December and January Favorites

I was going to do individual favorites for each of these months, but they were rather busy and I was trying to rotate my makeup collection, so I didn't have a chance to figure out what fun products I was reaching for. Also, I initially published this on time, and accidentally reverted it back to a draft.

Old Spice Deodorant Wolfthorn- It really works better for me, and it doesn't smell musky like a lot of male deodorants do. In fact, you could probably find a scent dupe in the ladies section, it's just more difficult than I am willing to do because I 

A) prefer the Old Spice formula to the other deodorants I have tried 

B) Unlike lady deodorants, instead of telling you what it is supposed to smell like- they give it a dumb name like Wolfthorn because apparently men can't handle being told they smell like citrus fruit. 

Still hoping to switch over to a natural deodorant, but that is a problem for another day.

Clinique Moisture Surge Moisturizer-

This is such a good moisturizer, it absorbs quickly and feels very lightweight on the skin but also incredibly hydrating as well. It's one of the products where I put it on and I know it's actually doing something good. That is a good quality to have in a moisturizer because it is important to keep in your routine and having it seem like it works from the moment you put it on is rather motivating to my lazy self.



Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush-
To be fair I have only tried the one coral colored blush, but I specifically chose it because I use coral blushes regularly. The texture of this is very interesting, I hear a lot of people complain about pigmentation but this particular color at least works great for me, it blends well and doesn't stain so it is the perfect product to apply with just your hands. I no longer apply blushes with my hands as I have a few blush brushes, but when I was first learning about blush having a product I could use my hands with really helped out.

Organic Skin Shop Teeth Whitening Treatment- It is totally terrifying to put this black stuff onto your mouth for the first time, but it really works and it leaves my teeth feeling cleaner than when I usually brush them. Once you realize that your teeth aren't actually ruined forever, it's kind of fun to see the black on your teeth, and it doesn't taste bad at all (coming from a girl who hates 95% of veggies). A++ to Organic Skin Shop for making a $3.75 product that is unique, effective, and all natural.

Geek Chic Cosmetics Power Up Primer- I can tell you it is the best indie primer I have ever tried, but that is because it is currently the only indie primer I have ever tried. Regardless, a little goes a long way and it is a wonderful sticky base for loose pigments. It takes a lot less time to use than the Lock and Seal from Elf which, given my growing collection of indie shadows, is useful for everyday makeup application.






Larenim Pressed Mineral Foundation- Now that I have a buffing brush I cannot tell you how much faster this has made my mornings go. Because it is in a compact it can easily be transported and applied on-the-go without all the mess of a loose foundation, but the buffing brush keeps it from going on too heavy which is a hazard with the included sponge.
 I really like the way Larenim's foundation sits on my skin, and when I'm running late is acts as an oil-absorbing powder and a CC cream. The only downside is that, like all mineral foundations, it really doesn't have a lot of staying power without a primer. 

Notoriously Morbid Mini Review

To review for you today I have 1 blush and several eye shadows from Notoriously Morbid. They are a well-known indie company, I have yet to hear anything bad about them, and their themes tend to be dark and/or geeky.

This is not a review of all their products by any means, this is a very well established brand with a ton of different things to try including many more blushes, eyeshadows, a nail polish, lip glosses, balms, and tints, as well as a subscription service.

I have heard nothing but good things about their Coffin Kissers, and hope to eventually try those out if my lip product stash ever gets down to a reasonable size.

I purchased the Beauty Blogger Pack, so I did technically get these products discounted for review. I was able to choose if I wanted a full size blush or eyeshadow, but was otherwise unable to choose what I got. Still, I have to say I am incredibly pleased with what was picked out for me, and she threw in two mini jars for free, which is not something she had to do by any means.

Shipping and Packaging

I ordered on December 7th, my package shipped January 12th. That might seem like a long time, but it was the holiday season after being bogged down with Black Friday orders.

