Review: Ripe Lip Balms, Lip Scrubs & Perfumes

I ordered from Ripe sometime ago and only got around to reviewing them now.

So here's what I got:

• Perfume Oils
• Ambrosia
• Dirty Gardenia
• Ginger Milk Tea
• Solid Perfume
• Chocolate Cake
• Lip Scrub
• Coffee
• Honey
• Lip Balm
• Honeycomb
• Taro Milk Tea
• Tiramis

Customer Service Review

First of all, everything came beautifully packaged and shrinkwrapped!

Shrinkwrap makes me feel safe...

Their TAT is also freaking awesome:

Ordered: June 27
Shipped: June 27
Arrived: July 1 (at a US address)

Anyway, on to reviews...

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Perfume Oil General Review

These perfume starts off at a throw of about faux whispering distance and lasts this way for around 30-50 min. Afterwards, the throw is about intimate whispering distance for about another 1-2h before you have to get close to your skin to catch a whiff. You can get traces of it for about 8-9h.

As always, all scent reviews are done blind until the TL;DR's written. I write an overview if any notes surprise me.

Ambrosia 

"RIPE signature fragrance! Creamy coconut, summer cantaloupe, violet blossoms, and clementine orange - if you love fruity scents like me, this one is perfectly ripe."

This is a candy-like scent. Definitely a chewy candy since there's that chewy candy smell to it. The smell reminds me a lot of a Starburst candy. I can't really identify the flavour of this Starburst, but it's definitely one of those medley of fruits sort of flavours. For the first 5-10 minutes, there's also a very slight icy flavour (like mild "cool" candies..think Relaxa if you're in Indonesia).

It's nice enough, but teethers on smelling very artificial at times. Full disclosure, while I do like grown-up candy scents like Haunt's summer scents or Ten Three Labs' Artificial Angels, straight up candy tends to be a nope for me. I'm 26, I can't smell like a 6 year old who ran around unsupervised in a candy store. If you like candy scents though, you'll probably like this.

After about 10 minutes, it starts teetering on turning soapy and the dry-down has a bit of a sunblock smell. I'm guessing there's a coconut note in this since coconut notes often turn into sunblock.

TL;DR: Cool, fruity candy.

Overview: I knew there's coconut in this, I think the coconut is the one causing that chewy candy sort of smell. The violet may be the ones causing the soapy scent.

Dirty Gardenia

"Rich, floral blossoming gardenia and an undertone of freshly dug earth (this is a strong scent for true gardenia lovers)"

I'm actually not sure how gardenias smell like but I like this. The "dirty" part is more like the bitterness of lilies so no worries there if you don't like the smell of dirt. I'm guessing from this scent that gardenias smell like sophisticated, almost woody, light florals.

Unfortunately, at around 30 min, the smell gets lighter and lighter until it smells like a chemical I've smelled in a science lab before. It's a sweet scent, light scent that makes me think of balloons. Ether. It smells almost like ether.

TL;DR: Lillies & gardenia turning into ether.

Overview: I'm still not sure what's causing that ether smell. It's definitely a chemical smell.

Ginger Milk Tea

 "A creamy and spicy ginger with notes of sugared milk, black tea and nutmeg"

This just smells like a citrus soda. In the beginning, it has that slightly drier citrus that almost smells dusty. I'm expecting ginger milk tea and can't smell anything. I think the dry, sour smell may be the tea note they use. After about 10 minutes, the sourness eases and I get a citrus soda-scented soap.

TL;DR: Citrus soda-scented soap.

Overview: It's definitely the black tea that's turning into dry, dusty citrus on me. It's pretty overwhelming and I can't smell anything else. Nope, no milkiness at all.

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Solid Perfume Review

 The presentation is a bit messy but oh well, it happens with hand-poured items.

This is a waxier formula so it definitely feels sticky where you applied it. One thing I'm impressed with is that it starts off with a long throw - up to faux whispering distance! Unfortunately, by 5 min, my skin eats this up and I have to get close to my skin to catch a whiff. Oh, and there's a waxy scent that keeps threatening to overpowers the perfume by then. You can get faint traces of the scent on your skin for about 5-6h though. 

Chocolate Cake

"Milk chocolate cake with notes of vanilla and a thick layer of white frosting"

This scent is just straight up chocolate. It's not a complicated scent. One thing I like is that it doesn't smell like the highly artificial, way too sweet chocolate that some perfumers use. It's bordering on turning completely artificial but never gets there. It's a tad on the sweet side, but not cloying. Overall, I'd recommend it if you want an uncomplicated chocolate scent.

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Lip Balm General Review

First of all, I looove the presentation. Look how neat it is!

Smoooooooth....

These lip balms are definitely waxy. They definitely glide on easily, but it's still waxy. I think my lips don't react well to lip balms with higher wax content because these ended up making my lips crack. They're unsweetened, but Honeycomb seems to have some honey sweetness to it. I don't know if it's my mind tricking me, though. These also have a very waxy scent that tends to be overpowering.

Honeycomb

My only win out of the batch. This tastes exactly like fresh honey from honeycombs that you get in hotels. Delicious!

