BPAL Halloween Part II: Pickman Gallery

And here we have Part II of my massive Weenies haul from Deek's Decant.  If you missed it, you can check out Part I here.  Today we're getting in to the Pickman Gallery scents.  

As you can see, I ended up picking up six scents: A Witch Riding A Dragon, The Sorceress, The Witches Sabbath, Depart Pour Le Sabbat, La Femme De Satan and Portrait of an Unidentified Man as Mephistopheles, which is a mouth-full.  

BPAL Liliths and Halloween 2015 Part I

I went a little BPAL crazy this fall, I must admit. It wasn't my fault though. What was I supposed to do with ALL the Liliths AND the Weenies coming out all at once? I must say, I think I exercised quite a bit of restraint. There were at least a half a dozen other scents that I really wanted. The problem is I got so many scent this time that I'm breaking it into two separate posts. Today we're going to do the lone Black Phoenix Trading Post scent I picked up, the Liliths, the Weenies, and the Dead Leaves. 

This time my enabling was brought to you by Brittany of Deeks Decants. This was my first decant circle with her, and I've already gotten in on two more. She's easy to work with, answers any questions you have quickly, and I really like her labels. Along with the name of the scent and it's notes, the back features a mini picture of the label art. 

This one is Magnificent Autumn.

Haus of Gloi 2015 Fall Release

I know, I know. HoG Yule is out, and has been for awhile. So why the hell are we talking about Autumn? First it was I didn't want to talk about what I got because I shopped HoG for my exchange partner during IMAM's Fall Exchange. I didn't want her to see and guess all the fabulous and good smelling stuff coming her way. While I was shopping for her, I snagged Blood Orange Marshmallow, a Bubbling Scrub in Pumpkin Queen, and a Vanilla Nag Champa Butter Bomb. Then, I snagged a few more Autumn scents in swaps. So we are talking about Autumn now because it is technically still Autumn, so there. 

sixteen92 Winter 2015

Sooooo I would have had this up ages ago, but my allergies decided it would be fun if I couldn't breathe through my nose for 5 days straight.  Fun times.  It didn't help that USPS held my Circle shipment hostage for an extra week.  I can't say as I blame them, since it smelled amazing before I even opened the package.  Also, it worked out nicely in that they got here in time for me to test them out on my mom again.  This isn't her first sixteen92 experience.  After smelling it, she made me buy her a full size of Goody Proctor and I've given her at least three of my freebie samples.  I think she has Black Sugar and Grimm.  It's been awhile so don't quote me on that. 

My Circle shipment consisted of the five Winter perfumes and a preview sample from the upcoming Holiday Collection of Candy Cane Mocha.   I was really glad I got that one because I wondered how it compared to Peppermint Hot Chocolate. 

NAVAlloween Part I

I've wanted to try Nocturne Alchemy for a little bit, but I never got around to it.  Then I was lured in by another decant circle.  I like decant circles: I get to try new things without committing to full sizes.  Also instead of agonizing over the full catalog, it's like: "This is all you get and you only have X amount of time to pick shit.  Hurry up."  I need a deadline or I'll hem and haw for ages.  I missed out on the last NAVA circle, which had Gardenia Crimson.  When I saw this was up and "add ons are welcome, leave a note in the box!" on the form and that I could get Gardenia Crimson as a sample still, I was all in.  

Besides GC, I picked up Black Crystalline Fig, Cemetery Ivy, Graveyard Dirt, and White Zinfandel.

Arcana Halloween 2015

Gods all bless decant circles.  I really wanted to pick up All of the Things from Arcana's Halloween release, but I couldn't afford to splurge on full sizes.  Thankfully, Angi of Ajevie's Circles ran a decant circle so I could pick up Most of the Things.

sixteen92 Fall Bath & Body Mini Haul

I meant to have this one up weeks ago, but life has been crazy here.  I've been dealing with family drama, I have some of them staying with me for the next few weeks, and a little bit of depression brought on by the start of "Goddamn it's only 5pm and it's dark already" Season.   Things on the family scene have calmed down a little bit.  At least enough that I finally have time to work my way through the mountain of Fall stuff that I bought last month.    

