Review: Geek Chic Portal Collection (Original Formula/Original Colors) Updated Information

I hate Geek Chic. I honestly do and the hate comes after I got my products and checking the site out again on different occasions.

Ugh.

Geek Chic is an indie company catering to "geek girls" while being cruelty free and offering vegan-friendly shades. Well, that's the idea at least. To be honest, I can't name many girls who like things considered "geeky" who also wear makeup. The company has somewhat gone down a lot since opening in my opinion.

It's not a terribly old shop nor is it really new anymore! I can't figure out when they started, honestly. I'm sure there is a blog somewhere that has this information, but there are so many hits for Geek Chic Cosmetics that it isn't terribly worth the trouble.

Anyway, the thing that started irritated me the first time I went to make my order was that the store was closed. It would close up at random, no warning, no particular reason–just poof, no orders can be made. Initially, their turn around time wasn't bad; when I made my order, it was about 3-10 days. The last time I had ever checked, it was something like 7-15 days.

I understand that they supposedly made each eyeshadow by hand in limited quantities, but if these batches are so small that turn around takes 3-10 or 7-15 days, why make such tiny batches? It was off-putting.

Now the website. Decent lay out, each eyeshadow is in it's own little collection and you can browse each collection as you please. They have swatches of the shades, but don't rely on them or the descriptions for the shades. They can be misleading, honestly. I'm not saying all the shades' swatches and descriptions are misleading, but beware.

Getting used to new lighting set up. The label says "THE CAKE IS A LIE," a message scattered throughout Portal.

Accidental water damage. Grr..

All eyeshadows are loose, in 5g sifter jars, except you aren't getting 5 grams of eyeshadow. You only get 1 gram. Yep. 1 gram. 1 gram when you get 4.5 grams from Sugarpill's Chromalusts, 2.5 grams from OCC's Loose Colour Concentrates, 3 grams from Fyrinnae's loose shades! I also found these jars to leak. Yes, leak. You will find eyeshadow on your makeup and your fingers. Don't let the tubs get wet at all, because the shade names on the bottom are just paper stickers. The ink will run, get smudged–basically making your label unreadable.

See the orange? That's Portal Orange.

I bought the three original Portal shades, which the collection has been expanded to include a chocolate brown and a yellow. Two of them have been reformulated: Portal Orange and Portal Blue. Somehow, I lost Portal Orange but it was a slightly dark, medium orange with gold shimmer. Much darker than the orange portals you make in Valve's Portal/Portal 2 games. (I love Portal, by the way!) This had amazing pigmentation as I recall! The only existing swatch is on this drawing. How lame...

Pretty in the pot, not so pretty on the eye sadly.

Portal Blue is an icy blue with brighter blue shimmer though it shows up very white here. It's pigmentation is barely there and you know what they said it was? "Bitchin' blue" and the swatch seemed pretty intense/bright. It wasn't stated that swatches were done over any kind of primer as far as I knew. Not what I got though! This is also much lighter than the blue portals in the game! Pigmentation was weak, since it's so pale. By the way, for reference, none of these swatches have any sort of primer. Just swiped on skin with a brush.

There's a teeny bit of shimmer in the pot, but that doesn't translate at all on the skin. Little weird.

Companion Cube, the third shade from the original 3-piece collection, is a fairly bright, semi-light matte pink. It rings cool-toned to me, since I do have some warmer, darker pinks that are intensely bright. It's not quite hot pink but it's not quite pastel or pale pink. It's like a slightly lighter version of Barbie pink and definitely lighter than Sugarpill Dollipop. Compared to the pink of the beloved Companion Cube in game (a sweet, pale cupcake sort of pink), it's kind of a close match. Pigmentation kind of crazy here. I honestly believe they reformulated Companion Cube too, but it doesn't say it on the page.

No fancy lights

New fancy lights

Flash, but no fancy lights

These shades all went on pretty matte, except for Portal Blue; you could easily see the shimmer there when it was on the eye. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck I lost Portal Orange.

When I bought these, they were $3.99 and shipping was $2.35, so in total $14.32. Now they offer free shipping Apparently this is no longer the case;  free shipping on US orders of $35 or more, and International is $50 or more. Shadows are also $5.99 and they still offer samples. At full price, I'm paying $17.97 for the three Portal shades I already own. Almost $18 for 3 shades at 1 gram each? That is not okay. With shipping tacked on, that order is now $20.34. That is really not okay.

I honestly cannot recommend buying from them. Am I telling you not to buy from them? No. If you want to, go right ahead. This is merely my personal opinion and experience, take it as you will. This is not an attack on Geek Chic, it's merely my experience and shades I bought with my own money.

SPOOKEHDOOM