A Review: Alkemia Pefumes Sampler Pack!

Alkemia Perfumes operates out of Etsy, selling a large variety of indie perfumes of which they claim to be a combination of promise science, passion, and magic. They offer a 5 for $10 sampler pack (with free shipping) so I couldn't resist compulsively reading up on all the ones they offer and pick a couple I thought I would like.

Sea Goddess 
Saline Aquatics, Seaweed, Saltwater Roses, Myrtle
"An oceanic hymn. Warm skin caressed by iodine and seawater swirled with seaweed and a whisper of seaspray roses and beach plums on a summery breeze of honeysuckle, nardo, and champaca blossom."

First sniff... oh my god I love it. It smells like faint flowers, roses that have been floating out in the sea, with a hint of ocean. To me, the flowers are more apparent than the ocean smell. But it smells so wonderful. It's light and feminine, dreamy and soft. Absolutely getting a full size with my next order. 

La Sirena (the Mermaid)

"A mesmerizing spell of oceanic aquatics, saline seaweeds, and garlands of fresh Tiare flowers offered to the sea. Hauntingly elusive."

This one is a more traditional aquatic/ocean scent. The first sniff, there is a slightly sour note, but it quickly goes away and melts into a more slightly salty, cool blue ocean scent. Aquatics are my favorite type of scents. This one is very lovely, with just a hint of flower.  

Sandscape

"Sun warmed beach sand, Atlantic ocean breezes, the saline-aquatic scent of drying sea water on skin, and the faintest hints of tanning oil and seaweed."

Now this one smells like the ocean. You can literally smell the salt and the seaweed. This one is different than the other two in that there are no flower notes in here. It leans a bit more soapy, but not in a bad way. It's very crisp and clean smell. A bright sunny day at the beach.

Carmen 7

Spiced Pear, Lychee Fruit, Praline, Vanilla, Magnolia, and Amber 

"An indecent proposal of succulently spiced pear, exotic lychees, decadent french pralines, bourbon vanilla, and crushed almond blossoms leads to a ménage à trois of gardenia, star jasmine, and magnolia illuminated by the afterglow of a sensuously musky amber."

To be very honest, I got this one because it is my namesake and I figured I had to, just for the sake of it. By no means do I think my personality matches my name though. When you think of "Carmen" you probably have imagery of the opera by George Bizet, of gypsies and passion, lust and dancing. Unfortunately that doesn't match me at all, but I was hoping I would like something with my name in it. And I do! This one is a bit more gourmand. Sweet vanilla and spiced fruits; mixed with musky amber, which is a strong note in this one, and quick flower notes. It doesn't smell like me, but it does smell good. 

Lux Aeternum

Pomegranate, Dark Roses, Amber 

"An homage to the return of the light and the unity of life and death. Red, ripe pomegranates and roses warmed on a bed of solar amber."

This scent seemed highly favorable among reviews, so I wanted to see what it was about. It smells like roses, but not overtly so. And definitely not the same kind of roses in Sea Goddess. These roses are different... darker. And I think they are not overpowering because of the pomegranate note. The pomegranate isn't overt, but it mixes in with the roses really well. It smells like a hauntingly beautiful poem. 

Elixir of Aphrodite (a sample for me, yay!)

Honeyed Apricots, Guiac Wood, and Vanilla Musk

"Luxurious love spell of Persian apricots dipped in orange blossom honey swirling with a sensual enchantment of peach and plum blossoms, mimosa, white star jasmine, ambrette, guiac wood, and vanilla musk." 

Mmm this one smells like perfumed candy. It has this youthful fruit note that hits you right as you smell it. And as it calms down, you can smell the vanilla musk taking over. 

All in all, amazing sample haul right here. I pretty much enjoyed all these scents. The standouts to me were Sea Goddess and Lux Aeternum, followed closely by La Sirena. The TAT was quick. I got my samples in a week's time. One thing I really like about Alkemia is their organization system. They have the scents sorted by general categories like earthy scents, or musky scents. It really helps! Will definitely make a note to come back again. 

Glitter Primer Comparison

I've only recently in the past couple of months started buying and LOVING indie eyeshadows/cosmetics. Especially duochromes- I love duochromes. It can be a little difficult getting great color payoff with only regular eyeshadow primer because a lot of indie eyeshadows have a ton of glitter or duochrome pigment in them. They just don't show up that well with traditional primers. So enter glitter primers! I bought several brands and thought I would do a comparison for those who are thinking of purchasing some as well.

Left to right: Control, elf Essential Glitter Primer, Darling Girl Glitter Glue, Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

In this first comparison here I used Darling Girl's Basket Case, a beautiful duochrome with a purple base and blue shift. I used 3 different types of glitter primer.

elf Essential Glitter Primer: $2.00 for 10.5 ml
Consistency: milky, smooth (texture very similar to Maybelline's Baby Face)

Darling Girl Glitter Glue: $6.75 for 10ml
Consistency: only the slightest bit sticky

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy: $7.00 for 10ml
Consistency: very sticky, viscous

So in the photo here, I feel that Pixie Epoxy does the best job with the duochrome. Followed by Darling Girl and elf. The control was almost non-existent, so you really need a good primer to get good color payoff. Both Glitter Glue and Pixie Epoxy are super popular and often out of stock, so be forewarned about that.

