FizzButter Haul

Over at the Plum Eyeliner, I've probably mentioned my love of bath items. Just in case I haven't, consider yourself as notified. The problem that I face is that I do have skin that can be rather dry so finding products that won't exacerbate that can be difficult at times. Back in 2012, I tried a bath bomb from FizzButter and now they are preferred online retailer to stock up on bath items. From my last batch, these are the last survivors.

Sandalwood Vanilla and Vanilla Butter & Pineapple

I always save my favourites for last! Unfortunately the last time I ordered I had missed the seasonal scents boat but I made sure to grab them this time.

The unboxing! FizzButter is really good about the packaging of these bath bombs. At the top of the box was a note stating that they slipped in some extra goodies due to the delayed shipping.

In total I ordered 16 bath bombs and 2 of their Cupcake Bath Bombs which are the ones in the bag at the back. The extra goodies that they slipped in was a sample size of the bubble cake and their body frosting. 

Since I tend to hoard bath bombs, I thnk it goes without saying that I do love these. If you're a fan of seasonal scents, I'd highly recommend picking up a few now. Their seasonal scents are:  Pecan Pie Assault, Pumpkin Spice, Pumpkin Latte, Spicy Cider, and Vanilla Butter & Pineapple. FizzButter sells their bath bombs at $3.99 each. The Cupcake Bath Bomb, which yes, isn't fully pictured here but is gorgeous costs $3.79 each. 

Quarterly: NYE03

The Quarterly box by Bill Nye was the first Quarterly box that I felt compelled to subscribe to. As a result, even though it does seem a bit geared toward the younger crowd, I still continue to indulge in each box that I've received. Back in August, I received a notification from Quarterly stating that they were working to "secure the final (and exclusive) item for Bill’s box and it is expected to ship early September" so it ended up arriving not too long after the MSA01 box. 

The Bill Nye boxes are science oriented with the mission of helping you to change the world. This particular box focuses on putting a "different spin on climate awareness" which resulted in curated items that show you how to harness nature.

The paper work for the Nye boxes usually come with a link that leads to a video in which he explains each item of the box. This particular version seems to be missing that but that's not to say you can't understand each item in relation to the theme.

Enclosed in the box is a Windmill Generator which is a project, a solar LED lamp from Little Sun, and a custom coaster drawn by Bill Nye which is themed "United States through the years." In the paperwork, they explain that there are 3 more coasters in this series that will be in the subsequent mailings. 

Of course, the Little Sun is currently sitting on my window sill waiting to charge and the coaster is right on my desk already. I'm intrigued to know what the rest of the coasters in the series look like especially since it will take 3 more boxes to complete the set. Bill Nye's curated boxes are available for purchase at Quarterly for $50. 

Quarterly: MSA01

I've been a subscriber of the Ben Nye Quarterly box for a while now so when My Subscription Addiction became a curator, I had to give it a shot. I have been anxiously awaiting this box since June so I was incredibly anxious when the shipping notification went out on September 17th. Go figure it was waiting for me when I got home the following day, neatly placed near my computer, ready for the unboxing. 

In this box I received a Raw Naturals Candle in Chai Latte, Fig+Yarrow Cardamom and Coffee body scrub, Tatcha Polished Classic Rice Enzyme Powder, Juice Beauty Reflecting Gloss in Guava, and the Simonetta Infinity Knit Scarf. The curator (Liz) included a printout of what was provided in the box along with her reasoning for it.

What I really liked about this box (and I know this will be shocking) is that there wasn't any makeup. Sorry everyone, but surprise makeup is fun, but also somewhat sad if it doesn't match. In this box, everything just struck me as being incredibly useful.

Within a few minutes of my taking this picture, my boyfriend (who has been on a major candle kick lately) and I lit the candle. It smells amazing and we adore it. We have been drawn to wooden wicks as of late, so it was great to see that variety in the box. The scent is lovely and the candle itself retails for $24. 

