Random Product Review! Black Phoenix Trading Post Revenant Rhythm Hair Gloss

Purchased

So I talked about my general feelings about Black Phoenix Trading Post/Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's hair gloss in this review of the Coconut, Vanilla Bean, and Tiare gloss, a haircare staple for me. I also mentioned in that review that I wanted to branch out to other scents but didn't want to have multiple bottles of very expensive hair stuff on the go at the same time; too rich for my blood (this is $30 for 5 oz)--but that statement went out the window the instant I saw that they had made Revenant Rhythm hair gloss.

Revenant Rhythm is the resurrected version of Banshee Beat, a perfume that BPAL made for Urban Outfitters for a while as a retail exclusive. Both scents are described as "A tousled, sexy mix of patchouli, vanilla, and hemp." While Revenant Rhythm is currently only available in limited edition Black Phoenix Trading post products (hair gloss, atmosphere spray, and bath oil), it will be added to the BPAL general catalog soon!

I got into perfumes shortly after Banshee Beat had been discontinued, but I got my hands on a bottle of it via the second-hand market and it was TRUE LOVE. Up until that point, I had vehemently hated all patchouli scents, finding them musty and disgusting, but the sweet vanilla and hemp combined with the patchouli to somehow make a magical, dark, smoky, sexy vanilla scent that I just couldn't get enough of. All three elements are present in almost equal quantities, and it smells woodsy and earthy but not dirty or musty. I want to call it nutty, from the hemp, although usually nut perfumes make me want to gag, so I hesitate to use that term here--but I think it's accurate for the hemp note.

I was heartbroken that it was no longer for sale, but since I've never finished a full bottle of perfume and I had a bottle and a half of Banshee Beat in my clutches, I figured I'd be fine.

Still, when I saw that Revenant Rhythm hair gloss was being released as a limited edition, I immediately ordered a bottle of it despite still having a good quantity of my Coconut, Vanilla Bean, and Tiare hair gloss left. I couldn't miss out on this opportunity to essentially bathe in my beloved Banshee Beat.

I was pleased to find that the scent of the Revenant Rhythm is almost exactly the same as the perfume. I tried spritzing some on one wrist and dabbing Banshee Beat on the other for a closer comparison. The Banshee Beat patchouli smells stronger and more complex to me, with a sort of tangy floral/herbal element to it; I don't know if this is due to the aging, or the particular component being used, or just the fact that one is a perfume oil and the other is diluted into hair gloss. The Revenant Rhythm remains sort of flat-smelling, without as much depth, and has a stronger, sweeter vanilla element, which is actually really nice for a hair product.

I was a bit disappointed to see that the label on my bottle is kind of wrinkled--I expected better when paying $30 for a small bottle of hair product--doesn't make a huge difference, but it was mildly annoying. The spray nozzle for the hair gloss produces a much finer mist than my other bottle of hair gloss, to the point where I have to hold my breath while spraying this or it makes me cough. The scent is pretty strong, so it honestly works better for me as a hair perfume than as a conditioner/gloss--I think applying a large amount of this might make it overpowering. The scent lingers for days, and doesn't really morph over time.

Conclusion: this is amazingly great and you should buy all the Revenant Rhythm products while they're still available, and pour them all over your body, immediately.

I remember going to a bar a couple of years ago and my hair accidentally falling in a friend's beer when I was leaning over the table. I apologized and he said, "That's OK, your hair smells really good" and asked what it was. I wasn't wearing anything in my hair, though--he was smelling my Banshee Beat perfume. So, Valentine's random friend agrees: this is a Good Scent for hair.

You can find other reviews on the BPAL forums.

Perfume Review! Haus of Gloi Summer Reverie (First Impressions)

Purchased

How's this summer's collection of reverie scents stack up?

I've been waiting for this package to arrive for (what seems like) forever! Last time I took a look at a past reverie, Earl Grey from Haus of Gloi over two years ago. I confess one reason why I dug this scent out was because I was hyped for a new collection of reverie scents from Haus of Gloi! I sampled all but one (because it had patchouli notes and I stay far away from that). This is a little different from my usual reviews because I have only worn each a few times, and typically I like to wear a new scent for at least a week before a more in-depth look.

Blueberry Pie

Simple! Pie crust and blueberries.

