On The Road To Viridian City

In my last (relevant) post, I showed you this picture:

And now I'm going to show you some more. The army of little sample baggies there came from Shiro Cosmetics, a new company which emerged earlier this year with a collection of 40 pokémon themed eyeshadows. They've then gone on to release a collection of 30 Legend of Zelda inspired eyeshadows.

I feel particularly close to Shiro; not just because it's geeky make-up, but also because, remarkably, this blog, me and all of you, were the inspiration for the business owner to start doing it. Caitlin, who owns Shiro, said that it was here that she realised there was a market for geeky make-up, and decided to make a go of it.

I think she's done tremendously. I'm pretty honoured to have had a hand in the company coming to be, even if it was just a minimal one. Remember back when I reviewed Sassy Minerals, and I said that this was a start-up company that was doing everything right? I feel the same way about Shiro, only am doubly impressed because I know it's a one-woman operation.

The Etsy store is clean, well laid out, easy to navigate (it's obvious what products are, and what they do) listings are spelled correctly and include ingredients details, shade descriptions, proper weight/volume, product shots and swatches. There's a lot of clean photography and nice graphics. The brand image is only just developing, but it all fits together well. Each colour has an amusing little blurb that comments on the name, and I spent a good length of time going through and reading them all. My favourite one is Zubat's:

I hate Zubat. You're just trying to make your way through the crazy-long cave, and your Pokemon are at half-health and poisoned, and you still have a couple more trainers to go but the exit is almost in sight, and you know you can make it! But then a wild Zubat appears and uses Supersonic and you can't escape and AUGH I HATE YOU ZUBAT

There's a website which is under construction and being worked on, in-between the order filling and working on new collections.

The packaging is lovely. Isn't that lovely? I love the matte black lids (my preference over shiny ones) and the stickers are high quality and beautifully designed. It makes me want a ton of full-sizes, because I want little pokéballs on my desk! I also love that they offer three sizes - samples (1/4 tsp, like Fyrinnae) mini-jars and full-size jars, and the full-sizes are only $5. All the products have bulk discounts that are actually very generous, and the shipping is extremely reasonable ($1.50 everywhere with huge sample orders, $3.50 with huge jar orders), and often same-day dispatch if you order early.

I don't know how she has time to sleep. I am, honestly, totally thrown by the woman in charge. Caitlin manages to run a company - and run it well, getting orders out often in the same day they are placed - go to college (Advanced mathematics?), raise a child, and she's younger than me. She's got the great photography for the store, lovely packaging and is always working out new solutions, she's working on three new collections that I know of, in-between endless homework, classes, and being a very hands-on mother, and still filling orders. I don't have a coherent way to say how amazing that is. I mean. Wow. I consider it a pretty busy day if I manage to put a clean pair of pants on.

I'm sure I sound incredibly biased, but if you fail to find that impressive then you must be Wonder Woman, and let's see your make-up company, Wonder Woman. I didn't know Caitlin before I checked out her company, and I'm quite late to it, I know Grey and Phyrra both had good things to say. Because the Shiro themes spoke to my nerdy side, I really wanted to swatch absolutely everything and make you all whine at me for making you want more things.

You'd perhaps think, then, that considering she gets so much done, the colours were repackaged. But they're not. Not even a little bit. If some look similar it's only because the picture you're looking at doesn't show you the colour well enough to see the differences. I've swatched and compared every single eyeshadow Shiro sells, and they are all unique. They all use at least three base colourants and their base is blended individually to each shadow, since not all eyeshadows need the same base. Pikachu, for example, (one of my favourites) from a distance might look a lot like TKB Lemon Drop Pop! but close-up, it's something I've never seen from a company, a warm yellow with a bit of a golden edge and bright red sparkles. It doesn't look orange, though, it looks yellow with red sparks. Like Pikachu.

Pikachu vs TKB Lemon Drop Pop! - no repackaging here.

Sure, the eyeshadows aren't as complex as Fyrinnae, but considering they're the first couple of collections from a new company, they're surprisingly wonderful. Caitlin is still learning and expanding, but didn't do what so many companies did when they started, and just start selling TKB repacks or blending them on a simple base without changing the colour, or fill a store with private label items. I really like that.

One of my favourite things about indie make-up is the ability to see who is behind it, and to also help the company grow. And, in my case, bug the owner continually and make ever-more-bizarre colour and shade name requests. As you know, I like to name things.

Anyway. Enough of that, this is why you're here. Shiro Cosmetics sent me samples of every colour, in exchange for letting her use my swatches in her shop, 'cause people like my swatches and they generally turn out very accurately.

Beautiful presentation!

Super Effective Collection






Legends Collection

All swatched over Pixie Epoxy & photographed under a daylight bulb. These swatches (and, all my swatches for everyone) are also up in neat, organised folders on the Facebook page, for easy browsing.

My favourites are:
Pikachu, Link, Gyarados, Rattata, Majora's Mask, Steelix Moltres, Din's Fire, Moosh, Farore's Wind, Nayru's Love, Veran, Likelike, Sudowoodo, Gengar, Zora, Oshus, Master Sword, Golem, Epona, Ganondorf, Temple of Time, Meowth, Rapidish, S.S. Anne.

I love them. I particularly love the neutrals, which is... weird. Phyrra says the same thing, the neutrals are shockingly gorgeous, even to bright-lovers like us. Honestly, everything is lovely. The formula uses carnauba wax, and they feel great on, have great colour pay-off and longevity, etc. I experienced no staining whatsoever, even from the brighter ones like Gyarados and Rattata.

Putting everything together, the product, the product range, the service, the packaging, presentation, the whole thing, I have to say that Shiro Cosmetics is my second favourite make-up company. Entirely. The first being Fyrinnae (obviously) that's a pretty huge compliment.
I am personally astounded by Caitlin and everything she's accomplished, and everything she continues to do, and honestly, I'm incredibly excited to see what she comes up with next.