This morning I gave the body scrub a whirl and it smells amazing. To be fair, it does smell exactly like coffee so that helps (I love coffee). It is incredibly moisturizing -- so much so that when I stepped out of the shower, I felt like I already had lotion on. And yes, totally forgot that I hadn't put on lotion and I'm still going about my day without my skin feeling dry. The scrub costs $22 and is available through Fig+Yarrow. 

The infinity scarf I had mixed feelings about. It is so lightweight and soft, but I was a bit unsure about the colours. It did strike me as more of a Christmas feel (which isn't bad at all!) but it has kind of grown on me. That isn't the fault of the scarf or the selection, I just don't have anything to match it in my closet. Yet. This totally means I get to go shopping to colour coordinate with it. The scarf retails for $25.

The Tatcha powder I was also on the fence about. I recognized the brand and was immediately like "Oh no, I better not like this because I know it's pricey but I will love it." At a $65 price tag, sure, it's hard to want to fall in love with a facial cleanser especially when you've been sitting pretty with Noxzema. I haven't tried it yet because I'm actually testing out another facial cleanser, but I am excited about it. What intrigued me was that this cleanser is a powder that you'd add water to and then proceed to clean with. So not too dissimilar in nature to how you'd use the Aztec Cleansing Clay Mark except, it's not a mask. I bring this mask up though because if you do keep those tools nearby (a small mixing container and a scoop), you should be fine transitioning over to such a cleanser. 

Last, but certainly not least is the lip gloss. I haven't tried it out yet because when it comes to lip glosses and lip balms, I'm a completionist and I will have to continue using it till it's done. I do like the colour so perhaps in the near future I'll be posting an update on how it actually feels and lasts. The lip gloss is available for purchase at Juice Beauty for $15.

Overall, I really like My Subscription Addiction's Quarterly box. In terms of value, the box costs $50 and retail value alone puts it at $151 which is an amazing savings. What really made me happy about this box was simply the items themselves since all of them seem to be high quality and is a great blend that is on the practical side. I love it and I look forward to MSA02.

Pumpkin Pause

NOTE: I did move for a bit however I decided to recombine the blogs so you'll find all the posts here and previous links removed.

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Hey Everyone,

In previous post I mentioned that I'd be switching gears. Well, by switching gears, I've decided to mosey on to a new blog called >Pumpkin Pause, so you can find my latest writings there. While I will continue to focus on makeup, I'll be writing about a variety of other things as well.

Hope to see you there!

Hello Waffle Eyeshadows

On Thursday I received my order from Hello Waffle which is an indie company that operates in Canada. For months I had gone back and forth about what exactly I wanted from the shop till finally I decided to take the plunge. I placed my order on August 23rd so in terms of shipping from Canada, the wait wasn't that bad. I wish I had taken a picture of the packaging however I was so excited that I forgot -- I will say that the shipping packaging was great for getting these eyeshadows through the mail. Each eyeshadow for the full size  cost $6.00 (US) and according to my receipt shipping to the States was $6.00. Onward!

When I first finally decided on what I was going to get, I knew that there was a risk that many of these might not show up on my skin. It happens a lot so I didn't get my hopes up. That wasn't to say that I wasn't going to be incredibly excited if they did work out. Please note that along the top of each swatch is the Smashbox primer. These eyeshadows seemed to not care about the primer at all so perhaps I'll revise the swatches when I have a primer that is appropriate for eyeshadows. Also, while I did purchase the majority of these, the owner kindly tossed in Fusion and Cat Fluff as freebies. The descriptions of each shade is directly from the Hello Waffle website. Enjoy!

Indoor Lighting

From Left to Right: Fusion, Galaxy Dust, Hobgoblin, Hot Cross Bunnies,
Thorns, Whale Hello There, Rainforest, and Cravings.

Trying to capture the shimmer outdoors.

• Fusion: Reddened purple shimmer.
• Galaxy Dust: Dark teal with subtle purple shift.
• Hobgoblin Lively olive green with silver and green sparkle.
• Hot Cross Bunnies: Light purple with golden sheen 
• Thorns:  Black with darkened gold shimmer
• Whale Hello There: Pale shimmery lilac, leans blue.
• Rainforest: Vibrant green-blue with sparkles.
• Cravings: Dark purple shimmer with gold sparkle.