This freaked me out a little. On cold sniff and for the first five minutes, it smells exactly like blueberries. Eerily like them. I might as well just swig from the vial because that's how realistic it was. These topnotes are pretty delicate though and flitter off fast. What's left behind is more reminiscent of a blueberry-flavored Eggo waffle. Kind of awkwardly almost blueberry but with faint gooey undertones of overly fragrant artificial sugars. The drydown was like a sweet, yeasty bread with just a tinge of berry. I liked this, but I wish I could get the first five minutes to stick around longer. I am not huge on gourmand scents, I will probably share it with my sister.

Bocca Chica

Rich gardenia blossom, red mandarin, coconut cream and ripe banana. This sounds super fruity, but it is surprisingly not so!

 "This sounds super fruity, but it is surprisingly not so!" - yes, so true, and you know why? Because it surprisingly IS so sunscreen. So very very sunscreen. This is the sunscreen. This is more of a sunscreen than my actual, real sunscreen in a bottle. I was actually pretty excited for the gardenia and mandarin, but seriously, I have nothing to say other than sunscreen. Everything together makes sunscreen. There is no other alternate end result. It doesn't change or morph, I don't pick out little twinkling moments of certain notes. The top notes are sunscreen, the drydown is sunscreen, and everything in between is SPF Delicious+++.

Please don't misunderstand - Bocca Chica is not a bad perfume. I've already worn it three times! But if you're looking for something complex or layered... or... just not sunscreen, you may want to pass.


Suggah

Brown sugar, lemon zest and benzoin

My younger sister is super into Steven Universe right now, so the name of this perfume makes me think of the creator Rebecca Sugar. Okay, that's out of the way.

Have you ever smelled something that sucker-punched you with a memory that you'd long since forgotten? A scent that awoke some long-dormant memory that was atrophying away in the dark corners of your mind?

Courtesy of cliqueypizza.wordpress.com

The toy industry had the good scents ( couldn’t resist ) to include this new gimmick in any and every toy, book, and gadget out there – there were oodles of scented dolls.

 I swear, Suggah smells exactly like my 80s Cupcake Doll (pictured above, I owned that exact one). This was one of those one-off toys I'd play with and never even would give a passing thought to know as an adult, but the second I put this perfume on I suddenly recognized it. That strange mix of fragrant plastic and something that's trying its hardest to be vanilla and sugar but is almost somewhere in the uncanny valley of scents. Scented toys were huge in the 80s and 90s, so maybe my olfactory memory isn't that unique, but it was unmistakeable for me.

Did you get a chance to sample this round of reverie scents? Let me know what you think!

Swatch Post! Femme Fatale Cosmetics : Night in Werewolf Woods, Nightwing, Prismo, and Sea of Something!

Purchased

From the website: A sultry imperial purple with deep tones and an overlay of fiery red shimmer. 

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Copper Powder (77400), Silicon Dioxide (77811), Iron Oxide (77499), Manganese Violet, Ultramarines, Red 40, Magnesium Stearate, Carnauba Wax.

Vegan

Not lip safe.

Personal Comments: From the You Choose the Scare Collection. This is a really gorgeous rust shade with a strong red highlight. DGC's London Calling is bolder. DGC's Blue Flame has a stronger highlight. ITA's innocent+twisted is more muted. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Nightwing is a dense lichen green with brown undertones and olive shimmer; scattered throughout a copper, gold and purple sparks.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Silica, Iron Oxide (77491, 77492, 77499), Tin Oxide (77861), Chromium Oxide Green, (glycidoxphenol) propane/ bisaminomethyl-norbornane copolymer, Synthetic Fluorophlogopite, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Magnesium Stearate, Carnuaba Wax.

Vegan

Not lip safe

Personal Comments: More of a metallic yellow-gold that leans slightly to the green side to me. Hello Waffle's Skittles has more of a copper highlight. Shiro's Triforce is a little more on the orange side. DGC's Fortune Cookie is similar. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: A smooth metallic grey with subtle pink shimmer.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide (77861), Iron Oxide (77499, 77491), Silica, Magnesium Stearate, Carnauba Wax. 