Taro Milk Tea

Wtf is this. It's just old wax. Sour old wax. I had to ask another indie owner who makes lip balms because the scent of this worried me so much. Turns out it's probably too much flavour oils since that can cause sourness.

Tiramisu

It's a sour, old wax scent and I don't get any of the creamy, coffee deliciousness of tiramisu. It just smells like a less sour version of Taro Milk Tea.

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Lip Scrub General Review

This is brand new and unused.

As you can see, unlike the lip balms, the lip scrubs are less smooth presentation-wise. They're still sealed though, so I'm happy.

These lip scrubs use fine granules of sugar, and there's more balm than sugar granules in it, so I find that it doesn't scrub as well. It feels more like a sweetened lip balm where they used sugar instead of stevia. The balm part melts easily:

This is with one light swipe over my lips. My lips ended up caked with the balm.

So it's definitely messy - I recommend using this over a sink.

Coffee

This is coffee beans - bitter, unsweetened and slightly acidic. It's not romanticized coffee at all. Again, the sour wax scent that the lip balms have is present in this.

Honey

Delicious! It's a much sweeter version of the Honeycomb lip balm!

Review & Recommendation: Haus of Gloi Autumn 2014 Pumpkin Butters &Bubbling Scrubs

I recently got a sample size of all the Haus of Gloi (HoG) Autumn scents in bubbling scrub & pumpkin butter form, except Pumpkin Queen because I accidentally missed that while ordering, and Persephone's Descent since my order got a bit messed up. I also got the Candy Corn lip balm.

Pretty presentation!

Unfortunately, the Ghost Puff pumpkin butter came in the wrong size (I ordered full tub),  and my pumpkin butter & bubbling scrub of Persephone's Descent were missing.

I only ordered the Candy Corn lip balm & not the other 2, so I'm not planning to use them until I get my situation resolved. I'm also not sure if those perfume samples are freebies or part of Minkishly's order for a sample of every perfume. We're also missing the full-size of Samhain. 

Customer Service Review

Matt was so nice and let me pre-order since my mail forwarding address is already live (another indie seller sent to the wrong address) and needs everything to arrive by a certain deadline. He was in such a rush to send my order, he sent them without billing me first!

Unfortunately, he got my order wrong and I ended up with a lot of stuff missing, extra stuff & incorrect sizes. I may have gotten someone else's order, so I've emailed and Facebook messaged Matt & Britton to let them know about this. I still haven't gotten a reply and I admit I'm slightly nervous, but HoG usually has amazing customer service (previous reviews here), so I'm positive they'll resolve this.

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Bubbling Scrub General Review

I love these scrubs! They use relatively smaller grains of sugar, so they're not as strongly exfoliating as some scrubs. I like them because they're gentle enough for everyday use, though. It feels similar to using soap with a loofah, so they're perfect for travelling if you're moving from place to place and don't want to keep packing a still wet loofah into your suitcase.

They're slightly more drying on your skin than the whipped soaps, but just barely. You do notice the slightest hint of dryness after washing this off, but it's very slight and not as bad as most other soaps (indie & mainstream).

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Pumpkin Butter General Review

These pumpkin butters are my favourite body lotions ever. When I use them, I can get to typing almost immediately since they're not sticky.

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Scent Reviews

Turns out HoG scents can smell VERY different in bubbling scrub or pumpkin butter version, so I'm doing a scent review for each version. If you ever got a wtf HoG recommendation, that person's nose isn't broken, s/he probably tried a different version of the scent.

These scent reviews aren't done blind since I've spent too long gazing longingly at their newsletter and reading HoG reviews, that I've memorized the notes.

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Ghost Puffs

"Orbs of buttery popcorn and marshmallow goo, presented on a wooden stick."

Pumpkin Butter

It does smell like marshmallows & popcorn! The marshmallow & popcorn scent you get in candies. It's all gooey, very sweet marshmallow at first, then goes to watery buttered popcorn as you rub it in. It's watery in the sense that it kinda smells like you dissolved a bunch of buttered popcorn flavoured jelly beans in water. On me, there's also a lotion smell to this. It's not horrible enough to make me not love the scent, but it's enough for me to find it a bit off.

Bubbling Scrub

There's less of the popcorn smell in this but it's still a marshmallow flavoured popcorn candy smell. As you rub it in, the scent's more of a watery caramel sort of scent. There isn't that off lotion smell, so I'm guessing that lotion smell is just the pumpkin butter.

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Olde Cider Haus

"Old oak, sweet drying hay fields, crushed apple pulp and vanilla husks."

Pumpkin Butter

There's a creamy, almost baked smell to this. Thanks to the oak & hay notes, the apple somehow smells more like a sexy, spicy, masculine perfume than something edible. It's a smell that hits both lusts so I'm a huge fan.

Left is Daniel Henney and right is what looks like the most amazing apple pie ever. This is too hard. Which one should I choose???
Images courtesy of hearts4kpop.wordpress.com & ohladycakes.com

Bubbling Scrub

There's a spiced apple cider & baked smell to this at first, but when you rub it in, it's mostly a masculine apple. It's a spiced apple scent but the spices are the kind that makes it smell more like a masculine perfume. This is awesome! This scent lingers a bit on your skin and you can definitely smell faint traces of it even after you've washed it off.

