Quintescentials Body Butter

Another order from Quintescentials! I placed this one with the debut of the new body butter, on March. 9th. Thank goodness Customs decided to release it to me earlier this time! As usual, my order arrived in a box, neatly packagd. Inside included a thank you card (which looks like recycled paper which is an added bonus!) Samantha also included a sample of her Pink Sugar body butter. It's thinner than the Chocolate butter, but still moisturizing and smells delicious!

The noms.

Here is the Chocolate Mousse body butter! Same great scent as the scrubs and whipped soap, and the butter is very fluffy. As always, ingredients are listed on this product.
I have very dry skin, and I love the formula of the butter! The application reminds me a bit of Lush's massage bars which is a staple product for me. It can feel a tad greasy on the application (you really only need a little) but my skin soaks up all the oils & mositure within minutes. I've been applying this to my hands on & off all day, and the scent is still lingering (Yum!) My hands feel very soft and hydrated.

I purchased the 3 oz size Pumpkin Cheesecake scented scrubs (just a tad bigger than the Chocolate Fudge scrubs) which comes with 3 good sized scrubs for 3.00. I will be breaking these up so I can get more uses out of them.

I really like the sample sized tubs! Pictured here is the Pumpkin Cheesecake whipped soap. The texture is a little thinner than the Chocolate Mousse whipped soap, and it looks like there's some pretty gold mica sparkle in the mix!

Chocolate Bunny soap pack (12 bunnies for 2.50) which come in the cutest carrot bag! I'm going to get more of these to give to some family members for easter. The bunnies have a yummy chocolate scent.

Close up on the bunnies! They are enough for an IND shower use, I'll probably use some as a hand soap in the bathroom around Easter time as well.

Bunnies! Can you see their glimmer?!

More from Quintescentials

I placed another order for some Quintescential goodies during a sale. I purchased the Lavender Vanilla bath fizzies (12 for $5.00), Red Velvet Cake soap, and the Chocolate Mousse whipped soap. Samantha included three Jelly Bean scented bath fizzies for me to try out! Shipping for my order was $6.50, and it actually cost her over $7.00 to ship.

This was my second order with Quintescentials, and once again I have to stress Samantha's customer service. I emailed her about my order over the weekend (probably the third time I've mentioned this now, but shipping seems to be taking quite a bit longer than usual) as it had been a month since my order was placed. Ironically, my order arrived today! I also want to stress that with the delays I have been noticing, it is NOT the sellers fault. The US postal service in combination with Customs seems to be even slower than usual. It's sort of funny that buyers in completely different continents are receiving their orders faster than us Canadian's, especially when I'm so close to the border.
My order arrived packaged in a box, wrapped in spring colored tissue paper and the bath fizzies were heavily wrapped in thick bubble wrap;. Other than some loose bits at the bottom of the bag, I'm pleased to say the fizzies ALL arrived in tact! (Not that it would've been a big deal if they weren't.)

 

Lavender Vanilla Bath Fizzies! Each fizzie is 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inches, enough for one use but I will probably break them up into halves. The scent is an even mix of lavender and vanilla, not too strong. I liked that they arrived in a ziplock bag, because I usually transport my bath items into their own baggies anyway. I will most likely take a bath later tonight and post photos of the fizzies in the tub & a review!

 

The soap is just as pictured, except the bottom red contains red mica glitter! Very pretty. The ingredients are all listed on the label.  It smells like yum. Mostly cream cheese with a hint of chocolate, again I will try this later on.

Now, this was the original reason for my order. Samantha just released Whipped Soaps, so far they are available in her Chocolate Mousse, Jelly Bean, Pumpkin Cheesecake or Pink Sugar scent. The scent is a tad fainter than the Chocolate Fudge body scrubs which I love. It smells AMAZING! Have you ever tried Jello's chocolate mousse pudding? It has a similar scent and a fluffy texture. It's actually thicker than most whipped soaps, and doesn't leave me feeling dry. I tried it on my hands and 5 min later there is still a light scent, yum!

 

Jelly Bean bath fizzies! The scent is very sweet, and the fizzies have a mix of pastel colors. 

If you haven't already, join Quintescentials on facebook!  Samantha lists coupon codes for use in her Etsy store almost weekly, as well as sneak peeks of new items!