Vegan

Lip safe

Personal Comments: From the Post-Apocalyptic Collection. I love taupes. This is a soft brown-grey shade with a pinky lean in the right light. Shiro's Hodor is similar but a with a more mattified, silvery finish. Fyrinnae's Serendipity has a brighter pink highlight. Hello Waffle's Mozart has a similar base shade without the highlight. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: A rich eggplant base with a vibrant blue sheen.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron oxide (77499), Pigment Violet 16, Carmine, Carnauba Wax.

Vegan

Not lip safe. 

Personal Comments: From the Post-Apocalyptic Collection. A blue-purple shade with a very strong blue highlight when applied over a sticky base. Shiro's Elite Four leans more blue. Chinovi's Fairy also leans more blue (but get it fast if you want it because the store is shutting down soon). Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link



Perfume Review! Smelly Yeti Demon Magnet

Purchased

Continuing on with my chain of Smelly Yeti reviews (see also Owlcat and Hey, McFly), I'm on to one of the Buffy perfumes--Demon Magnet.

Price: $15 for a 7.4 mL glass bottle of perfume oil with glass applicator wand. Shipping details can be found here.
Samples: You can buy a set of 5 samples (pick your own) for $15. The samples come in cute, squat 1.3 mL amber glass mini bottles. They do not have an applicator wand or polyseal or reducer cap.
Description from the website: ""I laugh in the face of danger, and then I hide until it goes away."
Cedarwood, dirt, sweet and salty musks, and a trace hint of that lumberyard je ne sais quois. No wonder Anya can't resist him. Maybe the demons will flock to you too, once you smell like a hot carpenter."

This was actually, surprisingly, my favorite scent of the entire order. It ended up being one of those perfumes I apply, forget about, and then remember once I smell something wonderful that ends up being me.

My grandfather used to have a little bottle of this classic cologne called 4711 that I remember from my childhood. (I actually forgot what it was called, only that it was named with 4 numbers, and had to start Googling "cologne 1", "cologne 2" and so on until the autocomplete filled it in for me. Thanks, collective external memory of the world!) This scent reminded me of that, although I haven't smelled it in a couple of decades at least so I'm not sure if this is accurate or completely misleading--but my impressions are of a fresh, lightly citrussy muskiness, smelling recognizably like cologne without being overly perfumey or soapy. At this stage, it reminds me a bit of BPAL's very sweet and girly perfume Vasilissa, actually, which makes me wonder if they share a note--the pink musk or skin musk?  

As it dries down, it starts to smell distinctly clean and aquatic, with the "salty musk" coming to the forefront. I normally stay far away from aquatics--one of my least favorite fragrance families--but I was surprised to find I liked this aquatic stage a lot. It's nice to still be surprised by very basic things about perfumes every so often, after having smelled hundreds if not thousands of different indies!

Underneath the salty musk, I can smell the cedarwood, one of my favorite perfume notes--it mingles with the musk to keep it from smelling like just pure cedar shavings (I'd be OK with that, though, actually) and it just smells nice. Unisex leaning masculine, and clean without being soapy or sharp or perfumey. I like this scent on myself, but I'd like it on a guy, too. Less like my distant memories of 4711 at this point, and more of a "my skin but better" type of scent--subtle, woodsy, fresh, lingering close to the skin. It doesn't ever smell especially like dirt to me, nor does it necessarily strike me as a Xander type of fragrance (smells a bit too put-together!), nor do I find it especially long-lasting, but who cares? It smells good! I approve.

For other opinions, check out More Tea, Wesley, Beauty on a Beer Budget, or Gigi the Girly.

Note: this scent is vegan.

Swatch Post! Chinovi Cosmetics : First Day, L'entrecote, Macarons a la Rose, Party, and Unicorn!

Purchased

Announcement: Chinovi Cosmetics has sadly announced their closing. All stock is currently listed at 50% off. Here are the rest of our Chinovi swatches; if anything catches your eye, be sure to grab it soon!

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No longer listed. :(

Personal Comments: It's somewhat sad to share this swatch with this announcement. Though it's no longer listed on the website, you may still be able to find it in swaps. It's a shimmery peachy-pink with a satin finish. Shiro Cosmetics' Princess has a more shimmery finish. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

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From the website: L'Entrecôte (translation: a premium cut of sirloin traditionally served in the steak-frites style) is shimmery, but not sparkly. It's a gorgeous deep, bronzy brown that's perfect for deepening up an outer corner or crease.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: magnesium stearate, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, mica, iron oxide

Personal Comments: Part of the Tasting Room Collection. This is a matte brown eyeshadow with added shimmer. Fyrinnae's Automatic Toaster and Detrivore's Molag Bal are warmer. Meow's Fur Flyin' is similar. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Crème de Marron (translation: chestnut cream) is a mouthwateringly gorgeous dusty brown with barely-there undertones of amethyst and silver. It's also loaded with sparkle. I really do love my browns (and any dessert that involves chestnut cream).