Left to right: Control, elf Essential Glitter Primer, Darling Girl Glitter Glue, Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy

I did another comparison but with a non-duochrome, Fyrinnae's Gender Bent, a shimmery teal with tons of glitter. With this comparison, I still felt Pixie Epoxy did the best job, but Darling Girl and surprisingly elf also does a decent job. Overall, Pixie Epoxy performed the best, followed by Glitter Glue, Essential Glitter Primer, and then obviously the worst performance was the control.

Now with that in mind, I want to make a couple of comments about the usage of these:

The elf glitter primer is one of their newer products. It is super cheap ($2) and actually does a very comparable job, so if you are looking for a quick, cheap glitter primer, this is it. You can even find it in Target. The trick with elf is to apply it very evenly and to apply eyeshadow very quickly after that. This is because when the product dries, it is no good at holding pigment anymore. It also is good about blending. However, the only drawback is that it does not last very long. It probably won't last you a full day of wear. Unfortunately I don't have a photo to show the wear time, but from previous usage, I could tell that the wear time was considerably less than with the others.

Darling Girl's Glitter Glue is often touted as a dupe for Pixie Epoxy but I don't really think that's the case. It does a decent job, but I still think Pixie Epoxy does the best at it's job. The prices are practically the same though, for about the same amount of product. Glitter Glue comes in a squeeze tube while Pixie Epoxy comes in a lip gloss tube with a doe foot applicator if you care about that. Glitter Glue has very good wear time. It will last me all day. People have also mentioned that Glitter Glue is better at blending. This is true. People have also said that it is better with mattes. Now this, I think is kind of stupid. Why would you use a glitter primer with mattes? It's for glitter. If I wanted to use a primer for mattes I would just go with regular eyeshadow primer.

And finally, I think Pixie Epoxy is a really fantastic product. The purpose of a glitter primer is to hold the glitter in place and it does the best at this. However, the drawback is that is it not that easy to work with. It is super sticky. What you want to do is to apply the product evenly in a thin layer and wait for it to dry a little and then pat on the product. You don't want to apply product when it is still very moist because it will create a paste-like texture that is a mess. Unlike Glitter Glue, it is not so great with blending. However, I don't think it is a problem for me because I have a work-around: apply regular eyeshadow primer, apply eyeshadow, blend per usual, apply glitter primer ON TOP of eyeshadow on the center of the eyelid, wait a minute, then PAT on eyeshadow. This allows you to blend and at the same time really allow the subtleties of the eyeshadow to pop out. The wear time on this is pretty much all day. No worries at all that eyeshadow will melt off your eyelids or that more glitter will end up on your cheeks than your eyes. This product keeps the glitter where you want it.

Ipsy March 2014 Review

This is the earliest I've ever gotten an ipsy! Very excited about that because I didn't even get tracking yet. So great surprise in my mailbox. Onto the review!

Klorane Smoothing and Relaxing Patches with soothing cornflower

A sort of foil packet. It came with two of these patches. Not too exciting. I suppose they will get used though.

NOPI Roughles

I wasn't really excited about NOPI. It's a texture polish. It's a nice sort of robin's egg blue. But I am not into texture so much (aside from Zoya). So this will probably get swatched on a finger or something and then forgotten about forever in my sea of polishes.

 Be a Bombshell Bora Bora Eyeshadow Quad

This product I actually like. The colors are interesting and the color payoff is decent. It's not the most pigmented but it will certainly do the job. But I will note that you should definitely use primer, or it won't show up much. 

top row: no primer, bottom row: NYX HD eyeshadow base

 bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick in Get Ready

I didn't really like this lipstick much. It's kind of a boring color and it isn't as pigmented as I like lipsticks to be. The staying power is... terrible. It might last like an hour. And then it just sort of fades into nothing.

Overall, this bag was decent. I didn't get false lashes, so that is always a plus. (So sick of false lashes from boxes. Please do not send me any more ever.) It was only 4 items and none of them really wow'd me away. The best item is probably the eyeshadow, which I will try to move into my rotation.

Wantable December 2013 Review

Having a December birthday, I thought I would splurge this month and get my Wantable box. I first subscribed in July of 2013 and have skipped every month since then. Not because I hated it, but because I didn't think I would need so many damn full sized products every month. I actually loved my first box. But it's not for everyone. For starters, the price point for this box is pricey: $36 shipped if you're a subscriber and $40 shipped for a one time purchase. However, this box guarantees 4-5 full sized products and usually a freebie sampler. You can skip any month you'd like. My favorite part about Wantable is that you can return a part or the whole box if you don't like it. Try doing that with Julep! (Haha you can't. Don't even get me started on Julep!) You start off with a quiz that is actually very detailed so you won't get what you hate and they actually listen to your preferences. Some people might not like the strict algorithm, but I love it.