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Pumpkin Eater

"Cream, glowing pumpkin, rich vanilla bean and the tiniest touch of nutmeg butter."

Pumpkin Butter

This smells like vanilla & pumpkin, only the vanilla's the stronger note on me. It's also more of a sugary rather than creamy sort of vanilla. I also smell a fruity tartness to this that smells like baked raisins, but I'm not sure if it's a vanilla/caramel note going sour on me. Bubbling scrub's not available for this one.

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Spider Silk

"Procured from a dream: delicate water mint, wispy grey musk, crystalline webs of amber, oakmoss, torchwood, copaiba resin, and a touch of withered violet leaf."

Pumpkin Butter

There's a slightly astringent, candied violet smell (smells like a powdery, blue sort of floral). The violet isn't heavy at all, and while it's powdery, it's countered by this dry, astringent and slightly minty scent. It smells like an expensive face cream prescribed by a dermatologist.

Bubbling Scrub

Oh wow, this smells totally different and I'm a bigger fan of the bubbling scrub version of this scent. There's a rounded, suede-like sort of woody smell that reminds me of the homes of Indonesian socialites. There's hints of wood from some wooden furnitures, but they're tampered down by the smell of luxury in a home that's cleaned twice a day by an army of maids. It's a home that usually looks like this:

Though there would be more marble in an Indonesian socialite's home...
Design by Michael Abrams Limited, found on houzz.com

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The Horseman

"Autumnal forest and wood, distant fire, smooth saddle leather, brown musk and the lingering scent of a dark gentleman's cologne on a black woolen coat."

Pumpkin Butter

This smells like fallen leaves on the ground, with the earthy bitterness you'd expect. There's also old leather in this -one without the sweetness of new leather. There's also a scent that reminds me of rustling pages of an old book.

Bubbling Scrub

I smell a musky leather sort of scent on the tub, but once I wash it in, it's a bitter, musky old leather smell. The leather is sweeter than the leather in the pumpkin butter version, though. As it washes off, there's a bit of a cool wooden smell that makes me think of books in an old library. Now it smells like leather seats in an old school library, in an English castle where it gets drafty at times.

The Chirk Castle library, which looks so awesome

You get this sweet, lightly musky men's cologne smell lingering on your skin it's musky enough to make me think of an older gentleman, but not that old and definitely hot.

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Tobac

"Pipe tobacco, a wisp of smoke, bourbon vanilla and two cedarwoods."

Pumpkin Butter

This scent makes me think of an old bar in a now abandoned town. A bar that has seen better days and now is old and decaying.

Used to be classy and totally not haunted at all..
Image by Þorsteinn H Ingibergsson

There's the smell of old wood, sour chewed tobacco and a hint of a boozy vanilla all blended together. It's a weirder type of scent but I kinda like it.

Bubbling Scrub

The scent in the bubbling scrub doesn't blend together like the pumpkin butter, and the notes come in separately. This opens with the most delicious boozy vanilla smell, but it's quickly drowned out by the strong, sour, chewed tobacco smell. Luckily, the scent it leaves lingering on your skin is a slightly boozy & woody vanilla. 

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Candy Corn Lip Balm

HoG's lip balms are unsweetened, and they tend to be the waxier kind. I definitely got a bad batch because this is very different from the Beguiled lip balm from HoG that I've tried before. The previous lip balm is pretty strongly scented, but this one barely has a scent. I think I can taste a bit of candy corn, but I may be imagining it because I thought I accidentally ordered an unscented & unflavoured lip balm when I first put it on. I can even taste the waxy lip balm taste. Anybody else with a Candy Corn lip balm can let me know how it is?

Review: Luxe Body Care Co Bacon Lip Balm

I ordered some Luxe Body Care Co.'s bacon lip balms for my brother and got them for myself too to try them out. Their TAT is pretty great, and I got my balms shipped 2 days after I ordered.

I have to say, the packaging is great. First, it comes in a shrinkwrap seal.

And look how it looks when you open it!

I didn't push it up, it's actually twisted all the way to the bottom. I'm not sure how they get it to stick out so neatly like that, but I'm impressed! I also love how the scraped it smooth:

So packaging aside, I'm afraid I'm not too happy with the lip balm. It actually feels very waxy and drying on my lips. The scariest part is that when I lick it off, my tongue gets that sticky, dry feeling you get when drinking wine with too much tannin in it. I got so worried, I checked the site to see what's in it:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/170202049/chocolate-bacon-lip-balm-homemade-manly?ref=related-1
Retrieved July 3, 2014

Ok, everything should be safe. Maybe it's too much beeswax?

Taste-wise, I'm ok with it. The chocolate bacon flavour I tried is lightly sweetened with stevia and the chocolate taste is great, but I don't really get bacon. It tastes more like cooking grease with burnt bits...which is what bacon can taste like, but I guess I was expecting something a bit more fragrant. Maybe I've been eating too much prosciutto.

