Innocent and Twisted Alchemy March 2015 Subscription

This is a little late in being posted because I forgot my nice camera at school (we were turning two years worth of independent art study). I was however rather impatient, so a few of these photos are just cell phone quality, sorry about that.

 To the left is the little bag which everything came packed in. It is adorable and sealed with bear tape and says "Especially for you". On the other side, it is pink stripes! Pink is my favorite color, so I was very pleased.



Also, if you were wondering why I didn't review last month's its because I forgot I hadn't purchased a recurring subscription so I was waiting for weeks all excited about getting my bag only to realize I wasn't going to because user error.  I have remedied that now.

 Above is everything laid out all together to show you the contents of the previously displayed bag. This month's collection was based on Mirror's Edge, which is a game I do not play so I can't tell you much more than that. This month includes samples from My Pretty Zombie, Corvus Cosmetics, Brija Cosmetics, Darling Girl and Detrivore Cosmetics. I had a ridiculous amount of trouble photographing the other side of the full colored drawing of Faith (the game's main character) which explains all of these things and tells you what you get in better depth.

Apparently Corvus Cosmetics and Darling Girl Cosmetics created special shades just for the Alchemist's box, and Linda has a speed drawing video of her making this month's image here.


First I thought I would show off the shadows from this month's collection, and then do the samples. The jars came packed full and sealed with colorful tape that matched the color that were supposed to be represented in the game (apparently minus red).










This is the yellow jar, but as you can see, the color is not yellow, so that was a bit confusing as the others matched. This color is called Leap of Faith. It's a gorgeous silver though, it has a very slight green shift to it and it applies nicely even without a primer.





This is the orange (Critical Objective), it is a carrot shimmery orange color. I was worried about how this would turn out, but it looks really pretty.






The blue shadow is labeled Runner Vision. It looks like a royal blue matte base with some interspersed shimmer. This is the only shadow I have a legitimate complaint about as it had a rather patchy application.




Finally, all three of them are swatched on one hand. I was trying to redeem the blue a little bit, and so I ended up not grabbing all the shimmer in the orange, and not showing off the prettiness of the silver.

 The top left swatch is The Shard by Corvus Cosmetics. I am in love with how complex and beautiful it is.

The Boy Who Lived by Brija Cosmetics is the far right swatch, it is a very pretty antiqued gold. It is not only a part of their permanent line, but also Harry Potter themed. I am actually slightly disappointed I did not get a sticker with their logo on it, because they have the prettiest company logo I have ever seen.

 The bottom swatch is Celery and Bile by My Pretty Zombie (more on it below). It is a pale green with a gold sheen.

Celery and Bile by My Pretty Zombie. It is a very pretty pale green with a golden shimmer, but the name kind of skeezes me out. Now to be fair, all things bodily, unpleasant and questionable is the entire premise of the company, and if they had an eyeshadow named Anxiety or ADD a package would already be on its way to my house. My mental illness struggles are a part of me and help to define me but they are not all of me, and makeup and beauty follows in the same vein.

Anyway, the left swatch is with primer, and the right swatch is one bare skin. I'm going to actually play with this as a highlight.

Finally, Nymph and Adorned. Nymph is the top swatch and is a matte and slightly purple red. Adorned though, which I initially thought was purple is more of a sparkly old brick color.

Cost, Value, and Personal Value 

The Subscription itself costs 12$ including shipping for the Deluxe Size subscription (which I have). Each jar of the month's collection is labeled with an exclusive monthly label that was hand drawn by the shop owner herself. It includes samples from various indie companies which vary from month to month. 

This also came with a 30% of i+ta cupon code, a 15% DG code (I have been considering a purchase for a long time and took this as a sign from the universe I needed to purchase from them), and a 15% off code from Brija Cosmetics. So keep that in mind as well. These are price estimates based ONLY on the amount of product you get from each company, this does not consider that some shades are LE or come with discount codes or come in special packaging

3 eyeshadow samples from i+ta cost 3$ each (we get jars in the subscription, which are more expensive). That means these three shades would cost 9$ at least.

