#impulse cosmetics

[squidtastic-wonderland]

Shoutout to Notoriously Morbid for their Shadow Bind lid primer--it actually makes duochromes work without having to foil them! Wearing "Fright Night" from Impulse Cosmetics in this pic, a peach and yellowy-gold duochrome. Oh and bonus kittens!

[squidtastic-wonderland]

"Braainz" eye shadow by Impulse Cosmetics

[annabellelee33]

Wrist swatches of blue and green lipstick samples from MBA cosmetics and Impulse Cosmetics, as labelled. Shown with flash (right) and without under daylight (left) on NC25 - NC30 skin. MBA ozone, indigo and breathless are HD lip paint. Sapphire and Aquatic color rich lipstick. Both formulas are pretty creamy, but the lip paint sometimes feels gritty. Very pigmented, go on opaque with a brush. Heaps of transfer, needs a good base and to be set as well if you don’t want to reapply a lot. Impulse Cosmetics ones are all the matte lip lacquer formula which feels kinda…watery and then chalky at the same time even when mixed, but once on isn’t as drying as I would have expected from the texture. Beautiful colour payoff but very watery when applied. These are a pain to apply with a doe foot and get EVERYWHERE if not set. Poe and Asphyxiate aren’t quite as bad for getting everywhere though. Packaging for both is pretty budget but I got them all for the colours, not the containers!

[veganmakeup]

I tried to search your blog for duochrome shadows and found nothing - are they hard to make using vegan formulas? Love this blog, never stop what you do omg :3

Check out Impulse cosmetics - mostly vegan and clearly labeled. 

they also make duochorome lipstick!

[field-of-sungflowers]

I got the Superstition duochrome lip lacquer from Impulse Cosmetics today and I can’t get a good picture but it’s absolutely stunning in person. I’m in love

[queer-dragoncat-spacewitch]

My order from impulse cosmetics just came so i figured id do a little review! So im a long time buyer and i really like their stuff. If the laquers were out when i first bough, i wouldve totally gotten them instead of the lipsticks, i just really love how they feel. So this is for the laquers Hypnosis, Bonbon, and Berried Alive and the eyeshadow Saint Nick. Shipping: Its one day short of two weeks from the time i placed my order. They say theyre running about 5-7 business days for processing and then another 2-3 days for shipping. Honestly i wish that it was a little quicker. Packaging: while the laquer tubes are very cute, the black ink on them seems to rub off on my hands easily. Little dissapointing, but i gotta reccomend pealing off the lables. Eyeshadow was also on the lid and rim of the package dispite being sealed. Products: first off bon bon. Very thick, which i was expecting it to be kinda sheer. Very rich color and feels great. I was worried itd be too light for me but it gets slightly darker as it dries and i really like it. Berried alive is like a secret color, cause its not actually on the laquer page of the website. I saw its name in the laquer samples list and realized it didnt match any i knew of, so i searched it and this stunning color came up. I LOVE this color. Once again a really thick rich formula. It doesnt say its duochrome but it almost passes as one, its not very matte. Its like a purpler Medusa or a darker Dimentia, which i love both of those.

Hypnosis (blue) is a duochrome. I have one other duochrome before this and the effect shows up better in pictures than in person, but it still looks really cool. This one is just slightly sheer, but its easy to cover up. I really love this color and can see myself wearing it a lot. Edit: all three laquers dry fast and are longlasting. Theyre not too easy to wash off though. Saint nick is a little lighter than its shown on the website, and the gold glitter makes it look slightly orange. It wasnt really the color i was expecting but you dont get a lot of choices for red eyeshadow i guess. I tend to make a big mess with loose eyeshadow, but their colors are really rich. Overall im really happy with this! Impulse cosmetics is a great brand with good (also vegan) ingredients, affordable prices (11.99 lauqer, 6.99 lipstick, 3.99 eyeshadow), and great colors that are hard to find anywhere else!

[voidmountain]

No offense but I look incredible right now #TDOV

[lipstickforlosers]

Impulse Cosmetics’ Liquid Matte Lipstick - Swatches and Review

I never thought I would order from Impulse Cosmetics.