Eye Shadow Ingredients: magnesium stearate, carnauba wax, mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, carmine, calcium sodium borosilicate, calcium aluminum borosilicate

NOT VEGAN 

Personal Comments: Part of the Tasting Room Collection. A soft matte pink leaning lavender. The description says loaded with sample but my baggie seemed to be missing any. Dawn Eyes' Whisper is a lighter pink with shimmer. Blackbird's Juliet is similar. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Party is a rich deep teal.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, ferric ferrocyanide, magnesium stearate, carnauba wax

Not lip safe.

Personal Comments: A blue-green with a satin finish. Hello Waffle's The Great Catsby is more green with a stronger shift. Shiro Cosmetic's Zora Sapphire is slightly more green. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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No longer listed :(

Personal Comments: A blue-purple that leans more blue or more purple depending on the light source. Shiro Cosmetics' A Terrible Fate is similar but with less shimmer. Aromaleigh's Lua Saturni has less of a blue shift. Glamour Doll Eyes' Sex Appeal has more of a matte base. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.



Jessye Gets Bubbly! Bath and Body Products from Sixteen92!

Purchased

Sixteen92
Bath and Body

If you look through our archives, you’ll see reviews of Sixteen92’s perfumes, as well as our company overview. But we haven’t touched base on other products they create and sell.Today, we are looking at their bath and body products, specifically shower gel and body lotion! While looking at their website, I found out they make hair oil, detangling hair mist, and sea salt hair mist. I wish I could use any of these products. I digress. We purchased these at The Soap Box Company, and upon looking, they're still in stock. Sixteen92’s website has only the body lotion currently.

Shower Gel

The Orchard Keeper 

Night blooming jasmine, peach, apricot, pink pepper, and sandalwood.

As body wash goes, I have little complaint on this one. To me, it seems like most other body washes out there. I leave the shower feeling clean, but not dried out, which is pretty much all I ask of my bathing products, and if I really like them and they dry me out, well that’s why there’s lotion.

I took photos of my bottle for you after it sat in the shower for awhile. Sheer laziness on my part- I haven’t been using it, but I haven’t bothered to take it out of my shower recently either. The dye on the label bleeds pretty badly. Everything is still readable, but there is a pink bleed all around the black.

I’m not sure how to explain this scent. It’s definitely a floral heavy scent, but there’s something else in there. Sniffing it straight out of the bottle, I can get hints of the pink pepper first before the floral comes in underneath it. I can’t really smell the sandalwood at all, nor any hints of wood.

Purchase Link

White Grapefruit & Peach 

A sparkling cocktail of white grapefruit juice and white peach nectar. A light and subtle citrus zing pairs nicely with sweet peach and a hint of champagne fizz.

Kristin adds: I was kind of confused when I first started using this. I haven't had any experience with bath/shower gels before so I went through a bit of a learning curve to figure out the best way to use it.

Kristin: The consistency is a little less viscous than a drugstore hair gel -similar to a liquid hand soap- and it has a nice smooth feel to it. I tried it both with a loofa and straight on the body and found that it feels more effective (and the scent is much much stronger) applied straight. It still lathered up with a loofa but it didn't feel like anything other than bubbles.

Kristin: I love this scent. I was actually a little nervous about how this one would smell because I don't have a history of liking peach but the description sounded similar to a bellini cocktail so I was intrigued. As it turns out, this one just smells like lychee fruit to me. I stuck it under a friend's nose and she agreed that it was lychee-esque but suggested that it had a bit of an artificial note to it. While in the bottle, there's a bit of astringency but I don't smell it when using it in the shower.

Kristin: The scent isn't overly strong in shower gel form. It becomes just a hint while on a loofa but even when on the hands, it's pretty subtle. It does linger though

Purchase Link

Hand & Body Lotion

White Grapefruit & Peach 

A sparkling cocktail of white grapefruit juice and white peach nectar. A light and subtle citrus zing pairs nicely with sweet peach and a hint of champagne fizz.

