Down the Indie Rabbit Hole

[meaganola]

Erk.  So the Espionage Kickstarter hit the subscription box stretch goal, and now they have revealed one last stretch goal:  If they hit $127k, everyone at $25 and up get a free glitter Baker Street wrap, and everyone at $50 and up get a free glitter Lunar Phase wrap.  These are IN ADDITION TO the previous stretch goals, so if you're at $50 or up, you would get two backer-exclusive glitter Baker Street wraps, two backer-exclusive glitter Lunar Phase wraps, and one random wrap.  FIVE free extra wraps.  So if you're at $300 or up, you get twelve free wraps via the subscription boxes and five free wraps from the other stretch goals.  SEVENTEEN FREE WRAPS!  I honestly don't know how I'll manage to wear all of the wraps I'll be ending up with.  I *really* hope that my Midsummer and Secret Santa are fandom-oriented nail wrap-friendly people because I have a feeling some of these are going to end up earmarked for those exchanges!

 

[tacehtpuekam]

Experimenting with making my own eye shadows today, now that I have jars to put them in! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 

 

[Kelly Silva]

Experimenting with making my own eye shadows today, now that I have jars to put them in! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

That sounds fun! I ordered some jars for my growing sample collection, they should be here tomorrow!

 

[ohsailor]

Man, maybe I'm getting confused or it's the lack of sleep, but does Shiro's eye shadows only come with artwork if you buy full sized or does it also come with the mini jars? I'm confusing MYSELF, I think.

 

[ohsailor]

Erk.  So the Espionage Kickstarter hit the subscription box stretch goal, and now they have revealed one last stretch goal:  If they hit $127k, everyone at $25 and up get a free glitter Baker Street wrap, and everyone at $50 and up get a free glitter Lunar Phase wrap.  These are IN ADDITION TO the previous stretch goals, so if you're at $50 or up, you would get two backer-exclusive glitter Baker Street wraps, two backer-exclusive glitter Lunar Phase wraps, and one random wrap.  FIVE free extra wraps.  So if you're at $300 or up, you get twelve free wraps via the subscription boxes and five free wraps from the other stretch goals.  SEVENTEEN FREE WRAPS!  I honestly don't know how I'll manage to wear all of the wraps I'll be ending up with.  I *really* hope that my Midsummer and Secret Santa are fandom-oriented nail wrap-friendly people because I have a feeling some of these are going to end up earmarked for those exchanges!

Enable me. I'm at $60 but I'm thinking about getting the $150 "just wraps" but I'm having a hard time justifying it...

 

[Amber McCarley]

Man, maybe I'm getting confused or it's the lack of sleep, but does Shiro's eye shadows only come with artwork if you buy full sized or does it also come with the mini jars? I'm confusing MYSELF, I think.

Artwork is only on the full sized jars for Shiro. I sure WISH it were on minis though!

 

[BSquared]

Backstreets makeup company order was in my mailbox! Swatch fest tonight! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[meaganola]

Man, maybe I'm getting confused or it's the lack of sleep, but does Shiro's eye shadows only come with artwork if you buy full sized or does it also come with the mini jars? I'm confusing MYSELF, I think.

Usually only on the full-sized jars.  I'm not sure whether they might be doing them on minis for the Halloween collection, though.

Enable me. I'm at $60 but I'm thinking about getting the $150 "just wraps" but I'm having a hard time justifying it...

So at $60, you get your six U-pick wraps and goodie bag plus the five freebies, for a per-wrap average of $5.45.  There are two $150 levels.  At the Kerrigan Queen of Blades level, you would get eighteen U-pick wraps (no goodie bag), the five freebies, AND a month of the sub.  That's 27 wraps, for an average of $5.56 per wrap, which is a little more than the $60 level, but it's cheaper than using add-on money for wraps.  If you go for the Zoe Washburne level, that's 12 U-pick wraps, a t-shirt, a goodie bag, the five backer freebies, and a month of the sub, bringing your wrap total to 21 and the per-wrap price to $7.14 if you disregard the fact that you also get the t-shirt.  The t-shirt add-on price is $20, btw.

And it turns out that this won't be the *last* stretch goal after all!  If we hit it (we're less than $500 away), there will apparently be *another* one, and probably more after that, given the rate we're racking up the pledges.  And it sounds like all of the rest of the stretch goals will be freebies.  I'm hoping for nail files for sealing the edges.  I've heard glass ones are the best for this.  I have a glass file from Julep, but I would love one from Espionage more.

