Hi everyone, it's been a while! I've had a busy month, so had to take a little break from blog posts for a bit. If you saw my Facebook post, you know I'm hoping to get back into the semi-regular post groove this month. It definitely won't be as frequent as I was doing, and I have canceled some of my indie subscriptions. Not for any other reason other than I was just not as excited about a few of them, and they were the ones that are pretty easy to sign back up for. And honestly, I don't even know if I'll be able to review all of my subscriptions like I was, so just a heads up.
Now to my favorites for August! Despite not writing reviews, I did actually wear makeup and perfume quite a bit. For some reason, traveling actually makes me wear my makeup everyday because I know I'll be going out and about, and I have a bit more time in the morning to do it each day. I tried a bunch of my products I had purchased before going on a strict no-buy, and I'm already working on my September favorites list. Also, I need to majorly destash! I'm planning on getting a sell post up on the Indie Makeup And More subreddit this Sunday, so if you are there look out for that. It will be a lot of duplicates I have, tons of bath and body, eyeshadow, and perfume.
AFK Cosmetics announced they would be doing another Advent Calendar this summer for Christmas in July, and that all of the products would be exclusive to the box. And there would be a sample size and a full size option. Once I saw that the full size was only $60 ($5 per item!), I knew I had to grab it! You may remember my review of last year's Christmas 12 Days of IMAM Advent Calendar, I wasn't thrilled with it only because I had quite a few of the items already. But this year everything was exclusive, and the theme was Summer Lovin' inspired by beach days of the 1950's.
About - AFK Cosmetics is an indie cosmetics company specializing in eyeshadow and lip products that are mostly video game themed! Dena is the owner, and she is based in Washington. She recently introduced a few other kinds of products, including mascara and face primer.
This post got delayed last month because I was still waiting on some of my COTMs (Color of the Month), so I decided to just push it back until now so I could include July's COTMs as well. And I have a few extra brands to include this month, including some Darling Girl and a perfume from Alchimia Apothecary that was part of the Rusalka Menagerie from Aromaleigh.
Solstice Scents recently brought out a few of their Burnishing Glaces in some of the spring scents, so I took the opportunity to grab a couple to try out! I just barely missed out on Chantilly Cream, but I managed to snag Chiffon and Manor. Burnishing Glaces are basically like a glossing oil, you can use them as a spray all over your legs after shaving, or as a bath oil.
About - Solstice Scents is an indie bath and body and perfumery, that sells perfumes, whipped soap, body ganache creams, bath soaks, and their burnishing glace sprays, which are kind of like body mists or can be used as bath oils. They are based out of Florida, and offer a main collection scent line, as well as seasonal collections that can mostly be ordered all year in sample form.
I saw this month's Glamour Doll Eyes OTM spoilers ahead of time, but I could not wait to receive mine. We received a pressed shadow and a nail polish this month, in addition to the normal full size shadow we always get.
About - Glamour Doll Eyes is an indie cosmetics company specializing in eyeshadow, blush, lip glazes, gel eyeliner, and will be soon venturing into pressed shadows. Vanessa, the owner, is based in Nevada, and has been doing a monthly subscription for over three years.
My Kiss My Sass July Lip Addicts Anonymous arrived, and this month's theme was Apple Pie! I think that's a great alternative to just red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July. And we even got to try some other summer appropriate samples this month. The taffy we got was so good too, it was also apple pie flavored!
About - Kiss My Sass Cosmetics is owned by Elizabeth and based out of Pennsylvania. They make all kinds of products, from eyeshadow, to lip products, to perfume, to bath and body, to blushes and highlighters. She just recently introduced her new lip subscription, which is called Lip Addicts Anonymous.
My Hello Waffle Visage review is a bit late for June, but I did my look on the 4th of July! It worked out perfectly since June's box focused on shades of red. I also wore a Captain America shirt, so I was very patriotic! This month's products were inspired by Princess Mononoke and I got to try Preen Cosmetics for the first time!