This is the lotioniest lotion that ever lotioned. It’s definitely not body cream, or ganache, or any of the heavier lotions. This is lotion- that kind of runny, liquidy moisturizer that is commonly associated with lotion. But do not be dissuaded if you prefer heavier moisturizers. This has been perfect for right before bed as a nighttime hand cream before drifting off. Not too heavy to cause issues of waiting for it to absorb or transfer to my face in the night, nor is it too light to leave dry spots after a day of using bar soap to wash my hands. I have been using this like crazy as seen in the photos. This is by far, my hardest hit sample lotion of any of the lotions I have tried during my indie perusal.

The smell is exactly as advertised in lotion form. Grapefruit and peach mingling together to create a soft, fruity scent with hints of tingles and fizz from the champagne. It’s a hair heavier on the grapefruit right as you first sniff, but then the peach comes in and they mingle together lovingly, vying for attention as a perfect half and half counterpart. I will note, though, that occasionally when I use it, I find this incredibly funky scent on my hands that started recently. It only is noticeable when I bring my hands almost against my nose to sniff, so it has not hinder my using of it, or my enjoyment of it. I just keep it farther away from my nose when I smell.

Purchase Link

Final Thoughts

I’ve really enjoyed what little of Sixteen92’s scent catalogue I’ve tried, and being on the website has allowed me to find even more I’m looking forward to trying. What perfume-heavy company have you found with awesome bath and body products? Let us know in the comments- I’d love to try them!

Random Product Review! Future Primitive's Conditioning Hair Rinse!

Purchased

Future Primitive
Conditioning Hair Rinse

It's only been a couple months since we touched on this last but I've been using Future Prim's Conditioning Hair Rinse basically every day since (I say basically not because I've had instances where I've passed over it but on some days, I haven't had the time to take a shower...). In my last order, I picked up a second scent for my fortunately-for-my-wallet slowly growing stash.

I absolutely love this stuff.

Blackcurrant Damson Frangipane is my favorite of the two. I'm a little sad to report that I don't love Elijah's Comfort in Conditioning Hair Rinse form as much as I love the scent in other forms - my favorite form is as a Bubbling Scrub. But it's given me a chance to evaluate the product on its own without being distracted by how much I love smelling like berries.

I know what you're thinking. Get your mind out of the gutter!

In hair rinse form, Elijah's Comfort smells tasty out of the bottle - a little less sweet compared to other mediums - but that sweet lemongrass scent is nice and familiar mixed with the Ylang Ylang blossoms. The main difference comes after I've gotten out of the shower. My hair will still smell like lemongrass but it's less sweet and more herbal. Jessye says that it makes my hair smell like sunshine. It's not entirely up my alley though.

Ingredients: Aqua, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Cetyl Alcohol, Butylene Glycol, Aloe barbadensis (aloe) leaf juice, Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Panthenol, Sodium lactate, Helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, Olea europea (olive) fruit oil, In-house fragrance and/or essential oil blend, Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl glycol.

As a conditioner, I still get distracted by how soft my hair is after using it. I play with my hair much more recently.

I run it through my hair after I finish everything else in the shower - having learned that my hair is long enough that if I'm soaping everything up, the conditioner gets soaped out of my hair via the soap on my back - and rub it in while I'm rinsing off. I've also used it as a leave-in conditioner and just not rinsed it fully out before drying off. It doesn't leave a residue and my hair seems to love absorbing it. I haven't noticed any oil marks on my pillowcases even if I fall asleep with my hair still wet.

The black cap is new!

The product itself is creamy but not oily feeling. It's about the consistency of a liquid soap and definitely more runny than commercial conditioners.

Future Prim recently switched out the bottle tops, from one that clicks up to a simple flip top. Both dispense the product equally well but I'm glad for the switch. As you can probably tell from the picture below, mine is getting a little grody looking from the conditioner being stuck between edges.

