Swatch Post! Shiro Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles Eyeshadows! (3 of 4)

Purchased

Hey everyone! We're back with part 3 of the eyeshadows from Shiro's Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles collection inspired by Harry Potter! You can find part 1 here and part 2 here. Thanks again to Kristin for taking these beautiful swatch photos!

As a quick note, I've been testing all these shades prior to reading their official descriptions. It's a trick I picked up from the amazing indie perfume bloggers I follow, and it eliminates the confirmation bias you can get from seeing what you expect to see. Let me know if it adds to or detracts from your experience reading this review! With that out of the way, let's check out the colors...

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From the website: A most devoted servant of the Dark Lord, who delights in giving pain. I promised I wouldn’t say “she’s up to her old Bella tricks” in this description but I lied.

Ultra dark blue-purple base (not blackened, however), with a wicked strong green shift and the barest hint of ashy overlay. Not lip-safe.

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, ultramarines, ferric ferrocyanide, methicone.

Personal Comments: Mad As Her Master is a really good performer. It blends out beautifully without traveling halfway across my face (impressive for such a dark shade!) and plays well with adjacent colors. I will say I didn't see the green shift when I applied this to my outer corner over primer, but it did show up when I did a test swatch over primer on my hand. You'll probably have best luck making the green shift show up if you pack it over a larger surface area or use a sticky base.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Raised in malice and superiority, coerced through threats and violence, but not after all beyond saving. That doesn’t mean he isn’t still a git, naturally.

Soft creamy cornsilk with a smooth satin finish. A fittingly posh color for those folks who choose the right sort of friends, Potter. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, bronze powder, silicon dioxide.

Personal Comments: Wow, this one is gorgeous. It's really glowy over just silicone primer. I think this is going to be a popular option for anyone looking for a brightening lid shade. It definitely reads as a very pastel yellow, not quite white, on my lids. The edges seem to blend out well. This could also double as a beautiful, intense highlighter for the rest of the face. I did experience some minor fallout when using this.

Purchase Link

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From the website: The greatest wizard who ever lived, and the only one you-know-who ever feared. Currently off seeking the next great adventure.

A tricky mix of blue and gold that generally appears as a bright cool silver, unless looked at too closely. Has a bright satiny sheen like fine robes: subtle, stately, but not *too* serious. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide.

Personal Comments: This is a beautiful shade, and definitely one for metallic lovers because a couple layers of this over primer builds up to a beautiful reflective finish. It is softer and slightly warmer than the almost icy You're Just As Sane As I Am, with a metallic rather than sparkly finish, at least over primer. It did seem to drop some tiny gold sparks as I applied it.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Hagrid’s perfect life: A roaring fire, friendly visitors, a kind word from the Headmaster, and as many dangerous magical creatures as possible to dote upon. Do you ever imagine Hagrid hanging out with Alphonse Elric? Now you do.

A rich earthy brown fit for a half-giant, loaded with the pink sparkles of an illicit umbrella. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, calcium aluminum borosilicate, magnesium myristrate, silicon dioxide.

Personal Comments: This is a chocolate brown with really adorable pink sparkles. It seems to behave and blend well, though as with pretty much any sparkly eyeshadow, some of the sparkles found their way onto my cheeks during application and blending.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Distinctly dotty, with her head in the clouds, a natural flair for accessorizing, and the ability to see thestrals all too early.

The palest of pale golds, with a dreamy blue Ravenclaw shift and periwinkle sparkles. Just the thing to wear while hunting for a crumple-horned snorkack! Not lip safe.

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, bronze powder, calcium aluminum borosilicate, aluminum powder, silicon dioxide.

Personal Comments: This one looks almost taupe in the bag but applies as a light silver on my eyes. It's one of those super light powders that tends to throw sparkles a little past the point where I've applied it, so you may have a bit of cleanup to do when using it. I compared this with The Well Organized Mind because they seem pretty close, but it's definitely cooler and has an almost lavender cast to it. It's also more sparkly than TWOM.

Purchase Link
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I did an eye look while testing these shadows:

I started with Urban Decay Primer Potion and a base shadow in my skin tone (the latter only from crease to browbone). I patted Not Yet So Damaged across the lid, added You're Just As Sane As I Am to the inner corner, and added The Well Organized Mind along most of my lower lashline. I deepened the outer v and outer lower lashline with Mad As Her Master followed by a little of Too Big To Be Allowed. I finished the look with brow pencil, mascara, and a nude liner in my waterline.

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We'll be back with one more post to round out the eyeshadows, and a final post to cover the lip and face products! Have a great week everyone!

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Swatch Post! Shiro Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles Eyeshadows! (2 of 4)

Purchased

Hey everyone! We're back for part 2 of the eyeshadows from Shiro's fabulous new Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles collection inspired by Harry Potter! We took a look at part 1 here, and you can find part 3 here (I'll link the rest when they're up). Thanks so much to Kristin for doing these beautiful swatches!
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From the website: Paranoid, gruff, a bit rough around the edges, and frequently not quite himself, but weirdly charming despite it all. Don’t put your wand in your back pocket, you’ll lose a buttock!

Saturated metallic bronze, intense depth without a black base. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, bronze powder, silicon dioxide.

