Meow Cosmetics: Eyeshadow Swatches from the 12 Pains of Xmas, Holiday Wishes, Sugarplums, and Winter Spirits Collections

Months ago I bought this sample eyeshadow lot from the lovely Cait of Swatch Storm and a few Meow Cosmetics eyeshadows were in the mix. Meow Cosmetics has limited edition collections each holiday season so I decided to wait until now to post swatches. 

Right now they are having a 12 days of Meow where one winner from the day's orders gets a prized and all orders placed during the 12 days (From December 1st to 12th) are entered to win a $100 Meow Gift Certificate. They're having a 20% off with no minimum order with free shipping deal too with the code "HollyJolly"!

Today I have  swatches from a few eyeshadows from four collections, the 12 Pains of Xmas, Holiday Wishes, Sugarplums, and Winter Spirits. Meow Cosmetics eyeshadows remind me lot of Aromaleigh eyeshadows in the sense that they're so full of depth and sparkle. The price point on both are relatively similar and a little more expensive than other indies (whose eyeshadows typically retail for $5.00-6.00) but they hold sales often and have samples available for every color.

Where to purchase: Meow Cosmetics (I'll link to each collection under each section)

Price: Samples are 1/16 tsp for $1.00. Full size jars retail between $7.50 (for the 12 Pains of Xmas eyeshadows for 1.6 grams) and $8.00 for the Holiday Wishes (1.6 grams), Sugarplums (1.6 grams), and Winter Spirits Collection (1 gram). 

Cruelty Free? They are cruelty-free.

Packaging: Samples are packaged in a plastic ziploc bag and full sizes are packaged in a 5 gram jar with a sifter. 

Swatches ahead! All done dry over primer and pictures were taken in natural daylight.

From the 12 Pains of Xmas Collection: 

Collection description: "12 intensely bright, sure-to-cheer- you up hues, these specially formulated shades feature metallic highlights, gleaming multi-dimensional color intensity, and some glisten with interference sparkle!"

Cat in the tree

Cat in the tree: "Dark forest green with copper undertones and gold metallic iridescent shimmer". I didn't this reference until I was around my boyfriend's cats around Christmas time and then understood its meaning. Apparently, there's a mystical attraction cats seem to have to Christmas trees. I really liked this eyeshadow, it reminded me of a pine tree covered in gold tinsel strands.

Debt

Debt: "Bright pink undertoned grape/purple" I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth this loose matte applied on, especially since it is a purple. The eyeshadow has some subtle gold sparkles but it is primarily a matte eyeshadow. Loose mattes can be difficult to do and I think this was done so well.

Dirty Snow

Dirty Snow: "Off white pearlized" It almost looks like a bright white but I think there's a bit of grey in it that tones down the white. Surprisingly pigmented, it would work great as an inner corner highlight or as the first color in a gradient on the eyes.

From the Holiday Wishes Collection

Collection description: "This ultra lush collection of sophisticated shades is all glam. Available in 11 super soft, silk, feathery light iridescent metallic duochrome shades" For what it's worth, I didn't consider the colors to be very duochrome, but they were fairly metallic.

Holiday Spirit

Holiday Spirit: "Burnished golden cocoa" Oh man when I was swatching this color -without having looked at the color description- I described this as a burnished bronze so I thought it was quite the coincidence that the color description used the same word. This is utterly utterly gorgeous, a rich metallic with hints of a green sparkle.

Mirth

Mirth: "Rich cool pewter with satiny metallic sheen" I love this, it's like a smokey silvery counterpart to Holiday Wishes. More than just a silver or platinum.

Peace on Earth

Peace on Earth: "Creamy warm french vanilla with a soft rosy glow" Ooh I really liked this, I think it's a beautiful white gold and a color that I could use as an inner corner highlight.

From the Sugarplums Collection 

Collection description: "As sweet as sugared plums and holiday fairies, these lovely shades sweep on a rush of holiday color" All three purples are gorgeous. Nutcracker was the only one that I thought needed a little layering but the rest were great.

Fairy

Fairy is a very red based purple with lots of blue sparkle. There's quite a wine undertone to the eyeshadow. I just loved how the red based was contrasted with the very prominent blue sparkle.

Nutcracker

Nutcracker: "A neutral royal purple with hints of blue" I was hoping that this would be a little more pigmented

Vision

Vision: "An super sparkly blue based purple, almost more blue than purple" This was extremely pigmented having flashes of red and blue sparkles. I really liked it!

From the Winter Spirits Collection: 

Cabernet

Cabernet: "Radiant pearlized berry" I think I see a lot of brown in this color, its almost maybe a rusty red? It applied great but probably not my favorite color.

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir: "Vivid dark plum with flashes of berry infused fire" Forgive my misspelling on the swatch, I really know how to spell Pinot Noir I swear. There's something about the color that I don't like. I don't think I see a dark plum, it just seems brown to me. Applied well though.

Port

Port: "Mysterious smoky steel blue multi-dimensional color: shines plum!" I was disappointed in this, I thought it was really dry and difficult to put on. It took a lot of effort to get it to swatch well and I still think it's a little patchy. A pass for me. All I see if muddy purple grey.

Shiraz

Shiraz: "Intense aubergine with grape overtones" Shiraz completely made up for Port. Do you see how even, bright, and in your face this color is? I loved it.

If I had to pick a favorite collection, it'd be the Holiday Wishes collection. The metallic colors with the soft neutral of the Peace on Earth, I loved it. I was surprised at how well Debt applied considering that loose mattes can be finicky to apply. 

Would I purchase more?

If I didn't already have so much eyeshadow, I'd purchase more. I'm sort of trying to reign in my eyeshadow spending habits but some of these colors are so pretty. Something I did want to say that I'm not entirely fond of how the eyeshadows are photographed on the website, I kind of would like to see larger photos to get a better idea of what the eyeshadows look like. They are more expensive compared to other indies but they make some of the best looking, sparkly, eyeshadows.

Do you own any Meow Cosmetics eyeshadows?

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Grad application programs are super expensive so unfortunately most of my funds have gone through saving up for that. I'm especially annoyed at one particular school that requires me to pay $100 just to use the program to submit my application to the school and $60 for the school to read it plus sending my GRE scores and transcripts. I will say though that I'm glad I'm not applying to med schools, my friend was telling me that it tends me to be $300 per school.

This has gotten me to become extremely creative when it comes to fueling my makeup desires without spending a cent. Hoarded gift cards, contests, and the like have meant I can get my fix without the guilt. I just purchased the Bite Beauty $10 Luminous Cream Lipstick Palette using the Beauty Insider gift card with another Wrapp gift card and Ebates meaning I'm basically getting paid to shop.