Jessye adds: My feelings on this conditioner have not changed. I pair it with Future Primitive's whipped soap as shampoo, and I can wash my hair every other day, which is huge for me. I used to be lucky if I could go 20 hours without washing my hair. I have tried pairing it with Haus of Gloi's whipped soap, and it does not work as well- I have to either use just the whipped soap or wash it again the next day. This is something to do specifically with Future Prim's whipped soap. But I still love using it. I've switched out the scents twice trying to find the perfect one for my hair and finally settled on Clotted Peach Cream. Peaches! Peaches, Peaches, Peaches! Did I mention Peaches?

Jessye: I can't tell you how effective this conditioner is for anyone else. My hair is about an inch and a half long. It spends as much time in my hair as it takes me to rinse it out.I don't need to let it soak it, and I don't need to give it much time. It just needs to go in and get very well rinsed out. But I am quite the fan, regardless.

AG adds: Princess hair! The good news is the conditioner fits well in my routine and it doesn't take much to give me fabulous defined curls. I get a ton of volume the first day but then it all deflates after I sleep on it. :(

As I mentioned in our previous review, this conditioner is definitely more expensive than a commercial one, currently 8 GBP for 7.14 fl oz- roughly $12.50 with today's conversion rate. It can be a little hard to stomach when coming from Pantene Pro-V at $3.48 for 12.6 fl oz. This is also slightly more expensive than the other indie hair conditioners that I've heard of but I haven't tried any others so can't compare for quality.

Sadly expensive, especially with the exchange rate, but highly highly recommended.

Are any of you Future Prim fans? What scent should I pick up next?

Swatch Post! Femme Fatale Cosmetics : Emerald Dream, Floating Gems, Hallowed Ground, and Mystic Conjurer!

Purchased

From the website: It is a bright paris green bordering on teal with a very subtle golden green shine.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Blue #1 Al Lake, Yellow #5 Al Lake, Hydrogentated Polyisobutene, Tin oxide (77861), Silica, Ultramarines (Pigment Blue #29), Carnauba Wax, Magnesium Stearate, Palmitic Acid. Contains preservatives.

Vegan; not lip safe. 

Personal Comments: Part of the Mistress of Dreams Collection. A blue-green shade (more blue than green) with an additional green highlight. Similar to Blueberry Waffle by Madd Style Cosmetics and a little less blue than Turquoise from My Beauty Addiction. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: A muddish green shade with striking violet shimmer. The green does tend to be overwhelmed by the violet, but you will catch glimpses of the base colour at certain angles. 

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide (77861), Tin Dioxide (77499), Iron Oxide (77491), Ferric Ferrocyanide, Chromium Oxide Green, Silica, Calcium

Aluminum Borosilicate, Carnauba Wax.

Vegan; not lip safe.

Personal Comments: From the Post-Apocalyptic Collection. A muted purple shade with a strong pink highlight. Similar to Video Killed the Radio Star by DGC. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: It is a pale asparagus green with stunning red shimmer.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide (77861), Chromium Oxide Green, Methicone, Carnauba Wax, Magnesium Stearate.

Vegan

Not lip safe

Personal Comments: A minty green shade with a red-tinted satin finish. A little more green than Mint Trip by Moi Minerals. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: a warm-toned brown/taupe metallic with red sparkles.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide (77861), Silica, Iron Oxide (77491, 77499), Synthetic Fluorophlogopite, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Magnesium Stearate, Carnuaba Wax.

Vegan

Lip safe

Personal Comments: A bit of a taupe-y brown with a frosty finish and a strong red highlight. I don't have any eyeshadow similarity with that red highlight but the base shade is a little less red than Epona by Shiro. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link



Perfume Review! Earl Grey from Haus of Gloi

Purchased

Do tea perfumes age like fine wine?

It's not a secret that I really love tea. I'm still on a quest to find my holy grail tea perfume (authentic Thai iced tea someone out there please make this happen), but one of my close second favorite teas is probably a classic cup of Earl Grey. When I did my last tea perfume review, I completely overlooked a sample vial I got from Haus of Gloi in June 2013. I love how I can log into my account and see all my orders way back, and this little vial has been sitting in my box as the past two years slip by. I honestly don't even remember how it smelled when it was fresh, so how is it now?

Swatch Post! Notoriously Morbid : 25 Years, Dust to Dust, Evil Eye, and Mother & Earth!

Purchased

From the website: A deep taupe with rosy pink shift. 

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, carmine, tin oxide, silica

This product is not vegan, but it is lip safe.