Personal Comments: This shade is glorious molten metal, probably best described as halfway between gold and bronze in color. I cannot believe how incredible this color looks over just silicone primer. The performance is spot on too - it blends really well without losing pigmentation, has no fallout unless you start giddily piling it on your face (ask me how I know this), and blends well with other colors. I did a halo eye (shown below) with this and Have a Biscuit, Potter, and was really surprised at just how easy it was to blend the two completely different colors together. If you love metal shades, if you have eyes of pretty much any color, or if you can only afford one shadow, this color should definitely be on your short list of contenders.

Purchase Link
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From the website: Stern but fair, with lips perpetually pressed in a thin line and the queenly bearing of a too-still tabby cat. Minerva is not here to play games – unless it’s Quidditch, in which case she’s totally here to watch her team kick your buns.

Pure metallic emerald, gives an intense depth of color without being too dark in the base. Not lip-safe.

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, ferric ferrocyanide.

Personal Comments: This shadow is nearly as impressive as Constant Vigilance; its only drawbacks are a touch more fallout and a touch more difficulty blending. It's a gorgeously vivid jewel toned green with a metallic finish. When I swatch this on my arm I can see a ton of lighter green sparkles, but on the eye over primer those serve to add dimension and a metallic finish rather than looking like actual individual green sparkles.

The closest shade I could think of to this in my collection is Carmen from DreamWorld's semi-loose line, though Carmen's green sheen is lighter in color and Constant Vigilance has a more blackened base. I think the next closest thing I have in my collection (in terms of deep, rich greens) is My Pretty Zombie Static, but that's still a couple shades lighter with less blue and more gold. Shiro Burdened With Glorious Purpose is of a similar depth to Have a Biscuit, Potter, but has much less green to it.

Purchase Link

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From the website: Always.


Oily black, with a fine green sheen: for a Potions master and a Slytherin, and for Lily’s eyes. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, magnesium myristrate, silicon dioxide.


Personal Comments: This is a beautiful, well-behaved black shadow with green sparkles. I picked up a tiny bit on my brush and found it to be quite pigmented. It blended out easily and pretty substantially, so this makes a really nice option for slowly deepening the outer corner but may not be the best pick for someone who wants intense black in one go. The sparkles didn't seem to stick around after I blended out the shadow, so glitter glue will probably be best if you want to feature them. You can find a number of deep charcoal or black shades with glitter in them on the Shiro website (such as Gift of Mercy or Detrivore's Namira) and you can find a deep shade with green sparkles (Here I Stand) but I can't think of any shadows I own which are black with green sparkles.

Purchase Link

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From the website: We’re not stupid! We know we’re called Gred and Forge. 😀

A riotous mess of purple and green sparkles sitting pretty in a shiny blood orange base. This is a glitterbomb and should be worn over sticky primer. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, calcium aluminum borosilicate, silicon dioxide.

Personal Comments: This is an incredibly fun and playful color! The base color is pretty close to Shiro's I Tried shadow (the latter is a touch more orange, I believe). In person these fabulous green sparkles come out and work really well with the base color. As I mentioned above I've been testing these shadows without reading site descriptions first, so I tried this over just primer and didn't have any issues with it aside from a bit of fallout. Over primer it's got a gorgeous soft shine to it. The green sparkles stick around to a degree but would likely be much more apparent over a sticky base. I didn't spot any purple sparkles when I was testing it out. No complaints about blending!

Purchase Link
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From the website: Despite any general shabbiness or moon related quirks/issues, the finest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for which one could hope! Not too poor to have chocolate to share. <3

A very moon-y color, with a medium grey-taupe base overlaid by a lighter creamy sheen. Not too shabby after all. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, magnesium myristrate, methicone.

Personal Comments: This color looks so unassuming in the sample bag but it really took me by surprise. I've started testing these shadows without reading the site descriptions, so imagine my delight when what looked like a matte gray turned out to be a satin finish with a beautiful burnished taupey-gold sheen to it! The sheen came out moderately strong over just silicone primer - no sticky base needed. I give it high marks for blending: it softened nicely but stayed put, and the sheen stuck around. I didn't expect much from this one but now that I've tested it out I'm really excited to play around with it more. My only complaint about this color is it looked like it dropped a bunch of fallout, so make sure to do your eyes first when using it.

Purchase Link
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Here's an eye look featuring the two stars of the show:

I started with UDPP and a base shadow in my skin tone. I laid down a foundation of A Free Elf and He Who Must Not Be Named in my crease, then did a halo eye with Have A Biscuit, Potter and Constant Vigilance! I also put NYX Milk on my waterline and patted the green and gold shadows on top of it in the same halo pattern. You guys, this is just over silicone primer. I am not amazing at eyeshadow and yet by some miracle the look turned out like this. I barely had to do anything to blend the green and gold together. I put in the tiniest bit of effort to blend the edges around my eye. These two shadows are magical.

And here's a much tamer look, if an intense metallic halo isn't your thing!

I started with UDPP and a base shadow in my skin tone, then patted Wizard Wheezes all over the lid and lower lashline. I deepened the crease and outer lower lashline with Too Old, Too Poor, Too Dangerous then again with After All This Time. I added You're Just As Sane As I Am to the inner corner (I'll review this one in an upcoming post!). I finished with tightline, mascara, brow pencil, and a nude pencil in my waterline.

