Amalgam Scent Company Review!

Hello Lovelies!                                      *press sample*

     I am finally back after a hellish couple of weeks. Things always happen in threes and when disaster strikes this always holds true as well. It started off with our Playstation 3 stopped reading disks so there was much sadness in the house as all three of my kids immediately wanted to play PS3 games but couldn't. Then the big one is our computer BLEW up and was possessed by the matrix which slammed a huge halt to any blogging whatsoever. And finally the router decided to stop working in a house that streams everything. Obviously the last two issues are fixed, since I am finally able to post this much over due blog post.

   I was contacted by Laura from Amalgam Scent Company to see if I was interested in testing out her products for a review. I am always more than happy to review new products so I happily agreed. 

Amalgam Scent Company originally started off with making bath and perfume products but has now branched off into the beauty aspect. All of Amalgam Scent Company's products are vegan and cruelty free which is always a bonus in my book.  What makes this company different from other indies, is while they offer loose pigments, her entire line is pressed. There is always a debate on whether pigments are better pressed or loose but it simply boils down to these two things, what you like and convenience.  I really liked the aspect that her line is pressed because for me pressed shadows are easier to store since I am quickly  running out of room for my loose pigments. Don't get me wrong, I love my loose pigments but I really liked the aspect that she decided to stand out with her initial packaging and stuck with pressed. 

     I was sent three shadows, a highlighter and a liquid lipstick from Amalgam Scent Company's first collection, La Isla Bonita (which I always sing thanks to Madonna). If my rusty Spanish is correct, the collection translates to The Beautiful Island.  The items I got are true to the name, they are simply beautiful.  Just take a look at these swatches.  

**All swatches are done over Lunatick Lab's Eyeshadow Primer.**

 Porta Del Sol is a highlighter that is also safe for the eyes 

    Check out that pigmentation! The colors were nice and buttery, super easy to used and so blendable.  I am always worried how pressed items will arrive to me since often whoever handles my mail can get very angry at times and the boxes are not always in the best conditions when they arrive. However, that being said all of the items arrived in perfect condition and were sealed in these adorable little plastic pouches. They easily fit into an empty eyeshadow pan from either TKB or a Z palette.

I also received a gorgeous liquid lip in the shade Encanto. It s a rosy mauve with a hint of brown making an excellent every day shade when dealing with muggles or the school. It wasn't overly drying like some mattes were and is ultra pigmented since this is only one coat!  Check out that swatch and once dry they a pretty much transfer proof and easy to remove at the end of the day.

   Needless to say, I am in love with Amalgam Scent Company. This collection is simply gorgeous! There is a second collection, Soigne, which has released since I have received my products which is strictly liquid lipsticks. They are all gorgeous and I will be picking some of those up in the future.  Her newest collection , Tell Me a Story, is inspired by  Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and releasing on September 23. Not only will it be makeup but also a fall scent. I am super excited to see what that collection brings. You can follow Amalgam Scent Company on both Facebook and Instagram to see swatches, looks and what is releasing next. If you are located in the US you can also try out a shadow for free (with the cost of shipping) to see these gorgeous colors in action. She also has some yummy bath and body items that sound heavenly so head over to Amalgam, I promise you won't be sorry.  So until next time lovelies!

Scentopia! Review of Comet Comforts July Monthly Box. Here be Mermaids!

Hello Again Lovelies! *Purchased*

     

      I am back again with another review! Today I am reviewing the Comet Comforts Box July Box which had the amazing theme of Mermaids. Now this was the first launch of a collaboration between two companies, Comet Vomit Polish and Southern Comforts Fragrance. These two lovely ladies got together and decided to create Comet Comforts which is a themed vegan and cruelty free monthly gift set of polish, scents and a surprise. I was super excited to hear of this collaboration and I am a big fan of both companies, so I couldn't wait to see what they developed.  Once I heard that the theme was going to be mermaids, which I am slightly obsessed with, I knew the box had to be mine

 The boxes went on sale during the middle of  July, shipped on August 1 and showed up in my hot little hands on August 3. When I opened the box I was really impressed with the little extra touches they put into it. Right inside the lid for the box was a fabulous mermaid stamp. It was wrapped nice and neatly with a lovely information sheet describing this month's theme and of course welcoming you to the Comet Comfort's Monthly Box.

I love that stamp and I am now on a quest to find one for myself.

  When I opened the box I was quite impressed with how nice and safe everything arrived and the colorful packing paper that was inside. I had a hell of a time keeping Doom Kitty out of the paper until I was able to pick out everything. Then I just gave up the battle.

Nothing was going to be damaged!

  After you move the paper and the 14 pound cat and kiddo hands out of the way I was left with this.

Check out all the goodies!

   Not only was there a fully sized perfume in a convient roller ball bottle, there was also a full size polish, a mini glitter top coat, a limited edition sample jar #mermaidgoals shadow from Darling Girl Cosmetics, nautical themed nail jewels, several pins, a fish scale heart temporary tattoo (which my five year old promptly claimed for herself), fabric flowers and a ton of swedish fish (which were devoured by my kiddos immediately.)  Another really neat thing about this box, is that if you are all ready a fan of either Soco or Comet Vomit each item in this box is unique to this release and will not show up in their stores. Now on with the goodies!