A petite jar from DG costs 2.50$ 

The sample baggie of The Boy Who Lived costs 1.25$

A sample baggie from Corvus cost 1.50$

Finally the samples from Detrivore costs 1$

Total value: 15.25$ which is 3.25$ more than what you paid for, not including shipping. 

For me personally, I won't use Runner Vision, and I probably wouldn't have bought Adorned or Nymph, but we'll count Adorned because of the coupon code. That works out to being a personal value of  11.25$ which is .75$ less than the cost of the box, and I didn't have to pay shipping which would have cost more than seventy-five cents. 

The value is there, the quality is there, I get to try indies from several different companies for even cheaper than they already are, I love the themes of this brand even if I can't personally relate to this one, and it's not nearly as competitive as other indie subs. This month I think all the subs sold out in 12 hours, but I came in 7 hours after release time and still managed to get one. A lot of subs sell out in under ten minutes. 

Show Us Your Eyeliners!- OBT Prompt #1

"This week's prompt from OBT network is 'show us your stash of eyeliners'!  Our Beauty Talk is a beauty forum community where we talk about subscription boxes, beauty skincare and more!"

As a part of OBT's Blog Network I will do my best to participate in these prompts at least half the time. So, without further ado, the picture to your left is all of my eyeliners. I'm going to break them down by category and swatch them all for you. 

Urban Decay's Black Magic Collection

 I swear I own these just for swatching sometimes, because they get swatched more often than actually worn.  This set I think is no longer available but they make other sets which are an easy way to try out this product and get multiple colors to use for a good price. 




 Each two swatches are their own pencil, because the Black Magic collection is a set of dual ended pencils.

Left to right, Demolition and Zero, Smoke and Black Velvet, Tornado and Black Market, LSD and Perversion

Colored Eyeliners

Starlooks Olive Green, Mally Beauty in Pink, Julep Eye Glider in Smokey Taupe Shimmer, Sumita in Gold, Pacifica in Silver and Brown. I'm hoping to find a better silver and gold one, the brown pencil does its job for the time being, the pink is a good quality because it is an eyeliner I use often which I have been meaning to test out in my waterline, and the olive green and smokey taupe shimmer are just very unique colors I received from subscription boxes. If I could buy a box that just sent me pretty colored eyeliners from different brands, I would subscribe for at least a few months because I like to pretend I am too frugal to buy weird eyeliners for myself. 

Glitter Liners

You may remember these from my Jcat Beauty post a while back. I think I like them more now than I did then, so I'm glad I kept them around. 

Compared to my original swatches these have become much more vibrant as they have settled.

Elf Eyeliners

sharpener top

Brightening Eyeliner
Shimmer Black Eyeliner
Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

I have a few of these, and given how cheap they are, I thought people might care to know how much quality you get out of such a small price tag. The answer is that these are okay and will function in a pinch.  

What I will say I enjoy though is the sharpener on top of the pencil liners, it is absolutely brilliant. 

Below are the swatches, the first two are of the glitter black liner to try and capture any sort of shimmer (there is none). The second one is the brightening liner, and the third is the waterproof liner pen.

  The brightening liner is nice to have around, I use it for marking off my brows when I shape them, on the lower lash line, and for highlighting my cupid's bow, but I will be looking for better in the future.






Finally, the waterproof eyeliner pen. I've had it for a few months, it is starting to dry out. Also it isn't waterproof, it isn't even smudge proof.  The left image is the result of me rubbing my finger over it a few times. It both flakes and smudges, which I find odd because it is usually only one or the other. 

All My Other Black Liners

Here is the pile of the rest of my eyeliners, including my one gel eyeliner and the swankie silicone brush I use to apply it. 

You may see the edges of other lines on the top portion of my swatch photo, that is because I labeled them with corresponding letters as my own personal cheat sheet for writing this post. 

Left to right; Hourglass eyeliner, Maybelline Master Precise, Benefit Push-Up Liner, Rimmel Scandaleyes, Eyeko Liquid Liner, Unknown brand gel eyeliner. 