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Ok, we're halfway done with the eyeshadows! Stay tuned for two more eyeshadow posts and a post on the face and lip products from this collection.

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Perfume Review! (Every Day is) Halloween from Sixteen92

Purchased

Is it still appropriate to wear long after Halloween?

Halloween has come and gone, but some people don’t like to let go. For the record, I don’t fall in that category – once Halloween is over I just want to rush past through the next six months and get back to spring and summer! But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate Sixteen92’s perfume (Every Dayis) Halloween from this year’s fall collection. So is it still appropriate after Halloween has passed?

Collection Spotlight! Shiro Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles Eyeshadows! (1 of 4)

Purchased

Hey everyone! The highly anticipated Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles collection from Shiro Cosmetics is here! Shiro has been teasing a collection based on the Harry Potter series for at least a year, and now we have 20 eyeshadows, 5 glosses, and 2 face products to bury our faces in. For my own sanity we're dividing the reviews into multiple posts, but if you're dying for more, I always post eye looks to my Instagram page as I'm testing through the products.

Thanks so much to Kristin for doing the swatches! She went above and beyond to get them done, taking them with her on vacation to California just to get some damn sun (I'm shaking my fist at the Seattle sky as I type).

You can find part 2 here and part 3 here; I'll link the rest when they're up.
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From the website: This color is perfectly normal. There isn’t the least bit extraordinary or unusual about it. What are you looking at? Go away, there’s no post on Sunday.

A pleasant ballet pink dampened down with a very Dursleyish greige. Matte, of course, and proud of it. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, zinc oxide, magnesium myristrate, red #40.

Personal Comments: In the bag this appears to be a matte light dusty rose, a shade or so darker than but otherwise very close to Figment from Blackbird Cosmetics. On my eye it actually looks warmer than it does in the bag, as though a bit of red has been added. No issues with application or blending - this is a lovely, smooth matte.

Purchase Link
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From the website: Wotcher! Never, ever call her Nymphadora or she may make noses at you.

Inspired by some of the various shades of Tonks’ hair! Medium, slightly desaturated blurple base with shifting shades of bubblegum pink, blue, and violet. Not lip-safe.

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, ultramarines, methicone.

Personal Comments: This shadow is a lightly purpled gray, and until I read the site description, I honestly thought it was a matte... so either I need a new silicone primer (a distinct possibility) or a sticky base will be best for bringing out the shifts! It's a little darker and a little more purple than Fiction from Blackbird Cosmetics. This one needed a little extra work to blend out - I applied it with a very tapered blending brush and could still see the line where I'd originally applied it after some blending with a fluffier brush. My suggestion would be to apply this one in lighter layers and blend as you go.

Purchase Link
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From the website: “There is no good and evil, there is only power… and those too weak to seek it.”

A yellow-tinged greenish greyish befittingly creepy-snakey color, with malevolent red shift. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, magnesium myristrate, copper powder, silicon dioxide, methicone.

Personal Comments: This shade looks like a dirty gray in the bag but takes on more brown tones once it's on the eye. I tested this (over primer) before reading the site description, and I'm happy to say I definitely noticed a subtle sheen on the center of my eye, but it looked more gold than red until I got up close to the mirror. Close to my mirror under bright lights, it looks like a red-tinged copper sheen to my eye. It's subtle, but adds dimension and a really neat effect to the otherwise matte color. The base color seems fairly close to Blackbird Cosmetics Smudge. This color needed just a bit of extra work to blend out, but nothing too problematic.

Purchase Link
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From the website: “Such a beautiful place it is, to be with friends.”

The olive-toned mustard yellow of a nice pair of socks! Smooth opaque matte finish. Lip-safe!

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, iron oxide, magnesium myristrate.

Personal Comments: This is a matte orange-leaning mustard color, if that makes any sense. It's got really good pigmentation and doesn't lose too much when blending out. It looks a little softer on my eye than I expected from looking at the bag. I applied it over He Who Must Not Be Named and could still see a little of the latter's sheen through it after blending, so it's not 100% opaque but pretty close. No complaints about this one!

Purchase Link
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From the website: Maybe he isn’t the best at potions or spells or fighting, but his quiet unwavering courage was worthy of the Sword of Gryffindor all the same. And he grew up really well too, that Neville Pertbottom. 😀

Deep royal navy with a glimmering green shift (okay, it was inspired by Neville’s pajamas in the first movie…) Not lip safe.

Ingredients: mica, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, tin oxide, ferric ferrocyanide, ultramarines, magnesium myristrate.

Personal Comments: This is a gorgeous deep blue. The base color is very similar to Detrivore Benthos, but a little more cool-toned. The site description mentions a green shift and I definitely spotted green sparkles in the sample bag, but I'm not seeing them translate to the eye over just silicone primer. I swatched it over a sticky base and the green sparkles are much more prominent that way! It behaves pretty well given how dark it is - blending isn't too hard and it doesn't spread to the far reaches of my face when I so much as think about blending it out.

Purchase Link
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I did a few eye looks with these shades while testing them out. For both looks I started with UDPP and a base shadow in my skin tone, and wrapped up with tightline and mascara.