Review & Recommendation: Haunt Beguiling Bath & Body

I got my order from Haunt and they're incredibly gorgeous! First of all, they have gorgeous packaging:

I love the artwork. I'm saving all the containers! The two small spray bottles are FREE samples of skin glossing oils. I love freebies!

Secondly, holy crap this brand is awesome. I finally found my perfect fruity/candy scents. So a lot of fruity/candy scents tend to go artificial and gross, or smell like they're created for anyone below the age of 13, so I've previously decided that I hated "candy" scents. Then I tried Haunt. Wow. These just stay smelling like really grown-up candy. It's like candy that's gone through the kitchen of a Michelin star chef and come out absolutely, mindblowingly delicious, with a name you can't pronounce, and presented in a way that makes you too scared to eat it in case it's artwork instead of food.

Thirdly, their TAT is awesome. My order was shipped within 3 days! Some people who ordered later may have gotten longer TATs, but this brand is great with updating everyone via their Facebook page on the order status.

Finally, there is something magical about their oil. I'll get to it in my product reviews.

My only gripe with this brand is that they're so popular, everything sells out fast whenever they make a release. It's as bad or worse than Haus of Gloi's (HoG) seasonal releases. What makes it worse than HoG is that after they sell out, that's it. They have no general catalogue brand and no restocks. I'm planning to set an alarm for ever new release they'll have now. Screw you all, nothing's standing in the way of my Haunt goodies.

Oh, and their products tend to leak during shipping:

But I have this problem with a lot of different companies when it comes to shipping scrubs or other oily stuff, so I'm not too concerned with it.

Now on to product reviews (Part 1..I'll do the perfume oils in Part 2)...

Skin Glossing Oil General Review

Surprisingly my skin absorbs this in 15-20 minutes! After that, it's all gone! There's no oiliness at all and I can continue doing my stuff without turning my entire room into a slipping hazard. And you know what's amazing? My skin feels significantly better even until the next day. What the hell is this oil? It's magical! This is as good as HoG's pumpkin butters moisture-wize and if you've heard me rave on and on about those pumpkin butters, you know how big of a compliment this is.

I'm trying to be less of a fan girl and objectively try to think of some not so great things about this product, and all I can think of is that application also takes some getting used to (my bed got sprayed several times). It's really hard to think of anything bad about this.

Apricot Fairy Floss Skin Glossing Oil

(no description)

This smells like crystal apricots -light, tinkly, with an icy sparkle. The icy, spearmint smell in this is not the searingly painful sort of iciness that stings your eyes. It so subtle that it just makes this scent sparkle..if that makes any sense at all. The apricot can smell a bit over-ripe, but it's not enough to stop this scent from being amazing. Again, this smells absolutely delicious and grown-up candy.

Coconut Cream & Peaches Skin Glossing Oil

"Ripe peaches blended with fresh coconut milk"

This is so delicious! It's like a fresh, ripe peach. It's the type of peach that's ripe to the right amount - sweet yet not overly so, juicy and slightly tart. The coconut is not an in your face kind of coconut, it adds a creaminess to this scent, but isn't the most obvious note. This is just so delicious.

Mother-of-Pearl Skin Glossing Oil

"Pink watermelon slices, Tahitian vanilla bean, jasmine sambac absolute, pink pepper, sea water, Egyptian musk and driftwood"

Another grown-up candy smell. I can smell a bit of watermelon in this, but it's just so well-blended with everything else, this smells like the most amazing melange of fruity sweetness. This scent just makes me want to giggle and run around like a little kid. It's such a happy scent. 

Alva Starr Sugar Polish

"Sweet summer melon, iced peppermint tea, golden brown sugar, bourbon vanilla, pearl musk"

Gods this is grown up candy. It smells like a gourmet Starburst and I swear it has that smell chewy candies all seem to have. The notes are so well-blended, I honestly can't identify any of those even though I tried hard to sniff them out. It's a very happy smell and it's definitely hard not to smile since this just takes you back to when you're a little girl playing princess/CEO/big boss of the whole freaking universe. 

Dreaming of world domination...
Gorgeous pic by the very talented Petrova Julian

This is now my favourite sugar polish formula. It's a smooth, sugar paste that spreads easily, yet the oil is blended so perfectly that there's separation or stiffness in the formula. The sugar is a medium grain sugar, so it may not be exfoliating enough for some people. I use if daily now, so it's good enough for me.

Now this is the amazing part...the oil in this polish. You know the "milkiness" you get when you wet a Shu Umera oil cleanser? It feels like that when you're rubbing it on your wet skin. And when I wash it off, my skin feels softened yet without traces of the oil, just like when I'm using the Shu Umera oil cleanser. And I feel clean too! Some days, I skip soap and only use this scrub.

I'm so amazed. I'm going to stay up late and buy all her scrubs. I need them.

Lip Balm General Review

Isn't the packaging gorgeous? It's shrink-wrapped too!

After my amazing experience with the skin glossing oils and sugar polish, I end up with crazy high expectations for this. I'm almost expecting unicorns to come bursting into my room and offer to take me on a magic carpet ride to Neverland, with an English nanny who'll entertain me with songs about nonsensical words.