So far I haven't spilled this one. *knock on wood*

I wasn't planning on picking up anything from the Fall Release.  That was because I forgot about the lotion only scents and the hair serum.  I'm still working my way through my Black Violet Detangling Spray; finding out Last Exit For the Lost was going to be one of the fall hair scents was what decided me.  I thought it may help me to finally use it up if I had some apple scented hair oil to use with it.  Along with the Supernatural Serum, I picked two minis so I could check out some lotion only scents. 

Poesie Perfume Dark & Stormy Collection

I just love this time of year when the mornings are always brisk and a little windy, it's bright yet cool, the air is crisp, and the leaves are just starting to consider falling. I call it Apple Weather because it feels like biting into one. Or maybe I'm just weird. The only thing better than when it starts feeling like fall is smelling like fall. When Poesie announced the release of their new Dark & Stormy Collection along with a $2 off sale of her sample packs, I was all in. 

I settled on Byronic Hero, Haunted Past, Sinister Light and I asked for The Abbey as my free sample. I placed my order on 9/15, it shipped on the 22nd, and arrived on the 24th. Pretty impressive.

Smelly Yeti Hellmouth Part 2 & Assorted Fallish Smelling Scents

Autumnal probably would have been a better descriptor, but we're doing Buffy scents and so I will use the Buffy Speak to describe all the things.  Plus, making up words is fun.

Pretty samples all in a row

Last month, I added this in to the Group Order where I picked up my Future Primitive goodies.  This time around, I opted for another five pack sampler of Gosh, Glorious, Inferno, Proserpine, Veronica, and received Dame It as my free sample.  

Future Primitive Soap Co.

I can't remember when I first heard about Future Primitive.  Most likely, it was as a listing in a swap thread.  I was intrigued, but the problem is Future Primitive is U.K. based.  Shipping can be a deal breaker for me with US companies;  Now add to that the cost of shipping a bunch of big bath and body care bottles across the Atlantic and you'll see why I never pulled the trigger.  Fortunately for me, I was able to get in on a group order.  

In case you're wondering what the heck a group order is, it's pretty much what it sounds like: a bunch of people will get together and place a big order at a shop.  It makes sense because you can split an otherwise prohibitively large shipping cost among a bunch of people so that it's more reasonable.   One person will collect all the monies from everyone, make an order, and then re-bag and ship everything out to all participants when it arrives.  No muss, no fuss (except maybe for the organizer who's mad nice enough to run the whole circus).  This one was run by Angi of Ajevie's Decants.  She seems (now that I'm paying attention) to do group orders from different shops every month or so,  along with her regular awesome decant services.

Haus of Gloi Ghost Puffs, Tobac, & Persephone's Descent

So remember when I made that joke about Haus of Gloi shopping being a full contact sport? Last Sunday, the Haus released Part 2 of their Autumn release. I was all set to do battle: I was already logged in and had the few things that I wanted that were still in stock preloaded into my cart. It took me less than ten minutes to sort through everything and load up my cart, and yet, by the time I hit checkout every scent I wanted in perfume oil samples, pumpkin butter, and whipped soap had sold out. 

I actually felt a little bruised after all of that. 

I did manage to pick up a few other things (and I'll post a review when they get here). I was lucky enough to find two of the samples I had wanted the most up for sale in IMAM's Sunday Swap thread last week. So in preparation for the restocks, I'm happy to give you my impressions of three more of the Autumn scents: Tobac (which I also had and forgot about), Ghost Puffs, and Persephone's Descent. You'll have to find your own helmet and sheild, though. 

Ten Three Labs Salve Sticks

For years and years and years Carmex was my favorite lip balm.  Carmex was my Bae.  My HG, My OTBalm, if you will.  Our love affair was long and storied, yet I dumped it like a bad habit after the first time I tried Ten Three Labs Salve Sticks.  

My OT3

At this point, I've gone through something like eight tubes since Cara opened her shop last year.  I think that I only lost one, and ended up giving one away because it smelled awful (pro tip: The warning that the scents that go into the Mystery Machine pack can be extremely odd and random is not there to be cute).  At first I thought I was just going to review my latest salve packs, but then I thought, fuck it.  The only one I've ever written up was The Bubbler; I ought to do all the other ones I've gotten since then.

Haus of Gloi Spider Silk & Pumpkin Patch

Or That Time Mel Bought Stuff In A Swap And Promptly Forgot All About It.

Aw, man don't do that!  I'm writing them up right now!