Of this grouping, I knew that the darker colours would be just fine against my skin. The ones I was taking a risk with were Hot Cross Bunnies and Whale Hello There but they both took me by surprised. As you can see in the swatches above, they are quite clear and distinct. The one that I felt the most ambivalent about was Thorns however I figured that if I layered it over a black eyeshadow or even over a dark gray one, that should get it to pop a bit more.

Indoor Lighting

From Left to Right: Cat Fluff, Mendelssohn, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Chopin,
Tchaikovsky, Lust, and Wrath.

Outdoor Lighting

• Cat Fluff: Dark grey, leans green with green and gold sparkles.
• Mendelssohn: Light pink with golden sheen.
• Pachelbel: Sparkly white-gold, wedding-like.
• Vivaldi: Copper red with silver sparkles. 
• Chopin: Romantic soft gray-purple duochrome.
• Tchaikovsky: Vibrant gold with red, silver, and blue sparks.
• Lust: Dark berry with purple and blue shifts.
• Wrath: Muted dark gray-green with silver sparks.

This group definitely had more of the eyeshadows whose pigmentation I was worried about. I've been on a bit of a rose gold quest lately so in that pursuit, I've been looking into a lot of pinks, peaches, and gold. I haven't had much luck but I keep trying anyway.

Moving along, while Mendelssohn didn't seem to show up much in the natural light photos, it did in the indoor photograph which is the first one. It is a bit demure which is fine especially if it's blended with another colour. Taking note of that, I was surprised that Pachelbel and Tchaikovsky had such great pigmentation to them. Of this group, I was pleasantly surprised by all of them and got exactly what I expected.

I am glad that I finally took the leap and ordered from Hello Waffle. All of the eyeshadows seem to be highly pigmented and have that added bonus of looking almost a bit different in outdoor and in door lighting. These are a great addition to my collection and I'll be sure to keep my eye on their collections (especially since I'm hoping that there will be a Halloween collection). 

PetBox: LE iHeartRadio Box

A few weeks ago when I was researching pet subscription boxes, I finally had it narrowed down to two boxes when I saw a rogue LE box in the wild. This box offered by PetBox was available as a one time purchase and you pay shipping on it. The grand total of this LE box ends up being $7.99 and it looks as though it's still available via this link. A very important thing to note about this box seems to be most similar to their Deluxe box offering (they have 3 other versions) so I myself will take it as a grain of salt that this box isn't necessarily indicative of what other boxes will look like should we actually subscribe to this box.

This is our judge, Cinders Shamin who we adopted her back in July of this year. Much like her feline counterparts in this family, she is quite picky about her foods. We figured that ~$8 for this box was worth the experiment if we could get a toy out of it. Spoiler: There were no toys but there were a lot of treats.

First Impression

Cinders: Oh my goodness, it's all mine and this is amazing. Give me it all. 

Me: Oh no. She doesn't like some of these items. It is cute to see that the box helped to feed a rescue pet because Cinders herself is from a shelter. Let's see how this goes.

The infamous ear type chews. This Aussie Natural Water Buffalo Ear was at the top of the box which is why I was a bit discouraged. Cinders in the last few weeks has decided that ear type chews are toys and not food which means that while she will carry them to and from her crate, she won't actually eat them. So while she does love her new water buffalo ear, she loves it like she loves the rest of her stuffed toys.

Sadie's Sweet Potato Chips was something that we knew had a 50% of her recognizing it as a toy or as food. There were three sweet potato chips in this packet and she ate one. The rest were designated toys. She did seem to enjoy the one that she did eat but was ambivalent about the rest.

We actually haven't gotten to try the Evanger's Grain-Free Chicken one yet but we figure that she may actually eat this one. Funny thing is that she's still on puppy food so we haven't deviated from that regime but we have been collecting samples of adult food to train her with and also make the transition easier. 

