Weekly (and quite late) Post

Fist of all I want to apologize for the lack of blog updates. I've been busy, very busy, then sick and I've been neglecting the blog a lot.

There is a loooot going on at Makeupland, and I'm so excited to share the news with you! A few secrets will be kept for the momment too, but stay tuned and you'll know very soon :D

New equipment

I bought a new grinder last week, this one is much bigger than my previous one and more potent, so I can make bigger batches in less time with a bigger quality than with the old one. I LOVE it!! It's saved me a lot of time and has helped me get do all the delayed work quickly.

#100 and counting

Last week, Lost in Makeupland reached 100 orders!! I'm really happy and grateful for all the people who's helping this baby grow each day. I'm glad you trust my little company and like my products. 

As a way to say thanks, I want to celebrate with a BIG contest. The prize? There'll be three lucky winners.

One will receive $50 in Lost in Makeupland products of her/his choice, and there'll be two winners of a 50% discount code each.

What do you have to do to win? 

Just read a post with all the instructions which will be up tomorrow. The contest will last until March 10. 

Pressed stuff and releases!

I can finally announce when I'm going to release pressed highlighters, blushes and eyeshadows. It'll be by March 1st if everything goes well. 

I'm going to offer them in different formats, palettes and refills.

You have two options when you buy a palette. You can either request one with two 2,6cm pans and two 1,5cm pans at $22 or you can get it with two big pans at $20. Palettes will be magnetized so you can remove the pans anythime and put it inside another palette of your choice. They'll be made in your choice of colors so you'll have to leave a note with it at checkout.

 Palettes will look like this.

Refills will be $8,50 the 2,6cm pans and $1,75 the small ones.

Except for highlighters and blushes, I'll press eyeshadows by request, so you'll have to keep in mind that it's a process that takes quite a lot of time and you'll have to allow me 2 more days to make them than with normal loose powders. I'm going to try to make it quite fast though and have some stock ready before I launch them.

On that same day, I will be releasing six new blush shades which have been ready for the longest time. I'm showing you some swatches so you get the idea of how they look. These swatches aren't the best, they look much better in real life, but I wanted to show them to you before they were released. They were tested long ago and I've been wearing them quite often, but I wanted to be secretive about them.

They'll be available both in loose and pressed form.

On to the swatches and descriptions! :)

Say it isn't so

 

Bright cool pink with a blue shift.

Alive

Light pearly pink with a reddish light to it.

Peachy

Light sheer peach with almost unnoticeable gold and copper iridescence.

Exotic

Beautiful reddish peach with a slight orange duochrome.

But I like it

 Gorgeous mauve with copper duochrome.

Golden Touch

Flattering rosy peach with a golden duochrome touch.

I'm also working on an ultra secret collection I'm UBER excited about and it's going to be EPIC, but I can't give you more details. Haven't forgotten about the Alice's Chains collection either, and hope to be able to release it during March. And, there are a couple of super seeeeeecret collaborations with 2 ladies we all love which you'll know about very soon :D

I love shopping indie!

Lately I've received some more gorrrrgeous indie stuff. The lovely Sakura sent me samples of Sugarpill loose eyeshadows, which I'm absolutely in love with and I also received a Fyrinnae order which I bought together with her. I got samples of Damn Paladins, Feline Familiars and Pyromantic Erotica. I'll try to take pics and swatch everything I've gotten lately for you, but for now, I'll leave you with a picture of my today's LOTD using Fyrinnae's Feline Familiars and Lost in Makeupland's Glow.

Are you excited about the incoming releases? What do you think of the blushes? And about the contest? I've gone craaaaaaaaaazyyy!!

Weekly Lost in Makeupland post

No way, I can't seem to do this post when I mean to, so I guess I'll keep on trying to post this on Sundays and just be happy if I get it done before Tuesday.

This week's post won't be too long, I promise!

Delayed Packages from December

They keep arriving! At least two more packages shipped back then have arrived to the buyers :).

Next week, as promised, I will contact all the buyers whom I don't know if they have received their packages to check if they have received them, in case they didn't, we'll talk a solution.

