** July 8 2013: This shade may be at the end of its run once the current stock is exhausted. The hue differences didn't translate well to pressed, causing a muddy effect, rather than the separate hues of gold and purple. ***”
Personal Comments: Daemon’s Tail is a velvety amethyst purple with a metallic finish leaning slightly bronze-gold. It’s darker than mauve, lighter than plum, and has a bit of a pinkish flash on the lids. It reminds me a bit of Laura Mercier’s African Violet, though I think it’s darker, less golden, and more muted than that. It was a bit flakier than the other colors, so I noticed a slight amount of fallout if I didn’t tap off my brush before application. I would agree that this color doesn’t display separate gold and purple hues, although I wouldn’t call it “muddy” myself.
Personal Comments: Woolly Mammoth is a warm, very rich redwood brown that appears to have a satiny finish in low light, but still gives off a bit of shimmer in full sun. It’s a warmer color than I usually like for my brown eyes--if I’m wearing brown eyeshadow, I tend to prefer cooler browns and taupes--but I think the contrast would emphasize blue or green eyes beautifully.
Work Safe Blue and Atomic Afterglow look like very similar murky grays in the pan, but are clearly distinct shades when applied.
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| Work Safe Blue on the left, Atomic Afterglow on the right. |
From the website: “Formerly "Damn Paladins". Slightly satiny taupe with a light blue highlight. Contains no dyes.”
Personal Comments: Work Safe Blue has a dark taupe base shade with a cool, luminous, slate blue sheen that appears when applied. It lights up the eye without being so shiny it’s metallic. Blended out, the blue shimmer fades away and the taupe base is more visible. It applied slightly patchier than the others, though it still had beautiful pigmentation and smooth texture. It’s the classiest blue eyeshadow I’ve ever seen, and is my favorite shadow out of my Fyrinnae collection. These swatches don't really do it justice--you'll get a more accurate overall impression of it from looking at it in the large overview photos at the top of the post.
From the website: “Cool silvery taupe filled with highlights of copper, gold, and light green. Satiny finish with subtle slight shimmer, no sparkle.
One of our most popular eye shadows from 2008-2010, discontinued due to manufacturer ingredient change, then reformulated and brought back as pressed on 12/21/2012. Slightly lighter than the original. Contains no dyes.”
Personal Comments: Atomic Afterglow is on a similar taupe base with a complex gray-toned sage green shimmer. In low light, the reflection takes on a brassy gold quality; in full sun, it has a very subtly iridescent sparkle, throwing off tiny rainbow shimmers.
These can be worn heavily to emphasize the blue or green overtones, or in a sheer, blended, smoky wash to emphasize the gray/brown undertones.
Conclusion: I highly recommend Fyrinnae pressed shadows--the quality is outstanding, the pressed shadows are very convenient compared to the loose shadows, and Pixie Epoxy doesn’t seem to be necessary to keep the color true, at least for the shades I’ve tried. I don’t find them to crease any more or less than average when worn over primer. The quality seems comparable to Urban Decay to me, but with a single eyeshadow costing only $8 as compared to Urban Decay’s $18.
The downsides I see are the bulky packaging, limited color selection, and the lack of matte shades to provide some contrast in the crease or outer V of the eye, or give a more natural look; it looks like every shade has some degree of shimmer or sheen.
I have my eye on Serendipity and Aztec Gold next!
Do you own any Fyrinnae pressed shadows? Do you like them? Pressed shadows are a rarity in the indie world compared to loose, and I have to say I greatly prefer them to loose eyeshadows--when I use loose, I always seem to end up with either not enough eyeshadow on my brush, or a huge mess with fallout everywhere, particularly if I’m dealing with sample baggies instead of sifter jars.
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