Ruffles Not Diets

I was going to put up this review later after I had used their products more, but then discovered they are having a sale and can't determine for how long so it became urgent.
Too often is the geek girl's life is fraught with choices between geeky things and girly things.  So many nerdy shirts have terrible, unflattering cuts (although here things are starting to improve with Think Geek's generous selection of more lady-cut shirts), game designers consistently ignore the desires of female gamers in a misguided effort to fully strip mine that 16-30 male demographic, and lets face it going to cons too often involves getting stared at by poorly-socialized mouth-breathers.  Then lo, did Geek Chic Cosmetics arrive to offer high quality makeup in full technicolor at a reasonable price and filled with geeky in-jokes, and the peasants rejoiced.

  After discovering they exist I immediately bought a sample pack.  You can sample any powdered product for 1$ a sample with 2$ flat shipping.  They also have a generous policy of giving samples to bloggers, but of course I only discovered that after the fact.  I sampled a foundation, blush, and several eye shadows.

Foundation (shade: Codex): In terms of formula this is a great foundation.  It goes on beautifully, has even coverage, is perfectly matte (something that is sooooo hard to find), and lasted all day without caking up or settling into pores (and this summer remember).  In short, I wanted so badly to like it (also because it is called Codex, I love both Codex and codices), but this shade is pink.  I had to cover it with redness-correcting powder (Alima Pistachio) to make it work.  For the other products I found the pictures on the website to be more or less good representation, but for the foundation get some samples and and play with them before ordering a full size.

Blush (shade: strawberry shortcake): This is just good blush.  I generally speaking don't wear blush because I think of blush as makeup meant to serve a purpose, not colors for fun (but that's just me) and few shades on the planet don't make someone whose normal foundation shade is called Breeze (no lie) look clown-ish.  This also means I have declared a fatwa against shimmer-y blush (I am still at an age where "dewy" finishes just look oily) and it is a grave mystery to me why matte blush is so hard to find.  This shade is matte and extremely doll-like in a not too zomg-blush like fashion.  It's a little dark on me but ya know.  I will probably buy it when (and if) I ever run out of my current pale matte blush.

Codex foundation (with green correcting powder over) Strawberry Shortcake Blush Eyeshadows: Very Fine Hat and Blood Bond

Eyeshadow: Overall these were fantastic.  They are highly pigmented, finely milled, go on easily, and can be used wet and dry for interesting effects.  The colors are rich and multi-faceted and, with one exception, looked exactly like the website pictures irl.  I can't honestly speak to wear because I use Urban Decay primer potion and honestly 99cent eyeshadow lasts all day without bleeding over that stuff.  As is appropriate for geeks, the shadows are organized by fandom.  I got mine from the Firefly and Zelda collections, as well as one from the Fang Banger quartet (blood bond, seen above, actually much redder in real life)

Big Damn Heroes: Ambassador is a gold-flecked plum that is (appropriately) rich and beautiful.  Inevitable Betrayal is the prefect shade of toy dinosaur green, something I didn't even realize was a recognizable color until I got this eyeshadow, but it totally is.  Very Fine Hat may just be the ultimate steampunk eyeliner shade, a smoky, smoldering charcoal with flecks of burnished gold.

Ambassador and Inevitable Betrayal

Hyrule: Twilight Princess is described as a gunmetal forest green and it totally isn't, but it is beautiful.  I would describe it as an iridescent coal black mixed with confederate blue, very steely and smoky, but definitely blue, not green.  Desert Chic is a fantastic matte brick red, sort of sultry and deep.

Twilight Princess on the top and bottom line and Desert Chic