 

[Amber McCarley]

Couple of Haus of Gloi reviews:

Last night I tried their butter bomb in "Pumpkins!" and the smell was amazing! They are small and you crinkle them up under running bath water. They do not fizz, they do not bubble. It made the water a bit cloudy but did not color or tint the water. If you are looking for Lush effects, these may be disappointing.
However, they totally provide an amazing aroma, are full of moisturizing oils for your skin and are cost friendly at $2.50 each. I LOVE them. After smelling "Fall Air" I am not the biggest fan of the scent, but my husband is!

Second review is of the Whipped Soaps. I got the scent "Pumpkin Patch" from the Reverie. The texture is a bit like cooking crisco and marshmallow fluff, Stiff, kinda thick, but also fluffy. Its strange. When applied to dry skin it feels very similar to rubbing a light layer of crisco on your skin but when applied to wet skin it goes on super smooth and silk. It does not bubble/sud up much. More of a velvety soap you rub in and rinse off. 
I want to like Pumpkin Patch, but its a very heavy earthy scent and I can't make out the note that I am not fond of. I cant decide if it will grow on me or not but again, the husband loves it so that's good!

 

[meaganola]

Oof, I had somehow managed to not swatch this month's VC before today.  I knew Wadsworth was magical in the jar, but OMG.  Swatches do not give this one justice.  If  you didn't get the VC, run, don't walk, and order it from the overstock page.  Push small children and slow-moving animals out of the way.

 

[CurlyTails]

Couple of Haus of Gloi reviews:

Last night I tried their butter bomb in "Pumpkins!" and the smell was amazing! They are small and you crinkle them up under running bath water. They do not fizz, they do not bubble. It made the water a bit cloudy but did not color or tint the water. If you are looking for Lush effects, these may be disappointing.

However, they totally provide an amazing aroma, are full of moisturizing oils for your skin and are cost friendly at $2.50 each. I LOVE them. After smelling "Fall Air" I am not the biggest fan of the scent, but my husband is!

Second review is of the Whipped Soaps. I got the scent "Pumpkin Patch" from the Reverie. The texture is a bit like cooking crisco and marshmallow fluff, Stiff, kinda thick, but also fluffy. Its strange. When applied to dry skin it feels very similar to rubbing a light layer of crisco on your skin but when applied to wet skin it goes on super smooth and silk. It does not bubble/sud up much. More of a velvety soap you rub in and rinse off. 

I want to like Pumpkin Patch, but its a very heavy earthy scent and I can't make out the note that I am not fond of. I cant decide if it will grow on me or not but again, the husband loves it so that's good!

Thanks for these reviews!

 

[ohsailor]

Usually only on the full-sized jars.  I'm not sure whether they might be doing them on minis for the Halloween collection, though.

So at $60, you get your six U-pick wraps and goodie bag plus the five freebies, for a per-wrap average of $5.45.  There are two $150 levels.  At the Kerrigan Queen of Blades level, you would get eighteen U-pick wraps (no goodie bag), the five freebies, AND a month of the sub.  That's 27 wraps, for an average of $5.56 per wrap, which is a little more than the $60 level, but it's cheaper than using add-on money for wraps.  If you go for the Zoe Washburne level, that's 12 U-pick wraps, a t-shirt, a goodie bag, the five backer freebies, and a month of the sub, bringing your wrap total to 21 and the per-wrap price to $7.14 if you disregard the fact that you also get the t-shirt.  The t-shirt add-on price is $20, btw.

And it turns out that this won't be the *last* stretch goal after all!  If we hit it (we're less than $500 away), there will apparently be *another* one, and probably more after that, given the rate we're racking up the pledges.  And it sounds like all of the rest of the stretch goals will be freebies.  I'm hoping for nail files for sealing the edges.  I've heard glass ones are the best for this.  I have a glass file from Julep, but I would love one from Espionage more.

I wish one of the $250 slots was still open. I'd do it in a flash!

 

[Shalott]

Oof, I had somehow managed to not swatch this month's VC before today.  I knew Wadsworth was magical in the jar, but OMG.  Swatches do not give this one justice.  If  you didn't get the VC, run, don't walk, and order it from the overstock page.  Push small children and slow-moving animals out of the way.

Or let me send you my sample of Wadsworth! Please! I'm pretty desperate because I am running out of room, and I am still subscribed to both the VC and i+ta subs. :wacko:

 

[meaganola]

I wish one of the $250 slots was still open. I'd do it in a flash!

If you kind of camp out on the campaign page, they open up randomly and get snatched up super fast.  I'm not about to give mine up, though. I'll give up my six-month subscription add-on first.