This is really bad. I've been working my way through my rather large sample collection to A) work up a review of my BPAL imps and B) get rid of the ones that don't really work well or last long on me. In sorting through and reorganizing everything, I found two Haus of Gloi scents from last autumn that I don't remember getting, and in Pumpkin Patch's case, was still taped up from shipping. I'm guessing I got them in a swap sometime last winter and just forgot all about them.  I figure since the Fall collection is out now, and with Part 2 of the Halloween Release coming up on the 27th, I may as well throw these up real quick.

Summer LE Round Up feat. Arcana, Haus of Gloi, and sixteen92

I know it's a little late to be talking about summer scents.  Everyone is - yours truly included - all about that pumpkin spice, and the Fall/Halloween collections are coming out of the woodwork.  But, except for like three days this week, it's still been scorching hot and not Pumpkin and Apple and Resin Weather around here.   I've been going back and forth about even posting reviews on these three.   Then it went from Sweater In the Morning Weather back to I'm Sweating After Only 2 Minutes Of Driving With the Windows Down Weather.  And I also decided to do this so I can talk about My Awesome Customer Service Experiences.  AND I'm wearing Piscis Australis again today.  So you get Reviews About Summer Stuff.  Dealwithit.gif.

MLBB Smackdown

This. This is why I started a spreadsheet to keep track of my collection.  I went through a period this summer where I thought to myself, "Self, we don't really have any good indie My Lip But Better options.  I should pick one up."  I then proceeded to go overboard because I have a terrible memory.

First I put in a Ten Three Labs order because I was down to one salve stick, and running out would be a disaster.  At the last second, I added Dump Truck to my cart (which I'd been eyeing since it's release) and checked out before I could change my mind yet again.   And I promptly forgot all about it.  

THEN, I found out KaeQ's Color of the Month for August was Herbology.  As it was a lovely looking nude that didn't seem like it would wash me out, I knew I had to have it.  Of course they arrived on the same day.  And they looked so similar in the packaging it was like Freaky Friday up in here.  

To make it even worse, I'd picked up a few of Life's Entropy's new mattes earlier this month, and guess what?  Yup, there was a pinky brown in there too!   Clearly, I need to do a better job of A) updating my collection's spreadsheet and B) actually checking it before I order stuff.  Now that I'm overflowing with mlbb options, the question is:  What to do with all of them?  I know!  Let's have a good ol' fashioned Three Way Death Match to see who'll reign supreme!

It's gonna be a slobberknocker, King!

Buckle up kids, because Business is about to pick up! 

sixteen92 Fall 2015 Collection

And here we have the other half of this Fall's Circle subscription.  The the theme for these five scents are Halloween.  What did I think of this collection?

Thanks tumblr.  You always have a perfect gif for my emotional state, no matter how complicated it is.

What the hell is all that about?  Well, follow along after the jump and see for yourselves....

Sixteen92 Halloween 2015

Today we're going to get into the Halloween part of this quarter's Circle release... because that's the bag I opened first.  The theme for these five perfumes is famous witches and goddesses of witchcraft.  Very appropriate inspiration for Halloween.  And also because I still maintain that Claire is so good at Perfuming because of Witchcraft.

Unless you're in the Illuminati like Smelly Yeti, I suppose.

Life's Entropy Matte Lip Theories

Life's Entropy recently reopened with a new line of Matte Lip Theories and two new eye shadows.  As soon as these were announced, I knew they would be mine.  I picked up Variable, DNE, and Fractal.

l to r: DNE, Variable, and Fractal

I really like these.  The formula is very liquidy, but dries to a light feeling formula on my lips.  Fractal felt a bit dry on my lips, but I'm not sure if it was just Fractal's formula or the fact that it was the last one I swatched and my lips were like "no more please and thank you!".  These are, maybe not kiss proof, but certainly kiss resistant.  Variable and DNE didn't come off at all when I kissed my hand and Son #2 while Fractal kissed off a little.  Despite kissing off, Fractal wore very well: I left it on after I finished swatching for another 4 hours through dinner, coffee, and good night kisses.  It didn't come off until I took it off with mineral oil, and it didn't stain as much as I thought it would.  It took a pass of a mineral oil soaked cotton ball and a bit of exfoliation with a microfiber rag (which I do every night anyway), but when I finished all traces of it were gone.  Now, with that said, on to the swatches!

sixteen92 Birthday Collection

Y'all already know, I'm a giant sixteen92 stan.  Of course I was gonna be all over the birthday collection.  And bonus, it's cake!  Who doesn't love cake?  Bad people, that's who.  I decided to pick up a sample pack of all five of the offered scents, along with the new Supernatural Hair Serum and Detangling Spray.    

