Subscription Boxes: Box of Happies June 2014 Box

I know subscription boxes aren't worth it for international shoppers, but I couldn't help it and because I'm a sucker for branding and packaging. Check out their website! It's so cute!

So here's what I got:

These are the items in the box:

• Hair tie by Ting Lisa
• Soap bar by Megan's Soap Box
• Earrings by Box of Happies
• Necklace by Box of Happies 
• Felt magnet by Robin's Art & Design

This is how much the box costs:

1 month's box: $24

Shipping: $4.99

Total: $28.99

This brand does not ship internationally, but I was an idiot and didn't read that part, so I somehow was able to subscribe even though I live abroad. So the total I paid for is $42.14, which is unfortunately not worth it. 

So on to the pros & cons of this box:

Pros:

• They don't do auto-renewals of their subscription service, which is something I appreciate a LOT
• It comes in a high quality, functional box I can actually use for storage!
• It comes with a card with suggestions of what you can use the box for. Yay for being green!
• It arrived to me, an international customer, on June 23, so US customers probably got it around June 13. Not too bad for subscription services
• It's cute stuff!

Cons:

• It's unfortunately too cute. I feel so lame saying this but, I think the things look too young on me. I do think they're cute but they're not exactly age appropriate for me. The necklace may still work, but the hairtie, magnet and earrings are definitely too young-ish for me now. I'm going to pass it on to my friends with young daughters since I still think they're cute for young girls.
• International shipping makes it too expensive :(

So unfortunately, I won't be renewing my subscription.

Megan's Soap Box Review

The soap isn't for me, unfortunately. It leaves your hands with a bit of that dry, sticky feeling you get with some bar soaps. Not too much, but enough for me to prefer something else. Scent-wise, it's ok. It doesn't really smell like lemongrass, and smells more like lemon with a bit of that soap bar smell. Overall, this soap is ok, but I'm not rushing to get it. 

Review: Alchimia Apothecary Perfumes (Part 2)

EDIT: I have had a bad customer service experience and so did some of my friends, so I personally will avoid them now. This will probably cause some controversy, but I feel that I need to put this out there.  There's also some owner sketchiness. Here's some public sketchiness, here's some I got privately. I'm also not a fan of her tone with people who give not so great reviews of her brand.

I finally got around reviewing the rest of my Alchimia perfumes, which are the new scents. My first review is here, my initial cold sniff impressions are here. I didn't change my cold sniff impression, and only looked at the scent descriptions just before writing the overall review.

… And Candy Bar Dreams

"This scent is pure decadence. Thick ribbons if chocolate and black ambrosia layer themselves onto sticky sweet and creamy chunks of coconut filling and crunchy bits of toasted almonds."

Cold sniff review: Sweet earth. It's definitely a really sweet smell, but I also smell a very earthy smell which could be a very strong dark chocolate smell. Not a fan.

First Application: Oh gods. This smells like really sweet chocolate-covered buttered popcorn. This is amazing! I'm hungry just smelling this.

You know this smells delicious...
Image courtesy of Hershey's you can even find the recipe here!

5 min in: The sweetness died down, leaving just a wonderful chocolate-drizzled buttered popcorn smell. There's a hint of something that reminds me of coconut body butter. The scent stayed constant after this. I'm not sure if it's because I had a hard time getting the oil out thanks to the rollerball jamming, but I noticed this scent seems to have less of a throw than what I'm used to from Alchimia. By 15 min, I have to sniff it close to the skin and it's pretty faint by 1h.

Overall Review: It's so delicious, I really want this in full size. I better check my budget for this. I'm so hungry after smelling this!

First in Show

"Straight out of the gates, this scent is a floral explosion with gardenias, tulips, honey suckles, a hint of roses and fruity violets rounding into plum, blackcurrants, wine and sweet tobacco. Hints of the most subtle bits of leather linger and combine into beautiful sophistication."

Cold sniff review: Powdery snow and brand new sheafs of paper. It's weird but I definitely get the new paper smell. Love this!

First application: This is a very cool, clean floral scent that has a bit of dirtiness to it. I'm trying to figure out what that bit of dirtiness is. It definitely makes this scent more exciting. Somehow, the smell reminds me of walking into the lobby of an expensive office building. I think is the traces of that new paper smell.

10 min in: My skin amps up the sweetness and I can't smell that hint of dirtiness that I liked anymore. It just smells like sweet, cool florals. Now it feels more like I'm in the lobby of a hotel or in a spa.

