Review & Recommendation: Daisy Bird Cosmetics

Guess what came in the mail?

Love the sticker! And candy!

Yay!

My Daisy Bird order!

Last month Alice made a post about her new store, Daisy Bird Cosmetics on reddit. I have a soft spot for entrepreneurs, so of course I had to help her out!

So here's my review:

TAT

I decided to do it off Etsy so it's easier to figure out international shipping and stuff.

Paid: May 22
Sent: June 1
Received: June 13

The 10 day processing time is a bit long, but I wasn't too worried since she was figuring out international shipping all the way to Indonesia. Alice was the one who followed up with me, was really apologetic about it, and made no excuses. I'm very impressed with her customer service. And she must have picked a really awesome shipping option, because getting the goods in just 12 days is freaking amazing for Indonesia! Either that or customs decided the package doesn't look like it's worth extorting money for.

Packaging

Sifter seal. YES.

So, so pretty! I love the artwork! And yes, they have sifter seals. The labels are not waterproof, so be careful about that. I'm now so careful with this eyeshadow just because I don't want to get the label wet and ruin it. It's too pretty!

Is this brand legit?

Yes! These are definitely legit and not repackaged micas. The ingredients lists are great, and there's definitely consistency in what she uses for binders (carnauba wax, magnesium myristate).

This is how I check if an indie company is selling legit products or just repackaged stuff. If there's no binders, it's almost certainly repackaged micas. Yes, the colours may look unique, but TKB Trading has a large selection of really unique micas. If the type of binders they use keep changing, either the company is still experimenting on the right formula (and using customers as guinea pigs) or have added some TKB Trading's ready made eyeshadows into their collection of mostly repackaged micas.

I've once decided not to buy from a certain company after I noticed inconsistencies in the ingredients lists and a lack of binders for certain shadows. Sure enough, there are reviews that mentioned the colours are streaky and patchy.

Quality

These are very pigmented and applies very evenly. Any patchiness on the swatches is due to my skin getting all wrinkled in the morning. I definitely like the quality! As swatches below will show, they still show up on your bare skin. I'm very impressed with that! They're definitely best applied over primer though.

2 colours are a bit patchy when applied wet, but there's an awesome explanation for it below.

Swatches!

Right is under natural light, left is indoors, under yellow-toned artificial light.

On bare skin:

Impressive!
Right: Under natural light
Left: Indoors, under yellow-toned artificial light

On NYX's HD Primer:

Right: Under natural light
Left: Indoors, under yellow-toned artificial light

Applied with a wet brush:

Right: Under natural light
Left: Indoors, under yellow-toned artificial light

I really don't recommend this method since these are really pigmented and will stain your skin this way. This is my arm even after I washed it with my oil-based make up cleanser:

I didn't bother glitter glueing the mattes, but here's the glitter glue swatches for the shimmers:

April Showers, Grand Maitre Crocus, Hello Hyacinth
Right: Under natural light
Left: Indoors, under yellow-toned artificial light

April Showers is a shimmery white, that somehow goes blue if applied against a primer or when it's applied wet. At first i thought my brush was dirty and caused the blue-ish stains on April Showers while doing the primer swatches, so I kept layering on more eyeshadow. Turns out it was the eyeshadow because it went completely blue when I applied it with a wet brush (I made sure it was the first colour I swatch so there's no colour transfer too).

Grand Maitre Crocus is a colour I'd typically get for myself -a gorgeous, shimmery violet.

I thought Hello Hyacinth was an ordinary shimmery purple until I applied it over glitter glue. Hello blue duochrome! Check that blue shift out!

Dandy Dandelion is the colour that got my interest when I first visited the Etsy page. It's a buttery, shimmery, pastel yellow that's just so pretty! It's very low shimmer, and looks almost matte. It pairs up so beautifully with any colour!

Germinate or Die Trying is a soft, pastel mint green. I noticed this colour & Dandy Dandelion are both pretty hydrophobic and that's why they were hard to apply with a wet brush. Hence, the slightly patchy swatches.