OruAka on etsy

In celebration of his one year anniversary on Etsy, my friend William over at OrAka is offering my blog followers a 10% off discount code in his Etsy shop! His shop features buttons which you've seen me use on handcrafted items of all sorts (knits, fabric) as well as stunning barrettes, earrings, pendants, cuff-links and more. Even if you're not a crafter, I'm sure you will find something that interests you. All his creations are one-of-a-kind, handmade (very well, I might add), and even more stunning in person. 

Use the coupon code "Double10" at checkout to receive 10% off of your purchase!

Wide Headbands

I've been on a hunt for some new headbands to wear, and found a few blogs with great tutorials on making your own fabric headbands! I also found this gal on etsy who sells ones similiar. If you check out her facebook, she currently has a free shipping code!

Wide headband

Flat headband with buttons

Brazen Cosmetics: My one true love

Yippie! My latest Brazen order finally arrived! It was packaged up in a tiny box with cute red tissue paper. I ordered lipglosses during the 3/$11 deal on facebook in Muse, Conflict, Heiress. I also picked up Make Out, sample packs of the Valentines Day eyeshadow collections (one of which is now part of Brazen's regular line because they were so popular!)

More goodies! Sandi included a solid perfume version of my favorite perfume from her, Coca cupcake! It smells delicious. I wear this on an almost daily basis, it's a very comforting and foody scent.

Eyeshadow samples! The sample sets come packed up seperately in their own little baggies with stickers!

As always, the ingredients are all listed on the products; even on sample baggies! Cocoa Loco is one of Brazen's lip scrubs, it smells like chocolate and is delicious! I'll admit to tasting some when scrubbing my lips earlier.

Sandi scent me a sample of her popcorn scent with my last order, so I asked to try some of her little soaps in the scent. It's a really strange scent, I mean, I first thought "Who want's to smell like popcorn?" It's quite interesting, there's a mixture of both sweet and salty with a buttery undernote...yumm. The tiny size works out well too, I can just use 1-2 with each shower. The other sample is of her Cinniamon bun scent, which of course, smells EXACTLY like fresh baked cinnamon buns!

More beautiful packaging for the perfumes I ordered.

I ordered 5 perfumes; Choco Mallow, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Hella Vanilla, Girly Girl, Strawberries & Champagne and Sandi threw in Pecan Pie!

Now onto the swatches! These are all swatched over Hi-Fi's primer.

Top to bottom, L to R: Last Call, Vixen, Miss Independent, Tease, custom color

Row 2: Be Mine, True Love, Cutie Pie, For Ever

Row 3: unnamed, Vague, upcoming blush

With Flash: Last Call, Vixen, Miss Independent, Tease, custom color, Be Mine, True Love, Cutie Pie, For Ever
 

 

No flash

My favorites of the bunch are For Ever, Vixen, and Tease! Have you ordered from Brazen lately, or are now planning to? If you haven't already joined the facebook page, check it out! There's weekly deals on all kinds of products (including FB only stuff), and posts/teasers about upcoming products.

I have lots of FOTDS to do, lipgloss swatches and scent descriptions for all the perfumes, so expect another upcoming post on Brazen!

Evil Shades Order

I placed two orders with Evil Shades a couple of months ago during sales they were having. After waiting a little under a month for my orders which were shipped together, I contacted Andrea about it. She *very* kindly reshipped both my orders, and it arrived today! Thanks again, Andrea! :)
Shipping took a little under two weeks to reach Canada. I still have not received my other package. Lately i'm beginning to think there is something wrong with the post office; mail has been even slower than usual (almost like holiday shipping time) and i'm still waiting on quite a few packages. Anyway, I want to once again say how great Evil Shades' customer service is, and Andrea herself.

With flash, from L to R: avens blush, day dream blush, love bites blush, ravishing blush, seraphic, succubus, errinye, neritic, valkyries, drakon, souls torment, cerebus, xanthus, gryphon, acolyte, moirae, suffocation, mordant

No flash

Avens Blush - peach with a pink shift

Day Dream Blush - golden shimmer

Love Bites Bush - coral shimmer

Ravishing Blush - bright coral

Seraphic - bright pink

succubus - orange/pink with a pink shift

Errinye - copper with shimmer

Neritic - peach with gold shimmer

Valkyries - matte light pink

Drakon - bronzed grey

Souls Torment - purple with aqua shimmer/sparkle

Cerebus - strong copper with hot pink sparkle

xanthus - chocolate brown

Gryphon - brown with pink highlights

Acolyte - forest green with lots of sparkle

Moirae - bronze, more brown that Drakon

Suffocation - pink with a blue shift! This is the lipstick Bane as a shadow

Mordant - dark purple with pink sparkle

Forest Pixie

Smokey green FOTD for today, I went out shopping with some girlfriends to celebrate our last exam! I am off for a week, so expect a lot of posts from me this upcoming week. I also want to mention that once I reach 100 fans I'll be hosting a giveaway! Now, I want to ask, what would you prefer for a giveaway? Just makeup, or a mixture of some makeup and handmade items?