For this look, I used There's No Such Thing As Magic across the lid and The Well-Organized Mind in the inner corner. I built up the outer v with Metamorphmagus, Mad As Her Master, and finally All Kinds of Courage. I mirrored all the shadows on my lower lashline. 

Since I blended a lot of the shades together in the previous look, I did another eye look using most of the same shadows in order to show them better:

I used He Who Must Not Be Named across my lid (you can see it immediately left of the dark blue in my inner corner), There's No Such Thing As Magic and Metamorphmagus through the crease, A Free Elf in the outer v, and All Kinds of Courage on the inner (packed on) and outer (blended out) corners.

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Ok, there's part one of our multi-post review and swatchfest for the Shiro Harry Potter shades! Stay tuned for the rest of the eyeshadows plus the face products and lip glosses in upcoming posts.

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Jessye's Burning Up! Candles from Witch City Wicks!

Purchased

Witch City Wicks 
Candles Product Review

Today, instead of getting bubbly, we’re burning things! The moment it gets cold out, candles start burning in my house. I found Witch City Wicks mentioned in a Facebook post about being a good indie candle shop to try. It seemed like every time I had money to spend, they were out of stock. And every time, I didn’t, they were in stock, naturally.

Finally, via her Etsy shop, I found a full size, and then a 4-pack of samples, that allowed me to try the 5 Halloween scents I wanted to. I did not see a Halloween sample pack on her website, but they do exist for her general catalogue.

The full size candle is listed as having a burn time of 55 hours. My full size candle lasted 34 hours-  across 3 days: 12 hours, 11 hours, and then another 11 hours. They will probably last longer if you’re not a marathon burner like I am.

The burn time for samples was unlisted on her Etsy shop, but her website says they last 12-15 hours. The sample time seems correct to what I found. I had mishaps with a couple of the little guys, so they didn’t get burned all the way through. And the ones that I did not have accidents with, I found that if I blew them out the night before at about 12 hours, they did not relight the next day.

Finished candle - 34 hours.

Let’s talk scents.

All Hallow’s Eve

The perfect mix of spicy and sweet with fresh fall apples, smoky cloves and a light addition of earthy patchouli to round it out.

This was my favorite pre-burning, and my favorite while burning. It had this bright apple note with a hint of patchouli to make the scent smell like a cold Autumn’s night. It was incredibly reminiscent of Blooddrop’s Apples & Bones, and I loved it. Loved it, loved it. I was very sad to see this one gone so quickly, and will probably buy a full size next year.

Poison Apple

Ripe and fruity apple combined with a bit spice, including cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, orange, and cedarwood. This might be the apple candle you didn't know you needed, but can't live without.

My first note on this one is, “Brilliant!” The apple note this company uses is deliciously bright and juicy, standing out crisp and clear, like being in an orchard. There are hints of cinnamon and clove, almost bringing it to that baked apple or apple pie scent, lacking the buttery pastry scent, but the apple stays bright, even as the spices come out more clearly.

Salem

Smells like a walk around Salem, Massachusetts in October. You'll smell brisk cool air, spice, crisp leaves under foot, fresh pine with berries falling off the trees.

The scent for this one prior to burning was very smooth. When burning, it had a strong green note and then plenty of woods underneath. It was a much cleaner scent than either Poison Apple or All Hallow's Eve. It was really nice, though perhaps a touch light…it didn’t stand out much, but it was a lovely background scent.

Sleepy Hollow

Evokes the spectre of the Headless Horseman riding through the night, with the scent of burning fireplaces, pumpkin, apples and rich autumn spices in the air.

This one was a little weird right out of the package. After I let it settle down for a couple of days, it was much nicer. It almost smelled like a handmade broom. It reminded me a lot of meandering a historic village in the Autumn. It smelled of history and smoke and being rooted in something so much older than you.

Witch’s Broom

An explosion of exotic herbs and spices; cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and a little punch of something mysterious. This is how we imagine a witch's broom might smell.

This one also smelled a little weird straight out of the box. I actually downright hated it. Even after settling, I was concerned. It actually burned surprisingly well. It turned out spicy and sweet with a subtle hint of something gourmand. I was pleasantly surprised about it since it smelled so weird to me originally.

Final Thoughts

I definitely didn’t go wrong on a single candle here for me. While this collection has been retired for the year, her Holiday collection is up on her Etsy shop with some lovely traditional Winter scent notes. Be sure it check it out for that candle lover in your life.

Company Overview: Sixteen92 Revisited

Purchased

Note: This post accidentally went up last week so if you saw it then... *handwaves*

Sixteen92 has grown into a formidable indie shop with plenty to choose from!

Back in September of 2014, I took a look at a hot new indie shop on Etsy: Sixteen92. Since then, a LOT has changed, and I think it's fair to say we should take another look at the company, their shop, offerings and more!

Sixteen92 (Revisited)

The most notable change over the past year for Sixteen92 is their migration away from Etsy and to their own independent website! This is always an exciting jump for any indie company and maybe even a little leap of faith as well.

In 2014, I wrote: 

As of right now, Sixteen92 only offers perfume oils for sale, but I would not be surprised if in the future they infused their blends into other products (lotions, sprays, who knows)! They currently have a general catalog and an autumn collection that was recently released.

