I first stumbled upon the Life's Entropy blog when I was looking for a lipstick dupe--I discovered her ridiculously great series of dupes and comparisons, including debunkings of some commonly recommended dupes like MAC Ruby Woo vs. Wet 'n' Wild Spotlight Red--all comprehensive and well photographed. I was also obsessed with the L'Oreal Color Caresse Wet Shine Stains, or whatever their actual name is--the dupes for YSL Glossy Stains--and found the best set of swatches out there on Jane's blog. (It helps that her skin tone is similar to mine!) However, earlier this year, I was sad to see that her posts slowed to a crawl and then a halt. I left her blog in my feed list but figured she'd moved on to other interests.
Then this post showed up on reddit, and I was happy to see that she had indeed moved on to other interests--but interests that were highly relevant: a new science-themed vegan cosmetics shop!
I love the ease of application and blending I get from cream blushes, so I'd been looking for a good cream contour option for a while. Pumpkin and Poppy Michelle, Illamasqua Hollow, and OCC John Doe all seemed too light, and the Kevyn Aucoin Creamy Glow Duo in Sculpting/Candlelight seemed tiny and incredibly expensive. So I was incredibly excited to see that one of the main offerings from Life's Entropy's new shop was a set of cream contour sticks, ranging from pale to dark. I decided to use the introductory 20% off coupon code she was offering and try out a few products. I ordered a la carte instead of opting for the blogger pack, so my experience should mirror the typical customer's.
Packaging:
My package arrived with some festive little extras on the wrapping, as you can see in the photo--a sticker, a fake flower, a 15% off discount card tied with a bow.
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| Cute packaging! |
The Lip Theory samples (a very pigmented liquid lip product similar to OCC Lip Tars) come in 1.5 mL Eppendorf centrifuge tubes, which means nothing to me, but this apparently made a lot of redditor scientists very happy. I prefer this packaging to the squeeze tubes that Lip Tars come in, even though they're less hygienic, because you can dip a lip brush right into the tube instead of having to messily squeeze out the product onto your lip or the back of your hand.
On the other hand, I'm not quite sure how to mix the samples in a gloss tube--the package doesn't lend itself well to pouring out just a little bit.
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| Clockwise from upper left: gloss tubes; Lip Theory samples in Nucleus, Quantum, Apoptosis, and Big Bang Theory; Placebo gloss; stoppers for gloss tubes; Neutrino Particle Contour Stick sample; eyeshadow sample in Enchant; Neutron Particle Contour Stick full size |
The Placebo gloss came in a normal clear squeeze tube.
The full-sized contour stick I got came in a chapstick-style twist tube, which I loved, because you can swipe directly and blend with your fingers--no need to use a brush. The contour sample came as a crumbly chunk in a little plastic baggie, which I liked a lot less because the baggie got immediately dirty and gross-looking when I put my finger into it to swatch the contour.
Selection:
Face
- 5 colors of Contour Sticks
- 1 color of Foundation Elixir (this is a white liquid you can mix with too-dark foundations to lighten them--a yellow one is on the way soon)
Eyes
- Secret Shop collection of 12 loose eyeshadows (inspired by DOTA 2)
- Animal Sanctuary collection of 12 loose eyeshadows (all shadows named with puns involving animals, primarily neutral shades with gold sparkle)
- All shadows are available either individually or in sets
Lips
- 16 colors of Lip Theories (OCC Lip Tar dupes)--the header suggests you can also use these on cheeks
- Placebo clear lip gloss for mixing with Lip Theories or custom-mixing your own lip gloss using loose pigment
- Empty doefoot tubes for filling with custom-mixed Lip Theories or gloss
Misc
- Blogger Pack
- Monthly Mystery Bag
As I mentioned, I think the most interesting product Life's Entropy has is the cream contour sticks, which seem to me to be unique in both the indie and mainstream makeup worlds. The Placebo gloss is something you could also duplicate yourself, e.g. by buying cheap dollar store lip gloss as a mixer, but with the packaging and instructions, Life's Entropy makes it easy. The lip tar dupes and foundation elixir are also pretty unique in the indie world, but have some mainstream equivalents.
Samples:
Samples are available for everything but the Placebo gloss. You can see the pricing for samples in the "Cost" section below.
Quality:
I'm pleased with the quality of what I received. The only quality control issue I noticed was that the atom symbol sticker was missing from one of my three empty gloss tubes.
With my Contour Stick, I found it a little hard to get a balance between an obvious contour line and the contour blended away into invisibility; also, it didn't really seem to set the way I would like it to, so I had to make sure to set with powder.
