Random Product Review: Rituel de Fille Ash and Ember Eye Soot!

Purchased

I talked briefly about Rituel de Fille's Ash & Ember Eye Soot in my Company Overview post back in February, but I thought I'd give a few more thoughts about the product since Rituel de Fille just started offering samples!

Side note: I've seen a bit of complaining online about the size and cost of the samples ($15 plus shipping for 5 samples good for 1-2 uses each, but with a $10 coupon included with them), but I don't really have a problem with this, personally. The samples are in line with the general pricing for the line. (Which is pricey, but let's be real, more than anything, price buys the feeling of luxury and not necessarily quality. Generally nobody knows what you have on your face once it's on there.) And I don't quite see why anyone would buy a full size if the sample is enormous and never runs out.

The Ash and Ember Eye Soot ($27 for 0.2 oz/5.75 g) is a cream eyeshadow that comes in a beautiful but tiny hexagonal glass jar with a black top. This color is called Golden Age, and here are pictures of the jar with a penny and some other common cream eyeshadows for size comparison (a Maybelline Color Tattoo and a MAC Paint Pot):

With a penny for size comparison

Top to bottom: Maybelline Color Tattoo, Rituel de Fille Eye Soot, MAC Paint Pot

It's hard to get at the shadow with your fingers, if that's your thing (I always apply cream eyeshadows with my fingers, personally). I can only get at the product with my pinky. The texture is rather dry and crumbly-feeling, without the creamy, unctuous feeling of most other cream shadows I've tried.

I think it's beautiful, though--a medium cool golden-toned brown that looks like bronzey antique gold in the light, smoky cool taupe brown in shadow, and applies with a glowy satin finish. It looked great just applied to the mobile lid and smoked out at the edges, with some black liner. I did get some creasing with this shade by about 4 hours into wear, but it stayed better over primer. Here are some photos of it on my eyes, no primer--looks a bit warmer on my eyes than I remembered:

I love the packaging and the product, but I have mixed feelings about whether it's worth $27, given the tiny size of the jar and the non-bulletproof wear time. At that price point, for a cream shadow, I'd rather have a Laura Mercier Caviar Stick or a couple of Kiko eyeshadow sticks. Still, if you want to treat yourself to a beautiful and special little product, and this appeals to you, I'd say go for it! I think it's a quality product and a lovely color.

Swatched without primer, natural light

Jessye Gets Bubbly! Future Primitive Yule 2015!

Purchased

Future Primitive 
Yule 2015 Collection

It’s Winter! It’s Winter! Rejoice for it’s Winter! This shouldn’t be too long of a post because my butt is going to go hang out in front of Muppets Christmas Carol with a big old mug of hot chocolate. I’m sure Kristin will turn me into a liar once she adds her massive haul to my 2 little bars soaps and bath powder. My samples went to AG. So, let’s go examine the awesomeness that is Future Prim’s Yule Collection!

Ebenezer Bar Soap

Ebenezer

A miserly cold winter breath moans down a chimney breast and into a dark, grey-washed room. The scent of frosted pine needles & eucalyptus leaves encased in ice make way for a hopeful splash of clean lemongrass & fresh lime. 100% Essential oil blend.  

I got this as bar soap. Dry, it has a very strong lemongrass smell, so I’m saving it for my post Christmas blues when I’m going to need a pick-me-up. Citrus always does the trick for me. I cut off a super thin slice to wash my hands with though so I could give you some idea of what I thought. All soaped up on my hands, it smells like lemongrass with a miserly iciness. I’m not sure if it’s the eucalyptus or pine, but I love the idea of citrus and winter, and this really does that. (And OH MY GOD I LOVE THOSE GLITTERY STARS!)

Kristin adds: A bubbling sugar buff for me. I agree with Jessye here. In scrub form, the lemongrass is probably the strongest note that I get but it's balanced out by the minty eucalyptus. In the shower it softens a bit so you're not immediately smacked in the face by lemongrass but it's definitely a scent that evokes the image of COLD.

Glacial

Glacial

A crisp, cool invigorating winters day. Mild menthol air, pine sap, black spruce wood chips & eucalyptus leaf laid down on a bed of dreamy lavender & cedarwood. Fragrance blend.

This was my other bar of soap. I think I did it a disservice by buying it as a bar soap. It’s really softly scented, smelling lightly of creamy mint. Mr. J says it smells like those mint chocolate chips with the nonpareil on the bottom. I’m really looking forward to Kristin’s notes on this, because I feel like I lost a lot of this scent as bar soap.