Personal Comments: A darker grey shade with a satin-y finish and a slight pinky highlight. Very similar to Spirit of the Moon by Innocent + Twisted Alchemy. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: An icy mint green with a gray/bone undertone.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Titanium dioxide, mica, magnesium stearate, carnauba wax,chromium oxide green, iron oxide.

This item is vegan, but it is not lip safe.

Personal Comments: In direct light, this is more of a pale grey shade but in shadow, leans a bit towards a soft green. This is a matte eyeshadow. Similar to Dove Gray by KMS Cosmetics. Darker than Orbital by Scaredy Cat Cosmetics but with a similar green tint. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: A salmony pink with popping yellow shift and shimmer. 

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Titanium dioxide, tin oxide, silica, mica, carmine, Red #40, magnesium myristate, magnesium stearate.

This product is not vegan, but it is lip safe.

Personal Comments: A pink shade with a golden highlight. Similar to Housework Pearls by Fyrinnae and more pink than Little Crush by ITA. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link

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From the website: A muddy brown with multiple green shimmers and glitters, topped with gold sparkles.

Eye Shadow Ingredients: Mica, titanium dixode, silica, ferric ferrocyanide, ultramarine, iron oxide, magnesium stearate.

This product is vegan, but it is not lip safe.

Personal Comments: A matte brown eyeshadow base with added gold shimmer. Similar to Wastelands by Hello Waffle, Automatic Toaster by Fyrinnae, and One November by Notoriously Morbid. Applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy. This picture was taken outside in natural light.

Purchase Link



Random Product Review: Darling Girl Cosmetics bronzer in Beach Baby!

Purchased

Hey everyone! I've got a quick review for you today on a product I've been using a lot now that the US is into the summer months. Let's take a look at Darling Girl's bronzer in Beach Baby! Since we're talking face products, it will be helpful for you to know that I roughly match MAC's NC15, and I am a perfect match to Meow's Sleek Korat and DreamWorld Hermetica's Juno II. If you want to see Beach Baby on my co-blogger Kristin's skin tone, she recently swatched it here.

Beach Baby is described as "Earthy peach with a very soft golden undertone."As of writing this post, you can pick up a petit jar for $2.50 or a full size jar for $5.90. They come in the same petit and full size jars as the brand's blushes. Here's how my full size looks:

Just in case you need a reference for the jar size, here's how it looks in my hand:

And finally, let's check out some swatches! I actually have older photos of all three of Darling Girl's bronzers swatched side by side, so hopefully that will be even more helpful than a swatch of just Beach Baby. Here's how they all look:

From left to right these are Barbados Beauty (petit), Beach Baby (full size), and Maui Minx (petit). Barbados Beauty is quite warm, Beach Baby seems to be neutral-leaning-warm, and Maui Minx looks almost cool-toned to my eyes. 

My personal preference is to use bronzers to add some warmth to the high points of my face, faking a bit of color where the sun naturally hits it. I don't use bronzer every day, but some days (especially in the summer months) I'll get done with blush and find I still look a little washed out. On these days, I take a small blush brush and apply a little bit of Beach Baby to the "corners" of my forehead, the tops of my cheekbones, across the bridge of my nose, and sometimes along my jawline if needed to balance everything out.

Beach Baby is my absolute perfect product for this because the color is dead on for my preferences and it's very subtle. It's not apparent I've added color, but I'll suddenly look a lot less ill when I apply this. It's also worth noting that I can spot a few sparkles when I look at my arm swatches in the sun, but they disappear on my face. No complaints about application or longevity - it goes on smoothly (no streaks or patchiness), blends out nicely, and I don't have any problems getting it to last through the workday on my dry skin. 

Have you tried Darling Girl's bronzers before? 

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Company Overview: Rescue Beauty Lounge

Nothing to Disclose

Rescue Beauty Lounge is a New York City-based nail polish company that I think is on the large/professional side for an indie--they've been written up in magazines like Vogue, Lucky, and Allure--but I do still think of them as an indie company rather than mainstream. I believe they have at least one physical location (the actual Rescue Beauty Lounge) in New York where you can buy their products in person, or have them used on you in manicures/pedicures, but I've only ordered their products online.