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| Swatches, from top to bottom: custom gloss made with Placebo and Shiro's I Survived The Apocalypse (hard to see, it's the gold shimmer up by my wrist); Enchant eyeshadow over Urban Decay Primer Potion; Big Bang Theory Lip Theory; Apoptosis Lip Theory; Quantum Lip Theory; Nucleus Lip Theory |
The Placebo gloss is quite liquid and runny, but hydrating and absolutely non-sticky. It smells a bit like vanilla cake frosting, but the smell goes away quickly, and I don't notice a particular taste. In my first draft of this post, I wrote that I made a mess with it several times while sealing the tube after use, because even though I only filled it about halfway, the gloss would often get pushed up around the threads of the top and ooze out. However, I then realized I had forgotten to install the wiper piece into the top of the gloss tube--no problems once I did that! However, it is somewhat hard to mix the gloss thoroughly using the doefoot, since it doesn't reach all the way to the bottom of the tube. The gloss I mixed up was 1/4 tsp of Shiro's I Survived The Apocalypse mixed into a tube filled slightly less than halfway with gloss.
I'm lukewarm about the formula right now. It's not sticky or tacky (my biggest pet peeve) but I kind of wish it were thicker, because I keep feeling like it's slowly oozing off my lips. Also, while this is my fault in color choice rather than any issue with the gloss itself, I can feel grit in my custom gloss when I rub my lips together. I think I've been spoiled by the recent gloss hybrids like Dior Addict Fluid Sticks and Maybelline Color Elixirs, which have more of a thick, plush texture. I'm not a huge lip gloss girl in general, though, so my enthusiasm for the gloss was at a fairly low level to start with.
The Lip Theories seemed indistinguishable from Lip Tars to me, but I only had one Lip Tar and sold it, so I can't do a side-by-side comparison. I find them a little drying and patchy, and easy to smear, but I felt the same about OCC Lip Tars.
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| Nucleus Lip Theory, two layers applied with a lip brush. A bit patchy-looking. |
Cost:
| Product | Full size | Sample size | Notes |
| Contour sticks | $8 | $1.50 | |
| Placebo gloss | $8 | n/a | |
| Lip Theory | $8 | $1.50 | the full-sized Lip Theory is 10 grams, making this 80 cents per gram; compare this to Lip Tar at $18 per 0.33 oz/9.4 g ($1.91 per gram, more than twice as expensive) |
| Eyeshadow | $6 | $1.50 | |
| Foundation Elixir | $8 | $1.50 |
Customer Service:
I have not had to contact Jane with any customer service issues. The store has a contact form--no email address or phone number are listed.
TAT:
The current estimated turnaround time is clearly stated in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. I ordered on July 23, with TAT estimated at 3-14 days. My package arrived on August 5, just within the estimated TAT window.
Shipping:
Shipping is a flat rate of $3 for US orders and $8 for international orders--I love that this is very clearly stated in the upper right-hand corner, by the currently estimated TAT.
Personal Thoughts:
Life's Entropy has a lot of innovative and niche-filling products. I think the cream contour sticks are definitely worth a try, particularly if your skin is medium to medium-dark toned, since there are color options here that I haven't seen elsewhere in a cream format. If I were going to order just one item from this store, I'd get a full-sized cream contour stick.
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| Particle Contour Stick swatches, top to bottom: Neutrino, blended; Neutrino, applied heavily; Neutron, blended; Neutron, applied heavily |
If you are interested in OCC Lip Tars, the Color Theories are a good alternative, especially since you can easily buy cheap sample sizes to play with. They have the same problems as Lip Tars, in my opinion (drying to wear, somewhat messy to use) but are fun to play with, of course. And you can do things that make them easier to use and take with you for touchups--put them in the doefoot gloss tubes, melt them into lip balm to make a solid balm, or follow Portrait of Mai's tutorial for creating custom jumbo lip pencils. Big Bang Theory is a gorgeous color, my favorite of the Color Theories I ordered, a deep burgundy that leaves a nice stain behind.
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| Lip Theory: Big Bang Theory with a smidgen of Apoptosis mixed in. It's far from foolproof--I managed to smear the edges between applying upstairs and going downstairs to take a photo in natural light. |
The Placebo gloss is an inexpensive alternative to ordering a million custom gloss colors from Shiro. So it's fun, even though I'm not a huge fan of the formula. I'm planning to try making a sheer black gloss to duplicate YSL's Smoking lip gloss, meant to go over other colors to darken them.
Personally, I'm not particularly interested in most of the eyeshadows, I guess because I've seen hundreds of swatches of indie eyeshadows at this point and nothing caught my eye as especially exciting. The eyeshadows are definitely the least unique product in the shop, so it may also just be the contrast with the other shiny things in the store that makes them seem less interesting to me. I did try the sample I got and it was lovely, acid green with shimmery gold, but unremarkable.
I think the website is nicely done, with well-lit, well-photographed swatches of all the products and a clear, professional layout. One nitpick about it--it annoyed me intensely that the Lip Theory Samples page offered just a dropdown list of shades without any swatches or color descriptions, so I had to keep another window open so I could look at the actual colors in order to make my selections from the samples page.
I was sad to see the Life's Entropy blog slow down and then stop updating, so I'm really glad to see Jane back in the mix with this exciting new store!
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