Valerie Beauty's Brand-New Eyeshadow Collection

I have always loved Valerie Beauty's minerals and I've been writing about them on my blog just because of the sheer joy of sharing snippets of information about small, not-yet-popular, mostly women-owned mineral makeup companies that have high-quality products and topnotch, personalized customer service. I do it by my own accord without any incentive, as I know most beauty bloggers do, just because we love cosmetics. Period. So imagine my elation and surprise when I received a package from Valerie herself containing some of the most amazing eyeshadow colors she has ever come up with. She e-mailed me saying that she named one of her new eyeshadows after the name of my Vox blog, Periwinkle Sky (it's a blog where I cross-post my Shades Of U entries for Vox beauty bloggers). When I got her package, I was just in silent awe of the generous gift she gave me, a package filled with amazing, beautiful colors - including, of course, the wondrous eyeshadow she named after me (well, sort of!), Periwinkle Sky:


Val's sweet note


Ahh, Periwinkle Sky!




Valerie's new crop of gorgeous mineral shadows

Val tells me that most of these are the usual richly-pigmented minerals, but there is a sprinkling of semi-matte, soft, pastel colors called "Delicates". They are for people who want an alternative way of wearing minerals, who would like to veer from the intense, heavier look of uber-pigmented minerals. These pigments are very delicate-looking (hence the name), creamy and so very feminine. They can be used as base-colors as well. I divided the shadows into three and I am featuring their swatches right below the product photos.




EDIT: Delicate Cornflower should read Delicate Julip









The swatches were applied dry with only MAC Soft Ochre paint pot as base. Can you see how richly-pigmented these shadows are without any need of foiling? Can you see how the hues just jump out of your computer screen? That is precisely the reason why I just love Val's minerals, and I keep saying this: they are not just mini-mica bombs that emit sparkle but hardly any pigment; these babies are pigmented with a capital P.

What was uncanny was that as I was swatching the minerals, they eeriely reminded me of several hues I've seen before - and I realized that my MAC pigments and eyeshadows reminded me of the rich, pigmented minerals of Val. I excitedly pulled out my MAC pigments and eyeshadows and did a swatching spree. Here are some of the swatches side by side. I swatched the pigments foiled so the camera can easily capture their similarities.


Here I compared Periwinkle Sky with my MAC Cornflower and Violet pigments. The shades, finish and vibrant color pay-off are so uncannily similar.


EDIT: Val's pigment should read Hypnotic, not Radioactive.

Hypnotic looks like a long-lost sister of MAC Sunpepper and Blue-Brown pigments with the same plummy brown with strong blue undertones.


I couldn't help but take pictures of these two. The minute I saw Radioactive, I immediately thought of Cloudburst; they have the same intense black with tiny, subtle green sparkle.


The gorgeous cousins

Okay, so the next question would be: when will Valerie Beauty open? Her store is currently closed as she is finishing her inventory, but will be opening in a week or two to feature the new eyeshadows I just showcased. Now here's the catch: her site will only be open for about a week after that, and then she'll have to close while she reopens her skin care studio. For those of you who don't know, Val is a licensed aesthetician. She has been focusing on her mineral makeup business for so long that she now has a long list of clients that she needs to attend to. She'll have to close her site to focus on her skin care center, because, let's face it, even a superwoman like Val only has two hands. :) So I think my point is that if you love these swatches, you only have a limited time to order before she closes temporarily. Don't worry, I will let you guys know when she finally opens for this one last hurrah.