Solstice Scents Autumn Part 1

Autumn scents are not my forte. I love light white florals and creamy pale scents, while fall is full of heavy spices and warm super foody scents. However I was intrigued by Solstice Scents Bloody Bathory, so I decided to buy it (even though at this point I don't have a bathtub to soak in...), and as my free sample decided to pick up the one scent that sounded interesting from the Fall release, Blackburns Farmstead.

Solstice Scents always does an amazing job at the packaging, and I wish I thought about taking a picture, but I'm always so excited to get to my goodies, that the last thing on my mind is taking a picture of the packaging. There are tons of pictures out there though that show the beautiful boxes that have been arriving.

 

Blackburn Farmstead: Blackberry Jam, Boysenberry Preserves, Vanilla Bean Accord, Creamy Vanilla & a Touch of Vanilla Musk This one sounded delicious, as I love berries, but out of the vial it smells very artificial, and more grape than blackberries or boysenberries. On the skin, the artificial skittles smell remains, so unfortunately this will be a "to trade" sample.

Bloody Bathory: A combination of Essential Oils of Pink Grapefruit, White Grapefruit, Palmarosa, Geranium Bourbon, Peru Balsam, Roman Chamomile, Rosewood and Jasmine with a few drops of Jasmine fragrance oil. Look at how pretty it looks!!! I love the rose petals on top! In the jar, the grapefruit notes are super strong, thats all I can smell, however as I have no bath at the second, I can't try it for real :( 

I did try it out in a small bowl (so I could see the red coloring too!), and the florals really come out, and smell very comforting and familiar. When you drop in the salt, the coloring does look like blood! I love this, and can't wait to take a real bath with it!

You can find everything on Solstice Scents, even though things sell out, they do restock their items even limited edition multiple times, so don't worry too much about missing out on items. 

Everything was purchased by me.

Shiro Miscellaneous Collections

This post is going to contain swatches of my miscellaneous eyeshadows from swatches, be it small collections, or collections I really didn't buy a lot from. So enjoy some random swatches!

The Notebook Collection

I am very ashamed to admit that I don't even know what The Notebook Collection from Shiro is referencing. None of the colors really stand out to me, and without the familiarity that names spark up and require me to buy the entire collection (Legends Collection I'm talking to you), this collection was not one that I was very interested in. However it does contain one of my favorite golds that I own, so it does have that going for it.

• Heart Attack: This color I got as a free sample a while ago. I don't really wear reds on my eyes as that brings out the redness in the skin around them, but I love experimenting with that one as a lip gloss!

• Perfect World: One of my favorite golds that I own. Its not super warm, buttery and very bendable. I'm probably going to end up picking up a full size of this during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale this year as to me, this is the Perfect Gold :P

The Randomly Generated Collection

Another collection which lacks wearable colors, and I honestly never was into Minecraft enough for me to want this collection for its references. Despite all of this, this collection has 2 definite winners for me!

 

• Cake!: This color is gorgeous. I originally was lamenting over the removal of the original Super Effective Color called Rapidash, which has long since been discontinued. When I emailed Caitlin she suggested I check out Cake! as that is the closest color she could think of for Rapidash. Once I got the sample, I was in love. Cake! is a gorgeous golden white color with a beautiful copper shift, which does not show up in photographs very well at all. It is beautiful as an all over lid color, an inner corner highlight, or as a highlight for your cheeks. Its definitely a must have from Shiro!
• That'sss a Nice House: I got this one as a free sample with one of my many Shiro orders. Its a nice bring grassy green with darker emerald green sparkles. Its a color I don't wear often, but its quite pretty.
• Diggy Diggy Hole: I love khaki/green duochrome colors, and this one fits the bill. Nice medium brown with tons of green shift, its a color I've gotten a good amount of wear from. 
• Are You Shear You Want to Enchant That?: Another free sample color, this one is a brown tinged with a lot of purple, with tons of multicolored shimmer. 