20 min in: The florals warmed up and the scent smells heavier, with a floral type of heaviness. I think I smell a hint of roses? smell reminds me so much of Midsummer Dreams Apothecary's Rapunzel, I think I'm going to sniff them together to see if they smell that alike.

Overall Review: Sniffed both of MDA's Rapunzel & First in Show together and I see the difference now. I'm guessing the honeysuckle & rose combination is what made them smell so similar. In the beginning, First in Show is cooler and sharper, while Rapunzel is a warmer, slightly heavier grass and floral smell. As they dry down, Rapunzel smells cooler, but it's a more soapy sort of coolness. First in Show became warmer and heavier, but it's still a floral sort of heaviness, which is different from Rapunzel's more amber sort of heaviness in the begining.

While Rapunzel makes me think of something from an old medieval, European castle converted into a spa, First in Show makes me think more of modern office buildings and spas. So this for Rapunzel:

Technically a monastery, but totally how I imagine a medieval castle to look like.
Tatev Monastery by Alexander Naumov

vs this for First in Show:

Kepinski Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia!
Image courtesy of kiwicollection.com/

They also have a different sort of sweetness to it. Rapunzel's sweetness has a warmer, vanilla creaminess to it, while First in Show has a lighter, floral sweetness to it.

Gladius

"This is a sophisticated blend of leather and black agar, sweetened by bergamot and lemon. It's sharpened by the hints of star anise, and all mellowed down by rich ribbons of sweet vanilla."

Cold sniff review: Leather and ice. All I smelt was leather at first, and then a cool scent emerges. This is such a sexy scent. When my bf's back in town, he's going to be forced into wearing this. 

First application: On me, this smells like sweet, musky leather. There's the slight bitter coolness to the leather, but the sweet muskiness weights this scent down a bit.

5 min in: I think I detect a hint of lemon in here.

10 min in: The lemon scent got stronger and this becomes a sweet, earthy and musky lemon scent, with the bitter coolness of leather. The leather note smells a bit too masculine on me though.

Overall Impression: I think I find the smell of leather pretty hot. I remembered this is meant for a men, so I tried it out on 3 guys who suck even more than me when it comes to describing scents. It's a "nay" from all 3 and they've described it as:

"Like something menthol and alcohol." Okay...
"Peppery almond?" Huh?
"Those balls in the toilet, you know, the ones you pee on." Wat.

These guys really suck at this.

Picnic

"On a lighter summer note, this scent blends together wonderful watery cucumbers, green tea, violet leaves, clovers, dandelions, and sunflowers."

Cold sniff review: Grass, dirt and a yellow flower smell. I'm still trying to place this. I really like it. 

First Application: Wow...light, sweet florals and grass, this is so pretty! Definitely a yellow flower smell. Makes me think of small bursts of wildflowers! Reminds me of something like this:

Image courtesy of wallpaperhi.com

10 min in: The scent finally settled on me and it's less sweet, but definitely a clean, soapy floral that makes me think of the linen in high end spas. It's definitely a gorgeous scent! If any of you have tried Midsummer Dreams Apothecary's Rapunzel, this is like a sweeter and more floral version of that scent.

Overall Impression: Oh wow! Such a coincidence the picture I picked has a dandelion in it!

I sniffed Picnic, First in Show and Rapunzel together and I see the difference now. Picnic is an even cooler scent than First in Show, and now I recognize that one of the clean smells I sniffed must have been the green tea. It smell's like L'Occitane's Thé Vert (basically green tea snooty-fied a.k.a en français) solid perfume.

Picnic has the same floral sweetness as First in Show, but it's more subtle than First in Show. Picnic's scent also strikes me as more wildflowers and grass, while First in Show is more of carefully selected flowers for a flower arrangement in a high end hotel/spa. There's definitely roses in First in Show, but not Picnic.

So more this for Picnic:

Image by kirsty_mcn in dpchallenge.com/

vs this for First in Show:

Image courtesy of wedding-flowers-and-reception-ideas.com

Between Rapunzel & Picnic, there's definitely huge differences. While both have a clean, soapy smell, Picnic has only hints of it. It's sweeter and more floral for sure, and also smells more blue. Rapunzel smells like a heavier and more rounded soapy smell.

Shaman

"Sage, lemongrass, lavender eucalyptus and other herbs combine with the delicate aroma of sweetgrass, blackened earth and a rich smokey campfire."

Cold sniff review: Betadine. Yes, Betadine, the iodine solution they put on your gauze when you get cut.

First Application: Gah...I knew I was going to regret this but I thought I should try it anyway. It immediately smells like iodine solution on me. Slightly sour iodine solution. My coworker caught a whiff of it and asked me if I'm ok, because it smelled like I just used Betadine.

