I was like a five-year old on Christmas morning when my Beauty from the Earth sample jars came in yesterday. I've been wanting to try BFTE for a while and finally sprung for some sample sizes after I'd read/watched tons of positive reviews.

The positive reviews are well deserved. I ordered seven of the multi-use minerals and they were all super pigmented. Swatched above, from left to right, are Green Apple (grass-green shimmer), Blueberry (bright blue), Whisper (sheer beige w/ violet duo chrome), Lemon (bright yellow shimmer) , Tangerine (gorgeous medium orange), Raspberry (bright pink w/ slight blue duo chrome), and Karma (red-violet with blue undertone). The picture was taken in my brightly lit bathroom, sans flash, and I used one swipe of each color over clean, non-primed skin. So the payoff on these is fantastic.

Whisper makes a great blending or highlighting color. I haven't actually used Blueberry or Green Apple on my eyes yet but I said "wow" when I swiped that blue on my arm. I could write love sonnets to Tangerine. It is really, really orange but wearable even during the day. I did a "fading sunset" eye look yesterday using Tangerine on the lid, Raspberry in the crease with Karma blended in the top, and Whisper as a highlight. It looked amazing but I forgot to take a picture of it so I'll redo the look later this week and post a mini-tutorial.

I plan to buy the full sized jars of all of these colors ASAP.

Thanks to the ubiquitous "buy this, get that free" slogans in our commercial culture, many of us have a rather narrow definition of product samples. Beauty samples usually come free with a full size purchase or by request at cosmetics counters in department stores. But that definition limits sample opportunities by geography, marketing strategies, and the generosity of counter staff.

If you want your samples, your way, try buying samples online. Ebay is a great place to start. Use the keywords "sample" and/or "travel size" in your product searches to find the best deals. But if Ebay doesn't scratch your itch, here's a list of some more specific places to score some samples.

Makeup

MAC Pigment Samples

Use caution when purchasing MAC pigment samples online. There's a frakton of counterfeit full sized MAC products out there and those at least require some sort of packaging. Subbing in a dupe pigment for a sample jar would be a snap.

Your best bet is the store at Makeup Geek. There are nearly 100 different shades available, many of them PRO colors (aka normally only available to makeup artists), for around $4 per 1/4 teaspoon of pigment. The shop also sells samples of MAC Paintpots, MAC Face Powders, and Ben Nye pigments.

Beauty From the Earth Samples

Mineral makeup retailer Beauty From the Earth offers sample sizes of most of their products. Samples of the multi-use minerals, mineral blush, glitters, and bronzers cost $2 for 0.5 grams. Foundation samples are $2 for 2 grams. The company also offers a bargain multi-use mineral Color of the Week which knocks a full size (1 to 3 grams) shade down to $2.

Glamour Doll Eyes Samples

Indie mineral cosmetics company Glamour Doll Eyes offers sample sizes of all their shadows. A sample baggie is $1.50 and a sample jar is $2.50. If you decide to buy the full size after you've tried the sample, message the company and they'll deduct the price of the sample from the full size price ($6). How cool is that?

Etsy Seller Samples 

There are some fantastic mineral makeup companies on Etsy that offer sample sizes of select products. My favorites are Patina Minerals, Pink Quartz Minerals, Allure By Jen, and Pure Fusion Makeup.

Fragrance

Mainstream Scent Samples

Beauty Encounter is the best place online to find mainstream scents. They stock samples from names like Carolina Herrera, Alexander McQueen, and Kenneth Cole. Prices and sizes vary but most are under $5. The store also stocks samples of rarer fragrances.

Vintage/Rare Scent Samples

LuckyScent sells small glass vial samples of scents from the likes of Acqua di Biella, biehl parfumkunstwerke, and Costume National. Prices vary but most are under $5.

The Perfumed Court offers decants (poured from the original bottle into a sample vial) of a wide variety of fragrances. There are a few mainstream options, like Donna Karan Iris, but most fall into the vintage/rare category. Featured scents include Domenico Caraceni Ivy League and Serge Lutens Bas de soie.

Know a site with great samples? Drop a link in the comments!

Stila released their Fall 2010 Color Collection this week. The star of the show is the Backstage Palette which features six jewel tone shadows in Chiffon (peach shimmer), Flamingo (fuchsia shimmer), Pacific (metallic navy blue), Luster (metallic alloy), Poetic (mauve shimmer) and Coal (metallic emerald). The compact is made of embossed paper.


Buy the Backstage Palette for $28 ($108 value) from Stila.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics has released three luscious new loose color shades in Wasabi (chartreuse with yellow shimmer), Nori (dark turquoise with pale blue shimmer) and Ginger (peach with pink shimmer). The super pigmented colors are safe to use on the eyes, lips, nails or body.


For swatches and a tutorial using Wasabi and Nori, visit xSparkage.

I truly am a lip gloss junkie so the new Lip Junkie Lip Glosses from Urban Decay are aptly named. The brand boasts that the glosses are long lasting without being sticky and pack a minty flavor/scent and a long term limp plumping formula. The range of colors is amazing with 11 different shades available that range from Crush (sheer hot pink) to Perversion (sheer black sparkle). The glosses retail for $19 each.

Stila has released the second version of their themed Travel Girl Palette series. The Pretty in Paris palette includes one convertible color in rosebud and four eye shadows in Crepe (pale pink), Cherie (red-brown), Jolie (brown-pink) and Chocolat (brown). At $10, this is a great deal for even a smaller Stila palette. The colors are neutral/warm so this would be the perfect palette to toss in your purse for daily use.


The Road to Radiance Across the USA palette, released last month, includes a Hibiscus convertible color and eye shadows in Snow Bunny (champagne shimmer), Southern Belle (mauve), Valley Girl (pink), City Chick (alloy). New palettes will launch in mid-August, September, and November.

Beauty From the Earth posted to Facebook swatches of their forthcoming Wizard of Oz themed mineral eye shadows. The colors are Yellow Brick Road (light yellow), Tin Man (silvery blue), Good Witch (light pink?), Emerald City (green), Ruby Slippers (red), and No Place Like Home (goldish).


The Facebook comments complained about the weakness of the Emerald and Ruby shades. A BFTE representative responded that Ruby's color was created to stand apart from the company's other red shades and wasn't a true red because they don't use carmine (crushed up bugs) in their products.

I'm going to reserve judgment until I see the colors in person. I'd like to give Ruby Slippers and Yellow Brick Road a test drive, at the very least.