My theory is that it's probably because they contained higher quantities of titanium dioxide, and the titanium dioxide in this formula is oil, not water, dispersible. That means that the titanium dioxide dissolves better in oil than water, and that'll make the colour relatively waterproof. To test out this theory, I conducted an experiment. I applied the two colours over NYX's HD eyeshadow primer:

Dandy Dandelion blended with Germinate or Die Trying

Then I ran them through water. And I'm not talking about just dipping my hand into a tub of water. I ran the colours through running water like this:

For at least 10 seconds. And guess what? They are waterproof! Notice how the water initially tries to avoid the patch of colour?

They repel water.

Mean Bean Green is definitely a colour I normally wouldn't consider. It's a dark matte green. The greens I normally go for are darker, or are more blue/emerald toned. I'm going to challenge myself to wear this. 

It's not the camera, You Bet I'm Blushin' is a very dark orange blush. I'm a bit scared of the colour since it looks like a spray tan gone wrong, but I think this is a good way of challenging myself to get out of my comfort zone. 

Not So Loud Lilac blush is a gorgeous lilac colour in the packet, but on me, it turns into this bright, blueish-toned cotton-candy pink. Also another colour I need to challenge myself to try.

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!

Review & Recommendation: BathSabbath Perfumes (Part 1)

I got my BathsSabbath order!

I asked for a random selection of 10 perfume samples, and Virginia tossed in 5 more because she feels bad about how high shipping is (it is T.T). It's just such a sweet gesture and completely unexpected. So these are the scents I got.

• Bard's Song
• Born of Fire
• Cursed Be Iron
• Duncan Hills
• Fairies Wear Boots
• Fiddler on the Green
• Happy Little Boozer
• Hellbent for Leather
• Holy Diver
• Hot Rockin'
• Keelhauled
• Moonchild
• Once Sent from the Golden Hall
• Winterheart's Guild
• 99 in the Shade

Velvet pouch! Pretty!

I also got a black Sabbath Studdy Sabbath Soap in Keelhauled!

I have a mini confession. I originally got Keelhauled for my boyfriend, but it looks so pretty, I think I'm keeping it now. He never needs to know...

I'm not sure if I can use it either. It's too pretty!

Customer Service Review

The customer service is just amazing. Virginia is sweet and so responsive. She replied to all my messages in less than a day, even with the crazy time difference. Here's the TAT:

Ordered: May 20
Shipped: May 24

Also, I really appreciate her understanding about how expensive international shipping could be and giving me some extras. I guess I'm extra grateful since as I dove into indie brands, I ended up encountering several indie owners who are snippy about international shipping. No, I will not name them since I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were just having a bad day, or maybe they were annoyed I still messaged them asking about international shipping even though they clearly had 0 options for it.

Oh, and talking to Virginia was fun too. She even let me know what seasonal scents she'll come up with, so I can hold my orders until then to save on shipping. She's really awesome!

Price List

Sample Sets of 5, 10, 15: $10, $20, $30 ($2/sample)
1 Dram (1/8 oz): $9 (except Hellbent & Boozer at $7)
1/3 oz: $20 (except Hellbent & Boozer at $15)
1/2 oz: $33 (except Hellbent & Boozer at $25)

I guarantee you guys, the quality is worth the price!

I'm thinking of getting several 1/3 oz bottles once I'm not broke. I like the packaging of the 1/2 oz more, but the 1/3 oz bottle just looks easier to fit into my make up bag.

Perfume Oils Review

I wanted to wait until I'm done with more before writing this review, but they're so awesome, I have to share immediately. These scents are strong. I put them on my wrists and can smell them while I'm typing for about 2h. I'm saying "about" since my nose may have gotten tired and stopped smelling them, even though they're sill strong. They finally fade off my skin after about 8-10h.