15 min in: Still iodine, but there's also an acrid, Chinese preserved fruit smell.

40 min in: Wait, what sorcery is this? The iodine smell is receding and now I'm getting this sweet, dried flowers and dried grass smell. There's still a bit of the Chinese preserved fruit smell, but it's disappearing.

1h 30 min in: The medicinal smell is completely gone, leaving behind a sweet, slightly soapy dried grass with a spray of dried flowers smell. It's amazing now! Unfortunately, it's also pretty faint by now and you have to sniff hard to smell it.

Overall Impression: I wish the final smell showed up earlier. It does end up gorgeous, but way too late. UPDATE 08/14: Here's the reason why this smells weird.

Review & Recommendation: Dawn Eyes's Kate Colours

When I saw /u/Coal_XY's post about Dawn Eyes offering customized eyeshadows to raise money for her sister's surgery, I couldn't resist and had to break my cosmetics no-buy. 

I decided I wanted to create a coloured named Kartini, named after an Indonesian feminist I admire. She was an early champion of education for women. How early? 19th century! She came from a Javanese aristocratic family, but instead of choosing a pampered life, she educated herself and fought to ensure ordinary women had the same access to education that she did. Her letters to her Dutch friend changed the way Javanese women were viewed for the better, and inspired many prominent Indonesian independence fighters. 

Oh and she was a failed vegetarian. She did it for years and fell off the wagon (maybe she didn't, but her letters on this subject stated that she was ready to quit because she lacked the strength to continue). For some reason, this little titbit makes me like her more. Maybe it's because I'm a fellow failed vegetarian.

One thing I'm proud of my country for is that our founding father, Sukarno, dedicated a special day for her to recognize her contributions to women's rights in Indonesia. He did this in 1964. Kartini Day falls every April 21st. For more information about Kartini, her Wiki page is here.

For this colour, I wanted a pink with a gold shift. Something that seems traditionally feminine but also contains a captivating richness. It just seems to embody Kartini, the woman who is an early feminist, a dutiful daughter, and a wife who could hold her own against her husband, all at once. 

This was the colour Dawn created:

The label is waterproof! And this has a clear cap so you can see the colours easily!

Left is under warm, artificial light that brings out the gold.
Right is under natural light, and the colour looks more pink.

The entire creation process was definitely fun, and I love talking to Dawn. I ended up sending her some coffee and snacks from Indonesia since I really wanted to give her a taste of Indonesia, and she insisted on waving my international shipping cost. I first contacted her May 19 and she had a potential colour out by May 23. She even sent me a video of the colours under various different lightings so I can get a good view of what my colour would look like. I fell in love straight away.

Here's a gif of part of the video she made:

When my order finally came, I got a little surprise!

Yay! Freebies!

She gave me free samples of other Kate's Colors! 

Here are the swatches! Left under artificial, warm light, and right under natural light.

This colour is gorgeous. It looked brown at first, but shifts to purple depending on the angle & light. It's gorgeous!

It's hard to describe this colour. It looks like really dark grey, but has gold and pink flecks to it, making it look brown-ish purple from certain angles/light.

Eyeshadow Reviews

Packaging-wise these may not have pretty artwork, but they are definitely top notch quality. I love that the labels are waterproofed, since I've ruined so many pretty labels already. The shadows come with a sealed sifter seal and I definitely appreciate that. For those of you who like being able to see the colours easily, these tubs are completely clear, including the lid. 

I have to say, I'm  incredibly impressed with these shadows. A lot of them are ok on their own. As in they're still vibrant and adhere to my bare skin, without any primers. All these colours are pretty glittery (I guess everyone wanted sparkly shades for customization XD), but they're also gorgeous even without glitter glue...just slightly less glittery. Some shades even look a bit too glittery with glitter glue. 

I'll definitely recommend these colours for people who are just getting into loose powder shadows and may not have much experience with using them. 

Here's a quick look I did, using only UD primer potion:

See how it's still pretty glittery?? Using Kartini & Friendship. Kartini is on the bottom lid, WITHOUT any primer! It's on bare skin!

Full face!

Product List:

Face:

• Biore Perfect Face Milk
• Dior Hydralife BB Cream (Luminous Beige)
• Make Up Store Cover All

Lips:

• Hello Waffle Tinted Lip Balm (Maraschino mixed with Ginger Kitties)

Eyes:

• Dawn Eyes (Kartini, Friendship)
• Clio Kill Blood eyeliner
• Maybeline The Colossal mascara
• Fiberwig mascara

Hope you guys would support her sale! These are really pretty colours!