So here are the items I got in my December box:

• Michael Marcus Lip Gloss Wheel in Scrumptious ($39.50)
• Starlooks Single Shadow Compact in Beach Nut ($12.00)
• Rainbow Honey Nail Lacquer in Sakura Matsuri ($10.00)
• Billion Dollar Brows in Taupe ($18.00)
• Eveline Eyeliner Marker in Deep Black ($10.99)
• Skiin Instant Tightener & Line Filler Sample ($0.00)

 Total listed value: $90.49

Onto the reviews:

Michael Marcus Lip Gloss Wheel in Scrumptious ($39.50)
This lip gloss palette is huge. There are 5 different colors with no individual names. It reminds me of when I was a kid in the 90s and I loved lip gloss. I had this one little palette that had 2 colors, a brown and a pink, but the colors were quite similar to this. I used the pink of course, but I remember saying to myself: "what do I need the brown one for?" I'm definitely not going to reach tin on most of these colors, but I rather like the coraly pink and the red.

 

Clockwise on palette, starting from top left: Coraly pink, brownish, bright red with a bit of blue undertone, sheer light pink, and darker brown-leaning maroon. 

According to the price listed on the sheet that came with the package, this is valued at $39.50. Holy butts that's pretty expensive. Though to be fair, it is a lot of product. I won't be repurchasing this in the future, but it looks like that won't really matter because I can't find it on the internet. It's not listed on the Michael Marcus website so... couldn't even if I wanted to. However, I do find that the lip gloss has very nice pigment and texture. I would have liked it more if it didn't include those brown shades that I won't be using. 

Starlooks Single Shadow Compact in Beach Nut ($12.00)
A light brown single eyeshadow. I actually love a good brown shadow. I go through them faster than anything else I own. I had high hopes for this! But unfortunately it isn't very pigmented when applied. It went on a little chalky and I can't attest to its staying power, as I haven't worn it out of the house. Could have been better is all I'm saying. 

Rainbow Honey Nail Lacquer in Sakura Matsuri ($10.00)
I am a nail polish addict. It's true: I have over 280 polishes. So I'm getting to a point where I want fantastic, unique, new colors to my collection. And I own a few Rainbow Honeys myself. However, being such a nail fanatic, I know exactly what I like and what I don't. And what I don't like is pink nail polish. I have a few here and there but it's just not a color I wear often. Simple as that. 

While the base of the nail polish is clear, there are pink and white "blossom" shaped glitters, accompanied by smaller pink and holographic glitters in various sizes. Another thing I don't like in my nail polish is "shaped" glitters. I love squares, circles, and hexes, but I hate novelty shapes like "Mickey Mouse" shaped or "star" shaped or "skull" shaped, etc. To be fair, I did put that I like glitter nail polishes in my quiz, but can't win them all I guess.  

Billion Dollar Brows in Taupe ($18.00)
Eyebrow powder! Luckily it came in a color that works with my eyebrows. Bit pricey for something I would use up pretty quickly. But it does the job. I like this. I use it when I get the chance.

Eveline Eyeliner Marker in Deep Black ($10.99)
This is probably my favorite thing from this box. It's a regular black eyeliner marker. But it's fantastic. It's very pigmented, very black. The brush is well made and I can easily create the shape I want with it. And the price point is great too! I can see myself spending 11 dollars on an eyeliner, easy. This is something I can see myself repurchasing in the future. 
 

Starlooks eyeshadow, Eveline eyeliner marker, Billion Dollar Brows brow powder

A swatch of some of the products mentioned above. As you can see, the eyeshadow is underwhelming in pigmentation. In contrast, the eyeliner marker has excellent pigmentation. And the brow power is not that pigmented actually, but I don't really have a problem with that because I line my brows with a pencil first and then I use this afterwards to fill in any spaces left over. In the swatch, you can see how its feathery and doesn't create sharp lines. I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing in this case. The pencil I use does the "sharp" parts for me because it is more precise.

Skiin Instant Tightener & Line Filler Sample ($0.00)
And lastly, a line filler sample that I don't plan on using because I am in my twenties and thank goodness I don't have any lines yet! Might give this to my mum or something. I am aware however, that there was another freebie, a sort of egg white face soap. I'm sooooo sad I didn't that! I was so looking forward to it! Oh well, can't complain too much. It was free afterall. 

If you liked my review, or would like to try out Wantable for yourself, please feel free to use this referral link! Even if you don't purchase a box, you can do the make up quiz. Or check out their other box programs (accessories and intimates). I can't say I have any interest in the other boxes, but I do like my Wantable make up!