(I was second on the campaign in general, then I went back almost immediately and increased my pledge, so I ended up being either the first or second person to grab a Diana Prince.  I am desperately curious to see what I end up with!  Last time around, I heard it was mostly eyeshadow and lipgloss, which I would be perfectly fine with since I only have about a dozen of their shadows and two of their lip serums, and I'm a huge pigment collector.  Even if I end up with doubles, hey, Midsummer!  Secret Santa!  Swapping for wraps since I won't get very many from the campaign itself!)

 

[BSquared]

Ok so went through my backstreets makeup company order, some thoughts:

Overall, LOVE. She offers a sampler pack for $5 that includes 10 sample baggies. Samples are *slightly* smaller than sample baggies from shiro, GDE etc but at .50 each I think they're generously sized. You can pick your colors. She's based out of canada. Order placed late 9/13, shipped 9/21, and arrived either today or yesterday (didn't check the mail yesterday. DERP). Shipping was around $2, I know my total was 7 something.

So I told her to surprise me with colors, with my only stipulation to be please no blue, orange, or red. She sent me FOURTEEN samples. FOURTEEN FOR $5. Here's what she sent, minus 2 that I didn't even realize we're in there until post-picture



Overall, they are beautiful and I am very happy with them. She did a great job with color selection, one of the colors was ever so slightly sheer but it had a ton of glitter so I ain't mad. Yeah, go buy some samples for $5, I still can't get over how cheap that is.

A few swatches (edit: bare skin):



Left side top to bottom: raven (black), dirty reggae (dark brown with redish glitter), thirsty Thursday (more peach than this is picking up because inside lights), flabbergast (this one was a little sheer but it's ok. It's a light-ish brown with some serious, serious blue glitter in it. Think mac blue brown only not as dark and glitter on crack. I can't find this in her store, not sure if it's a preview or discontinued. It's pretty)

Right side top to bottom: Corcra (purple with pink shift/glitter. Darker than the photo let's on. Super pretty), mathletes (this looks green tinged white in the bag but has a pink shift in it that is SO PRETTY), luigi's chain (black with some witchcraft glitter that sort of looks purple, then looks teal, then looks darker green. Lovely.), meatloaf again (coopery beautifulness).

Yay for random orders working out.

Unrelated: still no VD order. This means an order got to me from canada before Florida. It's in the mail! YEAHOK.

 

[Lolo22]

I think what I like best about the HoG s'mores product is the burnt smell, oddly enough. I just love it.

Does anyone know of any other scents like that? Like burnt yet sweet, and not masculine. I think s'mores has a 'touch of woodsmoke' whatever that means. Is there any charred wood scents? I think that would be cool.

 

[chibimorph]

I think what I like best about the HoG s'mores product is the burnt smell, oddly enough. I just love it.

Does anyone know of any other scents like that? Like burnt yet sweet, and not masculine. I think s'mores has a 'touch of woodsmoke' whatever that means. Is there any charred wood scents? I think that would be cool.

It looks like  Solstice Scents has a bunch (I was looking for whipped soaps this morning and started looking through their perfumes)...

I read a blogpost by workingwithmonolids that said that Maplewood Inn (http://www.solsticescents.com/MAPLEWOOD-INN-PERFUME--Maple-Woods-Amber-Benzoin-A-Roaring-Fire-A-Hot-Cup-Of-Frothy-Vanilla-Chai_p_498.html) dries down to a smokey scent on her (I mention this because smoke isn't directly mentioned in the notes).

Solstice Scents also has a lot of perfumes where "smoke" is mentioned directly in the description.

 

[ohsailor]

Backstreets has a Freaks and Geeks Collections. BACKSTREETS HAS A FREAKS AND GEEKS COLLECTION.

*heavy breathing*

 

[tacehtpuekam]

Backstreets has a Freaks and Geeks Collections. BACKSTREETS HAS A FREAKS AND GEEKS COLLECTION.

*heavy breathing*

Ahhh pretending I didn't see this! Freaks & Geeks was/is the absolute best.

 

[Allison H]

I think what I like best about the HoG s'mores product is the burnt smell, oddly enough. I just love it.

Does anyone know of any other scents like that? Like burnt yet sweet, and not masculine. I think s'mores has a 'touch of woodsmoke' whatever that means. Is there any charred wood scents? I think that would be cool.