The Hourglass eyeliner is my HG waterline eyeliner. The master precise does not give a consistently even line, I find the tip overly flexible, and it is beginning to dry out (things I hate about liquid liners). I have a mixed relationship with the push-up liner, I liked it more than I expected considering the reviews I have seen.

  I looove  the Scandaleyes liner, I'm fairly certain I've spoken about it before, and that it will be mentioned in future posts. The Eyeko liner was something I got in my Birchbox, and I had no idea it would be so intense and glossy, I kind of like it. Finally, the unknown gel eyeliner I own. There are no labels, it is poor quality, but I like having it around for practice. 

And, that's it. You have now looked at every eyeliner that I own. 

The Weekly Roundup

Because this is a part of a blog network, other people do these prompts too. The weekly roundup is a collection of all the blogs that did the same prompt, because you know you want to stalk everybody else's eyeliner stash. 

The Makeup Monologues

All About That Brand- J Cat Beauty

For Cyber Monday I went ahead and got a few things from J Cat Beauty to try out. We got a full size of the wonder lip paint in November's Ipsy,a lipstick in a Lip Monthly bag, and I was interested to see about the rest of the line.

Anyway, for this review I gathered up samples I already owned and also purchased products from them.  So, we'll be looking at two lip crayons, three glitter liners, four wonder lip paints, and one lipstick.  I'm going to break it into sections for you, so you only have to read what you want to read about, because this is going to be long.

The Company/ Shipping Experience

This is a cruelty-free brand that keeps their prices solidly in the drugstore range. I would have originally labeled them as a niche brand, where they aren't exactly a small indie company but they also are not widely available offline.  However, they are expanding to have at least their lip paints in Ulta, so I don't know where they fall in that regard.

I got these lippies in two separate orders and they both broke.
They have a nice formula, but way too fragile.

Something to note about J Cat Beauty, is that their photography is still on a learning curve (much like mine). What that means for them as a business though is that sometimes depending on the lighting or angle, their photos online are not always true to how it looks when you actually receive the product.  This is a common thing among small and indie companies, but it is important to consider because a couple of my products were not how I expected them to be,

However, there was at least one example I can document for you of just obvious false advertising. The irony of this is that I enjoy said product anyway.

Everything was packaged really nicely, they gave me a tracking number, shipping time was good. I forgot to take a photo of the original packaging, but it was a bubble mailer with their own sticker on it, inside of that was a HUGE organza bag. Inside the huge organza bag, everything was secured together in a square of branded tissue paper (I hate branded tissue paper, but that is a personal preference and has nothing to do with quality). Underneath that, all the items were in plastic bags.

This might seem a little ridiculous, but I thought it was both pretty and practical. This time of year I have had several packages come to me wet and abused, so while the organza bag and the tissue paper make it look pretty, the bubble mailer and the tight packaging help to prevent the products from breaking, while the plastic bags will save the actual product if it gets wet. 

Twist and Kiss Lip Crayons- $4.99

These are the moisturizing lip crayons that every beauty line ever is beginning to carry. It's a new trend, but also my favorite trend because I finally have balms that make me look good, soothe my lips, and don't get lost in my purse.

The two colors are Eskimo Kiss, and Vampire Kiss







Now, Vampire Kiss on the website looks basically the same as how it looks, the swatch thumbnail looks slightly more purpley but it is such a tiny image I can't really judge them on that. However, Eskimo Kiss is significantly pinker in it's photo than it is in real life. I bought it thinking it would almost match my Jordana Twist and Shine or Clinique Chubby Stick pictured below:

The photo from their website

 So, you can see both in the lip and the hand swatches that the red color is much more sheer. When you swatch it on the hand, it even feels more sheer. However, I think that has more to do with the color than it necessarily being an entirely different formula.


On the lips, Eskimo Kiss looks a lot more like what I was expecting, and the two colors sheer out similarly. Both of them feel smooth but not overly thick, and have an almost Nyx Butter Gloss scent to them.

Liquid Glitter Liner- $3.99

I got three of these, in Christmas colors, because I had some looks I wanted to try out. These weren't as cool as I was hoping they were going to be. Silver is the only color I think could really stand on it's own, and even that took a few coats. The liner does not seal itself sufficiently, and in order to avoid fallout I had to use Elf's Lock and Seal over top of the product. 