About - Hello Waffle is an indie cosmetics company specializing in beautiful eyeshadow collections, blushes, and lip products, made by Christine, the owner. Hello Waffle is based in Canada, and currently has collections inspired by Archer, Fringe, famous musical composers, cats/literature, and a collection celebrating reaching 1000 Facebook likes. She also offers seasonal fairytale inspired collections that can be purchased in the season they are inspired by.
I've had the Black Violet Summer perfumes for quite a while, and finally got a chance to test them all! Like most Black Violet perfumes, these are mostly florals and fruity perfumes. The one thing I always like about getting "samples", is that they are dram vials, and much more convenient for me than 1 ml samples most other companies offer.
About - Black Violet is owned by Leilani, and they are an indie perfumery and bath and body shop based out of Maryland. Black Violet offers perfume oils in sample sizes and full size rollerballs, body butters, creme soap, detangling mists, facial cleansers, and a few other kinds of products. They also offer a quarterly subscription box, called the Blackbox.
I've decided to delay my Hello Waffle Visage review until probably next week. My skin has been on the fritz and I really want to let it clear up before putting makeup on for my look. My Innocent+Twisted Alchemy subscription arrived this month, and I was pretty excited to see another Angelic Powder! And I just loved how the eyeshadow colors matched the label artwork colors on the jars.
About - Innocent+Twisted Alchemy is based in California, owned by Linda, and specializes in eyeshadow and blush. Many of their collections are inspired by anime, but they also have the "Live Or Die" collection which is inspired by the Saw films. IT+A also has a monthly subscription, that comes in sample or full size form.
I remember seeing the Haus of Gloi Refresher Sprays sometime last year and was a little curious about them. And then when they were released again this year earlier this month, I wanted to try them all! So I grabbed one of each scent to test out and review for you.
About - Haus of Gloi is an indie bath and body company based in Oregon, and owned by Matt and Britton. They sell perfumes, scrubs, soaps, pumpkin butters, hair oils, lip balms, and a few other various products. Everything is handmade and their scents are their own original creations. They have a main line of scents that are sold year round, and then they have quarterly seasonal limited edition collections.
I've been a bit behind on my review schedule, I needed to take a little break. But I'm hoping to have up my normal review schedule this weekend and next week. I once again hit up Ajevie's Circles, which is a perfume decant circle, for several of the Blooddrop Spring Simplicities perfumes. I only grabbed about half of them in sample form, with only one as a half bottle. This was my first time trying Blooddrop, but again, since I did order these from the decant circle, I won't have all of the information I normally have for my reviews.
About - Blooddrop is an indie perfumery, but they also carry corsets, jewelry, and a few other bath and body type products as well. But they don't offer perfume samples, so participating in a decant circle like Ajevie's Circles, makes it easy to try a few scents and see if you like them.
The Glamour Doll Eyes OTM this month was themed "Girls Night Out"! I always love my OTM subscription, because it's inexpensive, and there aren't many products, which is nice considering my collection is already pretty big. I don't need a ton of products adding to it every month. Plus, the candy is always a nice addition!
About - Glamour Doll Eyes is an indie cosmetics company specializing in eyeshadow, blush, lip glazes, gel eyeliner, and will be soon venturing into pressed shadows. Vanessa, the owner, is based in Nevada, and has been doing a monthly subscription for three years.
This review is a bit late, but better late than never! I was finally able to test and review all of the summer Darling Clandestine perfumes. Not as many winners for this season's perfumes, but a few surprise favorites. I was even able to compare last year's version of Pyrotechnik to this year's version.
About - Darling Clandestine is an indie perfume company, located in Texas, owned by Evonne, and is known for some weirder perfume scents. There are seasonal releases, and a few that pop up out of their season every now and then. The entire perfume catalog is located here, and each scent has a "boss level" which is on a sliding scale of 1 being something that could totally pass as a mainstream perfume, to 10 being really weird smelling.
When I first saw the Aromaleigh Anthousai Collection, I imagined it would be a great collection for me because most of the colors are shades I tend to gravitate towards. Especially lately, I love neutrals, muted pastels, pinks, purples, and of course anything that is the color of a metal. And this collection has a little of everything!