Kristin adds: Another bubbling sugar buff for me. Oddly though, for me, the mint is barely detectable in this form. I get more of an herbal but woodsy scent that's almost incense-esque. It's a crisp, cool scent that's perfectly in-season for winter.

Inglenook 

White winter birch bark, crackling forest fires in the north woods, a flagon of whiskey, a waft of rich men's cologne and a bowl of softly smouldering frankincense and myrrh resins. Fragrance and essential oil blend.

I got this as a vanishing bath powder. In the bag, it’s this great masculine scent, woody and heady, but not overpowering. I put a bag in the bath and inhaled deeply…and then I inhaled again…and then I put a second bag in the bath. With the second bag, it lightly scented the water for me to a soft masculine blend, nothing really sticking out. I’m also really interesting in seeing how this scent plays out in a different product.

Kristin adds: Another bubbling sugar buff (my last one from this batch). I'm very conflicted about this one. The smokiness is strong from the beginning but I'm finding it hard breaking it down to what kind of smoky it is. It's not a cooking smoke or a tobacco scent but it's almost sweet. I do get some of that resin behind it. I can't decide if I actually like this one or not but it's certainly interesting.



Kristin adds: Ah here we go - finally onto my whipped soaps. So the first thing of note was that of my four whipped soaps, half of them were in different size jars than the others. I assume it's just a packaging difference but it was a little odd - especially since the labels are all the same size and say the same amounts. The taller jars do look a little less packed full than the shorter jars so I'm assuming they have about the same amount of product - though I honestly have no idea. Not a concern for me but thought I'd mention it for the curious.

Marshmallow Eggnog

Creamy eggnog blended with vanilla buttercream, cinnamon and nutmeg and decorated with little bouncy Marshmallows. Fragrance blend.

Kristin adds: To me, in whipped soap form, the vanilla and sugar are the strongest scents. The sweetness smells reminiscent of Sylph from the general catalog - I think if you like Sylph, this might be a good choice for you. I can't detect any added spice in this form but it's definitely a scent for gourmand lovers. The vanilla is creamy in a warmed milk kind of way. But for me, this doesn't really smell like the eggnog that I'm used to.

Kristin: I did, however, shove it at my friend Greg who says that it smells exactly like eggnog to him. So, your mileage may vary depending on your eggnog experiences.

Edit: Okay so I tried Marshmallow Eggnog a few more times and when applied directly (not with a loofa), the vanilla fades back and the spices come to the front. No clue why I missed that the first few times. Derp.

Different jars

Peppermint Hot Cocoa

Rich and delicious hot cocoa infused with a combination of indian peppermint, madagascan vanilla oil and decadent cocoa absolute. Fragrance and essential oil blend.

 Kristin: This has been a pretty entertaining Yule season for me since my Haus of Gloi Yule Reverie package came in around the same time as the Future Prim. They coincidentally have a lot of scents that one would assume might be similar. I'll probably do a more complete compare and contrast post in the near future but just as an FYI to anyone who might have sniffed it, Future Prim's Peppermint Hot Cocoa is pretty different from the Haus of Gloi Peppermint Cocoa.

Kristin: Peppermint Hot Cocoa is basically a York Peppermint Pattie in scent form. The peppermint is soft in a creamy way and balances well with the darker chocolate scent. Listed above is the description from the website but my label actually reads "& extra chunks of dark chocolate" at the end which I think is a much better descriptor. The chocolate note is definitely a more solid and dark bar instead of the creamy milk chocolate one thinks of with hot cocoa.

Marshmallow Eggnog on the left and Smoked Mexican Chocolate on the right

Smoked Mexican Chocolate

Slabs of darkest chocolate infused with vanilla bean pods, rum ripened raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg dust, finished with the faintest hint of hearth smoke. Fragrance blend.

Kristin: Definitely a dark chocolate scent. I didn't think that I'd like the smoky note but it works really well with the depth of the chocolate here. Unlike Marshmallow Eggnog, Smoked Mexican Chocolate is all spice from the beginning. It's the kind of Mexican Hot Chocolate that might be just a little too well spiced for my taste-buds but in soap form, it's excellently complex.

Snowdrift

A warming blend of hot milk, honey & oatmeal with a sugary lick of pure white marzipan. Like a cuddle from Grandma with an additional 'there there'. Fragrance blend.

Kristin: The marzipan is actually the dominant scent for me in this whipped soap. It's a soft but sweet vanilla in almost a smooth frosting way. There's not much else I can say about this one. It's a pretty simple one and I like it.