I could insert a tacky joke here about how I predicted the future, therefore in ye olde Salem, MA I was clearly a witch, but I'm not witty or clever enough to craft one that makes sense. For an indie perfumer, branching out into bath and body products isn't all that far-fetched, so it's exciting to see how the catalog has grown!

Selection

Sixteen92's catalog is split between fragrances and bath & body products. Their fragrance offerings:

• General catalogue
• Limited editions
• Seasonal offerings
• Sample Sets
• Eau de Parfum
• Custom fragrances

 According to the shop FAQ, the perfume oils use rice bran oil as a carrier and contain a proprietary blend of fragrances, essential oils, resins, attars, and/or absolutes. Perfume Oils contain 30-50% fragrance concentrate.

On Eau de Parfum:

Premium perfumer's alcohol (200 proof); Isopropyl Myristate; proprietary blend of fragrances, essential oils, resins, attars, and/or absolutes. We do not add water to our EdP blends. EdP orders shipping overseas (outside of North America) will contain Isopropyl Myristate instead of Perfumer's Alcohol. This allows the fragrances to be safely and legally shipped internationally via air, but does not affect the use of the product. Isopropyl Myristate is slightly thicker than perfumer's alcohol, but is still sprayable and offers similar longevity and throw. Parfums contain 40-50%+ fragrance concentrate.

When browsing the parfums, shoppers have the ability to select whether or not they're within the United States to accommodate overseas shipping. Parfums are available as a 2ml (sample), 15ml, 30ml and 50ml atomizer sprays. 50ml features a vintage style bulb atomizer (and if I had the budget, I'd absolutely grab one, how neat is that?!)

While I've never ordered a custom fragrance before, I absolutely love the page on Sixteen92's site about the process. I don't want to just copy and paste all of the details (seriously, go read it!) but the basic gist is that it's a personal and intimate process grounded in emotion, not ingredients or notes. It's a luxury for sure (and starting at $60+, pricey too) and takes a very different approach compared to someone like Haus of Gloi with an assembly-style list of notes for a base price of $20.

On the bath and body side of things, products are either classified as hair care or lotion:

• Detangling mist
• Supernatural hair serum
• Texturizing sea salt mist
• Hand & body lotion

 And did I mention there are also scented wax melts for home use? I always forget these are a thing.

All products have a formula, and then you can select a Sixteen92 fragrance to incorporate. This is awesome because the possibilities are as broad as the catalog, but I think it might increase your TAT. If you want to find out more about Sixteen92's bath and body products, check out this fantastic post from Jessye!

Packaging

Package options have definitely increased since the shop opened.

For perfume oils:

• 2mL sample vials
• 5.5mL dram vials
• 10mL glass roll-on bottles

For parfums:

• 2mL sample spritzers
• 5ml, 30ml and 50ml atomizer sprays (50ml with the vintage style bulb)

Custom blends initially come in 10mL bottles, but since your blend's formula will be kept on file you can order it in any of the offered sizes (or even as a bath & body product).

Hand and body lotions:

• 1oz mini jars
• 4oz jars

Hair care products:

• 4oz bottles with a spray top for the detangling mist and sea salt mist
• 1oz and 2oz glass dropper bottles for the supernatural hair serum

Samples

Not too much has changed since the shop launched. You have two options: a sample set of 5 containing this season's offerings in 2mL sample vials for $18, or you can select 5 yourself for the same price. Same sample vials as before, not too much to say here!

Everything is neatly wrapped up for shipping

Quality

From my review in 2014:

One thing I noticed about all the fragrances I sampled was that while they all had marvelous top notes, many of them fizzled out rather quickly. I think stronger bases to keep things clinging past 2 hours would be a fantastic improvement.

I am so happy to say that while Sixteen92 isn't exactly repeatedly punching me in the nose like Solstice Scents, their newer fragrances hold on much longer than before! My longest-lasting Sixteen92 fragrance [the yet-to-be-reviewed (Every Day is) Halloween] fizzles out after 6-7 hours. Not all fragrances I've tried were as potent (I'm looking at you, Paper Moon), but it's an improvement over last year.

Cost

Prices since the shop launched on Esty have pretty much stayed the same:

Perfume oil sample vials - 

• 1 for $4.50 USD
• 3 for $12 USD ($4 USD apiece)
• 5 for $18 USD ($3.60 USD apiece)

Larger size options -

• 5.5mL dram vial for $13.00USD
• 10mL glass roll-on bottle for $20.00USD

Customer Service

No changes or complaints, and honestly I don't think I've interacted with Claire directly since the shop's launch!

TAT & Shipping

The FAQ page clearly states all their shipping policies. TAT varies depending on the season. At the time of this post, TAT is up to 20 days (!!) which feels like a painfully long wait. The size and contents of your order also can affect TAT, so be mindful if you toss in a ton of scented bath and body products.

Personal Thoughts

Over the past year, I've made several purchases from Sixteen92 and have reviewed the following:

• Raven
• Spring 2015 Collection
• Supercell
• Paper Moon
• Last Exit for the Lost

Overall I've been pretty happy with everything. Sixteen92 is absolutely a shop I will continue being a repeat customer with, and I love the level of care and attention to detail Claire brings to each item for sale. I'm really excited to see what new changes are in store for the next year! 