Now we get to the winner of this box which is the pack of It's Purely Natural Chicken Jerky Bone-Shaped Treats. This seems innocuous enough for her to eat without any issues (as in, she can't possibly think that these little treats are actually toys).

Final Thoughts

This box was a bit lackluster. Set aside the fact that Cinders only seemed to like one item, it seems to be a bit overvalued for what it is. The corroboration states that this box is worth $15.99 retail value but it isn't. If you do consider it as a $7.99 value which is what you pay for shipping then it's great. As a reminder to anyone reading this, PetBox is still a contender for Cinders in the future because the LE box is not part of the standard offerings which means that the actual Deluxe version of the box which is $19.95 a month does include a toy and more of a variety. 

These are toys, right?

I'll just sleep with it anyway

Focus

In the last few months that I've been gone, not much as really occurred and yet, some things have changed. I'm still not sure whether I want to return to blogging just yet, however since I took the time today to combine all of my blogs into one, I may have inadvertently caused a weird surge of posts that were dated between 2011 - 2013 with a variety of watermarks that are not attributed to this blog. So here we go.

Late last year my goals for this blog (Plum Eyeliner) were somewhat varied in the sense that it started as a fun activity. I'm not good with makeup and I'm better with words, so I figured it would be a good exercise in writing that could eventually lead me to be better at makeup. In that intial quest, I chose the name "Plum Eyeliner" because I was on a purple eyeliner kick at the time and I could not find a decent one. In my search, I found that blogs were lacking for people with my skin tone. So I figured that even if I failed at writing (lol), and failed at the attempt to become better at makeup, that it could still help others with their makeup quests. This is largely why I have never deleted this blog. Along the way here were my ideas of what this could turn into:

• A makeup subscription box -- this was the first idea I came upon back when makeup subscription boxes were gaining traction. I decided that this wasn't the route to go for logistic reason. It's hard to customize makeup for a variety of skin tones and undertones which leads to the problem of either being all over the place, or not being enough. I mean for myself, I still have yet to find a makeup subscription box that works for me so I would I trully be able to create one for others. 
• A makeup review site that featured more contributors however those that I had lined up dropped out due to other engagements. 
• A search site that could catalogue makeup by skin tone, undertone, and skin issues. This one was a grandeur attempt that we had figured out the logic for, but hadn't begun building. The problem comes down it having to be user generated and I've got a whole 18 followers... Which isn't enough to generate that much content. 

I know that that sounds like a lot of excuses laced in there but do consider that I have a full time job and this was for fun. Which brings me to the point that writing became a scheduled thing which made it seem to loose it's glamour. Sure, I shouldn't whine about that, but constantly searching the market for new makeup and trying to get my hands on it and then reviewing it? So maybe I got a bit bored. Which leads me to that whole "I reorganized my blogs today, sorry for the SPAM."

Earlier today I disabled Etcteros and Red Laboratory Lacquers and combined them into this blog. Etceros was my sounding board for nonsense with the occasional linings of something worth reading and the review on subscription boxes that were more for lifestyle and pets, rather than makeup. RLL was disabled because though I still dabble in making my own nail polishes, blushes, and eyeshadows, it really was moreso for experiments which I can easily write about here. 

Which brings me back to this blog. So, I love writing... Sure, I'm still not great at that whole makeup thing. In fact for this whole year, the only cosmetics I've purchased was some new face cream, lots of nail polishes, soap, and an order from Hello Waffle that just went in today. With Halloween coming up, I imagine there's a lot more makeup that I'll be indulging in. The blog will remain but I think I'll be switching gears a bit. Instead of just focusing on makeup and what's new, I'll be throwing in my reviews from different areas such as that Quarterly Bill Nye box coming next month or those experiments that I've been tolling away on. 

I still want to change the name of The Plum Eyeliner though. Still haven't figured out that whole thing but I'll worry about that when I get there.

TL;DR: Goodbye etceteratech.blogspot.com & redlaboratorylacquers.blogspot.com. We'll see what's next.