   We will start with the Comet Comforts Perfume, We Were Only Trying to Drown Her. 

It was a full size perfume in this box, in a 10 ml roller ball fragrance oil. My first sniff impression when I opened it up, it reminded me of the sea after a thunderstorm. There were hints of aquatics, ozone and even a hint of green. (But as stated in my previous review, I am still a perfume newbie and my super sniffer powers of picking out individual notes is very limited) I would definitely say that this is a unisex scent. When applied, my skin definitely brought out the ozone at first and then dried down to a lovely unisex aquatic.

Next up the two polishes. 

 The full size was Flippin Your Fins which instantly got the Little Mermaid song stuck in my head.

   Flippin Your Fins ( I am even still humming it now ) is a beautiful shimmery blue green polish. It applies evenly and I only needed two coats to get good coverage on my nails. I almost painted my phone this lovely color since I am a horrible klutz and dropped the brush since this was my first time dealing with a cap like this. With a nice top coat this last a week for me which is a record because I am horrible with polish. It CONSTANTLY chips on me. 

The mini glitter topper polish included in the box was called,  You Used to Call Me on My Shell phone It is blue/ teal colored glitter with lots of giant different colored glitter circles (I don't know if there is a technical term for it but they are pretty.) in various shades of silver, blue, pink , yellow and black. This is definitely a topper coat since it it would take way to much to attempt to even get full coverage. It gives just the right amount of sparkle when placed over polish. Sadly the photos of my mani with this were accidentally deleted so I will have to add them in at a later time when I redo my nails.

According to the Coco girls, there will always be a surprise guest to each box and for the first box Darling Girls Cosmetics was the guest.

Loved the name of the shadow! Who doesn't have Mermaid Goals?

 Susan from Darling Girls Cosmetics created a lovely shadow for this theme. Which is a lovely light shimmery blue with hints of pink sparkles when the light hits it just right. If you use a sticky base like the Darling Girl Glitter Glue and pat this shadow over it it really shines.

I am completely impressed with this amazing box. Each item was the perfect piece to the overall mermaid theme. Even the names were clever and fit the mermaid theme perfectly. The perfume reminded me of the ocean and what it would smell like after a storm when mermaids would come and sun themselves on rocks. Both the color and the sparkle of the polish reminded me of the mermaid scales. However I may have to give Tiffany the stink eye cause I since the Little Mermaid when I put on her polish.  Finally the surprise guest shadow from Darling Girl remind me of the ocean as well. The boxes of course as I mentioned before are both vegan and cruelty free are shipped to you in the States for $30.  It is a bit more for you international lovelies but they do offer international shipping which is nice. 

Now if you follow Comet Comforts on their social media you will know what next month's theme is..

 So, I needless to say I am an official fan and if there was any doubt I will definitely be picking up more of these lovely boxes.  The Harry Potter boxes go live for sale on August 19th through the Comet Comforts website. Follow them on Instagram for more sneak peeks for the upcoming boxes. Will you be picking up the Harry Potter Box next month? Well that is all for now lovelies, keep your eyes peeled for more posts in the future. Until next time lovelies!

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Scentopia! Review of Twisted Wonderland Perfumery

Hello Lovelies! *press sample*


      I am back with the first of several reviews this month. There will be some changes, revamps and  possibly a new look to the blog over the next couple of months or so as I get my blogging boots back in action. If you are curious where I have been you can look the to previous post of why I feel off the planet (and blogging) for a little bit. However with that being said let's just go ahead and jump right into the review.

    While I was on my blogging hiatus, I discovered the world of indie perfumes. There were only so many "mainstream" scents that really struck my fancy and needless to say I was in total and complete amazement with the various scents, themes and of course businesses that were out there. I will state this up front, I am not means a scent expert, my nose isn't a super sniffer however I am getting to the point of where I can pick up certain individual notes. And also please remember that BODY CHEMISTRY is EVERYTHING. Just because something smells AMAZING in the bottle doesn't mean that is going to smell amazing on you. I have learned this the hard way and often scents that you love to smell betray you and turn to the smell of baby vomit on your when applied to you skin (RIP violets, I love your scent but my body chemistry hates you with a passion). That being stated I was over the moon when Twisted Wonderland Perfumery opened up and was looking for people to do a review for some of their scents. I contacted by the owner , Rae about doing a review of her products and she thought that we were a nice fit.
 
    So I was sent a perfume sampler of five different scents (a mixture of perfume oil and eau de parfum) of my choosing , a lip scrub and a lip balm. The items arrived quickly, well packaged and I loved the labels. There were not issues with not enough wrapping and all of the items arrived without incident. Rae was excellent in letting me know when my package was shipped out.  The samplers arrived in a cute box sealed with pink glittery washi tape.

