Review: TheSheSpace/About Face
Before Ordering: I hadn’t really heard anything negative about TheSheSpace, rather, I had seen some positive comments, and had been debating placing an order for around a month. Then I remembered that TSS had earned a badge from the Mineral Makeup Mutiny, and that was enough assurance for me to order.
What I Ordered: Samples of the following pigments: Acidic Reign, Blueberry Crush Haze (LE Sept ’09, discontinued) Broken Rules, Can’t Hide from Karma, Confined to Crazy, Cursed with Charisma, Destiny Is Knocking, Elves Rule, Exiled from Eden, Extra Caution, Fairy Tale Failed, False Pretense, First Class Con, Freak Show, Ghostly Story, Graceful Grape Gorillas (LE Sept ’09, discontinued), Groovin Guppy, Iced Crystal Glitz (LE Sept ’09, discontinued), Innate Optimist, Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Just Because (the site lists it as “Juse”), Lack of Sanity, Lemon-Lime Brain Freeze (LE Sept ’09, discontinued), Lime-Ricky Squeeze (LE Sept ’09, discontinued), Lucifer’s Chariot, Make Believe, Moral Enemy, Next Stop Oz, Oh Precious Patience, ONne True Mind, Pushing Dasies, Re-Creating Chaos, Reap and Sew, Risky Behavior, Rocket Launcher, Rolled In Opals, Sassy Sister, Scared Silly, Slightly Insane, Swim with the Fishes, Touched By Truth, Twisted Psychic, Typical Mania, and Valley Girl.
Shipping Time: I placed my order around 3am on November 2nd, and received a tracking number on November 18th. This was longer than the timeframe given on the site at the time (10 business days). The package itself was shipped on the 19th, and arrived on November 23rd. To note, TheSheSpace is in the Chicago area, which happens to be only a 7 hour drive from me – I’ve made the trip before – so my 3 week wait is questionable.
Packaging: My samples arrived in a larger bag, packaged in a bubble mailer, with a copy of an invoice that was signed with a thank you and the name of the person who packed my order. There were no free samples or extras.
Ingredients: A generic list of pigment ingredients can be found on the customer service page on the site, but there is no individual shade breakdown.
The Product:This is the fourth time I have swatched these dupes; once for a makeup forum, a second time for Heather (the owner of TSS), and a third time in a video, in response to some people saying my first swatch photos were of poor quality. Having said that, remember that Peacoat and Mission have already been established as dupes.
Please note that there’s two different TSS colors swatched here, with two different finishes, and from two different collections; Blueberry Crush Haze was in the LE September 2009 glitz collection, but Innate Optimist is from the Libra collection.
Blueberry Crush Haze: Vivid shimmering sapphire with twinkling sapphire and crystal glitz
INNATE OPTIMIST: HIghly iridescent blackened navy shimmer
But where are all those bright colors I ordered?
The top picture is some of the samples in my order, while the bottom is a collage of the corresponding product photos from TSS’s website. These are some of the dullest colors I have ever seen, and that’s across my entire order! Almost everything is pastel, and most of it shouldn’t be!
EXILED FROM EDEN: Sheerest lime pearl
SLIGHLY INSANE: True lime green
ELVES RULE: Shimmering lime
RE-CREATING CHAOS: Delicious kelly green shimmer with a layer of iridescent violet and gold
LACK OF SANITY: Vivid metal green with layers of twinkling lime
FAIRY TALE FAILED: kelly green with a hint of gold
ROCKET LAUNCHER: Green with a hint of teal
MAKE BELIEVE: Shimmering blue based green
Customer Service: I emailed Heather, the owner, about my issues with Blueberry Crush Haze and Innate Optimist. She responded the next day, explaining that the person who packed my order must have put the wrong pigment in the bag. As for the issue of the colors being Peacoat dupes, she swore it had nothing to do with her company, and that other companies order from her to duplicate her colors. That may be true (especially when you consider that Taylor Made openly admitted to doing such a thing), but TKB has been in business about 12-13 years longer than she has.
Regardless, she did send $1.00 for the duplicate samples, but PayPal took their fees on it because it was not an actual refund transaction, and the little bit of change I was left with really makes no difference.
Final Thoughts:
- Was I happy with my purchase? No.
- Would I order from TheSheSpace again? No.
- Rating? 2 out of 5 stars.
Edit: As of March 5th, 2010, TheSheSpace has been added to my Companies I Avoid list. Please see the list for details.
A Girl and Her Shadows 
I feel that I really trusted them until I saw your post. then, I went through my stash of 500+ tss pigments. (considering they’re my first MMU company ever) I was dissapointed to know that HALF of them contain kaolin clay. Not that I dislike clay, it’s no wonder her colors are sheer and “wearable”; I think the pretty colors are cut and smoothed by it. I don’t know if they do sell some dupes, since in your pic, the right part is closer to daylight, and that might be the color brightening a bit.. However, I don’t want to order from her again.
Do they list kaolin in the ingredients on the jars? I only purchased sample bags, and I don’t see kaolin listed on the website.
Either way, I’ve heard that they must contain kaolin before. I’ll have a better idea if I try to foil any of these, but so far my disappointment has been great enough for me to barely want to use any of them at all. I don’t like pastels much, and now I have a whole ton of them.
Actually, TSS never indicates any ingredient on their full size jars. (I’ve bought a lot) the only place you’d find them is on their customer service page. That however, isn’t not accurate and complete. I hate it when a company is not being clear about the ingredients. I got many pastels too, haha