Inside of the bubble mailer, everything was nicely packed inside this plastic bag, which I like to see in the winter because it so wet and rainy. I like to know my products are extra safe.

Quality: Well distributed shimmer, good pigmentation. The color does not last very long without a primer, but there is not quite as drastic of a color difference between the product with and without primer as I often see in loose shimmer shadows, which to me says that these are high quality.

Appearance: The photos on the website do sometimes differ from what I saw in person, but this happens frequently with indies because of how hard it can be to photograph these things. What I did really like was that what I saw in my jar or my baggie was generally the same as how it appeared in my swatches, which is almost more important.

Price and Jar Sizes: Sample baggies are $1.25 each, a little more expensive than some other brands but completely fair. It is a lot of work to measure out, fill, and create separate labels for sample baggies. She does mini jars (the best thing ever when you are an indie junkie) for $2.75, and full size jars for $5.50

Customer Service: Did not have to contact.

 To the left you can see the two eyeshadow petite jars, one full size blush, and 5 eyeshadow sample baggies I recieved. I like that only one of my jars is black, as I prefer completely clear jars so that I can easily see what color everything is.

The eyeshadows have nice labels, with ingredients and the shade name on the back, the blush is lacking in a front label, but since it isn't a part of a fandom collection I like being able to see the color of the product from the top of the jar more than I care about a pretty label. I am a huge sucker for cute labels.

Top to Bottom, Cermet and Paesh, Shadow of Things, Stripper Zombie.

Now, this is a color range that I personally don't wear very often, but they are so gorgeous I will definitely try and create some looks with these.

Top to Bottom, Visions, Mother and Earth, Goblet of Red.

These were my favorite colors out of the set, probably partially because they are very fall-like. I went back and ordered a full size of Visions. It isn't quite as pale as I expected it to be, but it is a pretty gold leaning orange with just a hint of green, a very wearable non-coppery orange color.

Top to bottom, Goodbye Sweetie, Grand Oracle Blush.

Goodbye Sweetie is very interesting, because in the baggie it looks white, however, it goes on very sheer but has the strong golden sheen you see in the picture. I think it would almost make a better highlight than it does an eyeshadow.

The Grand Oracle blush is a matte purple color. I've had purple blushes before, but none of them have been matte. This is a much sheerer blush than I was expecting, I had to build up a good couple of layers to get this image, but that might actually be good in a purple blush.








Overall: long TAT, but very upfront about it. Quality products, fairly easy to navigate website, I had a great experience and will most definitely be shopping there again. This brand has earned its reputation.

My only possible complaint is that I don't know what the labels on the jars look like, or if it is typical for her to use custom label art on the minis or not. I know a lot of indies won't because it is expensive, but if anyone does there is a 95% chance they will have my business for life.

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy January Subscription Review

So I was super excited to get a slot in this subscription, her collections are right up my alley and her colors and quality are gorgeous. My sub box shipped quickly, I think I made it into the very first shipment session this month. I've actually had it for a couple of days and am just now getting around to swatching all the colors. I'm still not perfect when it comes to swatches, but I think all of these came out true-to-color for me.

With shipping, her deluxe sample size sub ran about 13$ for me, which is very affordable and still more eye shadow than I think I will ever use. I will use almost all the shadow samples given to me, and the actual value of the products in the box is conservatively 20$ retail without shipping.

 For the record, my Live or Die sample came in a clamshell, but I transferred it over to an empty jar I had because I was so excited about it. I was dying over this collection, and this is one of my favorite colors in it.

Also, looking at other reviews, the samples given varied from box to box though the collections were the same.

Left to right, Magestic Life, Wintertide, Flaming Antidote

 Magestic Life it an accurate swatch, it's just a pretty slightly muted golden color, Wintertide has a lot of extra shimmer that I don't think this swatch does justice to. It is just incredibly sparkly and really says January to me.

Flaming Antidote has a slightly more hot pink shimmer tome than I think appears in the photo.

