Geek Chic Cosmetics "Assemble" Collection

Hey there geekonistas!

Today I wanted to show you the "Assemble" Collection from Geek Chic Cosmetics! This collection is based on Marvel's The Avengers (both the first movie and Age of Ultron) and came out on June 10th of this year. When it was first released, there was an option to buy the entire set plus a collector's edition tin, which I got, because duh, sucker for packaging, but unfortunately it was only available for three days. Don't worry though! The rest of the collection is permanent and you can buy it from the Geek Chic website at any time.

Mmmm that art is delicious.

Back of tin, featuring names and icons

As with most indie companies, Geek Chic Cosmetics produces loose pigments rather than pressed eye shadows. This means they generally need to be used over a sticky primer in order to show off the complexity of the colors and give them some staying power. I've swatched each color over the "Power Up Primer" which is also available from Geek Chic.

Let's begin with "Born Yesterday". This color is based on Vision from Age of Ultron.
This color looks like a very hot pink in the jar, but once applied you can see a purple duochrome. I like this color a lot more than I thought I would! It would be great for a summer look.

Next is "Both Eyes Open". It's a Nick Fury joke. Get it? Cause he's got an eyepatch and... yeah. This color is kind of a silvery charcoal. Definitely very metallic!

Up next is "Burdened with Glorious Purpose". Not to be confused with the Shiro Cosmetics eyeshadow of the same name, this is the color based on Loki. It's a mostly matte kelly green with just a touch of silver sparkle. This particular shadow was not my favorite. I thought it lacked some of the depth and complexity of the others, plus I tend to associate Loki with a deeper green than this.

"Code Green" is the Hulk's color. It's a "Hulk pants" purple, with a slight green duochrome. Hulk like! Unfortunately, Hulk also found difficult to apply and a touch patchy.

"Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist" - Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. Again, not to be confused with the Shiro Cosmetics color of the same name, Tony's color is a bright metallic gold with red sparkle. Yeah I call him Tony, cause we're tight like that.* It's a little hard to see the red sparkles but they are definitely there. The texture of this is a little bit chunky, but I actually like that. It reminds me of the texture of Sugarpill's Penelope.

 Next is "Goldilocks". This is Thor's color, based off his hair, and let's be honest, we're all jealous of Thor's hair. No? Maybe just me then. "Goldilocks" is a matte sunny yellow. As matte shadows tend to not do as well over sticky bases, I swatched this both over the Power Up Primer (on the right) and on bare skin (on the left). As you can see, the color and consistency was not affected much either way. If you're going to blend this, though, I would definitely skip the sticky base.

The next color is based on my favorite bow and arrow guy. Well, second favorite. It's pretty close, anyway. (I mean, it's hard to compete with "nicest guy in the universe" Stephen Amell.) Anyway, "Hawkguy" is an almost matte purple, leaning slightly more blue than "Code Green". Again, due to the "near matte" finish, I swatched this over both primer (right) and on bare skin (left). Beware, this one tends to stain!

"Man Out of Time" is based on Captain America. Cap's color is a very bright electric blue, with kind of a brighter blue sheen to it. Definitely a punch-Hitler-in-the-face color! Also stains a bit, but its so pretty you just can't get mad at it.

Next up is "More Horrifying Than a Miracle", Quicksilver's color. Much like Quicksilver himself, this shadow is easily underestimated. In the jar it looks like a plain grey, but once applied it transforms into a gorgeous silvery blue sheen. 

"Never Anger A Witch". Sage advice, especially if the witch in question is the Scarlet Witch. This is the sparkliest of rose sparkle eye shadows. The Geek Chic website suggests applying it dry for a softer pink and wet for a deep magenta, so I swatched it both ways - on the right is over Power Up Primer, and the left I used a flat brush dampened with elf Mist and Set spray. I like them both! In fact, I think this is my favorite color in the collection.

"No Strings On Me" is the color based on the big baddie himself, Ultron. This a really cool highlighting shade - a white base with a glowing red sheen - hard to capture on film but gorgeous in person!

And finally, no Avengers collection would be complete without a kick-ass Black Widow inspired shade. "Very Specific Skill Set" is a deep matte burgundy red. Left is bare skin, right is over the primer. I was really impressed by the pigmentation and blendability of this one, and I would say the primer is probably not necessary here.  

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed a lot of the colors in this collection. Out of 12 shadows, there were only a couple misses, and some really cool, unique shades. On the whole I would say the colors they chose matched the look of the Marvel Cinematic Universe very well.  The packaging was also really cute, and I loved the icons they used for each character. Unfortunately, a couple of the jars I got leaked a bit under the cap, but that's just part and parcel of using loose pigments.

I am also looking forward to testing out some of these pigments as lip glosses, blushes and highlighters, which I will document in a separate post. 

So what did you think of the "Assemble" collection? Let me know your thoughts and if you have or plan to purchase any of this collection!

*Please note the author is prone to wishful thinking and is not actually "tight" with Tony Stark or any other genius billionaire playboy philanthropists. Thank you for your understanding.