Haus of Gloi Birthday

Recently, Haus of Gloi celebrated their seventh birthday. To mark the occasion, they came out with a collection of scents that all have Haus Amber as their base. For whatever reason, I'd never gotten around to trying Haus Amber, but I'd heard good things about it. I hadn't made an HoG order in awhile and I decided to treat myself to one of the 7 Birthday Ambers, a sample of Haus Amber to compare it too, and while I was at it, I picked up the only thing I was interested in from the Spring release, A Place In Space.

sixteen92 Summer 2016

Here we are with the first of this year's Circle releases, the Summer Collection.  This time around, the theme was 90's Girl Rock and Riot Grrrrl bands.  You guys don't even know how excited I was for this.  I didn't get very deep into the Riot Grrrl scene, but I had a close personal relationship with Tori Amos and Under the Pink,  It's one of those rare albums where I can't tell you the names of most of the songs because I put it on and I have to listen to the whole thing.  In order.  Tidal on the other hand is the CD I listened to when boys were stupid, or when I had a Sad or when I had a shit day at work and decided to soak in the tub with a pint of B&J and a plastic crown on my head.  To say that I was excited for this collection is like saying mountains are big.

I would have had this done awhile ago, but then I had An Idea.  The day I got these in the mail, my mom was over.  She immediately realized that the mailer on my desk had perfume in it and was like "I wanna try it.  No it doesn't need to rest, open it now, I wanna see!"  She initially tried Bruise Violet and Shadowboxer.  I decided to wait for her next visit and then make her try the rest, because, as always, her reactions were hilarious.

sixteen92 Spring 2016

I should probably have picked a more seasonally appropriate backdrop.

And thus have we come full circle with our 2015 Circle subscribtion.  Yeah, that was terrible, but I couldn't help myself.  Terrible puns not withstanding, the Spring Collection marks the end of this edition of sixteen92's The Circle subscription service.   This time around, the theme was Women of Shakespeare.  On top of that, being the last one, this shipment also included the promised Circle exclusive scent, All the World's A Stage.  

BPAL Crimson Peak

BPAL came out with a line of fragrances, polishes, and over at BPTP room sprays inspired by the movie Crimson Peak.  Scents inspired by a gothic broody ghost story with Tom Hiddleston's fine ass and Mia Wasikowska looking all blonde and ethereal?  Uh yes please.  I ended up getting in on the decant circle over at Deek's Decants because there were at least a dozen that sounded like they'd be right up my alley and -it being a limited edition collection-  full size 5 ml bottles are $30 a piece.   Sadly, I've yet to secure the services of a Perfume Sugar Daddy (if you're interested in the position, please send all inquiries to scentsandsensibilitiesblog@gmail.com), so I whittled my final list down to seven. I've had them for awhile now and I'm just getting around to testing them out.  Which was a really silly move on my part.  Spoiler alert: these were awesome.  

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.

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.  

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. 

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.

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.

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.    

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.