Swatches: Hello Waffles (23 + 1 colour)

I feel so bad to Christine but it turns out that it takes me longer than expected to do swatches, so I'm only done now >.< (took me 8 days, including a break when I ran out of tape)

I did a quick swatch of all the colours and wrote a review before, but I haven't had time to do a more detailed swatch until now. So here's the 23 + 1 colours! Why +1? Well...I can't find my sample of Sloth and I'm really sad about it. I think it may have dropped on the floor, and anything on the floor is immediately claimed by my sister's dogs. You'll never see it again. All I have of it is my old swatch over glitter glue only. RIP Sloth. May you have your revenge by giving the dogs glittery poo. 

For these swatches, I swatched over:

• Bare skin
• Bare skin with a wet brush
• Darling Girl's Glitter Glue
• NYX HD Eye Primer or Urban Decay Primer Potion (I was using UDPP until I realized how much I was using, so I switched to a cheaper alternative. UDPP doesn't sell in Indonesia, so it's very precious to me)
• Over NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Milk & Slate

2 big things I learnt after doing these brushes:

1. Do oil cleansing. NYX Milk & Slate are pretty tough to get rid off, even after I used a very harsh handsoap & my facial soap. Meanwhile, my oil cleanser removes everything so cleanly and gently, even when my skin got stained. Now I'm sold. My foam cleanser isn't clean enough for my face, I need an oil cleanser.  

2. UDPP is much better than NYX's HD Eye Primer. NYX's primer darkens a lot of colours, and dulls the sparkle too. I also ended up with stains on my skin with a lot of the dark colours while using NYX. I didn't have the staining problem with UDPP, and the colours are a bit sparklier (not as sparkly as glitter glue though).

I just woke up and my skin was still crumpled..

More sparkly IRL! You can see some of the blue glitter glimmering in this pic, but IRL, there's billions of these blue sparks. You feel like you have sparkling gems on your eyes!

Very sparkly IRL, and you gan see green & blue glitter! Looks prettiest when applied with a wet brush.

IRL, this is very sparkly and you can see the blue-green glitter! I used the NYX primer for this and it darkened the colour.

The shift is much stronger IRL. You really see the blue pop against the purple!

So glittery IRL. It looks like fresh asphalt glimmering in the sun. Sorry about the patchy glitter glue swatch, I got impatient and swatched too fast.

The shift is stronger IRL. It's like mauve with a greenish shift. 

So glittery. It's like you're looking into a million little mirrors. Gorgeous colour! 

It's a much stronger shift IRL. It looks kinda pink here, but IRL, it's more white, with a pink highlight.

It's not showing up here, but IRL, it's a purple-ish pink.

The golden highlights is more obvious IRL. This colour looks amazing as a highlighting blush.

NYX Milk seem to darken this colour for some reason. IRL, the colour actually looks prettiest applied on bare skin. 

More sparkly and gorgeous IRL. It looks a bit brown-ish in the picture but IRL, it's a dark, purplish-pink with golden glitter everywhere. Such a mesmerizing colour!

This is a more red version of Bach.

This is just so beautiful! It's brown with a copper shift. In the picture, it just looks like a red-ish brown but IRL, it looks like a dark brown that shifts to red at certain angles!

This is just sooo pretty IRL. It looks a bit orane-ish here, but IRL, it's more pink with a strong, golden shift.

Shows up as very metallic, especially when applied wet IRL. I like it best applied wet.

The colour looks like a plain peach here, but it looks peach with a golden shift IRL. 

Unfortunately, all I have of Sloth is this swatch over glitter glue :(

In case you're curious, texture wise, these eyeshadows are great. Very smooth and non-streaky application. You do need to either apply them wet or apply them over something. Most colours don't stick well on your bare skin or go bald glitter-wise if you apply it alone. There is a bit of a flyaway problem like a lot of loose powder shadows, but it's not as bad as Darling Girl's eyeshadows where I'd get a glitter rain down my face while applying. I still love the DG's shades I got though. I just stick tissues on my face burqa-style to shield myself from the glitter bomb while applying them. 

Review: Brazen Cosmetics' Solid Perfume

Recently I purchased Brazen's solid perfumes, which are still on clearance right now for $4.49 each. I got the scents in Cranberry Cocktail & Pumpkin Mocha.

It's finally here!

Pumpkin Mocha & Cranberry Cocktail Solid Perfumes

In case you guys are wondering, no they don't include any goodies like free samples or candies.

