Indie Halloween Week: Shiro Halloween 2014 Collection Review and Swatches

Shiro Cosmetics has done a Nightmare Before Christmas inspired Halloween collection for the past three years, and this will be the last year it's available, as there will be a Harry Potter inspired collection next year! Each year, they added new products to the collection, and this year the shadow Lock Shock and Barrel as well as the lip balms are the new products. I did not get a chance at this collection in the past years, so I figured I would get the whole collection in full size to review! As you only get the beautifully done shadow jar label art on the full size shadows, and I recently watched Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time (I know, I'm the worst), I wanted the label art!

Shiro Cosmetics is an indie makeup company based out of Oregon, that focuses on geeky themed collections inspired by some of our favorite fandoms, including Pokemon, Game of Thrones, Avengers, and others. They offer sample bags, mini jars, and full size jars, and every month they have a color of the month that is voted on by their Facebook page fans.

Shipping - Even when Shiro Cosmetics is swamped, they are still pretty quick to ship their orders. I ordered this collection the first day it was available, and it shipped 4 business days later. It then arrived 3 days after that, delivered via USPS, from Oregon to California.

Here's the whole collection in full size form! I decided to go for full size, mostly for the jar label art. But I also figured it would give me a good chance to try the full size lip glosses and the lip tints.

Product Size - You can buy the shadows in sample bags, mini jars, or full size jars which come with the Nightmare Before Christmas themed label art. The lip tints only come in one size. And the lip glosses can be purchased in either a sample clamshell, or full size tube.

Free Samples - Shiro always includes free samples with your order, they are generous sample baggies, and you tend to get more when you make a large purchase.

Eyeshadows:

Finkelstein - "Pale, ghostly yellow-green highlight."

I've said this before in other reviews, but I really appreciate when a complete shadow collection comes with a highlight shade, it makes it very easy to do looks with only shades from the collection. This will be a great highlight for the rest of the collection, it's kind of ghostly looking!

Lock Shock and Barrel - "Desaturated mauve toned purple with a green shift."

I found this shade to be almost completely matte, with just a hint of the green shift. It was the most pigmented shade of the collection, it didn't take much to get the swatch that opaque. I think it's a really unique shade, and would pair beautifully with pretty much every other shadow from this collection.

Oogie Boogie - "Swampy beige green with a satin finish."

I think this might be my favorite color of the collection, me and my love for olive green eyeshadows. This one has a little bit more brown in it than some of my other shadows, but this one was so smooth when I swatched it. The sheen was so strong, it almost looked metallic, so this is one of my favorites of this collection.

Pumpkin King - "Blackened smokey bronze loaded with bright golden sparks."

I think if you were to blend this out, it would mostly look black, but I like the golden bronzy highlights it has. And I'm glad that there's a nice dark shade in this collection, I think this would look great as the crease color, or it could be used all over for a smoky eye, or wet as an eyeliner with some of the other shades in this collection.

Ragdoll - "Faded yellow-toned orange with blue and purple sparkle."

The purple sparkle is very noticeable in this shadow, I think this would look great over a glitter glue or something to really make the sheen and sparkle pop.

Two Faced - "Blackened brownish-purple with an orangey sheen."

I couldn't really see much of the orange sheen, but to me it looked like a black base, with almost a pink metallic sheen to it. You can see a little of the purple as well. This would probably blend out as a gray shade, so good for the crease, and I bet it would look stunning paired with Lock Shock and Barrel. 

Zero - "Subtle greyish white with a spectral red glow."

This shade was so beautiful when I was swatching, kind of a pink-gray metallic, but glow is another good word for it. Would look great as a highlight shade blended out a little, or as the lid color packed on over some glitter glue. I can't wait to play more with this one, such a unique shade to my (ever growing) collection.

All the Shiro Halloween 2014 collection shadow swatches together, you can see there's a nice variety of shades, and I think a lot of looks to be done with them.

Lip Balms:

Frogsbreath - "Sheer pretty nude, the color of cream with a dollop of coffee. Flavored with a sweeter, milder take on bourbon."

I think I liked the flavor on this one the most, without looking at the notes, I thought this one was a strong vanilla flavor, but nope, bourbon! This shade is almost the same color as my skin, so I'm not quite sure how I would wear this shade. It did crack in the tube when I was advancing it to try, but it didn't seem to effect how it applied. Excuse the dryness on my lips for these swatches, it really doesn't seem to matter what I do, I can't make it less noticeable.

Nightshade - "Deep blue in the tube, applies quite sheer (will tint naturally red lips purple, or less pigmented lips indigo). Flavored with sweet melons and red licorice."

I was pleasantly surprised by how purple this ends up looking, but the color did cling to dryness. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to wear this one because of how blue it looks in the tube, but I think I can get this to work! After I thoroughly scrub my lips, and slather them in lip balm for a week, then it might work.

Wormswort - "Bright poppy orange, flavored with spiced pumpkin."

This was my favorite shade of the balms, but my least favorite flavor. The spiciness is really strong in this one, which was a shame, because the color looked better and better the more I put on. I've never thought of my lips as that pigmented, they're kind of in the middle, but they make this look like a lovely shade of coral instead of orange. I really like this one, if you can get past the flavor, I would recommend this shade out of the lip tints.

Lip Glosses:

Something In The Wind - "Deep red/brown plum. Moderate-to-opaque coverage. Flavored like dark, fruity sangria!"

For some reason or another, I can never seem to get dark shades to stay opaque on my lips. I was hoping this would look darker, but it is a lovely shade of brownish plum, which I liked. The color in this one clung to the dryness as well, but not as bad as Nightshade.

This Is Halloween - "Warm, shimmery pumpkiny orange. Moderate-to-opaque coverage. Delicious chocolate pumpkin cheesecake flavor!"

Surprise surprise, the orange was my favorite shade of the glosses! It's very shimmery, and I really have nothing remotely orange in my collection, so this is a nice change and a very lovely shade. It was almost completely opaque as well, so that was great.

Overall, I like this collection, I think the shadows are all a cohesive Halloween collection. I don't know if I will wear the Frogsbreath lip tint much, but I like the Nightshade and Wormswort shades. And I liked the consistency of the This Is Halloween lip gloss, and the color. I'm a little iffy on most of the lip tint and lip gloss flavors, but they are festive for the holiday. I don't think the full size jars for the shadows are absolutely necessary unless you are a huge Nightmare Before Christmas fan, as some of the shades could be duped from other brands.

Customer Service - I ordered one of the Spoopy limited shadows with this order, and when it arrived it wasn't with my order. I contacted Caitlyn, and I'll admit I was a little worried I would be told it was gone and I was out of luck. But she apologized and said she would round it up for me, and send it out immediately. I got it not too long after that, and she still included samples and candy with the replacement. I was really happy with the response, as admittedly I didn't know if I would get that shadow!

Availability - This collection is available piecemeal, or by getting parts of the collection together, or the full collection until November 1st here. After that, it will be gone for good.

Overall Satisfaction - I liked the collection, I don't think it's necessary to get the whole thing in full sizes, or even all of the products, but my favorites were Oogie Boogie, Wormswort, and This Is Halloween.

What did you think of the Shiro Cosmetics Halloween collection? Let me know in the comments!

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