This is My Design: Review of Geek Chic’s Hannibal Inspired Makeup Collection

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about Hannibal. The brilliantly bloody, beautiful show that was canceled this past summer along with another wonderful show Constantine, cementing my bitterness towards NBC forever. Following Hannibal’s cancellation, fans have continuously pushed other networks and streaming sites to take hold of the series. Maybe it’s not quite the end of Hannibal just yet. To keep the torch burning, I decided to combine two things I love in one: Hannibal and makeup.

There aren’t many geek branded makeup lines out on the market (if there are some I might have missed, let me know because I’d love to try their products). There’s something so enjoyable about seeing eyeshadow based off Harry Potter or Star Trek (The Original Series, not Abram’s verse). One day I hope to see one of these companies create a line of geeky makeup inspired by DC’s Bombshells, I’d buy that in a heartbeat. Half a heartbeat, even. So finding Geek Chic Cosmetics was a real treat. I had heard about them, of course; they’re one of the bigger names on the geek cosmetics market. I decided to see if I could snag some sample products for testing. Specifically their This is My Design collection, inspired by NBC’s Hannibal. Kinda perfect when I think about it.

I’m finally able to review my @geekchiccosmetics samples! These are from there Hannibal collection, the names are hilarious and appropriate. I approve. #hannibal #makeup #geekmakeup #batg #beautyandthegeek

A photo posted by Desiree Rodriguez (@desiree0rodriguez) on Nov 13, 2015 at 1:32pm PST

(Disclaimer: This reviewer was given samples of Geek Chic’s products for honest review.)

Geek Chic’s This is My Design collection includes six eyeshadows: Blind Eye, The Lure, Ravenstag, Eat the Rude, He’s Eating Them, and Professional Curiosity. Out of the names alone, I love “Eat the Rude” just because I find it hilarious. Each sample comes in a clamshell, a tiny plastic jar-like packet with about 1/8 of product. I’m not really sure how much 1/8 is because I’m a writer, damnit, not a mathematician.

I was surprised by their small size at first, but they hold a decent amount of product. The point of samples is to simply test the product a couple times to get a handle of it, and I’m glad you can do that with Geek Chic’s sample sizes. I’ve gotten samples before that’s a one shot deal, and that doesn’t enable you to give the product a real try.

“Eat the Rude” is a very sheer orange color with lots of shimmer, “Ravenstag” was a dark matte navy color, and “The Lure” was a lighter blue with hints of shimmer in it. Not as much as “Eat the Rude,” which was very sheer, “The Lure” had more color power to it, but still held some shimmer in the mix. “He’s Eating Them” was a matte burgundy color with no shimmer, “Professional Curiosity” had purple undertones with glitter and was very sheer, similarly, “Blind Eye” was also very sheer with lots of glitter and shimmer but with silver undertones. Personally, I preferred “He’s Eating Them,” “The Lure,” and “Eat the Rude” the most.

The shimmer colors (“Eat the Rude,” “Professional Curiosity,” and “Blind Eye”) would be best to use as inner eye highlights or under the brow highlights. While the darker matte colors like, “Ravenstag,” or “He’s Eating Them,” would make great crease colors. I think “The Lure” would make a great over the lid or crease color. I hesitate with saying the same of “Ravenstag” since it was such a strong, dark color which would work better for your crease. “Professional Curiosity” was almost to sheer for me, you can barely see it swatched on my arm below. Which is a shame because I love the purple undertones of the color. If possible, though, I’d like to play around with the color a bit more, and see if I couldn’t update my Kate Bishop look with it. “Blind Eye” I think makes a good silver highlight, which would make really well with blues (either from this collection or another). “He’s Eating Them” is a great burgundy color that I really want to use for my DC Bombshell Wonder Woman look.

Check out my swatches of each This is My Design color below in natural light, indoor light, and with flash.

There were some pros and cons with these samples. To start with some of the cons, my biggest issue with these shadows was that their formula was very loose. When I tried to brush the colors on my lid I’d get a lot of fallout and huge chunks of product would fall below my eye making a mess. This happened the most with the shimmer colors with lots of glitter. They’re not packed as tightly as other products I’ve tried which probably contributes to the overall fallout of colors. Also, and this is a nitpick, I didn’t like the clamshells. I found them difficult to open, and closing them sometimes caused product to fly out of the container.

However, I really liked the colors. When Geek Chic’s shadows worked, they really worked. Their held in place, didn’t smudge, and had a lot of color intensity. Plus, I like the amount you get in a 1.25 dollar sample size. It’s a good amount of product. It won’t last you months like a full jar most likely would, but for a sample, it’ll last you a while depending on how much you use at once. I noticed that the matte colors, “Ravenstag” and “He’s Eating Them,” had so much color intensity that one dip into the clamshell was plenty of product to play with. With the lighter shimmer colors, you’d have to use more product to really get that punch of color you wanted. “Eat the Rude” took about two or three swipes with a brush to get the color you see on my arm. “Blind Eye” took one, and “Professional Curiosity” took about three or four swipes. But that’s why I believe those shimmer colors would make better highlights, where you want that sheer look, instead of over the lid. That the collection comes with a wide variety of colors that can be used in various ways and for specific means is a nice aspect of the collection.

I’d probably get one of Geek Chic’s later collections, like their Moon Prism or Fury Road collection. They have a wide variety of colors that I tend to struggle in finding from bigger brands on the market and in drugstores. Plus, I like the geek flare they all have to them: a full jar comes with a cute design cover, and I’m a sucker for that stuff.