The KaBoom Nebula

I just had to share my newest purchase with you guys. Back at the very end of December Whimsy Beading was having a sale in honor of the owner Kelly's birthday. I decided to take advantage of the sale seeing as I had a ton of her stuff on my want list and snagged a necklace for myself for a Christmas/Birthday giftie. I knew I wanted something custom, and started trying to think of what I might like. The ordering process was absolutely fantastic. Kelly was amazing. She made me feel at ease in her world of sparklies and is a master at her craft. I decided I wanted something space themed, my love of astronomy has been pretty much a life long love affair. So I showed her some inspirational photos of a few of my favorite nebulae.

The Eagle Nebula (infrared) 

 I loved the green hues in this photo. Just awe inspiring. 

The Orion Nebula

 The pinks and fuchsia tones here are stunning. 

Nebula RCW49

The purple hues and the navy ambiance of space captivated me here. 

She showed me some beads I could pick from... I made a list of the ones I liked , and then she put them in a mock up for me.  I was SUPER interested in the multi-colored crystals, and they are absolutely perfect for my inspiration. How the colors of the universe blend into incredible beauty!! Ahhhh! be still my beating heart!

I told her I wanted my seed beads to represent the darkness of space itself and perhaps be speckled with a light color to represent "stars" and she expertly suggested that a mix of Hematite Black with Galvanized metallic silver would be PERFECT for a "star" effect. Boy .. was she spot on! :D

She then went one step further to insure I was 100% satisfied with the colors she made a sample of each colorway.

The beginning of a beautiful friendship

I made my decision and she proceeded with the beautiful handcrafting of my necklace. The photos of the finished design were outstanding. I was SO excited .. I mean.. how could I NOT be? Look at this AMAZING photo!

When it came in the mail I practically tore the box open. ;)  And there it was in all its cosmic glory! The KaBoom Nebula.

I just adore it. Saying its perfection is not doing it justice. The entire process from start to finish was just a great experience.

If you adore the custom colorway I designed and would like one for yourself you can purchase the KaBoom Nebula necklace by going here:  THE KABOOM NEBULA 

Or if you would like to design your very own you can go here : Custom colorway 

I am just so thrilled with my sparkly! Im saving up my pennies to get matching earrings in this same colorway, cuz I mean... I NEED them to live now. Haha! Not to mention several other necklaces in her Nerdy Whimsy section are just WOW! I'm especially in lust with her Doctor Who and Supernatural inspired pieces.

So that's enough gushing from me today. :D Do you have any Whimsy Beading on your wish list? Do you own any amazingly awesome sparklies of your own from WB? Let me know in the comments below!

Black Rose Minerals Swatches & Review

Good News Everyone!

Today I have another review & swatch-o-rama for you! I'd like to share with you my love for the newest shadows I've purchased from Black Rose Minerals. I started making a wish list, and a couple months later, Rosa had a sale and I decided this would be a great time to try on a few shades! :D

What I got: (You Pick! 12 Sample Jars)
Manson
Phantom
Ocean Potion
Ultraviolence
Alpine
Pegasus
Denver
Hi-Ho Silver
Mome Rath
Medusa
Stardust (Glitter)
...and of course.... Confused!!

Makeup Pr0n: (All over elf eyelid primer:sheer)

Click for more detailed pretties (if you dare.) 

Will not be held responsible for any addictions or random outbursts of squeeeeeeing! 

Packaging: All my jars came individually sealed/shrink wrapped.  All pigments which are not lip safe are labeled on the bottom of each jar. I thought that was nice, so I didn't have to look it up if I wanted to mix the color with something else. But the ingredients were listed on the side, and when I removed the shrink wrap, they ripped or came off with the wrap. I think I'd prefer the ingredients on the bottom as well as the "not lip safe" warning. But if I'm not mistaken she is in the works on getting new ingredient labels for the bottom.

Sealed jars with ingredient label on the side

Pretty Tape & Bubble Mailer

Shipping: Came very quick considering she was having a sale! Mailed in a bubble mailer. I had NO spillage. Everything came wrapped very securely and I absolutely adored her attention to detail. She personalized my order. These things are time consuming, yet she made sure to add all kinds of cute stickers and drawings to my order. I love that her creativity overflows into her package as well as her products!

Her business card, hand written TY note, stickers & samples in the package with Rose Stamp. Shadows came sealed in baggie, and then tightly wrapped black tissue paper. Tre' Chic!