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Perfume Review: Possets Seraphim

Purchased

Today was cool and rainy, and it seemed like the perfect day to wear a warm and cozy amber scent. I looked through my collection of amber perfume samples and decided on Possets Seraphim, an amber and vanilla perfume available as part of their permanent collection. I've had this sample for a few years now, so it's nicely rested and aged by now.

Price: $14.99 for 6 mL, $21.88 for 10 mL, $32.85 for 15 mL, $65.70 for 30 mL of perfume oil
Samples: Available for $3.50 or at a discount in sample packs.
(More details about price and shipping can be found in our Company Overview post about Possets.)
Description from the website: "Simple and beautiful, elemental and hypnotic. These are sweet but at the same time blended together they become a third type of wonderful harmonious blend which is at once grand and then again something to fall instantly in love with. The six winged Seraphim are the highest order of angel, in some ways austere and then again they anticipate desires. Five vanillas (most of them fat and buttery vanillas cut with lean and sharp vanillas) and are blended with six different ambers which give the hypnotic part to the whole."

Seraphim is a warm and golden scent, uncomplicated and comforting. I have it in my stash as a sort of keystone amber scent--just amber and vanilla, with not a whole lot else going on.

It starts out rather sharp, with an almost citrus bite to it, but eventually mellows on the skin and turns a bit more powdery and vanillic. It makes me think of caramel and honey at first, but as it dries down, the scent starts feeling a bit more dry and smooth.

The vanilla is sweet, but I wouldn't have called it "fat and buttery"--it doesn't have that rich French-vanilla/rum type of smell I would associate with that description.

Seraphim has good lasting power but isn't very complicated, and doesn't change a lot from start to finish. I don't wear it often, or if I want to feel challenged by my scent for the day, but for feeling wrapped up in warmth on a gray and rainy fall afternoon, it works wonderfully.

For other opinions, check out the Possets forums.

Note: this scent is vegan.

Random Product Review! Something a little different... MTM 38/357 Cal 100 Round Flip-Top Ammo Box

Purchased

Today I thought I'd share a review of something a little different--not an indie product, but something I've found very helpful in storing and cataloguing my perfume sample collection: an ammo box. The MTM 38/357 Cal 100 Round Flip-Top Ammo Box (labeled Case-Gard 100 P-100-38), currently selling for $3.59 on Amazon.

At a certain point in my indie perfume addiction, I found that I was getting frustrated with trying to locate particular samples when my organization system consisted of throwing all my samples loose into a box and then sorting through every. single. one of them when I was looking for a scent I wanted to wear. I found a suggestion somewhere to use an ammo box to store samples, so I ordered one from Amazon and found it to be perfect!

It's important to protect perfumes from light if you want to keep them from deteriorating, so I chose the opaque green plastic option. Not gonna lie, it's pretty hideous, but it's functional. The lid closes with a secure click, the plastic is thick and opaque. It measures 4.5" square on the outside.

Any standard-sized 1 mL perfume samples, like those from BPAL, Solstice Scents, or Haus of Gloi, will fit into one of the slots with the label rolled up around it. Different-sized samples like the ones from Darling Clandestine, Sixteen92, or Smelly Yeti will not.

The box has 100 slots in a 10 x 10 square. To help myself stay organized, I organized my samples by group depending on how I mentally categorize them ("vanilla scents," "leather scents," "rose scents," etc.), made a 10x10 chart in Excel in which I typed up abbreviations of each perfume, and color-coded each scent group so I could see at a glance which areas hold which types of scents. I adjusted the Print Preview in Excel so I knew the printout would fit in the lid, then printed it out and placed it in the lid using double-sided Scotch tape. I've had to cross out and hand-write replacements when I've destashed--I should probably reorganize, purge samples I'm not using from my collection, and make new labels.



One thing about using these ammo boxes for organization is that it makes it VERY easy to tell how out of control your collection is. I currently have three of these ammo boxes that are all full, which I know immediately means I have 300 perfume samples at the very least. But there are more! The unfortunate thing is that instead of accepting that I need more storage, or getting rid of some of my collection, I have just started putting loose samples into a pile again with the thought that "oh, I'll review this and then sell it..." so I'm sort of back to the same disorganized place where I started. Maybe I should just bite the bullet (YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) and buy another box or two and get a true handle on how many damn perfume samples are lying around in my house.

Do you use ammo boxes to organize your perfume? Do you have other creative suggestions for ways to stay organized with a large indie beauty collection?

Company Overview: Imaginary Authors

Nothing to Disclose

(Apologies for repurposing this intro from my Memoirs of a Trespasser review, but it already says everything I wanted to say to summarize the company...) As anyone who's spent much time shopping for indie perfumes knows, there's a plethora of interesting, imaginative indie scents inspired by literature out there--Imaginary Authors is a brand that takes that idea and does it one better: all its scents are inspired by novels, but the novels don't actually exist. As the name of the company suggests, all the perfumes are inspired by imaginary novels written by imaginary authors, each with their own bio and plot summary. They had a sale recently so I finally took the plunge and got a few samples from them to try out. 