Out of the many perfume companies I've tried out in the past month, BathSabbath is definitely up there in the top of my list because their quality is just amazing. My skin chemistry seems to love their concoctions (almost all of them, unfortunately..RIP wallet) so it's right now one of my favourite perfume brands.

These scents do not have that artificial scent that give me a headache, and the smells are just so captivating, they make you feel transported to a different place. The scents are also really realistic. When you smell coffee in their scents, you're not going, "Oh yeah, I guess that's how coffee smells like." the way you do when you when you buy a coffee-scented item, you actually smell coffee.

I reviewed these without looking at the scent description, I looked up the descriptions only after I'm done reviewing and then wrote down my impressions post-reading. I got exactly what they were describing most of the time.

These scents are also really unique and suit me so well. As you guys know from my previous reviews, I've had problems with my skin amping up certain sugar scents. However, BathSabbath's gourmand scents never got too sweet or cloying on me. It's perfect. I finally found my perfect gourmands!

I wanted to wait until I finished reviewing all the scents before writing up my review, but these are so good, I wanted to share straight away! So here's a review for 5 scents!

Bard's Song

"A unisex scent, woodsy with masculine leaning. Fallen leaves, wet bark, fresh soil, rounded out by patchouli."
Oh definitely earthy. I thought it was a bit too masculine for me at first but then a slightly heavy floral scent enters. I then spent a long time trying to decide whether I like or hate this. On one hand, there's this toned down Red Hots smell that reminds me of my favourite combination of Alkemia's New Orleans Love Spell + HoG's Splendiferous, just without the creaminess. At the same time, there's a stronger medicinal smell that smells like those patches old Asian dudes, like my dad, like using for pain relief. We call those patches "koyo" in Indonesia. My coworker caught a whiff of it and asked me if I sprained my wrist.

I don't care what model the marketing team uses, it still makes you smell like an old Asian dude.
Image from topnews.in

Fortunately, after close to an hour, the medicinal smell faded and you're left behind with a sweet, spiced wood smell, with the spicy edges mellowed out.

Post-description reaction: Huh...it eventually smelled too sweet to be masculine for me. But let me try this on the bf.

Perfume on the bf: For some reason, this smells very feminine on him. It became a gorgeous blend of creamy, sweet, spiced wood immediately. I wish it smells this way on me! He says it smells like "a very expensive spa." I'm not sure what it is with him and spas. He describes the scents of lavenders as "spa lemon" and the scent of cinnamon and cloves as "spa spices".

Duncan Hills

"You’re dying for a cup. Freshly brewed coffee with hints of vanilla and cream."

It smells like a café. At first, you smell sweet, delicious and robust coffee, but there's more to it, making this scent really unique. There's a slightly smokiness and a smell that reminds me of old leather seats mingled in this, making you think of one of those cafés your wallet hates. You know the type -the kind where 80% of what you pay for is the ambiance, but hey, they have awesome, luxurious leather chairs so RIP wallet. I just want to sink into a leather chair, smoke a pipe (or maybe just hold it in my mouth because I don't know how the hell you smoke an actual pipe), and solve some mysteries or something.

I totally belong here.
Image courtesy of pducklow2000 on Flickr

Post-description reaction: Oh wow..the description makes an extraordinary scent seem so ordinary. This is a stunning scent and nothing I can say can do it justice. I think I'm getting more of this.

Winterheart's Guild

"A crisp blend of biting snow and tall pines"

On first whiff, I got hit by a very strong icy smell that reminded me of those balms that are supposed to clear your sinuses. But there was a hint of sweetness mingling in the scent, stopping it from smelling medicinal. The smell dries down to that icy scent mixed with a hard, slightly cool smell that I can only describe as steely. There's also a bit of a sweet grass smell, but it's not a fresh, green sweet grass, it's more of a sweet grass that has dried out in the sun.

It's how I imagine Winterfell or Valiance Keep would smell like. Well, a romanticized version, of course. I know castles before the time of proper sanitation mostly smelled like dirt and urine.