Included business card

Final Thoughts

As always, Future Prim made a great collection with a little something in there for probably everyone. I missed out on Yule Part 2, so you’ll have to tell me all about it! I can’t wait to see their Valentine’s collection!

Kristin adds: Er..well, I bought stuff from Yule Part 2. >.>

Company Overview! Sugar and Spite Bathery and Nonsense Emporium

Nothing to Disclose

Hello! I hope you're all enjoying your December so far. Today I'm going to talk about a company I ordered from almost a year ago and completely forgot to write up--Sugar and Spite Bathery and Nonsense Emporium, a bath, body, and perfume indie with a Victorian ghost story vibe, based in central California.

Packaging: 

The packaging is what drew me to order from Sugar and Spite in the first place--I needed some new soap and saw this glowing review showing the most beautifully wrapped package that swayed me into ordering. My package wasn't quite as gorgeous--you can see it in the photo at the top of this post, everything was nicely wrapped and designed with a bit of Gothic flair, but without quite as much of the "ooh!" factor. The soap I ordered came shrinkwrapped, with ingredients clearly labeled on the back, and the perfume samples came in squat little amber glass screwtop vials. It looks like they no longer sell perfume samples individually in tiny bottles like this.

Selection: 

Sugar and Spite sells a variety of bath and body products--hot process soaps, perfume oils, lotions, bath truffles, and sugar scrubs. Their scent listing is a trim 26 scents, plus a few more under the Gods and Monsters perfume section of their website, and, as of this writing, limited edition Yule scents such as their "Another Horrible Sweater" bath truffle.

Samples: 

Perfume samples are available in a pack of 5 for $12.50, in larger vials than the ones shown in my photos above. I ordered a bar of soap and one perfume sample, and received a second perfume sample for free with my order.

Quality: 

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the quality of the products I got from Sugar and Spite. The soap did the job, and there wasn't anything wrong with it, but I just didn't particularly enjoy its scent and was quite happy when I finally ran out of it. I found the perfumes unexciting, but might yet review them... however, part of why it took me nearly a year to post my Company Overview about them was that I just couldn't get excited about the products, so the order quickly sank to to the back of my mind, until I found myself running out of new companies to review for this feature and remembered I hadn't talked about Sugar and Spite yet. These are my own preferences, and scent is intensely personal, so of course someone else might love these scents!

Cost:

I think Sugar and Spite is very affordable!

Perfume samples are $12.50 for 5 large vials, and it's only $11 for a full-sized 8 mL bottle of perfume oil.

Sugar scrubs are $11.50 for 8 oz., soap is $6 per 5.5 ounce slice, lotions are $12 for 8 oz.

Customer Service: 

I haven't had to contact Sugar and Spite, and nothing went wrong with my order, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the owner of this company has actually had a history of unreliability; her former venture, The Morbid the Merrier, imploded at some point, which you can see by browsing the posts on that blog, and so she started a new business as a kind of pyramid scheme to try and get cash to pay back the other people she owed due to their missing orders--according to her:

So here's what happened – when I closed, I was overwhelmed with so many orders, it pushed my TAT to 2 weeks – then 4 weeks – then 6 weeks. Although I tried to be straight with people and let them know about the delay, people panicked and filed claims with paypal, essentially cleaning out my bank account to the point I didn't even have money for supplies to fill the orders, or even postage to send them off. Word spread, and more people panicked. Soon there were a million claims, no money in my paypal, and I was locked out of paypal, giving me no access to any of the madness going on. I also lost access to my shopping cart because I didn't have the money to pay the bill. Everyone deserted me. People were being hateful, spreading rumors, calling me a thief, threatening me. I didn't know what to do and no one was listening to me so I panicked. I freaked. I had what I'm pretty sure was a nervous breakdown. Finally I pulled myself together and decided to start Lucybelle to try and earn some money to pay everyone back – all the while working a job at a sandwich shop. I didn't say it was me – not out of sneakiness but because I didn't want to complete insanity. I wanted to work my little job, earn a bit of money for supplies, and start to pay people back. But then the rumor mill started. Lucybelle was ruined. The threats started again. The name calling, the accusations. Again I was unable to make money to begin making things right. And curiously, MANY of the people saying these things HAD BEEN PAID BACK when they filed their claim with paypal and were saying they hadn't been.

Working with Monolids has more details about this posted as well in her review.