Craziness grooowing

I'm very happy yet a bit overwhelmed by how my sales have increased lately. I know it's nothing compared with other companies, but it's far more than I expected and I'm adjusting to it. These days I've exceeded my turnaround time, which I'm not happy about, but that should be solved tomorrow morning since I've been working nonstop lately.
This week I'm going to buy another, bigger grinder to make my products (I managed to break my lovely little one T_T ) in order to:
1. Make bigger batches. I don't want to make very big batches because I find it's harder to do quality control the bigger it is, BUT, the ones I make are too small now and I find myself "wasting" a lot of time making a small batch after another. Better grinder means I can make more quantity and faster, whily still having time to do quality control, I find it's more productive.
2. Be very ahead of work. When I opened my shop at the end of October, I usually made the eyeshadows after the order was placed. I stopped doing that at December, when the shop started to start walking, step by step. I want to be ready for rushes and just about ANYTHING that may happen. I want to be able to ship your orders as soon as possible.


With that accomplished, I'd have the time to work on all the new stuff I've been developing and planning. I've been working in blushes, more eyeshadows and planned out a couple of collections that can't be released at the momment due to lack of time and preparation for their release.

I love shopping indie!

Yay!!! Yesterday I received my The Morbid The Merrier Valentine perfume order, my last Haus of Gloi order and a package from the lovely Sakura full of Sugarpill samples and stickers and goodies <3 I'll try to take pictures of everything (plus last week's stuff) to show you. I'm very impressed and happy with everything, even though I'm upset that in both my TMTM and HoG orders, various perfumes leaked and it kind of ruined the lovely labels.


I swear I couldn't SQUEEEE louder when I opened (that is, ripped open the envelope like crazy) my The Morbid The Merrier order. This is what I saw. Aren't you squeeing too? The care put on the packaging, image and feel of the brand is impressive. I LOVE it.

I'd love to read some new blogs, learn about interesting youtube videos, books, online comics, whatever to entertain myself when I disconnect from work. I'm kinda bored at what I've been watching on YT lately, I'm almost out of tv shows I like and only my fave blogs interest me nowadays. I need some new stuff and I'm sure you have great suggestions!!

I Love Indie!

I want to share with you a few products that have caught my interest in the last few days, trying to somehow make them work together. Most will be from Etsy, but they won't limit to that. I don't own these products, but certainly will consider buying them sooner or later!

Alice in Wonderland Inspired Small Makeup Pouch by You Are My Sin

 

Unii Palettes

I ended up buying two of them, in Coal and Twilight. I paid $56 for the palettes and shipping was $12. I'm still waiting on my order, so I'll post about them when they arrive.

Movie Horror Monsters Psychobilly Tote Bag by Exy Arnette

I actually plan to buy this one once I get paid and see if I can make an extra expense. I'm totally drooling over it!

Lullaby eyeshadow by Living Dead Grrl Makeup

Vixen from the Screw Cupid collection by Brazen Cosmetics

I'd use it as a liner together with Living Dead Grrl's Lullaby

Sealed With a Razorblade earrings by Running With Scissors

Lace Draped Spectre Necklace by Whimsy Beading

Ladies Nightmare Of You Platform Heels by Iron Fist

These aren't exactly indie, but... can you blame me?

What do you think? Do you like this kind of post? I spend most of my free time online browsing online shops, Etsy, etc and it's something I just LOVE (people on my personal FB suffer from my product spamming quite often lol). I was thinking about doing this weekly/2 times per month, would you like that?

Which is your favourite? Would you buy any of these? I know I would!

Highlight Me!!

The highlighter sample packs are FINALLY (took me forever, I know) available at my Etsy shop :D. At $4 they're a really nice deal, take a look at them! :D

Also, in other news and as I tweeted this afternoon, I've updated my Morgana Cryptoria post with more on lip swatches. Here's the link if you want to take a look!

I hope to be able tell you about the lovely package I got from sweet Becca from One Hand Washes The Other and give you an opinion on all the products I received. So far I'm in LOVE with everything I've tried. Here's some eye candy to make your mouths water! ;)

This week hasn't been very blog-productive, but I'm just too overwhelmed to sit down and write much. I've also had some real life issues that have kept me rather upset and without wanting to write. I'm already writing the Weekly post so hopefully it'll be up tomorrow the latest.

Weekly Lost in Makeupland post

I should really go back to posting the Weekly posts on Sunday, I feel like a total slacker when I post them later than Monday! Still, here is my weekly update on what's going on at Makeupland. There's quite a bit of stuff I want to talk about.

Delayed Packages from December

They are starting to arrive! One of the packages which was taking longer, shipped on Dec 11, FINALLY arrived to the buyer yesterday. I was SO relieved I can't even tell you. I'm quite worried about all the packages I shipped back them I hope they all start arriving.

Here's a bit more info on that, I took those paragraphs from the Royal Mail (UK Postal Service) page.