Packaging: 

Full-sized eau de parfum perfumes (which I've never bought) come in a square glass bottle with a beautiful label that varies by the scent--you can see photos of the bottles on the purchase pages for each "book."

My package was carefully packaged up in a brown paper parcel with plenty of bubble wrap, and came with matching bookmarks for the scents I ordered (but not the free samples):


Sample sizes come in a clear spray bottle without a lid, and a sticker with the name of the perfume--the stickers are different colors for each scent:

Selection: 

Imaginary Authors has a small catalog, consisting of 7 authors with a total of 8 general catalog scents and 4 additional exclusives. All their scents are eau de parfum perfumes. 

Samples: 

Samples are available for the general catalog scents and all the exclusives except for one, the limited edition "An Air of Despair." You can get their 8-scent general catalog "bookshelf" collection for $35, or buy individual samples for $6 each. I ordered 2 samples and received 2 for free with my order! 

Quality: 

I love the concept of Imaginary Authors but wasn't in love with most of their scents--I have yet to give a couple of them a thoughtful wear, but Yesterday Haze gave me a bit of a headache, and I seldom like piney scents so Cape Heartache is a tough sell.

Cost:

Samples are a bit more expensive than I'm used to at $6 apiece, but the catalog is so small that a normal person can purchase samples of everything they sell in one go, which is something that I don't think I'll ever achieve in my lifetime with a company like BPAL or Possets.

The perfumes are quite expensive for the indie world, ranging from $55 for 30 mL for the limited edition An Air of Despair to $95 for 50 mL of all the rest. I think this is quite affordable in mainstream or niche perfume circles, but since I tend to buy indie perfume oils, I'm not used to paying more than $30 for a bottle of perfume.

Customer Service: 

I have not had to contact customer service. Their only contact information seems to be an email address. Note that they are carried by a number of stockists, including in the UK and Canada, so if you're in one of those countries, that may be a better way to order than directly from the site.

TAT: 

Turnaround time was great on my order--it shipped out the same day I ordered it.

Shipping: 

Shipping was $3.95 for my order containing only samples. In a sample cart I made, it went up to $6.95 when I added a bottle of perfume, and kept increasing as I added more bottles, up to a total of $22.95--it seems like there's no free shipping option.

International shipping to just about every country seems to be available according to the selectable options on the website, if pricey ($9.95 to ship one sample to Canada), but I know shipping alcohol-based perfumes internationally can be tricky, so I'm not sure if there are any restrictions--it might be worth contacting them to confirm the shipping method if you want to make an international order.

Personal Thoughts:

I am very taken with the beautiful packaging, wonderful concept and writing, and interesting perfume notes incorporated in Imaginary Authors' creations (for instance, The Soft Lawn has "fresh tennis balls" as a note, and Mosaic includes "limestone" and "artesian well"). I'm not madly in love with any of the perfumes yet, although I did like Memoirs of a Trespasser a lot. I think I will continue to slowly explore their catalog via samples, in hopes of one day finding a perfume I think is worth $95. (It may be a while--I'm cheap, and picky. And I already have some beautifully packaged book perfumes I love to death...)

Have you tried Imaginary Authors? What do you think?

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Jessye Gets Bubbly! Special Edition: Fortune Cookie Soap's "Welcome, Santa!" Soap Box!

Purchased

Fortune Cookie Soap Box Winter 2015 
“Welcome, Santa!”

Somehow, I missed the theme for this one. Based on the Will Ferrell film Elf, one expects silly names and scents based on the four basic food groups for an elf, and the box does seem to deliver. We have 3 new-to-me products, at least one of which I am fairly certain is new to FCS.

This collection releases for individual sale this Friday, November 13th at 6 pm CST. The party starts on the FCS Facebook page.

So, without further ado, let’s explore FCS’s newest winter collection.

"Buddy"
Fortune Cookie Soap

With notes of holiday fruits, candy, and crushed vanilla, and a hint of mint, this scent will have you feeling just as happy as everyone’s favorite elf!

When I first received the box, I did my initial Smell All the Things, and this smelled wonderful. Sparkly and bright, exactly what you want to smell in this kind of theme. It went a little funky for me when I used it. The scent warped a little and included something a little soapy. Nothing to make it not usable, just something a little odd. I would also recommend removing the pom before use- it is a craft item and not soap.

"Swirly Twirly Gum Drops"
OCD Hand Sanitizer

A sweet and whimsical blend of cotton candy, lemon drops, and fresh pear nectar, dancing with tart cranberries and black currants.

This starts as a very young, almost juvenile fruit scent topped with sugary candy cane. It deepens a little into a less sugary but perhaps fruity candy smell. Nothing stands out too much nor is it sharp or incredibly strong. It smells very reminiscent to me of another FCS product. I’ve read through every past review, though, and have come up empty handed. I’ve sniffed every FCS product I still own. Nada. Maybe I’m crazy. My best bet is it must have been something from the 2014 Candy Aisle Summer Box, but I have no idea what. We’ll just go with I’m crazy.

"World’s Best Cup of Coffee"
Whipped Cream

Vermont maple syrup, with just the right amount of fresh brewed coffee- gotta get in all those food groups!