They have an interesting preorder system where they send out samples to various nail bloggers for swatching ahead of time, then open up preorders for a limited amount of time--you're not guaranteed to be able to purchase the polish on the website unless you preorder. I feel a little uncomfortable with this system, somehow, but I think it's more because of the various emails I get from them hyping me up to buy with "LAST CHANCE!" wording preying on my fear of missing out.

Packaging: 

The packaging for RBL polishes is beautiful--can't remember how the packages actually arrive, but the bottles are the rectangular, minimalist design that is my favorite style. I hate polish bottles with a large or irregular footprint (I'm looking at you, Wet 'n' Wild Megalasts, OPI Nicole, and Urban Outfitters nail polishes...) since they take up too much room in my nail polish box.  

Selection: 

It seems that all RBL's colors are essentially limited edition, although they carry a permanent base coat, base coat prep (?), and matte and glossy top coats. They carry a range of finishes from jellies to metallics to glitterbombs, and a range of colors from light to dark, warm to cool, muted to bright, all polishes being 5-free and not tested on animals. At the moment it looks like around 40 colors are available for purchase.

They also sell the founder Ji Baek's book Rescue Your Nails and a selection of bafflingly expensive tools, such as this $80 nail file.  

Samples: 

Samples are not available.

Quality: 

I've only used two polishes from RBL--Oh Slap! (a pink cream/jelly) and Fire Queen (a pale green jelly), pictured at the top of this post both in the bottle and on my nails. Both apply smoothly, though require three thin coats for even coverage, and have a very good wear time.  

Cost:

Mad expensive. Most of the nail polishes in my collection cost between $1 and $6. Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes are mostly priced at $20, with a few being priced lower, at $18. My honest opinion after having tried these is that I don't know that it's really worth that much money, unless there's a really undupeable shade they sell that you're dying for. (On the other hand, I do sometimes justify buying nail polish to myself by reasoning that I'd happily spend $20 or so on a salon manicure where I only get a single application of polish, so a bottle with many applications in it doesn't seem so expensive by comparison.)

(I will NEVER buy an $80 nail file, but that's just me.)

They do sometimes run sales, and have a standing 25% off discount during your birthday week if you register with the site ahead of time.

Customer Service: 

I haven't had to interact with RBL customer service, but it is surprisingly hard to find contact information on their site. (It's here--they provide an email address and mailing address.)

TAT: 

My order was shipped the same day it was placed, so their turnaround time seems great from my experience. They promise a 3-5 business day TAT.

Shipping: 

• From their website, shipping policies are as follows:
• Shipping to the United States for orders totaling up-to $49.99 is a flat rate of $5.50.
• Free shipping to the United States on orders totaling $50 or more.
• International Shipping Flat Rate: 1- 5 bottles: $13.50 (un-trackable).
• Free shipping internationally on orders totaling $100 and up. We're not responsible for your duty fees, please check your local customs rate.
• All prices and services are subject to change without notice.

Please allow 10-16 plus business days (not counting the weekends), depends on the country's customs and postal systems. USPS does not provide tracking routing, it will stay and remain in New York, and until the orders are delivered then the status will change to "delivered". *Please note some countries take up to three months plus until the orders are delivered; please continuously check your local post office. 

Note: We may not ship to some countries due to inconsistent mail service, frequently lost packages, and high rates of fraudulent orders. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Personal Thoughts:

I love seeing swatches of RBL's polishes online, and I love many of their colors--some are really interesting and lovely--but the polishes are simply too expensive for me to justify, for the most part. I hemmed and hawed about using my 25% off coupon during my birthday week, but couldn't find anything in their collections at the time that I found unique enough to justify the price. I'm happy with the two polishes I have (although I sort of regret not picking something with some kind of unique shimmer or duochrome, since non-shimmers are more easily dupeable) but it would take something pretty amazing to make me order a $20 polish from them again.

If money were no object, here are the current colors I'd pick up first:

• All About Yves, a take on International Klein Blue--cobalt blue is my weakness (my pedicure is Sinful Colors Endless Blue at the moment). I have so many variations on blue cream and jelly polishes, I can't really justify buying this, but I LOVE the color. 
• Galaxy Glue, a glowy, iridescent teal multichrome.
• Will They Won't They, a lavender with a silvery microglitter/glass fleck running through it 
• Bicicletta, another microglitter/glass fleck polish with a blush pink base

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