Turnaround Time

Ordered: May 14
Shipped: May 15
Received: May 26

12 days TAT is pretty awesome for international shipping! Their delivery's on crack! Still, I noticed they charged me  $7.50 for First Class Shipping, while normal shipping usually only takes me 13 days. Not sure if the 2 day improvement is worth the extra $3-4 for shipping since.

Packaging

I way prefer solid perfumes that come in tubes since they're easier to apply and I don't get my fingers dirty. I have a nail chewing & eye rubbing habit, so perfume on my fingers is never good. These come in tins and I'm ok with this since it's the typical packaging for solid perfumes. The deal breaker part is that unfortunately, they have lids that slip off easily. I'm talking about so easily that they slip off if I lift them up too fast or shake them.

See what I mean?

I'm definitely worried about carrying this around since I'll easily get a bag full of smushed perfume. Slightly disappointed with this since the reason I buy solid perfumes is that they're more convenient to carry around.

Solid Perfume Review

Out of all the solid perfumes I've tried so far (L'Occitane, Midsummer Dreams Apothecary, Fragonard, a gift I got ages ago from a brand I can't remember), this is by far my favourite texture. It the texture of a solid lip balm and feels great gliding against my skin. It doesn't go too oily and doesn't leave that dry/sticky finish either.

Strength-wise, you have to get close to the skin to smell anything, even when it's freshly applied. I actually get a better scent pay off from most body lotions, so I'm disappointed. Longevity-wise, I still smell faint traces after 3-4h later, but I definitely have to be looking out for it and the scent's completely different since only 1-2 notes linger.

Scent Reviews

Now the site doesn't seem to work properly for me, and I can't get the scent descriptions at all. When I picked these scents, I picked them purely based on their names, betting on the fact that I typically love gourmand scents.

Pumpkin Mocha

This mostly just smells like a spiced pumpkin pie, full of cinnamon & cloves. I smell the mocha for only about the first few seconds before it disappears under the stronger pumpkin pie scent. The weird thing is, my skin seems to bring out an actual pumpkin smell underneath it all. Not pumpkin after it's been drowned in brown sugary goodness, but the actual wet fruit. Eventually, there's a wintery spearmint smell that emerges that hides the wet pumpkin smell. Now it smells like eating pumpkin pie after brushing your teeth. I still find it a delicious gourmand scent, but it's totally unexpected.

Cranberry Cocktail

I smell some cranberries, mingled with a minty apple smell. The minty smell eventually became the strongest smell there is, and the fruit smells went way into the background. I actually can't smell any of the cranberries 5-10 minutes in and it mostly smells of minty apple blossoms in the rain. Again, it's awesome but completely unexpected.

Overall Review

I want to like this so much since I love the scents and the texture of the perfume, but I really don't see the point of buying a perfume that's less scented than a body lotion. Sure, it's cheap right now, but it's not that cheap. I'm definitely not going to buy any more solid perfumes from them unless they reformulate to make the scents stronger. 

Review & Recommendation: Pretty & Polished

Recently, I just made my first indie eyeshadow purchase from Pretty & Polished!

The colours are gorgeous and it was hard not to buy the entire store. I got 3 nail polishes in total:

Cuttlefish and May Flowers are both colour changing nail polishes. I've bought colour changing nail polishes before and gotten disappointed by the minimal colour change, so I wasn't expecting much to be honest. I was so wrong. These change so much. My nails had the most gorgeous ombré look most of the time. I guess my nails don't warm up evenly? 

May Flowers: It goes white when it's warm, green when it's cold.

This is totally the lazy girl's ombré nails.

May Flowers with Cuttlefish. Cuttlefish is supposed to turn from blue to white when warm, but it only goes to light blue on me.

I'm definitely impressed with these colours!

I also got a non-colour-changing nail polish because I couldn't resist how gorgeous it looks. Check out Catnip! Sweet Babies!

Ran out of nail space, went on to toes.

Please excuse the grossness. I failed at giving myself a pedicure and this toenail was the only one that didn't look like the work or a 4-year-old imitating a Pollock painting. 

Their turnaround time's not too bad. It took them 4 days to ship my products and I received it 28 days after ordering. I've just subscribed to their monthly subscription boxes. I'll let you know how that goes!

If you're interested in their subscription box, they're still having a promotion that lets you buy 12 months for the price of 10, and 6 months for the price of 5. That makes a box $18.33 instead of $22 for US customers, and $25 instead of $30 for international customers. Wow..as an international customer, I save $5 instead of $3.67! Finally! There's a perk to being international! Woot!