Inside the five samples were safely nestled in a bed of cotton

For my five fragrances I chose Absolutely Alice, Absolem's Cocktail, Deadite, Killer Klowns, and Stay Puft. 

So let's start at the beginning and work our way down. 

Absolutely Alice is described as "A delightful sweet & fruity blend of fresh peaches, wild raspberries and wafts of tooth-achingly sweet pink cotton candy." Since it is still sweltering down here in Florida and technically still summer I was looking for a light and summer scent that I could wear. The first sniff out of the bottles is fresh ripe peaches. Applied it still smells like fresh peaches with hints of candy and rasperries help round out the scent to make it fruity and light without being overwhelmingly over the top sweet. 

Absolem's Cocktail is described as "A tall glass of watermelon lemonade with just enough sweet mint muddled in." I love watermelon so I simply had to try this scent, This is the first time I have ever tried watermelon as a perfume on me so I was hoping that my body chemistry would agree to my love of watermelon.  First sniff is just like cutting into a fresh sweet watermelon in the kitchen. Applied on the skin it still smells like heavenly watermelon (thank you body chemistry) with the clean crisp lemon scent and a tiny hint of mint. My body tends to amp up lemon scents so I was concerned with it overpowering the watermelon but it didn't . This is probably my favorite out of the five and I will be picking up a full size of this one asap.

Deadite is described as "sweet blackberry jam with a sinister twist of patchouli, black pepper and vanilla." When hearing that there were Army of Darkness/Evil Dead inspired scents I had to pick up one because I am such a huge fan. First sniff from the bottle blackberries and patchouli. My chemistry also amps up patchouli as well so my fingers were crossed that my chemistry didn't drown out the blackberry. When applied on the skin it is an equal balance of blackberries and patchouli however the vanilla mellows out the scent as well and doesn't make it as strong as patchouli can be. I didn't catch the hints of black pepper on my skin however my sniffer hasn't gained that super power yet.

Killer Klowns, while I had a distinct hatred of clowns I couldn't resist the description which is listed as "blue raspberry slush, cherry slush and cotton candy". My love of cotton candy overcame my clown hatred. First sniff is mainly blue raspberry and cherries. Applied on the skin is an equal balance of the blue raspberry and cherry and later as it dries down and mellow more of the cotton candy. This one is super sweet ,light and a lot of fun.  My five year old daughter loved it so much she claimed it as her own. 

Finally, last but not least, was Stay Puft. I am still trying to figure out if my body has a love hate with marshmallow so I took the plunge and order this scent to finally figure it out. It is described at "fresh marshmallow, marshmallow fluff, two vanillas and a dab of patchouli. First sniff  was a heavenly mingle of marshmallow and vanilla. Applied on the skin the vanilla rings through the marshmallow to make it a yummy foodie kind of scent. It reminds me a lot of marshmallow rice crispy treats. 

All of the scents had decent staying power which is about 4-6 hours on me since my body tends to devour lighter scents quickly. While I enjoyed all of the scents, out of the five Absolem's cocktail was my definite favorite since I can't get over that amazing watermelon scent. Deadite was a close second followed by Absolutely Alice.  All of the fragrances are vegan and of course cruelty free.

Next up is the Jumbo Eat Me Sugar lip scrub. I chose Pomegranate Margarita for the scent/ flavor.  

    As you can see the label does over the cap of the jar and when I asked Rae about it she stated that it was a printing error and she will be getting other labels once these have completely run out. If you do get a jar with a label like this all you need to do is use a pair of scissors right around the area and it should open up easily and you still get to have the pretty label on the front of your jar.  The scent of this lip scrub was simply heavenly! It smells just like it states and made me want a margarita ASAP! the scrub itself was a nice fine sugar easily applied to the lips to scrub. It left my lips soft and smooth. This product is also vegan and cruelty free.

Finally, last but not least, is the Deadly Kiss Lip Balm.

Due to crappy Florida weather and it constantly raining,I used the  flash and it washed out the label. See the lip scrub for actual label coloring.

 I seriously can not have enough balm in my house . Between the five of us, there is always someone stealing my lip balms to use. However this time the culprit was Mr Dreadful. I chose the flavors Green Tea and Honey and it was simply amazing the times I am able to steal it back from my husband. He is in love with it. The balm is just the right consistency without being overly hard or soft.  It also smells amazing. I have given up the good fight for this lip balm and allowed my husband this small little victory but I will be ordering more soon. For those of you who are vegan, this is item does contain beeswax. However like the rest of her products it is cruelty free. 

Final thoughts, I am really impressed and pleased with the products I have received from Twisted Wonderland Perfumery. Rae has been kind and professional answering all of my questions and the products she has put out are wonderful. For those of you with finicky body chemistry, like myself, sampler packs are a godsend so that we are able to try a little bit of everything without ending up with a bottle of something that smells amazing but doesn't work on us. I highly recommend checking out Twisted Wonderland Perfumery and trying some of her awesome product. Rae was also kind enough to give me a coupon code to share with all of my readers. DREADFUL10 will save you 10% off your purchase. 

So until next time lovelies!