Don't think of how this should actually smell like.
Image courtesy of The Other Tank. Check his gorgeous WoW panoramas here: http://theothertank.wordpress.com/screen-shots-2/panoramas/

My skin loves amping up sweetness so this dries down to become a bit too sweet for a unisex perfume, but I still think think this will smell so sexy on a guy. I'm making the bf try this.

Post-description reaction: Oh there's pine in this? I guess the only pine scent I've tried has been the artificial, room spray type of scents, which tend to be sweet, airy and hollow. So I didn't expect pine to smell so grounded and well..real. I'm definitely blown away by this scent. I want to get this in full size too. What is wrong with me??

Perfume on the bf: It immediately smells like snow on him. He says snow has no smell and this smells like a "traditional cologne" (you can tell he sucks at descriptions), but I swear, it immediately turns into a cool, snow scent on him. And no sweetness at all. I think I'm going to get this for sure!

Holy Diver

"The smell of the midnight sea and fiery brimstone. A smokey, salty ozone scent with hints of wood."

Oh gods, this is one of the best blue scents I've ever encountered. Blue notes tend to teether on the brink of smelling like pure room spray, but this scent smells like a very deep blue, that makes you think of deep, still water. There's also a very subtle floral smell that makes me think of ponds in fairytale gardens, and imagine myself sitting underwater in the pond, admiring the water lilies drifting above me, while smelling the scent of flowers blooming around the pond, filtered through the crystalline water. Obviously, in real life, it'll be really muddy, I'd probably get constantly whacked by water lily stalks, and there's no way I can smell the flowers through the water without drowning, but I'm going with my fantasy version.

Now this is the fantasy version I'm talking about..
“The Little Mermaid” by Christian Birmingham

It's a very calming scent and one I can totally see being used for a meditation class, but like all BathSabbath scents I've tried, there's something it it that makes it smell so unique and work as a perfume (instead of an ambiance smell). I'm trying to figure out what's grounding this scent and making it smell more deep and luxurious instead of a room spray sort of scent, and what I'm getting is something that's dirty, but it's not exactly an earth smell. I'm not sure if I'm imagining things, but it smells like fresh seaweed and wood resin. The seaweed smell is a treated seaweed smell - the kind you get after the fishy smell has been cleaned off it, and it's ready to be used as a beauty product.. Either way, this is definitely not your typical blue scent.

Post-description reaction: This scent is calmer than the description makes it out to be. I guess I was right about the wood resin! Not sure how I got seaweed but I swear I still got it. It's not how you'd imagine seaweed to smell like, it's actual seaweed. My grandma loves making seaweed soup and it's the  smell before she adds in any seasonings. People think seaweed will smell fishy and slimy, but it doesn't. It's a bland smell with a bit of something that's just...well, seaweed. This scent is gorgeous. I want it...

Keelhauled

"The smell of coconut and pineapple with notes of buttered rum with sweet vanilla sugar."

I'm not sure if I have the wrong scent, but this smells like a bakery on me. Like absolutely delicious croissants, cakes, freshly baked bread, coconut pie and butter puddings. Definitely loads of butter. There's a slight lime scent that prevents this from turning completely cloying, like some of the "baked goods" smells I've tried. The coconut scent is also not the cloyingly sweet coconut scent I often find in perfumes. It smells exactly like coconut oil, so I end up getting the smell of klappertaarts without the raisins and cinnamon in the mix. For non-Indonesians, a klappertaart is a Dutch-influenced Indonesian dessert that's like a bread pudding, but with coconuts and cream. Here's a picture of it:

Image courtesy of puspa-swara.com, credited to Novi Saluntara's Cake & Pudding book

It's absolutely stunning, but I'm not sure if I got the correct scent. I need to check the description.

Post-description reaction: Oh it was supposed to smell gourmand! I'm trying to smell the pineapple but the slight tartness I smell still smells more lime or lemongrass than pineapples to me. This is a scent I absolutely HAVE to get. 

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.