I didn't have any problems when I ordered back in February, but at that point she was running an Etsy shop, and I ordered through Etsy/Paypal for the consumer protection factor. The Etsy shop has been shut down, so now you can only order through her main storefront. The Facebook page does list a good average response time (typically replies within an hour). I feel comfortable ordering from them, based on my experience, but would only recommend doing so via Paypal in case there's a similar meltdown with this company.

TAT: 

The turnaround time on my order was reasonable, if not exceptional--I ordered on February 1, and received my order February 10.

Shipping: 

Shipping seems to start from $2.50 First Class domestic for a pack of perfume samples, and goes on up from there. International shipping is selectable (with a huge list of countries listed on the dropdown, with international shipping starting from $10). Domestic customers can upgrade to a flat rate medium Priority Mail box by adding a separate item to their cart and then using a coupon code to erase the existing shipping charge, a system that seems clunky and error-prone.

Personal Thoughts:

Since I didn't really care much for the products I ordered from Sugar and Spite the first time, and the packaging didn't really wow me, I haven't ordered anything else, but many of their scent combinations look just wonderful and often tempt me into wanting to try them again, particularly because their site is well designed and looks very appealing. For instance:

• Barnum, "Curiously sweet and dark. Tobacco leaf, a trio of rich musks, new mown hay, and a drizzle of creamy vanilla bourbon"
• Sister Witch, "a steamy cup of earl grey tea, wee lavender buds, and sweet milk"
• or the limited edition Paranormal Nativity, which is so resinous, it isn't even my type of scent, but it sounds rich and dark and fabulous: "Smoky oud, amber, benzoin resin, black patchouli, coconut, sandalwood, clove, copal"

Have you tried Sugar and Spite? What are your thoughts? Do you have any scent recommendations? Should I give them another shot?

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Random Product Review! Shiro CotM for November 2015!

Purchased

Hey everyone! I've got November's Color of the Month from Shiro Cosmetics for you today! I was pleased to see another face product won out this time. The shade is called Senpai Noticed Me. For background on the name you can check out the corresponding Know Your Meme page, or just assume it's the shade Japanese schoolsharks turn when they're embarrassed. Let's take a look:

From the website: B-but it’s not like I wanted him to notice! (´w｀*)

Soft mid-toned dewy pink blush with a hint of lavender shift! Full size only, comes in a 20-gram jar with sifter. Color suggestion by Lydia S.

Ingredients: mica, magnesium myristrate, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide, red #40, red #33. Lip safe, not eye safe!

Personal Comments: This blush is downright adorable, and I'm not just talking about the incredibly silly label. I usually stay far away from baby pink... anything, really, but this blush is actually quite flattering on my ~NC15 skin tone. It's brightening and feminine without being doll-like, and it makes me look a bit like I just came in out of the cold. I will say I haven't noticed a lavender shift. I haven't properly wear-tested this until it faded, but I have worn this several times and didn't have any issues with it lasting through the day on my dry skin type.

Blush was swatched heavily (bottom) and blended out (top) over bare skin and photographed in daylight.

(Note: I'll update this post with a proper swatch collage as soon as I can!)

Purchase Link


Happy Friday everyone!

(Update: Thanks so much to my ridiculously talented Senpai co-blogger Valentine for pointing out I'd failed to reference the product name anywhere in the post!)
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Swatch Post! Shiro Marauders, Mugwumps, and Muggles Eyeshadows! (4 of 4)

Purchased

From the website: Despite her Muggle birth and upbringing, she’s the cleverest witch who ever was. Amazing, brilliant, and scary. When in doubt, go to the library!

A very plush, luxurious take on Gryffindor red, like the expensive burgundy leather chairs in an exceptionally fine reading nook. Lip-safe!

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

Personal Comments: On my eyes, this reads as a beautiful warm chocolate brown with a soft sheen to it. The edges blended out really well while maintaining pigmentation and the fallout was pretty minimal.

Purchase Link
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From the website: “What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.”

Warm deep wine-purple base with a golden-bronzey-brown shift. Bears a bit of a family resemblance to Bellatrix but is altogether less cold. Not lip-safe.

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

Personal Comments: To my eyes, this looks like a deep, slightly purple-toned brown with copper and light green shimmers. The shimmers disappeared when I blended it, so it functions like a satin finish. It dropped a bunch of fallout, both base color and shimmer, so make sure to do your eyes before your base when using this!

Purchase Link
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From the website: Anything is possible – and if you try to tell her otherwise, you’re liable to get hit with a nice bat bogey hex.

