Huge rave for my brand new Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Couture Soaps!

I just got them and I am awestruck. The presentation is just gorgeous. I have never seen such beautifully and carefully wrapped soaps (with the exception of Bee and Flower, those are pretty damn nice, too.)

I have not had a chance to use them yet. I just unwrapped them all and they smell glorious. The only one that I'm not absolutely smitten with is Bliss. All I can smell is soap, but I'm sure if I let it sit for a few days the scent will appear.

They're just so beautiful. Perfectly cut beautiful bars, *gorgeous* paper and labels, and they smell like my favorite Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab oils.

I got Bliss, Dorian, Shub-Niggurath, Miskatonic University and Snake Oil. All smell deliciously like their namesake, but for some reason Miskatonic University is especially wonderful.

These would make perfect gifts. I am so impressed at how professional and incredibly lovely these are.

I should stock up.

Holy moly... It seems as if everyone stopped being interested in Givenchy Lash Pearls, and is now looking for Secret Kuku Cocoa Butter deodorant.

That name is so bad... It makes me feel stupid just typing it. Secret, could you have picked a more asinine name for your product?

I haven't actually been able to find this mystical product. I've looked everywhere. For now it only exists in my imagination and that ad I saw in... Glamour? I don't even remember.

I did see the Arctic Apple one today and it smelled like generic apple. I saw a rose one that didn't smell like roses and I saw eastern lily which did smell pretty good.

I don't even know why I want to buy cheap deodorant. I want chocolate scented armpits!

These things suck:

POP Beauty Sparkle Sauce

and

Givenchy Prismissime Eyes Arty Palette 53.

The former is a somewhat useless product. It's doesn't add any golden sparkle on its own, just very subtle (nearly invisible) shimmer. When mixed with shadow or pigment, it causes the shadow/pigment to flake off in chunks and make your eyes look diseased. When patted over the top of eyeshadow or eyeliner, it removes the eyeshadow causing a weird messy smeary half-applied look. I haven't tried it with glitter, but that's only because I don't currently possess any loose glitter. I don't see it working very well, as demonstrated by the flaking problem with pigment.


The latter is an utter waste of $52 dollars. It's incredibly tiny, about the size of half an Altoids tin, or about the size of a NARS compact. The shadows look very pretty inside the palette, but they are utter crap. They're the sheerest, chalkiest crap, almost as bad as the Tarte Onyx palette. I could not even get enough pigment on to even be noticable. I can't believe how bad this is, and how much they charge for it! It makes a nice decoration, but if you actually want to use the shadows, you're screwed. I am shocked at how bad this is.

Ah, the sweet smell of new stuff.

GoSmile Zen toothpaste. What can I say. I have fairly sensitive teeth, so I used that as an excuse to buy this. I am constantly searching for toothpaste that doesn't taste like mint. Mint reminds me of people who have really bad breath and always smell like mint. It makes me gag. Now that my beloved Marvis is so hard to get my hands on, I had to go looking for other options.

This tastes like lavender and cranberry. Wonderful. Not minty.

Pros: Tastes awesome, cool packaging, not gritty, helps sensitive teeth.
Cons: Pricey, not as good as Marvis, doesn't foam.

The pros definitely outweigh the cons.

Nothing beats Marvis Jasmin Mint, though.

Next item: Bare Escentuals Buxom lipgloss. A new favorite. I'm slightly obsessed with lip plumpers and have made it a goal to try one of each. This one had a cute name and boobs on the box, so naturally it caught my eye.

I got Dolly, which is a neutral "plum" (really more brownish mauve) shade with slight shimmer.

The color is meh, but the scent is awesome. Smells like frosting. The texture is like lipglass but way stickier. The cool part is the tingle. I expected a Lip Venom type burn, but instead this is a superawesome cooling sensation that lasts an incredibly long time. Very refreshing and addictive. No real plumping effects, but the tingle is impressive. I will most definitely carry this with me at all times.

I tried Sovage lip plumper recently. I don't know why they market this as a lip plumper. It doesn't appear to contain very many (if any) lip plumping ingredients. It burns and tingles a little and has a superb texture (similar to the Urban Decay Cosmopolitan gloss I love so much) but doesn't plump at all. Lame. Extremely expensive considering the crap ingredients. Smells a little bit like vomit and mint. Don't waste your money.

I have many more items to review, but I'm tired and too lazy to keep typing.

Maybe later I'll write about my recent Isle of Eden order, Givenchy eyeshadow, LORAC Mocktails, Skindecent, Wylde Ivy, and Pop Beauty Sparkle Sauce.

It dawned on me that I really should be tagging my entries.

So, maybe I will.

I've been looking everywhere for those new Secret deodorants that I saw in that ad. I looked all over and finally, I found one! I found the Vanilla Chai one at a Target, mixed in with all the plain ones. I bought it without smelling it.

Unfortunately, it smells exactly like the regular Vanilla Sparkle one. Oh well. At least it was cheap.

Speaking of cheap, I'm almost embarassed to admit this, but I'm in love with a product from Clean and Clear. I got a sample size of that Oxygenating Fizzing Cleanser. I liked the way it smelled, so I tried it.

It's so cool! It turns into this huge, expanding layer of creamy soft foam. It's fascinating! It's mind boggling. It feels great, smells great. It it a little drying, but I expected that from a drugstore cleanser. The best part is what it does for my skin. It makes my skin so very BRIGHT. Not "glowy" which usually means greasy, but white, pure luminosity. I don't think I'm imagining it because no other cleanser I have used has had this effect.