USA Start date: 18th November
End date: Ongoing

Update 28th January 2011:

The United States Department of Homeland Security is continuing to require increased security measures for items carried on passenger airlines. As a result, some mail entering the USfrom around the world, and including the UK, that would normally be sent via passenger aircraft must now travel by other means, including ships and cargo planes.

Most items, including personal letters and cards, magazines, CDs, DVDs and lightweight packets, will be delivered in the USwithin a few days of posting.  However, there are delays of about two weeks for some heavier packets.  These delays are currently affecting stamped items, franked items, and items posted under contract, with the exception of Destination Sort and/or M-Bag* items.

That means that items shipped via ordinary mail have more of a chance of arriving soon and well than registered ones. This is crazy, but there's nothing I can do but hope things are done eventually in a way it doesn't affect European people when shipping something to the US.

I also wrote a blog post adressing that matter a while ago, you can read it here.

I'm going to continue to keep in touch with the affected buyers and will try to find a solution by the middle of the month for those who haven't received their packages by then.

Releases

I know I keep promising to go back to releasing stuff constantly, but I've gotten an order increase and am working on a lot of stuff and just find releasing a shade per week quite annoying and time-consuming at the momment. So, what I'll do will be release what's left of the Lifestyle collection soon, all at once, and have a few batches prepared before I do it so it doesn't affect my work schedule. Also, the lightening here it's so bad lately (it finally stopped raining yesterday!) that I haven't been able to photograph anything, I still have to take pictures of nearly all my eyeshadows again and upload some more swatches.

Valentines

I won't be releasing a Valentines collection, nor am I going to have one of my weekly sales this week, but I will have a Valentine's sale. From this momment until February 20th, if you write the coupon code MUSTBELOVE at checkout you'll get an automatic 10% discount on your order! ^____^

Highlighter packs

My highlighters are becoming very popular, mostly thanks to Ana ;) and I get lots of questions about which one would suit you better. I'm always glad to answer your questions, and last week I actually posted a How-to tutorial thinguie with lots of pictures showing you how I use them and how they look on my warm skin, but I can't really know how all of them are going to look on you since we all have different skin tones and undertones. So, I've thought that the best way to let you find your perfect highlighter is by offering a highlighter sample pack.

It will cost $4 (separately the price would be $5.50) and you'll receive four baggies with a sample of each of my highlighters : Faerie, Glow, English Rose and as an extra, a sample of Whipped (this one doubles both as an eyeshadow and a eye highlighter). You'll get the same quantity of product than when you order the highlighters separately with the only difference of them going in the small baggies I use for eyeshadow samples instead of the bigger ones I use for highlighters, blushes and face powders.

I find it's quite a nice offer for those who are unsure of which shade will suit them best or aren't really into highlighters and want to experiment with them and their textures at a small prize.

These will be available sometime today or tomorrow. I'm qute busy at the momment and can't promise an exact date, but I will post about that on Twitter, Facebook and here on the blog.


How to's

Last week, I posted a tutorial on how to use my highlighters on the face. I took a lot of pictures and explained step by step how I do it, showing how it works with Faerie on a side and Glow on the other so you could see how a different toned highlighter can change and melt with a skin tone.

Is there anything else you would like me to explain? A tutorial on a make up technique, a way to apply any of my eyeshadows, swatches, comparisons, whatever? I'd love to know and would be glad to take the time and make them, I really enjoy all things make up related from creation, to experimenting with new stuff, and what I love the most is makeup application. If there are any tips you'd like me to share, don't hesitate to ask!

I love shopping indie!

A few weeks ago I received a Shiro cosmetics order I'm dying to share with you, so expect me to post some swatches and rave about the awesome stuff I bought!

Last week I also received a small Beauty From The Earth order I made because of a great sale they had to try ther products (Becca it's your fault, you convinced me!!!) and I also want to show you a couple of shades that really impressed me.

I've also placed orders from Evil Shades, The Morbid the Merrier, Haus of Gloi, and a package from One Hand Washes the Other (yayayayayayayayyyy so excited about receiving this one!!!) still pending to arrive, I'll show you the goodies once I receive them, I'm so excited about everything! ^_____^

Plus, Morgana Cryptoria is going to release 20 new lipstick shades, I can't wait to see them, I'm sure they'll be gorgeous! You can read about my great experience shopping from Morgana Cryptoria here. <3


I think that's it for this week's post!! Stay tuned, I'll be posting more this week ;) Really, thanks everybody for keeping up with the blog, following and all, I'm glad! <3

So, is there anything you're looking forwards to this week? Any ideas, suggestions, things you'd like me to talk about? What do you think of the highlighters pack?