Badger, Mushroom, Snake

  From this mini collection, I only own one color that I got as a free sample. While I love the Badger Song (and had to just show my boyfriend, as he apparently never heard it before), the colors themselves don't really appeal to me.

• Badger: Badger is a dark brown color with some golden shimmer. It reminds me a lot of A Regular Bears' Meeting, and would make a good crease color/eyeliner. Badger also applies more smoothly than A Regular Bears' Meeting does.

Femme Fatale

  When Femme Fatale became a distributor for Shiro in Australia, Caitlin made them a trio of exclusive eyeshadows, and an exclusive lip gloss color. I fell in love with one of them and made sure to pick it up during a group buy that was shipping to the US. 

• I Didn't Vote for You: Is a really nice bronzey color. Before I bought it, I was really worried it was going to be too close to Shiro's Chimera color, but as you can see they are relatively different. I Didn't  Vote for you also reminds me of No Men Like Me, just without the ashy white duochrome. Since Femme Fatale recently lowered their international shipping rates, I'd recommend everyone to pick this color up if they can.

That wraps up this round of my indie makeup stash!
All products purchased by me.
Shiro Notebook Collection
Shiro Badger, Mushroom, Snake Collection
Shiro Randomly Generated Collection
Shiro Eyeshadows from Femme Fatale

Previous Shiro Swatches:
The Hobbit Collection

Alkemia Haul

Alkemia is a company that I find myself ordering from a lot, mainly because of their great 5 pack of samples for 10 bucks with free shipping. I mainly ordered this time because they had Summer Dandelion in the "Last Chance" section of their store, and I am a bit obsessed with Dandelion scents, and decided that I needed them all.

I also decided to order a sampler pack, because my list of scents to try was growing pretty long, and I decided to take this chance to thin it down a bit.

Now my nose is not very developed. Its very hard for me to pick out individual scents apart from the very obvious ones. But I'll try to figure out which notes I do an do not pick out during this review.

• Summer Dandelion: "An exuberant exultation of sun warmed dandelions and meadow grasses lightly dampened by fleeting summer rain showers." I picked this one up in a full size because I enjoyed my sample that I had gotten earlier, and was scared about missing it and not getting a chance to get it again later. In the vial you can definitely smell the dandelions, but unlike my other dandelion scent (OHWTO Dandelion Wine) its a lot less sharp and a lot more soft and slightly floral. I would actually say I like Dandelion Wine better as it stays more grassy and fresh, while Summer Dandelion tends to go a little more floral and soft on me, but I love them both.

• Midnight Garden: "A lunar intoxication of night-flowering white flowers – tuberose (flower of dangerous pleasures), lily (flower of majestic beauty), honeysuckle (flower of binding love), gardenia (flower of secret passions) and moonflower (flower that inspires dreams of love). Hauntingly beautiful." This one I actually requested as one of my free samples, and I'm so glad that I did. Its gorgeous and floral and wonderful. I am a complete sucker for white florals, and this one does them amazingly. I was a bit worried, because I despise honeysuckle, but I don't smell it in this perfume. I actually cannot smell any of the individual notes, the white flowers all combine together beautifully into a great scent. This is definitely going to be one of the perfumes I purchase in full size next.

• Elixir of Aphrodite: "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." Holy crap is this fruity! Peaches and mimosa and vanilla. Slightly reminds me of Trident Tropical Twist gum. While I like the smell, this is not really something I'd like to smell like, so it will stay in my "wear at home" pile.

• La Sirena: "A mesmerizing spell of oceanic aquatics, saline seaweeds, and garlands of fresh Tiare flowers offered to the sea. Hauntingly elusive" This was the scent that Alkemia chose to send me as a free sample. While I do like it, and I can definitely smell the Tiare flowers, the aquatic scents are just not for me. They remind me so much of bathroom air freshner :( This one is going in my destash box.

• Vanille Vert: "The innocence of fresh ferns, sweet green grass, and tender new leaves juxtaposed against seduction of white amber, Madagascar vanilla orchids, and vanilla musk." On cold sniff, I loved this. There was a perfect mix of vanillas to green notes, however on my skin, the green notes took over, and got a bit too green for my tastes. I'll probably leave this as a perfume to sniff on occasion as I do like how it smells in the vial.