My relationship with Kristin has allowed me to find food scents less awful of late. This is surprisingly nice for a maple syrup scent. (Spoiler alert: I don’t even like the real stuff. I’m that weird person that eats fresh fruit on my pancakes.) This scent is loud and rests heavily on the syrup with just a touch of the coffee coming out to temper the syrup into something a little less sticky, more palatable, and definitely deeper.

"Shower Duet"
Shave Oil

Spruce and vanilla, fir and fruits, hyacinth and mint; we’ve created a shave oil guaranteed to warm up your coldest winter nights. To use: Wet skin with warm water. Massage a small amount (3-5 drops) into the area to be shaved- allowing oils to soften hair and skin. Shave as usual, rinsing razor often. Rinse and enjoy!

This is an FCS product I haven’t come across before. Mr. J regularly uses shave oil when shaving his face. He has delicate skin, poor little lamb. I generally find it a hassle. It gunks up the razor and you have to spend extra time cleaning the razor out because sometimes the oil just doesn’t rinse out.

It wasn’t quite time to shave yet, so I just did a spot for you to see. It worked really well. It took 2 drops to get the area well covered so I could feel the oil built up on my skin. (True story, when I dripped the oil on my finger for photos, I rubbed it into the back of my hand to keep taking photos. My skin soaked that oil up like it had never felt moisture in its life. I might need to lotion more often.) It shaved efficiently and neatly, nice and smooth. Usually I have to shaved every 7-10 days, and not earlier or I get pretty bad razor burn. The oil protected my skin beautifully, and I didn’t feel like I needed to moisturize afterwards.

The scent is pine fresh, without the Pine Sol part. The spruce and mint mingle into something almost nasal-clearing, but softened by the vanilla, with just a hint of floral. I bet it would make a wonderful shower steamer. It’s a very fresh scent and great for winter.

"FCS Cheer"
Perfume Oil

Rich, buttery vanilla pound cake, over dark frankincense, patchouli, and cedar, create a scent that’s as warm and inviting as Christmas itself.

If I ever had to wear a cake scent, it would be this one. It opens with a tang on the tongue of pound cake. Sharp but still sweet. As it settles, the cake remains the main note, but there’s just a hint of something deeper lurking underneath, like at a Christmas party- everyone’s smelling the buffet, but you can almost smell the decorations under all those yummy food smells.

"Yellow Snow"
Bath Bomb

A juicy blend of ripe plums, whipped caramel, vanilla jasmine, and exotic woods with just a squeeze of zesty Mandarin oranges. Soothing and revitalizing in one drop.

Right out of the package, this scent was heavy on the vanilla and caramel. It was all I could smell. In the bath, it was just too small to overcome the smell of the water. (Pro tip: don’t put bath bombs in pots of water in your kitchen. Sodium bicarbonate is not your friend, and nobody wants blue water everywhere. whistles innocently) What I could smell was very lovely, but it was very limited in its smell compared to what I should have smelled. Hopefully, the full size products will be far more fragrant and give a more complex experience.

"Christmas Gram"
Face Plant

Warm steamy air, fresh with lavender and sea salt spray, mingle with the woody earthiness of sage and dark vanilla. To Use: Fill bowl or sink with very hot water. Drop in 2-3 tablets. Drape a towel over your head, and bowl/sink. Let the pore-opening steam, refresh and tone with seal salt and calming lavender.

Mmmmm a nice refreshing face steam. This was perfect. With the air getting drier, everyone can do with a little extra moisture. As boring as 10 minutes with my face over a bowl and a towel over my head was, I really enjoyed the results. My face has been pretty pissed off lately, judging by the number of pimples and how much it has burned when being cleaned, and this really helped it be happier. I used boiled water to make sure I had a good amount of time with the steam and it felt lovely and cleansing- it did take a little bit of time to adjust to breathing in the steam, but just some calm, slow breaths, and I was fine.

This smells mostly of lavender and sage, with just a hint of vanilla. It’s astringent and cleansing, adding a lovely aromatherapy to the steam. I really enjoyed the scent and the steam, and will probably buy a full package of them because it made my skin so happy and the smell was really quite lovely.

"Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins"
Dry Shampoo

A refreshi-floral (It’s a word- trust us!) blend, that bursts with lilies, freesia, jasmine, and bayberry, muddled with fresh blackberries and plums, garnished with a sprig of peppermint.

This smelled AMAZING in my hair. They are correct in that it is a refreshing floral, incredibly so. Light and airy, just a touch feminine, I really loved the florals that were brought to an almost clean note. I adored this scent.

I used this the day after a shower. Dry shampoo usually is incapable of doing a full clean, at least for me, but can usually mask the oils long enough for me to go out and do what I need to do and not look like a greasy kid. You can see the difference between the oily hair and the dry shampooed hair. It definitely helped. I tried to keep it mostly on the visible parts of my hair and out of my scalp. The part of my scalp it did hit left a residue that was almost gritty and itched like crazy. I kept scratching and finding the powder mixed with oils under my nails. I’ll definitely try it again a time or two, if only because I do love that smell.

Final Thoughts

All of these products go on individual sale this Friday, November 13th at 6 pm CST. Make sure to check it out of any of these appeal to you!