Impulse Cosmetics haul with swatches

I have been on the hunt for some unusual lip colors for a while. My coworker and I trade brands and watch sales and have been lusting after blue, lavender, mint and all colors in between lipstick. I have came pretty close to buying some but have had a hard time dropping the cash. Most brands I found were a little pricey for a lipstick and we all know that I'm working with a small budget.

I am so glad I never pulled the trigger on any of those other brands because I found the perfect fit for me. 

I came across Lit from within's post on Impulse cosmetics and immediately got hearts-for-eyes when I saw the metallic green. It was late at night and I rushed over to the Impulse Cosmetics Etsy and swooned when I saw all the color options! SO. many. lipsticks! The best part? The price! $6.99 for a full lipstick and just $2.45 for a sample jar!! Now THAT is a price I could afford- especially since I wanted to try every color!

In addition to getting 5 sample jars of lipstick (with a lip brush to apply), I also got 2 samples of eyeshadows, a sample of the mattifying lip powder (to make lipstick truly matte), and a sample of their glam glue eyeshadow base. I got all that for $21 including shipping so I though that was a really fair price! I mean I got to try so much!

I ordered on the 10th and it got delivered at my house on the 21st. Those days took foreeever. I almost splurged for express shipping because I wanted it so bad. But their site states their turnaround time is 5-7 business days and it fell in that time frame, but that doesn't include shipping time.

SO now on to the best part, the products! I'm going to put everything under a read more cut because there are a lot of pictures and a lot of information!

When my order arrived I was truly surprised at how small the package was. It awas this teeny envelope! I should have included something for size comparison but trust me folks. It's small. Not what I was expecting haha but hey it all fit!

Here are all the sample sizes of what I got. The eyeshadows and mattifying powder came in little baggies and the lipstick and glam glue samples came in flip top plastic jar type containers. Also missing from this picture is one of the lipsticks on accident.

OK. Upon writing this post I discovered that half of these shades are no longer listed on the Impulse Cosmetics website. I have written to them to ask them why, and to see if we can expect to see them back on the site sometime soon (perhaps they are just sold out?) but it bums me out pretty hard that they just disappeared like that! I will update this post as information is given to me!

Here are all the lipsticks I got in their containers. As you can see the two darkest shades come across as black but they are not.

The first shade I got is Circus, which is a pastel mint green. I definitely don't have anything like this so I wanted to try it for the hell of it, even though I'm not a green person.

I applied this lipstick first and without exfoliating- and that was a mistake. as you can see above because it's a pastel color it does tend to settle into fine lines and accentuate dry patches. ALSO let's just be real, this was my first time using a lip brush aha! So I didn't know what I was doing! Obviously I need some practice :) I was also just so excited to see all the colors on my lips. I literally put them on as SOON as I came inside from the mail box.

This color isn't for me and, whether or not it will be back up on the website, I wouldn't order this one again because it's a little too pale for me. However I am really glad I tried it and have the sample size to experiment with!

The 2nd color is another pastel, a really gorgeous lavender called Space Cadet. This is another color that is mysteriously missing from the website but I am beginning to think it's because it's sold out.

even though I applied it horribly (did I mentioned I need practice?!) I really like this color. It's a little pale but I don't have any lavender lipsticks so I am glad to finally have one! I think this would look great with other purple lippies (punk couture) as an ombre!

This is Agent X which is still up on their website. This is described as a deep aqua/teal blue but to me this looks mostly like green. I was a little disappointed that the color didn't match what was on the website but it's still a pretty shade regardless.

Here it is on my lips and it definitely looks more teal here but it still leans green. As you can see it's a little patchy so some more layers could have been used for more full coverage. But it was very pigmented and easy to apply and build up.

Next is Smoking Gun which is another one that is no longer on the website. This is a navy blue type color.

This one was my favorite so I definitely hope they will bring it back! Very pigmented and very beautiful. My first blue lipstick and I love it!

The last lipstick sample I got was Permafrost. This is described as a "mid-tone cellini blue" and I've got to be honest I didn't even know what that meant. But the swatch online spoke for itself and I snatched it up.

I really like this one as well, even though as you can see it's not as opaque as I thought. Again this can be fixed as this is a very buildable lip color without feeling like you're wearing too much.

The two eyeshadows were freaking gorgeous! On the left is Hocus Pocus (which, fun fact, is one of my top 3 favorite movies) and on the right is Esmeralda. They both have such beautiful shifts and just gorgeous!

I am definitely going to buy both of these again. The sample sizes are not going to be enough!
I applied the glam glue on the top half of the swatches above. But, to me, they didn't seem to make a difference. However when Lit From Within swatched them (link up above) you could tell where the glam glue was so maybe I got lucky. Either way I think these shadows benefit from being overtop of a primer but, they don't NEED one.

I haven't tried the mattifying powder yet but I imagine it's very similar to a translucent powder.

All in all for the price I paid I'm very happy and I can't wait to order more samples so I can have a better idea of which colors I like best.

Which one's your favorite? Are these colors a little too "out there" for you, or would you rock em? Let me know!