When I first started exploring unconventional lip colours, they were an oft suggested option, but something about them always rubbed me wrong. Perhaps it was the ultra-shopped and by all accounts, inaccurate, swatches. Then there was the debacle with the photo theft - from Fyrinnae, of all sites. A lot of stuff went down, and it all made me uncomfortable. But in recent years, the line has been quiet. In the way of scandal, I haven’t heard anything new. They brought out a range of liquid matte lipsticks,with imperfect swatches and a phenomenal colour range, and you might have noticed that liquid matte lipsticks are my kryptonite.

Finding swatches and reviews for these was a nightmare. I saw one review on Youtube, and a great post on the Indie Makeup and More subreddit, and look - I wanted to take one for the team.

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Top row, l-r, duochrome liquid lipsticks: Superstition, Charisma, Haphazard, Centrefold, Exploit, Riccochet, Hypnosis, Cryptic, Slander

Bottom row, l-r, matte liquid lipsticks: Texas Tea, Boggart, Sweet Nothings, Medusa, Lobotomy, Go Ninja, Tough Love, Berried Alive (not available in fs, only in trial size), Forget Me Not, Asphyxiate

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A quick overview, before I dig into the indivudal swatches.

You can find Impulse Cosmetics here. They ship internationally, and I actually got my second order with free shipping (a $50 purchase, but still like - free international shipping).

Pros:

     - Shade range: impeccable. They have every colour of the rainbow in all manner of finishes - metallic, flat matte, duochrome. It’s overwhelming, but it’s great for the lipstick enthusiast.

     - Size options: The full sizes are a little over $10, but the trial sizes - the little vials - are about $3 (prices in USD) and for someone with such a big collection of colours, I don’t need full sizes because they’ll never get used. This gives me the freedom to try more, test formulas, broaden horizons, etc

     - Formula, generally speaking: with a few notable exceptions, the formula on these is pretty damn great. They are light on the lips, dry but not drying. They aren’t transfer-proof, but the colour lasts without needing constant reapplication. In general, they are easy to apply and fast drying.

Cons:

     - Packaging: Guys. These need to be individually labelled. I have a lot of them, I need to know which colour is which without having the crosscheck my receipt with the website. One of them - Haphazard - has a label, so why don’t they all? Why do Boggart and Superstition have their names on the bottom, but not Texas Tea?

     - Not the longest wearing. Not terrible, but not the best.

     - Inconsistency: The great ones are so great, but the duds are atrocious. I’d definitely look into swatches and reviews of your desired colours where possible, or order trial sizes if you aren’t sure. Some are moussey, some are liquid, some are streaky and some are perfect.

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Beneath the jump, I swatched them all on my lips and I’ll chat about them in my traditionally verbose manner.

Duochromes first, then the others. Excuse the atrocious photos, staining, exhaustion, palor, etc - I’m sick, my dog’s sick, everyone’s sick. I have been testing these out for quite some time now, but it just so happened that on the day I got to swatching them, I’ve got a whole host of stuff wrong with me, I wasn’t wearing any make up, and the light was fading fast.. I also swatched these in an awful order that I arbitrarily assigned, so my lips weren’t in great shape.

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Superstition is a dark purple navy with an aqua green shift. The shift becomes more and more prominent as it sits on the lips, This colour usually needs a second coat, but I’ve worn it out and about and it’s a real showstopper. You can see how beaten up my tube is already. A very Sara colour.

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Charisma is a lilac mauve with a light blue shift to it. The shift is less prominent on this one, and it can border on corpsey, but it’s a really interesting colour.

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Haphazard is a bright orange with a golden shift that totally threw off my camera. It had a thicker formula and, due to the nature of the colour, got a little streaky, but it’s so cool that I don’t really care.

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Centrefold is a bright hot pink with a golden green shift. Not usually a colour I’d go for, but the shift adds a great level of interest that elevates it. I wore this out to a pub  and scored loads of compliments.