The brushes are of varying quality. When I opened my first tube, I thought the brush was actually a silicone tip, which I feel would have been really good for this product. However, it is a fine point long bristle brush, and the bristles don't like to stay together. 

I swatched them on my hand both on their own and then with black and white liners as a base. 

The glitter liner on its own looks really pretty if you can get it to catch the light just right, but without a base liner of either a dark or similar color it mostly looks strange

Just the silver glitter liner on my eye

What I can see this being good for is taking a look from day to evening without having to redo your full face of makeup. This product comes in a ton of colors, so if you wore a brown liner , put the brown glitter over it, or if you had a purple smokey eye, put on the purple liner. So long as you seal it, it should be just fine.

I think you could also get the exact same if not a better effect simply by using a cosmetic glitter and Elf's Lock and Seal. However, I think the glitter liner two-step process would be faster, less messy, and better for travel.

Fantabulous Lipstick- $2.99

I only have one of these because I got this in my Lip Monthly bag and at first was incredibly disappointed by the color, so before making this post it had never really crossed my mind to evaluate the formula

My lipstick is in the shade honeycrisp (which you can see completely washes out my lips). It is very good for when I want to feel like a frost princess, which happens sometimes.

As for the formula, it is very pigmented, this particular color has a sort of satin finish to it, and it is very comfortable to wear. It has no added scent to it, so it smells very natural but in a faint, pleasant way. The main smell I get is beeswax, because that happens to be one of the main ingredients.

There are 48 colors to choose from, it is very comfortable to wear, and from my one sample seems very pigmented. Mostly, these are typical lipstick colors, however they do have a gold and a few very intense purples.  If you are looking for a cheap cruelty-free lipstick, I would seriously give these a shot.

Wonder Lip Paints- $4.99

This is the last set of products I am going to review, and it is so incredibly complicated because I swear that most of these are completely different formulas. My lip swatches of each color will be on the right. These are on bare lips, no primer or liner. The lip swatches shown for each color on the website will be on the left. We can assume that they used perfect lighting, some magical primer, a lip liner, and some photo enhancing, but I think you will still see my problem with one of these shades in particular. 

Mad Splatter

This didn't go on very opaque, and it initially felt very liquidy. However it did dry easily and the color was strong on my lips. 

Looking Glass

 This one was thick and pigmented and dried comfortably on the lips, it reminded me a lot of my OCC lip tars.

Blabberwocky

 Redder than it looks in the photos, to the point where I would suggest that girls who are afraid of strong red lips try this out as a lower maintenance version.

Duchess with Muchness

Extremely liquidy and sheer on the lips. Not at all what was shown online. However, it added the most beautiful golden sheen to my lips and looks gorgeous mixed in with other colors.

Glitter Cream Palette 4.99$

 I got this in a trade, completely unused as an extra. I figured since it was a J.cat Beauty product I would test it out. So I did, and it was awful. On the right you can see the swatches I did with my finger, the glitter is patchy and doesn't have much stick to it.

Now, I don't know about you, but I pay 5$ for minuscule amounts of glitter in cream so that I don't have to deal with fallout. But the glitter went EVERYWHERE. In fact, I think it went even more places because it was in the cream.

My leggings

Disclaimer that this is not intended for use on the eyes. But I honestly wouldn't recommend putting it anywhere because it will get in your eyes as it cannot be bothered to stay put.

Bottom Line and Recommendations 

Cons
Inconsistent formulas for the same product
Inaccurate website pictures
Hit or miss products
Easily Broken Lippies

Pros
Small,cruelty-free company
Affordable pricing
They always aim for interesting products
Ingredients on every product
Ingredients not just on the heat shrink plastic you remove
Cute and practical wrapping

Would Recommend:
Try the cosmetic glitters
If you like to mix colors, much mucher is great for giving the gentle golden sheen to your custom lip cocktail
People who want to try or own OCC Lip Tars but have no plans to mix them: cautiously try Wonder Lip Paints