KaeQ 2: Electric Boogaloo

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I made another KaeQ order this month in my continuing search for Bright Ass Summer Lip Colors.  I've been wearing the hell out of Mamey, but I still wanted an ORANGE orange.  After my last post, a few of you suggested I try I Mango.  I hadn't planned on ordering again so soon, but Nicole announced a 20% off Sale AND a green (!) beso, Aguataque, as July's Color of the Month.  While I was at it, I picked up a full size of Dragonfruit.

Tada!

Again, I am super impressed with KaeQ's Besos.  Mango and Dragonfruit are pigmented like whoa.  How pigmented, you ask?  While I was swatching, I kissed Son #2 all over his face with all 3 colors.  Normally, I can sort him out with just a baby wipe.  This time, I had to use Mineral Oil and then wash his face to get all of the lip prints off.  On my lips, Dragonfruit was the only one that stained.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's make with the swatching.

KaeQ

I've resisted ordering from KaeQ for ages. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted All The Things. The problem is I was in the middle of a Low Buy when Nicole opened up shop. It doesn't help that I'm a lipstick junkie. Considering the amount of lip products I already had, I could justify getting more... No matter how much I really wanted them.

I finally decided to take the plunge when KaeQ did their tandem 20% off sale with Baroque Cosmetics last month.  Plus, buying at one shop got you a coupon for the other. I ended up picking up two Besos and a Mielo balm.

Life's Entropy Animal Sanctuary

Next up in my Trying To Clear My Back Log of Reviews Series, I thought we'd talk about Life's Entropy Cosmetics.  Mostly because I found out that they are discontinuing part of their product line on July 1 to make room  for Exciting New Things.   According to LE's facebook page, the following are on the chopping block:

* ALL of the Animal Sanctuary Eyeshadows except: Just Kitten and Owl Always Love You
* ALL of the Secret Shop Eyeshadows except: Dismember, Exorcism, and Astral Imprisonment
* Yellow & Brown Foundation Elixirs
* Electron & Quark Particle Contour Sticks
* Alloy, Coralation (will be reformulated), Recursion, and Synapse Lip Theories

My first experience with LE was picking up a sample set of the Animal Sanctuary collection of eyeshadows, plus a sample of Smoke Screen in a swap I did ages and ages ago.  

Smelly Yeti Perfumery

TRIGGER WARNING:  Extreme amounts of Buffy fangirling, excessive gif-age, (crack) shipping, and crushes on fictional characters.

Normally I don't fall for a collection just because it's based on/inspired by/whatevered from a Thing That I Love.  But then Smelly Yeti came out with a collection of Buffy themed perfumes and I was like "Yes please."  In my defense, everyone on IMAM was like "Ooh Smelly Yeti is awesome.  You need it.  You're a giant sucker, Mel.  Do it.  BUY IT."   So I rolled for save vs impulse buy and got a 1.  (I'm also a bit of a D&D nerd.  I'm sure this is info you needed).  Also, Buffy perfumes are much easier to justify than an eyeshadow collection, because I don't have quite so many.  Yet.

sixteen92 Summer Collection

sixteen92 just released their Summer Collection, which consists of five scents based on the Jazz Age.  I was lucky enough to get in on the Circle, sixteen92's annual subscription box. For $85 you get first crack at a sample size of all of the new collections for the next year, and a coupon for 30% a full size item from that release.  Of course it sold out in seconds.    The only hiccups I had were thanks to USPS.  It sat in a limbo somewhere in Texas for about a week.  At least it didn't show up in a box that was dented to hell like my poor Blackbird order did (and I promise I'll have a review of that coming up soonish).  When it finally did arrive, inside of the mailer I found a beautiful card with my coupon on one side and the scent notes on the reverse.

sixteen92 Spring Collection

*Picks up blog and blows the dust off of it*

Hey everyone.  I apologize for the lack of updates.  It's not that I haven't had things to post about (I sort of went crazy and Bought All The Things for my birthday back in March).  I've been scarce around these parts because my laptop died.  I've been using the Old Man's, which worked fine for us... until he got crazy busy with work.  Things have slowed down a bit, so fingers crossed that he won't be pulling anymore Gone At Dawn & Home Around 10pm shifts for awhile.  