• Moon Goddess: "A magical elixir of narcotic florals - datura, night-blooming cereus, and white poppy enfolded in a aquatically luminous blend of water musks, delicate cucumber, and the palest melons." Part of me feels like I need to label this review as "How I learned I hate Alkemias cucumber notes" I honestly couldn't even skin test this one, the cucumber note was so strong and repulsed me so much. I love fresh real cucumbers, they are one of my favorite snacks, and the generic Cucumber Melon scent found in every drugstore ever, but Alkemias note is a no go for me. I really must blame my boyfriend, who found Lime Cucumber flavored Gatorade one day in King Soopers and insisted we try it. This perfume just conjures up memories of that awful drink.

• Dalliance: "Dalliance is a delightfully unique summer blend of garden fresh English cucumbers, barely ripened figs, iced black Pekoe tea, and cool aquatics." Unfortunately this one has the same fate as Moon Goddess, nauseating cucumbers, I can actually barely tell the difference between this and Moon Goddess, that is how overpowering the cucumber note is for me.

• Paradise: "An heavenly blend of fresh young coconut and Madagascar vanilla with hints of Monoi Tiare." I actually had really high hopes for this one. But while on cold sniff and initial application I can smell the Tiare flowers, they soon disappear and are replaced with a pretty boring Vanilla/Coconut combo. So while I do like this, this is not something I see myself picking up a full bottle of.

You can purchase everything mentioned here (except for Summer Dandelion) at Alkemia.
Everything mentioned here was purchased by me with my own money.

Shiro's The Hobbit Collection

I thought I'd start this blog off by starting the swatching of my entire Indie makeup collection. So to start off, here is a small portion of my Shiro collection. The Hobbit collection does not have a lot of wearable colors for me, thus why I have so few colors from this collection. But of the ones I have, I really do love them.

•  When the Thrush Knocks: This color is my favorite from this collection. A nice bronzey color that looks gorgeous all over the lid. I also really like the inspiration for the color as the last ray of sunshine.

• Farewell, Wherever You Fare: A darkish golden taupey color which is gorgeous, but I have a harder time finding a way to wear it, as its a bit dark for an all over lid color for most days, but too light for a crease color.

• A Regular Bears' Meeting: A really dark brown with some golden sparkles, nothing really too special about it in my opinion and because of its satiney finish, applied a little bit patchy, but would make a very nice, although deep crease color.

• War of Five Armies: I expected this color to be a lot more red, but on me, its a pretty brownish semi matte color. Like Bear's Meeting it applied slightly patchy, but applies fine when blended out in the crease.

•  Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees: As far as wearable colors go, this is not it. As far as colors with my favorite interpretation based off of the reference? Its definitely in the top 5 for me. Its a foresty green color thats mostly matte, but with tons of red and white sparkles (which do not show up on camera for me), representing the fire blazing in the fir trees. I've used this color as a statement bottom liner with Darling Girls Superstar Serum, and loved it as that showed off the sparkles really well. I adore this color!

• Attercop, Attercop: Gorgeous blue color over a black base. Unfortunately I don't have many opportunities to wear such a color, so its been sitting mainly neglected in my Shiro drawer. 

• Lingered in Twilight: I know a ton of people adore this color, but I'm not really one of them. I actually only got the full size by accident, I meant to buy the sample, but somehow added a full size to my cart. Its a pretty duochromey blue green over a black base. I like using this as a liner sometimes, but other than that, I never use it. I guess I could mix it in with some clear nail polish... but like Attercop, Attercop its mainly neglected in my stash.

Overall, this is not one of my favorite collections from Shiro. While I do love a few colors, most of them I find to be too unwearable for me to use a lot. I do however love the amount of inspiration many of them take from the book, one of my favorite things about Shiro is how much thought goes behind the inspiration of a color.

The Hobbit Collection is available at Shiro Cosmetics.
Everything in this review was purchased by me.