with visions of golden doodles

The Golden Doodle fullsize shadow, complete with Mr. Grizz sticker!

Sometimes the things we love most in the world have to leave us.

For me, it's been almost a year, but that thing was my beloved buddy Mr. Grizz. (His real name is Grizz, but for some reason I got stuck calling him with the Mister part, and I will insist upon calling him that until the end of ages.) He was a very sweet, loving boy who we'd adopted when he was about a year old from someone who was moving and couldn't take him with them. We had him for six years, and in his seventh year we noticed one day he was drinking a lot more water than normal, and it turned out his soft, fluffy body wasn't doing so well. He passed from lymphoma about 4 days before Christmas last year.

Even now I talk about him a lot, not just because I loved him but because I still love him, in present tense. Even if he's gone the fluffy and warm joy, understanding and caring he gave me still settles very deep in my heart. I love him so much that even though he's physically left me, I'm determined to keep his spirit with me.

And, as it turns out, sometimes thanks to a small windfall, the things that leave us come back to us in unexpected ways too.

L to R: Skittles, Golden Doodle, Al'thor

I joined the Hello Waffle Kitty Kingdom Facebook group back when it was conceived for fun, but given Black Friday was coming up, Christine had a wonderful seed planted by one of the members to do a pet-themed Limited Edition collection. Christine is a wonderful shop-owner and formulator, but she's also a lot of fun and Hello Waffle has a special spot in my heart as a shop because a few of its collections have been drawn largely from her customer base. Christine is very good at her own ideas but also open to allowing the seeds of others' suggestions to worm their way into her head too!

Anyways, to shorten this story, I submitted a picture of my beloved buddy and suggested a color of something like "a soft light brown with a peachy shift/sheen" because on all his papers Grizz's fur color was listed as apricot, and I always thought that was really cool.

My buddy, getting all squeaky clean one summer!

Christine made it more of a shimmering metallic peach, but it's perfect because peachy eyeshadows are my utter favorite, it's everything I could've dreamed.

(Just a note I feel I have to mention: I had also ordered a mini of the Golden Doodle shadow to gift to a friend and she also upgraded it to fullsize for free! It made my morning and I couldn't wait and rushed off to mail it out to my friend for Christmas.)

Close-up swatch of Golden Doodle over Pixie Epoxy & UDPP.

Applied on its own it's a bit more sheer, but over UDPP or patted on over Pixie Epoxy it's a metallic golden peachy dream.

Close-up of Skittles applied over Pixie Epoxy & UDPP.

Skittles is another shadow I picked up, partially because I somehow thought it was a good idea to leave my UD Naked palette in the states and god, I really miss Smog. Skittles is named after a cute lil kitty, and the color is just divine. It's a buttery dark gold with plenty of sparkle and applies super smooth. Christine had written on my order that it will go great with Golden Doodle, and she's right!

Close-up of Al'thor over Pixie Epoxy & UDPP.

Al'thor (also named after an adorable kitty) was my last eyeshadow pick, mainly because I have no good greens in my stash and I really wanted something vibrant. It's the loveliest grassy green with gold sparkle and shimmer that also seems to twinkle a bit pink under the light. I can't wait to load up my lids with this, it's a stunner for sure, just bright enough to pop! I'm very happy with this color, it turned out fantastically!

Dat sparkle.

My final purchase in this modest haul of fuzzy friends was Puddin' Cup, a contour powder/blush inspired by yet another adorable cat. (It's not called the Kitty Kingdom for nothin', after all!) The site described it as a neutral brown contour, which I think it will work very well for, but personally I wanted it to try as a unique blush.

Puddin' Cup, swatched heavily on bare skin.

I tried it out today and it blended out very easily. Sometimes I worry with darker blushers and bronzers/contour powders that they'll get a bit streaky or stick in patches, but this very easily blended out despite my dewy foundation.

Puddin' Cup blended out on my wrist.

It's almost a bronzer color on me as well, it's a bit similar to the color of my theBalm Bahama Mama bronzer, perhaps a smidge darker. The jury's out for me if this contains a small bit of shimmer or not. I'm inclined to think the shimmer in my above swatch is brush/finger contamination, but looking at the jar I feel like I'm seeing shimmer in the jar powder too. My eyes are untrustworthy! If there is shimmer though it's very very fine and produces more of a satin sheen than a matte.

And then, since I'm talking the talk about using this as a blush, let me put my walk where my mouth is!

Golden Doodle, Snickers and Hello Waffle Fey on eyes; Puddin' Cup as a blusher.

All shot in natural light. Glorious natural grey winter light. 

Golden Doodle all over lid; Snickers in outer third and along bottom lashline; Fey in inner corner and lightly patted on the center and dusted lightly just under the browbone.

Unfortch these products were all Limited Edition, so when Hello Waffle comes back after the holidays they will not be up for purchase. However Hello Waffle carries a large range of colors and some totally amazing collections. (Cats + classic lit. Just. Cats + classic lit.) You can't find these exact shades anymore but you can probably find something just as gorgeous (and perhaps unexpected!) in Christine's amazing repertoire. 

And like I said, Christine herself is a fantastic shop owner. When Grizz passed the next day my Dad donated all his toys, dog bed and extra food to the local shelter. I remember saying "he would've liked that" because Grizz was always eager to love other people. He'd be glad to help pass love along! And with his eyeshadow Christine also did just that. 20% of the profit from this collection (there were a total of twenty-five eyeshadows, five blushes and five lip glosses) went to the Etobicoke Humane Society, a local shelter from Christine's native Canada. She was able to donate almost $1500.00, which is amazing and makes me so very very happy.

Thanks to Christine, I got to spend one more holiday season remembering my beloved buddy and I get the pleasure of knowing that the sales of the eyeshadow she created will help many more sweet furry friends stay warm and loved! I couldn't ask for anything better. 

We can always make sure that others get to experience the love of a cuddly creature that we have, and Christine has already said she's planning on making this an annual thing. So if you missed this year, keep an eye out next November for your chance to beautify yourself and help a shelter in need! And if you can't wait until then to pick up some eyeshadows, Christine will be open again in January awaiting your order. (You can know you'll at least be helping to feed one fuzzy tummy--the shop's adorable namesake kitty, Waffle.)

Where to buy: Hello Waffle Cosmetics are available here at their website.