Well, it's an ordinary balm. Lightly sweetened, smooth and creamy, neither waxy nor oily..it's pretty ordinary. The scent disappears kinda fast (almost immediately after you put it on) and I was a bit sad about that since they were delicious and didn't taste weirdly artificial at all.

One minor thing that still impressed me anyway:

Smooooth..

I love how neat the tops of their balms are. I'm ok with messy lip balm tops since it's common with indies, but a neat one definitely gives me a good impression.

Coconut Cream & Peaches Lip Balm

"Ripe peaches blended with fresh coconut milk"

I was curious if this will taste the way the glossing oil smells. Unfortunately no. The glossing oil has the peachy juiciness bursting out. This is a more mellow peach with the coconut equally strong.

Persian Melon Lip Balm

"Delicately perfumed honeydew and cantaloupe with a hint of crisp white cucumber"

This just tastes like a cool melon, but not the weird, cheap candy type of melon flavouring. I like it for the brief 1-2 seconds when I can taste it.

Review: Debaucherous Bath & Body

UPDATE 7/12/14: I canNOT recommend this brand at all, after it came to my attention that many of this shops customers experienced problems with their orders. /u/minkishly had a bad experience with them, and I already linked her post about it before. We thought her experience may be an unfortunate one off experience, but it turns out that the terrible customer service (shipping label created without anything being sent, 0 communication, missing items, going way above the stated TAT, etc.) happened to many people. You can read about it on Evolution of a Foodie. 

Another disturbing fact is that this brand used to call themselves Haus of Haunt, basically stealing the name of 2 existing popular brands –Haus of Gloi & Haunt. I really can't recommend this brand at all.

Thanks to the lovely enabler, /u/minkishly, the awesome writer behind the Minkishly blog, I ended up with a bunch of Debaucherous Bath stuff to try out! Since I didn't buy these and got them as gifts, it's best to read Minkishly's post for reviews on the customer service & TAT.

Here's my review for a whipped soap, body lotion, lip balm and some perfume oil samples!

Alice’s Nightmare in Wonderland Whipped Soap

Image courtesy of Debaucherous Bath & Body

"Rotting pumpkin flesh, overripe peaches, drizzled with caramel, touched with liquid black amber, hot butterscotch, wicked spices and soft hay."

Texture-wise, it's a bit hard for a whipped soap and ends up like a regular soap that's been softened by many uses. It ends up having a similar sort of feel as refrigerated butter -takes time to melt and will always turn into that one last freaking sliver that just won't melt.

The scent also disappears fast. Almost immediately after it's rubbed on, actually.

It makes it really hard to identify the scent. Initially, I got some delicious caramel fall cake scent, but before I can identify it further, it just disappears. The strongest smell becomes an old soap smell that even unscented soaps seam to develop. Reading the scent description was definitely a surprise for me.

I finally stopped being stupid and decided to sniff this soap out of the jar since the smell is pretty strong that way. Underneath the caramel smell, there is a peach scent, but overripe peaches is the right description for it. You know that sickly sweet smell rotting peaches get? Smells slightly delicious but with a cloyingness to it to warn you the peach will probably explode into mush if you're lucky, or worm-infested grossness if you're unlucky. It still smells mostly like caramel fall cakes and old soap.

Price:

• Full size (5.5 oz): $10 for most, going up to $12 for certain scents
• Samples (1.5 oz): $3.75 or $4.50 (only available for select scents)

Red Queen's Rage Body Lotion

Image courtesy of Debaucherous Bath & Body

"Red Damask Roses, tempestuous clove, followed by smoky vanilla, frankincense and ylang ylang."

It smells like water and roses! Such a gorgeous scent! There's a bit of a sunblock smell mixed into it too, but I didn't mind it that much. Initially, the scent is strong and hits you as soon as you open the tub. After you rub it into the skin, the throw disappears fast, but you can still smell it from inches away. The smell is surprisingly light and fresh, which is the opposite of what I was expecting based on the scent description.

Texture-wise, it's a very thin, slightly runny lotion that spreads easily on your skin. It leaves a thin, oily layer that only takes 8-10 min to absorb.

Price:

• Full size (5.5 oz): $10 for most, with some scent going up to $14
• Sample size (1.5 oz): $3.75 (only available for select scents)

Caramel Embrace Lip Balm

Image courtesy of Debaucherous Bath & Body

"Rich Caramel swirled in with Dark Chocolate and a dusting of Cinnamon"

This comes in slimline tubes, which I love because they make application neater. I hate the feel of lip balm going outside my lips so I'm all for this.

Unfortunately, the caramel flavour lasts only a second. I swear. It disappears almost immediately upon application and I had to look out for it to notice it. It just leaves behind this weird, waxy taste. It's sweetened but I'm not sure what it's sweetened with. I'm assuming stevia. This is what it says on their product page:

Screenshot taken on July 15, 2014

I can't taste the dark chocolate or cinnamon. I tried sniffing this instead and got the sour smell of a caramel note going sour. It's still moisturizing though!