Top to bottom, Illusionary Stars, Breathtaking
Wonders, Splendor of Life

I was drooling over Illusionary Stars on their website a couple of days ago, so super excited about this sample. All these swatches are done over the Elf Primer because its better than bare skin, dirt cheap, and most people will get the same look or better with whatever primer they make use of. However, Illusionary Stars is one I think would benefit from a glitter glue or foiling medium. It looks a lot more blue in the jar (I admittedly got distracted just staring at how beautiful it was) but I'm actually glad it swatches a little less blue and glittery, because it ends up being a bit more wearable for the average person.

Top to bottom, Chibiusa (Rini) from Victorian Disco
, Copper (Cu) from Mad Lab Cosmetics, and
Thoughts are Stars from Beauty For The Win

Finally, we have the last three swatches, which are from other companies. One of the Sailor Scout Collection shadows from Victorian Disco (who is now being distributed by Shiro, for those concerned about previous issues), it is one of the colors I probably wear the most, but I am passing it on to a friend because she loves Sailor Moon. It is a very classic pale pink with a white shimmer.

Copper is from the metallurgy collection at Mad Lab Cosmetics (5% off your order with the code EXPERIMENT), it is a very true bright copper color, a little more shimmery than the actual metal, but it's pretty cool. In real life, this is the least shimmery color.

Thoughts are Stars from Beauty For The Win is my personal favorite sample out of all of them, I am a huge sucker for incredibly sparkly silvers.This is a silver base with silver glitter, so it isn't particularly complex, but it is gorgeous.


Final Thoughts/ TL;DR

Colors: Gorgeous and high quality, I think some shades would benefit from a better primer, but I don't expect anything else from such complex and beautiful loose eyeshadows. Added bonus, having browsed through her catalog most of them seem to be easily wearable gorgeous colors.

Brand: I've heard nothing but good things about this brand, and if you are into horror or darker pop culture the collections will be right up your alley. She does a lot of anime style label art and I've heard that in the past she's done other anime/manga themed collections as well.

Packaging: Everything came well packed and completely labeled with all the associated labels not just the ingredients. There was a packing slip, hand written with a nice note.

Shipping: My shipping was super fast, but this is also for a sub box and not a traditional order. Non-subscription orders do have a 2 week+ turn around time at the moment, but that is pretty standard for a lot of independent companies

Subscription Thoughts: I love getting to test out new indies in my subscriptions, I love the collections Innocent + Twisted Alchemy has, and I was so surprised that the value was there as well. This month I paid $13 for $20+ dollars worth of product.

January Birchbox Unboxing

 Well, according to the Birchbox sneak peak video, every month will now have pretty boxes which the subscribers are supposed to save. I am very pleased with the announcement of having all pretty boxes, and I will definitely try and get my life a little more organized.

The theme for this month is Let's Do This, because it is of course New Year's Resolution time, you know, those things everyone quits by February.

 The initial opening of the box, this is what it looked like.

 Disappointingly enough, the first thing I got was a face cleanser. I don't use a lot of cleansers on my face, and I don't like trying a bunch of different ones because I worry about allergies. When it comes to cosmetics I don't generally have issues, however, my skin is very sensitive to cleansers for some reason.







Next is a BB cream sample. I've gotten a few things from Dr.Jart and I can tell you I haven't liked a single one of them. The color matched my skin tone nicely and everything, but I don't use BB creams.










I was super excited about the brand and the product (I am a lotion addict), but I'm kind of meh about the scent of lavender. I will be passing this on to a friend of mine who is in love with the scent.

 Harvey Prince was the company that gave me faith in perfume, and it does smell good, but it comes across as a very elegant perfume, which is just not something I'm that interested in.

Savor the delicate notes of South African Freesia, Japanese Orange flower, and Moroccan rose – it’s like sipping a sweet, Alsatian wine in the light of the sun! 

I will also be passing this on to a friend who will use it more than I will. 