I can't get over that foam, though. It's crazy. It's out of control!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am lame (or cool?) this year because I didn't do anything Valentinesy (word?) with my makeup. Last year I did red lips and nails. I can't do red lips. I look ridiculous.

I have OPI Red Like Roses and I was going to wear it, but I completely forgot about it.

I came to a scary realization today. There's not any makeup that I want right now. Isn't that insane? I don't feel compelled to buy beauty products at the moment!

There is one thing, but I don't know if it's necessarily a beauty product. I saw an ad in... Glamour? Shape? One of those. Anyway. I saw an ad for this new line of Secret deodorant that came in scents like Kuku Cocoa Butter (stupid, stupid name), Something-or-other Chai, Arctic Apple and.. Violet? I really, really want to try those.

The funny thing is, I don't need deodorant. I don't sweat, I don't stink. I just buy it because I like the way it smells and feel the need to apply one more scented product every day.

I have actually repurchased the same deodorant twice. My favorite? Don't laugh. Teen Spirit Sweet Strawberry. It smells so incredibly good. I've been looking for a fragrance oil to match the scent, but I haven't found one yet. Is that tacky? I want to smell like cheap teen deodorant. It smells so good though!

The other one I have purchased twice is Secret Vanilla Sparkle. Vanilla. Need I say more? This one is kind of love or hate with me. Some days I love it, some days it smells gross. It makes my life more complete knowing that I have vanilla scented armpits.

I bought Barbie Loves MAC. Unfortunately, I didn't get the Barbie. MAC emailed me and said, "You suck. We sold out in, like, .000387345 milliseconds. Loser. You tried to buy a Barbie. Ha ha."

I did end up ordering all the eyeshadows except the brown one (not Moth Brown, cause it's not brown), all the lipglasses, all the lipsticks except the red one. I was going to get the beauty powders but I didn't. I have two beauty powders and they are kind of useless. I might get the liquidlast cause it's a cool color, but it might make me look like I have conjunctivitis.

I am very sad about Villainess soap. She discontinued two of my favorite things in the whole world: Strychnine and Mudslide. I don't know how I'm going to live without Mudslide. I've been babying my last bar because I figured, hey, it's not limited edition, I can always get more! BUT NOOOO! NOW I CAN'T GET MORE!!! Tragic. I am crushed. It was the coolest soap ever.

Rest in peace, Mudslide. My skin will miss your scrubby coffee chunks. Amen.

I don't have a whole lot of time, but wanted to post a few quick comments before I forget...

Tarte Inside Out Vitamin Lip Gloss- This is so cool! I got Apple A Day, which is not very colorful... A (very) sheer berry shimmer. Despite the sheer color, this is a great gloss. It's very smooth and makes my lips look huge. It feels great on and the scent is wonderful. I don't think it smells like pomegranate (having just eaten a pomegranate I still don't see the connection), but it does smell like... Fruit punch? Fruity, but realistic fruity. I really like it! Doesn't taste weird, either.

Hard Candy Hint Tint in Sugar Cookie- Mediocre as a tinted moisturizer, but it smells like vanilla! Yes, vanilla scented foundation. I am really that crazy. I don't like Hard Candy at all, except for those awesome lipsticks they had in the 90's (I still have Piggie and Skitzo!), but this is kinda neat. It's not moisturizing at all, but the coverage is nice and light and it's not greasy. I'd probably buy it again, but I'm not sure what I like about it other than the scent.

Cosmedicine Medi-Morphosis self Adjusting Exfoliator- Crappy. Well, okay, I take that back. Not scrubby enough. It is interesting that the granules dissolve, but there's really not a whole lot of exfoliation and it's a little drying. Okay if you have sensitive skin, but I don't. I just love to exfoliate.

Murad Redness Therapy SPF 15 Moisturizer- Very cool. It's light and almost gel-like but still moisturizing. Doesn't turn my face into an oil slick! It's green tinted and it seems to help even out my skintone. I'm weird- my face has pink undertones, but my neck has yellow. This helps to counteract that a little. It really is a nice product. Fairly large amount for the price, too.

Uh... what else? I think I forgot already.

Something Tarte... I forget. I will say this about Tarte then:

The Onyx Smokey Eye palette sucks so so so bad. It's cute, I'll give it that much. The shadow base is laughable. It does absolutely nothing, it's so dry and chalky and just... what's the point? And the shadows, oh, boy, the shadows. They're the lightest, chalkiest, sheerest crap I've ever bought. It's just... jaw-droppingly horrible. I can't believe Tarte would sell such a shitty product. I'm shocked.

You lose! Good day, Tarte!

I can't remember what I came on here to say. Just a quick rave then.

Skindazzles!

Kind of a weird name, but the products are so great. Candy is a total sweetheart and always sends a little hand-written thank you in my order.

My personal favorite product is the Whipped Body Frosting. It has such a cool texture... It's super thick, rich, smooth but it's... airy! Spongy? It has a slightly waxy feeling but that's what makes it lock in moisture so well. The waxiness disappears after about 3 seconds, and it's never greasy at all. Amazing product.

I like the handmade body lotion too, but it doesn't have that neat airy texture.

All the scents I've tried I love, and I've tried a bunch. My new favorite is Cherry Cupcakes.

The tarts are amazing also, but those aren't really makeup. But, if you're into tarts, they're adorable, HUGE and super long lasting and strong. HUGE. They're so pretty. They have squiggles and one of them has a sun, and sparkles and stuff.

So, if you're looking for new etailers to try, Skindazzles.com is something you might like. Huge scent list, great products, excellent customer service, fast shipping from CANADA even. Reasonably priced (prices are in CAD).

I'm off to go drown myself in Whipped Body Frosting. That sounds dirty, doesn't it?