Quality of shadows: They all seem to go on pretty nicely. Especially Phantom, Hi-Ho Silver & Pegasus! They are so soft! The color payoff for all of the shadows is really nice, aside from Ultraviolence, which I think is meant to be a faint color. On my fair skin, its harder to see without being used wet/foiled than I thought it would be. I have very little fall out with most of them. My Mome Rath is a little spotty in application. The only real "issue" I had was with Medusa.. and it just had appeared to be a brighter green in the photos online than in person. But I think its the nature of the shadow, because MY own photograph of it is a bit brighter than it is in person as well. Overall, these are extremely beautiful, sparkly shadows, in fun colors.

This was on the other side of my tissue wrapped shadows! How awesome is that?! (Sorry Rosa! Now your artwork is up for the whole interwebs to see! LoL!)

Color Variety: She's got quite a large selection of colors to pick from. I know she does LE collections as well. So there are new things being added all the time.

Customer Service/ Communication: I talk to Rosa all the time (personal conversation, not buisness related) on Twitter. I asked her for her personal favorites on Twitter, and decided to get Ocean Potion and Alpine on her suggestion. Aside from that I never needed to contact her, as my ordering went seamlessly. I ordered, got a confirmation my order was received, and then got a confirmation a few days later that my order was shipping and it arrived shortly thereafter. I feel that with all the ways shes made herself available for questions/comments/concerns she's quite reachable. But because I didn't utilize her customer service, I'm unable to comment on it directly.

Favorite Colors: Confused, Alpine, Phantom, Denver

BONUS LOOK! (Watch for this look soon in an EOTD for MORE photos!)

BRM Confused (Lid & inner corner), BRM Teddy (outer V/crease), Psyche Minerals Aerith (inner crease)

Summary: I'm extremely happy with my purchase and all the colors I picked out. I think with as much creativity as she has, and the genuinely sweet person she is, her business will take her anywhere she wants to go. I love the Gothic branding she uses and the thought that goes into the names of her shades. Now..if you are wondering about why I like confused so much.. colors "like" Confused, generally aren't my thing. It's not loud, or bright, or crazy in any way. Maybe that's a reason I love it so much?! It's different than the things I usually wear. Its ridiculously WEARABLE and SO sparkly, it makes my eye color pop and eyes sparkle with the pigment. Its safe for all ages and what I would call neutral. I wear it all the time, and with the way I'm wearing it, gonna have to buy a big one soon!

So did you pick up anything from the BRM sale? Do you have any BRM colors? Whats your favorite BRM shade? Thanks for reading and watch out for lots of new EOTD in the near future and an Evil Shades review coming up that includes 10 eyeshadows, 7 lippies & 4 blushes!

My Pretty Zombie Swatches & Review

Today I have a little haul & review to share with you all. I recently had the pleasure of purchasing from My Pretty Zombie. I used a heartsy voucher to purchase my first order, and was hooked. First order you say? Yup. I have never done this before but literally the day my first order came, I jumped back online immediately to place an additional order, and Andrea was ever so kind as to send me out a blogger pack with my order as well. In total, I am now the proud owner of 13 gorgeous MPZ shadows.

What I got:

Full Size jars:
My Pretty Zombie
Mad Cow
Anthrax
Unicorn Pee
Thundernuts

Samples in jars:
mNg #3
Miasma
Katrink
Moist
Bettie
Monstrous Industry
Amacyst
Grimdeva

Makeup Pr0n: (All over elf eyelid primer:sheer)

Click for more detailed pretties (if you dare.) 

Will not be held responsible for any addictions or random outbursts of squeeeeeeing!

MPZ looks red, its hot pink & Unicorn Pee needs a STICKY base or the glitter doesn't stay put.

MPZ: hot pink w/ pink shimmer, MNG#3: bubble gum pink w/ blurple shift, Moist:creamsicle orange w/ shimmer

Miasma: Buttercup yellow w/ pink shift, Bettie: Teal w/ shimmer, Unicorn Pee: iridescent white blue w/ multicolor glitter

Amacyst is purple for sure, not blue. Grimdeva is more purple, the pearlyness of it is throwing off the camera I think.

Another angle

Thundernuts: Cocoa brown w/ blurple shift & sparkle, Monstrous Industry: Lavender w/ blue shift, Mad Cow: Med Purple w/ blue shift

Amacyst: Med purple w/ purple sparkle, Katrink: Dark pink w/ glitter, Grimdeva: Dark Purple w/ sparkle

Anthrax: Purple to green shift

Swatch Fail >.< : I obviously forgot to take the close up photo of Anthrax in my first swatches, so I went and reswatched it for you guys, cuz its probably my favorite shade so far from MPZ. And I couldn't just leave it out!