I don't know how much this list will help you, and it's extensive, but I tend to gravitate to "smoke" scents, so the spoiler might have more options for you. The CP list is everything that I ordered, and I know you just also ordered from them, so I know you're familiar with their extensive list. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> There's also Alchemic Muse's Bonfire scent, which I absolutely LOVE (I own almost all of her products in this scent)!

Spoiler

ALCHEMIC MUSE

Bonfire - Fall Air, Mulled Cider, Woodsmoke

COCOA PINK

Apple Cinnamon Funnel Cake~ inspired by a quaint little shop in the Georgia Mountains. We just had to make a scent based on their fabulous apple cinnamon funnel cakes topped off with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Black Forest - The haunting fragrance of Scotch pine boughs, burning firewood and dried fall leaves married with CP's warm sensual amber note.

Bonfire Pumpkins - This scent started out as an accident then turned into my personal all time favorite scent. This year I decided to share. We accidentally mixed Pumpkin porridge with Marshmallow Fireside and created a sensational creamy bonfire scent with notes of maple oats drizzled with pure golden clover honey, a pinch of muscovado sugar all topped with a dollop of sugared pumpkin puree plus toasted vanilla marshmallows over a roaring fire. This is a smoky scent.

Country Kitchen - With a slight chill in the air the delicious fragrances of cocoa and vanilla infused rum raisin cookies dipped in powdered sugar combined with just a touch of freshly baked bread warms you from the inside out

Cozy Cabin In the Woods - White Cedar trees heavily laden with soft piles of snow, sweet sandalwood, crackling freshly chopped firewood roaring from inside the glowing fireplace with the heavenly aromas of creamy sugared vanilla and gingerbread floating through the air.

Fear of Ghosts (Phasmophobia) - Glowing marshmallow orbs and smoky vanilla spectral mists swirl aimlessly around an old bonfire in the Crisp October night air – Fresh vanilla puffed marshmallows, toasted marshmallows, hints of bonfire smoke among scattered sharp grains of white rice to ward unwelcome spirits away.

Fear of Pumpkins (Cucurbitophobia) – Sweet pumpkin entombed inside soft pale cupcakes topped with whipped buttercream frosting next to a frightful blend of sugared pralines and pumpkin bread.

Fear of Spiders (Arachnophobia) – Dragon’s blood resin, the memorable scent of fine pipe tobacco, chopped bundles of firewood, fragrant sprigs of wormwood and bright scarlet apples.

Fear Of Witches (Wiccaphobia) – Warm baked bread fresh from the oven, gentle wisps of bonfire smoke drifting through the frigid autumn air and smooth buttery caramel sprinkled with coarse black sea salt is your best bet in keeping them at bay.

Halloween in Dublin – Flake pipe tobacco blended with deep bourbon vanilla and ghost white rainier cherries.

Hot Ginger Cider - Hot mulled apple cider swirled with traces of sugared ginger and a soft hint of a roaring fireplace.

Jingle Berry –bayberry bushes in a lush forest mingling with a tart and perfectly spiced pomegranate cider.

Mexican Hot Cocoa - A steaming mug of creamy gourmet hot chocolate infused with fresh milk and stirred with a cinnamon stick.

Night Before Christmas - Delicate Douglas Fir boughs adorned with sparkling festive ornaments warmed by flames of a roaring fireplace while bright candy canes rest next to a plate of vanilla laced sugar cookies set out for Santa's arrival.

Santa’s Workshop – All the wonderful scents you might find in Santa’s workshop. Candy canes and chocolates mingle with freshly sanded wooden toys and swirls of tobacco from Santa’s pipe.

Sleigh Ride – Dashing through the snow on a wooden sleigh, passing by frozen mulberry bushes; Finally, coming to a halt at the bottom of the slope where pipe smoke lingers in the winter air.

Spicebomb - Bergamot, Grapefruit, Cinnamon Leaf, Pink Pepper, Lavandin, Chilli, Saffron, Elemi, Vetiver, Balsam Fir, Tobacco Accord, White Leather Accord.

Victorian Forest- The serene landscape of snow-laden pine trees where a single chrysanthemum begins to wilt, while, whispers of candy canes and sweet vanilla waft through the forest.

Warm Mittens – This fragrance evokes the memory of sitting around a campfire, holding a steamy mug of hot cocoa with marshmallows while wearing the woolliest, warmest pair of mittens.

White Bonfire - Ghostly white birch trees and cedar wood surround a blazing fire fueled by freshly chopped firewood accented by delicate hints of chilly ozone tinged mint.

Winter’s Night–Woodsy smell of a winter’s night in the country. Blended with tangy fruits, pines and a warm, smoky scent.