Intense, smoldering metallic copper-orange with slightly brighter coppery glitter. Lip-safe!

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

Personal Comments: What a beautiful color! Over primer, this appears as a burnt red shade with a moderate red-copper shift. Fallout was fairly low. It took a bit of extra work to blend this one out, but nothing dealbreaking. I really like this shade!

Purchase Link
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From the website: Brave, loyal, and ever self-sacrificing – even if he does have the emotional depth of a teaspoon. That’s our Won-Won!

Lightly metallic golden tan overlaid on a deep base of Gryffindor crimson. Lip-safe!

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

Personal Comments: In the sample bag this appears to be a deep brown-leaning red, but once I put it on my eyes over primer it looks like a lightly metallic bronze! It catches the light nicely, especially considering how deep the color is. No issues with this shade, it performed and blended well.

Purchase Link
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From the website: Pure of heart, guarded by love, master of Death, way too overpowered at Quidditch tho seriously that’s gotta stop

Pure smooth charcoal with Gryffindor-worthy sheen: a heart of warm red and bright flecks of gold. Lip-safe!

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

Personal Comments: Kristin's beautiful swatches make this look pretty opaque but when I was testing this out on my eyes, I found it to be only moderately pigmented, but buildable. The base color reads as charcoal to me and it's got a very subtle but lovely red sheen to it, though the sheen is tough to spot on my eye, especially after blending. The shadow is a little flighty while blending in general, and it took me a couple rounds of applying and blending out to get some depth to my outer v.

Purchase Link

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I did an eye look with the five shades:

To create this look, I started with Urban Decay Primer Potion and a base shadow in my skin tone.I used A Bit of Light Reading on the lid, That's Chess in the inner corner, If You've Got Enough Nerve on the lower lashline, and Dark and Light Inside Us plus The Boy Who Lived to deepen the outer v and outer lower lashline. Mascara, tightline, brow pencil, and a nude liner in my waterline to finish.

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That's the last of the eyeshadows in this collection! Stay tuned for a final post showing the lip and face products.

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Perfume Review: Solstice Scents Snowshoe Pass!

Purchased

The snow is drifting down outside my window and my thoughts are quickly turning from fall to winter perfumes. There's a lot of overlap in the cozy warm spices category, but I think of minty vanilla scents as solidly in the "winter" category, so I thought I'd review one of my old winter perfume favorites, Solstice Scents Snowshoe Pass. Kristin talked about the soap form of this scent last year, but I thought I'd revisit it since it should be coming into the Solstice Scents seasonal rotation soon!

Price: It's not up yet, but based on other seasonal scent prices, I assume it will be $15 for a 10 mL blue glass rollerball of perfume oil.
Samples: Should be available as part of a sample pack soon; prices generally work out to $2.80 a sample.
(More details about price and shipping can be found in our Company Overview post about Solstice Scents.)
Description from the website: "White Amber, White Musk, Vanilla Accord, Peppermint Cream, Cold Winds. A Best Seller! (Perfume, Ganache, Whipped Soap, Burnishing Glace, Sugared Amber Whipped Cleansing Scrub)."

Snowshoe Pass is a soft vanilla mint scent with a distinct, comforting muskiness. It smells very sweet and rounded to me, and I really like the fact that it doesn't smell sharp or biting, which mint scents and white musk scents can both have a tendency to do. It also doesn't come across as cloying to me, despite its sweetness; the creamy vanilla notes are tempered by a sort of pine woodsy, faintly animalic whiff that keeps it from smelling fully edible. The mint isn't too strong--it adds just a touch of freshness without being too overt.

It smells pillowy and sweet and comforting, like untoasted marshmallows, or if you were somehow able to subtract the cacao from a cup of mint hot chocolate--not the dark, rich, thick gourmet kind, but the powdered artificial stuff that gets a pale froth on top when you add hot milk, and yet is supremely comforting in the same lowbrow way as Kraft Mac and Cheese or a PB&J on white bread.

I only own a few full-sized perfumes from Solstice Scents, and this was one of them that I went after a full size of the moment I smelled the sample. (The others being Manor and Cenobite, RIP!) If you enjoy vanilla musk scents, I would personally recommend doing the same once it becomes available on the Solstice Scents site. This scent makes me want to curl up under a blanket with a cup of tea and watch the snow accumulate outside my window.

For other opinions, check out the Solstice Scents forums, Eye Heart It, Evolution of a Foodie, or Brightest Star of All.

Note: this scent is vegan.