Texture-wise, it's slightly stiff but melts into a consistency that's similar to frozen vaseline, with the same vaseline-like "stickiness".

Price: $3.50 for a 0.07oz tub

Perfume Oils General Review

Image courtesy of Debaucherous Bath & Body

Price:

• 5 ml: $15 for most, with some scents going up to $26
• Samples: $3.50 (yikes!) for most, with some scents going up to $6.50 (O_O)

I like the concept of these perfumes and they're extremely delicious gourmand scents that manage to avoid smelling horribly artificial. I honestly fell in love with all the scents I tried out. Unfortunately, the throw is weak, and my nose has to be an inch or two away from my skin to smell it even right after application. If I apply it on my wrist, I can't smell it when I sniff the back of my hand. This is even with my nose pressed against the back of my hand. By 10 minutes, I have to smell it close to the skin and by 1 1/2 hours, it's very faint. Faint traces linger on your skin for over 9 hours though.

I'm so sad about the sillage or longevity since I like these scents a lot! If they're better, I would definitely get a bunch of scents in full sizes.

Candyman

"Caramelized sugar, cocoa butter, cotton candy, white florals, oakmoss, precious woods, dark amber and raw honey."

This smells like blue, salted caramels. There's that watery blue scent that I always associate with masculine colognes that I like but the salted caramel smell is strong as well. Almost overwhelmingly sweet at moments, and keeps threatening to overpower the blue scents. My brain ends up confused...this scent definitely makes me feel in lust, but I'm not sure if I'm lusting over food or a guy. What do I want??? Towards the end, I get a slightly powdery, white floral smell...can't seem to identify what kind of florals though.

Overview: "White florals". Well that's helpful.

This smells more feminine to me, but Minkishly mentions that this may smell great on a guy. So obviously, I had to smear it on my little brother...

Less than a month into his summer break and many, many perfume tests later, my awesome brother has resigned to his fate and barely complained even though he hated the smell of this. The blue notes are less prominent on him, and the caramel doesn't go too sweet or lean towards going sour. He ends up smelling like delicious salted caramel. I don't know why he's complaining. When it dries down, he got the same metallic smell I often get and the scent smells like metallic caramels.

Mau Loa

"Oahu night sky consisting of sweet plumeria, orchid lei, mai tai’s [sic] and salty ocean air."

First, it smells like a floral, soapy cantaloupe, with a fizzy lemon sitting in the background. The fizzy lemon balances precariously on the edge of smelling like dishwashing soap, but luckily, the sweet floral cantaloupe smell overpowers it most of the time.

Overview: I swear I smell a cantaloupe-ish scent somewhere in here. Not sure where that came from. Maybe it's the plumeria mixed with mai tais. I had to check out the recipe of mai tais because this doesn't smell like the mai tais I've tried. Yeah, no cantaloupe either. I like this scent, but it's definitely different from what I'd expect from the description.

Sweetheart

"Black forest cake, a raspberry rose filling, chocolate liqueor, European black chocolate dusted with French cocao."

It starts of as cherry liqueur chocolate truffle, but the cherry starts to blossom and become slightly floral.  By 10 minutes, that metallic smell I often get from gourmand smells appeared and now the scent smells like metallic, floral cherry candies. A bit of a weird, old butter smell starts appearing in the background and slightly ruins this scent for me, but it's strong enough for me to totally hate this scent. Unfortunately, that old butter smell mixed with plastic cherries is what dries down on my skin after 1 1/2 hours.

Overview: Despite all the chocolates they threw into the notes, the chocolate notes disappeared fastest on me. I guess the cherry and raspberry rose bit was stronger. The floral is very light and airy, and not like what you'd expect from a  rose note.

Review: Notoriously Morbid Swatches!

UPDATE Nov 2014: So someone has pointed out to me that some colours from Notoriously Morbid do not contain any binders at all:

Neno
Screenshot taken on Nov 16, 2014

However, I did a random check of 20 colours and only found 1 colour that didn't contain any binders. For my check, what I did was open 20 colours in a row without looking at the colour/name/description and then reading the ingredients. It's not the most perfect method but it gives you a rough idea. So for most part, I think it's safe to purchase from them as long as you check the ingredients. For a guide to ingredients, you can check out my previous post here.

_____________________________

I recently got my Notoriously Morbid haul and this is what I ordered:

I replaced the full sizes in my blogger pack with more samples! I ended up with 19 colours to swatch! (two of the minis are the same colour)

TAT

I'm not sure if I can comment on the TAT. I ordered on May 17 during a sale, and since there was no news by May 27, I tracked my order on the Notoriously Morbid site. I realized I didn't put the link to my blog, so I messaged the company via facebook, and also tossed in another order. I finally got both orders shipped out on June 5. This was during a sale, and she may be verifying my blog, so I'm not sure if my experience counts.

What I think was really nice was that I ended up getting two of the Tea Tosh, the gift with purchase, for the two orders even though I combined them into one shipment. I gave my spare Tea Tosh to the wonderful Ms Minkishly (her blog here) so I can't wait to see what she thinks of it!