Sort of a quick eye, I only used three eyeshaows to get this look.

Eyes: Brazen Ice Queen, Twisted,Defiant

Face: Brazen Perfect 10 blush, Hi-Def finishing powder
Lips: Brazen Hype lipgloss

Fairy Cowl

In between studying today, I made this cowl after eyeing one on etsy which costed a small fortune. Spring will soon be around the corner (hopefully) and I wanted a lighter scarf to wear. It's lightweight and soft, very easily to mold into different styles and could be worn with the one or two buttons.

It's basically a large rectangle; you'd need around 1/2 a yard of two different colors of fabric. I made the inside a plan dark green to match the pretty fabric on the front. Basically you cut out a large rectangle, (my dimensions were 15 1/2  inches for the Length and 11 inches for the height) and pin the two pieces together so the pattern, or the "good" side is on the inside. Sew it together, leaving a hole at one of the corners so you can easily flip it inside out. Flip it out and iron the piece, then do some top stitching and sew up that corner. I followed this tutorial on how to make the buttonholes because my machine doesn't have the option to make buttonholes. I then sewed two large buttons on the other side, which were purchased from Oruaka on etsy. If you're looking for fantastic wooden buttons for your next project, or some handmade wooden jewlery I would look into his store! All of his items are handmade with a super soft finish.

Tyropita

I just got back from dinner at my once again mentioned favorite local resturant, Park Towers. It's very home-y and a family type diner. I ordered the chicken souvlaki pita (one of my favorites) and tried these for the first time tonight. Tyropita is a greek layered pastry, made with layers of buttered phyllo pastry and a feta cheese-egg mix. I've been in love with feta cheese since eating my first Greek salad a few years back, and this is no exception! I love phyllo pastry, and combined with feta it's really delicious. It reminds me a bit of Ukrainian nalysnyky, although my mom/grandma used to make nalysnyky crepes as more of a desert food. Anyway, if you like feta cheese and flakey phyllo pastry, you might want to try this! It would make a good snack dish for parties, too.

Here's a recipe I found which I will be trying this weekend!

• 2 pounds of feta cheese, drained of any excess liquid and crumbled.
• Lemon zest
• Spinach (optional. Adding spinach makes these spanakopita)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 or more cubes of butter
• 1 pound of phyllo pastry sheets. Completely thaw the phyllo in the refrigerator and in its packaging if it was frozen.

 If you've made baklava before, it seems pretty similiar. You can make the tyropita in a large pan like baklava, or in individual pieces similiar to making perogi (which would be more time consuming but I think better, as I love flakey baked phyllo)

 

 

Yet another neutral FOTD

My aunt is in town, and we are going out for supper tonight for greek food. This has been a very hard week; my aunt was diagnosed with lung cancer which metastasized to the liver in early August, right before I started school. We just found out over the weekend it has now spread to her brain. Tomorrow morning she has a gamma knife scheduled, and the rest of her chemotherapy and treatment is dependent on how what happens tomorrow. I wrote two exams this week, and have my last on Friday to write. I received an email earlier this week from an instructor saying a paper I wrote isn't legible to her, so I had to re-write it this afternoon. Not a good week at all. I am off next week and am hoping to relax and de-stress before beginning my second year of nursing.

 

Eyes: Brazen Ice Queen, Fyrinnae Polar Bear, Fyrinnae Half-elf Hottie, Fyrinnae Druid Werewolf, Brazen Defiant
Face: Brazen foundation in Amber, Sobe Botanicals in Icing on the Cake, Brazen Hi-Def finishing powder

Lips: Brazen La Femme lipgloss

Here's a better shot of my pashmina! I picked this up when I was in Toronto last year. I love the colors. I'm really excited to hopefully be going back to Toronto in the summer time for a vacation.