 Finally, colored eyeliner. It sets up nicely, smudges very little and is a beautiful antiqued gold color.  The swatch doesn't do it justice, but I tried.  I love getting colored eyeliner in sub boxes because I can never bring myself to actually buy them, and it is a great way to try out different eyeliner brands. If I like the quality in lime green, there is a 99% chance I'm going to like it in black too.




Overall, not sure this box actually has much personal value to me. It was a well intentioned box, I was very excited about almost all of the brands, but nothing really worked out for me. The full sized eyeliner runs for 11$, and it isn't the full size. I would pay 5$ for it I guess?

Be A Bombshell: The One Stick

I've acquired three of these in different colors over the past several months, and while there is some controversy about the actual quality of BaB products, I've yet to have any worrying quality issues with them myself. I have tried a few other products from this brand, and I do honestly feel they are overpriced. If I find a nice dupe for these from an indie company, I would gladly replace them. Usually, The One Stick retails for 16$, however they do occasionally go on clearance or on sale for 5$ a piece, which I feel is a fair price.

The image for the Flustered
The One Stick from BaB's website

I love the packaging of this product, I think it is the most practically packaged all-over-face stick that I have seen (though the lids are a little loose, so be careful about that). Most of the cheek/ all-over-face sticks I have seen are very large, which makes it difficult to use them on the lips even if you wanted to. The One Stick looks like it's going to be large, but the actual opening that the product comes out of is just a little bit larger than your typical chapstick, which makes it a lot easier to use on the lips and not just on the cheeks.


The texture of the product tends to be pretty gooey and creamy, it's a little strange and requires blending especially for the cheeks and eyes. The shimmery shades are the creamiest, and the darker shades seem to have better pigmentation than the lighter shades. On the lips the product is not moisturizing, but not particularly drying either, it doesn't bleed, but it is something you will notice that you are wearing.

These are the swatches of the colors, under my fake lighting the swatches look a lot more like their description than they do in real life. Girl Crush is intended to be a shimmery pale pink, in person though it has a vaguely purple hue to it, but I actually really like the color when I want a subtle purpley blush.

Flustered was described as a bright hot pink, but in the tube and in person swatches more as a true red with gold sparkles. I checked the label on it twice and even checked the site for any other color that might have matched with this one, but it appears to genuinely be what they see as hot pink.



Sunset was another one of my favorites, it looks very orangey here but in person it is more of a muted red, with some orange tones. After this you will get the opportunity to see embarrassing face swatches of each one, having put each color on my eyes, lips, and cheeks at the same time. These are all just iPhone photos, but hey, at least you'll know what its going to look like in your selfie!

Flustered- least favorite, weird texture,
terrible on the eyelids, pretty strong on
the cheeks.

Girl Crush- unique color, personal favorite
for use on cheeks. Lacks pigmentation elsewhere

Sunset- most versatile, the one color I actually felt relatively
comfortable putting on my entire face

An Update On the Influenster Products

**I received these products for free in my Influenster Frosty Vox Box. This will not change my review in any way**

This is just an update on the products I'm not willing to make a full post on, any other products I don't review have been saved for another post.

Ecotools Sleek and Shine Finishing Hair Brush ($9.99)

My hair does feel softer after using this, but that might be because I used two hairbrushes to brush my hair. This is a finishing hairbrush, and I do own another finishing hairbrush, but I almost never use it.

The thing about finishing brushes is that unless you have very fine hair, it just sits on top of your head and only brushes the top layer. So, whenever I use a finishing hair brush I have to brush my hair first with a regular brush and then use the finishing brush. That is usually way too much work for me, but since it is Christmas break I used it for 4 days.

However, I don't know if I would even recommend this to people with fine hair because the bristles are very scratchy feeling on the skin, I specifically pinned up a layer of my hair to test this, it also feels the same way on my wrist from when I accidentally ran the brush over my wrist while brushing my hair. They do say that you can use it on wet hair and that it will dry your hair 20% faster. I think it did absorb some moisture, but didn't brush very well, I would still just stick with my wide toothed comb.