About - Aromaleigh opened back in 1998, and was one of the first indie cosmetic companies to be started. Kristen is the owner, and is based in South Carolina. They offer a few fandom related collections, including Hannibal, Sherlock, and the Hunger Games, but most of their collections are historically and mythologically inspired. The monthly Ephemera subscription began January 2015.
Sixteen92 recently introduced the new summer lotion scents, and I had to try all of them. When it arrived, I opened my package and there was also a sample size detangler hair mist included as a free sample, so I have that to review as well! I was really excited about it, I've been wanting to try it since it was first released.
About - Sixteen92 is a newer indie company, owned by Claire and based in Texas, that specializes in perfume. They also recently introduced their bath and body product line, including shower gel and hand & body lotion. They now also carry hair care products.
The Aromaleigh Ephemera subscription is one of my most anticipated subs every month, and this month didn't disappoint. The theme was based on Melusine, from European folklore, which is kind of akin to a mermaid! I was pleasantly surprised that there were not just blues and greens this month, which is kind of what you expect when you think of mermaids.
About - Aromaleigh opened back in 1998, and was one of the first indie cosmetic companies to be started. Kristen is the owner, and is based in South Carolina. They offer a few fandom related collections, including Hannibal, Sherlock, and the Hunger Games, but most of their collections are historically and mythologically inspired. The monthly Ephemera subscription began January 2015.
My Kiss My Sass Lip Addicts Anonymous subscription surprise arrived this month, as I never got an email with the tracking information. There was a bit of a unicorn theme, and quite a few awesome extras, including a bonus eyeshadow made by Glamour Doll Eyes exclusively for this subscription! This was a great second month of the subscription, it makes me really excited for how it will grow.
About - Kiss My Sass Cosmetics is owned by Elizabeth and based out of Pennsylvania. They make all kinds of products, from eyeshadow, to lip products, to perfume, to bath and body, to blushes and highlighters. She just recently introduced her new lip subscription, which is called Lip Addicts Anonymous.
Have you binge watched the entire third season of Orange Is The New Black yet? I'm working on it, but in the meantime I have a review of the Glamour Doll Eyes Orange Is The New... Set and the brand new pressed shadows today! I've had the set for quite a while, but just received my pressed shadows recently. I ordered all of the pressed shadows but one, and swatched a few of them compared to their loose shadow counterpart.
About - Glamour Doll Eyes is an indie cosmetics company specializing in eyeshadow, blush, lip glazes, gel eyeliner, and has now ventured into pressed shadows. Vanessa, the owner, is based in Nevada, and has been doing a monthly subscription for three years.
I have been wanting to try Possets perfumes for quite sometime, but was always turned off by the website design and how many perfumes they offer. And it always bothers me when a perfume shop offers samples, but you have to write in your selections, and there's no list of all scents. It can make it very hard for the first time shopper to actually purchase. And I never did. I always wanted to, but was too overwhelmed. There is a wonderful lady however, who makes decanted samples for purchase, and you can pick if you want a sample, a half bottle, or a full bottle. You just make your selection on the Google form, and she invoices you once she's taken all the orders. Ajevie's Circles is a great way to try perfumes from shops you may not otherwise purchase from because of the limitations of their offerings. I was able to grab samples of almost every scent from the Possets Georgetown Cocktail Party collection for Spring 2015. Because I purchased decants from a third party, I do not have some of my normal review info.
About - Possets is an indie perfumery shop, which offers a huge selection of scents. They are based in Ohio, and owned by Fabienne. Permanent collection scents can be purchased in sample form, but seasonal offerings are only available in full size bottles. Ajevie's Circles is a great resource to procure samples of seasonal scents.
I have more random Femme Fatale products than I do collections, mostly because I like getting mini jars and collections of those are quite expensive. So I've been collecting a few fan favorites, and some limited edition blushes. Femme Fatale makes some amazing duochromes, and a lot of these shadows look great over a sticky base by themselves.
About - Femme Fatale is an Australian based indie shop, owned by Sophie. They specialize in nail polish, eyeshadow, blushes, and are a hub for Australians to purchase products from many US indie brands. They also carry a few products from other brands that are exclusive to the Femme Fatale site, and cannot be purchased anywhere else.