Coffin Kissers Review

These are amaaaazing! They melt so easily on your lips and are so moisturizing. And even though they melt like butter on your lips, I can carry them around in my bag in a hot, humid tropical country without having them melt all over my bag. I've only the Sam's Strawberry Mousse flavour and flavour-wise, it's pretty good -it tastes like creamy strawberries. It's the typical lip balm artificial flavouring, but I don't expect make up companies to be gourmet chefs on top of making amazing lip balms.

Eyeshadow Review and Swatches

Packaging-wise, the mini sizes doesn't come with a sifter seal, and the labels are not waterproof. So packaging-wise, they're just functional. But I can ignore that since I love these colours! The colours are great, even on bare skin. Of course, like almost all non-matte loose powder shadows, they look best with glitter glue. As always, the swatches on the right is under natural light, the one on the left is under artificial light to show off the shift.

Over Darling Girl's Glitter Glue:

The Grand Empress actually turns blue as you blend it out!

Over NYX's HD Eye Primer

Applied with a wet brush (like all pigmented loose powder shadows, this method can be staining):

There's no mistake. Melancholy One turns blue when applied wet, I was surprised too.

 Now this is where I'm impressed...over bare skin:

They're definitely not as nice on bare skin, but the pigmentation is better than what I get from some commercial eyeshadows on primer!

Review: Bubble & Geek Perfumes & Lip Balm

I recently put an order for Bubble & Geek's perfume samples and lip balm since I often see them on reddit's market place. I got the lip balm in Pumpkin Pasties and the samples in the following scents:

• Blueberry ROFL Waffles
• Butterbeer 
• Chu Jelly
• Conjured Bread
• Hobbit Garden
• King in the North
• Princess Peaches and Cream
• River's Kiss
• Sweet Roll
• Zombie Repellant

The haul!

Cathy responds to your messages in less than a day, and the TAT's awesome:

Ordered: May 20
Shipped: May 21

One minor thing I didn't like about the packaging of these perfume samples are the fact that the labels are only placed on the relatively large ziplock bags. The label are also too big for me to peel off and wrap around the bottles myself. As a result, I have to keep all the samples within their bags and they end up taking more space in my perfume storage.

Price Review

Lip Balms: $4

The perfumes are definitely cheap!

9ml rollerball: $8
Samples: $9 for 5 scents

Lip Balm Review

The packaging!

Top view to show the oval shape. I love oval shaped lip balms! No idea why.

These melt on your lips and goes on creamy. Definitely moisturizing! Unfortunately, I'm not really smelling anything. I get a whiff of pumpkin pie very briefly when I open it, but when I apply it, I just taste a stevia sweetness and can't get any other fragrance, except for a slight plasticky taste. If you told me it's an unscented lip balm, I would've believed you. Maybe I should've gotten another flavour :(

Perfume Oil Review

These scents definitely has longevity, with some scents lasting almost 12h on my skin. They don't have much of a throw though, and you'll definitely need to smell close to the skin to get a whiff after about 5-15 minutes. They also shift scents really fast, so I had to constantly sniff.

As a fellow nerd, I really love the idea of these perfumes, but unfortunately, there's something in them that doesn't agree with me. As I found out from my previous experience with Lou Lou's, my skin amps up certain sugar notes, and I guess Bubble & Geek uses the same type. A lot of these scents end up smelling really sweet on me. Their vanilla note also doesn't seem to agree with me, and end up smelling sour on me. Skin chemistry is weird :(

A lot of the scents I like also starts smelling like room spray, and I was wondering if they were maybe meant for candles instead of people. I know I see raves about her candles everywhere. I wanted to try them, but they're heavy so international shipping rates go crazy.

Blueberry ROFL Waffles

"Blueberry waffles with syrup"

This was the 7th scent I tried and by now, I realize Bubble & Geek's gourmand scents often disagrees with me. Even as I opened the bottle, I already smell a very strong, sweet blueberry syrup scent. It's one of those watery blueberry syrup that's all sugar and scented with a blueberry scent that smells a bit like balloons to me. This can't be good. Sure enough, my skin went crazy and amped up the sugar even more. Underneath, there's a tangy fruity scent that reminds me of their Chu Jelly fragrance, but it's just drowned in sugar. In less than 10 minutes, the blueberry scent morphed to bitter, herbal smell, with a bit of a metallic smell. It smells like you're drinking a traditional Chinese medicine, and you know that the drink will taste like mud, so you've tried drowning it in pancake syrup but you still smell the medicine under the overpoweringly sweet, syrup scent. And you're drinking this concoction out of an old, metal cup. The metal part is actually my favourite part of this scent.

Post-description reaction: Well, I was expecting blueberry waffles so I was definitely looking out for the blueberry scent. Not sure why their blueberry note went to crazy on me. And I really need to figure out what is causing that faintly metallic "aftersmell". I get it from a lot of gourmand scents, especially HoG's bath products. I like the scent, so I really need to figure out what it is.