NYC Expert Last Lipstick in Sugar Plum

This is just a lipstick, having put it on I wouldn't say it lasts particularly long, at least not to me. Regardless, I was most interested in the color. It reminds me a lot of Marsala (the 2015 Pantone Color of the Year), and has a metallic finish.

 I'm not entirely sure why they chose this color to be called "sugar plum", as I was expecting sugar plum to be a more purple type of color. However I did look up what a sugar plum was and apparently it was just a type of hard candy made with fruits, nuts, seeds, or spices.

Also, it is nearly impossible to find a price at an online retailer. In England it apparently costs approximately $3, so going by that price I think if you are looking to be on trend for cheap, this is a good option.

20 tea bags looks to cost on average 20$ online. 

Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane Tea
I've got a pretty nasty cold over here. What better time to taste test my tea? Personally, even though I got my box in mid-December, it seems a little late to be giving out candy cane tea. If you want people to review the product and influence others to buy a whole box, you might want to get the box to everyone in November.

It tastes exactly like a candy cane but without the sugar and in hot liquid form, which was strange. If you are really into candy canes or a fan of mint tea who is looking for a holiday twist, wait until December of next year and see if it's still around.

January Julep Unboxing

This month the Mavens got a special offer to get a free metamorphic top coat in January's box. This is a maven perk for people who were already signed up for Julep's subscription service. I was very pleased with my box this month, I didn't really settle at all, I am very excited about and have a use for everything in my box.

In the corner there are little junior mints, which I am excited about.

 The first thing I got was this Oxygen Nail Treatment, it shines up your nails, gives them a sheer coat of color, and is supposed to moisturize and strengthen them.

I've never tried anything like this, but I am kind of impressed. It is very shiny and has dried very quickly. My only complaint is that it chips relatively easily, but I will continue to test it and see if it does anything good for my nails (something that will justify the price tag).

 Then I got their Luxe Lip Conditioning Treatment in sheer pink. It is a new product that is supposed to moisturize the lips, give a sheer wash of color, sparkle and shine, and the tip is supposed to instantly improve circulation because it is made out of copper, zinc, and aluminum (called Zamac)

The pigmentation is absolutely terrible, this can't even be called a sheer wash of color, however, the sparkle and shine is true and it seems moisturizing enough for me. However, the major selling point on this for me is that it is very shiny and glossy without feeling sticky at all, so if you hate how stickly lip gloss feels, try this.

 Margit- the nail polish. This is a gift for a friend's mother as she has been very good to me in the past, so it isn't swatched or anything.

 Finally, the metamorphic top coat. I was super excited to try this. Mine came in the color Tilda and I will show you some swatches so you can see how it is.

 On my thumb, you can see the sort of green shift and microglitter in the top coat on it's own.

I then used one coat of four different colors on each of my fingers. It says it is meant for all polish colors, so I wanted to see if it would improve a large enough range of colors that I think this is a reasonable claim.

I understand the need to advertise it that way, but I think for a little bit more honesty some tips on how to maximize the beauty of your top coat would have been nice (ex; try it on dark colors). I think doing things like that adds a level of transparency to the company without seeming unprofessional or failing to promote the product.



Of course, that's also why reviewers who can talk about products and give out both pros and cons are so important.

Anyway, off of my tangent: I used one coat of a dark cream finish polish, a light microglitter polish, a light cream (although it does have a little metallic sheen) color, and a dark microglitter color.

Here are the finished results, with one coat of the metamorphic polish. It did the most on the cream finish colors, made the colors seem more vibrant and added some dimension. I feel the effects of the top coat were drowned out in the microglitter poishes, and that it looked best on the dark green.

My reccomendations would be to use this on darker cream finish colors for best results. However, it might also help to consider the undertones of your polish so that the glitter shift compliments the color your are using on your nails.