Packaging: The packaging was wonderful. I received everything in a tidy little black black with hot pink tissue. I also, now have a small army of cute little bloody fingers. Yay!  I had zero spillage. All containers were sealed. They do not include sifters. 

Shipping: Was extrordinarily fast. This was a major reason I decided to place an order again so fast after I got the first order in. (That and the shadows were amazing.. but more on that in a minute) I was more than impressed. It seemed that it made no difference to her that I used a discount (heartsy voucher) to place this order, and that in itself was a great tribute to her professionalisim and top notch customer service.

Quality of shadows: The colors all apply very nicely for sure. These shadows are unique. I have nothing that comes close to any of these colors. I love the color shift on them all. I do notice that certain colors tend to shift more in the jar/ swatches than they do used in looks. But that could be for many reasons. 1) I'm not using a sticky base, or using them foiled/wet. 2) There's only so many different angles I can actually look at myself in a mirror. etc.

Color Variety: They have a wide color spectrum of shadows to pick from. Especially when you consider that each one of them is multi-dimensional and most of them are duo's. What you've heard is true for sure, the color complexity is absolutely inspiring here. I found her color descriptions to be wonderfully exact. Even when I didn't think yellow could be pink, she proved me wrong. :D

Customer Service/ Communication: Was awesome. I didn't really have any issues with my orders so I'm not sure how she deals with things on that side, however I had questions. She answered them promptly and sometimes even within the same hour. I foresee her as being just as professional with "trouble" tickets as she is throughout her other business practices. But again, that's just my own speculation.

Favorite Colors:
Anthrax, Monstrous Industry, Miasma, Mad Cow, Thundernuts, mNg #3

Summary:
All in all I had a wonderful experience with My Pretty Zombie Cosmetics. They have 5 new colors being released in the near future so keep an eye out for those! I thoroughly enjoy and adore everything I've received from them so far. I would certainly purchase from them again!

So have you shopped at MPZ? Do you have a favorite shade of theirs? Does she carry a shade I didn't list here and MUST have?  Thanks for stopping by!

I love you Special Effects!

This is just going to be a quick RAVE post! I just wanted to share this with you all. I've been using Special Effects hair dye for many years. I've always found it to work wonderfully for me. They have a wide variety of colors, and even when they fade, they fade to a pretty color. I knew it had decent staying power, but I'd never recorded just how long they last. I blogged back in early March about using Special Effects dye (Blue Velvet) on my hair. You can see my original post HERE.  I just wanted to show you guys what it looks like now,  roughly 5 months later!! I have not done ANY touch ups or re-dyes here. This is the actual wear of the dye. The only "special" things I do is make sure none of the hair products I use have alcohol in them, and I skip-a-day wash my hair (I've been using Moisture Maniac Shampoo & Conditioner by Tigi Bed Head) and when I straighten or blow dry my hair I use a heat protect spray. 

BEFORE : Dyed March 04, 2011

AFTER :  Photo taken August 06,2011

As you guys can see .. its still nice and vibrant!  The black dye I used faded REALLY fast. I probably won't use that brand again, as the last 2 times I've used it it's faded early on me and that sucks because it's permanent dye. I shouldn't have to worry about anything but roots with it. >.< Anyway.. I've used almost every color of Special Effects dyes out there and ALL of them have met or exceeded my expectations. Have any of you used Special Effects dyes? How did they work for you? Did you find your color had amazing staying power as well?

Review: 13 Gypsies Perfumery

Good News Everyone! 

Today I have a review for you all. I'm so excited to share so lets just get to it shall we?

Notes about the Company:
13 Gypsies Perfumery , owned by Darla Evans. She has over 15 years of experience & extensive training in the perfume oil industry. She uses high quality, grade A oils and does not add any alcohol, animal products, water or  diluents to her perfumes. My experience with them was wonderful. They have a wide variety of over 100 different custom blended scents which is a HUGE reason I prefer to shop with Indie scent companies. I love the uniqueness of the scents I can get. I emailed the owner regarding a sale that had just ended the day before and  she graciously honored it, that was STELLAR service in my book. My package came very nicely packed in lots of bubble wrap (tension sheet) , so the glass vials would not break during shipment. The whole thing smelled lovely of course, as soon as I opened it. Shipping & Processing was very swift and she ships worldwide.