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Exploit is a pink violet with a silvery blue shift. This was my Mardi Gras lipstick! It held up really well, though I can’t give you a makeout rating because the girl I developed a crush on ended up making out with a guy.

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Ricochet is a deep violet purple with a strong blue shift. This had a drier formula and applied unevenly, but with a little patience it looked so beautiful on that I would just endure it. With a purple liner, or a little blue shadow pressed over it - unf.

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Hypnosis is a medium sky blue with a silvery shift. This one has a mousse formula, and applied opaque in one go. Gorgeous.

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Cryptic is an olivey brown with a green gold shift. It’s like a deepened antiquey gold? Such an interesting colour, with a great formula. I don’t own anything like this.

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Slander is a deep chocolate brown with a blue shift. It’s been likened to LA Splash’s Catrina, but obviously the formula is far more comfortable (thinner, less prone to crumbling) and the colour is a lot more brown than grey. I adore this colour, and it’s probably one of the ones I’ve worn the most.

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Texas Tea is a metallic orangey bronze, and this is an awful photo of what is a gorgeous colour. I forgot to swatch this one so it was the last photo and I just could not get a clean line. I’m glad I plunged for this in the full size, because it’s interesting and wearable and the formula is great.

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Boggart is a deep metallic emerald green and holy shit, are you seeing this? I actually initially got a trial size of Boggart but as soon as I tried it on, I knew it needed to be something I owned in a full size. The name is perfect, too, and I think it looks really cool with my eyes.

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Sweet Nothings is a matte chocolate brown with neutral tones. It reminds me a lot of Jeffree Star’s Dominatrix, except everyone knows how much that formula just is not for me. This applied super evenly and every bit as well as the metallics.

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Medusa is a dark wine red. It applied slightly more unevenly than Sweet Nothings, but fairly standard for a dark red. It’s a little more purple than I generally go for, but it’s still pretty fucking gorgeous.

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Lobotomy is a medium teal. A lot thicker in formula than most of the others, but it’s a good one, and it wears well, and it’s super unique

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Go Ninja is a deep green, but it looks teal in a lot of light. It’s much darker than the swatch on the website, but I much prefer it. It ends up looking a lot like Makeup Monster’s Backlash, which I thought was going to be more like Lobotomy. It’s back to the thinner formula, but again, pretty great. I spoke about it over here.

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Tough Love is a metallic berry red. It’s way more red than the website swatch, but I like it even more. It’s a wearable everyday colour, but it’s something different.

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Berried Alive is a stunning metallic purple berry. This colour doesn’t seem to be available individually, which seems like an oversight, because this colour is the kind that would kill it in the broader consumer marker. It’s not my favourite, because it lacks that extra WHAM, but it’s still pretty lovely.

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Forget Me Not is a deep metallic blue purple. Maybe the blame should fall on my dry, stained lips, but none of the others had their performance altered, so this was a bit of a bummer. You can probably tell from my displeased expression that I was not impressed - no matter how many coats, this would not distribute evenly, or make clean lines. I will try this with a liner, because I’m sure it will be workable then - the colour is gorgeous - but if not, it’s a bit of a fail.

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Asphyxiate is a metallic medium blue. It’s very similar to Fyrinnae’s Graffitti, but the formula on this one is pretty atrocious - I knew it would be, because reviews I’d read all took issues with this one shade. It manages to look gorgeous, but the formula was ultra dry and felt like almost a powder? Like those new L’oreal lip colour powders. I don’t know why the formula is different, with this shade particularly, but I hope Impulse fix it, because this is like my go-to shade from any company.

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Overall, I’m really impressed with these. My expectations were low, but they were surpassed by nearly every shade I tried (bar Forget Me Not and Asphyxiate). There are some really interesting, unique colours, and in general the formula is dry but comfortable and wears well. I’ve just been having fun wearing these - I get excited by them, and all I want to do is wear them on my days off instead of going back through my collection. The newness will wear off and these will fall into normal rotation, but I’m pretty sure I’ll end up buying more of these at some point. I really do like them.