Now that that's out of the way, on to the good stuff!  

That's these guys.

If you've been following along, then y'all should know by now I'm a huge sixteen92 fan.  They're my first and favorite indie perfumery.  With like maybe 2 exceptions, I've loved every scent I've tried from them.  The Spring Release continues the tradition of blowing me away.

Jordana Modern Matte Lipsticks

Hey y'all.  I'd like to say that I haven't updated in awhile because life got crazy and I was off being a Responsible Adult.  What really happened was I made the mistake of downloading a Pokemon LeafGreen rom.  That and my skin went crazy, so I haven't been playing with my makeup as much, which gave me more time to work on leveling up my squad, and it turned into a vicious PokeCycle of slacking off.  Now that I've finally managed to hit on a new skincare routine that's working, I figure it's time to get down to business.

Ok but we're talking about makeup, not fighting the huns.

Kheimistrii

Kheimistrii is a newish bath and body shop on Etsy.  It'd been on my radar for a little while, but I finally decided to take the plunge during her big New Year's sale.  It's a good thing I waited for the sale because I ended up hauling quite a bit.  I settled on a bar of the Ginger Glace Handmade soap and 2 oz samples of the Whip'd Body Wash in Sleepy Hollow, the Macademia Body Souffle in Dreamcatcher, the Sugar Exfoliant in Cimmerian, and the Body Butter Cream and Bubbling Scrub in Ultra Violet.  I also received a free sample of perfume oil in Kyoto.  

All my goodies, fresh out the box

Kheimistrii shipped lightening fast.  After several days worth of dithering over sizes and types of lotion, I placed my order on January 10th, and it showed up on my doorstep on the 15th.  The shipping costs were pretty reasonable too: she uses USPS Flat rate packaging.  Orders that fit into a padded envelope or small box are $5.95 and medium is $10.  

sixteen92 Winter Haul

When Claire announced she was releasing a line of winter scents, including a hot chocolate themed line, I was all in.   I jumped on the whole collection the day it came out in November.  Why am I just now talking about it?  Because I'm super lazy No idea.  Things happen.  Yeah.  Right.  Anyrate. 

I'd received a preview sample of Ex Tenebris Lux and Mexican Hot Chocolate with my previous order, so I opted to buy full sizes of Ex Tenebris Lux, Peppermint Hot Chocolate (I had it in lotion form already) and Toasted Marshmallow (after listening to everyone fall in love with it on IMAM) as well as blind buying a full size of Hellebore and samples of everything else.  Claire was sweet enough to upgrade my sample of Red Velvet Hot Chocolate to a full size bottle in lieu of a free sample this time around.

Quickie: L'Oreal Infallible Pro Matte

I absolutely was not going to try this foundation.  This soon anyway.  I was interested in it, every Youtube blogger I follow has been raving about it, but I never thought I'd get my hands on it.  It's almost impossible to find swatches in my color range, most people have been reporting that anything darker than Classic Tan was hard to find and seeing how it's pretty expensive for a drugstore product at $12.99 to $14.99, I thought I'd pass for a little while.  Plus I already have way too damn many foundations as it is.  

That was until last night.  I was out running errands and ended up stopping at a Rite Aid to pick up a few odds and ends for my skincare routine.  Lo and Behold, there was a full display.  And L'Oreal was Buy 1 Get 1 50% off.  AND there was a manufacturer coupon on the display for $1 off one product or $4 off two.  Clearly, it was a sign that I needed to buy it now.

Quickie: Blackbird Cosmetics Skulpting Powders

I feel bad.  I've had, loved, and been wearing all twenty of Blackbird Cosmetics matte eyeshadows for months.  They're my favorite matte eyeshadow formula hands down.  I don't know why I haven't bothered to review them yet. (spoiler alert: you need them).   I keep meaning to and telling myself that I'll get to it someday soon.

Aaaaand today is still not that day.  When Maleah, the super awesome force behind Blackbird Cosmetics, announced she was coming out with a line of six(!) contour powders, I was extremely excited.  I finally placed an order last week and they just got here in the mail today.  I can never resist playing with my new things, so I thought I'd do a quick swatch post.  Mostly because I'd already swatched them on my arm.