The Goods:
I ordered a sample pack of 12 and a sample pack of 3 for a total of 15 samples.

 What I got:
*A list, in no particular order of what I got with my own personal notes on the scents. Starred scents indicate my favorites.
CLICK HERE to see a master list of scent descriptions directly from 13 Gypsies.

*Nymph
Smells of strawberry and patchouli. Very sweet. Light dusting of chocolate in the background.

Schokolade
Decadent and pure chocolate. Reminds me of chocolate liqueur(Godiva Chocolate Liqueur)  or melted Tootsie Rolls.  Mostly chocolate though, not a lot of sweet sugary stuff.

*Cauldron Smoke
Vanilla, so very sweet and creamy, light whiffs of cherry in the background.

*Fire
Cinnamon (spice) & cinnamon candies immediately. Followed by clove. Warm and spicy. Smells like a very intense version of my favorite tea @ Teavana (White Ayurvedic Chai and Samurai Chai Mate Blend)
 

*Jinx
This one to me, has the cutest bottle wrapper of them all. It was the first one I said "ooh purfume!" to. It's not a smack you in the face/ your grandma wears this , type of perfume smell. It's not overpowering. The perfume smell is blended nicely with sweet berries.

*Wool of Bat
Black licorice/ anise immediately. Followed by the warmth of clove and a touch of smokiness from patchouli. This is a nice spicy scent and reminds me of Autumn. I LOVE black licorice, but if you don't .. I wouldn't necessarily suggest this. My husband isn't a fan. LoL.

Red Licorice
This one, was one I was really looking forward to. I have a tub of Red Vines next to me as I type this. I open the lid all the time just to breathe in that intoxicating smell. This... is....so.. close. As you walk by this it's near perfection. But if you linger to smell, its just not quite right. It smells EXACTLY like cherry Chapstick.

*Vampyr
I adore this one. It smells simply of roses and patchouli. Seamlessly blended into a perfect potion.

Carnivale
Sweet sugar, fairy floss and smoke. Smells as though you are standing next to a cigar puffin' Carney. This scent is carnivale : after dark, very adult. It's certainly different than the OHWTO: Carnivale I have. It doesn't have that childhood whimsey that OHWTO's has. Im not sayin its a bad thing, its just totally different. No citrus notes to lighten the scent. Its very dark and wonderfully intriguing.

Nevermore
 This is probably the most familiar scent out of the bunch I got. What I mean by familiar is, is that I've smelled this scent before it seems. Maybe not this scent EXACTLY, but it hits me like a memory. It smells like an incense shop. Particularly of sandalwood and patchouli. There's a little floral something in the background.. to me at least.

Bee's Knees
Warmth. Honey kisses. A light berry scent with a hint of smokiness. I totally understand the name for this. When you close your eyes and smell this you see amber dripping off a sticky honeycomb. Not overtly sweet.

Jeepers Creepers
I love the name of this one! In fact, I use this name for all my skeleton pets in Rift (Im a Necromancer/Warlock) This to me smells like Sweet Tarts & patchouli. Smells kind of like dusty, dirty Sun Moon & Stars.

***13
Yeah.. thats 3 stars. This is amazing. No wonder this is their signature scent. I almost didn't grab it because there were just a bunch of berries listed in the description, and that's usually not my thing, but... WOW. Its SO super sweet smelling. While I can't pick out each individual berry in there, its wonderful and I almost smell something like bubblegum in there too. Smells like summertime in a bottle.

*Wench
This is like a strawberry - cherry blend. Spicy like a wench Im certain, had to be. The vanilla and clove I smell sometimes separately and sometimes together I get an almost floral scent like the perfume she might be wearing. I am certainly a fan of this one.

*Sister Moon
This one would be a mood smell for me. I close my eyes and smell this and it smells like Moonlight to me. Which is awesome because I'm a graveyard girl. Its so light and flowery. Smells like fairies and petals floating in the air over a hidden pond on a warm summer evening.

 In conclusion, I'm ecstatic about my purchase. There isn't one scent I disliked, and I'm pretty particular about smells. I'm very excited to try more of her scents! When I do order again, are you guys interested in another post? Do you enjoy scent reviews? Which one of 13 Gypsies scents would you want to try? Is there a hidden gem on her master list you think I need to try? Let me know! Thanks!


***Disclosure Statement: All products were purchased solely by me, for my own personal enjoyment. None of the products listed above were sent to me gratis. I was not or will ever be compensated in any form for my testimonial, reviews or opinions. This is my own personal opinion, you may have different results, or different experiences.***