Butterbeer

"Vanilla and butterscotch"

Initially this smells delicious! Like buttered popcorn and freshly baked bread. Unfortunately, my skin chemistry didn't react well to this scent. Soon, it started smelling like caramel popcorn with a hint of something game-y before the caramel turned increasingly sour and a curdled milk smell enters. It settled into a baby milk powder scent, with a very pungent, artificial milk scent.

Post-description reaction: I think it's the vanilla that doesn't agree with me :(

Chu Jelly

"Intensely fruity, exotic fragrance smells of dragon fruit and sweet, fresh oranges. A hint of plumeria and a trace of white driftwood add depth."

Remember those fruit jellies in a cup we had as a kid?

These! So nostalgic!
Image courtesy of Coconuts Singapore

Smells exactly like that! I love this! When it dries down there's a hint of a fruity soapy scent, that reminds me of a bubble bath scent I had as a kid. This one's delicious! But definitely a sweet, candy-ish scent, so if you're not a fan of sweet, candy scents, you may want to avoid this. Later on, it smells like a fruit jelly-scented bubble bath, which smells awesome, but I know some people may still not like it.

Post-description reaction: I don't smell dragon fruit, actually, and I often eat dragon fruit. Weird. I didn't get driftwood either. This scent just comes off as light, and playful, bringing back lots of childhood memories. Wonder what causes the soap smell?

Conjured Bread

"Fresh Baked Bread"

It initially smells like almond croissont stuffed with custard. All buttery with almonds and custard. So delicious! But in less than 5 minutes, my skin chemistry had a bad reaction and the sour, curdled milk scent comes back. It dries down into a slightly curdled, artificial milk scent. 

Post-description reaction: I bet there's vanilla in this T.T

Hobbit Garden

"English ivy, oak moss, fruits, and a hint of garden mint"

This starts of as a sweet floral with a hint of fruity tartness. It then becomes a sweet, cool, floral scent with the smell of apples or pears in the background. Definitely a very light, fresh scent. It starts smelling a bit like room spray though, so I don't think it suits me. It'll definitely be great in a candle.

Post-description reaction: I wonder if this is a scent formulated for a candle. It smells great for sure, but I would prefer it in my room instead of me. This will also be a really great linen spray. I definitely want my pillows to smell like this!

King of the North

"Weirwood forest, lavender, cardamom, oakmoss, frosty mint, and vanilla"

I thought this was a sexy scent at first, until I realized it kinda smells like a soapy version my dad's colognes and got creeped out. He always gets these kind of scents (without the soapiness) -very blue, slightly musky with a hint of citrus. Doesn't matter if it's Davidoff, Bvlgari, Armani, Gucci, or whatever, he always gets similar scents. Never letting my bf wear this because I'll just keep thinking of my dad. Ew.

In all seriousness, this is like the soap version of cologne. If your dad doesn't smell like this, it's a great gift for your boyfriend.

Post-description reaction: There's vanilla in this? I wonder if the citrus smell I got was actually the vanilla turning sour on me. I'm not sure what note in the scent makes this smell very soapy though. I'm comparing the notes with Chu Jelly & Zombie Repellent, and can't find anything in common.

Princess Peaches & Cream

"Peaches & Cream"

I don't know why this smells initially smells like melted plastic on me. There's a hint of peaches, but it smells like a peach-flavoured bubblegum that melted in the sun. The plastic smell mellowed out after about 15 min, but the cream scent ended up smelling slightly like sunblock on me. This now smells like peach-scented sunblock.

Post-description reaction: At least it didn't turn sour!

River's Kiss

"Berries, tempting blooms, sensual incense and night musk"

There's a scent that reminds me of starfruit syrup (popular in Indonesia) & mango flavoured candy. But again, my skin just goes crazy with the sweetness and this ends up being a very sugary scent. The smell started smelling like an overly sweet and heavy car perfume my parents once had and it started giving me a headache. I guess this isn't for me.

Post-description reaction: Maybe the musk is what made this scent smell so heavy and gives me a headache. I definitely got overwhelmed by pure candy sweetness.

Sweet Roll

"Warm, toasted sweet bread blended with spices (cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg). Topped with luscious vanilla frosting."

I was already dreading this after my experience with Conjured Bread and Butterbeer. Their bread-ish scents don't seem to agree with me. I smell delicious cinnamon, but underneath that, there's a cloying curdled milk smell. The cinnamon does its best to tone down the cloying, curdled milk smell, and it does take off some of the sourness, but it ends up just smelling like a cloyingly milky, soggy cereal. It's a smell that makes me think of baby gruel. As in food for babies..not babies turned into gruel. Thought I should clarify before I sound insane.

Post-description reaction: Curse you vanilla!

Image courtesy of superfreegift.com

Zombie Repellant

"Sunflowers, greenery"

It initially smells very green, with a hint of something dirty and sour that reminds me of orchid farms. The dirty smell disappeared fast, and it becomes a plain soapy green & floral scent. I think this scent would be better as a candle or soap. 

Post-description reaction: I definitely smell the greenery. Like Hobbit Garden, it's an awesome scent, but I wonder if it's meant for candles instead. It's definitely a scent I rather have in my home but not on me.