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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Review: 4 Scents from Conjure Oils

I love Conjure Oils, so I was proud that I managed to limit myself to only 4 decants and a full bottle from their Halloween collection! The full bottle I got is Succubus, which I reviewed last year, and the 4 decants are new scents I'll be reviewing in this post. As of today, they're still available.

For my previous Conjure Oils reviews, you can click on the tag on the right or head here.



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Review Notes


As always, reviews are done blind until the TL;DRs are written. If any of the notes surprise me, I write an overview. I've also started adding a "Final Verdict" section to help me keep track of my perfumes and figure out what to destash, since my perfume collection is starting to get messy. Here are the categories I came up with for my "Final Verdict":

  • Love: Most awesome perfume ever. Need endless supplies of it and will swap my first born child for the last drops of it if it's limited edition. 
  • Like: I like it and may buy a full size of it, but it's not urgent. 
  • Interesting: I don't really like it or I don't think I  can wear it in public, but I appreciate the artistry of the scent. It's like a beautiful but unwearable runway piece you won't buy on your own, but don't mind owning.
  • Ok: It's okay. I like it enough, but may destash for a good price to keep my collection manageable. 
  • Destash: Kill it with fire.
  • Age it: Maybe it will smell good one day. One day. Just wait.


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Bloody Mary 

"Blood red gulab attar in full bloom, shy English violet, the passion of clove infused with red sandalwood, red blood musk and the innocence of the gift of crocus in the form of saffron threads all anchored in earthy russet patchouli saturated black honey."

Oh gods. This has that cleaning agent sort of chemical smell. Yes, I smell heavy, musky, super sweet candied roses, and hints of sandalwood. Yes, it's that kind of super sweet, candied rose + sandalwood scent that's super popular souvenir shops in India....but it's all overwhelmed by the cleaning chemical smell. It's as if one of the souvenir shops in India created a detergent or bathroom cleaner that would have a cheesy name like "A Whiff of India" or something. I actually like the super sweet, candied rose + sandalwood scent, and would probably buy a detergent in this scent...it's just that the detergent bit smell too strong for me to like as a perfume. It's the way some detergents make your clothes smell amazing, but you have to learn to ignore the detergent smell when you sniff it right out of the bottle.

After about 20 min, the roses do calm down until they smell more like an overly sweetened rose candy dessert, but the industrial cleaner scent is still there.

TL;DR: Souvenir detergent from India.

Final Verdict: Destash


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STELLA, the Celestial Witch 

"Otherworldly and bioluminescent flowers deepened with the blackness of a night sky littered with stars."

Extremely sweet and floral, and blue. It kinda reminds me of a room spray. One of those pink ones with flowers all over and would make people declare that they hate floral scents. As I wear it, I sniff that kind of medicinal, game-y incense scent that NAVA likes to call "red musk", but mingled with the floral and the blue, it just ends up smelling like a dank, wet toilet sprayed with a pink room spray.

TL;DR: Dank, wet toilet sprayed with a pink room spray.

Final Verdict: Destash

Overview: Ok, the scent description is more of a story than actual notes, so I guess deeper otherworldly and bioluminescent flowers smell like a dank, wet toilet sprayed with a pink room spray.



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Vampire Pumpkin

"Sensual chai spiced golden honey folded into pumpkin cream cheese and toasted oak ice cream finished with a dollop of vanilla whipped cream then drizzled with smoked sea salt and lapsong souchong caramel swirl."

Oooh...I love this. It's like a milky, sweet, golden ginger tea. I can only describe the sweetness as "golden". It just makes you think of golden honey or maltose, and it's beautiful.

Anyone else ate maltose frequently as a kid? They seal your mouth shut. Anyone has any idea where I can get these in Indonesia/Singapore? Totally craving them.
Image found on Wikipedia
The ginger isn't that subtle and it's more milky than spicy. Despite the milkiness, it's still a light scent and definitely a scent I'd recommend gourmand lovers who don't want to induce food coma all around them.

I get hints of smoked wood that can smell too burnt at times, but overall, it behaves pretty well and just grounds the scent to keep it from getting cloyingly sweet. As the scent fades, I do get a bit of a clay-like scent, but it's barely there on my skin.

TL;DR: Lightly gourmand, milky, sweet, golden ginger tea.

Final Verdict: Love



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WENDY, the Tempest Witch 

"Breeze-dusted lavender honey, broom straw, silver bells, wind-whipped willow and Mercurial musk."

Lavender marshmallows. This smells exactly like that. Definitely powdery, but not in an old lady way, and so fluffy and delicious. Unfortunately, my skin eats the lavender marshmallow bit up really quickly, and after 10 min, it has morphed into this clean, wet, blue scent. It's the kind of scent you'd expect from blue liquid soaps in fancier bathrooms. I'm really confused. Where did the marshmallows go? At times, I catch a whiff of what was the lavender marshmallows, only they've taken a more camphor-like scent.

This scent fades super fast on my skin, and by 40 min, I'm definitely struggling to sniff it, even when my nose is pressed on my wrist.

TL;DR: Lavender marshmallows disappearing into blue liquid soaps.

Final Verdict: Age it



Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Review & Recommendation: Toni & Guy at Mandarin Gallery, Singapore

I was told to remove all social media postsabout a salon I now cannot name (I guess I'll call it Salon X), in return for a 60% refund and 2 free hair treatments. It's a joke considering they jacked up the price to $627, so I'm still paying about $280 to get my hair fucked, but I guess I'll have to take it. So now I'm editing this post to talk about how AMAZING Yen Ooi from Toni & Guy at Mandarin Gallery, Singapore, is!

Look how well she fixed my hair!



She's awesome and I was so happy with the results, I hugged her. Seriously! I thought my hair was a gonner, but she fixed it. She was also very aware of what's best for my hair. By the time I got to her, my hair was already getting really brittle and the ends were turning white thanks to gods know what Salon X did to my hair. She didn't do further bleaching and fixed everything without making my hair dryer! I love her so much! Best colourist ever!