Shiro Cosmetics Eyeshadow and Intertubes Swatches and Review

*The winner of my last giveaway is Cait! I shall be emailing you and sending out your prize soon. To the rest of my giveaway winners, I meant to post your prizes earlier but I'll be sending them either today or tomorrow!*

Shiro Cosmetics is an Indie company that's extremely popular and for some reason I never got anything from them until now. I received two Intertubes for Christmas when they were doing these little holiday gift sets because instead of being $6.50 each, they were on sale for two for $10. I got them in the shades Over 9000 and Nyan Cat, both of which arrived heat sealed and also received eyeshadow samples in Epona and Subrosia.

Eyeshadows first. They have collections based off of games, tv shows, or animes. My eyeshadow samples were Legend of Zelda-themed and they also have Pokemon, Portal, and Death Note collections. They have special mini gift sets with pastels and Apple-related eyeshadows. They're sold in three different sizes. A Sample bag has 1/4 tsp of product for $1, a Mini Jar with 1.0 gram is $3, and a Full Size with 2.0 grams is $5.00. I like how even the sample bags are labeled with the ingredients and if they're lip safe or not. Many of the eyeshadows are vegan and the ones that are not are labeled as such!

What I like about Shiro is that you can get purchase one of their eyeshadow discount sets and get quantity discounts based on what and how many you buy. For example, if you purchase 10-19 eyeshadow samples, you get a 10% discount on the price, purchase 20-29 and you get a 15% discount on the price, purchasing 30 and up gets you a 20% discount on the price.

The eyeshadows were swatched over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer and the pictures were taken in daylight.

Epona on the left, and Subrosia on the right.

Epona: "Soft velvety brown with a misty cream overly. Lip safe!" It does look darker on the site but that's because the picture doesn't show off the amazing cream overly. The overly adds a really nice highlight to it.

Subrosia: "Dark maroon with a slightly metallic, near-matte finish and subtle orange glitter. Lip Safe!" The picture on the site is right on perfect. It's perfectly described, a maroon that's nearly matte but metallic at the same time. Over primer, you won't get as good adhesion with the glitter.

To show off the glitter in Subrosia and to make it stick, I applied Subrosia over Darling Girl Glitter Glue.


After using these eyeshadows, I understand the hype behind them and how justified they are. There's a creaminess to the eyeshadows that I can only attribute to the carnauba wax. I'd like to see more complex colors added to their collections and I'd definitely get more.

Onto the Intertubes!

The Intertubes aren't necessarily lipsticks, they're sort of hybrids between a lip balm and lipstick with varying levels of opacity and some will stain (the ones that do are helpfully marked on each listing!). Each Intertube is flavored differently or not flavored at all. You can get a sample containing 1.5 grams for $1.80 in a clamshell and full sizes with 5.5 grams in an oval lip balm tube. You can also get a quantity discount for the Intertubes.

These actually reminded me of the Revlon Lip Butters, except that the Intertubes had a much shorter ingredient list and they're actually made out of shea butter instead of having it added as a means of marketing -I'm talking to you Revlon. Wear time was over 3 1/2 hours. By then, the shine has worn off but the color was still there.

The ingredients for Over 9000 and Nyan Cat. The list is cutoff for Nyan Cat but the ingredients are listed on the website!

It was a little difficult for me to properly photograph the colors but this was the best I could do. They actually look different on the lips than they do in the tubes.


Swatch time!

Here's a picture of my bare lips so you can get an idea of the opacity of the Intertubes.

Nyan Cat (You can get this a little more opaque, the light made it seem sheerer/less even than it really is!)

Over 9000


Arm swatches (these were done as opaquely as possible). Nyan Cat on the left, Over 9000 on the right. The gold shimmer in Nyan Cat is a little bit subtle but it's there! You can really see how bright Over 9000 is and the differences in opaqueness.

Nyan Cat:"Pink rose with gold shimmer". At first, I didn't notice the gold shimmer. I think some of the shimmer settled a bit because after using it a few times, the gold shimmer finally came out. I really like the color, the gold is subtle enough to add a dimension to the pink. It does stain a bit (but like I said above, all the shades that stain are marked as such!). Although you can wear this sheerly, it looks best when built up to almost full opacity. This feels like a nice balm on your lips. This was slightly gritty when I applied it but it melted/smoothed out on my lips.

Over 9000:"Bold pink, a shade or two darker than bubblegum" It's not as red as it appears in the product picture on the site. It's like a fluorescent pink, and it's got this quality to it that does remind me of bubblegum but bolder and it does look slightly frosty/metallic. You can build this up to complete opacity but this one has a slightly thinner texture than Nyan Cat. When built up, it looks sort of milky which I think doesn't look as flattering on the lips. I don't like fully opaque on me, only because I don't really like frosty/metallic finishes with lip products. This also stains, but not as much as Nyan Cat.

Initially I wasn't sure if application would be easy with the oval lip balm tube but I actually prefer it over the round lip balm tubes. I can easily maneuver it over my lips and I don't get product where I don't want it.

Of the two, I really liked Nyan Cat and it's a color that I'll want to repurchase!

There were some small things I did want to talk about though. I think my Nyan Cat is the unlucky one of the bunch because while I did receive it heat sealed, I noticed that the turning mechanism was messy with product.

and right where the cap clicks into the tube, there was excess product gathered there.


The products weren't used at all and I knew and could see that, it just didn't give off a good impression for me. I know enough of Shiro Cosmetics from others that they're a good company and people haven't had an issue with them at all. I like my Intertubes enough to want to try them again in different colors, I just wouldn't want my tubes to be messy like Nyan Cat was.

Have you tried Shiro Cosmetics? Their eyeshadows or their Intertubes?